Chapter 941: The Sagacious King

The double-headed giant brimmed with killing intent. It was charging straight toward Xiao Nanfeng when the void suddenly shook and it lost its connection with its cursed mirror.

"Where am I?" the double-headed giant exclaimed in alarm.

He looked up to see a luminous silver moon hanging high in the sky. Surrounding it were thousands of twinkling stars, radiating a majestic and oppressive strength that caused its heart to skip a beat.

"A Deific Yin realm?" the double-headed giant exclaimed, its brows furrowing.

Without any hesitation, it punched at the void. The void rippled and unleashed a storm of raging flames.

"How can this be? I might not have recovered all my strength, but it should be trivial for me to break out of a Deific Yin realm. How can this one be so stable? Even a mid-stage Deific Yin cultivator shouldn't be able to stabilize a Deific Yin realm to this extent!"

At that moment, countless beams of starlight descended from the surrounding stars, forming a shimmering barrier of starlight around it.

"Damn it, break!" it roared, throwing another punch.

With an earth-shattering boom, the barrier of starlight ceased to be. The giant's strength clearly exceeded that of the Void Saint's avatar, which Xiao Nanfeng had encountered earlier.

The next moment, more beams of starlight rained down. Another barrier formed around him.

"Again? Break!" it shouted, unleashing another powerful punch.

The new barrier shattered as well—only for it to reform once again. The barrier seemed to be able to regenerate endlessly, stalling it and preventing it from advancing further.

"Show yourself! Are you intending to hide like a coward? Come out and fight me if you dare!"

Xiao Nanfeng did not reply. More beams of starlight greeted him, along with a flurry of starblades.

Trapped in the starry void, the double-headed giant found itself unable to escape.

Two other cultivators were present deep in the realm: Xiao Nanfeng and Blue Lantern.

Blue Lantern was staring at his surroundings in shock, but he was too distracted to pay anything much attention. Su Qingchan's death still weighed heavily on his mind.

Xiao Nanfeng patted Blue Lantern's shoulder. "Leave this giant to me. Don't you want to kill Su Tianxin? He should be trapped within the giant's formation now. Go on. Don't take too long—kill him immediately to prevent anything unexpected from happening."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Blue Lantern's voice trembled with emotion.

Xiao Nanfeng waved his hand and sent Blue Lantern out of the Realm of the Nine Heavens in the blink of an eye.

Outside Xiao Nanfeng's realm, Su Tianxin was trapped in the giant's formation in its place. The next moment, however, Xiao Nanfeng, Blue Lantern, and the double-headed giant all vanished. He frowned uneasily. He tried to free himself from his bindings, but to no avail.

Just then, the void shimmered. Blue Lantern was back.

"Blue Lantern, where are they?" Su Tianxin called out.

Blue Lantern didn't' respond. Instead, he drew his sword, his gaze cold and brimming with killing intent. He approached Su Tianxin.

"What are you doing? Blue Lantern, let's talk this out. I'll admit defeat. You now have all eight bronze compasses, and you haven't suffered any real losses. Let me go. I'll satisfy any of your demands," Su Tianxin said desperately.

Blue Lantern scoffed. "You're trying to stall for time while waiting for your reinforcements to arrive, aren't you? Don't worry—you won't get the chance."

"Wait! Don't you hate me? Don't you want to torture me and make me suffer?"

Blue Lantern plunged his sword into Su Tianxin's forehead, killing him instantly.

"I'd like to torture you, to cut you to pieces and make you feel the depths of despair—both for my father and for Qingchan. But I know you've likely summoned powerful reinforcements to save yourself, so I won't give you the opportunity to turn the tables. Once I catch your main body, I'll make you suffer properly," Blue Lantern said coldly.

He turned to the nearby mirror, the exit to this space, and stepped out of the world of the mirror.

Outside the mirror, Ye Sanshui rushed over. "Blue Lantern, how's the situation inside? How is His Majesty?"

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"There's no time to explain. I need to set up a formation immediately," Blue Lantern said.

"Understood!" Ye Sanshui nodded.

Blue Lantern quickly activated three of the bronze compasses and triggered the formations in the vicinity. Dense fog enveloped the area as the Formation of the Mirrored Heart reactivated.

Shortly thereafter, beams of light appeared in the sky above the formation.

"This formation looks particularly dangerous. Brother, let me head in first," one figure said.

The other figure shook his head. "There's no need."

"What's the matter?"

"Su Tianxin just withdrew his request. His avatar is dead, and he's commanding us to stand down. The mission is canceled."

"Canceled? How stingy he is. We've already come all this way! Did we waste our time?"

"We'll still get the deposit, at least."

"True. Who would dare owe us money?"

"Let's go. This fight is no business of ours. Let Xiao Nanfeng and Su Tianxin keep tearing each other apart. When Su Tianxin comes crawling back to us, we'll extort him then."

