stonecrandall Page 166
Page 166
The overwhelming killing intent that had almost torn the sky apart emanated from him had subsided, but his eyes were colder and deeper than the autumn grassland, as if they held the weight of countless ages of ice and death.
He did not leave immediately, like an ancient statue, as if waiting for something, or as if judging this land of death that he had created with his own hands.
Just then, not far behind him, the figure of a young man wearing an ordinary windbreaker, who looked like a boy next door, slowly emerged from below the horizon.
He walked slowly and steadily, each step seemingly calculated precisely, without the slightest panic or hesitation.
He stepped over the blood-stained withered grass, calmly bypassing the gruesome corpses, his face showing no emotion, no fear, no anger, and not even the slightest surprise.
Those clear eyes reflected the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, yet remained calm without a ripple.
It was as if the horrific hell before him was nothing more than a poorly painted oil painting that had nothing to do with him.
He finally stopped about ten feet behind Zhang Yunyuan, calmly gazing at that solitary figure who seemed to merge with the vast天地 (heaven and earth), like a devout believer awaiting final judgment.
The newcomer was none other than Gong Qing, the acting leader of the Quanxing Sect.
Zhang Yunyuan slowly turned around.
No words, no actions.
It was just a simple turn.
But as his gaze moved, the temperature of the entire area seemed to drop by more than ten degrees.
The anger and killing intent that had just subsided in those eyes reignited, a raging fire and killing intent powerful enough to incinerate the heavens.
Those were no longer human eyes; they were the wrath of gods and demons, the punishment of Heaven!
Those gazes, like two invisible swords coated with the deadly poison of the underworld, spanned a distance of ten feet and were fixed on the culprit who had killed his third senior brother, Tian Jinzhong.
"You've finally come out."
Zhang Yunyuan's voice was icy cold, devoid of any emotion, as if it came from the deepest hell, each word as if carved from millennia-old ice.
He didn't waste any unnecessary words.
Any words spoken to this scum in front of me are superfluous and a desecration.
There was only one thing he needed to do—
Zhang Yunyuan formed hand seals, drawing upon the Qi of heaven and earth.
His movements were not fast, but they carried a mysterious rhythm, as if they resonated with the breath of heaven and earth.
In an instant, the weather changed, and dark clouds gathered!
The once clear night sky was instantly shrouded in endless, churning leaden clouds, so thick they seemed to be cast from molten iron, creating an oppressive atmosphere that made it almost impossible to breathe!
Thick bolts of golden lightning, as thick as a child's arm, roared like enraged golden dragons as they crashed down from the thick clouds!
But they didn't fall directly to the ground; instead, they intertwined and swirled between Zhang Yunyuan and Gong Qing.
In an unpredictable and mysterious trajectory, it eventually formed a circular cage, hundreds of feet in size, composed of pure, violent lightning!
Lightning flashed and electric snakes danced wildly!
"Sizzle... sizzle..."
The piercing crackling of electricity was incessant, ionizing the air in the area and filling it with a pungent ozone smell. Each flicker illuminated Gong Qing's calm face.
That destructive power completely isolated the two of them from the outside world, creating an absolute domain belonging solely to Zhang Yunyuan.
This is the "Static Lightning Prison" that Zhang Yunyuan set up by drawing upon the power of heaven and earth with his innate realm!
Within this Thunder Prison, he is the absolute ruler!
Unless he dies, no one can enter or leave!
He was going to conduct the final and most brutal trial on Gong Qing here!
Inside the Thunder Prison, Gong Qing looked at the destructive lightning around him, powerful enough to turn everything to ashes, and felt the terrifying aura of its majesty, as majestic as the power of heaven.
Finally, a bitter, self-deprecating smile appeared on that face that was always calm and expressionless.
He knew that he had lost.
The defeat was complete and utter, without a doubt.
From the moment he decided to set foot on Longhu Mountain, from the moment he killed Tian Jinzhong, he had already lost.
He just didn't expect to lose so quickly, so...unreasonably.
He thought he had calculated everything: the right time, the right place, the right people, and even the old master's forbearance.
But what they didn't expect was that there really were beings in this world who were like gods, completely unpredictable.
"I lost."
Gong Qing spoke frankly, his voice not loud, but it resounded clearly within the Thunder Prison, not drowned out by the violent thunder.
He looked at Zhang Yunyuan, his eyes burning with endless rage, and the bitter smile on his face deepened.
"I admit, I greatly underestimated you."
"I thought I had planned it perfectly, I thought I still had at least a glimmer of hope."
