On the peak of Main-mast mountain, Ji Changfeng stood in the wind. The gales buffeted his robes, but he completely ignored it, staring at the Silver Dragon King that hovered in the air. Actually, he did not directly decline the King of Southern Yue’s invitation. Instead, he had agreed to provide a certain amount of resources and support, but he was still uncertain whether the King of Southern Yue would make an example out of him and destroy the Cloud Sail sect first.
Before he knew it, the storm had relented slightly. Gong Yuan clutched two cleromancy stalks in her hand, one black and one white. Her eyes were as deep as an abyss as she said quietly, “King of Southern Yue, oh King of Southern Yue. If you strike right now, you’ll never get the opportunity to retrieve these two Lost Stalks of the King of Yue.”
Indeed, one of the major reasons she had given Ru Xin most of the Lost Stalks of King of Yue was to give the King of Southern Yue a certain level of hope, deterring him from creating unexpected troubles during a time when they were about to declare war against the fire devourers. However, little did she know just how twisted everything actually was.
Only Ye Duanhai was not particularly concerned. As a sword cultivator, he was not afraid of being dragged into war like Ji Changfeng, but even if he were to join the King of Southern Yue’s estate, he had to wait until an appropriate time. The South Sea Sword pavilion had always remained beyond the shore. They did not actually have a lot of contact with the cultivation community of the Mist province. Instead, their grievances with the Myriad Poison cult ran quite deep.
Most importantly, the South Sea Sword pavilion was not a demonic sect. If they had joined them right from the beginning, it was very easy for them to be pushed aside or even reduced to cannon fodder. Compared to that, they were better off making a decision when it actually mattered. Timely assistance surpassed icing on the cake. Mister Ram must have understood this as well.
This was the might of a king’s estate that governed an entire province. Mister Ram had said his trip had been very much of a failure, but everyone who turned him down had made a certain degree of preparation, afraid that they would actually make an enemy out of the King of Southern Yue. Even Li Qingshan was no exception.
Finally, the Silver Dragon King slowly set off, carving apart the wind and rain and flying off into the distant north. It left behind a streak in the starry sky.
As a result, everyone eased up. In particular, the host, Ji Changfeng, was the most cheerful. “Sigh, looks like I’ve overcome another test. I knew the King of Southern Yue wouldn’t be so unwise, but there seems to be firelight on the bow of the ship?”
The clouds closed together again, and rain poured down.
Li Qingshan watched the Silver Dragon King sail away, but he felt a hint of unease. Even the divination of the spirit turtle gave him no clear result. He said to Xiao An beside him, “Let’s get ready to retreat as well!”
“Aren’t you going to wait until after the auction tomorrow?”
“Let’s not. It’s not going to be particularly useful to us anyway. I need to get back and prepare to carry out the plan with Ru Xin.” Li Qingshan mentioned Ru Xin’s name and frowned as if he had neglected something. He thought, The Myriad Poison Ancestor is protecting her, so surely nothing will happen, right?
Right when Ji Changfeng was about to return to the Feilian hall, he suddenly sensed something and looked back. “Hmm? What’s that?”
In the moment the cloud layer closed up, he saw a few additional dazzling, scarlet stars in the resplendent sky, shining away blindingly, just like fire!
……
“Your majesty!” The Myriad Poison Ancestor took a step forward and was about to say something. The King of Southern Yue raised his hand and stared straight at Ru Xin. “I am talking to your disciple!”
That already resembled a warning, which made the Myriad Poison Ancestor furrow his brows firmly. He thought of a counterplan desperately. Li Qingshan had ordered him to protect Ru Xin regardless of the cost, but if they fought here, he really had no confidence at all.
“Alright.”
Ru Xin bowed slightly. Even when the King of Southern Yue had seen through her identity, she did not become flustered at all. She slowly took off her mask. Zhu Yan, who had almost reached the corridor already, suddenly looked back, but all he saw were two doors that closed one after another.
