Feng Yuan sneered, “Yuan Ruochen and I are already at a point where we cannot coexist under the same sky. Peaceful unification? What a joke!”
Hearing this, Yan Qinyu knew he could not persuade Feng Yuan. He said coldly, “Your Majesty, since you are determined to act this way, I will not keep you company. Farewell!”
He stood up, intending to leave.
Feng Yuan barked coldly, “Halt!”
With his back to Feng Yuan, Yan Qinyu turned his head slightly. “Is there anything else, Your Majesty?”
Feng Yuan’s sinister voice rang out: “You have thwarted my plans time and again. How could I let you leave so easily?”
Yan Qinyu sensed that something was amiss. He turned around, furrowing his brows as he asked, “What do you mean by this?”
A wicked smile curled on Feng Yuan’s lips. “Do you truly believe you can still walk out of here?”
As soon as he finished speaking, his hands formed seals, and a surge of powerful spiritual energy swept violently toward Yan Qinyu.
Yan Qinyu reacted swiftly, immediately channeling his divine power to resist.
Seeing that the strike failed, Feng Yuan withdrew his hands and glared at Yan Qinyu coldly.
Yan Qinyu had never expected that Feng Yuan would actually make a move against him.
“Feng Yuan! Have you lost your mind?!”
Feng Yuan’s eyes were cold as ice. He commanded in a deep voice, “Capture him.”
The four great divine lords erupted simultaneously, lunging at Yan Qinyu together.
The Right Prime Minister was startled and quickly stood up, only to be blocked by the Left Prime Minister.
The Left Prime Minister smiled and said, “The situation is clear now. Do not wade into these muddy waters.”
The Right Prime Minister calmed himself down. After a few moments of hesitation, he returned to his seat.
The Left Prime Minister also sat back down. “Now, that is more like it.”
Locked in combat with the four great divine lords, Yan Qinyu felt a chill run through his heart.
He could feel that his divine power was being suppressed, making it impossible for him to exert his full strength.
It was the wine from earlier!
What had they put in the wine?!
Yan Qinyu shifted his gaze toward Feng Yuan, who wore a sinister smile, and then toward the two Quasi-Emperors of the Buddhist Sect, whose eyes flickered unpredictably.
Then, the realization struck him.
He had heard that the Buddhist Sect possessed a rare herb called the Sarira Vine. If anyone who was not a disciple of the Buddhist Sect consumed it, their cultivation would be suppressed. Conversely, if a disciple of the Buddhist Sect consumed it, their cultivation would be enhanced.
Yan Qinyu’s heart sank. He had never expected to walk right into a trap without even realizing it.
Was he destined to fall here today?
Although Yan Qinyu’s cultivation was suppressed, he still fought to a standstill against the four great divine lords.
Feng Yuan was secretly horrified. Yan Qinyu was truly far too strong.
If allowed to continue growing, Yan Qinyu would likely become the second person in the history of the Linxu Realm to attain the Dao and break through to the Emperor Realm after Divine Lord Wuyan.
Therefore, he absolutely could not be allowed to grow any further!
Having made up his mind, Feng Yuan gave a meaningful look to the two bald heads.
The two bald heads let out a sigh. After uttering “Amitabha,” they struck together.
Yan Qinyu had completely failed to anticipate that these two would make a move, let alone execute a sneak attack, casting all shame aside.
Two beams of divine light struck Yan Qinyu squarely. He flew backward out of control, crashing heavily into a pillar in the hall in an incredibly wretched state.
He felt as though his internal organs were shattered, and he could not stop vomiting blood.
It was bad enough that these two shameless bald heads had blindsided him, but they had even delivered a fatal blow!
Those two strikes of divine power had not only used 100% of their strength but had also been augmented by the attacks of spiritual treasures.
Yan Qinyu felt the world turn pitch black before his eyes, as if he were falling into a bottomless abyss. The room spun around him, and the entire world seemed to turn upside down.
Forcing his body upward, he managed to sit halfway up. His back felt torn apart in excruciating pain. For a moment, he collapsed back down like a puppet with its strings severed.
A cold smirk played on the corners of Feng Yuan’s mouth. His eagle-like gaze stared coldly at Yan Qinyu’s battered state, and he expressed his gratitude to the two bald heads: “My thanks to both of you for lending your assistance.”
