Chapter 349: Extinguishing the Throne

Yun Che exuded an astonishingly fierce aura; he was truly enraged. The Heaven Wolf Slash was his most powerful killing move, its might far exceeding that of Overlord's Fury and Falling Moon Sinking Star. Whenever unleashed, the Heaven Wolf Slash had always been irresistible, its sharpness unchallenged. Yet today, for the first time, his Heaven Wolf Slash was completely suppressed, sending him crashing into the ground in a sorry state. He had accumulated over thirty wounds, both large and small, and his internal organs had sustained significant damage.

"I will... I will make you die now!!"

"Purgatory!"

Yun Che let out a fierce roar, and his eyes suddenly glowed with a blood-red light. In an instant, all the wounds on his body burst open, spraying blood, and his profound energy aura surged dramatically.

Just as Fen Yijue and Fen Ziya were about to resume their attack, they suddenly perceived a shift in Yun Che's aura and were simultaneously taken aback. In their earlier skirmishes, he had clearly exerted his full power and sustained injuries. Yet, his power aura had now surged again, reaching a level that left even Fen Yijue deeply apprehensive.

"Could he have employed some forbidden secret technique?" Fen Ziya asked grimly.

"Most likely! Perhaps he burned his vital essence... If so, he's at the end of his rope. Let's finish him off immediately!"

After a brief pause, the two Monarchs let out a low growl in unison. Two Blazing Sky Seals descended from the sky, hurtling towards Yun Che's head.

This time, Yun Che did not dodge. Instead, he suddenly leaped directly towards the two Blazing Sky Seals, bringing Dragon Fault down with tremendous force.

With a thunderous crash, the two immensely powerful Blazing Sky Seals were completely torn apart like thin paper the moment they met Dragon Fault. Yun Che’s ascent was only momentarily halted before he continued his upward surge. As Fen Yijue’s and Fen Ziya’s pupils abruptly constricted, he shot straight past them, now less than ten meters away.

A pair of eyes, seething with boundless ferocity, killing intent, and madness, fixated on Fen Yijue and Fen Ziya, sending a shiver of dread through the two Monarchs. Just as they prepared to act, their chests tightened, and a deep sense of suffocation washed over them. Even their minds reeled with sudden, severe dizziness, and their bodies, poised to move, suddenly froze as if encased in ice, unable to budge for a prolonged moment.

What suppressed their movements was an intensely clashing, terrifying power pressure. Yun Che gripped Dragon Fault tightly, his arms swollen to twice their normal thickness, with streams of blood spurting from them. The whites of his eyes and his pupils had completely vanished, replaced by two entirely blood-red irises, and an aura of malevolent brutality, as if from purgatory itself, suddenly erupted at that moment.

"Annihilating Sky, Breaking Earth!!"

BOOM!!!!!!!!!!

The entire Burning Flame City was utterly enveloped by a thunderous roar, as if the heavens had collapsed and the earth was tearing apart, swallowing all other sounds. Burning Flame City trembled violently. Miles of land below were directly ripped away, and gravel and dust rose hundreds of meters high, almost touching the fragmented clouds overhead.

In the surrounding area, all onlookers were instantly deafened. Whether they were the elders of the Burning Heaven Clan or the ordinary citizens of Burning Flame City, they were all swept up by an irresistible storm and propelled a great distance away.

Unending horror contorted everyone's faces; the sheer terror of this power transcended all their understanding! Even formidable figures like Fen Yijue and Fen Ziya had never witnessed such terrifying might in their entire lives. They simply could not fathom what enabled this young man, not yet twenty years old, to unleash such dreadful power.

Annihilating Sky, Breaking Earth, the third style of the Evil God Arts, was Yun Che’s ultimate destructive killing move, one he could only unleash by paying a severe price, overdrawing his profound energy, and even his life force.

He had first used this technique during the Ranking Tournament when facing Xia Qingyue, whose overall strength surpassed his own. The second time he employed it, however, he was confronting two Monarch-level profound practitioners!

Its terror was so immense that even the two Monarchs were utterly incapable of withstanding it.

In the utterly terrifying storm of destruction, Fen Yijue and Fen Ziya were sent flying like two kites with severed strings, their chests a bloody, mangled mess, as if they had exploded. However, despite their severe injuries, as Monarchs, they were not yet dead. As they hurtled backward, they desperately gathered their chaotic profound energy to suppress their wounds. Just then, as the swirling dust began to dissipate, people caught sight of a crimson silhouette of flame, streaking across the sky like a meteor, suddenly rocketing towards Fen Ziya. Its speed was astonishing, actually surpassing that of Fen Ziya, who had been launched away by the Annihilating Sky, Breaking Earth.

"Phoenix Wing Sky Splinter!!"

Yun Che's eyes gleamed with a malevolent light, his profound energy churning and raging like boiling water. With a colossal crash, and to Fen Ziya’s despairing gaze, Dragon Fault struck him with immense force, and a violent burst of Phoenix flame erupted on his body…

"Once you reach hell, don't forget to tell your ancestors that the one who killed you… who destroyed your Burning Heaven Clan… is called Yun Che!!" Yun Che’s chilling voice, seeping straight into his bones and soul, echoed in Fen Ziya’s ears. Immediately afterward, Fen Ziya's consciousness went completely blank, and his body, engulfed in burning Phoenix flames, plunged downward like a cannonball.

The recoil from Phoenix Wing Sky Splinter propelled Yun Che high into the air. He fixed his gaze on Fen Ziya's landing spot, pouring the last shred of his strength into Dragon Fault.

"Phoenix... Break!!"

