“Don’t run, Flores Wanda! You’re a dignified cult leader, can’t you show a little more of a big villain’s demeanor? No? Come back, Sect Master Wanda, fire at me! Show me the same spirit you had when you grew eight arms just now!”
Wanda thought, if I were ten years younger, I might really have fallen for your provocation. However, I’m not just a mere Wanling Sect Master; I’ve already passed the age of youthful vigor, having conversed and laughed with some of the most mysterious, powerful, and mischievous individuals in this universe.
“What is there to be timid about in front of a rookie like me who only awakened a year ago and is, at most, a One Ring spiritual energy user?”
You? A One Ring? Who are you trying to fool? If you really only awakened a year ago, I must have grown up on Banlangen! Oh, right, I’ll take it with that idiot from intelligence when I get back!
“Now, you’re looking as panicked as a stray dog! Your entire family’s ancestral graves are smoking like wolves! Your mentor, the Thorn Witch, has all five of her mouths flowing with sad bodily fluids!”
…This is infuriating! But I won’t be provoked by you. Never mind smoking like wolves or flowing with pus! Even if it were emitting acidic mist and flowing with pus, I would never fall for your trick.
…Wait, what did he just say? Thorn Witch? How does he know my introductory mentor is the Thorn Witch?
Sect Master Wanda subconsciously paused, and in that instant, the spiritual energy concentrated into light waves, diffused by the Fa Fu'er Dragon Eye, transformed directly into a storm-like energy barrage, completely covering all the gaps in the entire passage.
Wanda exhausted all his tricks, constantly switching his body between phantoms and solid forms, finally managing to dodge all the energy impact patterns. However, the storm-like energy barrage seemed to have plowed the entire passage, kicking up a tremendous amount of dust. Even more terrifying, one or two pieces of what looked like rebar or wire sprang out from behind the peeled rock, directly hitting Wanda on the head.
After all, he was a Five Rings, so an attack that could instantly shatter an ordinary person’s head was really nothing. But such humiliation made Yu Lian, who was behind him, feel empathy.
Sect Master Wanda shivered three times, as if his back had been scraped by a wire brush; it shouldn't have been from pain, it must have been from anger.
“You can’t blame me for this.” Yu Lian waved his hand, and the Fa Fu'er Dragon Eye returned to his palm: “You managed to dodge so many barrages, but now you can’t even block a single piece of rebar, whose fault is that? But then again, this stone building, which is at least three or four thousand years old, actually has rebar; that’s clearly your demonic modification!”
“Is that my fault? This ancient city has been around for so long, it should have been preserved as an antique. But now, tens of thousands of people have poured in, eating, drinking, and relieving themselves here. If we don’t reinforce it with reinforced concrete structures, the entire city will collapse!”
“Well, that is a bit of a headache… No, isn’t that all your own doing? Mere rebels, instead of engaging in guerrilla warfare with the regular army, you insist on coming to a place like this to fight a defensive battle. I’ve never heard of rebels acting like you in my life! It’s one thing to stubbornly resist, but you insist on dragging such a large cultural relic to be buried with you! Even by the standards of cultists and terrorists, you are the lowest of the low!”
What can I do? Who told the Sero royal family to choose this Lumina Star’s geomatic node for their site back then? The reason Count Salwen could open the Mustard Seed World, the spiritual treasure vault, and suppress a Myriad-Headed Beast to guard his vault, was all thanks to the geomatic energy of this planet! If we want to fully unlock his secret treasure, don’t we just have to choose the same place?
Sect Master Wanda felt he had been truly wronged but couldn’t say anything.
In short, the two continued their verbal sparring while engaging in a relentless chase using various dazzling methods. The former had just etherealized into light, or the latter could directly condense a spiritual energy Field and send the opponent reeling. The latter had just used telekinesis to conjure an air cannonball and throw it, and the former, in turn, used the counter-impact to collapse a rock wall, creating an obstacle.
The energy sword qi unleashed by the Lightsaber and the deadly mist formed by the aura of death intertwined endlessly in this underground passage. Sect Master Wanda even occasionally summoned groups of scattered skeletons and flesh cannon fodder, who howled like ghosts and charged at Yu Lian, only to turn to ashes before the solar disk formed by the Lightsaber.
Although the two were in a chase, it was a high-quality spiritual energy battle. If there were ordinary spiritual energy users above Three Rings Present, they would surely be dazzled and feel like they were watching a textbook-level practical exercise.
