"Empress, a ten-thousand-year blood Ganoderma has been discovered ahead! If you consume it, your youth will last forever!"
Hearing this, the Empress frowned slightly. Her heavily made-up face, unable to completely hide her wrinkles, flashed with annoyance. "What? Do I look old to you?"
The Fairy Maiden Pavilion disciple trembled all over. Realizing she had forgotten the Empress's greatest taboo in her eagerness to claim credit, she quickly dropped to her knees and said, "The Empress is the bright moon in the sky, untouched by the passage of time. Your disciple is blind and speaking nonsense."
"Slap your own mouth," the Empress's icy voice rang out. With that, she transformed into a streak of light and shot forward. The ten-thousand-year blood Ganoderma could restore her youth—she was determined to have it!
Naturally, the disciple hadn't kept such a treasure hidden for herself because a terrifying demonic beast was guarding it; otherwise, what woman would willingly give up a treasure that could preserve her youth?
The Empress's eyes burned with desire as she looked at the blood Ganoderma. However, the blood-red flood dragon coiled around it was no ordinary creature either. Radiating terrifying might, its strength had actually reached the Peak Tribulation Crossing Stage!
"What a powerful fierce beast. It's a pity the creatures in the Devil's Den lack reason; otherwise, subduing it as a battle pet would be a wonderful choice."
The Empress was an Early Heavenly Tribulation Stage Mighty Figure who had already survived her first Three-Nine Heavenly Tribulation. Enduring twenty-seven bolts of tribulation lightning, she had managed to stay alive in this world. Though she had almost been blasted to death by the tribulation, she was simply stubborn enough to survive.
At that moment, the flood dragon also spotted the Empress. Its lantern-like eyes flashed with a red glow, and opening its cavernous maw, it struck first. It didn't care how powerful the person before it was; the rule of the Devil's Den had always been to fight on sight!
"You reckless beast!" A sneer escaped the Empress's lips as she waved her hand, launching a golden fist projection. With a loud boom, she shattered the flood dragon's breath attack, and the remaining momentum struck the dragon's main body squarely.
A cry of intense pain echoed from the flood dragon. Its massive body coiled, brewing a terrifying strike, but how could the Empress give it the chance to gather its strength? Immediately, she threw another punch!
A violent explosion completely swallowed the flood dragon's body. No matter how it struggled, it could not shake off this destructive force, and it was blown to pieces amidst a barrage of shrieks.
Seeing this, the Empress quietly descended. Channeling her Mana, she moved to claim the blood Ganoderma, but at that exact moment, a withered, pale hand burst out from beneath the earth—so fast that even the Empress had no time to react!
Boom!
With a muffled thud, the ambush hand struck the Empress squarely in the abdomen. A force sufficient to flatten mountains erupted violently, sending the Empress flying backward while coughing up blood.
Immediately afterward, a living corpse with a severely decayed body crawled out from the ground. Hanging from its half-rotted skeletal skull, its eyeballs dangled and swayed—about as disgusting as something could possibly get.
The living corpse shoved the blood Ganoderma straight into its mouth, looked at the Empress, and chuckled. "I have lain dormant in the Devil's Den for fifty thousand years, and finally, I've waited for a Phoenix Goddess. As long as I drain your phoenix bloodline, I can undergo Nirvana rebirth and shed this neither-human-nor-ghost appearance!"
The Empress stared at the living corpse with a solemn expression, never expecting such a terrifying entity to exist within the Devil's Den. That previous strike had injured her dantian, and even with her Heavenly Tribulation Stage cultivation, it was a painful ordeal.
Yet, to earn the title of Empress, she naturally possessed formidable skills. Channeling her Mana to forcefully suppress her injuries, she waved her hand, causing the winds and clouds to shift as a gigantic golden hand slapped down from the sky!
With a single palm strike, the mountains crumbled and the earth split, the violent shockwaves rippling outward. Seeing her sudden counterattack succeed, the corners of the Empress's mouth curled upward slightly, but that smile quickly froze on her face when the living corpse stood completely unscathed right where it was.
