The reason the Theocrats had encountered such a dilemma was mainly due to arrogance, Autarch Qian included. Hadn’t he boldly left for the sake of the autarch beast’s recovery because he was sure of victory?
"Retreat! Return to the Sun-Moon Imperial Formation!”
"Fall back!”
Under Dongyang Yun's command, the imperial army finally withdrew.
However, the Decimo Dao Palace chased the routed army from behind. Li Wudi went deep into the enemy's forces, one man against thousands. Together with the Stilljade Legion, he intercepted the enemy's exit.
"Stop Li Wudi!”
The Dongyang brothers knew that Li Wudi was key. If they didn't get rid of him, there would be no retreat, and the disparity between the two sides would grow even greater. The two quickly approached Li Wudi.
"His transformation must consume a lot of saint ki. He’s slaughtered too many—we have a chance to kill him!” Dongyang Yun said with eager eyes.
"Let’s do it,” said Dongyang Ling, his voice deep.
As they approached Li Wudi, two figures—one old and the other young—suddenly appeared in front of them.
"Bai Mo!” Dongyang Ling and Dongyang Yun’s expression changed drastically.
“Have you completely given up on the Evil Suppression Formation?” Dongyang Yun realized that the dao palace would fight to win or die.
They glanced at Tianming, who stood next to Bai Mo.
"What should we do? With Bai Mo around, we can't deal with Li Wudi.” Dongyang Ling frowned.
"Li Tianming is clearly courting death. Who cares about Li Wudi? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kill Li Tianming. His life will force the dao palace into retreat!” Dongyang Yun said solemnly.
"This is our only hope. Who would’ve thought the Dao Palace would expose such a weakness. I’ll fight Bai Mo, you kill Li Tianming!” said Dongyang Ling.
"Alright!”
All they had to do was look at each other to know what the other was thinking. In an instant, Dongyang Ling dashed toward Bai Mo.
"Come on then!”
Moving to the left, Bai Mo divided the battlefield. Meanwhile, Dongyang Yun had already darted towards Tianming. Dongyang Yun abruptly stopped in front of Tianming and stared in disbelief. "Aren’t you going to run? ”
In his mind, this was simply outrageous. Tianming answered his question with the Grand-Orient Sword. Pulling out the sword, Tianming glared at Dongyang Yun, his gaze fiery. His gold and black eyes resembled two suns—the gold ablaze and the black gloomy. His three lifebound beasts killed their way to Tianming.
"What do you mean by this?” Dongyang Yun was taken aback.
"Autarch Yun.”
Addressing him by that title was a sort of mockery. His lips curled in a sinister smile. "I must take your head today!”
"What did you say?!” Dongyang Yun couldn't believe his ears.
"I said I’m going to send you to hell!”
Amused, Dongyang Yun sneered, "Are you just spouting nonsense to buy yourself some time? It's a pity I won’t be fooled. Just wait to be killed!”
Before his lifebound beast could make an appearance, he reached out to grab Tianming. But in that instant, a starry chain shot at him at a terrifying speed, transforming into a sky full of stars. It hit Dongyang Yun's arm before he could even see clearly what was happening.
A loud smack reverberated through the air.
"Ahh!"
Screaming, Dongyang Yun stumbled three steps backward and glanced at his hand. There was a bloody wound on his palm, through which the bone was visible. Two consecutive attacks followed, which Dongyang Yun was forced to dodge.
The Three-Thousand Starfield landed on the left side of his face, leaving a bloody gash in its wake. Even his teeth had fallen out. Dongyang Yun's eyes were completely bloodshot.
"How can you be an autarch with such little ability? Doesn't this mean that I, too, can be the Primeval Autarch?”
Tianming stood a distance away, his head raised slightly as he stared at Dongyang Yun with contempt. Now that a massacre was unfolding, the one who should have been most anxious was Dongyang Yun.
Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Dongyang Yun broke out in mad laughter.
"How interesting. With your speed of progress, it almost seems like the heavens specifically created you to destroy the Theocrats. It feels fated.” As he laughed, his three lifebound beasts, Bloodwinged Flamefiend Hydras, appeared beside him.
Each of his beasts was an eighth-order empyrean beast with three different attributes—blood, poison, and fire. They were mature, fierce, and evil, surging with murderous intent. When unfolded, their blood-red wings were astonishing.
"You’re overthinking things. Why would I be created solely for the Nineshades Clan? You think too highly of me. I’ll be honest, your entire clan isn’t worthy,” said Tianming.
"Oh, whether we’re worthy or not doesn't matter. For tens of thousands of years, there’s been hundreds of geniuses like you, claiming to punish us on behalf of the heavens, provoking us. People like Weisheng Yunxi and Li Muyang. You know better than me what their endings were,” Dongyang Yun sneered.
"I don't know. All I need to know is, all of you will die here today! I, Li Tianming, will use your flesh and blood as sacrifice to the tens of billions of innocent souls under the Divine Capital!”
