Another volley of attacks landed upon Yao Shen’s soul, a few of the elders having recovered enough to muster a response. The attacks unsurprisingly failed to pierce his soul’s defence, eliciting an irritated frown from Yao Shen as his temper started to flare up again.
His figure blurred as he charged towards the elders who had attracted his ire, his imposing fra blitzing forth with surprising agility as he rapidly closed the distance. A aged elder dressed in vibrant red robes stood at the forefront of his ambushers, a sleek tallic spear with a red crystal tip held in combat stance as his gaze fell upon Yao Shen’s nacing visage. The elder’s grip upon the spear lightly trembled, likely still suffering from the aftermath of his divine sense attack— yet there was no trace of weakness to be found within his firm, unyielding gaze.
There was a montary lull as Yao Shen drew closer with each passing breath, while the elder conveyed his commands to the five cultivators who had attacked him in unison— two belonging to the Sacred Fla Palace, three to the Divine Mountain Sect. It did not escape Yao Shen how naturally the mbers of the two rival sects cooperated in face of a greater threat, deferring authority to the most experienced among themselves without any scruples.
The tip of the elder’s spear blazed to life, the red crystal that ford the spear-point glowing brighter as it amplified the effects of his fire qi. Soon, a searing hot, roiling fla had enveloped the upper haft of the spear, before he kicked off the ground— sending himself careening in Yao Shen’s direction with incredible velocity, the spear aid right for his exposed neck.
The two remaining elders from the Sacred Fla Palace took to the skies, their weapons drawn as they positioned themselves for a pincer attack. One of the Elders from the Divine Mountain Sect chanelled his Earth Qi, before projecting it outward until it had ford a earthen halo around his figure. The ground beneath the Elder appeared to shift as it made contact with his halo, the packed soil suddenly exhibiting the viscosity of a liquid as it allowed him to recede into the very earth itself. A few seconds later, the soil reverted to its previous state— leaving behind no traces of the Elder’s presence.
The remaining two elders from the Divine Mountain Sect did not employ such an ostentatious thod, simply drawing their weapons before joining the spear-wielding elder in his charge.
Surprise flashed in Yao Shen’s eyes when he saw the elder’s choice to directly confront him instead of stalling for ti, but he welcod their decision. A jolt of excitent coursed through him at the thought of the upcoming confrontation, and in his current emotional state he would not shy away from a challenge.
Yao Shen chose to maintain his current pace, a small smile forming on his lips as he charged headlong into the fray.
The Elder remained unfazed at the veritable giant barelling forth in his direction, adamantly continuing on a collision course with Yao Shen— perhaps attributing his recklessness to the instability brought on by his soul form. The vortex of flas originating from the tip of his spear grew wilder as the elder’s silhouette arced through the air, hurtling forward at almost peak-nascent soul level speeds. The distance between the two parties rapidly evaporated, until only a few ters separated the Elder’s spear from making impact.
The Elder had invested a majority of his Fire Qi reserves in this attack, and both the density and potency of the flas had been amplified by his Peak-Grade Nascent Soul Artifact— his understanding of the Soul Emperor stage dictated that not even Yao Shen should remain unscathed in face of such a destructive attack. Hence his perplexion, when Yao Shen made no attempt to evade despite only five ters separating the two.
The elder's prideful, dignified expression shifted to one of abject horror when he realised that his montum had simply stilled. For a long second, the elder remained suspended mid-air, his grip on the spear remaining firm, yet remaining unable to make it budge in the slightest. His gaze slowly inched downwards, his expression paling when he noticed the spectral hand firmly holding the spear in place— the flaming tip rely a ter from piercing Yao Shen's throat, yet unable to take the final step regardless of how much strength he exerted.
The smile on Yao Shen's face grew wider, deriving satisfaction from the Elder's horrified expression. He would never attempt such a risky maneuver in his physical body, but in his soul form his control over divine sense had heightened his perception to such a degree that the elder's attack was simply…
"Too slow," Yao Shen softly whispered while the Elder was in earshot, before landing a palm strike on the Elder's chest that carried a concentrated blast of divine sense, impacting directly against his Nascent Soul. The wide-eyed elder gave Yao Shen a final look of incomprehension as his grip over his spear slipped, sending him tumbling back for tens of li before he lost consciousness.
