Chapter 688: Mystical Power Inheritance?

The moment Yun Che’s voice fell silent, his figure suddenly blurred. Feng Huwei, whose nerves were taut, instantly became alert, but before he could react, a hand had already firmly clasped his neck. The speed was such that his naked eye couldn’t even perceive it.

Startled, Feng Huwei quickly channeled his profound energy throughout his body. However, just as his profound energy was about to erupt, an overwhelming force violently surged into his body, instantly suppressing his profound energy and causing the profound energy he was about to unleash to vanish without a trace.

Feng Huwei paled in horror. Yun Che’s silent appearance behind him, coupled with his ability to kill Tian Yi without a sound, was enough to make him realize that Yun Che’s current strength likely far surpassed his own. Yet, he never imagined the gap between their powers was so immense. As General Huwei, a figure of extremely high status in the Divine Phoenix Empire, he had always been exceptionally proud of his strength. But under Yun Che’s profound energy suppression, his profound energy couldn’t even circulate, let alone erupt!

“You...” Feng Huwei’s pupils dilated to the point of almost bursting. He had originally been confident that even if he couldn’t defeat Yun Che, he’d still have at least a sixty percent chance of escaping safely. But with Yun Che’s hand clamped around his throat, he couldn’t muster even a bit of strength to struggle, and even making a sound was incredibly difficult.

“Are you still trying to say I don’t have the guts to kill you?” Yun Che sneered disdainfully. “You’re supposedly the great General Huwei, yet you’re as naive as a pig.”

Boom—

As Yun Che’s power ruthlessly surged into Feng Huwei’s body, a muffled roar echoed within Feng Huwei. His entire body trembled violently, and blood seeped from his seven orifices. His consciousness rapidly blurred and scattered. At that moment, Yun Che’s profound aura instantly surged forth, piercing directly into Feng Huwei’s mind and soul, and rapidly began to read his memories.

What exactly the Divine Phoenix Army was doing here, it was normal for an ordinary Divine Phoenix soldier not to know, but as the supreme commander, Feng Huwei could not possibly be ignorant.

Feng Huwei’s memories were continuously being read. However, just as he was about to access the memories concerning the “Floating Cloud City Mission,” a strange blank appeared in Feng Huwei’s memory space!

More accurately, it was a shadow!

This shadow was clearly formed by extremely powerful spiritual profound energy. Neither its aura nor its intensity belonged to Feng Huwei; it had been imposed by someone else. The shadow's location precisely covered all core memories related to the “Floating Cloud City Mission,” making them unreadable.

“This is a memory cage set up with powerful spiritual energy!” Jasmine said slowly. “This part of the memory, trapped within the cage, still belongs to Feng Huwei himself. He knows it perfectly well, but he cannot convey it to others through words, profound energy transmission, writing, or any other means. Should he have such a thought or attempt to, this spiritual energy will instantly activate and destroy this part of his memory. It's also impossible for others to read this memory through soul-searching or similar methods! Not even your profound aura can!”

If Jasmine said it couldn't be done, then it truly couldn't. Furthermore, Yun Che clearly sensed that this shadow was already linked to this part of Feng Huwei's memories. If he were to forcefully erase the shadow with his profound aura, the memories linked to it would also be erased, leaving him unable to obtain the information.

After a brief hesitation, Yun Che did not attempt to force it. He finished reading all of Feng Huwei’s other memories, and then retracted his profound aura.

“It seems that among these two hundred thousand Divine Phoenix soldiers, only Feng Huwei knows the answer I'm looking for,” Yun Che mused. “Clearly, the Divine Phoenix Sect set up such a memory cage on Feng Huwei because they were worried that people from the Four Great Sacred Grounds would make a move on Feng Huwei and forcefully search his soul.”

After all, in the Profound Sky Continent, the only ones who could threaten the Divine Phoenix Sect were the Four Great Sacred Grounds.

While infiltrating this grand tent, he had indeed heard Feng Huwei and his deputy, Tian Yi, mention the “Four Great Sacred Grounds.” They clearly stated that the soldiers who occasionally disappeared were victims of the Four Great Sacred Grounds.

“To set up such a memory cage requires not only extremely high spiritual energy but also comes with unpredictable and uncontrollable risks.” Jasmine scoffed. “It seems the Divine Phoenix Sect is indeed hiding a big secret.”

“Indeed, it’s at least much bigger than I anticipated…” Yun Che's gaze flickered. “I’ve always wondered why the Divine Phoenix Empire suddenly attacked Azure Cloud. Perhaps annexing Azure Cloud Nation was just a pretense, and this place... is the true objective!!”

“I’ve suddenly become quite curious,” Jasmine said with interest. “When do you plan to leave for the Divine Phoenix Nation?”

Yun Che answered without hesitation: “Today!”

“Of course, settling a debt like this can’t be delayed for even a single day.”

“Hmph,” Jasmine snorted, roughly meaning, “Just as I expected.”

Feng Huwei, still held in Yun Che's grasp, finally regained consciousness at this moment. He opened his eyes and immediately saw Yun Che's sneering face. His entire body instantly turned cold, and he stammered, “You... what did you just do to me?!”

As he spoke, he realized his voice was incredibly weak, to the point of being almost inaudible.

Yun Che didn't answer him. He simply turned his face away, looking forward, and the words that spilled from his lips carried chilling cruelty and murderous intent: “Feng Hengkong, are you very disappointed to see that I’m still alive?!”

“Feng Xue’er was kind to me. Three years ago, you troubled me over the bloodline matter, disturbing my peace. Later, you had Feng Feiyan try to assassinate me on the Primordial Profound Ark. Because of Xue’er, I had originally intended to forget all that and not pursue it…”

“But you truly gave me a big surprise!!”

