The wind whimpered in the sky, but was overwhelmed by the deafening crashing caused by the fighting between Master Sixth and Bai Li. Each blow exchanged contained force to rock mountains and drain seas, and the shockwaves shattered the air. Rifts filled the sky in the area above them, and occasional vortexes sprang up like black holes, sucking in everything around them. Angry bolts of lightning crackled left and right like thunderous dragons.
The combatants flickered back and forth on the field of battle, using minor teleportations as they engaged in close-quarters fighting.
Both fighters casually wielded tempests like divine abilities, unleashing deadly force. As for Bai Li, he was covered with countless swaying threadworms, each of them capable of forming magical symbols that would unleash mysterious lightning attacks on Master Sixth. If one could carefully examine the lightning bolts, it would be obvious that they were made up of innumerable threadworms. As they got close to Master Sixth, they exploded, creating frozen spatial rifts in the air. From a distance, those frozen rifts looked like countless white centipedes.
Master Sixth was equally impressive. Each wave of his hand caused an infinitude of weapons to appear, all of them deadly and bursting with baleful auras. They pulsed with heaven-destroying, earth-extinguishing power that could crush any obstacle. However, Bai Li’s cultivation base was on par with Master Sixth, so despite the fact that the latter had his amazing bottle gourd… Bai Li was not at a disadvantage. After all, Master Sixth was innately skilled at?forging equipment, not necessarily fighting with it.
Rumbling echoed out as Bai Li used a minor teleportation to get right in front of Master Sixth. Hand flashing in an incantation gesture, he sent blade light slicing through the air toward Master Sixth, leaving a huge rift behind it.
Expression flickering, Master Sixth backed up.
Seeing that, Bai Li burst into laughter. “You’re obviously a Nascent Soul cultivator from a backwater sect. You can’t kill me with those magical devices of yours. Maybe I don’t need to flee this fight after all. If I kill you, I can take that supreme-grade magical device. That’s an outcome I can accept.”
Bai Li hit his forehead, causing a tremor to pass through him. Then, a huge, horrific boil appeared on his back, filled with countless blood vessels, each of which contained a wriggling threadworm. As soon as it appeared, the boil exploded, and a plant burst out. It was fully nine meters long, allowing it to stretch over Bai Li’s head. It was blood-colored, with six sawtooth leaves, and a triangular floral disc at the end with thousands of swaying stamens!
Flowing through the plant like blood were unending magical symbols. An astonishingly holy aura surrounded the plant, spreading out in all directions with such power that Xu Qing’s eyes stung looking at it. It was the same with the Captain, except for the fact that a crazy look was now visible in his eyes.
“Godliness!!” the Captain murmured.
The plant was indeed emanating godliness. And it was strong godliness at that. As soon as the plant appeared, it seemed to look up at the bottle gourd and then shiver. A fierce wind kicked up, causing the stamens on the triangular floral disc to part, revealing… a vicious ghost face! It had evil crimson eyes, and was currently grinning viciously.
“Let’s see which is stronger, your supreme-grade magical device, or my Torchlight god seeds!” Bai Li threw his head back and laughed uproariously, then waved his hand, causing a handful of medicinal pills to fly out of his sleeve and up to the ghost face.
They weren’t complete pills, but rather, a set of half-completed pills. They weren’t made from any sort of medicinal plant, but instead, raw flesh and blood. Within each of the pills was the shadow of a deceased soul, all of which resembled young people. Obviously, they were the chosen disciples from various locales that had gone missing in recent years. After mercilessly killing them, Bai Li had used their flesh and blood to concoct medicinal pills, into which he inserted their souls. The pills weren’t for his own consumption. Instead, he was using them to feed this evil plant. As for the ‘god seeds’ he mentioned, he obviously needed a lot of them, and that was why he’d come out to the Forbidden Sea.
It would have been too dangerous to do this on the Revered Ancient mainland. But he obviously thought that, given his strength and abilities, he could handle any difficulties that popped up here.
As he continued to laugh, the plant gobbled up the medicinal pills, then looked up at Master Sixth and made a very unique sound.
“Ommmm!”
This was not any ordinary sound. It was an enchantment of some sort, and didn’t even seem like a single sound. Instead, it sounded like numerous voices merged together into something completely extraordinary.
.
Cracking sounds filled the dome of heaven as lightning bolts appeared, smashing down into the bottle gourd one after another. In only a few breaths of time, hundreds of thousands of crimson lightning bolts appeared, forming a massive magical symbol. The symbol was incredibly complex, and looked like a sealing mark. All of a sudden, the might of the bottle gourd faded into nothing.
After, Bai Li roared with cruel laughter and waved his hand yet again, causing a hulking figure to appear in midair. It was fully 300 meters tall, and resembled a gigantic praying mantis, pitch black, with front legs like razor-sharp sabers.
