Chapter 501 - 16: Blinded by Greed

After Xia Guming went inside, Cangjiezi and Sun Heyan hovered high in the sky, refining the power of their Spirit Pills while keeping a close watch on the activity within the Immortal City.

They were also eager to know whether Xia Guming could defeat the mysterious Demon Cultivator.

「Not long after.」

Brilliant light flickered in the distance as five more powerful auras streaked across the void, arriving at their location.

Cangjiezi and Sun Heyan exchanged a look and moved closer to one another, stopping only when they were about thirty feet apart.

「A moment later.」

Five rays of brilliant light descended from the sky, revealing five tall, non-human figures.

The Ancient Evil Race!

Two of the members of the Ancient Evil Race were covered in crystalline blue scales. They were humanoid with six arms, heads like pythons, and a blue, crescent-shaped runic mark upon their brows.

The Hanyue Royal Family.

The other two members of the Ancient Evil Race had the heads of jiao-dragons on human bodies. They possessed three heads and six arms, were wreathed in an aquatic light, and radiated an astonishingly baleful aura.

The Nine Yin Royal Family.

The final member of the Ancient Evil Race had the head of an elephant on a human body, with eight arms sprouting from its torso and its entire frame covered in thunder patterns. Its aura was vast and immense, surpassing even that of Xia Guming.

The Purple Cloud Royal Family.

Legend held that of the ten great Ancient Evil Races, the strongest lineage was the Purple Cloud Royal Family.

All five members of the Ancient Evil Race were experts comparable to the Human Race’s Dharma Cultivators. The moment they arrived, they brazenly unleashed their auras and fixed Cangjiezi and Sun Heyan with hostile gazes.

Just as tensions between the two sides reached a breaking point, a brilliant radiance flashed in the sky, and a middle-aged man wearing a tall crown and an Imperial Robe appeared.

It was Xia Guming!

A thin Sword Mark was starkly visible on his brow, appearing to split his entire face in two and robbing him of all his former dignity.

It looked as if he would have been sliced in two had he been even a fraction of a second slower.

He glanced down at the Immortal City below with lingering fear, not saying a word.

Cangjiezi noticed that Xia Guming’s aura hadn’t diminished, which meant he had been defeated by that old devil without even expending much of his energy.

’What are that man’s origins? To think even Xia Guming was no match for him...’

He and Sun Heyan exchanged a look, both seeing a trace of relief in the other’s expression for having been so lucky.

If Ascendant Qianhuan hadn’t been as kind-hearted and benevolent as the legends claimed—leaving behind safeguards in the Immortal Mansion out of an unwillingness to cause needless slaughter—the two of them would have deserved to die here today.

Xia Guming retreated to Cangjiezi’s side and sighed, "The Ancient Evil Race is here too."

Cangjiezi said, "The Qianhuan Immortal Tree is about to appear, so it’s natural for cultivators to gather. But... as for this Qianhuan Immortal Mansion, what are your intentions, Fellow Daoist Xia?"

Xia Guming pondered for a moment before saying, "Let’s just watch and see how things unfold."

With that, the three of them retreated into the distance. It seemed they had given up on fighting for the Immortal Mansion, but they didn’t leave the area.

Seeing this, the five members of the Ancient Evil Race all flew down toward the Immortal City below.

’We’ll grab the treasure first and sort things out later!’

The instant the five baleful rays of light were about to touch the brilliant glow, a sudden change erupted within the Immortal City.

The thousand-plus Immortal Mansions suddenly froze. Immediately after, they began to fade out of existence one by one.

In the blink of an eye, the Immortal City shrank rapidly until only a single Immortal Mansion remained, hanging motionless above the surface of the sea.

The brilliant radiance outside the Immortal Mansion also retracted completely, vanishing without a trace.

"Attack now! We can’t let him finish refining the Immortal Mansion!"

The five members of the Ancient Evil Race roared.

Then, five rays of brilliant light shot toward the Immortal Mansion in unison.

BOOM!

A fiery light shot out of the Immortal Mansion and suddenly exploded.

The Divine Fire erupted, its flames soaring thousands of feet high like a blazing sun. It transformed into a golden halo, enveloping all five members of the Ancient Evil Race.

A terrifying heat capable of incinerating entire mountains spread outward.

Then, the raging golden inferno suddenly expanded in all directions. Its power, comparable to the detonation of Tier Five Divine Thunder, was completely unleashed between the sea and the sky.

The world was instantly drained of all color.

Simultaneously, an invisible blade of light flew into the inferno and began to reap the life force of the members of the Ancient Evil Race.

RUMBLE!

With an enraged roar, a blindingly brilliant bolt of purple lightning burst out of the inferno.

The flashing lightning revealed the figure of the elephant-headed member of the Ancient Evil Race.

The one from the Purple Cloud Royal Family.

