“Little Nine, have you been well?” Luo Yi appeared, and the very next thing he did was ask after Chen Yixin. His expression did not change much, but the concern in his eyes could not be mistaken. This fierce instinct to protect his own was finally more in keeping with the Phoenix Divine Clan of legend.
Hong, however, seemed to have accumulated resentment for far too long, and all of it erupted at once. After a brief pause, his face twisted further, his voice hoarse with suppressed emotion. Every word came from the depths of his heart.
“Eldest Brother, there are limits to how much you can indulge Little Nine! He just killed all ten guards Immortal Emperor Guangle assigned to me! Our Phoenix Clan has already offended half the divine and immortal clans because of him. Are we now supposed to offend Immortal Emperor Guangle as well—the head of the Four Great Immortal Clans?”
Luo Yi merely frowned. “Little Nine didn’t like them. So he killed them.”
He met Wenren Li’s gaze and nodded lightly, then carefully looked over the wreckage of the surrounding void. A faint smile appeared on his face. “It’s good that you gained something from this hidden site. You two should leave first. Immortal Emperor Guangle still cannot do anything to our Phoenix Clan.”
He said it as though this were perfectly obvious, infuriating Hong until his face turned faintly purple. What Hong had said earlier had already pushed the limits of his courage. In the past he had not dared because Chen Yixin himself was difficult to provoke. Now the one he did not dare provoke was Luo Yi.
Hong was a seventh-rank Immortal Lord. Luo Yi, however, had once been the only ninth-rank Immortal Lord below Chen Yixin. He was also the unquestioned future clan leader of the Phoenix Divine Clan. He did not need to participate in the struggle to become a half-step Sovereign. The moment he inherited the position of clan leader, he would automatically advance into a top-tier Sovereign.
Aside from Sovereign Feng Yuan and the Phoenix Empress, Luo Yi was the elder brother Hong respected and feared most.
“Thank you, Eldest Brother.” Chen Yixin was not someone who could not recognize kindness. Luo Yi’s goodwill was clearly different from Hong’s earlier, somewhat superficial greetings. Chen Yixin nodded to Luo Yi, caught Wenren Li’s hand, and retreated two steps.
His brows furrowed again. He exchanged a look with Wenren Li and immediately knew the situation had changed once more.
Bright light suddenly enveloped the ruined void. The darkness before them looked like a piece of torn black cloth that had been ripped away. When their surroundings reappeared, they stood before a floating palace at the center of a sea of stars.
This was neither Taixuan nor the Upper Realm, but somewhere extraordinarily unusual—so unusual that the overwhelming majority of immortals in the Upper Realm did not even know it existed.
“Lord Yixin, surrender quietly if you do not wish to suffer.” A man wearing a purple-gold crown stepped from the palace entrance. Thousands of immortal guards armed with halberds surrounded the palace in battle formation. In truth, the current Chen Yixin and Wenren Li did not warrant such a force.
The purple-gold-crowned man alone was enough to capture both of them alive.
“Good… very good! Ever since A-Li and I headed for the North Sea, everything has been inside Father’s and those Immortal Emperors’ calculations, hasn’t it?”
Luo Yi’s expression became grave. Hong looked surprised as well. His brow furrowed, displeased that he himself had been used by the purple-gold-crowned man. “Lord Le Yi, the Heavenly Phoenix Prison Realm is guarded by my Phoenix Clan. Why are you here?”
Immortal Lord Le Yi smiled lightly without directly answering Hong’s question. His gaze fell on Chen Yixin as he waited to see how Chen Yixin and Wenren Li would respond.
Before thousands of immortal guards, even Luo Yi could no longer openly shelter anyone who had trespassed into a Prison Realm without authorization—especially not Chen Yixin and Wenren Li, who had once caused a massacre of terrible scale in the Upper Realm.
“Lan Xin?” Hong finally stopped being quite so foolish. Thinking carefully, he immediately realized where the information must have leaked. After meeting Sovereign Feng Yuan, the only person he had told about coming here to retrieve Chen Yixin was Lan Xin.
And Le Yi was Lan Xin’s senior martial brother.
“Xin’er only did this for you and the Phoenix Clan. She is afraid you will keep making one mistake after another.” Since Immortal Emperor Guangle’s daughter Lan Xin had been brought up, Immortal Lord Le Yi had no choice but to explain at least that much. His answer also confirmed that Hong had guessed correctly.
Hong’s face flushed faintly red. He seemed to be trying to persuade himself to accept Le Yi’s explanation, yet could not truly do so. What Hong had said earlier had come from anger and displaced resentment. Le Yi, however, was genuinely targeting the Phoenix Clan—and genuinely targeting Chen Yixin.
