Chapter 106: The Sixth Prince of the Golden Crow Clan

"What are you doing here?"

A voice suddenly came from behind him. Startled as if his tail had been stepped on, Xu Zhong leaped into the air, summoning his sword pellets and the Profound Origin True Water Shield to put some distance between himself and the speaker.

Before he had even landed, he saw the man perform a technique known as "Heaven and Earth in the Palm." With a single forward grasp, the entire world seemed to invert, with mountains and rivers drawn into his palm.

Xu Zhong was struck with terror. This "Heaven and Earth in the Palm" was a technique far beyond his ability to counter. However, the Qi practitioner had no intention of harming him; he merely flipped his hand. In an instant, Xu Zhong slid off the edge of the palm and appeared right beside the man.

"To which sect do you belong? Why are you not at your post, wandering around here?"

The man was a middle-aged figure with flowing white hair and handsome features.

"I belong to no sect; I merely stumbled into this place by mistake," Xu Zhong explained.

"Stumbled in?" The middle-aged man frowned. "I suspect you were being hunted and blundered into the Tiangu Wolf Mountain." He paused, then added, "For the sake of our shared humanity, I will see you out."

The man cast a beam of spiritual light that settled upon Xu Zhong. Sensing the youth's apprehension, he immediately clarified, "The Tiangu Wolf Mountain is filled with restrictions. You were fortunate enough to enter without triggering the outer defensive arrays, but to leave, you must follow the path my clan has carved out, or you will surely meet a grim fate."

The Tiangu Wolf Mountain was lush with vegetation, its peaks towering into the clouds. Among the growth were ancient spiritual trees that had cultivated for ages, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth and the radiance of the sun and moon. Their branches stretched wide, shrouded in swirling spiritual mist.

"These are Ancient Spirit Trees, among the few in the Sea of Chaos capable of harvesting energy from the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. However, their conversion rate is too slow for the Innate Deities; they find it faster to simply consume and refine one another."

The trees were massive, requiring ten men to encircle, and their translucent, crystal-like trunks flowed with amber-colored resin. This resin was saturated with immense spiritual energy. Beneath the trees sat several golden-haired youths in the lotus position. They held jade bottles that exhaled True Solar Fire, greedily extracting the spiritual energy of the world, along with the dense Wood Qi emanating from the ancient trees.

Xu Zhong’s approach clearly alerted them, and they all turned their heads. Their pupils were golden, shimmering with the same True Solar Fire they exhaled.

"Golden Crows?" Xu Zhong’s heart skipped a beat.

"Merely defeated Golden Crows," the middle-aged man muttered with a cough.

The youths looked away, returning to their jade bottles to harvest the resin dripping from the trees.

"What do you mean?" Xu Zhong asked, confused.

"Some years ago, a great war broke out among the myriad races in the Sea of Chaos. Every side suffered losses, and many prisoners were taken." The middle-aged man looked at Xu Zhong with a strange expression. "It seems you are not from the Sea of Chaos."

Xu Zhong grew alert.

"Do not worry, we have no intention of attacking you," the man said expressionlessly. "Over the years, Qi practitioners from the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths have frequently entered the Sea of Chaos."

Although the two realms remained isolated and cut off, people often traversed the boundary—except for those Qi practitioners at the level of Innate Deities. They had been expelled by new gods like the Primordial Supreme Emperor and were rejected by the laws of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. To re-enter that world would require a great sacrifice, and they would likely be targeted by the combined strength of the deities the moment they left the Sea of Chaos.

As they walked, Xu Zhong watched the Golden Crows. The Golden Crow race possessed an innate ability to control fire; from birth, they could breathe True Solar Fire and harbor the essence of the sun. A single breath could reduce all things to ash. Powerful Golden Crows could even dwell within the sun itself, refining it into their own magical artifact.

When common beings looked up at the sun to absorb its essence, they were, in a hidden sense, looking up at the Golden Crows and offering them the power of incense. By dwelling in the sun and gathering this power, the Golden Crows became gods of immense, unrivaled strength. In the ancient past, a powerful Golden Crow could even move the sun and place it upon their Fusang Divine Tree, leaving the world in darkness.

Later, however, the various races chose to hunt the Golden Crows, refining them into miniature suns to place in their own holy lands to provide light. It was only after a brutal campaign of slaughter that the Golden Crow ancestors returned the sun to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.

In the Sea of Chaos, the ancient ways persisted. Here, the races hunted Golden Crows to refine them into suns. Xu Zhong had previously seen a sun manifested from a Golden Crow divine egg aboard that bronze warship.

"Are you not worried that other Golden Crows will come to raid the prison?" There were dozens of them here, scattered throughout the area, harvesting resin from the ancient trees.

"Master Yang Pan!"

"Master Yang Pan!"

Human Qi practitioners stood guard over the Golden Crows. As Xu Zhong and his companion passed, the guards greeted the middle-aged man. Hearing Xu Zhong’s question, Yang Pan laughed. "Let them come!"

No sooner had he spoken than a sound echoed from the distance.

