The Azure Dragon battled in the East Lin Secret Realm, its sword light unstoppable.
The Dragon Clan was inherently the strongest of the three, followed by the Phoenix, and then the Qilin.
Only the Twin Kings and the ancestor of the Nine-Colored Deer clan were supreme beings.
However, the ancestor of the Nine-Colored Deer clan was not a Qilin. The Azure Dragon ancestor had already conquered nearly eight hundred million li of the ten billion li of land in the East Lin Secret Realm, yet the Dragon Clan showed no signs of stopping. The Sea Clan army continued its westward advance, leveraging the power of the ocean.
The Dragon Ancestor remained in the Ten Thousand Dragon Cave, the Phoenix Ancestor in the Heart of the Earth Flame Sea, and the Qilin Ancestor on the Qilin Divine Cliff.
This was a tacit understanding among the ancestors of the three clans, and a pursuit of the final step.
Therefore, the Qilin clan resorted to underhanded tactics against the Azure Dragon.
Unable to defeat the Azure Dragon directly, they attacked those close to it.
Qing Ling, as the subsidiary deity of the Azure Dragon ancestor, possessed a strength of only Great Luo Triple Heaven. It was not difficult for the Qilin clan's methods to discover his whereabouts.
By abducting Qing Ling, they could force the Azure Dragon to retreat and quell the war in the East Lin Secret Realm.
Perhaps, the trap was set the moment Qing Ling stepped into the Southern Wilderness.
Qing Ling's evasion technique was not fast. Although as a great being, his speed surpassed that of most cultivators, when facing beings of equal or higher power, he was extremely outmatched.
Thus, after fleeing for hundreds of millions of li, Qing Ling was caught.
Furthermore, he was surrounded.
Six Great Luo cultivators from the various affiliated lands of the Qilin clan converged from all directions.
These were only the clans near the chaotic lands. Although the Qilin clan was weaker than the Dragon clan, they still commanded nearly a hundred Great Luo cultivators. Moreover, there were many powerful clans on the continent, and even if many old ancestors and great beings did not respect the Qilin, their power was still immense.
Qing Ling could not escape.
This was both his perception and the reality of the situation.
Six great beings to hold back one was difficult to escape, even for a heaven and earth great being, let alone someone who was not.
Qing Ling scanned his surroundings. The six great beings merely surrounded him, but did not attack.
They were aware of the peculiarity of this legendary cultivator of the divine flora and dared not act rashly.
They were waiting for the arrival of the Qilin Holy Envoy.
"Sirs, are you truly determined to oppose me?"
The six great beings remained silent, feigning ignorance.
Seeing this, Qing Ling did not grow angry. He calculated how long it would take for the Qilin Holy Envoy to arrive, then unfurled the Four Seasons Diagram, his brow’s divine spark flickering, summoning power from the heavens.
In the distance, in the East Lin Secret Realm.
Tens of millions of sea creatures advanced with the water, turning land into sea wherever they passed, their might terrifying.
The Azure Dragon ancestor stood above the army, his brow furrowed, the divine patterns on his forehead flashing as he responded from afar.
He shook his head helplessly, drew his sword with one hand, flung it into the sky, crossing half of the Primordial World to appear in the Southern Wilderness.
Above Qing Ling’s head, the void trembled. A sword pierced through, unleashing a hundred thousand times a hundred thousand sword energies, stirring the winds for billions of li, forming a boundless azure giant sword sea that enveloped the six great beings.
The faces of the six great beings changed drastically. They scattered and fled instantly, not daring to linger for a moment. Even if the Qilin clan punished them, it was better than losing their lives.
Qing Ling smiled eastward. The Xuntian Sword hovered in the air, disdainfully pointing its tip at him, as if to say it had to cross half the Primordial World for these weaklings.
But at this moment, the western sky turned golden, and a colossal palm descended, carrying the pressure of the Tiger King, sealing off ten thousand li of heaven and earth.
The Xuntian Sword slashed fiercely, its myriad sword energies raining down, creating a sliver of a gap in the giant palm.
Qing Ling, with great presence of mind, flashed aside and escaped.
In the west, a white tiger phantom stood in the sky, mocking, "Azure Dragon, we should not interfere in the affairs of the younger generation."
Billions of li away, the Azure Dragon coldly declared, "I protect my people. What business is it of yours?"