The two Elders from the Divine Mountain Sect who had been trailing behind the Sacred Fla Palace Elder in his frontal assault shared a grim countenance upon witnessing his ferocious attack being neutralized with such ease. However, they were not entirely unprepared for such an outco, imdiately abandoning their charge and instead choosing to flank Yao Shen from both sides. rely monts after Yao Shen had dispatched the first Elder, the two elders stood facing him from diatrically opposite directions.
The Elders stomped their feet in unison, releasing a wave of Earth Qi that travelled through the ground and rapidly shaped two concentric dos that sealed Yao Shen within. They had learned their lesson from Yao Shen’s fight with Patriarch Kang Long, and understood that he possessed great destructive capabilities— therefore they continued to expend their Earth Qi, shaping and layering earthen dos, each larger than the previous one, in an effort to contain him.
Yao Shen stood in the center of the do amidst the darkness, the Elder’s spear held in his right hand. Seemingly without any reason, Yao Shen hastily sidestepped to the right. A mont later, a sharpened spike fashioned out of hardened, qi-infused rock whizzed past by him, shattering upon making impact with the do— the third Elder who had concealed himself underground had finally made his move.
A barrage of earthen spikes erupted from the within the soil in quick succession, the concealed Elder no longer holding back after his failed ambush. In Yao Shen’s perception, the spears still moved far too slowly to be a threat for his reflexes, and his divine sense managed to pinpoint the Elder’s location.
Yao Shen’s silhouette blurred as he was forced to rapidly evade a seemingly endless onslaught of spikes, giving him little to no opportunity to break through his confinent. Part of him admired the Divine Mountain Sect Elders’ combat awareness and synergy, having devised such an effective, albeit ruthless thod to suppress him even after their initial ploy went awry.
Be that as it may, Yao Shen’s fury rose with every earthen spike he was forced to evade— for to entrap and then whittle down, before dealing the finishing move was a fighting style used to hunt spiritual beasts, not cultivators. To be treated like a spiritual beast, it rankled at his pride— an emotion that shined radiantly even without being amplified multiple tis.
“No more,” he growled under his breath, his attention falling upon the spear clutched in his right hand. Earlier, he had not deigned to use the spear because it was marked with the Elder’s divine sense brand— making it little more than an ordinary spear crafted with Nascent Soul Grade materials. Now though, Yao Shen needed an outlet to vent his fury.
His divine sense unceasingly flooded the brand as he evaded another earthen spike, the manifestation of his soul clashing against the Elder’s in a battle for supremacy. The Elder’s divine sense put up a valiant fight, but ultimately could not resist the superiority in cultivation stage. The brand shattered, and Yao Shen imdiately replaced it with his own.
Although it was unlikely, he still let out a relieved exhale when he confird that the weapon was not prid to self-destruct in the event the brand collapsed. He imdiately felt a connection with the sleek tallic artifact, sensing the thrum of fire qi nestling within the artifact.
Amusent flickered in Yao Shen’s eyes as he effortlessly shattered an earthen spike with a flick of his newly acquired artifact, before drawing upon his fire qi reserves and channeling it to the spear-tip.
The artifact functioned as intended, imdiately raising the intensity of his flas by a notch. Satisfied by the outco, Yao Shen did not hesitate any longer— he continuously channeled fire qi into the artifact, the intensity of the fla rising with every passing mont. A vortex of blazing inferno had ford at the tip of his spear before the red crystal started flickering, indicating that it had reached the limits of its amplification.
Yao Shen pulled the spear back until it was almost level with his height, before hurling it forward with the entirety of his monstrous strength— the spear artifact left the confines of his grasp, a blur of red light streaking towards the earthen do with ferocious montum.
Loud, ear-piercing bangs rang out in quick succession as the flaming spear ruthlessly tore past the thick, earthen-rock structures, the flas alone bringing the rock close to lting point before its tallic body punched through it. Only after piercing the twelfth, and final layer of the dos did it’s montum begin to flag, carrying on for another hundred ters before the last of the flas flickered out.
Yao Shen’s eyes shone with an intense light as he drew upon his copious reserves of wind qi, his figure blurring as he shot forth like an arrow released from a taut bowstring. The Elder concealed beneath the ground attempted to interfere, but there was a reason why the Wind Elent was known for its speed— he could only watch on helplessly as his earthen spears missed by a wide margin, truly caught off guard by Yao Shen’s unconventional thod to break the encirclent.
