Spirit Vessel

The cold days have almost passed. The snow melted and ran down the rivers into the clear and sweet streams.

The thickets were filled with piles of leaves. The frost melted away leaving the red leaves dried by the sun.

The barren tree had beautiful birds standing on the branches and singing their songs. Seeds were sprouting in certain places, revealing the tiny buds and exuding faint fragrances.

Spring was coming!

Two large white rabbits were pulling a carriage. Inside were happy voices and the sounds of a zither playing a spring tune. The birds on the tree chirped back and chased after the carriage. Unfortunately, they were ordinary birds and couldn't catch up.

Along the way were fleeing cultivators. Some rode their swords while others had mounts. Many chose carriages with accompanying servants.

"Life is so unpredictable, came back to life only to be killed again." One old man said.

"That's right, the crown prince has full control so the Divine King and the princess have lost. I heard the king was killed on the spot while the princess got captured." A different old man replied.

"The outcome was obvious, the crown prince has the Beiming Clan backing him up, no one can match them at the capital."

"Beiming Moshou is famous for being crafty, the two juniors weren't his match."

"Creak!" The carriage suddenly stopped in such a hurry that it almost flew off the base.

These gossipers were stopped by the carriage. They were powerful elders in their sect so had no fear of bandits. Plus, no bandits would be riding such an elegant carriage.

"Who did you say got killed just now?" A voice more beautiful than anything they have ever heard before sounded. However, it was cold enough to instill chills.

Was there an angel or a devil inside?

Too many masters existed in this world. Though they were elders, being too arrogant could end with an untimely demise.

The old man replied: "The current Divine King."

"Impossible!" Nangong Hongyan's voice became colder as she unleashed an energy strike, creating a hole in the carriage. It slammed into the old man, causing him to go flying.

"Pluff!" This old man had trained for more than one hundred years so his cultivation wasn't bad. Nevertheless, he vomited blood and couldn't get up.

"How can you be so unreasonable?! My Martial Uncle was only telling the truth!" A youth dressed in blue said: "Feng Feiyun and Princess Luofu have lost the political contest, so he got killed by the princess. His corpse is now being moved to the Divine King's shrine for burial, everyone knows this!"

"Impossible, Impossible! He promised to meet me at Steelmountain so he will be there! All of you are liars… and liars must die!" Her snow-white dress became engulfed in a red flame.

She leaped out of the carriage with enough heat to ignite the dried ground. This flame eventually spread to the thickets, ending with a smoky inferno.

After she left this area, only corpses were left. Several hundred people were burnt to death; their meat sizzled with a permeating stench.

They said Feiyun was dead, so now they were dead.

Hongyan's white dress and draping hair were stained with blood spots. Her eyes looked crazy and full of bloodthirst as she headed southward for the shrine.

"Is Feng Feiyun alive?" She asked a random person.

"Feiyun was killed by the crown prince. His corpse is being moved to the shrine right now. Given the crown prince's hatred of Feiyun, it might be desecrated." The cultivator answered.

"Liar! Death to you!" She reached out with her perfect hand and crushed his neck.

She had left a path of death and corpses along the way just like a bloodthirsty demoness.

"Is Feng Feiyun alive?" She asked someone else.

A chubby man saw her and started shaking, barely able to eke out an answer: "He… he's alive…"

"Liar, die!" She ended him with a palm strike before standing there biting her lips with tears dripping down: "He… he might be dead."

Meanwhile, Scholar Heaven Calculating, Su Yun, Yan Ziyu, and Ji Yunyun were riding an old ship. Their group had escaped from the capital and were happily chatting about current events and drinking tea.

"Oh? Guys, isn't that Nangong Hongyan?" The scholar had the greatest spiritual awareness. After seeing the path of corpses for dozens of miles, he noticed Hongyan.

Everyone else looked down.

Yan Ziyu became serious: "Why did she kill so many people?"

The scholar began calculating with his fingers inside his sleeves while looking over at Su Yun.

Though Su Yun was blind, he could sense the scholar's gaze and smiled naturally: "I do have unresolved businesses with her, but being blinded has made me see things even more clearly and what I truly want in life, so in a sense, I should be thanking her."

He paused for a moment before continuing: "In my mind, she's no longer an enemy but the lover of my friend."

The scholar had finished calculating and became serious: "If she's your friend's lover, then we can't just sit idly and watch. There's a big problem, go catch her now or the consequence will be unimaginable."

If the scholar said that it was a big problem, he would absolutely be right.

Su Yun and Yan Ziyu channeled their energy and poured it into the ship. It started to glow and moved with incredible speed towards Hongyan.

***

Feiyun's heart was on fire as he rushed towards the shrine with all of his might.

"Nothing better happens to Hongyan or I'll bury the Beiming with her!" His eyes were red; the suppressed demonic blood was on the verge of awakening so he had a murderous aura.

Each time his body slightly shook, he moved enough distance to cross a mountain. The ominous feelingly only increased. Once he got close to the shrine, he only saw a scene of red on the horizon - a blazing inferno.

"Boom!" A fiery heatwave knocked him down from the clouds and turned his clothes to ashes -

strong enough to even burn his skin.

This heatwave was so strong despite the center being several hundred miles away. It meant that at the very core, even a pseudo Enlightened Being would be refined to death.

It was the Incinerating Flame Grand Formation that he was too familiar with. It turned the entire mansion of the Divine King into a sea of lava.

The center of this formation this time around was the Divine Kings' Shrine.

Long Shenya stood among the clouds with four mighty old men as his guards - all Giants. They had monstrous auras and looked like four guardian deities.

He stared at the massive inferno with a smile: "Grandfather was right, that bitch really went there, haha! It's a shame that I won't have a chance to toy with her now that she's dead."

"This formation is the only way to kill her without fail because of her two divine garments." One of the old men with a bottle gourd hanging by his waist said.

Shenya nodded. A woman was nothing compared to the throne.

Inside the formation, the ground began to turn into lava, including the area beneath the shrine.

In the distant, one could see a supreme figure inside wanting to rush out. However, a massive boulder knocked her back down. Numerous experts have surrounded this area so there was no escaping.

Feiyun was still several hundred miles away. His eyes exploded with a flame and became as beautiful as blood. He rushed for the shrine.

"Boom! Boom!" However, Su Yun and Yan Ziyu came out of nowhere. Each mustered all of their might and grabbed his arms, pulling him back.

"You can't go, the Beiming has at least ten Giants there, it's suicidal." Su Yun locked Feiyun's right arm with a steely grip.

"Get the hell away from me!" Feiyun's full power erupted. The spine of Yama released its evil energy.

He grabbed Su Yun with one hand and Ziyu with the other before slamming them together, breaking several bones in the process.

They still didn't let go.

Su Yun took out a Black Tortoise Chain as thick as an arm and bound himself to Feiyun. He gathered his strength and dug halfway down to the ground, acting as a pillar to stop Feiyun.

Ziyu took out a hook and pierced it through his own arm and Feiyun's. He also copied Su Yun and dug into the ground.

They were one step late and couldn't stop Hongyan. There was no way they would let Feiyun go there in order to save his life.

Meanwhile, Feiyun thought he could hear Hongyan's screams.

He roared as his demonic and evil blood churned. All of the beast souls came out as he continued to move forward, pulling Yan Ziyu and Su Yun with him. The two of them left behind two trenches stained with blood.