With a “ding” in his mind, a new message appeared on the upgrade progress interface in front of Yan Zhen.
【Three key plot points left until system upgrade. Keep pushing, Host! Mwah~】
Yan Zhen immediately understood. System-chan was stuck at 99% due to insufficient experience, which explained why there had been no response for so long.
He tapped it, expanding the three tasks:
【Return to Golden Jade Chamber of Commerce Headquarters and help Ji Ya seize control of the chamber.】
【Rescue Yan Lie and kill Yun Ling.】
【Refine the Wind-Thunder Crystal Fire and advance to the Mystic King Realm.】
“Hmm? The first and third are no problem, but the second… According to the script, Grandpa shouldn’t be savable.”
When the elders stepped in with boundless power—that was an old trope. Why had it turned into rescuing Grandpa?
Though Yan Zhen had no intention of following the script anyway, it was intriguing that the script had changed on its own.
The key issue was that even if it had changed, he couldn’t complete this task.
After all, Yun Ling was already imprisoned, and Grandpa was safe and sound at the Huangfu family residence. He couldn’t just release Yun Ling for the sake of the task and put Grandpa in danger again.
Yan Zhen sank into thought.
Suddenly, a massive boom echoed from outside, shattering his reverie. It was followed by the terrifying pressure of a Mystic Ancestor expert.
The entire Cloud Heaven Palace trembled.
“What the hell?”
Yan Zhen’s brows furrowed. He dismissed the system interface, rose from the sect master’s jade throne, opened the doors of the grand hall, and strode out.
The pressure was coming from behind him. Yan Zhen stepped onto Starlight and soared upward, leaving the hall at the mountainside and arriving at the Exiled Immortal Palace atop the peak. He stood on the eaves, gazing toward the Ninth Peak in the center of the eight surrounding peaks.
Atop the Ninth Peak lay the Ancestral Hall and the forbidden grounds—and beneath them, the Cloud Prison.
The Cloud Prison sat directly below the Ancestral Hall and forbidden grounds, a place specially designed to hold sect higher-ups who had gravely violated the sect rules but couldn’t be killed outright. It forced them to grovel at the feet of their ancestors and repent, recognizing their errors.
That was where Yun Ling was held. By all rights, his cultivation should have been sealed, and his hands and feet shackled. Yet there he was, atop the Ninth Peak.
His robes were tattered, his hair disheveled, his face crawling with demon marks like swarming flies, his eyes bloodshot, and a thick aura of wind Mystic power swirling around his body.
In his hand, Yun Ling gripped Eighth Palace Lord Yun Ye by the throat, hoisting her into the air.
Seeing this scene, the words “pig teammate” instantly flashed through Yan Zhen’s mind!
It had to be this Eighth Palace Lord Yun Ye who had done something stupid, allowing Yun Ling to break free from his cell—and now she was his hostage.
Yan Zhen’s mood soured instantly.
A pig of a teammate was far more infuriating than a godlike opponent.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The Fourth Palace Lord, Sixth Palace Lord, and Seventh Palace Lord appeared one after another, surrounding Yun Ling from three directions. But with Eighth Palace Lord Yun Ye still in his grasp, they didn’t dare attack recklessly.
“Second Palace Lord, don’t be stubborn. Don’t compound your mistakes!”
“I did nothing wrong! Everything I did was for the sect!” Yun Ling bellowed. “You’re the ones in the wrong—you, Yun Xiu, and that brat!”
“Release Yun Ye. What exactly do you want?”
“I want to kill that brat and Yun Xiu! Anyone who stands in my way dies!”
With a fierce hurl, Yun Ling threw Eighth Palace Lord Yun Ye aside. The Fourth Palace Lord darted forward to catch her. Seizing the moment, Yun Ling thrust his arm out like a sword and slashed down. A ten-foot blade of sword qi shot forth, sweeping toward the pair.
The Sixth Palace Lord and Seventh Palace Lord rushed up to block it.
Boom!
The sword qi exploded, unleashing a storm that forced the Sixth Palace Lord and Seventh Palace Lord back. They regrouped.
“How is she? Eighth Palace Lord, are you alr—urgh!”
The Fourth Palace Lord’s eyes widened. He looked down to see Eighth Palace Lord Yun Ye’s eyes vacant, like a puppet’s. In her hand, she clutched a poisoned hairpin.
