KaiserBlak
patreon
Chapter 545: Nine Heavens Nebula Formation
🕑 Added 2024-12-18 14:00:10 +0000 UTCThe closer the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan came to the realm beast, the larger the titan became. Even as large as it grew, its height was still dwarfed by the realm beast. His entire size only equaled the realm beast’s head.
The realm beast roared again and glared at Tianyi. Minister Vastlight sensed something amiss. Last time, the realm beast was a wild creature with no logic other than instinct. This time, he could sense a deep malice emanating from the realm beast directed at the Nine Heavens Emperor. Had the Demon Clan found a way to control the realm beast, or direct it to target someone?
The immortal minister’s thoughts did not matter. He had already reported the matter, and he was not the only one who detected something wrong, but in the current situation, they could only face it head on. Or the Nine Heavens Emperor had to. Like Minister Everpast, Minister Vastlight was prepared to reinforce his ally at a moment’s notice.
In complete contrast, the members of the Numinous Sword Sect had already left the immediate vicinity of the realm beast and engaged in battle against the demons with no intention of reinforcing the Nine Heavens Emperor should something go awry, save for one.
Bao Ling stared at the realm beast and the Nine Heavens Emperor’s confrontation with interest. Of course, this didn’t mean that he was idle. He would swing his sword and release sword light to attack the demons. One swing could cause a demon king to perish. Even demon emperors had to be wary of his sword light.
Being a sword immortal did not mean they were weak in ranged combat. They were also famous for their flying swords, swords that attacked through telepathic control. Some could even control a large amount of flying swords to form formations by themselves and attack. The most famous example was Lu Dongbin of the Eight Immortals.
Although it was rare for a sword immortal to use sword light for long range attack instead of using auxiliary means, it would not be the first time. Still, the demons did not foolishly determine that Bao Ling was a long range specialist. While keeping their eyes on him, they continued to fight the other humans.
Tianyi did not have enough spare attention to care about the entire battle. All his attention was concentrated on the realm beast. He raised his fist and smashed the realm beast’s forehead. Although the realm beast’s body shook, only a few scales had cracks appear on them.
He wasn’t done. The Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan’s right arm wriggled, as if something was ready to burst out beneath the skin. It collapsed into a black mist that engulfed the realm beast’s head before shrouding its entire body. The Nine Heaven Cosmic Titan retreated and regenerated its sacrificed arm in less than a second.
The realm beast charged through the black mist, his scales unmarred. Tianyi’s attack had obviously failed. With shocking speed that belied its mass, the realm beast arrived in front of the cosmic giant, jaws opened. It snapped them shut.
Tianyi dodged. His speed was also shocking despite the immense size of his Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan, but its speed was still slower than the realm beast. Most of its arm and part of its shoulder had disappeared under the realm beast’s bite.
For other immortals, it would have been a critical blow that required them to use a vast amount of their qi to restore the elemental titan or have it collapse directly, but Tianyi was different. Just like when he restored the Nine Heaven Cosmic Titan’s arm, the missing parts reappeared in less than a second.
The realm beast stared at Tianyi, biting a few times before swallowing. Malice still shone from its eyes, but now it had another emotion: hunger. It wanted to devour Tianyi and the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan. The realm beast had a feeling that devouring the target of its malice would cause its life level to increase. It was just an instinct, but that feeling almost drove it crazy.
It succumbed to the feeling and dashed toward the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan, jaws opened once more.
Tianyi continued to charge. He had seen the hungry gaze and had no intent of offering himself on a platter. He didn’t attack the realm beast’s head, but his sides, back, or belly, where the realm beast’s mouth couldn’t reach him. The realm beast’s claws also deserved special attention as Tianyi discovered that they could rend through the dimensional boundary of his Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan.
Unlike the realm beast’s charging speed, its turning capabilities were much worse. It was still plenty fast, but not fast enough for the realm beast to grab another delightful bite out of the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan. However, he would not give up. He could feel that eating Tianyi was the most important chance it would encounter in its entire life.
Tianyi took advantage of this. He could not deal effectively against the realm beast with his Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan, but he could use the realm beast’s desire to devour him to lead him toward the back lines of the Demon Clan instead of letting their battle wreak havoc in the core of the humans.
Strangely, despite the realm beast’s apocalyptic might, it had not destroyed the three immortal rank realms of the Demon Clan despite the proximity. Perhaps it was because the realm beast was innately attuned with the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System and subconsciously avoided destroying realms.
Tianyi didn’t think much about it and continued to attack the realm beast while dodging its head. For Minister Everpast and the other immortals, occupying the realm beast’s attention was already an impressive feat. Their original plan was to occupy the realm beast for as long as possible. They didn’t think Shangri-La’s seal, which was used to seal the Black Tortoise, could trap the realm beast for long.
They were satisfied, but Tianyi wasn’t. He wanted to defeat the realm beast. He knew that he couldn’t kill it, but absorbing it into his Nine Heavens Universe should be possible, right? Once inside the Nine Heavens Universe, the realm beast would become a fish on a chopping block.
