Chapter 393 - 163: Chessboard Dharma Aspect, Placing the First Move at the Celestial Origin! The Toad Wrath Awakens
BOOM!!
Its momentum was as fierce as a thunderclap, its speed as swift as a lightning strike.
The blood-red kasaya draped over his body flared like a blazing fire, radiating a brilliant Divine Light.
With each step, Monk Taixuan was like a True Dragon leaping from the abyss. His hair and beard whipped through the air as he bared his fangs and brandished his claws, lunging ferociously toward Cui Yanliang!
Faint roars, like the angry cries of dragons, could be heard echoing from within his body.
Zheyun Temple originated from the Wansheng Institute. Their legacies were similar, but after several thousand years, they had undergone earth-shattering changes.
The Wansheng Institute was famous for its Nine Demon Subduing Seals, while Zheyun Temple had evolved them into the Ten Forms of Godslaying Fist!
As he strode forward, he clenched his fingers into a fist and brazenly punched out.
RUMBLE!
Endless Buddha’s Light burst forth, yet what it manifested was an intent of pure destruction!
A terrifying fist energy howled through the air, completely annihilating the floating dust and even the very light in the void.
At a glance, it looked like a pitch-black Ink Dragon soaring into the sky.
Godslaying Fist—no one is unkillable!
A naked, cold killing intent pierced the formless void, exploding in everyone’s minds as if it were tangible.
"Dust for ten thousand years is still just dust. A night-blooming cereus, though fleeting, shines with a thousand splendors..."
"Does living a long time necessarily make you remarkable?"
Cui Yanliang smiled faintly.
He looked down upon the surging destructive fist energy, which resembled a charging True Dragon, and unhurriedly raised a single finger.
Then, he pressed it down.
"Let me see if the Buddhist Golden Body you took thousands of years to cultivate can compare to the True Boxing Scripture Body I forged in five!"
BUZZ!
As his finger pointed out, endless light and heat erupted in the surrounding void, as if a great sun were falling from the sky.
But in an instant, that endless light and heat suddenly converged at his fingertip, like the sharpest Divine Sword in all of heaven and earth, cleaving the light from the void.
SHIIING!!
Their voices were still echoing in the void, but their attacks had already clashed millions of times.
Countless shattering sounds reverberated in all directions.
After that single finger descended, the vast, surging destructive fist energy suddenly dispersed!
It was like a raging, roaring tidal wave encountering a Stabilizing Needle, splitting to either side and rapidly scattering in all directions.
Wherever it passed, the fist’s power exploded like millions of fireworks in midair.
RUMBLE!
It was as if thousands of thunderbolts had detonated at once.
High in the sky, Cui Yanliang stood tall.
Meanwhile, Monk Taixuan, who had stepped into the air, was thrown back as if struck by lightning. The ferocious force that passed into him tore his blood-red kasaya and shook the thousand-zhang void behind him.
WHIP! WHIP! WHIP!
"This... how is this possible?"
Monk Taixuan pressed his palms together, his eyelids twitching. The Fire Dragon tattooed on his shoulder was as crimson as blood.
His feud with Cui Yanliang had been going on for several years.
At first, he was wary of the Boxing Saint Daoist Su Bai and didn’t dare to act personally. He had his disciples and many Evil Cultivators launch dozens, even hundreds, of ambushes against Cui Yanliang.
Eventually, he could no longer hold back and took action himself.
From then until he was severely wounded by Divine Thunder in Qing Province, a full three years had not even passed.
But even then, his retreat had been relatively graceful. Cui Yanliang had been unable to catch him and had also been seriously injured.
Yet now, two years after that battle, Cui Yanliang had made such terrifying progress!
"Two years is a long time. As the saying goes, ’after three days of separation, a scholar should be seen in a new light.’ After two years, what’s so impossible?"
Cui Yanliang flicked his fingers. Feeling the boundless, surging power within him, he couldn’t help but think back to five years ago.
With his current perspective, looking back on the past, he discovered many things he hadn’t noticed before.
’When I first met my master, I already found him unfathomable.’
’But in no more than half a month, Su Bai had already slain the Leader of the Gui Chen Sect and numerous Returning Void Feather Transformation Realm True Masters, reaching the Da Yu Peak.’
Now, five years had passed. Although his own progress was shocking, he knew one thing very clearly.
’Compared to my master, I’m still just a frog in a well. The difference between us is like heaven and earth.’
’Even I can’t imagine how powerful Su Bai has become after five years.’
’But I suspect that people like the Celestial Secret Sect Master and Monk Taixuan are probably beneath Su Bai’s notice now.’
At that moment, Monk Taixuan’s hands trembled. He held back, then held back again, but finally leaped into the air.
"Mighty Celestial Dragon!!"
The Martial Dao he cultivated was no longer that of the Buddhist Sect; it leaned more toward that of Evil Cultivators and Demon Cultivators.
Enraged, he sought to vent his fury through slaughter!
RUMBLE!
He leaped a thousand zhang high and threw a punch in midair. A torrent of fist energy instantly shattered several thousand zhang of the void.
It brazenly shot toward Cui Yanliang!
At the same time, the Celestial Secret Sect Master sighed softly to himself.
"How can a mere physical body hope to overcome my ten thousand years of cultivation?"
BUZZ!
It was just a soft sigh.