“Ru Xin? I haven’t heard that name before!”
The old, lion-like fire devourer asked with his soul sense, “What’s the matter?”
Zhu Yan answered, “Nothing!”
“Then get ready to do it! With these three Divine Fire tablets, we’ll definitely burn that bitch Gong Yuan to ashes!”
“King Fen, the Divine Fire tablets truly are divine artifacts of the kingdom passed down from the ancient times. We’ve searched for them for so many years, yet we couldn’t even find a trace of them. I never thought they’d be hidden in the King of Yue’s estate for all this time. But are we really going to be going to war for the King of Southern Yue?” Zhu Yan asked.
In order to obtain the heirlooms of the fire devourers, they had paid an equivalent price, becoming honoured guests of the king’s estate and boarding the Mist province’s war chariot. However, there were no “godfolk” who were willing to submit to humans, especially violent-tempered fire devourers.
Zhu Fen said, “That’s right. We fire devourers aren’t hypocrites like humans. Since we’ve agreed to it, we’re not going back on our word. Though, he can forget about sending us to our deaths. With our Combination Attack of the Three Gods, we can fight and go as we please. No one in the world can stop us. This is a perfect opportunity for us to incinerate as many humans as possible and wait until they’ve worn each other down. Hmph, the world is in chaos right now. It’s a heaven-sent opportunity for us to rise up again!”
As he said that, the three of them stepped onto the deck of the Silver Dragon King. Their eyes passed through the sea of clouds and gazed at Giant Ship island below.
The three of them looked at one another before raising the Divine Fire tablets at the same time. With a clang, they clashed together.
The Divine Fire tablets were around a foot long and completely scarlet in colour, like three scorching brands. Three balls of flames burned at the top, which merged together. The tablets were respectively engraved with the words “heaven”, “earth” and “man”, possessing the power to incinerate all. The scorching heat dispersed the thick clouds.
In the moment they clashed together, they produced brilliant sparks, which rose to an extremely high altitude. They seemed to become much larger as if several additional dazzling, scarlet stars had appeared in the sky.
“The Blazes of Heaven, Meteors Befall the Land!”
Zhu Fen wielded the Fire Tablet of Heaven and pointed it at Giant Ship island. The scarlet stars began to fall down, growing larger and larger with long, fiery tails. They whistled through the clouds, illuminating the pitch-black, rainy night, as well as everyone’s eyes.
“Meteors of the Blazing Heavens, exterminate the Merfolk! Those unrelated can go and die too!” Zhu Fen laughed madly, actually wanting to destroy the entire cultivation community of the South sea in a single stroke.
“My Cloud Sail sect has no grievances with your Fire Melt mountain. How dare you attack my sect? Aren’t you afraid of retribution from me?” Ji Changfeng called out in a hurry.
At the same time, he activated the protective formation of the island. A faint-green barrier of light enveloped Giant Ship island, blocking the Meteors of Blazing Heavens.
But as soon as he finished talking, he heard three great booms, and the meteors destroyed the formation.
Giant Ship island covered far too large of an area. The outermost formation could only be used to block the wind and rain from the sea and protect the mortals on the island. Its defences were very limited.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Endless explosions erupted thunderously. Various places across the entire island blasted apart, immediately turning into a sea of fire.
A meteor landed in Three Sails city. The peoples and buildings in the epicentre directly vapourised, without even leaving ashes behind. The scorching waves of heat whistled out, reducing the city to burning ruins. There was not a single survivor.
The residences of Li Qingshan and the other important guests were on Main-mast island. Seeing a meteor hurtling their way, the terrifying presence made the powerful cultivators all close their eyes instinctively, like it was the end of the world.
Li Qingshan frowned firmly and opened his eyes wide, watching as the meteor slammed against the protective formation. Flames flooded out, filling his field of view, basically swallowing most of the mountain. They stuck to the mountain and burned away in a lasting manner as if they would never stop until they reduced everything to ashes.
