"ROAR—!"
"Who dares ambush me?!"
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger truly lived up to its reputation as a Spirit Beast king capable of contending with two overlords of the forest.
The moment it hit the ground—
It instantly stabilized its body.
A tiger's roar filled with dominance and brutality thundered forth.
However—
The very next instant—
"Ugh…"
Its blood-red eyes widened as it stared blankly at the underground palace before it.
Five massive beastly silhouettes stood there, their breathing like rolling thunder,
each inhalation and exhalation devouring thick, viscous primal energy of heaven and earth.
Just a trace of their aura was enough to feel like staring into a bottomless abyss,
sending terror coursing through its very soul.
Swish!
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger hurriedly drew in its bat-like wings, pressing tightly against the wall, its heart pounding like a war drum.
There's a place this terrifying in Star Dou Forest?!
What the hell were Azure Bull and Titan doing?!
How could monsters like this be nesting in their own territory without them noticing?!
"Yi-ya, yi-ya!"
Just as it was still reeling in shock,
it felt something bumping against its front paw.
The Evil Tiger's blood-red gaze slowly shifted downward…
There stood a small golden-red beast,
and atop its head perched a mysterious butterfly,
both looking up at it with anxious, burning eyes.
"Gulp…"
A strained swallowing sound echoed clearly through the deathly silent palace.
It recognized them.
This was the being favored by the destiny of Star Dou Forest—
the legendary Auspicious Emperor Beast!
And the creature resting on its head… what in the world was that?
Boom—
Boom—
Without warning, the underground palace began to tremble violently.
Accompanied by the horrifying sound of scales scraping together—
From the depths of the palace,
a pair of dark-golden dragon eyes, like sun and moon, snapped open in the darkness.
The Evil Tiger looked up—then higher still—
Only to see a dark-golden dragon claw the size of a mountain slowly extend from the depths, pressing toward it.
It was so terrified it nearly fainted on the spot.
At this moment,
only a single thought remained in its mind:
I'd have been better off staying in Heaven Dou!
...
Li Zhexian was wrapped in accelerated years, becoming a passerby of time itself.
In the blink of an eye in the mortal world, spring and autumn had already passed.
He no longer hurried to seek answers, nor did he deliberately judge whether what he saw was good or evil.
He simply walked.
Like a newborn child,
reacquainting himself with the world.
The Spirit Power once more flowing within his body silently guided him,
leading him toward places engraved deep within his soul.
Sunset Forest.
He arrived at a mountain hollow.
Rolling heat and piercing frost, tinged with the scent of sulfur, rushed toward him.
He naturally stepped through the poison formation.
And sat quietly at the convergence of ice and fire.
His left hand pressed lightly above the cold spring;
icy serpents surged forth, frost crystals blossoming across the right half of the cavern, bitterly cold.
His right hand drew upon the hot spring;
a sea of flames rose, the left half of the land transforming into molten lava, heat waves roaring.
These two extreme forces did not clash within him.
Instead, under the governance of his will, they formed a distinctly separated yet harmoniously coexisting red-and-blue sword radiance.
With a slight shift of thought—
Where the sword light passed, half the land froze for a thousand miles, while the other half became scorched earth and molten lava—its might far surpassing his former, simpler ice and fire.
Revisiting the old to gain the new—the power of blazing frost had reached consummation.
Even more—
Beneath the Ice and Fire Yin–Yang Well,
Two dragon qi of vastly different attributes were stirred by Li Zhexian and merged into his flesh and blood.
Mysterious patterns of blazing red and deep blue faintly interwove into the shape of a dragon, branding themselves upon his meridians.
A treasured body infused with dragon qi and divinity
was reforged anew.
Not long after Li Zhexian departed—
An elderly man descended beside the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Dugu Bo coughed lightly twice, his complexion pale.
He had just clashed head-on with Tang Hao once more and suffered internal injuries,
thus coming here to recuperate.
But the moment his feet settled—
his mismatched blue-and-red eyebrows sharply furrowed.
"Something's wrong…"
His hawk-like gaze swept across the valley.
"Someone's been here."
