Chapter 584: Yu Nanhong Has Arrived, You Must Follow the Rules

Xuan Yuecheng belongs to the Nanyang Sect.

It is one of the few among many vassal powers willing to provide a place for mortals to dwell.

Precisely because of this, its jurisdiction is too vast, covering a full three hundred cities, causing frequent conflicts with demons and monsters; fortunately, it was once protected by the Heavenly Sword Sect, so no major disasters ever occurred.

The only accident that happened was when the Heavenly Sword Sect handed them over to the Nanyang Sect, a turtle demon under the Seven Dragons of the Ke family took notice, attempting to forcibly marry the city lord's daughter, nearly turning the water tribe into demon dogs.

Fortunately, Shen Zongzhu personally intervened to quell this storm.

As more news arrived, City Lord Yin watched with his own eyes how this young sect master climbed step by step to the sky, standing shoulder to shoulder with the other sect masters.

During the Assembly of Seven Sons, the other party displayed terrifyingly ruthless methods; while beheading Liu Xingshan, an elder of the Heavenly Sword Sect, he also firmly secured his position as sect master.

This is a tremendous good thing for Xuan Yuecheng.

By common logic, under the protection of such a young and talented sect master, Xuan Yuecheng's future trajectory should have been smooth sailing.

But he truly did not expect that in such a short time, Yu Nanhong would become like this.

"Huff."

Inside the City Lord's mansion, Yin Qizhang leaned back in his chair, his hand constantly rubbing the letter sent from the Senior Zi Xian Sect; although he had read it many times, even to the point of reciting it backwards, he still refused to put it down.

Yin Yajun looked at the green tea on the table that had long gone cold, walked over slowly, and intended to replace it with a fresh cup for her father.

"No need, I will go out and look again."

Yin Qizhang raised his palm slightly, closed his eyes, and silently repeated a few words from the letter in his mind: Be extremely careful.

He stood up, a hint of bitterness appearing on his face.

As the only Bai Yujing cultivator in this place, Yin Qizhang knew better than anyone how perilous the situation must be for the Seven Great Xian Sects to issue such a message.

These four seemingly useless words are also the only thing he can do now.

"Father..."

Yin Yajun hesitated for a moment, then said softly: "Even Shen Zongzhu cannot protect us?"

When she was sent into the grand sedan by the turtle demon, she had caught only a fleeting glimpse, yet she remembered that figure in the black robe.

Later, she was fortunate enough to follow her father to attend the Assembly of Seven Sons.

At that assembly, the youth's black robe had been replaced by a wide Nanyang white robe, like a brilliant great sun, seated upon the heavenly steps, making people's minds wander in awe.

It was hard for her to imagine that there was anything this young sect master could not do.

Upon hearing this, Yin Qizhang's figure paused slightly; after pondering for a long time, he gave no response, only a helpless smile.

This letter represents the will of the seven sect masters, and Shen Zongzhu, whom Xuan Yuecheng relies on, is the youngest of the seven; if even the Seven Sons of Yu Nanhong have no solution, Shen Zongzhu is likely even more helpless.

"Let fate decide."

Yin Qizhang stepped out of the main hall; he had tried his best to face things with an optimistic mindset, but the reality was that if a demon calamity truly attacked, Xuan Yuecheng, with its volume far larger than other vassal powers, would certainly be the delicacy that demons could not overlook.

Thinking of this, he soared into the air, his gaze sweeping around.

For some reason, perhaps due to excessive pressure in his heart, Yin Qizhang, a cultivator of profound realm, strangely felt a trace of chill, instinctively wanting to tighten his clothes.

Taking a deep breath, the moment his hand touched his collar, this city lord finally realized something was wrong.

He bent a finger to his nostril, wiped it gently, and seeing the glaring red on his knuckle, discovered that because of this inexplicable coldness, blood had actually overflowed from his nose, but before it could flow down, it had already frozen into crystal.

"..."

As one of the four top vassal powers under the Nanyang Sect, City Lord Yin had seen many, many terrifying great demons, but at this moment, he looked blankly toward the Wang Yang upon which Xuan Yuecheng relied.

