The Little Celestial Venerable walked toward Hunyuan Palace. It was still more than a hundred li away, with rugged mountains rising all along the path. Suddenly, immortal artifacts soared into the air from amid the peaks one after another. In an instant, the firmament seemed pierced with countless gaping holes.
One end of these immortal artifacts was rooted in the Ancestral Court, while the other reached into the distant Immortal Realm. Suspended between the Immortal Realm and the Ancestral Court, they resembled passages bridging the mortal world and the immortals.
They also looked like the tentacles of the immortals in the Immortal Realm reaching out to control the mortal realm.
Streams of immortal light cascaded from the Immortal Realm, pouring over the artifacts and bathing those of every size in dazzling brilliance.
Xu Ying looked at the immortal artifacts and frowned slightly, sensing that something was amiss.
He excelled at the resonance of the heavens, and his divine sense was exceptionally acute. Formidable though these immortal artifacts were, the source of the unease prickling at him was not these treasures at all, but something else entirely!
*There is danger near Hunyuan Palace!* Xu Ying thought.
The Little Celestial Venerable continued toward Ziwei Hunyuan Palace. The atmosphere was stifling to the extreme, yet no one made a move.
Pair after pair of eyes fixed upon him. Beneath those immortal artifacts stood experts from the myriad worlds of the heavens, each possessing extraordinary cultivation and prowess.
These people were celebrated masters with longstanding reputations in their respective worlds. Having received Golden Seal-Script Immortal Talismans from their ancestral masters, they had come to slay the Little Celestial Venerable and vie for this single ascension slot.
When they looked at the Little Celestial Venerable, they did not look at him as a living man, but rather as an instrument to grant them ascension!
Ever since the Great Villain severed the heavenly road and the Great Devil triggered the super heavenly tribulation, no one had been able to ascend. Now that an ascension slot had finally appeared, they had to seize it at all costs!
Murderous aura saturated the wilderness, flooding heaven and earth.
Suddenly, a Daoist with a high topknot flew toward them, an immortal bell hovering above his head. From far away, he called out, "Does the comer happen to be the Little Celestial Venerable of the Demonic Realm?"
The Little Celestial Venerable walked forward at an unhurried pace. Set against the radiance of the numerous immortal treasures, his white robes appeared all the more striking. He smiled and said, "The Ancestral Court is no demonic realm."
He flicked his sleeve. Behind him, a magnificent Primordial Spirit emerged, towering between heaven and earth, and flicked its sleeve at the exact same moment.
Before the high-topknot Daoist could say another word or make any move, the curtain of immortal light draping from the bell above his head shattered. With a loud bang, the Daoist exploded, turning into a cloud of bloody mist!
Faced with such an overwhelming powerhouse, a chill gripped the hearts of the experts from the myriad worlds. That high-topknot Daoist's physical body and Primordial Spirit had simultaneously burst into fine powder!
"Fiend!"
An enraged roar echoed from inside the immortal bell. The bell then whistled forward, chiming violently as it attacked the Little Celestial Venerable of its own accord!
This immortal artifact possessed a spirit. Worshiped for an untold number of years, it had grown extraordinarily mighty. Backed by the Immortal Realm, its chimes contained immortal notes that disrupted Dao images and Dao runes, assailing both body and soul, as well as the Primordial Spirit—an exceptionally terrifying threat!
The Little Celestial Venerable raised his hand and punched. The chimes abruptly grew muffled as the immortal bell was punched clean through. All manner of Immortal Dao runes across its surface warped and flickered erratically!
He withdrew his fist, a faint smile on his lips.
The Immortal Dao runes on the bell's surface dimmed, and it plummeted from the sky like a chunk of scrap metal. In the heavens above, one of the passages to the Immortal Realm vanished alongside it.
The surroundings fell dead silent. Not a soul dared step forward.
At that moment, the rapid, fluttering strum of a pipa rang out. Fine and hurried, it seemed to urge people onward, its notes laced with bleak, murderous intent.
Still smiling, the Little Celestial Venerable strode forward toward Hunyuan Palace.
