Chapter 997: I’m Back
The explosive voice preceded the arrival of the speaker!
It was so loud that even Chen Hetian felt his ears vibrating and his mind reeling on the verge of collapse. Blood began to ooze out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and before he could react to what was happening, he felt as though his brain had been hit with a sledgehammer.
Bai Zhentian was in equally bad condition. His five yin organs and six yang organs quivered on the verge of collapse, and as he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood, his soul twitched as though it might shatter.
Only Patriarch Spirit Stream wasn’t affected. However, his shock at hearing that familiar voice caused an expression of disbelief to cover his face. Even as he contemplated whether to look over his shoulder at the source, the air in the area rippled and distorted.
Bai Xiaochun shot onto the scene with speed that seemed capable of ripping apart heaven and earth. In the blink of an eye, he was upon Chen Hetian and Bai Zhentian, who were combining forces to try to kill Mistress Red-Dust!
He seemed like a razor-sharp arrow that could pierce through anything that got in his way. Before anyone could react, he was next to Mistress Red-Dust. Wrapping her up in his right arm, he waved his left index finger at Chen Hetian and Bai Zhentian!
He was not attacking in full force, but instead, merely waving his finger. Even still, the sky went dim, and a huge wind kicked up. At the same time, battle prowess that surpassed the level of a deva cultivation base exploded out.
A deafening boom filled the entire battlefield, accompanied by miserable shrieks from Chen Hetian and Bai Zhentian.
Blood sprayed out of Chen Hetian’s mouth as an unimaginable force entered him. It was so powerful that he became like a bag of water, with his blood being the water! Under the intense power of that force, the water was immediately ejected out of the bag!
Blood began to rush out of his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and even his pores….
He was thrown backward beyond his control, accompanied by cracking sounds as his bones broke and shattered. Chen Hetian wasn’t even able to stand up to a single attack from Bai Xiaochun!
His entire body began to break apart, until even his bones were nothing more than powder. At that point, there was nothing left to sustain his physical form, and he became little more than a lump of flesh and blood!
And yet, things weren’t over yet! Having no bones or blood left, he could do nothing other than scream as the rest of his body shattered to pieces!
He now existed only in nascent divinity form! Screaming in fear, he fled, mind gripped with terror and shock.
“You’re… Bai Xiaochun!? You’re… a demigod?!?!” He could only speak incoherently, shocked as he was that a single wave of Bai Xiaochun’s finger could be so terrifying.
Of course, Chen Hetian wasn’t the only one to be injured. Bai Zhentian suffered a similar fate. His blood exploded out of his body, and his bones shattered as he was thrown backward violently. No amount of defensive magical items or magics did anything to help him.
Luckily for him, he only lost about half of his body. Even as his blood showered down onto the ground, he backed up, having survived in fleshly body form, unlike Chen Hetian.
Although devas could survive in nascent divinity form, that didn’t mean that their fleshly bodies weren’t important. Not only would the loss of a fleshly body significantly reduce their battle prowess, the process of forming a new body would be extremely costly. For all intents and purposes, existing in such a state meant that their overall cultivation base level was greatly weakened.
“Bai Xiaochun!?!?” Bai Zhentian shouted, trembling in disbelief.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Bai Xiaochun arrived, waved his finger, and within a few breaths of time, completely reversed the situation on the battlefield. Everyone who was present to witness it was completely bowled over.
Furthermore… this was him showing restraint. Although he was furious, he hadn’t come here to kill anyone. No, he wished to do the same thing he had done with the Spirit and Blood Stream Sects. He wanted to end the war between the Wildlands and the Heavenspan region!
Therefore, he didn’t exterminate Bai Zhentian and Chen Hetian. Although he hated Chen Hetian with a vengeance, he spared his life. He had only added a bit more power into the attack against him, ensuring that his fleshly body was destroyed.