At this moment, golden light flickered around the living corpse's body, and a massive pressure radiated outward. "So you're a cultivator from the Fairy Maiden Pavilion? Your ancestors and I were old lovers—why don't you offer up your phoenix bloodline?"
Hearing this, the Empress flew into a rage. Such words were the ultimate insult to a cultivator of the Fairy Maiden Pavilion. Formulating hand seals on the spot, she unleashed her divine ability: "Impudent! The founding master of my Fairy Maiden Pavilion is pure and untainted. How could she possibly have had entanglements with a maggot like you?"
As her voice fell, the Heavenly Sword surged upward. A hundred-foot-long divine sword glowing with brilliant golden light hung in the void, releasing a world-destroying might. The next moment, like a falling meteor, it slashed toward the living corpse!
Yet in the face of such a terrifying divine ability, the living corpse burst into wild laughter. "In my past life, my moniker was the Vajra Living Buddha. That Demon-Subduing Heavenly Sword you're using is something I taught to your founding master!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the Vajra Living Buddha threw a punch, striking the Heavenly Sword squarely at its weakest point. In just a fraction of a second, it vanished into thin air, as if everything a moment ago had been an illusion.
Seeing this, the Empress froze, suddenly recalling the title of the Vajra Living Buddha. He was a Heavenly Tribulation Mighty Figure from the exact same era as her founding master fifty thousand years ago, yet he had long since been slain beneath her master's sword!
"So what if you are the Vajra Living Buddha? You were nothing more than the vanquished underling of my founding master, forced to cling to life by attaching yourself to the Devil's Den!" The Empress let out a sharp cry, instantly summoning her natal magical treasure, the Mysterious Heaven Sword!
A stiff, contemptuous smile appeared on the Vajra Living Buddha's decayed face. "Your founding master back then was my favorite plaything, and the Fairy Maiden Pavilion was merely a pasture where I kept my toys. To think that it has now amounted to something."
As he spoke, he threw another punch. Even facing a divine weapon as formidable as the Mysterious Heaven Sword, he met it with bare flesh alone, completely disregarding the Empress.
"You're courting death!" Seeing his arrogance, the divine power on the Mysterious Heaven Sword surged violently, erupting to twelve-tenths of its capacity. The mere expanding shockwave tore the earth apart!
Boom!
The explosive sound echoed through the air. The Vajra Living Buddha was driven back dozens of steps by the impact, while the Empress vomited blood and was sent flying back several hundred meters, chased down swiftly by the Vajra Living Buddha before she could even land.
The Vajra Living Buddha had suffered at the hands of the Fairy Maiden Pavilion's founding master, stumbling into the Devil's Den in a dying state just to survive, turning into his current half-human, half-corpse self. He held a bone-deep hatred for the Fairy Maiden Pavilion.
His true strength was actually inferior to the Empress's, but relying on the Devil's Den for existence, he could manipulate its power on a small scale, allowing him to easily crush her.
As soon as the Vajra Living Buddha caught up to the Empress, he threw a punch, smashing her into the ground with a loud boom, followed immediately by a downward kick. There was no trace of pity for a fair maiden—only the most brutal violence!
The Empress tried to counterattack, but at that moment, the surging demonic Qi within the Devil's Den invaded her body. Her divine soul grew unstable and nearly collapsed. While she circulated her Mana to force the demonic Qi out, she was subjected to several more heavy blows from the Vajra Living Buddha.
A ferocious grin crossed the Vajra Living Buddha's face as he brought his hands together in a Buddhist salute. "This is the end. Once I drain your phoenix bloodline, I'll thoroughly enjoy your body."
Despair painted the Empress's face. She had no idea how her founding master had ever managed to kill this freak; his strength was simply too overwhelming! Even in the Heavenly Tribulation Stage, she was completely no match for him!
Just as she was about to detonate her core, hundreds of flying swords pierced through the void, transforming into a massive sword array that enveloped the Vajra Living Buddha, buying the Empress a moment to catch her breath.
"Empress, are you alright?" At that moment, the five hundred disciples of the Fairy Maiden Pavilion finally arrived.