From the end of the world

Chapter 669 VS Xuanming 1
There are about a hundred Xuanming believers who were captured and brought here. The number is not large. It is estimated to be the number of people who survived the fierce battle with the overwhelming number of Peach Blossom Village cultivators and monsters.

They immediately reacted violently, trying to struggle and fight back.

However, my flames, seemingly ethereal and swaying, unable to form any obstacle, actually sealed them off like solidified cement, rendering them completely immobile. Not only were their physical movements blocked, but even the magical power erupting from their bodies was completely shut down by the flames, causing many of them to suffer internal injuries and lose the ability to continue struggling.

The sudden appearance of this group of people took the demon hunters present by surprise, and they immediately took a defensive stance.

Jiao Shu, who was waiting outside the ceremony site, seemed to have an urge to rescue her own people. I glanced at her, and she immediately froze like a frog being stared at by a snake, not daring to move.

Winter Cart walked up to me. He glanced at the scorching heat in the distance, then looked at the believers and asked, "This is..."

“Next, I will be fighting Xuanming. To prevent you from getting involved, I will send you all out of this city. The same goes for these Xuanming followers; you can take them all to Luoshan as gifts to bring home. After that, whether you imprison them according to Luoshan's laws or whatever, it's up to you to follow the rules of the social order,” I said.

Dongche bowed his head and replied, "Yes."

"Then, farewell," I said.

Dongche gave me a deep look and said solemnly, "I wish you a triumphant return."

I've mentioned my conflict with Xuanming to Dongche before. The upcoming battle is a death match between me, the newly ascended Great Impermanence, and the ancient Great Impermanence. No matter what my past achievements or how special my powers are, to outsiders, I've always seemed to lose more often than I've won.

Fuyu and I haven't known each other for long, but he must know that trying to dissuade me is pointless. Since I would challenge fate for Asahi in the past, I certainly wouldn't back down in this situation. Perhaps he wants to believe I can triumph, but he must also know what turbulent waves I will face.

I waved my hand, manipulating the flames. The sea of ​​fire on the field swept everyone up like a giant wave, pushing them out of the city.

The barrier enveloping the city is designed for strict entry but lenient exit. Now that I've regained my strength, leaving myself or sending others away is a piece of cake. However, even the strictest entry and lenient exit has its limits. The purpose of this barrier, besides preventing external intrusion, is also to prevent any survivors from escaping.

Sending out a dozen or so people might only take a blink of an eye, but sending out a thousand people in one go still takes a few seconds.

Perhaps this is why Xuanming didn't, like me, move all his own people to a safe zone first when he went to war with Meng Zhang, the lord of Taoyuan Township. To waste a few seconds doing something with your back to an enemy of equal strength is simply a foolish act of offering your own neck to the enemy's blade.

The situation is different now. Meng Zhang, the lord of Taoyuan Township, has retreated to the city center and is not taking advantage of this opportunity to attack me.

Xuanming must have already noticed the commotion in the surface city. I could feel an immense gaze descend upon me. Following that gaze, I was able to trace Xuanming's current location.

No wonder all of Xuanming's followers didn't know where their god was. Xuanming wasn't in any earthly city, but in the sky. Above that sea of ​​fire that covered the sky like dense dark clouds, I sensed Xuanming standing thousands of meters in the howling wind. Looking up, across the rooftops of the exhibition hall's shelter and the raging inferno, I gazed at Xuanming from afar.

Even when I spoke to Dongche about how to deal with Xuanming's followers, Xuanming remained silent.

It's probably because discussing those things now doesn't really matter. If Xuanming truly cared about the whereabouts of his followers, he could have dealt with them after winning the battle; leaving them inside the city would only expose them to the fighting. And if he were to lose, then there would be no need to discuss it further; his followers would certainly face an uncertain future.

One by one, the figures of the people around me disappeared in the sea of ​​fire: Dongche, Xiaoqiao, Jiaoshu, the leader of the believers... until the last person disappeared, I took a deep breath and then rushed into the sky.

I broke through the roof of the exhibition hall's refuge and the engulfing inferno, the thousands of meters of vertical distance vanished in an instant, and I ascended to the high altitude where Xuanming was. Xuanming was watching me.

