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Chapter 539: Another One Felled
🕑 Added 2024-12-02 14:00:12 +0000 UTCUpon closer inspection, the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan could move. Only, it was very slowly, akin to moving through molasses.
Countless green and red sparks appeared around the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan. Those sparks shot toward the cosmic titan and pierced its skin like needles. Each needle caused ripples to spread across the cosmic titan’s skin. With thousands of ripples spreading across, it severely distorted the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan form.
Although still humanoid, it was unsightly. One arm was longer than the other, the fingers had no symmetry, the front of a foot was twice as large as the heel, and the head became gourd-like. The deformities didn’t remain static either, as the cosmic titan’s form constantly shifted.
Demon Emperor Redraco and Demon Empress Bluefeather watched intently to capture Tianyi’s true body and strike. The last time Tianyi was injured was because of a combination of the Five Element Annihilation and him detonating the Constellation Cessation at close range. With only Two Element Annihilation, the two demon emperors needed to seize their chance in order to injure Tianyi to the point of forcing his retreat.
Finally, the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan could no longer maintain its boundaries, and the immortal qi of primordial chaos continually leaked from the openings. The needles of green and red that passed through the mist-like qi lost some of the stability and penetrative power, but it was not enough to halt their assault.
Slowly, the limbs of the cosmic giant disappeared into mist, leaving only the head and torso. Both demon emperors focused on the head. If Tianyi wasn’t in the head, how could it remain while the limbs disappeared? Eventually, the torso also dispersed into mist, leaving only the head.
The two demon emperors zeroed in on the head, not willing to miss a millisecond. Once they caught sight of Tianyi, they would explode with all their might.
Just as one of the star-like eyes became extinguished, the two demon emperors saw purple robes. They attacked.
Their active participation caused the area of effect of the Two Element Annihilation to condense into a smaller region, dramatically increasing its lethality. Under their gaze, the purple-robed figure was crushed into a ball and disintegrated by countless needs of wood and flame.
‘Was it really so easy?’ Demon Emperor Redraco thought with much confusion. Did they really fail last time because they underestimated him?
Although Tianyi seemingly perished, the two did not lift their Two Element Annihilation. They could still remember how they failed last time.
“What’s this?” Demon Empress Bluefeather saw spacetime collapse and a violet-robed corpse floating out. It was beyond disfigured, making it unrecognizable. However, she could recognize the ten claws floating near it, the Metal Source Talons.
The contemporary Vermillion Bird relaxed. In her opinion, even if Tianyi wasn’t dead, his situation wasn’t that much better. Why else would he abandon a realm artifact? So, although she didn’t halt her innate ability, she flew toward the corpse.
Demon Empress Bluefeather spewed a breath of flames that engulfed the corpse. Although it didn’t incinerate the corpse to cinders, it slowly heated up as the robes vanished and skin darkened. After seeing this, she picked up the Metal Source Talons and wore it on her feet.
Realm artifacts were unique in that they couldn’t be stored in ordinary spatial rings. Not to mention that it was in the middle of a war. Although she had not mastered the Law of Metal, refining the realm artifact would still increase her combat potential.
‘Eh, there’s resistance?’ Demon Empress Bluefeather thought as she imbued her demon sense into the Metal Source Talons.
At this time, the premonition of death overcame Demon Empress Bluefeather. The chill caused her mind to slow. No, it was not because of the danger that her thoughts slowed, but the spacetime around her slowed to a crawl! Her mind was slow, and her body was even slower!
Demon Empress Bluefeather spread her demon senses, but it was as slow as molasses. Still, she could see Demon Emperor Redraco rushing toward her in panic. Upon seeing the panic in his eyes, it reflected in her own eyes as she became intuitively aware of the precarious situation she had fallen into.
No pain came, but Demon Empress Bluefeather became innately aware of the loss of her lower limbs and half her right wing. Demon Emperor Redraco had tried to shield her with his body, but it was not enough. The force sent the Scarletblood Dragon crashing into the Qingluan, but the spatial-temporal freezing ultimately prevented them from soaring away into safety.
Her demon senses finally allowed her to see what had happened. Xi Tianyi had appeared above them cloaked in Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan and holding a plain sword above his head. When her demon senses touched the blade, a sharp pain erupted in her head, one that cut through her thoughts.
Acting only on the instinct to preserve her life, Demon Empress detonated the area of the realm projection above her. An explosion engulfed her and Demon Emperor Redraco, but it also broke the frozen spacetime, sending them careening into the distance.
“Are you alright?” Demon Emperor Redraco asked.
