by Jeremy Bai
And yet it looked like the Demon Emperor might not live long enough to be sealed.
***
Everyone in the square watched in shock as the Demon Emperor lurched back through the air once, twice, and then a third time.
Then Bao let out a roar of rage as she pulled the Wind Saber back slightly and shoved it out in front of her.
The Demon Emperor howled at the top of his lungs, the sound of which merged with the piercing boom of the buckler exploding. The white beam of light slashed forward, completely incinerating his right arm and sending him tumbling out of the sky to slam almost directly into the middle of the square.
***
Mao Yun’s black axe whirled rapidly, creating a black disc of light that slammed into the cloud of incoming bolts. Liu Jiahui waved his arm, sending a spiraling wind out that knocked at least half of the bolts out of the air.
Even so, a handful of bolts made it through, striking Mao Yun in the shoulder and thigh. A few others made it past him and struck other random members of the Pure Phoenix Sect. However, none of them reached Bao.
Mao Yun didn’t even feel the pain of the bolts. Roaring, he slashed his axe out, sending a blast of energy toward the crossbow-wielding ogre. However, when his attack simply vanished into the ogre’s jade-encrusted breastplate, he remembered a point that had been drilled into the sect during their training. It had slipped his mind in the heat of the moment.
Ogres are immune to qi!
Mao Yun’s mind raced as he tried to decide what to do. The ogre in the jade breastplate put another bronze bolt onto his crossbow, pointed it straight at Mao Yun, and pulled the trigger.
More ogres were leaping into the fray, so this time, Liu Jiahui could not come to Mao Yun’s assistance. As soon as the crossbow’s retention spring clicked, the bolt shot into the air, buzzing as it transformed into a hailstorm.
Mao Yun gritted his teeth and once again began to spin his axe out in front of him.
***
Bao’s blow had seriously injured the Demon Emperor, and it had apparently stunned him, as he currently lay motionless in the middle of the battlefield.
The surrounding enemy troops and fighters were clearly stunned, but that was one when one of the ogres shouted, “The King of the Pure Ones cannot be killed! Crush these worms!”
Chaotic fighting immediately broke out. Because of the use of the Titan Squad Array and the Dragon Pearl Formations moments before, and the push by the Phoenix Division, the battlefield was now quite lopsided, with the front line being more like a sinuous curve than a straight line.
As the Demon Emperor’s forces roared and fought back with powerful techniques, the Demon Emperor twitched and lifted his remaining arm up, planting his hand on the ground next to him as if to push himself up.
***
Sunan sent a group of ten soldiers flying backward, killing half of them with the initial force of the blow. Turning his head, he saw the Demon Emperor struggling to his feet.
Bao was standing there, panting and struggling to lift the tip of the Wind Saber off the ground.
As for the battlefield as a whole, although it seemed chaotic, Sunan was very pleased to see that the main line between the Dragon-Phoenix Sect and the forces of the Demon Emperor had twisted into a wavelike shape.
The Demon Emperor was almost equidistant between himself and Bao.
This is the moment, he thought.
However, that was when his eyes flickered to the left to land on Mao Yun, who was facing a hulking ogre with a jade-inlaid breastplate and a handheld crossbow. The ogre pulled the trigger, and the bolt leapt from the crossbow, multiplying and dividing to become a hail of bronze that caused Sunan’s eyes to widen.
Most terrifying of all was that the bolts were not only numerous—they thrummed with powerful energy. They were not ordinary bolts but were backed by powerful magic.
There was no time for Sunan, or anyone else in the square, to do anything to help Mao Yun. Everyone was involved in their own desperate fighting, especially those who had been tossed out of place by the whirlwind moments before.
Sunan could only watch as the hail of bolts raced toward Mao Yun, whose black axe twirled in front of him to create a black disclike shield of light.
As the brightly shining bolts slammed into the shield, the light began to flicker and tremble. And then, a moment later, it collapsed. A bolt slammed into Mao Yun’s arm, and then his hand, and then his shoulder.
More bolts sliced into him, lifting him off his feet and sending him spinning backward through the air, splatters of blood flying out in curving arcs.
“NOOOO!”
The scream which echoed across the square came from Mao Mei, who had been fighting some distance away from her brother. At the sight of the hail of bolts slamming into him, she burst away from her opponents and leapt into the air, drawing on a qinggong technique to speed over the heads of the other nearby soldiers.
Spears and other blades lashed at her as she passed by, a few of them reaching their target and leaving her legs bleeding profusely.
Her brother landed hard on the ground and skidded across the stone floor of the square on his back. Mao Mei reached him and scooped him up into her arms.
Although he was a head and a half taller than her, and one of the mostly well-built and imposing men in the entire sect, she channeled her qi flow into her arms and picked him up with ease. She leapt into the air while the ogre with the jade breastplate put another bolt onto his crossbow and fired it at her back.
At that point, Sunan was forced to look away to counter an attack from one of the elite fighters.
***
When Bao saw Mao Yun flying backward through the air in a shower of blood, her heart lurched up into her throat.
Brother! she cried inwardly.
Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do.
