Chapter 64: Hun Xuzi!
While Jiang Yun and Zi Yan were wreaking havoc on the magical beasts in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, Yun Yi, far away in the Black-Corner Region, suddenly opened his tightly shut eyes at this moment.
Before him, space suddenly began to distort. The sealing array he had set up earlier was now as if nonexistent, easily broken through.
"You are the one who reported the news of Yao Chen?"
A faint voice slowly emerged from the distorted space. Mu Gu Elder, dressed in black robes, slowly stepped out from the distortion.
The moment he appeared, an invisible fluctuation spread out. Yun Yi felt a terrifying soul power sweep over him. This soul power was incredibly strong, far surpassing his own — conservatively estimated to be at the mid-Spirit Realm, or even stronger.
"It seems you are the one who breached this branch hall." The surrounding situation was laid out without omission in Mu Gu Elder's mind. He paid no attention to the destruction of the branch hall.
Examining Yun Yi, Mu Gu Elder seemed to chuckle lightly. A faint, cold glint flashed in his eyes, as if it could suddenly drop the temperature of heaven and earth. "This honored elder is very curious — what audacity do you have to toy with our Soul Hall?"
"Rely on your mere Dou Wang? You do not know your place."
Feeling Mu Gu Elder's killing intent, Yun Yi's eyes sharpened. He looked directly at the other. The other's calm gaze was sharp enough to pierce the soul.
"What if I said the message I sent was not false?"
"Oh~~~, you know Yao Chen's whereabouts?" Hearing Yun Yi's words, Mu Gu Elder's eyes lit up. He stared intently at Yun Yi. "Where is he?"
"May I ask which honored elder of the Soul Hall you are?" Yun Yi did not rush to answer Mu Gu's question. Instead, he asked without being humble or pushy.
"Heh —, it seems you are quite familiar with our Soul Hall." Seeing Yun Yi's demeanor, Mu Gu sneered. His gaze suddenly turned cold. He mocked, "You think you are qualified to negotiate terms with this honored elder?"
"You ignorant brat. Once I capture you, this honored elder will know everything."
As his voice fell, Mu Gu Elder waved his sleeve. The space around Yun Yi suddenly began to distort. An irresistible, terrifying power seeped out from within the space.
"Playing with space against me?"
A flicker of an unreadable expression passed through Yun Yi's eyes. Silver light flashed on his feet. The next moment, he broke through the spatial barrier Mu Gu Elder had set up and appeared before Mu Gu.
"A Dou Zun? Let me see how far I am from a Dou Zun."
As his voice fell, Yun Yi threw a full-powered punch fiercely toward Mu Gu.
"How dare you!"
Faced with Yun Yi, who was as insignificant as an ant before, now daring to actively attack him — and most importantly, he had failed to imprison Yun Yi — Mu Gu was furious. His voice turned cold.
With a casual wave of his sleeve, vigorous Dou Qi condensed into a fire spear in a flash. With a flick, it tore through the void and shot straight at Yun Yi with sharp energy.
Feeling the sharp energy at the tip of the spear, Yun Yi did not dare to be careless. His body flickered. Dense spatial fluctuations appeared, and his figure instantly vanished from where he stood.
"Slippery eel."
"Ten Thousand Souls Binding."
Failing to find his mark again, killing intent surged in Mu Gu's eyes. He suddenly grabbed at a void behind him. A hissing sound rang out. Black threads emerged from his five fingers, quickly weaving into a giant net that wrapped toward the void where Yun Yi was.
At this moment, feeling the resistance in the surrounding space, Yun Yi's eyes danced with black flames. A black halberd condensed in his palm. He struck out with the halberd, showing no fear even in the face of a Dou Zun's attack.
Boom —
The moment the two collided, a hissing sound erupted. As a flame spirit, Yun Yi's true nature was of extremely high quality, but his cultivation level was lacking. Mu Gu, as a Dou Zun, had Dou Qi that was far purer than Yun Yi's.
Now, as they collided, they began to frantically erode each other.
"Break —"
Amidst the erosion, a fierce look flashed in Yun Yi's eyes. The black flames on the halberd surged. With a fierce sweep, he tore the deep fire net apart.
"Devouring Heaven Great Hand Seal."
Tearing the fire net apart, Yun Yi's body rapidly retreated. As he retreated, black flames slowly swirled in his palm. A speck of black light appeared in Yun Yi's palm. If one looked closely, one would see it was a great seal.
