Chapter 143: Return

These words were not spoken by Xu Zhong, but came from beyond the Flesh and Blood Marsh.

Beyond the Bronze Gorge, clouds and mists billowed, and a murderous aura soared into the sky.

A series of divine radiances pierced through the vault of heaven, shattering the void, and finally reached the entrance of the Reincarnation Grotto-heaven.

Standing outside this cave, the fire of vital blood on Old Man Li burned away half of the sky, and standing beside him was Su Jie, whose face was pale and lifeless, with a physical body as withered as an ancient tree.

Besides them, the ancestors of the major aristocratic families in Mingzhao had all arrived at this place.

Looking into the distance from here, with the naked eye, they seemed to be able to see everything—they saw the heart of Xifeng Lie.

Within that heart, a terrifying and dense vital blood surged like a roaring ocean. The vital blood power, flowing and projecting outwards unrestrainedly from within, dyed half the sky crimson.

"Only this naturally born Bronze Gorge can conceal Xifeng Lie's aura," Old Man Li said, looking around with a hint of interest.

Behind them, the four major families of Fang, Chen, Ji, and Li rode in bronze chariots, flying four great banners that fluttered and stirred the wind and clouds, sweeping away the mist of the entire Bronze Gorge in an instant. The sparks ground out from the chariot wheels ignited the other half of the sky above the Bronze Gorge.

For a moment, all the inner demons were annihilated into nothingness beneath these flames.

"The Li family, what a grand display of prestige!" The Li family's bronze chariot was in the front, followed by the Ji family. A middle-aged scholar on the Ji family's chariot spoke coldly.

"If arriving faster than your Ji family is considered prestige, then so what if my Li family is prestigious?" Li Yuanhua stood at the edge of the chariot while Elder Ling steered it. Inside the chariot sat the ancestor of his Li family, and the one speaking to him was Ji Lin, the pride of the contemporary Ji family.

However, following the death of Emperor Longdu, the Ji family had withered in terms of talent and was currently in a transitional period where the older generation was fading before the younger could take over. Nevertheless, the contemporary ancestor of the Ji family was incomparably powerful; it was solely due to their existence that the other three families were suppressed, preventing them from annexing the Ji family.

"Yet the ancestor of the Ji family is nearing death," Li Yuanhua thought to himself as he looked at the Ji family's chariot.

He and Ji Long were Qi refiners of the same era. Having lived until now, they had reached eight thousand years of age. In terms of lifespan, they were on par with the heavens, but their vital blood had begun to wane, their divine souls were nearing decay, or perhaps they had failed to transcend the heavenly tribulation belonging to innate deities.

The next moment, however, a gaze descended.

This gaze was filled with a stern, killing aura, shattering Li Yuanhua's two arms.

Li Yuanhua bared his teeth, the power of destruction lingering on his arms. No matter how he circulated the Wood-element Secret Treasury and gushed forth vitality, it was of no use. His arms could no longer grow back.

It was the Chen family's chariot moving forward slowly. Chen Taifeng drove the chariot personally, and inside, the gaze of the Chen family's ancestor was scorching. Clearly, that gaze originated from Him: "The Li family is accustomed to its prestige, to the point that even a junior does not know the order of superiority and inferiority?"

From within the Li family's chariot, a single finger extended and landed on Li Yuanhua. In an instant, Li Yuanhua's arms grew back anew.

"Brother Chen's reprimand is well-founded," the ancestor of the Li family was a woman. "However, what Yuanhua said is not wrong either. If arriving early is prestige, then my Li family shall indeed flaunt this prestige."

For a moment, the three parties stood in confrontation, swords drawn and bows bent.

"Cough, cough!" Old Man Li coughed.

Instantly, the members of these three families discovered the presence of Old Man Li and cast their gazes over.

"Everyone has come for the heart of Xifeng Lie." Old Man Li likewise cast a gaze upward, suppressing the gazes of the three ancestors. "Now that the heart is right before our eyes, instead of making a move, you are here chattering away endlessly. I, Old Man Li, am sick of listening to it."

