Chapter 270: Escaping death

High in the sky, Huang Liyue was literally producing her own light. As the sky was completely riddled with purple scars, her fiery light fell upon the dead world. All the colors that had disappeared from Cleansed Asura's inner world came back. On the ground, the Bone Demons went into a frenzy and ran as fast and as far as they could. They seemed to have even forgotten about the end of the world. This light full of life was a worse threat to them than the end of space itself.

In the sky, the Bone Kings who had been devouring the lesser Bone Demons also got terrified by this light. However, they did not flee like the rest. As they saw the figure in the sky, they recognized the human who had intruded on their palaces before. Maybe she was the key to their survival. In her, they were able to sense a lot of Death Energy that she was still digesting. However, they were not as mindless as their brethren and they could clearly feel her power.

The beautiful woman had a perfect and chiseled body. Engulfed in the fire and the bright colored light, she truly looked out of this world. Behind her, the figure of the True Fiery Fenghuang also appeared and soared in the sky forming yet another sun.

In her eyes, even with the distance, Cao Yun and Old Demon could distinctly see six flames. All her True Fiery Drops were activated to their full potential. And she was even sensing the Death Energy still in her body slowly pushing her bloodline into forming a seventh drop. Now that her Qi cultivation had slowed down, all this energy was strengthening other parts of her being.

Finally, her voice fell on the world.

"Chen Guo, thank you."

As he heard her, Cao Yun felt his body becoming lighter and lighter and he rose into the air. On the ground, Gui Bei's face was distorted by rage. He couldn't let the Drop of Wrath escape from his reach, but he was almost sure that he wasn't Huang Liyue's opponent. Even with his control over a part of this world, such a fight would be lost. If only he had the Drop of Wrath, he knew could have killed her. However, he had the feeling that even if he killed Cao Yun, he would not get the Drop of Wrath, the boy's influence would remain inside of it.

Still, his greed was not easily contained. Thus, hundreds of black chains darted from the open metallic coffin and went straight for Cao Yun, coiling around him once more.

"Miss, this boy stole something from me."

"Humph!"

With a mere sound, all the chains around the young man exploded and melted right away into a rain of liquid metal.

"Miss, we have no enmity. But if you try to steal my legacy, I will have no choice but to risk my life against you." Understanding that such a fight was extremely uncertain, and certainly very unfavorable to him, Old Demon added the carrot to the stick. "Miss, no matter how powerful you are, even you cannot survive the collapse of this world, right?"

Huang Liyue's eyes focused on Gui Bei. She had obviously recognized the boy she had been sent to kill. But she also recognized that he was not himself at all. His mind had been overtaken by this Old Demon who was presenting himself as Cleansed Asura. She was not even sure whether Gui Bei's soul was still intact or not.

"And you know how to leave this place before that happens, don't you?"

"Yes, Miss. If only you let me get my legacy back, I will show you." In Huang Liyue's eyes, Old Demon began to feel a hope for his case. "After all, even if you save this boy's life, he will die nonetheless with the collapse of space. And you with him afterward... Why should you waste your life for this boy? I did hear from my disciple that he had slaughtered some members of your family.

"But do you also know that he let his own family die? This boy who calls himself Chen Guo is a liar, a coward, a thief, and a murderer! His entire persona is a lie. This boy does not come from a humble family, he is the heir of the Cao family from your Baziyun City." Old Demon could use both the knowledge he had from Cleansed Asura and the information he had received from Can Mouye. "He escaped when his family was being slaughtered. He even abandoned his own parents to torture and death."

Hearing Old Demon's recount of the events, Cao Yun was filled with an untold rage. In his heart, the Drop of Wrath was still fully activated and the red demon's face in his sea of consciousness turned more and more hideous. If he could, he would have charged toward his enemy to tear him apart. Thankfully, Huang Liyue's spiritual senses were still controlling his body, making him float in the air toward her.

"In the end, he begged for his life and gave his little sister to his pursuer in a desperate attempt to stay alive one more second. As his little sister was massacred before him, he was secretly happy to be alive still. But his cowardice did not stop there..."

"Silence!"

Huang Liyue's voice became as devastating as her flames. After hearing him mock Cao Yun's tragedy, she could not take it any longer.

"I did not claw my way back from the dead to hear your pathetic attempts to rattle me! It happens that I was able to talk with Cleansed Asura, the real Cleansed Asura! Not only do I know what consequences lead the boy to him, I also know what you are and what you are desiring."

"I am the real Cleansed Asura!"

"Scream it as much as you like, you won't turn a lie into a truth. No matter how powerful you might become, you won't be able to rewrite your own past. You are just the scraps Cleansed Asura rejected from his own character. You are everything he despised and loathed about himself and his own past. You are what he discarded to become cleansed. That boy did find a good name for you, Old Demon."

Huang Liyue's relentless exposure of the truth enraged Old Demon, but there was nothing he could retort back. Indeed, she was right. Cleansed Asura had been a very different man early in his life. For several centuries, he had been a violent tyrant. Hundreds of worlds had submitted to his bloody reign. After a war that had shaken his very universe, Cleansed Asura had found his redemption. Realizing all the horrors and atrocities he had visited upon others, he tried to forge a new path for his ambitions. In the end, he found only one way to be freed from his lust for power and conquest. He quite literally carved out parts of himself from his own soul. With those parts he had come to hate about himself, he also threw away his real name, never to be remembered. That day, he had taken the title of Cleansed Asura.

He went as far as to abandon his cultivation. For several more centuries, he became an itinerant monk trying to repair what he could. After a great pilgrimage, he had found a new ambition and a new path in life. Only then did he go back to cultivating the Way. Sadly though, his travel ended when he came to this universe. Just after breaking through the veil of this world, he was sucker-punched by an unknown assailant. Fleeing, he found this world and fell literally in its entrails. He had lost the strength to leave and was just waiting his inevitable death. And after all, he wasn't worthy of surviving, not after all he had done to others...

