Volume 1, Chapter 429 – Trump Card

Shi Lan did not take Reincarnation’s suggestion to heart at all.

Ever since Shi Lan awakened her past-life memories, Reincarnation had appeared by her side and saved her from fire and water several times.

Abandoning Reincarnation and fleeing for her own life was not something Shi Lan could do.

Even if she were truly driven to the end of the road, she still had her avatar. In the Xiongming King Realm, there was also a wisp of her split soul, so she still had a way out.

If she abandoned this mortal body, she could still use the connection between herself and her avatar to send her soul back to the Lingyang Realm.

Though she might end up with nothing at that point, the Shi Lan of today did not lack the courage to start over from scratch.

What was more, it was only a Supreme. If she were given a little more time, this might not necessarily be a dead end.

Screee—

A vast black shadow swept over Shi Lan’s head. A crimson ferocious bird with a wingspan of several hundred li roared past, wrapped in blazing flames.

The entire sky was dyed blood-red. Even the void was set ablaze, and the rosy radiance was terrifying.

Some of the iron riders pursuing Shi Lan in the distance were instantly burned to ashes by the blazing true fire hot enough to melt gold and iron.

“Vermilion Bird bloodline.”

Shi Lan cast it a hurried glance and immediately saw that the crimson ferocious bird carried true Vermilion Bird blood within its body.

As one of the Four Spirits of Heaven, a mature pure-blood Vermilion Bird was terrifying beyond measure, enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with a Supreme. In terms of bloodline, it even surpassed a divine-blood phoenix.

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Although the ferocious bird in the sky possessed only a small portion of Vermilion Bird true blood, its strength was still no weaker than that of a peak Emperor-level powerhouse.

Roar!

Ferocious roars rang out one after another. Countless savage beasts followed behind the crimson bird, surging out of the mountain range in a great tide, the rune-light on their bodies blazing brilliantly.

The beast tide crashed head-on into the torrent of iron riders, and a frontal battle broke out. Boundless bloody light exploded, severed limbs and broken arms were flung high into the sky, then fell like rain.

These savage beasts ignored Shi Lan entirely and charged straight at the iron riders, clearly having reached some kind of tacit agreement.

Shi Lan took a light breath, sped up, and did not linger. She quickly left the battlefield far behind.

…

In the far western reaches of the Qiongluo Realm, fortress after fortress had risen from the ground in the span of just a few days.

The five great academies still remained, but two deans were missing; they had already gone beyond the domain.

The three remaining deans swiftly gathered the remnants of the Hundred Races within the Qiongluo Realm and, using the mountain ranges as cover, established one war fortress after another here.

The Qiongluo Realm’s power system relied entirely on runes and was not suited to close-quarters combat. In addition, long years of peaceful living had already worn away the edges of many races.

Aside from occasional skirmishes with savage beasts, most of these runic warriors lacked experience fighting other people.

Especially when facing these well-trained iron-blooded war riders, they were nearly routed whenever both sides stood at the same cultivation level.

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If not for the fact that these iron riders accepted no surrender and, wherever they passed, tore down cities and uprooted strongholds, leaving men, women, old, and young alike with only death, many races would probably already have surrendered at the mere sight of them.

Within one fortress, the three remaining deans had summoned some of the strong among the Hundred Races and were discussing countermeasures.

“I’ve already gone beyond the domain to investigate. Two Supremes are battling there. Aside from them, there are nine more experts on the same level as us, and they’ve set up a barrier to seal off the entire Qiongluo Realm.”

The dean of Tianhuo Academy swept his gaze around the room, unable to hide the disappointment in his eyes. Only a few short days had passed since the last meeting, yet more than half the people were already gone. Though he had expected it, he still found it difficult to accept.

To have abandoned their homeland so easily…

“The other Supreme should be someone from Huanyu Divine Hall. I was the one who took it upon myself to send out a request through a Divine Son of Huanyu Divine Hall.”

