Zhang Cuiying hid her surprise when she saw Xi Mengfei’s second sword strike. Or rather, she sensed the ripples from the aftereffects. The Huang Realm was far too large for even an Immortal Empress like her to cover in her immortal sense.
Xi Mengfei’s Dao of Heaven, Earth, and Man was infamous to the other Immortals of the Huang Realm. With her Dao as a foundation, as long as she could sense you, she could unleash an attack no matter the distance. Without Zhang Cuiying noticing, Mengfei’s sensory abilities had already surpassed hers.
Xi Mengfei’s title as the strongest expert Immortal of the Huang Realm wasn’t officially recognized by other Immortal Emperors. At their level, Immortal Emperor ranked experts wouldn’t care for a fleeting title such as the strongest of the realm.
The prestige came from the words of the Immortal Monarchs and True Immortals. And the most terrifying aspect of Sword Empress Xi was her ability to manipulate destiny. She wouldn’t even need to attack personally, and her target would still die. Her targets would mysteriously suffer horrid luck or enter danger zones beyond their abilities. As long as you were weaker than her, the Sword Empress could kill you without even moving a finger.
At least that was the general consensus.
“Did you kill him?” Zhang Cuiying asked.
The number of cultivators that passed their immortal ascension was already few, barely one in a thousand years. In the lower realms, it was even worse. Perhaps, even after a million years, not even one would be able to become an Immortal and ascend to the Huang Realm.
And among those Immortals, the number capable of rising to become Immortal Monarchs were even fewer. Each Immortal Monarch was the result of a horrifying amount of resources and time. If one died, it would not be a lie to say that the power balance would change.
But Immortal Soulfish was a loose Immortal Monarch, so his death wouldn’t bring too much impact with how low profile he was. It would have been another story if Begonia Tower had still existed.
Begonia Tower was a former first-rate sect that drifted in the endless seas. Terrifyingly, all of their cultivators were soul cultivators. Monarch Soulfish was the sole survivor of the Begonia Tower’s demise, and it is said that the Immortal Emperor Ranked Artifact, the Soul Pagoda, he carried was refined from the former base of Begonia Tower.
“No,” Mengfei’s half-lidded eyes began to droop, and her breathing slowed. “He disappeared, I can no longer sense…him…”
Zhang Cuiying didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, seeing the usually stoic and famed Sword Empress act so sleepy in such a situation. Her earlier attacks had agitated many Immortal Monarchs and True Immortals, causing them to heighten their guard. There was even a slight chance that the battle would start prematurely and disrupt the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus’s maturation.
She released a hidden sigh of relief after no battle erupted. Like this, the tension started to ease slowly but never did it entirely disappear.
As time passed, the pillar of light started to dim. The size of the pillar also began to decrease until it was as thin as a silk strand. Nevertheless, that single strand shone like liquified light.
All parties observing the phenomenon tensed. The moment the light disappeared, the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus would be fully mature.
The fragrance of lotus began to disperse from the light. It stretched far and wide until it nearly fully enveloped the whole Heaven Continent. Then the light disappeared.
But from the ground where the light vanished, a blinding yet gentle light erupted. At the center of this light, a silver-white lotus resided. Each of its nine petals shone like the moon, giving off the feeling of etherealness.
At this instant, space around the flower began to distort, and a hole appeared in the fabric of reality. From within the hole, the aged face of Monarch Yonderheart appeared with his hand stretched out towards the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus.
However midway, space fractured. An Immortal clad in bronze armor charged in towards Monarch Yonderheart with a punch. He was Monarch Warpath and someone who ascended cultivating the martial way.
His fist seemed ordinary as if it were just an ordinary punch. In fact, it was just a normal punch. But Monarch Warpath’s body was cultivated to achieve the greatest physical strength, combined with his flawless technique; not even Immortal Emperors could boast a stronger martial prowess stronger than him.
Monarch Yonderheart frowned, and his body disappeared back into the hole. He wasn’t disappointed. In the first place, he hadn’t really expected to be able to snatch Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus under everyone’s eyes. He just didn’t expect a martial Immortal Monarch to be the one to stop him.
Monarch Warpath snorted before he quickly flew towards the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus.
But before he could reach it, flames descended from the sky and formed a barrier that blocked Monarch Warpath’s way. Monarch Warpath roared and punched the flame wall. The wall distorted for several moments before returning to normal.
“Hmpf, a bunch of weaklings banding together won’t change anything!”
The three True Immortals who were closest to the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus all frowned. They were from the same sect and were relatively well known. Although individually, they weren’t an Immortal Monarch’s match but together they could defeat an Immortal Monarch. The three were known as the Three Phoenix Brothers.
Monarch Warpath didn’t care, and his body seemed to grow larger than life. But this was only an illusion felt by the spectators. He released a breath and a tornado formed from his exhaled air. He punched towards the three, his fist never reached them, but the force generated reached all the way towards the three Immortals.
The Three Phoenix Brothers felt as if a mountain had just crashed into them, not just any mountain but a mountain over ten million miles large. Their faces paled dramatically as they vomited large mouthfuls of blood.
Although it seemed as if they only vomited blood, but they knew the attack from Monarch Warpath had nearly pulverized all their internal organs.
