Word Count: 3,123 Words
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While Xiao Yan's trio absorbed Demon Flame energy within the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame and reaped a bountiful harvest, the outside world had already been turned upside down.
In the first year after the Demon Flame's descent, many still spoke with relish of the grand, world-shaking spectacle they had witnessed that day.
A year was neither especially long nor especially short, yet in that span the Central Plains had already undergone no small share of changes.
Not long after the Demon Flame descended, Xiao Yan found himself trapped inside the Demon Flame Space for an entire year, his life or death uncertain. As a result, the Yan Alliance's prestige declined sharply.
After all, the Yan Alliance owed much of its current standing to Xiao Yan, the Pill Gathering Champion. Its overall strength remained considerable, but without him, there was still a real gap between the Yan Alliance and the One Hall and One Tower.
On top of that, even Xun Er had been trapped within the Demon Flame Space, which meant the Yan Alliance's ties with the Gu Clan were effectively severed. This naturally stirred the ambitions of many.
The Yan Alliance's territory was simply too vast. They occupied more inheritance grounds and treasure lands than one could easily count, and secret realms like the Heavenly Mountain Blood Pool and the Nine Serene Yellow Spring numbered no small few among their holdings.
The Beast Region was a particular sore point. The Snake-People Tribe had all but seized half of its territory. Although Cai Lin and Qing Lin both possessed extraordinary strength, Qing Lin's Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils had brought her to the very threshold of the Dou Saint realm, and she had been sealed away by Cai Lin and the Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent working in tandem.
That left only Cai Lin, and she could not be everywhere at once, racing to guard every frontier. She could only hold the Snake-People Tribe's own borders. Zi Yan, meanwhile, had returned to Eastern Dragon Island to continue raising her cultivation, planning to launch an assault on the Southern, Western, and Northern Dragon Islands the moment Xiao Yan emerged, so that she might unify Dragon Island once and for all.
Because of all this, many factions across the Dou Qi Continent began to feel their hearts stir. They started nibbling away at the Yan Alliance's territory bit by bit, and among them, the most active was none other than the Heaven Demon Phoenix Tribe!
Certain cards, after all, had always been kept hidden. Under normal circumstances, Feng Qing Er served as the Heaven Demon Phoenix Tribe's strongest Saintess. But with Feng Huang, a late 2-star Dou Saint, now personally taking the field, the tribe seized territory and secret realms with astonishing speed.
They set their sights especially on the plain where the Demon Flame Space had once descended, a region now known everywhere as the Demon Flame Plains. The Demon Flame's lingering influence had given rise to a new type of ore called Demon Flame Rock. These stones held an extremely faint trace of Demon Flame energy, and the plains quickly became a coveted treasure ground contested by numerous factions.
Naturally, the Yan Alliance also wished to claim this land. Unfortunately, even Little Fairy Doctor had entered the Demon Flame Space, which left only the two Pill Beasts and Xiao Chen as the alliance's remaining Dou Saint-level strength. Xiao Chen, however, flatly refused to involve himself in territorial disputes, and the Pill Beasts obeyed no orders but Xiao Yan's and Little Fairy Doctor's. They remained holed up within Creation Valley, guarding it and nothing else.
All at once, the Yan Alliance's outward strength plummeted and its standing began to slip along with it. Venerable Tian Huo and Hai Bodong alone were nowhere near enough to hold the line, and the alliance's territory began to visibly shrink.
Of course, even while fighting fierce battles on multiple fronts, Cai Lin and the others never forgot to keep constant watch over the place where the Demon Flame had descended. But every probe only deepened their disappointment. Over the course of an entire year, that sealed space remained utterly still, without the slightest disturbance. If not for the special soul bond between Cai Lin and Xiao Yan, and the unique Dragon Seal born of his blood tie with Zi Yan, even they might have believed he had already met his end within.
Then, one year after Xiao Yan, Xun Er, and Little Fairy Doctor became trapped in the Demon Flame Space, news that shook the entire Dou Qi Continent swept across the land like a tidal wave.
