"You guys are really useless. You have no power, but you're so hot-headed. You'll only cause trouble for Junior Xun'er."
Yan Qingshan smiled and walked over to Xiao Xun'er. He took her fair, delicate hand and gently tapped it, leaving a purple seal on it. "Jia Nan Academy and the entire Jia Nan City are completely safe. Your young miss doesn't need your protection.
Family servants should act like family servants. To dare to interfere in the master's affairs is to rebel against the heavens. Consider today a lesson. This seal won't last for a short time. If you want to break the seal, you'll have to think carefully about how to earn Miss Xun'er's forgiveness!"
After telling Xiao Xun'er the method to break the seal, Yan Qingshan turned and waved his hand as he left. "Although I'm not a fan of this guy either, don't ask me to do something like this again next time, Junior Xun'er. Farewell..."
"Yan Qingshan!"
Xiao Xun'er watched Yan Qingshan's back slowly disappear, and a certain light in her eyes intensified. A hint of curiosity about him had also sprouted in her heart.
…
"You're back! Hey! Why are you using a fan like that guy Mu Yun? Let me see, there are people on it. Xue Lan, Xue Ni, Xiao Yu, Big Sister Xiao Yi Xian, Big Sister Han Yue, and these other sisters I don't know but are very pretty. These few are even snake people..."
In a residential manor in Jia Nan City, Yan Qingshan had just entered. Zi Yan, who was eating a large meal at a table in the courtyard, instantly flashed to his side. She latched onto his shoulder, showing great interest in the folding fan in his hand.
"There are so many people you know, but why am I not there!"
Little Zi Yan looked around but couldn't find a single drawing of herself. There was even the snake girl Qing Ling, with her childish face from memory, but she, this clever and lively girl, was nowhere to be found. This made her quite unhappy. She puffed out her little cheeks and glared at Yan Qingshan.
"Stop that. You haven't grown up yet!"
Yan Qingshan gently poked Zi Yan's delicate nose, then let her hang onto him. He brought this "little accessory" over to the table and sat down.
"Did you finish your business?"
Xue Lan, whom he hadn't seen in a while, smiled and served some food into the empty bowl in front of Yan Qingshan. She then sat down next to him and began to gently and thoughtfully feed him.
Yan Qingshan smiled mysteriously, then looked outside the academy, toward the center of the Black-Corner Region. "Things at the academy are pretty much done, but the Black-Corner Region... it's just getting started..."
Because of what just happened, Zi Yan was still on him, punching his chest with her tiny fists. Seeing his terrifying smile, she was spooked. "Why is your smile so scary? You must be thinking about something evil!"
…
The Black-Corner Region, Feng City. Feng City was originally a small city in the Black-Corner Region, but after the arrival of the region's top alchemist, "Pill-Emperor" Han Feng, the city's reputation grew.
More than a year ago, a great battle in the Black-Corner Region changed the power structure. The Black Alliance, led by Pill-Emperor Han Feng, formed a coalition with the top force, the Black Emperor Sect, to fight against the veteran top force, the Demon Flame Valley.
During this time, smaller and larger factions like the Blood Sect, the Eight Gates, and the Ground Fire Sect were all wiped out. Qingwang City rose to power. The Black-Corner Region had since formed a four-way power struggle. The past few months had been calm, as if everything was peaceful.
Tonight in Feng City, the darkness came exceptionally early. Amidst the wind, a gust swept up ground debris, and a figure slowly appeared in front of the most important manor in Feng City. Like a phantom, it melted into the shadows.
Inside Han Feng's pill-refining chamber, he was preparing to refine a Zong-Breaking Pill. He had all the materials ready and was about to begin. He had been preparing for this for a long time, using only the finest medicinal ingredients.
This refining process was not simple for him, as he was about to have a breakthrough. He was on the verge of advancing from a Dou Emperor to a Dou Ancestor, so auxiliary pills like the Zong-Breaking Pill were essential. Since this was for himself, he would not hesitate to use the best.
"Who's there!"
Just as Han Feng was about to start the cauldron, a warning surged in his heart. His head snapped around to look at the door. It felt as though a terrifying opponent had arrived. He moved his ears, but unfortunately, he didn't hear the sound he expected.
The pill-refining chamber was completely silent, but Han Feng knew something had gone wrong outside. Before he went into seclusion to refine pills, he had instructed his servant, Han Beng, to send guards. But at this moment, there wasn't a single breath to be heard outside.
"Han Feng, long time no see. Or perhaps, it's been a while. This isn't our first meeting, but it should be the first time we've truly met, shouldn't it?"
A pleasant male voice exploded in Han Feng's ear. The alarm in his heart blared. He looked left and right, trying to find the enemy. He had a premonition that if he wasn't careful today, he might be defeated here.
"Who are you!"
Han Feng's heart was in turmoil. He had no idea how someone could have gotten in here. This was the headquarters of the Black Alliance, protected by the Dou Ancestor experts Ying Shan and the Gold and Silver Brothers. It should have been the safest place in all of Feng City.
The ethereal voice rang out again. "Han Feng, your crimes have been exposed. Why pretend to be foolish now? Back then, you colluded with the Hall of Souls and harmed your foster father, Yao Chen. With such a wolf's ambition, are you even a human?"
