Nine Star Hegemon Body Art c1-2048
Page 1037
Although the fragments had yet to turn to scrap, Guo Ran had used them thousands of times now. Their effect was already greatly reduced.
Now, each bomb would only kill a portion of the devil creatures caught in the center of the explosion. As for the fragments that flew in every direction, the devil creatures struck would just roar a bit and then keep going.
So although Guo Ran was still doing his best to indiscriminately bomb the devil creatures, his ranking continued to fall. It was falling so much that Guo Ran was starting to question his life.
As for Long Chen’s ranking, he hadn’t attacked again, so his first place ranking had already fallen to twenty-three. After the third eruption, his ranking continued to tumble down.
Xia Chen had taken back his first place on the Devil Slaughter Rankings, holding steady with five billion three hundred million kill points.
Second was Di Xin, with four billion eight hundred million kill points. He was putting in work with the third eruption.
Third place was Zi Yan. Her attacks were truly terrifying. She was close to surpassing Di Xin. Their kill points were less than a hundred million apart.
However, Mo Nian, Hu Feng, the Pill Fairy, and Ye Zhiqiu’s names had fallen out of the top ten. They were completely replaced with experts from the Central Xuan Region.
Long Chen was first startled, but then realized that these people were either comparatively low-key or had been preserving for their strength for a final burst. That, or they were like him, and needed to look after other experts, meaning they couldn’t fight freely.
After all, not everyone was like Di Xin, simple-mindedly caring only about his ranking.
“Boss, take a look. Don’t you think…” Guo Ran suddenly smiled in a strange way.
“Scram! Are you starting to get itchy again? You’ve already finished your showing off, so you better behave now!” warned Long Chen.
“Boss, just look! Not one of us is in the top ten. If you don’t want me to use that, then you can just attack instead. Take back first place, or you’ll just be bored,” cajoled Guo Ran.
Guo Ran was truly powerful, but compared to the most powerful existences on the Devil Slaughter Rankings, his mass killing techniques were still lacking.
Take Gu Yang for example. He had killed so many devil creatures, but his name had yet to appear on the Devil Slaughter Rankings at all.
So Guo Ran knew that if he didn’t use some trump cards, he wouldn’t be able to get into the top ten again. However, Long Chen didn’t let him use those trump cards. Killing these devil creatures one at a time was too slow.
“You want to get a high ranking this much?” Long Chen suddenly eyed Guo Ran.
“Of course. I’m fighting for the glory of the Xuantian Dao Sect, the Dragonblood Legion, and of course for you,” said Guo Ran solemnly.
“If your eyes weren’t so wretched, I might believe you. We don’t need you to fight for our glory. Fight for yourself. I have a method that can allow you to quickly get in the top ten, but it might be a bit dangerous. Do you want to try it?”
“In this world, there is a responsibility, a duty that cannot be shirked. For the Xuantian Dao Sect, the Dragonblood Legion, for boss…”
“Alright, is there any need to act like that when there aren’t outsiders around? This might be a bit dangerous, but I feel like you shouldn’t have a problem with your armor. However, you must promise me that unless your life is threatened, you won’t use your trump cards to show off,” warned Long Chen again.
“Yes, boss!” Guo Ran smiled excitedly.
“Come with me.”
Long Chen brought Guo Ran through the sea of devil creatures. Golden flames were around him, setting anything that came close to him ablaze. However, these devil creatures didn’t die and instead ran away from him.
At the end, where the spatial channel was, Long Chen came to a pause.
“Boss, are you going to unleash another big move?” Guo Ran looked at him excitedly. The devil creatures were the most concentrated here. If he could kill them all, he would definitely rise in ranking.
“Yes, I am. Summon your armor and activate its strongest defensive state. I’m going to unleash a big move.”
“Alright.”
Guo Ran directly summoned divine runes that revolved around his golden armor, protecting him.
“Prepare yourself. Here comes my big move!”
