Chapter 543: Play at one side, little brat
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
The Marquis of Jinghuan looked at Xiao Yan and the rest then said faintly, "If the Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders was here himself, I would certainly be no match for him. But if it's just his Physical Spell Body, then even he can't protect you."
He suddenly cracked a grin. "I won't kill you now. You all have a good master, but he can't shelter you forever, not because he will disappear but because I will eventually be able to defeat him. Every generation gives rise to fresh, better talent than the previous one. Our predecessors will ultimately be surpassed by rising stars of the next generation. This is the natural law of heaven and earth."
The Marquis of Jinghuan glanced at Xiao Zhener who was in the middle of her Thunderstorm Tribulation, then looked over at Yue Hongyan and smiled. "However, I would have to take these two beauties with me."
Xiao Yan scoffed coldly, "You speak as if you hadn't been sheltered by anyone before. If not for the Great Void Sect and the Great Zhou Empire offering you protection, who knows how many times the weeds on your grave would have already withered and regrown?"
The Marquis of Jinghuan chuckled, not at all bothered by the insult. "That's true, but I gave them ample reasons to protect me. It's just like how the Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders treasures you disciples so dearly that he was willing to go against the Great Void Sect, the Top Holy Land under all the heavens, just for Shi Tianhao's sake alone. However, only time will tell whether each of you were worth his efforts to protect."
His clone then clasped his hands together to summon a spell. "So, show me your true power."
The mana waves emanating from the scroll grew stronger and stronger as a formidable spell was about to be unleashed. Suddenly, a great pulse of energy ruptured through the space. This pulse was far more vigorous than those produced during his previous duel with Shi Tianhao, causing the entire area of virtual space to tremor and collapse, turning into a chaotic mess of real space. Earth, water, fire and wind gushed everywhere in an uncontrollable explosion, and amidst the ongoing chaos, a giant figure slowly faded into view.
Both Xiao Yan's group and the Marquis of Jinghuan were thoroughly stunned, simultaneously turning towards the dark virtual space that was seemingly about to crumble and collapse. There was an enormous, ferocious beast with a gargantuan build. Its shape resembled an embryo's yolk sac, yet was bright scarlet like a blazing elixir flame. It had six feet and four wings, but had no face.
The Marquis of Jinghuan was taken aback, but immediately cracked a smile, evidently pleasantly surprised. "A Hundun? The carcass of a Hundun which had obtained the Undying Demonic Soul before it perished?"
Xiao Yan, Shi Tianhao and Yue Hongyan also gazed at the beast.
There were Four Immemorial Evil Beasts, namely the Hundun, the Taotie, the Taowu, and the Qiongqi. Among them, the Taotie, Taowu and Qiongqi have flourished throughout the Barren Expanses since ancient times, producing many pure-blood descendants and becoming the most successful elite demon tribes of the Demon World. Only the Hundun have gradually dwindled in numbers since the Primordial Age, lost to the sands of time. After countless unforgiving eons have passed, only a few Hunduns surface occasionally, but even those would disappear as quickly as they appear, with their movements being highly unpredictable and virtually untraceable.
However, no one could have expected that a Grand Sage level Hundun with the Undying Demon Soul would appear on the virtual space battlefield, especially since this Hundun was already dead but strangely retained most of its corpse. Even though it still paled in comparison with the Yellow Dragon corpse that Lin Feng obtained from the Qin Emperor, it was still relatively complete.
The Marquis of Jinghuan burst out into laughter. "This truly is fate. Stepping into this virtual space battlefield this time was indeed worthwhile, truly worthwhile!"
Then, Xiao Yan's forehead sparkled with yellow light as rays after rays of earthy amber light intersected and merged to create a majestic and intimidating giant. It towered at over five hundred meters amidst the space, its robes dancing and flowing with the wind. Its facial features were exactly identical to Lin Feng's, but this was merely his Physical Spell Body - the Heaven-Bearing Emperor.
The Heaven-Bearing Emperor's appearance shattered the space everywhere, tossing the heavens and earth into a desolate state of chaos. He then nodded gently, "Since this thing is not completely dead yet, its strength and spirit can still be put to good use."
