Before his voice could even fade, the earth split open.
Not from beneath Su Li's feet, but from a mountain ridge a hundred miles away. The entire mountain range was uprooted from the earth's crust as if by an invisible giant hand. The peaks were the sword tip, the ridge was the blade, and the flowing lava was the pattern on the sword's body. It rose from the ground and hurtled toward Su Li. It was a display of sheer, unreasonable, violent aesthetics.
The red-hot, scorching rock ridge poured down toward Su Li with absolute fury. The air warped from the intense heat, the ground began to crack, and shattered stones turned to dust before they could even lift off. A chill ran down Su Li's spine. She sensed a long-forgotten danger from this strike—the distinct feeling of impending death. The phoenix beneath her shrieked in unease, flapping its wings wildly in an attempt to flee, but it was too late. Lu Yan's formation had locked onto her. It didn't just target her position; it locked onto her vital aura. No matter where she fled, the mountain would follow.
The first rock ridge slammed violently into her, like a small mountain swatting a mosquito. Su Li crossed her arms in front of her. The impact sent her sliding backward several dozen feet, grinding the stone tiles beneath her feet into dust. Before she could steady herself, a second ridge slammed in from the left, a third pressed down from above, and the fourth and fifth stabbed out diagonally from the ground, trapping her and the phoenix in a cage of lava and stone. The five rock ridges intersected in the shape of a pentagram, with every single gap sealed tight by flowing crimson lava.
Lu Yan snapped his fingers. A smile played on his lips, as if he had done something completely trivial. He softly spat out a single word.
“Boom.”
The rock ridges exploded. A shockwave of red light and shattered stone surged outward, rising from the ground like a reddish-black mushroom cloud. The blast ripped off the roofs of half the street, the tiles melting in midair from the intense heat, dripping down like scalding tears. The shockwave swallowed Su Li, engulfed the surrounding buildings, and consumed the Black Tortoise formation that had already held out for far too long.
The giant turtle let out one final, mournful cry as its shell shattered completely along its cracks. Lu Yan stared intently at the center of the explosion. Even though he felt that taking such a peak-power hit head-on should have left her either dead or severely crippled, his opponent was, after all, a Void Refinement expert—and a powerful one with the Nine-Tailed Fox lineage.
The night wind blew the smoke and dust away, revealing Su Li's figure.
Her red robe was torn to shreds, half of her sleeve completely burned away, exposing her pale arm covered in angry red burns. She was injured all over, blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and her long hair hung loose, with a few charred strands clinging to her cheeks, making her look incredibly disheveled. The phoenix beneath her was in even worse shape—most of its feathers were scorched, and the light in its eyes had dimmed. It had likely absorbed the brunt of the damage for her; otherwise, Su Li could never have gotten away with such relatively minor injuries.
Su Li gritted her teeth. In all the years since her birth, she had never been in such a wretched state. Never. She was the Young Sect Master of the Beast Taming Sect, the heir of a half-demon bloodline, and the contractor of a phoenix. She had always looked down on others from on high. When had she ever been swatted out of the sky like this?
The deep black speck within her golden providence suddenly expanded, like ink dripping into water, rapidly saturating the invisible halo above her head. Benefits, gains and losses, bounties, the inheritance of the Formation Sect—all of it vanished from her mind. Only a single thought remained: reduce these two bastards to ashes.
“Resonance!”
Lu Yan's heart sank. What was this crazy woman doing? They had already fought to this point—shouldn't one side have realized it wasn't worth it and retreated? He was clearly the one with the upper hand now. What kind of deep-seated grudge could drive her to fight to the death? He glanced at Yao Wu. Yao Wu glanced back at him. Both read the same realization in each other's eyes: like it or not, they had to see this fight through to the end.
Yao Wu did not retreat. The small figure huddled in the corner behind him was the sole reason he couldn't. Nannan was still unconscious. He could not fall! He poured every last drop of his remaining spiritual energy into his Dharma Body.
The phoenix behind her let out a long cry. It was no longer a wail of pain, but a cry of resolve, of sacrifice. Its previously withered aura surged once more. Spreading its wings, reddish-gold flames erupted from its body as it crashed headlong into Su Li. It wasn't a collision, but a fusion. The flames engulfed both Su Li and the phoenix, merging the two burning lifeforces into one. On Su Li's forehead, the phoenix's plumage intertwined with her fox ears, forming a pair of brand-new horns etched with fiery patterns. The tips of her nine tails grew golden markings resembling phoenix tail feathers. Flowing golden fire wove into a blazing robe around her, fluttering and snapping in the wind. A bright red phoenix sigil appeared on her chest, pulsing like an exposed, beating heart. Her previous dishevelment vanished instantly, replaced by a version of Su Li that was more powerful, more dangerous, and more akin to a god.
Lu Yan's legs nearly went weak. Since when was there a fusion phase? Damn it, her surname is Su, not Chu! How could she merge with her beast? Is this fucking phoenix named Moye or something?!
