The goal of the Imperial Protectors Guard was to reclaim the lost territory.
This Spear Saint had been entangled with the Wu tribe for many years; when it came to a great war, he would wage it without hesitation.
"A great opportunity."
Yun Manlou headed back home.
More than thirty years had passed.
Every time he sat down, he thought of Li Xinnian's threat, as well as that statue of Li Tianyue at the Shadowfell Prefecture border pass.
The initial guilt had, over time, transformed the Azure Cloud Li Clan into a thorn in his heart, making him wish for nothing more than the Li Clan's immediate extermination.
"With the great war in Deston Prefecture, Ba Siyu has already tacitly approved our covert actions.
As long as we take down the Azure Cloud Li Clan and the Old Ancestor achieves Body Integration, our Yun Clan will truly be able to stand atop the clouds."
Yun Manlou's face was flushed.
"And there's the Azure Cloud Prefecture. The Li Clan's main force is in Deston Prefecture.
Once they are completely annihilated, everything in the prosperous lands of the Azure Cloud Prefecture will be ours for the taking.
The Yun Clan and the Azure Cloud Prefecture... a perfect match, a perfect match, hahaha!"
Seeing the rising sun above the clouds, Yun Manlou was filled with fervent excitement as he drew closer and closer to home.
Suddenly, Yun Manlou's gaze went blank.
"Whoosh!"
Still halfway on his journey back toward Silver Wolf Lake, a sudden palpitation seized Yun Manlou's heart.
He had never felt his heart beat so rapidly; his Divine Soul was trembling!
Some sort of law locked onto his Qi signature from an unknown origin.
He only felt that his surroundings in all directions instantly transformed into a world of ice and snow, yet that ice and snow were intensely scorching.
The sound of tearing through the air—that piercing "whoosh" of a long arrow breaking the void—turned into the hoarse, shrill cry of a Blue Phoenix!
Under the lock of such a Qi signature, he found that he had absolutely nowhere to run.
He turned his stiff neck to look back.
He saw that beneath the space formed by this great Spiritual power, a Blue Phoenix radiating an aura of extreme, icy will was riding the wind toward him.
Its speed was incredibly fast, wreaking havoc within the ice field formed by the space, possessing enough power to destroy everything!
"Void Refinement... A Void Refinement cultivator channeling Spiritual power!"
Yun Manlou stared in disbelief at the end of this space.
Standing there was a woman: Li Changyao.
She still maintained the posture of having just released the bowstring.
From her initial expressionlessness, a satisfied smile gradually emerged on her face as the Blue Phoenix was fired forward!
"Impossible, she... how could she be at the Void Refinement realm?!!"
Just as his words fell, Yun Manlou shuddered all over.
He was also only one step away from the Void Refinement realm. Yet across a distance of thousands of miles, he surprisingly... had absolutely no confidence in escaping!
The Blue Phoenix drew closer and closer.
Yun Manlou could clearly see another figure standing atop the Blue Phoenix.
Li Xinnian arrived, standing on the Blue Phoenix, not even sparing him a glance.
The Blue Phoenix's aura of icy flames and the thick blood Qi on Li Xinnian's body mingled together, plunging Yun Manlou—who had originally wanted to use every trick in his book to dodge this arrow—into utter despair.
He stopped in his tracks, shivering all over. "Also Void Refinement... you hid it so deeply."
Just as his words fell.
An arrow shot over, piercing straight through Yun Manlou's chest and tearing open a massive hole.
Li Changyao's Spiritual power gradually turned Yun Manlou's body into an ice sculpture.
Yun Manlou's eyes widened.
Filled with terror, he could only watch the figures of the Blue Phoenix and Li Xinnian gradually fade into the distance, leaving behind the residual might of the soaring Blue Phoenix.
At this moment, his heart was a jumble of mixed emotions.
"How is it possible... how is it possible that they are all at the Void Refinement realm?"
Immediately after, he felt a chill across his neck.
Yun Manlou only felt the world spin.
As his head fell to the ground, he saw his own body so intuitively for the first time—a body turned into an ice sculpture, gradually igniting with flames alongside his Divine Soul, completely vanishing from heaven and earth.
......
Standing atop the Blue Phoenix formed by his Great-Aunt's Top-Grade Dharma Treasure long arrow—which had crossed thousands of miles to shoot and kill Yun Manlou—Li Xinnian headed toward Silver Wolf Lake.
Yun Manlou had lost his life, but Li Xinnian didn't even spare him a glance.
Back then, on Ba Siyu's Top-Grade Dharma Treasure, the Carefree Cloud, what needed to be said had already been said, and the goal had been achieved.
Now, what he had to do was fulfill the unfulfilled duties from his time as the Patriarch.
"Boom!"
Facing the fierce winds generated by the Blue Phoenix's flight, Li Xinnian landed at Silver Wolf Lake.
The Shadow-Slaughtering Gale Arrow, having traveled thousands of miles, finally reached its destination. With a deafening boom, monstrous flames ignited across Silver Wolf Lake.
Decades had passed, and Silver Wolf Lake had gone from desolation back to prosperity.
Because of this sudden burst of Void Refinement Spiritual power, many cultivators soared into the air.
"Which Fellow Daoist is this?!!"
Casually slaying a cultivator who attempted to flee with the Yun-Slaying Saber, a voice echoed from within the Yun Clan as a figure floated into the air.
This person possessed a robust physique, his bare upper body resembling a towering mountain covered in various talisman runes.
In his hand, he held an array compass.
He was one of Bi Shihu's three great generals: Tracker Cai Yongzhen, exclusively in charge of the three armies' array formations and defense.
Cai Yongzhen hovered in the air, manipulating the array formation compass in his hand to activate the array formations arranged at Silver Wolf Lake over the past few decades, attempting to extinguish the Heavenly Fire brought by Li Changyao's Blue Phoenix shooting straight at them.
Li Xinnian frowned.
"Mid-stage Void Refinement?"
He looked around, his Spiritual power constantly searching for blood Qi across Silver Wolf Lake.
In this battle, the one he wanted to kill was not just Yun Manlou.
He also wanted to test his current self to see if he could keep up with his Eldest Brother's footsteps, and whether he could fight against a Half-step Body Integration expert like the Yun Clan's Old Ancestor.
But in the entirety of Silver Wolf Lake, there was only Cai Yongzhen.
"Old Ancestor, the Yun Clan's Old Ancestor is not here. And out of all the experts they've invited over the years, there is only Cai Yongzhen."
Li Xinnian picked up the Ancestral Spirit Tablet.
"They moved swiftly. There's only one place they could possibly go: the Golden Toad Divine Palace!"