by <unknown>
When Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin'er arrived at the capital's doors, what appeared in front of them was a vast plain, right behind which, was the Swords Gate.
“Swords Gate, I have returned!” murmured Zhong Yue as he walked out from the Fiery Capital.
Chapter 293: Dragon That Battles Through the Nine Heavens |
Outside of the Fire Capital, Zhong Yue was walking on the road, treading over a few miles away from the city. The streets started to fade away as the surroundings slowly turned rugged. More and more Qi Practitioners followed their trials, tailing behind Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin'er. Some of them were following underground, some tracked them from the sky above, while others strode past them, waiting to stop them in front of their paths.
There merchant caravans of the trading expeditions could still be seen coming to and fro the Fiery Capital; however, upon seeing the massive crowd following behind Zhong Yue, the merchants became terrified. They braced themselves for any incidents while trying their best to avoid intersecting paths with the group.
Rules of the South Barren: it was forbidden to engage in battles within the territorial land of the Fiery Capital. After all, Fiery Capital was an economic center, a place for businesses and tradings. If there were battles and chaos all over the capital, then the deals wouldn't be able to continue smoothly. Hence, Zhong Yue wouldn't need to worry about getting ambushed for a hundred miles of land centering from the Fiery Capital.
Ten miles away from the city gate, there was a small pavilion on the side of the road, set up there as a shelter for the travelers. In the pavilion, there was a figure waiting patiently on the chair while a bottle of wine and three cups were prepared on the table in front of him.
“Senior martial brother, he is the one with the godly emperor’s bloodline, Bi Xie!” Qiu Jin’er was afraid, she whispered to Zhong Yue.
Zhong Yue heard her and looked over. He walked into the pavilion along with Qiu Jin'er; the young celestial stood up, his eyes were pure and gentle, smiled as he invited the duo to have their seats.
"I'm very grateful for Brother Bi Xie to send me off in this pavilion ten miles away from the city." Zhong Yue said smilingly while he patted his clothes before sitting down.
Bi Xie raised his cup of wine and said, "I'm afraid if I don't send you off today, I wouldn't be able to see you anymore. It'll be a regret that I'll have to endure for the rest of my life; so I came and patiently waited for your arrival in this little pavilion."
Zhong Yue also raised his cup of wine, and the duo drank. Bi Xie stared closely at Zhong Yue, he stood up and gave a slight bow, he asked, "Is Brother Zhong preparing to let go of the restrains that shackled your heart, and go all out for today?"
Smiled, Zhong Yue replied, “It depends, I will not hesitate if the need arises."
The young celestial didn't speak a word, a few moments later, he broke the silence and said, "It's hard to find a praiseworthy opponent, it's difficult to come by an opponent that could be of my match, what a pity we couldn't have a proper battle … it's unfortunate that Brother Zhong has too many things holding you back at the moment. I'm not sure whether I can even find a worthy opponent like you anymore."
Zhong Yue, however, was nonchalant, "There are cultivators that will rise in every generation. Every one of them can stand at the summit of this world for the least of hundreds of years; even without me, Brother Bi Xie will eventually find one in the future."
Bi Xie lamented, “I’m afraid, that will take many more years for the next name to be added to the Godlike Board.”
As the last sentence of the conversation was spoken, they drank three cups of wine each; Zhong Yue then stood up and walked out of the pavilion with Qiu Jin'er.
The Great Sun Golden Crow suddenly emerged behind Zhong Yue, the wings covered an area of few mus, carrying Qiu Jin'er on the Golden Crow's back while he stood on its head. It bolted into the sky and pierced through the clouds, soaring along with the winds.
"Bi Xie, if I can survive through this, I'll become the dragon that will battle through the nine heavens, I'll make the world tremble under me! When that day comes, you can look for me, and we will have the duel that was promised!"
Krong——
The three-taloned Golden Crow broke the speed of sounds and bolted away with lightning and fire around it!
