Chapter 145: Breakout!
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: - -
Wang Lin suddenly revealed himself and pointed his thumb at the Liefeng Priest.
It was still the Lone Death Thumb. Given Wang Lin's current mastery levels, he could only channel enough mana for a single-finger spell.
But this Lone Death Thumb was different from before, it no longer produced a circle of deadly gas.
Wang Lin compressed the deadly gas repeatedly until it became a cube with sides approximately an inch long.
Wang Lin already knew the jarring difference in mastery levels between him and the Liefeng Priest. This finger spell wouldn't even harm the Priest and was only to obstruct him for a short while.
As the Liefeng Priest was casting his spell and manipulating the Nine Heavens Formless Squall, a black cube with inch-long sides suddenly enclosed the tip of his right index finger.
The pungent deadly gas grotesquely corroded the Liefeng Priest's finger. The intense power of death that was concentrated on such a tiny spot suddenly exploded, catching him off guard. The Liefeng Priest realized that the physical body of an Aurous Core cultivator couldn’t withstand this surge of power.
He sneered, rechannelled his mana and completely shattered Wang Lin's Lone Death Thumb. But it nonetheless affected his ability to control the Nine Heavens Formless Squall.
This effect only lasted for a short moment, but Xiao Budian had already utilized this sliver of time to attach the Infinite Thunderstorm onto his body, and leapt in front of the Liefeng Priest as quick as lightning.
The Liefeng Priest was slightly amused. He swept his left hand at Xiao Budian as if he were swatting a fly.
He thought, even if he had not undergone much physical training, he still possessed mastery at the Aurous Core stage. Furthermore, Xiao Budian was a mere child, how strong could his body be? It shouldn't matter much if he came too close.
But within the next second, the Liefeng Priest realized that he was wrong, in fact, ridiculously wrong!
Xiao Budian snickered and with a monstrous fist wrapped by wind and thunder, mercilessly pummelled the Liefeng Priest's arm.
If it weren't for the self-healing properties of the mana of Aurous Core stage cultivators, the Liefeng Priest's arm would have been fractured by Xiao Budian's punch.
By then, the next move was already unavoidable. Xiao Budian's direct punch to his face sent him flying backwards.
Although Xiao Budian was also blown backwards by the repelling shocks of the Liefeng Priest's mana, the Liefeng Priest was now ridiculously embarrassed.
The Fire Crow Demon Commander and Liu Yang both laughed gloatingly, while Chen Gang shook his head and sighed.
The Liefeng Priest was momentarily stunned and dying from shame. He glared at Xiao Budian and the rest with eyes that looked like they were spitting fire.
"You didn't seize the chance we gave you, don't blame us." Liu Yang snickered and walked forward. "Three Foundation Establishment stage cultivators and one Qi Training stage cultivator could nearly defeat an Aurous Core stage cultivator. That's honestly quite shocking."
"But the fun's over. Get lost, you lot. Make that dog named Lin come out. How long more is he going to hide?"
Xiao Yan twitched his eyebrows and scoffed, "To speak so audaciously, what feud do you bear with my master? Looks like you haven't been disciplined by my master often enough."
Liu Yang immediately hollered back, "Your dog shit of a master is merely a little runt in the Qi Training stage. If he hadn't plotted against me, I would have hacked off that dog head of his long ago."
"Qi Training stage?" Xiao Yan and the others looked at each other with puzzled faces.
Chen Gang smiled, "Maybe he isn't in the Qi Training stage anymore, but his mastery level wouldn't exceed the Foundation Establishment initial stages.
He looked at Xiao Yan and the others, and said slowly, "In other words, your supposed master's mastery level is just the same as yours. He's just better at pretending to be stronger than he actually is."
"You people are young and inexperienced, it's not surprising that you'd be deceived by him." Chen Gang smiled and said, "But it's still not too late now, you still have a chance to redeem yourselves."
Chen Gang's gaze first landed on Xiao Budian, his eyes glimmering with awe. "To succeed at the Foundation Establishment at such a young age, your talents are indeed extraordinary. With your calibre, you should train under the wings of the Great Void Sect. You can expect to achieve great things, your future would have infinite possibilities."
"Training under any other master would be wasting your potential. Only the Great Void Sect can give you the necessary guidance."
He then looked at Zhu Yi and sighed, "To take less than two years to succeed at the Foundation Establishment, you truly are Meng Bingyun's son. Zhu Hongwu was really misled, but now his son has returned. You should come back to the Great Void Sect as well - it was your mother's sect, and it should be yours too."
"As for you two," Chen Gang glanced at Xiao Yan and Wang Lin, "one so brave and tenacious, and one so calm and collected. You both have decent spirit. You may follow me back as well. If you pass our trials, you too will gain a chance to taken in by the Great Void Sect."
Wang Lin was silent, but he seemed unmoved by the invitation.
Xiao Yan stared at Chen Gang for a good while, then snickered, "Don't you feel really good about yourself, talking to yourself non-stop over there?"
If this was the Xiao Yan still at Wuzhou City, he would be elated to hear that he could train under the Great Void Sect. But now, it has already lost its appeal.
Instead, it's Chen Gang's conceited and seemingly charitable attitude that is highly off-putting for Xiao Yan.
Upon hearing Xiao Yan's reply, Chen Gang just grinned, too lazy to refute. He then ignored Xiao Yan and Wang Lin, turning his gaze to Zhu Yi.
Zhu Yi calmly met his gaze. "I only have one question, where were you all when my mother died?"
Chen Gang sighed and looked at Xiao Budian again.