When a cultivator became an Immortal, unless they had a unique method, injuries were even harder to heal than when they were a mortal.
But there was a reason the three of them were called the Three Phoenix Brothers. Gentle flames engulfed the trio, and when the flames disappeared, their injuries were all gone. But the fear never left their face as they retreated from the battle.
Monarch Warpath continued onto his way, the flame wall long gone.
But before he could continue, a hammer smashed towards him. He growled and directly punched the hammer and caused it to falter and fly back a little.
“Indeed known as the Monarch closest to becoming an Emperor.” The speaker was a topless man with a body full of bulging muscles and countless scars.
“Monarch Hungerwolf.” Monarch Warpath said.
“Today, let this Immortal taste your strength.” Monarch Hungerwolf let go of the hammer and open his mouth. Immediately, an incredible suction force appeared.
Monarch Hungerwolf called himself this because of two reasons. First, he cultivated in the martial way using the blood of a Taotie, which granted him the ability to use the innate devouring ability of the Demon. The second was because he was a loose cultivator who hungered for battle. Rather than the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus, Monarch Hungerwolf was more interested in fighting Monarch Warpath.
Monarch Warpath gritted his teeth as steam began to roll off his skin. His whole body became red, and the aura of bloodlust enveloped him, causing him to appear like a diety of slaughter.
On another side after Monarch Warpath repelled Monarch Yonderheart, three Immortal Monarchs and a single True Immortal were battling. Three of them were teaming up to attack a single Immortal Monarch.
Monarch Underheaven grunted as he carefully repelled the three Immortals’ assault. He was a loose cultivator who would do anything to facilitate his path. Lying, murder, betrayal, he had no bottom line.
The three other Immortals were part of an orthodox sect, and seeing a cultivator of the demonic way, they wordlessly agreed to deal with him first.
It wasn’t just these two battles, but numerous other battles were taking place simultaneously.
The strangest thing was that none of the Immortal Emperors or the Cloud Goddess acted. They should have been the first one to act. Of course, their first action would be to enter the Vast Void before fighting.
At their current realm, any attacks would bring countless changes to the Huang Realm, and thus it became an unspoken rule that whenever two Immortal Emperor ranked experts fought, they do so in the Vast Void.
But none of them acted. The reason was because of Xi Mengfei. When the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus matured, she didn’t react at all as if truly sleeping.
Seeing the Sword Empress not move, none of the Immortal Emperors moved either. What if while they were fighting in the Vast Void, she struck and took the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus?
As time passed, the tension between the Immortal Emperors became heavy. Eternal Night Emperor and the Cloud Goddess shared a look before looking at Zhang Cuiying and Mengfei.
Zhang Cuiying felt their stares as if they were asking her why Mengfei wasn’t moving. She wanted to say she didn’t know either but could only close her mouth. To her, it was obvious that Mengfei had entered a strange state, as if in the process of enlightenment.
Finally, she couldn’t wake any longer. She would compete with the Cloud Goddess and Eternal Night Emperor to determine who would snatch the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus. As for Mengfei?
If she didn’t move at all, Zhang Cuiying was sure that she could convince Mengfei to cede the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus to her. She could even compensate her with the treasures she had gathered in her lifetime.
Having made up her mind, Zhang Cuiying stored her immortal boat away and started to ascend towards the Vast Void. The Cloud Goddess and Eternal Night Emperor shared a look before glancing at Mengfei, before they, too, ascended towards the Vast Void.
Hurricanes clashed against disastrous tornadoes. Volcanoes erupted hot magma into lightning storms. White and black seemed to have reversed at points while at other times, colors seemed to have stopped existing. Light and darkness reversed.
Rather than a fight between Immortals, it seemed more like living calamities clashing against one another.
This was the scene that Yan Nie bored witnessed to, even as he was fleeing from the Pan Kingdom and the Northern Region as a whole. He could not believe his eyes.
Yan Nie had bore witness to the techniques of Unity Realm Venerables, but compared to that, this level of battle was even more incomprehensible to him.
“Master, is this really the fight between Immortals?” Yan Nie couldn’t help but question his master, his clear body floating in the air.
“Yes,” Immortal Pillrabbit said, his voice quiet and strained. There was admiration within his eyes, but there was even more envy. “To be clear, what we’re witnessing is a battle between many Immortal Monarchs.”
“Immortal Monarchs? What about Immortal Emperors?” Yan Nie asked.
“Immortal Emperors have an iron-clad rule they follow. They will never fight within the realm itself; otherwise, their extraordinary powers will cause irrevocable changes and perhaps destroy the realm. We don’t have the power to witness their power.” But an Immortal Monarch did. Only Immortal Monarchs had the power to resist the Vast Void and witness such a legendary scene. Had he not been schemed against, he would have been able to participate.
Suddenly Immortal Pillrabbit’s face scrunched and twisted.
“Master, what’s wrong!” Yan Nie asked, sensing the agitation from him.
“Hehe, it seemed that my traitorous disciple is also participating in the battle. It’d be best he gets killed here. Otherwise, once I regain my power and become an Immortal Monarch, he will wish to have his soul dispersed!”