“Xiao Jiu, are you well?” Luoyi appeared, and the very next sentence he spoke was directed at Chen Yixin. His expression did not change much, yet the concern in his eyes was unmistakable. Only now did he truly resemble the protective Ancient Phoenix Divine Clan described in the rumors.
However, Hongsi’s anger had clearly been suppressed for a very long time, and now it erupted all at once. He froze for only a moment before his expression twisted further. His voice carried a hoarse strain born from pressure, every word a heartfelt accusation.
“Big Brother, spoiling Xiao Jiu is not done like this! He just killed the ten guards that Immortal Emperor Guangle assigned to me! Our Phoenix Clan has already offended half the divine and immortal races because of him, and now we are supposed to offend Immortal Emperor Guangle, leader of the Four Great Immortal Clans, as well?”
Yet Luoyi merely frowned slightly after hearing this. “If Xiao Jiu disliked them, then killing them was fine.”
He met Wenren Li’s gaze and gave a slight nod. Then he carefully surveyed the surrounding shattered void before a faint smile appeared on his face. “It is good that you gained something from this secret realm. You should leave now. Immortal Emperor Guangle still cannot do anything to our Phoenix Clan.”
He spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world, so much so that Hongsi’s face turned faintly purple with anger. Yet the words he had spoken earlier were already the limit of his courage. In the past he did not dare speak because Chen Yixin himself was terrifying. Now it was because Luoyi was terrifying.
Hongsi was only a Seventh Rank Immortal Lord, while Luoyi had once been the only Ninth Rank Immortal Lord beneath Chen Yixin. He was also the future rightful clan leader of the Ancient Phoenix Divine Clan. He did not even need to participate in the struggle for the Half-Step Emperor realm. Once he inherited the clan leader’s throne, he would automatically ascend to the rank of a peak Emperor.
Other than Emperor Fengyuan and the Empress Phoenix, the person Hongsi respected and feared most was this eldest brother.
“Thank you, Big Brother.” Chen Yixin was not someone incapable of recognizing goodwill. Luoyi’s kindness was very different from Hongsi’s earlier superficial pleasantries. He nodded toward Luoyi and pulled Wenren Li back two steps.
Then his brows furrowed slightly again. He exchanged a glance with Wenren Li, and both instantly understood that the situation had changed once more.
The shattered void around them became enveloped by a mass of radiant light. Before their eyes, it was as though a torn black cloth had been ripped away entirely. They appeared before a floating palace suspended within a sea of stars.
This place was neither Taixuan nor the Upper Realm, but an extraordinarily special location—so special that the overwhelming majority of immortals in the Upper Realm had no knowledge of its existence.
“Lord Yi, surrender peacefully if you do not wish to suffer,” said a man wearing a purple-gold crown as he stepped out from the palace gates. At the same time, thousands of immortal guards surrounding the palace raised their halberds in formation. Indeed, against the current Chen Yixin and Wenren Li, such a display was unnecessary.
This purple-gold-crowned man alone was enough to capture Chen Yixin and Wenren Li alive.
“Good… very good! From the moment A-Li and I headed toward the Northern Sea, everything had already been part of Father’s and the Immortal Emperors’ calculations, hadn’t it?”
Luoyi’s expression became serious, while Hongsi looked somewhat shocked as well. His brows knitted faintly, displeased that he himself had been used by this purple-gold-crowned man. “Lord Leyi, the Heavenly Phoenix Prison Realm is guarded by our Phoenix Clan. Why are you here?”
Immortal Lord Leyi smiled faintly and did not directly answer Hongsi’s question. His gaze settled upon Chen Yixin as he waited for the reactions of Chen Yixin and Wenren Li.
And before these thousands of immortal guards, even Luoyi could no longer openly shield anyone who had trespassed into the prison realm—especially Chen Yixin and Wenren Li, who had committed heinous slaughter within the Upper Realm.
“Lanxin?” Hongsi finally was not so foolish after all. After thinking carefully, he immediately realized where the leak had occurred. After meeting Emperor Fengyuan, the only person he had mentioned his mission of retrieving Chen Yixin to was Lanxin. Yet Leyi was Lanxin’s senior fellow disciple.
“Xin’er only did this for your sake and for the Phoenix Clan, fearing that you would continue making mistake after mistake.” Once Lanxin, daughter of Immortal Emperor Guangle, was mentioned, Immortal Lord Leyi had no choice but to offer an explanation. Yet those words also confirmed that Hongsi’s suspicions had been correct.
Hongsi’s face flushed slightly red. He seemed to want to convince himself that Leyi’s explanation was reasonable, yet he could not truly agree with it from the bottom of his heart. The things he had said earlier had merely been spoken in anger, but Leyi was genuinely targeting the Phoenix Clan and Chen Yixin.
