NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42: Collapse
Duan Muli sucked in a cold breath as he took in the ambush from all sides. His two eyes began emitting black and white light as his body began to turn illusionary as if he was but a mirage. It wasn't an illusion as his figure gradually disappeared.
Xia Yushan's five-colored lotus began to emit an even greater pressure, and the stability of the space within increased, causing Duan Muli's technique to slow down as if trapped in a quagmire.
All this while the five swords of the five different robed Xia Yushan continued to strike down. The taiji formation on the ground increased in power and made the five Xia Yushan slow down as well. The two top disciples of the premier Daoist lineages entered a power struggler. It was a contest to see whether Xia Yushan's sword would strike Duan Muli first or would Duan Muli disappear from within Xia Yushan's Five Element Sword Lotus first.
In the end, both the Five Element Sword Lotus and the taiji on the ground fractured into tiny little pieces. The backlash exploded and injured both contestants.
When all the pieces disappeared, there was only a single Xia Yushan standing. He clutched his chest while his other hand held his sword. His face was extremely pale, and he looked like he could puke blood any moment.
A moment later, Duan Muli's figure appeared out of nowhere and collapsed onto one knee. His robes were in disarray and filled with various gashes made from Xia Yushan's sword. It was soon dyed red, and Duan Muli vomited a mouthful of blood. His eyes had returned to their original appearance as he warily observed Xia Yushan. With trembling legs, he forced himself to his feet. His trembling soon faded away, and his pale face turned ruddy again like he never fought with Xia Yushan.
Xia Yushan frowned as he saw the chaotic qi in Duan Muli's body calm down and even show signs of recovering. He suppressed his injuries as the sword in his hand disappeared. Under everyone's eyes, Xia Yushan reached into thin air and grasped something. That something was revealed when he pulled his hand back to reveal a sword.
The sword appeared very plain with no embellishment on it. It was a simple sword with a silvery blade, dark iron hilt, a wooden handle, and a bronze pommel. But only Duan Muli, who was standing in front of the sword and Xia Yushan, could feel the dense and heavy killing intent imbued within the sword.
That sword was a sword of slaughter.
Duan Muli felt that he could even see a world filled with countless corpses, some rotting and some already having no flesh on the bones, reflected on the blade. Never in his life had he felt any greater danger than at this moment. He never even felt this close to death, even when he was facing the incarnation of an immortal.
He knew that the moment Xia Yushan drew that sword, there was a high chance that one of them would die on this stage. It was no wonder that Xia Yushan did not use his lifebound artifact before. He could not fully control the killing intent within, but Duan Muli wasn't an opponent Xia Yushan could defeat without using his lifebound weapon.
Duan Muli's face that had been shocked by the dense aura of slaughter, soon calmed down once more. Both of them aimed to attain first place to attain the Heavenly Law Lotus Seed in order to ascend to the realm of immortals. So what if the people blocking their way had to die?
Duan Muli's right hand emitted a black light while his left emitted a white light. His face, which had regained some color, began to pale once more and a trail of blood leaked from his lips down to his chin. He clapped both hands together, and a taiji symbol was superimposed upon him. At this moment, Duan Muli looked like a god of the universe, and everything seemed to be under his control.
Down on the stage, Ji Shuye's nails pierced her palm, and blood leaked out while her heart clenched as she watched the fight between Xia Yushan and Duan Muli. She wanted to call out to stop Xia Yushan, but when she saw his broad and unrelenting back, all her words were stuck in her throat.
Just as it seemed that both Xia Yushan and Duan Muli would clash head-on, the room began to shake as cracks appeared on the walls. Even the arena began to crumble.
"This!"
"What's going on? Is that part of the trial?"
"Impossible. The trial spirit told us that the third trial was a tournament. Something like this shouldn't have occurred!"
Just as it seemed that the trembling would continue, the trial spirit appeared once more above the arena. He gave a long sigh.
"I did not expect that he would do such a preposterous thing, taking away an anchor of the Immortal Court. Forget, forget it. The third trial is canceled. It cannot go on anymore. Did you foresee this, Your Majesty?" The trial spirit said as he waved his sleeves, and all of the cultivators in the room were enveloped in white light.