The Shi Clan, another of the ancient Dou God Clans, had followed in the Ling Clan's footsteps. Their entire clan vanished under bizarre circumstances. Within the Shi Realm, every last clansman and descendant citizen disappeared without a trace, as though they had all simply packed up and moved away overnight.
For a while, everyone dimly sensed the same thing. A strange, ominous pall had settled over the Central Plains.
The Shi Clan was one of the eight ancient clans. Their reputation might not have been as fearsome as the Gu Clan's or the Hun Clan's, but no clan that could claim a place among the eight was ever simple. Moreover, the Shi Clan had always kept a low profile. Very few rumors about them ever circulated across the Central Plains. Yet low-key did not mean weak. The Shi Clan's battle power was, in truth, extremely formidable, far stronger, at the very least, than the Ling Clan that had been the first to vanish. Their ranks were thick with experts, and their heritage ran deep.
And yet such a super faction, possessing such an extraordinary foundation, had vanished overnight without leaving so much as a ripple. Just thinking about it was enough to send a chill through the heart.
The Shi Clan's disappearance mirrored the Ling Clan's in every particular. In both cases, the clan's realm had suddenly sealed itself shut, and when the space reopened, the millions of clansmen and descendant citizens who had once lived within were gone. Not a single one remained.
Wave after wave of experts from every corner of the continent entered the Shi Clan's realm. They stared out over that unnervingly silent, lifeless world, and a chill surged unbidden from the soles of their feet straight into their hearts. What manner of terrifying existence could erase millions of people in a single stroke? And among those millions were the Shi Clan's top-tier experts, the sort of individuals who, if placed on the Central Plains, could make the sky and ground tremble with a single stomp of their foot.
Yet even a Shi Clan boasting such existences had still been utterly wiped from the face of the world.
News of the Shi Clan's disappearance swept through the Central Plains like a whirlwind. Every major faction was stunned speechless. Those with keener instincts sensed that something was badly, deeply wrong. Each of the ancient clans was peerlessly powerful, their inheritances stretching back tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years. From the barbarous era to the present, they had all stood unshaken. Yet in less than a mere ten years, two of them had evaporated into thin air.
Once could be called coincidence. Twice almost certainly meant a hidden hand was at work. What was more, the method of disappearance in both cases had been exactly the same. Anyone who looked could see at a glance that whoever had erased the Ling Clan and the Shi Clan had to be the same person, or rather, the same faction.
But a thornier problem followed close on the heels of this realization. On the entire continent, the factions commonly acknowledged as capable of silently wiping out ancient clans like the Ling Clan and the Shi Clan numbered only two. The Hun Clan and the Gu Clan.
All at once, countless suspicious gazes turned toward these two behemoths.
The Hun Clan offered no response whatsoever, which fit their long-established style perfectly. The Gu Clan, however, found themselves with a genuine headache. They had originally maintained rather good relationships with the other ancient clans, but after the Ling Clan and the Shi Clan vanished, those relationships turned awkward overnight. The remaining clans clearly began to harbor suspicion and wariness toward them. Even routine exchanges maintained for years were abruptly cut off.
To counterbalance the Gu Clan and the Hun Clan, the only three surviving clans among the eight ancient clans, the Yao Clan, the Lei Clan, and the Yan Clan, suddenly announced an alliance one month after the Shi Clan's disappearance. They proclaimed themselves the 'Three Clan Alliance.'
They also fully abolished the old agreement that forbade 5-star Dou Saints from intervening in worldly affairs, and began involving themselves directly in the disputes of the Dou Qi Continent.
Perhaps to secure additional leverage for the future, the three great Dou God Clans even began vying for some of the continent's resource-rich treasure lands. They had not yet escalated to the point of deploying Dou Saint experts to seize them, and the vast majority of their Dou Saints still remained within their own realms as a precaution, but the shift was nonetheless significant.
Even when it was merely Dou Emperors and Dou Ancestors taking the field, ordinary cultivators simply could not compete against opponents who carried the advantage of the Dou God Bloodline. When members of the Dou God Clans once again walked openly across the Dou Qi Continent, everyone finally understood why those factions valued the Dou God Bloodline so highly.
