Watching the rapidly dispersing body of the Sacred Dance in front of him.
Zhang Rongfang frowned slightly and turned to look at Yue Dewen.
"Master, it seems he’s not dead."
"Nonsense! Of course he’s not dead! That was just a projection of the Saint, possessing the Sacred Dance!" Yue Dewen sat cross-legged in the blood water.
A large area of the Blood River was still swirling around him, the thick blood water rising like a living creature, extending tendrils to fend off the surrounding blue-eyed stone men.
Now that the Sacred Dance was dead, all the blue-eyed stone men suddenly stopped, ceasing all movement, becoming completely still.
The thousands of stone men within the cave instantly fell into complete silence, returning to the previous tranquility.
"Master, are you okay? Are you dying?" Zhang Rongfang flapped his wings, flying to Yue Dewen, asking worriedly.
"Bullshit! Can’t you say anything good with that dog mouth of yours?!" Yue Dewen was angry. He had never seen such a disciple.
Only saying the bad instead of the good.
"Quick, help me up! I can still take a few steps!" He wanted to get up, but found his body was truly in pain and lacked strength.
Zhang Rongfang raised a hand, and lines of blood climbed up Yue Dewen’s body, quickly forming a rope of blood, tightening around him and lifting him into the air.
But the lines of blood were a bit too tight, causing Old Yue’s body curves to be fully revealed.
"What a disgrace!" Yue Dewen’s old face turned red, and he was instantly furious. He burst his whole body, shattering the blood lines into pieces.
"Isn’t this handling it?" Zhang Rongfang laughed.
Yue Dewen was momentarily stunned, suddenly realizing that his previously weak body actually felt much better now.
Obviously, the disciple had used some method he didn’t know to heal a part of his injuries.
But there was no time to think about these things.
"Come, let’s check on Cosimo and Daoist Qingyi. They’ve been petrified by the Blood of the Sky from the Sacred Dance, as well as your Great Uncle Jin Yuyan!"
"Can petrification be cured?" Zhang Rongfang was astonished.
"Nonsense!" Yue Dewen turned and walked briskly toward the platform. "Once the Sacred Dance is dead, they can be saved. Otherwise, why do you think they weren’t killed, just petrified? They’re waiting to be transformed into shells for the Spirit Generals of the Spirit Flying Heaven later on!"
He pointed to the blue-eyed stone men around them.
"These stone men originate in this way. However, this petrification process takes a long time, but once completed, it can never be undone."
The two quickly returned to the platform but couldn’t find Cosimo and Daoist Qingyi’s bodies anywhere.
Then, they suddenly thought of something, hurriedly went off the stage, and found two stone statues in a pool of blood on the edge.
However, it was tragic that both of their limbs were broken, leaving only their torsos and heads relatively intact.
"It’s fine, they’re Spirit Generals, such injuries are nothing, as long as their heads are still intact...." Yue Dewen recalled that it was during his fight with the Sacred Dance that he accidentally knocked them down.
He chuckled dryly twice and quickly collected their broken hands and feet.
Zhang Rongfang shook his head watching from the side. Seeing Old Yue’s guilty tone, he knew it must have been his doing.
"Previously, the Sacred Dance was busy initiating the ceremony, so there was no time to complete the transformation. Fortunately, we arrived quickly. Otherwise...." Yue Dewen pieced their limbs together and stood up.
Then, he looked at Zhang Rongfang.
The awkward expression vanished quickly as his gaze landed on his disciple’s large bat wings on his back.
"This thing.... is real?"
He reached out to pinch it. It was fleshy and a bit cool. The surface was covered with fine dark red fur.
Zhang Rongfang was speechless and flapped them twice on his own to show him.
"Old man, shouldn’t you heal your injuries first? Why bother with such trivial matters? Your disciple is now as good as can be."
"Of course, I know you’re as good as can be. I want to ask, how did you practice this.... Did you practice some heretical martial arts that turned you into something neither human nor monster?" Yue Dewen asked seriously.
"This is genuine, authentic Human Immortal Martial Dao!" Zhang Rongfang explained, "Didn’t you see I took down that old guy in two or three moves? If I hadn’t arrived in time, Old Yue, you would have surely been done for."
"Hehehe." Yue Dewen sneered three times, "Your master could slap that guy to death with one hand. That was merely a possessed projection, combined with the power of the Sacred Dance’s final form, plus the influence of the grand formation, not allowing God’s Descent, and before that, the Sacred Dance exhausted a lot of my strength, that’s what made me so miserable.
Otherwise, with him? Hehehe!"
He sneered again.
Zhang Rongfang was speechless. The voice of Bailin came to his ears.
’Xiaofang, your master is quite stubborn, eh?’
’All old people are like this. That old guy was talking tough until his last moment, people from different times can’t understand their stubborn spirit.’ Zhang Rongfang replied in his mind.
"In the end, tell me, how did you train in this martial art?" Yue Dewen came back to his senses at this moment, and the more he thought about it, the more it didn’t seem right.
How many years had Zhang Rongfang been practicing martial arts?
Even if he was a genius, like him, like Chen Junchen of old, or even the first Holy Emperor of the Black List, Meng Qian, who hadn’t practiced diligently for decades to possess unmatched martial arts skills across the world.
But this Zhang Rongfang....
Too young!
Even Yue Dewen could see the soft stubble on his chin.
"To tell the truth, although the Sacred Dance that was possessed by the Holy Watch has had most of its power consumed by me, it’s still not something an ordinary Spirit General can deal with. Even your grandmaster would have to croak if he faced it at his prime."
Yue Dewen’s eyebrows furrowed deeper, growing more suspicious.