Before they could say anything and process it, they realized that they were once more outside the gate that led to the Immortal Court ruin. That wasn't all, as all of them were healed and returned to their top condition. Except for San Mirong, although her martial body was healed, burned scars remained, and she still only had a single arm.
Xia Yushan looked around with confusion as he saw himself standing in the air with his fellow disciples, even those that had not entered the third trial. He looked at the gate to see it filled with cracks and seemed to be able to crumble at any moment.
Tianyi gasped for air as he clenched his teeth. All awareness of his surroundings had long disappeared as he focused on refining the mountain in the Immortal Court into the first mountain of his Pendant of Mountains and Seas. With each passing moment, more sweat drenched Tianyi's robes, but at the same time, the first mountain of the Pendant of Mountains and Seas became more real and even began to look like the mountain of the Immortal Court.
Unknown to Tianyi, the ruin of the Immortal Court was fracturing. It started in the vicinity of the spiritual mountain, with cracks originating from the mountain crawling towards other areas.
When the first mountain from the Pendant of Mountains and Seas fully merged and took on the likeness of the mountain within the Immortal Court, Tianyi almost collapsed, but a content smile appeared on his face. He could already feel that the formation within the pendant increased its power severalfold. He felt a sensation that he had not felt since he entered the Core Formation Realm, and that was the near-complete drainage of all his true qi.
In the past, it wasn't like he hadn't tried to waste his qi to help stabilize the problems of his body, but it was not worth the effort. Tianyi produced as much true qi as fast as he used it. His mother could help him siphon his true qi, but that would require her near-constant presence.
It was ultimately an issue that Tianyi had to deal with himself in the end.
He waved his hand so that the formation would return to the jade pendant, but nothing happened even though Tianyi could feel that his connection with the formation only increased since refining the first mountain. He tried once more, but the mountain only seemed to budge slightly. He frowned and tried several more times, each with increasing strength in his control.
Finally, using almost all his spiritual sense, he recalled the Mountains and Seas Formation into the pendant, but Tianyi soon regretted it. Because where the mountain stood was a gargantuan hole that didn't lead to the underground but the Vast Void. It became like a black hole, sucking everything in, even the light.
Tianyi tried to step back, but the tremendous force sucked him and the ground beneath into the void. He could feel opposing forces distort and warp his body, and the relief he attained from having near-empty qi reserves was gone and replaced with fright and the impending sense of doom.
He tried to calm himself down as he ignored the pain, a technique he had long ago learned to cope with the constant damage dealt to his own body, and tried to recall anything that would save his life.
Tianyi gritted his teeth and injected his true qi into his spatial ring, but before the spatial ring could open for long, the qi that he had injected was sucked away into the void. Tianyi frowned and continued to inject qi into his spatial ring, and only after he injected a sizeable steady stream of qi into his spatial ring was he able to keep it open.
He had never been so thankful for his abnormally large amount of qi.
Tianyi could already feel the defensive properties of his robes beginning to weaken to the point that he would be ripped to shred by the spatial tides of the Vast Void. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a golden talisman appeared in his hand. This talisman was the most valuable treasure he carried with him. His mother had said to use it only when death was inevitable.
He certainly felt that death was looming over him, and he didn't want to risk using any treasures that would fail and cause him to die without being able to unleash this life-saving talisman. Under the injection of Tianyi's qi, the talisman emitted a bright light, and an illusionary form appeared.
Tianyi's eyes widened as he saw Mengfei's figure wearing her purple robes, but her body was translucent and seemed to be able to disappear at any moment.
Mengfei frowned and looked at her own body before looking at the surroundings. "Yi'er, how did you get trapped in the void outside of the Huang Realm? I am unable to absorb the qi of heaven and earth, so this incarnation cannot even use ten percent of its power."
Tianyi's face darkened.
"Something happened in a secret realm relating to the Immortal Court." Tianyi was unaware of how much this incarnation of his mother knew, so he gave a short answer. "Does this mean that you are unable to help me in this situation?"