Maybe another life could have been a salvation. Unfortunately, even his soul had been damaged. He would not be able to go into the cycle of reincarnation. Everything that he was would slowly disappear.

When he had met Cao Yun, he found a way to do a bit more good in the world and to hopefully leave a good legacy behind him. But that also spelled his doom. By giving the Drop of Wrath away, the scraps he had discarded from his own soul were able to take over. And that had lead to today's situation.

"No wonder you could harmonize with this Gui Bei. Just like him you are full of self-hatred. Because you hate yourself and your very condition, you despise everything and everyone else. Old Demon, what do you know about family? What do you know of the pain of seeing the ones you love and hold dear die before your eyes? Although the boy has caused some pain in my family, I do know what he went through... And I won't let you mock him for it!"

With those words, Cao Yun remembered the red fan she had given him. There were two names on it and one of them was hers. The other one was Huang Lüfeng. For now, Cao Yun was unable to determine whether this was her brother, her son, her lover... But clearly, he had been an important man in her life. And he could imagine some of the rest. While he was thinking about this, he saw her bring her hand to her face. As usual, she tried to caress her scar. However, it had been healed with the rest of her body.

Obviously, considering the severity of her wounds, her original scar had been consumed by the corrosion. So when she healed, her scar had also completely healed. Where many would have been happy to lose a lifelong scar on their face, Huang Liyue was sad. In her eyes, Cao Yun discerned some melancholy. It felt as though she had lost an important memory with this scar. Although he had absolutely no proof, Cao Yun was certain that this scar was related to this Huang Lüfeng. After all, he was the object of her last words when she had thought that she could die.

'Feng and Huang Dominate All Under the Sky'!

Despite this moment of sadness, Huang Liyue did not hesitate at all. Now that she had broken through both in her Qi cultivation and her blood cultivation, she could use the ultimate arcane of 'Ten Thousands Fiery Wheel', the most powerful technique of the Huang family. In her entire life, she had only seen it twice. And both times, it had been performed by her own mother.

In the sky, a mountain range appeared. It was lost in ethereal clouds. No matter from where you were watching it, it always seemed to be far beyond your reach, just like a rainbow. And it was also full of colors and of life. Even with the distance, one could hear the many birds singing all over those mountains. But there was something very peculiar about those, the mountains were not made of rocks. Instead, they were made of literal flames. Then, the shrieks, chirps and songs from the myriad of birds intensified and could be heard throughout the continent.

Although this sound was beautiful, there was also something terrifying in it. Soon enough, the figures of those birds appeared. From everywhere within the mountains, thousands upon thousands of birds of fire flew away toward Huang Liyue. And the mountains began to shake. To be more precise, two of the peaks were shaking. They were not peaks, no. They were two giant birds. Like their brethren, they took off and flew above them. Those two fiery birds were two True Fiery Fenghuang fully materialized.

Seeing this beautiful spectacle, Gui Bei knew without any doubt that his end was near. With his current strength, he could put up a bit of a fight, but he would lose. Even if he was able to fend off her attack for some time, he could not win. And in the end he would die with the collapse of this world anyway. He had to find a way!

And he only saw one...

'Nine Cycle Pagoda'!

Around Gui Bei, a giant black pagoda rose. It was purely made of Evil Qi and Death Energy. Compared to the black pagoda Gui Bei had been able to summon before, it was at least three times bigger. And it also encompassed the black coffin behind Old Demon.

'Samsara Calamity'!

From the pagoda's doors and windows all opened and thousands of black chains rushed outwards. Huang Liyue was ready to take the attack head-on, only to realize she was not the target of the attack at all. In the distance, the Bone Kings were still full of hesitation. Those black chains targeted them. Just like whips, those chains attacked the Bone Kings. As they were made of Evil Qi, they were able to inflict some damage on them. But more than that, they made them taste pain. Jolted back to reality, all the Bone Kings decided to charge forward to devour Huang Liyue. After using her technique, she had lost a bit of her energy. And as she was distracted, this was the perfect moment for them to strike.

Thankfully though, they were now way too weak to be a real threat against her, especially once her ultimate technique had fully unfolded.

All the fiery birds flew toward the Bone Kings and reduced them into ashes in a matter of seconds. When she was still a 6th-grade Spirit Warrior, she had been able to kill one of them while fleeing the others. Now that she had crossed two grades and had generated another True Fiery Drop, they had absolutely no chance at all. Besides, she knew exactly how they moved and reacted this time around. Controlling her technique with both her mind and her hands, she annihilated all the Bone Kings and completely incinerated their Death Energy.

In the fallen palace, Gui Bei was still protected by his black pagoda. He just needed to buy some time for his goal.

Without knowing precisely what he was trying to do, Huang Liyue had still a good enough idea. Thus, she tried to stop him. While all the small birds were burning away the Bone Kings, the two giant True Fiery Fenghuang dived down toward Gui Bei.

'Lotus Stupa Overtakes All Births'!

Suddenly, the black pagoda turned into a giant dome, a stupa. When it received the two attacks, its surface began to crack and it almost collapsed. However, it just had to resist one more attack before Gui Bei was done.

And it did!

When the stupa collapsed, the metallic coffin was emitting a golden light. Not willing to wait for yet another attack from Huang Liyue, Gui Bei dived into the coffin.

"You'll both die here!"

Forced to leave the Drop of Wrath behind, Old Demon was enraged but he had no other choice. Just after diving into the golden light, thousands of black chains appeared from the ground and pierced through the coffin, reducing it to dust. And just like that, Gui Bei disappeared but so did the golden light.