The human race of the Immortal Realm.
Once one of the peak races in the Immortal Realm, they later declined, with less than one percent of their powerful experts remaining.
It was said that within the core forbidden lands of the human race, there were still Great Luo Golden Immortals and even Mixed-origin Golden Immortals in secluded cultivation.
But having not appeared for a long time, the strongest humans visible to the world were merely Taiyi Golden Immortals.
Fortunately, Taiyi Golden Immortals were already considered Immortal Kings in the Immortal Realm, enough to protect the humans of the Nine Continents.
However, the human race had once been a peak race, with their people spread throughout the Immortal Realm. Those humans outside the Nine Continents could only leave their survival to fate.
Moreover, the top combat power of the human race was secretly suppressed by various races, and the number of Taiyi Immortal Kings was not large.
Fortunately, now that the Immortal and Demon Realms were at war, with the great enemy of the Demon Realm ahead, the situation of humans in the Immortal Realm had improved somewhat, and the subtle suppression had weakened.
The higher-ups of the human race decided to seize this critical period to cultivate more human experts.
However, just at this critical moment, a fire phoenix appeared in human territory, indiscriminately attacking human cities. Several cities had already been destroyed, with many human lives lost.Soon, the fire phoenix arrived at a large city and began another round of destructive attacks.
This city was a major metropolis, with trillions of living beings inside, many living in the folded spaces attached to the city (secret realms, cave heavens, blessed lands). Most were ordinary humans below the Immortal Realm. If the city were destroyed, it would be a catastrophe!
The human higher-ups immediately sent an Immortal King to stop and negotiate.
The teleportation array flashed.
Human Immortal King Xu Xuzi teleported in.
At a glance, he saw the giant fire phoenix outside the city bombarding it. With each flap of its wings, several divine flames fell, causing massive damage to the city's protective shield.
"Stop!" Xu Xuzi shouted, flying into the air.
The many panicked humans in the city saw him and showed expressions of relief.
"Finally, an Immortal King has arrived!"
"Almost, I felt like I was almost roasted!"
"Where did this phoenix come from? We didn't offend it, did we?"
In the sky, the fire phoenix stopped its attack and snorted coldly, "Hmph, who are you?"
"I am Xu Xuzi, one of the nine great elders of the human race. May I ask which fellow daoist of the Phoenix Clan you are? Why are you slaughtering our people?"
The fire phoenix said in a clear voice, "I am Yao Xi. My son Kong Ming fell at the hands of a human cultivator. I demand you hand over the murderer immediately, or I will make all living beings of your human race accompany my son in death!"
Xu Xuzi's expression changed, "Fellow daoist, is there some misunderstanding here?"
"Misunderstanding?" The fire phoenix said angrily, then released a memory image provided by Feipeng.
Scene after scene flashed by, showing Kong Ming's moment of death, precisely when he was killed by a human cultivator!
Looking at this memory image that could easily be altered, Xu Xuzi smiled bitterly, "Fellow daoist Yao Xi, such images are very simple to forge. Besides, in this scene, the murderer only has a human form. The human form itself is one of the great Dao bodies—other races can also take human form. This doesn't prove the murderer is human either!"
The beautiful woman sneered coldly, "How could there be any mistake? Would I lie? I've already consulted divination cultivators. My child did indeed fall at human hands. Now, I order you to hand over the murderer immediately, and this matter will be over! If you refuse to hand them over, or try to substitute someone else, be prepared for complete extermination!"
Xu Xuzi's expression changed, his face grim, "Fellow daoist Yao Xi, the human race was once a peak race. Our foundations run deep. If you're here representing the Phoenix Clan to test our limits, we humans don't mind fighting to the death."
The fire phoenix said angrily, "It seems the human race doesn't want to hand over the murderer!"
She suddenly flapped her wings, and terrifying flames immediately covered hundreds of miles of sky and land!
Above in the sky, clusters of meteor-like fire were descending at astonishing speed.
Xu Xuzi summoned a golden bell, enveloping the city within its protection.
Flames exploded against the golden bell. The powerful shockwaves and destructive force of the flames rapidly consumed Xu Xuzi's magical power!
In just a moment, he knew he was no match for the fire phoenix!
The fire phoenix was also at the mid-stage Taiyi Golden Immortal level, but the innate divine abilities of a supreme divine beast approached the power of late-stage Taiyi Golden Immortals. Moreover, supreme divine beasts had abundant magical power, strong physical bodies, and resilient souls—powerful in every aspect without weakness!
Xu Xuzi cursed inwardly. Which idiot had provoked the Phoenix Clan? Were they out of their mind?
But he couldn't hand over human cultivators. The human race had no precedent of handing their own people over to foreign races for punishment!
"Fellow daoist Yao Xi, if this is personal enmity and you search for the murderer yourself, I can't interfere. But using the lives of countless humans to pressure us—are you bullying us for being weak? If you continue attacking, our human race will certainly retaliate with full force!" Xu Xuzi said solemnly.
