Chapter 269: Cutting the Weeds and Eliminating the Roots to Prevent Future Trouble; Exchanging the Phoenix Divine Stone for the Remai

Honghuang South Sea.

The misty waves are vast, deep, and profound.

Sunlight shines upon the sea surface, radiating a glazed halo that rises, a stretch of emerald sea and blue sky.

One can see various colorful fish swimming to and fro, as well as sea turtles, and so on and so forth, emerging one after another.

A streak of light moves with agility, soaring like a long rainbow piercing the sun, causing pale blue arcs of light to ignite all around.

"Quick, quick, quick."

Within the escape light, Zilan Fairy no longer maintains her human form, but has transformed into her true form as a Gu Diao, wings spread, operating the Five Elements Great Escape.

She pushes her speed to the maximum, intending to shake off the dangerous situation. She is not ignorant of the fame of the Zhanxian Gourd.

At first, she had not recognized it.

But later, how could she possibly not recognize it? She knew in her heart that once the Innate Spiritual Treasure Zhanxian Gourd was brought out, she would have absolutely no chance of winning against Fang Longye alone.

Right now, after her delay, the few remaining Golden Immortal disciples had also fled far away, along with that close friend who had come to visit Zilan Palace.

It was not in vain that she had entangled with the enemy for this long.

"Hmph! As long as the green hills remain, there is no need to worry about firewood. This matter is not over!"

"Terrible! He caught up so quickly!" While sneering in her heart, she senses the Aura of Fang Longye pursuing her.

Gritting her teeth, without even looking back, she immediately burns her own essence, increasing her escape speed by several notches.

"Heh~ You are quite proficient in this divine ability, the Five Elements Great Escape!" Fang Longye looks at the figure of Zilan Fairy ahead and sneers coldly.

Even though there was only a difference of a dozen breaths, she had managed to escape millions of miles away, running out onto this vast sea.

However, if she thinks she can shake him off with just this time difference, that is wishful thinking!

One can see the Purple-Green Qi swirling and rising beneath his feet, supporting him as he bites tightly onto her trail.

With the blessing of a series of escape divine abilities like 'Hidden Abyss Shrinking Sea', he easily catches up to the Zilan Fairy who had previously fled.

Seeing that she cannot shake off Fang Longye, Zilan Fairy unleashes a secret technique that burns her origin, escaping millions of miles in an instant.

Afterward, she does not hesitate; her True Spirit entrusts itself to her Hunyuan Qi, and she leaps upward violently, like an arrow, escaping her true form, transforming into a streak of flowing, iridescent light that shoots into the sky and vanishes into the void.

Leaving behind only one sentence: "It's not over!"

Yet unexpectedly, a flash of blade light strikes instantly, swirling down and annihilating everything.

A scream immediately rings out in the darkness, and then there is silence.

A Golden Immortal at the perfection stage, nearing the Taiyi realm, has fallen, immediately triggering changes in the surrounding celestial phenomena.

A rain of blood pours down, scattering everywhere.

There is an inexplicable sorrow that is difficult to dispel.

"Hmph!" Fang Longye retracts the Slashing Immortal Flying Knife and summons the Two Instruments Divine Gourd, collecting the remains of Zilan Fairy's true form from afar.

"Did you really think I had no way to deal with your True Spirit escaping?" Last time, letting the True Spirit of Guoshi Wang escape was because he lacked experience.

This time~

Having learned his lesson, he would not let the tiger return to the mountain when he clearly held a great lethal weapon in his hands.

The so-called True Spirit escape of a Golden Immortal at perfection is not omnipotent. Those at the Taiyi level can solidify space and stop it.

In front of this top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure, the 'Zhanxian Gourd', it is truly not worth mentioning.

Ignoring the sorrowful intent rising in the air, Fang Longye's eyes shine with divine light, and the scenery for hundreds of millions of miles is fully packed into his pupils, folding and changing, bizarre and motley.

Very quickly, he finds his target.

Then, with a shift of his thoughts, not waiting for the Huai River Dragon Lord who is already close to catching up to his footsteps, he flies off with his escape light.

He has not forgotten that after he left that 'Nine Bends Yellow Springs Map', the Zilan Palace he saw was completely empty.

Clearly, those few remaining remnants had fled long before Zilan Fairy! The kind-hearted Fang is a benevolent person and cannot bear to see them part from their Palace Master in life and death.

It is better for a family to be together and complete.