While behind him, the Qi Practitioners also suddenly lunged into the sky, casting out their flying arts following behind him. Bi Xie lifted his head up and looked over, it scenery looked like a meteor shower in bright daylight, flitting across the sky toward the north.
“Dragon that battles through the nine heavens….”
The young celestial placed his hands on the back and mumbled, “I’ll be waiting, I hope you can survive till that day.”
In mid-air, the same darkness clawed a hundred miles of land as all of the sunlight was siphoned away by Zhong Yue and was converging around him.
He was like a blazing fireball, a miniature scorching sun that embodied Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin'er with the Golden Crow in it, bolting away at an ever-increasing speed.
One after another, the Qi Practitioners following behind him were left behind, unable to catch up to his speed.
A hundred miles of distance flitted over in almost an instant.
Zhong Yue was now traveling at a speed three times the speed of sound. He was so quick that most of the Qi Practitioners chasing after him were shaken off his tail; however, long before he traveled, there were already Qi Practitioners that have strode over him to the front waiting to ambush him on his path.
However, the most significant threats were those who were still chasing behind him, those who were able to keep up to his speed were mostly the Inner Core or even Heavenly Dharma Qi Practitioners, they were the most deadly hunters!
Gales blasted on their faces as they sped through the sky, patches of clouds formed a new ground, covering the earth away from their views; all of a sudden, some mountains emerged in the midst of clouds, it was indeed a fantastic view.
These mountains were floating above the clouds, looking bizarre and mysterious as if they were like a paradise in the heaven.
Looking at it, Zhong Yue gave a cold sneer and mumbled, “Junior martial sister!”
Qiu Jin'er who was behind him extended her arms out and immediately, the Gou Mang Yuan Shen emerged behind her. It lashed out countless vines over like jade green dragons that intertwined with one another.
They looked as if they were vines, but in fact, they were purely formed by her Wood Sword Qi in the【Great Boundless Sword Qi】.
Peng peng peng——
The vines lashed on the mountains and crushed them apart, the mountains crumbled into countless totem patterns which formed even more mountains; not only that, but there were also mountains falling from the sky above, crashing down on them.
Meanwhile, a giant slowly stood up in the center of the mountains. His body was completely covered in rock and stone, making him look like a stone giant.
The stone giant had four arms with no eyes, and it was equipped with two huge bows of at least two hundred feet long, the stone giant pulled the arrows back, and readied to release them.
“Roar!”
The bows seemed to be incredibly heavy, and not even the stone giant could draw them to full extension. As the bows were drawn, the totem patterns engraved on them started to glimmer.
A dazzling inner core emerged above his head. Light rays flowed down like water onto the bows, forming two light arrows, one aiming at Zhong Yue and the other for Qiu Jin'er.
"Zhong Shan Clan member, Qiu Tan Clan member, I am Shan Lihong of the Shan Shen Clan, allow me to send you on your way to the heavens!"
The stone giant's voice trembled the air and he let the nocked light rays loose. The bows were incredibly strong, and the arrows were appallingly long. In an instant, the light arrows shot out from the mountains right towards the duo, when the arrowheads reached to them, the other end of the light arrows had only just left the bow!
Qiu Jin'er murmured, light wheels emerged behind her Gou Mang Yuan Shen; one after another, innumerable swords came together to form sword mountains. They rose before Zhong Yue as if they were stone tablets— Earth of the five elements. This was a defensive sword skill of the Earth attribute."
While the swords stones tablets were rising before them, slowing down the arrows, her【Sword Seeding Art】was also doing work, it formed a vine shield before them, interweaved by countless huge and sturdy vines, making it thicker, stronger.
Bam bam bam——
A series of noise reverberated the sky as the arrows pierced through the stone tablets, the two light arrows had broken through her 【Sword Burial Art】's defenses and struck into her vine shield.
Qiu Jin'er let out a deep, muffled groan, and blood started trickling out from her mouth. Suddenly, the vine shield exploded into pieces, and two light arrows shot over!