As the black light appeared, a terrifying suction force surged out. The surrounding energy of heaven and earth began to erupt. As the energy of heaven and earth was devoured, the black light gradually expanded.
In an instant, the great seal took shape. Yun Yi struck out with his palm.
Space nearly collapsed in an instant. A pitch-black great seal, chilling to the heart, rapidly expanded from Yun Yi's palm. A terrifying devouring force firmly imprisoned Mu Gu Elder.
"What is this?"
Looking at the falling pitch-black great seal and feeling the familiar yet unfamiliar aura upon it, Mu Gu was momentarily distracted.
"Damn it —"
As the black great seal rapidly fell toward him, feeling the stinging pain on his skin, Mu Gu snapped back to his senses. Seeing the black great seal right before him, he was furious.
"Underworld Shattering Star Slash."
A sinister smile appeared on Mu Gu Elder's face. Vast Dou Qi surged from his palm, condensing into a ghost-headed great blade wreathed in violet-black flames. The flames dancing on the blade made the surrounding space somewhat distorted.
Mu Gu held the great blade, looking at Yun Yi with sinister eyes. This ant had repeatedly made him suffer. He would cut off his head and use it to hold pills, to vent the hatred in his heart.
"Die —"
With Mu Gu Elder's low roar, he brought the blade down. The space before him instantly collapsed. Spatial fragments emerged. The sharp blade aura, with an incomparably domineering posture, easily cut through Yun Yi's 'Devouring Heaven Great Hand Seal' and shot like lightning toward Yun Yi.
"As expected, the gap is still too great, huh?"
Facing a Dou Zun's attack, no trace of fear appeared on Yun Yi's face. He murmured softly.
"Devouring Great Realm — Devour Heaven, Devour Earth, Devour All Beings."
He raised his head again, looked at the approaching fierce attack, and chuckled softly. His hands rapidly formed mysterious seals.
Hum —
As his hand seals changed, buzzing sounds suddenly came from the surrounding space. When the terrifying blade aura was ten feet away from Yun Yi, a pitch-black flame black hole suddenly appeared out of nowhere before him. The black hole rotated and directly swallowed the blade aura in one gulp.
"How is that possible?"
Watching this unbelievable scene, Mu Gu immediately shrieked. His attack, as a dignified Dou Zun, had been countered by a mere Dou Wang.
This was absolutely impossible.
Pfft —
No sooner had Mu Gu's thought arisen than Yun Yi suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. But strangely, as his blood flew out, it eerily turned into specks of black sparks and dissipated into the world.
The gap in strength between a Dou Wang and a Dou Zun was too vast. Yun Yi could not actually do this. The main factors were Mu Gu's underestimation and unfamiliarity. That had allowed Yun Yi to use the Saint Demon Flame to achieve this feat.
But the sharp blade aura had still churned up Yun Yi's meridians, leaving him severely injured.
"Heaven and Earth Reversal."
Even injured, Yun Yi's eyes remained deep. He extended his hand and lightly turned it.
A strange, pitch-black vortex appeared beside him. The next moment, a sharp blade aura surged skyward, rushing toward Mu Gu.
Coming back to his senses, Mu Gu's expression ugly, he easily shattered the incoming blade aura with a palm strike. He looked at Yun Yi with some uncertainty.
Yun Yi, equally composed, looked back at Mu Gu. At this moment, Mu Gu was no longer shouting about fighting. Instead, he had calmed down. Yun Yi saw multiple expressions on his face.
Confusion, surprise, disbelief, unwillingness — all ultimately turned into fear.
Mu Gu Elder spoke in a hoarse voice. "What are you?"
Hearing Mu Gu Elder's words, Yun Yi knew the first step of his plan had succeeded.
Indeed, luring in an honored elder of the Soul Hall was within his plan.
As the largest organization on the Dou Qi Continent, how could Jiang Yun not have some thoughts about the Soul Hall?
At this point in time, the Hun clan, or rather Hun Tiandi, had already completed his final preparations. He was about to launch his plan to become emperor.
As one of the only three Nine-Star Dou Sheng peak experts on the continent, Hun Tiandi had been preparing for his final ascension for a thousand years. A thousand years ago, when facing Xiao Xuan, who was known as the head of the Emperor Clans and the continent's strongest expert, he had seized the opportunity and boldly launched a clan-annihilating war.
Before that, two of the continent's five strongest experts had already fallen at the hands of his Hun clan. Thus, compared to Gu Yuan, Hun Tiandi was truly a ruthless leader. He was the most qualified to become emperor.