The Fourth Palace Lord unleashed his mystic power in a rage, slapping Yun Ye flying with a palm strike. Clutching his bleeding abdomen, he staggered in midair, barely staying aloft.
“Fourth Palace Lord!”
The Sixth Palace Lord and Seventh Palace Lord never imagined such a twist. They were stunned.
Even Yan Zhen was taken aback. Not a hostage, but a puppet? That was insidious!
No, at the root of it, it was Eighth Palace Lord Yun Ye this pig throwing the game!
At that moment, the elders from the various peaks arrived one after another, flying over to shield the three palace lords as they faced off against Second Palace Lord Yun Ling and Eighth Palace Lord Yun Ye.
“Form the array!”
The elders from the peaks linked up into a mighty sword formation. Though they were merely at the Mystic King Realm, under the leadership of the Sixth Palace Lord and Seventh Palace Lord—both top-tier Mystic Lords—they unleashed power rivaling a Mystic Lord powerhouse.
The clash began.
But Yun Ling, fused with the gu worms, had reached the Mystic Ancestor Realm. Though his aura flickered unsteadily, he was still a Mystic Ancestor. Bathed in the power of heaven and earth, his body and divine soul had advanced markedly, granting him blinding speed.
For a Mystic Ancestor expert, Shifting Form Exchange was child’s play. Without a dedicated movement technique, one’s foes would be spun dizzy.
And Eighth Palace Lord Yun Ye was a Mystic Lord powerhouse skilled in pill refining and poison. Since she was merely controlled rather than truly defected, the others would hesitate to strike her down.
With just the people on site, it wouldn’t take long before they were overwhelmed.
“Where’s the sect master? Why hasn’t the sect master appeared?”
“No idea—maybe in secluded cultivation!”
“Go call the sect master! She’s a Mystic Ancestor powerhouse—the only one who can subdue Yun Ling.”
“Right.”
Yan Zhen stepped onto Starlight, blocking the female elder’s path.
“No need. Palace Lord Yun is in secluded cultivation. Leave this to me.”
“You?”
The Sixth Palace Lord was about to chide the junior when he remembered: Mystic Lord-level Wolf Poison had been insta-killed by this youth with some bizarre Mystic artifact. Back then, Yan Zhen had erupted with Mystic Ancestor-level power—terrifying!
The Seventh Palace Lord’s eyes lit up. He asked gravely,
“Little Friend Yan Zhen, can you still use that Mystic artifact?”
Yan Zhen shook his head. The overdrive card set had gone on cooldown after use and wouldn’t be available again until he advanced realms.
Disappointment flickered across the two palace lords’ faces.
But Yan Zhen said,
“I’ll handle Yun Ling. You two subdue the Eighth Palace Lord and get clear.”
“Little Friend Yan Zhen, what are you planning? You can’t take risks like that. Otherwise, the sect master won’t forgive us.”
“If that Mystic artifact’s unavailable, don’t force it.”
“It’s settled.” Yan Zhen had no patience for explanations. “Quickly subdue the Eighth Palace Lord and get her out of here. Otherwise, if she dies later, it’s not on me.”
The two palace lords exchanged a glance. Yan Zhen’s one-star Mystic General cultivation seemed unreliable, but they recalled his feat of slaying a Mystic Lord powerhouse.
“Then drag Second Palace Lord out as long as you can. Once we’ve subdued the Eighth Palace Lord, we’ll come help.”
“Go!”
The two palace lords charged toward Eighth Palace Lord Yun Ye. Meanwhile, Yun Ling broke through the elders’ defensive line and barreled straight toward Yan Zhen.
Yan Zhen’s expression remained calm. A sinister gray-black flame flickered to life in his left hand, a tiny dragon coiling above it. In his right hand rose a blood-red blaze, within which the faint silhouette of a woman’s graceful figure shimmered.
He slowly brought his hands together, palms facing, allowing the two extreme flames to merge gradually. Then Yan Zhen puffed out his cheeks and spat a stream of metallic gold-and-silver flame.
The three flames fused, condensing and compressing an unparalleled, terrifying energy into a blazing celestial body.
Winds rose and clouds churned; the heavens darkened. The horrifying mystic power fluctuations spread across the entire Cloud Heaven Palace—even experts far away in Garo Kingdom’s Royal Capital took notice of the intense, ominous disturbance.