……

A stretch of sea, sparkling with waves.

The cloud light is like a peacock spreading its tail, scattering in all directions, in circles and layers, causing ripples in the water that sway incessantly.

A female immortal leads the way, carrying the three remaining Golden Immortal disciples of Zilan Fairy, flying toward the deep sea with the speed of lightning.

It is that close friend of Zilan Fairy, named Jin Luan Fairy, who is a lone traveler cultivating in the South Sea.

One can see her colorful ribbons wrapped around her arms, rings at her feet, clear light shining bright, her body surrounded by a cleansing glow, appearing graceful and upright.

However, her expression is not very pleasant.

Although she is indeed on good terms with Zilan Fairy, it is not to the extent that she would risk her life for her.

If not for Zilan Fairy sending a voice transmission, offering the entire collection of Zilan Palace as a reward, and begging her to protect her three remaining disciples as they fled.

She would not be willing to wade into this muddy water.

However, at this moment, where is there any trace of the joy she felt when receiving the gift? Looking at the ink-stained clouds of Calamity above, bitterness cannot help but well up in Jin Luan's heart.

She regrets it to the extreme.

"Blinded by greed!"

"What was I thinking just now? To actually agree to this entrustment!"

Now it is fine; looking at this Calamity, she fears she might even get herself involved!

It is truly an unprovoked disaster~ If she hadn't come to visit Zilan Palace, none of this would have happened! While regretting in her heart, she hears a loud laugh: "Ha, ha, ha!"

"Fortune, fortune! After today, my Prison Phoenix Cage will finally not have to be left empty!"

Before she can react, she sees the space not far away ripple and shatter, a sharp aura tearing through the void, whistling like thunder.

Magnificent and grand, covering the firmament.

Then it connects top to bottom, traverses inside and out, filling the space-time, above and below, left and right, all permeated with an aura of slaughter.

Accompanying these strange phenomena, a figure emerged from the void; it was none other than that Dragon Clan scoundrel from before, who had slaughtered everyone in Zilan Palace in a single move! Fang Longye held the Panlong Spear in one hand, having torn through the void to arrive, and looked over the female immortal leading the group before him with great interest.

To think she was also a Golden Immortal at the perfection stage.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas says: "On Woman's Bed Mountain, there is a bird; its shape is like a pheasant with five-colored patterns, named the Luan bird. When it is seen, the world is at peace."

Luan-Phoenix, Luan-Phoenix.

The true form of this female immortal was clearly a member of the Phoenix Species—a Luan bird.

"Kill!"

Jinluan had originally intended to have her True Spirit escape directly.

It was not that she was cowardly.

The key was that, if one were to truly compare strength, her close friend was far stronger than she was, yet even she had not been able to gain any advantage in the hands of this Dragon Clan scoundrel before them.

Although she had not been able to witness the scene of her friend's demise due to the distance, the Heavenly Secrets and causality she sensed could not lie.

If even her friend had completely perished, let alone herself.

However, the moment this thought arose, a warning of impending death struck her heart.

She had no choice but to abandon this idea.

Although she did not know why this was so, she could only fight with all her might! There was nothing more to say; she transformed directly into her Luan bird true form, a thousand zhang in size. Her plumage was red within and five-colored without, and in an instant, red light spilled everywhere, faintly vying with the sun and moon for brilliance.

At the same time, above her Luan head, a feather intertwined with mysterious patterns emerged, surrounded by bright flames.

Golden and dazzling, bright and shimmering.

The entire feather exuded a vast and pure Phoenix Aura throughout.

Ancient and weathered, it was truly extraordinary.

Accompanying that shrill cry of battle, this transcendent feather merged directly into her Luan bird true form.

In the blink of an eye, she had transformed into the image of an archaic Phoenix, with long tail feathers and five-colored, flowing, shimmering light, moving back and forth.

Her entire true form expanded by an unknown number of times, as if she were carrying the blue sky upon her back.

This feather was a treasure Jinluan had obtained by chance; coming from a Great Immortal body, it was naturally not so easy to fuse with.

In this state, her entire body felt incomparably hot, as if she were placed within volcanic magma. Looking again at Fang Longye not far away, she felt a continuous stream of gloom and anger arise inexplicably, surging into her heart.

There was no longer a shred of fear.

This inexplicable gloom and anger grew more and more, accumulating until Jinluan felt as if she were about to explode.

