Above the clouds, within the vast sky.
The Dragon Palace barely emitted an orange-gold glow, still trapped within the black smoke vortex, struggling to withstand the raging offensive from outside.
Of the ancient year beasts that the Spectral Soul Demon Venerable had turned, only three remained.
The rest had been shot down one by one by Wu Shuai controlling the Dragon Palace. As for how these year beast corpses crashed to the ground, destroying mountains and claiming countless innocent lives — neither side in the battle could be bothered, let alone care about some mortal youth named Wang Xiao'er whose life was being upended.
After the black smoke gradually dissipated from the remaining three ancient year beasts, they regained their sanity and turned once more to battle the Spectral Soul Demon Venerable.
But Wu Shuai's heart was heavy.
These ancient year beasts were all painstakingly collected by Fang Yuan in his attempt to reconstruct the Twelve Zodiac Battle Formation. But in this moment of dire crisis, he had been forced to bring them out just to hold the line.
The result was that under the Spectral Soul Demon Venerable's methods, they had been turned against him instead.
After this ordeal, the remaining three ancient year beasts were covered in wounds, utterly incapable of breaking through. Fang Yuan's card had been effortlessly neutralized by the Spectral Soul Demon Venerable, who had handled the entire process with ease.
Not only could the Spectral Soul counter soul beasts, but ordinary enslavement-path methods were largely ineffective against him — they would instead be turned to his advantage!
Wu Shuai was deeply worried: "How much longer can we hold on like this?"
Fang Yuan's brow was furrowed as well. He was currently fighting the Spectral Soul Demon Venerable to maintain the situation outside, but within his Supreme Grand True Space, myriad tribulations raged — the situation was terrible. In just this brief time, a massive number of resource points in his Small Southern Border had been directly destroyed, and losses were expanding rapidly.
What made it even more fatal was that even if Fang Yuan were to sacrifice a portion of his immortal aperture, he still could not escape the myriad tribulations. Because the Heavenly Dao marks that gave rise to these tribulations had an extremely special origin — they could be freely transferred. The only way to potentially overcome this monumental crisis was to grit his teeth, endure, and honestly face the tribulation.
The Spectral Soul Demon Venerable's eyes flashed with cold light, but rather than pressing his advantage to strike the Dragon Palace hard, he turned his gaze toward the direction from which something was approaching.
At the edge of his vision, a small dot first appeared.
But soon, this small black dot rapidly expanded, and an ancient legendary creature gradually revealed its true form. It had a tortoise-like shell, four fearsome tiger claws, a dragon's tail and a snake's neck, atop which sat a human head — disheveled hair, a face full of madness and twisted fury.
It was none other than Cyan Vengeance, which had been in pursuit!
Cyan Vengeance charged forward furiously, but the Spectral Soul Demon Venerable neither dodged nor evaded. Instead, a cold, sinister smile traced the corner of his lips: "You've come to deliver yourself to death — how wonderful."
Yet when Cyan Vengeance reached the Spectral Soul Demon Venerable, the edges of its tortoise shell suddenly erupted with a boom, instantly condensing a pair of massive bat-like wings! These were extremely similar to the ghost wings of the Cyan Claw Ghost Wing Lion.
Immortal Killer Move — Azure Maw!
Cyan Vengeance suddenly opened its mouth. It was merely a human face, and the mouth was not large. But when it opened now, a massive cyan-black vortex formed before it.
The vortex expanded violently, shooting forth at lightning speed, and swallowed the Spectral Soul Demon Venerable whole.
The vortex instantly contracted, retracting back into Cyan Vengeance's mouth. Cyan Vengeance pressed its lips shut, its throat bobbing, and a visible spherical bulge traveled down its slender snake-neck all the way into its belly.
"Now's the chance!" In that instant, a brilliant gleam more than an inch long burst from Wu Shuai's eyes.
"This move was saved just for you, scum!" Cyan Vengeance swallowed the Spectral Soul and threw back its head in a triumphant roar, as yet another memory surfaced...
"What? The three Gu Immortals we sent were all killed by Ming You?"
"Impossible!"
"But it is the truth. Ming You first feigned weakness, deliberately sustaining injuries to lure our three immortals into spreading out to search. Then he lay in ambush, and once he seized the opportunity, launched a cunning sneak attack. Our three immortals, caught off guard, all fell to his poisonous hand."
A deathly silence fell over the Qing Clan's great hall.
They had wanted to reclaim their honor, but instead suffered devastating losses. Seventh Transformation Immortal Gu Masters were not so easily cultivated, and among the dead was one of the Qing Clan's elite Seventh Transformation powerhouses.
This loss dealt a crippling blow to the Qing Clan — it could truly be called a wound to their very bones and tendons.
"Ming You must die! It was our carelessness... This lesson is too painful to forget. We must engrave it in our hearts and pass it down as a family precept. As for what comes next, I shall go in person." The Qing Clan's Supreme Grand Elder spoke thus.
The assembled immortals were silent; none raised objections.
Having an Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal deal with a Seventh Transformation Ming You was, obviously, bullying a junior. But the Qing Clan could not afford another defeat — every superpower in the Western Desert was watching and waiting to laugh at them!
Yet just as the Qing Clan's Supreme Grand Elder was about to set out, he received a challenge letter.
This message Gu came from another Western Desert superpower with deep grudges against the Qing Clan. That superpower's Supreme Grand Elder had challenged the Qing Clan's Supreme Grand Elder to a duel, with the outcome to determine the boundary division between the two factions.
"Curse it! At precisely this moment!" The Qing Clan immortals cursed one after another.
"They are obviously doing this deliberately. But the boundary division concerns the ownership of a super resource point — the interests at stake are enormous. What do you all think?" The Qing Clan's Supreme Grand Elder hesitated for a moment.
"Let me go and take Ming You's life." The Qing Clan's Supreme Second Elder stepped forward.
"You?" The Supreme Grand Elder hesitated.
The Second Elder smiled: "Though I am only at the Seventh Transformation, Ming You is heavily wounded and unable to recover in time. Moreover, his trump cards have been exposed — though his methods are extremely novel and bizarre, they are mostly of the soul variety. And my ancient desolate beast, the Cyan Claw Ghost Wing Lion, is this man's natural nemesis. Furthermore, I have developed an immortal killer move called Azure Maw, inspired by the Cyan Claw Ghost Wing Lion. Once activated, it can swallow souls and devour spirits. Everyone, do not worry — this trip, I will certainly take the life of this Southern Border Gu Immortal!"
"Very well, then you shall go. Be extra careful on this journey." The Supreme Grand Elder finally nodded in agreement.
"With the Second Elder going in person, success is guaranteed!"
"Ming You is already a dead man — nothing to worry about. The real difficulty now is this challenge letter."
"Second Elder, please be sure to avenge Qing Hualan and the others!"
...
"I've finally avenged us!" As the memory faded, Cyan Vengeance could not help but choke with emotion, scorching tears streaming from its crimson eyes.
Great vengeance attained — boundless exhilaration.
"What a familiar sight..." The Spectral Soul Demon Venerable's unhurried voice suddenly echoed from within Cyan Vengeance's belly.
Cyan Vengeance's body instantly went rigid.
And then, it felt bitterness.
Immense bitterness.
Extreme bitterness!
Indescribable, unbearable bitterness!
Bitter. So terribly bitter.