Chapter 70
The moment the array shattered, Meng Qingzhi managed to escape.
Xuanwu, being a tremendous creature hindered by spirit energy, was unable to catch him.
With his teeth clenched, Meng Qingzhi let out a deep sigh in relief deep within, "Finally..."
There was a last resort: to extract the pseudo-divine beast's root bone within him and give it to the Xuanwu.
The reason for Xuanwu's attraction to him lies there. If it's gone, Xuanwu would naturally lose interest in him.
But he did not wish to do this.
Currently, he had few trump cards. Once he lost his root bone, he'd become truly useless. Henceforth, he could only be an ordinary person. In terms of survival in the illusion array, that in itself was a question.
Having experienced powerful people from the Tao community, how could he be willing to remain merely an ordinary person?
Why should he sacrifice all this?
The disaster brought by Xuanwu was not his doing.
The people of Tao always talked about righteousness, so now, they should contribute to world peace too.
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Breaking an illusory array was not an instant task.
It's like a skyscraper collapsing — starting from the top, fragments of spiritual energy transform into millions of tiny crystals due to the intense collision. These crystals then scatter into the distance, and dissolve quickly into the air, becoming trails of mist.
Despite the decrement of the operation, the remarkable motion still caused ripples in the human world.
In the nearby neighborhood, someone hazily opened their eyes and looked into the distance.
It was now the afternoon, the sun was setting, but the sky seemed unusually bright, as if something had flashed in the distance.
But it was gone in an instant, so fast that it felt like a hallucination.
The man shook his head, the more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed, "Weird, the ground seemed to shake just now, was that an earthquake?"
He casually opened up his Weibo to check real-time posts from his location. Not finding any discussion on it, he decided to post:
"[Current location: xxx. Was napping, but felt the ground shake and woke up. Anyone else notice that?]"
He had quite a few followers on Weibo, and responses came quickly:
"[Taking a nap at this hour? You've got some serious routine.]"
"[I’m in the same city as the poster, been awake the whole time, didn’t feel anything.]"
"[Didn't feel anything +1, but my dog was barking quite a bit... seemed a little weird.]"
"[xxx is far away from any quake zones, hasn't been an earthquake in hundreds of years. Perhaps you dreamt it?]"
After seeing the series of negative replies, he started to doubt himself.
Strange... Did he really imagine it all in his sleep?
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Outside the illusion array, a group of cultivators who had urgently gathered near the Xu family faced the scenario with growing anxiety.
Yet, they could do nothing but witness everything unfold before their eyes, powerless.
The president of the Tao Association watched the grand moment when the array shattered, his face sullen. "We were just a few tens of minutes short..."
Even the delay of a tens of minutes would have resulted in the illusion formation opening by itself, and the people inside could have come out safely.
Those people were almost all of Xuanmen's talented seeds, the hopes for the next several decades.
To put it bluntly, even if the disaster had struck them, the older generation, it would be better than the younger ones befalling trouble.
But now... All these seeds had been ruined by one rash act of Meng Qingzhi!
The elders were also very emotional.
Some, thinking of their own young family members still inside the formation, became weak from the shock, even coughing up blood in their stress.
A person slapped the table, pointing angrily at the nose of the hastily arrived patriarch of the Meng family: "You just wait. If anything happens to my son, I won't let it slide by your Meng family!"
The patriarch of the Meng family frowned, "Let's not be hasty with our words. He probably didn't know the consequences. In crisis, he might have been panicked and not known what to do."
Actually, he wasn't pleased with Meng Qingzhi's actions either. After all, several of their own Meng children were also within the array. If something went wrong, they would also suffer. Wasn't he heartbroken too?
However, the Meng household could not accept the responsibility for this disaster and become the collective enemy.
One person grumbled, "Nonsense! His little tricks might work on his own age group, but don't bring them here. He's been trying to make others take risks ever since he entered the formation. I thought he was just being clever, but I never thought he could be so selfish. Xuanwu obviously fell into demonic possession. Even you could realize the huge potential harm a possessed divine beast could cause to the world. The evil energy spreads effectively. Releasing such a large source of contamination will definitely infect many. A small mistake, and the purgatory scene recorded in the ancient books will reappear in the world!"
"He had that artifact and could have thrown it on the Xuanwu, potentially buying himself time. But in order to escape danger, he recklessly released the toxic energy, shifting trouble to others and putting everyone in danger. He put his own safety before humanity!"
The Meng family, criticized as such, were rendered speechless.
The Association President, after a long silence, finally uttered: "... Downright despicable."
They initially had hope, betting on the array's time limit. Once exhausted, Xuanwu wouldn't be expelled.
But Meng Qingzhi's actions had obliterated this tiny glimmer of hope.
Choosing self-preservation in the face of danger isn't blameworthy. However, it is unbearable that Meng Qingzhi took things to an irreparable level when there were still other solutions available, and they were not yet in a desperate situation.
On the other side of the balance, indeed, lies the entire human world.
That weight is simply too heavy.
The Association organized a rapid response team to save the array. However, the crumbled array had torn the space around it generating rifts, quickly swallowing a few people.
And the speed of the array's collapse didn't show any signs of slowing down.
"Forget it, everyone, stay back!"
