Ao Lie roared, leaping into the air. His fire spirit spear, carrying the power to burn the sky, smashed down toward Feng Qi.
Feng Qi refused to back down. He channeled the spiritual veins of the parasol forest with his parasol staff, and Nanming Li Fire transformed into a wall of flames to block the attack.
The armies of the two clans clashed instantly. Dragon roars and phoenix cries shook the void. Scarlet flames collided with Nanming Li Fire, exploding into a sky full of firelight. Blood fell like rain, dyeing the seawater below crimson.
Thick blood mist hung in the air. Every breath carried a stinging mix of iron rust and charred flesh.
The seawater below was no longer azure, but had turned into turbid crimson mud. Floating within it were broken phoenix feathers, shattered dragon scales, and half-exposed limbs—some Phoenix Clan juniors had their wings torn into strips, their charred wounds still smoking; some dragon clan soldiers had their scales shattered, their dragon claws twisted unnaturally, clearly enduring extreme pain before death.
When Ao Lie's fire spirit spear pierced the chest of a Phoenix Clan elder for the third time, the tip still dripped with the elder's heart.
Blood beads splattered on his crimson scales were scorched into smoke by the high temperature. He shook his spear, flinging the elder's body toward the Phoenix Clan formation below, knocking down two young juniors. His eyes blazed with even more killing intent. "Feng Qi! I'll say this one last time—hand over the murderer who killed my son Ao Yu, or watch the entire parasol forest burn to cinders!"
Feng Qi, called out by name, leaned on his broken parasol staff. A deep, bone-deep wound in his chest gushed blood.
It was left by Ao Lie's surprise attack earlier. If the Phoenix Clan's High Priest hadn't sacrificed himself to block half the spear, he would have died on the spot. At this moment, the Nanming Li Fire around him flickered like a dying candle in the wind, each glow accompanied by his labored gasps—clearly, he was at the end of his rope.
Behind him, fewer than a thousand Phoenix Clan juniors remained, most of them underage young phoenixes and seriously injured elders.
The youngest, Feng Ling, was only three hundred years old, his downy wings not yet fully grown. His left wing had been torn open by a dragon claw, exposing tender flesh beneath, yet he still gritted his teeth and held a fire spear, pressing his body tightly against the clansmen in front of him to form a final, crumbling human wall.
"Ao Lie... Your dragon clan has broken faith, imprisoned Clan Leader Yuanfeng, and slaughtered our Princess Feng Xi... Even if we fight to the last man, the Phoenix Clan will never surrender!" Feng Qi's voice was as hoarse as a broken gong, each word seeming to squeeze blood froth from his throat.
He poured his last wisp of origin into the parasol staff, and the tip glowed with faint seven-colored spiritual light—the Phoenix Clan's final hope. "Phoenix Clan warriors! Burn your origins with me! Avenge the princess, the elders, and all our fallen clansmen!"
"Avenge! Avenge!" The remaining Phoenix Clan juniors shouted in unison, their voices filled with the sorrowful mix of innocence and resolve. The Nanming Li Fire around them surged suddenly. Some juniors even began burning their own wings, exchanging their lives for a moment of power. Flames trailed behind them like long afterimages, igniting a faint spark of counterattack in despair.
Feng Ling bit his lip, stabbing his fire spear into his palm. Blood streamed down the spear shaft, merging with Nanming Li Fire to form a more intense crimson glow. "I, Feng Ling, offer my blood as a guide today! Burn my body to protect the Phoenix Clan!" Before he finished speaking, he leaped into the air, his fire spear aimed straight for the eye of a dragon clan Black Armored Soldier. Even as the soldier's dragon claw grabbed his wing, he drove the spear tip into the enemy's skull.
"Screech——"
The crisp sound of the dragon claw tearing Feng Ling's wing mingled with the dull thud of the fire spear piercing the dragon soldier's eye.
Feng Ling convulsed in pain, yet clung tightly to the spear shaft. It wasn't until another dragon soldier's spear pierced his abdomen that he fell into the blood sea below with a satisfied smile, his body instantly swallowed by the crimson water.
Ao Lie's heart turned cold. While the Phoenix Clan seemed tragic, his South China Sea Dragon Clan had suffered even greater losses. He was waiting—before coming, he had notified the North and West Sea Dragon Clans. As for the East China Sea... only Lord Ancestral Dragon could command them, presumably...
But why hadn't they arrived yet?
As Ao Lie's anxiety grew, earth-shaking dragon roars suddenly echoed from the western and northern airspaces.
The roars carried the icy pressure unique to water-element creatures, shaking the suspended blood mist violently and sending the blood sea's waves surging dozens of zhang high.
Two streams of light tore through the clouds—leading the way was Dragon King Ao Ze of the West China Sea. Clad in silver-white black ice armor, the ice prisms on his armor glowed with soul-freezing cold. Behind him followed thousands of Black Ice Soldiers.
Waves from the Heavenly River tributary surged with their formation. Wherever they passed, the air condensed into tiny ice blades—these blades were not ordinary cold, but mixed with the corrosiveness of Heavenly River Black Water. When they touched the Phoenix Clan juniors' skin, they instantly caused frostbite and festering.
"Elder Brother Ao Lie, we've come late!"
Ao Ze's voice carried the coldness unique to black water. He stood mid-air, flicking his folding fan gently. The Black Water Locking Formation unfolded instantly. Countless blue water chains emerged from the void, coiling around the Phoenix Clan's retreat like venomous snakes.
