It was an all too familiar sensation. All the hairs on Longwei’s body started to stiffen as he felt the danger of extinction. Longwei only had a single moment to glance at the origin where his gaze clashed with the one who nearly killed him mere months ago. Longwei felt his phantom wounds aching just from that single look. But he didn’t have to ponder anymore as his body reactively dodged. But no matter how fast he moved, he was soon enveloped by a brilliant light.
Blinded, Longwei felt as if his whole body was encased within an electrical cage. Current snaked all over his body and lacerated with each second. The intent behind the lightning only amplified the burning wounds as it moved to corrode his very existence. Longwei could do nothing but activate every form of defensive technique he had to combat the power of Tianyi’s attack.
When the light died down, everyone’s vision returned.
“”Mister Longwei!/Big Brother Longwei/Longwei!!!””
Longwei’s women cried out in alarm at his ragged appearance.
Gone was the carefree and mighty air that emanated from Longwei. His robe was in tatters, and black blotches continually attacked his lacerations to the point that all blood that bled were disintegrated. Right now, there was only fury and hatred in his eyes as he glared at Tianyi. The women employed all sorts of healing and rejuvenation spells, but they only seemed to break down into qi and fuel the black blotches in their efforts, instead. Worried, the women forgot about the situation, and all clamored around Longwei.
“Enough!” Longwei said through gritted teeth. His head was ringing, and the women’s grating voices weren’t helping in any shape or form.
The women he brought with him were proud geniuses of their circles but compared to the talented descendants of the first-rate sects; they were lacking in many areas, not to mention those from the Heaven Continent’s sole hegemonic sect. Right now, they were nothing but a burden to the current him, especially after Tianyi’s attack.
“You go stand to the side,” Longwei ordered the reluctant women. Although unwilling, they all obeyed. They once had the capabilities to stand side by side with that man, but as he grew stronger at an increasingly monstrous speed, those women lost all their luster in comparison. Now, they only hoped to be able to chase his back.
“Good, good, you are very good, Xi Tianyi!” Anger and madness colored Longwei’s voice. His aura rose and sharp to the point that all the disciples who had been excitedly encircling him could not help but retreat.
Tianyi frowned as he had a bad premonition. Without wasting any time to speak useless words, he summoned numerous spears of black lightning with a flip of his hand. These spears had been imbued with his true qi of chaos and thus had the disintegration effect of chaos.
Si-la~~!
The spears soared through the air towards Longwei. Longwei stopped whatever he was about to say as he brandished his saber in his hand. He didn’t feel the same extinction and nemesis-like power within the spears, but it was already dangerously imbued with the power of chaos.
Longwei’s saber shone with golden light.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
The chaos lightning spears were all pulverized, each with a single swing of Longwei’s saber. Simultaneously, golden light began to shine from Longwei’s numerous wounds.
“GRAAaaaaahhhh!” Longwei unleashed a torrential roar that caused a circular shockwave to disseminate with him as the origin. The disciples of every sect still present, and Longwei’s women were all blown back by the powerful roar.
A clinking sound could be heard after the ensuing silence. Scale after scale, Longwei began to be covered in golden scales as his form morphed into that of a humanoid dragon. All this while, Longwei never stopped moving as he moved to strike down Tianyi’s endless chaos lightning spears. Longwei charged towards Tianyi, leaving turbulent wind behind him.
His saber gravitated towards the chaos lightning spears, and each swing of his saber destroying one or two or two lightning spears. But there was just too much as Tianyi increased the number of spears. But for those spears who passed through Longwei’s saber defense struck his golden scales. They dented or shattered the scales but never pierced into his body. And all areas the stray chaos lightning spears were non-vital areas that Longwei judged was acceptable.
In an instant, Longwei was before Tianyi with his saber raised. Tianyi’s reaction wasn’t slow either, as he had stopped generation his chaos lightning spears and unsheathed his sword instants before Longwei appeared before him.
CLANG!!!
Once again, the sword clashed against the saber.
Tianyi frowned as he felt himself being pushed back. After learning the Eight Strokes Word Art, his techniques have elevated onto another level, yet he was still inferior in this aspect to Longwei. Black gas started to surround Tianyi as his strength and speed increased monstrously.
Tianyi tore through the wind as he started to circle Longwei and attacked him from all sides. This was the previous tactic he used against Longwei. Even though Longwei’s strength and speed had increased, he was still unable to surpass Tianyi in speed. Although Tianyi couldn’t deal any actual damage to Longwei, Longwei was entirely hopeless against Tianyi’s speed.
