Chapter 441 - 66: Fierce Battle
A heavy footfall rang out. The old man grew inexplicably nervous and bowed his head, afraid to even breathe.
He heard the doors to the Earth Palace slowly swing open, and a giant figure about ten feet tall walked out.
The Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect was tall and powerfully built. His muscles bulged, gnarled and knotted like the roots of an ancient tree, presenting a powerful visual shock. Woven across his terrifyingly muscular frame were elegant, flowing dark-gold patterns and archaic, profound runes that flickered in and out of existence.
In contrast to this physical body, which contained an unparalleled and terrifying power, the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect’s face was rather ordinary. He was bald, with eyes that held a restrained divine light, exuding an air of majesty and dominance.
"I humbly welcome you out of seclusion, my Lord!" the old man said, kneeling.
The Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect gave him a cold glance, said nothing, and walked straight past.
He had been at a critical moment in his seclusion, on the verge of a breakthrough. To be disturbed now was as infuriating as being woken from a deep sleep to do chores, or as frustrating as being rudely interrupted in the midst of a passionate encounter with a beautiful woman.
With a look of sheer irritation on his face, he appeared within the City Lord’s Mansion. A cloud of yellow smoke billowed out, and from it emerged a ferocious tiger, fifty feet in size!
The tiger’s protective aura was as deep as an abyss and as vast as the sea, immense and boundless. Its oppressive Evil Qi marked it as a brutally savage Tier Four Demon Beast.
But beside the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect, the giant tiger reined in its ferocity, becoming incredibly docile.
The Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect straddled the giant tiger’s back, patted its head lightly, and said, "To the Qi Family Immortal Castle."
The giant tiger let out a low roar, then leaped into the air. With just a few bounds, it ascended into the heavens and streaked toward the distant sky.
In Heaven Shepherd City, only a few Life Soul Cultivators sensed this heart-pounding aura. By the time they focused their senses to get a closer look, all they saw was a faint yellow glow passing through the sea of clouds before vanishing in an instant.
...
As the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect rode his giant tiger out of Heaven Shepherd City and had just reached the skies above, his expression suddenly changed. He sensed that something was amiss.
He frowned and scanned his surroundings. As far as the eye could see, the sky was high and clear, the sea of clouds was boundless, and everything was serene.
Only a single, pale pink petal drifted down from somewhere unknown, brushing past his forehead.
A light breeze stirred, and he caught the faint scent of flowers.
"This is..."
A warning bell suddenly rang in the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect’s mind. He had a faint feeling that something was wrong.
He threw a punch, accompanied by the deafening roar of wind and thunder as it tore through the air, striking the fragile, drifting petal head-on!
BOOM!
The force of the punch, enough to shatter a mountain, struck the beautiful, pale pink petal, yet there was no reaction at all.
The pale pink petal flashed with light and suddenly split in two, then two became four, four became eight... it multiplied at an unbelievably rapid speed.
In an instant, the sky was filled with pale pink petals, as if a bomb of flowers had detonated, rapidly filling the entire firmament.
Billions of petals enveloped the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect, and an unbelievably massive aura silently emerged!
The petals began to rotate slowly around the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect. A vast, tide-like roar shook the void. The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, affected by this power, swirled into a gigantic tornado that connected heaven and earth.
The Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect’s expression turned grave. An unimaginably immense pressure, as if he were carrying a mountain, descended upon him. The seemingly beautiful pale pink petals had now become incomparably sharp.
Before his eyes—above, below, in front, behind, to his left and to his right—were countless, densely packed petals, too many to count.
Billions of petals, imbued with a strange Divine Technique’s power, formed a complex and vast Array. It devoured the Spiritual Qi within a hundred-Baili radius, trapping the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect inside with the intent to kill.
The petals whirled and sliced through the air. The first to bear the brunt of the attack was the Tier Four giant tiger!
A spiritual light flickered around the Demon Beast’s body, but it only lasted for a few breaths before it was shredded into a bloody mist by the endless petals, killed on the spot.
A dark gold luster flickered across the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect’s body. The elegant, flowing, profound patterns and archaic runes emerged, making him look like an indestructible Magical Artifact.
A series of ear-piercing grinding and cutting sounds rang out as the petals slammed into the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect, erupting in bursts of blinding light.
His enormous body was swept up in the torrent of petals, rendering him almost immobile, at the mercy of the Flower Blades!
"A Tribulation Realm Cultivator?!"
A divine light erupted from the eyes of the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect. He let out a mighty roar and threw a punch toward the endless Flower Blades before him.
A blinding, dark gold Profound Light surged forth at the point of contact between the fist’s aura and the Flower Blades.
In an instant, an incomparably terrifying force erupted. The massive fist blasted through the sea of flowers, tearing an opening in the entire Flower Blade Grand Array.
Deep within the sea of flowers, a foot-tall paper figure stood with its hands behind its back, quietly watching the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect.
’Not a Tribulation Realm Cultivator, just someone borrowing a single Divine Technique from one...’
The Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect had a sharp eye and quickly assessed the situation.
His body flickered as he tried to break free from the mountain-like pressure and rush toward the paper figure.
However, the sky-full of petals surged forward, blocking him once again.
The sharp petals sliced at his body. Even with his terrifying physique, tempered through a thousand trials, he was finding it difficult to withstand.
This world-shaking Divine Technique could actually absorb the endless Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth on its own, forming a massive vortex of flowers to annihilate any target caught within!
