“What the hell is this thing?!” In an instant, Mao Ba’er started to jump, and all his fur stood on edge. He looked around in fright.

Zhao Wuye took Zhao Ziqi behind him and defended. He was wet with cold sweat. Releasing all of his spiritual sense, he felt everything in the environment.

Nothing… There was nothing! There wasn’t the slightest hint of a spiritual-force fluctuation. It seemed as if this scene had never occurred!

Fahui seemed to lose his soul and sat down with a thump. It would’ve been better had he not sensed anything… In that instant moments ago, he felt a qi akin to a devil-god’s! Perhaps… this demon truly hadn’t met anyone in too long, or perhaps… it was because this entity deliberately revealed this qi. Nonetheless, that shred was enough to kill him a billion times over!

After ages, his complexion grew ashy-white as he shivered while joining his hands together. He murmured, “Buddha above…” 

Silence… After ten seconds, the flames in the lotuses suddenly rocketed several meters high into the air! Each lotus flower resembled an ancient lamp! Here and now, this area was like the inside of the desolate imperial palace, not a soul in sight. All that remained was a room full of azure lanterns accompanied by a palace maid—her face unseen—and an azure lamp with an ancient Buddha statue.

Such tranquility constrained the deathly stillness of the heart. It didn’t bring serenity but rather great terror in silence!

All of Xu Yangyi’s spiritual force cycled to the peak. He was the same as Fahui. Just now… he’d also captured a wisp of desolate qi! It wasn’t that he hadn’t met a high-level cultivator, but even the gathering of twelve Core Formation on the day of the auction hadn’t given him such pressure! It seemed… that so long as he felt this spiritual pressure, his entire body would be crushed!

Buuzzz…

 In the wake of countless azure lotuses igniting with flame, they transformed from a speck on the ocean surface into an azure fire sea. In the sky, all the violet talismans collapsed with a rumble!

Rustle rustle rustle… 

A sound like rain echoed. A beam of violet light carrying a violet talisman fell down. Immediately, there was a second beam… a third beam… an endless number of beams!

In a fleeting moment, the sky rained down like a meteor shower! All the talismans fell at the same time and transformed into violet qi, vanishing. Nevertheless, the enormous secret realm’s super formation collapsed. It appeared as if a violet meteor shower descending! With the azure fire lotuses below, a picture scroll of hell was reflected!

In the night, fireworks blossom along the eastern wind in the style of a thousand trees. Further blowing and falling, starry fire falls like rain.

[1]

“This is…” 

No one knew why… but all of them understood the connection of the words that the female voice had just spoken.

“The seal… The seal has shattered…” Xuan Chengzi watched the rain-like starfall in the sky, shocked. Right now, not one single person failed to realize the gravity of the situation. “Danxia Temple’s depths… was sealing a creature… A catastrophic entity…” 

“

It

… strew the corpses of all who entered across Danxia Temple… 

It

 also caused Ancestor Ancientpine to retreat without any merits in that year… This… is Danxia Temple’s true… final secret…” He painfully closed his eyes. “We… were too naive…”

Quan Ningyue looked at the sky listlessly. She hadn’t sensed the spiritual pressure just now, but even so, she knew that the current situation had already become hopeless.

It wasn’t important whether or not 

It

 was felt… What was important… was how could something suppressed for so many years possibly be simple?

“God...” Mao Ba’er gulped many times, dumb as a wooden chicken. “I don’t want to become fish food…”

Glub… Glub… 

At the same time the rain of stars scattered through the air, a series of air bubbles gurgled up from underwater!

Immediately, in the 5,000-meter region without any lotuses or lotus leaves, violently surging waves rushed forth without limit. They squeezed down towards the central region with great speed.

In an instant, not even needing a second, the waves had already clambered up from several meters to ten meters! There were even waves a hundred meters tall! It could be said to be the peak of a giant wave!

Rushing tides reached the sky and stormy waves swept the earth. The vast snowy earth flattens and shifts, and the silver mountain presses down in surging chaos. Grand might echoes like racing thunder and fiercely bubbling waves curl towards the summit like snow. Cold like spring jade, billowing akin to the cry of a bow. Touching stone, vast azure waters spray out shattered jade. Water rushes back to the vast maelstrom.

[2]

Boom!

 Sky-scraping waves battered the ocean surface over and over. Stones were in upheaval and clouds fell to ruin. Raging waves slammed against the shore. Afterwards, another spraying peak transformed into a thousand snowfalls scattering. It formed an indescribable torrential downpour. Amidst the rainstorm that filled the sky, a colossal vortex slowly took form in the water!

Screaming and spinning… it seemed as if the door to hell had opened! Even the edges of their lotus leaves suffered. However, the lotus leaf that they were standing on wasn’t affected.

“God…” Zhao Wuye’s lips were trembling, and he looked at the incomparably gigantic maelstrom before his eyes. At this moment, the power of nature appeared boundlessly majestic. As long as anyone entered this vortex, the only end was to be pulverized!

“Heavens…” Mao Ba’er’s mind was in chaos. His eyes wide and tongue tied, the dog watched the scene before him.

Strange noises resounded from the vortex’s nadir. After ten seconds, a loud rumble followed! A water pillar, no less than several thousand meters wide, madly rushed out from the vortex! But… the pillar wasn’t the only thing to charge upwards! There was also… an endless amount of fish! They blotted out the sky and concealed the earth!

In the wake of the maelstrom’s rising jubilation, azure fish jumped out from the water’s surface. After falling, they charged up and fell down again, the cycle returning to the beginning. Their actions looked to form a fountain of fish!

