But at that moment, the Phoenix Clan's army suddenly came to a halt.
The leading elder of the Phoenix Clan, Feng Wu—an old man clad in a crimson phoenix robe, with seven-colored phoenix feathers on his head—spoke slowly. His voice carried a barely perceptible bitterness, yet it echoed clearly across the entire battlefield. "First Qilin, we have not come to aid you. We are here by Lord Ancestral Dragon's order, to assist the North and South Sea Dragon Clans in suppressing the qilin clan..."
"What did you say?"
The smile on the First Qilin's face froze instantly. His pupils contracted sharply, as if he could not believe his ears.
"Elder Feng Wu! You! You! Our two clans are both among the three great clans of the Primordial World! The dragon clan oppresses my qilin clan—how could you, the Phoenix Clan... how could you be so righteous-blind!!"
Feng Wu closed his eyes, took a deep breath. When he opened them again, only resolve remained. "First Qilin, say no more! Lord Ancestral Dragon has decreed: if the qilin clan surrenders obediently today and hands over all spiritual veins, we will spare your lives. If you insist on resisting, do not blame us for being ruthless!"
"Righteous-blind..." The First Qilin muttered to himself, and a trickle of blood suddenly spilled from the corner of his mouth. He stared at the Phoenix Clan's army in disbelief, his heart feeling as if it had been smashed by a heavy hammer. "Why... Three days ago, I sent an envoy to the parasol forest to seek an audience with Fellow Daoist Yuanfeng, but the envoy couldn't even enter the mountain gate! If my qilin clan is destroyed, do you think the Phoenix Clan can survive alone?"
"Further words are useless. First Qilin, the qilin clan has no chance of winning today. Surrender..." Feng Wu's tone was calm, his expression indifferent.
The First Qilin stood dumbfounded, his mind a blank.
How much he had hoped for the Phoenix Clan's arrival! How overjoyed the united army's soldiers had been when they saw the seven-colored glow! Yet the hope that had just ignited was instantly extinguished.
It was all a joke.
The Phoenix Clan was not a reinforcement—it was the final straw that broke the qilin clan.
At that moment, a thunderous roar erupted from the dragon clan's formation. "Black Ice Army, hear my command! Follow me to break the formation!" A dragon clan general clad in black ice armor led thousands of Black Ice Soldiers in a fierce assault on the crumbling Giant Stone Barrier. The cracks on Elder Shi Jian's rock armor grew more dense; it was on the verge of collapse.
"Clan Leader! Let me go!" A roar rang out from the qilin formation. Elder Yanshan of the qilin clan leaped into the air, his body engulfed in roaring flames—a rare dual-element powerhouse of fire and earth in the clan.
Elder Yanshan looked at the First Qilin, his eyes filled with resolve. "Clan Leader, protect the Ancestral Vein Mountain! Protect our people! I'll deal with these dragon clan scoundrels!"
Before he finished speaking, Elder Yanshan suddenly detonated his cultivation base. The flames around him surged to dozens of zhang high, and he charged toward the Black Ice Army like a shooting star.
"Yanshan of the qilin clan—perish together with you!"
A deafening explosion echoed. The Black Ice Army was thrown into chaos, thousands of Black Ice Soldiers reduced to ashes in an instant. The dragon clan general was also shaken to death by the aftershock, his heart meridians shattered on the spot.
The pressure on the Giant Stone Barrier eased drastically, but as the First Qilin watched the fading spiritual light of Elder Yanshan, tears of blood almost welled up in his eyes.
"Elder Yanshan!" The qilin clan soldiers shouted in grief and anger. But before they could recover, several fire spears shot from the Phoenix Clan's formation, 直奔 the qilin's rear.
"No!" Elder Moyuan, who was guarding the rear, paled drastically. A powerhouse of the clan, he was already seriously injured.
