Chapter 716: Xiao Nanfeng Seizes the Treasure

The ancestral fire dragon's pearl blazed with black flame. A frightening aura shot toward Ao Canghai.

"Well met. Vast seas, I invoke you!" Ao Canghai declared.

An endless deluge of seawater appeared out of nowhere, forming a raging ocean that attempted to drown the ancestral fire dragon's pearl. The clash of fire and water created huge clouds of steam as the seawater vaporized.

The ancestral fire dragon's pearl's momentum was quickly drained by the seawater. Though Ao Canghai was eagerly aiming for the relic, he had no choice but to take on the zombie king first to prevent being struck by a pincer-type attack.

Ao Canghai struck the zombie king with a flurry of blows, causing the black smoke surrounding it to dissipate.

The resulting shockwaves caused the ground itself to crack and the mountains in the vicinity to collapse.

The zombie king grew weaker and weaker, and its actions became more and more sluggish. The ancestral fire dragon's pearl gradually stopped attacking Ao Canghai; it was encased by a bubble of water.

"Good!" Ao Canghai exclaimed.

With what remained of his strength, he sent a palm technique slamming into the zombie king and propelling it into the ruins of a nearby mountain. Then, he turned and reached for the ancestral fire dragon's pearl within the bubble of water.

Just then, a shadow darted forward. The shadowy figure attacked Ao Canghai with a palm, who was forced to defend with his fist.

The two attacks struck each other and unleashed shockwaves of energy, causing the bubble of water surrounding the ancestral fire dragon's pearl to burst. The shadowy figure reached out and caught the pearl first.

"Another Boundless Immortal?" Xiao Nanfeng narrowed his eyes from afar.

Someone else was attempting to snatch the relic before he could!

The Boundless Immortal was shrouded in black fog, his features obscured. He reached out for the ancestral fire dragon's pearl, whose flames instantly shot up his arm and caused him to shudder. He was unable to attune to it instantly.

"Do you think I'll let you steal my relic? Dream on!" Ao Canghai thundered as he shot forward.

The two Boundless Immortals began to take on each other, releasing countless waves of energy into the air. The other Boundless Immortal seemed to be slightly weaker than Ao Canghai, but not by much. The two cultivators continued to fight over the relic, neither quite managing to secure it while holding the other back.

"Damn it, who are you? Are you too ashamed to reveal your identity?" Ao Canghai roared.

The Boundless Immortal was naturally unwilling to do so. He shouted, "The rest of you, attack! I've immobilized the ancestral fire dragon's pearl for the time being, and you can claim it at will. Hurry!"

"Understood!" A large group of cultivators flew by from afar.

"Claim the ancestral fire dragon's pearl!" Ao Canghai commanded his subordinates as well.

"Understood!" Ao Canghai's subordinates sent the zombies flying and rushed over.

The zombies, now undeterred, began to head toward the pearl as well.

More importantly, the zombie king had emerged from underneath a pile of rubble as well. It began to manipulate the dragon pearl from afar, causing it to shake off its pursuers and fly toward the zombie king.

"Damn it!" the two Boundless Immortals both shouted.

They shot toward the pearl without any hesitation, as did the zombie king itself.

A three-way fight unfolded.

The zombie king possessed only rudimentary intelligence, and didn't consider the possibility of allowing the two Boundless Immortals to weaken each other first. It treated them both as its enemies and attacked them to the best of its ability.

Ao Canghai and the Boundless Immortal were both frustrated by this turn of affairs, but neither was quite willing to cooperate with the other against the zombie king. As a result, they were each forced to fight two other Boundless Immortals. The situation quickly grew chaotic.

Meanwhile, Ao Canghai's subordinates, the subordinates of the Boundless Immortal cloaked in black fog, and countless zombies all shot toward the ancestral fire dragon's pearl.

Xiao Nanfeng made his move then as well.

"Die!" The Golden Immortals were the first to make their way to the pearl. They each unleashed an indiscriminate attack at their surroundings.

The combined force of the group of Golden Immortals was incredible. A huge tempest blossomed where the ancestral fire dragon's pearl was located, preventing any other cultivator from drawing near. The Golden Immortals eyed each other, none of them expecting any other competition for the pearl.

Their fingers strained to grasp the pearl, only to find themselves being knocked away the moment they did so. The pearl vibrated violently. Some attempted to suck the pearl into their storage relics, but those relics burned to a crisp the moment the pearl came into contact with them. They had no choice but to continue fighting each other.

Just then, a flash of red light appeared before the pearl. A figure burst out and grabbed ahold of it.

The Golden Immortals gaped. "Die!"

They reacted instantly. Six Golden Immortals' palms struck the figure, causing him to spit out a mouthful of fresh blood as he was slammed into the ground. Even so, the figure continued to hug the pearl tightly. The pearl's flames burned his clothes to a crisp and dispelled the black fog around him, revealing his identity.

"It's Xiao Nanfeng!"

"How could it be?"

"Catch Xiao Nanfeng! Don't let him run off with the pearl!"

The cultivators all began to holler.

Meanwhile, Xiao Nanfeng smashed into the ground, still stubbornly holding onto the pearl. A thick cloud of dust rose up around him.

The cultivators swooped down into the cloud of dust, only to find that Xiao Nanfeng was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?!" the Golden Immortals cried out.

They inspected their surroundings with spiritual power, but Xiao Nanfeng seemed to have vanished—along with the pearl.

"He's running off in that direction! Hold it!" a blue-robed cultivator suddenly shouted.

