Two Immortal Emperor-level experts had already been effortlessly dealt with by the Undying Fire Phoenix, so it naturally harbored no particular wariness toward Ye Wushuang.
Thus, it casually strode toward him, its eyes brimming with nothing but disdain.
In its view, Ye Wushuang’s life and death were already in its grasp.
Precisely because of this, it loomed over him like an unshakable mountain, preparing to annihilate his soul and seize his body before the eyes of everyone present.
The scene sent waves of panic through the onlookers.
“Your Majesty, run!”
“Your Majesty, escape now!”
The two Immortal Emperor-level experts from the Divine Dragon Imperial Family knew that Ye Wushuang possessed an immensely powerful treasure. If he chose to flee, there was still a chance for him to escape.
And so, these two experts desperately mustered their remaining strength, ready to fight the Undying Fire Phoenix to the death.
Yet, at this critical moment, someone else charged forward first.
“You will not harm my sister!”
“Sister, run!”
The moment this figure appeared, she instantly ignited the lingering Undying Heavenly Flames in the air.
Merging herself with the flames, she lunged straight at the Undying Fire Phoenix.
This sudden turn of events took the Fire Phoenix by surprise.
But when it recognized who the attacker was, it burst into mocking laughter.
“Who do we have here? Ah, it’s nothing but a wisp of my Undying Heavenly Flames that developed consciousness after all these years and managed to cultivate into a sentient being!”
“But to think you’d try to burn me—your progenitor—with my own flames? How utterly foolish! Hahaha!”
Huo Lingshan’s origin was indeed a mere strand of the Undying Heavenly Flames.
Born from the flames, she had cultivated into human form and escaped the Fire Prison.
Yet, this very origin also imposed a limit on her potential.
The Celestial Immortal realm was the highest she could ever reach.
To break through, she would either have to devour other heavenly flames or fully merge back with the Undying Heavenly Flames.
Her return to the Fire Prison had been for this very purpose.
But no one could have predicted that at this life-or-death moment, she would charge forward to protect Ye Wushuang.
Even Ye Wushuang himself had not expected this.
“No!”
Ye Wushuang shouted in horror, but the Undying Fire Phoenix only sneered as it callously crushed Huo Lingshan, who had merged with the flames.
In an instant, she was grievously wounded.
Yet even then, she turned to Ye Wushuang and spoke weakly:
“Thank you, Sister, for being willing to accompany me to this forsaken place… Since I was born from these flames, let me return to them now.”
Huo Lingshan had not been in this world for long.
Though she had spent decades cultivating in the Fire Prison, she had never made a single friend.
After leaving, she had immediately encountered the Heavenly Dao Pavilion’s grand debate—making Ye Wushuang her first and only companion.
Her heart was pure and uncomplicated. Once she had acknowledged Ye Wushuang as her sister, she had never wavered.
And now, she was prepared to erase herself from existence entirely.
This was something Ye Wushuang would never allow.
The next moment, with a furious roar, he finally unleashed the Heaven-Overturning Seal.
“I forbid it!”
“Heavenly Law: Cosmic Avatar!”
As the seal was summoned, Ye Wushuang also activated the Cosmic Avatar technique from the Eight-Nine Heavenly Art.
In an instant, his body expanded to a staggering 3,333 zhang (over 10,000 meters), while the Heaven-Overturning Seal in his hand transformed into a colossal divine mountain, gripped firmly in his grasp.
Then, like wielding a brick, Ye Wushuang swung the seal downward—though “brick” was an understatement.
It was more akin to slamming an entire mountain onto his enemy.
But the true terror lay in the seal’s weight.
Though Ye Wushuang had not unleashed its full power, the Heaven-Overturning Seal’s might at this moment was still horrifying.
Its sheer mass alone reached a hundred trillion jin (roughly 50 billion tons).
Such weight was impossible for Ye Wushuang to lift, but he could certainly bring it crashing down.
And as it descended, the Undying Fire Phoenix sensed an overwhelming force bearing down upon it—one reminiscent of the legendary Primordial Divine Mountains from the forbidden lands.
The sheer dread of this power left the Fire Phoenix in utter despair.
“No!!”
At its peak, with its divine phoenix body and boundless cultivation, even a hundred trillion jin of force might not have been enough to crush it.
But now, with less than one ten-thousandth of its former strength and its body reduced to a skeletal husk, the outcome was inevitable.
“CRACK!!”
A deafening shatter echoed as the Undying Fire Phoenix’s mighty bones were splintered into fragments.
What was once an intact skeletal frame now lay in scattered pieces—not a single bone remained unbroken.
Even its soul was mercilessly suppressed.
The mighty Undying Fire Phoenix had been utterly defeated in a single strike.
This turn of events left it drowning in hopelessness.
Its skeletal body had been its last resort. Now that it was shattered and its soul imprisoned, it had lost all means of resistance.
Just as Ye Wushuang was about to deliver the final blow, one of the imperial Immortal Emperors urgently spoke up.
“Your Majesty, do not kill it yet! If it dies, many powerful figures will sense its demise, and countless experts will descend upon us.”
“We must first recover our strength and return to our peak condition. Only then should we decide its fate!”
Hearing this, Ye Wushuang stayed his hand.
However, he did not withdraw the Heaven-Overturning Seal, keeping it firmly pressed upon the Fire Phoenix to deny it any chance of resurgence.
Soon after, he also rescued Huo Lingshan.
At this moment, she was severely wounded, her consciousness fading.
Earlier, she had truly been prepared to die.
But fortunately, since she and the Undying Heavenly Flames were one and the same, her fusion with them was gradually strengthening her.
It wouldn’t be long before she awakened.
Relieved, Ye Wushuang then turned his attention to the pile of treasures the Undying Fire Phoenix had left behind.
These treasures had been deliberately placed here as bait—to lure powerful cultivators into its trap, where it could erase their souls and seize their bodies for its own rebirth.
Now, they all belonged to Ye Wushuang.
Among them, his first priority was to verify the True Phoenix Blood.
This was his primary objective, the key to his mission.
After all, cultivating the Undying Heavenly Art required the True Phoenix Blood as a catalyst.
Without it, all his efforts would have been in vain.
Fortunately, though these treasures had been bait, they were not fakes.
The pool of blood before him was indeed pure True Phoenix Blood—an incredible harvest for Ye Wushuang.
With this, even his main body could cultivate the Undying Heavenly Art without any issues.
Still, to be absolutely certain, Ye Wushuang extracted a drop of the blood and immediately began testing the technique.