"Hey!" Xiao Budian promptly pulled the side of his eyes and made a wry face.
Chen Gang chuckled. "Stubborn and unrepentant still. Then that's too bad." With that, he raised his hand and lifted a finger.
Over a hundred rays of light suddenly appeared, intersected in the air and formed a gigantic cage, trapping the four inside.
"The Heavenly Cage Mantra?" Xiao Yan gasped, raised his arm and hammered the Crash of the Eight Trigrams down, striking a bar of the light prison.
The bar of light bent and seemed to be on the verge of breaking.
Chen Gang grinned and summoned a spell with his left hand. Using his mana, the bar of light quickly bounced back to its original state.
The power of Xiao Yan's Crash of the Eight Trigrams may be able to shatter the light prison, but their difference in mastery levels ensures that Chen Gang repairs the prison bars much faster than the rate that Xiao Yan destroys them.
Chen Gang smilingly replied, "Give it up and follow me quietly."
Xiao Yan's face turned sour. "Dream on!" He then drew a huge black sword from his storage bag, its length exceeding even his own height. It was the Nefarious Almighty Sword.
Once the Sword was drawn, everyone's hearts began palpitating wildly, seemingly sensing a catastrophic calamity befalling them soon.
"Ahhhh!"
Xiao Yan clenched the hilt and belted a long battle cry. Endless streaks of blue and indigo flames surged through the Nefarious Almighty Sword, forming an incredible sea of fire, and violently struck the light prison trapping the four.
Chen Gang's Heavenly Cage Mantra was about to break.
"This inferno?! It's purple ... could it be the Nefarious Spectral Primordial Fire of the Seven Legendary Primordial Fires?" Chen Gang finally became sullen, "This brat, he can actually control such a magic sword with the Nefarious Spectral Primordial Fire?"
"This sword is too dangerous, it's not something you should be possessing." Chen Gang clasped his hands together and finally unleashed his true powers. Channelling his mana with the Dragon Morphing Mantra, he formed a radiant silver Light dragon which propelled into the skies.
The silver dragon was over three hundred meters long, its massive body snaking through the overhead skies. Its deafening roar reverberated through the sea of clouds and shook the four seas.
Chen Gang summoned another spell, "The Celestial Spells of the Tide-changing Nine Dragons!"
With a great roar, the silver Light dragon split its body into nine, forming nine smaller Light dragons. They linked their heads and tails together and encircled Xiao Yan and his compatriots, surrounding them completely.
Chen Gang then changed his spell, " Nine Dragons Encirclement Formation!"
The nine Light dragons spat out silver light incessantly, creating a luminous mist that enveloped the Nefarious Spectral Primordial Fire and the four.
As a stellar disciple of the Great Void Sect, Chen Hang had an impressive arsenal of spells and raised a small flag following the Nine Dragons Encirclement Formation.
"The Anti-water Flag!"
Amidst swelling gusts of wind, pounding torrents of black mud gushed out from the Anti-water Flag and blocked out the Nefarious Spectral Primordial Fire.
"This is the Swelling Earth, and has been used to quell massive floods since ancient times, but its abilities are ever so versatile. Chen Gang grinned, "Even if it’s used against fire instead of water, it should still be decently effective."
The combination of the Swelling Earth’s defence and the Nine Dragons' offence instantaneously rendered Xiao Yan and the rest immobile.
Xiao Yan looked very grim. While withstanding the blazing white light from the Nine Dragons Encirclement Formation, he had to endure the pressure of controlling the Nefarious Spectral Primordial Fire.
This Primordial Fire is extremely punishing, and continuously saps the user's strength while it attacks.
Judging by the situation, the Nefarious Spectral Primordial Fire would already go out of control before the Nine Dragons Encirclement Formation even evaporates them.
Zhu Yi and the rest started summoning their individual spells to support Xiao Yan.
Chen Gang could already taste victory, and laughed, "Now would you finally believe that your master is a pretentious liar?"
"Indeed, he does know a few spells and has a few treasures, but his foundation is too shallow, such that any truly competent fellow can defeat him. He is just a contemptible buffoon."
"If he is not, why hasn't he revealed himself? Secret training? He just doesn't dare to come out." Chen Gang smiled, "Why not? Because he's scared. Because I destroyed his formations, his secret weapons."
Chen Gang turned his gaze to the Black Heavenly Treasure Tree. "He's afraid that I will destroy his final ace in the hole, afraid that I can defeat that puppet of his and seal his fate."
"Unfortunately for him, I do have a trick up my sleeve to deal with his puppet."
Upon saying this, Chen Gang shook his head and smiled, "Formations, puppets, these are his two greatest assets. Without these two, what else does he even have?"
"And what makes you think that you can predict my attacks?"
A calm voice suddenly spoke from above them.
Xiao Yan and his juniors looked at each other and rejoiced, "Master has returned!"
Chen Gang and Liu Yang turned grim and looked above them.
On the peak of Mount Yujing, where the Black Heavenly Treasure Tree stands, dense purple clouds suddenly rolled above the tree and overcast the sky, dying the heavens purple.
The majestic purple clouds then joined to form a staircase that ascended into the heavens.
Lin Feng appeared in purple robes, then slowly and leisurely strode down the Purple Cloud Stairs.
Among the purple clouds, treasure trees, treasure towers, sweet rain, galaxies, treasure swords, screens ... endless images surfaced at that moment and surrounded Lin Feng in a spectacular sight.
Lin Feng casually glanced over at his disciples trapped in the Nine Dragons Encirclement Formation.
"How presumptuous."