The Fiend Slaying Sword Formation supported by the vast energy of the whole You Xiong Plain and the one without it were two extremes. One was a sharp sword, and the other an iron knife. Although an iron knife could also be used to kill someone, it was not as easy, clean, and inevitable as a sharp sword.
The 108,000 Great Daos from the Kaleidoscopic Star Core had fused completely with 108,000 Kunwu Swords. Meanwhile, the infinite energy from You Xiong Plain condensed into 108,000 huge stars, hovering high up in the void and traveling quickly along a trajectory that seemed to have existed since time immemorial, and would continue to exist forever. With each turn of the stars, the pressure weighing down on Torch Dragon increased.
It was only three seconds, and the intense pressure had caused a lot of scales to fall off Torch Dragon and blood to ooze out across his skin. He struggled crazily, but apart from making his bones rattle and almost get dislocated, he achieved nothing.
Having been imprisoned for so many years, Torch Dragon’s cultivation base remained at a tipping point, the equivalent of an almighty expert who had just stepped into the realm of Dao Breaking. Of course, the strength of his soul was greatly boosted by the cultivation of the mystic art which had split his soul into three. But, because of his haughtiness and some arrangements with Heaven and Buddhist League, he had given one of the souls to Wu Qi and let the latter do as he pleased.
But, Torch Dragon had never dreamed that Wu Qi would destroy the soul. Although he did not know it was Wu Qi who had devoured it, he was certain that the punk had destroyed it, which had cost Torch Dragon thirty percent of his soul power.
His current cultivation base was about the same as Wu Qi’s. What made him excel were the three souls he had painstakingly cultivated for years. By Relying on their power, as well as the divine ability to control willpower the Buddhist League had taught him, he was confident in shaking off the restriction Xuanyuan had put on him and be freed.
But now, with one of his three souls lost, he was barely confident in freeing his fleshly body from the restriction. And when he was repressed by the pressure of the sword formation, he could no longer move. Of the two remaining souls, the young one was controlling his body while the white-bearded man was controlling the torch outside, fighting against Ao Buzun. They no longer had the slightest bit of strength to resist the sword formation.
A burst of explosions rang without end as a small part of his scales were crushed to pieces. The Heavenly Dao represented by the 108,000 ancient stars continually attacked his souls. As a result, both of them began to see all kinds of visions; they felt as if they had gone through countless transmigrations in that instant, experienced countless turns of birth, old age, illness, and death. Their fighting will was reduced and their minds turned cloudy.
The light of the Sun and Moon Torch dimmed down to almost nothing as the white-bearded man’s ability to control it weakened. The thick blue light that wrapped around Torch Dragon was left with a thin, pale, barely visible layer, looking almost like a gauze that could be torn apart with one casual strike.
Gold Horn and Silver Horn let out a savage howls in unison. Two beams of strong light—one golden and one silver, both measuring tens of miles in thickness—thrust out of their mouths. As they shot toward Torch Dragon’s reversed scale, the divine ability of the dragon pythons twisted and spun like living beings, fusing into one and turning into a beam of strong purple light. After fusing into one, the light beam’s thickness had shrunk to about the size of a man’s fist; but, it was extremely condensed, looking like a spear crafted of purple crystal. Bringing with it a shrill whistle, the beam pierced through the air menacingly.
Both of Torch Dragon’s souls roared furiously at the same time. Standing atop his fleshly body, the white-bearded man swung the Xuanyuan Sword, getting ready to counter the attack. But, just as he was about to strike, Princess Zhang Le snorted, and the avatar of the God of Scourge silently appeared above her head as she locked her hands in an incantation gesture and pointed at the man.
The power of some natural law was triggered quietly; something that was supposed to happen to this white-bearded man in the future happened early. The blade of Xuanyuan Sword fell off its handle and stabbed into Torch Dragon’s head while the handle exploded with a boom, shattering the man’s arms and upper body.
“DAMNIT!” The man watched in horror as his body burst open. Plumes of dark-purple mist were gushing out of him, each bit being the soul essence and natal essence energy he had painstakingly cultivated over tens of thousands of years.
The breakage of the fake Xuanyuan Sword and the explosion of the hilt would have happened only when the reborn Emperor Haozun found Torch Dragon. But, this was the ability of Princess Zhang Le’s God of Scourge; she was able to bring forward all the bad things that could happen in the future. If it were one incident or two, it did not matter so much. But, if there were seven to eight incidents, it would be a major headache. And, if there were ten to twenty thousand bad things happening at the same time in a short period, it was certainly going to kill someone.
For example, an immortal was struck by the princess’s curse. Currently, he was an eighteen-tier Gold Immortal, and he could step into the realm of Primordial in the future. In other words, he would have to transcend eighteen thunder tribulations before he could become a Primordial expert. But, the curse had triggered all the eighteen tribulations and made them descend upon him in a day or two. So, no matter how much preparation the immortal had made, his death was inevitable.
