The Setting Sun Sect was an extremely special sect on the continent. It did not belong to either the north or south branches of the Orthodoxy. This was because the cultivation method of this sect did not use starlight as its foundation, but rather used earthly fire as its source of energy. The mountain gate of this sect was located next to a remote volcano in the Western Antarctic. The cultivators of the sect rarely appeared in the world, but who would have thought that this year when the Garden of Zhou opened, there would actually be people from this sect.
If it was a normal cultivator, they would have probably never heard of the Setting Sun Sect as the old man had said. But she was no ordinary cultivator. As the next Holy Maiden of the south, whether it was in the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty or later in the South Stream Temple, besides cultivating and comprehending the Heavenly Tomes, she also had to learn about the various sects of the continent, so she knew about the Setting Sun Sect.
She also knew that this old man named Bai Hai was an Elder of the Setting Sun Sect. He was powerful, but his temperament... was cold and bloodthirsty.
"So it's … a senior from the Setting Sun Sect."
Her voice paused in the middle, as if she was a disciple of an ordinary sect who didn't know of the Setting Sun Sect. She repeated herself out of courtesy.
The Setting Sun Sect elder, Bai Hai, looked at her with interest and asked, "Which sect are you from?"
Xu Yourong bowed, her expression respectful as she replied, "Junior is an elf and does not belong to any sect."
Bai Hai's expression was a little strange, apparently not expecting this girl to be an elf. Then he said, "Let's go."
After saying this, he walked towards Xu You Rong, very naturally, as if he was going to help her lift up Chen Chang Sheng, who was lying among the fallen leaves.
"Yes, Senior."
After saying this, Xu You Rong picked Chen Chang Sheng up from the fallen leaves and walked towards the other side. Her actions were very natural, like a well-behaved young girl obeying her senior's orders.
No matter if it was her or Bai Hai, neither of them noticed that Chen Chang Sheng's eyelids slightly trembled, as if he was about to wake up, but ultimately didn't.
There was a rustling sound on the fallen leaves. It was the sound of the soles of the shoes. Every sound meant that the distance between them was shortened.
Bai Hai suddenly stopped and indifferently said, "You've suffered such heavy injuries. Give this Fellow Daoist to me."
Xu Yourong replied with a calm expression, "Thank you for your kindness, Senior. My injuries aren't serious and I can still hold on, so there's no need."
At this moment, the two of them were still separated by more than a hundred feet.
But no one took another step forward.
The sound of the falling leaves no longer rang out, and the forest became incomparably quiet once more. One could even say that it was dead silent.
After a long time, another sigh sounded in the forest.
Bai Hai had a regretful expression as he looked at her and sighed, "From the moment we met until now, there are no loopholes at all. It's perfect."
Xu Yourong looked at him and said calmly, "You too."
It was very clear that she no longer called him senior, and the word 'you' had also changed back to 'you'.
Bai Hai slightly raised his eyebrows, somewhat puzzled as he asked, "Previously, from a distance of over a thousand feet, you could have drawn your bow and shot me, so why didn't you? Don't say you didn't see through me then. "
Very naturally, he no longer considered himself as a senior, and the word "you" became a respectful "you".
Xu Yourong did not explain. This was because she did not want her opponent to know that her true essence had been exhausted, and that she was unable to guarantee that the Wu Arrow could kill a peak Ethereal Opening expert from a distance.
If they were any closer, just like now, as long as the other party took one more step forward, she would have tried to shoot him dead. Unfortunately, the other party didn't.
Therefore, she was actually feeling very regretful at this time.
Bai Hai looked at her and asked, "Your Highness had long since seen through my intentions?"
Xu Yourong's silence was a tacit admission.
Bai Hai asked, "Why? I believe that my acting was very good. "
Xu Yourong's answer was very simple. "Intuition."
Bai Hai was very moved. He sighed, "This is probably the legendary innate talent."
After saying these words, he sent a palm flying through the air towards Xu Yourong's face.
A dark red flame appeared at the edge of his palm.
As the palm moved forward, it transformed into dozens of palms, enveloping Xu Yourong from all directions.
The sky within the forest turned a dark red.
