Chapter 70

When that groan, which appeared out of thin air, exploded in her ears, Hua Changxi sensed an invisible, terrifying power rising from beneath the stone cave.

It instantly shattered the cloud beneath her feet, causing her to lose her balance and fall directly from the high altitude, crashing heavily onto the ground.

"Ah~"

Hua Changxi couldn't care about the pain. Her eyes bulged as she watched, shocked and horrified, as golden spiritual light floated out from the ground beneath the cave at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The spiritual light grew more abundant and dense, rapidly gathering toward the opening at the top, and with its terrifying power, it caused the stone cave to shake.

'Boom—'

The concentration of spiritual light reached its peak. The stone cave finally could no longer withstand the powerful force carried by the light and began to sway. 'Clatter, clatter,' countless fragments of rock began to fall.

The stone cave was collapsing, disintegrating!

Suddenly, the surging spiritual light burst through the cave entrance. Hua Changxi saw the Buddha hand that had suppressed the Monkey King fall down. It landed on the ground with a 'thud'; it didn't shatter, but cracks appeared on it.

At the same time, outside the cave, seeing the stone cave suddenly shaking violently, Jiang Guanyun and Jiang Gaoheng both revealed expressions of gravity and caution.

The mountain spirit was so scared it didn't even dare to struggle: "We're going to die, we're going to die! The Fairy moved the Buddha hand, the Monkey King is coming out."

Hearing the mountain spirit's words, Jiang Guanyun's brows knit together. He hadn't taken the wild girl's shouting to heart earlier; he didn't believe in any Monkey King, and even if there were one, it would have long since turned to ash.

But at this moment, feeling the ground beneath his feet begin to shake, Jiang Guanyun hesitated and stopped the refinement of the mountain spirit.

"Second son, let's leave this place first."

Jiang Guanyun dared not linger. Holding the mountain spirit, he had just turned to leave when, with a loud 'crack,' the spiritual light gathering in the cave finally burst the cave open and leaked out.

With the stone cave as the center, the dense golden spiritual light swept out like a mushroom cloud explosion, engulfing everything in all directions.

"Run~"

A terrifying wave of energy rushed toward them. Jiang Guanyun had no power to resist and was blown away directly by the blast.

If someone at the Nascent Soul realm like him was like this, let alone Jiang Gaoheng, who was only at the Qi Sea realm; before he could even react, he was killed instantly by the blast.

Jiang Guanyun followed the force of the blast, flying rapidly toward the outer perimeter of Mount Wuzhi. Upon sensing that his second son's aura had vanished, his blood surged, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

At this moment, taking advantage of his unstable aura, the mountain spirit desperately broke free from his restraint and ran toward the Third Peak without looking back.

Seeing the mountain spirit escape, Jiang Guanyun was so angry his eyes were bloodshot. Unwilling to lose the mountain spirit just like that, he wanted to pursue it, but seeing the spiritual light gathering at the cave and shooting straight into the clouds, stirring the entire Mount Wuzhi until it seemed unstable, he hesitated.

Seeing this, Jiang Guanyun dared not hesitate any longer. Gritting his teeth, he decisively turned and flew outward.

The moment the spiritual light spread out from the stone cave, every living creature on Mount Wuzhi felt that chilling aura. All the cultivators on the outer perimeter of Mount Wuzhi flew out of the mountain's range in unison.

"What on earth happened inside the mountain?"

Outside Mount Wuzhi, cultivators from all sides—some on flying swords, some riding clouds, others on flying artifacts—hovered high in the air, looking at the Third Peak of Mount Wuzhi with grave expressions.

"What is that surging, gathering spiritual light?"

At this moment, the Third Peak of Mount Wuzhi was filled with surging spiritual light, which showed signs of spreading further outward.

Soon, the spiritual light covered the Third Peak and began to spread toward the Second and Fourth Peaks.

"Fairy."

The stone cave had collapsed, but the original space of the cave remained intact. Hua Changxi lay on the ground, staring blankly at the scene unfolding before her.

She hadn't expected her actions to cause such a massive commotion.

It was so large that it exceeded her imagination and her control.

She only wanted to save the mountain spirit and kill that old Daoist, but looking at the current situation, it felt like the entire Mount Wuzhi was going to suffer.

"Fairy, run quickly~"

Hua Changxi turned to look at the mountain spirit not far away, her face bitter.

