Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Seven
"Ah Yin! Don't hurt her!" On the Azure Dragon Platform, Yan Shuang, who had been wounded by Hua Shu, shouted toward Feng Yin in the direction of the Ember Fire.
Feng Yin was startled. In that moment of distraction, the Demon Gathering Banner was fully unfurled. Hua Shu's Primordial Spirit had almost merged completely with the banner, and roaring demon beasts stood at its opening as if ready to tear all living beings apart.
Hua Shu looked toward the demonized Peacock Clan warriors in the distance, then back at Feng Yin, her eyes suddenly revealing a vague plea and earnestness.
"Feng Yin, don't use Divine Dissolution. Trust me, open your phoenix wings!"
A familiar voice echoed in Feng Yin's mind—only she could hear it.
It was Hua Shu's voice, no longer carrying its former arrogance, only a plea.
A flicker of emotion passed through Feng Yin's eyes, but she still did not move. Hua Shu had now merged with the Demon Gathering Banner and become its master. Hong Yi could no longer intimidate the demon beasts within the banner. If these beasts lost control, they would surely bring calamity upon the world.
Hua Mo, trapped within the Ember Fire, sensed something was wrong and roared toward Hua Shu's direction, "Shu'er, release the demon beasts, break Feng Yin's Ember Fire, quickly! Quickly!"
Hua Shu seemed not to hear Hua Mo's voice, her gaze fixed solely on Feng Yin.
"Feng Yin, for Lan Feng's sake, trust me!" Her voice continued to echo in Feng Yin's mind.
The opening of the banner tore wider, and the ferocious beasts roared, ready to charge out. Seeing Feng Yin unmoved, anxiety flashed in Hua Shu's eyes, and she finally cried out aloud, "Feng Yin!"
In that instant, Feng Yin abruptly withdrew her wings. The Ember Fire shattered, and the demon beasts within the Demon Gathering Banner seized the opportunity, joyfully rushing out of the Ember Fire toward the Phoenix Clan and Eagle Clan locked in combat in mid-air.
The Peacock King was overjoyed, a triumphant smile spreading across his face.
Unexpectedly, the demon beasts that had shown no consciousness earlier in the Nine Palaces Tower charged into the fray, tearing through the Demon Army one by one without harming a single member of the Phoenix Clan.
The Peacock King's smile gradually froze.
At the same moment, Hua Shu, who had almost merged completely with the Demon Gathering Banner, suddenly turned and charged toward Hua Mo. Hua Mo was sucked toward the banner's opening, involuntarily flying toward it.
It was known throughout the world that any living being entering the Demon Gathering Banner would have their flesh and blood dissolve, their soul scattered, leaving only an empty skeleton forever imprisoned within the banner, with no chance of rebirth!
Fear and rage appeared on Hua Mo's face. "Shu'er, what are you doing!" he roared, gathering his Demonic Power and fleeing in the opposite direction of the banner.
Suddenly, a large jade-green umbrella blocked his path. The umbrella shimmered with Immortal Qi, firmly trapping Hua Mo in mid-air.
It was the Sky-Shielding Umbrella! Years ago, Hua Mo had instructed Hua Shu to deceive Yuan Qi into handing over the Sky-Shielding Umbrella. Now, it had become his death warrant.
In that brief moment, the Demon Gathering Banner caught up to Hua Mo. The banner's opening gave a powerful suck, and the primal Demonic Power swallowed Hua Mo whole into the banner.
Seeing this, Feng Yin finally let out a sigh of relief. Her Divine Power exhausted, she transformed back into human form and began to fall, only to be caught steadily by the arriving Hong Yi, who landed with her on the Azure Dragon Platform.
Yan Shuang, witnessing this scene nearby, felt a pang of bitterness in her heart and averted her gaze.
"Hua Shu, you unfilial daughter! How dare you commit patricide and betray your clan! Heaven and earth will not tolerate you! I curse you to die a miserable death for all eternity, just like me, never to see the light of day again! Hua Shu! Hua Shu! You unfilial daughter!"In mid-air, furious curses emanated from the Demon Gathering Banner, slowly turning into agonizing screams of flesh and blood dissolving, until finally, no sound remained at all.
Standing outside the Demon Gathering Banner, Hua Shu listened to the Peacock King's curses. She closed her eyes, her face pale and inexplicably devoid of any emotion.
The moment the Peacock King was devoured by the Demon Gathering Banner, the demonic net that had trapped the immortals on the Azure Dragon Platform vanished without a trace. The immortals regained their freedom, looking at Hua Shu with complex expressions.