Hearing this, the two bald heads exchanged a smile and nodded slightly.
Feng Yuan walked over to Yan Qinyu, looking down at him from a height.
It took a long time before Yan Qinyu finally caught his breath. With trembling hands, he slowly propped himself up against the pillar to sit. His face was as pale as paper.
Feng Yuan asked in an icy voice, “Do you regret it?”
Yan Qinyu coughed up a mouthful of blood, raised his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, and said coldly, “Of course I regret it. I regret believing in you, and I regret ever knowing you!”
Feng Yuan clicked his tongue twice, his eyes fixed on Yan Qinyu with a freezing gaze. “I regret it too. I regret bringing you back to the Divine Court in the past. Had I known things would turn out like this, I should have killed you back then.”
Yan Qinyu pursed his lips. Feng Yuan truly wanted him dead, showing absolutely no mercy or regard for their past connection.
Then again, Feng Yuan could even plot against his own biological younger sister, so what did an outsider like himself matter?
Yan Qinyu smiled with a sense of release. “Very well. Giving up this life can be considered paying back the favor I owed you. From now on, we owe each other nothing.”
Feng Yuan paused upon hearing this, an inexplicable rage rising in his heart.
“Good! Good! Good!” He laughed out of sheer anger.
Feng Yuan suddenly bent down, leaning close to Yan Qinyu’s ear. “Do you want to know why I am treating you like this?”
Yan Qinyu was stunned. “What?”
Feng Yuan waved his hand to erect a barrier, isolating the sound from the outside world. His words reached Yan Qinyu’s ears one by one, making Yan Qinyu feel as though he were plunging into a deep abyss.
“Do you know why I invited you to join the Divine Court but never placed you in a position of heavy responsibility, nor did I ever trust you?”
“My past attitudes toward you were nothing more than an act. Furthermore, that so-called favor was also a lie.”
“Did you know? The people who ambushed and cornered you back then were all arranged by me. I have been plotting against you from the very beginning.”
Yan Qinyu’s expression went entirely blank in an instant. His lips moved, and he asked in utter disbelief, “Why?”
The question sounded pale and powerless.
Staring at his bewildered expression, Feng Yuan’s exquisite and beautiful face broke into an unreserved smile, filled with malice and triumph.
Feng Yuan was by no means bad-looking; it could be said that no innate being was ugly.
Yet at this moment, he looked exactly like an evil ghost.
“Why?” Feng Yuan chewed on those words before giving him the answer.
“Because you were born to hold a divine status, you are the Lord of the Netherworld.”
Boom!
A loud explosion seemed to detonate within Yan Qinyu’s mind.
What had Feng Yuan just said?
He was the Lord of the Netherworld?!
Yan Qinyu found it completely absurd.
If he were the Lord of the Netherworld, how could he not know it himself?!
How had Feng Yuan even arrived at this bizarre conclusion?
Just based on the fact that he was the transformation of a strand of pure energy from the Netherworld?
Was this not far too preposterous!
“Originally, I merely wanted you to owe me a karmic debt so that I could utilize you for my grand cause of unification. But you insisted on being ungrateful. In that case, I cannot allow you to remain.”
“The Netherworld does not need a master. The living beings of the Linxu Realm will not allow it, and neither will I. The Linxu Realm belongs to me.”
“Beiyue, the Netherworld does not need you.”
With that said, without waiting for Yan Qinyu to process this bizarre, absurd information and conspiracy, Feng Yuan gathered his magical power and struck a palm toward Yan Qinyu.
This strike was intended to shatter Yan Qinyu’s soul entirely.
Right at that critical moment, the Golden Crow pendant on Yan Qinyu’s wrist flashed with a brilliant light, enveloping Yan Qinyu within it.
The magical power Feng Yuan threw at Yan Qinyu dissipated upon hitting the barrier, and the sound-isolating barrier vanished as well.
To the onlookers, it appeared that Feng Yuan had merely bent down to whisper a few words to Yan Qinyu, leaving Yan Qinyu with a look of utter disbelief, before Feng Yuan immediately attacked him.
However, this strike failed to connect.