Yet despite Cui Yanliang’s current Mental Realm, it couldn’t help but waver, showing signs of instability.
BOOM!
His gaze hardened. He pointed his finger again and swiped it through the void.
Millions of wrinkles rippled through the void. Under his finger, the gushing Divine Light manifested a golden Dao Talisman as large as a mountain.
This Dao Talisman materialized before Monk Taixuan’s oncoming destructive fist energy.
But then, that wavering in Cui Yanliang’s Heart Spirit suddenly intensified by tens of thousands of times.
He even felt a flicker of instinctual fear.
When he opened his eyes again...
...he saw that countless strands of Divine Light were weaving together between heaven and earth, forming an immense chessboard.
This chessboard stretched north, south, east, and west, extending endlessly up and down, encompassing all things!
And Cui Yanliang himself was standing within this chessboard woven from infinite Divine Light!
A face as vast as the sky was looking down on him from above.
Then, a finger stretched across the heavens, holding a game piece between its tips, and brought it down like a mountain.
"This is the Divine Technique that made this old man famous."
"Placing the first move... at the Celestial Origin!"
Placing the First Move at the Celestial Origin!
Cui Yanliang looked around. Strands of Divine Light crisscrossed, forming endless lines that seemed to pierce through everything.
The place where he stood was the very center of the board—the Celestial Origin.
The surrounding lines that pierced the void contained all the power of space, binding the entire chessboard tightly.
Even he, at his current level, felt as if an Immortal mountain was pressing down on him, a powerful sense of restraint.
The giant, ancient face blotted out the sky as it looked down, its eyes dark and cold.
"Enter my game, and your life and death are mine to command!"
This chessboard was his Innate Divine Technique and also his thousand-zhang Dharma Aspect.
It had no method for direct attack, nor any defensive techniques; its flaws were significant.
If detected before the board was set, it would be difficult to forcefully bind an expert of the same level. That was why, for ten thousand years, he had rarely engaged in direct combat.
However, its binding power was exceptionally strong, rare in all the world. Even a fellow Feathered Expert couldn’t easily escape.
And once trapped, the only fate was to be slowly crushed to death within it.
Any existence that fell into the chessboard, unless they possessed power far beyond imagination and could shatter the board in a single blow...
...would have to face the annihilation of countless game pieces!
His unhurried conversation with Cui Yanliang earlier had all been to set up this chessboard.
BOOM!
At this moment, the game piece fell from the sky, carrying infinite power as it pressed down!
Thousands of zhang away, ripples were already spreading through the void.
Where the piece was set to fall, every tiny thing in the void let out hysterical wails as it was madly crushed!
Even Jin Yunfeng and Wang E, who had retreated for countless li, couldn’t help but feel their Heart Spirits churn.
They had retreated quickly, but it seemed they were too late; they still hadn’t escaped the chessboard!
Seeing this, they both went on high alert.
Farther away, the fist energy that was like a roaring Black Dragon seemed to be in its element within this chessboard. As the game piece pressed down, the fist energy struck out once more!
The destructive fist energy surged like the Tian He, erupting with an unimaginably cold and murderous intent.
CRASH! WHOOSH!
Great waves churned in the void, layer upon layer, rising high and surging violently, like a terrifying avalanche in the Beiji Land.
Caught in the middle, Cui Yanliang’s clothes whipped about loudly!
Facing the combined attack of two Feathered Experts, Cui Yanliang’s heart was as calm as still water. After five years of nonstop life-or-death tempering, the thought of retreat or fear had long been erased from his mind.
As his robes billowed, he suddenly let out a long laugh.
"Chessboard Dharma Aspect, Placing the First Move at the Celestial Origin?"
"If we’re really playing chess, I’m afraid this move is a blunder!"
RUMBLE!!
As his voice boomed, though his body was immobile, he stomped his foot violently, facing the game piece that was pressing down like a Divine Mountain.
He threw a punch!
Visible to the naked eye, endless currents of lightning and thunder burst from his every pore, like streams of purple and gold fire scorching heaven, earth, and the void.
In five years, tempered by an almost complete version of the Fist Scripture, his Physique had grown strong beyond imagination.
But the real change had come after he slayed that white tiger and used its blood to cleanse his body.
The white tiger’s Essence Blood had completely purged the impurities from his body and compensated for his Innate deficiencies, raising his foundation and potential to a whole new level.
Now, as he threw his punch, the countless microscopic particles that made up his body seemed to transform into writhing electric serpents and Thunder Dragons.
With those countless particles surging madly, this punch, which contained not a single shred of True Qi, produced a terrifying might that surpassed anyone’s imagination!
BOOM!
It was as if tens of millions of thunderbolts detonated at once. A massive, visible ripple spread madly in all directions.
From the void, a series of sounds abruptly rang out, like a Copper Mirror shattering.
In that moment, the void shattered!
RUMBLE!
The next instant, within the shattered void, the attacks of the three combatants collided with a deafening crash.
In a flash, heaven and earth roared, and the sun and moon lost their light.
An indescribably powerful explosion suddenly erupted within the chessboard and the Sealed Space.
The momentary brilliance was like a vast ocean, completely submerging everything.
It was so overwhelming that even Cui Yanliang, with his accomplished cultivation and remarkable Divine Thoughts, failed to notice.
Within the Sealed Space, thick with the air of death...
...that giant toad lying across the land, as large as the stars and moon...
...suddenly moved!