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Chapter 458: Clash of Clones
🕑 Added 2024-01-22 14:00:42 +0000 UTCDonghai Longzi’s and Ba Shifang’s gaze only lasted for a split second and no one noticed. He turned his head toward the unknown monarch. “Hmpf, you attacked one of the promising juniors of my clan and you still have the gall to ask?”
The original plan of the Demon Clan was to release news of Jiaohu and attract a team of true immortals to investigate. From there, Jiaohu would escape, prompting more teams. Then, it would slowly increase until an immortal monarch would appear.
At that time, Honglin would come forward and barely fend them off. Rinse and repeat until an immortal emperor arrived. Only at that point would Demon Empress Bluefeather appear. From the start of the plan, the Immortal Court and Numinous Sword Sect, who hadn’t placed too much attention, should erupt and think there is a conspiracy, dispatching a large amount of immortals to capture or investigate. The Demon Clan would also leave some clues of a big plan as a distraction.
With the Numinous Sword Sect and Immortal Court occupied, the Divine Beast Pseudo System would relocate into its new hiding spot. However, that plan was broken immediately by the appearance of two immortal monarchs.
It should have been a gradual escalation. This way, the Immortal Court and Numinous Sword Sect would unconsciously use a larger amount of manpower, like boiling a frog in warm water. However, Ba Shifang and Meng Tingfeng’s appearance broke that plan.
Donghai Longzi searched through his memories and failed to recognize the unknown immortal monarch. Like Ba Shifang, he hadn’t been told much of the Immortal Court’s plan in order to make it more realistic. Currently, he was as blind as his former compatriot.
Meng Tingfeng chuckled in response to Donghai Longzi’s words. “Attack? Blame himself. Who told him to venture into land that he does not belong in? Speaking of which, you are also trespassing. And trespassers deserve death!”
Without another word, he charged forward at Donghai Longzi. His back seemed to tell the others and Ba Shifang not to interfere and that he could take care of this by himself. He pulled out his sword in one beautiful arc. It was the most beautiful sword swing Donghai Longzi had ever seen.
Of course, this was only because Tianyi hadn’t shared the memories of his battle with Bao Ling with him. Even if it was only a memory with no replication of the worldly laws imbued in Bao Ling’s sword, Donghai Longzi would still sense the innate charm within the sword strikes.
Donghai Longzi buried the immediate impulse to retaliate. In order to lower the humans’ guard, he couldn’t show too strong of an understanding of the worldly laws. So, he pretended to act surprised and brought his arms up in defense.
Meng Tingfeng snorted. Demons could take on humanoid forms, but the transformation usually caused their physical abilities to weaken. In his eyes, this was Donghai Longzi taking him lightly. Still, he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. So, he used one of his stronger quick draw techniques, hoping to heavily injure the true dragon in the first clash.
However, when his sword connected with Donghai Longzi’s arms, Meng Tingfeng’s expression changed. It felt like he had slashed a hunk of steel and not a creature of flesh and blood. The rebound even caused a slight numbness in his hand.
Donghai Longzi flew back and looked at his torn sleeves. On his exposed arms, there were two long cuts leaking blood. He glanced toward Jiaohu. “Aren’t you going to escape?”
“Y—yes! Thank you, Dragon Lord!” the toad-like dragon said after being awakened by Donghai Longzi’s words. The space around him twisted and turned as he fled into the Vast Void.
When Meng Tingfeng and Ba Shifang saw this, they couldn’t help but narrow their eyes. Some demons receive innate abilities, but like individuals, there were differences in power among them. The strongest examples would be the Four Divine Beasts of the Demon Clan. Each true dragon also had a unique innate ability, but many of them were useless in fights or after a certain realm, but the innate ability of Jiaohu was not one such case.
The two could discern that Jiaohu’s abilities were related to space. Normally, they wouldn’t care, but upon seeing that Jiaohu could affect the space of the Vast Void, their hearts couldn’t help but move. Jiaohu was only a true demon, and his innate ability could affect space. What about when he reached the Demon Monarch Realm, or even the Demon Emperor Realm? Would his ability evolve into spatial teleportation?
At that point, Jiaohu would become an incredibly annoying and undying existence. Without sufficient defense, he could even teleport inside realms. For example, he could teleport directly inside a realm occupied by humans and launch a surprise attack. Unless another immortal emperor was stationed there, Jiaohu would leave unscathed by the time reinforcement arrived.
When such a being appeared, the humans would use almost all their power to kill such a being. It wasn’t just directed at the Demon Clan but other forces, too. If the Numinous Sword Sect knew that Tianyi had the ability to teleport across the Vast Void, they would attack him with all their strength, hoping to kill him. They might even harbor more killing intent than the power they used against the Demon Clan.
A demon able to teleport within the Vast Void only revealed their powerful innate ability, but if a human cultivator possessed such an ability, it likely meant that they were an immortal sovereign close to reaching the Divine Realm. How could the Numinous Sword Sect allow such a character to appear? By then, the hegemon of the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System would be set in stone.
Ba Shifang stilled for a moment, thinking of whether or not to take action. Ultimately, he decided to move. If he didn’t take action, it would seem too weird. So, his body moved, aiming to cut off Jiaohu’s path. Jiaohu was fast, faster than the average immortal monarch, but neither he nor Meng Tingfeng were ordinary monarchs.
The moment he took action, Ba Shifang saw a shadow appear in his vision. It wasn’t a shadow, but the tail of Donghai Longzi’s true form whipping toward him.
He waved his hand, and the five elements formed a shield in front of him. The tail slammed into his shield, cracking it and sending Ba Shifang flying back tens of thousands of meters. Not only that, but he felt his arms become numb from the force.