But such a high-quality duel was quite physically demanding. Ten minutes later, both were somewhat exhausted and aching in their waists and kidneys, finally stopping at a collapsed exit.
“Hoo-hoo~~~ If I had cultivated for another year or two, you would have been killed by me at that crossroads just now.” Yu Lian gasped, adjusting his breathing rhythm, allowing spiritual energy to circulate in his sea of consciousness.
This cross-level challenge was indeed quite difficult; even though he had the Source of Life and Spiritual Vein Circulation, his HP and MP were definitely much higher than ordinary spiritual energy users, he was still dragged to the point of near exhaustion.
“Bah! If you gave me half a month to heal my injuries and adapt… I would have killed you when I first showed up!” Sect Master Wanda also said loudly, but a hand hidden behind his back formed a hand seal and pressed it against his back, enduring the pain, stimulating his cells to recover his physical strength and spiritual energy.
Yu Lian sneered without speaking, secretly gathering his strength.
He said earnestly, “I’m telling you, young man, you are indeed very talented, but you’ve gone astray! A truly accomplished transcendent won’t gloat over defeating an opponent who can’t fully display their strength. You still need to improve your knowledge and, more importantly, diligently temper your will and courage! Which of the masters throughout history didn’t reach the pinnacle only after facing life-and-death challenges? So, as an elder, I must remind you again, spiritual energy users have their own pride. So, are you willing to be a cultivator who strives forward and one day reaches the peak to see the scenery above the nebulae, or are you content to be lost in false victories?”
“So?” Yu Lian asked.
“So we should stop now. As a transcendent genius with a great future, you should wait for me to recover to my peak strength before challenging me again. At that time, I will also find a beautiful and worthy place for a battle, awaiting our decisive battle! My strength is superior to yours, but this time, I truly fled in front of you, leaving a fatal flaw in my spirit. And the future you will definitely be stronger than the Present you. Such a battle is a transcendent duel full of suspense and glory! If you win, you will ascend another level. If I win, I can mend the flaw in my spirit and start anew! Isn’t this worth us putting aside all worldly grievances and interests and preparing wholeheartedly for battle?”
Yu Lian stared at the other party with wide eyes, not because he was convinced, but because he genuinely couldn’t tell if the other party was serious or just trying to trick him.
He thought for a full ten seconds, then immediately drew his Lightsaber and pounced again.
Wanda wore a look of regret, sighing in pain and helplessness, raising his hand to conjure light, his body once again beginning to transform into a beam of light. This time, he didn’t flee but charged directly forward.
The collision between the Lightsaber and the light figure was unadorned, but only a fierce roar was heard, which immediately transformed into the most direct shockwave.
The already crumbling underground passage thus completely fulfilled its historical mission.
However, in the last second before the passage completely collapsed, Flores Wanda, using the reactionary force of the impact, once again etherealized into light and forcefully squeezed out through the cracks where the rocks were falling.
As soon as the light escaped the collapsing tunnel, it re-condensed into a human form, landing with a perfect splat in a spread-eagle pose.
He felt the moist night air on his face and saw the bright stars and the silver moon in the sky.
Sect Master Wanda knew he had reached the surface, or rather, the highest point of the entire Sero Ancient City, and the landmark that astonished archaeologists from various countries.
This was originally a towering mountain range. The ancient Lumina Sero royalty displayed almost show-off technology and power here, leveling the entire mountaintop, using human and animal-powered machines to draw in groundwater, and building a magnificent hanging garden here.
At the end of the hanging garden was a twenty-meter-high large stone tower, which was the famous observatory.
Standing on the top of the tower, one could overlook the entire city, and even the whole Sero Great Forest would be in sight.
However, the Sero Ancient City had now become a ruin. The enormous Myriad-Headed Beast was curled up in the center of the city square, motionless. Even those arrogant, hair-like dense beast heads were now prostrate within its body, no longer moving.
That guy isn’t dead, is he? Wanda thought, feeling a moment of sadness, like a rabbit grieving for a fox.
The warship in the sky might have been making the same guess, temporarily stopping its bombardment. However, she did not descend to confirm, but remained suspended more than ten thousand meters high, circling vigilantly, like an eagle observing its prey on the ground.
How pathetic! You are the mighty Myriad-Headed Beast Ogsola! Even planets are your prey. Although you just descended into the material world, although you were caught off guard by the bombardment, although you indeed lack the ability to counter warships… but you shouldn’t be beaten like this!
