With the arrival of Tongtian, Minghe, Kunpeng, and Jinchi glanced at each other with the intent to team up. Only Kong Xuan ignored her and continued staring at Redcloud Ancestor impassively.
"Daoist Tongtian, why are you here?" Minghe tentatively asked. "You already have one strand of Grandmist Violet Qi, you don't need two."
Tongtian nodded. "You're right."
At this, Minghe inwardly sighed in relief, but her following words made him realize he had relaxed too soon.
"But I owe Daoist Redcloud a debt," Tongtian said. "He once saved my life, isn't it only natural I should save his?"
"Is it enough for you to go against all of us?" Kungpeng asked, a sharp glint in his eyes as his aura rose.
Tongtian smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. Her aura exploded out of her, so sharp that everyone in the vicinity felt the sting of phantom blades flying past them. "Are you, an intermediate Quasi-Saint, threatening me, a peak Quasi-Saint?"
Kunpeng stayed silent, but Minghe had fewer scruples than him. "Then I can only offend Daoist Tongtian."
The bloody sea behind Minghe rosed and rushed forward like a tsunami, intent on drowning Tongtian and Redcloud Ancestor. Kunpeng, Jinchi, and Kong Xuan flew back to avoid the blood tsunami.
Tongtian flew in front of Redcloud Ancestor, blocking him with her body. She didn't draw her Qingping Sword. Instead, she formed a sword finger using her forefinger and slashed down.
A crescent-shaped sword light shot forward, splitting heaven and earth. When the sword light met the tsunami, it parted like the red sea.
Minghe frowned as he tried to merge the blood sea back together, but to his shock, the area from Tongtian to Redcloud had disappeared from within the two halves of the blood sea. He still felt that the blood sea was connected and had never been split, but that was impossible.
Seeing an opportunity, Kunpeng's eyes shone as he charged toward Redcloud Ancestor. When he moved, his body teleported past Redcloud Ancestor and crashed into the ground. He frowned, flew back into the air, and saw Tongtian's impish smile.
Kunpeng scowled. A massive phantom over a thousand li depicting a giant scaled kun fish appeared behind him. The fish opened its mouth and began swallowing everything in front of it. The kun fish swallowed the dirt, rocks, trees, air, blood, essence, and even qi.
'The Law of Devouring?' Tongtian thought as her robes billowed from the suction. The spatial barrier dissipated as the qi maintaining it faded, and she saw Redcloud Ancestor's face pale even more as qi left his body.
Tongtian unleashed another sword light. The attack pierced the kun fish phantom, shattering it. Kunpeng paled slightly. She wanted to take this chance to get rid of Kunpeng, but she had to move out of the way as the blood sea rushed towards her.
As Tongtian battled the combined might of Minghe and Kunpeng, Jinchi couldn't help but become anxious. His figure turned into a green-gold blur and hurtled toward Redcloud Ancestor, but before it could reach the injured god, a sword light repelled him.
Holding back the blood threatening to spill out of his mouth, Jinchi glanced at his brother with an anxious look.
Kong Xuan spared him a glance and sneered. "Now you know regret?"
"Yes, yes!" Jinchi said. "I've known regret since the third sermon. Brother, please grab the Grandmist Violet Qi for me."
"Aren't you afraid of me grabbing it for myself?" Kong Xuan.
Jinchi froze. The thought had never occurred to him. Although Kong Xuan was his older brother, Jinchi had treated him akin to how a human child treated their father. "If Brother keeps it, it's better than giving it to outsiders!"
Kong Xuan nodded in satisfaction. "Now's not the time. If we take action now, we'd only exhaust ourselves."
He glanced at an empty area. "In addition, there's more than us waiting for a chance."
Tongtian's finger slashed horizontally, beheading Minghe. His body turned red and dissolved into a pile of blood that merged with the rest of the blood sea.
She turned around to see over a hundred copies of Minghe surrounding her. Only ten had the strength of a Golden Immortal of Great Firmament, while the rest only had the strength of a Golden Immortal of the Great Unity.
Suddenly, a figure charged out of the blood sea beneath her. The figure was Minghe sitting atop the Twelfth-Ranked Red Lotus of Karma and the Yuanti and Abi Swords circling around him.