Now was a rare period of peace on the continent. But such peace between the Emperor Clans was not good. At least until Jiang Yun grew strong enough, Hun Tiandi could not gather all the ancient jade pieces.
Thus, Yun Yi joining the Soul Hall would allow him to grow better while also disrupting the Hun clan's plans.
The first step of the plan had already succeeded. Yun Yi had gambled that the honored elder who came would have seen the Soul Hall Master and would begin to suspect Yun Yi's identity upon seeing the flame he used.
After all, his flame was far too similar to Nihility Devouring Flame. As for his identity being exposed, he had no worries. Even setting aside the fact that flame spirits throughout history had only successfully condensed in the form of Nihility Devouring Flame and Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame, and very few people knew of them...
Even if they did find out, so what? A mere flame clone — Jiang Yun could afford to lose it.
The suppressed Saint Demon Flame at the bottom of the tower: No big deal, no big deal.
"What do you think?" Yun Yi looked at Mu Gu with a disdainful expression, which nearly made the other lose his composure.
But thinking of the other's possible identity, Mu Gu took a deep breath. He looked at Yun Yi with sinister eyes. "Kid, you are lucky. You get to live a few more days."
With that, Mu Gu Elder's Dou Zun strength erupted violently. His five fingers reached out. Five beams of light shot from his fingertips. The beams of light howled, then transformed into a prison, trapping Yun Yi inside.
Yun Yi slowly sat down cross-legged, neither joyful nor sad, not worried about his safety in the slightest, as he restored the Dou Qi within his body.
Snorting coldly with an ugly expression, the more Yun Yi acted like this, the more Mu Gu's heart sank. The other's fearless demeanor meant it was likely as he suspected.
What a pain.
Swearing under his breath, Mu Gu obediently took out a black token, infused his soul power into it, and waited respectfully.
No one knew how long passed. Suddenly, a powerful soul power suddenly descended, instantly sealing off the entire space and firmly locking Mu Gu's entire body, completely freezing him in place.
Mu Gu, his expression fearful yet also somewhat fervent, prostrated himself. "Welcome, Lord Hun Xuzi."
Indeed, Hun Xuzi. Hun Mie Sheng's child flame of Nihility Devouring Flame was hidden too deeply. Mu Gu was not qualified to know about it. He had only once by chance seen Hun Xuzi refining pills and received some guidance from him. He knew the other possessed a heavenly flame with devouring power.
As for whether it was Nihility Devouring Flame, ranked second on the Heavenly Flame List... he dared not guess, dared not ask.
Thus, this was also a case of getting it right by mistake. If the one who came had not been Mu Gu but another honored elder of the Soul Hall, Jiang Yun would have had to find another way. In any case, this flame spirit body would not have survived.
"Hehe, it is you. I remember you — Yao Chen's junior disciple, Mu Gu Elder, right?"
A black-robed figure, a shadow of a person completely wrapped in black robes, slowly materialized before Mu Gu's eyes, looking at the surroundings with interest.
"Yes, this humble one is Mu Gu Elder. Years ago, I was fortunate enough to receive guidance from Lord Hun Xuzi." Mu Gu Elder's expression was fawning. This was a mystic pill grandmaster. If he could receive guidance again, breaking through his current level would be effortless.
"Enough. Speak." Watching Mu Gu Elder's fawning expression, a trace of disdain flashed in Hun Xuzi's eyes.
A hundred years ago, he had been an eighth-grade alchemist. Now, it seemed, still no progress. His soul power had not broken through the peak of the Spirit Realm. With this level, claiming to have been guided by him was embarrassing.
How could two disciples of the same teacher be so different?
If not for the fact that Yao Chen was somewhat interesting, would Hun Xuzi even know who Mu Gu Elder was?
"Yes." Abruptly interrupted, Mu Gu Elder did not dare show the slightest dissatisfaction. He carefully and thoroughly explained the matter of Yun Yi.
Hun Xuzi's expression grew more and more ugly. A Dou Wang? What was that? Even if he was uniquely gifted, so what?
As a mystic pill grandmaster, he was terribly busy every day. Mu Gu had urgently called him over for this trivial matter?
Just as Hun Xuzi was about to explode, he heard Mu Gu say, "That kid also controls a flame with devouring power..."
"Wait. What did you say?"
Hun Xuzi frowned and coldly interrupted Mu Gu Elder's words. His eyes fixed intently on Mu Gu Elder as he asked.
"Uh —, a flame with devouring power." Although he found it strange, Mu Gu still obediently repeated himself.
"Take me to see him."