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In the Gu Clan territory, a figure stood—his clothes in tatters, his entire body charred black. Only the blood that kept oozing from his inj
In the Gu Clan territory, a figure stood—his clothes in tatters, his entire body charred black. Only the blood that kept oozing from his injuries bore any color, painting a grim picture of his state.
"You devil... you're ruthless!" the scorched figure howled. "Once I recover, I will tear you limb from limb and cast your soul into the Soul Pool—shredding it to pieces, bit by bit!" His chest heaved violently as he coughed. He was none other than Gu Yuan, who had just barely escaped the explosion of fifteen Grade Nine Treasure Pills.
Even a Half-Emperor like Xiao Xuan, combined with the self-detonation of three Heavenly Flames, couldn't kill Hun Tiandi. So how could fifteen Grade Nine Pills kill a Nine-Star Dou Sheng at peak strength who was already on guard? Previously, when a pill exploded at point-blank range near Gu Yuan, it had merely left two bowl-sized holes in his body. This time, there had been a distance of several thousand meters.
Although the explosion hadn't killed Gu Yuan, it had left him gravely wounded. He would need a long time to recover.
As for the Soul Clan, Hun Tiandi was in an even worse state. Because he had tried to seize the Tuoshe Ancient Emperor's Jade, he had been closer to the explosion. The blast left his five fingers stripped of flesh, revealing white bone. Yet even in this state, his skeletal fingers clung tightly to the Tuoshe Ancient Emperor's Jade from the Medicine Clan.
"Tiandi, are you all right?"
Void Swallowing Flame approached and examined Hun Tiandi's injuries. What he saw left him deeply shocked. Hun Tiandi's strength had dropped to the mid-stage of Nine-Star Dou Sheng—a dramatic fall. This was the most severe injury he had sustained since annihilating the Xiao Clan.
If Hun Tiandi hadn't retained mid-stage Nine-Star Dou Sheng power, given that Gu Yuan and Qian Renhan's fates were unknown, Void Swallowing Flame might have seriously considered executing Plan Three—assassinating Hun Tiandi, eliminating the remaining Ancient Clans, collecting all the Tuoshe Jades, and claiming the inheritance of the Ancient Emperor for himself.
Plan One was to follow Hun Tiandi.
Plan Two was to ally with Qian Renhan.
Plan Three was to betray the Soul Clan and act alone.
Rebellion wasn't just an option for Void Swallowing Flame—it was in his bones.
Hun Tiandi's crimson eyes were cold as he commanded, "Void Swallowing Flame, spread word that the destruction of the Medicine, Stone, and Spirit Clans was caused by that brat. Continue the millennium plan. Next, destroy the Flame and Thunder Clans. The position of Dou Di... can only belong to me!"
With that, Hun Tiandi went into seclusion to recover. Void Swallowing Flame blinked, weighing his options. Until Qian Renhan's status was confirmed, he would side with Hun Tiandi for now. But he still ordered the Dou Sheng powerhouses under his control to secretly inscribe the Devouring Spirit Life-Extinction Array in alliance with Qian Renhan and the Gu Clan.
As the anti-devil alliance's siege on the Starfall Pavilion subsided, the Central Plains enjoyed a short period of calm. However, this peace was quickly shattered by a shocking piece of news from an unknown source.
The Devil Qian Renhan had annihilated three of the Ancient Eight Clans—the Stone, Spirit, and Medicine Clans. The Gu Clan Patriarch Gu Yuan and Soul Clan Patriarch Hun Tiandi had gone to the Ancient Dragon Island to eliminate him. As for the result—whether the Devil lived or died—no one knew.
This news spread like wildfire across every power in the Central Plains, triggering an enormous uproar. After all, the Ancient Eight Clans were the very heavens of the continent. They were the descendants of ancient Dou Dis, inheriting Dou Di bloodlines and possessing unimaginable cultivation speeds. In simple terms, they were on a whole different level of existence.
