At the venue of the Feast of Ziyun.
Above the high platform, a youth was suspended in midair with his hands behind his back.
Dressed in garments as white as snow, he had a dashing appearance and an extraordinary elegance. At the moment, he was looking down from above at Chen Dandan, who was about to leave the stage.
In that instant, that voice of his, which seemed to possess magical powers, successfully attracted the attention of everyone present at the same time that it suppressed all the noise at the venue.
“After three years… Chen Dandan, is that the mere extent of your progress?”
The crowd looked in the direction of the voice. When they saw clearly the youth’s appearance, the Primal Core adepts led by Ci Xuan of the Divine Light Sect and Lord Tuo Jin smiled bitterly. Apart from them, the remaining people collectively narrowed their eyes.
“A Primal Core adept?”
“Look at the dense milky-white inner Yuan around his body. He’s obviously a mid Primal Core adept!”
This young man, who seemed to be a mid Primal Core adept, appeared to be around only 20 years of age. No matter how skilled he was in maintaining his youthful looks, he could not be much older.
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know… judging from his mannerisms, he doesn’t have good intentions. Furthermore, he seems to be targeting Chen Dandan.”
“He’s but a mid Primal Core adept. How dare he offend Chen Dandan? Chen Dandan is a disciple of the Golden Essence elder of Xuanyin Sect, Zhong Ya. What’s more, there are so many highly-ranked people in the Xuanyin Sect here right now.”
…
The group of people from the Xuanyin Sect included, everyone’s gazes instinctively landed on Chen Dandan once again.
“Zhou… Zhou Donghuang?!”
There was no way Chen Dandan could have expected that the person she had just been praying and hoping was still alive, would immediately appear in the flesh right before her eyes.
He was not just alive, but had even entered the mid Primal Core stage, attaining the rank of a mid Primal Core adept!
In the span of three years.
The childish air about his face had already faded. He looked much more mature now.
Most importantly, he had further widened the gap between himself and her.
And this gap nearly suffocated her and made her feel hopeless…
Over the past three years, from a level-four Qi-Gathering adept, she had broken through again and again at breakneck speed. Now, she had become an early Primal Core adept.
Within the same span of time, the Zhou Donghuang in front of her had advanced from early Primal Core all the way to a mid Primal Core adept. He had surpassed her completely.
“A 22-year-old mid Primal Core adept?!”
Others may have thought that the youth in front of them looked around 20 years old because he was good at maintaining his youthful looks. But Chen Dandan could not be more certain of the age of the youth before her.
He was only 22 years old this year.
“That’s impossible!”
Chen Dandan dared not believe it. She even found herself constantly wondering if she was dreaming.
But after a brief moment, she was sure that she was not dreaming… the youth before her had indeed succeeded in becoming a mid Primal Core adept at the age of 22!
“No!”
All of a sudden, a thought flashed in Chen Dandan’s mind. As if something had occurred to her out of the blue, her eyes immediately lit up. “So what if he’s a mid Primal Core adept right now?
“Would he even be a match for Master?
“Even among the higher-ups in Xuanyin Sect, a majority of them have the ability to kill him.”
At that thought, the shocked expression on Chen Dandan’s face vanished, substituted with an ice-cold expression. Within a split second, a stern killing intent emanated from her gaze that was fixed on Zhou Donghuang.
“Zhou Donghuang, I really didn’t expect you to actually enter the mid Primal Core and become a mid Primal Core adept.”
Chen Dandan raised her head to look at the youth. “I must say that this is surprising. But that’s all it is. Since you’ve come here today, you can forget about leaving.”
After she finished speaking, Chen Dandan was deeply afraid that the young man would escape. The first things she did was look at the audience area where the higher-ups of the Xuanyin Sect were located. “Uncle, Sect Leader, Senior… this person is my mortal enemy. Three years ago, he once criticized Master and even declared that he was going to take revenge on our Xuanyin Sect!”
The moment Chen Dandan said these words.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Distinguished Elder Qi Ming of the Xuanyin Sect, the Sect Leader Liu Yi and the Head Elder Bai Shitang rose in unison. In the blink of an eye, they surrounded Zhou Donghuang in a triangular formation.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
…
After Qi Ming and the other two people had made their move, the remaining Primal Core adepts of the Xuanyin Sect came forward in unison too. They formed an outer ring and stared at Zhou Donghuang in a predatory manner.
“You spoke rudely about my Senior? And you even declared your intention to take revenge on Xuanyin Sect?”
Qi Ming stared with an electrifying gaze at the youth before him dressed in white. Although his face was expressionless, a chill emanated from his gaze.
A thunderous noise!
Simultaneously, the crowd of people around them went into a collective uproar.
Chen Dandan’s words had shocked them as well.
They could not believe that this early Primal Core adept had spoken out of turn to the most powerful person in Xuanyin Sect, Zhong Ya, and had even declared his intention to get revenge on Xuanyin Sect.
Was he mad?
“But… if he had been rude to Senior Zhong Ya three years ago, why didn’t Senior Zhong Ya get rid of him then?”
“I find it strange too. Logically, with Senior Zhong Ya’s capability in mind, killing a mid Primal Core adept would be as easy as slaughtering a chicken.”
Someone questioned this.
“Three years ago, Master disdained to kill him.”
After Qi Ming and the others looked towards her skeptically, Chen Dandan said through clenched teeth, “At the time, Master hoped that I would kill him with my own hands. Because… he was my enemy. But, I didn’t expect that… in the mere span of three years, he would manage to enter the mid Primal Core stage!