Chen Yixin had watched long enough. At last the corner of his mouth lifted.
Apparently, he had offended quite a lot of people in the Upper Realm.
He did not remember who Lan Xin was, but judging from Fourth Brother’s expression, Hong had probably loved her for a long time. Le Yi was equally protective of her, and this present situation existed because of her. Chen Yixin and Lan Xin must have had some rather unfriendly history.
Wenren Li’s gaze sharpened slightly.
He remembered who Lan Xin was.
When Chen Yixin broke through to ninth-rank Immortal Lord, Immortal Emperor Guangle had once suggested to Sovereign Feng Yuan that Lan Xin be married to Chen Yixin. Sovereign Feng Yuan had asked Chen Yixin, and naturally Chen Yixin had refused.
It had been precisely because of that incident that Chen Yixin first began considering marrying Wenren Li and formally establishing their bond, which ultimately led to that wedding and the great battle afterward.
Hong said nothing more. Luo Yi frowned as well. With Immortal Emperor Guangle’s chief disciple now involved, the matter was no longer so easy to resolve. Even if Luo Yi were willing to let Chen Yixin and Wenren Li leave, Immortal Lord Le Yi would not agree.
And even if their father, Sovereign Feng Yuan, came personally, it probably would not help. If Sovereign Feng Yuan appeared, Immortal Emperor Guangle would certainly come as well.
Looking only at the situation before them, Chen Yixin and Wenren Li escaping safely was nearly impossible.
If Luo Yi and Hong could see that, naturally Chen Yixin and Wenren Li could too. Yet neither of them looked much different from before. Their calm was almost unnerving.
“Has Lord Yixin reached a decision?” Le Yi’s tone remained unhurried. He was completely confident that Chen Yixin and Wenren Li would be captured.
“Yes. You die. A-Li and I live.”
As Chen Yixin spoke, his consciousness sank into the jade pendant. The final restriction shattered into nothingness as a phoenix phantom flashed through it. The memories and divine power of his previous life, which had been sealed within his divine soul, erupted outward like a well bursting over.
Blue light swept around Chen Yixin and he returned to his phoenix true form. His wings slowly spread. Every immortal present could hear the heavy beat of a heart.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
With every heartbeat, Chen Yixin’s aura climbed another level: Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, Tribulation Transcendence, Great Ascension, Ascendant Immortal, Earth Immortal…
And it continued rising.
Le Yi’s eyelid twitched. He remembered Chen Yixin’s record of slaughter throughout the Upper Realm tens of thousands of years ago. None of the immortals Chen Yixin had destroyed had been nameless nobodies. He had killed ninth-rank Immortal Lords by the dozen, several half-step Sovereigns, and even more seventh- and eighth-rank Immortal Lords.
There was no possible way Le Yi would simply watch Chen Yixin recover to half-step Sovereign. He brought his sword down, only for Luo Yi to intercept it.
“Le Yi. Try hurting him.”
Wariness flashed through Le Yi’s eyes. He retreated one step and attacked again, this time toward Wenren Li. He might not be able to harm Chen Yixin, but surely he could still harm Wenren Li, the man who had once thrown the Upper Realm into chaos.
Yet before Le Yi’s attack reached Wenren Li, the arm-high sapling appeared in front of him.
Le Yi’s attack vanished.
Wenren Li raised one hand and caught the sapling in his palm, then swept it toward the immortal guards arranged in formation.
“I am Li. I rule fate. Confound!”
At Wenren Li’s words, every immortal guard involuntarily launched their strongest attack toward Le Yi.
Thousands of immortal guards unleashing their full strength at once—how terrifying could that combined force be?
When the immortal light faded, Le Yi still stood unharmed.
But astonishment covered his face. The defensive immortal treasure in his hand had shattered into powder. If not for the treasure Immortal Emperor Guangle had bestowed on him, Wenren Li’s attack would have left him dead or gravely injured.
Wenren Li retreated two steps and returned to Chen Yixin’s side as Chen Yixin slowly revolved higher into the air. The sapling in Wenren Li’s hand transformed into light and returned between his brows.
He no longer needed it.
That time had also been enough for Chen Yixin to complete his recovery. He descended from the air, his tightly closed phoenix eyes slowly opening.
His wings spread and trembled once.
A sword light appeared behind Le Yi and cut down.
A perfectly straight wound spread from the back of Le Yi’s body all the way through to the front. His expression became a perfect illustration of terror.
But an immortal could not be killed that easily. Two breaths later, everything except the still-healing bloodline across Le Yi’s body had already recovered. The shadow left by that sword strike, however, would not leave his heart so easily.