Who would have thought that the one who ultimately saved the Heavenly Palace and prevented the Phoenix Sovereign from undergoing Divine Dissolution would be Hua Shu.
The Peacock King probably never imagined that the empire he had schemed for thousands of years would ultimately be thwarted by his own daughter.
Nearby, the Phoenix Clan members, seeing the ferocious demonic power of the demon beasts within the Demon Gathering Banner, silently flew aside, leaving the battlefield to these savage creatures that rarely emerged even once in millennia.
For a moment, aside from the demon beasts madly tearing through the demon army, the entire sky above the Azure Dragon Platform fell silent.
Not far away, Qing Qiong, standing beside Feng Ran's imperial throne, watched the demon beasts voraciously devouring the demon army, a greedy red light flashing in his eyes. He subtly shifted toward the direction of the demon beasts and the demon army, having taken only two steps when a faint voice sounded behind him.
"Come back, or I will destroy the Life Gate of your tower."
Qing Qiong halted his steps, turning his head, his expression freezing for a moment.
Feng Ran's imperial throne had just floated to the center of the floating circle. Standing beside her was Feng Huan, the Guard Captain of the Phoenix Clan, who had appeared at some unknown time.
Feng Ran's hand extended from the imperial throne, effortlessly passing through the Ember Fire laid down by Feng Yin. A wisp of Divine Power landed at the center of the floating circle from her fingertip. Though the Divine Power was extremely faint, it was more than enough to destroy the soul of the artifact spirit.
Qing Qiong raised an eyebrow, looking at Feng Ran with a subtle, playful expression.
He truly hadn't expected that, with both the immortal and demon tribes in such dire straits, Feng Ran could still outmaneuver him.
After living for over a hundred thousand years and boasting of having outwitted the entire Divine Realm, he had now been thoroughly fooled by a little phoenix from the Lower Three Realms. It was utterly humiliating.
Qing Qiong stood in place, glancing once more at the demon beasts and the demon army in the distance before withdrawing his greedy gaze. He shrugged and nonchalantly retreated to Feng Ran's imperial throne.
"Alright, alright, Your Majesty, whatever you say," he said, looking at Feng Ran's hand and watching as she casually withdrew the Divine Power from her fingertip, a slight smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
"When did you discover the Life Gate of my Nine Palaces Tower and even set up a Teleportation Gate to Wutong Phoenix Island inside it?" Qing Qiong asked with a wicked smile, his eyes charmingly roguish. Though he exuded an air of malevolence, it was not at all off-putting.
The greatest secret of the Nine Palaces Tower was not its nine-tiered palace structure but its ability to traverse space. This was his life-saving treasure, something even his mortal enemies from the Ancient Divine Realm hadn't known about. How did Feng Ran, a deity from the Lower Three Realms, come to know of it?
"Oh, I caught a glimpse when you used this tower to sneak into the Milky Way to spy on the celestial maidens bathing in the Heavenly Palace. I thought it was safe and hidden, so I left a way out for my Phoenix Clan. I never expected it would come in handy today," Feng Ran replied, looking at Qing Qiong, who had obediently posed as an Immortal Tribe Supreme Treasure in the Heavenly Palace for thousands of years. She raised her eyes and smiled as well.
"Demon Artifact? You're too modest, Senior. The mighty Nine-Layered Demon Tower of the Ancient Divine Realm was as renowned for its love of battle as the Star-Moon Goddess of old. As the ruler of a realm, I naturally had to keep tabs on a demon god hiding in the Heavenly Palace."
Damn, this phoenix is really cunning as hell!Seeing Qing Qiong snort and about to speak, Feng Ran tapped on the armrest of the imperial throne. "Divine Lord Qing Qiong, abandon any thoughts of devouring these members of the Demon Tribe and demon beasts. As a dignified divine being of the demon race, why stoop to the demonic path?"
She fixed her gaze into the distance. "You have seen the fate of the Peacock King."
"What of the Demon Tribe? These are merely lowly demons. You have never truly witnessed what a real Demon is."
Qing Qiong seemed to recall something, a chill running through his heart, but he heeded Feng Ran's words and gave up any designs on the demons and demon beasts within the Heavenly Palace.
Never mind, returning to the Divine Realm to cultivate for tens of thousands of years to heal his wounds would suffice. After all, having lived for over a hundred thousand years, time meant little.
