Upon the square of Xutian Palace, Su Mei swung her hammer like a madwoman.
Blow after blow smashed down onto Li Guanqi's legs.
Both of his legs were completely pulverized, a mangled mess of flesh and bone, yet Li Guanqi gritted his teeth and refused to utter a single cry.
As long as Pengluo got away, Su Mei would not dare kill him!
All around the square, the enslaved cultivators could only watch in silent fury, terrified to speak. As fellow ascenders from the lower realms, which one of them had not been an almighty titan in the Spirit Realm, commanding the wind and clouds with absolute dominance? Yet once they arrived in the Immortal Realm, their edge had long been ground away, leaving them to scrape by in humiliation just to survive.
*Crack!*
A man in black lashed his whip viciously across the back of a female cultivator! He grabbed her hair, forcing her eyes open, and snarled, "Keep your eyes open and watch!"
Yet just as Su Mei raised her hammer once more, Yang Qing suddenly appeared, his face pale with alarm.
"Mistress, something has happened..."
Su Mei lowered the hammer, her chest heaving violently, and asked with a frown, "What is it?"
The elder's expression turned grim. Looking up toward the sky beyond the barrier, he said in a low, heavy voice, "The men we sent out... are all dead!"
Su Mei's heart skipped a beat. They had just dispatched nearly a hundred Heavenly Immortal realm cultivators, including a True Immortal consecrated elder.
"All dead? Impossible!"
No one could easily believe such a thing. That was nearly a hundred cultivators! If they had truly all perished, it would shake the very foundations of Xutian Palace!
Seeing the elder nod solemnly, Su Mei began to panic. "Who could possibly kill a hundred cultivators in an instant?"
The woman glanced back toward the rafters of the main hall and muttered, "Could a Golden Immortal have arrived?"
Yang Qing pondered deeply for a long moment before answering in a grave voice, "We cannot rule out that possibility. It is best that we stop for now and wait to see what happens."
Hearing this, Su Mei cast aside the bloodstained hammer, drew out a handkerchief to wipe her hands, and condensed an ornate chair out of immortal essence with a wave of her hand. She sneered, "I would like to see just what supreme being dares interfere in the affairs of my Xutian Palace!"
Li Guanqi lay on the ground, his heart throbbing with agony. Clenching his teeth, he was drenched in cold sweat, which soaked through his robes. Blood splattered all around beneath him. His lips were pale and trembling slightly. His throat bobbed as if trying to swallow, and he drew in ragged, gasping breaths.
His body remained bound by immortal essence, and his consciousness was already turning hazy. He had no idea why she had stopped, nor had he even clearly heard what they had just said. He only knew that the murderous intent in his heart toward this woman had reached its peak.
*If I get the chance... I will slaughter her!* Li Guanqi silently swore. As long as he resolved the crisis this time, he would lurk around Xutian Palace for three to five years! The moment an opportunity arose, he would kill Su Mei!
The atmosphere across the square grew exceedingly heavy.
After a moment's thought, Yang Qing raised his hand and hauled the three men from inside the hall out onto the plaza. With another gesture, several chains of immortal essence pierced their bodies, pinning them firmly to the stone floor.
"Kid Li! Are you alright?! Wake up!"
Seeing Li Guanqi's gruesome state, Lin Jinting's heart ached fiercely, his eyes threatening to split with fury. He had never imagined the negotiations would degenerate into such a nightmare.
Far away in Qinzhou, Lin Ruhu and the others had already contacted the Golden Immortal cultivator with whom their ancestors held ties. That powerhouse was currently rushing toward the Linluan Realm at full speed.
Lin Changlu and Lin Ruhu were as anxious as ants on a hot skillet.
"No! I have to go!"
Lin Ruhu's iron grip locked around Lin Wujiu's arm like a vice.
"Enough! Going there now will only cause trouble! Wait until Venerable Zhanhe arrives. At the very least, their lives won't be in danger then."
Only then did Lin Wujiu force himself to calm down, though his face remained dark and unsettled.
They were currently inside a treasure palace nearly three thousand li from Qinzhou City.
Back at Xutian Palace, Su Mei wiped the blood from her hands and cast a contemptuous glance at Li Guanqi on the ground. A perverse sense of pleasure rose within her.
*Rumble!*
The clear sky abruptly churned with storm clouds. The bright daylight vanished, plunging the world into sudden gloom. Thick clouds spanning a thousand li surged into view at terrifying speed, blanketing the heavens.
The pressure weighing down upon the realm intensified, causing more than a hundred floating peaks of Xutian Palace to tremble violently!
Su Mei's expression shifted dramatically as she rose to her feet and murmured, "What is happening?"
The elder Yang Qing could perceive far more. Staring into the distant sky with terror in his eyes, he gasped, "A peerless expert is passing through!
"Quick! Deactivate the levitation arrays of Xutian Palace and lower all hundred peaks! Do not offend this mighty being!"
As darkness deepened, a river of stars seemed to unfold beneath the heavy storm clouds. Chaos and starlight swirled together, enveloping the entire Linluan Realm beneath an overwhelmingly suffocating pressure!
Even Lin Jinting and the others looked into the distance with stunned expressions.
"Could Ancestor Zhanhe possess such terrifying might?"
Lin Shengwu swallowed hard, unable to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the patriarch. "Patriarch... such presence is beyond what a single Golden Immortal could muster. It might be an Immortal Monarch passing through."
The hundred peaks of Xutian Palace began descending slowly.
Yet at that very moment, that dreadful pressure erupted completely!
Before everyone's terrified eyes, a hundred-zhang rift ripped open in the distant sky. Immediately after, a magnificent cloud boat over a hundred zhang long sailed out from the void.
Under its sheer pressure, countless black spatial fractures spread around the cloud boat. Each rift was a hundred zhang wide, snapping open and shut like ravenous maws waiting to devour all living things.
Then, figures began appearing around the vessel, one after another.
Behind every single one of them unfolded wings over a zhang across!
Yang Qing's pupils contracted. His jaw slackened, cold sweat poured down his neck, and his breath caught in his throat.
Thirty Golden Immortal realm powerhouses with fully unfurled wings of Nirvana!
"Could... could this be a great clan of the Eight Desolations passing through?"
"No! Their heading... they are heading straight for Xutian Palace!"
A full thirty peak Golden Immortal experts escorted both sides of the cloud boat.
Immediately after, six figures rose into the air from the prow of the vessel. Four of them flanked the others, guarding the two people in the center.
Those four were all middle-aged men clad in lavish white robes, their expressions aloof and cold. At the center of their foreheads were intricate, profound spirit runes.
When Yang Qing squinted and saw them clearly, his body swayed, and his knees went so weak he nearly collapsed to the floor.
Seeing his reaction, Su Mei frowned and snapped, "What did you see that terrified you to this extent?!"
Yang Qing stared blankly and muttered, "Between their brows... Biluo Qionghua immortal runes! Immortal Monarchs... four great Immortal Monarchs, and they are merely bodyguards!"
*Boom!*
A sword beam burst from the fingertips of the elder standing in the center. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a hundred-zhang immortal sword descending from the heavens!
The sword light pierced through the cloud cover and impaled the main peak of Xutian Palace in an instant. The towering mountain shuddered and shook uncontrollably before plummeting hundreds of zhang from the sky with a thunderous crash!
Boulders rolled and tumbled, and palaces and pavilions collapsed in ruins across the mountainside.
Li Guanqi strained to lift his head, watching the shadowy outline approaching on the horizon.
At the bow of the ship stood the faint silhouettes of a woman and an elderly man.
Chapter 1699