Gateway of Immortality-Chapter 971: Jade Flute

"While she hasn’t recovered, strike now!"

Yuan Zhu thrust both palms forward, hair flying wildly as he teetered on the edge of madness. A Jiao shadow unfurled behind him.

The Jiao roared, ferocious and savage. In an instant it tore free of his body, raised its head through the towering waves, opened its bloody maw, and hurtled at the Nine Phoenix King.

Roar!

Roars of grief echoed through the gale and the breakers.

Gu Heng, famed for his composure, still could not accept this end.

He threw back his head and howled at the sky. There was no resentment in the sound, only crushing sorrow. The grief shook the heavens and pierced the heart of any who heard it.

His voice seemed to pass through the void, a distant question hurled at fate.

Fairy Caiyi kept her eyes on the Ninth Aunt she had most admired. Receiving no answer, the light of hope faded from her gaze. In its place rose hatred.

The demons, jolted awake by Yuan Zhu’s shout, instantly grasped how perilous their position was.

If they failed to kill the Nine Phoenix King, then they would die.

Amid the mourning cry, a bright red radiance flared across Gu Heng’s body. In a blink, it formed the shadow of a Crimson Jiao. This Crimson Jiao looked fiercer than Yuan Zhu’s, its scales tight and fine, almost solid.

The Crimson Jiao roared, its voice fused with Gu Heng’s own.

Crimson light gathered rapidly in its jaws. The Jiao dipped its head, fixing on the Nine Phoenix King, while endless red brilliance converged there. The glow swelled at frightening speed.

An instant later, the radiance stretched; demon fire flashed; a crimson spear shot forth. The Jiao’s long tail cracked the air, and with a shrill boom the spear flickered out of sight, reappearing above the Nine Phoenix King’s crown.

Snap!

The spear fell as swift as lightning, the point stabbing straight for her.

Fairy Caiyi poured all her hatred into the one she had once revered.

A phoenix shadow spread, its cry knifed through the air.

At some point a longbow had appeared in Fairy Caiyi’s hands, its ornamentation exquisitely lavish, the two ends shaped like real phoenixes.

Twang!

The bow thrummed. The phoenix shadow wheeled once, then dove, transforming into a phoenix arrow.

Fairy Caiyi raised the longbow, aimed at the Nine Phoenix King. Her hands trembled with a hesitation that should not have been there. At last she squeezed her eyes shut and let the string slip from her fingers.

At the same time, the other demons made their moves.

For a moment, strange lights burst in torrents. Blow after blow crashed down like a storm, enough to drown the Nine Phoenix King.

They were at least late-stage Demonic Core great demons. Striking together at the Nine Phoenix King, they generated a terrifying might. Even an ordinary Spiritual Infant expert would have retreated before such a barrage.

Hesitation crossed Qin Sang’s face. In the end, he chose to join the attack.

If the Nine Phoenix King defeated them one by one, he too would be doomed.

Just then, he noticed a glint of disdain in her eyes as she looked at the incoming strikes. His heart lurched; something felt wrong.

For no clear reason, a powerful sense of danger surged through him. He had been on the verge of summoning the ebony sword, but his incantation shifted mid-gesture, and he unhesitatingly cast the Lightning Control Technique instead.

Muffled thunder rolled through his body. Lightning cloaked Qin Sang from head to toe.

Sigh!

Even faced with the encirclement, the Nine Phoenix King showed no panic. Seeing the look in Fairy Caiyi’s eyes, a hint of guilt flickered across her own. She murmured, "I had hoped to take you all to a quiet place and let you live out the rest of your lives in peace..."

The self-reproach faded. Her gaze turned cold.

Light flashed in her palm; what appeared was not a saber or a sword, but a delicate jade flute. She raised it horizontally to her lips. Staring icily at the demons, she parted her jade-pale lips and blew.

Hurricane and towering surf should have swallowed any sound.

Yet when the flute began to sing, the nimble notes carried crystal clear to every ear even in that maelstrom. I was melodious to hear, but in truth a devilish, life-reaping sound.

"Ah!"

The weakest among them, a bear demon, buckled first.

His blood seemed to boil. No suppression worked. Terrible flames poured ceaselessly from his essence and blood, unending and inexhaustible.

Like a bone-clinging ulcer the fire spread in a heartbeat. His organs felt aflame.

His skin dulled, then cracked like parched earth. Fire jetted from within.

In a blink the bear demon became a man of fire, burning alive and shrieking in agony.

"What a vicious Bloodburning Technique..."

The Nine Phoenix King’s pupils tightened; even she felt a twinge of dread.

The same cruelty played out in turn. One demonic beast after another vanished in blood flames, their screams rising and falling. Even the strongest, Gu Heng and Fairy Caiyi, were not spared.

The scent of death descended.

The race had planted a fallback in them long ago.

Despair washed the demons’ faces; their hearts turned to ice. All they could do was make one last desperate strike to shatter the jade flute in the Nine Phoenix King’s hand.

Rumble...

The Jiao shadow roared; the crimson spear flashed like lightning; the phoenix arrow whirled in a frenzy...

They gave everything. Their onslaught blotted out the sky and shook the earth.

The Nine Phoenix King parried while continuing to play the flute. With her free hand she swept up a barrier. Just then, as if sensing something, she suddenly looked up.

Crack!

Amid the many attacks, a single bolt of lightning split the void, brilliant and blinding, carrying a dreadful aura of annihilation.

Compared to it, even Gu Heng’s crimson spear paled.

From that lightning the Nine Phoenix King actually felt a thread of danger.

The bolt arrived in a heartbeat.

Her barrier shattered at once. Her face changed; she regretted her carelessness. She had not expected these juniors to unleash such a sharp strike.

She sprang back and slapped upward with her other hand. In a stream of light a seven-colored jade bangle appeared, spiraling into the air, its body swelling rapidly.

Just as the lightning was about to strike her, the bangle darted into place by the narrowest margin.

Bang!

The bangle shuddered violently, its glow flickering. Like a tightening band, it cinched around the lightning and held fast. It skidded back again and again, yet still blocked the lightning's force.

Boom!

Wave upon wave of attacks poured down, burying both bangle and Nine Phoenix King in an instant.

The barrage went on, light flaring so wildly that her body could not be seen. Yet the scene they had hoped for did not occur. The devilish flute sound never ceased. If anything, it pressed harder, every note a spur toward death.

Their encirclement had formed, but she unraveled it easily with the jade flute. By sound alone she drove them to the brink.

Their last gamble failed to save them.

Despair swallowed them whole. Blood flame scorched them to the bone. With no way left, they scattered in flight, only to find no escape from her grasp.

In the distance, clusters of blood flame tumbled from mid-air.

Some fell into the sea and vanished in a burst of spray, leaving only a lingering blood mist.

Others struck gray hurricanes and were torn to pieces as easily as paper.