The Astral Winds were suppressed, and the Flesh Millstone dominated the battlefield.
But a moment later, Flowing Wind’s eyes radiated a divine light. “Tang Jie, you’re no match for me, no match! Nine Nether Fatal Strike, execute him!”
A yellow spring gushed out of the clouds, countless ghosts pouring out and rushing at Tang Jie.
“A killing curse of the Nine Nether Yellow Springs?” Tang Jie was surprised that Flowing Wind would cultivate a Ghost Dao spell art like this.
From what he knew, while the Vast Wilderness Continent didn’t completely ban the Ghost Dao, it didn’t particularly welcome it either, so most cultivators weren’t experts in this category of spell arts.
It had to be said that the Divine Connections capable of controlling life and death from the Ghost Dao were very tempting to cultivators, causing some cultivators to practice them in secret. He just hadn’t expected Flowing Wind to be one of them.
Now that he thought about it, it made sense. Fate was omnipresent, so it had some connection with the Ghost Dao. Thus, Fate cultivators had to understand it. However, understanding so much that one could summon the Nine Nether Yellow Springs was somewhat overdoing it.
Anyone else would be horrified by this art. Putting aside the countless ghosts within the Yellow Springs, the water alone was highly corrosive.
Tang Jie’s face simply twitched as he softly asked, “Are you sure my fortune is bad?”
As Tang Jie spoke, Little Three appeared and howled.
Hunter Ghosts were infamous throughout the Nether Domain, so much so that the Ghost Emperor had even commanded its subordinates to hunt them down. Unfortunately, Little Three was too hard to catch and didn’t enter the Nether Domain unless he was on a mission. For these ghosts emerging from the Yellow Springs, running into Little Three was basically delivering themselves to death’s door.
All of the ghosts immediately began to shriek in pain, many of them dissipating into nothingness. Only the few Ghost Kings among them managed to survive, but they were left trembling in fear, not daring to move.
Little Three waved his hand and flew into the Yellow Springs, traveling against the current and taking control of its source. As a result, this offshoot of the Nether River began to rush at Flowing Wind.
Flowing Wind hadn’t expected this, paling in fright and swiftly sending the Yellow Springs back.
It was a good thing that he was capable of doing this. Anyone else would have failed, and he still paid a heavy price in Immortal energy to do so.
The weather suddenly changed, crescent blades burning with flames and lightning falling from the heavens. Tang Jie had unleashed the Nine Heavens Calamity Blades!
Flowing Wind had to transform his Immortal energy into a giant net to defend himself.
The blades crashed into the net in a majestic rain of fire. In comparison, the battle against Mou Siming, despite his Starshatter Ring and formidable Divine Connections, and the addition of the old dragon and Flame Celestial Sovereign into the fray, seemed a little lacking.
The Fate Candle had burned down to a fifth of its original length, and no wind or rain could extinguish its flame.
Flowing Wind bitterly held on against the onslaught.
He snarled at Tang Jie, “Tang Jie, you’re a real talent, to have pushed me this far! But no matter how amazing your cultivation is, there is no avoiding your inevitable death!” Р
As he spoke, he mustered up everything he had to hold back Tang Jie.
Both of them were rapidly consuming their strength.
While Tang Jie could no longer use Dao Arts, Flowing Wind found it difficult to maintain his Divine Connections.
As they continued to fight, Tang Jie could no longer use the Flesh Millstone and Nine Heavens Calamity Blades and had to resort to inferior methods, though Flowing Wind was in no better a state.
The two fell all the way from peak Earth Immortal combat level down to ordinary Earth Immortal, and then Soul Projection, Deification, and Infant Tending!
Yet they still held nothing back, using whatever they had.
All tricks became meaningless, and pure strength became everything.
Both of them were at the ends of their ropes, neither able to do anything to the other, but the Fate Candle was reaching its end and about to burn out.
Flowing Wind loudly laughed. “Tang Jie, in the end, you’re no good! Your defeat is certain!”
“Is that so? I don’t share the same opinion,” Tang Jie chuckled.
As Tang Jie spoke, Flowing Wind sensed that something was wrong, an inexplicable sense of danger gripping his heart.
“Ah!” With a shout, he suddenly lunged forward, but he was too late, and a terrifying force slammed into him, almost pulverizing his body. Even though he swiftly circulated his mantra to protect his meridians, chunks of flesh still sloughed off his body, as this strike was so fierce that he couldn’t maintain his physical form.
Not only that, a hand suddenly emerged from nowhere and struck his hand, knocking the Fate Candle back into the Ocean of Fate.
Turning his head, he saw Xu Miaoran standing behind him, holding the Bejeweled Star Lord’s arm.
That final strike was the arm’s last mission, and it was dissolving into the wind.
“Shameless!” Flowing Wind understood what was going on the moment Xu Miaoran appeared.
The shameless Tang Jie had used a sneak attack!
