Chapter 410: Goat in a Tiger's Den

Xiao Nanfeng swung downward with his blade, forcing the Goat Yanluo to retreat time and again. Commander Lie Yang, whom he had taken over, had been no match for Xiao Nanfeng beforehand, let alone now.

"Xiao Nanfeng, you deliberately withheld the existence of that imperial seal of yours until now, didn't you? If I hadn't underestimated you, I would never have lost against you to such an extent. I won't take this lying down. I'm going to kill you!" the Goat Yanluo howled.

"You've lost your chance. You had better wait until the next time you revive," Xiao Nanfeng replied coldly.

He swung down with his blade, cutting the Goat Yanluo's physical body apart in a spray of blood.

From within the body rose the Goat Yanluo's cursed spiritual avatar. "Xiao Nanfeng, just you wait. I'll come back and seek revenge!"

The Goat Yanluo's cursed spiritual avatar shot toward the abyss. Just then, a huge number of peach blossoms appeared to block its way, with roots thrusting into its body.

"What sort of cursed effigy is this? It's devouring my cursed spiritual avatar?!" the Goat Yanluo exclaimed.

Just then, Yin appeared beside the blood peach tree and slapped at it with a palm, knocking it flying. He reclaimed the Goat Yanluo's cursed spiritual avatar from the blood peach tree's roots.

"This peach tree feels surprisingly familiar. Who are you?" Yin demanded.

When the blood peach tree saw Yin, it immediately vanished from sight.

"Escaping? You're quite a coward, aren't you? You escaped into Xiao Nanfeng's mindscape!" Yin exclaimed disdainfully.

Xiao Nanfeng frowned. Indeed, the blood peach tree only seemed to show up when it could obtain some benefit or another, not when Xiao Nanfeng was in need.

Just then, the Goat Yanluo suddenly shouted, "Let me go, Tiger Yanluo!"

"Let you go? I just saved you," Yin said, laughing. "How do you intend on repaying me?"

"We were once titans of the same era. I'll surely repay you in the future for saving me now while I'm in dire straits," the Goat Yanluo's cursed spiritual avatar said.

"You've schemed against me multiple times, and I don't believe your claims. If you want to thank me, you can do so right now."

"What are you doing? No, you can't!" the Goat Yanluo cried out.

Yin was tossing him into his mouth.

"You can use your cursed spiritual avatar to repay me. Give me all that you obtained within the infernal abyss. You can revive at a later date!" Yin laughed.

"No!" the Goat Yanluo cried out shrilly.

Yin swallowed the Goat Yanluo in one gulp. Then, black smoke rushed out of his body.

"The Tiger Yanluo has swallowed up our king!"

"Let our king go!"

"Tiger Yanluo, our king won't forgive you!"

The cursed effigies in the distance shouted at the Tiger Yanluo, but they were being suppressed by Ye Dafu and the other cultivators. None of them were able to stop Yin. They turned and tried to run, but failed to do so with the attention of the entire city's worth of cultivators around them.

Xiao Nanfeng looked up toward the skies. "Heaven Immortals, didn't we agree that I would deal with the Tiger Yanluo while you dealt with Yin? How could you have allowed it to grow stronger?"

The Heaven Immortals gazed coldly toward the battlefield. None seemed to intend to continue fighting.

"Don't you know what they're doing? They saw you take down the Goat Yanluo and steal the Yanluo Court. They're envious of you and decided not to hold me back so that I'll kill you. They want to take advantage of our fighting to reap the rewards in the end." Yin smiled coldly at the gathered Immortals.

"Is Yin right? Are you waiting for us to fight each other to the death?" Xiao Nanfeng demanded.

The Heaven Immortals glanced down coldly. That was clearly what they wanted, but none of them would admit it.

Yin smiled. "Xiao Nanfeng, it's time for us to have our showdown, then. Just the two of us."

Yin's aura was intense and far stronger than Xiao Nanfeng's own. Now that the Formation of the Complete Heavens had been taken down, and the power of the Divine Seal of Dazheng had been revealed, he wouldn't be able to surprise Yin any longer. Xiao Nanfeng had been trapped in an intense crisis.

Despite the pressure suddenly weighing down on him, Xiao Nanfeng smiled. "Yin, how do you feel about the notion that there are others trying to profit off our fight?"

"Hm?"

"It's true that it doesn't seem like I'm a match for you at the moment, but that's just how it looks. The Goat Yanluo didn't think that I could take him down, either, but he ultimately lost to me." Xiao Nanfeng smiled.

"What are you trying to say, lad?"

"What if we deal with the rest of them first?"

"Hm?" Yin raised an eyebrow.

"I'm confident I'll be able to handle you, but I'd incur serious injuries by doing so. I wouldn't want a group of petty villains like them to take advantage—and I'm sure you wouldn't want to give them a chance, either."

