Jing Bai was silent for a moment.
This Grand Elder of Mirage Palace had not been told by anyone, in who knew how many years, that he wasn't qualified enough.
In the cultivation world of Chenping Continent, Passable God Realm cultivators could already dominate a region.
As for Myriad Transformations Realm cultivators, they were already lofty peaks that over ninety percent of all cultivators on Chenping Continent could only gaze up at.
As for the Upper Three Realms, in the eyes of ordinary cultivators, they were virtually indistinguishable from Ascending to Immortality.
In any case, they were all equally unreachable, existing only in legends.
Yet Jing Bai, a dignified Grand Elder of the Supreme Martial Pacification Court of Mirage Palace, a Unity Realm great power, was now being told, right to his face, that he wasn't even qualified to speak with the other party…
The more important problem was that what the other party had said was actually correct.
This left Grand Elder Jing feeling somewhat embarrassed.
Jing Bai's attitude remained extremely respectful, even though everything Chen Yan had just said had not given him any face at all.
"Someone who's qualified."
Chen Yan replied.
It was like saying nothing at all.
Who could be qualified?
Jing Bai's judgment of the unfathomably great senior before him was exactly the same as Zhou Jinyun's, who was only at the Martial Spring Realm.
Someone who could conjure an immortal artifact out of thin air must have cultivation above the Immortal Ascension Realm.
But aside from Immortal Venerable Fusheng, who had fallen in a corner of the Southern Region of Chenping Continent sixty thousand years ago, when had someone of this caliber suddenly appeared in Chenping Continent?
If the other party wanted Mirage Palace to send someone who could match him…
That was impossible.
Mirage Palace currently had no Immortal Ascension Realm cultivator alive. The highest cultivation within Mirage Palace at present was only the Supreme Pivot Elder Du Sui, who was at the mid-stage Dao Union Realm.
However, Grand Elder Jing was not qualified to invite that Elder Du.
And even if that Elder Du actually came, it would mean that everything he was currently doing would be completely exposed.
As for the one behind him…
No.
Moreover, under the current circumstances where that one was under suspicion from the Supreme Imperial Law Court, he truly could not show his face.
But if he failed to bring Chu Fan back, with that one's thunderous methods, he would probably definitely…
After weighing all the options, perhaps there was only one solution left in the end.
He turned his gaze toward Chu Fan, who had been tossed at Chen Yan's feet and seemed dazed and confused.
A total of one thousand eight hundred years had passed since Jing Bai had joined Mirage Palace and cultivated until today.
Having come from the Return-Into-Emptiness Pavilion, he had already stepped into the Unity Realm over nine hundred years ago.
Although his current cultivation was still merely mid-stage Unity Realm, that didn't mean Jing Bai had made no progress in this nearly thousand-year period.
Chu Fan was the most unique result among the several possession experiments conducted over the past few hundred years.
He absolutely could not give up like this.
Jing Bai planned to take a gamble, even though he was painfully aware that the other party's cultivation was above the Immortal Ascension Realm.
But if he steeled himself to die here, combined with an unexpected secret technique, he would undoubtedly have some chance of snatching Chu Fan away from here.
Although the chance was slim.
Jing Bai was willing to try.
Because he had no other path to choose.
"Since Senior says so…"
The moment his words fell, heaven and earth shifted abruptly.
It wasn't the sky and earth changing color, but rather all the vast spiritual energy within Grand Elder Jing's meridians, apertures, and even his Martial Spring had been completely mobilized by him.
Grand Elder Jing's form did not move, yet ten thousand layers of phantoms rippled around him.
Hum!
And within these ten thousand layers of phantoms, a figure as ghostly as a specter suddenly blurred, charging straight for Chu Fan.
Jing Bai had already compressed his cultivation of over one thousand eight hundred years to the extreme, all for the sake of obtaining this one chance among the ten thousand layers of phantoms.
Fast! Precise! Ruthless!
The gamble was on that perhaps trivial, insignificant moment of carelessness that the being above Ascending to Immortality might have!
But the Xun Wind Step was faster.
Chen Yan simply found Jing Bai's reaction laughable. If he were truly a True Immortal above Ascending to Immortality, then the moment Jing Bai had thought of making a move, he would have already disappeared from this world.
Unfortunately, he wasn't.
But even though he was merely a Unity Realm cultivator as well, Grand Elder Jing was absolutely in no position to compete with him.
The supernatural, master-level Hidden Immortal Art and Great Derivation Art—these two transcendent, supreme techniques that surpassed the cultivation world of Chenping Continent—were enough to elevate Chen Yan's current strength to another dimension.
Everything happened within a thousandth of a breath.
Within the ten thousand layers of phantoms, Grand Elder Jing's true body charged straight for Chu Fan.
Chen Yan swiftly activated the Xun Wind Step and moved forward to meet the attack.
He extended his right hand, reaching toward Grand Elder Jing, while Jing Bai, knowing there was no escape, hardened his resolve and chose to clash head-on with the great power above Ascending to Immortality before him.
This was Grand Elder Jing's all-out strike.
All of Jing Bai's mid-stage Unity Realm cultivation seemed to have condensed into a single point.
The air emitted a piercing tearing sound as a highly condensed beam of white light shot straight toward Chen Yan's face.
An extremely terrifying aura began to spread.
This white light was enough to reduce everything within a thousand zhang radius to powder.
Grand Elder Jing knew that the plan to snatch Chu Fan had failed, so he had already resolved himself to a fight to the death, beginning to battle Chen Yan at all costs.
He no longer cared about anyone's life or death.
Chen Yan's expression did not change. His extended right hand did not dodge or evade; his five fingers curled slightly as he directly grasped toward the terrifying white light.
There was no earth-shattering collision as expected.
The moment the white light touched Chen Yan's palm, Jing Bai even had the illusion that time in the entire world had stopped.
Because that strand of white light, which had condensed all the cultivation of this Unity Realm cultivator, actually froze in midair.
And then—
Li Fire Seal.
Grand Elder Jing's pupils abruptly contracted.
The white light that had burst forth from his life-or-death strike began to burn from between the palms of the young man before him, clad in plain white robes.
The crimson, blood-like Li Fire radiated a terrifying aura that could incinerate everything.
It surged backward along the white light, its speed surpassing spiritual perception.
Then, the crimson Li Fire devoured the white light that had condensed Jing Bai's cultivation and began to invade Jing Bai's meridians.
"Ahhh!"
A scream of agony came from Jing Bai's mouth.
The pain of Li Fire burning was something that even an Immortal Ascension Realm cultivator could not endure.
Starting from Grand Elder Jing's arms, the crimson, blood-like Li Fire rapidly engulfed his entire torso, then spread along his neck toward his head.
In just a few breaths, this Unity Realm great power, who had served as a Grand Elder of Mirage Palace for over nine hundred years, was completely reduced to charcoal.