A sword with vine etchings on its blade and green hilt appeared in Tongtian's hand. She used the top-grade innate spiritual artifact, the Seven Gourd Sword, to repel Minghe, sending him flying into the distance.
Kunpeng suddenly appeared behind her with his fingers transforming into talons, aimed at her back. The front half of the Seven Gourd Sword became fiery hot, while the back half became chilling cold. Tongtian turned around and slashed the sword into Kunpeng's claws, also repelling him and leaving his hand in tatters.
Tongtian appeared in front of Redcloud Ancestor again and smiled playfully at the two. "Do you have any other tricks you want to pull out?"
After a moment of silence, the blood sea surged and transformed into even more bloodgod incarnations of Minghe. "Taste my Blood God Formation!"
The bloodgods took on a red glow that connected each of them, and a massive formation shrouded the entire area. Within the formation, Tongtian felt her blood boil, quite literally. She looked at her hand to see it turning a shade of red like a cooked lobster, but instead of panicking, she smiled.
She formed a barrier around Redcloud Ancestor to prevent the formation from affecting him. Then, ten bloodgods charged at Tongtian, but she deflected all of them. She raised an eyebrow when she felt that each one of them displayed power equal to an early Quasi-Saint.
While Tongtian fended off the bloodgods rushing her and Redcloud, the blood essence she formed from merging Di Jiang’s and Jiuyin’s blood essences circulated, integrating with her body. Her bodily strength increased from an early Quasi-Saint's to an intermediate Quasi-Saint's.
When she felt that the silver-gold blood essence of spacetime could no longer improve her body, the Seven Gourd Sword disappeared in her hand, and a white gourd appeared. Tongtian uncorked it, and a white liquid poured out.
The liquid metal qi split into over a hundred branching lines and formed a giant formation. The lines eviscerated any bloodgod incarnation in their way, and from within the Blood God Formation, silver-white light radiated out.
Tongtian didn't refine the white gourd into the Immortal Beheading Flying Blade but a formation artifact. As long as the essence within the gourd does not run out, it can form the Immortal Beheading Formation without the master using any of their qi.
With a thunderous explosion, the Blood God Formation collapsed back into the blood sea. Unlike before, the blood sea lost much of its vibrancy, as over fifty percent of it soaked into the ground.
Minghe stared at Tongtian in disbelief as he retreated. He couldn't believe that she could destroy his formation so quickly. Unbeknownst to him, he had chosen to use the Blood God Formation on the wrong Purity. His formation would not have fared so horribly if it had been Laozi or Yuanshi before his consecration.
Tongtian looked up as a giant shadow shrouded her. Looking up, she saw a giant peng bird swooping down on her with its talons aiming at Redcloud Ancestor behind her. The Immortal Beheading Formation formed several layers of protection, but they shattered like glass under Kunpeng's assault, although it did slow him down.
She allowed the white gourd to float near her as the Seven Gourd Sword appeared in her hand. The blade took on a haunting silver glow much like the silver shards from Redcloud Ancestor's Nine-Nine Soulscatter Gourd.
Kunpeng's talons clashed against the Seven Gourd Sword, and Tongtian found herself taking a few steps back in the air, surprised by the strength of Kunpeng's body. After that brief clash, Kunpeng immediately flew away before the Immortal Beheading Formation could trap him. He shivered as he stared at Tongtian's sword. His soul trembled at the moment of the clash. Ten more clashes would irreparably wound his soul.
Seeing both Minghe and Kungpeng cowed by her strength, Tongtian glanced at Kong Xuan and Jinchi. Jinchi was still in the early Quasi-Saint Realm, but Kong Xuan had wordlessly reached the Advanced Quasi-Saint Realm.
"Aren't you going to join? You might actually stand a chance to grab Daoist Redcloud's Grandmist Violet Qi if you do."
Hearing Tongtian's words, the corner of Redcloud Ancestor’s eyes twitched uncontrollably. It's fine if Tongtian played around, but it's his life and future were on the line. However, since he was too injured and could only rely on Tongtian, he had no rights to speak of.
"Before we fight, how about a trade?" Kong Xuan asked, shocking everyone present, including Tongtian.
While wondering what game the peacock was playing, she replied. "Oh, and what are the terms?"