These chaotic thoughts flashed through his mind, but his body did not retreat. He watched as Su Li's aura climbed rapidly—peak early-stage Void Refinement, mid-stage Void Refinement, peak mid-stage Void Refinement, heading straight for the late stage. The pressure was like an invisible mountain pressing down on his shoulders and chest, suffocating him. A profound sense of powerlessness welled up from deep within him.
He glanced at Yao Wu again. Yao Wu was also looking at him. The two locked eyes and smiled in unison. It wasn't a smile of relief, but of acceptance. They were probably going to lose their lives here today. But having dragged it out for this long, they had gotten their money's worth. Still, getting their money's worth was one thing; lying down and accepting death was another. Supporting himself on his knees, Lu Yan slowly stood up and brushed the dust off his clothes.
“Let your Grandpa Lu see if you're a real phoenix or just some cheap knockoff!” he roared at the sky, his voice hoarse and cracking. He didn't know if he was shouting at Su Li or at the very heavens that had oppressed him for ten years.
“Boastful fool,” Su Li sneered. She raised her hand, and a meteor plunged from the night sky. It wasn't a real meteor, but a physical manifestation of her spiritual energy amplified by the phoenix fire. Dragging a long, reddish-gold tail of flame, it hurtled toward the shattered tortoise shell with world-destroying momentum.
The already broken tortoise shell dissolved instantly. The meteor's shockwave tore through the final layers of defensive formations on the ground, melting them layer by layer like a hot iron ball dropping through ice, completely unobstructed. Lu Yan gritted his teeth, his internal organs churning as the backlash from his formations caused blood to spill from the corner of his mouth.
“Stop right there!” Veins bulged on his forehead as he slammed his hands onto the ground, trying to stimulate the last remaining formation runes to stabilize the collapsing defense.
Yao Wu also risked everything. The last few remaining vines of his Dharma Body erupted from the ground, wrapping around the meteor and pushing upward with all his might. He managed to hold it. The meteor ground to a halt in midair, its reddish-gold flames scorching his vines with a sizzling hiss. His arms began to warp—not from broken bones, but from muscle spasms caused by spiritual energy depletion. The intense pain brought cold sweat pouring down his face.
Finally, the meteor was pushed off course, crashing into the ruins across the street and blasting open a deep crater. Su Li looked down on them, as if watching two ants struggling on their deathbeds.
“You blocked one, but let's see how you block five!” She raised her hand once more.
Five meteors rained down from the sky in a plum blossom formation, sealing off all avenues of escape for Lu Yan and Yao Wu. Dragging five trails of fire, the meteors dyed the night sky blood-red. Lu Yan knelt on one knee, gasping heavily. Every breath felt like a searing burn in his lungs. His vision was starting to blur; the backlash from his formations combined with the fading effects of the Focus-Stabilizing Pill made him feel as though he were sinking into an abyss. He glanced at Yao Wu, who was in a similar state. His vines were almost entirely burned away, and his Dharma Body could no longer be sustained.
Just as the meteors were about to strike—
“Suppress!”
A chain formed of ink materialized out of thin air. Like a pitch-black flood dragon, it shot out from the direction of the Abandoned Guest Hall and wrapped precisely around Su Li's wrist. The chain was not a physical object, but a word—manifested from the character for “Suppress” written by Du Qi. The chain tightened, interrupting her spellcasting. The five meteors lost their guiding force in midair, plunging diagonally into the distant wilderness and exploding into a sea of fire.
Lu Yan snapped his head up and looked toward the sound. Du Qi stood at the entrance of the Abandoned Guest Hall, still holding his brush, the ink on its tip not yet dry. His face was pale; writing this single character for “Suppress” had clearly drained a significant amount of his mental and physical energy. But behind him, an even more massive figure was descending from the heavens.
“Third Master!” Du Qi's voice echoed from afar. “Over to you!”
“Understood!” A deep, weathered voice boomed from high above.
Lu Yan saw him. A burly, muscular figure with sharp angles plunged from the night sky like a cannonball. In his hands, he wielded a pair of battleaxes, their blades shimmering with a dark gold glow—not of spiritual energy, but of pure blood vitality. He arched his back in midair, bending his body like a fully drawn bow, before snapping forward with explosive force—
“Heavenly Savage!”
He swung the axes downward. There were no fancy moves, no dazzling special effects—just pure, unreasonable power. As the blades descended, the air split open with a sharp, explosive crack. Su Li's pupils contracted. She crossed her arms in front of her, the phoenix flames condensing into a reddish-gold barrier. But that single strike shattered the barrier, tore through the flames, and slammed directly into her. She was driven deep into the ground, leaving a human-shaped crater that kicked up a massive cloud of dust and gravel.
Du Qi put away his brush, walked over to Lu Yan, and helped him up with both hands. “Are you alright?”
“You took your fucking time,” Lu Yan said, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smile as he looked at the two figures standing before them.
“Though it was still just in time.”
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