Immortal of the Ages

The fiery-eyed Old Immortal, riled beyond measure, didn't take his wrath out on Yun Xiao but transformed into a streak of red light, diving towards the battlefield below.

"This is bad!" Yun Xiao's face paled. Despite his best efforts to stall, the Old Immortal saw right through his weaknesshis deep care for those who loyally followed him.

Inexplicably, the Old Immortal didn't strike at the Sword Warden but targeted the Phoenix Empress, perhaps deeming her the strongest among Yun Xiao's followers.

The Phoenix Empress, admiring Yun Xiao's cunning, was caught off guard by the sudden, life-threatening peril.

"Watch out!" Yun Xiao's warning cry came just as the ferocious Old Immortal appeared before the Phoenix Empress, his hand chopping down like a blade.

KLANG! An azure Flying Sword shot forth, piercing the palm of the Old Immortal, diverting the deadly blow away from the Phoenix Empress' head to her wing instead.

With a crunch, her left wing snapped, blood bursting forth, leaving the once magnificent appendage hanging by mere skin. Transforming back into human form, she crashed to the ground, her left arm clearly broken, hand dripping with blood, her face ashen with pain and shock.

As the Old Immortal, unfazed by the hole in his palm, laughed menacingly and prepared another strike, the Phoenix Empress trembled, fearing the worst.

But in that moment of despair, an azure sword and a white silhouette collided with the Old Immortalit was Yun Xiao, who, with his Sovereign Sword, slammed into the old man's side.

In a clash akin to titans grappling, a tremendous boom resounded.

The Old Immortal with fiery locks was sent reeling, a ghastly hole gored by the Heaven Burial Sword Soul gaping in his side, from which blackened blood and flesh hissed and fizzled away.

Enraged, he retaliated with a palm that sent Yun Xiao flying, then grasped the Heaven Burial Sword Soul, attempting to snap it in twain.

"Break!" the Old Immortal bellowed, but the strike cost him his palm, severed clean off.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix Empress, drenched in a cold sweat and wracked with pain, sat dazed on the ground.

Yun Xiao, landing beside her, offered a hand and hoisted her up. Her eyes, misty and bewildered, locked onto his, tears brimming at the edges.

"Your gaze..." she murmured, astonished, as Yun Xiao curtly silenced her, inwardly vowing to tread more carefully with Moon Fairy's empathic abilities.

After all, women with whom one had shared intimacy often harbored an intrinsic intuition, capable of recognizing the unspoken.

With a rallying cry, the Phoenix Empress, though initially reluctant to follow Yun Xiao, now summoned her followers with renewed vigor despite her broken arm, leading the escape from the Immortal Asylum.

With this delay, many had already made their escape.

"What sword is this?" The Old Immortal, thoroughly shaken, demanded, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at Yun Xiao, who coolly retrieved his three-inch azure blade, now returned from its six-foot form, utterly beyond the Old Immortal's control.

"A pig-slaying sword," Yun Xiao quipped with a smirk, "Everyone's gone. You've lost."

"Lost? Naive," the Old Immortal sneered.

Yun Xiao, glancing back, saw that under the protection of Mu Tianjian and others, nearly all the survivors from the Nine Hells had breached the confines of the Immortal Asylum.

Left alone, Yun Xiao tossed a parting shot over his shoulder, "Enjoy your solitary eternity!"

And with that, he took to his Sovereign Sword, blazing away into the distance. The fiery-maned Old Immortal gave chase in a rage, while a thousand of his clones turned their gaze upon Yun Xiao, all moving to block his path.

"Why aren't they running after the others outside?" Yun Xiao muttered as he weaved through them with deft maneuvers. Their attempt to hinder him only served to obstruct the fiery-haired Old Immortal, who, in his fury, shattered his own clones in his path.

Yun Xiao's mastery of the Sovereign Sword shone as he darted through, the light of dawn breaking before him. Casting one last indifferent glance back at the Old Immortal, he bid him farewell and burst forth from the Immortal Asylum.

In that moment of escape, Yun Xiao activated the white jade bead given by Mo Jianzhi, turning the open into close, sealing the Immortal Asylum's gates and crushing several Old Immortals in the doorway.

The survivors outside, still reeling, felt a release from their tension as the gates thundered shut. Grateful for their narrow escape, they were overwhelmed by a sense of relief and disbelief at the day's events.

Yun Xiao's feats, from dominating the Nine Hells Conquest Clash to combating the Nian, were nothing short of legendary. His daring rescue was profoundly moving.

"Without Yun Xiao, we'd all be fodder for those beasts," they murmured, shuddering at the thought of the calamity that would have befallen the Nine Hells had the beasts broken free.

In that moment, even the most skeptical among them, be they Inscription Cultivators or demons, couldn't help but acknowledge him as their savior.

"Nine Hells Conqueror! Unrivaled under the heavens! All hail Exile Yun!" they proclaimed, united in their reverence.