The Kui Long's cowhide was thrown out before them, the two light arrows blasted on the Kui Long's cowhide and were reflected away. Zhong Yue then clenched on the Kui Long's cowhide and pulled it out of the way as his other hand reached back and clenched a feather out from the light wheels behind his head.
“Big, big, big, big, big!”
Zhong Yue stood on the Golden Crow's head. He yelled out loud while he raised the 30000 feet long Golden Peng sword in his hands, slashing down and cleaving the mountains apart.
The Shan Shen Inner Core expert had just shot out the two arrows and was now drawing the bows for the second shot. A flash of golden light flickered in his view from the top to bottom before slicing through the mountains and dispersing away.
“Divine weapon….”
A narrow, slit rift appeared at the middle through his whole body; the halved corpse fell freely down from the sky while the mountains had dispersed away.
Zhong Yue kept the sword and sheathed it back into the light wheels behind his head, he reached his hands out and plundered the two bows while he scanned the surroundings with his psyche for the dead’s inner core. The Golden Crow then fluttered its wings and winged through the fading images of the mountains; after a long time, Li Shanhong’s corpse finally fell down onto the ground and quaked the earth as he crashed into the mountains.
“You will end up like him if you dare to pursue me anymore!” Following the heels of the corpse was Zhong Yue’s voice, resounding across the mountains.
Behind him, the Kui Long's cowhide was slowly fluttering down, Qiu Jin’er quickly got up and held onto the Kui Long's cowhide, wearing it on Zhong Yue’s back as if it was a cape.
"How domineering, such confidence you have there. Perhaps it's because of the cowhide you wear that has allowed you to bullshit so much that the bull shat into the sky?"
A voice could be heard teasing them, and all of a sudden, shadowy figures appeared out of nowhere in front of them. The clouds turned overcast, and the sky turned gloomy. One after another, huge eyes glimmered in the shadows, looming in the dark.
Abruptly, 36 moons appeared in the sky!
Along with the emergence of the moons, the shadows were cast away, and the clouds were gloomy no more, revealing a crowd of sadistic three-headed Pan Aos, smiling as their heads looked at Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin'er.
The shining 36 moons were in fact, their inner cores!
“Hehehe….”
The Pan Ao in the middle of them was the strongest and the biggest, surrounded by the other thirty-five Pan Aos, he teased Zhong Yue sadistically, "Zhong Shan Clan member, your Kui Long's cowhide must be from the Kui Long Celestial Race, am I right? What a coincidence, I happened to be an acquaintance of a few senior martial brothers from the Kui Long Celestial Race. I found out that you had something that belonged to their ancestors and brought them over to meet with you."
“MANGGGG——”
A stentorian roaring blasted in their eardrums, a huge horn pierced through the gloomy clouds behind the Pan Aos. It rose higher and higher while two blood-red eyes brightened in the midst of darkness as a creature with a huge head that looked like dragon and cow hybrid slowly unveiled itself from the gloomy clouds.
The one-legged Kui Long appeared in their sights. His eyes were blood-red as he stared at the Kui Long's cowhide that Zhong Yue was wearing!
"How dare you … peeling down senior Yu Zheng's skin and making it into a soul weapon…."
The Kui Long wept, and his voice shuddered the clouds as he spoke bitterly, "Humans … filthy bugs … you scums should just DIE!"
Zhong Yue's face changed drastically, he quickly controlled the Golden Crow and flew higher up into the sky.
"Junior martial sister, are you scared of lightning?" Zhong Yue asked loudly.
Qiu Jin'er thought of the first time she met with her senior martial brother. The lightning zone was where they first met. Her heart warmed at the memory, and she thought, I'm not afraid of lightning, in fact, I'm not afraid of anything at all as long as senior martial brother is with me!
Chapter 294: Let Us All Die Together! |
The moment Zhong Yue entered the upper lightning zone, and the 36 Pan Aos and Kui Long lunged into the sky, attempting to stop him down. They all rose higher and higher into the sky as the lightning started increasingly dense.
The stronger the cultivator, the more dangerous the lightning would be to them.