“Y-Yixin… Lord Yixin… you dare?”
He was Immortal Emperor Guangle’s chief disciple. Although his position in the Upper Realm did not equal that of an orthodox divine scion like Chen Yixin, it was hardly low. In the hundreds of thousands of years since his ascension, Le Yi had never experienced such a clear sensation of approaching death.
“This lord has killed sixty-three immortals so far. Add you, and that makes an even sixty-four.”
Chen Yixin disappeared from in front of Wenren Li and appeared directly before Le Yi. His wing swept downward.
If that strike landed, Immortal Lord Le Yi would certainly die. Below the level of Immortal Emperor, there were almost no people in the Upper Realm capable of surviving such a blow from Chen Yixin’s true body.
“Little Nine!”
“Little Nine!”
Luo Yi and Hong shouted at the same time. Killing ten immortal guards was completely different from killing Immortal Lord Le Yi. If Le Yi truly died by Chen Yixin’s hand, the two great factions would inevitably tear all pretense apart.
Their father, Sovereign Feng Yuan, might even end up fighting Immortal Emperor Guangle himself. If anything happened to either one, it could trigger an enormous reshuffling of power throughout the Upper Realm.
Yet Chen Yixin’s wing came down and Le Yi remained unharmed.
Instead, the space where Le Yi stood was split open by a crack, which began spreading rapidly outward.
Chen Yixin struck the crack several more times in succession. His goal was not to kill Le Yi and vent his anger.
His goal was to get Wenren Li safely away.
Killing one Le Yi meant little, but if Chen Yixin truly drew Immortal Emperor Guangle here, then he and Wenren Li really would not be able to leave.
“No! He intends to destroy every Prison Realm entrance!”
This floating palace connected all the Prison Realm entrances where serious criminals were confined. If those entrances were destroyed, the prisoners inside would lose the Upper Realm’s control over them.
More dangerously still, if someone entered through Taixuan Heavenly Prison Realm and released them all…
That would become a true catastrophe affecting both Upper and Lower Realms.
“Break! Break! Break!”
Chen Yixin shot outward at tremendous speed, smashing through everything in his path. Nobody could stop him.
The blue-feathered phoenix vanished above the palace. No one had expected this and no one had been able to stop him. The immortal guards froze. Le Yi froze. Even Luo Yi and Hong were stunned.
Chen Yixin was audacious beyond measure.
There truly was nothing he did not dare do.
“Sigh…” A quiet sigh traveled toward them from far away. They had no idea which Immortal Emperor was about to arrive, but once the Prison Realm passages were shattered, nothing could be undone.
When Chen Yixin appeared again, he was back beside Wenren Li. His clothing had not changed, yet his aura had.
He was cold like a block of ice no warmth could penetrate, his presence sharp and oppressive, like a genuine divine weapon from ancient times.
Wenren Li turned toward him and tightened his hold on Chen Yixin’s hand. “A-Rong, this time we fight side by side.”
Chen Yixin turned as well. He looked Wenren Li over carefully from head to toe, then lifted Wenren Li’s hand to his lips and kissed it.
“All right. I’ll wait for you.”
There would be no chance for that this time.
But Chen Yixin was willing to wait for Wenren Li next time.
He repeated it once more.
“I’ll wait for you.”
He would wait for Wenren Li to come find him.
Wait for Wenren Li to fight his way into the Upper Realm.
“A-Rong…”
A trace of panic entered Wenren Li’s voice. He could feel an overwhelmingly powerful force pulling at him from within the shattered fragments of the Prison Realm gates.
Sovereign Feng Yuan had plotted against Chen Yixin and Wenren Li.
But tens of thousands of years ago, Chen Yixin himself had already planned for precisely this moment.
Taixuan had never been a place Chen Yixin chose for himself.
He had carefully selected it for Wenren Li to grow in.
How could Chen Yixin possibly have left this final hidden danger unresolved?
Every immortal criminal imprisoned within those Prison Realms would eventually become nourishment and advantage for Wenren Li.
The situation they had reached was the product of schemes, but also of people’s hearts—the hearts of the immortals, the Phoenix Clan, Chen Yixin, and Wenren Li.
Chen Yixin released Wenren Li’s hand.
The irresistible force immediately dragged Wenren Li away.
At that instant, immortal light also slashed toward Wenren Li. Luo Yi had already closed in and restrained Chen Yixin, leaving him unable to move, but the red feather Chen Yixin had tucked into Wenren Li’s collar earlier flew out.
It completely blocked the attack.
Then it drifted back to Wenren Li and disappeared with him into the sea of stars.
No trace remained.
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