Boom!

A loud explosion erupted from within the Flesh and Blood Marsh.

The churning power of vital blood swept across like a tsunami, possessing a terrifying, overwhelming might that directly flipped the chariots into the air. The ground of the Bronze Gorge was peeled back by thirty feet, the river waters were severed, and the earth cracked open.

Following the vital blood, a blazing divine light pierced through the void, dazzling and blinding. Those of the younger generation like Su Jie and Li Yuanhua had their eyes directly pierced by this divine light, their eyeballs exploding within their sockets.

The ancestor of the Li family reached out and grabbed this divine light, shattering it with a gentle pinch.

"It seems the one inside can hardly wait to exchange blows with you and me," the ancestor of the Li family said, a burn mark lingering in her hand.

The trembling of the entire Flesh and Blood Marsh grew even more violent.

Immediately after, the Flesh and Blood Marsh detached from the ground, completely transforming into a wheel of Reincarnation Grotto-heaven.

From within the Reincarnation Grotto-heaven, a giant palm reached out and plucked the Reincarnation Grotto-heaven backward.

In an instant, the human form manifested by Teng Long appeared before everyone.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Teng Long's heart quivered gently, drawing upon the thunder clouds in the sky.

For a moment, a patch of thunder clouds condensed above their heads.

There was only thunder, devoid of any calamity-fortune power.

"You all want to kill me?" The moment Teng Long spoke, boundless vital blood power roared in all directions, rushing straight toward those Qi refiners in the sky like a rainbow piercing the sun.

The Qi on the body of the Li family's ancestor soared into the sky, transforming into a sacred firmament, resembling an Epiphyllum flower.

The moment it bloomed, it drew that rainbow of divine light into the Epiphyllum.

Li Yuanhua and the others had already knelt on the ground by this time; the violently beating heart induced a resonance within their own hearts.

Yet their hearts could not withstand this level of resonance. In an instant, their hearts swelled, their blood vessels surged, and their entire bodies felt as if they were bursting apart, crisscrossed with ravines as blood leaked out, sending them flying backward through the air.

However, they were quickly protected by the ancestors of their respective families.

"His Qi has been swallowed by Xifeng Lie's vital blood," Old Man Li thought to himself as he looked at Teng Long.

Within Teng Long's body, there was no longer any Qi whatsoever. It had been completely replaced by the majestic power of vital blood.

This surging vital blood power had transformed into a firmament of vital blood.

And this firmament of vital blood was slowly fusing with the heavens and the earth.

Once He succeeded in imprinting His vital blood power between heaven and earth, He would have completely refined this heart.

"But where is this heart?" They could not discern any changes in Teng Long's body.

At this moment, Teng Long manifested the Dharma form of three heads and six arms, each head controlling two arms. In an instant, He confronted the ancestors of the Ji, Chen, and Li families, leaving only Old Man Li behind.

Old Man Li dared not step forward; the fire of vital blood burned upon his body, while the vital blood on Teng Long shared the same origin as Xifeng Lie.

He had a premonition that once he stepped forward to fight, he would be easily refined to death by this Teng Long.

Thus, he could only stand aside and observe, trying to figure out where Teng Long had hidden that heart.

His gaze pierced through Teng Long's flesh and blood body to see His heart. That beating heart was crystal clear, shimmering with a golden luster.

This was not the heart of Xifeng Lie.

Gold was the color of the blood of innate divine clans such as the dragon clan. Although Teng Long was merely a pseudo-dragon species, possessing Xifeng Lie's heart made His bloodline even purer than that of some true dragons.

Xifeng Lie was human; his vital blood power was pure red, a dazzling red.

The collision between Teng Long and the various ancestors produced all sorts of wondrous phenomena.

The topography and landscape of the entire Bronze Gorge were altered, and the heavens and earth were filled with diverse divine radiances.