A group of cultivators chased after the blue-robed cultivator.

"Die, Xiao Nanfeng!" Ao Canghai roared. He was still fighting the two other Boundless Immortals in the distance. His eyes were red with anger.

It had taken him incredible effort to gather the cultivators and defeat the zombie king, but Xiao Nanfeng managed to swoop in at the last moment and steal his treasure! Was Xiao Nanfeng his nemesis?!

"Go catch Xiao Nanfeng!" the other Boundless Immortal commanded.

"It's all your fault!" Ao Canghai fumed, howling at the Boundless Immortal before him.

Ao Canghai allowed the zombie king to strike him in exchange for clawing at the other Boundless Immortal's chest. The Boundless Immortal spat out a mouthful of blood as his chest caved in, grievously injured.

The zombie king grabbed the Boundless Immortal and revealed two blood-red fangs. It bit down on the Boundless Immortal's neck.

"No! Please save me, Eastern Aspect Ao. I'm willing to compensate you for what you've lost!" the Boundless Immortal cried out.

Ao Canghai had no intention of helping the Boundless Immortal out. He rushed after the cultivators chasing Xiao Nanfeng, vanishing from sight in an instant.

"No!" the Boundless Immortal cried out.

The zombie king had bitten him on the neck, forcibly absorbing his blood and soul, then injecting a special blend of cursed spiritual power into his body.

"Sect Master!" a cultivator cried out from afar.

However, it was already too late. The Boundless Immortal soon stopped struggling. He hovered in the air, immobile, as the transformation took place.

The zombie king had grown incredibly weak after zombifying a Boundless Immortal, but even so, he was stronger than the Golden Immortal cultivators that remained. With a howl, he shot toward them.

Cries and shouts rang out from all over.

In the distance, a few cultivators hidden in the darkness began to shudder. They could see that the Boundless Immortal's body was already starting to give off black smoke—a sure sign of his zombification.

The zombified Boundless Immortal suddenly howled into the air as two blood-red fangs appeared in his mouth.

"Another zombie king? Hurry up—we have to flee!" Countless cultivators scrambled to get away, shrouded by the darkness.

One zombie king was fearsome enough; two would surely kill them.

In the distance, Ao Canghai continued to chase after Xiao Nanfeng, only to find the pursuers ahead of him suddenly stop.

"Where is he? Where's Xiao Nanfeng?" Ao Canghai demanded.

"He's gone! We can't find him," a Martial Aspect reported.

"Impossible. Even if his cultivation techniques are unique, he's only a True Immortal. He can't outrun you, and that ancestral fire dragon's pearl is potent enough that no ordinary storage relic can handle it. He can't just have vanished!" Ao Canghai exclaimed.

"We've lost him," the Martial Aspect replied, grimacing.

"Hold on. Who told you he was flying in this direction?" Ao Canghai suddenly asked alertly.

"Hm? Where did that blue-robed cultivator go?" someone exclaimed.

The cultivators looked around them. That blue-robed cultivator that had pointed out Xiao Nanfeng's whereabouts had vanished without a trace.

"That cultivator must have been in cahoots with Xiao Nanfeng all along. You've all been tricked!" Ao Canghai roared.

The cultivators blanched as they considered this possibility.

"But we weren't able to find Xiao Nanfeng at all after he was pummeled into the ground. We made sure to examine our surroundings with spiritual power, but we found no trace of him. If Xiao Nanfeng was already gone by then, what was the point of the blue-robed cultivator leading us astray?" another Martial Aspect asked.

Ao Canghai's eyes suddenly twitched. "That blue-robed cultivator had to be Xiao Nanfeng!"

"What? Impossible! We badly injured Xiao Nanfeng to the point where he was vomiting out blood. His robes were ruined by our attacks and the fire from the ancestral fire dragon's pearl. How could he have changed his appearance and robes so quickly?" a Martial Aspect exclaimed.

"Xiao Nanfeng must have an artifact of high-enough quality for him to store the pearl within. Furthermore, have you forgotten about the rumors regarding what happened at Taixu, and how Xiao Nanfeng took advantage of Long Er's body?"

"Possession? You mean that that blue-robed cultivator might have been a body double that Xiao Nanfeng prepared in advance? He possessed that blue-robed cultivator to mislead us?!" the Martial Aspect cried out.

"Damn it, if we had been any more observant, we'd have noticed signs of possession on that blue-robed cultivator's body—but we were all so anxious about catching Xiao Nanfeng that we didn't think of it! He really did trick us!" another Martial Aspect gritted out.

"Head back and keep searching for him!" Ao Canghai commanded.

"Understood!" The Martial Aspects rushed off furiously.

Meanwhile, in a secluded valley, Xiao Nanfeng's yin body emerged from the blue-robed cultivator's mindscape.

The blue-robed cultivator transformed into a giant sheep with a dazed expression on his face, as if he were coming to his senses.

Xiao Nanfeng knocked him unconscious and sealed his cultivation.

"Thankfully, I caught this sheep spirit just in case. It's a pity that its identity must have been exposed by now, so I can't use it any longer." Xiao Nanfeng sighed.

He stored the sheep spirit's body in the gourd by his waist, then pulled out an unconscious wolf spirit from his gourd.

He unsealed the bindings around the wolf spirit's body, then entered its mindscape. The wolf spirit woke with a shudder, then transformed into a different human.

Possessing the wolf spirit's body, Xiao Nanfeng rushed off into the distance, away from his pursuers.