This was a battle form, and after it appeared, Bai Li fused with it. When that happened, the massive mantis’ eyes opened and it charged toward Master Sixth with blinding speed. The air shattered as it closed in, raising one saber-like leg in an attack. That saber attack seemed capable of completely vanquishing the enemy, and when Xu Qing saw it, he was stunned, and couldn’t help but think back to the saber move he’d seen in that temple. It wasn’t the same, but it was similar.
Master Sixth held nothing back to block the attack, yet was still shoved backward through the air, blood spraying out of his mouth. Even still, a grim smile covered his face, and the killing intent in his eyes burned just as hot as ever.
“I’m not that good at fighting, but… I’m still peaklord of the Sixth Peak in Seven Blood Eyes! And what I?am good at is… making magical devices. Especially big ones!!” With that, Master Sixth made a grasping motion in the direction of the Sixth Peak. “Come here!”
The Sixth Peak, which had been in the middle of assimilating Seastar Island, suddenly blurred. When it became clear again, it was right in front of Master Sixth. The mountain peak erupted with godly might. All of the magical devices thrummed to life, and the peak shot toward the gigantic mantis, bursting with blinding energy.
“Crush!”
All of the power of an entire mountain was being used to crush a single person!
Heaven-smashing, earth-extinguishing power swept out, making it impossible for the target to evade the blow. Bai Li’s expression flickered, and he began to tremble visibly as he looked at the mountain barreling toward him. Cracks spread out over his body, and his eyes turned bright red. Waving both of his saber-like forelegs out in front of him, he prepared to meet the attack, even though he was tiny compared to the massive mountain.
A massive boom rang out as the two smashed into each other. Master Sixth performed an incantation gesture then viciously shoved his hand down, causing the mountain to crush down onto Bai Li, pushing him toward Seastar Island.
More rumbling booms echoed out in all directions, and everything shook violently. Xu Qing and the Captain flew backward as Seastar Island started crumbling apart. Massive waves surged out everywhere.
“I’m going to assimilate you!” Master Sixth growled, his hair disheveled and his eyes shining with madness. Hands blurring through incantation gestures, he caused a sea of flames to erupt from the depths of the mountain.
“You assimilated my son. I’ll assimilate you!”
The mountain trembled as Bai Li, who was being crushed underneath it, struggled to free himself. A shocking power of godliness seeped out from beneath the mountain, along with animalistic roars. Then, to the absolute shock of Xu Qing and the Captain, the flaming mountain moved up slightly.
Bai Li was using the power of the early Nascent Soul stage to do this, clearly showing… that he deserved to be called a consummate chosen from his people. As the mountain edged upward, a mighty roar echoed out from underneath it. As Bai Li became visible, it became clear he wasn’t using his battle form, but instead, had fused with the evil plant.
It had a thick stalk, six sawtooth leaves, and countless swaying feelers. As Bai Li used it to lift the mountain, the triangular floral disc became visible, along with the vicious face within it.
The face was no longer obscure; it now looked exactly like Bai Li, and his red eyes flickered with astonishing godliness. Cackling, he said, “You might be good at equipment forging. But I’ve met a lot of cultivators like that. And the other ones weren’t just good at making things, they were good at using them. As for you, I think—”
Before he could finish speaking, a look of utter madness flickered in Master Sixth’s eyes, and he waved his hand. Instantly, a huge banner appeared overhead.
The banner was about 300 meters long, and as it flapped, it burst with colorful energy.
The banner seemed dilapidated, and was splattered with massive amounts of blood. However, it also pulsed with godliness. It looked like it had been passed down from a previous epoch, and had experienced the baptism of innumerable wars. The sensation of ancient time permeated it, and as it was unfurled, it caused the sky to change colors, and made the sun seem less brilliant.
For tens of thousands of kilometers around Seastar Island, countless living beings were shaken to their core. Even entities lurking at the seafloor opened their eyes in alarm.
What was especially noteworthy was that there was a drop of golden blood on the flag, which seemed to surpass ordinary godliness, and imparted a sensation very similar to the broken face of the god above.
It could look down on anything and everything! .𝘯𝘵
Apparently, this war banner had been used to slaughter countless godly entities, and innumerable powerful experts from various nonhuman species. As soon as Master Sixth pulled it out, a sensation of shocking brutality swept out to fill heaven and earth. The aura was so strong it locked down everything in the area, and caused all waves on the surface of the water to go still. This banner emanated a domineering aura that seemed capable of destroying everything and crushing all peoples.
Bai Li started shaking visibly, and his voice changed, becoming filled with terror and astonishment.
“The War Banner of Humankind? What’s that doing in a backwater place like this??”
1. The Chinese character here has a few definitions, but the one that applies here is: “the sound of a Buddhist incantation.”
2. The War Banner of Humankind previously appeared in