The waves of heat swept through the formations, and the cultivators all retreated. When they opened their eyes again, they discovered they were actually still alive, but they did not feel the slightest joy at all. There was only fear. They, who had always focused on cultivating in peace as recluses, had finally been dragged into war, and it was a war that they could do nothing about.
Li Qingshan was extremely astounded too. “The fire devourers really are a war-like race known for their destructive power. This might is just terrifying. The flames aren’t regular fire either. Even with my phoenix bloodline, I can’t take it on unscathed!”
Suddenly, a huge ball of ice burst out of the sea of fire, passing through the protective formation and landing on Main-mast mountain.
The cultivators almost erupted with a torrent of abuse. Li Qingshan frowned as well. It really was troublesome now!
“Your majesty, why have you come?”
As it turned out, the ice ball was Gong Yuan and her merpeople. When the meteors struck the outermost formation around the entire island, Gong Yuan immediately took action, condensing the entire Merfolk residence and the entire lake into a huge ball of ice that hurtled towards Main-mast mountain. They had dodged several meteors before finally reaching there.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the moment the ball of ice struck the ground, three meteors landed on Main-mast mountain one after another. The protective formation shook violently, which demonstrated the fire devourers’ determination to kill them all. It made people wonder just how much longer the formation could hold up for.
Gong Yuan glanced at Li Qingshan. She was in no mood to acknowledge him. She raised her head and gazed at the horizon.
Three colossal, sorching auras rose up in the clouds. They were the three kings of the fire devourers, Zhu Fen, Zhu Zai, and Zhu Yan. What left everyone even more shocked was their flames were interlinked, standing in a simplistic three-man formation. However, their auras enveloped the entire Giant Ship island as they gazed down like gods.
Further off in the distance, the Silver Dragon King was about to disappear into the horizon. Gong Yuan ground her teeth. “The King of Southern Yue!”
Fire devourers were known for their fighting ability, but they were not skilled in hiding their auras, let alone stirring up the heavenly secrets. Only through the Silver Dragon King that could shield them from all detection could they venture deep into the South sea silently.
Originally, even if they ventured deep into the South sea and launched a surprise attack, Gong Yuan would not have taken them too seriously. The ocean was her home court. Even if she were not their opponent, she could slip away with ease. Just getting through the protective formation of Main-mast mountain would take them quite the effort. A mad bombardment like this would only push Ji Changfeng to her side for good. She only needed to hang on for a moment longer and seek reinforcement from the Crystal palace, and they would instead be able to surround or even kill them.
However, the Divine Fire tablets in their hands shattered her last sliver of hope. They had come for her life!
Giant Ship island burned, dispersing the clouds and rain and illuminating the sea and sky. Even from fifty kilometers away, it was possible to see the blazing firelight.
Only the three mountains on the island continued to stand in the sea of fire, holding off the attacks of the Meteors of the Blazing Heavens through the formation.
“Ji Changfeng, you’ve been involved with the Merfolk all this time, holding so many sea fairs, and yet now you want to preserve your own life? Just watch as you and your Cloud Sail sect all burn to ashes!”
Only now did Zhu Fen answer Ji Changfeng’s queries and threats. His voice was filled with contempt.
The Merfolk of the South sea had constantly used the sea fair to exchange and trade with humans, obtaining resources that the sea did not possess, while the nature of fire devourers made them unsuitable for maintaining contact with humans. As a result, one of them strengthened with time, while the other stagnated. The Cloud Sail sect had become a great source of trouble for the fire devourers a long time ago. It was just that they never had the confidence to kill Ji Changfeng, which would just net them another powerful enemy, so they had bided their time all the way until now.
Now, their hatred had erupted completely, blazing away like fire!
The fire devourers had brought the Merfolk sea fair to a complete end.
ps: 起点最近有个年会，我早出来了两天，稍微放松一下，更新可能会有一点不稳定，请大家见谅!