The pipa grew faster and tighter, yet remained very faint, like the jade hands of a fair maiden briskly plucking the strings, quickening the heartbeat of everyone who heard it.
The Little Celestial Venerable walked into the ambush—though it could hardly be called an ambush anymore. The experts gathered from the myriad worlds had already displayed their immortal artifacts out in the open, fully prepared to harvest his life.
*Clang!*
Suddenly, the obscure sound of a qin arose. Ancient, ethereal, and melodious, it deepened the murderous aura in the air.
The instant the qin sounded, an expert from the Yuanfeng World could no longer restrain a long roar. Spurred by the killing intent, he raised his hand, seized the immortal artifact Divine Dragon Staff, poured all his power into it, and charged toward the Little Celestial Venerable!
He should not have attacked just yet. The safer move would have been to wait until the Little Celestial Venerable went deeper into the trap, when the crowd of heroes would rise together and unleash all their immortal artifacts at once to crush him.
Yet the pipa's inherent killing intent seized his mind, and the murderous aura concealed within the qin inflamed the urge to kill in his heart. The moment the qin rang out, his Dao heart was thrown into disarray, compelling him to strike involuntarily!
As he made his move, the outer circle of hesitating experts could endure it no longer. One after another, they activated their immortal artifacts and swarmed toward the Little Celestial Venerable!
*Clang, clang, clang!*
The qin was plucked three times in quick succession. In that instant, it stirred the entire battlefield, raising endless, desolate killing intent. As the pipa chimed, the sound of tearing silk erupted, and murderous aura boiled to the heavens, reverberating through the mountain valley!
"Kill!"
The crowd roared, swarming forward like bees.
In the very next instant, the Divine Dragon Staff bent beneath a single punch. The scales of the divine dragon it had manifested exploded, whistling backward through the air piece by piece.
With popping cracks, the divine dragon's tendons and bones snapped, its flesh twisting into a mangled heap. The Little Celestial Venerable's punch dispersed the immortal artifact's refined qi and shattered its Dao runes!
The hands of the Yuanfeng World expert gripping the staff shattered with a sharp snap, sending bone fragments shooting backward. His physical body and Primordial Spirit were already pierced through and through by the flying scales, left riddled with holes.
Robes white as snow, the Little Celestial Venerable flashed past him. Amid the strum of the pipa, his palm met an incoming immortal sword. The sword crashed into his palm and shattered from tip to hilt!
The hand gripping the sword met the brunt of his palm power. The hand burst apart first, followed by the arm, the destruction tearing backward from the wrist all the way to the shoulder blade!
Half the body of the expert who had summoned the immortal sword was vaporized clean away by that single strike!
Right then, a petite golden mountain was hurled into the air, expanding into a towering peak of ten thousand ren. Shining brilliantly, it bore down on the Little Celestial Venerable!
His body sank violently under the weight. The expert controlling the mountain rejoiced, shouting, "I've suppressed him!"
The Little Celestial Venerable thrust his palm upward against the golden mountain. The ten-thousand-ren peak crumpled in upon itself, folding layer over layer until, within a breath, it was flattened into a gigantic golden disc that tore through the sky and shot out of sight!
The pipa and the qin grew faster and tighter, their killing intent soaring to the heavens. More powerhouses activated their immortal artifacts and charged forward.
The Little Celestial Venerable's figure flashed among the crowd like a fierce tiger, like a coiling dragon. Unstoppable and ferocious, he found no one capable of matching him for a single exchange. Wherever he passed, immortal artifacts burst into pieces, and vibrant, living bodies were reduced to lifeless corpses!
Inside Hunyuan Palace, Nalan Du and Hua Cuoying stood in attendance. The ones seated were not them, but the avatars of the Five Extremes Immortal King and the Ninth Immortal King.
Neither Immortal King could directly depart Weixu, so they could only descend as avatars.
Yet even the avatars of the two Immortal Kings did not occupy the head seat. Seated in the place of honor was a youth in brocade robes, his hair bound in a violet-gold crown. His skin was fair, and his eyes shone like the stars and moon—exceedingly handsome.
"Someone is disrupting the ranks of the myriad worlds' experts to create openings for the Little Celestial Venerable!"