Didn't she want to run?

She did, she wanted to desperately.

But she had been locked onto by an invisible force and couldn't move at all now.

"Fatty, you run, don't worry about me."

Seeing the mountain spirit looking like it wanted to come over, Hua Changxi quickly stopped it: "I seem to have been locked onto by the Monkey King. Don't come in."

Hearing this, the mountain spirit looked terrified. It was truly anxious now; if the Monkey King's domain continued to expand, Mount Wuzhi would be destroyed.

"Fairy, where is the Buddha hand?"

Hua Changxi paused for a moment, then quickly looked around: "In the northeast direction, see it? A golden handprint the size of a palm."

The mountain spirit looked in the direction Hua Changxi indicated and saw the Buddha hand. Its expression was somewhat sorrowful, its eyes red: "I just cultivated a spiritual body, just manifested a human form, wuwu~"

Seeing it still crying at a time like this, Hua Changxi roared in exasperation: "Stop crying, run!"

The mountain spirit looked at Hua Changxi with watery, teary eyes: "Fairy, you must come back to Mount Wuzhi in the future. I still want you to grant me my title."

Hua Changxi felt something was wrong with these words and asked urgently: "What are you going to do?"

"I am the mountain spirit. I cannot let Mount Wuzhi be destroyed."

After saying this, the mountain spirit didn't give Hua Changxi a chance to react. With a 'whoosh,' it rushed toward the Buddha hand and merged into it as a stream of five-colored spiritual light.

Then, the Buddha hand began to shine brilliantly and slowly hovered in mid-air.

Hua Changxi watched this scene, her mind somewhat blank.

The next moment, she saw five-colored spiritual light emerging from the ground, surging upward even faster than the golden spiritual light had gathered.

At this moment, the cultivators outside Mount Wuzhi were stunned by the scene before them.

Throughout the entire Mount Wuzhi, countless streams of five-colored spiritual light were constantly emerging from the ground, permeating, rising, and spreading.

Before long, they surrounded the golden spiritual light that was still spreading outward.

"Roar~"

A roar filled with deep anger emanated from the golden spiritual light. Then, the golden light began to twist, and in the blink of an eye, a massive, upright figure condensed.

Seeing that massive figure, everyone lost their voices.

Hua Changxi, at the very center of the spiritual light, felt the shock most intensely. It was a phantom giant monkey, condensed from spiritual energy, larger than a mountain.

The Monkey King...

She had really released the Monkey King!

But, wasn't she supposed to be immune to the Monkey King's domain? Why was she locked onto by it?

"Dong~"

A primitive, melodious sound of a Buddha bell rang out above the clouds. Then, the sea of clouds surged, and five-colored spiritual light gathered high in the sky. The next moment, a giant hand, capable of covering a mountain and condensed from five-element spiritual energy, formed in the high sky.

Seeing the giant hand appear, Hua Changxi let out a sigh of relief. However, she glanced at the Buddha hand hovering not far away, slowly rising, and seeing the cracks on it, a strong sense of unease welled up in her heart.

The Buddha hand had cracks; could it still continue to suppress the Monkey King?

The giant monkey crossed the sea of clouds, its giant hand blotting out the sky and sun.

This scene was reflected so far that not only did people near Mount Wuzhi see it, but people in other prefectures and counties of Qingzhou Province saw it as well.

"Roar~"

The moment the giant hand condensed, the giant monkey let out an angry roar that pierced the clouds and shattered stones, then launched a fierce punch, attacking the giant hand.

The giant hand also covered the giant monkey at the same time. The terrifying power that seemed to want to destroy everything made everyone tremble with fear.

The cultivators watching from Mount Wuzhi once again flew a distance further out in unison to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

"Bang~"

The giant monkey and the giant hand collided violently. A strong wind of spiritual energy swept out, and the terrifying momentum forced everyone to continue retreating.

At this moment, a figure rushed out from Mount Wuzhi.

Everyone looked closely and discovered it was the Jiang family ancestor, Jiang Guanyun.

As soon as Jiang Guanyun escaped the range of Mount Wuzhi, he could no longer suppress the rampaging spiritual energy. He spat out several mouthfuls of blood and fell directly from the sky.

Seeing this scene, the eyes of various factions flickered, both with judgments about the danger level of Mount Wuzhi and with secret plans to calculate the Jiang family's assets.