A nine-petaled black lotus appeared in Kong Xuan's hand. "This Ninth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction for your Apricot Flag of Central Infinity."
Tongtian narrowed her eyes as she stared at "I can refine that into a high-grade innate spiritual artifact at most, and you wanted to trade that for a complete high-grade innate spiritual artifact? Do you think I'm stupid?"
"You're right," Kong Xuan said with a nod. The nine-petaled black lotus disappeared, and in its place was a twelve-petaled black lotus, the Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction! However, it had numerous cracks on it, and the spiritual light around it flickered. "What about this Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction? It's damaged, but if you managed to restore it, it's not impossible to restore it to the power of a top-grade cardinal spiritual artifact."
Upon seeing the black lotus, Kunpeng and Minghe thought of grabbing it but stilled themselves. They had their eyes on the prize, the Grandmist Violet Qi. Even if the Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction was amazing, was it more important than the chance to become a Saint?
Jinchi looked at Kong Xuan in surprise. The treasure he used to sever his first Corpse was the Ninth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction. He had wanted to use two more to sever his second and third Corpse, but Kong Xuan stopped him, saying there would be something better.
"Alright," Tongtian said as a yellow flag appeared in front of her.
The Apricot Flag of Central Infinity flew towards Kong Xuan, and the Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction flew towards Tongtian. No one moved, and time seemed to still as the two treasures passed each other.
Everyone seemed to have released a sigh of relief when the treasures reached Tongtian's and Kong Xuan's hands. The moment Tongtian touched the Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction, her eyes dimmed, and Kong Xuan stored the Apricot Flag of Central Affinity and waved his fan.
The lines of light correlating to the five elements burst out and attacked the Immortal Beheading Formation. They formed a mysterious pattern that attacked Tongtian's formation. Although the Immortal Beheading Formation did not need Tongtian's control to operate, it could not reach its full potential without her.
In seconds, the Immortal Beheading Formation started to crack, and Redcloud Ancestor looked at Tongtian in worry. "Daoist Tongtian."
Tongtian's eyes regained their brightness as cold sweat coated her back. She quickly stored the Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction and Seven Gourd Sword. She grabbed the Immortal Beheading Formation Gourd and sucked all the metal essence back in.
With her mastery of formations, she had discerned that Kong Xuan's Five Element Line Formation was a level above her Immortal Beheading Formation. It may be inferior in terms of offense, but it was too perfect.
The Immortal Beheading Formation relied on the Law of Metal Tongtian comprehended while studying the sword, but Kong Xuan's Five Element Line Formation had all five elements instead of metal. The addition of all five elements did not equal the sum of its part but its multiplication.
Tongtian waved her hand, and over ten thousand swords appeared. "Arise, Myriad Sword Formation!"
Under her control, the swords formed four layers of circling swords. The first layer had ten swords, the second layer had ninety swords, the third layer had nine hundred swords, and the fourth layer had nine thousand swords.
When the Myriad Sword Formation and Five Element Line Formation clashed, the surrounding space was destroyed. It even seemed to collapse in on itself where the two formations met.
"Amazing, if I wasn't at the Peak Quasi-Saint Realm, I'd have no guarantee to suppress your formation," Tongtian said. "If you claim number two in formation mastery, only I would exceed you."
Kong Xuan said nothing as he waved his fan and increased the power of his formation, but so did Tongtian. The clash between the two formations maintained output only a peak Quasi-Saint could unleash for an instant.
As the battle raged on, Kong Xuan frowned. Ultimately, he was still at the Advanced Quasi-Saint Realm. Tongtian was at the peak of the Quasi-Saint Realm, meaning that her qi reserves surpassed his. His eyes hardened as a plain black spear appeared in his hand.
He controlled his Five Element Line Formation to overlap with Tongtian's, causing both formations to come to a halt as he thrust his spearhead at Tongtian.
Tongtian's eyes turned serious as she felt the endless murderous aura rolling off the spear. Her hand grabbed the handle of her Qingping Sword, but before Kong Xuan could reach her, he retreated as a bronze bell passed where he had been.
Both Tongtian and Kong Xuan turned towards the intervener.
"Eastern Emperor Taiyi."