Upon noticing the extremely peculiar pattern painted on the Hundun corpse, Lin Feng's Physical Spell Body blinked and said, "Good, very good. Not only does this Hundun possess this Undying Demon Soul, it has also obtained the Original True Spirit."
He turned to look at his three disciples and smiled, "When I told you all that coming here to try your luck might gain you some additional benefits, I was referring to this right here. How is it? It's not bad, isn't it?"
Shi Tianhao's eyes sparkled in awe. "It really is spectacular. Master, I don't wish for anything else, I just want the blood essence of this Hundun. It'll be a tremendous boost for my Abhijina cultivation."
Lin Feng chuckled, "It's all yours. You surely won't be able to digest it all, but feel free to use as much as you need."
"Are you the Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders?" The Marquis of Jinghuan stared at the Heaven-Bearing Emperor and his cheeks trembled. He then said faintly, "You better keep a closer eye on your disciples, or else they would become easy pickings for others."
The Heaven-Bearing Emperor did not even spare him a glance, instead fixing his gaze on the Hundun corpse. The environment of the virtual space battlefield was overly convoluted, with layers upon layers of disorganized, flowing space. The energy given off by the Hundun corpse broke down the space even further, reducing it to Hundun real space and making the situation more complicated than it already was. Under these conditions, even Lin Feng himself would have a hard time retrieving the corpse. His indifferent attitude and disregard for a certain haughty individual, however, thoroughly wounded that person's pride.
The Marquis of Jinghuan glared at the Heaven-Bearing Emperor menacingly, but the latter's nonchalance was seemingly conveying an unspoken message: go and play at one side, you little brat. Don't meddle with my affairs.
"Hmph, now I know why your disciples are so full of themselves. They've been following in their master's stride." The Marquis of Jinghuan clenched his teeth and grinned, "I still maintain my view. If you were here yourself, I can only wait for another day to exact my revenge. But since this is just your Physical Spell Body, which cannot even be considered as a decent clone split, how can you still be so audacious?"
The Marquis of Jinghuan let out a battle-cry and raised his hands. Sparkling Annihilation Spell Jades flew into the air. The jades suddenly burst with a splendid resplendent display of colour as uncountable lines of talisman writings floating into view amidst the radiant light, flickering like a holy mist and illuminating the pitch-black space like the glorious midday sun, piercing the skies and the lands with boundless rays of light.
The brilliant radiance merged into a rainbow that divided the heavens and sliced directly towards the Heaven-Bearing Emperor. One could vaguely make out countless images of buddhas in the middle of the painted arch singing together. Their ethereal voices resounded through the void.
Just the light and mist given off made the Heaven-Bearing Emperor's body slightly unstable before the rainbow even reached it. The power that upheld the heavens and suppressed everything beneath was beginning to buckle and collapse as columns of smoke started escaping from the colossal yellow figure, like a melting snowman disintegrating under the scorching sun.
After the Marquis of Jinghuan witnessed this scene, he surprisingly could not control his feelings. A vigorous wave of emotions overwhelmed him and his entire body felt an intense amount of heat. After all, even though he possessed incredible strength, endless treasures, phenomenal talent, and rich experience, he still has yet to reach the Immortal Soul stage. Battling such powerhouses in the Immortal Soul stage by leveraging his impressive skills and hidden techniques would allow him to defend himself and hold his own, but he still lacked firepower.
Immortal Soul stage warriors are towering obstacles, and attempting to scale such obstacles would be insurmountably difficult. Not to mention Lin Feng's profound mastery and vast Abhijina has already attained universal recognition.
The Xuan Lin Holy Man did not fear Lin Feng because he was strong enough to hold his own against a formidable opponent, but there were only a handful of cultivators with similar mastery levels as him. For most people, Lin Feng was capable of subduing opponents in the Second Level of the Immortal Stage just with his Physical Spell Body.
