Chapter 1011: Old Feuds Remain Unresolved And New Hatreds Are Formed
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"Junior Ding, please remain calm and compose yourself. Otherwise, you will have lost the battle before it has even begun." Mu Xuan spoke first and Ding Runfeng came out of his trance and forced a faint smile.
Mu Xuan was still calm as usual, and returned Yue Hongyan’s gaze with a pair of plain eyes and slowly walked forward.
Mu Xuan said plainly, "She has at least one magic item on her. Don’t have to interfere with this battle."
Ding Runfeng nodded his head faintly while Shan Xiang turned around sharply towards Mu Xuan. Mu Xuan spoke softly, "Junior Shan, even I am not that prepared, but because my Dao I can wait no longer."
"You’re different. You still have time, so you cannot be rash. This girl’s physical strength and her mantras are explosive, and if you lose this battle you’ll be heavily injured at the very least."
The fire in Shan Xiang’s eyes died down and he regained his composure. However, once that happened, a bitter smile unwittingly appeared on Shan Xiang’s face.
He wasn’t even able to defeat an aurous core advanced stage cultivator, and that person was Yue Hongyan’s junior by an entire generation. If he were to go up against Yue Hongyan, he would probably not be able to resolve old feuds and would end up forming new hatreds instead.
Ding Runfeng sighed inside as he heard Mu Xuan’s words as well.
If he couldn’t win now, his hopes to do so in the future were even slimmer. This was probably his personal experience, and also the reason for his hopelessness and his low morale.
In contrast to Shan Xiang’s hatred and Runfeng’s weak sentimentality, Mu Xuan’s expression was calm from the very beginning, as if the person before her wasn’t someone from the Celestial Sect of Wonders.
However, most of Yue Hongyan’s concentration was focused on this cold-looking lady before her.
Even though there were other disciples from the Great Void Sect around her, and cultivators with the Pure Yang Being like Ding Runfeng and Shan Xiang, who was also in the nascent soul intermediate stage, Yue Hongyan’s gaze was fixated upon Mu Xuan.
Behind her, Li Yuanfang’s Soul-Imprinted Avatar’s attention was also given to Mu Xuan even as he was watching over the magic formation.
Mu Xuan took step after step towards Yue Hongyan. As she walked, she said softly, "Reveal yourself, my precious."
Six different colors shimmered over her head. Black, white, yellow, green, red and blue light rays flickered as a small sword just over a foot long drifted into vision.
Yue Hongyan raised her eyebrows and muttered, "Oh, the Six Appearances Sword?"
The small sword that appeared over Mu Xuan’s head was a magic treasure, and it was the same one that Pang Jie used to protect himself when he was in the nascent soul advanced sage – the Six Appearances Sword.
During the first time the Celestial Sect of Wonders opened their mountain gates, Pang Jie had used this sword before in battle before he was trapped and defeated by the Two Elements of Creation Formation and eventually imprisoned.
Following his return to Mount Baiyun, the Six Appearances Sword was returned as well. The next time he departed the mountain, he was imprisoned again by the Great Void Demon-Crushing Stone, and the Xuan Lin Holy Man took the Six Appearances Sword back to the mountain for safe-keeping. During their preparations to enter the Ancient Desolate Galaxy this time around, the seniors of the Great Void Sect gifted this magic item to Mu Xuan.
Yue Hongyan was present during the Celestial Sect of Wonders first mountain gate opening ceremony, and she could recognize the Six Appearances Sword.
"My master, Pang Jie." Mu Xuan’s lips moved and she uttered these four words quietly.
Yue Hongyan’s face remained unchanged and nodded her head in response. The Royal Extermination Pole-Ax in her hand quivered as the destructive aura that came from it grew denser. This aura matched that of the Six Appearances Sword and showed no weakness.
An old voice came out from the Six Appearances Sword. "What a fearsome weapon."
Mu Xuan said softly, "Thank you, Six Appearances Sword."