These dark red flames seemed to be slightly heavier than normal flames, as if they possessed some sort of substance. It was like the seemingly dark underground, but incomparably hot magma.
The green leaves on the branches suddenly curled, the bark began to crack, and the temperature abruptly rose.
In the next moment, these dark red flames would engulf Xu Yourong and Chen Changsheng within.
At the same time that Bai Hai sent out his palm, Xu Yourong's right foot stomped on the ground. With a light pa, the fallen leaves around her and Chen Changsheng jolted up from the ground and danced in the air.
The fallen leaves were unable to block the tens of thousands of palm silhouettes of dark red flames. With a boom, they immediately began to burn, transforming into a violent sea of fire.
It was precisely this sea of fire that blocked Bai Hai's line of sight and the killing intent contained within the tens of thousands of palm silhouettes.
This was the principle of using fire to counter fire.
Borrowing the cover of the violent burning sea of fire, Xu Yourong carried Chen Changsheng, transformed into a blur, and flashed into the cliff outside of the forest.
That was the only place that Bai Hai's palm of fire couldn't cover, and it was also a place that she had long since set her sights on. If the cliff was a physical object, it naturally couldn't be entered, but that cliff had a cave.
Before this conversation that was filled with hidden killing intent, she had already discovered this cave, and at the same time, made calculations. If she couldn't seize the initiative in this battle, she had also prepared an escape route for herself.
This cave was the escape route, but, there was no escape route.
The sea of fire within the forest was slightly disturbed. Bai Hai broke through the air, his expression solemn, and once again made his move.
Tens of thousands of palm silhouettes of dark red flames suddenly condensed into a perfectly straight line of fire, directly exploding towards Xu Yourong's back within the cave. This elder of the Setting Sun Sect knew what kind of person the girl he wanted to kill today was, so he didn't dare to hold back at all, nor did he leave himself any path of retreat. His first move was his most powerful Setting Sun Palm, and he even used the entirety of his cultivation in this attack.
Xu Yourong turned around, looking at that terrifying line of fire, her expression still serene. With a flip of her wrist, she stabbed the Tong Bow into the ground.
The ground within the cave was very hard. With a crisp crack, the stone surface cracked inch by inch, and the bottom of the Tong Bow pierced deep into the ground, even higher than her person.
In an instant, countless branches sprouted from the Tong Bow, and countless green leaves sprouted from the tips. In the space deformed by the line of fire, they faintly swayed, bringing with them an extremely fresh and clean Qi that filled the entire cave.
This process was very difficult to describe with words.
A long period of time condensed into a fragment of time.
A hundred-year-old tree, how many years did it take to build a palace?
This was the growth of a lonely wutong tree, and also the construction of a palace.
The Tong Bow became a wutong tree, and a Tong Palace was built. Yes, it was the Tong Palace of the Great Zhou Imperial Palace, the palace that had once imprisoned Chen Changsheng for a day and a night.
The wutong, as one of the two unique divine weapons on the Tier of Legendary Weapons, actually had such a wondrous use. The previous Holy Maidens of South Stream Temple had actually attached the Tong Palace to the Tong Bow!
The Tong Palace was a kind of array. It was extremely powerful when used to trap enemies, and incomparably tenacious when used for defense.
There was a boom, the sound of the fire rapidly expanding, and also the sound of the waves of fire crashing against the stone wall.
At the mouth of the cave, the flames burned to the heavens, and the verdant leaves of the wutong tree seemed on the verge of igniting. However, that line of fire could not even take one step past the wutong tree.
This was the wutong tree that the Phoenix perched on. The Phoenix was fire, its blood was fire, and its body was also fire. It had accompanied it for countless years, and the wutong tree was filled with fire essence and fire intent, so how could it be afraid of fire? Let alone the flames of the Setting Sun Palm, even if this longbow was thrown into the Setting Sun Sect's Stream of Earth Fire, it would not be damaged in the slightest.
The green branches stretched out, separating the cave into two worlds, blocking the blazing Earth Fire and Bai Hai outside.
Separated by the flames, Xu Yourong gazed at Bai Hai with a calm expression, saying nothing.
