The woman surnamed Le sent the ancient lantern into the sky and released a trace of white Nascent flame from her mouth, lighting the ancient lantern. With both hands forming an incantation gesture in the shape of a lotus flower, she muttered a cryptic incantation, summoning a white lotus beneath her as it slowly blossomed. It was done with such grace that she appeared otherworldly.

Her incantation was filled with an indescribably ancient aura. Then with a tremble from the bronze lantern, mirages suddenly emerged from the lamp, forming eight identical copies of itself. They then began to revolve around themselves before separating into three different circles that slowly circled around each other.

The woman surnamed Le flicked her finger striking each of the ancient lanterns with various spell seals. Azure light brightly shined, causing nine flames to simultaneously float from the lanterns, and met at the center of them, turning into a head-sized azure flame. The woman then spat out a mist of blood essence at the azure flames. The flames engulfed it, burning all the more brightly and vastly increasing in energy.

A short moment later, a clear cry echoed and a foot-long azure bird emerged from the flames. The magnificent peacock appeared graceful with long azure feathers and a pair of jewel-like, fire-red eyes. It arrogantly glanced around and tilted its neck when it saw the woman surnamed Le beneath it. It began to spoke to her in an ancient language from the time of antiquity.

After deeply saluting at the bird three times, she replied to it through voice transmission. The shriveled old man watched this with a grave expression.

Spell warrior Le stopped talking in an ancient language and she flipped her hand, taking out a pink, fragrant pearl. When the azure peacock saw this, he revealed an expression of joy and sucked it into its mouth in an azure mist.

With a crackle, a halo of light glowed azure peacock and azure flames roiled around it. As a sharp cry scream through the air, it transformed into a huge bird of flames and unfolded its wings, engulfing five kilometers of the sky in fire-attribute spiritual Qi. The cultivators and spell warriors who used fire-attribute techniques suddenly felt their power weaken, much to their alarm.

The fire spirit Qi in the air began to gather together like rivers to an ocean and poured into the azure bird’s body. As a result, it began to expand, causing the azure flames on its body to grow all the brighter.  

All the cultivators within five kilometers stilled their hand and looked at the azure firebird with shock. The nearby temperatures had instantly risen. Even under the protection of magic tools, they felt as if they were beside a furnace.

But when the spell warriors saw this, they revealed an expression of joy.

“It’s the Sacred Bird! Sage Le has summoned it!” 

“This battle is ours!” A few spell warriors shouted out with loud voices. Soon, they began to launch frantic attacks at the cultivators with great excitement.

The shriveled old man wore a rare smile upon seeing the might of the Sacred Bird. When the black-robed woman from the Yin Sifting Sect saw the azure peacock, a strange expression flickered from her face. She then said, “Only a Sacred Bird at Deity Transformation stage is able to control the fire spirits of heaven and earth. It is no wonder it is your most valued weapon.

However, your Sacred Bird may be powerful, but when it emerged it was only at early Nascent Soul stage. And it was only able to barely ascend to late Nascent Soul stage after absorbing all that fire spirit Qi. That should be a doppelganger of sorts. Else, the Moulan definitely wouldn’t have lost so much land against the Soaring Tribes.”

After glancing at the black-robed woman, the shriveled old man calmly replied, “Lady Lu is no ordinary character I see! The Sacred Bird’s true body isn’t present, but that is only a small matter. Even late Nascent Soul cultivators are no match against it.” 

The black-robed woman nodded. “That’s right. Being able to absorb so much worldly spiritual power is something only Deity Transformation stage beings can do. But just this ability alone already puts it in an invincible position.” The shriveled old man chuckled and didn’t reply.

As for the seven white-clothed old men, just as they used their various ancient treasures to strike the spell warriors, they spotted the huge bird within an azure sun and were dumbstruck.

The grey-robed old man in charge wore a grim expression and said, “Not good! That demon beast isn’t something that ordinary cultivators can withstand. We must block it.”

Another old man responded with a lively tone, “Then what are we waiting for him. Let’s use the Seven Treasures of Great Truths to kill them. That demon bird isn’t something from this world.  We cannot allow it to cast any spells.” Soon after, he transformed into a streak of yellow light and flew straight towards the azure sun.

When the others saw him, they immediately followed his lead. As for their leader, the grey-robed old man, he appeared hesitant but followed after them as well after a sigh.

When the seven cultivators approached the azure sun, the Moulan Sacred Beast had already finished absorbing the fire spirit Qi nearby and its body grew to over eighty meters tall. It glanced down at the several cultivators with an entirely hostile expression. With a malicious glint in its eyes, it unfurled its wings and launched a barrage of fist-sized azure fireballs towards the seven.

