Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Every peach blossom that dropped rushed out with a terrifying aura, bombarding the courtyard that was covered with frost. Cracking sounds rang in the air, and the atmosphere that was full of frosty power was being torn apart.

In the room, Zhou Saint, who had followed elder apprentice brother around, roared, "How dare you lie to me!"

Whoosh -

Elder apprentice brother opened his eyes and said in a cold tone, "I don't trust monsters!"

The blood in his eyes became even redder and thicker. He opened his mouth to scream, and in the process, his hair stood up on ends and started to turn blood red.

Gulp -

Gulp -

The swallowing carried on, however, a blood red mesh suddenly appeared in the air. The mesh came from elder apprentice brother's body, and slowly inched its way towards Zhou Saint.

"Hmph! That's useless. Even now, you still do not understand the power of a Ghost Path True Saint!" Zhou Saint bellowed menacingly.

……

Outside of the shield, the avatar that Zhou Saint left behind previously seemed to have sensed that something was wrong. It turned to look at the Peach Garden. Without any hesitation, it rushed forward.

The avatar moved so fast that its silhouette started to fade. Like a ray of light, it collided heavily against the Peach Garden's shield. However, no loud sound was produced. In fact, there was no sound at all. The silhouette broke through the shield directly, leaving a big and transparent hole in it.

At the boundary, there were traces of slow melting occurring, as if it had been subjected to extremely high temperatures. Its edges were burnt yellow, giving off a sense of impending doom.

……

In the silvery-white sealed space, White Phoenix was suspended in the air. Countless illusions were interwoven with each other and moved ceaselessly around his body.

When the Peach Garden's shield was broken, there was suddenly a black spot in the silvery-white sealed space.

White Phoenix opened his eyes abruptly and coughed out blood. A patch of red appeared on his chest and robe, and started to spread outwards. There was a hole in his chest where flesh should have been.

The illusions around his body also became rigid, like a machine that had lost one of its most important parts.

Taking a deep breath, White Phoenix ignored the injury in his chest and channeled his energy into fixing the damage in the Peach Garden's shield.

However, at this moment, his face suddenly changed completely!

……

Outside the Peach Garden, Lin Saint, who had previously left, came back once again. He looked at the shield and the gaping hole in it.

Not caring about anything else, he immediately took action.

"The heavens and earth are boundless, the star fragments are soaring towards the sky. Listen to my orders and destroy everything that obstructs you. This is the Perishing Star!"

Lin Saint raised his hand. The next moment, the celestial dome above his head started to turn red. Then, a terrifyingly loud rumbling sound was produced and everything was destroyed ruthlessly.

The redness in the celestial dome continued to spread, as if it had been set aflame. The skies were all dyed red.

Then, the celestial dome ignited, with fierce and hot flames rising up from beneath.

A meteorite that had been consumed by fire left a streak of flames behind it, like an arrow that had been shot by a deity. It flew straight towards the Peach Garden - more precisely, it was aimed towards the hole in the shield that was created by Zhou Saint.

Boom -

Boom -

Boom -

A world-shaking sound erupted, followed by waves of blazing flames that roared and rolled fiercely. A powerful wave of energy was also emitted, instantly attracting the attention of many people outside the Peach Garden. Their eyes were wide and filled with fear.

This was the power of a True Saint, it was close to what a deity could do according to the legends. The Peach Garden's shield vibrated violently as it became engulfed in flames. Cracks started to form around the hole that was already there and they began to spread outwards rapidly.

……

In the silvery-white sealed space, cracks began to appear as well. It seemed to affect the controller of the space directly.

Countless cuts started to appear near White Phoenix's chest wound that spread outwards to his limbs.

A huge amount of blood began to flow, and his face turned pale. The immense pain that he was going through reflected through his eyes and his labored breathing. After all, he was only a Half-Saint and had only broken through recently, so he was unable to display the full power of the Peach Garden's shield.

However, White Phoenix was still fortunate. If it were not for the protection of the shield, facing a True Saint's power head-on would have caused him to lose his life instantly. Yet, even though he was not dead, he was unable to continue activating the shield.

……

In elder apprentice brother's courtyard, the walls had collapsed. Amongst the rubble, the peach tree that was closely related to him was revealed.

Its leaves were wilted and showed signs of pollution. It was enough to prove that there had been a conspiracy from the very beginning.

A world-shaking rumbling shook the entire courtyard, and the peach blossoms that were falling from the sky were instantly turned into dust.

There was an extremely strong enemy attacking! White Phoenix must have already been heavily injured!

Crack -

Crack -

Huge cracks started to form in the skies above them, almost like a huge creature that had opened its mouth to swallow them whole. It was a sign that the Peach Garden's shield was on the verge of collapsing entirely.

A low, cold, and menacing voice rang out from one of the rooms, "This outcome was inevitable for the Peach Garden, and every single one of you will perish together with it."

Boom -

A huge wave of energy suddenly exploded, rushing towards the structures that were on the verge of collapse.

A blood net wrapped around elder apprentice brother's and Zhou Saint's bodies, but elder apprentice brother's face was full of pain. There was blood coming out from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. His whole body was convulsing non-stop, and the blood net that he created was dulling bit by bit.

Behind him, Zhou Saint smiled coldly. "I have to admit that I underestimated you previously. You indeed had a chance of getting out alive, but you were too hasty. I was giving you a chance to attack me.

"Now, whatever happens is inevitable."

Thousand Battles roared, and golden streaks appeared on his body. He started to grow in size and in a blink of an eye, he was a hundred zhang tall.