"I felt something was off last time... You have so many miscellaneous Residual God auras on you.
Could it be..... you are no longer my disciple?! Instead, you’re possessed by some ancient Residual God!?"
The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became, and his gaze towards Zhang Rongfang gradually grew tense.
"Old Yue. Surely you haven’t heard what true ’Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, Five Qi Towards the Origin’ means!" Zhang Rongfang said solemnly, ready to educate his master on the basics of human immortal martial arts he had established.
After a torrent of speech, Yue Dewen’s expression gradually wavered, appearing somewhat half-convinced.
"Do you really have such ability?" he questioned skeptically, "I, Old Yue, have read all the dao scriptures and martial arts in the world, yet haven’t created any martial art like Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown. How could you have devised it in a few years? Do you think you’re more capable than me!?"
"Hehehe." Zhang Rongfang smiled without speaking.
"You brat!" Yue Dewen reached out to pat his head, but his body had returned to its normal form, obviously unable to reach the forehead of Zhang Rongfang who stood three meters tall.
"However, even though you have created a brand new martial path and gained a transformative change in strength, you mustn’t underestimate the Holy Watch." he said seriously.
"The Holy Watch is the strongest among the three giants, and the gap between him and the other two is immense.
This convergence of heavens and earth is not the first time. In the previous two times, strong figures reversed against the heavens and nearly succeeded. But each time, they were ultimately suppressed by the Holy Watch as the final hurdle."
"Is his strength really that formidable?" Zhang Rongfang’s eyebrows furrowed as well. Thinking back carefully, the Holy Watch elder earlier seemed to show no reaction to his strength until he was scattered and banished.
Indeed, very confident....
"The original name of the Holy Watch has long been forgotten by people. But the martial art he practiced was the Nine Phoenix Sacred Spirit Skill, hailed as the number one absolute art of the world before the founding of the Great Spirit!" Yue Dewen said solemnly.
"Nine Phoenix Sacred Spirit Skill? No matter how strong a martial art is, it ultimately depends on the practitioner, doesn’t it?" Zhang Rongfang retorted.
"You’re right. The talent of the Holy Watch is extremely terrifying. He not only cultivated the Nine Phoenix Sacred Spirit Skill to the pinnacle but also further improved and adapted it into his own Great Circulation Nine Phoenix Sacred Spirit Skill.
This cultivation combines literature and martial arts; training one is equivalent to simultaneously practicing both. The Cultivation Technique realm is marked with literary cultivation.
Even before he worshipped the gods hundreds of years ago, he had already surpassed the peak of Returning to Void, becoming the only peerless figure to step into a new realm. Now, after so many years have passed, his realm is unknown."
"Didn’t he worship the gods?" Zhang Rongfang wondered, "Can he continue improving even after worshipping gods?"
"He did worship gods, but he is the blood of Heaven! He is a special case granted by Spirit Flying Heaven. And this special privilege, only they three possess." Yue Dewen replied.
"The three giants of Spirit Flying Heaven have many exceptions that you can’t imagine; you will soon understand."
"Then I must take a good look." Zhang Rongfang’s eyes slightly narrowed, and a red crystal dot on his brow blazed with a streak of red light like a vertical pupil.
"Your strength is great, but surely you can’t be a match for the Holy Watch. In the end, we’ll have to rely on your master." Yue Dewen shook his head. "Don’t look at me now like this, but someone ruined my setup earlier. Otherwise...."
"Master, your nose is bleeding." Zhang Rongfang said expressionlessly.
Yue Dewen wiped his nostril, and his hand was full of blood.
He quickly searched for medicine but the pouch on his waist had vanished in the recent fierce battle.
"You brat!! You’re getting more and more unruly!!" He suddenly flared up in anger, taking a slap at Zhang Rongfang.
But it was easily dodged by the latter.
"Stop fooling around, Old Yue, you should come back with me to my Human Immortal Temple to heal your wounds." Zhang Rongfang said earnestly.
"No return." Yue Dewen shook his head, "When heaven and earth converge, all recorded Bright Gods will be harvested and then erased from memory.
Those not recorded will be thoroughly hunted and devoured. The saying ’gods and buddhas never die’ only applies to mortals.
For the lofty Spirit Flying Heaven, both gods and humans serve as just nourishment for its growing power."
He glanced at Zhang Rongfang.
"You and the Residual God within you seem to get along quite well. But you should know, if heavens and earth merge, they’ll soon die.
If you don’t resist, they will come to you too. This is a fate that must be faced."
Zhang Rongfang’s brows furrowed. In his ears, the nonsensical chatter from Bai Lin was telling him methods like quickly going out to sea to run far away, digging a deep enough hole underground to hide, or escaping to Taoyuan for a while.
He looked directly at Yue Shi.
"No exceptions?"
"For you right now, no." Yue Dewen shook his head, "You’re my disciple. If you hadn’t been involved earlier, perhaps you could find a secluded place to hide. Cut off all external connections, maybe you could escape the disaster.
But now....you’re already caught in it. Having once defeated the Sacred Dance and crushed the Holy Watch’s projection, do you still think you can stand clear of things? You’ve long entered the sight of Spirit Flying Heaven."
"So, from the moment you acted to save me, everything was already fated?" Zhang Rongfang still wanted to take the old man back to seclusion, to avoid all trouble and heal his wounds.
But if everything is really as Yue Dewen said, healing the wounds might not be possible anymore.
"The only way is to resist. Break through this convergence of heaven and earth, crush the three of the Holy Watch! Don’t give Spirit Flying Heaven the chance to descend; only then can we strive for another century of time!"