"The poison formation remains intact—even Yan Yan would need antidote pills to enter…"
"Just who could slip in here without leaving the slightest trace?"
A nearly impossible thought flashed through Dugu Bo's mind like a bolt of lightning.
His body trembled.
In those weathered eyes burst forth an unbelievable joy.
...
Boom—!
Boom—!
Thunder Valley stretched for nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine meters,
its lightning arranged from weak to overwhelmingly strong.
Deep within the valley,
the most terrifying Golden Thunder roiled.
Golden lightning turned the land into a blazing marsh.
Li Zhexian soaked within it,
allowing the lightning arcs to split his flesh and scorch his bones.
Amid scorched earth and annihilating energy, he sensed a strand of vitality.
He spread his hands.
Thunder Sword Intent gathered in his palms.
The profound violet-gold thunder sword-light carried two natures:
one half bore the ultimate destruction that judged all things,
while the other rippled with a power of rebirth that nourished life.
Li Zhexian pressed his right palm onto the charred earth.
In an instant—
rings of emerald light brimming with vast vitality rippled outward from his hand.
Countless green gleams ignited one after another, breaking through the earth.
The Nirvana Thunder Epiphyllum,
which he had once awakened amid Azure Sky Thunder and Violet Calamity Thunder,
now bloomed in great swaths within this most violent Golden Thunder domain.
The entire land of lightning death transformed into a sea of swaying life.
At the same time—
A thunder Dao mark containing the true meaning of life and destruction naturally formed within his treasure body.
The Golden Thunder Domain—
Even Yu Yuanzhen did not dare linger here in ordinary times.
Yet as he dragged his injured body inside now, the sight before him caused his expression to change drastically.
This forbidden land was filled with Nirvana Thunder Epiphyllum.
He suddenly turned his head.
confirming beyond doubt that this was indeed his clan's restricted ground.
And the scene of swaying flowers before him
overlapped instantly with an image buried deep in his memories from years past.
The surge of emotion aggravated his injuries; he coughed up a trace of blood,
yet his eyes blazed with scorching light.
The next moment—
a dragon's roar rang out.
He transformed into a thunder-riding azure dragon
and tore through the sky toward Heaven Dou City.
...
Although the Wind Sword Sect had relocated to Heaven Dou,
a marvel of heaven and earth like the Eye of the Wind could neither be moved
nor easily destroyed.
Several Titled Douluo joined forces to open a new Wind Eye elsewhere.
Thus, this ancient site—bearing a thousand years of sword marks—
was left behind in lonely silence.
Now—
At the former grounds of the Wind Sword Sect,
Li Zhexian stood alone at the center of gales powerful enough to tear steel apart.
He closed his eyes.
Feeling the most merciless aspect of wind—
its erosion.
He raised two fingers like a sword.
The surrounding gales responded.
An invisible Clear Wind Sword Intent coiled around his fingertips.
With a light tap toward a massive boulder near the Wind Eye—
a rock weathered by untold years of wind—
the stone began to erode at a visible pace as the breeze passed,
until it crumbled entirely into decayed sand.
The formlessness of wind
now carried the vast desolation of erosion across the ages.
Where the clear wind passed, all things withered.
The gales accumulated in the Wind Eye over countless years
poured wholly into Li Zhexian's body.
His treasured body shone.
A mysterious deep-azure wind mark emerged,
faintly resonating with his prior Ice-Fire Dao resonance and Golden Thunder patterns.
...
Dugu Residence.
Dugu Bo and Yu Yuanzhen excitedly recounted the upheavals within their respective secret realms
to Chen Xin, Gu Rong, and Feng Bailong.
When the two finished speaking,
they stared at one another in stunned disbelief.
Then—
excitement surged.
One secret realm changing could still be dismissed as coincidence,
but two manifesting anomalies simultaneously was no accident.
"Back then, young friend Zhexian also comprehended the sword at the Wind Sword Sect…
so why the Wind Sword Sect…"
Feng Bailong's hand holding his cup froze slightly.
He remembered now.
Li Zhexian had attained sword enlightenment
at the old site of the Wind Sword Sect.