Daoist Competition

Zhang Yan pressed down on the cloud and, together with True Master Tao, landed upon the Dharma Platform. He took up the Main Banner and called out loudly, "Where is the Mountain and River Child? Hurry and come to anchor the formation!"

A streak of Spirit Light flew over and landed upon the offering table.

With a sweep of his sleeve, the scroll unfurled, golden shadows surged, then like the rising sun bursting forth, transformed into streaks of Spirit Light shooting in all directions. In just a few breaths, a thousand-zhang mountain slowly rose up from within the formation.

Zhang Yan stepped back a pace, withdrew from the main seat, and handed the Main Banner to True Master Tao, saying, "I must ask True Master to preside."

True Master Tao bowed formally, received it with solemn expression, then went up to his array position and stood firm, closing his eyes to sense. When Guo Monarch’s Qi Mechanism pressed ever closer, he roused his Mana, gave the Banner a shake, and with rumbling booms, the mountain behind him flew forth and then slammed viciously down!

Guo Monarch had intended to suppress the Array Diagram, and to guard against this, but with a bang that mountain struck squarely upon his head. His body was actually driven down a level; his figure swayed once before he regained his wits and could not help but rage. Yet before he could rise into the air again, another mountain mass pressed down.

Likewise using True Spirit to anchor the array, with a Cave Heaven True Master presiding besides, the two arrays combined and their might instantly manifested. For a time, he was battered into utter misery, forced to remain rooted in place, unable to move, and had no choice but to rouse Essence Evil to shield his entire body.

But once he did so, he no longer had any leisure to disrupt the Array Spirit’s spiritual mechanism. True Master Tao seized the opening, called out the Array Spirit once more, and in an instant blazing thunderfire and lightning descended again. Attacked from both sides, Guo Monarch was bombarded into a frantic mess, crackling sounds erupted over his body, many sections of his hardened armor charred and split. Though in a flash they restored to their original state, in truth causing him little harm, he still loathed to simply endure such a beating without being able to strike back. With a long, wild roar, he suddenly plunged into the ground and vanished without a trace, borrowing the power of his Lifebound Primordial Pearl to escape through the earth.

True Master Tao was able to found a sect only by slaughtering his way up; his Battle Array experience was rich. He needed no deliberation to know that the other was surely trying to find a way to flee out from within the Six Return Formation.

Though his original intent was to probe out all the opponent’s methods before fixing a plan to break the enemy, the opportunity of battle shifts in an instant. Since he had seen clearly the opponent’s aim, there was no need to cling to that intent. Thus he decided on the spot and decisively stirred his Mana.

In a blink, a Xuanhuang Great Hand that could prop heaven and shake earth rose high, then slammed fiercely down toward one spot. With a thunderous crash, cliffs snapped and peaks collapsed; under this single palm, a hundred-li radius was leveled flat!

Guo Monarch happened to be just then emerging from underground, flying up into midair, when he was struck squarely by the Xuanhuang Great Hand. Suffering this blow, the Essence Evil covering his whole body scattered by more than half, and he fell down from Heaven.

True Master Tao would never miss such an excellent chance. Resting his Ruyi horizontally, he raised his voice and shouted, "Where is the Essence Prison Lock?"

At his shout, dragon roars resounded; behind him eight thousand-zhang Flood Dragons suddenly flew up, stretching their bodies out and threading through the high sky. Then their forms turned into golden chains that bound Guo Monarch, whose mind had been struck dizzy by that palm, suspended in midair.

Zhang Yan too had long been tempered in war arrays; he would not let this chance slip by. Without needing any reminder, he offered up the Xuan Flood Dragon Halberd into the air. A streak of golden light flashed; with a crack, it beheaded that Heavenly Demon. Then the golden light flickered six more times,

and hacked the body into eight segments before he finally stayed his hand.

It was not that he could not continue, but killing a Heavenly Demon was not so simple. At this moment each Flood Dragon Lock was confining one piece of remaining flesh, which still struggled ceaselessly as though unaffected, trying to recombine into one. He feared that if he kept hacking, he would instead aid its escape.

True Master Tao looked at that severed body yet still did not relax, saying, "Fellow Daoist Zhang, so long as this Heavenly Demon’s Lifebound Primordial Pearl is not destroyed, it will be hard to kill. We must use the Array to grind it down and slowly exhaust its Primordial Qi."

Zhang Yan was just about to respond when a sudden change arose. A streak of radiance flew out from within Guo Monarch’s body, flickered once, shot into the Heavenly Vault, and vanished in an instant.

Tao Zhenhong’s brows furrowed. He stared for quite a while, then revealed several shades of astonishment and said gravely, "This is bad. That Heavenly Demon has rushed beyond the heavy sky to seize Junyang Essence. We cannot wait for it to return; we must find a way to annihilate it now, otherwise it will be even harder to deal with!"

Guo Monarch himself was helpless in this. He had never thought he would be driven to such a state. Bound by the Essence Prison Lock, even with his Heavenly Demon body, no Divine Secret Skill could be employed; he could only again send out his Lifebound Primordial Pearl.

Beyond the heavy sky, Gang Wind rampages. To take Junyang Essence, one must suffer its attrition. Even if the Lifebound Primordial Pearl could return, it would likely be less than a tenth of what it was. But so long as it had that Essence Qi, his Daoist Cultivation would greatly increase in a short span, enough to regather his flesh, break free of his bindings, and charge out of this Great Array.

As long as he reached the outside, killed several Cultivators to draw their Essence Blood, and found a place to temporarily hide, he could slowly Cultivate back the Primordial Qi he had lost.

Zhang Yan glanced up toward the sky and asked, "True Master, can you discern when that Lifebound Pearl will return?"

True Master Tao pinched his fingers in calculation and said, "At the latest, three days and it will come back. If I now do not spare Mana, I have confidence I can refine away half its power. To remove this Demon, we must destroy all the bodies here together, not leaving the slightest shred. Those remains protected by the three Primordial Pearls are no ordinary things; within this short span we cannot fully erase them."

Thinking to this point, he suddenly remembered something and sighed, "With the Primordial Life Pearl present, unless your Mingcang Sect’s Beiming Tiandu Sword were here, it is difficult to behead him in a single stroke."

The Beiming Sword was refined by the previous Sect Leader Qin Qinggang after his Beiming Continent expedition, using the Eight Divisions’ Seal and the Demon Emperor bloodline’s Essence Blood. It was originally meant to cow the Demon Tribe. For any Demon, a single cut would surely sever all vitality from its remaining limbs.

Zhang Yan’s heart stirred. He had one Beiming Sword avatar here, yet he felt there might be another way and that he might not need to use this sword.

He pondered carefully, and suddenly a streak of Spirit Light flashed through his mind. He asked, "True Master, could we not use an Earth Fire Sky Furnace to smelt and burn his body?"

True Master Tao was taken aback. The East Victory Four Sects have Cave Heaven True Masters seated, so having an Earth Fire Sky Furnace is no surprise. But with only three days’ time, and Guo Monarch’s remains still needing to be suppressed, shifting them would be difficult. Even the nearest Zhongtai Sect might not be reachable in time. His thoughts turned, and he said in astonishment, "Does fellow Daoist have an Earth Fire Sky Furnace at hand?"

Zhang Yan nodded and said, "Precisely. This Earth Furnace lies within Divine House Mountain. Only, this place was opened by me through a trick method, not like those opened by Cave Heaven Cultivators such as True Master."

True Master Tao lowered his head in thought, then suddenly snapped it up and said, "That is enough! So long as it can draw Earth Fire, and I preside, even a Heavenly Demon body can be refined away!"

...

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