In their planning and training, they had taken into consideration that some of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect would fall in the fighting. Even the possibility of Bao or Sunan being killed had been worked into the plan.
No matter who it was that perished, the plan would be carried out.
Gritting her teeth and burying her anxiety over what was happening to Mao Yun, she turned back to face the Demon Emperor, who by this point had pushed himself up onto one knee.
Looking up, he made eye contact with her and started to chuckle.
“I’m impressed,” he said. “Very impressed. Unfortunately, if that’s the best you have, then I’m afraid you’ve made a grave error in coming here today.” Sneering, he turned to look at the stump of his arm.
To Bao’s shock, the end of the stump, which moments ago had been cauterized and smoking, was now wriggling and pulsing. Then the darkened skin cracked and bulged and began to grow outward. The Demon Emperor’s arm was regrowing itself right in the middle of the fight.
Just like the report from the Raksha agent had indicated, even the most serious of injuries were of little concern to the Demon Emperor.
Chuckling again, he began to rise to his feet.
Bao looked over the Demon Emperor’s shoulder to make eye contact with Sunan, who was standing opposite her, right behind the Demon Emperor’s back. Sunan nodded. Bao nodded back.
Bao’s fingers interlocked, and she took a step forward, drawing deeply upon her qi flow.
Across from her, Sunan did the same thing, and a resonance built up between them, causing the air to vibrate.
The Demon Emperor’s eyes narrowed as he regained his feet. He could sense the resonance, and in fact, it passed directly through him, like tiny waves that he could feel in the core of his being.
From north to east, the clouds surge forth,
From south to west, fair feathers sing.
In a position very close to Sunan, Sun Mai was sending illusory swords flying across the battlefield toward one of the elite fighters when he looked over and saw what was happening. He tapped his foot on the ground, launching himself into the air at high speed
to land and a bit to the left of Sunan. He had chosen to wear the robes of the Golden Dragon Division that day, and as he flew through the air, he almost looked like a golden cloud.
Locking his fingers together, he planted his feet and channeled his qi through his meridians in the prescribed fashion. Another resonance sprang into being between himself and Sunan, which bolstered Sunan’s energy, causing the resonance between him and Bao to increase in intensity.
The Demon Emperor’s eyes went wide, but before he could do anything, Ma Ge flew into position behind Bao, her silver Pure Phoenix robes fluttering like feathers.
Again, the resonance between Bao and Sunan grew stronger.
Next to abandon the fighting and leap into formation was Tie Gangwen, and then Wang Tian.
One by one, the most powerful fighters of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect sped like lightning to join the growing formation, like a stream of clouds and feathers swirling through the air.
With each addition to the formation, the resonance grew more powerful, and the effects wider. Even with only six people in place, it began to pulse, sending out rolling ripples of energy that pushed against the soldiers, elite fighters, and ogre guards in the square.
As for the Demon Emperor, although his arm was growing out rapidly, he found that his feet were locked in place.
“What trickery is this?” he growled. “Immolation!”
In response to his words, raging flames burst into being around him, flames so hot that the paving stones around him were immediately blackened and even began to pop and hiss. However, it did nothing to affect the resonance, which increased in intensity with every additional person who fell into place behind Sunan and Bao.
Within a few short moments, there were twelve people in the formation, and bright golden light intermixed with silver sparkles shone in the air between Sunan and Bao and around the people in formation.
***
From her position atop the tree, Hui could just barely see flickers of golden light in the ceremonial square in Yao Gong Palace.
“It’s begun,” she murmured.
Chapter 97: The World Trembled
The fiends, a tempest dark and foul,
A shining pillar paints the sky.
The ogre guards and elite fighters howled in desperation as they struggled to unleash more attacks. The Demon Emperor snarled, “Vortegan’s Whirling Catastrophe!”
Yet again, a black vortex swept through the square, but it was powerless against the defensive energies of the spell formation and did little more than toss debris here and there.
With each member of the sect that joined Bao and Sunan, more energy pulsed out in all directions.
With Sunan and Bao as the focal points, the resonance that had formed from the combined qi flow was locked tight on the Demon Emperor. Even after casting his immolation magic and Vortegan’s Whirling Catastrophe, he was powerless to break free.
As the flames and winds faded away, he began to cast another spell in the hopes of freeing himself.
But then Sunan and Bao took a step forward, and the entire square shuddered as the power of the formation intensified.
The light on Bao’s side was pure white, and the light on Sunan’s side was golden. However, the white part of the light only served to brighten the golden side, and in the end it was pure golden light that began to rise up into the sky.
High above, in what had once been a clear blue sky, clouds had begun to form, and when the light from below touched them, they also turned golden.
Twenty people were in formation, with more members of the sect leaping in with each second that ticked by.
As they did, the vibrations filling the air began to spread out, causing the fortress itself to shudder.
“Fools!” the Demon Emperor bellowed. “I can just create a portal and step away from this place!” However, no portal appeared.
Golden droplets spin and howl,
The sun, the moon, two stars align.