With the arrival of Tongtian, Minghe, Kunpeng, and Jinchi glanced at each other with the intent to team up. Only Kong Xuan ignored her and continued staring at Redcloud Ancestor impassively.
"Daoist Tongtian, why are you here?" Minghe tentatively asked. "You already have one strand of Grandmist Violet Qi, you don't need two."
Tongtian nodded. "You're right."
At this, Minghe inwardly sighed in relief, but her following words made him realize he had relaxed too soon.
"But I owe Daoist Redcloud a debt," Tongtian said. "He once saved my life, isn't it only natural I should save his?"
"Is it enough for you to go against all of us?" Kungpeng asked, a sharp glint in his eyes as his aura rose.
Tongtian smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. Her aura exploded out of her, so sharp that everyone in the vicinity felt the sting of phantom blades flying past them. "Are you, an intermediate Quasi-Saint, threatening me, a peak Quasi-Saint?"
Kunpeng stayed silent, but Minghe had fewer scruples than him. "Then I can only offend Daoist Tongtian."
The bloody sea behind Minghe rosed and rushed forward like a tsunami, intent on drowning Tongtian and Redcloud Ancestor. Kunpeng, Jinchi, and Kong Xuan flew back to avoid the blood tsunami.
Tongtian flew in front of Redcloud Ancestor, blocking him with her body. She didn't draw her Qingping Sword. Instead, she formed a sword finger using her forefinger and slashed down.
A crescent-shaped sword light shot forward, splitting heaven and earth. When the sword light met the tsunami, it parted like the red sea.
Minghe frowned as he tried to merge the blood sea back together, but to his shock, the area from Tongtian to Redcloud had disappeared from within the two halves of the blood sea. He still felt that the blood sea was connected and had never been split, but that was impossible.
Seeing an opportunity, Kunpeng's eyes shone as he charged toward Redcloud Ancestor. When he moved, his body teleported past Redcloud Ancestor and crashed into the ground. He frowned, flew back into the air, and saw Tongtian's impish smile.
Kunpeng scowled. A massive phantom over a thousand li depicting a giant scaled kun fish appeared behind him. The fish opened its mouth and began swallowing everything in front of it. The kun fish swallowed the dirt, rocks, trees, air, blood, essence, and even qi.
'The Law of Devouring?' Tongtian thought as her robes billowed from the suction. The spatial barrier dissipated as the qi maintaining it faded, and she saw Redcloud Ancestor's face pale even more as qi left his body.
Tongtian unleashed another sword light. The attack pierced the kun fish phantom, shattering it. Kunpeng paled slightly. She wanted to take this chance to get rid of Kunpeng, but she had to move out of the way as the blood sea rushed towards her.
As Tongtian battled the combined might of Minghe and Kunpeng, Jinchi couldn't help but become anxious. His figure turned into a green-gold blur and hurtled toward Redcloud Ancestor, but before it could reach the injured god, a sword light repelled him.
Holding back the blood threatening to spill out of his mouth, Jinchi glanced at his brother with an anxious look.
Kong Xuan spared him a glance and sneered. "Now you know regret?"
"Yes, yes!" Jinchi said. "I've known regret since the third sermon. Brother, please grab the Grandmist Violet Qi for me."
"Aren't you afraid of me grabbing it for myself?" Kong Xuan.
Jinchi froze. The thought had never occurred to him. Although Kong Xuan was his older brother, Jinchi had treated him akin to how a human child treated their father. "If Brother keeps it, it's better than giving it to outsiders!"
Kong Xuan nodded in satisfaction. "Now's not the time. If we take action now, we'd only exhaust ourselves."
He glanced at an empty area. "In addition, there's more than us waiting for a chance."
Tongtian's finger slashed horizontally, beheading Minghe. His body turned red and dissolved into a pile of blood that merged with the rest of the blood sea.
She turned around to see over a hundred copies of Minghe surrounding her. Only ten had the strength of a Golden Immortal of Great Firmament, while the rest only had the strength of a Golden Immortal of the Great Unity.
Suddenly, a figure charged out of the blood sea beneath her. The figure was Minghe sitting atop the Twelfth-Ranked Red Lotus of Karma and the Yuanti and Abi Swords circling around him.
