Chapter 147: Cataclysmic Upheaval

As soon as Qi Yongfeng's voice faded, the ground began to tremble violently.

Several towering peaks swayed unsteadily, crashing into one another with deafening sounds.

"What is happening? What's going on!" Luo Yingying lost her balance and tumbled into Wu Qiu's arms.

The others staggered as well, hurriedly huddling together in panic.

Zou Peng reacted in time, plunging his long sword into the ground, and knelt on one knee while looking up at Chi Yushu. "Did you say this Feiling Secret Realm is a conspiracy by the Profound Intent Sect?"

Amidst the panicked and chaotic noise, Zou Peng secretly channeled his spiritual power, transmitting his voice clearly to Chi Yushu's ear.

"What on earth is going on?" Qi Yongfeng asked through clenched teeth, punching the ground to support his entire body.

Chi Yushu frowned slightly. Spiritual energy burst forth from his body, generating several vines that whipped around to wrap up the stumbling crowd, hurling them into the Necromancer Locking Array. He said in a deep voice, "There is no time to explain. Sect Master Deng has already made his move!"

At this moment of upheaval within the secret realm, Chi Yushu instantly guessed Deng Jingyao's intentions.

In the nick of time, Qu Yiqiu used the Ice-Colored Jade Ribbon to entangle the colossal body of the Taotie, barely managing to steady herself.

She looked quizzically at Chi Yushu's profile, wondering in her heart how he had come to know about this matter.

"Master, he must have run into Jiang Shuangyan and her group along the way." Almost as the thought crossed her mind, Xiao Yan answered the question.

Qu Yiqiu was slightly stunned, and with a faint smile, she said, "What you say makes sense. Aside from Jiang Shuangyan, probably no one else in the Feiling Secret Realm knew about this yet."

"I saw it with my own eyes, last night..." Xiao Yan was just about to recount everything that happened the previous night when a beam of light suddenly burst from the vibrating ground, piercing the sky. After flashing for a moment, green-skinned fiends emerged from within the pillar of light.

Wielding weapons, they mercilessly hacked at the cultivators all around.

Chi Yushu's stride toward Qu Yiqiu halted abruptly. A cyan radiance flared in his palm, shooting out numerous light arrows that rained down upon the green fiends.

"Junior Brother Chi's spellcraft has actually reached such a realm of effortless execution!" Xia Changhan and Qi Yongfeng thought in astonishment.

As Zou Peng fled toward the Necromancer Locking Array, he used his divine sense to monitor the changing battlefield, marveling at the powerful treasures and divine abilities possessed by Chi Yushu.

"Nine Swords Peak truly deserves its reputation as the premier peak of the Tianyan Sect!"

Zou Peng turned his head, staring straight ahead as he galloped forward, his eyes flashing with greed.

Bang!

The Cloud Brocade automatically protected its master, blocking a green fiend that had suddenly leaped out.

Qu Yiqiu turned her head. Before she could retract the Ice-Colored Jade Ribbon wrapped around the Taotie's leg, she was suddenly yanked back toward the beast by a tyrannical suction force.

A deep, cavernous maw abruptly swallowed her whole.

A pair of copper-bell-sized eyes snapped open, a flash of light sweeping across them. The Taotie spread its huge wings, whipping up a violent gust of wind, and carried Qu Yiqiu into the Necromancer Locking Array in the blink of an eye, without even glancing at the others.

Zou Peng was scared out of his wits as the massive wings swept just above his head, shaving off a patch of his scalp.

"Junior Sister Yiqiu has been swallowed by the Taotie!!!" Luo Yingying screamed, her eyes wide with horror.

Qi Yongfeng and Xia Changhan looked over simultaneously. After running into the array, Qi Yongfeng abruptly changed direction and fled.

"A good-for-nothing with a five-element spiritual root has no business participating in this battle!"

Qi Yongfeng's face was stern and cold as he ruthlessly led the disciples of Myriad Peaks Peak away from the direction the Taotie had flown.

Wu Qiu frowned deeply. "Senior Brother Qi, I never expected you to be such a person! Just now, it was Junior Sister Yiqiu who drew away the Taotie's attention and saved everyone!"

Luo Yingying spat in disgust. "If none of you are going to save her, I will!"