Without hesitation, he stepped in front of the formation, condensing an earth-element spiritual shield around his body. At the same time, he detonated his true spirit. "With my remaining body, I shall protect our people!"
In a thunderous explosion, Elder Moyuan's body shattered into countless earth fragments, barely blocking all the fire spears—but his true spirit dissipated along with it.
The successive self-detonations stunned both the dragon and Phoenix Clans. But Lord Ancestral Dragon's order was absolute. Ao Bing said coldly, "The qilin clan is at the end of their rope! Full assault! Leave no survivors!" The Black Ice Cold Tide condensed again, the flames of the fire spirit pearl blazed hotter, and the Phoenix Clan's Nanming Li Fire poured down on the united army's formation.
"Fight! Avenge the elders!"
The qilin clan soldiers' eyes turned red. Knowing they would die, they still charged at the enemy formation. But the gap in strength was too great—one by one, their figures fell amid the storm of ice and fire.
Another qilin elder—Elder Zhuifeng, skilled in speed divine arts—saw the heavy casualties of the Snow Wolf and Mountain Eagle Clans, and resolutely charged toward Ao Lie.
"Old scoundrel, take your life!" He channeled his lifelong cultivation, transforming into a stream of light. Just as he approached Ao Lie, he detonated himself. Ao Lie was caught off guard and sent flying by the shockwave, the flames of his fire spirit pearl dimming slightly—but Elder Zhuifeng also vanished completely into heaven and earth.
"Hahaha..." The First Qilin suddenly burst into laughter, his voice filled with grief, anger, and despair. Tears of blood streamed down his cheeks. "Ancestral Dragon! What a mighty Ancestral Dragon! I, the First Qilin, am the first qilin of heaven and earth! The qilin clan shall not perish at my hands!"
He suddenly raised his head, his eyes flashing with the resolve to burn everything. The earth-element spiritual energy around him surged wildly, and the Innate Qilin Seal in his hand erupted with an unprecedented glow. The patterns on the seal seemed to come alive, beginning to rotate.
"Elder Shi Jian! Fellow Daoist Xue Yao! Wolf King Xue Xiao! Elder Ying Lie! Fellow rogue cultivators!" The First Qilin's voice echoed across the battlefield, filled with heart-wrenching tragedy. "What happens today has nothing to do with you! Leave quickly! My qilin clan... even if we fight to the last drop of blood, we will never submit to the dragon clan!"
A hint of hesitation flashed in Elder Shi Jian's eyes. He looked at the crumbling Giant Stone Barrier, then at the First Qilin's resolute gaze. Gritting his teeth, he said, "First Qilin, now that the White Stone Clan has come, we will not leave alone! We stand together with the giant stones—life and death as one!"
"That's right!"
Xue Yao also spoke up. "The dragon clan is domineering, the Phoenix Clan is shameless—but the Snow Fox Clan refuses to submit! First Qilin, lunar Yin spiritual energy shall guard you. We fight alongside you!"
Wolf King Xue Xiao raised his head and howled, his voice tragic. "The Snow Wolf Clan has never had cowards who flee from battle! Today, we live and die with the qilin clan!" Elder Ying Lie also said solemnly, "The Mountain Eagle Clan is willing to fight for justice—even in death, we have no regrets!"
The rogue cultivators also expressed their stance one after another. The elder in black said coldly, "Although only a remnant of my Shiji Clan remains, we still have courage! Today, we live and die with the qilin clan!"
The mountain spirit holding the giant axe also shouted in a muffled voice, "I haven't hacked enough dragons with this axe!"
The First Qilin looked at them, his eyes filled with gratitude, yet he shook his head vigorously. "No! If you stay, you will only die in vain! The qilin clan has no retreat, but you still have clans to protect! Leave quickly!"
With that, he suddenly threw the Innate Qilin Seal into the air. The seal swelled to a thousand zhang in size, and earth-element spiritual energy poured down like a waterfall, forcibly pushing the united army's members out of the battlefield core.