Demon Empress Bluefeather looked at him. Despite wearing the Realm Dragon Scales, he had a large wound running down his body. Blood continuously leaked from the wound, with no signs of healing. It was much the same for her.
Although her regenerative abilities could not compare to pure phoenixes, she still had some of their blood flowing through her veins, but her wound also showed no signs of healing. An external force was interfering with it. Worse, it prevented her and her fellow divine beast from sealing the wound.
“Not good,” she said. Not only was nearly half her body separated from her, but she had destroyed part of the Sacred Fire Grotto’s foundation in order to flee. Unless she had realm essence at hand, it would take a long time to restore the artifact to its previous peak. This was the second time the Sacred Fire Grotto had been damaged, causing its capability to drop to nearly fifty percent.
“I still have most of my abilities intact, but I’m no longer his opponent. We would need Senior Xuanwu to join us to suppress him, and that’s if we were in our peak condition,” Demon Emperor Redraco said. “That sword is a divine artifact, and he can display at least ten percent of its power.”
“Impossible,” Demon Empress Bluefeather said. Although non-divinities can become a divine artifact’s master, it was another story to activate them to their full ability. The minimum requirement was to possess essence qi. Because of this, most of the so-called masters could only display a divine artifact’s inherent abilities and not their true abilities. “Has he become a sovereign?”
Demon Emperor Redraco didn’t immediately answer. “I don’t know. I can’t sense any aura from him.”
Not just the two demon emperors, but as soon as Tianyi revealed the Immortal Confining Sword, he drew the attention of all the powerful figures on the battlefield. Especially the Numinous Sword Sect. The Immortal Confining Sword once belonged to them after all.
Emperor Southsword openly glared. The Immortal Confining Sword once belonged to the Numinous Sword Sect, but Xi Mengfei, Tianyi’s mother, grabbed it from the then-Emperor Yanxu. Of course, she also left the Immortal Slaughtering Sword she obtained from the Broken Primordial World in exchange. In essence, the Immortal Court and Numinous Sword Sect simply exchanged divine swords.
But for the Numinous Sword Sect, which claimed its lineage from the Supreme Purity Lineage, all the four Immortal Exterminating Swords belonged to them, even if other people found it. It was their right and inheritance.
Emperor Southsword quickly contacted Bao Ling, the holder of the Immortal Slaying Sword, planning on retaking the Immortal Confining Sword if the opportunity arose. However, Bao Ling ignored him and continued to fight the Qilin Patriarch.
The field commander wanted to rebuke Bao Ling for being disloyal, but he knew it was not the time. They could not show any disunity during the final battle. In addition, Bao Ling was far superior to him, and Emperor Southsword had no power over him. So, he could only file a complaint to Sovereign Yanxu at the first chance.
Tianyi, who was at the center of the detonation, appeared without an ounce of injury on his body. There were no holes in his robe or a single singed tip at the end of his black locks. It was as if he hadn’t faced the full brunt of an explosion.
“Impossible,” Demon Empress Bluefeather said. Even if her detonation was more aimed at escaping and not injuring him, her foe should not appear so pristine. “He must be pretending to be uninjured.”
Demon Emperor Redraco didn’t comment. His intuition told him that Tianyi really was uninjured. Or, if he was injured, he immediately healed.
The situation was truly dire for them.
Tianyi stared down at them from above, figuratively of course. The void had no up or down, after all. He wouldn’t allow them to think up a tactic to deal with him, much less regain their breath. So, he held the Immortal Confining Sword and disappeared.
Demon Emperor Redraco and Demon Empress Bluefeather immediately became alert.
The two demon emperors failed to notice him when he first appeared. His original height didn’t exceed two meters, far from comparable to the Nine Heavens Cosmic Titan he used. Because of his small stature, he was able to appear between them without attracting much attention until he acted.
Like before, spacetime around them froze, turning into a prison. With his enemies akin to insects trapped in sap, Tianyi swung the Immortal Confining Sword toward the Qingluan. Although it only grazed the tip of her feathers, a large wound appeared on her body.
She couldn’t even cry out in pain or resistance, such was the strength of the spacetime prison. Finally, she detonated another area of the Sacred Fire Grotto, breaking away from the spacetime prison with Demon Emperor Redraco.
Demon Empress Bluefeather was sure that Tianyi’s target was her. He didn’t hide it with his gaze, and she understood. Compared to Demon Emperor Redraco protected by his Realm Dragon Scales, she was a much easier target.