Ba Shifang’s eyes widened in shock. He cultivated the Sixth Grade Nine-Five Scripture, meaning that he was also a martial immortal. However, his body was weaker than Donghai Longzi’s. Ba Shifang frowned. Although he wasn’t a cultivation maniac like Donghai Longzi, it didn’t mean he was any less competitive.
Both of them started out as clones, and Ba Shifang didn’t think he had any less potential than Donghai Longzi who was formed out of a drop of true dragon blood. Once he returned, Ba Shifang vowed to cultivate his martial body to the peak.
His martial body had stagnated, not for lack of effort, but for the sheer amount of energy required to nourish it. In order to raise it to the peak of the Seamless Immortal Realm, it required a vast amount of five elemental energies.
Meng Tingfeng had been shocked when Donghai Longzi returned to his true form, but that didn’t stop him from taking action. He attacked again upon seeing Ba Shifang knocked back. Killing intent rose in his eyes as one of the seven stars on his sword blazed with light.
The sword released a starry light as it unleashed several sword lights toward the black dragon. They struck Donghai Longzi’s scales, but aside from leaving faint gray marks, they didn’t even shatter a single scale.
His expression hardened upon seeing this. He raised his sword and focused on it. A starry light condensed onto the sword. His actions drew both Donghai Longzi and Ba Shifang’s attention.
Sword Intent!
Donghai Longzi focused all his attention on Meng Tingfeng. Although Meng Tingfeng had used sword intent when attacking earlier, it wasn’t as powerful as now. His claws struck toward Meng Tingfeng, harboring destruction behind the gleaming points.
But before his claws could land, Meng Tingfeng struck down. Claw and sword collided, and the screech of rent metal echoed even in the Vast Void.
The collision forced Donghai Longzi’s arm back while sending Meng Tingfeng tens of meters away. Donghai Longzi looked down at his claws to see a faint line ruining its immaculate ivory color. With Meng Tingfeng’s current power, he had the ability to crack his scales. He snorted and charged at Meng Tingfeng.
Meng Tingfeng didn’t show any weakness and charged forward. From that single clash, he judged that the black dragon in front of him possessed superior defense but mediocre attack. While charging, he shouted, “I’ll take care of this! Go and kill that dragon!”
Ba Shifang spared the two a glance before doing just so. He didn’t like Meng Tingfeng’s commanding tone, but he still had to keep the act up. He wanted to fly past Donghai Longzi, but the latter would just whip his tail at him again. Although it would help Donghai Longzi, it would undoubtedly seem suspicious. So, he specifically flew outside the range of Donghai Longzi’s body before chasing Jiaohu.
The moment he did so, Donghai Longzi’s size increased by ten times, directly blocking Ba Shifang’s path. His claw reached out toward Ba Shifang, causing the latter to retreat.
“Do you think you can ignore me?” Meng Tingfeng roared as he increased the frequency of his attack.
Like a slippery snake, Donghai Longzi moved back the lower half of his body, but not for long. He whipped it forward, using momentum to increase the damage. Unlike the first collision, Meng Tingfeng felt his entire arm turn numb, and it knocked him back thousands of meters.
Ba Shifang saw the fighting intent in Donghai Longzi’s eyes, and he couldn’t help but guess that his former compatriot wanted to have an all-out duel with him. His lips twitched, but his hand movements did not. Five-colored lightning formed behind Ba Shifang and shot toward the gigantic body.
Donghai Longzi twisted and turned, but because of his huge size, he couldn’t evade all the lightning strikes. So, they struck true on those glittering black scales. The scales cracked and lost the tiny motes of light that made them glitter, but in comparison to Donghai Longzi’s entire body, the damage was negligible.
Ba Shifang couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile as he did his best to dodge. He had an abundant amount of qi and had the most powerful martial body among his peers outside of Tianyi, so he didn’t focus much on movement techniques. Who knew that he would suffer at the hands of Donghai Longzi?
Even if he used all his strength to travel a hundred meters, Donghai Longzi simply needed to wriggle a bit. Although large bodies had many disadvantages, it also had many advantages.
“Take this!” Meng Tingfeng shouted. He slashed out at Donghai Longzi’s scales, but it only left a slight gash and caused it to dim a little bit. He gritted his teeth. It would not be wrong to say that Donghai Longzi had ignored him, but he had no doubt that if he chased after the fleeing toad dragon, the former would immediately focus his attention on him.
“Since you look down on me, don’t regret it,” Meng Tingfeng said.
He stopped attacking and tightened the grip on the sword. In his pupils, countless starlights shone. A second star shimmered brilliantly on the Seven Star Sword in conjunction with the first one. Half a minute later, the third star lit up.
It was obvious that Meng Tingfeng was building up energy to unleash a powerful move, but neither Donghai Longzi nor Ba Shifang noticed. It was akin to a sword sheathed in its scabbard, its sharp edge hidden from the world. But a sword was meant to cut, and it would always leave its scabbard and reveal its edge eventually.
At the critical moment, Meng Tingfeng sheathed the sword, hiding the three shining stars. He flew toward Donghai Longzi until he was in the path of a claw striking toward Ba Shifang.
Donghai Longzi noticed him, but he didn’t take the latter seriously at all. His claw continued forward.
Meng Tingfeng unsheathed his sword and slashed. “Seven Star Sword - Three Star Slash.”
Contrary to Donghai Longzi’s expectation, Meng Tingfeng’s sword cleaved through his scales and sliced to his skin. Under the spectator’s eyes, blood spurted forth from Donghai Longzi’s arm. Although the blood was red, it contained numerous tiny motes of lights, making it resemble a red night sky. The blood drowned Meng Tingfeng, and the moment it did so, his eyes widened in shock.
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