“Xiaochun….” Patriarch Spirit Stream murmured, his heart battered by waves of shock as he hovered there in midair, looking over at Bai Xiaochun. Bai Xiaochun had been missing for years now, and hadn’t sent back any word at all. Although Patriarch Spirit Stream would never say it out loud, he had missed him during that time. But he could never have been prepared to see him back all of a sudden, and with such shocking battle prowess.
Patriarch Spirit Stream was also a deva, and thus knew exactly how powerful Chen Hetian and Bai Zhentian were. The fact that both of them had been so grievously injured, simultaneously, and with only the wave of a finger… led him to the only possible explanation.
Bai Xiaochun must be a demigod!
It seemed completely absurd. Patriarch Spirit Stream had always had faith in Bai Xiaochun, and had long looked forward to seeing him grow into his potential. But what good fortune could he possibly have come across that propelled him, in only a few short years, from the early Deva Realm… into the Demigod Realm!?!?
Equally shaken was Mistress Red-Dust, who rested against his shoulder looking up at him, her eyes both exhausted and confused. She almost didn’t dare to believe that what was happening was real.
Looking down at her with mixed emotions, he softly said, “I’m back.”
When she heard his words, and felt the warmth of his body against hers, she smiled. Suddenly, the weight of all the years of battle seemed to fade a bit. Then, the exhaustion hit her with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force, and she lapsed into unconsciousness.
To see her pass out from fatigue in such a way caused prickles of pain to hit Bai Xiaochun in the heart. He put her down carefully, then looked up at Patriarch Spirit Stream.
“Greetings, Patriarch!” he said, clasping hands and bowing.
Patriarch Spirit Stream could hardly breathe straight, and his expression was that of complete incredulity. He opened his mouth to speak, and yet couldn’t find any words to do so. The level of Bai Xiaochun’s cultivation base was so preposterous that it almost seemed like a dream.
“Patriarch, please call together all the disciples of the River-Defying Sect. We… will not be fighting in this war!” Bai Xiaochun had been in a bad mood to begin with, but it was only made worse by the situation around him on the battlefield.
Patriarch Spirit Stream gasped in response to his words, but then his eyes began to shine. Considering the level of his own cultivation base, he had not been able to lead the River-Defying Sect in a show of conscience in this war.
But with Bai Xiaochun back with a cultivation base as lofty as the starry sky itself, a person who could unleash shocking power with a mere wave of his hand, all of a sudden, Patriarch Spirit Stream’s heart was filled with hope.
Without the slightest hesitation, he spoke out over the battlefield, bolstering his voice with the power of his cultivation base.
“Disciples of the River-Defying Sect. To me!”
Moments before, his voice would hardly have been heard on the battlefield. But now, even though there was still fighting going on, Bai Xiaochun’s shocking appearance had caused many people to pause in place and look up. Furthermore, the words that Bai Xiaochun had spoken moments ago had been heard by many.
The River-Defying Sect disciples’ hearts began to pound as they flew into the air toward Patriarch Spirit Stream. Numerous beams of light appeared, within which were many familiar faces, such as Shangguan Tianyou, Beihan Lie, Song Que, Master God-Diviner, and… Song Junwan.
Few people had as complex of an expression as Song Junwan, who couldn’t stop looking at the unconscious Mistress Red-Dust. Bai Xiaochun noticed her glances. In fact, he had locked onto her with his divine sense much earlier, and had noted that Song Que was doing his best to keep her safe.
Although he felt somewhat proud of how things were going, he knew that now was not the time to let his guard down. Moments ticked by, and the River-Defying Sect disciples began to gather together.
No one dared to get in their way.
Chen Hetian only existed in nascent divinity form now, and was still trembling in fear. However, when he saw what was happening, his hatred for Bai Xiaochun bubbled up, and he said, “What is the meaning of this, Bai Xiaochun? Don’t tell me you’re rebelling against the Heavenspan Realm?!?!”