To the average cultivator, the Dou God Bloodline was a blow descending from a higher plane of existence. Only a pitifully small number of true geniuses could even begin to contend against that kind of suppression.
As for the Hall of Souls, they continued exactly as they always had. Let everyone else stir up chaos as they pleased; they went right on hunting soul bodies without interruption. The Yao Clan's members in particular, now moving openly across the Dou Qi Continent, became natural targets.
If they couldn't win at the same level, they simply sent a higher realm to crush a lower one.
The Yao Clan's emergence naturally dealt a heavy blow to the Pill Tower's alchemists. Though the Yao Clan had long since declined, a Dou God heritage was still a Dou God heritage, and with the augmentation of the Dou God Bloodline, the Yao Clan's alchemists were indeed a great deal stronger than their ordinary counterparts.
Just as the Yao Clan's members were loudly proclaiming that the Pill Tower had no one left and challenging every alchemist of the Pill Tower's younger generation, two figures stepped forward and slapped them across the face without mercy. At less than thirty years of age, those two refined medicinal pills that drew down eight-colored Pill Lightning, stunning the entire Dou Qi Continent.
These two were, of course, Cao Ying and Dan Chen.
What shocked people even more was that after defeating the Yao Clan's younger generation of alchemists, Cao Ying and Dan Chen publicly declared they were not Pill Tower alchemists at all. They had left the Pill Tower more than a year ago, joined the Yan Alliance, and now served as alchemists in the Yan Alliance's Medicine Hall.
That revelation sent the Yan Alliance's name, which had gradually been fading from memory, roaring back across the continent.
It was as though the Yan Alliance had been quietly gathering strength all along, saving up for a single decisive eruption. After a year and a half of silence, they began shaking the Dou Qi Continent afresh. First came Cao Ying and Dan Chen, two young and formidable 8th-tier alchemists, crushing the Yao Clan's alchemists in open contest. Then Venerable Tian Huo, relying on a Bodhisattva Pill Xiao Yan had left behind, stepped into the low-level Half-Saint realm.
From Venerable Tian Huo, he became Saint Tian Huo.
And this was no coincidence. The Yan Alliance's period of silence had clearly been for the sake of building momentum, like a high jumper bending low before soaring upward.
Before his departure, Xiao Yan had left behind several Bodhisattva Pills along with a considerable number of tier 8 medicinal pills. At the time, Nalan Yanran had been in seclusion digesting the opportunity brought by the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree, so all of those pills had ended up in Yun Yun's keeping.
A year and a half after Xiao Yan's trio entered the Demon Flame Space, one of the Flower Sect's mountain peaks suddenly erupted into splendor. Ten thousand flowers whirled on the wind, clouds and rosy light rolled backward across the sky as though the heavens themselves had been overturned, and a world-shaking Saint Might spread out to blanket the entire Flower Sect.
At the foot of that mountain, a young woman in a silvery-moon robe gazed up at the summit, her beautiful eyes brimming with joy. She was none other than Nalan Yanran, Sect Leader of the Misty Cloud Sect.
Two full years of closed-door cultivation had allowed her to completely absorb every insight and opportunity gained from the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree. With the additional aid of medicinal pills and other resources, though she had not yet broken through to the Dou Saint realm, she had reached the strength of a Nine-Change Dou Venerate.
"Master."
Nalan Yanran looked toward the mountaintop, where a beautiful figure stood wreathed in drifting flowers and rolling cloud-light. That person was, of course, her master, Yun Yun, Sect Leader of the Flower Sect.
Having long since refined Granny Hua's Dou Qi, Yun Yun's own cultivation had already reached the Nine-Change Dou Venerate stage. The moment she learned that Xiao Yan had entered the Demon Flame Space with his fate uncertain, she hadn't hesitated for an instant. She sealed herself away in closed-door cultivation, determined to break through to Dou Saint.