Eyes red, Tianming fought fearlessly with his three lifebound beasts.
"Tens of billions?!” Dongyang Yun looked at him in disbelief and mocked, "You’re underestimating the Theocrats, aren’t you? Over the past tens of thousands of years, we’ve slaughtered at least hundreds of billions!”
In the depths of Tianming's eyes, a murderous intent soared!
Lan Huang charged forth, its enormous body slamming into the ground. The ripples from its ability caused vibrations in the earth. The land under its feet turned into an Azure Oceanic Purgatory and the waters rushed toward Dongyang Yun. The sea waters broke, forming a huge wave that crashed into the former autarch. The majestic wave instantly swept one man and three beasts into the water. Dongyang Yun was different from Dongyang An; his lifebound beasts were fire and poison types that didn’t work well with water.
"Trying to pull me into the water? Dream on!” Splitting the waves apart, Dongyang Yun and his three Bloodwinged Flamefiend Hydras were able to fly and fight in the air.
But just as they broke through the surface of the water, a starry chain suddenly appeared amidst the waves, entangling one of the Bloodwinged Flamefiend Hydras.
The Three-Thousand Starfield that could extend three kilometers was immediately wrapped around the Bloodwinged Flamefiend Hydra like a rice dumpling. The sharp chains sliced into its fiery red scales, drawing bloody gashes across its body. Furious, the gigantic beast was just about to smash the chain when a monstrous force emerged from the weapon.
"Get over here!”
Tianming and Lan Huang pulled the Three-Thousand Starfield toward the bottom of the sea. With the help of the oceanic energy, Lan Huang’s nine kui seas roiled and exploded with great power. The Bloodwinged Flamefiend Hydra in the air couldn't even flap its wings. Naturally, it could no longer remain in flight and was instantly sucked into the water by the enormous force. The giant beast crashed into the sea and water splashed everywhere.
At the sound of all that movement, Dongyang Yun looked down and shook with anger. His goal was to capture Tianming. Faced with such a situation, he was forced to chase his opponent with the other two Bloodwinged Flamefiend Hydras. Even if they weren’t on a favorable battlefield, there was no other way.
As soon as man and beasts headed down, yet another unexpected wave crashed into them. From the waters came countless blazing feathers that shot toward them. This was Ying Huo's ability, Skyscorch Featherblast.
The two Bloodwinged Flamefiend Hydras’ large bodies were instantly pierced by the feathers, covering them in bloody wounds. The Infernal Blaze on the feathers quickly burned its way into them. The two giant beasts screamed in pain.
"You’re asking for death!” Dongyang Yun locked on to Ying Huo.
Since Tianming had chosen to attack his lifebound beast, Dongyang Yun would hunt down Ying Huo. Besides, Ying Huo possessed fire properties, so it couldn't enter the depths of the sea.
Using the Theocrat’s most powerful empyrean sword art, the Nineoceanic Netherscape Sword, Dongyang Yun shot toward Ying Huo. This empyrean sword art had a total of nine moves, all of them lethal. With Firescape Sword, the power of Dongyang Yun’s weapon was volatile as spirits burst forth, like a flame from hell that penetrated the huge waves. The force of the sword swept toward Ying Huo.
"Hmph, are you trying to kill me?” Ying Huo chuckled. With its Infernal Haze, Ying Huo instantly split itself into ten thousand clones. Then, with a swish, it escaped.
For a while, it wasn’t clear which was its true body.
Dongyang Yun was stunned. Had he really been tricked by a chicken? Even if the little guy somewhat resembled a phoenix, its actions, expressions, and words made it a chicken!
"Your balls are already trembling before me!” All at once, ten thousand Ying Huos spoke in unison.
Of the two remaining Bloodwinged Flamefiend Hydras, one swooped into the water to rescue its companion while the other followed Dongyang Yun to intercept Ying Huo.
Nineshades Bloodflame!
Endless blood-red flames sprayed out of its eight heads and formed a huge sphere, enveloping all of Ying Huo’s Infernal Haze clones. As long as one’s flesh was contaminated with the Nineshades Bloodflame, they would be burned to ashes at once!
"You're dead!” Dongyang Yun darted into the bloodflames. As the flames shrank, he stabbed each and every figure with his sword.
"This chicken must be taken down as soon as possible. Li Tianming’s false bravado is completely reliant on the sea. The two hydras should be able to deal with him.”
Up to that point, Dongyang Yun still didn’t believe Tianming possessed the strength to confront him. There was nothing to fear, even if his two hydras were submerged in water. Ying Huo didn’t appear very strong, and could at most escape. But right now, it was toast.
"Using flames to trap me? So you look down on me?” Ying Huo laughed.
Protected within its Infernal Armor, Ying Huo opened a path through the bloodflames with four thousand strands of fire-type Invincible Sword Ki. Once again, it managed to escape.
Dongyang Yun vomited blood in fury.
"Arrogance will make you lose everything.” Ying Huo turned around, revealing a polished smile.
Dongyang Yun felt his blood run cold.