Chapter 714: Quick Battle, Quick Decision
The violent assault of the Heaven-Defying Sword, combined with the Star God Remnant Shadow's relentless pursuit, meant that once an opponent was suppressed, they would never find an opportunity to turn the tables. Feng Tianyu was currently in such a state. He had lived for several hundred years and fought countless powerful opponents, but even when facing enemies several times stronger than himself, he had never been so thoroughly suppressed.
Under the hurricane-like onslaught of Yun Che, he retreated desperately in defense. In the blink of an eye, he was continuously blasted back over a dozen miles. Throughout the entire process, he could neither counterattack nor flee—even catching a breath was a luxury. It felt as though he was crushed under dozens of great mountains, unable to turn over.
Earlier, when trading Phoenix Flames, he had been able to hold a slight upper hand. But once Yun Che drew the Heaven-Defying Sword, after a single strike, he was suppressed to the point of complete suffocation. Although his extremely thick profound power kept him from being defeated or seriously injured, after dozens of Yun Che's strikes, the qi and blood throughout his entire body had long since become turbulent, as if boiling over.
At that moment, a surging wave of air rapidly approached from the northwest. Feng Tianyu's pained expression finally showed a hint of relief. Before the wave of air even drew near, a massive Phoenix Flame had already blasted toward Yun Che, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.
Yun Che forced Feng Tianyu back with a single sword strike, then swung fiercely. Under the immense storm of profound force, the incoming Phoenix Flame was twisted off course, hurtling behind Yun Che. The moment it touched the ground, it erupted with a towering pillar of fire hundreds of feet high.
Under the glow of the flames, the person who had finally escaped Yun Che's heavy sword barrage and could now catch his breath had another person appear beside him. He was of similar age to Feng Tianyu and dressed identically—it was Feng Tianqing, who had arrived at full speed. However, his expression was extremely unpleasant, because, like Feng Tianyu, he sensed a palpitation-inducing aura from Yun Che, and his heart was filled with extreme shock and disbelief.
Feng Tianyu's arms were bleeding profusely. He quickly drew in his breath to suppress his injuries all over his body, then said in a low voice, "Tianqing, this boy is simply a monster. He is a hundred or even a thousand times stronger than we anticipated... Tsk! We must join forces with all our strength... If this boy does not die, our Divine Sect will never know peace!"
Without needing Feng Tianyu's explanation, his condition and the aura emanating from Yun Che were enough to make Feng Tianqing understand that they had completely misjudged Yun Che's power. He fully agreed with Feng Tianyu's last words. Feng Tianqing took a deep breath and said, "There's no need to capture him alive anymore... Go straight for the kill. Don't give him any chance to catch his breath."
"Attack!!"
Feng Tianqing stepped half a pace forward—and in that half step, the Phoenix Flame on his body expanded to several dozen feet. A five-foot-long flame heavy blade appeared in his hand as well. Feng Tianyu followed closely behind. The Phoenix Flames of the two merged, and from afar, it looked as if an extra blazing red sun had appeared in the sky.
And beneath that "sun," the vast ground rapidly turned into rolling lava.
"With these two joining forces, the longer you drag this out, the more disadvantageous it becomes. If any other changes occur, it will be even harder to handle... Use a quick decisive battle!" Mo Li said in a deep voice.
"I know!" Yun Che gripped the Heaven-Defying Sword with both hands. The blade itself did not move, but a mountain-crushing, tsunami-like momentum had already shrouded the land. Facing the combined force of two Phoenix Emperor Lords, he did not intend to retreat cautiously. Instead, he advanced actively, swinging his sword forward. Both his body and the blade blazed with the hottest Phoenix Flame, and a nearly tangible shadow of a phoenix spread its wings and roared behind him.
"ANNIHILATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH!!"
Feng Tianyu and Feng Tianqing's Phoenix Flames also blasted toward Yun Che, blotting out the sky and covering the earth at that moment.
"PHOENIX FLAME SCORCHING HEAVEN!!"