And now, such powerful clans had been destroyed? Three of them?
Had the Devil truly grown so powerful that it required Nine-Star Dou Sheng peak experts to put him down?
And had he really died? There was no confirmation.
Later, the Flame Clan Patriarch Yan Jin and the Thunder Clan Patriarch Lei Ying set out together to investigate at Ancient Dragon Island. But they were both seriously injured and forced to retreat by a sudden appearance—an early-stage Nine-Star Dou Sheng powerhouse. This only added to the mystery surrounding Qian Renhan's fate. Some believed he had perished, while others insisted he still lived. Regardless, a wave of terror swept the Central Plains.
Countless factions began moving their bloodlines and descendants into remote forests and mountains, hoping to preserve a spark of their lineage should Qian Renhan reappear.
Naturally, the Nine-Star Dou Sheng who drove them back was none other than Zhu Kun's projection.
Starfall Pavilion
When Yao Chen heard that the Medicine Clan had been destroyed, he instantly aged decades. In a daze, he muttered, "The Medicine Clan… has perished. He's truly grown this powerful."
Though Yao Chen no longer held much affection for the clan that had expelled him despite sharing the same Dou Di bloodline, it was still the family of his parents and his own birthplace. His lifelong dream had been to carve his parents' names into the clan's ancestral stone tablet. Now that the Medicine Clan was gone, that dream had lost all meaning.
Ancient Dragon Island
Atop a massive mountain with a crater-like summit, a plume of scorching white smoke coiled skyward—it was a volcano.
Hovering above the volcano's crater was a massive cauldron of jade-green color. Inside it was a pool filled with pure, high-energy bloodlines. Within that pool lay Qian Renhan's broken body. He neither breathed nor emitted any spiritual aura. His body was riddled with cracks, his blood seemingly drained dry. His once-silky white hair had become as coarse and lifeless as straw.
During the battle against Gu Yuan and Hun Tiandi, Qian Renhan had exhausted the energy channeled through the Transforming Heaven Ancient Formation, pushing his body to the brink of collapse. When he later used his soul power to detonate fifteen Grade Nine Treasure Pills, the backlash from the explosion had gravely damaged both his body and soul.
The blood within the cauldron came from various sources: the royal bloodlines of the three great dragon kings of the southwest, north, and west extracted by the Taixu Ancient Dragon Clan; ancient Sky Serpent blood; and ancient Heavenly Phoenix blood. All precious, high-grade bloodlines were poured into this cauldron.
Beside the cauldron stood two figures, both clad in resplendent purple-gold robes and crowned with royal diadems. The aura they exuded commanded heaven and earth alike. These two were none other than Zhu Kun and Zi Yan.
"Father… Qian Renhan will recover, right?" Zi Yan's soft voice brimmed with deep emotion. Her face was pale—she had been constantly feeding Qian Renhan with Dragon-Phoenix essence blood.
The Dragon-Phoenix bloodline surpassed even the Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python and the Ancient Sky Serpent. It was the most precious bloodline on the entire Dou Qi continent.
Zhu Kun gently ruffled Zi Yan's hair and said in a firm tone, "He will. Our Taixu Ancient Dragon Clan has poured in everything we have. I even gave Qian Renhan the only Grade Nine Golden Pill I possess. He will recover."
Grade Nine Golden Pills ranked just below the embryonic Emperor-tier pills and were the top tier among Nine-Star Dou Sheng-level elixirs—supreme treasures even among ancient clans.
On the Dou Qi continent, even the top elixirs of the Gu, Soul, and Medicine Clans were only Grade Nine Profound Pills. Zhu Kun possessed a Golden Pill solely because he hailed from an era thousands of years ago—a time when Dou Di experts still emerged, the continent thrived with opportunity, and the Medicine Clan was at its peak, producing alchemists capable of crafting such divine pills.
(End of Chapter)