A sword with vine etchings on its blade and green hilt appeared in Tongtian's hand. She used the top-grade innate spiritual artifact, the Seven Gourd Sword, to repel Minghe, sending him flying into the distance.
Kunpeng suddenly appeared behind her with his fingers transforming into talons, aimed at her back. The front half of the Seven Gourd Sword became fiery hot, while the back half became chilling cold. Tongtian turned around and slashed the sword into Kunpeng's claws, also repelling him and leaving his hand in tatters.
Tongtian appeared in front of Redcloud Ancestor again and smiled playfully at the two. "Do you have any other tricks you want to pull out?"
After a moment of silence, the blood sea surged and transformed into even more bloodgod incarnations of Minghe. "Taste my Blood God Formation!"
The bloodgods took on a red glow that connected each of them, and a massive formation shrouded the entire area. Within the formation, Tongtian felt her blood boil, quite literally. She looked at her hand to see it turning a shade of red like a cooked lobster, but instead of panicking, she smiled.
She formed a barrier around Redcloud Ancestor to prevent the formation from affecting him. Then, ten bloodgods charged at Tongtian, but she deflected all of them. She raised an eyebrow when she felt that each one of them displayed power equal to an early Quasi-Saint.
While Tongtian fended off the bloodgods rushing her and Redcloud, the blood essence she formed from merging Di Jiang’s and Jiuyin’s blood essences circulated, integrating with her body. Her bodily strength increased from an early Quasi-Saint's to an intermediate Quasi-Saint's.
When she felt that the silver-gold blood essence of spacetime could no longer improve her body, the Seven Gourd Sword disappeared in her hand, and a white gourd appeared. Tongtian uncorked it, and a white liquid poured out.
The liquid metal qi split into over a hundred branching lines and formed a giant formation. The lines eviscerated any bloodgod incarnation in their way, and from within the Blood God Formation, silver-white light radiated out.
Tongtian didn't refine the white gourd into the Immortal Beheading Flying Blade but a formation artifact. As long as the essence within the gourd does not run out, it can form the Immortal Beheading Formation without the master using any of their qi.
With a thunderous explosion, the Blood God Formation collapsed back into the blood sea. Unlike before, the blood sea lost much of its vibrancy, as over fifty percent of it soaked into the ground.
Minghe stared at Tongtian in disbelief as he retreated. He couldn't believe that she could destroy his formation so quickly. Unbeknownst to him, he had chosen to use the Blood God Formation on the wrong Purity. His formation would not have fared so horribly if it had been Laozi or Yuanshi before his consecration.
Tongtian looked up as a giant shadow shrouded her. Looking up, she saw a giant peng bird swooping down on her with its talons aiming at Redcloud Ancestor behind her. The Immortal Beheading Formation formed several layers of protection, but they shattered like glass under Kunpeng's assault, although it did slow him down.
She allowed the white gourd to float near her as the Seven Gourd Sword appeared in her hand. The blade took on a haunting silver glow much like the silver shards from Redcloud Ancestor's Nine-Nine Soulscatter Gourd.
Kunpeng's talons clashed against the Seven Gourd Sword, and Tongtian found herself taking a few steps back in the air, surprised by the strength of Kunpeng's body. After that brief clash, Kunpeng immediately flew away before the Immortal Beheading Formation could trap him. He shivered as he stared at Tongtian's sword. His soul trembled at the moment of the clash. Ten more clashes would irreparably wound his soul.
Seeing both Minghe and Kungpeng cowed by her strength, Tongtian glanced at Kong Xuan and Jinchi. Jinchi was still in the early Quasi-Saint Realm, but Kong Xuan had wordlessly reached the Advanced Quasi-Saint Realm.
"Aren't you going to join? You might actually stand a chance to grab Daoist Redcloud's Grandmist Violet Qi if you do."
Hearing Tongtian's words, the corner of Redcloud Ancestor’s eyes twitched uncontrollably. It's fine if Tongtian played around, but it's his life and future were on the line. However, since he was too injured and could only rely on Tongtian, he had no rights to speak of.
"Before we fight, how about a trade?" Kong Xuan asked, shocking everyone present, including Tongtian.
While wondering what game the peacock was playing, she replied. "Oh, and what are the terms?"
