Chapter 1186: The Fate Arbiter’s Dao Fruit
“Haha! Calling for backup didn’t work, did it?!” Although the Nine-Layers Immortal had no idea why the Midheaven Emperor-Lord had withdrawn after taking a single step, he couldn’t be bothered to dwell on it. He would strike first while the Fate Arbiter was still stunned.
The Fate Arbiter was still wondering why the Midheaven Emperor-Lord wasn’t coming when a searing fist caught him square in the face, followed by a frigid one. The alternating extremes of heat and cold drove him back continuously as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Although blood dripped from his lips, the Fate Arbiter wasn’t seriously wounded. His bone armor had absorbed most of the damage.
The Fate Arbiter was a civil official in the Great Qian Dynasty, but he hadn’t risen to this position through eloquence alone. He simply wasn’t willing to devote himself to state affairs; otherwise, the Midheaven Emperor-Lord wouldn’t have become the emperor so easily.
The Fate Arbiter’s fist intent was peerless, his immortal blood boiling. Both arms shook as he lashed out at the Nine-Layers Immortal.
The alternating yin and yang forces enveloping the Nine-Layers Immortal would reduce any Transcendent Tribulation cultivator to charcoal or ice crystals at the slightest contact. But wearing bone gauntlets, the Fate Arbiter had no fear fighting the Nine-Layers Immortal head-on. The bone gauntlets even sprouted bony spikes, turning them into a pair of knuckle dusters. Every blow the Fate Arbiter landed inflicted a fresh wound on the Nine-Layers Immortal.
The two were absolutely confident in their strength, both exuding an aura of unrivaled supremacy. They roared in unison, each determined to crush the other. Terrifying auras blanketed heaven and earth as loud cracks rang out from within their bodies. Their bones splintered, but knitted back together almost instantly, and they continued fighting, oblivious to pain or fatigue.
An onlooker might think they both wielded the Everlasting Dao Fruit.
The Nine-Layers Immortal spotted a flaw in the Fate Arbiter’s technique, which was also a weak point in his armor. He struck decisively with the Yin-Yang Dao Fruit in his hand.
To his surprise, the moment he aimed his fist, the armor shifted bones from elsewhere to block the strike, rendering it completely ineffective.
“Interesting.”
Boom!
The two combatants separated, gasping for breath as they locked their gazes onto each other. Each endured excruciating pain while searching for signs of agony on the other’s face.
Neither found anything.
The Nine-Layers Immortal snapped his fingers, and clusters of immortal fires appeared. Each cluster would be an extraordinary boon for a cultivator with a Fire Spirit Root, but all he required was a single thought to conjure them.
Then came clumps of Mystic Ice, their quality comparable to those formed over millions of years.
No matter what secret arts Great Qian and Great Yu cultivators employed for their slumber, they had all inevitably suffered losses to their lifespans, ranging from centuries to millennia. However, if they were frozen in this Mystic Ice, they could achieve near-eternal slumber. Even after a million years, their lifespans would remain unchanged.
A clump of Mystic Ice flew toward the Fate Arbiter. He knocked it away, but an endless stream of immortal fires and Mystic Ice followed. He wouldn’t be able to block them all even if he had three heads and six arms.
One cluster of immortal fire broke through the Fate Arbiter’s defense, but it suddenly reversed its course and collided with a clump of Mystic Ice, resulting in mutual destruction.
The Nine-Layers Immortal’s expression hardened. That cluster of immortal fire had actually slipped from my control.
Immortal arts can’t compete with Dao Fruits. Is this the ability of the Fate Arbiter’s Dao Fruit?
“Immortal Fairy, does the Fate Arbiter have some kind of Dao Fruit that controls objects?” Lu Yang asked. He now had a certain understanding of Dao Fruits and could deduce some information.
The only person in Muxue City who could discern anything was Lu Yang. The others could barely keep up with the battle’s pace, let alone analyze it.
“Incorrect,” the Everlasting Immortal Fairy said with a grin, pointing out what Lu Yang had missed.
“Did you notice? When the two were engaged in close combat, the Nine-Layers Immortal seized an opportunity to land a punch on the Fate Arbiter, but the bone armor blocked it, right?
“If it were a controlling-type Dao Fruit, since the Fate Arbiter couldn’t react to that punch in time, the armor logically shouldn’t have reacted either, but that wasn’t the case.