"Who are you, exactly? What are you to that old man?"
Han Feng was truly panicked now. The thing he had always feared seemed to be coming true today. Could that old man he had betrayed back then really still be alive?
Han Feng didn't dare to imagine further. He knew better than anyone how powerful that old man was. If Yao Lao had not been defenseless against him back then, giving him a chance to scheme, even the experts from the Hall of Souls wouldn't have been able to kill Yao Lao.
A wisp of a green flame appeared and floated in front of Han Feng. A figure seemed to be inside it, and a trace of a powerful soul fluctuation radiated from the figure. "This flame should be familiar, right? You escaped from me a year ago. This time, you won't have the chance."
"The Green Lotus Core Flame! It's you! It was you who was scheming a year ago..."
Han Feng suddenly understood many things. Sensing the unnatural soul fluctuation from the figure, he became even more terrified. "Old man, you actually found a disciple."
There was no response from the old voice he remembered. But the voice that had just spoken said again, "My teacher has nothing to say to a treacherous disciple like you. He left the task of purging the sect to me. He also helped me subdue this Green Lotus Core Flame, and he taught me the Flame Mantra..."
"Enough! Shut up!"
Han Feng roared like a madman, not realizing how irritable and emotionally unstable he sounded. "Old man, you always looked down on me, saying I was wasting my talent. You said my heart was corrupt because I practiced the Flame Mantra. But what happened in the end?
Without you, I still subdued the Sea Heart Flame and carved out a place for myself in this Black-Corner Region. Everything I obtained through my hardships, you... Just die already... Today, I will destroy you and that old man, and I'll use your heavenly flames to complete my Flame Mantra..."
"Heh, can you really do that?"
With a soft laugh, the green flame extinguished, and Han Feng lost his target. Then, countless dazzling specks of light from all directions descended upon him.
Blue flames surged from Han Feng's body, and the heavenly flame transformed into fire serpents that swept out in all directions. "You're trying to show off with a move like this? Did that old man only teach you this?"
"Heh..."
Another soft laugh came from the darkness. Countless black shadows rushed toward Han Feng at once. At first, Han Feng thought they were illusions, but as they got closer, he realized they were all solid attacks, yet they weren't actual people. They seemed both real and illusory, constantly changing.
Bang! Bang! Bang!...
The sounds of clashing forces and the surging blue flames were constant. Han Feng recoiled as if he had been electrocuted, raising a barrier of air to protect his body. He broke through the layers of colliding black shadows. The blue flame in his palm grew brighter, transforming into a huge fire phoenix.
"Starry Sky Fire Phoenix," a signature technique of the three elders who practiced the Flaming Arts from the Demon Flame Valley. But during the battle a year ago, their elemental fire was taken by Han Feng. After he completely refined it over the past year, he also mastered this amazing flame-control technique.
The countless black shadows scattered and then reunited. A hazy, brilliant light, like a white rainbow piercing the sun, shot straight at Han Feng. Again, thousands of black shadows appeared endlessly, seeming both real and illusory, making it hard to tell which was which.
Each "demonic shadow" could be said to be false, and yet also real. The attacks carried by each demonic shadow were real, but the shadows themselves were illusory. This put the enemy in a difficult position.
They could clearly feel that the attacks were real, but the shadows were fleeting and insubstantial. Yet their own senses told them that they were real. With a potential real body also lurking among them, the line between reality and illusion was truly hard to distinguish.
"You little brat, you didn't learn any of that old man's true skills, did you! Why are all your moves just tickling me? Are you too afraid to face me directly?! You cowardly mouse!"
Han Feng couldn't help but curse out loud. He was truly exhausted. He had never encountered an enemy like this. After fighting for so long, he had never hit the opponent's physical body, nor did he even know where their true body was.
These "demonic shadows" that followed him were terrifying. Each attack was perfectly aimed, targeting his weaknesses, but his counter-attacks all hit nothing, as if the attacking shadows didn't exist.
He knew that the shadows might not be real, but he couldn't ignore them. Once they attacked, his vision was filled with an entire demonic shadow, not just a single strike of energy.
He had tried closing his eyes, but the enemy's perfectly real aura and footsteps, even the temperature of their presence and the feedback from his soul, all showed him human-like outlines. Everything could be clearly sensed, but his attacks, as always, failed to connect with the opponent.
He knew this was an incredibly sophisticated illusion—an illusion that turned the illusory into the real. These demonic shadows were mostly fake, but he was unable to dismiss a single one.
Because he knew very well that his formidable opponent was most likely hidden among these layers of shadows, just waiting. Once he showed a flaw, that would be the moment the real killing blow arrived.
"Hah..."
Han Feng took a deep breath, his forehead covered in fine beads of sweat. The opponent's Dou Technique was too profound. Everything around them was casually integrated into his attacks.
Light, darkness, wind, rain, and even air, sound, and intangible spiritual attacks—all of it was being used against him.
Although the attacks seemed similar in power, their origins were different. Some were wind, some were water, and even the white mist from his own breath was sucked in and sent back to him, carrying an extremely high temperature, hitting his face.