Chapter 178: Yuán Lán
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The very presence of the man was sothing that instinctively made the creature tremble, but when it noticed the incredible speed at which his cultivation base had risen, it understood that there was no longer any ti to hesitate.
Either it escaped now, or it would have to fight for its life, with a good chance of dying.
The creature might have lost part of its original strength after being sealed away for so long, but that didn’t apply to its mories.
It still clearly rembered the crushing way in which it had been defeated at its peak, and the person who had reduced it to that state was none other than the man standing before it.
Thus, the mont it saw the man’s apparent strength jump from that of a re Body Tempering cultivator to the Nascent Soul stage in the blink of an eye, it realized it could no longer delay.
Imdiately, the creature opened its enormous jaws and began preparing its attack once more. This ti, however, it didn’t release it imdiately; instead, it kept it suspended before its gaping mouth, continuously gathering energy as the glowing sphere ford and grew before slowly shrinking in on itself.
The beast intended to put everything it had into this attack, condensing its energy to the utmost limit, until it reached a point where it could no longer hold it back. If it continued any further, it would only trigger the explosion prematurely.
And that was exactly what it intended to do.
It gathered a little more energy, and then, without hesitation, closed its mouth.
A dull sound echoed, and the beast’s jaws visibly distorted, bending like rubber. But it didn’t seem to care. Instead, as soon as that happened, it locked its aim on the man, who had already noticed its attack but still stood there calmly. Without hesitation, he opened his mouth, creating a path for the chaotic energy that burst forth from within.
The instant it found an exit, it shot forward like lightning, reaching the man in the blink of an eye.
Boom!
The strike was swift and precise. Another massive explosion of energy erupted, expanding rapidly until it reached a diater of over a hundred ters, an incandescent crimson sphere forming in the air and continuing to grow.
Seeing this, the creature seed ecstatic, as if it hadn’t expected it to be over in one blow, but satisfied nonetheless.
Its satisfaction, however, was short lived. The next mont, an invisible pressure fell upon the area, and the center of the massive explosion began to glow yellow.
Then, a voice echoed, calm, yet dangerous in its coldness.
"Blood demon."
As if those words had triggered an unseen phenonon, the core that had continuously absorbed the red mist began to tremble as it glowed. Within it, a barely perceptible shape started to form.
It seed malleable, like thick liquid twisting and contorting again and again until it began to take shape.
It stretched out, separating into thin lines that ford what could only be described as long, slender legs. Two other limbs extended further and further, ending in long, razor sharp claws.
Then, rising higher, a head began to take shape.
Soon after, a horizontal crack opened across it, as though the face itself were splitting apart, forming what appeared to be a huge, fanged mouth that stretched beyond the normal bounds of a face. Apart from that, no eyes, nose, or ears ford, only the mouth.
The creature’s form, born in the crimson red core within the man, was faint, no more than a dark silhouette.
Yet, though its figure was vague, its presence was anything but weak.
A powerful, sinister pressure descended upon the area, and the creature, who had been arrogant until monts ago, suddenly grew serious as it realized that its attack hadn’t eliminated the man.
Understanding this, it twisted its massive serpentine body and tried to soar upward, as if it could fly beyond the clouds and escape this ruined place.
"Where do you think you’re going?" a distant voice resonated, low but clear in its ears.
Before it could react, sothing invisible seed to grab hold of it, and before it could respond, it was violently hurled downward.
The speed of its fall was terrifying. When its massive body struck the ground, the earth trembled violently, cracking open in a long fissure and sinking deeply, forming a vast crater with the creature at its center.
Forced down against its will, the beast lifted its enormous body and roared in fury, the light of reason dimming in its eyes as an ever growing glint of rage and malice took its place.
But the instant it raised its gaze, it saw the invisible presence that had slamd it down, and its body visibly trembled.
High above, where the enormous energy sphere from its earlier attack had once been, now stood the man, completely unscathed, wearing his usual calm expression as if nothing in the world could shake him. Yet, there was sothing different now, sothing not about his aura, but about his very presence.
It seed to have taken form, condensed into a being.
It was translucent, nearly invisible, yet perceptible.
Its silhouette stood perhaps five ters tall, a lean but strangely well defined body, with solid, sculpted muscles laid bare across its chest, as if ready to unleash imnse power. Its legs were long, as were its arms, wrapped in frayed bandages that floated slightly in the air, extending beyond the waist and reaching its knees, ending in long, sharp claws.
Though faint, its form could still be seen to so degree.
It had no defined face, nothing but a mouth, curved upward in a long grin that revealed sharp, gleaming teeth beneath its lips.
The condensed being’s presence was suffocating, but beyond that, the creature below could feel the malice contained within, it far surpassed even its own.
It didn’t know why, but the demon’s very presence made it instinctively want to bow its head and submit.
Seeing the creature’s tense, wary reaction below, the man smiled and spoke,
"You can sense it, can’t you? That feeling of dominance, of submission, as if you can’t go against him?"
"You may be close to the peak of the Spirit Realm," he said with a restrained laugh, "but you’re still just a lesser demon."
The creature didn’t speak his language, yet it could guess his aning.
Beings who had reached the Spirit Realm could communicate not with words, but through intent, and in that mont, the creature could easily grasp what the man just said.
That seed to strike a nerve, and the creature lost what little reason it had left, roaring as it shot upward, hurling itself toward the man.
The man, however, didn’t seem worried. Seeing the beast’s movent, his grin widened even further.
"Let’s see how you do against one of your own kind," he said, and as if triggered by his words, the being condensed around him seed to co to life. Its twisted smile grew even broader, and a dark crimson aura enveloped it.
It engulfed the being completely and, without hesitation, shot forward toward the charging serpentine creature.
The two t midair. The serpentine creature., surrounded by a dark mist, opened its vast jaws that shone with an intense black light and lunged toward the smaller being before it.
The being didn’t react, and in the next instant, it was swallowed whole.
Yet the man didn’t seem concerned. He simply watched calmly as the serpentine creature finished swallowing his summoned entity.
The creature thought it could contain the being it had devoured, but that was not the case, and what happened next proved it.
Its eyes bulged as its massive body began to convulse violently.
The creature that had sought to destroy the entity within now roared in agony as violent tremors coursed through it from within.
It continued for so ti before part of its abdon suddenly swelled, and exploded, leaving behind a massive hole.
From it erged the translucent figure of the devoured being, still wearing that sa twisted grin.
It turned its gaze toward the serpentine creature, which had tried to retreat quickly, but in the next instant vanished from its position and reappeared right in front of it, one claw raised high.
If the creature thought that the earlier tornt had been brutal, then what followed surpassed anything it, or any Spirit Realm being, could imagine.
The battle that had begun with both sides burning with energy and killing intent ended in the overwhelming defeat of one, who now lay buried deep within the shattered earth, breathing its last.
It lay within the sa crater ford during its last fall, but now it was far deeper, wider, fractured beyond all limits, with signs of devastation everywhere. Worse still, pieces of the mutilated parts of the creature were scattered in every direction.
High above, the man who had watched the brutal execution showed little concern. To him, it was a re temporary spectacle. Ignoring it, he turned his attention toward the woman behind him, who had kept her distance the entire ti.
He looked at her, and finally, his face showed a small, light, yet sincere smile.
"It’s been a long ti, Yuán Lán."
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