The double Phoenix Flame Scorching Heaven, carrying an annihilation force beyond ordinary imagination, covered the sky and eclipsed all other light, like a demon from the abyss of purgatory, devouring Yun Che as he charged head-on.
The three forces at the Emperor Lord level collided without any embellishment. Instantly, all sound was swallowed. The towering flames shot straight into the sky, then engulfed the entire area within dozens of miles. All living and non-living things within were reduced to ashes in a single instant. Space collapsed wildly, and countless massive spatial fissures savagely devoured the rampaging power and flames.
The extremely dazzling light made it impossible to open one's eyes. Under the sky-covering flames, Feng Tianyu and Feng Tianqing were violently flung back by the rampaging force. They borrowed strength from each other in midair, barely managing to shed the force and come to a stop. Both their faces were as red as blood. Their profound energy rampaged and collided within their meridians, chaotic and impossible to suppress. Feng Tianyu was in slightly better shape, with only his arm injuries worsened and blood at the corner of his mouth. But Feng Tianqing's chest was already a bloody mess. The hands gripping the blade revealed stark white bones, and the meridians in both arms were at least half destroyed. Severe pain and grievous injuries made it almost impossible for him to grip the hilt.
Ding...
With a soft sound, the flame heavy blade in Feng Tianqing's hand suddenly shattered at that moment, from the hilt to the blade, scattering into fine pieces.
Feng Tianyu and Feng Tianqing both froze. Feng Tianqing let out a long sigh. He did not mourn his shattered beloved blade but said heavily, "Never mind. Both hands are severely injured like this. It will probably be impossible to fully recover within ten years. Ten years is enough time to find a suitable weapon... Tianyu, how are your injuries?"
"I'm fine." Although Feng Tianyu had already fought a round with Yun Che earlier, his profound power was still a full minor realm above Feng Tianqing's, so his injuries were much lighter. He fixed his gaze ahead at the enduring, all-devouring, sky-covering flames and said in a hoarse voice, "In that strike just now, both of us used full force. Although we were both injured, that beast... should have been reduced to ashes, right?"
Feng Tianqing nodded slowly: "Although his power is abnormally strong, he only has a King Xuan body after all. There is absolutely no way he could have survived. Haah... I never imagined in my wildest dreams that such an inconceivable freak would appear in the small Cang Feng Kingdom, to the point where the two of us had to join forces..."
Boom... rumble...
An extremely muffled rumbling suddenly came from ahead. The boundless Phoenix Flame ahead began to flicker abnormally, then was violently and brutally parted. Yun Che, along with the crimson giant sword even larger than his own body, came blasting in with a terrifying wave of energy that was in no way inferior to before.
"Wh... what?!"
Feng Tianyu and Feng Tianqing's eyes both bulged. At that moment, they experienced true fear for the first time in their lives.
Even if Yun Che hadn't died and had appeared covered in blood, they would have accepted it more easily. But Yun Che's gaze was as cold as a blade's edge, his momentum not diminished in the slightest. As far as they could see, there was almost not even a visible wound on his body. This was a result that they simply could not believe or accept even if they died a hundred times.
Under extreme shock, their bodies instinctively reacted in tacit coordination. One went left, one went right, fleeing at extremely high speed. Yun Che had just unleashed the heavily consuming "Annihilation of Heaven and Earth"—clearly intending to follow Mo Li's advice for a quick decisive battle. Because although he had held the absolute upper hand throughout, his opponents were ultimately two powerful Emperor Lords, not easily crushed.
Since he was going for a quick decisive battle, how could he allow them to escape?
Yun Che did not chase either of them. After charging to the position where the two had been standing, he paused slightly. A light flashed in his pupils for an instant, and above his head, a massive shadow of an azure dragon appeared instantly.
"DRAGON SOUL DOMAIN!!"
The soul pressure from the Primordial Dragon God descended from the heavens, enveloping the hearts and souls of Feng Tianyu and Feng Tianqing. With their Emperor Lord-level hearts and souls, they normally would not have been so utterly overwhelmed by the Dragon Soul Domain. But they had already been so frightened by Yun Che that their souls almost flew out of their bodies. Under the Dragon Soul's pressure, they instantly fell into the abyss of fear. Their entire bodies went limp from extreme terror, plummeting downward, and their protective profound energy dissipated like receding tide.