"Haha, you're right. They're both walking treasure chests for us. We'd better not hurt them. Let's head back and report to the Sagacious King, then."

The figures disappeared over the horizon.

Within the Formation of the Mirrored Heart, Blue Lantern sensed the group's arrival and subsequent departure. Using his bronze compasses, he also managed to record their conversation and aura.

Ye Sanshui gaped. "Who are those people? How arrogant they were! And they were all mid-stage Boundless Immortals? Who's this Sagacious King they serve?"

Blue Lantern shook his head, too preoccupied with his grief to respond.

"Blue Jade, come over here and take charge of the Formation of the Mirrored Heart," Blue Lantern called out.

In the distance, Blue Jade had just placed Su Qingchan's body in a jade coffin. Though tears streamed down her face, she flew over and took over the formation.

The next moment, Blue Lantern stepped back into the world of the mirror.

Inside was Su Tianxin's corpse. He vented his rage by stabbing the body repeatedly, then focusing on the pure yang energy that was quickly emitting from it now that Su Tianxin was dead.

He turned his attention to the five scattered pure yang pillars and quickly attuned to them all. Then, he retrieved the two pure yang pillars in his possession and set up a formation around Su Tianxin's corpse.

The seven pure yang pillars had all been largely depleted of the pure yang energy they once held. As a result of Blue Lantern's formation, they were now absorbing the pure yang energy that was dissipating from Su Tianxin's corpse.

A significant quantity of pure yang energy drained from Su Tianxin's corpse into the pure yang pillars, leaving it little more than a shriveled husk. Only then did Blue Lantern carefully retrieve all seven pure yang pillars.

He turned to the void. "Your Majesty, can you allow me into your Deific Yin realm?"

With a hum, Blue Lantern vanished. He reappeared once more within the Realm of the Nine Heavens.

Afar, Xiao Nanfeng watched on curiously as the starblades whittled down the double-headed giant, who had been badly injured by the combination of the starlight barriers and starblades.

"You brat, get out here! Show yourself!" the double-headed giant roared.

Xiao Nanfeng ignored it. Why waste his own energy on a foe who couldn't even bypass his defenses?

"Your Majesty, though that giant forcibly absorbed the pure yang energy from within the pure yang pillars, it's nothing more than a cursed spirit. It won't be able to use that energy at maximum efficacy," Blue Lantern explained.

"Oh?"

"I can set up a formation to recharge the pure yang pillars with the pure yang energy that the giant dissipates. As long as you keep wounding it, Your Majesty, I can drain it of its pure yang energy and store it within the pillars for your subsequent use."

"Very good. I have one pure yang pillar here myself. You can have it for your formation." Xiao Nanfeng nodded and handed Blue Lantern the pure yang pillar he had obtained from Hu Tianlong's corpse.

Blue Lantern quickly set up a formation. The eight pure yang pillars immediately created a mysterious suction that attracted the pure yang energy dissipating into the void.

High in the air, as the double-headed giant sustained injury after injury, it grew weaker and weaker. It was now so weak that it couldn't even break out of the barriers of starlight any longer.

Countless starblades struck its flesh as pure yang energy drained from its body.

"Stop! You can't kill me. If I've revived, my king surely has as well! If you kill me, my king will kill you!" the double-headed giant threatened.

"Who's your king? Is your king male or female?" Xiao Nanfeng demanded.

He knew that Madam Rouge's second incarnation had managed to obtain a mirror cursed effigy through the primordial altar, and he was worried that this giant was one of her subordinates.

"How could my king be female? Haven't you heard of his name? He is the Sagacious King," the double-headed giant declared.

Xiao Nanfeng scoffed. "If he's male, then I have no reason not to kill you."

"What? You can't!" the double-headed giant roared.

Xiao Nanfeng ignored the giant, sending a flurry of starblades to attack its body in a storm of blood and flesh.

"No!" the giant cried out.

In an instant, its body exploded, sliced apart into ribbons. Pure yang energy exploded from its body and surged into the pure yang pillars.

Beside him, Blue Lantern frowned. "Your Majesty, Su Tianxin's reinforcements arrived moments ago. After learning that Su Tianxin's avatar was dead, they retreated. They mentioned that they served the Sagacious King."

"The Sagacious King?" Xiao Nanfeng frowned.

"Yes, Your Majesty! Do you know who he is?"

Xiao Nanfeng frowned thoughtfully. "In my position as Eastern Aspect, I oversaw countless intelligence reports that the Imperial Court prepared on worldwide affairs, but I don't recall any such Sagacious King—no, the crown prince, Yu Fuli's eldest son, once used that title. Could it be him?"

"Yu Fuli's eldest son?" Blue Lantern exclaimed.