If he hadn’t tempered his physical body to be comparable to a late-stage Tier Four Magical Artifact, an ordinary late-stage Dharma Realm Cultivator would be utterly unable to block such a terrifying Divine Technique with their body alone.
Only someone with a high-grade Tier Four Protective Magical Artifact, which could be summoned with a single thought, could possibly survive this vicious and deadly sneak attack!
The Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect had no time for further thought. He continuously unleashed blinding, massive blasts of fist energy, punching large holes in the Flower Blade vortex, but the holes quickly closed up again.
The endless sea of flowers churned and spun, continuously cutting and smashing against the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect’s body. His blood and qi roiled, and a sharp pain began to spread across his skin.
...
「In Heaven Shepherd City.」
Those few Life Soul Cultivators had just sensed the departure of the Tier Four Demon Beast’s aura when they were hit by the intense fluctuations of a battle taking place a hundred Baili outside the city.
「In Miaoxiang Tower.」
Senior Sister Qin transformed into a streak of Profound Light and silently left Heaven Shepherd City. She stood atop a cloud, observing from a great distance.
Not far from her, other Life Soul Cultivators began to arrive one after another, all staring into the distance with shock and uncertainty.
A sphere of flowers over ten li in diameter was spinning rapidly, while a tornado of Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth frantically devoured the boundless ambient Spiritual Qi.
The terrifying aura emanating from the sphere of flowers made the blood of Senior Sister Qin and the other Life Soul Cultivators run cold.
They could see earth-shattering booms continuously erupting from within the sphere. The ball, composed of billions of petals, would occasionally collapse and disintegrate, only to rapidly reform.
Two astonishing powers were locked in a struggle, as if racing to see which was faster.
It was a contest: would the sphere of flowers collapse faster, or would it reform faster?
Just then, a streak of Thunder Light surged from the distant heavens.
The daylight instantly dimmed. The great sun vanished. The firmament filled with terrifying thunderclouds that stretched for hundreds of Baili.
Between heaven and earth, a Mystic Iron Giant appeared, as large as a mountain. It had the beak of a phoenix and fangs of silver, crimson hair and an indigo body. Wings sprouted from beneath its arms, its eyes blazed with fire, and its hands and feet were the claws of a dragon.
The giant’s entire body was indigo, clad in majestic, archaic golden armor. Profound Patterns covered its surface, flowing with a divine light.
The wings on its back looked as if they were forged from a thousand incomparably sharp swords. Along its spine, nineteen snowflake-shaped Spirit Flame vents shimmered with a dazzling brilliance.
Dharma Realm!
Senior Sister Qin was horrified. Her figure shot backward, putting great distance between herself and the intimidating presence of the Feather Divine Soldier.
With such a startling celestial phenomenon, nearly every Cultivator in Heaven Shepherd City sensed that something was wrong.
The Mystic Iron Giant just stared quietly at the massive sphere of flowers not far away, remaining perfectly still.
About fifteen minutes later, an earth-shattering explosion erupted from within the sphere of flowers.
The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi suddenly collapsed and dispersed. Then, the sphere of flowers twisted and tore apart!
A tall figure burst out of the sea of flowers, revealing a shockingly gruesome body.
A third of the flesh on his body was gone. His arms and legs were stripped bare to golden bones covered in Profound Patterns.
Only his head and internal organs remained, and even they were covered in bloody gashes.
In that moment, the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect displayed astonishing life force. He had forcefully broken through the Tribulation Realm Great Power’s attack and survived.
The Dream Spirit Incarnation also dissipated and vanished.
「In that very instant.」
Lightning suddenly danced between heaven and earth. Dazzling flashes tore through the sky and the City Defense Array, illuminating the distant Heaven Shepherd City in flickering light.
Hundreds of blinding thunderbolts struck down from the void, as if the heavens were collapsing. The souls of the spectating Cultivators, both near and far, trembled, their ears ringing and their vision blurring.
Those with weaker cultivation were shaken so badly they fell from the sky.
The Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect threw his head back and laughed. He clenched the skeletal fingers of his fleshless right hand into a fist and punched out fiercely.
A dark gold Profound Light surged out, deflecting the lightning. The Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect charged against the volley of thunder, heading for the Feather Divine Soldier, intending to tear the Mystic Iron Giant apart with his bare hands.
In the sky, thunder rumbled and shook. Immediately, hundreds more bolts of lightning struck down toward the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Just a few bolts of Thunder Light of this magnitude were enough to shatter the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect’s fist energy. Now, with an unending barrage of lightning striking him, even he, with his astonishing Body Refining Divine Techniques, found it extremely strenuous.
Moreover, he had already been severely wounded by the sneak attack from the Tribulation Realm Great Power!
’I... refuse to accept this!’
A look of exhaustion crossed the face of the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect as he looked up at the Feather Divine Soldier. The massive mystic iron body gave off the majestic and weighty presence of a colossal mountain.
The Feather Divine Soldier seemingly made a casual gesture, pointing a finger into the void!
Suddenly, the clear, crisp ring of a sword echoed between heaven and earth.
A brilliant beam of sword light descended from the heavens, landing on the head of the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect!
The entire sky, from top to bottom, suddenly cracked open like a shattered mirror.
An infinite amount of Profound Light erupted furiously from the Master of Ten Thousand Transformations Sect’s body. An extremely violent boom shook the void.
The aura between heaven and earth surged like a tide, then suddenly exploded and dispersed.
The powerful, tall figure was instantly split in two, all signs of life extinguished.
...