An ancient, imposing and powerful energy emanated from his body. Streaks of gold and red interwove in his pupils, giving off a terrifying aura. He stomped and punched his fist forward. A golden river appeared and rushed towards Zhou Saint.

"So this is the rumored Divine Spirit that has been recovered. There's only a few of them - pitiful creatures that have been abandoned and forgotten by the world! Even though I'm not sure how you borrowed its power to unleash such a powerful force in such a short time, this is still not enough to defeat me."

Surrounded by the sinister aura of ghost energy, Zhou Saint punched his fist outwards and skeletal illusions started to condense to form a huge skeletal arm. It striked down, colliding with the golden river. Instantly, the golden river was split in half.

Evidently, after consuming a portion of elder apprentice brother's power, Zhou Saint had become even more terrifyingly powerful.

Thousand Faces screamed and heavy fog started to engulf her. Countless illusions started to appear and every single one of them had the face of a beautiful woman. They faded in and out throughout the fog.

She reached out to the fog and started to tear at it vigorously. Her body was trembling slightly after having gone through a great amount of suffering and pain.

The fog was sliced into pieces. She grabbed the pieces and threw them at Zhou Saint. Then it self-destructed in the air, leaving behind a beautiful woman that stared at Zhou Saint with watery eyes and smiled seductively at him.

Zhou Saint's eyes that had been consumed by black flames went sluggish for a moment before he regained his composure in a few seconds, breaking away from the power of the illusion.

He gave an evil grin, then opened his mouth wide and sucked. "A Mutant Wraith? It's similar to a curse. Hehe, this apprentice from Peach Garden is indeed extraordinary!"

The beautiful woman within the fog widened her eyes, as if she had discovered something terrible.

Her beauty withered away as she screamed desperately, wanting to escape. However, she was quickly sucked into Zhou Saint's mouth.

The screams instantly stopped!

Poof!

The fog surrounding Thousand Faces instantly dissipated, like a light bulb that had been blown, revealing her pathetic state. Her flesh was exposed as if it had been corroded by acid. Her skin was covered with welts that were oozing pus.

However, very quickly, the flesh started to squirm and the wounds began to heal rapidly. New flesh replaced the old, and soon, a woman with a different but equally beautiful face appeared once again.

Her skin was as white as snow, completely different from how it was before.

Whoosh -

Thousand Faces opened her eyes and stood up, as if she did not just suffer from heavy injuries. But there was something different about her aura.

It was even colder and even more distant than before, as if she had lost something incredibly important to her together with the fog that was swallowed by Zhou Saint.

"Save elder apprentice brother!"

Fifth disciple Iron Mountain, sixth disciple Earth Stride, and Lei Xiaoyu started to take action against the True Saint without any hesitation. However, they were too weak and were no match for him. They did not even reach the Saint due to his aura keeping them away.

White Phoenix had suffered a huge impact, together with the shield, second apprentice brother was unable to inflict any damage onto the enemy, Thousand Faces had sustained an unknown amount of injuries, and the rest were no match for the enemy.

The Peach Garden was in an extremely dangerous situation.

At this time, someone coughed, and the sound of light footsteps followed. With the noise from everything that was going on, the sound of the footsteps should have been completely covered. Yet, everyone could hear it clearly.

In the distance, a silhouette came into view. Her face was pale, almost transparent. It was almost like looking into a frosty mirror. Perhaps in an hour, or half an hour, or even the next moment, she would disappear into thin air.

Zhou Saint's gaze landed on her, squinting his eyes to get a better look.

"Die!"

Zhou Saint did not actually say that. In reality, he had let out a series of complicated and weird sounds. They did not belong to a language of the living, but to one of the dead. It unmistakably meant impending death!

Peachy's gaze was calm and unaffected. Almost as if she had not heard the True Saint sentencing her to her death.

She coughed lightly and said, "Second apprentice brother."

Thousand Battles' hundred-zhang body frame stood in front of Peachy like a huge golden mountain, his intense golden rays spreading towards the sky.

Hong -

The golden rays started to rush inwards into his body, as if he had been subject to a humongous power. The space between Peachy and second apprentice brother rang out with bubbling sounds, as if something was being corroded. Black smoke began to rise and the golden rays started to dull in intensity.

Thousand Battles' flesh started to shrivel and pale, as if he had lost his life force. However, his body continued to stay there firmly, not moving even an inch.

Peachy lifted her hand to touch the space between her eyebrows, and a light ray appeared in her palm. Her skin became even paler, and now she seemed like a faint shadow that could not be touched.

Reaching up, the light ray shot upwards towards the sky and let out a blindingly bright glow.

A peach tree illusion appeared within the light ray, causing all the apprentices' eyes to glow with vigor.

This was…the Spring Master's Great Dao!

A silhouette appeared beside the peach tree illusion. Even though it was just a blurry image, the Peach Garden's apprentices could immediately recognize it as their Spring Master.

However, there was no expression in the Spring Master illusion's eyes. Evidently, it lacked consciousness and self-awareness.

Peachy's gaze was pained for a moment. "Father, please help us to rescue elder apprentice brother from danger."

The Spring Master's illusion immediately took action. He lifted his arm and the broken shield was instantly restored.

At the same time, a terrifying and annihilating power condensed in his hands. He struck without any hesitation.

A scream of agony rang out from Zhou Saint who was behind elder apprentice brother. His body was cleanly severed into half, and the black energy that surrounded him dissipated as he collapsed to the ground.

Pa -

The Spring Master and peach tree illusion disappeared together into thin air.