A golden drop of water splashed down onto the paved surface of the square, only a few paces away from the Demon Emperor. Then another drop fell, and another, as rain began to fall. Strangely, when the rain touched the skin of the people in the square, it felt hot, not enough to burn, but enough to make the rain seem like something from a different world.
From the moment that Bao and Sunan had first taken their places at the front of the formation to the moment when the rain began to fall, barely a minute had passed.
It was obvious to the Demon Emperor’s forces that something very dangerous was unfolding, and as such, the ogre guards began to shout orders to the elite fighters in an attempt to lead a charge against the formation itself. The first group, consisting of four ogres and ten elite fighters, tried to charge toward Bao, unleashing projectile weapons and qi attacks as they closed in.
However, the defensive energies of the formation itself crushed all the attacks before they could even get close to Bao. The ogres and elite fighters couldn’t get within ten paces of her because of the powerful fluctuations rolling out.
As the golden rain began to fall in earnest, the formation grew, and the Demon Emperor struggled and howled. Soon the energy vibrations had spread out to shake the surrounding mountains, all the way down to their roots.
Some distance away, the tree Hui stood on had begun to sway back and forth, forcing her to reach back and grab ahold of the trunk to steady herself. A faint smile had appeared on her face.
The resonance between Bao and Sunan had become visible. It was like undulating bands of gold and silver waves, flowing back and forth between them, with the Demon Emperor trapped in the middle.
They both took another step forward, and then another, the formations moving with them. As the vibrations grew more intense, many of the Demon Emperor’s soldiers began to flee in terror, and even some of the elite fighters had lost their nerve and were trying to escape.
Meanwhile, something else was happening that no one near Yao Gong Palace could see, not even Hui. High up in the heavens, far above the roiling golden clouds, two bright stars appeared on opposite ends of the sky. The dawn sun and setting full moon were also opposite of each other.
It was an astral phenomenon the likes of which had never been witnessed before.
The two stars, one red, one blue, linked together with the sun and the moon to create a perfect square.
Astrologers from Naqan to Nangu to the Yangu Plains all looked up and marveled at what they were witnessing.
Within the empire, golden clouds were rapidly spreading out from the Banyan Mountains, and many of the astrologers there were oblivious to what was happening.
By now, more than two hundred members of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect were in formation, and the energy fluctuations rolling out from Yao Gong Palace were causing the earth to quake as far north as the Chezou River and as far south as Zun Valley. The golden clouds were also churning in all directions.
Slowly but surely, Bao and Sunan advanced, getting closer and closer to the Demon Emperor, until they were so close they could almost touch him. His eyes were bloodshot, and his mouth twisted into a snarl, although only Bao could see that.
“How are you doing this?” he said, his voice grating. “Who are you? Where are you from? What Sertori is backing you?”
“I am Bao of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect. I don’t know what a Sertori is, but I can tell you that the only person backing me is the Enlightened Goddess.”
The Demon Emperor seemed inclined to spit on the ground but could barely move his mouth to speak. “Xian Nu Shen? She is nothing! A fractured mirror, a broken vase! Even that bitch Hen-Shi and the worm Gushan are nothing!”
Ignoring his words, Bao said, “Your days have come to an end, Demon Emperor. How does it feel?”
With that, she stepped past him, while Sunan took a step forward, placing him within the Demon Emperor’s field of vision.
“How dare you call me the Demon Emperor! I am Gar-El! I am Yaum alu-Bukhra! I was the first Sertori ever to perform T
hauma! I am the reincarnation of the god Senga! I shook the entire world of Gamandria! Ants like you don’t even deserve to look at me!”
Sunan didn’t understand even half of the terms the Demon Emperor had just used. “Babble however you wish,” he said. “You can do nothing to stop us, Demon Emperor.”
Then he took another step forward, this time moving away from Bao.
If the Demon Emperor had been able to move, he would have leapt forward and torn Sunan limb from limb, then used his shattered body to beat Bao into a bloody pulp. But he couldn’t move.
“I killed Rashan of Shandee. I slaughtered a thousand Sertori, and they were powerless to stop me! I even fought the dragon Tanoor to a standstill! You call yourself a dragon? That was a real dragon, you puny bug! You don’t stand a chance against me!”
Sunan ignored him and took another step forward.
“Immolation!” the Demon Emperor wheezed. Once again, flames appeared around him.
The resonance between Bao and Sunan grew stronger with each step they took, and this time the flames danced as weakly as a dying candle before winking out.
Meanwhile, more and more members of the sect were pouring in to join the formation. The formation was now powered by more than six hundred of them. Virtually all of the Demon Emperor’s followers had fled, leaving behind only the ogre guards and a few of the most fanatical expert fighters, who were struggling uselessly to try to attack the spell formation.
Heaven and Earth turned inside out,
The crash and clash of night and day.
Bao and Sunan took another step forward, pulling each half of the formation with them, and the Demon Emperor’s left hand twitched. Although he couldn’t move his arms or legs or even his head, he was still capable of very small movements. His hand trembled as he reached toward a ring on his left index finger. It was crafted from white jade and inlaid with a black pearl. It took supreme effort, but he managed to push his thumb against the ring. A black lightning bolt to shot up into the sky toward the golden clouds.
