The whole area looked like an aftermath of a disaster, the ground split and gouged out everywhere to the point that it could be called a wasteland, and water turned crimson from blood flowing seemingly endlessly as if after a flood.
The sky still bore the heaviness and traces of a storm, only light drizzle reminding of a heavy downpour that had passed here.
And then there were Demonic Beast corpses, masses and masses of corpses, enough to be called a sea, and piled up to form large hills that took place of the ones of earth that disappeared.
Hong Yue gulped, standing frozen and unblinking at the edge of the plateau that remained the sa as it did before in contrast with the area around it, and looking with wide open eyes at the devastation brought about by one man.
Her mind was blank, still numb from shock, as images of what she saw before passed before her eyes.
With a simple raise of his hand, the ground split, and massive chunks of it rose into the air, stones of all sizes beca projectiles that pelted the Demonic Beasts, with the raise of another hand, the rising winds that brought clouds started whirlwinds that thrashed and thrown them, and the heavy rain that followed ford spears of water that showered the area.
And with weapons in both hands, his figure flickered across the area with speed even her trained eyes could not follow. The only things that could, were arcs of lightning and death that he left in his wake.
His primary targets were the Profound Grade Demonic Beasts that occasionally showed up among the wave, but it didn't an he left anything in his way unscathed.
Hong Yue felt a chill as her lips started muttering in a daze, "Rather than a battle, the word that would describe it better is one-sided…"
""...Slaughter""
Her voice overlapped with another. And she shook, turning to the side to see Fen Baihu who had a solemn expression on her face.
Her pink pupils, looking down at the scenery were slightly shaking as well.
'As I thought… no matter how kind and gentle, calm and collected or friendly and nonchalant he may seem… that man is without a doubt the God of Slaughter… only now, it seems he is even more dangerous', Fen Baihu gulped as well, realizing that she may have been lulled into forgetting who Wu Long was by his rather ta behavior and goodwill he displayed to her.
But of course, despite that display of devastation, the Demonic Beast wave was far too wide, and too nurous for him to have held it entirely on his own.
It was plain to see that without specifically concentrating on so distant place and instead continuously unleashing his powers in a sowhat haphazard way around him, the area he could manipulate elents in was limited, and even the total volu of earth and water he moved around and controlled at any given mont was not exceeding a certain limit at any ti during the fight.
If they tried to describe it, it was like there were several concentric circles around Wu Long's position at any given ti, moving with him when he moved. The area in the radius of the first 10 ters imdiately around him was an absolute death zone, where no living creature lived. Only if it was a 2nd-tier Profound Grade Demonic Beast, only 7 of which were present in the entire wave, it could last a bit longer, but would ultimately not take him more than a minute to cut down.
The second 40 ters after was still fatal for most, but 1st-tier Profound Grade Demonic Beasts could still survive in that area. The third area spanning 50 ters from the border of the last one was where even Mortal Grade Demonic Beasts, as long as they were of 8th-9th tier could occasionally survive. Past that, for 100 more ters his attacks were only effective against the lower-tiered Mortal Grade Demonic Beasts.
And while it was an astonishing reach and deadliness for a single cultivator who was technically still in Core Reformation Realm, there was no way he could defend a vast area of several kiloters around the plateau with the Demonic Beast wave spread across it and continuously pouring in without darting from one end to another at the highest speed.
Not to ntion that defense was not really his area of expertise.
He was far more suited to rushing into the midst of enemies and wreaking havoc instead of defending a relatively large area.
Not to ntion that such constant sweeping movent from one end to the other would require for him to not prioritize Profound Grade Demonic Beasts, and at the end of the day, it was plainly generally inefficient.
Thus, three hundred more of the Frozen Garden Palace mbers and sa number of monks of the Brilliant Sun Temple, Cao i's Liugwei rcenaries and Cao Xiang's Liugwei Escort Agency fighters led by the two of them, as well as General Feng's entire legion fought in a defensive line ford around the edge of the plateau, using it like a natural fortress.
While Hong Yue and Feng Baihu were looking on with astonishnt that bordered on light fear, there was another beauty to the side of them whose cheeks were reddened, while her breathing was faster and slightly rougher, and whose crimson eyes were gleaming with so kind of strong feeling as they reflected a man standing among that devastated scenery.
anwhile, Wu Long was in deep thought, the scenes from the battle before flashing before his eyes as well, but for a different reason.
"As I thought… this is a bit problematic…", he muttered to himself as he recalled the sensation amid fighting.
He knew right away that while he managed to maintain his consciousness with the help of the new Celestial Core, it did not an he was completely back to the way before he acquired the Celestial Fox bloodline.
His mind was still to an extent hazy, as his perspective was slightly different from the way it was before, and his concentration was dulled and dispersed, resulting in weaker control over the Dao Runes and general reflexes. He purposefully pushed his limits by using Water, Wind, Lightning and even the relatively unfamiliar Earth elents all at the sa ti, while fighting in close combat and using Spiritual Qi techniques for mid-range attacks, and even adding Weapon Intent to his attacks and using talismans and arrays constructed with talismans.