Long Chen ruthlessly kicked Guo Ran in the butt. Guo Ran yelped as Long Chen’s kick sent him flying into the spatial channel.
Chapter 1696 Guo Ran’s Distress
“What the fuck! Boss, you conned me!”
Guo Ran let out a startled cry, not having expected Long Chen to suddenly kick him into the spatial channel. When he passed through the opening, he immediately felt like millions of giant mountains were crushing him from every direction.
Guo Ran hastily sent more energy to his protective runes, but he still felt that terrifying pressure.
This channel was supposed to be a one-way street. The reason it had been done like that was to maximize the channel’s strength.
A one-way channel was ten times more stable than one that went both ways. Although magical arts could go through, physical bodies couldn’t. Furthermore, even magical arts couldn’t be used so easily. It would consume a terrifying amount of Spiritual Strength to send them through without them weakening from the pressure of the channel. Long Chen’s previous attacks, especially the Nine Star Beads, had taken up a huge amount of his Spiritual Strength to send through the channel.
This kind of consumption was too much. To make sure a magical art’s power didn’t drop while going through this long, crushing channel was too much for him to do repeatedly. If he did, it would affect his combat power, so he hadn’t added any more attacks after the Nine Star Beads.
Even with his powerful physical body, he didn’t dare to test going in. However, Guo Ran was different. He had his armor protecting him. Even if he didn’t succeed, he would at most be injured. He would run as soon as he felt his armor was at its limit.
However, if he succeeded… Long Chen knew Guo Ran far too well. This risk was definitely worth it.
Guo Ran coughed up blood despite his powerful golden armor and his body having been upgraded by the blood essence stone. Just as he felt that he couldn’t hold on any longer and was preparing to turn back, he saw that he wasn’t far from the exit on the other side. There were blood-colored devil creatures packed there.
“This variety hasn’t appeared outside yet. They must be worth a lot of kill points! Fuck, I’m risking it! This suffering will definitely lead to some amazing posing!”
Guo Ran clenched his teeth. Certain pieces of his armor on his butt lifted up, and fierce flames spat out of them. He shot out like a cannonball.
The closer he got, the greater the spatial pressure grew. He repeatedly coughed up blood, but he stubbornly persevered.
This channel was extremely strange. Going with the flow was easy, but going against it brought with it an incredible amount of pressure.
“Guo Ran, what makes you so brave? What makes you risk your life to advance? What is your motivation? I’ll tell you, it’s showing off, showing off, showing off! I want to make sure the entire world remembers my name!”
Guo Ran roared, refusing to give up even as his armor began to distort and cracks appeared in his shoulder blades.
Suddenly, with an explosive sound, he reached the end. The terrifying pressure instantly vanished. He was delighted to see that the devil creatures were packed at a greater density than on the other side.
They were crazily attacking the border of the spatial channel, wanting to break its defensive runes. Each time one of its defensive runes shattered, the channel would grow a bit larger, and more of the devil creatures would charge through.
Only once he was through did he see a bunch of blood-colored humanoids. They looked the same size as humans as well. Their bodies were covered in blood runes; they had large claws and
were attacking the channel with immense power.
Those devil creatures immediately erupted into furious roars when they saw Guo Ran appear.
“Explode!”
Seeing so many devil creatures charging at him, Guo Ran was shocked and immediately tossed out hundreds of bombs.
Consecutive explosive sounds rang out, blowing the devil creatures to blood mist. At the same time, fragments flew out in every direction. When those fragments pierced the blood-colored humanoids, they let out howls and fell to the ground.
“Fuck, what did I just do? These fragments are so powerful! Ugh, just kill me now!”
Guo Ran had tossed out hundreds of the bombs that Long Chen had told him to keep as trump cards to protect their lives.
Originally, he had made over eight thousand of these bombs. According to Long Chen’s instructions, he was supposed to keep at least three thousand for the worst-case scenario.