“If this immortal’s guess is correct, the Fate Arbiter wields a Dao Fruit related to transfiguration or awakening sentience. He can grant life to objects and make them obey him while also allowing them to think and fight autonomously.”
“I see.”
“A controlling-type Dao Fruit?” The Nine-Layers Immortal arrived at the same conclusion as Lu Yang.
Hearing the Nine-Layers Immortal’s analysis, the Fate Arbiter smiled and began to use his Dao Fruit’s ability openly. In an instant, every immortal fire and Mystic Ice flying toward him was transfigured and imbued with sentience, turning back to attack the Nine-Layers Immortal instead.
“Using my own techniques against me?”
With a single thought, the Nine-Layers Immortal conjured an equal number of immortal fires and Mystic Ice, sending them hurtling into those controlled by the Fate Arbiter. The collision shook everything within ten thousand li.
“You defended against that? Not bad.” The Fate Arbiter spoke with ease. He now held the upper hand.
The Nine-Layers Immortal could control immortal fire and even conjure a sun, but they were physical objects. As long as something was tangible, it fell within the Fate Arbiter's domain of control. How could the Nine-Layers Immortal even attack?
Suddenly, the Nine-Layers Immortal was struck by an attack from nowhere. It hit him with immense force, sending him flying through more than a dozen mountain peaks before he finally stopped.
Where did that attack come from?
The Nine-Layers Immortal quickly realized that spirit qi was also within the Fate Arbiter’s field of control. The attack had come from spirit qi!
At that thought, he took a deep breath and absorbed all the spirit qi within a thousand li, refining it within his abdomen. He surmised that the Fate Arbiter could control only non-living entities. If he could control living entities, he would have already seized control of my body. Why would he still waste time on immortal fire and spirit qi?
By absorbing and refining every last bit of spirit qi until it becomes part of me, the Fate Arbiter can no longer control it!
The Fate Arbiter raised an eyebrow. Even though the Nine-Layers Immortal hasn’t correctly identified my Dao Fruit, he has made the right move.
“What will you do now?!”
With his immortal thought, the Fate Arbiter transfigured the mountain ranges surrounding Muxue City. The mountains awakened, like titans that had been sleeping upon the earth.
The snowy mountain titan rose to its feet, towering ten thousand zhang high. Next, the earth heaved upward, forming layer upon layer of cages to trap the Nine-Layers Immortal. The earth had also been transfigured by the Fate Arbiter, ready to obey his command.
All things in heaven and earth were within the Fate Arbiter’s range of control.
The battlefield shifted outside the city. The bolder cultivators in Muxue City left and followed to spectate. They stared dumbfounded as the numerous snowy mountains responded to the Fate Arbiter’s call, standing upright upon the earth like humans.
Yun Zhi looked down at the snow-capped mountains that stirred awake and shook her head with a sigh. She put away the monarch chair and leaped off the mountain peak, moving to a new spot out of harm’s way to watch the battle.
“Earth and snowy mountains? They’re mere mundane things, yet you dare try to trap an immortal with them!” The Nine-Layers Immortal bellowed. He shook like a colossal dragon breaking free of its chains. Shattering the shackles from the earth, he sent a snowy mountain titan crashing to the ground with a single punch.
The snowy mountain titan collapsed headless, and the earth trembled.
“Mundane things? Then how about these?!”
When the snowy mountain titan’s head shattered, a humanoid figure with a metallic luster flew out, slamming the Nine-Layers Immortal into the ground.
Boom!
Heaven and earth cracked apart, and an explosion erupted underground. The humanoid figure was sent flying by the Nine-Layers Immortal’s fist, and the Nine-Layers Immortal burst forth from the ground.
Despite taking a heavy punch from the Nine-Layers Immortal, the humanoid figure didn’t disassemble. It only bore a fist-shaped dent on its body.
“Immortal gold?” The Nine-Layers Immortal frowned.
This isn’t a magical treasure forged from immortal gold. The Fate Arbiter lacks the Heaven Mandate Immortal’s craftsmanship. This is simply a lump of raw immortal gold. But after the Fate Arbiter transfigured it, it became a living being, its hardness reaching a terrifying level.
“You always manage to come up with unexpected tricks.” The Nine-Layers Immortal sneered. “But you don’t think my Yin-Yang Dao Fruit can only control immortal fire and Mystic Ice, do you?”