Even as it plummeted at terrifying speed, purple flames ignited across the Kunpeng's body.
Yet the colossal, mythical beast seemed to have lost all ability to resist, unable to muster even a struggle.
It could only let the raging purple fire devour and incinerate its flesh.
Its mournful wails echoed across the Congyun Sea, striking fear and terror into the heart of anyone who heard them.
Like a falling meteor plunging from the highest heavens, the Kunpeng dropped straight toward the mortal realm, tracing a vertical purple streak between heaven and earth.
As its altitude plummeted, its body steadily shrank.
By the time it neared the surface of the sea, it had been burned entirely to nothing by the purple fire.
Not even ash remained.
Ye Feipeng was dead!
Seeing the demon beast slain, the purple silhouette high in the sky cast down another indifferent glance.
Then, just as swiftly as they had gathered, the clouds and rosy auroras scattered across the sky.
The purple form gradually dimmed and vanished from sight.
"Wu Chi'er? No, that's not right..."
High above, Immortal Venerable Heiya's voice drifted down, laden with doubt and astonishment.
With that, the one-eyed crow spread its wings slightly and streaked away like a black line, chasing after the direction in which the purple qi had dissipated.
Meanwhile, the cultivators of the Congyun Sea had yet to recover from the shock of this sudden turn of events, all standing petrified where they were.
A moment later, Wanxian Island erupted into an uproar.
"What was that just now?"
"Which almighty expert manifested? Such a terrifying beast as the Kunpeng was struck dead by a single bolt of lightning?!"
"A Dao Integration Immortal Venerable?"
"I doubt an ordinary Dao Integration cultivator could have pulled that off."
"Above Dao Integration? Impossible!"
...
Like everyone else, Li Fan was thoroughly shaken.
However, he was not shocked by how terrifying this purple silhouette's might was.
Rather, he was shaken by his identity.
"Senior Brother... Zhang?"
Li Fan stared blankly up at the sky where the purple qi had vanished, finding it hard to believe.
He had heard that indifferent voice many times before; it was exceedingly familiar.
Coupled with those familiar words—"evil demons and heretics"—and that Purple Cloud Divine Thunder that effortlessly struck down Ye Feipeng, Li Fan was almost certain that the purple silhouette seated upon the canopy of heaven just now was none other than the Senior Brother Zhang he had met in the Fallen Immortal Realm.
Zhang Qianmo.
An inner disciple of the Purple Cloud Sect, suspected to be the reincarnation of an almighty being.
Possessing extraordinary strength and mastery over the mysterious Purple Cloud Nirvana Technique, killing Golden Core cultivators as a Foundation Establishment cultivator was as effortless for him as butchering chickens and dogs.
Proud and ambitious, he had once sworn three great aspirations.
The first of those aspirations was to "slay every demon and fiend beneath the heavens to restore clarity to the world."
*Judging by this, Senior Brother Zhang not only survived from ancient times to the present day, but he may have even fulfilled that first aspiration.*
Recalling Zhang Qianmo's words, "Evil demons and heretics, you dare show yourselves to seek death?", and combining them with the ancestral memories Ye Feipeng had received—of demon beasts fleeing in panic back then—as well as the present reality of demon beasts being virtually extinct in the cultivation world, Li Fan could deduce that the demon beasts and fiends of this cultivation world had likely been terrified out of their wits by Senior Brother Zhang.
Even if they were not completely wiped out, they could only cower in hiding somewhere, never daring to set foot in the cultivation world again.
Though Ye Feipeng had possessed extraordinary fortune, awakened his Kunpeng bloodline, and used it as his foundation to forcibly swallow Crimson Flame, gaining the qualifications to reach the sky in a single bound and advance straight from Golden Core to Dao Integration...
Misfortune leans on fortune, and fortune conceals misfortune.
It was precisely because of this Kunpeng beast bloodline that he drew Zhang Qianmo's gaze.
In order to swallow Crimson Flame and Zhang Zhiliang in a single gulp, the chubby Ye Feipeng must have driven the power of his Kunpeng bloodline to its absolute limit.