These divine radiances intertwined, shaking the heavenly gates.

The naturally born chaotic array could no longer lock down their power.

Rumble!

Loud noises pierced through the Bronze Gorge, echoing far into the distance.

The dragon turtle was heavily injured, but slowly made its way toward this place, and so did the coiling dragon.

Only Bi Fang's side remained motionless.

The next moment, a heroic-looking woman flew out from Bi Fang's Thousand-Peak Forest exterior grotto-heaven. In one hand she wielded a saber, and with the other she grabbed Bi Fang's head, bathed in blood.

The terrain of the Bronze Gorge had already been altered, and at this moment, everyone could use their spiritual sense to probe the area.

"Oh no, I can't sense Yun Yong's aura anymore." Xuan Jiuyuan shoved Bi Fang's head into her Fire-element Secret Treasury.

In an instant, this head was refined into magic power by the Fire-element Secret Treasury, reverberating within her vital blood and finally returning to her dantian: "With so many innate deities fighting, could Yun Yong already be dead?"

She hurried forward toward the Bronze Gorge.

Elsewhere, an azure dragon drilled its head out from the underground of Sleeping Dragon Valley.

Beneath this Sleeping Dragon Valley existed a dragon vein.

The azure dragon had been hiding here all along, pilfering the power of the dragon vein.

At this moment, however, it sensed a power far purer than that of the dragon vein, so it hurriedly drilled out from the underground, its tail still hooked to a turtle shell, which it finally put on its back.

This azure dragon was naturally Yin Xin.

As soon as it emerged, it bumped into the dragon turtle of Sleeping Dragon Valley.

In the sky, Taisui slowly stood up.

The sun around which they orbited began to sink.

The vital blood power contained on the exterior of the sun was also dissipating bit by bit.

"Something's not right," Taisui said, opening its mouth.

"Indeed, something's not quite right," Vermilion Bird followed closely behind, looking downward, only to be struck in the eye by a beam of divine light.

Instantly, its eye was pierced directly, a huge hole running through its eye socket, penetrating the back of its head and causing considerable damage to its mud-pill palace.

"It's deities fighting," Vermilion Bird felt lingering fear.

Its eye socket was filled with the power of destruction.

It tried its utmost to draw upon the vitality within its Wood-element Secret Treasury, but it was to no avail.

Its eye was completely blinded.

Thus, it destroyed its own physical body and divine soul.

Undying spiritual light awakened from its interior grotto-heaven.

Yet its eye remained just as before.

What was even more terrifying was that the moment it revived from its interior grotto-heaven, a beam of divine light also appeared within its interior, piercing straight through and directly causing it to collapse.

Thus, the very moment Vermilion Bird revived, it died.

Taisui and the others could not accept the scene unfolding before them.

Merely a remnant of power was enough to kill an interior Qi refiner.

Terrified and alarmed, they removed Vermilion Bird's heart and feathers, and attempted to find its golden core from within its interior grotto-heaven.

Yet in the end, it was not found; presumably, Vermilion Bird's golden core had already been vaporized by that beam of divine light.

Taisui, Qilin, and the others hurriedly fled from the periphery of this illusory sun.

However, they were caught in the vortex.

"What is going on here?" Taisui asked in absolute terror.

They were unable to escape the sphere of influence of this sun and were dragged downward together.

Before they could ask any further questions or seek answers, in the blink of an eye, they were completely refined.

And this sun finally fell into Teng Long's Reincarnation Grotto-heaven.

"This is?" Old Man Li sensed a familiar aura from within that sun: "Xifeng Lie's vital blood imprint?"

Teng Long temporarily broke free from the joint siege of the three, standing loftily in the void, opening His mouth to spit out a single Dao incantation: "Return!"

In an instant, throughout the entire Sleeping Dragon Valley, all the Qi refiners who had absorbed the power of this sun flew uncontrollably toward Teng Long.

"No, this is Teng Long's own contractual imprint!" Old Man Li was struck with immense terror.