Scalding, uncomfortable, painful, oppressive.

She wanted to destroy everything, to destroy the heavens and the earth.

Especially when looking at Fang Longye, feeling his unmasked Dragon Clan Aura that filled the heavens and covered the earth.

She could no longer hold it back; all her rage, gloom, and intent to destroy the world erupted. She raised her Phoenix head toward the firmament and let out a long cry.

The cry soared up to the nine heavens, resounding through the clouds.

Immediately, it caused the surrounding seabed terrain to change drastically; earth-fire surged, and in an instant, thousands of undersea volcanoes erupted.

For a time, magma rose and surged, turning the surrounding sea area into a scalding sea of fire.

Boiling incessantly, bubbling water erupted, filled with astonishing high temperatures, instantly annihilating countless sea creatures.

"Kill!"

Jinluan directly flapped her wings and charged toward Fang Longye to kill him.

Visible red mist swirled, and countless flames danced.

These flames clustered into the shape of lotus flowers, rising one after another, golden fire shimmering, clanging with sound.

The flames were extremely tyrannical, burning one large hole after another in the surrounding space.

Southern Bright Separation Fire!

A Great Divine Ability innate to the Phoenix Clan—"Heh! No matter how strong the power gained through the aid of external objects is, it is still vulnerable to a single blow!"

Fang Longye looked at Jinluan, who seemed like a mad demon, and gave a cold laugh—

How was this any different from that Guoshi Wang Bodhisattva from before, who had completely fused the Six-Syllable Mantra written by a Great Immortal into his own body? Too lazy to engage in a pointless fight with her, he immediately summoned the Zhanxian Gourd.

"Please, treasure, turn around!"

One trick is enough to conquer the world—

Accompanied by a clanging sound, an unparalleled innate killing light poured out!

One strike landed on Jinluan's body, and in an instant, it completely shattered the archaic Phoenix body she had gained through augmentation.

Boom—

Jinluan's thousand-zhang Luan bird true form was slashed directly into the magma sea of fire below, kicking up a thousand layers of fire waves.

Fang Longye then summoned an exquisitely beautiful, small birdcage, brilliant with pearl flowers, shining bright, and shimmering with seven colors.

'Prison Phoenix Cage'! In an instant, it took in the severely wounded Jinluan.

Thirty-six Post-Heaven Divine Prohibitions, covered in dragon-scale-like patterns, with countless rays of light shooting and intersecting, formed an airtight light shield.

No matter how she struggled once she regained her senses, she could not get out.

Even if she wanted to abandon her true form and have her True Spirit entrust itself to her own Primordial Qi to escape this place,

it had become a pipe dream.

Having captured Jinluan, this Golden Immortal at the perfection stage, Fang Longye then reached out his palm and seized the three Golden Immortals who had begun to scurry away like rats the moment they saw the situation was bad.

With a light squeeze, they were silenced.

Before their True Spirits could escape, he threw them directly into his 'Refining Immortal Pot' to be used as materials for pills.

Thus—

Zilan Palace, from top to bottom, was completely annihilated!

……

Looking down at the sea of crimson flames below, Fang Longye frowned.

Just as he intended to manifest his divine powers to extinguish this disaster, he caught a glimpse of the Huai River Dragon Lord's escape light flashing as he hurried over.

Retracting his movements, Fang Longye muttered in his heart: "You certainly arrived in a timely manner—you didn't even manage to play the role of waving a flag to cheer on the sidelines."

"Uncle truly possesses boundless divine powers!" The Huai River Dragon Lord also knew he had only been a hindrance, so he opened his mouth with a compliment.

"Enough!" Fang Longye waved a hand to stop him, pointing at the sea of fire below: "I leave this cleanup work to you!"

"I still have to head to where that divine turtle is!"

"Rest assured, Uncle, your nephew understands—" The Huai River Dragon Lord nodded to show he understood.

"That is good!"

Fang Longye carried the Prison Phoenix Cage, teasing the Jinluan that was still struggling incessantly inside the cage, while waving his sleeve and saying: "After you extinguish this sea of fire, go to the Shuimu Yifu and wait for us to rendezvous."

Having said this, he turned around and prepared to leave.

"Uncle, stay your step!"

Before Fang Longye's escape light could rise, he turned back immediately, looking at the Huai River Dragon Lord with an inquiring gaze.