However, while he had been showing off, he had forgotten about those instructions. By the time he had remembered, he had only had five hundred-some left.
The other bombs had been used, repeatedly. Hence, they had lost all their killing power. Now, Guo Ran was using half of the precious fresh bombs that hadn’t been used yet, and their power was so immense that all the devil creatures around him were killed. That wasted killing power made Guo Ran want to weep.
“How could you not listen to boss? Guo Ran, you really are a pig!” cursed Guo Ran.
If he had kept his bombs for now, wouldn’t he easily take first place?
He glanced at his jade plate and let out a painful howl that was even more pained than those devil creatures. With this one attack, he had taken ninth place.
This channel had a strange ability to distinguish the power of the devil creatures. The stronger species needed to wait until their attacks weakened the channel to get through it.
This kind of step by step increase in power had been designed by the ancient experts of the human race who had left a buffer for their descendants. This allowed their descendants to train without making the Devil Abyss too dangerous. That was the original intent of the experts that had created this channel.
As for how the formations were able to distinguish the combat power of these devil creatures, outsiders didn’t know. The wisdom of the ancients wasn’t something people of the current era could comprehend.
Others were still handling the ones that got through the channel, but now Guo Ran had been tossed into the source and was crazily killing the devil creatures.
More bombs flew out of him. He was constantly gathering the fragments and making new bombs.
These bombs had two layers, with the outer layer preventing outside forces from destroying them. They were simple in design, and it only took a few seconds to pack an empty bomb with fragments.
Yet, the endless tide of devil creatures here poured toward him. Sometimes, he didn’t have time to throw a bomb and was struck by an attack from those blood-colored humanoids. What shocked Guo Ran was that their sharp claws contained even greater power than a rank nine Celestial, and he couldn’t allow their attacks to indiscriminately land on him.
Most shocking of all was that their claws, despite not managing to penetrate his armor, left behind long marks on it. This armor was made of the best Ancestral item material and was composed of multiple Ancestral items. It could be said that it was the strongest armor at the Ancestral item level. It could even block an attack from a quasi divine item. Ordinary Ancestral items wouldn’t even be able to leave a mark on his armor.
However, these creatures’ claws were. They were shockingly powerful.
“Come, have a taste of how amazing your daddy Guo Ran is!”
Guo Ran didn’t dare to be careless. He increased his speed, dodging and weaving within this limited space, constantly unleashing his bombs. Seeing his kill points rapidly rising, he was extremely motivated.
Long Chen, on the other side, saw that Guo Ran had made it through. He sighed with relief. Going over there was difficult, but coming back was easy. Guo Ran could return whenever he wanted.
“Long Chen, where did you send Guo Ran?” Seeing Long Chen return when he and Guo Ran had mysteriously charged away, Meng Qi asked him curiously. Guo Ran’s ranking was rapidly rising.
“I sent him somewhere he can profit. Let him show off as much as he wants there. Conveniently, he can be a sentry for us,” laughed Long Chen.
Guo Ran was fighting intensely, while the fight on the outside was just as intense. However, the forts were like solid boulders, and no matter how many devil creatures appeared, they were unable to break the forts.
“Third! Guo Ran’s amazing!” Gu Yang let out a startled cry. It had only been a moment, but Guo Ran had reached third on the Devil Slaughter Rankings.
By this point, rising in ranking was difficult as the devil creatures were growing incredibly powerful. Wanting to kill a huge number of them in one blow was growing increasingly difficult.
“Second!”
After four hours, Li Qi also let out a startled cry as Guo Ran’s name surpassed Di Xin’s.
On the fourteenth hour, Guo Ran took first place. The Dragonblood Legion cheered. Not only had Long Chen taken first, but even Guo Ran had done so.
The Xuantian Dao Sect’s disciples also cheered. Long Chen and Guo Ran took first place like they were just messing around. Within this world filled with slaughter as well as heroic ideology, their actions were especially shocking.
To be able to fight alongside such peerless experts, what was there to be afraid of? What was there to fear?
