"Chu Feng, the fact that Dugu Jianxu and the Meat-and-Wine Monk provoked you, and you had Zhao Hong kill them — I'll let that slide."
"But I, Zhou Fukong, haven't done a thing to you. Are you really going to stand by and let this demoness kill me?"
"You've already made enemies of the Kong Heavenly Clan, the Sword-Wielding Immortal Sect, and the Buddhist Light Heavenly Temple."
"If you kill me, you'll also be making an enemy of the Zhou Heavenly Clan. At that point, you'll truly be—" Seeing that threats wouldn't work, Zhou Fukong switched to a softer approach, still trying to persuade Chu Feng.
Squelch—
But before Zhou Fukong could even finish his sentence, the ancient battle axe hanging in the sky above cleaved downward, punching straight through his body.
"Uwaaah!"
In that instant, Zhou Fukong let out a heart-wrenching scream, his entire being flooding with despair.
The ancient battle axe had pierced through his physical body, and he could feel an incredibly powerful force of oppression pouring into him.
That oppressive force naturally came from the ancient battle axe itself.
If the previous Zhou Fukong had still been barely capable of putting up a fight against Chu Feng, then now — with the ancient battle axe driven through his body — he had utterly lost the ability to face Chu Feng in combat.
Forget Chu Feng; at this moment, any single person on the scene could easily take his life.
"You'd best not move," Chu Feng said to Zhou Fukong. "Otherwise, all it takes is for this ancient battle axe to drop just a little further, and you'll be split clean in two. When your Zhou Heavenly Clan comes to collect your remains, they won't even be able to gather a whole corpse."
"You—"
Zhou Fukong's insides were on the verge of exploding from sheer fury. The meaning behind Chu Feng's words could not have been more obvious — today, he, Zhou Fukong, was going to die. There was no question about it.
In fact, Zhou Fukong truly was fated to perish here, because that murderous demoness Zhao Hong was already closing in.
"Zhao Hong, do it," Chu Feng said to Zhao Hong.
Zhao Hong didn't stand on ceremony. She raised her palm in one fluid motion, ready to claim Zhou Fukong's life.
"STOP!!!"
But just then, a furious roar suddenly rang out.
The moment that voice erupted, the very void trembled. Even Chu Feng's heaven-spanning thunderous pressure shuddered in response.
"That aura — a True Immortal?" The onlookers were all stunned. They could already sense that the newcomer was a True Immortal.
"Haha! Go on, kill me! That's Elder Zhou Yuluo of my Zhou Heavenly Clan!!!"
Zhou Fukong burst into wild, ecstatic laughter, his expression brimming with smugness and defiance.
He knew that today his life was going to be saved.
Not only would he survive — the two people right in front of him, the ones who had tormented him so horribly, were about to meet a disastrous end.
"A True Immortal?"
Chu Feng too had sensed the True Immortal's aura, and a knot of unease formed in his heart.
Based on the True Immortals he had encountered before, he could tell that this newcomer was merely a first-grade True Immortal.
Yet even a first-grade True Immortal's aura far surpassed his own.
It didn't matter that he possessed a Heavenly Bloodline, or that he could deploy Divine Inscriptions, or that the ancient battle axe could boost his combat power.
Even now, when he had already surpassed everyone in the Martial Ancestor realm — when he stood before a first-grade True Immortal, Chu Feng could still deeply feel that he was inferior.
A True Immortal was a True Immortal. It was a realm that no matter how powerful a Martial Ancestor might be, he simply could not contend with.
That chasm was one that even a Heavenly Bloodline bearer could not cross.
When Chu Feng had been at the peak of the Martial Emperor realm, he had used his Heavenly Bloodline to temporarily raise his cultivation to the half-Ancestor level.
But now, at the peak of the Martial Ancestor realm, even though the power of his Heavenly Bloodline was still with him, even though he commanded far more heaven-defying means — he simply could not, by any method, push his cultivation into the True Immortal realm.
That was the formidable nature of the True Immortal realm. Unless you genuinely cultivated to that level, no trick or technique in the world could elevate you to become a True Immortal.
So no matter how strong Chu Feng was, no matter how heaven-defying his combat power might be, he was still fundamentally a Martial Ancestor.
And as long as he remained a Martial Ancestor, he could not stand against a True Immortal.
"Damn it — why now, of all times?"
By now, Zhao Hong too had realized the gravity of the situation, and her raised palm had come to a halt without ever dropping.
She understood perfectly well that with a True Immortal's pressure already blanketing the area, the True Immortal had already arrived. She would have no chance to kill Zhou Fukong.
"Chu Feng, Zhao Hong — the audacity of you two."
The furious roar came again, only closer and louder this time.
The moment that voice sounded, leaving aside the pressure itself, both Chu Feng and Zhao Hong could feel waves of violent sound buffeting them relentlessly, nearly knocking them off their feet.
Yet Zhou Fukong, standing right beside them, was completely unaffected.