In just a few short moments, the auras of the other four members of the Ancient Evil Race had been extinguished within the vast inferno.

The eight hands of the Purple Cloud royal flew through a series of hand seals. Thick clouds instantly gathered in the sky, and bolts of lightning descended, converging in its grasp.

A Heaven-Opening Giant Axe, forged from coalesced lightning, slowly took shape.

With every descending ray of Thunder Light, an ancient elephant was born within the giant axe. They multiplied and thrived inside the Thunderous Giant Axe, as if recreating the dawn of time: the creation of heaven and earth, the evolution of all things, the remaking of the world itself.

Within the axe existed a world of its own—the vast heavens, the solid earth, the cycle of sun and moon. With each new ancient elephant, the axe’s power grew, causing the Purple Cloud royal’s own strength to climb ever higher!

From a distance, the sea and sky seemed to be divided into two worlds.

On one side was a clear and sunny sky, where a mass of golden fire filled the world, scorching the heavens as it stood guard before the Qianhuan Immortal Mansion.

On the other side, dark clouds gathered and lightning flashed as a Thunderous Giant Axe slowly formed in the hands of the member of the Ancient Evil Race.

At this moment, the Purple Cloud royal’s eight arms moved, its hand seals shifting. It swung the Thunderous Giant Axe savagely at the golden halo.

The axe fell with an unreadable subtlety, leaving no trace of its path. It was imbued with a profound mystery, like the very act of Heaven and Earth Creation itself.

With a deafening boom, the Great Sun True Fire was brutally split asunder.

The sky seemed to rip apart as the Great Sun True Fire and the Purple Cloud’s lightning intertwined and swelled, instantly detonating in a blast that rippled out for hundreds of miles!

Amidst the blinding radiance that filled the sky, no one noticed a Gu Insect quietly flying back into the Immortal Mansion. Its entire body shone with a brilliant white light, as if it contained a blazing sun, and its back was covered in ancient, wave-like patterns.

The member of the Purple Cloud Royal Family formed its hand seals once more. The Thunderous Giant Axe re-formed in its grasp, and it brought the weapon crashing down upon the Immortal Mansion.

It had already resolved to interfere with its opponent’s refinement of the Immortal Mansion and avenge its fallen kin.

Just then, plumes of a mysterious, earthy-yellow mist billowed out, enveloping the exterior of the Immortal Mansion.

The Thunderous Giant Axe struck the seemingly weightless, earthy-yellow mist, only to be easily blocked. Its Spiritual Mechanism drained away, and the axe slowly crumbled apart.

The Purple Cloud royal sneered. Its eight arms flew through a rapid series of hand seals, launching one terrifying technique after another. The attacks caused the earthy-yellow mist to roil and surge, threatening to tear it apart.

「Far in the distance.」

Xia Guming and the other two watched with rapt attention, hesitating. They were unsure whether they should help the member of the Purple Cloud Royal Family breach the defenses and stop "that person" from refining the Immortal Mansion.

"Let’s make our move. While he’s refining the Immortal Mansion, he can’t divide his attention. His full strength is essentially cut in half. If we join forces, we have a chance to interrupt his refinement process and then seize the Immortal Mansion in the chaos."

A mirror materialized in Xia Guming’s hand. It shimmered with a faint, clear light, its back inscribed with ancient, tadpole-like seal script and the forms of cloud-dragons and strange birds. The markings looked raised, but the surface was perfectly smooth to the touch.

Within the mirror’s surface, a vibrant rain of flowers fell amidst flakes of golden light. Wind, clouds, water, and fire all took shape within the golden haze, shifting and transforming in an endless display.

A Fifth-rank Magical Artifact, the Reincarnation Mirror!

Just as the three were about to press forward and attack, they suddenly saw three streaks of Sword Aura fly out from the Immortal Mansion.

The streaks of Sword Aura swirled around the member of the Purple Cloud Royal Family, trapping it within a field of brilliant radiance.

Within the radiance, incomparably sharp blades of light shot back and forth. The Purple Cloud royal blocked a few strikes before a blade of light pierced straight through its body. Its massive elephant head tumbled down from its shoulders.

A tremor went through Xia Guming’s heart as he felt an indescribable sense of crisis. ’This is not good,’ he thought.

The next moment, the Sword Array dissipated. The three streaks of Sword Aura left the member of the Purple Cloud Royal Family and instantly tore through the void, appearing right in front of him.

The three of them saw a flash of brilliant light and found themselves trapped within a dazzling, swirling Sword Array. Countless blades of light shot back and forth, slashing toward their bodies.

"Fellow Daoist Xia, didn’t you say he’d be too busy refining the Immortal Mansion to attack?! How can he use such a powerful Sword Array—"

Before Cangjiezi could finish speaking, a blade of light lopped off his head.

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