With the spatial barrier shattering, the true visage of Shimmering Mirage Island—the main island of the Shimmering Mirage Dragon Archipelago—finally revealed itself. Though a vast shroud of mirage mist still enveloped it, nothing could block the piercing gazes of Yan Zhen and his four companions.
Vast clusters of magnificent buildings rose across the enormous island, towering pagodas standing sentinel at each of the four cardinal directions. They now pulsed with radiant light, igniting the Island Protection Great Array at its highest alert level.
After all, with the spatial barrier broken, the intruders were at minimum High Star Mystic Ancestors. Such precautions were only to be expected.
Guardian disciples of the Mirage Pavilion surged out from the mist in droves. Under the leadership of an elder, they swiftly formed a Sword Array to intercept Yan Zhen and his group.
The Guard Elder was a Mystic Ancestor expert bearing the unmistakable signs of advanced age. In that moment, he sensed an overwhelming pressure emanating from Yan Zhen and the others, his face etched with grave concern.
“Who are you intruders? State your names.”
Yan Zhen stepped forward. He did not speak aloud but projected his voice through mystic power, its timbre grand and booming.
“Summon your Pavilion Master to meet me.”
In truth, given his status as the Saint Son, Yan Zhen had every right to issue such a command. But with his face concealed beneath his hood—and having shattered their spatial barrier without warning right at the outset—those words instantly provoked the man.
“Insolent fool! Don’t think a bit of strength lets you run rampant in my Mirage Pavilion!”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the Guard Elder’s vision blurred. A small fist, plump as a steamed bun, smashed into his face from empty air. The spatial power laced within it quivered faintly, hurling him away like a cannonball. He crashed heavily into the island’s interior and went still—no sound emerged. A concussion at best, if he wasn’t dead.
One punch had instantly felled a Mystic Ancestor expert. The guardian disciples were utterly dumbfounded. Their invincible Guard Elder, taken out in a single blow by a little loli barely tall enough to reach their knees?
Long Ying huffed in irritation.
“Enough chatter! Get your old man and old old man out here. This one is going to flatten them!”
Several Mystic Ancestor auras descended gracefully—they were clearly more elders. Beholding the Guard Elder’s wretched state, shock and fury twisted their features.
“Fellows, who might you be? Why assault our Mirage Pavilion without provocation?”
Jiu Youyue’s bewitching laughter rang out.
“Our Demon Domain acts as we please. Why should we explain ourselves to you?”
“Demon Domain?!” The elders recoiled in alarm. “You’re Demon Domain Evil Cultivators?”
Yi Xian’er snorted coldly and charged without another word. Against her, these paltry Mystic Ancestors couldn’t withstand a single move. They spat blood and hurtled backward, their bodies stained with baleful qi that eroded their flesh amid agonized howls.
It certainly looked the part of Demon Domain Evil Cultivators.
Truth be told, in her previous life, had Yan Zhen not desperately intervened to stop her, Yi Xian’er might well have succumbed to the demonic path and become one of the Demon Domain’s own. That was the root of her Mystic emotional dependence on him now—a reliance laced with something almost pathological.
“Stand down!”
The command arrived in tandem with surging spatial fluctuations. A colossal palm of mirage mist slammed down toward Yi Xian’er’s head. She tensed to counter, but a brilliant streak of starlight flashed before her, shredding the palm with effortless grace.
As the starlight faded, Yan Zhen’s figure emerged. Even shrouded in a sinister black robe, his searing aura could not be contained. Yi Xian’er’s lovely eyes sparkled with adoration as she gazed at his back, unable to tear her gaze away—he looked perfect from every angle.
Yan Zhen kept his head slightly bowed, his handsome features shadowed by the hood to reveal only from the nose downward. Gray-black Evil Spirit Dragon Breath Flame had coalesced into a coiling fire dragon at his back, radiating an eerie majesty that made him seem even more the demonic overlord than Yi Xian’er.
Before him stood five Mystic Venerable powerhouses, confronting them from a distance with glares of pure venom.
As one of the Overseas Three Sects, the Mirage Pavilion’s collective might rivaled any Super Force. On the surface alone, it boasted five Mystic Venerables: the Old Pavilion Master, the current Pavilion Master, and three sect elders.