It was all in hopes of bringing his mind back into focus.
After all, a battlefield was one of the more extre environnts that usually activated his senses and made him more alert.
His idea was that by cranking up his thought process in such a setting and forcing his mind to the limits, it would allow him to finally regain a part of his concentration that was still dispersed.
And yet, he was unable to achieve his goal, and his mind did not beco any clearer. Perhaps the only salvation was that there was no sign of such strenuous use of his mind being in any way detrintal, and that no deterioration of the situation was anticipated from this attempt.
Thus, while Hong Yue and Fen Baihu were wondering how could soone unleash such disastrous onslaught, Wu Long was sulking that he couldn't exhibit more than 70% of his full capabilities.
And at the mont he didn't see any definite way to improve that situation.
"Hmm, on the other note… it seems that Earth Rune is still not quite ready for serious use…", he muttered switching his analysis to a more productive avenue for the mont, which was to evaluate his present situation in other aspects, 'even if my current condition was taken into consideration, at most I can do is just move around lumps, even if quite substantial ones, of earth, and move around stones. I am unable to substantially harden the forr or soften the latter to manipulate it. The control is still clunky at best as well…'
While water was naturally plastic and freely shifting shape, wind and electricity not having a certain form at all, earth had a static nature to it, that naturally defied change in shape. And yet, while watching the now dead squad leader of the Seven Scars Guild fight earlier, Wu Long saw him harden earth into density that made them no different from rocks, and construct shapes to use in defense or offence.
Besides, among countless Earth attribute cultivators he ever saw, he never saw anyone struggling to do the sa feats.
At so point across his long life he beca so accustod to it, that it did not occur to him before actually trying it himself that it was not the natural behavior of Earth as an elent in nature.
After all, his Dao Runes had certain differences with the Elental Attributes of normal cultivators, one of the key points of difference being understanding and comprehension of how the phenona he tried to achieve worked. While cultivators naturally born with and later awakening Elental Attributes did not necessarily need to contemplate how exactly do they cause the Elents they control to behave in the way that they do, their Spiritual Qi just naturally possessing the ability to manipulate whatever Elent they have affinity with, Wu Long had to know exactly how to control the Elental Qi and what process took place for even the smallest manipulation.
Simply compressing Water Qi did not give an effect of compressed water, and similarly giving his Elental Qi produced with the Dao Rune any other characteristic did not guarantee that the Elent he controlled would gain that characteristic.
"Wind is lacking for the mont as well, not as much as Earth, but its uses are still quite limited as well, Water and Lightning are for the mont the ones I am most proficient with…", he continued reflecting upon the skills he used in the fight.
'But I suppose it's a good thing I tested out how far do my elental powers stretch if I release them without specifically concentrating on sothing', a light smirk touched his lips as he found at least a slim silver lining.
Just like when he sank ships during the Carnage of the Northern Sea around the Brilliant Sun Temple's island, he was able to manipulate Water and Lightning at quite a far distance away, the difference was that he was specifically concentrating on distant spots instead of unleashing attacks in a large area like he was in this fight with the Demonic Beasts.
But he had to test how far he could unleash a massive number of indiscriminate attacks in an area during actual battle while having to balance other things, so he used this opportunity to check it.
'Though it is a little bit regretful I wasn't able to test it for Lightning, which is perhaps the deadliest of them…', he then thought.
If he used Lightning, and especially if he used Annihilation Lightning, his area of influence would no doubt be much wider, and even more deadly, but he would have damaged the Demonic Beast corpses. And that would defeat the purpose of fighting this Demonic Wave in the first place.
After all, while he did use it to test out so things and also try to recover his concentration and state of mind, the main reason he decided to face this Demonic Beast wave was because this was a treasure trove that the Soaring Feather Trading Company could use to jumpstart their business in the Boundless Profound World. Otherwise he would have simply left the area before the wave arrived at the plateau.
"Heh, Fen Baihu, if you will…" Wu Long then turned, finding with his gaze a beauty with fox ears and eight tails standing at the edge of the plateau and grinned.
"Haa~, and soone was worried about overworking … it seems I was too naive to think that would an you would be more modest in making more requests…", her somber expression eased into a wry smile as she sighed, shaking her head, and right after, a mysterious-looking mist started slowly enveloping the area.
After it completely covered the region, it started dissipating just like it appeared, disappearing without a trace.
But as the area gradually cleared, it beca apparent that sothing was different, all of the Demonic Beast corpses were gone, leaving the area battered but completely empty.
The mist also spirited away all of the reinforcents that Wu Long brought out in order to efficiently deal with the Demonic Beast Wave in the shortest ti possible, in order to finish everything before anyone could arrive. Even with concealing formations, it was hard to hide what happened in this massive of an area for too long.
As the last of the mist cleared, only Lian Zhiqiu, Hong twins, Cao mother and daughter who ca out to command their people, and Fen Baihu remained on the plateau, soon joined by Wu Long.
And just like that, the calamity that struck this region disappeared without a trace.
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