The corpse floated downward, its descent as slow and gentle as a falling petal.
Around it, countless other petals drifted through the air, covering the body and circling around it.
As everyone watched, a figure suddenly soared from the side and caught the Myriad Flowers Fairy’s body in his arms.
“Who’s there?” Zhang Bei shouted.
Xu Zimo looked up, it was the Sword God, Xie Changliu.
Xie Changliu glanced at the four of them, then lowered his eyes to the body in his arms.
His gaze held an emotion too complex to name.
“What’s your relationship with the Myriad Flowers Fairy?” asked Arcane Demon, as the Holy Demon Giant dispersed and both his and Myriad Buddha’s souls returned to their bodies.
“She’s not the Myriad Flowers Fairy,” Xie Changliu said calmly.
He lifted the “Myriad Flowers Fairy’s” body and began walking away step by step.
“Leave the Myriad Flowers Fairy’s corpse,” Zhang Bei said coldly, blocking his path.
“I told you, she’s not the Myriad Flowers Fairy,” Xie Changliu replied.
“Then who is she?” Xu Zimo asked.
“A friend of mine,” Xie Changliu said softly, caressing the face of the corpse.
“A pitiful soul whose body was taken over.”
When he said this, Xu Zimo and the others exchanged glances, each of them seemed to realize something at once.
“Not good.”
They no longer had time to deal with Xie Changliu. Their figures cut through space and sped toward Hundred Flowers Valley.
In just a few breaths, they arrived above it.
At first glance, Hundred Flowers Valley looked as calm and peaceful as before, no sign of change, no hint of danger.
“What’s going on?” Zhang Bei frowned.
“Did we guess wrong?”
Just as he spoke, all of them suddenly felt something and lifted their eyes to the heavens.
The once-clear sky darkened instantly.
Black clouds rolled in, covering everything in a gray gloom.
The sun and blue sky vanished from sight; only fierce winds howled, carrying a chill sense of decay through the air.
From deep within the clouds, a radiant light broke through.
As the light grew stronger, the distant roar of an ancient beast echoed across the sky.
Two golden luans pulled a golden chariot, flying majestically from the depths of the heavens.
The moment the chariot appeared, everyone felt a crushing pressure descend upon them, an instinctive fear that rose from the depths of their souls.
The chariot’s curtain was lifted by a slender, pale hand.
From within stepped a woman, or at least, her figure suggested she was one.
But her true appearance was impossible to see, shrouded in a veil of mystery.
“Myriad Flowers Fairy?” Xu Zimo asked cautiously.
When Xie Changliu had appeared, many of his doubts had already begun to make sense.
The Myriad Flowers Fairy they fought had seemed too weak, because her true self had never been in the mortal realm at all.
That body had merely been a puppet, carrying a fragment of her will.
And Xie Changliu, the Sword God, had obeyed her only to protect the host body she had possessed.
What troubled Xu Zimo most was her cultivation level.
Zhang Bei and the others had said she should be an Immortal Monarch.
But once Xu Zimo saw Hundred Flowers Valley, he realized she bore a burden like his own, seeking to lead her race of Plantfolk in defying fate itself.
If she were only an Immortal Monarch, that would be impossible.
The Mortal Ascension Heaven was the weakest of the Nine Heavens; everyone longed to escape it, none would choose to stay.
“Infernal Lord,” said the woman in the mist, her voice soft but carrying divine authority, “for your sake, I will not kill them today.”
Above, the golden luans roared, golden light flooding the sky.
“But for daring to harm my avatar, though the death penalty is spared, punishment is due.”
Her words fell, and several beams of light shot down.
They moved too fast to dodge, piercing directly into the bodies of Arcane Demon, Myriad Buddha, and Zhang Bei.
The next instant, the three screamed in agony.
Though it didn’t kill them, the pain was unbearable, so intense that even onlookers would tremble to see it.
For such powerful beings to suffer like that said everything about her strength.
Xu Zimo stepped forward into the air, facing the golden chariot from afar.
“What do you want?” he asked calmly.
“Infernal Lord, you are not yet qualified to speak with me,” said the Myriad Flowers Fairy’s true form, her voice faint and distant.
“When the time comes and you have grown, we will meet again. As for the matter of Heaven’s Equal Emperor, I will not hold it against you, for now. But there is something you must understand.”
“What is it?” Xu Zimo frowned.
“Though the past has been forgotten, all things that once were still exist. What has been lost will one day return.” The Myriad Flowers Fairy said coldly, “You once orchestrated the Heavenly War yourself. It is time you came to understand that farce, or that battle. My words end here. There is no more I can tell you.”
She waved her hand.
The ground below began to quake violently.
At the center of Hundred Flowers Valley, cracks spread across the earth, forming great fissures like coiling serpents or soaring dragons.
Rumbling filled the air.
Then the Myriad Flowers Fairy raised her right hand.
With a thunderous boom, everything exploded.
Hundred Flowers Valley was ripped from the ground, uprooted completely, and began to rise into the sky.
The entire valley, along with all the life within it, turned into a floating island that soared toward the golden chariot.
“You can take Hundred Flowers Valley, I don’t care,” Xu Zimo said, “but you must leave the Xuanyuan Clan behind.”
“You are not in a position to negotiate with me,” the Myriad Flowers Fairy said coolly.
Ignoring him, she continued to lift Hundred Flowers Valley through the heavens toward her.
Xu Zimo didn’t know in which of the Nine Heavens her true body resided.
But whichever one it was, it lay countless miles beyond the Mortal Ascension Heaven.
To pull something from the Mortal Ascension Heaven through space and time into another realm,
That was power only a Saint Sovereign could wield.
Even a Grand Emperor at the Fifth Stage could not do such a thing.
“I said... the Grand-Pivot God-Sword stays,” Xu Zimo declared.
He stepped forward through the air, demonic energy surging behind him like a storm.
With one hand, he grabbed hold of the rising Hundred Flowers Valley.
The veiled figure in the mist let out a cold snort.
That single sound cracked like thunder through the heavens.
Xu Zimo’s body shuddered violently, he was struck as if by a divine blow and sent flying backward.
“Archons! Stop her! Now!” Xu Zimo roared.
From the God World, two near-infinite waves of Saint Sovereign realm power erupted skyward.
Two enormous hands filled with infernal energy reached out from the void, grasping toward the Myriad Flowers Fairy.
In an instant, the heavens froze, silence and stillness consumed everything.
Time and space themselves were sealed.
As the infernal aura spread, the golden light above was crushed. The roaring golden luans collapsed to the ground, trembling motionless.
“I don’t give a damn if you’re the Myriad Flowers Fairy or a Saint Sovereign,” Xu Zimo’s voice thundered. “If you block my path... I will kill you!”