“I thought you would need more time to recover your power, but you acted faster than I expected,” he said. “A new generation of Great Impermanence who, like me, wields the power of fire… From the first time I saw you, I had a vague premonition that we might eventually have a battle.”

"To be honest, ever since I heard about you, I've secretly considered you my rival and wanted to surpass you," I said.

“Is that so? I am honored.” Xuanming said calmly. “Then, although this is unnecessary, out of courtesy, I will ask one last question: Are you willing to hand over that divine child to me? If you are willing to give it up, you will not have to die by my hand today.”

"Thank you for saying those words even at the very end. After you die, I will think of what you said today from time to time and enjoy it," I said.

Xuanming was not surprised at all, and said expressionlessly, "Then—die."

As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his right hand and swiftly attacked my heart.

The straight-line distance between us, judging from common sense, is quite vast, at least a kilometer by sight. Yet, to us, it's practically face-to-face. This is not only because our speed could instantly obliterate it, but also because the concept of distance is meaningless to us, the beings of impermanence. He only needs to reach out slightly to touch me, and vice versa.

Incredibly intense flames erupted from his palm, reminiscent of a volcano erupting at the moment of its eruption, clearly indicating that he was about to unleash an immense burst of fiery power at extremely close range. I can conclude directly that the power of this strike was enough to shatter a mountain into pieces with a single blow and could easily alter the shape of the earth.

Even seasoned veterans like Huang Quan and Ming Zhuo had to temporarily avoid the attack. Anyone who dared to take it head-on would be instantly blasted to smithereens. This undoubtedly demonstrated the brutal destructive power of fire.

However, I did not choose to dodge, nor did I even make a parrying move. Instead, I made a similar move to Xuanming without hesitation. The moment he raised his hand, I entered my third form, "Corona," transforming into a human-shaped star, and simultaneously unleashed my full power at the front of Xuanming's head.

The strengths and weaknesses of fire power are the same for everyone from the most basic Witcher to the Great Impermanence: immense destructive power and weak defense. While possessing the power to kill with a single blow, it is also highly susceptible to being killed by a full-force attack from an enemy of the same level.

The reason I often get severely injured by enemies in battles of the same level is because of this. Perhaps Xuanming has the ability to compensate for weaknesses to some extent, but the general direction is correct. Facing someone whose very existence is an attack, using such close-range tactics as the first move can easily put oneself in an extremely dangerous situation.

However, this wasn't the first time he'd seen my Corona Form. After our previous exchange of blows using Flame Avatar, he'd probably seriously considered how to deal with me. And now, the true purpose of his attack was aimed at me.

I felt an immense force strike me from above. Yes, it wasn't a blow aimed directly at me, but from above. For a moment, I was confused about what was happening; it felt like I was completely focused on a boxing match when suddenly a meteorite hit me on the head.

That force slammed me vertically toward the city below, and in the blink of an eye, I landed like a shooting star.

To be precise, I became a meteor shower. That force blasted my body, which was like a miniature star, into countless fragments in mid-air. For a moment, I couldn't even control the fiery magic that made up my body. The falling meteor shower exploded in the city on the ground like countless atomic bombs, and the shockwaves and dust clouds generated from many different locations instantly engulfed the disaster-stricken city.

Despite the devastation the city had suffered, the protective barrier enveloping the entire city remained unshaken. It was thanks to this massive barrier that the catastrophe that had struck here could have spread to far more distant regions. The clash between two powerful beings wielding the power of fire was anticipated to cause far greater damage than any other clash between powerful beings.

It was definitely the right thing to move Dongche and the others out of the city first... I had this thought, and at the same time realized how Xuanming had launched the attack.

While I was focused on him, he was secretly manipulating the flames, gathering power from other directions to unleash his true killing move. I could have noticed this beforehand, but in the air so close to the sea of ​​fire in the sky, all directions were densely filled with his magical energy fluctuations, creating the perfect conditions for him to secretly advance. Combined with this feint, he perfectly caught me off guard.

He actually attacked me!
(End of this chapter)