The Imperial Preceptor watched the ruined wasteland anxiously, clearly worried for Quinn Shepherd’s safety. His concern made him careless, finally exposing a weakness.
True Heaven Matron had waited long for such an opening—and now it was right before her eyes!
"Yiyaaa—"
True Heaven Matron opened her mouth and let out a bizarre, piercing, and drawn-out shriek. Her divine power erupted; countless muscles inside her body swelled, and in an instant her skin split apart!
Her flesh bulged and expanded outward with thunderous force. Tiana Raines’ body was never her true form—now, unleashing her full might, she exploded the body of this petite woman!
At the same time, the Flame Desert seemed to come alive. For hundreds of miles, flying sand howled and surged; the sand beneath the Imperial Preceptor’s feet twisted into a gigantic, spinning maw, trying to swallow him whole!
The maw was like an abyss, radiating terrifying suction. At the same time, countless grains of sand fused into swords, stabbing toward the trapped Imperial Preceptor!
True Heaven Matron’s shriek still echoed as her body swelled to a hundred zhang tall, towering like a giant who could hold up the sky, her divine might overwhelming.
She had prepared for this ambush for ages. When she finally erupted, her dominance was absolute—nothing like the meek, gentle Tiana Raines who had clung to Quinn’s side until now.
Dominance is usually a word used for men, but in the Western Lands, women rule—and here, it fits even better.
True Heaven Matron raised her hand, and the desert on both sides surged upward, forming two massive, impenetrable walls that crashed toward the Imperial Preceptor at the center!
"Die!"
Just as True Heaven Matron uttered the word, a sword-light flashed out of nowhere, piercing through the back of her head and out her brow.
True Heaven Matron froze. The boiling desert suddenly stilled; the towering sand walls, hundreds of zhang thick and a mile high, collapsed in an instant, pouring down as a flood of sand.
Beneath the Imperial Preceptor, the spinning maw stopped turning, filling up with sand, while the sand-swords circling him all fell away at once.
"Where did this brat come from? That wine was for the gods—how dare you touch it?"
The Imperial Preceptor turned, gazing up at the hundred-zhang-tall, imposing True Heaven Matron, and said quietly, "In the mural, the goddess Quinn kicked aside spoke this line—nineteen characters in all. On the road, Quinn talked with you again and again, and you ended up saying all nineteen. He’s clever: he knew if he asked you to say the whole thing, you’d change your tone and style. But by scattering those nineteen characters across many sentences, you never noticed."
True Heaven Matron’s voice was hoarse as she rasped, "So—you never trusted me, not for a moment?"
The Imperial Preceptor’s eyes glinted oddly; he shook his head. "Quinn is reckless—when he shoved the Black Tortoise Pearl into your hands, I was stunned. If you’d erupted then and unleashed its power, I might not have been able to stop you. He overestimated me; I just had to act calm. You thought we were testing you, but really, that bastard was just doing his own thing. I was just as nervous as you. You missed plenty of chances."
"That bastard again..."
True Heaven Matron sighed. Suddenly, the sword wound at her brow burst open. She laughed, "But if you think this is all it takes to beat me, you’re far too naive…"
The Imperial Preceptor’s expression shifted—what poured from True Heaven Matron’s wound was not blood, but sand.
True Heaven Matron smiled, the wounds in her brow and skull widening as more and more sand spilled out. She giggled, "Didn’t you know I created the All-Gods Natural Art? I made this desert too. To kill me in my own creation? That’s just wishful thinking!"
Her body collapsed with a thunderous crash, but her voice echoed from all directions: "I fought more than ten Solar and Lunar Arks here, killed over a dozen Sun Wardens and Moon Wardens. Do you think my reputation is empty?"
The Imperial Preceptor shot skyward, heading straight for the toppled Solar Ark in the desert. Sword in hand, his sword-light flashed like a midnight ribbon—shadow without light, light without form; when there was shadow, there was no light, and when there was light, there was no form!
He thrust his sword, but before he could reach the Solar Ark, the colossal vessel seemed to come alive. With a thunderous roar, it raised its legs and stood up. Chains rattled, and the black artificial sun shook free, bursting from the sand and soaring into the sky.
The black sun rolled through the air, roaring with earth-shaking force, squeezing space itself until desert lightning crackled and split wildly in all directions!
The Solar Ark charged straight at the Imperial Preceptor, this immense titan barreling across the empty wasteland with a surreal, twisted presence.
"This was the masterpiece of the Ministry of Works in the Kaihuang era! They thought mortals could forge god-weapons and let a human wield a god’s power!"
At the Solar Ark’s center, between four gigantic pillars, a goddess-like woman slowly rose, her four arms gripping the pillars as she laughed heartily: "But all they did was make weapons for me! In the battle of the Flame Desert, their entire army was wiped out—every one of them died by my hand!"
Whoosh—
Desert flying serpents—countless grains of sand fused into massive bodies that burrow through the desert, howling and surging like enormous sand-snakes, whipping up chaos as they charged at the Imperial Preceptor!