Over the past three years of covert growth, beyond the Old Pavilion Master’s ascension to Supreme, five Mystic Ancestors had also broken through to Mystic Venerable—for a total of nine.
These days, the newly minted five Mystic Venerables managed the Pavilion’s day-to-day affairs, while the Old Pavilion Master and his four comrades led an elite team to plumb the ruins of the Thousand Illusions Grotto-Heaven.
The five Mystic Venerables had always masked their auras with secret arts, masquerading as mere Nine-Star Mystic Ancestors. But now, against such formidable foes, they unveiled their true power.
Their leader was a Two-Star Mystic Venerable; the others, One-Star.
“No matter if you’re Demon Domain Evil Cultivators or some other rabble—dare to wreak such havoc in my Mirage Pavilion, and you will pay dearly!”
Yan Zhen cackled wickedly.
“Then this seat shall see what you’re truly capable of.”
His words barely faded before he launched the assault, singling out the boastful Two-Star Mystic Venerable. He condensed fire into a sword and cleaved forth.
The Xuan Huang Dual Qi Flame shattered spatial power, forcing his foe into steady retreat.
Cai Lian, Long Ying, Yi Xian’er, and Jiu Youyue utterly dominated their own opponents with contemptuous ease.
Not one of the five Mystic Venerables lasted even the time for a cup of tea against them before defeat claimed them in turn.
Yan Zhen finished first, surprisingly enough. The Xuan Huang Dual Qi Flame was savagely potent—not only did it unravel spatial power, it weighed like a mountain. The slightest brush felt like Mount Tai crushing down, an unbearable burden that sapped speed and even disrupted levitation.
The Mirage Pavilion’s remaining disciples stood frozen in terror, while the Pavilion’s guests stared in speechless shock.
When had the Mirage Pavilion acquired five more Mystic Venerables? Hadn’t those five been Mystic Ancestors?
And what of these five black-robed interlopers? Four Mystic Venerables following a single Mystic Ancestor leader—and that Mystic Ancestor was thrashing a Mystic Venerable? Madness!
Self-doubt gripped them all.
Yan Zhen paid the onlookers no mind. With the Evil Spirit Dragon Breath Flame, he seized control of the guardian disciples, directing them to storm the Mirage Pavilion headquarters and sow chaos. Then, employing his Mental Tentacles, he hoisted the five battle-crippled Mystic Venerables aloft and began his interrogation.
“Heh heh, ready to summon your Pavilion Master or Old Pavilion Master now? You lot must have a token for it, yes?”
“Y-You’ll regret this! The Pavilion Master and Old Pavilion Master are supreme powerhouses!”
“Enough stalling! Summon them at once!”
“…”
Though uneasy about the intruders’ motives, the captives brimmed with faith in their Old Pavilion Master. He was a Supreme powerhouse, after all—not five Mystic Venerables nor even ten more would daunt him.
A Supreme powerhouse forged a Supreme Domain, absolute sovereign within its bounds, incomparable to any Mystic Venerable.
The lead Two-Star Mystic Venerable surrendered the Summoning Stone—a treasure bestowed by the Old Pavilion Master himself, reserved for the Pavilion’s direst crises.
Such as this very moment.
Yan Zhen crushed it without a second thought.
Deep within the Thousand Illusions Grotto-Heaven, the Old Pavilion Master sensed it instantly. With a flick of his finger, he conjured a light screen displaying the scene on Shimmering Mirage Island.
Unerased spatial rifts… The five managing Mystic Venerables dangling in midair… Five black-robed figures with unmistakable malice.
The Old Pavilion Master’s expression shifted. He rallied his followers, tore open space for a teleportation, and mere moments later stepped forth from a rift in the skies above Shimmering Mirage Island, encircling Yan Zhen and his companions from the rear.
“Who dares trespass in my Mirage Pavilion, you wretched vermin?!”
Yan Zhen turned, his eyes chilling as his fists slowly clenched.
—Second-Grade Supreme, Domain still imperfect. Old bastard, this time I’ll end you!