Yao Xi sneered, "Your human race is weak. You don't have many Taiyi Golden Immortals. The Immortal Alliance has already conscripted half of your cultivators. You barely have enough to defend the Human Nine Continents—how could you spare forces to deal with me? I advise you to hand over the murderer. If you're unwilling, I can compromise—just tell me who the murderer is, and I'll pursue them myself!"
Xu Xuzi's heart sank. This bird seemed reckless but was clever, taking advantage of the gap when human Taiyi experts were away at war to cause trouble for the human race.
"Just as you said, our human race is also part of the Immortal Alliance forces. At this critical moment of conflict between Immortals and Demons, you come to attack the human race—have you considered how the Immortal Alliance will view the Phoenix Clan?" Xu Xuzi said loudly.
Yao Xi said disdainfully, "I represent myself. Stop dragging the Phoenix Clan into this. My personal actions are none of the Immortal Alliance's business!"
As she spoke, Yao Xi didn't stop attacking. Xu Xuzi felt the more he resisted, the weaker he became. The powerful Phoenix Flame could burn magical power. The defensive barrier on the golden bell's surface was weakening layer by layer under the burning of the Phoenix Flame!
Xu Xuzi inwardly complained bitterly and quickly sent a request for help to the human higher-ups.
However, soon Xu Xuzi received surprising news.
"The demons suppressed throughout human territories are simultaneously breaking out, attempting to break their seals. The various Taiyi Immortal Kings have gone to suppress them and temporarily cannot send support!"
Xu Xuzi's expression changed.
Yao Xi chuckled, "Is no one coming? What about the support you mentioned?"
"Did you tamper with the demon seals?" Xu Xuzi's expression changed.
"This wasn't my doing. You're just unlucky!" Yao Xi wouldn't admit to this matter. She added, "I advise you to immediately send people to investigate my son's death and find the real murderer. For every day the murderer isn't found, I will continue slaughtering humans! When I want to kill, you can't stop me!"
Threat!
This was a blatant threat!
Yao Xi wanted to force the human race to search for her enemy with all their strength! Even her actions were meant to force the murderer to reveal themselves!
Xu Xuzi immediately contacted friends he had in other races.
At first, the responses were good, but when they learned it was a fire phoenix, they started making excuses. Those who agreed to come were only willing to send avatars to mediate.
Seeing this situation, Xu Xuzi couldn't help but curse inwardly, "These people talk sweetly as brothers and fellow daoists in ordinary times, but when something really happens, they all disappear!"
He cursed inwardly but didn't know how to handle this fire phoenix for the moment.
Beside him, the City Lord with peak Golden Immortal cultivation carefully said, "Elder, perhaps we should go to the Human Sacred Mountain in the city to seek guidance. Maybe we can ask the ancestors in seclusion to take action!"
Xu Xuzi glanced at him, looking toward the center of the city where there was a Human Sacred Mountain. Such sacred mountains basically existed in all major human cities. It wasn't that every city had one of these sacred mountains, but rather that the Human Sacred Mountain projected its image to cities throughout human territories.
When a city was in danger, the powerful experts in the Sacred Mountain could quickly travel to various places through these projections, unaffected by teleportation array restrictions. It was said this Sacred Mountain was a top-grade acquired spiritual treasure, one of the human race's foundational assets.
As a standing elder of the human race, he already knew that there were very few powerful experts in secluded cultivation within the Human Sacred Mountain. Those so-called hidden human ancestors were just talk to deceive other races and give humans some confidence.
But at this point, they could only try every possible remedy, no matter how unlikely to succeed.
"You go and make inquiries!" Xu Xuzi said.
The City Lord looked solemn, then immediately gathered most of the Immortal Realm cultivators in the city and came to the sacrificial square before the Sacred Mountain.
A large number of human cultivators gathered before the Sacred Mountain. The City Lord respectfully bowed toward the Sacred Mountain in worship:
"I, City Lord of Piaomiao City in Ningzhou of the human race, together with billions of residents, humbly request human experts to emerge and assist! Foreign enemies are running rampant in Piaomiao City. The city's forces truly cannot resist. Trillions of residents are in grave danger. We hope human ancestors will emerge! Save the people from fire and water!"
The City Lord bowed deeply, and many human cultivators also respectfully made their plea!
Countless cultivators raised burning incense, smoke filling the air and surging toward the Sacred Mountain.
Seeing this, Xu Xuzi also sighed inwardly and similarly bowed toward the Sacred Mountain.
Outside the city, the fire phoenix saw this and sneered repeatedly. What kind of goods were humans that she didn't understand?
If not for humanity's large population, making them one of the best cannon fodder races for the Immortal-Demon war, the various races would have allowed humans to survive intact—not because of any so-called human ancestors or powerful experts!
So she viewed this action with complete disdain.
However, just at that moment, light seemed to shine from the Sacred Mountain.
It seemed as if starlight was projected down from the sky.
Sensing the magical power fluctuations of a Taiyi Golden Immortal, Xu Xuzi immediately looked over and saw an unfamiliar human cultivator descending from the Sacred Mountain.
As one of the standing elders, there was actually a human Taiyi Golden Immortal he didn't recognize!