Feng Yuan was momentarily stunned. “What on earth is this?!”
Only when Feng Yuan looked closer did he realize that the item protecting Yan Qinyu was a pendant shaped like a Three-legged Golden Crow, and it was actually at the level of an Innate Supreme Treasure.
The fury in Feng Yuan’s heart flared even higher. “You truly are colluding with those two solar birds from the Demon-Demon Realm!”
Yan Qinyu stared blankly at the pendant, his heart filled with bitterness.
Yuan Ruoshen had saved his life.
The two bald heads from the Buddhist Sect looked on with expressions of surprise and suspicion. “An Innate Supreme Treasure?!”
Feng Yuan addressed the two bald heads: “Do you two have a way to shatter this protective spiritual light?”
Yan Qinyu had to die today! Feng Yuan thought with vicious determination.
The two bald heads hesitated for a moment. “This is an Innate Supreme Treasure. If we shatter the protective spiritual light, this supreme treasure will be ruined. What a pity.”
Before the two bald heads could finish their sentence, Feng Yuan interrupted them impatiently.
“Then what solutions do you have? If we do not shatter the protective spiritual light, how are we supposed to kill him?”
The two bald heads exchanged a glance and ultimately let out a sigh. They brought out two treasures, one resembling a jade pestle and the other a spiritual lamp. They were actually two Innate Supreme Treasures as well.
One of the bald heads said, “An Innate Supreme Treasure can only be broken by another Innate Supreme Treasure. These two supreme treasures of ours are sufficient to break through this Golden Crow protective spiritual light, but this treasure will likely be ruined as well.”
Seeing Feng Yuan’s impatient expression, he chose not to say anything further after all.
One of them hurled the jade pestle forward, causing the protective barrier on Yan Qinyu’s body to dim by a fraction.
The other individual hurled the spiritual lamp as well, and the protective barrier dimmed by another fraction.
This time, channeling their magical power, the two of them hurled their spiritual treasures forward together, and the protective barrier shattered completely.
At that exact moment, the golden-red Golden Crow pendant seemed to be drawn by an invisible force and suddenly began to disintegrate. Its surface flashed with dazzling light, looking as bright and eye-catching as the stars in a night sky. As the pendant continued to break apart, those tiny specks of starlight gradually drifted away, creating a magnificent sight in the air.
The pendant was broken.
Yan Qinyu’s eyes widened, his heart filled with panic and loss.
He instinctively reached out his hand, wanting to grasp those specks of starlight that were about to vanish. However, his fingers only caught a patch of nothingness, grasping at thin air.
The Golden Crow pendant had completely vanished into the air, as though it had never existed.
Seeing that the Golden Crow pendant had shattered, the two bald heads also revealed deeply pained expressions, as if the pendant had belonged to them.
Feng Yuan, however, did not have such thoughts. His mind held nothing but murderous intent toward Yan Qinyu.
He gathered his magical power and struck toward Yan Qinyu.
Boom!
The exact instant the attack was about to reach Yan Qinyu, the blazing flames of the True Solar Fire collided with it, exploding with a loud bang.
Feng Yuan turned his head in shock, only to see Yuan Ruoshen, whose body was filled with a malevolent aura and whose face was dark with fury.
Yan Qinyu was also completely taken aback. “Yuan Ruoshen?! Why have you come here? This is the Divine Realm! Have you lost your mind?!”
Yuan Ruoshen remained silent.
Suddenly, raging True Solar Fire ignited all around him. These flames seemed to possess a life of their own, swiftly sweeping toward Feng Yuan and the surrounding people.
Seeing this, Feng Yuan shifted his weight and dodged sideways to evade this sudden attack.
However, although his movements were agile, he was still caught by a portion of the fire’s shockwave, and the clothing on his body instantly caught fire.
The others were not as fortunate; more or less, all of them sustained burns.
While Feng Yuan and the crowd were busy extinguishing the fire, Yuan Ruoshen took the opportunity to teleport right next to Yan Qinyu.
His movements were extremely gentle, as if Yan Qinyu were a piece of precious porcelain that would shatter at the slightest carelessness.
Yuan Ruoshen extended both hands with great care, supporting Yan Qinyu’s body, and then gently assisted him up from the ground.