Some water chains even pierced the Phoenix Clan juniors' bodies directly, freezing into ice prisms inside them that jutted out from their wounds. "The Phoenix Clan resists and refuses to surrender—we might as well eliminate them all now to avoid trouble later."
Close behind came Dragon King Ao Bing of the North China Sea, leading the Ice Soul Army through the air.
His pale blue ice armor blended seamlessly with the North China Sea's ice field. As he rotated the Ice Soul Seal in his hand, countless ice cones stabbed out from the void—each over a zhang long, their tips glowing with pale blue ghostly light. Forged from the North China Sea's extreme cold spiritual vein, once they pierced a body, they could instantly freeze the blood vessels, allowing the victim to die before feeling any pain.
"Lord Ancestral Dragon has ordered—make it quick!"
Ao Bing's muffled voice cracked like ice. "The North China Sea Ice Soul Army has laid a net of heaven and earth. Today, not a single Phoenix Clan member shall survive!" He waved his hand toward the Phoenix Clan formation, and dozens of ice cones shot out simultaneously, accurately piercing the chests of five Phoenix Clan juniors.
Their bodies were instantly frozen into ice sculptures, plummeting straight from the air and shattering into countless ice crystals upon hitting the blood sea—their unvanished expressions of terror still visible inside.
The combined armies of the Three Seas Dragon Clans dominated the battlefield instantly.
The South China Sea's fire spirits, the West China Sea's black ice, and the North China Sea's ice souls intertwined into a three-colored killing formation. Red flames burned the air, blue black water corroded flesh, and white ice souls froze souls.
The Phoenix Clan's Nanming Li Fire dimmed further under this pressure. Many juniors' spiritual energy became chaotic, their fire spears trembling slightly in their hands. Some even had their skin split open by the torture of alternating hot and cold, blood dripping from their fingertips.
Watching this, the last glimmer of hope in Feng Qi's eyes faded completely.
He knew clearly that with the Three Seas united, the Phoenix Clan stood no chance of victory. Half of the juniors who had been burning their wings to counterattack just moments ago now lay dead under ice cones and fire spears. The rest were merely holding on.
"Enough... enough..." Feng Qi let out a bitter laugh, filled with despair.
He raised his hand, ready to ignite his last true spirit—if he self-detonated, he might buy the remaining clansmen a chance to escape. "Even if the Phoenix Clan... is annihilated, we will never..."
"Who dares harm my Phoenix Clan children!"
A female voice filled with sky-burning anger suddenly tore through the air from the North China Sea direction!
Though not a roar, it carried the authority to burn heaven and earth. Wherever it passed, the sky full of ice blades and black water evaporated instantly. Even the Three Seas Dragon Clans' killing formation trembled violently, its core spiritual energy beginning to reverse flow.
Everyone followed the sound—the clouds over the North China Sea airspace were suddenly torn apart, and a seven-colored radiance shot up into the sky.
Within the radiance, a seven-colored spirit phoenix with a ten-thousand-zhang wingspan broke through layers of ice mist. Unmelted ice shards still clung to her wings, and some feathers bore deep blood marks from the Water Spirit Lock. Every falling phoenix feather dripped with scalding blood, yet burst into Nanming Li Fire the moment it touched the air, burning the surrounding ice mist to pieces!
"That's... the clan leader! The clan leader! It's Clan Leader Yuanfeng!"
Feng Qi's eyes widened suddenly, bursting with unbelievable joy—he even forgot the severe pain in his chest. He slammed his parasol staff heavily against the void.
"The clan leader is back! We're saved!"
The remaining Phoenix Clan juniors looked up, tears streaming down their faces as they gazed at the familiar figure.
Some even forgot their weapons, stretching out their hands toward Yuanfeng as if grasping at a final lifeline. "Clan Leader! You're finally back! Save us!"
But the Three Seas Dragon Kings' expressions changed drastically.
Ao Bing's hand holding the Ice Soul Seal trembled slightly, his voice filled with unbelievable fear. "Impossible! The Ice Soul Formation and Water Spirit Lock complement each other—they were personally laid by Lord Ancestral Dragon to imprison you! How could you... how could you break free!"
He clearly remembered that three hundred years ago, the Ancestral Dragon had personally used the Water Spirit Lock to seal Yuanfeng's origin, suppressing her deep within the North China Sea's sea eye. Forged from Heavenly River Black Water mixed with chaotic black stone, each link of the Water Spirit Lock contained the power to suppress souls. The Ice Soul Formation had been layered on top for reinforcement. Even he, the North China Sea Dragon King, could only approach the sea eye with the token bestowed by the Ancestral Dragon.
Yuanfeng slowly descended in front of the Phoenix Clan formation. Her seven-colored phoenix feathers glowed like glazed jade in the sunlight, yet each feather exuded a sharp killing intent.
She looked down at the charred phoenix feather on the ground—the lingering aura of Feng Xi's burning wings before her death. Then she turned her gaze to the wounds on the Phoenix Clan juniors: some missing wings, some missing claws, others with bones exposed from black water corrosion.
The anger in her eyes almost burned through the firmament. The Nanming Li Fire around her surged wildly, twisting the surrounding void with its heat.
"Three hundred years..." Yuanfeng's voice was as cold as ten-thousand-year ice, yet carried the power to destroy heaven and earth. "You used the Water Spirit Lock to seal my origin, forced me into seclusion with the Phoenix Clan's survival at stake, incited conflict between dragons and phoenixes, killed my daughter Feng Xi, and slaughtered my clansmen... Today, it's time to settle this debt once and for all!"