After seeing that boundless, empty waters.

The blankness in his eyes quickly turned into shock and terror.

Yin Qizhang quickly turned back, looking sorrowfully at the three hundred cities behind him, his figure suddenly hunching over much more.

Obviously, Xuan Yuecheng has already been targeted by demons, yet they do not even have the qualification to see the enemy!

"How should I... be extremely careful now..."

Yin Qizhang muttered to himself, his hoarse voice filled with intense daze and despair.

At the same time, in the vast waters beyond the reach of sight, a withered figure slowly descended from the sky, tattered cloth robes swaying gently in the wind; his slightly dirty soles hung down, and his strange toes lightly touched the water surface.

In an instant, an invisible ripple spread rapidly across the water surface; the rising green waves silently solidified, like ferocious claws and fangs!

In the blink of an eye, a thousand li were entirely frozen.

Crack crack crack—

Accompanied by a teeth-grating sound, as if a cold mountain had appeared out of thin air!

While taking away the lives of all water creatures within the range, this frost intent swept toward Xuan Yuecheng at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Shenxu Laozu stepped on the Bingshan, moving forward neither hurriedly nor slowly.

The auras of those living beings converged from the ice and flowed into his soles, adding a bit of vitality to his withered body.

"Let me remind you, Laozu is truly hungry; do not tempt me again."

He turned his head to look at a certain direction, split his mouth open, revealing a mouthful of ugly teeth, and his laughter was somewhat sinister.

In the direction Shen Shan Laozu looked, it was unknown how far away it was.

Behind Deng Xiangjun, five balls of white fire circled in a wheel shape; as they drifted and turned, they transformed into a terrifying sea of fire that swallowed everything in sight, and within this sea of fire, the frozen waters beneath his feet rapidly melted.

However, he could only affect a range of several hundred li, providing himself with a safe place to stand.

Going further ahead, even this white sea of fire became stagnant as if it were solid.

"I also remind you, this is the territory of the Seven Sons of Yu Nanhong."

Deng Xiangjun stepped out from the flames, his face carrying a ferocity not seen for many years: "I am indeed just a pill in your mouth that you can use at will, but my senior and junior brothers and sisters are not dead yet."

He had thought he had long accepted the result of losing some vassal powers.

But when he personally witnessed how cleanly and decisively a Heaven Realm great demon slaughtered ordinary living beings, a surge of rage arose in Deng Xiangjun's heart.

Just with this coldness technique, let alone Xuan Yuecheng, if the other party wanted to swallow all vassals of the Nanyang Sect, nearly a million cultivators, it would only be a matter of walking forward a bit further.

"Then..."

Hanshan Laozu slowly withdrew his smile and said blandly, "Tell them to come over."

Having spoken, he tugged lightly at the corner of his lips and walked forward in silence.

Since the Laozu came from Hanshan, he would swallow half this heaven and earth before the displeasure in his heart could be dispelled.

This strongest great demon of the Western Hong Continent, descending the mountain for the first time, showed Yu Nanhong just what true terror meant.

As for those few people Deng Xiangjun had spoken of—

Hmph—

Prisoners trapped by the South Dragon Palace, where would they get the chance to come out? If they were coming, they would have come long ago.

Moreover, he had deliberately destroyed the dao token on Deng Xiangjun's body earlier; the little time he had bought was enough for him to eat and drink his fill.

In Xuanyue City.

Under the erosion of the cold, Yin Qizhang, who was in the sky, trembled all over, yet stubbornly refused to descend to escape the chill.

He did no more useless work, only staring fixedly at that vast stretch of water.

At least… at least he could see with his own eyes how they and the others would die.

Soon, a streak of azure blue entered Yin Qizhang's line of sight, like a monstrously huge creature charging toward where he stood, swallowing everything around it and making it part of its own body.

A distance of thousands of miles, gone in a snap of the fingers.

This towering, steep cold ice mountain completely filled Yin Qizhang's entire field of vision; before it, living beings seemed utterly insignificant.