The sword spoke again. "This girl possesses powerful mantras. You have to take care not to let her get too close, if not you will have a difficult time." With that, the body of the sword trembled and rang as its entire form started to change. Five of the six treasure lights surrounding it started to withdraw, leaving only the green ray.
A long howl of the dragon came from the middle of the green ray of light, and a colossal ship surged out across the void with an unstoppable forward motion as if it was simply riding the brutal waves.
This was one of the forms of the Six Appearances Sword – the Soaring Dragon’s Boat.
Mu Xuan landed on top of the Soaring Dragon’s Boat, and the flying boat drifted into the sky. It seemed uncannily nimble and agile as it tore through the void with an unpredictable movement. The boat broke through layers of obstruction as if it could overcome any challenge and it could do whatever it wanted.
Once she was on the boat, Mu Xuan started to retreat instead and added layer after layer of space to distance herself as much as she could from Yue Hongyan.
She opened her hands and light condensed in the middle of her palms. A light sphere was formed, and it could be seen that there were nine holes on the sphere, and snging sounds could be heard from every single one. It felt as if there was a divine existence within every hole, and nine different deities were awakened with terrifying force.
Rays of light poured out from all nine holes, and profound runes and glyphs flickered within every streak. Uncountable rays of light rained down like a thunderstorm and crashed down towards Yue Hongyan.
Mu Xuan stood on top of the Soaring Dragon’s Boat and surged through the void. The rays of divine light from the Supreme Nine-Holes Mantra of the True Gods descended like divine judgments from the heavens and covered the entire peak of the mountain.
Yue Hongyan’s face was calm as she waved her Royal Extermination Pole-Ax lightly through the air and swept the light rays clean.
Her foot tapped softly on the ground.
With this action, Yue Hongyan’s body started to release blinding brilliance as if every single pore in her body had opened up, and resembled the flicker of starlight.
The stars seemed to have awoken along with Yue Hongyan’s gesture, and drifted with unpredictable positions. There was a feeling of the unfathomable complexity of the universe and the mystical movement of constellations as vast volumes of energy were released.
How great were the powers of the stars, and how spectacular were the shifting of the stars in the night sky?
The pores all over Yue Hongyan’s body were, of course, not real stars, but the movement of blood around her body embodied similar principles and imitated the theories of the shifting of constellations and exuded frightening power.
Suddenly, she stepped forward three times. With her first step, she created illusions and holograms that were impossible to predict, much like the mass of stars in the sky.
With her second step, the mass of illusions around her body dwindled down to twenty-eight. Even though she was holding the Royal Extermination Pole-Ax, the weapon had incorporated the powers of Emperor Chen’s Martial Way – the Celestial Fist of the Twenty-Eight Mansions.
With her third step, all light shadows combined into a single figure to reveal Yue Hongyan’s figure – except she was no longer at her original position, and she was already on top of the Soaring Dragon’s Boat and right in front of Mu Xuan!
The killer move from Emperor Chen’s lineage – the Shifting Stars Technique!
Ever since Zhu Yi obtained an entire lineage of powerful physical spells from the Great Sun Avatar, the Celestial Sect of Wonders had successfully incorporated the important principles into their own mantras.
Yue Hongyan’s Shifting Stars Technique wasn’t as pure and effective compared to when it was cast by Zhu Yi’s Great Sun Avatar. However, it was unique in its own way and appeared ever so ferocious and explosive.
Her body quivered. This ripple movement started from the bottom of her feet, then to her legs and to her waist, and followed her body all the way up her spine to the top of her head. This violent tremble of her body gave the Royal Extermination Pole-Ax in her hands a new level of brutality, and every movement appeared like it could sweep down the stars in the sky.
Everything fell into Mu Xuan’s eyes as her pupils contracted and the Soaring Dragon’s Boat shivered beneath her feet. An old voice could be heard, saying, "Change!"