She tossed out a handkerchief, which instantly transformed into a flying carpet, and drifted off in the direction the Taotie had fled.

At the very last second, Wu Qiu grabbed the corner of her handkerchief, leaped aboard, and shouted, "We'll go together!"

"Count me in!" Xia Changhan, holding the Drooping-Leaf Wind Chimes, leaped beside Wu Qiu and the other. He flipped his palms and recited an incantation. The Drooping-Leaf Wind Chimes instantly multiplied into four, gracefully hanging from the four corners of the handkerchief.

The speed suddenly increased manifold.

Luo Yingying asked in surprise, "Is this the Swift Wind Chime?"

"Truly miraculous speed!" Wu Qiu looked back at Qi Yongfeng, Zou Peng, and the others, who had shrunk to mere black dots, a complex look in his eyes.

...

"Roar! Roar! Roar!"

The Taotie flew straight to a hill, slamming its own belly against the ground as it roared and struggled in agony.

"How utterly smelly and dark!" Qu Yiqiu casually flicked out a cluster of tiny flames, illuminating the Taotie's massive belly as bright as day.

All around her, dense swarms of bright red flames leaped and danced.

"Hahaha, if she faced the Taotie in the outside world, Master might not be its match, but inside its belly, there is nothing it can do to Master!" Xiao Yan covered her mouth with a giggle.

The flames Qu Yiqiu released were none other than the Dark Purple Sparrow-Phoenix Fire, which was sheer torture for the Taotie.

"Heh heh, since this ferocious beast has run into the Necromancer Locking Array, we can just ride it out together when the time comes!" Qu Yiqiu chuckled twice, casually picking an open spot to float in mid-air.

Beneath her, dark green digestive fluids were bubbling sluggishly, filled with floating bones and mixed gore.

...

"Hahaha, your understanding of the Blood Sealing Art is still far from sufficient!" At the edge of the Feiling Secret Realm, a massive phantom materialized, revealing the giant head of Deng Jingyao.

Looking down at the panicking and fleeing disciples of the two sects, he extended a gigantic hand toward a rapidly moving black speck, snatching it into his grasp.

"Tang'er, come out with me!" Deng Jingyao wore a smile as he grabbed Huo Tangsheng and left the secret realm.

As their figures vanished at the edge of the horizon, the Feiling Secret Realm began an unprecedented, cataclysmic upheaval. Mountains collapsed, the earth split apart, and surging rivers swallowed everything in their path.

"Run!"

"The ground is splitting open!"

"The mountain—that mountain is crashing down!"

"Water, there's water everywhere!!!"

"Where are we supposed to flee?!"

"Roar—" The Taotie crashed through one peak after another, the piercing pain in its belly still agonizingly sharp.

Staring at the deep, fractured ground, it suddenly made a fierce dive forward, opened its giant maw, and prepared to spit Qu Yiqiu out.

Qu Yiqiu was currently in an inverted position. Without the slightest panic, she withdrew the Ice-Colored Jade Ribbon and securely looped it around the Taotie's liver.

Through its wide-open jaws, she could only see boundless, endless darkness.

"Where on earth has this flown to?" Qu Yiqiu muttered to herself, entirely unaware that the Feiling Secret Realm had already suffered a catastrophic upheaval, turning into a purgatory on earth.

Deng Jingyao was about to obliterate everything within the Feiling Secret Realm.

Jiang Shuangyan and her group, who had just collided with He Yuman and the others, barely had time to exchange a few words before they were swept up by raging tidal waves.

You Ruoying choked down several mouthfuls of salty water, utterly unable to understand what was happening, nor why Jiang Shuangyan claimed Bai Shulan had once entered the Feiling Secret Realm.

He Yuman was enveloped in a faint red glow that cast an alluring veil over her seductive figure. Staring at the plunging darkness of the Feiling Secret Realm, her expression grew tense as she searched frantically, trying to grab hold of You Ruoying and the others.

"Ah! Senior Brother Qi, save me..." The ground beneath the feet of a Myriad Peaks Peak disciple suddenly split apart, instantly swallowing him into an endless abyss.

Qi Yongfeng withdrew his gaze with great difficulty and shouted at the top of his lungs, "The Feiling Secret Realm is collapsing! Use every means you have and sprint with your lives for the center of the Necromancer Locking Array!"

"Understood!"