Zhu Chanchan hopped over to Big Bell and punched it twice. The bell remained dented and dull.
"I dragged Flying Peak all the way here," she admitted, "and I already summoned it once. My power's drained. Give me two days to recover, and I'll fix you."
"By then A-Yan will be dead."
Big Bell floated behind Su Yan's head, wheedling. "A-Yan, let me in for a sip. If we need to run, I can still protect you."
Su Yan was far stronger now than the boy he'd been. With Big Bell wounded, if Su Yan sealed his Xiyi Domain, the bell couldn't force its way in. So Big Bell had to swallow its pride.
Su Yan nodded. Big Bell darted into his Xiyi Domain, drank two mouthfuls of qi and blood, and stabilized its injuries. "A-Yan, we need to leave. Now!"
Zhu Chanchan frowned. "Weren't you going to fight to the end?"
"If you'd healed me and A-Yan gave me enough qi and blood, then yes—fight to the end. But you're useless now. So we run! Hurry!"
The golden man lifted Flying Peak from its head and hurled it. Su Yan grabbed Zhu Chanchan and leaped aside. The shockwave still threw them into the air.
The golden man's eyes blazed crimson. Su Yan used Cloud-Ladder Ascension, sprinting up invisible steps, carrying Zhu Chanchan higher.
The giant grabbed the ground, pulling its legs free. Su Yan dropped toward the back of its head.
"I thought we were running!" Zhu Chanchan shrieked.
Yuan Qi woke up, saw the golden man rising, and screamed.
"Open wide, Seventh!" Su Yan shouted.
Yuan Qi, still coiled around Su Yan's shoulder, instinctively opened his massive jaws. Su Yan shoved Zhu Chanchan backward into the serpent's mouth. "Don't bite!"
Yuan Qi almost chomped down, then caught himself.
Su Yan crashed onto the golden man's divine bridge. The bridge was forged from dark gold, inscribed with Dao-pattern textures. It didn't crack.
"As I thought. Its manifestations are forged treasures, not a real Xiyi Domain."
Su Yan raised his stone axe, driving Grand Unity Daoyin Art to its limit. He activated Mud Pill, Yellow Court, Crimson Palace, and Jade Pool simultaneously. Chanting the Eight Yuan Tones, his qi and blood boiled and surged.
The axe's murderous power manifested fully. A sea of blood rose behind him, corpses of gods and demons standing as if to resume their unfinished lives.
He struck the divine bridge. Dao-patterns flared, radiance swirling, deflecting the blow.
Su Yan activated Heavenly Eye, seeing the patterns' weak points. The axe sliced through them like cutting melons.
Then it hit the bridge itself. The recoil shattered Su Yan's fingers. Both arms sprayed blood and flesh, separating from bone. The bones cracked, fragmenting.
New arms burst from his armpits—Mud Pill regeneration. They seized the axe and struck again. Then they too exploded. More arms grew. More strikes fell.
This was his first time using the Mud Pill's undying body, pitting flesh against divine metal.
After dozens of shattering blows, the stone axe exploded. It had been weakened from suppressing the immortal woman, and now it couldn't endure.
"Bell! Out!"
Big Bell cowered in the chaos sea of Su Yan's mind, hiding in his cave-heaven, sipping qi and blood. It shuddered. "I'm not going out!"
It floated out anyway. A single full meal versus endless meals—it knew which mattered more.
Four-armed Su Yan seized the bell's nose. "Easy, Master Ying!"
"Clang!"
Su Yan swung Big Bell with all his strength. The already-cracked divine bridge rang, then snapped.
The golden man's power plummeted. Its reaching hand lost most of its force. Su Yan dodged the descending palm but couldn't escape the shockwave. He ducked inside Big Bell, which rang and tumbled, skimming across the Jade Pool, crashing through the Twelve Towers, finally catching on a fourth-floor eave.
Su Yan slid out, suppressing the urge to vomit blood. "Anyone still alive—follow the Undying Immortal's orders! Smash everything! Cut the celestial river, flatten the mountains, destroy the passes! Throw out the five sacred peaks!"
The surviving cultivators rallied. They flew into the golden man's Xiyi Domain, magical treasures blazing, hammering at the river, mountains, passes, and peaks.
Avia led with phoenix fire, burning the Jade Pool dry.
The golden man slowed. Its hands moved sluggishly, weakly.
But it was still enormous. A casual touch killed or maimed even golden-core cultivators. Finally, the celestial river was severed. The mountain was leveled. The three passes were shattered. The five peaks were flattened. Even the furnace's bottom was pierced.