Before the seven old men could begin their attack, they felt a wave of warm wind. Their bodies were immediately dry, but they felt their hearts tremble. Under the vast barrage azure fireballs, the old man with long eyebrows slapped his storage pouch and flung a crystalline ice net towards the fireballs. In a flash of white light, all of the fireballs had been captured by it.

When the long-eyebrowed old man saw this, he smiled, but soon his complexion paled. The ice net ruptured only after a moment, thoroughly dissolved by the azure flames that it held. In that time, the fireballs transformed into a pillar of flame and shot to the men with overbearing momentum.

“Go!” The old man in the lead swiftly released his own magic treasures, a milky-white ancient mirror. It flew out and circled once before releasing a white barrier that staved back the azure flames.

But when the others saw the ice net dissolve, they felt their breaths turn cold. They knew that common magic tools wouldn’t prove useful against an azure flame.

“Quickly use the Devil Isolating Formation. Seal that demon bird!” The leading old man shouted. When the other cultivators heard this they hastily commanded their ancient treasures.

A red club, yellow halberd, medallion, small cauldron, jade fan, and a scepter soared into the sky, surrounding the huge bird. Then after a series of clear rings, the ancient mirror transformed into a rainbow, raising a rainbow barrier that not only withstood the azure flames but also trapped the huge bird.

When the azure bird saw this, its eyes were filled with fury. It pecked downward, its beak surrounded by a dense layer of azure radiance. An instant later, a tall old man suddenly felt his medallion treasure tremble. With a huge bang, it was struck back and flew straight towards him.

In his alarm, he hurriedly struck his medallion with several spell seals in an attempt to stop its momentum, but the medallion only paused for just a moment before ruthlessly continuing onward towards the old man. But just as it was about to strike him, a silhouette suddenly blurred behind him and placed his hands on his shoulders, pouring in a huge amount of spiritual Qi into his body. 

“Quickly cast the technique. I’ll lend you my strength.” The leading old man spoke with a cold voice, rousing the tall old man’s spirits. In a single breath, the tall old man cast five spell seals and stopped the medallion from coming any closer. The two couldn’t help but sigh with relief, having regained control of it.

As this occurred, dread filled the hearts of the other old men. They became more vigilant and hurriedly exerted the utmost power of their ancient treasures. Various colored light intertwined and combined together to block the strikes from the huge bird’s light-clad beak.

Not far away, Spell Warrior Le glanced at the scene and turned her head around to look at the ancient lantern. After a moment of hesitation, she remained still. Until the lantern oil fully burned, she needed to guard it and couldn’t eliminate the cultivators attacking the Sacred Bird. Leaving the lantern alone would prove disastrous.

The shriveled old spell warrior revealed surprise when he saw the old cultivators tying down the Sacred Bird, but he didn’t seem to pay it any mind.

He wasn’t worried about the bird deity that they had worshipped with tens of thousands of years. It clearly had the advantage. Regardless of how powerful those seven magic treasures may be, they aren’t any match for the Sacred Bird. It would definitely be able to strike down the seven cultivators before the lantern oil was finished burning.

These seven should be the ultimate killers of the Heavenly South. With that thought, the shriveled old spell warrior turned his eyes to glance at Long Han, who was standing in front of an army of over a thousand cultivators with a sullen expression.

“I didn’t expect for the Moulan of being capable of summoning such a powerful demon bird. This will be troublesome.” Long Han muttered to himself with a sullen expression. Then with a loud voice, he coldly said, “Quickly, release the Spirit Phantoms. Take advantage of moments the Seven Great Truths Cultivators are giving us and use them to great effect.”

Soon after he gave the order, several tens of birds shining with pitch-black light flew out from the cultivator army. Additionally, there were several cultivators who took out a spirit talisman from their storage pouch and slapped it on a statue. In a flash of green light, the spirit talisman merged into the status and the cultivators immediately sat on the ground, motionless.

A short moment later, the eyes of the pitch-black phantom birds shined with a chilling blue light, and they extended their claws as much as they could before flying down to the spell warriors below. As for the cultivators who slapped the talismans on the statue, their heads began to roll as if they fell asleep.

When the shriveled old man saw this, a trace of mockery appeared on his face. He turned around to the black-robed woman and politely said, “The time has come for your esteemed self to give them the lethal blow. Lady Lu, release your Copper-armored Corpses. We can seize victory now.” Satisfaction appeared on the shriveled old man’s face.

The black-robed woman’s eyes twinkled for a moment before she calmly said, “Brother Zhu, don’t be hastily. Let’s wait a moment more. A majority of my sect’s Copper-armored Corpses possess Foundation Establishment cultivation. So long as we wait until the Heavenly South cultivators exhausted their strength, the corpses will be able to rout them.”

After frowning a moment, he hesitated before nodding. “This... Fine! So long as you don’t change your mind, we can wait a little bit more.” He felt her words felt a bit of reason.