The dean of Guiyi Academy picked up the conversation. Among the deans of the five great academies, he was the oldest, and he also looked the oldest, with white hair and long white whiskers, already at the very end of his lifespan.

The hall fell silent. No one voiced any objection. Even the dean of Zixiao Academy, who had been the most radical before, remained silent.

The worst possible ending could not be much worse than the situation they were already in.

If the Supreme from Huanyu Divine Hall won, the living beings of the Qiongluo Realm might still have a sliver of hope.

“Right now, that Supreme is being held back, and the strongest generals under him are also constrained by the barrier. We are not without the strength to fight.”

“A battle between Supremes will definitely not be decided anytime soon. We still have time.”

“Exactly. We should preserve our strength as much as possible. Perhaps things may yet turn for the better.”

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As the crowd discussed matters, the dean of Zixiao Academy stepped forward and took a crystal from his robes. Within the crystal, a dim rune seal was slowly rising and sinking.

“This is the Extreme Dao Rune Seal stored in our Zixiao Academy. I’ve already made some attempts with it. It’s enough to grant me Supreme-level battle power for a short time, but it can last for at most six hours.”

“The one in our Tianhuo Academy is somewhat stronger. It can hold for ten hours.”

The dean of Tianhuo Academy let out a sigh. A Supreme forcibly elevated through a rune seal like this was merely the weakest kind among Supremes. It was utterly incomparable to the battle power of a true flawless Supreme.

But this was already their final trump card.

…

In a stretch of wasteland, Shi Lan was bathed in blood, breathing in heavy gasps without stop. The Scarlet Crow War Halberd in her hand had taken on a layer of bloody light.

Along the way, she had not paused for a single moment, racing tens of millions of li while countless iron riders blocked her path and pursued her with murderous desperation.

She had no idea how many iron riders she had slaughtered. All who blocked her way had been reduced to corpses and bloody mud.

Among the riders were also exceedingly powerful war generals, no weaker than great powers of the Heaven-Man Realm from the Lingyang Realm. Their law power was overwhelmingly strong, yet they still fell beneath her halberd.

The successive fierce battles caused bloody light to radiate from her entire body. Rosy light flowed across her flesh, and dazzling divine brilliance bloomed from her.

Within her nascent soul, an enormous mountain of rune stones was being rapidly absorbed by the Extreme Dao Rune Seal.

All of those rune stones had been dug out by her from the ruined remains of cities. Gathered from city after city, they had long since become too many to count.

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What the Extreme Dao Rune Seal required for growth was only runes. The overflowing energy essence was entirely absorbed by the golden body of her nascent soul, which had now already swelled to more than a hundred zhang.

“Almost…”

Under Shi Lan’s gaze, the crystal wrapped around the rune seal was becoming thinner and thinner. The Extreme Dao Rune Seal was only a thread away from full completion.

…

In the starry sky, divine light blazed fiercely. Supreme battles were filled with deadly danger, and to avoid affecting the Qiongluo Realm, the battlefield had long since moved away, arriving in a desolate starfield.

The blood-red battle axe and the jet-black war spear clashed in the starry sky, and within a few breaths they had already punched through an entire starfield.

Emperor Yuan’s gaze turned cold. A bloody wound had appeared on his right shoulder, and around it clung highly corrosive laws of destruction, preventing the injury from healing.

Supreme blood scattered down like streaking meteors across the starry sky, dazzling beyond compare.

The gray-haired elder had also lost his earlier calm. His breathing had grown hurried, and a deep axe wound had been torn open across his back, exposing a pale white spine engraved with mysterious Dao patterns.

“Old bastard, is this your limit?”

A cold sneer spilled from the corner of Emperor Yuan’s lips, his eyes filled with killing intent.

The gray-haired elder let out a low laugh, his amusement full of chilling coldness. The long robe draped over him suddenly spread open, revealing a divine diagram of Dao arts that released immeasurable divine light.

“You’re about to die.”