Yun Qianxue stood calmly watching her disciples and elders storming on Huo Han and the rest while guarding against Huo Yan.
"I didn't expect you still have this card. This should be the ancient formation that was left behind, right?" Asked Huo Yan. He didn't seem to care about Huo Han's life and death.
Yun Qianxue shifted her gaze to Huo Yan, but she didn't give him any reply.
Huo Yan wasn't annoyed by this. Instead, he looked around at the formation with interest.
"Ancestor! Please help me!" Huo Han shouted while desperately defending against the bombard. With his strength reduced to the Earth Profound Realm, let alone killing anyone, he couldn't even save himself at this moment.
Meanwhile, Ji Muchen's expression couldn't be more ugly than this. Everything went wrong for him. At this moment, he felt that Qi Qianxing was deceiving him. It looked like Qi Qianxing didn't plan to help him at all.
"Go to hell!" A young girl in a snow-white robe shouted coldly as she swung her sword at Ji Muchen with all she had.
Ji Muchen's eyes filled with killing intent. He released his sword intent and shot toward the young girl's heart mercilessly.
Just as his sword intent about to pierce the opponent, a powerful arrow was shot at him, forcing him to retract his hand back and tried to block it, but he was not fast enough.
With a bang, Ji Muchen's body was blown away like a broken kite. Several of his bones immediately shattered under the powerful impact.
"Sect Master!" A few Profound Sword Sect's Elders madly rushed to Ji Muchen. Unfortunately, their heads immediately exploded under Yun Qingrou's arrows.
"Ugh!" Ji Muchen coughed up fresh blood, struggling to stand up. A trace of fear appeared in his heart for the first time. He had experienced life and death situations several times in the past. His heart never given birth to fear as he was always confident in himself, but this time, it was the first time in his life that he truly felt helpless.
Ji Muchen turned to the sky and shouted angrily, "What the hell are you doing, Qi Qianxing!? What are you waiting for!?" However, he didn't hear any response, causing him to fall into despair.
Yun Qianxue's eyes turned sharp, and her Spiritual Sense spread into the sky, searching for a trace of Qi Qianxing, but she couldn't find it in the end.
"You don't have to waste your effort looking for him. He didn't come." Huo Yan suddenly said. His words attracted Yun Qianxue's attention. He said further, "If I guessed correctly, he should busy excavate Fire Spirit Stones at my sect right now."
Yun Qianxue was surprised by Huo Yan's statement, and she quickly understood the situation. Qi Qianxing had probably betrayed the Sacred Flame Sect and the Profound Sword Sect.
"You never sent anyone to my sect during this time. Your target should be Profound Sword Sect only." Huo Yan expressed his thoughts.
Yun Qianxue was silent for a moment before she replied, "You're correct. I didn't send anyone to your sect."
Huo Yan nodded his head. "Well, it doesn't matter to me. I'm here to get the crown, and I'm going to leave this tiny place."
"Aren't you too confident?" Yun Qianxue responded.
Huo Yan shook his head with a smile and stood still on the place, unperturbed.
"Ahh!" While they were talking, Huo Han was stabbed by the Misty Cloud Sect's disciple in the abdomen, causing him to scream in pain.
Huo Han sent a fire palm print at the attacker, forcing the latter to retreat. He glanced at Huo Yan with pleading, but Huo Yan didn't even bother to look at him. This made him furious to the extreme as he yelled, "You old bastard! If it weren't because of you, I wouldn't have been like this!" His hatred toward Huo Yan had soared to the sky. He blamed everything on him.
Riip—
While Huo Han didn't pay attention, Yun Ruanyu appeared behind him silently and used a sharp sword to cut this neck at lightning speed. Blood splashed into the air like a fountain along with Huo Han's head. His eyes were widened open with unwillingness before his consciousness slowly sank into darkness. A generation Sect Master of the Sacred Flame Sect had died just like that.
"Sect Master!" A few Sacred Flame Sect's Elders howled in despair when they saw this scene before they were killed in the next second by their opponents.
The Sacred Flame Sect's sect master and thirty elders. All of them were dead!
"You're surely heartless." Yun Qianxue said to Huo Yan.
"He's too weak." Huo Yan replied nonchalantly.
"Qi Qianxing! I won't let you go even I become a ghost!" Ji Muchen roared toward the sky when an arrow from Yun Qingrou pierced his heart. Following, another arrow pierced into his head and directly burst it into pieces, ending the life of the Profound Sword Sect's Sect Master.
"You're the only one left now." Yun Qianxue drew the divine sword to the front and said calmly.
Huo Yan's eyes narrowed, and a long crimson staff silently appeared in his hands along with a scorching flame aura.
Yun Qianxue's expression abruptly changed, and she quickly shouted, "Everyone retreat!" Following that, her figure turned into a streak of deep blue light rushed at Huo Yan.
Yun Ruanyu perceived a crisis. She turned off the Heaven Suppressing Formation and using the Grand Protection Formation's barrier to push Huo Yan out from the place, but it was too late.
A raging crimson flame spread in all directions at extremely high speed. Several buildings immediately got caught in a fire and instantly burned into ashes.
"All of you can't escape from me!" Huo Yan floated into the air with a flame revolved around him. His current appearance had resembled God of Flame that could blaze anything into dust.
Yun Qianxue appeared closely before Huo Yan as she released her frost aura to the maximum when she swung the divine sword down at him.
Huo Yan smiled coldly and waved his staff at the incoming divine sword fearlessly.
Clang!
