Chapter 278 - 263: [Star Monarch] vs. [Imperial Pole] (2)
Without him realizing, Celestial Master Chen’s Jade Handle Duster had fallen to his side. He looked up at the sky outside the tent, watching it rapidly darken and give way to starlight.
A flicker of unusual light finally crossed his otherwise impassive eyes.
"A Star Monarch Dharma Aspect... Though only a phantom, it already possesses a hint of its true essence.
The methods of Xuan Hengzi... but I fear even he could not achieve this.
Hmm... It must be that Venerable... This boy... What immense Creation, and what ruthless methods."
His tone remained steady, yet it carried an indescribable undercurrent.
Li Xuanqing had no time to savor the profound meaning in his words. He roared:
"Array! Activate!"
"SIR—!!!"
Outside the tent, the various generals, already on alert, roared their assent in unison!
At this moment, the five hundred thousand elites of the World-Suppressing Army displayed the iron-blooded discipline and terrifying efficiency worthy of their "World-Suppressing" name.
There was no panic, no clamor.
Only the grim, orderly precision of a well-oiled machine.
"Emperor’s Extreme, with blood and qi as fuel!
Battle-intent as fire, forge our Divine Body!"
The deep, powerful True Words of the battle array, as if spoken by millions as one, erupted from every soldier’s mouth simultaneously!
BOOM!
The immense, sky-piercing blood and qi of five hundred thousand men, their unyielding battle-intent forged through a hundred battles, and their absolute faith in the Nanyin Dynasty—at this instant, all were extracted and smelted by some ancient and mysterious array!
With the military camp at its core, the air for hundreds of miles around suddenly grew thick and scorching, as if it had transformed into a vast, invisible furnace between Heaven and Earth, roaring madly to life!
Visible to the naked eye, pillars of Red Gold blood-and-qi smoke, like countless angry dragons, shot up from every soldier’s head, madly weaving, coiling, and compressing in mid-air!
The next moment—
ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!...
Ten earth-shattering roars, as if from the primordial wilderness, shook the entire land!
Ten colossal, heaven-supporting figures stepped forth from the core of the Red Gold blood-and-qi smoke with a thunderous boom!
Each one stood over a thousand meters tall, its entire body formed from condensed, almost tangible Red Gold blood-qi and iron-willed battle-intent. They were clad in the phantoms of simple, heavy bronze armor, with the ancient totems of the Nanyin Dynasty inscribed upon each plate.
Their faces were blurred, but their pairs of eyes burned with the blazing fire of battle-intent—cold, resolute, and unafraid of death.
These were the war Dharma Aspects condensed by the World-Suppressing Army’s ultimate combined-strike grand array, the Emperor’s Extreme Slaughter Array: the Ten Directions Military Deities!
The auras of the ten Military Deities were linked as one, yet each guarded a different direction, forming an incomparably profound battle formation that integrated both offense and defense.
Facing the crushing descent of the Star Battle World that blanketed the Celestial Vault, the ten Military Deities showed no fear. They simultaneously let out a heaven-shaking war cry, their Divine Soldiers raised high!
Ten terrifying torrents of power—vast, immense, and infused with the blood, qi, and battle-intent of five hundred thousand elites—surged upward like ten Red Gold floods tearing through the heavens, brazenly crashing into the descending world of stars!
On one side, a Supreme Daoist Skill that Guided the Power of Circulation Stars, Mimicked the Star Monarch’s Authority, and manifested a Star Battle World.
On the other, an iron-blooded military array that gathered the Essence, Qi, and Spirit of a five-hundred-thousand-strong army, wielded Fake Foundation Establishment Power, and condensed War Deities.
Two completely different, terrifying powers slammed into each other in the skies northeast of the Valley of No Life!
Time, in this instant, stretched and froze.
There was no sound.
All that remained was the sight that filled their vision: the Star Battle World, occupying half the Celestial Vault, a realm of constant creation and destruction where stars fell only to be born again, locked in a death grip with the ten surging torrents of the Red Gold Military Deities, which rose from the other half of the sky, their Evil Qi flooding the plains and their Divine Soldiers cleaving the air!