Puu!!
With a sound of tearing leather, the Heaven-Defying Sword effortlessly pierced through Feng Tianyu's back. The surging power rushed into his body like a torrent, instantly shredding all his meridians, profound veins, and internal organs.
With Emperor Lord-level power protecting his body, Yun Che's earlier Annihilation of Heaven and Earth had only inflicted some moderately severe injuries. But under the Dragon Soul Domain, a casual sword strike from Yun Che easily killed him, as if slaughtering an ordinary mortal.
Such was the terror of the Dragon Soul Domain.
Feng Tianyu's features froze. His not-yet-fully-dispersed spiritual sense had clearly seen his own death. In his final thought, his head shifted backward bit by bit, as if trying to see Yun Che's face clearly before dying.
"You... mons... ter..."
His head only turned halfway before drooping heavily, with no more sound. The three words he shouted with all his remaining will carried not hatred or unwillingness, but shock and disbelief that he could not let go even in death.
"Hmph, thank you for the compliment." Yun Che sneered coldly. He flicked his sword, sending Feng Tianyu's corpse flying far away, where it fell into the Phoenix Flame sea and turned to ashes in an instant.
In his several hundred years of life, Feng Tianyu could never have imagined that he would fall at the hands of a mere twenty-something-year-old.
Yun Che turned coldly and looked at Feng Tianqing. The Dragon Soul Domain had only lasted two breaths before Yun Che withdrew it, but whether due to the lingering might of the Dragon Soul's suppression or because his heart and soul had already collapsed, Feng Tianqing remained slumped on the ground, not seizing the chance to flee. His eyes were hollow as he stared at Yun Che.
"Who... exactly... are you?" Feng Tianqing's lips trembled. Every word shook. The two of them together had been routed so thoroughly before Yun Che. Now, with only him left, gravely wounded, and his spirit broken by the impact of the Dragon Soul's pressure, he had completely abandoned any thought of resistance.
"I am Yun Che, the consort of the Cangfeng Imperial Clan, the husband of the reigning Empress of Cangfeng, and the son-in-law of the late emperor of Cangfeng who was killed by you! The innocent citizens of the Cang Feng Kingdom, which you invaded and trampled into a hell—do you understand now?" Yun Che said coldly.
"..." Feng Tianqing's hand sank into the earth below. He murmured, "Is this the will of heaven?"
"The will of heaven?" Yun Che snorted lowly. "Heh. This is the retribution that your Fenghuang God Sect deserves!! And this retribution... has only just begun!!"
"Heh heh..." Feng Tianqing laughed dazedly. "Although I am useless and cannot kill you, our Shenhuang has five thousand years of foundation. How could you possibly shake it? The two of us may die, but... you will certainly not live past today."
Boom!!
A muffled explosion came from Feng Tianqing's body. His entire body shook, his eyes closed, blood seeped from his seven orifices, and then he slowly collapsed to the ground.
As a Phoenix Supreme Elder, he was unwilling to be killed by Yun Che, and he knew he could not escape Yun Che's hands. So he destroyed his own profound veins and internal organs, dying... As his body fell, the thin Phoenix Blood on it ignited, cremating his corpse in the Phoenix Flame.
Yun Che turned away, retracted the Heaven-Defying Sword, and sneered softly: "Whether I can shake it or not is not for you to decide!"
With those words, he soared into the air, heading straight toward Phoenix City.
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Ping!!
Feng Hengkong's body shook violently. It was as if he had been struck by heavenly thunder. His limbs and features trembled fiercely. His body swayed, and he staggered backward.
"Sect Master!!"
"Imperial Father!!"
The surrounding elders and princes were greatly alarmed. They hurriedly supported him, asking urgently, "Sect Master, what's wrong?"
Feng Hengkong's lips still trembled. His pupils remained dilated, unable to contract. It was a shock and terror of the utmost intensity.
"Elder Tianyu... is dead."
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