And the claws and fangs formed by the azure waves at the mountain's foot finally clawed onto the continent!

As if a fierce beast had leapt from the water, it set foot upon Xuanyue City, then swept forward unstoppable, swallowing everything on the land.

Yin Qizhang had almost already seen the ending.

Under that dense cold, his breathing grew rapid like a cracked gong, and he nearly fainted, until an irritable crackling rang beside his ear!

Crack crack crack!

He clenched his neck, veins popping on the back of his hand, forcing himself to open his eyes and look.

He saw that on the peak of the ice mountain, a thin, ragged figure had appeared at some unknown moment; in such shabby attire, his expression was like a sovereign looking down, majestic and indifferent.

As for that crackling, it was the ferocious glacial claws and fangs at the continent's edge— the instant they climbed up, they shattered one after another.

Even the "soldiers and generals" of this Lord of Glaciers had places they could not set foot?!

Boom!

The next moment, the spreading cold suddenly reversed; the entire frozen stretch of water shattered at once, and even that enormous, towering cold mountain sank downward by quite a bit!

Hanshan Laozu's figure swayed unbidden.

It was precisely this slight movement that made his sovereign-over-all aura vanish without a trace.

Yin Qizhang suddenly felt much better; he loosened his hand from his neck and stared blankly upward.

He saw that before Xuanyue City and the three hundred cities under its jurisdiction… no, to be precise, before the many vassal forces of the Nanyang Sect!

A slightly slender figure stood in the air.

The fitted black armor on his body radiated a light even colder than that glacier; a splendid coronet bound his hair, and beneath the slightly swaying strands was a young, handsome face, expression calm, with no joy or anger to be seen.

Dark as ink, the dense clouds surged with the wind, like a great cloak of colored clouds!

With the three hundred li before him as a boundary, it was as if he formed his own heaven and earth, where demons and evils could not intrude.

"Shen Zongzhu…"

Yin Qizhang had clearly lowered his hand, yet suddenly felt a sense of suffocation.

Although the other party had changed his attire, any cultivator who had attended the Seven Sons Assembly—who could fail to remember this familiar face?

According to the letter from the Qidaxian Sect, the other party could not possibly appear here.

But now, Shen Zongzhu had truly come.

And Yin Qizhang always felt, perhaps it was an illusion…

Before Shen Zongzhu, the ragged great demon on the glacier was still like a sovereign, only the one he faced was the heavens—even a sovereign must bow his head.

"Is there something wrong?"

The belated Deng Xiangjun stared in astonishment toward Xuanyue City.

Clearly, the one who truly found Shen Zongzhu was himself, not the other two martial brothers.

But when Deng Xiangjun saw it with his own eyes, he began to doubt whether he had found the wrong person.

The Shen Zongzhu in his memory did not seem to have such a terrifying presence; it actually gave him the illusion that the other party was faintly suppressing Hanshan Laozu!

And it had only been a short while since they last parted.

"…"

Hanshan Laozu silently watched the changes at the meeting point of water and land; after confirming that his divine ability had been blocked and could never break through that inexplicable barrier, he finally slowly exhaled a breath.

"Little friend, this old ancestor has come from afar as a guest, and you really won't give me even a single bite?"

He raised his eyes to look at that indifferent figure in the sky, cupped his hands with meticulous propriety, and once again revealed his rotten teeth: "Is this in accordance with propriety?"

Hanshan Laozu truly did not wish to become the vanguard general of the Dragon Palace, drawing the bulk of the hatred of the Seven Sons of Nanhong.

After all, no one was willing to take the last bite of a dying beast—that was something that would cost one's life.

But that did not mean that, having been driven here by the West Dragon Palace and unable to return, he was willing to obediently stay in Nanhong, doing nothing, until some turn of events occurred with the Wan Yao Dian, and then slink back to that Hanshan that had already been destroyed.

To suppress him to such a stifling degree, at the very least Ye Jiu would have to appear in person to have a chance; even Qi Yansheng could not do it.

It absolutely could not be done by a young Earth-realm cultivator propping up the scene through some mysterious method.