At the core of the collision, space crumpled like a crushed sheet of paper.
The two forces intertwined madly, erupting in a detonating blast of light bright enough to blind mortal eyes.
An area hundreds of miles across was illuminated in incandescent white, as if daylight had descended upon this dead and silent land.
The terrifying shockwave materialized as visible, circular ripples of energy—a mixture of Star Dust and bloody qi—that swept out in all directions, layer by layer, circle by circle, with world-destroying force!
Wherever it passed, the grey-white cliff faces silently turned to dust, and the earth was churned as if repeatedly plowed by a colossal share...
Heaven and Earth lost their color; all life withered.
...
Atop the cliff, Qi Yun’s figure swayed slightly.
The vertical silver mark on his brow flashed erratically, and faint traces of blood began to seep from it.
Simultaneously activating Mastering All Skills to leverage his Dao Foundation, maintaining his Great Star Monarch state, and pouring all his Magical Power into the Evil Star to manifest this heaven-shattering attack had placed a burden on him far greater than he could have ever imagined.
Even with the Twenty-Four Qi Enlightenment Map constantly replenishing him, he was still struggling to keep up.
But his silvery-white eyes shimmered with a hint of a smile..
Because in the exact instant the two powers collided—
Deep within his Daluo Heaven, the greyish-blue orb of light that was his Origin Mechanism—which he had been carefully nurturing—trembled violently, as if struck by the most intense stimulation!
BUZZ!
The orb of light began to spin at an unprecedented speed. Its color deepened and solidified before his very eyes, and its volume nearly doubled!
Wisps of a purer, more profound ’primordial’ Daoist Intent were being forcibly extracted and stripped from the unimaginably vast and powerful vortex of karma created by the cataclysmic collision, flooding madly into the orb of light!
’Just as I thought... only a great collision of karma on this scale—one that stirs an entire region and concerns the fate of hundreds of thousands of lives—is the best nourishment for the Four Seasons!’
Understanding dawned in Qi Yun’s heart. He endured the immense strain, struggling to maintain control over the Evil Star and the phantom of the Star Monarch.
But what delighted him even more was what was happening in the deepest part of the Origin Mechanism.
A new "sprout"—faint, yet incredibly distinct—had quietly appeared!
The sprout was not quite yellow, not quite green.
Although extremely faint, the essence of the Daoist Intent it emitted shared the same source as the Origin Mechanism, yet was completely different.
The nascent form of the second element of the Four Seasons—the Peak Essence!
’Spring gives way to summer. This is the second stage of the Four Seasons...’
A sharp glint flickered in Qi Yun’s eyes, and a smile touched his lips.
He had originally only hoped to use this cataclysmic strike to significantly advance the condensation of his Origin Mechanism.
He never expected that the resulting karmic disturbance would directly trigger the next stage of the Four Seasons.
’Worth it!’
Regardless of the outcome of this strike, the substantial growth of his Origin Mechanism and the appearance of the Peak Essence had already made all the expenditure and risk worthwhile.
And now, in the Celestial Vault above, the terrifying struggle between the Star Battle World and the Ten Directions Military Deities had reached its most critical moment.
Qi Yun’s silvery-white pupils contracted slightly as he felt the mounting pressure from the Evil Star and the rapid depletion of the Magical Power within him.
The combined might of a five-hundred-thousand-strong army, wielding Fake Foundation Establishment Power, far exceeded the limits of any individual’s Cultivation.
Even borrowing the power of a Great Star Monarch and Guiding the Power of Circulation Stars, it still wasn’t enough.
’But... I never intended to accomplish everything with this one strike.’
The next instant!
From within his sleeve, the jet-black Human Emperor Banner, which had been silent all this time, suddenly began to glow with a profound, dark light.
Within the banner’s inner space, the phantoms of three Main Souls slowly opened their eyes.
...