Time seemed to still in this moment. There was no speaking and breathing. There wasn’t even the beating of a heart. Everyone’s eyes saw that among the fish, under the binding of millions of azure carps, there was a giant silhouette that was nearly 5,000 meters long! The scales on its body carried an azure light reflected from azure flame. From the seabed, it leaped upwards!

A titanic figure occupied everyone’s eyes. A pitch-black shadow shrouded everything below in darkness.

Presently, the entity was a devil-god that seemed like a ruler overlooking the world. Due to extreme excitement, its total spiritual pressure was wildly unleashed! 

Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

 This pressure actually solidified! Lotuses and lotus leaves were blown everywhere in disarray! Fiery scars filled the sky! The entity appeared to swirl up a small typhoon!

“Spiritual… Spiritual pressure solidification… This is spiritual pressure solidification…” In the tempest, Fahui was suddenly blown away along with his flying magik artifact, but he unexpectedly landed on a lotus leaf. After he stood up, he put his palms together in despair. “Buddha… how could you allow this fiend… to even exist in the world…”

“Is there even someone on Earth… who can subdue it…?

Xu Yangyi’s pupils suddenly needled.

This was it… This was definitely it! This was that giant azure carp!

“This…”

“This is…”

“God… what are we looking at…”

“Is this the being actually hidden at the bottom of Danxia Temple…? We… Is there anyone who can even survive?”

Everyone’s gazes almost turned lifeless. Regarding Wei Zhongxian, they’d still possessed the power and also the heart to fight. But against something like this… The thought of resistance wasn’t born in anyone whatsoever!

“This… cannot be called a demon. It is… a god…” Xuan Chengzi’s eyes flashed with a wisp of battle intent, but it immediately died away into scattered ash and flying smoke.

As if they were watching a play, the group of ten observed everything ahead. At this point, resistance was already useless. Nonetheless, this was merely the starting gasp! As the carp soared into the air and jumped several hundred meters into the sky, a joyous screech of finally escaping its cage sounded from its mouth. Afterwards… 

The scales all over the carp’s body began to twinkle with whistling azure light! In the next second, each man-sized scale transformed into equally large feathers! Its mouth also started to turn long and pointed. Its fins grew long as if they would cloak the world! In the blink of an eye, the carp broke through 5,000 meters in size! Its fins morphed into enormous wings!

The demon’s tail fin started to come apart and the scales on its belly split apart with a swoosh. A hundred meters in size, two giant claws extended. Everyone clearly saw that in less than ten seconds, this azure carp had already transformed… 

Into a Kun Peng!!!

The Kun Peng strikes the water for 3,000 li, forming white silk that drives forward like a hundred thousand men!

[3]

BOOM!

 The Kun Peng slammed into the water again. Storms and tsunamis followed. It no longer required the use of any divine ability. Its body itself was the greatest divine ability! 

“Wuuu…” A low cry bearing unconcealable excitement echoed. In the water, a giant tail no less than a thousand meters rose up! 

“Kun Peng… This is a Kung Peng! This is a Kun Peng!!!” Due to immense horror, extreme excitement, and great indescribable terror, Zhao Wuye had already lost his voice from screeching. “S-Such a thing t-t-truly exists! A Kun Peng! A legendary Kun Peng!!!”

“Daofather above…” 

“Buddha above…” 

Xuan Chengzi and Fahui said in concert. Apart from blankly staring, they could no longer say a word.

In the Northern Darkness, there is a fish known as Kun. The Kun is so large that the thousands of li it measures up to is a mystery. It transforms into a bird known as Peng. It is unknown how many thousands of li that the Peng’s back is. As it soars and gallops, its wings are like the hanging clouds of the sky.

[4]

In the sky, it was a bird, and in entering the ocean, it was fish. At this moment, a Kun Peng had actually emerged before everyone!

To all of their surprise, none had expected that such a mythical beast was hidden in the depths of Danxia Tempe!!!

Xu Yangyi didn’t speak. Although he was also shocked, his heart was prepared because he’d already seen the colossus once. He wasn’t like the dumbstruck crowd. On the contrary, all his qi was mobilized to the peak.

This was because he saw… that there was still a chain, a golden chain. In the same vein, along with the Kun Peng’s leap, this chain was pulled out from the ocean surface! It couldn’t be clearly seen how far the chain had been pulled. It made this carp appear to be like a kite set loose from the seabed!

Now still wasn’t the time for absolute despair… This azure carp still hadn't been completely freed of its bindings! Presently… there was a microscopic chance to live, an opportunity to win a minor chance at survival!

Furthermore… Xu Yangyi’s gaze was deep. Even now, the first of Danxia Temple’s several riddles that caused him to feel as if a fish bone was stuck in his throat had been solved!

Who had caused Danxia Temple’s strange transformations? Apart from this demon-god, no one else could accomplish this! Apart from this Kun Peng, who was able to alarm the Core Formation ancestors? Who was able to force the government to seal off Longsu Province?

Perhaps… even the distant and lofty Core Formation ancestors and the Chinese government didn’t expect this. As China’s Dao Masters left to search for Quetzalcoatl, a true Kun Peng was concealed in the belly of Danxia Temple! 

The second… was that giant fish molt!

That… was certainly the fish molt left behind by this azure carp as it evolved into a Kun Peng!

1. If not obvious, this entire section is a poem. Unfortunately, I could not find the poet.

2. Poem from Southern Song Poet Xin Qiji (1140 - 1207 CE). Describes the scene of many fireworks during the Lantern Festival.

3. Poem from Song dynasty poet Su Shi (Su Dongpo) (1037-1101 CE)

4. Excerpt from Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi.

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