The Marquis of Jinghuan has yet to reach the Immortal Soul stage, but has decent hope for eliminating Lin Feng's Physical Spell Body with his Annihilation Spell Jades. Even though it is just a plain Physical Spell Body, which cannot even be considered as a decent clone split, dispatching one of these would be an incredible honour for any cultivator below the Immortal Soul stage. It would even be hailed as a glorious achievement for cultivators in the Immortal Soul First Level. Ning Lang, the Mountain-Breaking Swordmaster of Mount Shu, and Yu Xintao, the Xuanming Holy Man of the Yu Family, have both been utterly defeated by Lin Feng's Physical Spell Body without a single ounce of energy left to retaliate.
"You destroyed Xin Longsheng's Saintly Celestial Swordsman Spell Body and established yourself as a dominant force throughout the Divine Lands. But today, I will quell your Spell Body and set foot on the road to glory!"
The Marquis of Jinghuan took a deep breath, retracted his Immortal Royal Flag, then started amassing the full extent of his energy. He has already thrown Xiao Zhener and Yue Hongyan to the back of his mind. He may love beautiful women, but women are merely bonus accessories in his life. To him, power and status remain the most important things in his life. Hence, he needed to obliterate Lin Feng's Spell Body to demonstrate his capabilities and gain the respect and prestige he so longed.
Then, Lin Feng's Heaven-Bearing Emperor finally turned to look into the ray of light shining at him and frowned, as if noticing an irritating fly buzzing around in front of his eyes.
"I see, you do have a sliver of chance with these Ultimate Annihilation Spell Jade crystals." The Heaven-Bearing Emperor said calmly, "These certainly do not bode well for other Physical Spell Bodies, and can even be labelled as the bane of Spell Bodies. However, it's useless against me."
With that, the Heaven-Bearing Emperor turned again to look at the Hundun corpse, ignoring the Marquis of Jinghuan and the holy glow of his Annihilation Spell Jade crystals completely. All of a sudden, his body began emitting brilliant streams of black and white light which flickered and interplayed, producing rippling waves of arcane and mystifying energy which grew to unfathomable levels to power when coupled with the Heaven-Bearing Emperor's own mana. His glowing body, which was originally crumbling under the Ultimate Annihilation Divine Light from the Annihilation Spell Jades, instantly stabilized itself using the black and white light, no longer affected by the Annihilation Spell Jades.
The Marquis of Jinghuan was flabbergasted. "How is this possible?! Hold on ... why does the energy from his black and white light feel so similar to my Ultimate Annihilation Divine Light? How did he ..."
The Heaven-Bearing Emperor lifted one hand, which was cloaked in the dual-coloured light, and pushed his palm forward, instantly blocking out the Ultimate Annihilation Divine Light as the two forces collided. As terrifying as the Ultimate Annihilation Divine Light was, it was nonetheless derived from the Annihilation Spell Jades, hence bearing limited power, causing it to swiftly extinguished by the black and white light.
Having annulled the Ultimate Annihilation Divine Light, the black and white light rays converged and vanished while the Heaven-Bearing Emperor's palm continued to thrust forward, about to grab the Marquis of Jinghuan's body. Astonished, he quickly drew the Ancient Royal Dagger to defend himself, sending a rumbling ray of golden dagger radiance cracking through the heavens and lands, shattering all the space in its wake.
The Heaven-Bearing Emperor's palm did not falter, instead summoning a Heaven-Bearing Print and slamming it down, instantly disarming his foe. The Marquis of Jinghuan then whipped out the Immortal Royal Flag and escaped his impending doom by the skin of his teeth. He may have avoided being crushed by the Heaven-Bearing Emperor's palm, but the Ancient Royal Dagger was now being pounded the Emperor, which made it impossible to retrieve.
The Heaven-Bearing Emperor waved his hands as if swatting a fly. Having missed the Marquis of Jinghuan on his first attempt, he retracted his hand and turned his attention to the Hundun corpse. His movements seemed incredibly relaxed and unworried, yet this attitude of his particularly infuriated the Marquis of Jinghuan. He felt as if he had a mouthful of blood clogged at the tip of his throat, about to be vomited out.