Now, with the help of the Bodhisattva Pill and the Flower Sect's inheritance, Yun Yun had skipped past the Half-Saint stage entirely and stepped firmly into the 1-star Dou Saint realm. The Bodhisattva Pill alone could raise the probability of a direct breakthrough to Dou Saint by twenty percent, and this pill in particular had been refined by Xiao Yan using a Heavenly Flame. Its effects were more extraordinary still.
The Saint Might receded and the clouds dispersed. A fragrant breeze drifted down the slope, and before the woman herself came into view, one could already feel her beauty and grace on the air.
"Congratulations to the Sect Leader on breaking through to Dou Saint!"
Every disciple of the Flower Sect, no matter which peak they occupied, along with every Elder of the sect, rose to their feet at once. With hands lowered at their sides, they called out in respectful unison.
Yun Yun was the Flower Sect's first true Dou Saint, surpassing both Fairy Hua and Fairy Qing to become the sect's undisputed foremost figure.
A graceful silhouette appeared atop the peak. Hidden fragrance drifted with the clouds and flower petals spiraled in her wake. In the blink of an eye, that figure crossed the distance and materialized before Nalan Yanran.
Yun Yun stood tall and slender, her long hair gathered up, a distinct tenderness resting in her eyes like still water that soothed all who met her gaze.
She was clad in a set of pale pink robes, a silk sash cinching her waist and tracing every curve of her body to perfection. That full, exquisite figure was the kind that made more than a few onlookers swallow hard in silence.
Such a beautiful woman, noble and graceful, her whole presence rich with the fresh warmth of a blooming spring, was truly peerless. Granny Hua's decision to choose Yun Yun, all those years ago, had plainly not been made without reason.
Having mastered the Flower Sect's highest Qi Method, Yun Yun now left faint flower-shadows beneath her feet even when she stood still. When she walked, blossoms seemed to unfurl in her footsteps, petals trailing after her every movement as though the ground itself were sprouting flowers to chase her.
"Yanran, is there any news of him?" Yun Yun asked softly.
The Yan Alliance currently held three main strongholds. In the Beast Region, the Yellow Springs Mountain Range was guarded by Cai Lin. The Jia Ma Empire and the North-Western Region were held by Hai Bodong and Saint Tian Huo. As for the Yan Alliance's headquarters at the heart of the Central Plains, it fell naturally to the master-disciple pair of Yun Yun and Nalan Yanran.
The joy that had brightened Nalan Yanran's face dimmed at the question. She gave a small shake of her head. "There still isn't any word."
Yun Yun let out a quiet sigh. Though the two of them believed Xiao Yan would not fall so easily, nearly two years had gone by, and it was impossible to keep worry and longing from creeping into their hearts.
The shadow that flickered through her master's eyes stirred an anxious frustration in Nalan Yanran. She stamped her foot, her voice caught somewhere between worry and vexation. "Honestly, that fellow disappears for years every single time he sets out. Hmph, as if he doesn't know how much people worry about him."
"Alas, the matter of the Demon Flames can hardly be blamed on him." A wry smile tugged at Yun Yun's lips. She turned her gaze toward the distant Demon Flame Plains and was quiet for a moment before speaking again. "I've come out of seclusion now. What are Ya Fei and the others thinking?"
The mention of proper business swept the sulk from Nalan Yanran's face in an instant. A sharp sword-edge glinted through her eyes and her voice turned cold. "A great deal has happened in the Central Plains over these two years. With the Three Clan Alliance and the Dou God Clans' treaty both dissolved, the Dou Qi Continent has grown far more chaotic than before."
"Quite a few hidden factions have surfaced, and many new forces and experts have risen to prominence. Now that Master has come out of seclusion, the Yan Alliance intends to reclaim some of the territory that was seized from us."
Yun Yun fell quiet for a time, her slender brows drawing together. She was gentle by nature and kind of heart. The fact that Xiao Yan, after treating her the way he once had, had never been struck dead by a single palm from her was proof enough of that.
"Very well. Since the Flower Sect has already merged with the Misty Cloud Sect, then by the Yan Alliance charter Xiao Yan set down, we are duty-bound to safeguard our allies."