"That, Uncle," the Huai River Dragon Lord showed an embarrassed expression on his face, fidgeting as he said: "Uncle, I would like to ask, did that Zilan Fairy leave behind a true physical shell?"

Fang Longye nodded in affirmation, then asked curiously: "Why do you ask this?"

Joy appeared in the Huai River Dragon Lord's eyes, and he said eagerly: "Since a shell remains, your nephew is willing to exchange a Falling Phoenix Stone for her shell!"

As he spoke, he flipped his palm to take out a brilliant golden divine stone; it was not very large, only the size of an infant's fist, with naturally formed patterns.

The moment it was taken out, a strange aura rose up, appearing and disappearing, long and continuous, haloed with radiance, with the murmurs of the Dao.

A strange power spread out like ripples.

Fang Longye did not feel anything, but the Jinluan in the Prison Phoenix Cage, who had been struggling incessantly and cursing loudly, was different.

At this moment, she only felt a strange power suppressing her; she wanted to speak but could no longer do so, and she wanted to move but could not move even a fraction.

She instantly became wilted.

Following that, she actually became drowsy, and her thoughts grew chaotic.

"Falling Phoenix Stone? As long as you are willing to trade, that is fine—"

Fang Longye shook his head with a laugh, took the Falling Phoenix Stone, and casually shrank the true physical shell left behind by Zilan to the size of a fist, tossing it to the Huai River Dragon Lord.

'Falling Phoenix Stone', as the name suggests, is a type of wondrous stone generated by heaven and earth; it is unknown why it was born, but it naturally restrains the Phoenix Clan.

There is no reason for it, just as sulfur restrains snakes and insects; they are born to be mutually reinforcing and restraining. Because of this, it was named 'Falling Phoenix Stone' by people.

Moreover, this restraining power is no small matter. As long as they have not attained the Golden Immortal realm, creatures of the Phoenix Clan will be affected to a greater or lesser degree.

Therefore, this wondrous object is often used by the mortal enemy of the Phoenix Clan—the Dragon Clan—to forge various prisons and Spirit Treasures that restrain the Phoenix Clan.

For instance, this 'Prison Phoenix Cage' in Fang Longye's hand contains this wondrous object, the 'Falling Phoenix Stone'.

Do not look at how small this piece of Falling Phoenix Stone from the Huai River Dragon Lord is; it is much more than the Falling Phoenix Stone contained within the Spirit Treasure 'Prison Phoenix Cage'.

Just this small piece of Falling Phoenix Stone, if refined into the Spirit Treasure 'Prison Phoenix Cage', even if it does not raise the grade of the Spirit Treasure, just targeting the Phoenix Clan alone would allow it to exert the power of a Supreme Spiritual Treasure.

Even if one could not refine the two together for a while, just using it as a gemstone inlaid on the Prison Phoenix Cage would allow this Superior Spiritual Treasure's ability to target the Phoenix Clan to rise to a new height.

The Huai River Dragon Lord was sharp-eyed indeed; in such a short time, he had produced a treasure that Fang Longye could not refuse based on the Prison Phoenix Cage.

Moreover, since the 'Falling Phoenix Stone' has such a great impact on the Phoenix Clan, the Phoenix Clan naturally would not just leave it be.

It can be said that most of the Falling Phoenix Stones in the Honghuang were destroyed by the Phoenix Clan by any means necessary.

Therefore, even if Fang Longye did not use it himself, the value of this 'Falling Phoenix Stone' in the Honghuang was far higher than the body of a 'Gu Diao' at the Golden Immortal perfection.

Since the Huai River Dragon Lord was willing to exchange it, why would Fang Longye not be happy to do so? Seeing this Huai River Dragon Lord, after obtaining the true shell of Zilan Fairy, could not help but beam with joy, even stroking it in his hands as if it were a precious treasure.

Fang Longye had a chilling guess about his purpose for the exchange.

Thus, harboring the intention to confirm this guess, he asked: "Is there something special about this Gu Diao true body of Zilan? It actually makes you willing to exchange a 'Falling Phoenix Stone' for it—"

Hearing Fang Longye's inquiry, the Huai River Dragon Lord restrained the excitement in his heart, hesitating to speak, as if he were too embarrassed to say.

However, he was also afraid that Fang Longye would misunderstand that Zilan Fairy's shell was related to some secret opportunity and harbor a grudge.

After thinking it over, he stammered out his purpose: "That, Uncle, have you heard of the 'Living Puppet Technique'?"

(End of chapter)