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Chapter 537: Clash of Immortals and Demons
🕑 Added 2024-11-27 14:00:13 +0000 UTCGrand Elder Zhang Cuiying, also known as Empress Voidink, stared at the demons. Her eyes took on an ink-like hue while her snow-white hair fluttered from the qi radiating from her body. A scroll longer than her arm and thicker than a tree trunk appeared in her hands.
This was her signature artifact, one she forged herself. She spent years and many resources to refine it, including realm essence. She also made many failures. The Mountains and Seas Pendant owned by Tianyi and gifted to Daoyi was her creation.
Her Voidink Scroll contained a pseudo realm within, but that was not its main purpose. She unfurled the scroll, extending it beyond a kilometer. Painted onto the scroll were countless soldiers and generals in silver armor.
The scroll rippled, and the painted soldiers moved. They flew out of the painting and appeared in the void. There were nine hundred and ninety silver soldiers at the true immortal level and one hundred generals at the immortal monarch level.
Voidink Scroll - Heavenly Immortal Army
The only thing shocking about them were their sheer numbers. A powerful earth immortal or saint could fight or even defeat a true immortal heavenly soldier, and an immortal lord could defeat an immortal monarch heavenly general.
A few thousand years ago, the number of soldiers Grand Elder Zhang could summon was ten thousand. Despite the decrease in number, the Heavenly Immortal Army had increased in strength, not decreased. Because of the ten thousand strong army, there was only one heavenly general. The rest were true immortal soldiers.
Grand Elder Zhang Cuiying didn’t summon the Heavenly Immortal Army for human wave tactics. Using them that way would only make them cannon fodder and nuisances at best. No, she gathered all of them around her.
Her immortal qi resonated with the qi of the Heavenly Immortal Army. With her as the core, they formed a war formation, the Immortal Arms Sovereign War Formation, the famed war formation of the Immortal Court from the primordial era.
The Immortal Arms Sovereign War Formation resembled a titan nine kilometers tall. Because of Grand Elder Zhang, the giant was obviously female and had the same face as her. The Immortal Arms Sovereign War Formation raised its right arm, and a giant brush five hundred meters long appeared in its hand. The war formation held the brush in a reverse grip and slashed forward. Ink spilled from the brush and formed a blade.
The Qilin Patriarch snorted and rushed forward. He reared back and raised his front hooves. He stamped down. Wherever his hooves passed, space trembled. If it was in a realm, even an immortal-rank realm, the dimension boundary would crack. Even if it was at the most stable location.
The ink blade and qilin hooves crashed into each other. The stalemate only lasted a single second before the blade of ink splattered and returned to its original form. However, the scattered drops of ink connected again and formed hundreds of strings that bound the Qilin Patriarch like chains.
The ink strings that touched the Qilian Patriarch’s scales flattened and covered them in tiny letters. The more words they engraved, the weaker the qilin leader’s scales became. In addition, they also spurred the demon qi to escape out into the void.
“A paltry trick!” the Qilin Patriarch said with a snort. A powerful film covered his body. No matter how hard the ink attempted to penetrate the film, there would always be a thin space between it and the scales.
The Qilian Patriarch roared. Wherever the roar passed, all objects would gravitate toward him. Or rather, toward his hooves.
The Immortal Arms Sovereign War Formation was naturally not an exception. In fact, it was the target.
Two hooves stamped down. They were pitch black and absorbed all light, making them seem like holes in reality. They struck with the force of a planetary collision, instantly shattering the Immortal Arms Sovereign War Formation into thousands of pieces.
The destroyed Immortal Arms Sovereign War Formation transformed into ink and dissipated in the void. Above the Qilian Patriarch, the Immortal Arms Sovereign War Formation appeared out of nowhere and slashed down with its brush.
The Qilin Patriarch counterattacked with its horn.
***
Minister Everpast glanced toward Bao Ling. Although he was already a conferred immortal minister and could revive even if his soul was destroyed, he always felt like this young emperor could annihilate his existence. “The Black Tortoise is coming at us. Do you want to fight him or me?”
Bao Ling didn’t look at Minister Everpast. “Not interested.”
Seeing Bao Ling fly away, Minister Everpast shook his head. The heavy feeling in his heart vanished, and he rushed up to meet the Black Tortoise. Although he was an immortal sovereign, his power had declined since his peak. This was the price he had to pay for eternity.
The Black Tortoise was an immense beast over a million kilometers in size. His sheer size eclipsed many fiendgods. Once size reached a certain point, it became pure power. Although there was no direct correlation, a gigantic size generally meant a powerful soul. Otherwise, the soul would be annihilated by the powerful flesh. So, even soul attacks were only marginally more effective than physical attacks.
Minister Everpast blinked, and the world changed in his eyes. Everything became black and white except for the myriad of strings. The strings were wrapped around tiny spheres that represented the soul of all beings in his sight. The strings ranged from a passionate red, ethereal silver, noble gold, sullen blood, and many more.
None were immune, except Tianyi and Bao Ling. Forget strings. He couldn’t even see the sphere that represented Tianyi’s soul. As for Bao Ling, Minister Everpast could see his soul, but all the strings were arranged around it in an orderly manner. He couldn’t see who the string connected to.
There was definitely a great secret behind Bao Ling.