“First! First place! Ah, but I want to die…”
Guo Ran was howling with grief as he dodged the devil creatures’ attacks. His heart was in pain.
He had now taken first place, but as he used the fragments over and over again, their effect continued to drop. Their killing power was greatly reduced now.
Guo Ran was filled with regret. If he hadn’t wasted so many before and had instead unleashed them here, he would have far surpassed everyone else. He wouldn’t even be able to see them behind him.
However, there was no medicine for regret in this world. When the bombs lost all effect, he would only be able to fight with his dual sabers.
BOOM!
Suddenly, space shook violently. A group of black figures appeared, causing Guo Ran’s expression to change.
Chapter 1697 Golden Claw Blood Devil
BOOM!
Just as the Dragonblood Legion and the Xuantian Dao Sect’s disciples were fighting very steadily, a golden figure flew out of the distant channel.
Everyone jumped in shock. That figure was Guo Ran. The current Guo Ran looked to be in a very sorry state. His originally majestic golden armor was now covered in scars.
“Boss, boss!” Guo Ran flew straight toward Long Chen.
“What is it?”
“Boss, some terrifying monsters have appeared inside. Their power is so great that even one against one, I can’t beat them. I almost lost my life. Take a look.”
Guo Ran pointed to a hole in the shoulder of his armor. Blood was slowly flowing out. Shockingly, this injury was caused by a claw.
Guo Ran’s armor was composed of dozens of Ancestral items that were joined together into a perfect formation. Damaging any area meant having to break the defenses of all the other regions. It was completely unexpected for Guo Ran’s armor to be pierced straight through by a claw.
“At first, only one of those golden-clawed monsters appeared. I activated the mechanism on my chest that caught it by surprise and heavily injured it. That allowed me to kill it. However, then five of them appeared at once! I almost pissed myself! I ran for my life.”
If Guo Ran had been surrounded by those monsters, his armor wouldn’t have lasted very long before being destroyed by their claws. Without his armor, he would be doomed.
“What did they look like?” asked Long Chen.
“They are very similar to humans. Their bodies are covered in
blood-colored runes, and they have a bone spur on their back and a horn on their head. Their golden claws are giant and extremely sharp.”
“Then it should be the Golden Claw Blood Devils from legends.”
Long Chen nodded. The legends said that the Golden Claw Blood Devils were a high-level race amongst the devil race. They weren’t mindless killing machines like the devil creatures they were currently killing. They had their own intelligence. Their golden claws grew straight out of their flesh.
Those claws were their divine ability, possessing a special power that allowed them to break through defenses. Adding on their power and speed, their combat power was not one bit inferior to an Empyrean.
Guo Ran wouldn’t even be worried about an ordinary Empyrean, but the Golden Claw Blood Devil’s claws could tear through his defense. Without his armor, he had no confidence.
“If the Golden Claw Blood Devils have appeared, then the channel won’t be able to endure for much longer before it grows again. It really is an unprecedented eruption. We’ve entered our great era, but our opponents have entered their great era as well. We can only face them head-on,” said Long Chen.
Originally, he had been hoping to bring back more of the Xuantian Dao Sect’s disciples when this was over. However, that hope vanished.
“Brothers of the Dao Sect, when the big fight starts, we will take the front. The Dragonblood warriors will defend you, while you are to defend the final wall behind you. Do you understand what that wall signifies? If it is broken, the devil creatures will flood the channel. They will charge their way into all the various large sects. Once they break their seals, they’ll slaughter countless innocent people. The Eastern Xuan Region and the Martial Heaven Continent as a whole will face a calamity. I think that all of you know what must be done.”
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, don’t worry! We will also be powerful heroes. We aren’t cowards afraid of death!”
“I’ve already had the blood of so many of my brothers spill on this ground. We won’t let their blood be spilled for nothing. Even if we have to die, we will defend this channel. We won’t give a single inch!”