The Five Extremes Immortal King said, "This person saw through our ambush and decided to throw the outer perimeter into chaos, forcing us to launch our strike early. They want to relieve the pressure on him and turn this encirclement into a free-for-all. In such chaos, very few can actually close in on the Little Celestial Venerable."
The brocade-clad youth smiled and said, "A clever person, but their ability is rather shallow. Though they wish to aid him, a mere wisp of music from a qin and pipa cannot shake the Dao hearts of the experts in my inner perimeter."
The Ninth Immortal King chuckled. "The Hua family's Ten Thousand Immortals Five Extremes Formation is extraordinarily powerful, yet it still pales in comparison to the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Great Formation Young Master Yuchuan brought this time. Once the Little Celestial Venerable enters the formation, we can exterminate him and claim this merit."
The Five Extremes Immortal King flattered, "With this merit to your name, Young Master Yuchuan, ascending to the Immortal Realm will be entirely natural and beyond reproach. No one will dare utter a word of gossip."
The brocade-clad youth, Young Master Yuchuan, replied with a solemn expression, "If I wished to ascend, would I need to worry about gossip from others? My two uncles, I cannot take this ascension slot; it belongs to you two. If I took it, wouldn't I be acting as both the examiner and the cheat copying the answers?"
The Five Extremes Immortal King and the Ninth Immortal King burst into hearty laughter, their eyes flickering, unable to tell whether his words were genuine or false.
Young Master Yuchuan smiled. "Besides, this Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Formation was never prepared for the Little Celestial Venerable in the first place. The one this immortal formation is meant to wipe out is someone else entirely—someone my ancestors have yearned day and night to eliminate."
***
Xu Ying had not entered the fray. Watching from outside, he sought the location of the lethal formation that stirred such dread in his heart. When the pipa and qin suddenly reached his ears, he stood up at once to look around.
In the distance, rosy clouds drifted above a valley. Atop the clouds rested a jade terrace adorned with gazebos, pavilions, and orderly palaces.
Many enchanting demon maidens moved gracefully through the grounds, tending flowers, trimming plants, and plucking fruit from the trees.
Other maidens sat by the stream winding through the palace complex, washing their feet and splashing the clear water with their pale, slender legs at the other girls, their bright laughter never ceasing.
Among the palaces stood an elegant, towering building surrounded by drifting clouds. A maiden in purple plucked a qin, while a maiden in green played a pipa.
True Lord Yan sat on a high terrace, embracing beauties on both sides, while a maiden in red danced gracefully, performing a sword dance to the rhythm of the qin and pipa.
Xu Ying felt a stir in his heart and instructed the two black qilin, "Let us go meet True Lord Yan."
Seeing the qilin carriage approach, True Lord Yan stood up and ordered several maidens to go downstairs and welcome them, escorting Xu Ying and Zhou Yashu up into the building.
As Xu Ying approached, True Lord Yan offered a slight bow and said, "Brother Xu, please take a seat. Does that offer of sworn brotherhood you made back then still stand?"
Xu Ying smiled. "Are you trying to take advantage of the Little Celestial Venerable, True Lord?"
True Lord Yan smiled and nodded gently. "You are the Little Celestial Venerable's master. If you and I become sworn brothers, I will be his martial uncle. Even if I cannot become the number one expert of the Ancestral Court, I can at least irritate him."
Xu Ying burst into hearty laughter, but made no further mention of becoming sworn brothers.
Zhou Yashu listened in utter shock, stammering and speechless. Only now did he understand why the Little Celestial Venerable had refused to let Xu Ying take him as a disciple. If Xu Ying had taken him on, he would have become martial brothers with the Little Celestial Venerable.
*Then wouldn't Xu Ying be my granduncle?*
He was dumbfounded once more, thinking, *Why did Master want to kill Grandmaster? Could it be a tradition of our sect? Or did Grandmaster commit atrocious crimes?*
Xu Ying sat alongside True Lord Yan, watching the Little Celestial Venerable's battle. "You had these two ladies play their instruments to stir up the killing intent, forcing the enemy to strike before their lethal measures were fully prepared. Truly remarkable."