“Enough! Do you only know how to use these petty tricks?” Longwei roared out.
Longwei swung his saber in a circular fashion and unleashed hundreds of saber qi around him like a condensed sphere. Tianyi had no choice but to retreat away, lest Longwei’s saber qi injure him. In this brief respite, Longwei unleashed a technique created by the Dragon Emperor, who in turn had revised a technique unique to the Buddhist Universe.
Dharmic Dragon – Three Heads, Six Arms!
Immediately two more faces grew from the sides of Lonwei’s head. On his right was the long jaw of a reptile with greedy eyes, two horns, and trailing whiskers, a dragon. On his left was that of a scale horse with a sole horn and pure eyes, a qilin. That wasn’t the end, as the name of the technique suggested. Two more pairs of arms grew out from Longwei’s shoulders for a total of six pairs of arms. Aside from the golden saber in one of Longwei’s arms, the other five pulled out a saber each, presumably from Longwei’s spatial ring.
Tianyi only took a moment of pause before he circled Longwei once more. But unlike before, Tianyi was unable to even land a nick on Longwei’s body. And in contrast, with each sword swing, Longwei’s retaliation became more and more dangerous. If he wasn’t careful, Tianyi would be injured. Tianyi could discern that not all the sabers were of the same quality. If he could break just one of the saber Artifacts, then Longwei’s attack momentum would decrease by a large portion. Tianyi’s idea was good, but before he could even create a nick on one of Longwei’s sabers, Longwei landed a saber slash on his body.
“Kuh!” Tianyi was knocked back several meters before he stabilized himself. His clothes were unharmed, but he could feel the white mark on his skin where Longwei struck. Tianyi only glanced at the mark for a moment before he smiled with bared fangs. He could tell that Longwei had already familiarized himself with his movement. Using the same tactic would no longer work, so Tianyi abandoned all defense like a mad man.
Charging with reckless abandon, Tianyi unleashed attack after attack like a berserker. But Tianyi calculated incorrectly. His berserker state only made it easier for Longwei to read and counter his attack.
Tianyi was knocked back once more, and the white mark on his body had taken a blood-red tint. Longwei had masterfully landed several saber strikes on the same spot where he had attacked before. Tianyi’s speed didn’t allow Longwe to gather strength behind his strikes. Thus he was unable to slice through Tianyi’s skin, unlike the surprise attack he unleashed during the spar the other day. Since he couldn’t do quality, Longwei chose to use quantity.
Tianyi retreated a fair distance away from Longwei and sheathed his sword. He took a deep breath before he enveloped himself with his inner cosmos. To outsiders, it appeared as if he had been consumed by frosty darkness-like miasma. As if ignoring the law of conversation of mass, the dark blob that was Tianyi began to grow and grow until it formed a giant that towered over mountains and seas. The giant had no color but absence instead. But countless motes of lights glittered throughout like the sea of stars and in the dantian of the giant was a giant black star orbited by eight golden stars.
The giant wore an imperial crown with regal dragon robes. On its back was a halo of the same substance that constructed the giant with numerous weapons from swords, spears, daggers, and axes to scissors, brushes, spindles, and needles attached to it.
Longwei’s felt his worldview being shaken as he saw the cosmos giant Tianyi formed. Rather than a technique performed by a Nascent Soul Grandmaster or Unity Venerable, it was closer to a construct created by a True Immortal. From the Qi Gathering Realm to the Transcending Mortality Realm, cultivators were still mortal and thus under the realm’s control. Because of this, mortal techniques all drew upon the power of heaven and earth from the realm.
But Tianyi’s cosmos giant was different. It did not touch the power of heaven and earth of the Huang Realm at all as if it was a separate world altogether. There was no fluctuation of spiritual qi, which meant that it was powered without the aid of the realm.
Longwei raised his guard as he faced the unknown.
The cosmos giant moved with speed, unbefitting its stature, arriving in front of Longwei in a blink of an eye. With a clenched fist, it struck toward Longwei. Longwei didn’t back down either as he struck out with all six sabers. The saber intent imbued within sliced through the cosmos giant’s fist, but it was like a little ant bite to a man. It itched and stung, but nothing worth mentioning. The fist landed onto Longwei’s body, causing him to spurt out copious amounts of blood from his mouth. It wasn’t just his scaled armor that had been cracked, but aberrations tore at Longwei’s internal organs.
