Chapter 396: Henceforth, There Will Be No More Celestial Waterfall Peak on Lu Mountain

With every punch, a cloud of golden-red blood mist exploded.

CRACK!

The eight Super Fire Centipede Legs on Fu Juemin’s back flared open. Gathering his strength, he thrust them violently toward the Hou Beast’s flanks.

SQUELCH—!

This time, they met little resistance, sliding deep with unnerving ease.

Blood hotter than magma streamed out, accompanied by the Hou Beast’s agonized shriek.

Just then.

CLANG—!

An arc of red light flashed violently past Fu Juemin’s face.

The impact knocked Fu Juemin’s head back slightly, and his hands paused for a moment.

He paused.

He reached up, lightly brushed his cheek, and came away with traces of fresh blood on his fingertips.

Then he looked up, his gaze landing on Xie Mingzhi not far away. With a deathly pale face, Xie Mingzhi held the Winged Red Ring and stared back at him, unblinking.

Under Fu Juemin’s gaze, Xie Mingzhi seemed to be buckling under unimaginable pressure. The hand holding the Red Ring trembled slightly.

With one hand, Fu Juemin pinned down the frantically struggling, bleeding Hou. He stared at Xie Mingzhi, whose face was a mask of grim determination mixed with a hint of worry. And then…

A smile slowly spread across his face.

“You want to save it?”

Xie Mingzhi said nothing, merely watching him with eyes full of apprehension and tension.

As if to grant his unspoken wish, Fu Juemin actually released his grip and slowly stood up.

The tension in Xie Mingzhi’s gaze eased slightly.

The next moment—

BOOM!

Fu Juemin suddenly shot skyward, laughing maniacally as he slammed himself into the side of Celestial Waterfall Peak!

Thunder rolled across the heavens, but it could not drown out the massive explosion and rumbling from below.

Fu Juemin’s impact shattered a massive, peculiar rock formation jutting out from the middle of Celestial Waterfall Peak.

Using his [Lifting Power], Fu Juemin hefted the conical rock—nearly a hundred feet long—with both hands…

Then, as Xie Mingzhi watched in disbelief, he aimed at the Hou Beast struggling to get up from the ground and brought the rock crashing down on it from above!

CRASH!

With a colossal impact, the very foundations of Celestial Waterfall Peak seemed to take a heavy blow. The entire stone platform at the base of the waterfall tilted and grew unstable.

An immense wave of dust and debris formed a massive grey ring that slowly expanded outward.

Amidst the terrifying tremors, the Hou Beast, which had just taken a devastating blow, let out a furious roar and actually managed to struggle unsteadily to its feet.

The Cyan Jade Ring around its neck suddenly bloomed with light, rapidly healing the wounds on its body in a matter of moments.

Fu Juemin’s brow furrowed slightly. Before he could make a move, he saw the Hou Beast throw its head back and roar at the sky.

The air around it began to warp, and the rock beneath its feet melted into dark-red magma. Its slightly dim, golden-red flames suddenly surged, growing several times in size!

The temperature of the entire Celestial Waterfall Peak shot up. With the middle rock formation gone, the waterfall now plunged straight down, only to be vaporized into mist by the intense heat before it could reach the ground.

The Hou, now a living inferno, opened its massive maw. A huge fireball rapidly condensed between its four rows of sharp teeth, and it spat the projectile directly at Fu Juemin.

The moment the fireball left its mouth, it rapidly expanded to a diameter of over ten feet. Its surface flowed with a blinding golden-red plasma, and within, a nearly pitch-black core of flame roiled!

Fu Juemin’s pupils constricted as he hastily retreated.

But the terrifying fireball, as if equipped with a homing function, pursued him relentlessly.

Fu Juemin lunged straight toward Celestial Waterfall Peak, the golden-red fireball hot on his heels…

KRA-BOOM—!

If the commotion from Fu Juemin’s earlier impact rated a ten, then this was a hundred—or even higher.

A surging, tide-like wave of golden-red flame expanded in an instant, swallowing the entire upper half of Celestial Waterfall Peak.

The heavenly waterfall was instantly cut off, evaporated. The perennial clouds shrouding the summit vanished, and the pool at its peak began to boil!

Then, the colossal Celestial Waterfall Peak began to crumble, and the stone platform at its base caved in and sank…

Everything was collapsing, everything was being destroyed.

Amidst this terrifying, apocalyptic scene, a majestic, savage figure abruptly emerged without warning from the collapsing base of the peak!

Fu Juemin’s entire body was on fire!

The bone spurs covering his body showed signs of melting under the searing heat of the golden-red flames, like crystals heated to their melting point.

He had dodged the pursuit of that terrifying fireball.

And yet, he hadn’t dodged it completely!

Of course, none of that mattered now.

After spitting out the fireball, the Hou Beast was left completely drained. It was caught off guard as Fu Juemin’s powerful arms clamped onto its jaws—one from above, one from below—and brutally forced its mouth open!

His entire body wreathed in flames of gold, red, and purple, his face burned and twisted by the fire, Fu Juemin gave a savage grin. Facing the weak and powerless Hou Beast, the eight Fire Centipede Steps on his back simultaneously plunged deep into its mouth.

Then, on the chest of his Demon Body, a crimson Star Map abruptly appeared.

One, two, three…

The points of light on the Star Map lit up rapidly, one after another.

A bewitching point of purple light bloomed inside the Hou Beast’s mouth!

“Celestial Star…”

Amidst the collapse of the waterfall and the earth-shattering tremors, Fu Juemin spoke in a low voice, “Tail—Eight!!”

Eight points of starlight flared.

Then, it was as if a purple, blazing sun was slowly rising from the base of the peak!

KABOOM!!

Beneath the dazzling, scorching purple light, a terrifying explosion propelled everything toward an ultimate, destructive climax!

ROAR—

…

Xie Mingzhi stood on a rock that trembled violently, threatening to crumble and fall at any second. He stared blankly at the epicenter of the purple explosion, completely stunned.

Around him, grievously wounded and helpless Fire Cloud Army guards were swept away by falling rocks, plunging into the bottomless gorge in abject despair.

And then there was Hong Huan, dragging a braided corpse as he climbed nimbly upward through the falling debris like an ape. He too stared at the same spot, his face a mask of pious fanaticism, like a pilgrim on a sacred quest.

Finally, the purple light faded.

A figure slowly walked out from among the huge rocks of the collapsed mountain peak.

With each step, the eight-meter-tall, scar-covered Demon Body shrank.

The legs, the bone spurs, the inky Crystal Clusters…

That supremely domineering and ferocious body was now like a burnt-out shell, crumbling inch by inch and scattering in the wind.

When the figure reached Xie Mingzhi, he grabbed his neck with one hand and slowly lifted him.

Beneath the crumbling shell, a fair, flawless body was revealed, as if brand new.

Having returned to his original form, Fu Juemin held a blood-stained, cyan-jade Winged Life Ring in one hand. He squinted, looking up at the collapsed peaks, the vanished waterfall, and the slowly dissipating vortex of clouds.

“From this day forward, Lu Mountain will no longer have a Celestial Waterfall Peak…”

He sighed softly.

He turned his head, his gentle gaze landing softly on Xie Mingzhi’s face.

He sighed again.

“The Southwest Fire Cloud Army—”

“—will also no longer have its Marshals Ming and Huo.”