After watching all this for so long, Chen Yixin finally could not help curling his lips into a smile. He really had offended quite a number of people in the Upper Realm.
He did not remember who this Lanxin was, but judging from Hongsi’s expression, he had likely been enamored with her for a long time. Leyi was also so protective of her, and this entire situation had arisen because of her. Chen Yixin and she must have had some rather unfriendly interactions in the past.
Wenren Li’s gaze narrowed slightly as he remembered who Lanxin was.
Back when Chen Yixin’s cultivation had broken through to the Ninth Rank Immortal Lord realm, Immortal Emperor Guangle had proposed to Emperor Fengyuan that Lanxin be married to Chen Yixin. Emperor Fengyuan had asked Chen Yixin himself, and naturally the proposal had been rejected.
It was precisely because of this incident that Chen Yixin began considering marriage and soul-bonding with Wenren Li, which eventually led to their wedding and the great war that followed.
Hongsi said nothing further, while Luoyi merely continued frowning in silence. With the involvement of Leyi, the chief disciple under Immortal Emperor Guangle, matters had become far more difficult to resolve. Even if Luoyi wished to let Chen Yixin and Wenren Li leave, Immortal Lord Leyi certainly would not permit it.
Moreover, even if Emperor Fengyuan himself arrived, it likely would not matter. If he came, Immortal Emperor Guangle would surely come as well.
Thus, from the current situation, it was almost impossible for Chen Yixin and Wenren Li to leave safely.
Luoyi and Hongsi could see this clearly, so naturally Chen Yixin and Wenren Li understood it as well. Yet the expressions of the latter two remained almost unchanged. Their calmness was unexpectedly unsettling.
“Has Lord Yi reached a decision?” Leyi asked in an even, measured tone, utterly confident in his ability to capture Chen Yixin and Wenren Li.
“Yes. And that decision is that you die, while A-Li and I live!”
As Chen Yixin’s words fell, his consciousness sank into the jade pendant. The final restriction shattered into nothingness after a phoenix phantom flashed past. The memories and divine power of his previous life, sealed away for so long, erupted from his soul like water bursting from a full well.
Blue light swept across Chen Yixin’s body as he transformed into his phoenix true form. His wings slowly unfurled, and every immortal present could hear the thunderous beating of a heart.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
With every beat, Chen Yixin’s aura rose by another realm—Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, Tribulation Transcendence, Great Ascension, Ascendant Immortal, Earth Immortal… and it was still continuing to rise.
Lord Leyi’s eyelids twitched slightly as memories surfaced of Chen Yixin’s slaughter across the Upper Realm tens of thousands of years ago. None of the immortals he had slain had been insignificant figures. Ninth Rank Immortal Lords had fallen in groups beneath his hands, and even several Half-Step Emperors had perished, not to mention the many Seventh and Eighth Rank Immortal Lords.
Naturally, Lord Leyi could not allow Chen Yixin to recover all the way back to Half-Step Emperor cultivation. He slashed out with his sword, yet Luoyi intercepted the strike. “Leyi, just try harming him.”
A trace of deeper wariness flashed through Lord Leyi’s eyes. He retreated one step before attacking again, this time aiming directly at Wenren Li. If he could not harm Chen Yixin, could he still not harm Wenren Li, the calamity of the Heavenly Realm?
Yet before Leyi’s attack could land upon Wenren Li, a small sapling about the height of an arm appeared before him, and the attack vanished without a trace.
Wenren Li raised a hand and grasped the sapling in his palm before sweeping it toward the ranks of immortal guards. “I am Li. I govern fate. Chaos and confusion.”
As Wenren Li’s words fell, the immortal guards involuntarily unleashed their strongest attacks toward Lord Leyi. Thousands of immortal guards striking together with full force created a terrifying level of destructive power. Yet when the immortal light finally dispersed, Lord Leyi was still standing safely in place.
However, shock completely filled his face, while the defensive immortal treasure in his hand crumbled into powder. Had it not been for the immortal treasure bestowed upon him by Immortal Emperor Guangle, Wenren Li’s single move would have either killed him outright or gravely wounded him.
Wenren Li stepped back twice and returned to Chen Yixin’s side as Chen Yixin slowly rose spinning into the air. The little sapling in Wenren Li’s hand dissolved into flowing light and returned to the space between his brows. It was no longer needed.
And during that span of time, Chen Yixin had already fully recovered. He descended from the air while his tightly shut phoenix eyes slowly opened.
He spread his wings and gave them a slight tremor. A streak of sword light appeared behind Lord Leyi and slashed downward. A perfectly straight crack spread from his back all the way through to his front. Terror completely overtook Leyi’s expression.
