291: The ancestors are fighting amongst themselves! The medicinal herbs are battling it out!

At the foot of Heavenly Pillar Mountain, every particle of dust in the air was saturated with the smell of gunpowder.

"She's just jealous! A little brat who's alive and well, what right does she have to dictate the suffering of us dying men!"

"Anyone who stands in the way of my immortality is my mortal enemy!"

A Quasi-Emperor Ancestor from the Southern Border, his body covered in dried corpses of poisonous insects, suddenly stood up.

His turbid, triangular eyes were bloodshot from extreme agitation and fury, presenting a terrifying crimson hue.

He stared fixedly at an old friend beside him, who wore Great Xia's court attire and showed a hesitant expression. His voice was squeezed out like poison from a sac, hoarse and resentful.

"Brother Wang, we've been friends for three thousand years. Are you really going to sever our eternal path to immortality today, for the sake of a little girl's crazy talk?"

That Quasi-Emperor surnamed Wang looked at his former friend's face, twisted by greed into something unrecognizable, and felt his heart grow cold inch by inch.

He said solemnly, "Brother Li, calm down! Her Majesty the Empress reigns supreme, her word is Law. Would she make baseless claims about a matter that could shake the very foundation of the state? This matter is too strange. After cultivating for ten thousand years, have we lost even this basic sense of caution?"

"Caution? I caution your mother's head!"

That Quasi-Emperor surnamed Li had gone completely mad. Pointing at his own face, etched with ravines and covered in corpse spots, and at his hair as dry as withered grass, he let out a hysterical roar in a tone that was nearly weeping blood:

"I have less than a hundred years of Lifespan left! A hundred years! Do you understand?!"

"Every day I can feel it clearly—my Divine Soul rotting bit by bit, my Dao foundation collapsing inch by inch! I don't want to die! I just fucking want to live!"

His roar was the mournful cry of a beast on the brink of death, carrying a powerful, infectious intensity.

He suddenly turned to the other old monsters around him, whose eyes were also bloodshot and whose breathing was heavy, raising his arm in a rallying cry:

"Fellow Daoists! The Immortal Ship is right above us! Immortality is right before our eyes! This is our only chance to break free from death!"

"Ji Hongxue wants us to die in this cage, to rot into a pile of dry bones! We will defy her, live on and become immortals, just to show her!"

"Anyone who remains obstinately deluded will be the enemy of all of us who seek life!"

"Kill!!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

In an instant, dozens of Great Sages and seven or eight Quasi-Emperors were twisted into a single, frenzied rope by their utter fear of death!

That oppressive might, mixed with overwhelming Killing Intent and decaying Death Qi, surged skyward, even casting a sinister, grayish-black hue over the ten-thousand-year-old snow atop Heavenly Pillar Mountain!

On the Immortal Ship, Zhao Wuji leisurely crossed his arms, looking down to enjoy this spectacle from his lofty position.

The corner of his mouth curled into a cruel smile, the kind a butcher wears when watching livestock fight each other.

[Fools.]

[So very useful.]

[Dying amidst extreme rage and desire will make the blood Qi and vital essence even more vigorous. The Medicinal Pill refined might even ascend another grade in quality.]

He watched with great interest, as if appreciating a bloody appetizer performed as a sacrifice for him.

Below, seeing that he couldn't persuade his old friend, the last trace of reason in the Quasi-Emperor surnamed Li's eyes was swallowed by madness.

"Old dog Wang! Since you insist on being Ji Hongxue's lapdog, blocking my path to immortality! Then today, this old man will use your life first to offer as a sacrifice on my path to Ascension!"

Amidst the furious roar, the might of a Quasi-Emperor erupted with a thunderous force!

Heaven and earth changed color!

The unique, highly toxic Laws of the Southern Border transformed into thick, ink-green fog. Within the fog, a massive black hand composed of the phantom shadows of billions of poisonous insects blotted out the sky!

On the giant hand, agonized, wailing ghostly faces appeared, carrying a stench that corroded the Divine Soul as it smashed down towards the Quasi-Emperor surnamed Wang!

"You're insane!"

The Quasi-Emperor surnamed Wang was both shocked and furious. Hastily, he pushed the Great Xia Imperial Dragon Qi to its limit, forming a thick, mountain-like golden dragon-scale shield in front of him!

At the same time, he shouted sternly, "All those loyal to Great Xia, form the battle formation!"

A bloody internal conflict ignited by "immortality" erupted with a deafening roar!

Just as that black poisonous palm was about to shatter the dragon-scale shield, its terrifying power already causing space to wail and shatter—

"Dang——!"

A voice, ancient, powerful, yet carrying a trace of pure and sacred dao rhyme, sounded abruptly without any warning.

The sound wasn't loud, yet it was like a great bell struck directly within the depths of each person's Soul, instantly drowning out all the cries to kill and roars!

That violent poisonous fog and Killing Intent were forcibly diluted by a third by this sonic wave!

All those whose minds were in turmoil felt an inexplicable clarity, as if a basin of ice water had been poured onto their boiling brains.

Everyone looked over in shock and horror.

They saw an old Daoist priest, wearing Eight Trigrams Daoist Robes, with an immortal and dignified bearing, holding a Horsetail Whisk, stepping out slowly from the rear of the Great Xia camp.

With each step he took, the shadow of a Yin and Yang Taiji Diagram flashed briefly under his feet, as if he were treading upon the veins of heaven and earth.

"Old Monster Li, take one more step forward and try."

Quasi-Emperor Ninth Heaven!

That profound, towering aura, in harmony with heaven and earth, marked him as the strongest person present, aside from the lofty Great Emperor Zhao Wuji above!

The number one Loose Cultivator of the Central Continent, an old monster who had lived for nearly eighty thousand years—Daoist Master Qingxu!

Usually detached from worldly affairs, at this moment, a pair of Daoist eyes that should have been clear and non-interfering instead shone with a cold, sword-like light, firmly locking onto the Quasi-Emperor surnamed Li, whose poisonous palm hung suspended.

"This poor Daoist also trusts Her Majesty the Empress."

"You lot, with your hearts clouded by lard and your eyes blinded by immortality, this poor Daoist originally had no wish to intervene."

"But whoever dares to kill our fellow Great Xia practitioners here today, don't blame this old bone for acting on behalf of Heaven's will!"

Daoist Master Qingxu's appearance instantly reversed the one-sided situation.

The poisonous palm of the Quasi-Emperor surnamed Li was forced to a dead halt in mid-air, caught in a dilemma.

Poisonous liquid dripped down, sizzling as it corroded deep pits into the ground, just like his heart that was bleeding at this moment.

He never expected that this old undying Daoist Master Qingxu, who never got involved in any conflicts, would stand up against him for the sake of a single decree from Ji Hongxue!

An earth-shattering great battle was forcibly paused by an invisible hand.

The air was thick with a suffocating smell of gunpowder.

Everyone's gaze was focused on the two opposing Quasi-Emperors.