In the interplay of advance and retreat between Feng Ran and Qing Qiong, the demon army above the Heavenly Palace had already been completely torn apart and devoured by the demon beasts. Hua Shu had been watching her clansmen perish all along, her body growing increasingly transparent, almost completely merging into the Demon Gathering Banner. Until the last Peacock Clan warrior vanished, until all the demon beasts returned to the Demon Gathering Banner, she raised her head and stared blankly at the blood-stained sky, not uttering a single word.
Everyone witnessing this scene remained silent. After a long while, she suddenly turned and, relying on the last vestiges of her not-yet-dissipated form, knelt in Feng Ran's direction.
"Your Majesty, my clan is guilty." She kowtowed deeply, sorrow permeating the air.
"I know my sins are unforgivable. My soul will remain within the Demon Gathering Banner, eternally suppressing the Peacock King. I beg Your Majesty, for Lan Feng's sake, to spare the last untainted bloodline of my Peacock Clan on Hundred Birds Island."
The Ember Fire beside Feng Ran's throne dissipated. She slowly flew over and landed before the kneeling Hua Shu.
"I promise you. Those untouched by the Demon Tribe, I will harm not a single one. I will set up a Barrier around Hundred Birds Island. For three thousand years, only members of the Peacock Clan may freely enter or leave."
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your mercy. Hua Shu thanks you on behalf of my clan." Hua Shu's voice choked, yet she never raised her head.
"You have exchanged your Primordial Spirit and eternal freedom for the peace of the Three Realms. This is what I should do."
Hua Shu nodded, slowly rising and moving toward the Demon Gathering Banner, her desolate figure nearly transparent.
Upon reaching the banner's entrance, she suddenly halted and looked toward Feng Yin on the Azure Dragon Platform.
Feng Yin met her gaze, her own emotions equally complex and overwhelming.
A thousand years ago, it was Hua Shu who caused her soul to be scattered and spirit dispersed in Rakshasa Land. A thousand years later, it was also Hua Shu who, at the cost of her Primordial Spirit dissipating and eternal imprisonment, bought back her life.
Between them, a millennium of entanglement, right and wrong, was settled today.
"Feng Yin, from the moment you were born, I envied you. I envied your bloodline, your status, your Divine Power, I envied everything about you."
Hua Shu gazed at Feng Yin.
"But there is one thing I do not envy you about."
The corners of her lips curved slightly, as if smiling, a clear and elegant figure appearing in her eyes—that was her faith.
"I, too, had someone who would give up everything for me, who saw me as his life."
She looked toward the depths of the Heavenly Palace, in the direction of Xiuyang Hall.
"But I lost him."
"Feng Yin, what I owed you, I have repaid. Take care of yourself."
Hua Shu turned and walked into the Demon Gathering Banner, never looking back.
Feng Yin watched her silently, a sigh passing through her eyes.The moment that transparent and solitary figure vanished into the Demon Gathering Banner, the half-zhang-tall banner lost its demonic power fluctuations, shrinking to palm size as it fell toward Hong Yi on the Azure Dragon Platform.
Hong Yi caught the Demon Gathering Banner and looked toward Feng Ran.
Feng Ran waved her hand. "Enough. She has already become the banner spirit of the Demon Gathering Banner. Since she chose to leave the Immortal Realm, you may take the banner with you."
Hong Yi nodded. The Demon Gathering Banner was a supreme treasure of the Demon Tribe—naturally, it was best to bring it back to the Demon Realm.
With the great battle over, everything seemed to suddenly fall into tranquility. Only the blood on the Azure Dragon Platform and the damaged Immortal Sect gates bore witness to what had just transpired in the Heavenly Palace.
The gathered immortals exchanged glances, sighing in exhaustion, both physically and mentally. Having been deities for thousands upon tens of thousands of years, they had likely never felt such anxiety and despair as they had today.
Now that the greatest demon had been vanquished, surely there would be no further disturbances, right?
Noticing the fearful expressions on the faces of the immortals, Feng Ran sighed. She cleared her throat, about to offer a few comforting words to soothe them, when suddenly a pillar of white light shot through the heavens, illuminating the Three Realms.
The divine might carried by this white light far surpassed that of the Phoenix Sovereign and the Demon Emperor. The immortals paled in terror—who in the Three Realms possessed such divine power?
Feng Ran, Feng Yin, and the others looked up, their expressions shifting abruptly.
The source of the white light was the direction of Purple Moon Mountain within the Third Heaven of the Demon Realm.
And that white divine power was none other than the Primordial Chaos Power.
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