Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Run!
Tang Jie ran as fast as he could through the Celestial Flame Pagoda, moving through that vast space like a bolt of lightning as he made his way upward.
He had barely made it a few floors before hearing a rumbling from below and an intense shuddering. A giant arm penetrated through several floors and swung at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie turned and punched back at the statue's arm. This punch from the original body, strong enough to shatter mountains, sent the statue flying back.
Bang!
A flame lit up on the arm, turning into a massive fist that continued to chase Tang Jie. Just when it was about to make impact, a clear cry came from the back of Tang Jie's head, and the little firebird appeared, opening its mouth and sucking the flame up.
"Awooo!" The Flame Celestial Sovereign howled in fury.
But he knew that, until his original body arrived, it would be too difficult to deal with Tang Jie using flames, since his sacred flames had been stolen. He could only extinguish the flame and reach out at Tang Jie with the arm again.
Although it was only a statue, empowered by the Flame Celestial Sovereign's will, it possessed almost unstoppable power.
The steely fist blasted through walls and threw the surrounding spatial fabric into chaos.
It had to be understood that the Celestial Flame Pagoda contained its own dimension, and each floor was huge. Having the walls between them broken threw the space into chaos, and the compressed spaces that had been isolated from real space began to collapse into real space, the dimensions of the various floors beginning to overlap.
A strange scene began to play out within the Celestial Flame Pagoda, and someone outside of it would be able to clearly see what was going on inside of it. One could stand at one place and see one dimension from various angles, or various dimensions from one angle.
As the damage spread, the internal dimensions of the Celestial Flame Pagoda began to extend outward, going all the way to the vicinity of the Celestial Flame Arena. Two people fighting suddenly realized that they would occasionally be in the arena and then occasionally be inside the Celestial Flame Pagoda. The attacks they made would fly halfway across the arena before veering into the Celestial Flame Pagoda, so cultivators walking within the pagoda might suddenly be attacked, and they also might end up walking right into the arena.
The spectators were also not excluded. They extended their hands and watched them disappear and reappear far away on the other side.
But if they didn't pull their hands back in time, they would quickly find them severed by an abrupt spatial fissure.
Everything became eerie and bizarre, throwing the arena into chaos.
The internal chaos of the Celestial Flame Pagoda was instantly brought to the outside, and like a snowball rolling downhill, it picked up speed and grew larger and larger, spreading into the rest of the city.
But the culprit behind all this was still running around, evading pursuit.
Tang Jie continued to rush as space was destroyed around him.
If one looked carefully, one would find that everything was stable in front of Tang Jie, while behind him, chaotic space was chasing him like a frenzied beast. It was like every set of stairs he ascended would collapse into a dark abyss.
At the bottom of this abyss, the Flame Celestial Sovereign bellowed like a demon god: "It's useless! Your body contains my Pale Cloud Flame, so no matter where you go, you can't escape my palm!"
He ascended from the abyss, waving a giant arm.
One of his legs could now move, and he stepped off the platform.
"Is that so?" Tang Jie chuckled. As the arm swung down, a flame erupted from Tang Jie's right arm and swept toward the Flame Celestial Sovereign's arm.
The Deicide Flame!
Tang Jie found the heat from the Deicide Flame difficult for his body to endure, and the Pale Cloud Flame was losing its control over it. Thus, he decided to kill two birds with one stone and release the Deicide Flame.
A blue ember fell on the approaching arm, upon which the arm began to melt.
The Deicide Flame lived up to its reputation.
The Flame Celestial Sovereign let out a strange yelp and drew back his arm. At the same moment, he roared at the Deicide Flame. The flame flickered, and Tang Jie felt the flame breaking away from him. As the Flame Celestial Sovereign's actual body wasn't here, Tang Jie could counter the flames he used, but when Tang Jie used flames on the Flame Celestial Sovereign, the Flame Celestial Sovereign could do the same. Given the Flame Celestial Sovereign's specialty, he had far too many ways to take control of flames, and by releasing the Deicide Flame, Tang Jie had given him an opportunity.
As the Deicide Flame was pulled out of Tang Jie's body by the roar of the Flame Celestial Sovereign, Tang Jie bellowed and struck his right arm. Blood gushed out, and the Deicide Flame split into two, one half returning to Tang Jie's body and the other half flying toward the Flame Celestial Sovereign.
Tang Jie had made the bold decision to give up on half of the Deicide Flame to prevent the Flame Celestial Sovereign from taking all of it.
Of course, even if he was giving up on half of the Deicide Flame, he wouldn't let it fall into the hands of his foe. He threw out a mighty punch that blasted apart the Deicide Flame, sending countless embers raining down.
The blue embers fell on the statue, burning through everything they touched, melting its head and arm and leaving holes in its body.
"Awooo!" The Flame Celestial Sovereign crazily howled once more.