"Bang~"

"Bang~"

The giant monkey and the giant hand clashed again; one wanted to shatter the giant hand, the other wanted to cover and suppress the giant monkey.

Perhaps because she was located beneath the giant monkey's feet, at the very center of the storm, Hua Changxi was surprisingly not affected by much.

It was also at this moment that Hua Changxi discovered the power locking onto her had disappeared. Without a word, she climbed up quickly, wanting to flee the place.

Far from the stone cave, Hua Changxi dared not run around in the surging spiritual energy of Mount Wuzhi and found a small hill to hide behind.

Seeing the giant monkey and the giant hand, she noticed that with every strike, they became a bit more illusory. Hua Changxi prayed constantly in her heart that the giant hand would be the first to disperse the giant monkey.

However, things went against her wishes. After the fifth collision between the giant monkey and the giant hand, cracks appeared on the giant hand.

The cracks opened, and the spiritual energy dissipated.

The giant hand became unstable and was blasted by the giant monkey until it became increasingly illusory.

"What should I do?"

Hua Changxi was somewhat anxious. If the giant hand were blasted apart, there would be nothing left to suppress the expansion of the Monkey King's domain. Although she didn't know what the consequences would be, she felt it wouldn't be good.

If the Monkey King's domain continued to spread outward and left the range of Mount Wuzhi, affecting the common people, she really couldn't imagine what would happen.

"Mountain spirit, why didn't you tell me clearly that moving the Buddha hand would cause such a huge commotion?"

"What should I do now?"

Hua Changxi's gaze suddenly turned toward the location of the stone cave. There, the Buddha hand, which had fallen and cracked, was still slowly rising; it seemed to be suppressed, as its rising speed was very slow.

"Is the Buddha hand trying to return to its original position?"

But the stone cave was already gone.

Hua Changxi was both afraid and anxious. She was afraid she had caused an irreparable disaster; regardless of anything else, she was the one who had moved the Buddha hand.

"Boom~"

Under the giant monkey's attack, the giant hand became even more illusory, and at the same time, the cracks on it grew larger and more unstable.

"Forget it, while the giant hand can still block the giant monkey, I'll help send the Buddha hand up and see."

Hua Changxi gritted her teeth and flew back to the stone cave, picked up the Buddha hand, and prepared to rush upward. Unfortunately, she underestimated the Monkey King's pressure inside the cave; her rising speed was not much faster than the Buddha hand's.

"Roar~"

The giant monkey sensed what was happening in the stone cave and was extremely angry. It attacked the giant hand with one fist and smashed the other straight toward Hua Changxi.

The moment the monkey's fist smashed down, Hua Changxi couldn't ride the cloud upward and fell to the ground. Wanting to escape but having no chance, she watched the giant fist smash down and instinctively unleashed a fire lotus, wanting to block the monkey's fist.

Fire lotus after fire lotus was unleashed. Although they were all easily dispersed by the monkey's fist, they did, in the end, slow down the speed at which the fist fell.

Seeing that the fire lotus was effective, Hua Changxi could only continue to unleash them.

The fire lotus consumed a lot of spiritual energy. Feeling the spiritual energy in her body depleting rapidly, Hua Changxi gritted her teeth and learned from the Monkey King: one hand unleashed fire lotuses, the other absorbed spiritual energy.

Fortunately, she had set up a Spirit-Gathering Array in the cave earlier, and she was a spiritual energy black hole; she could absorb any amount of spiritual energy. At this moment, it was a huge help.

Outside Mount Wuzhi, all the cultivators watched the battle inside with trepidation.

At first, it was just a battle between the giant monkey and the giant hand, but at some point, a large amount of fire spiritual energy condensed beneath the giant monkey's feet, and fire lotus after fire lotus constantly attacked it.

"Fire lotus... The criminal who killed my Cui family disciples and the Jiang family cultivators used this kind of fire lotus."

"That person is truly a rat, a mere ant, only knowing how to sneak attack. The giant monkey is being blocked by the giant hand, and she goes off to strike from the shadows. Why doesn't the giant monkey hurry up and kill her?"

Regarding Cui Cheng's angry cursing, the other factions paid no attention, their expressions all very grave.

The people from the Asura Gate looked down on the Cui family and sneered: "Shut up. You'd better pray the giant monkey is suppressed, otherwise... Qingzhou is definitely finished."

