Li Jiusi gripped his Spectral Mace tightly with both hands and used his Heavenly Will battle art, Abyssal Crush.
Li Tianming couldn’t risk taking the hit directly, for its Heavenly Will to shatter everything was terrifying. On the other hand, Li Jiusi was at a disadvantage when it came to speed, so Li Tianming could easily shake him off.
On the other side, Li Wusheng was a master of daggers, his weapon akin to Li Qingyu’s Crescent Spinblades. His grade-eight weapon was known as the Demonic Crescent Blade, and he held a total of ten of them! Each was like a bloody crescent prepared to harvest the souls of its enemies.
That wasn’t the only threat, as Tianming still had to face the Onyx Bugking’s Soulcrush Shriek, as well as the Onyx Bugqueen’s Venom Smog. While his Infernal Armor could temporarily repel the smog, it would still be able to enter his body should the armor be broken. When that happened, it would be up to the Prime Tower to protect him.
It was a tough fight for Li Tianming, facing a pair well-trained in fighting together. One of them excelled in melee while the other was a master of stealth, skilled in ambushes and sneak attacks.
But that didn’t dampen Tianming’s fighting spirit. He knew of his seniors and ancestors who had bled and wept on this very battlefield. A hundred generations of prime disciples had been defeated and shamed in their attempts to bring back the Grand-Orient Sword, and Li Tianming was determined to be the one who brought glory back to the Grand-Orient Sect!
“Today, a thousand years of defeat shall end! I will show the three hundred thousand Elysium disciples what the Grand-Orient Sect is capable of, and what the Li Saint Clan is truly made of!”
Li Tianming’s eyes were bloodshot, and his snow-like hair danced in the wind. With an infernal blaze in one eye and chaos lightning flickering in the other, his strength reached its peak.
Voidgod Sword Intent, Countercurrent!
Tianming parried the first stance of Li Wusheng’s Heavenly Will battle art, Twilight Soul Hunt, then counterattacked with Trivita Fiendfist’s Skyshaker. The punch collided directly with Li Jiusi’s Spectral Mace, Tianming unexpectedly using his own flesh to face a beastial weapon.
However, what was truly surprising was that Li Jiusi was the one who got knocked back in the exchange.
“Impossible!” As a beastmaster who prided himself on his strength, Li Jiusi was taken aback. Furthermore, Tianming’s arm seemed totally unharmed as he turned around to fend off Li Wusheng.
“Die!” Enraged, Li Jiusi used the second stance of his Abyssal Crush, Earth Fissure, and swung his hammer straight at Li Tianming’s head.
However, Tianming wasn’t caught off guard. As he drove back Li Wusheng with his sword, he turned around abruptly and threw out another punch.
Trivita Fiendfist, Godringer!
This attack was even crazier than the first, made with utter disregard for his life. As Li Tianming’s fist met the Spectral Mace, its power ripped the hammer out of Li Jiusi’s hand and sent it into the sky.
The absolute force behind the punch took Li Jiusi by surprise. Unbeknownst to him, this move was a saint-ranked battle art. Without his hammer, he was completely exposed before Tianming.
At the same time, Li Wusheng was forced to back away at least thirty meters from Li Tianming’s Starfall. In that instant, Li Jiusi caught the crazed look in Li Tianming’s eyes. He was like an unkillable madman, charging up once again with another punch.
Trivita Fiendfist, Cataclysm!
It was a move that was far beyond the previous two Fiendfists, and Li Tianming made use of this battle to finally understand the will of a crazed fiend. He had never succeeded before, as it wasn’t a mindset he could simply learn and absorb.
But now, he was a prime disciple, and they had lost for a thousand years. His drive to seek victory against these two powerful enemies had finally led him to understand the true will behind that heaven-defying punch. With that, he could finally unleash the true power of Cataclysm.
“Gahh!” Li Jiusi had no choice but to retaliate with a punch as well. It was the second heavenly-ranked battle art he had learned, the Demonic Void Strike. But it was still a move that he lacked experience in, and when it met Tianming’s Fiendfist, there could only be one outcome.
With a thundering crack, Li Tianming’s arm, which seemed like an infant’s in comparison, shattered Li Jiusi’s arm and bent it to an unnatural angle. There was nothing left to stop the punch and its power landed straight on Li Jiusi’s chest.
BANG!!
Even the beastial armor on Li Jiusi’s chest couldn’t lessen the impact as it dented inward. Li Jiusi’s face paled and his eyes bulged out. His massive figure was thrown into the air, then crashed back to the ground and formed a small crater.
His shriek could still be heard while he was in midair. But when he landed with a heavy thud and the sound of bones breaking, he completely stopped moving and lay there limply.
Li Jiusi had been defeated in the most humiliating manner possible, with no doubt left that he had stood no chance against Tianming.
Li Tianming had no clue how shocked the audience in the Elysium Battlefield would be by Li Jiusi’s defeat, because he was immediately facing another threat. Li Wusheng was approaching yet again, the flurry of his blades showing signs of a heavenly-ranked battle art. It would have been easy to block, if something else hadn’t stopped Li Tianming.
It was the Onyx Bugqueen standing right behind Li Wusheng. Its giant red eyes flickered at Li Tianming, causing a sharp pain in his eyes. Li Tianming could no longer see the trajectory of the blades as a mirage of illusions assaulted his mind. For a brief moment, he even caught the shocked looks of the audience. Their disbelief and dismay would normally have brought a grin to Li Tianming, but he was still facing mortal danger from the Demonic Crescent Blades.
The Realm War was no kid’s affair, and it went without saying that the participants were all elites of their own sects. Needless to say, fighting the two brothers simultaneously was already a tremendous feat, and Li Tianming had already proven his worth by defeating Li Jiusi. The danger he was in was a result of taking on multiple foes.