This was the true nature of the divine power the God of Scourge possessed. It could trigger one’s future calamities ahead of time, and then increase their impact as much as possible.
Just as this soul was cursing and roaring in rage, the light beam unleashed by the dragon python brothers struck the reversed scale on Torch Dragon’s chest without any obstacle. It was his toughest scale, a hundred times stronger than his teeth. However, as dragon pythons were all dragons’ nemesis, the beam easily pierced a fist-sized hole on the scale that was a thousand miles in circumference, causing an arrow of blood to shoot out crazily.
Torch Dragon’s body swayed ponderously. Behind the reversed scale was his heart, and it was now pierced with a hole as well, blood gushing out with each heartbeat. While roaring, he circulated his blood and energy as he tried to repair the wound. But, streams of ice flames a hundred times more intense suddenly came spewing out of the bronze pillars, pouring into his body through the chains.
With that, the blood in his veins was almost frozen to ice while his bodily functions were halted instantly.
Meanwhile, a pressure that was a hundred times heavier than the previous one came pouring out of the stars in the sky, and Torch Dragon’s frozen body sunk abruptly. Cracks of different length, hundreds of them, spread out across his body in the blink of an eye with jarring, crackling noises. What came spraying out of them was not blood, but dazzling black ice flames.
The deafening thunderclaps had made his head reel. Numerous bolts of lightning darted out of the thundercloud vortex behind Ao Buzun and flew across the void like shooting stars before exploding as soon as they hit Torch Dragon’s body. Each one of them seriously wounded him, blasting away his scales and skins, and reducing them to ashes.
All of a sudden, Torch Dragon let out an unpleasant, shrill howl, as the Soul-splitting Spear, which was disguised as a bolt of black lightning and hidden among the others by Ao Buzun, smashed his waist. The spear stabbed into his body effortlessly, then grew to hundreds of feet in thickness and over a hundred miles long, pinning him on a block of huge black ice suspended in the void.
Even Ao Buzun was surprised that the attack had yielded him such a great result. “Torch Dragon, you’ve grown weak. Aye…someone from the Chaotic World should not be this weak!” Torch Dragon’s performance today fell far short of Ao Buzun’s expectations, and the strength of his fleshly body was pitifully weak.
Torch Dragon threw his head back and howled while fuming. “How could you have defeated me so easily if Xuanyuan hadn’t imprisoned me for so many years, leaving my fleshly body petrified and stiff?”
A wan smile crept over his face as the old dragon muttered, “Well, well…What use is this body to me now? When I take a new identity in the future, I’ll no longer be the same Torch Dragon, and there will be a new world in front of me. Why am I still attached to this huge, bloated body?”
A golden lotus throne drifted out of his forehead. Amidst a deep, strong voice of chanting, both his souls stood on the throne and flew up into the air. The throne emitted a faint Buddhist light, due to which the immense pressure Wu Qi had gathered using the sword formation could no longer pose them any threat. The huge Sun and Moon Torch had floated up as well, surrounding the throne with a faint blue light.
Torch Dragon’s heavy, colossal body fell heavily onto the ground. Right at that moment, Ao Buzun, Gold Horn, Silver Horn, Gold Feather, Silver Feather, and Catfish hurried over and leaped over it. In the meantime, Lord Xiansheng thrust the Illusion-breaking Halberd at the lotus throne, Yuan Qing lifted his staff high and brought it down hard toward Torch Dragon’s souls, and Little Que’er and Feng Tianling opened their mouths and poured out two streams of Nanming Flame at both souls.
The lotus throne swayed briefly while an immense Buddhist light broke out of it, deflecting all the attacks and forcing the four attackers to retreat.
Wu Qi’s eyes lit up as he stared at the lotus throne and said with a smile, “What an amazing treasure!”
Both Torch Dragon’s souls glared at Wu Qi and sneered in unison, “Of course! It is materialized from a lotus leaf taken from Lord Buddha’s Eight Treasures Lotus Throne, which is the ultimate artifact of the Buddhist League known for its incredible defense. You can never…HEAVEN!”
Torch Dragon, proud in his explanation, was suddenly struck dumb as he witnessed Wu Qi transform into the Buddhist avatar, with four faces and six arms. A beam of Buddhist light shot out of Wu Qi’s eyes and swept across the lotus throne; he had exercised the technique of retrieving found in the Great Light Indestructible Amitabha Treasure Scripture, and the golden lotus throne fell into his hands obediently.
Seeing that, Torch Dragon’s souls screamed together. A blaze of blue light burst out of the Sun and Moon Torch and wrapped up both souls, about to flee when all the stars in the void suddenly shone brilliantly. They transformed into countless silver swords and rained down on the torch. Meanwhile, a column of blue flame, ten thousand miles in circumference, rushed out of the huge torch to meet the incoming swords.