The lightning of heaven and earth was of the Pure Yang attribute while souls were aligned with Yin. Powerful lightning was capable of destroying cultivator souls into nothingness; so long as souls hadn't cultivated up to the Pure Yang stage, death would be inevitable.
However, cultivating the soul into the Pure Yang state was precisely the first step to becoming a deity.
With that being said, any other existence besides the gods themselves would have their souls be crushed away by the lightning.
Although in the past, Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin'er did enter the lightning zone and refined their souls with the lightning, they were only at the outermost rim of the lightning zone. Their cultivations were also weak back then; but now, their strengths had experienced various transformational leaps as they ventured deeper into the lightning zone.
Particularly after opening up the secret realms in their Yuan Shens, the amount of energy they possessed would have seemed boundless in their eyes before!
In the upper lightning zone, a thunderstorm began to stir in the clouds around them. The intermittent flashes of lightning seemed like glimmering scales on a dragon's body.
All of a sudden, a patch of clouds vanished in their eyes, and the next moment, a lightning bolt shot across the sky to blast directly onto them. The lightning was so powerful that even the mere boom of the accompanying thunder was almost enough to mangle their souls!
Furthermore, after it struck down on them, it did not disperse. Instead, the energy lingered in the air, as if preparing to converge into another bolt of lightning.
Krong——
Zhong Yue, Qiu Jin'er, Kui Long and the other 36 Pan Aos all became targets of the lightning. A particularly large bolt of lightning broke through Zhong Yue's Golden Crow Yuan Shen, leaving a hole behind while he took another two strikes on the wings. Despite the severe wounds he was suffering, he continued flying forward while leaving behind a trail of smoke.
Zhong Yue opened his mouth and siphoned away all the surrounding sunlight. The sunlight converged onto the Golden Crow's body, healing its wounds.
At the same time, Qiu Jin'er was also under attack by lightning. She immediately summoned her Gou Mang Yuan Shen out of her body and was instantly struck by two bolts of lightning, suffering severe injuries from it.
However, the Gou Mang Yuan Shen was one of the strongest in terms of life force, just as the Yuan Shen was damaged, there was a tremendous life force surging out within it. It soon healed the wound healing its wound as if it was never hurt.
The reason for summoning the Yuan Shen out of the body rather than keeping it in was because the mortal
body was not Yin in attribute and was only a medium for the Yuan Shen to reside in. As the lightning was only attracted to the Yuan Shen, it would strike through the mortal body to reach the Yuan Shen if the Yuan Shen were in the body. This would inflict unnecessary damage to the mortal body and make the situation worse. Moreover, if the mortal body were destroyed, the Yuan Shen wouldn't be able to survive either!
Thus, unless one's mortal body was strong enough to withstand the lightning directly, no one would dare to leave the Yuan Shen in their mortal body.
Below the three-taloned Golden Crow, the three-headed Pan Aos were all bellowing in anger. They had also summoned their Yuan Shen out and let the Yuan Shen endure the lightning strikes so that their mortal body would remain unharmed.
In just a blink of an eye, everyone's Yuan Shen all suffered severe damage. However, these Xiao Mang Celestial Race experts were all at the Inner Core level, with their leader being half a step away from the Heavenly Dharma level. The lightning striking them was also stronger, resulting in Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin'er suffering more damage.
“Brothers and sisters, the soul weapons!” The Xiao Mang Celestial leader shouted.
Right away, rays of myriad colors lit up in the gloomy clouds. The 36 Pan Aos roared in unison, 36 moons that rose in the sky went into a circular orbit, crashing into one another as they chained themselves into a circle of satellites like a planet's ring. All of them were centered around a bigger moon that emerged in the middle!
These moons were part of a soul weapon, with all 36 moons coming together into a moon ring, the soul weapon would be completed.
The Xiao Mang Celestial Race had studied the moon spirit for ages, their knowledge in this field was unequaled to the other races. Even their soul weapons were commonly revolving around the moons or lunar related.