"Now it seems that it was nothing but the delusion of a frog in a well."
Looking into Zhang Yunyuan's eyes, which were burning with anger, the bitter smile on his face deepened.
"I know that all you want to do now is kill me to avenge your senior brother."
But before that, aren't you curious?
"Aren't you curious why I, an unknown nobody, would go to such lengths to infiltrate Longhu Mountain for months?"
Aren't you curious about what I'm really after?
Without waiting for Zhang Yunyuan's reply, he uttered the first earth-shattering secret, one that would shake the entire world of supernatural beings.
"I know you're curious about why I went to Longhu Mountain."
I knew long ago that Wugensheng attained enlightenment in the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Valley.
"He was there not simply because he had come to some kind of enlightenment or spiritual realization."
Gong Qing's voice wasn't loud, but every word was like thunder, each one like an invisible hammer that slammed into Zhang Yunyuan's heart.
A glint of almost fanatical light, belonging to a seeker of truth, flashed in his eyes—the kind of brilliance that only appears when one is about to touch upon ultimate truth.
“There he glimpsed the true… ‘divine destiny’.”
Chapter 197 Gong Qing's Wisdom
Zhang Yunyuan's brows furrowed tightly.
These two words, uttered by Gong Qing, were like a thunderclap from a clear sky, not because of the content itself, but because of the person who uttered them.
This is not a door that has been opened and sealed for a long time.
For Zhang Yunyuan, this door was never truly closed. The scene behind the door—the blood and fire, the madness and regret, the tragic song of an era—was always clearly imprinted deep in his soul.
The winding, mysterious cave, the legend of the immortal cultivator, the Kunlun Immortal Realm...
He had already connected these clues in his mind countless times, and he knew the answer they all pointed to better than anyone else.
He never imagined that, apart from the few people from back then, there would be someone else in this world, such a young junior, who could glimpse the scenery behind this door.
Inside Thunder Prison, Gong Qing didn't notice the fleeting turmoil in Zhang Yunyuan's deep eyes; he was simply immersed in the fervor of uncovering the ultimate mystery.
He looked at the subtle changes in Zhang Yunyuan's expression and mistook them for shock and confusion. The bitter smile on his face even carried a hint of the obsession of a seeker of the Dao that was almost manic.
"That's right, a destiny with immortals."
He continued, his voice carrying a strange allure, as if he were the god who held the truth.
"And that girl named Feng Baobao, she is the most direct and perfect product of that 'fate'."
"She herself is the embodiment of the Eight Extraordinary Skills!"
These words struck Zhang Yunyuan's mind like a bolt of lightning from the heavens.
But what exploded was a wave of astonishment!
Feng Baobao is a combination of the Eight Extraordinary Skills.
Zhang Yunyuan was certainly aware of this conclusion.
This was the ultimate goal of that crazy "creation".
But how could Gong Qing, the acting leader of Quanxing, a young man who had never even experienced the Jia Shen Rebellion, know this?!
"You do not believe?"
Gong Qing seemed to see through his "thoughts," and a knowing look appeared on his face, a sense of superiority that came from a wise man who thought he knew everything.
"Think about it carefully."
"Is her immortality, that near-eternal life force, exactly the same as the Six Treasures Immortal Thief's idea of 'severing the bridge between heaven and earth and stealing the life force of heaven and earth for his own use'?"
"Isn't the seemingly endless, inexhaustible Qi within her the ultimate manifestation of the 'Qi Body Source Flow' that all Qi practitioners dream of?"
Qi source flow is not a "technique" but a "state".
It was Senior Brother Huaiyi's ultimate summary of all his learning after glimpsing that immortal destiny, and a clumsy imitation of that "origin" state.
Gong Qing, he was right.
Zhang Yunyuan's heart sank.
"Furthermore, the strange constitution she displayed at the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony, which made her immune to all Qimen techniques and even render them ineffective, is precisely the core characteristic of 'Feng Hou Qimen': 'I am the direction, I am the fortune.'"
I am the Way, and all laws cannot harm me.
The essence of Feng Hou Qi Men is to transform oneself into the central hub of the Qi Men formation, transcending the rules.
Feng Baobao's very existence is the embodiment of "Tao," making her naturally immune to all magic techniques.
Back then, Zhou Sheng only glimpsed a tiny bit of the basics before creating Feng Hou Qi Men.
Every word Gong Qing uttered was like a heavy hammer, striking Zhang Yunyuan's heart.
But what was shaken was no longer his Dao heart, but his understanding of this young man and his judgment of the overall situation.
He was absolutely right.