Chapter 517: Protagonists Can't Catch a Break; Straight to the Battlefield After a Breakthrough

Zuo Fan suddenly felt a tremor of unease. He looked around, a hint of confusion on his face.

‘I just achieved a breakthrough, so why am I getting this feeling? It couldn’t be Xu Ziyang or Mu Can coming to kill me, could it?’ he couldn’t help but mutter.

He had just used the method Qi Suian provided to successfully break through to the Perfection level of the Undying Fire Element True Technique. He was about to start cultivating the Nine Fire True Yang Red Dragon Skill when this whole thing cropped up.

In the end, he had no choice but to put it aside for now, leave his seclusion, and check on the situation.

“Alliance Leader, you’re out of seclusion. How did it go?” the Sect Leader of Phoenix Dance Pavilion asked, approaching Zuo Fan the moment he saw him.

“It went smoothly,” Zuo Fan said, not revealing the extent of his progress. He shifted the topic to the present. “What’s happened?”

“There was a celestial anomaly—a solar eclipse. We can’t see any immediate effects yet,” the Phoenix Dance Pavilion Sect Leader said. “It happened very quickly, so we couldn’t spot anything unusual.”

Hearing this, Zuo Fan’s brow furrowed. A solar eclipse was always considered an ill omen.

For one to appear and vanish so abruptly made him feel that something was wrong.

“Have you discovered anything else?” Zuo Fan pressed.

“Nothing yet. But if the disciples report anything, I will inform you immediately, Alliance Leader.” What could the Phoenix Dance Pavilion Sect Leader possibly know?

The entire event, from start to finish, lasted only about a minute. Zuo Fan had just been a little too slow to emerge; if he had been a minute faster, he would have caught the tail end of the eclipse.

Even if something had happened, it was impossible for the Phoenix Dance Pavilion Sect Leader to have received news of it yet.

“Any news on Mu Can and Xu Ziyang?” Zuo Fan changed the subject.

Although he hadn’t yet begun cultivating the Yanghuang Sect’s Sect’s Spiritual Technique, with his current strength, he could transform directly into a Fire Elemental Flame Demon. He was confident he could kill both men, even if he had to face them two-on-one.

“We only have news on Mu Can. Xu Ziyang’s whereabouts are hard to pin down. Our most recent intelligence says he’s collecting Yang- and Fire-attribute Spiritual Techniques, and he isn’t particular about their quality.”

“I suggest you clean house first. If Xu Ziyang truly manages to obtain and cultivate a large number of Yang- and Fire-attribute Spiritual Techniques, the danger he poses will far surpass that of Mu Can,” the Phoenix Dance Pavilion Sect Leader advised Zuo Fan.

Mu Can’s Blood Sea Slaughter Sutra seemed to be nearing its limit, so his power wouldn’t be undergoing any qualitative leaps.

Xu Ziyang’s actions, on the other hand, were like someone trying to master the strengths of a hundred different schools. If he succeeded, there would definitely be a qualitative change in his power, which was not good news for our Celestial Spirit Alliance.

Zuo Fan’s heart sank. This likely meant Xu Ziyang had already cultivated the Nine Fire True Yang Red Dragon Skill and the Flame Dragon True Qi to the Perfection level.

At the same time, he had probably also perfected the other Yang- and Fire-attribute Spiritual Techniques from the Yanghuang Sect.

Otherwise, there would be no need to collect Spiritual Techniques from outside the Yanghuang Sect to supplement his arsenal.

This was an extremely thorny problem for Zuo Fan.

“Tell me Mu Can’s location. I’ll deal with him first.”

“During that time, gather as much information on Xu Ziyang as you can. After I kill Mu Can, I will go kill Xu Ziyang.”

Although the Phoenix Dance Pavilion Sect Leader’s logic was sound, Zuo Fan understood one thing clearly: in terms of sheer harm, Mu Can, as a Seven Kills Disciple, was the greater menace.

After obtaining a Spiritual Technique, Xu Ziyang would choose to focus on his cultivation in seclusion.

Even if he already had a large number of perfected Yang- and Fire-attribute Spiritual Techniques to draw analogies from, cultivating a new Spiritual Technique to the Perfection level was no easy task.

Besides, Xu Ziyang wasn’t just taking any Yang- or Fire-attribute Spiritual Technique; they had to meet a certain standard of quality.

Mu Can, in contrast, was constantly killing.

Every day he wasn’t dealt with meant countless more deaths.

The Sect Leader of Phoenix Dance Pavilion was speaking from the perspective of someone with vested interests. To him, the dying were nothing more than a string of numbers.

His optimal solution was to first kill the one who posed the greater *threat*, not the one causing the greater *harm*.

No matter how great the harm, it didn’t affect him personally. But a great threat could genuinely impact him.

So when Zuo Fan asked for Mu Can’s location, the Phoenix Dance Pavilion Sect Leader was naturally reluctant. However, given Zuo Fan’s power, he had no choice but to arrange for someone to deliver the intelligence.

“Alliance Leader, we’ve confirmed it. Mu Can’s location is…” After receiving the latest intelligence, the Phoenix Dance Pavilion Sect Leader relayed the location, also pointing out the direction and distance.

“Are there any other troublesome Seven Kills Disciples nearby? Tell me about them, and I’ll take care of them all while I’m at it.” Zuo Fan figured since he was going out anyway, he might as well handle a few more.

It was rare for him to make a long trip; he couldn’t just kill one person and come right back.

However, the Phoenix Dance Pavilion Sect Leader’s expression turned troubled. “Well… the only Seven Kills Disciple the Alliance is monitoring is Mu Can.”

“The harm caused by all the other Seven Kills Disciples combined doesn’t even match his alone, so…”

This wasn’t entirely a lie; there was a good deal of truth to it.