“Hah!” Longwei roared as he used a secret technique to treat his injuries. However, it was only a stop-gap effort, and if he didn’t fully treat it later, then a hidden danger would be guaranteed. But Longwei didn’t care at this moment. He had an instinct that if he didn’t cut down Tianyi now, his future path would be in danger of destruction.
Longwei decided to gamble at this moment. A red light began to gather and envelop Longwei and drastically increased his explosive strength. The cosmos giant reached back with both hands and grabbed a sword in one hand and a spindle in another. The giant swung the hand with the spindle, and a string sprung out from it. The string became a net and covered the skies, intent on restraining Longwei. But the other hand wasn’t idle either as it swung the sword down as if it wanted to cleave heaven and earth apart.
Longwei charged forward, fearlessly. The golden saber intent in all six of his hands began to glow with an unprecedented light as if it wanted to replace the sun. With his first swing, the heaven-covering net and the giant’s hand holding the spindle were destroyed. At the same time, the saber shattered, and Longwei’s hand was unnaturally twisted. His hand had become crippled for the remainder of the fight. With his second swing, his saber clashed against the sword formed from true qi of chaos. After a stalemate of once second, the sword cracked in half before dissolving into black gas. But Longwei’s second arm had directly been destroyed, leaving him with only a stump.
But Longwei didn’t care as he charged towards the torso where the nine stars were and unleashed four simultaneous saber strikes filled with tyrannical intent as if he could destroy the realm as it wished. The cosmos giant stilled as if the world had frozen before exploding in a cataclysmic bang.
Darkness erupted and enveloped Longwei’s body, continually corroding away at his defense. He had spent almost all of his true qi to unleash that last attack and now only had a single saber left, one working arm, one twisted arm, and four stumps.
When the explosion caused by the destruction of the cosmos giant subsided, Longwei stood in the air among the rolling blackness. His golden scaled armor had been destroyed, his hair charred, and burns thoroughly covered his whole body. But a pair of shining eyes remained as he searched for traces of Tianyi.
As the chaotic gas disappeared like the morning fog, Tianyi appeared a distance away. His face was slightly pale but otherwise unharmed. But what sent alarm bells in Longwei’s head was the talisman in Tianyi’s hand. But Longwei had no more time to think as talisman activated. A heaven piercing sword qi appeared and soared towards Longwei.
Tianyi’s eyes shone brilliantly as he witnessed this, but they dulled when a familiar red light covered Longwei’s body. A red lotus filled with dragon qi materialized in front of Longwei and blocked the sword qi. The sword qi continuously ground away at the red lotus, but as if it had been trapped in a quagmire, the sword qi slowed down to a crawl.
Longwei felt sweat slide down his brows. If the Red Dragon Lotus hadn’t automatically activated, then he would have died! And the Red Dragon Lotus’s qi was being drained at an exponential rate. Without immortal qi, it would not last much longer. Although unwilling, Longwei could only salvage his losses and run away. He turned and brought out a carriage filled with relief sculptures of dragons and pulled by two qilin horses without any hesitation.
The carriage was an Immortal Artifact, including the two horses. Driving the carriage, he grabbed his women and soared off toward the entrance. And not a moment too soon as the Red Dragon Lotus finally expended all its power and returned to Longwei in a semi-dormant state.
At the same time, the sword qi, although heavily drained, pierced toward the carriage. Gritting his teeth, Longwei brought out Immortal qi stones and activated the defensive formation on the carriage. The carriage buckled under the sword qi but held firm. And not long after, it entered the passageway out of the inheritance grotto.
Longwei retrieved the treasure he used to seal the entrance along the way as the sword qi finally consumed all its power. But Longwei didn’t dare to lower his guard. He didn’t know if Tianyi had anymore talisman that could unleash attacks on the level of a True Immortal.
Just as he broke out of the passageway and prepared to escape, the pressure of an Immortal pressured him into place.
“SPAWN OF AOTIAN, DON’T THINK OF LEAVING WITH YOUR LIFE!!!”
The attacker was a True Immortal at the cusp of the Seamless Immortal Realm. She had an elfin stature with an adorably beautiful face, but her eyes shone with murderous light as she launched a fatal attack towards Longwei, who had escaped from the inheritance grotto, with all her strength.