Within monts, Yao Shen hurtled past the final do. He was confronted by the two Elders of the Divine Mountain Sect, who panted heavily as they attempted to muster a defence against his charge. With one glance, he could tell that the elders were on the verge of exhausting their Earth Qi— Yao Shen barely slowed down his pace as he flashed past the elders, striking them with two divine-sense infused palms that instantly caused them to crumple onto the ground, before he took to the skies.
Above him, the two Elders of the Sacred Fla Palace paled as they saw Yao Shen’s silhouette rapidly accelerate in their direction, attention split between the ball of concentrated flas they were channelling their fire qi into, augnting and then further compressing the flas with each cycle. In the three-pronged strategy of entrapping, whittling down and dealing the final blow, their role was the latter-most. However, Yao Shen was not supposed to break out of the encirclent in one, fluid motion— the original plan was to force him to expend his qi as he was forced to break through the dos layer by layer.
Of course, the miniature sun that the two elders had manifested had not escaped Yao Shen’s perception, but knowing ant little if he hadn’t managed to escape. However in it’s present form, the flas were far too unstable to direct— odds were, they would backlash on the Elders themselves.
The panic on the Elders' faces grew, stuck between a rock and a hard place….. But Yao Shen did not intend to give them ti to decide. His figure flashed in front of one of the Elders, his massive fist pulled back before slamming on the Elder’s abdon and sending him shooting towards the ground. The other Elder imdiately ceased his attempts to stabilize the ball of fla, imdiately flying away in the opposite direction.
Yao Shen utilized his wind qi to form a thick barrier that buffetted the roiling flas away from him, as the miniature sun rapidly destabilized. Since the attack lacked any direction or control, it had no way to penetrate his defenses— the flas offering little resistance as they were redirected around him. Gouts of fla rained down from the sky in all directions, igniting the land beneath his feet, but for now Yao Shen’s attention remained focused on the fleeing elder.
Despite the headstart the Elder had, Yao Shen caught up to him within a minute and smashed out of the skies. After confirming that the Elder had been knocked unconscious, he returned to the site of his ascension with a view to conclude the fight.
The mont he landed on the ground, the soil beneath him softened, causing him to sink for a ter, before rapidly hardening into solid rock. The Elder concealed within the earth was forced to make him move, even though he understood the futility of it— His silhouette resurfaced from within the earth, the saber held in his right hsnd lunging for Yao Shen’s chest.
Yao Shen caught the saber’s blow with his left hand, the blade not even a Peak-Nascent Soul Weapon and thus unable to pierce his soul. Without further ado, he knocked the elder out and tossed him aside like a ragdoll, continuing to walk forward.
Twenty li ahead, amidst the burning landscape, a contingent of heavily weakened elders gazed at the approaching soul emperor with mixed emotions— awe, shock, begrudging respect and dread, all blending together in a confused entanglent. As if they didn’t know what to feel at the display of power that was unfolding in front of them. A third of the elders were still unconscious, while the rest were barely in any condition to fight— Yao Shen could easily finish them off, but he knew that the fight was not over yet.
A man dressed in vivid red robes with golden embroidery stepped forward, his expression placid as he let out a light sigh. “You all shall yield. This duel will be decided between the two of us,” Lei Weiyuan, Patriarch of the Sacred Fla Palace commanded, even to those belonging to the Divine Mountain Sect.
Most of the elders had defiant expressions of their faces, but not a single one spoke out against the Patriarchs orders. To yield without fighting was shaful for a cultivator, but to continue fighting a duel where one was vastly outmatched was outright disgraceful— the Elders were not hot-blooded youths who could not accept reality for what it was. One of the Patriarch’s was unconscious, and the strongest among them had been bested without managing to leave a scratch on Yao Shen’s soul.
Their role in this fight was over.
“I yield.”
“I yield.”
“I yield.”
Their voices rang out one after the other, and they soon departed to heal those who had been injured in the battle.
Only Yao Shen and Lei Weiyuan remained on the battlefield.
“Is this your doing?” Yao Shen asked, gesturing at the burning landscape— the ideal condition for a fire cultivator to engage in combat.
“Perhaps,” Lei Weiyuan replied, revealing a slight smile.
The world seed to still for a mont as the two Patriarchs thought back upon their rivalry and the events that led up to this mont, before two domineering voices rang out, roughly at the sa ti,
“Domain: Sacred Bird, Marayan”
“Domain of Illusory Shadows”
Reviews
All reviews (0)