"This old ancestor is reasoning with you."

Hanshan Laozu slowly tightened his cupped fists, letting out a hoarse laugh: "Is the little friend willing to reason?"

In just a few words, a cold killing intent surged within that laughter.

Clearly, Hanshan Laozu had already made his decision; as for whether a life-and-death struggle would unfold, it all depended on how that young sect master would respond.

"..."

Upon hearing this, Shen Yi silently looked down at the hunched figure below.

Under the watchful gazes of Yin Qizhang and Deng Xiangjun.

Set against the backdrop of the frigid profound armor, a faintly fierce smile suddenly surfaced on Shen Yi's Bai Xi face.

He hadn't even lifted his chopsticks yet, when a fat fish on the platter suddenly opened its mouth and started lecturing on etiquette.

Truly... how utterly absurd.

The next moment, Shen Yi casually raised his palm, as those slender five fingers lifted lightly.

The entire sky instantly began to churn.

Onlookers only felt the heavens and earth change color, without any tangible sensation. Only Shen Shan Laozu's rotten teeth suddenly clenched tight, and his clasped fists went from trembling slightly to shaking violently.

His bare, filthy feet suddenly sank down. Amidst a deafening roar, the entire glacier split open with a suddenness that gave no time to cover one's ears, collapsing layer by layer in a cascading collapse. In the blink of an eye, it shattered completely, turning into drift ice.

And on the largest piece of drift ice, Shen Shan Laozu's knees bent, creaking and groaning.

He nearly ground his teeth to dust, the veins on his neck coiling like flood dragons. He raised his head, eyes wide, staring fixedly at the profound-armored figure above.

Boom—

Yet beneath such a ferocious, savage expression, his body sank inch by inch, and with a faint, insignificant thud, he knelt completely onto this drift ice.

Shen Shan Laozu released his clasped fists, staring woodenly at his own knees.

He truly hadn't expected that an Earth-realm cultivator could, with a wave of his hand, display a technique comparable to the most top-tier divine abilities.

This immortal art had reached perfection!

"Cough, cough—"

Deng Xiangjun stared blankly at the scene before her, suddenly choking.

The old monster who had been so overbearing in front of her earlier had knelt before Shen Zongzhu in a single exchange. Honestly, he really was quite the gentleman.

Of course, complaints aside.

With Deng Xiangjun's discernment, she could naturally see that in the earlier clash, Shen Zongzhu had employed some unfathomably profound method, and that the Cold Mountain old demon had merely suffered from being caught off guard. He was still far from revealing his true strength.

But Shen Yi had actually mastered that immortal art to its absolute peak in such a short time. Such comprehension was utterly unreasonable, truly inspiring awe and fear.

Moreover, judging solely from this first exchange.

Deng Xiangjun's heart settled completely back into her stomach. Win or lose was hard to say—after all, Shen Shan Laozu hadn't yet revealed his demon body, and having weathered a tribulation of slaughter, he surely had a few trump cards up his sleeve. But at the very least, Shen Zongzhu's life was not in danger, and there was a high probability he could protect the countless lives behind him.

Simply outrageous... something even Lin Shimei Ji might not necessarily achieve, and Shen Zongzhu actually pulled it off!

Yin Qizhang was merely a Bai Yujing cultivator, lacking Deng Xiangjun's discernment.

He only knew that this somewhat slender figure before him seemed, no matter what predicament he faced, to remain that insurmountable Gaoshan, an impassable chasm.

And the greatest fortune of their lives was to nestle behind this mountain, watching the storms rage without a single drop wetting the corners of their robes.

"..."

Shen Yi looked down at Shen Shan Laozu, not withdrawing his palm, but instead gripping it. As if over a thousand zhang of profound golden light spanned water and land, then swiftly condensed between his fingers into a straight, gold-patterned profound blade.

The brief exchange earlier could be considered a rough understanding of this great demon's strength.

Here, there were no manners, only rules.

And at this moment, his rules—Shen Yi's rules—were Yu Nanhong's rules.

(End of this chapter)