A nine-petaled black lotus appeared in Kong Xuan's hand. "This Ninth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction for your Apricot Flag of Central Infinity."
Tongtian narrowed her eyes as she stared at "I can refine that into a high-grade innate spiritual artifact at most, and you wanted to trade that for a complete high-grade innate spiritual artifact? Do you think I'm stupid?"
"You're right," Kong Xuan said with a nod. The nine-petaled black lotus disappeared, and in its place was a twelve-petaled black lotus, the Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction! However, it had numerous cracks on it, and the spiritual light around it flickered. "What about this Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction? It's damaged, but if you managed to restore it, it's not impossible to restore it to the power of a top-grade cardinal spiritual artifact."
Upon seeing the black lotus, Kunpeng and Minghe thought of grabbing it but stilled themselves. They had their eyes on the prize, the Grandmist Violet Qi. Even if the Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction was amazing, was it more important than the chance to become a Saint?
Jinchi looked at Kong Xuan in surprise. The treasure he used to sever his first Corpse was the Ninth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction. He had wanted to use two more to sever his second and third Corpse, but Kong Xuan stopped him, saying there would be something better.
"Alright," Tongtian said as a yellow flag appeared in front of her.
The Apricot Flag of Central Infinity flew towards Kong Xuan, and the Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction flew towards Tongtian. No one moved, and time seemed to still as the two treasures passed each other.
Everyone seemed to have released a sigh of relief when the treasures reached Tongtian's and Kong Xuan's hands. The moment Tongtian touched the Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction, her eyes dimmed, and Kong Xuan stored the Apricot Flag of Central Affinity and waved his fan.
The lines of light correlating to the five elements burst out and attacked the Immortal Beheading Formation. They formed a mysterious pattern that attacked Tongtian's formation. Although the Immortal Beheading Formation did not need Tongtian's control to operate, it could not reach its full potential without her.
In seconds, the Immortal Beheading Formation started to crack, and Redcloud Ancestor looked at Tongtian in worry. "Daoist Tongtian."
Tongtian's eyes regained their brightness as cold sweat coated her back. She quickly stored the Twelfth-Ranked Black Lotus of Destruction and Seven Gourd Sword. She grabbed the Immortal Beheading Formation Gourd and sucked all the metal essence back in.
With her mastery of formations, she had discerned that Kong Xuan's Five Element Line Formation was a level above her Immortal Beheading Formation. It may be inferior in terms of offense, but it was too perfect.
The Immortal Beheading Formation relied on the Law of Metal Tongtian comprehended while studying the sword, but Kong Xuan's Five Element Line Formation had all five elements instead of metal. The addition of all five elements did not equal the sum of its part but its multiplication.
Tongtian waved her hand, and over ten thousand swords appeared. "Arise, Myriad Sword Formation!"
Under her control, the swords formed four layers of circling swords. The first layer had ten swords, the second layer had ninety swords, the third layer had nine hundred swords, and the fourth layer had nine thousand swords.
When the Myriad Sword Formation and Five Element Line Formation clashed, the surrounding space was destroyed. It even seemed to collapse in on itself where the two formations met.
"Amazing, if I wasn't at the Peak Quasi-Saint Realm, I'd have no guarantee to suppress your formation," Tongtian said. "If you claim number two in formation mastery, only I would exceed you."
Kong Xuan said nothing as he waved his fan and increased the power of his formation, but so did Tongtian. The clash between the two formations maintained output only a peak Quasi-Saint could unleash for an instant.
As the battle raged on, Kong Xuan frowned. Ultimately, he was still at the Advanced Quasi-Saint Realm. Tongtian was at the peak of the Quasi-Saint Realm, meaning that her qi reserves surpassed his. His eyes hardened as a plain black spear appeared in his hand.
He controlled his Five Element Line Formation to overlap with Tongtian's, causing both formations to come to a halt as he thrust his spearhead at Tongtian.
Tongtian's eyes turned serious as she felt the endless murderous aura rolling off the spear. Her hand grabbed the handle of her Qingping Sword, but before Kong Xuan could reach her, he retreated as a bronze bell passed where he had been.
Both Tongtian and Kong Xuan turned towards the intervener.
"Eastern Emperor Taiyi."