"Do you have a means of dealing with me? You're trying to trick me, aren't you?" Yin didn't seem to believe Xiao Nanfeng.

"How do you know I don't have other formations in the vicinity?" Xiao Nanfeng countered.

"Oh?"

The Formation of the Complete Heavens had been exceptionally strong. Xiao Nanfeng might really have more formations up his sleeve.

"You're an opponent that I'll have to be serious against, but they're just a bunch of shameless vultures. We'll deal with them first before our fight," Xiao Nanfeng suggested.

Yin smirked. "I feel like you're simply trying to delay, but you're not wrong. It's better to take them down first."

Yin and Xiao Nanfeng looked toward the skies.

The Heaven Immortals blanched, not expecting that Xiao Nanfeng and Yin would ally against them.

"Xiao Nanfeng, you dare ally with a cursed effigy against me? Do you intend to make yourself an enemy of the divine empire of Dayin?!" the crown prince demanded.

"You intend to kill me; it's only reasonable that I act in self-defense," Xiao Nanfeng replied coolly.

His silver robes transformed into gold as he returned to his physical body. Simultaneously, he brought the dragon-quelling spike he had just acquired into his mindscape.

No one realized how dangerous his action was.

Xiao Nanfeng sent Black Lotus a mental transmission: "Senior, I'll have to trouble you to devour this dragon-quelling spike and pass me the undying spiritual power contained within."

"Very well," Black Lotus replied.

A black hole opened up at the base of the black lotus as it swallowed the dragon-quelling spike. It passed a steady stream of cursed spiritual power to Xiao Nanfeng, who infused it into the divine undying blade.

Xiao Nanfeng glanced at Yin. "Go on. The faster we kill them, the faster we can have our fight."

"Very well. We'll kill them first." Yin smiled.

"You dare?!" the Heaven Immortals in the air cried out.

None of them had expected such an outcome. If Yin and Xiao Nanfeng really were going to take them on together, what could they do?

Just then, Yin whirled around and slammed a palm toward Xiao Nanfeng. "Die, lad!"

"Yin, you're going back on your word?!" Xiao Nanfeng shouted, striking at him with his divine undying blade.

"Do you really think you managed to trick me? Ha! You're the one who'll benefit if I fight against these Heaven Immortals. If I make my move now, you won't have time to use any of your trump cards—if you really had any in the first place. Die!" Yin shouted.

"You die!" Xiao Nanfeng swung his blade toward Yin.

The divine undying blade glowed with shining green light that illuminated the heavens. The blade struck at Yin with such force that the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He instantly realized that something was amiss.

"There's something wrong with your blade. Tigers, rise!" Yin shouted, defending himself with both palms.

The specter of a black tiger, surrounded by a devastating aura, appeared around Yin. It howled and leapt toward Xiao Nanfeng's slash.

The slash bisected the specter of the black tiger. Undeterred, the blade headed straight toward Yin.

"No!" Yin shouted.

He was simply too close to the attack to dodge. All he could do was tilt his body sideways—but even so, he was slashed diagonally into two.

The sudden sneak attack caused the Heaven Immortals to gasp in surprise. Neither had expected that the two allied parties would immediately turn on each other. More sinister was the fact that Xiao Nanfeng was the victor. He had taken down Yin in a single blow.

"How could this be? Impossible!" Yin's upper half retreated, holding on to the lower half of his body.

"Nothing is impossible. Yin, to think you would have been able to avoid a lethal blow—come back here and let me take you down!" Xiao Nanfeng flew toward Yin.

The blood peach tree jumped out of nowhere, likewise striking at Yin.

Yin had become severely weakened after falling prey to Xiao Nanfeng's attack. Fearful that he would be able to execute a slash of such power again, and of the cursed effigy that had appeared out of nowhere, Yin was certain that he would lose if they continued to fight.

"Xiao Nanfeng, I'm going to take revenge on you sooner or later. Just you wait!" Yin roared.

He flew toward the infernal abyss with the other half of his body.

The blood peach tree tried to block his retreat with a large shower of peach blossoms, but Yin was a fearsome foe even with his physical body cut in half. He knocked the peach blossoms away as he dove straight into the abyss, thinking that that would be the safest location for him at present.

"You're a fast runner, aren't you?" Xiao Nanfeng snorted.

The blood peach tree chased Yin all the way to the mouth of the abyss before it stopped. Its trunk shook in rage, but there was nothing it could do. It flew toward the other side of the battlefield. If it couldn't devour a cursed king, it might as well feast on the cursed effigies that were still around.

Only then did Xiao Nanfeng raise his head to look at the gathered Heaven Immortals. He sneered disdainfully. There was no reason to talk overmuch to such petty cultivators who would have left him for dead. He flew back toward Fengdu, leaving the Heaven Immortals staring warily at him behind.