Those illusions were caused by the Onyx Bugqueen’s ability, Wraith’s Eye, a move as terrifying as the Soulcrush Shriek.
But they weren’t the only ones with lifebound beasts. Li Tianming had ordered Ying Huo and Meow Meow to deal with the Onyx Bugking in fear of its Soulcrush Shriek, and the shriek had turned into a pained cry moments before Li Jiusi was defeated. The Onyx Bugking had fallen.
“Don’t you dare touch my little bro!” Li Tianming heard a familiar voice belonging to the bad-tempered Ying Huo. Moments later, he heard the Onyx Bugqueen cry out and his vision returned to normal.
The first thing Li Tianming saw was Meow Meow biting the Onyx Bugqueen’s neck, pressing it against the ground as its claws tore into the bugqueen’s mouth. It had almost ripped the bugqueen’s jaws off, successfully stopping the Wraith’s Eye.
The very next moment, nine lightning snakes descended from the skies and struck the Onyx Bugqueen in its gaping mouth. With its movement restricted by Meow Meow, the Onyx Bugqueen could only spasm as lightning coursed through its body. Even though it was tough enough to not instantly explode, the larvae inside it had no chance of survival. When the lightning snakes finally disappeared, the Onyx Bugqueen collapsed to the ground with barely a breath left in it.
On the other side, the Onyx Bugking was also lying in a pool of blood after being assaulted by Ying Huo and Meow Meow.
As for Ying Huo, it was already approaching Li Wusheng from behind, who was still trying to kill Tianming. Too focused on the foe in front of him, he failed to notice the little chick.
Voidgod Sword Intent, Cosmic Break!
The strike pierced through Li Wusheng’s abdomen, causing him to scream in pain. As for Tianming, he was able to react in time and parry the Demonic Crescent Blades, saving him from an almost fatal attack.
Ying Huo was not one to show mercy, though, and it sent another three strikes piercing through Li Wusheng’s body. He collapsed right in front of Tianming, his trembling body completely covered in blood. Getting stabbed four times by Ying Huo wasn’t something he could endure.
“Ha, you idiot, you would’ve been killed without me. Can’t you give me a break?” Ying Huo smirked at Tianming as it crossed its wings on top of Li Wusheng’s head. It was rare for Ying Huo to be the one saving Li Tianming’s life, but that was because he had given his two beasts the easier job and tackled the most dangerous enemies alone. Of course, Ying Huo understood that as well, but it wouldn’t let a chance to laugh at Tianming slide.
If it weren’t for Ying Huo and Meow Meow, Tianming would have been in peril. But now, the two pairs of beastmaster and beast from the Onyx Sect were defeated, each of them in a worse state than the other.
“Screw off.” Li Tianming jokingly tossed a slap at Ying Huo, which it casually dodged. He then lifted Li Wusheng up. Li Jiusi was way too tall, so Tianming was forced to bully the shorter Li Wusheng, who was only a meter and half tall.
With four stab wounds on his body, Li Wusheng was already heavily wounded. When his eyes met Tianming’s, he couldn’t help but shudder.
“So, was that fun?” Li Tianming wiped a bloodstain off his face. However, it wasn’t his blood.
Li Wusheng took a quick glance around him, realizing that he somehow had the least injuries. Just thinking of what could happen to him later sent chills through his spines.
“I…I….” In his panic, Li Wusheng even bit his tongue and grimaced in pain.
“Didn’t you say that you have a dozen different ways to deal with me, and techniques that would make me regret being born? Now, why don’t you share your little tricks with me?” Tianming squeezed Li Wusheng’s neck, easily capable of snapping it at any moment.
“You may be stronger than we expected, but you’ll never dare to kill me, coward!” Li Wusheng cursed as he finally calmed down. He’d grown up in a harsh environment, which was why he could quickly recover mentally.
“Kill you? That won’t be very interesting. I prefer it nice and slow so that the audience outside can enjoy the show as well!” Li Tianming snickered, then threw him back onto the floor. Before he could utter a word, Li Tianming stabbed a sword straight into his mouth!
“AHH!” The scream was barely recognizable, and also the last thing that Li Wusheng was able to say. As Li Wusheng writhed about in pain, Li Tianming walked to the other side and sent Li Jiusi flying again with a kick. Just as Li Jiusi landed and regained consciousness, Li Tianming stabbed a sword into his mouth, too.
“GAH!” Li Jiusi joined in the screaming.
Once that was done, Li Tianming looked upward. He knew that Sikong Jiansheng from the Cloudmist Sword School was watching him, and cutting out the two brothers’ tongues was Tianming’s way of getting his vengeance. In fact, he would have loved to see Sikong Jiansheng’s expression as he turned the two onyx disciples into mutes.
Wasn’t their goal to slowly torture and shame Li Tianming and his friends? If so, then Tianming had his own plans as well. After getting the two wounded brothers to keep their lifebound beasts back into their lifebound spaces, he bound them with Archfiend and dragged them along with him. The thorns on Archfiend bit into their flesh, securing them in place.
Tianming knew this was nothing more than child’s play, compared to what the two could have done to him, but he felt it was sufficient. He was nowhere near as vicious as them, and that wasn’t his goal anyway.
But whatever the case, he knew that the three hundred thousand disciples from Heaven’s Elysium had a good view of it, and that was enough. Tianming set off once again, with two shrieking disciples and three black balls in tow!
“You two are just the appetizer. Soon enough, I’ll make sure all nine of you can have a joyful reunion on my Archfiend.”
As Tianming walked off into the distance, he wasn’t aware that the Elysium Battlefield had burst into chaos.