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Chapter 440: Rematch
🕑 Added 2023-11-17 14:00:12 +0000 UTCBa Shifang entered the palace again. After informing Tianyi of his experience during the brief battle, he sat in a lotus position and closed his eyes to recuperate.
He needed to stabilize his body before it collapsed. What was terrifying about Bao Ling’s slash was that he perfectly controlled the power so that it was only on the brink of collapse. Just a tiny bit more and it would have been disastrous.
Even if his body collapsed, it wouldn’t reach the point where Ba Shifang would enter a soul state, with all his powers substantially reduced until he could form his body once more out of the Law of Five Phases, but he wouldn’t be able to participate in battle for at least a decade.
Ba Shifang had no doubt that Bao Ling had purposely done this. It only meant that his insight and control were terrifying. Tianyi was equally terrifying, but he didn’t possess the same control as Bao Ling. If Tianyi was force, then Bao Ling was finesse.
To stabilize his Five Phases Law Body, Ba Shifang needed to absorb a vast amount of spiritual qi and convert them into Five Phases Immortal Qi or immortal qi of the five elements. Ba Shifang usually converted spiritual qi into immortal qi of the five elements before converting it to Five Phases Immortal Qi within his body. Transforming it directly had a much lower success rate.
This was the issue of building a body out of a divine-level law, even if only partially mastered. Although it is powerful, if you haven’t completely mastered the divine law it takes a long time to repair any damage.
Hu Landie focused her attention on Ba Shifang. She knew him. Since he only sat down, it meant his situation wasn’t serious. So, Hu Landie focused on the conversion process. Spiritual qi would linger outside his process before transforming and being absorbed by Ba Shifang. This process stimulated her comprehension of the five elemental laws.
The other immortals wanted to watch the process, too, but they needed to observe at a close distance. Coming up to Ba Shifang in his current state was undoubtedly a provocation, so they didn’t. Well, except one, but his aim wasn’t to increase his comprehension of the law of the five elements.
***
“Are you alright?”
Ba Shifang opened his eyes and glanced at Meng Tingfeng. “It’s nothing that can’t be fixed with time.”
Meng Tingfeng stared, hoping to differentiate whether his son was telling the truth or not. Soon, he looked away. He didn’t want Ba Shifang to think he was probing for weaknesses and erase any goodwill he accumulated.
Not to mention he didn’t know whether Ba Shifang would blame him for what Bao Ling had done by default thanks to his relationship with the Numinous Sword Sect.
Judging by Ba Shifang’s absorption of spiritual qi, Meng Tingfeng concluded that something had occurred to his body. And it wasn’t the type to be easily healed, either. Immortal monarchs were infinitely harder to injure than true immortals. Conversely, the effort needed to heal was far greater as well.
Meng Tingfeng took out a gourd and held it out to Ba Shifang. “I apologize for Bao Ling’s action. He went too far. It can’t make up for it, but every little bit helps.”
Ba Shifang stared at the gourd. Within it were ten Immortal Qi Condensation Pills. However, he didn’t take it. “No need. It’s a spar, and injuries like this are only expected. I’m not the type of person to hold a grudge just because I lost.”
“Shifang has the temperament of a hero. I admire it,” Meng Tingfeng said. He could see that his son wouldn’t take it, no matter what, so he took it back. With his power, it probably wouldn’t be hard to get some Immortal Qi Condensation Pills if he didn’t already have them.
Still, the sheer amount of spiritual qi Ba Shifang was absorbing surprised Meng Tingfeng. After walking away, Ba Shifang resumed absorption of the qi, and it was as if he was a bottomless hole. He kept absorbing and absorbing with no intent on stopping.
Just dual cultivating the spiritual and martial path would not produce a law body able to contain so much qi, so Meng Tingfeng wondered what cultivation method his son used. Could it be one of the Ten Heavenly Scriptures?
Meng Tingfeng also wanted to switch from his current method to the Stellar Heavenly Scripture. No matter how amazing the method created by the Seven Star Sword Emperor was, could it compare to the Ten Heavenly Scriptures?
Alas, the Numinous Sword Sect didn’t have the Stellar Heavenly Scripture. According to his only lead, the Buzhou Immortal Court might have it. He could only wait until the Numinous Sword Sect defeated the Buzhou Immortal Court and proclaimed hegemony over the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System before searching their archives.
Meng Tingfeng glanced toward Xi Tianyi, who had stood up and was flying toward Bao Ling outside. Truthfully speaking, he was surprised by how easily Bao Ling defeated Ba Shifang. Logically speaking, he knew that he was weaker than Bao Ling. After all, Bao Ling was an immortal emperor, while he had been a second-step monarch.
In his original calculation, he should have been able to fight Bao Ling to a standstill for a few moments, at the very least. It was only now that he realized how vast the gulf between himself and Bao Ling was. Having personally fought Ba Shifang, he knew the latter wasn’t weak. Then how strong must Bao Ling be to easily defeat him?
The previous duel only revealed that Bao Ling was powerful, nothing else. Even if Meng Tingfeng fought Bao Ling, he probably wouldn’t be able to reveal anything.
Now, Meng Tingfeng just hoped that Xi Tianyi could make Bao Ling reveal his true strength. As for thoughts about Xi Tianyi winning, Meng Tingfeng never had the thought. One, because Xi Tianyi would become an enemy, and two, because of Xi Tianyi, his son’s true identity couldn’t be known to the world.
With a sharp gaze, Meng Tingfeng’s eyes settled on Bao Ling and Xi Tianyi, not willing to miss a second.