Their weapons collided with each other, but none of them had retreated. Yun Qianxue was shocked when she saw the staff was unharmed. Previously, the divine weapon could destroy any weapon with no problem, but now, what was the rank of this staff?
Yun Qianxue had no time to think about it as Huo Yan waved his staff at her. She poured her profound energy into the divine sword, making it released a stronger frost aura before she met Huo Yan's staff head-on.
Boom!
Yun Qianxue was blown away by the collision and fell to the ground harshly, creating a huge crack beneath her.
"Sect Master!" Several disciples on the scene shouted worriedly and rushing toward Yun Qianxue.
"Go back!" Yun Ruanyu stopped them as she arrived beside Yun Qianxue. Looking at Yun Qianxue's injuries, Yun Ruanyu's expression grew heavy.
"Unexpectedly, you also have a divine weapon." Yun Ruanyu turned to Huo Yan.
"Why do you think I am waiting for that old hag to die, then?" Huo Yan replied nonchalantly.
When he got an ancient record, not only he aware of the crown's existence but he also aware of the Misty Cloud Divine Sword too because he himself also had a divine weapon, he knew it was extremely difficult to master over it, and his ability was also inferior to the previous Sect Master of the Misty Cloud Sect. Therefore, he didn't dare to start his plan when she was around and could only wait until she died.
Yun Ruanyu was about to say something but was interrupted by Yun Qianxue, who had already stood up from the ground. "Leave it to me, Sister Ruanyu."
"We can kill him together." Yun Ruanyu said with determination.
Yun Qianxue smiled faintly. "Come on, Sister Ruanyu. You're smarter than me. You should know the current situation. So let me do it."
"But you…" Yun Ruanyu looked at Yun Qianxue with complicated emotion.
"This is my duty." Yun Qianxue gave Yun Ruanyu a brilliant smile. "If something happened to me, please bring him away from this place and tell him to take care of himself."
Yun Ruanyu shook her head. "You can't! Let me do it. This duty is supposed to be mine, to begin with."
All of a sudden, the droplet symbol on Yun Qianxue's forehead shone brightly. It was even brighter than before. Her aura began to soar, increasing tremendously—the first level, second level, third level,… until the peak of Ruler Profound Realm.
"You!" Yun Ruanyu exclaimed in anger, but she was helpless to stop Yun Qianxue now because she had utterly activated The Final Haze.
Huo Yan stared at Yun Qianxue in amazement. Suddenly, he felt something was not right. Why did he never hear about this forbidden art before?
In fact, it wasn't Huo Yan's fault for not knowing this. The Final Haze was actually invented by Yun Ruanyu several years ago by combining the sect's profound arts that the sect's founder left behind. It was due to this reason the previous Sect Master chose her as the successor back then.
However, Yun Ruanyu humbly rejected the position, as she knew that her strength mainly relied on knowledge and comprehension. Although her music sorcery was strong, her overall battle prowess was inferior to Yun Qianxue and Yun Meilan. Therefore, she chose to serve as the First Hall Master instead.
"You still have some tricks, heh?" Huo Yan's expression returned to normal. He was certain Yun Qianxue couldn't stay in that state for too long. As long as he could drag the battle, he would be able to win this.
Yun Qianxue didn't say anything and floated into the air. When she pointed the divine sword to the sky, the clouds swirled, and snow immediately fell down in the next moment.
Huo Yan felt a strong suppression from the snow as his flame started to shrink. No matter how much profound energy he injected into the staff, the surrounding flame was still reduced, unable to overcome the snow.
Scree—
A loud phoenix's cry reverberated throughout the space as the deep blue light on the divine sword continued to shine brighter and brighter. At this moment, Yun Qianxue's flawless black hair slowly turned completely white.
Yun Ruanyu and Yun Qingrou looked at her with tears. It was not a secret among them. In order to use the Misty Cloud Divine Sword to the fullest potential, the user had to sacrifice their lifeforce to cover the lack of strength.
Yun Qianxue wanted to kill Huo Yan in one strike. She didn't hesitate to let the divine sword absorb her lifeforce as much as it wanted.
Several wrinkles appeared on her beautiful face. Her appearance that was similar to a twenty-five-year-old woman had now changed into a woman in her fifties.
Huo Yan struggled hard, trying to get rid of the suppression, but it was futile. When he saw Yun Qianxue's current appearance and the divine sword in her hand, his mind instantly told him to flee.
Just as Huo Yan decided to escape, his entire being was shrouded by a boundless killing intent that made his body turned cold as if he was thrown into a frozen abyss.
"Die!" Yun Qianxue's voice echoed through the sky, and the divine sword in her hand slowly descended at Huo Yan with immense power.
"No…" Huo Yan's eyes widened open in horror as his body slowly turned into an ice statue upon the sword's energy touched him. The ice statue cracked and burst into countless ice particles a moment later, leaving behind the divine staff that plummeted onto the ground.
Yun Qianxue felt her strength gradually left her body, the droplet symbol on her forehead slowly dimmed down along with the glow on the divine sword.
"Qianxue!" Yun Ruanyu floated into the air, preparing to receive Yun Qianxue.
However, when she was about to reach Yun Qianxue, all of a sudden, a powerful wind lance appeared behind the group of clouds and shot at Yun Qianxue at lightning speed.
Yun Ruanyu instinctively threw the Guqin in her hand at the wind lance, but it could not be stopped as the wind lance destroyed her Guqin and pierced into Yun Qianxue's abdomen, pinning her entire body on the ground.