"They are already here!"

Looking toward the horizon, they saw a Sun Chariot approaching. The chariot resembled a carriage, but its body was forged from the heartwood of the Fusang tree. The Fusang was the dwelling place of the Golden Crows, stained with True Solar Fire and solar essence; its heartwood was almost sun-like in its terrifying nature.

The chariot was pulled by several True Dragons. Holding the reins was a human Qi practitioner who had transformed from a Golden Crow. Behind him sat a massive, brilliant sun. Within that sun sat a figure in human form—a manifestation of a Golden Crow. Around him bloomed several Fusang flowers, each opening into a pocket dimension filled with endless True Solar Fire.

"So, it is the Sixth Prince of this generation of the ten Golden Crow princes," Yang Pan said, his gaze burning as he recognized the visitor. "Sixth Prince, this is the Tiangu Wolf Mountain, the territory of the human race. You have come uninvited; what is your purpose?"

Every thousand years, the Golden Crow race selected ten of their strongest to cultivate. Most were born a millennium ago, sealed at birth due to their immense talent, and nourished with rare treasures collected over the centuries to perfect their foundations. After birth, countless resources were poured into them to aid their growth—this was the origin of the Golden Crow Princes.

The Sixth Prince had only cultivated for forty years since his birth and had already reached the realm of "Equalizing Things." One could only imagine the terrifying power of the Golden Crows who ranked above him. It was rumored that ten years ago, the First Prince had already reached the "Inner Scene" stage, integrating his past self and moving toward the realm of an Innate Deity.

"I came here seeking opportunity with my brother, only to sense the bloodline of my race. I thought they were kin lost in the wilds, but I did not expect them to be slaves you had abducted." The Sixth Prince slowly stood up from his chariot. "You ask what I am doing? I should be asking what you are doing."

"Hand these Golden Crows over to me, and I will let this pass. If not, I shall take them myself."

The Sixth Prince reached out and plucked the sun from behind his head. In an instant, it transformed into a jade disc—pure Yang energy, the very essence of the sun. Using the sun as his artifact, he held the power of pure Yang in his hand. This energy devoured the surrounding Yin Qi, instantly igniting the atmosphere and turning a three-hundred-mile radius into a sea of flames.

From afar, it looked like a massive cloud of fire, an "Outer Scene" world conjured by the Sixth Prince’s terrifying Dao. Fusang trees were everywhere, and the waters of the Tang Valley flowed through it in nine bends and eighteen curves, every drop a miniature sea of fire.

He was incredibly powerful. Xu Zhong watched from afar, feeling a chill in his heart at the sight of that Outer Scene world. So many Fusang trees, so much Tang Valley water.

He swallowed hard and looked at Yang Pan, waiting to see his move. To his surprise, Yang Pan remained calm. He reached out and produced a divine bow. The bow was crafted from unknown materials, ancient and heavy, suffused with the aura of the Dao and swirling with purple mist.

"The Sun-Shooting Bow?" The Sixth Prince’s brow furrowed. He felt an inexplicable, overwhelming power emanating from the bow.

His presence had been locked on by the weapon. A brilliant beam of divine light erupted from the bow, coalescing into an enormous arrow. At that moment, he felt a tremor originating from the very depths of his soul. In all of heaven and earth, only the Sun-Shooting Bow could strike such primal fear into the hearts of the Golden Crows.

"Since you know the Sun-Shooting Bow, it would be best for you to leave," Yang Pan said as other human Qi practitioners gathered around him. They were not powerful, but their fighting spirit was high.

"I would like to see if your Sun-Shooting Bow can truly shoot down a sun."

This was not the real Sun-Shooting Bow. The Sixth Prince knew it, Yang Pan knew it, and even the outsider Xu Zhong knew it. The true bow was held by Emperor Yi, who had perished during the Third Divine War, and that artifact had long since vanished. What Yang Pan held was merely a replica, forged based on scattered, ancient fragments of legend.

"Then I shall shoot you down."

Yang Pan drew the bowstring, pouring his entire cultivation into the weapon. In an instant, the endless solar essence in the surroundings converged upon the string, gradually forming the shape of an arrow. Some of the Golden Crows nearby found their True Solar Fire being sucked away by the bow; they shriveled up, their eyes rolled back, and they collapsed to the ground.

"Audacious!" The Sixth Prince was livid. He hurled the jade disc toward the Tiangu Wolf Mountain.

In an instant, Xu Zhong saw the jade disc swell. In the blink of an eye, it became larger than the entire Tiangu Wolf Mountain. The sun dragged a long tail of flames across the sky, leaving a charred trail and emitting wisps of smoke. Many trees on the mountain were instantly ignited by the solar fire, though the Ancient Spirit Trees remained tall and immovable, showing no signs of burning.

The arrow left the string, flying forth to meet its mark. Two forces of pure, blazing Yang collided in the sky.

Boom!

A violent explosion erupted. Several distant peaks were sheared in half by the shockwave, and searing heat radiated in all directions.