Bai Hai's expression was very solemn, but he did not feel any sense of defeat because the flames he summoned could not break through the defenses of the Tong Bow. He looked at her and said, "My Setting Sun Sect is established in the Valley of Hidden Fire. Besides the blazing and terrifying Earth Fire, there is mostly miasma there. That miasma and the Earth Fire mutually reinforce and counteract each other. I very much want to know if this longbow of yours can withstand it."
Saying this, he put away the Setting Sun Palm and walked up to the wutong tree. Without hesitation, he once more slapped down with his palm.
This time, there was no blazing flame, only a faint and bizarre Qi, accompanied by countless specks of dust, that sprayed out from his palm and landed on the trunk and leaves of the wutong tree.
In an instant, the verdant wutong tree seemed to have stopped in the sand-filled north for several years. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, no longer exuding its former vitality.
This dust was composed of extremely fine specks of dust. Each speck of dust was the essence of the fire miasma that Bai Hai had collected over the centuries of breathing in the Valley of Hidden Fire.
The gradual dimming of the exterior was not important. What was frightening was that these specks of dust were constantly corroding the Tong Bow's body. On the verdant leaves of the wutong tree, many tiny specks of gray had already appeared, and these specks were still expanding at a visible rate. Many terrifying cracks had also appeared on the bark of the tree, and they were still constantly deepening.
In normal times, Xu Yourong could rely on her boundless true essence to keep the Tong Bow untouched by the dust, let alone her true Phoenix blood. How could it be contaminated by a trifling miasma?
But now, she could only rely on the Tong Bow itself to resist the poisonous miasma that came from the depths of the ravine. How long could the Tong Bow last?
Separated by the leaves of the wutong tree, she looked at the elder of the Setting Sun Sect and calmly asked, "Why are you doing this?"
Bai Hai replied, "Everyone who enters the Garden of Zhou does so for the sake of profit, and I am naturally no exception."
Xu Yourong said, "Are you sure … that the profit you can obtain from me is greater than the risk?"
Bai Hai smiled. "I am very sure."
Xu Yourong indifferently said, "I can give you endless benefits, benefits that you cannot even imagine."
In the current continent, there were many cultivation sects, each with its own precious secrets, and a strange sect like the Setting Sun Sect was even more so. However, she definitely had the qualifications to say such words, and the other party had no choice but to believe her.
Bai Hai replied, "To obtain the gratitude of both Holy Maiden Peak and the Great Zhou Dynasty is naturally hard to come by. Alas, if I did not force you into your current desperate situation, how could I obtain such benefits?"
Xu Yourong asked, "You've always known who I am?"
"Yes, Your Excellency the Holy Maiden … did I say it wrong? I heard that all the sects of Holy Maiden Peak, whether it's the disciples of the Gentle Stream Monastery or the South Stream Temple, all address you this way. "
Bai Hai smiled at her. "Last night, under Sunset Valley, I saw your distinguished self unfurl your wings of fire."
Xu Yourong replied, "You know who I am, yet you still dare to disrespect me? You've already cultivated for more than two hundred years. Could it be that you're still unable to control your greed, to the point of insanity? "
As she said these words, her expression was very calm, as if she was not angry at all. However, she gave off an air of superiority.
Bai Hai calmly replied, "Greed can make people go crazy, but I'm not a true madman. If this were outside the Garden of Zhou, I would definitely be kneeling before my distinguished self and kissing the ground in front of your shoes, but … this is the Garden of Zhou, and my distinguished self has already been heavily injured by that Demon Princess. If I miss this opportunity, I will definitely suffer the wrath of heaven."
Xu Yourong gazed at the green leaf in front of her and calmly asked, "What do you want from me? This divine artifact? Or something else? "
A strange smile appeared on Bai Hai's elderly face. "I … I want … I want my distinguished self's blood."
… …
… …
(I almost wrote that last sentence as a song. In reality, when I wrote it, I really did sing it. Everyone, I'll see you tomorrow. That's right, tomorrow is Monday, and the stock market will open. Everyone, be careful. Also, friends who don't play in the stock market, don't forget to recommend Heaven Choosing Record.)
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