When even the Inscription Cultivators and Yang Devils, freshly smacked by Yun Xiao, willingly hailed his name, it was clear Yun Xiao had the Nine Hells under his thumb, bowing in utter submission.

His name echoed across the heavens, bringing immense satisfaction to the likes of the Sword Warden, Mu Dalong, and the Netherworld Emperor. And let's not forget the utterly baffled Phoenix Empress.

Yet, amidst the widespread relief and jubilation, Yun Xiao couldn't muster a smile.

"Let's not celebrate just yet," he commanded, and the crowd immediately fell quiet, puzzled looks all around. They couldn't understand his somber mood.

After all, hadn't they just thwarted a massive plot and resealed a monstrous threat? Shouldn't there be joy?

Under their watchful eyes, Yun Xiao gazed gravely at the gateway before them. "He called me naive... Could it be that a mere 10,000 souls in the Fate Ocean Realm and above are enough to free him? That can't be right..."

The Nian's rush to push ahead the Nine Hells Conquest Clash surely aimed to ensnare them all in one fell swoop. But why then did the Old Immortal with the fiery mane still boast such arrogance, even in defeat?

As Yun Xiao pondered, the gateway of the Immortal Asylum began to tremble violently.

BOOM! Cracks spider-webbed across the gate, sending a shiver of fear through everyone. They knew their powers were no match for this barrier, but could the Old Immortal, with his legion of clones, possibly break through?

"Fall back, spread out," Yun Xiao instructed, his brow furrowed. With his words, the gateway convulsed wildly, the Nian's earth-shattering roar filled with years of pent-up wrath and fury, like a volcano straining to erupt.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! The cracks widened, and the gate began to burst apart.

"Move back!" The crowd's faces paled as they scrambled back in terror.

Under their watchful eyes, the gateway could no longer withstand the barrage and shattered into a storm of debris, dust, and smoke billowing into the sky.

Amidst the haze, the red-haired Old Immortal stood center stage, with a thousand clones hanging around like playful monkeys, all chuckling at the sight of the startled cultivators from the Nine Hells.

"Naive!" The Old Immortal said cheerily, not bothering to pursue them, but instead turned with his legion back into the shadows of the Immortal Asylum.

But a broken gate was a broken gate! freewebnove l.com

"What's the meaning of this? The gate's busted; why isn't he coming after us to finish the job?" Mu Dalong's face was a picture of confusion.

"Outside the Immortal Asylum, if they chased, we'd scatter like birds, and they couldn't kill many of us," Mu Tianjian replied, his brow furrowed deep. "If they were to chase, they'd have done so as soon as we emerged."

"And that means..." Mu Dalong's face clouded over as the realization dawned on her.

"Exactly! If they can break this gate, they can break the others. We can't encircle them. This way, they can disperse at will, infiltrating the mortal realm to slaughter the innocents. With the strength of those clones, if they spread out among the populace, we can't possibly eliminate them all," the Sword Warden stated gravely.

"In other words, unable to devour us directly, that beast opts for a secondary plan, biding its time to consume the common folk in a war of attrition..."

Soon, everyone grasped the gravity of the situation.

"This is the Nian's backup strategy, forced by our resistance..."

"Should his clones infiltrate the Nine Hells, it would spell utter disaster for the living!"

This revelation sent a chill through the spines of the rulers of the Nine Hells, understanding the direness of their predicament.

"The silver lining," Mu Daxiong muttered, "is that his need to devour suggests his true form is still trapped. What escaped the Immortal Asylum is but a mere fraction, akin to a single limb of the beast..."

"This is hardly comforting news," the Sword Warden snapped back. "If this limb gets its fill and pries open the Immortal Asylum fully, then it's curtains for the Nine Hells, utterly and completely!"

The mere thought of a calamity beast, shackled for eons, unleashed and ravenous, sent shivers down their spines.

"Exile Yun!" In this dire situation, the denizens of the Nine Hells, devoid of solutions, pinned their hopes on the young man in white. But deep down, they knew, even if Yun Xiao were a reincarnated true Immortal, the beast before them was a terror that even Immortal feared, let alone a reincarnation.

They were all too aware of how the red-haired Old Immortal had bested Yun Xiao within the Immortal Asylum; in terms of power, they weren't even in the same league.

Amidst the weight of countless expectations, Yun Xiao sighed, "Given the current circumstances, I can't guarantee success, but I'll do all I can."

"We trust you!" The crowd found solace in his commitment.

Seeing their support, Yun Xiao declared, "To vanquish the Nian, I'll need your assistance."

"We're at your command, Exile Yun!!" they responded.

"It's nothing unreasonable." Yun Xiao coughed, facing them with a stern look. "Since you hail me as the Nine Hells Conqueror, by tradition, you, as its pillars, should set an example for all beings."

"What do you mean?" they inquired.

With a grin and a shrug, Yun Xiao announced, "It's time to pay your taxes."

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