With the old dragon and the Flame Celestial Sovereign there, Xu Miaoran’s presence or lack thereof had little effect. Xu Miaoran hadn’t moved only because she needed a better opportunity. Striking too early, when Flowing Wind was still strong, wouldn’t do much and might end up making her a target. Now was the ideal moment.
Tang Jie had been willing to put himself in danger for this chance and had made Xu Miaoran wait. Flowing Wind had mistaken this for success and focused everything on defense, giving Tang Jie space for his plan to work. Otherwise, with his peak Earth Immortal powers, he could pose a threat to Tang Jie even without the Fate-Burning Candle, and if he couldn’t kill Tang Jie, he could attack Xu Miaoran’s group and help Mou Siming break out.
Thus, Tang Jie had used a fair battle to hold him down and not give him a chance to interfere.
At this time, dealing with two Immortal Platform experts and two half-step Immortal Platform experts had Mou Siming on his knees, which also freed up Xu Miaoran at the perfect time for her to strike.
Flowing Wind was furious when he realized that Tang Jie had never intended to fight fairly.
Tang Jie smirked. “Who’s the shameless one here? An Immortal Platform expert with a Dao armament fighting a mere Soul Projection expert like me still can’t win, and you call me ‘shameless’? Any other Immortal would say that they were lowering themselves if they were fighting two Violet Palace experts, no?”
Flowing Wind was rendered speechless.
Yes, he was a peak Earth Immortal and was definitely the stronger party here, so even two versus one wasn’t excessive!
Even ten versus one would be fine!
But this wasn’t how things were calculated.
This was a True Lord who could kill Immortals!
But this also wasn’t right. Wouldn’t this be admitting that Tang Jie was strong enough that he could only rely on their difference in cultivation in order to win?
But his opponent had still found someone to launch a sneak attack, right?
So why would someone strong need to rely on a sneak attack?
The logic here was rather strange, and Flowing Wind was momentarily frozen as he tried to work his way through the problem.
Yet even someone as talented as him couldn’t make sense of it, so he decided to drop the matter, once more fishing for the Fate Candle.
This time, however, setting Tang Jie’s Fate Candle alight was no longer so easy.
Xu Miaoran’s Limitless ability wasn’t particularly strong, but it perfectly countered the Fate-Burning Candle.
The moment the candle appeared, her elegant hand appeared in the air and flicked it, causing it to vanish.
At the same time, Tang Jie threw out the Myriad Yin Yang Furnace.
He had no more energy, but the Myriad Yin Yang Furnace still had power.
It turned its energy on Flowing Wind.
This was the final card he had to play against Flowing Wind.
But Flowing Wind coldly laughed. “You think you were the only one holding back a card?”
As he spoke, he turned his hand over, and the Overflowing Heaven Mirror appeared.
The Overflowing Heaven Mirror was also a valuable Dao armament, but other than finding Tang Jie and seeking out his Fate Candle, it had not shown any other power.
Tang Jie had thought that this item was no longer useful in this battle.
However, when Flowing Wind took out the mirror, Tang Jie instantly felt a terrible danger.
A bone-chilling fear sprang from his heart and engulfed his entire being.
He immediately shouted, “Dodge!”
He shouted at Xu Miaoran, for the Overflowing Heaven Mirror was aimed at her.
But he was too slow, as a moment later, a hand reached out of the mirror.
It was a small hand as tender as a baby’s, thrusting a finger in Xu Miaoran’s direction.
“NO!” Tang Jie roared.
With this shout, the entire world trembled as if someone had pressed the “Pause” button.
The wind, clouds, torrents of spiritual energy, and people all stopped.
No, not “stopped”—”slowed down”.
Everyone had begun to move much more slowly.
Split-Second Youth!
But Split-Second Youth had a very weak effect on the finger, which stopped only briefly before continuing to thrust at Xu Miaoran.
This brief moment was enough for Tang Jie to step forward and activate Nearby Horizon!
He hugged Xu Miaoran and rolled away.
The finger brushed against Tang Jie’s body, and just a light touch was enough to make half of his body explode.
As Tang Jie was heavily injured, the effects of Split-Second Youth faded, and everyone returned to normal. The finger pursued Tang Jie, but Xu Miaoran held Tang Jie and used Limitless to get far away.
The finger seemed enraged at this failed assault, and it turned around and struck Tang Jie’s Fate Candle.
A stream of Fate power instantly caused the Fate Candle to burn into ashes.
“No!” Xu Miaoran shrieked.
Yet just when the candle was about to gutter out, a brilliant light emerged from its base, preventing the candle from burning down and pushing back the finger that sought to snuff it out.
“How could this be?” a voice brimming with disbelief resounded.
The finger could no longer maintain itself in the face of this life and withdrew into the mirror.
But the master of this finger was quite ruthless, at the same time calling back the Genesis Cloud, disappearing together with it through the mirror.
Crack! A long fissure appeared across the Overflowing Heaven Mirror.
Finally, Flowing Wind shuddered and began to plunge to the ground.