True Lord Yan said, "This is the 'Song of Entering the Formation,' filled with towering murderous intent by nature. However, the killing intent from Lady Zijuan and Lady Liu Qing is not quite enough to draw out more people. Only by provoking more of the ambushers can we defuse their certain-kill scheme and force the inner lethal moves into the open ahead of time."
Though he and the Little Celestial Venerable were rivals vying for the title of the Ancestral Court's top expert, when faced with matters of principle, he was still willing to lend a helping hand.
Xu Ying looked toward the two maidens playing the qin and pipa. Both were Qi Refiners of supreme cultivation, possessing immense magic power. Although Zijuan's qin music was filled with killing intent, it was slightly too soft. Liu Qing's pipa was resounding and forceful, not soft in the slightest, yet it could not fully ignite the murderous aura to influence more people.
As for the maiden in red dancing with her sword, her blade carried a slaughtering edge, making her performance the best of the three.
"Though this red-clad lady has the strongest killing intent, it is still not enough to lead Zijuan and Liu Qing."
Xu Ying rose and stepped directly into the area. Closing the distance in a flash, he reached out, and the sword vanished from the red-clad maiden's grip into his own.
The maiden in red was startled and prepared to take the sword back, but True Lord Yan waved his hand, signaling for her to step down for now.
Gripping the sword, Xu Ying said, "A few days ago, I perfected my own sword dao. Today, I shall make a humble display before everyone."
He closed his eyes and visualized the broken sword Zhuxian. All at once, towering murderous intent erupted from him. The overwhelming aura surged outward, causing every maiden throughout the palace complex to shiver involuntarily, gripped by dread.
Xu Ying opened his eyes. With a raise of his hand, he pointed the sword toward Hunyuan Palace. Above his head, an immense shadow emerged—the illusory silhouette of the broken sword Zhuxian—also pointing straight toward Hunyuan Palace!
Xu Ying danced with the blade. Across the jade terrace and within the pavilion, sword light flashed like lightning, crisscrossing in all directions accompanied by roaring dragon cries!
Driven by his murderous intent, the notes of the qin and pipa erupted into a tempest of martial fury, rapid and sharp, striking straight at the Dao heart. They summoned anomalies from the sky, turning heaven and earth into a bloody, desolate expanse, and even birthed inner demons in people's minds, setting hordes of devils dancing through the air!
The music further fueled Xu Ying's killing intent, making the Zhuxian sword qi grow increasingly dense, increasingly real!
That slaughtering aura—capable of destroying heaven and earth, slaying all immortals, extinguishing longevity, wiping out mortals, and obliterating the cosmos to reforge creation—surged straight toward Hunyuan Palace. Wherever it passed, the supreme experts of the various worlds were driven mad, their Dao hearts unsettled by the murderous aura, and they charged out one after another toward the Little Celestial Venerable!
In an instant, throughout the Ziwei Remnant Realm, experts mobilized en masse. Even the experts Young Master Yuchuan had deployed in the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Extermination Formation had their Dao hearts disrupted by that endless killing intent, and they poured out of the immortal formation, rushing straight at the Little Celestial Venerable!
Young Master Yuchuan slammed his hand on the table and rose, his face livid as he glared into the distance toward True Lord Yan's Yunxia Palace!
"Who ruined my plans?!"
Xu Ying danced with his sword atop the Weiyue Tower in Yunxia Palace. Resonating with the qin and pipa, he felt the murderous aura become utterly uncontrollable, reaching the point where the arrow was on the string and had to fly!
Catching sight of the enemy formation crumbling into chaos around the Little Celestial Venerable, he held back no longer. With a sharp shout, he thrust the sword toward Hunyuan Palace from afar!
*Crack!*
The sword in his hand could not endure his killing intent and burst into fine dust. Yet above his head, the Dao image of the broken sword Zhuxian flashed and vanished from Yunxia Palace!
A brilliant sword qi crossed hundreds of li in an instant and reached Hunyuan Palace. With a sharp hiss, it plunged into the palace, and towering sword qi detonated with an earth-shattering roar!
Chapter 359