"Imperial Preceptor, can you feel it? Can you sense how my power is surging?"
True Heaven Matron drove the Solar Ark at full speed, swinging the black sun down at the charging Imperial Preceptor, laughing wildly: "Let me show you what true despair feels like! Yiyaaa—"
Her piercing, drawn-out cry echoed across the desert, mingling with the roar of the colossal moving ark, the sweeping black sun, and the writhing sand-snakes, all swirling around a single tiny figure in a frenzy of battle.
The scene was utterly earth-shaking.
True Heaven Matron was staggeringly fierce; her body was immense, but the Solar Ark was even greater. Compared to them, the Imperial Preceptor seemed insignificant. True Heaven Matron drove the Solar Ark in a crushing assault, each blow unimaginably powerful. Her attacks shifted constantly; the sea of sand boiled, the whole desert seemed to become her body—her weapon!
(Irrelevant system message skipped.)
The Imperial Preceptor kept retreating, his tiny figure repeatedly breaking through True Heaven Matron’s attacks. Though he kept falling back, he was steadily closing the distance to the Solar Ark.
True Heaven Matron grew nervous. The Imperial Preceptor’s retreat looked weak, and the Solar Ark advanced step by step, closing the gap. But despite appearances, she felt a mounting, overwhelming sense of danger.
If she allowed the Imperial Preceptor to close the distance, she would face his fiercest attack—being caught up close by him meant certain death!
Now she was riding a tiger, standing atop the Solar Ark and borrowing its power for her terrifying magic. But there was a flaw: to channel the Solar Ark’s strength, she had to stand between its four pillars, gripping them tightly.
This restricted her movement—if the Imperial Preceptor got close, she would be helpless.
But without the Solar Ark’s power and without the Four Spirit Pearls, her strength couldn’t match the Imperial Preceptor’s.
Now, she could only try to kill the Imperial Preceptor before he got any closer!
The shorter the distance, the closer she came to her own death.
True Heaven Matron’s magic grew wilder, her attacks more relentless, pressing in step by step. The Imperial Preceptor kept retreating, yet with every step, he drew closer; each inch was like winding a clockwork of death, waiting for the final strike.
True Heaven Matron’s shriek grew louder, sweat beading on her brow and pouring down like rain.
Now, the Solar Ark and the Imperial Preceptor had left the ruins behind. In the ruins, Quinn Shepherd and Ben Coates stood at opposite ends of the shattered great hall’s rooftop.
True Heaven Matron struck first, but the Imperial Preceptor countered with a sword, killing her in a single blow. The violence startled Ben Coates so much he nearly bolted.
How formidable was the Imperial Preceptor?
The battle at True Heaven Palace had already crushed any thought Ben Coates had of contending with him in this lifetime; now, he only dreamed of reaching the Divine Bridge realm and then dying at his hands.
But when he saw True Heaven Matron’s false body escape, and realized the Imperial Preceptor had only killed a giant sand golem, Ben Coates finally relaxed, abandoning his urge to flee.
When he saw True Heaven Matron controlling the Solar Ark and pressing the Imperial Preceptor back, he let out a deep sigh of relief.
Ben Coates smiled languidly. "Quinn Shepherd, you really do have a sharp mind—dragging the Imperial Preceptor and True Heaven Matron here to hunt me down. I know what you’re up to: two birds with one stone. The Preceptor ambushes and tries to assassinate True Heaven Matron, and you’re waiting to catch me off guard and take me out. Clever plan, but fate always trumps calculation. You didn’t count on True Heaven Matron being this strong. That’s your first mistake."
Hands behind his back, Ben Coates went on, "Your second mistake was misjudging me. You took me for an ordinary cultivator—that’s where you went wrong. I’ve reincarnated more than ten times; my cultivation and strength have grown faster than you could ever imagine!"
His aura erupted, wild yuanqi twisting the air into tornadoes that raged around the ruined hall, hurling rubble and even massive pillars into the air—a terrifying display!
"What makes you think you can take me on?"
Ben Coates roared, his cultivation far beyond what it had been during their last desert encounter—his progress was astonishing!
Ben Coates strode forward, celestial shadows of gods and Buddhas swirling behind him, forming layer upon layer of heavens. His body shone with golden light, like a living Buddha, as he invoked the Grand Buddha Mahayana Scripture, his realm soaring straight to Great Sarasvati!
Ben Coates raised his hand and unleashed a palm strike, stirring wind and thunder—the air boomed, petals rained from the sky, and he struck at Quinn Shepherd!
Quinn Shepherd raised his hand—boom!
Half the great hall collapsed, and Ben Coates fell with the rubble, landing sprawled flat on the ground.
Quinn Shepherd stretched, his body suddenly jolting—the rest of the hall came crashing down, a huge pit appeared in the earth, and Ben Coates was deeply stamped into the desert by his blow.
"Grand Venerable, what were you saying?" Quinn Shepherd asked, tilting his head.