With the assistance of the Vast Sea Pearl, he had transformed into a creature virtually identical to the ancient mythical beast Kunpeng.
Only then was he mercilessly struck down by Senior Brother Zhang.
The Kunpeng's triumphant cry still seemed to echo in Li Fan's ears.
A question could not help but surface in his mind: what was Senior Brother Zhang's current realm of cultivation?
Dao Integration, or Longevity Heavenly Venerable?
The moment the Kunpeng had appeared, Zhang Qianmo's figure had not manifested right away.
Only after the mythical beast completed the act of swallowing Crimson Flame and was about to flee far into the distance did Zhang Qianmo arrive late at the very last moment.
If Ye Feipeng hadn't gotten carried away after swallowing Crimson Flame and let out those triumphant cries, but had instead fled immediately...
Could he have avoided Zhang Qianmo's strike?
And thereby survived?
The chubby Ye Feipeng's face floated before his eyes, and Li Fan shook his head slightly.
*Knowing full well that such a god of slaughter targeting demon beasts existed in the world, the Kunpeng saved by the Ye ancestor still chose to pass down its essence blood to mortals...*
*Hmph, it clearly had no good intentions.*
*Those not of our kind are sure to be of a different heart.*
*Well done, Senior Brother Zhang!*
Even as Li Fan sighed with admiration, his brow furrowed slightly.
He recalled that Zhang Qianmo's voice earlier seemed to have been formed by two voices overlapping.
One was his original voice.
The other was the tender voice of a child.
*Wu Chi'er, reincarnation of an almighty being, purple lightning...*
Li Fan narrowed his eyes as an old memory resurfaced in his mind.
Back when he first slew Sikong Yi, the successor of the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect, he had learned through the two remnant souls within the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Token how Sikong Yi's nominal master, Sikong Bo, had fled to the Congyun Sea.
Back then, Sikong Bo had sought to refine an avatar and had chanced upon a small child of peerless talent and extraordinary fortune in a desolate mountain village.
He had wanted to steal the child's essence blood, only to discover to his dismay that a Nascent Soul cultivator had also set his sights on the child, having transformed his body into a wonder, ready to seize him through possession at any moment.
Sikong Bo fought a fierce battle with that Nascent Soul cultivator, and just as both were grievously wounded, the small child suddenly appeared and, without a word, directly refined the Nascent Soul cultivator.
Sikong Bo took to his heels, but the child was intimately familiar with the methods of the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect.
No matter what he tried, he could not shake him off.
Left with no choice and desperate to survive, Sikong Bo had to release all the remnant souls within the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Token.
Although he managed to escape with his life, the souls of the sect's ancestral masters were all struck by a bolt of purple lightning descending from the sky and blasted into utter oblivion.
...
*The child Sikong Bo encountered back then was Senior Brother Zhang?*
*And also Wu Chi'er?*
Li Fan had seen information regarding Wu Chi'er while in Tianyu Province.
He was a child of six or seven years who was obsessed with martial might and loved nothing more than seeking out opponents to spar with.
Yet his combat prowess was astonishing; he was said to be only at the Nascent Soul realm, yet virtually invincible within the same cultivation stage, able to fight on par with Soul Formation cultivators.
Back then, Li Fan had not connected him to the small child in Sikong Bo's memories.
Much less did he imagine that he could be the reincarnation of Zhang Qianmo.
*No, the might of that divine thunderbolt that struck the Kunpeng dead just now is far beyond what a Nascent Soul cultivator could achieve.*
*Just what divine technique is Senior Brother Zhang cultivating?*
While Li Fan was deep in thought, an exclamation from a cultivator nearby broke his reverie.
"Look quickly! Zhang Zhiliang is still alive!"
"Crimson Flame! Crimson Flame is there too!"
Li Fan looked up sharply. High in the air, right where the Kunpeng's corpse had been incinerated to nothing, Zhang Zhiliang's somewhat disheveled figure had reappeared at some point.
Not far away, Crimson Flame stood facing him, its fiery silhouette dancing.
Chapter 305