***
Tianyi stared at Bao Ling. Aside from becoming an immortal emperor, his features remained unchanged, just like in Tianyi’s memories. Although this was only their second time meeting, Tianyi had already seared the latter appearance and name into his mind.
Unlike Ba Shifang, Tianyi could still sense an aura from Bao Ling. It was incredibly sharp, so sharp that even Tianyi was wary. More than that, Bao Ling also exuded an aura that confused him. Tianyi didn’t know how to describe the aura other than as incomplete. It resembled an earth immortal’s aura, but Bao Ling was obviously not a failed immortal.
‘Don’t tell me, there really is a genius in this world that would have the strength of an immortal emperor as an earth immortal,’ Tianyi thought. But he quickly adjusted his thought process. He didn’t have time to be distracted.
Just like Ba Shifang and Meng Tingfeng before them, neither one attacked. Only, the reason was different. Ba Shifang was confident in his strength and didn’t want to bully Meng Tingfeng. Meng Tingfeng, on the other hand, didn’t want to attack his supposed son, leading to the stalemate. Tianyi and Bao Ling’s standoff was because they felt the danger on each other’s body.
It was Tianyi who finally couldn’t stand it.
Spacetime distorted around him and he appeared in front of Bao Ling as if he had teleported. At least, to most spectators. In reality, Tianyi had just slowed down time and made space easier to travel for himself. He wanted to teleport in front of Bao Ling, but he discovered that the space around Bao Ling was just as sharp as his aura.
Tianyi had attempted to teleport, but all he got was a white mark on his body, so he flew instead. Once he appeared in front of Bao Ling, he reared his fist back and punched. Mirages of thousands of fists appeared, and Tianyi resembled a thousand hand bodhisattva. The fists flying toward Bao Ling weren’t mirages, but Tianyi’s actual fists. It appeared like mirages due to his astounding speed and control over spacetime.
Nine Heavens Art - Meteor Mash Infinity Combo
Bao Ling’s reaction wasn’t slow, either. His hand instantly grasped the hilt and unsheathed the sword in a single motion. Anyone who saw it would sear that silver arc into their brains. It wasn’t because the sword swing was slow, just the opposite. The sword swing was incredibly fast, so fast that their eyes almost couldn’t process. No, the reason why their eyes could see it was simply because the sword swing was too beautiful.
Not just the spectators, even Tianyi couldn’t help but be dazzled by that sword swing. Still, his actions only halted for a nanosecond. His fist rained down upon Bao Ling, but to his surprise, that sword swing blocked all of his punches. He wanted to continue. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have named it an infinity combo, but the stinging pain in his fingers stopped him.
Tianyi retreated. At a distance, he looked at his hands to see deep gashes in his fingers where he punched the cyan sword’s edge. Black mist continuously leaked out from the wounds. If he had continued to attack, disregarding the damage, his hand might have disappeared.
‘It was a simple sword slash, yet he’s able to pierce the dimensional boundaries of my conduit,’ Tianyi thought. Bao Ling’s power had exceeded his imagination.
Tianyi’s body started to float up. Bao Ling followed. The two didn’t stop even when their body exited Shangri-La’s influence and only stopped when they were far away from it in the Vast Void. It was an implicit agreement. Their following clash would be catastrophic and would cause irreparable damage to the fortress.
Once they stopped, Tianyi attacked. Black qi with countless twinkling motes of light exploded from his body and covered over a hundred kilometers. “Chaos Refining Formation, form!”
Bao Ling once again unleashed his sword. There was no sword qi or any other type of ranged attack exploding from his blade, yet Tianyi still felt his Chaos Refining Formation fail. Not a second later, it split in half. After stalling for a minute, the formation dissolved into immortal qi of primordial chaos.
The sword emperor wasn’t content to allow Tianyi to continue to attack him either. He flew toward Tianyi like a sword.
Tianyi retreated. He waved his hand and unleashed a spacetime domain. Within the domain, time slowed down and space solidified. Yet, Bao Ling only slowed down a bit. It was as if he was a hot knife slicing through butter.
Upon seeing his tactic fail, Tianyi altered the spacetime domain. Sometimes time would speed up or slow down, it might even freeze. Up, down, left, and right altered. Sometimes, it was just a bit of direction adjustment, like flying up would cause you to fly forward. Other times, the directions would reverse. In essence, spacetime became chaotic and the regular rules no longer applied.
In this situation, most immortal emperors would become flustered and unable to exert even seventy percent of their strength. But Bao Ling’s speed only dropped by ten percent.
Still, that was enough for Tianyi. A miniature sun appeared inside Tianyi’s palm. Without a second thought, he launched it toward Bao Ling.
Nine Heavens Style - Stellar Silence.
Bao Ling slashed his sword.
Tianyi narrowed his eyes. He expected the miniature sun he condensed to explode upon contact, but to his shock, Bao Ling actually sliced his attack in two without exploding. The two halves continued to fly forward, extremely stable, as if they hadn’t been hacked in half. It was only after a few seconds that the two halves exploded, but by then, Bao Ling had already exited the blast radius.
The next several stellar silences launched by Tianyi also met the same fate. Just as he was only a kilometer away from Tianyi, Bao Ling’s speed dramatically increased. The nine sphere attack in Tianyi’s palm didn’t even have time to finish forming before Bao Ling appeared in front of him.
With sword raised high, Bao Ling slashed down. Tianyi felt a gouging pain as the sword sliced through his chest. His eyes hardened as his immortal qi of primordial chaos exploded forth and engulfed Bao Ling. Not even a second later, the immortal qi of primordial chaos burned brightly.
An astronomical explosion engulfed the two immortal emperors.
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