Dragon Fault, wreathed in flames, shot from Yun Che's grasp and tore through the air, violently impaling Fen Ziya, who had just hit the ground and was still clinging to his last breath. Berserk power surged into Fen Ziya's body, reducing his internal organs to a pulpy mess. His eyes bulged, but his throat could no longer utter a final scream. He simply stared, wide-eyed, and all signs of life vanished.

A Monarch-level profound practitioner had thus fallen by Yun Che's sword.

Yun Che's body plummeted freely from the sky. At this point, he was utterly depleted, without a shred of strength left, and all three profound vein gates had automatically closed. His injuries also caused waves of dizziness in his mind. He cast one last glance at Fen Yijue, who lay two miles away, and said hoarsely, "Little Chan... let's go!"

The Snow Phoenix Beast emerged from Yun Che's profound seal, caught him as he fell, then ascended into the sky and swiftly escaped into the distance. Several elders of the Burning Heaven Clan attempted to give chase, but the Snow Phoenix Beast's speed was far beyond their reach. They could only watch helplessly as it rapidly disappeared from view, leaving them trailing in its dust.

"Grand Elder... Grand Elder!!"

When they reached Fen Ziya's body, they found his internal organs utterly destroyed, devoid of any life. Several elders' vision went black; they nearly fainted on the spot, uttering heart-wrenching wails of grief.

The tragic death of their Grand Elder... This was an unprecedented event in the history of the Burning Heaven Clan.

The slaying of a Monarch-level profound practitioner was an event that had virtually never occurred in the entire history of the Azure Cloud Empire.

This was because Monarchs truly represented the pinnacle of Azure Cloud; reaching this realm meant one could look down upon all living beings, virtually unrivaled in the world. While one Monarch could potentially be defeated by another, killing them was almost impossible. Fen Yijue's profound energy was two levels higher than Fen Ziya's, allowing him to defeat him, but killing him would have been exceedingly difficult.

The fundamental reason why the Four Great Sects had endured for so many years in the Azure Cloud Empire was the presence of Monarch-level practitioners within their ranks!

While the Sky Profound Realm was an extremely high level in the Azure Cloud profound world, it was by no means cultivated solely by the Four Great Sects. Many powerful sects across the Azure Cloud Empire could produce Sky Profound experts; even the Azure Cloud Profound Palace had several such individuals.

However, Monarch-level profound practitioners had always appeared exclusively within the Four Great Sects.

The Monarch-level profound practitioners possessed by the Four Great Sects were the true bedrock and guardians of their respective clans. Every additional Monarch signified a complete elevation in the sect's overall power level, which explained the intense reactions of the other three great sects when Chu Yuechan revealed her Monarch-level strength during the Ranking Tournament.

Conversely, should a Monarch fall, the entire sect’s standing would plummet dramatically!

The true deterrent between the Four Great Sects had always been their Monarch-level practitioners. Losing even one meant a significant reduction in their deterrent power.

Although Yun Che had slain over thirty Sky Profound Realm elders and hall masters of the Burning Heaven Clan, this by no means destroyed the clan's foundation. Give the Burning Heaven Clan a few more decades, and they could cultivate dozens more Sky Profound practitioners. With the Grand Clan Master and Grand Elder overseeing them, no other sect within the Azure Cloud region would dare to exploit their weakened state, as the desperate struggle of two Monarchs was enough to make even a behemoth like the Heavenly Sword Villa pay a devastating price.

However, the tragic death of the Grand Elder was an overwhelmingly heavy blow to the entire Burning Heaven Clan. They had never conceived, much less believed, that Yun Che possessed the ability to kill their sect's Grand Elder.

The Burning Heaven elders kneeling beside Fen Ziya's corpse were ashen-faced and wept bitterly. The severely wounded Fen Yijue finally regained his breath at this moment. His face pale, hand clutched to his chest, he weakly asked, "Ziya... how is he?"

The elderly Burning Heaven elder beside him, tears streaming down his face, replied hoarsely, "Grand Elder... Grand Elder, he... he has passed away..."

Fen Yijue's entire body stiffened, then began to tremble violently. He gazed at Fen Ziya's distant corpse, his pale lips quivering, "Take me... back... to the clan..."

*Pfft*... A large mouthful of fresh blood gushed from Fen Yijue's mouth. Amidst the elders' cries of alarm, his head lolled to the side, and he fainted on the spot.

Yun Che, aboard the Snow Phoenix Beast, had long since vanished into the distance, his whereabouts now unknown. The Burning Heaven Clan elders gathered the unconscious Fen Duanyun and Fen Yijue, along with Fen Ziya's corpse, and flew grimly towards the Burning Heaven Clan's direction. They left behind a multitude of spectators, who remained lost in unending shock, unable to regain their senses for a long time. Many of them had suffered light or severe injuries from the aftermath, yet their minds were so consumed by the scenes they had just witnessed that they felt no physical pain.

The twenty-zhang wide, ten-plus zhang high stone city gate of Burning Flame City had vanished. Extensive sections of the city walls had collapsed, and vast stretches of land south of the city lay horribly destroyed, as if a cataclysmic disaster had just swept through. Numerous massive craters dotted the landscape, the largest reaching dozens of zhang in depth and hundreds of zhang in width.

The Lord of Burning Flame City was drenched in sweat. Though calm had finally returned to the area before Burning Flame City, his heart still hammered as if it would burst from his chest. He vigorously wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, absolutely certain that for a long time to come, Burning Flame City would become the focal point of the entire Azure Cloud Empire, and a monumental storm would soon sweep across the entire country.