The golden man froze, rigid.
Its power came from two sources: the shrine's incense, and its Xiyi Domain. Su Yan had destroyed the first with its own power. Now the second was gone too.
Zhu Chanchan pushed Yuan Qi's jaw open. The serpent's head swelled. She stood in his mouth, eyes gleaming at the wreckage, and tapped his tongue.
Yuan Qi slithered down, activating True Cultivation of the Ba Serpent, transforming into a hundred-yard serpent. He swallowed the broken bridge, passes, and towers one by one.
Su Yan stepped onto the golden man's palm and looked up at the seven ascension rainbows. Other golden men and nuo immortals still battled there. Above the rainbows, Mount Fangzhang was a tiny dot. Near it hovered an altar far larger than the mountain.
Xu Fu stood on the altar's edge, performing mysterious steps.
Then he stopped. Pointed at the altar.
Space rippled. An invisible force spread outward.
Su Yan's face changed. "Everyone—get out! Now!"
Before he finished speaking, blood-aura rose near the rainbows. Nuo masters running toward them grew thinner, flesh withering, bones turning to dry kindling. A few more steps and their cave-heavens burst, bodies collapsing into piles of dust.
Even the great nuo masters couldn't stop their qi and blood from draining. Their immortal medicine flowed away.
Even the nuo immortals fighting the golden men couldn't resist while also battling their opponents.
Xu Fu's resurrection rite devoured everyone who had opened their secret repositories—nuo and cultivator alike.
Even Su Yan felt his four opened repositories stirring, struggling to break free. The unrefined immortal medicine in his Jade Pool wanted to fly out.
Those who hadn't opened repositories were unaffected.
Su Yan summoned sword-qi and flew outward. "Seventh, move!"
Yuan Qi slithered desperately, looking back to see the great nuo masters' cave-heavens disintegrating behind him. His own repositories showed signs of unraveling too. He activated sword-qi and followed.
Zhu Chanchan, still in Yuan Qi's mouth, felt her six thousand years of accumulated medicine stirring, straining to escape.
Everyone fled outward. Except the nuo immortals. They abandoned the golden men and charged toward the altar.
The closer they got, the faster their medicine drained. Yet they pressed on, reaching Mount Fangzhang.
Xu Fu smiled calmly. "Why be food for others when you can contribute to my grand design?"
An elderly Cui family immortal swept his Inner Realm toward Xu Fu—a realm of immortal radiance where flying immortals dwelt.
Xu Fu raised his palm. The realm collapsed, its medicine rushing into the golden coffin beneath the ascension rainbows.
Other immortals attacked. They were injured in moments.
Then a tall man in ancient robes stabbed Xu Fu's palm with a finger like a sword. Xu Fu's aura shook. He looked surprised. "So you're the Zhou dynasty cultivator who hung the bronze sword. Impressive."
The man was shocked. His sneak attack, combined with the immortals' assault, hadn't pierced Xu Fu's palm.
"You still carry unrefined medicine," Xu Fu said. "Stay."
He formed a fist seal and struck. The Zhou cultivator coughed blood, terrified. "You're an immortal?"
His injury triggered the blood sacrifice. His medicine drained faster than the others'.
A voice drifted over, cool and indifferent. "On the immortal mountain, he is. Off it, he's nothing."
Xu Fu felt terrible force surging toward him. He turned, palm raised, and took two involuntary steps forward to disperse the impact.
He turned, surprised. A refined elderly man stood there—clean clothes, trimmed hair, groomed beard and eyebrows, not a speck of dust on his shoes.
Yuan Wuji.
"You're a nuo immortal," Xu Fu said, puzzled. "Why don't you carry immortal medicine?"
"Guess." Yuan Wuji smiled and attacked. "Break the altar!"
Su Yan and the others had reached the mercury river. The farther from the altar, the weaker the effect. But the rite's power intensified. Su Yan wasn't sure he could reach the tomb entrance before his four repositories were destroyed.
He looked back. Above the First Emperor's golden coffin, the sky had turned blood-red. Streams of power poured into the casket.
Then the altar shattered. The draining sensation vanished.
Su Yan was bewildered. Had Xu Fu met his match? No—he had immortal body, immortal power, immortal fire. How could anyone oppose him?
A heartbeat echoed from the golden coffin. Deep as a war drum, it hammered against everyone's chest.
Thump. Louder.
Su Yan grunted, fleeing with Yuan Qi. A heavy, familiar voice followed them:
"I tread upon the divine land. I hold the state in my hands. I swept away six kingdoms and ruled the world. I slumber here. Who... has awakened me?"