Mengfei shook her head.
"Hard to say, but I will do my best. Whether this incarnation can last long enough to send you back into the Huang Realm will be up to fate." Saying so, Xi Mengfei's talisman incarnation held Tianyi's shoulder and soared towards the Huang Realm that resembled a biconvex lens.
Tianyi couldn't calm himself down, but he grasped the pendant on his waist. He allowed himself to look at the Huang Realm. It looked so tiny compared to the vastness of the void, like looking at the Earth from the Moon. He didn't have time to question the numerous other realms that appeared below the Huang Realm or the other star-like objects as Tianyi wholeheartedly prayed that he was able to make it back.
Throughout the journey, Tianyi constantly turned his sight towards his mother's incarnation. Although she still had the same facial expression, her body became more translucent by the second.
Tianyi couldn't help but tremble as he weighed his options if he couldn't return to the Huang Realm. Would it be better to die, or if he could somehow protect himself from the spatial forces, would it be better to float aimlessly in the void, not knowing when someone would save him?
He quickly got rid of those dark thoughts. He reviewed several spatial techniques he had learned and tried to devise a way to return to the Huang Realm in case his mother's incarnation didn't have enough energy.
Moments passed before Mengfei's incarnation sighed. "It looks like I won't be able to take you back."
His heart sank to his stomach, but before he could say anything, he felt himself being lifted by Mengfei and felt his vision blur and sudden force compressed onto him.
Tianyi was stunned for a moment before he realized he had been thrown. His mother's talisman incarnation had thrown him like a projectile. A silhouette of a sword covered him and powered his flight towards the Huang Realm. He only bore the pressure and looked forward as his Huang Realm became larger and larger until he was only microscopic dust in comparison.
When Tianyi neared the very edge, the sword silhouette burst out with great power and pierced a hole into the Huang Realm. Just as Tianyi was about to enter the opening, a familiar suction force latched onto his body and pulled him backward.
Tianyi gritted his teeth and unleashed the Mountains and Seas Formation. The greatest power a formation could have was exhibiting the same power as a world. Using this as a basis, Tianyi made a gamble. He linked the edge of the formation with the boundaries of the Huang Realm and made the Mountains and Seas Formation temporarily become a portion of the Huang Realm.
Instantly, the suction force disappeared, and Tianyi could use his power to fly through the air on his flying sword. Because he linked the Mountains and Seas Formation with the Huang Realm, he had lost the ability to control it.
Despite the temporary safety, he didn't know how long it would last, so Tianyi quickly flew towards the Huang Realm. Once he confirmed that he was fully inside the Huang Realm, Tianyi looked back outside to the Vast Void. He didn't even attempt to recall the formation as his eyes locked onto his mother's incarnation, who almost completely dispersed form.
Even from this distance, he could see a rare expression of gentleness on incarnation's face. The incarnation's body soon dispersed into countless lights in the void, never to be seen again.
Seeing this, Tianyi sighed, and a sullen feeling emerged from his chest. Tianyi waved his hand, trying to recall the formation, but when he did so, the Mountains and Seas Formation completely shattered into countless motes of lights shocking Tianyi. He didn't even do much but try to move the formation back.
Tianyi felt that he was fortunate. Had the formation shattered while he was inside, Tianyi would have no doubt perished.
The tiny motes of light moved away from the void as if unaffected by the spatial pressure and towards the jade pendant on Tianyi's waist. Among the motes of light, a group felt similar to the immortal mountain he had refined. He released a sigh of relief, as expected of a treasure even though it was a failed attempt to create the Classics of Mountains and Seas. It'
With one more look at the void through the tear of Huang Realm, which was slowly closing, Tianyi sighed. He had been doing a lot of sighing lately. He waved his hand, and an immortal boat that was similar to the one Mengfei had, appeared.
Although he was fatigued to the point that he felt that he could collapse into unconsciousness at any moment, Tianyi persisted in staying awake and drove the immortal boat. He had to find a safe haven, at least.