The Association President bit his teeth and ordered everyone to withdraw.
They couldn't even control the start-up time of the ancient illusion formation. How could they prevent its breakdown?
Not to mention them, even the divine beasts might find it tough to resist such an immense force.
They could only wait for Xuanwu to emerge before attempting any remedies.
Thinking about the promise made by that esteemed individual, the President felt a little reassured.
Although Xuanwu is terrifying in the eyes of humans, it is only one of the four divine beasts. If the Court of Arbiters is willing to exert effort, the situation might still be controllable.
As the President was quickly contemplating, someone next to him suddenly exclaimed, "... Is it catching fire?!"
What's on fire?
The President looked up.
He happened to see bright red flames spreading like slanted water flow from the cracks in the broken illusion formation, greedily licking the black aura trying to escape from the gaps.
These flames burned silently, generating no heat. But at the instant of seeing them, the President felt a chill creep up his spine.
He had a feeling that perhaps the next instant, these cold flames would engulf them all.
He steadied himself and murmured, "Who...which esteemed individual is this?"
Great! They managed to suppress the evil aura!
Qing Luan, not knowing when he had left the room, stood not too close yet not too far from the formation, accompanied by the mythological creatures who had hurried over from the Court of Arbiters.
Behind him, one of the creatures recognized that the flames were Phoenix's Nirvana Fire and wanted to help.
Qing Luan yelled at them, "No one is allowed to go near them!"
The creatures were puzzled, "Xuanwu is possessed by evil, the aura is difficult to deal with, Phoenix may be in danger…"
Qing Luan's lips pursed tightly, gripping a small bird dumpling in his hand, without uttering a word.
Yes, there is danger.
Phoenix, having absorbed so much evil aura again and spreading out the power, its current condition... was impossible to predict.
He dared not let anyone approach and provoke Phoenix.
One Xuanwu had already caused such a massive disaster. If Phoenix lost control, the human world would truly become a purgatory.
He noticed a few strands of black aura floating within Phoenix's divine fire.
However, everyone assumed it was the evil aura from Xuanwu being scorched by the divine fire, and they didn't think further about it.
Su Zui watched the fire before him, his expression slightly rigid.
It was already spectacular from the outside, but being in the secret realm, he could see the force of the flames more clearly.
Xuanwu in the distance was entirely enveloped by the fire, emitting tragic cries, like a moving volcano.
He was a little puzzled; why were these fires red?
Qing Luan's divine fire is blue. Could it be that becoming demonic even changed the color of the divine fire?
Recalling "Qing Luan" with its black and red feathers, Su Zui thought it wasn't impossible.
However, he quickly lost interest in pondering these details.
The flames were spreading quickly, and with his mortal body, he could not resist the divine fire.
Although there was still some distance, it would be too late once the flames reached him. He had to get out as soon as possible.
The disciples of the Tao community were frightened, and some had even fainted.
Without bothering too much about formalities, Su Zui wrapped dozens of defense talismans around the disciples, roughly bundling them up. He then made a crack in the array and tossed them out.
He was about to follow them out—
However, just as he lifted a leg, a cold breath approached his side.
Very familiar.
Without looking, he knew it was the villain who seemingly used the same scent as his previous lover.
Although this aura didn't harm him, it firmly sealed his escape route.
Su Zui knew that even if he wanted to leave, it was now impossible.
He had no choice but to frown and turn around.
Despite being mentally prepared, he was still taken aback by what he saw.
Before him was an enormous divine bird.
Its body was graceful and elegant, as if gathering all the advantages of birds in the world. Each feather seemed meticulously polished.
Its tail feathers were exceptionally long, accounting for half of its body. They trailed behind in stunning beauty, the bright red flames falling from them turned everything they touched into smoldering fire.
The bird was extraordinarily magnificent, but its interspersed black and red colors were somewhat gloomy— a touch of an eyesore.
For some reason, Su Zui always felt that it should have pure, bright red feathers, like the first clouds at the horizon during sunrise.
With just a gentle flap, it seemed unmoved, but in an instant, it had appeared before Su Zui.
Facing such a massive and beautiful bird, Su Zui felt immensely small.
The cold flames wrapped around him. Su Zui was taken aback, but the flames passed through without causing any harm.
Tiny black currents swam in the fire, plucking at his pinky finger. They felt like a snake that could no longer conceal its disguise, tentatively poking at its prey.
Su Zui greatly disliked being touched by others' things. He frowned reflexively and was contemplating forcefully breaking free when suddenly everything went dark.
It was the godly bird's wing that descended, obstructing all light before him.
He felt as if he had entered an eggshell, the familiar aura he had lived with for a long time wrapped around him, from top to bottom, inside out.
It became deeper, heavier, closer...
A warning bell rang in Su Zui's head, urging him to quickly leave, or something unpredictable would happen!
But it was already too late.
Soon, a heavier oppression descended. His fingers were so tied that they couldn't move even the slightest bit.
... His chin was forcibly pulled hard by a few fingers and then something cold and soft touched him.
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Author's Note:
Fei Jiu (Phoenix): I am assertive, and I take charge in dating! ︿(￣︶￣)︿
Zui Zui: You're in trouble!
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