The immortal minister focused his sight on the Black Tortoise again. He could see a soul sphere about a tenth of his entire mass, which was quite large.
Normally, a human’s soul would only be a tenth of their body, but the size difference would increase with the body’s size. A giant one hundred meters tall might only have a soul sphere a twentieth of their size. For the Black Tortoise to have such a large soul signified how powerful it was. He estimated it was because of the many reincarnations and original identity as a divinity.
The number of strings attached to the Black Tortoise’s soul exceeded any single being on this battlefield. Many of the strings connected to other demons on the battlefield. Two strings noticeably thicker than the rest linked to Demon Emperor Redraco and Demon Empress Bluefeather. It wasn’t strange, because they were members of the Four Divine Beast.
However, the thickest string was actually connected to a human hiding in the True Dragon Realm. Minister Everpast knew him. The sole survivor of the Leakless Sect and contractor of the Black Tortoise. The humans attacked the Void Continent in order to kill him, but they failed and allowed the realm beast to awaken.
Many more strings, long or short, were connected to nothing. It meant that the being that once had a connection with the Black Tortoise no longer existed.
Minister Everpast reached out and grabbed the empty strings with his hand and clenched his fist. Those strings were no longer empty, but connected to him instead.
The Black Tortoise felt his head hum. When he looked at Minister Everpast again, images of the immortal minister flashed in his mind. Sometimes, he was just an acquaintance, or maybe a life-and-death friend who unfortunately perished, or someone who had sacrificed himself for him. Without him realizing it, Minister Everpast had become part of his past.
“Law of Time? No, this is the Law of Causality!” the Black Tortoise said. Although his mind was clear, his body and emotions were unwilling to hurt Minister Everpast. He squashed all those emotions with his willpower.
Minister Everpast sighed. He had already expected to fail. Since that was the case, he clenched the causality strings in his hands even harder. From within his grasp, they started disintegrating. With his actions done, the immortal minister retreated.
“Everpast!” the Black Tortoise roared. Although he no longer felt unwilling, he could feel his memories of certain people become faint. They might not completely disappear, but they would turn dim, literally lost in his memories. It wasn’t just erasing his memories, but a type of soul attack that injured the foundation of the soul.
The tree on the Black Tortoise’s back rustled. It had grown immense, just like his body. Each leaf was a continent and housed many nascent lives, but the battle had eliminated ninety-nine percent of them. Dew drops appeared on each leaf, and with a flick, they all shot toward the immortal minister.
Minister Everpast dodged all of them. Although the drops seemed tiny in comparison to the tree on the Black Tortoise’s back, they were still ginormous compared to the human body. If that wasn’t enough, the dew drops deployed a life-draining field, sucking away the immortal minister’s vitality.
Of course, he wasn’t helpless. He was an immortal sovereign, after all. Strictly speaking, the Black Tortoise was a former divinity, and his realm reached the Demon Emperor Realm. He should have an advantage, but because of his rushed breakthrough, his cultivation base wasn’t as solid or as stable as it should be.
An ethereal silver light covered Minister Everpast’s body. The vitality that flowed out of him returned, as if someone had pressed the rewind button. As an immortal sovereign, he had merged three worldly laws into his main Law of Causality. One of them was the Law of Time, and he used it to revert the changes.
However, to revert changes, he would continuously need to use his essence qi. If he ran out, he would have to flee back to the mobile fortress Shangri-La to restore his essence qi before returning to the battlefield. And the Black Tortoise had a hundred times more energy than him. The amount of energy an individual had was related to their size. Quality was important, but size was more important.
Aside from Tianyi, no one had more qi than the Black Tortoise.
Minister Everpast reached out again and grabbed several strands from the Black Tortoise and pulled. It was not a contest of laws, but a duel of willpower. In the end, the immortal minister only grabbed fifteen percent of the strings.
Those strings bound together to form an invisible javelin, which Minister Everpast threw at the Black Tortoise. The spear struck true, but it hardly caused a dent in the Black Tortoise’s body or soul.
Still, Minister Everpast never thought of killing the Black Tortoise alone. As his name suggested, the Black Tortoise had the highest defense. Rather, the immortal minister wanted to occupy the Black Tortoise’s attention and allow his comrades to kill more demons.
***
Minister Brightwing, leader of the Ministry of Rites, formed the White Crane Emperor War Formation with ten monarchs and a hundred true immortals. As the name suggested, the war formation resembled a white crane, and it was especially suited, since Minister Brightwing possessed a pair of crane wings.
The White Crane Emperor Formation raised its wings and flapped them. Thousands of feathers formed from the combined qi of a thousand immortals and imbued with the Law of Light shot forward like bullets. The demons wanted to dodge, but the feathers were nearly light speed in velocity.
Most of them missed, but the demon lords that were hit suffered grievous injuries. The demon kings were better, but they still found the feathers annoying. Several demon kings rushed toward the White Crane Emperor Formation, but it simply dodged them and continued to unleash the wide-scaled bombardment.
Minister Brightwing’s goal was harassment and killing the weaker demon lords.
Still, he couldn’t compare to that one.
Minister Brightwing glanced toward the center of the battle where it was most chaotic. He could see novas constantly exploding and injuring demon lords and demon kings. It was hard to believe that the mortal from thousands of years ago reached such heights so quickly.