"First Qilin, what are you doing?" Elder Shi Jian exclaimed, trying to break through the spiritual light barrier, but he was firmly blocked.
The First Qilin did not answer. He closed his eyes, and his scales began to shatter inch by inch. Blood gushed out from his pores, transforming into red streams of energy that converged toward the Innate Qilin Seal.
His aura grew stronger and stronger, yet more and more unstable—clearly, he was burning his last true spirit.
"Heavenly Dao, have mercy! With my life as the First Qilin, I burn my innate true spirit, channel the foundation of the Ancestral Vein Mountain, and cast the forbidden technique—Seal the Mountain!"
The First Qilin's voice, filled with endless tragedy, echoed across the Primordial World.
"From this day forth, the Qilin Ancestral Vein Mountain shall be isolated from the world! My qilin clan shall never emerge again unless a great Primordial kalpa descends!"
"Clan Leader! Don't!"
The remaining qilin cried out, but could only watch as the First Qilin's body transformed into a brilliant earth-yellow beam of light, slamming into the Innate Qilin Seal.
"My children, survive... When the great kalpa comes, it shall be the day my qilin clan avenges itself..."
The First Qilin's final voice, filled with endless reluctance and hope, echoed above the battlefield.
Blessed by the beam of light, the Innate Qilin Seal suddenly swelled to ten thousand zhang in size, crashing down onto the Ancestral Vein Mountain like a falling sky.
At the moment the seal collided with the mountain, a massive earth-yellow light shield enveloped the entire Ancestral Vein Mountain. The shield was covered in delicate runes, and as the runes flowed, the Ancestral Vein Mountain began to sink slowly, eventually disappearing beneath the North China Sea's ice field. Only an empty expanse of ice remained, along with eight blood-red characters inscribed on the light shield: "Qilin Seal the Mountain—No Emergence Save for Kalpa."
The First Qilin's true spirit, at the moment the light shield formed, transformed into an invisible shackle, connecting with the Ancestral Vein Mountain's earth veins. It became the core of the forbidden Mountain-Sealing Technique, guarding the remaining qilin clan members for all eternity.
His final hatred and obsession transformed into an invisible pressure, plunging the entire North China Sea ice field into deathly silence.
Ao Bing and Ao Lie looked at this scene, their faces showing no joy—only deep awe.
The power of the First Qilin's self-detonation was earth-shaking. Both the dragon and Phoenix Clans suffered significant losses, and many soldiers were injured by the aftershock.
Ao Bing put away the Ice Soul Seal, saying solemnly, "The qilin clan has sealed their mountain, with their true spirit guarding the formation. The qilin clan is effectively finished. Retreat." Ao Lie nodded in agreement. He looked at the Phoenix Clan's army, a hint of complexity flashing in his eyes, but ultimately said nothing.
Feng Wu looked in the direction where the Ancestral Vein Mountain had disappeared, let out a soft sigh, and turned to the Phoenix Clan soldiers. "We leave as well. Return... to report to Lord Ancestral Dragon."
The battlefield gradually calmed down, leaving only bloodstains and broken weapons scattered across the ice. The cold wind swept across the shattered ice, slowly burying these traces.
The soldiers of the Snow Wolf, Mountain Eagle, White Stone, and Snow Fox Clans stared in the direction where the Ancestral Vein Mountain had vanished, unwilling to leave for a long time. Their eyes were filled with grief and unwillingness.
In the distant East China Sea Dragon Palace, Ao Xuan watched everything through the water mirror, his face as grim as iron.
The Azure Dragon Reverse Scale Sword in his body trembled slightly, and his dragon pupils were filled with worry.
The Ancestral Dragon's dominance had made the situation in the Primordial World more turbulent than ever. And the qilin clan's oath to seal their mountain, like a sharp sword hanging above the dragon clan's head, foreshadowed that the great catastrophe to come was already unavoidable.