But immortals could not be killed so easily. Two breaths later, aside from the bloodstains still lingering across the surface of his body, everything else had already healed. Yet the shadow of that sword strike would never fade from his heart again.
“Y-Yi… Lord Yi… you dare?”
He was the chief disciple under Immortal Emperor Guangle. Though his status in the Upper Realm could not compare to a divine son of orthodox bloodline like Chen Yixin, it was still exceptionally high. Since becoming immortal tens of thousands of years ago, he had never once felt this close to death.
“To date, this lord has slain sixty-three immortals. Adding you would make a nice round number.”
Chen Yixin’s figure vanished from before Wenren Li and instantly appeared directly in front of Lord Leyi. One wing swept downward. If this strike landed, Immortal Lord Leyi would unquestionably die. Beneath the level of Immortal Emperors, almost no one in the Upper Realm could withstand a blow from Chen Yixin’s true form.
“Xiao Jiu!”
“Xiao Jiu!”
Luoyi and Hongsi cried out at the same time. Chen Yixin killing ten immortal guards and Chen Yixin killing Immortal Lord Leyi were matters of entirely different severity. If Leyi truly died by Chen Yixin’s hand, the two great factions would inevitably fall into open conflict.
Even Emperor Fengyuan and Immortal Emperor Guangle would likely be driven into direct battle. If anything happened to either of them, it could very well trigger a complete reshuffling of the Upper Realm’s powers.
Yet when Chen Yixin’s wing descended, Immortal Lord Leyi remained completely unharmed. Instead, the space where he stood split open with a massive crack that rapidly spread outward.
Then Chen Yixin struck the rift several more times in succession. What he wanted now was not vengeance through killing, but ensuring Wenren Li’s safe departure. Killing one Leyi meant little, but if Immortal Emperor Guangle himself arrived, they truly would not be able to escape.
“This is bad! He wants to destroy all the entrances to the prison realms!”
This floating palace was connected to every prison realm that held major offenders. Once destroyed, it would mean the prisoners within would lose all regulation from the Upper Realm. Even worse, if someone entered through the Taixuan Heavenly Prison Realm and released them…
…then true chaos would descend upon both the Upper and Lower Realms alike.
“Break! Break! Break!” Chen Yixin himself shot forward at blinding speed, tearing through everything in his path. No one could stop him.
The blue-feathered phoenix vanished above the palace. No one had expected this, and no one could stop it. The immortal guards stood frozen. Lord Leyi stood frozen. Even Luoyi and Hongsi were stunned. Chen Yixin’s recklessness truly knew no bounds—there was nothing he dared not do.
“Ah…” A soft sigh drifted closer from afar. No one knew which Immortal Emperor was arriving, but once the prison realm passages shattered, everything would become irreversible.
When Chen Yixin appeared once more, he was again standing beside Wenren Li. His clothing remained unchanged, yet his aura had transformed completely. He was cold as unmelting ice, sharp and oppressive, like an ancient divine weapon itself.
Wenren Li turned sideways and tightly clasped Chen Yixin’s hand. “A-Rong, this time we fight side by side.”
Hearing this, Chen Yixin turned toward him as well. His gaze settled upon Wenren Li as he carefully looked him over from head to toe. Then he lifted Wenren Li’s hand to his lips and pressed a kiss upon it.
“All right. I’ll wait for you.”
There would not be another chance this time, yet he was willing to wait for Wenren Li’s next one. He repeated himself once more. “I’ll wait for you.”
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 surfaced in Wenren Li’s voice. He could feel it now—the shattered fragments of the prison realm gates carried an overwhelmingly powerful attraction toward him.
Emperor Fengyuan had schemed against both Chen Yixin and him, but Chen Yixin himself had planned for this very scene tens of thousands of years ago. Taixuan had never been chosen for himself. It had been carefully selected as the perfect place for Wenren Li’s growth.
How could Chen Yixin possibly leave behind this final hidden danger? Every immortal criminal imprisoned within the prison realms would, in the future, become nourishment for Wenren Li.
At this point, everything was the result of schemes and human hearts alike—the hearts of the immortals, the hearts of the Phoenix Clan, and the hearts of Chen Yixin and Wenren Li.
Chen Yixin released Wenren Li’s hand, and immediately Wenren Li was pulled away by an irresistible force.
At that moment, a streak of immortal light slashed toward Wenren Li. Chen Yixin was restrained by the close-approaching Luoyi and unable to move, but the crimson feather Chen Yixin had earlier tucked into the back of Wenren Li’s collar flew out and completely blocked the attack.
Then it drifted back onto Wenren Li’s body and vanished together with him into the sea of stars, leaving behind no trace at all.
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