Cui Cheng choked and couldn't help but look at his family head.

The Cui family head hesitated for a moment and flew to the front of the Taisu Palace team: "Taoist Qingyun, what does that mean, what the Asura Gate just said?"

Daoist Qingyun's expression at this moment was extremely grave: "That giant monkey should be a demonic beast suppressed on Mount Wuzhi. Regardless of what it was like in life, having been suppressed for endless years, it is absolutely filled with malice toward the outside world. Once it breaks free, it will definitely become an evil spirit that brings disaster to all directions."

As soon as he finished speaking, with a loud 'boom,' the giant hand was blasted apart by the giant monkey.

Seeing this, everyone's expression changed drastically.

Hua Changxi was also horrified. Seeing the giant monkey look down at her, she felt her heart stop beating.

"Am I going to die?"

Seeing the giant monkey's hand smash toward her, Hua Changxi felt the aura of death. Using all her strength, she injected all her spiritual energy into a single fire lotus and then exerted all her effort to unleash it.

After the fire lotus rushed toward the giant monkey, Hua Changxi continued to absorb spiritual energy while constantly injecting it into the fire lotus.

Knowing she was no match for the giant monkey, Hua Changxi closed her eyes in unwillingness, completely turning herself into a conduit connecting the fire lotus and the fire spiritual energy, maximizing the absorption and transmission of spiritual energy.

Outside Mount Wuzhi, everyone only saw the giant monkey lower its head and smash between its own feet, and then a magnificent fire lotus flew up, blocking the giant monkey's fist.

The giant monkey quickly dispersed the fire lotus, and just as it continued to smash down, the Third Peak was filled with sky-covering red fire spiritual energy.

The fire spiritual energy rapidly condensed and surged, as if something was about to condense and emerge.

"Li~"

A melodious, resonant bird cry resounded through the clouds.

The moment the bird cry sounded, for a brief instant, Hua Changxi felt as if she had turned into fire spiritual energy and rushed toward the giant monkey.

Amidst the stunned silence of the crowd, a fire bird with brilliant, colorful light flew out from the surging fire spiritual energy and rushed toward the giant monkey.

"Roar~"

The giant monkey let out an unwilling roar, watching the fire bird disperse its body, and despairingly turned into points of light, dissipating in the air.

The fire bird easily dispersed the giant monkey, flashed across the sky, and then plunged back into the Third Peak of Mount Wuzhi, disappearing from sight.

The moment the fire bird appeared, countless people were stirred.

In the capital, at the Imperial Observatory, the Chief Astronomer Yuan looked at the southern direction with a shocked expression; the Emperor Star had appeared.

"How can this be?"

"Spiritual energy has only just begun to recover, and the Emperor Star has already appeared?"

At the Hanlin Academy, in the History Office, the historian Shi Yishi looked excitedly at the pure white scroll and the white jade brush that had condensed from spiritual light on the table.

Shi Yishi carefully and cautiously flipped through the paper and brush, tears of excitement shining in his eyes: "How many years has it been? The Shi family has finally waited for this day to write the legend of the Four Spirits again."

Shi Yishi composed himself, walked quickly out of the room, and looked up toward the south.

"Is this opening of the interface being led by the south?"

At the Medical Bureau, at the clinic at No. 1 Second Street, Apothecary Tong was explaining alchemy techniques. While everyone was listening intently, Gu Jinfan suddenly stood up and ran out of the room.

"What's going on?"

Looking at the sky filled with colorful clouds in the direction of Qingzhou, Gu Jinfan's face was full of disbelief.

The Jiang family possesses the bloodline of outside cultivators, seized Mount Wuzhi, and can still receive the blessings of Heaven?

That's not right. In her previous life, the Jiang family also obtained Mount Wuzhi, and there was no such celestial phenomenon.

Did something happen over in Qingzhou?

She returned too late and had no powerful supporters; otherwise, she would have intervened in this struggle for Mount Wuzhi no matter what.

The Jiang family ancestor is a Nascent Soul powerhouse, which can be said to be the highest combat strength in the current Four Spirits Realm. She couldn't compete, and couldn't win, and not wanting to watch Mount Wuzhi belong to the Jiang family, she didn't go to Qingzhou.

But now, it seems something has changed.