“Redraco, stay away from me,” Demon Empress Bluefeather said. She had already resolved herself to death. “I’m not sure I can kill him, but you must use the chance I opened for you.”
Demon Emperor Redraco wanted to stop her, but Tianyi had already teleported behind her, sword raised. Because he was still a distance away from her, the spacetime prison was not as strong, allowing him more freedom than his compatriot trapped in the epicenter. Despite her words and resolve, he still soared toward her, intent on saving her.
The demon empress only saw a blur because of her slowed time. The Sacred Fire Grotto realm projection receded. It didn’t disappear, but coated her body. Then, flames spurted out from between her feathers, turning her to a burning phoenix of blue.
The burning phoenix of blue regenerated the missing part of her wing and lower torso, including the legs. Breaking free of the spacetime prison, she flapped her wings and engulfed Tianyi. A flash later, she flew into the distance and u-turned back at Tianyi.
Tianyi, who had remained in place, turned around to meet her. He didn’t have a burnt piece of skin on him, not even a singed hair, but blue embers constantly burned at his body. He ignored them and slashed the void, writing two words.
Nine Strokes Sword Art - Phoenix Extermination
It was the Nine Strokes Sword Art he created during his days as a core formation master. As he grew stronger, he gradually outpaced his self-created sword art. The effort he would need to put in and the complexities it required made it a long-term project. However, recently, Tianyi saw a correlation between it and his Nebulous Negation.
By working on the Nine Strokes Sword Art, he could improve his Nebulous Negation. Inversely, he could improve the Nine Strokes Sword Art by improving the Nebulous Negation, forming a positive loop. In essence, the Nine Strokes Sword Art was a limited form of Nebulous Negation.
After he finished writing those two words, Tianyi slashed again. Just in time to meet the incoming burning phoenix Demon Empress Bluefeather had turned herself into. The Immortal Confining Sword sheared through the burning phoenix to reveal nothing but flames.
Tianyi frowned, and the two clashed again. With each clash, the amount of blue flame entangling Tianyi increased. However, this allowed him to realize what the demon empress had done.
Demon Empress Bluefeather had merged with the Sacred Fire Grotto, using it as fuel to dramatically increase her power. As a price, she would perish, even if Tianyi died before she ran out of fuel. It was an irreversible change. At least, to his eyes. Who knows, maybe the Phoenix Clan had a revival method. Until the Sacred Fire Grotto was destroyed, she would become a conceptual being of fire rather than a Qingluan or another lifeform.
Tianyi raised his sword again. Since he figured out the method, he could deal with it. It was actually easier for him to deal with fire than a Qingluan or phoenix with his Nine Strokes Sword Art. His mastery of the Law of Fire and the Law of Five Phases granted keen insight into the nature of fire.
Nine Strokes Sword Art - Flame Nullification
Although the blue flame that formed the current Demon Empress Bluefeather’s body was split apart by his slash, it quickly reformed into one whole. It appeared Tianyi was attempting to do the impossible, like a mortal attempting to cut water. However, the demon empress keenly senses her body decreasing in size by about one to two percent. It might not sound like a lot, but she felt like Tianyi was capable of extinguishing her before she could kill him.
Demon Empress Bluefeather narrowed her eyes. Originally, she harbored the hope of dealing with Tianyi and then killing as many humans as possible with her remaining life. Now, it seemed that she had to bet everything just to kill Tianyi.
She charged toward Tianyi, her flames magnified, but her body remained the same. The power accumulating within her was just for a single brilliant moment.
Tianyi, an expert at explosions, sensed this. When the burning phoenix of blue reached half a kilometer near him, he changed. His hand no longer held the Immortal Confining Sword and the blue flames no longer burned his body. He formed two Constellation Cessations, one in each hand, and charged toward Demon Empress Bluefeather.
The moment the two clashed, a brilliant blue nova filled the battlefield. So great was its power that it caused the battle to fall to a momentary silence. The nova didn’t last long, only a few minutes. When it died down, nothing was left. Pure emptiness.
Then, the space rippled, and a charred humanoid walked out. Blue flames burned at his robes and skin. His entire face was charred to crisp, and he coughed out flames. The cough caused cracks to appear on his face. When fragments of his skin fell off, it revealed endless darkness with countless motes of light floating within.
“Nine Heavens Emperor!” Demon Emperor Redraco roared in anger. He appeared right in front of Tianyi, claws ready to end the latter’s life.
Comments
Ed
Nice to see the return of the sword art
Duy
Lol they never learn do they. Tianyi is once again pretending to be injured