Although it appeared that Tianyi was entangling the realm beast, a big change was happening inside the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan. The core of the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan was a level three conduit. Surrounding it were nine level one conduits. Followed by that, there were countless level zero conduits that numbered over ninety thousand!
Originally, Tianyi only made around a hundred level zero conduits because they did not bring much benefit, and they strained his mind from the sheer number. Even if his consciousness was equal to an universe, it did not mean he could control over a hundred thousand bodies simultaneously. He only created the ninety thousand level zero conduits in the past few years. The reason he created so many conduits was for his trump card.
A side benefit was that the strain tempered his will, allowing him to strengthen his willpower.
Right now, the countless conduits of Tianyi circled the lone level three conduit. Their position formed a strange pattern with an intrinsic charm akin to a constellation. The more time passed, the stronger the charm became. If any immortals were to see it, they would be shocked by the myriad laws exuded by the ninety thousand conduits.
Soon, the thousands of Tianyis vanished, and in their place was a black sphere circled by nine stars.
***
The realm beast roared. The noise coming from its mouth shook the empty void, causing the weaker combatants to feel as if something had shaken their internal organs. A few war formations collapsed directly. The demons near those collapsed war formations naturally took advantage, but this had nothing to do with the realm beast. It swiped its claws at Tianyi.
It had been attempting to devour Tianyi for hours now. Each failure only increased its bestial rage, its attack became more ferocious with each passing strike. It no longer wanted to bite the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan, but to shred him apart with its claws before eating him.
The beast paused for a moment as it felt its claws connect with the cosmic titan. It roared with glee and increased the strength of his swipe. His claws sheared the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan in half. There was a bit of resistance, akin to striking something hard, but the realm beast cared not.
The two halves of the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan disintegrated into a black mist filled with countless tiny motes of light. Without the dimensional boundary compressing it, the mist grew until it reached twice the realm beast’s size. The realm beast opened its jaws and sucked. Black mist flew into the beast’s mouth and into its stomach. However, it did not get as much enjoyment as it thought it would.
Certainly, the amount of energy was of the highest purity it had ever absorbed since its birth and much more than the lone arm it had eaten in the first confrontation, but it felt as if something was missing. Something crucial that would allow it to evolve past its current limit.
It did not stop sucking, and when most of the black mist entered the realm beast’s stomach, the black sphere circled by nine stars revealed itself.
Greed appeared in the realm beast’s eyes. The strange sphere emitted a dangerous aura, causing the realm beast to hesitate, but greed ultimately overwhelmed what little reason the beast possessed. It charged.
***
Tianyi stared at the realm beast charging forward. He grunted and the black sphere changed. Endless black fluid spilled out until it formed a humanoid blob. The original sphere elongated until it resembled a head, while the ring of stars moved upward, transforming into a crown of stars.
Compared to the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan, this new titan was several times larger, only slightly smaller compared to the realm beast. There were no stars or galaxies on its skin or inside. It was pitch black. Its shade was even darker than the darkness of the void. It appeared closer to a two-dimensional figure because it resembled a humanoid hole in reality.
Invisible to the naked eye, a black steam wafted off the black humanoid’s body.
“As I expected,” Tianyi said with a sigh.
The black humanoid was a formation shaped into his image. All the conduits were the prerequisite keys that opened the door to allow his universe to appear in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System. The most difficult part was to prevent the Heavenly Dao from sending heavenly punishment for his actions. It took quite a while for him to create this Nine Heavens Nebula Formation.
It was still a prototype version. The dimension boundary of the formation, as the name suggested, was the Nebulous Negation he used against Bao Ling during the competition between the Immortal Court and the Numinous Sword Sect. As long as the boundary did not break, the Heavenly Dao would not be able to sense the Nine Heavens Universe’s intrusion.
For now, Tianyi called the human form of the Nine Heavens Nebula Formation the Nine Heavens Nebula Titan.
The Nine Heavens Nebula Titan reached out and grabbed the realm beast’s forehead. To the shock of many, it actually caused the realm beast to slow down. The realm beast roared. Since its birth, no one had been able to compete with him in strength. He raised his claws and slapped the Nine Heavens Nebula Titan’s arm away and slammed into him.
Tianyi frowned. Controlling the Nine Heavens Nebula Titan was a bit hard for him. Not only did he need to maintain the Nebulous Negation boundary, but he also had to control all the conduits that made up the core of the formation. Compared to the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan, the Nine Heavens Nebula Titan was a lumbering giant.
What followed was a battle between beasts. The realm beast did not understand the laws and could only intuitively use its innate abilities. The Nine Heavens Nebula Titan relied on brute strength only. Tianyi did not have the spare energy to use his techniques and using them would require him to pass it through the Nebulous Negation or open an opening to the boundary. The former, he couldn’t accomplish now, and the latter would result in heavenly punishment.
The two, titan and beast, raged against each other, using only the most primitive methods of fighting: fists, claws, bites, and kicks. They did not have the dignity of immortals, the elegance of swordsmen, nor the pride of demons. However, their primal strength conquered all.