He couldn't control so many flames all at once, and the blue flames blazed all across his body.
As Tang Jie continued to flee upward, the Flame Celestial Sovereign finally got his other foot moving.
He looked up at the ascending Tang Jie and roared in fury, "You can't escape!"
The statue's two legs pushed off the ground, carrying him flying upward at Tang Jie, even as the statue was melting.
The flames were still burning, mercilessly destroying the statue that played host to the Flame Celestial Sovereign's will, but that heaven-obscuring hand continued to reach for Tang Jie.
As if Tang Jie had eyes at the back of his head, he suddenly lunged forward and then used the Chaoswind Step, appearing some distance away and making the Flame Celestial Sovereign miss, his hand striking the wall of the pagoda and making the entire place shudder.
Tang Jie looked back and smiled. "You're quite diligent about dismantling your own house."
Without stopping, he kept running upward.
"So long as I can kill you, what does dismantling the pagoda matter?" the Flame Celestial Sovereign roared, this sound infused with his Divine Will. Even the merged Tang Jie couldn't endure this, and his entire body froze for a brief moment. Fortunately, this was the attack of a projection. A Divine Will attack from the original body would have killed Tang Jie in both body and soul.
Knowing that he was in trouble, Tang Jie clenched his teeth and took out one of the Divine Stride Talismans he had taken from the treasury.
He stuck it to his body and began to fly through the floors as if there was nothing in his way.
Tang Jie was delighted to see that the talisman actually worked, so he stopped using the stairs and just flew straight upward. Behind him, the Flame Celestial Sovereign dismantled the pagoda as he gave chase.
From the outside, one could see that the lower levels of the Celestial Flame Pagoda had already been emptied out, and only that giant covered in blue flames was left, roaring and flailing its fists. But as it needed to break through walls and ceilings, it was much slower than Tang Jie.
The floating tower of the pagoda appeared before the entire city, flickering in and out of existence.
Xian Tao, Hong Yuan, and Xu Miaoran watched all this from a distance. Xian Tao said in shock, "Young Lady, could this be the work of the esteemed son-in-law?"
"Who else could it be?" Xu Miaoran replied, a smile on her lips. "As expected of my man, even pissing off the Flame Celestial Sovereign."
Xian Tao and Hong Yuan were speechless, thinking to themselves, Is that something to be proud of?
"Aren't you worried about the esteemed son-in-law being in danger?" Hong Yuan asked. "He seems to be in the pagoda. If this goes on, wouldn't he be a turtle in a jar?"
"I trust him! Since he dared to do it, he must have a way of escaping," Xu Miaoran answered. "Alright, enough spectating. Let's get back to work. Remember to clean up anything that could connect us to Tang Jie. Just because Tang Jie isn't around doesn't mean we can stop business."
At the same time, Tang Jie finally reached the ninth floor of the Celestial Flame Pagoda.
Xu Miaoran was right. He had dared to do this because he already had a plan to retreat.
The ninth floor of the Celestial Flame Pagoda was his retreat plan.
He was running upward for no reason except that there was a teleportation formation up there. Through there, he could freely go wherever he wanted.
But when he reached the ninth floor, he stopped.
Someone was standing in front of the teleportation formation.
Liu Qianyi.
Their eyes met, and Tang Jie's heart sank. He suddenly realized that she had seen through his entire plan.
But Liu Qianyi didn't rush up. She looked at Tang Jie and smiled.
Her eyes clearly conveyed her thoughts to him, as if they could speak: You really are alive.
She didn't come here to stop me, Tang Jie realized.
Liu Qianyi slowly stepped aside.
Tang Jie understood.
He rushed past her like a gust of wind.
As he passed Liu Qianyi, he said, "Thank you."
The smile on Liu Qianyi's face bloomed with endless satisfaction.
A moment later, Tang Jie was standing on the teleportation formation and activating it.
At the same time, the Flame Celestial Sovereign crashed his way through the floor with his fist and emerged.
Seeing Tang Jie on the teleportation formation, the Flame Celestial Sovereign finally realized what his plan was and shouted, "No!"
A giant hand reached for Tang Jie.
Tang Jie waved his hand at the Flame Celestial Sovereign. "Bye bye!"
In a flash of light, Tang Jie disappeared.
As Tang Jie vanished, the Flame Celestial Sovereign roared, "Don't even think about running!"
The Flame Celestial Sovereign punched at the teleportation formation with all his might, using sheer force to send his energy into the spatial passage.
Within the spatial passage, Tang Jie felt the space around him shudder, and amid fierce spatial turbulence, an abyssal black hole appeared in the straight spatial tunnel.
Unable to control himself, Tang Jie fell into that bottomless black hole.
Translator Notes
Tang Jie pulls off the heist? Alas, it doesn't seem like he pulled off a clean getaway.
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