Between the flickering of light, the form of the boat started to change and the patches of green were converted into blue-colored lights.
Under the cover blue light, the gargantuan boat swiftly minimized and transformed into a blue shield and came in between Mu Xuan and Yue Hongyan at the last moment.
It was another form of the Six Appearances Sword – the Acalanatha Void Shield.
In the same moment when the Acalanatha Void Shield came into existence, Yue Hongyan’s burst forth with the Royal Extermination Pole-Ax and combined the power of the Shifting Stars Technique with the power of the Unstoppable Thunderstorm Spear Technique.
Mu Xuan took a deep breath as her head lit up and a light projection over a thousand feet tall glimmered.
This human projection was faceless and there was nothing on his face. There were tattoos of the sun and stars in the sky while he wore a robe stitched with mountains and rivers, and stepped on large patches of white clouds.
An aura of incredible nobility and dignity came out from it, as if he was the true reason of this world and decided all the rules and whatnot, as if he represented the great Dao of the entire earth!
This was Mu Xuan’s cosmic form, created from cultivating the Mantra of the Great Oblivion.
At the same time, Yue Hongyan’s Royal Extermination Pole-Ax clashed violently with the Acalanatha Void Shield formed by the Six Appearances Sword.
The brutal force caused the Acalanatha Void Shield to tremble as the condensed blue light shattered continuously. The tip of the green-black poleaxe made a crackling sound as it came into contact with the surface of the shield.
A small crack appeared in the center of the Acalanatha Void Shield, and started to web out.
The original soul of the magic item grunted with intense agony. Mu Xuan’s typically plain eyes also revealed a level of pity and emotion.
The force of Yue Hongyan’s strike after she closed the distance between the two of them was just too vicious. If not for the Six Appearances Sword that came to her aid at the last moment, she would have been severely injured even if she survived the ordeal.
The principles of the Acalanatha Void Shield were already extremely profound, and no matter the calamity in the outside world, it would remain unmoving and could never be eradicated.
However, the forward thrust of Yue Hongyan and her Royal Extermination Pole-Ax was simply too powerful, and exceeded the limits of the Acalanatha Void Shield.
Both magic items were in the hands of nascent soul stage cultivators, and were naturally unable to unleash their maximum potentials. In typical combat, if the Acalanatha Void Shield focused on defense, even if it wasn’t as powerful as the Royal Extermination Pole-Ax, it wouldn’t crumble under the pressure from a single strike.
This result could only mean one thing.
The user of the Royal Extermination Pole-Ax was stronger!
Mu Xuan’s eyes sparkled before she quickly regained her composure. Her cosmic form imitated her actions as she started to cast a spell, and both of them surged through space and touched the back of the Acalanatha Void Shield. She took the magic treasure and even that giant cosmic form and vanished into the virtual world.
The Dimensionless Transformation was not entirely a defensive spell, but when it was used under the right circumstances, it had an effectiveness that was superior to that of other proper defensive spells.
Yue Hongyan participated in the Spiritual Conference of Huanghai when she was only in the foundation establishment stage, she made use of the fixed position of cultivators below the immortal soul stage who casted this very spell to defeat her opponent. However, the entirety of her explosiveness was unleashed upon the Acalanatha Void Shield, and Mu Xuan’s Dimensionless Transformation gave herself and the Six Appearances Sword a chance.
Still, Yue Hongyan’s reaction was fast and her physical techniques could be used and withdrawn at whim. When the first strike of the Royal Extermination Pole-Ax no longer had a target, she changed her stance and thrusted once more towards Mu Xuan, who was back in the real world.
However, Mu Xuan placed her palms together and her physical body grew slow and frozen. A sphere of flickering light shadow came out from the top of her head – it was the astral projection of her soul.
At the same time, the flashing blue light of the Acalanatha Void Shield tried to suppress its own injuries and changed form once more, and the blue lights around its body transformed into a patch of black.