Sect Master Wanda was about to curse but then thought of something and almost burst into unrestrained laughter.
A natural disaster beast that, once it descends into the main world, can cause a world-ending catastrophe to a planet, yet is rendered helpless by merely demolishing a large area of ancient, dilapidated buildings—it sounds like an absurd punchline.
This Myriad-Headed Beast’s demonic life is a joke. Wasn’t his, Sect Master Wanda’s, meticulous effort to summon it back to the Present another joke?
Moreover, the Myriad-Headed Beast was only being beaten by a cruiser, but what about himself? Wasn’t he also being beaten by a “newcomer” who had only awakened for a year?
Wanda was now exhausted, aching all over, but he only lay in the garden for a few seconds before grimacing and standing up.
He pressed his temples, looking helplessly at the collapsed tunnel entrance in the rock wall.
A roaring sound came from there, as if an tireless, giant drill was trying to break through the confinement of the mountains.
Finally, with a deafening “boom” and a series of “clatter” of falling rocks and deforming mountain rock, Yu Lian, wearing power armor, forcefully squeezed out of the passage.
Sect Master Wanda’s eyelids twitched, and he pressed his temples, aching, saying, “This is endless! With your strength, even if you were buried in there, you wouldn’t die. Wouldn’t it be better to just wait for your companions to dig you out? I’ve already given you a way out, why don’t you appreciate it? Why do you have to put yourself through this?”
Indeed, Yu Lian’s current state was a bit disheveled. His once shiny and handsome Dragoon power armor now looked like a third-hand item dug out of a junkyard, its armor covered in stains, dents, and cracks, with electrical sparks occasionally flickering from its damaged joints.
After all, the collapse happened too quickly just now, even Yu Lian didn’t have time to use Field Shimmer.
Yu Lian gave a sarcastic laugh, took off his helmet, revealing a disheveled face, vaguely stained with blood. He didn't care, reaching out to directly open the outer shell of the Dragoon armor, holding his Lightsaber and Dragon Eye, and jumping out, covered in dust.
His current state was very much like someone who had just moved a thousand bricks from a construction site and then tripped over rebar, face-planting.
“…So, why bother with all this?”
Wanda shook his head: “Now, we are both injured, on the same level. What can you do?”
“Let me see… The little finger and ring finger of my right hand are broken, my left shoulder blade probably has a certain degree of fracture, and two ribs are broken. Oh, one of them seems to have already punctured my spleen. It’s nothing, just a superficial injury!” Yu Lian shrugged, the corners of his mouth widening more and more, finally turning into a wildly arrogant smile.
Sect Master Wanda looked at that extremely crazy sneer, feeling a chill run down his spine, and forced himself to say in a tone of regret, as if scolding someone for not living up to expectations: “As an elder, I still have to remind you… Never take your body for granted just because you’re young. Also, don’t think that gene therapy is omnipotent. We spiritual energy users, the stronger we become, the more we understand that no matter how advanced the technology used to cultivate limbs, they can never compare to our original bodies. The limbs bestowed upon us by the supreme universe spirit, how can they be replaced by mass-produced goods grown in machines?”
Yu Lian was noncommittal, his wild smile radiating a composed murderous aura, saying indifferently, “I know.”
“You know?”
“That’s why I’m currently using active cells to suppress the wounds, just waiting to kill you so I can advance another Ring.”
spiritual energy users all know that leveling up restores full health and status.
“Also, you have already forced yourself to elementalize many times, and it was the highest difficulty light beam transformation… Although you are a Five Rings, you are Pure and not Spirit Possession, so you are really not professional in this aspect. You were already mentally traumatized by the descent of the Myriad-Headed Beast, and now it should be even worse, right? Compared to the mental trauma, my injuries are truly just superficial.”
Wanda sighed silently. This was a completely watertight old fox, nowhere near an ambitious young genius!
Since all persuasion was futile against the enemy, what else could be done but fight?
Interestingly, when he decided to abandon all illusions and prepare for the struggle, he felt a burden lifted, and his aura rapidly increased instead.
Yu Lian looked at the other party, a hint of admiration flashing in his eyes for the first time, then licked his lips and sneered, “…So, only a prey like this won’t bore me too much!”
However, just as the second round of their true life-and-death duel was about to begin, breaking the stalemate was the Void Realm Behemoth lurking in the distance.
Woo~~~ Today I’m hungry