“I asked myself… will I ever have the chance to kill him with my own ability in this lifetime?”
Nearing the end of her sentence, Chen Dandan’s tone was laced with slight bitterness. She looked towards the young man again, and her eyes turned even colder.
The entire venue turned deathly silent again when Chen Dandan spoke.
In three years, he had entered mid Primal Core? Was it possible for such an adept to appear in Ziyun?
Right now, apart from the group of Primal Core adepts from the Divine Light Sect, and including Qi Ming and the other higher-ups of the Xuanyin Sect, the remaining people all had very skeptical looks on their faces.
No one dared to believe Chen Dandan’s words for the sole reason that her words were too terrifying. They were literally unbelievable!
From early Primal Core to mid Primal Core in the span of three years?
Was that possible?
“Uncle, Sect Leader, Senior.”
Chen Dandan swept her eyes over Qi Ming, Liu Yi and Bai Shitang. With a solemn expression on her face, she said, “This Zhou Donghuang progresses at such a terrifying speed. Fortunately, he came today. If we allowed him to develop further… in a few years, I’m afraid no one in Xuanyin Sect would be able to subdue him.”
“Chen Dandan.”
The moment Chen Dandan finished speaking, Zhou Donghuang started speaking. As he gazed at Chen Dandan, there was contempt, sarcasm and mostly mockery in his eyes.
“What you mean is… now, there are people in Xuanyin Sect who can defeat me?”
There was a strong air of sarcasm about the upturned corners of Zhou Donghuang’s lips.
The moment Zhou Donghuang spoke, he predictably attracted everyone’s gazes.
“As expected, he came.”
Lord Tuo Jin of the Divine Light Sect looked at the youth dressed in snow-white with a complicated gaze. Then, he sighed gently.
“The Xuanyin Sect… is done for.”
The Right Shield of the Divine Light Sect, Golden Essence adept Ci Xuan, followed suit and shook his head.
Unlike the Primal Core adepts of the Divine Light Sect, the remaining people present felt instead that Zhou Donghuang had gone mad after they heard his words!
A mere mid Primal Core adept dared to say something so outrageous?
What was he, if not mad?
“Where did this lunatic come from?”
“Provoking the Xuanyin Sect like this, he’s dead meat!”
“Given his personality, how did he survive until now?”
Whether they were from the Thousand-Year Sect, the Tianwu Sect, or even the Xuesha Sect, and whether they were in as high a position as Golden Essence adepts or the sect leaders, or in as low a position as early Primal Core disciples, they looked at Zhou Donghuang as if they were looking at a dead person.
“Little Gold, that Chen Dandan thinks that people from the Xuanyin Sect can defeat Big Brother.”
In the distance, Yun Lu stood on the back of the golden-crowned eagle, Little Gold. A chill emanated from her eyes as she looked at Chen Dandan.
Although it was her first time meeting Chen Dandan, she had heard much about how Chen Dandan had repaid kindness with ingratitude by betraying her mother, Lin Lan and her big brother, Zhou Donghuang.
When it came to Chen Dandan, she similarly could not wait to destroy her and take revenge for her mother and Big Brother!
“Sometimes, being ignorant is a good thing too… at least, before she leaves the mortal world, she won’t despair for too long.”
Little Gold shook its head. It looked at Chen Dandan as if it were looking at a fool, an idiot.
The group of people from the Xuanyin Sect had heard Zhou Donghuang’s words and went into a brief daze altogether. Afterwards, they all had mocking smiles appear on their faces.
Whoosh!!
The condensed and milky-white inner Yuan around Zhou Donghuang’s body was instantaneously drowned by a majestic and vast silver blaze. It seemed to transform him into a silver fire god.
This scene immediately stupefied the entire crowd once again.
The Primal Core adepts of the Xuanyin Sect who were surrounding Zhou Donghuang, including the Golden Essence adept Qi Ming, could not help but cower at this moment. Their minds could not keep up.
They were completely confused as to how a mid Primal Core adept could suddenly release silver inner Yuan, which was exclusive to late Primal Core adepts.
What’s more, inner Yuan that was so ridiculously dense!
Whiz!
Under the watchful gazes of the crowd, Zhou Donghuang’s figure swayed. Silver flames sliced through the air and immediately attacked Qi Ming, who had yet to register what was happening.
In the split second that Qi Ming regained his bearings, an arm peeked out from the silver flames heading towards him. It was holding an open folding fan, and the ribs of the fan shone with cool light as cold as ice.
Buzz!!
The silver flames brushed past Qi Ming’s body. The folding fan parted the air and brought with it the sound of a blade.
“No-”
At nearly the same time that the crowd saw a streak of fresh blood spurt into the sky and the head of the Xuanyin Sect’s Golden Essence adept Qi Ming left his body and flew upwards, they heard a piercing and hopeless scream, the last sound Qi Ming made before his death.
They had seen with their own eyes that it had traveled at the speed of light.
And light traveled at a faster speed than sound.
At the top of Qi Ming’s head, which had flown upwards, the unwavering and wide eyes were filled with terror. The face covered in blood also had an expression of complete despair.
At this sight, everyone present subconsciously held their breaths.
Qi Ming, a Golden Essence adept of the Xuanyin Sect, was dead?
They breathed out.
…
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Before Qi Ming’s head had even landed on the ground, and while the crowd had not recovered from the shock, Zhou Donghuang attacked decisively and executed all of the Primal Core adepts surrounding him.
…
Head after head flew into the sky, and fresh blood splashed about. A shower of blood rained down directly on Chen Dandan’s face.