Just monitoring Mu Can alone already cost the Celestial Spirit Alliance a great deal. How could they have the spare resources to monitor other Seven Kills Disciples?

Besides, the Celestial Spirit Alliance’s strategy for other Seven Kills Disciples was to kill them on sight, not monitor them.

A Seven Kills Disciple as powerful as Mu Can was one of a kind. The others were about on par with the Alliance’s own disciples.

No matter how fast they grew, they still needed to kill to get stronger.

But humans aren’t like chives; you can’t just cut a batch down and expect them to grow back in a couple of days.

So, if someone killed first, there was naturally no share left for those who came later.

This wasn’t a case of one killer paving the way for another, because there were no victims left.

This led to a severe decline in the quality of the Seven Kills Disciples.

Their numbers, however, had not decreased. After all, the world was becoming increasingly difficult, and resentful energy was on the rise.

Even with the Celestial Spirit Alliance implementing measures for appeasement and security, they were willing but lacked the strength.

The process was brutal. As the saying goes, illness arrives like a landslide, but recovery is as slow as pulling a silk thread. It was never going to be an easy problem to solve.

“All right, I understand.” Zuo Fan realized he was indeed asking too much of them. A single order from him would mean Celestial Spirit Alliance disciples would have to risk their lives.

Among the Seven Kills Disciples, only Mu Can was a threat to him, but that didn’t mean the same was true for the other disciples.

The Celestial Spirit Alliance disciples were only human, and their strength wasn’t overwhelmingly greater. They could, and would, die.

“I’ll head out first, then. Once I kill Mu Can, it will undoubtedly be a huge blow to the Seven Kills Disciples.” After speaking, Zuo Fan transformed into a streak of Flame and flew off in the direction the Phoenix Dance Pavilion Sect Leader had indicated.

After he was a good distance away, the Phoenix Dance Pavilion Sect Leader sighed. “It won’t be that big of a blow.”

“The world has gone rotten, and people’s hearts have changed. The death of one Mu Can won’t solve anything.”

He knew how much manpower, resources, and time it would take to clean up this mess. It might not even be resolved within his lifetime.

「

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‘The Celestial Dao has made its move?’ Qi Suian sensed that something was wrong with the sun.

That wasn’t the main point. The real issue was that the parameters of the entire universe seemed to be undergoing some kind of logical shift.

‘This must be the “shared longevity with heaven and earth” ability the Ginseng Fruit Tree clan once used to deal with human Spirit Masters.’

Through comparison, Qi Suian discovered that the Ginseng Fruit Tree’s Celestial Dao had modified the sun, using it as a radiation source and the five planets at the edge of the system as nodes to begin altering the universe’s parameters.

‘But I have to say, this world really isn’t that big. It’s only the size of a single solar system now.’

‘It must have been much larger originally; it was damaged in the aftermath of a war.’

According to Qi Suian’s speculation, at its peak, this world consisted of at least one solar system per Ginseng Fruit Tree.

The fact that only a single solar system’s worth of space remained was naturally due to post-war damage.

Fortunately, though the sparrow is small, it has all its vital organs. A smaller world was actually more beneficial for Qi Suian.

Simply put, it was easier to swallow. If it were a massive world, Qi Suian feared he might bite off more than he could chew and choke himself to death.

‘I haven’t even gotten my hands on the Pure Yang Fire Seed yet, so why is it making a move first? It’s not planning to come and take it personally, is it?’

‘With a body that size, how could it possibly come here?’

Qi Suian had learned from the Heavenly Dao Wooden Man that the Celestial Dao’s physical body was the size of a planet.

It was the original mother planet of the Ginseng Fruit Tree clan.

And this was its shattered form after the invasion war. In its prime, its roots alone could spread throughout an entire solar system.

Now, it was a case of a tiger stranded on the plains, bullied by dogs.

If it still had its former strength, a single root extending over would have been enough to solve the problem directly.

Therefore, even if the Celestial Dao wanted to move, it lacked the ability to do so.

Unless it could bring the entire Ginseng Fruit Tree mother planet with it.

‘It can’t come, which means the Heavenly Dao Wooden Man is coming.’ Qi Suian quickly narrowed down the possibilities.

The Celestial Dao could generate as many Heavenly Dao Wooden Men from its tree-like body as there were humans, and the strength of each one was not to be underestimated.

If they were to swarm Red Meteor, no one besides Qi Suian would be able to handle them.

‘Actually, this is the best-case scenario. If it wasn’t the Heavenly Dao Wooden Man that’s coming…’

Qi Suian mused that, given its cautious nature and the sudden change in the sun, it would most likely take a two-pronged approach.

After all, it had been scheming for so many years. Now that its efforts were on the verge of being for naught, it would surely do everything in its power to deal with the situation, rather than pinning all its hopes on its avatars.

Therefore, an invasion by the Heavenly Dao Wooden Men was likely just a preliminary move. The main entity must have some means of getting a part of its physical body inside.

“I was letting you live a while longer, but you just had to deliver yourself to my doorstep. What’s the meaning of this?” Qi Suian sighed. “It really is a case of ‘if I won’t go to the mountain, the mountain will come to me.'”

“In all my years, I’ve only seen a few who were this eager to rush to their deaths.”

Having experienced so many Doomsday Worlds, he had naturally encountered his fair share of oddities.

“Your genetic sample has already fallen into my hands. You’re really brazen.” Qi Suian then shifted his gaze to Zuo Fan. “The protagonist’s halo is also spurring him into action.”

‘Even if Zuo Fan succeeds, he can only kill one Heavenly Dao Wooden Man at most.’

‘That’s his limit. The gap is just too wide.’