Yun Che's voice was so chilling that Feng Huwei, who was so close, felt his entire body turn cold... He suddenly understood. Yun Che wasn’t talking to himself; he was clearly using Feng Huwei’s Death Soul Seal... to speak to Feng Hengkong, the Divine Phoenix Emperor and Phoenix Sect Master!!

This also meant that once Yun Che finished speaking, it would be his death!

The Death Soul Seal he relied upon not only failed to deter Yun Che, but was instead used as a tool!

“You must be very confused now about where those hundreds of thousands of troops went... That’s right, I did it. But this is just the beginning... oh no! It’s not even the beginning!”

“Killing my Imperial Father, trampling my Azure Cloud land, slaughtering countless of my compatriots, and turning my homeland into a hell of fear, despair, and flight! For this debt, I will make your Divine Phoenix Empire... repay a thousandfold! Prepare your neck and wait for me!!”

Bang!!

With a loud bang, Feng Huwei was violently slammed onto the ground by Yun Che. His body instantly shattered, sending finely minced flesh and blood splattering everywhere... but not a single drop landed on Yun Che.

No one would have imagined that General Huwei, a figure of renowned prestige in the Divine Phoenix Empire who struck fear into the hearts of the six nations, would die such a miserable death, leaving not even a complete corpse, nor a single intact finger... all because he touched Yun Che's inverse scale!

Although he hadn't gotten the desired answer, he had already killed the one who deserved to die. Furthermore, as one of the important figures of the Divine Phoenix Sect, Feng Huwei's memories contained a great deal of information about the Divine Phoenix Sect... including some confidential matters.

Putting away the Ice Cloud Mirror, Yun Che silently departed, heading back towards Floating Cloud City. Outside the grand tent where he had just been, layers of guards stood orderly, their faces solemn, completely unaware that their supreme commander, Feng Huwei, was already dead without a trace of his body.

“You chose to challenge Fen Juechen to a battle three months from now so you could use that time to retaliate against the Divine Phoenix Nation?” Jasmine asked indifferently.

“Exactly!” Yun Che flew at high speed, Floating Cloud City growing closer in his sight. “Three months is enough time for me to bathe Divine Phoenix City in blood! Even if I can’t completely drench it in blood… I’ll at least turn the Divine Phoenix Sect upside down! Otherwise, my hatred will be hard to quell!”

“Furthermore, the Divine Phoenix Sect is powerful after all, and I can't confront them directly. This bloodbath will carry varying degrees of danger, but it will definitely also lead to a considerable increase in my profound energy. By then, I should be confident enough to fight Fen Juechen!” Yun Che said with certainty.

“If that’s what you think, then you’re gravely mistaken!” Jasmine said coldly. “Under the terms of the challenge, Fen Juechen’s growth rate over these three months will absolutely far surpass yours! Currently, you’re hard-pressed to be his opponent, though you could barely put up a fight. But if you wait another three months... you might not even have the strength to barely resist him.”

“What?” Yun Che’s flying speed immediately slowed. “Why?”

“I told you before, his devil profound energy isn’t derived from his own beliefs; it comes from someone else! Within his body… more precisely, within his soul and profound veins, a powerful devil source has been injected! The reason he has become so strong today is because he absorbed the power of that devil source. However, this is by no means the full power he will possess after completely absorbing the devil source. If my perception isn’t mistaken, he’s only absorbed thirty percent of that devil source’s power!”

“Thirty percent?” Yun Che’s face showed shock. Forty percent already granted him mid-stage Monarch strength. If he absorbed it all... how terrifying would that be!

“He hates you to the bone. You actively set the decisive battle for three months from now. Therefore, to ensure he kills you, he will certainly do his utmost to absorb the power of the devil source during these three months! The speed of power growth through this method is something you could never catch up to, no matter how you cultivate.”

“...” Yun Che's flying speed slowed even further. A heavy pressure suddenly weighed on his heart. After frowning and remaining silent for a moment, he said softly, “In legends or records, some profound arts might have special inheritance methods that allow profound energy to be passed from one person to another. However, profound energy itself must be cultivated meticulously by oneself or absorbed and refined from natural treasures, accumulating gradually over time. It’s absolutely impossible for it to be transferred directly from one person to another... This can be said to be one of the most fundamental common senses in the profound way! Otherwise, if profound energy could be inherited, a dying expert could transfer their lifelong profound energy to a child... or even dozens of Tyrant Monarchs could transfer all their profound energy to one person, forcibly creating a Monarch... Wouldn't the entire Profound Sky Continent descend into utter chaos?!”

“The devil source you mentioned is clearly devil profound energy cultivated by someone else! Why can something like this directly enter another person's body and be absorbed as their own power?” Yun Che asked, perplexed. “Is this a characteristic of devil profound energy?”

“Of course not!” Jasmine immediately denied. “If devil profound energy had such a characteristic, the entire Primal Chaos would have long since become a world of devils!!”

Jasmine’s next words made Yun Che secretly startled. “As for the devil source on Fen Juechen, even I… am extremely puzzled.”

“Even you don't know?” Yun Che stopped dead in mid-air, his brows knitting together tightly. For Jasmine to be puzzled… what exactly had happened to Fen Juechen?

“The world you can perceive is far smaller than you imagine, and the ultimate heights of the profound way are beyond your current comprehension. Never naively assume that what you consider 'basic common sense' is the absolute truth! Profound energy inheritance is indeed extremely difficult, but it's by no means impossible… Do you know how my profound energy came to be?”