The white tiger's expression turned unfriendly. "It has been a long time. Your skills have not grown much, but your temper certainly has."
"How much my skills have grown, you can come and measure it yourself?"
The Azure Dragon pointed afar, and the Xuntian Sword flew up, growing immense, instantly becoming as vast as Mount Sumeru, soaring like a dragon, accompanied by gathering winds and clouds. Its terrifying sword intent enveloped half the Primordial World.
Countless beings trembled in fear.
The white tiger phantom was locked onto by the Xuntian Sword. The billions of terrifying sword energies were enough to crush destiny and break through fate.
The white tiger phantom reacted a moment too slow, half its body was severed, and along with it, billions of li of land were sunk by a thousand zhang.
The white tiger phantom instantly became enraged. As an existence almost impervious to death, when had it ever been so humiliated?
Billions of golden ores in the west stirred, and a majestic white tiger, standing on the western land, appeared. It roared to the sky, its terrifying roar sweeping out as golden sound waves.
The golden sound waves surged like a tide. The Xuntian giant sword, like a lone boat navigating through wind and waves, broke through the waves and headed straight ahead.
Seeing that the sound waves could not stop the giant sword, the white tiger opened its mouth and spat out a thick golden light, its boundless radiance shooting towards the Xuntian Sword.
The spiritual sword transformed into billions of fragments, forming a sword sea. Though tens of thousands of swords were swept away by the golden radiance, its true form remained unbreached.
A supreme being who cultivated both the Golden Wind Dao possessed a control over gold that commanded respect from all. The Xuntian Sword, though sharp, was also a spiritual treasure of the Metal element, making it naturally suppressed by the opponent.
Heaven and earth roared, east and west trembled, all things quaked. The battle between two supreme beings alarmed countless great beings.
Even the pursuing Qilin Holy Envoy could not help but feel a jolt in his heart, even harboring a hint of hesitation.
But it was only for a moment. Upon seeing Qing Ling's escaping figure, his body moved faster than his thoughts. He threw his golden-jade Ruyi, which vanished into the void, reappearing in front of Qing Ling and striking directly at his forehead.
The Heaven-Shrouding Rope behind Qing Ling’s head transformed into blue silk and entangled the Ruyi. Then, the golden bells at his feet vibrated in all directions, and amidst the billions of sword energies and gales in the sky, he flickered and moved through the Great Void.
The golden bells chimed slowly, yet their sound permeated everywhere, vibrating eardrums and resonating with the heart, unavoidable. A golden phoenix spread its wings and flew towards the Qilin Holy Envoy.
*Clang~*
The divine phoenix shattered the black and white Tai Chi, but it also dissipated along with it.
The Holy Envoy sneered and stepped forward, each step creating ripples that spread through the void, resonating with the golden aura of the white tiger in the ninth heaven, forming a golden tide that surrounded Qing Ling.
The old and young attendants immediately resumed their Yin-Yang formation, becoming black and white energy, their bodies forming the Tai Chi to suppress Qing Ling.
Under the combined suppression of a heaven and earth great being and two eighth-heaven great beings, even a heaven and earth great being would find it extremely taxing.
But Qing Ling opened his Life and Death Eyes, merging black and white with azure.
The Holy Envoy, seeing this, quickly waved his golden-jade Ruyi, using the treasure of unblemished purity to protect himself.
But Qing Ling merely smiled, raised his sleeve, swept across the Southwest Great Wilderness, and then across the Eastern Wilderness.
He shouted from afar, "Come!"
In the next moment, the world was filled with the brightness of spring. Azure merged with black and white, turning into crimson.
Red light erupted from the southeast, and flowers bloomed in the sky and on earth.
Flowers nurtured by Qing Ling bloomed all around him.
These flowers were extremely red, vibrant as blood, alluring and scorching.
Each flower represented the Dao cultivated by a Golden Immortal or a Grand Unity. As they bloomed, they dyed the golden radiance a deep red.
When the flowers bloomed, heaven and earth darkened, half black and white, darkness and light coexisting. This chaotic phenomenon instilled a sense of foreboding in all who witnessed it.
Qing Ling stood between the Yin and Yang realms, at the boundary of black and white, with blood-red flowers blooming, becoming a symbol that divided Yin and Yang. On this side of the flowers was life, on the other was death, the two shores of life and death separated by a single flower.