Wu Qi roared and threw out the Heaven-pacifying Sword; Ao Buzun made the Soul-splitting Spear fly and Lord Xiansheng the Illusion-breaking Halberd. Princess Zhang Le, on the other hand, produced her three artifacts at the same time: the Immovable Lotus, the Cardinal Tower, and the Heart Seal. Emitting a blinding light, six powerful artifacts instantly froze the pillar of blue flame.
Although they were not a match of the Supreme Artifact of Primal, the six Spirit Artifacts of Chaos still managed to delay the blue flame for a brief moment. And, within that brief delay, countless sword beams had engulfed Torch Dragon’s souls, ripping them to pieces.
Wu Qi sent out his Innate Thievery Energy, which quietly devoured all the natal energy essence released by Torch Dragon’s souls.
Upon sensing the demise of his souls, Torch Dragon’s true form suddenly let out a long hiss while blood began to pour out of the stiffened body.
The Ancient God, Torch Dragon, had fallen.
The Fiend Slaying Sword Formation supported by the vast energy of the whole You Xiong Plain and the one without it were two extremes. One was a sharp sword, and the other an iron knife. Although an iron knife could also be used to kill someone, it was not as easy, clean, and inevitable as a sharp sword.
The 108,000 Great Daos from the Kaleidoscopic Star Core had fused completely with 108,000 Kunwu Swords. Meanwhile, the infinite energy from You Xiong Plain condensed into 108,000 huge stars, hovering high up in the void and traveling quickly along a trajectory that seemed to have existed since time immemorial, and would continue to exist forever. With each turn of the stars, the pressure weighing down on Torch Dragon increased.
It was only three seconds, and the intense pressure had caused a lot of scales to fall off Torch Dragon and blood to ooze out across his skin. He struggled crazily, but apart from making his bones rattle and almost get dislocated, he achieved nothing.
Having been imprisoned for so many years, Torch Dragon’s cultivation base remained at a tipping point, the equivalent of an almighty expert who had just stepped into the realm of Dao Breaking. Of course, the strength of his soul was greatly boosted by the cultivation of the mystic art which had split his soul into three. But, because of his haughtiness and some arrangements with Heaven and Buddhist League, he had given one of the souls to Wu Qi and let the latter do as he pleased.
But, Torch Dragon had never dreamed that Wu Qi would destroy the soul. Although he did not know it was Wu Qi who had devoured it, he was certain that the punk had destroyed it, which had cost Torch Dragon thirty percent of his soul power.
His current cultivation base was about the same as Wu Qi’s. What made him excel were the three souls he had painstakingly cultivated for years. By Relying on their power, as well as the divine ability to control willpower the Buddhist League had taught him, he was confident in shaking off the restriction Xuanyuan had put on him and be freed.
But now, with one of his three souls lost, he was barely confident in freeing his fleshly body from the restriction. And when he was repressed by the pressure of the sword formation, he could no longer move. Of the two remaining souls, the young one was controlling his body while the white-bearded man was controlling the torch outside, fighting against Ao Buzun. They no longer had the slightest bit of strength to resist the sword formation.
A burst of explosions rang without end as a small part of his scales were crushed to pieces. The Heavenly Dao represented by the 108,000 ancient stars continually attacked his souls. As a result, both of them began to see all kinds of visions; they felt as if they had gone through countless transmigrations in that instant, experienced countless turns of birth, old age, illness, and death. Their fighting will was reduced and their minds turned cloudy.
The light of the Sun and Moon Torch dimmed down to almost nothing as the white-bearded man’s ability to control it weakened. The thick blue light that wrapped around Torch Dragon was left with a thin, pale, barely visible layer, looking almost like a gauze that could be torn apart with one casual strike.
Gold Horn and Silver Horn let out a savage howls in unison. Two beams of strong light—one golden and one silver, both measuring tens of miles in thickness—thrust out of their mouths. As they shot toward Torch Dragon’s reversed scale, the divine ability of the dragon pythons twisted and spun like living beings, fusing into one and turning into a beam of strong purple light. After fusing into one, the light beam’s thickness had shrunk to about the size of a man’s fist; but, it was extremely condensed, looking like a spear crafted of purple crystal. Bringing with it a shrill whistle, the beam pierced through the air menacingly.
Both of Torch Dragon’s souls roared furiously at the same time. Standing atop his fleshly body, the white-bearded man swung the Xuanyuan Sword, getting ready to counter the attack. But, just as he was about to strike, Princess Zhang Le snorted, and the avatar of the God of Scourge silently appeared above her head as she locked her hands in an incantation gesture and pointed at the man.
The power of some natural law was triggered quietly; something that was supposed to happen to this white-bearded man in the future happened early. The blade of Xuanyuan Sword fell off its handle and stabbed into Torch Dragon’s head while the handle exploded with a boom, shattering the man’s arms and upper body.
“DAMNIT!” The man watched in horror as his body burst open. Plumes of dark-purple mist were gushing out of him, each bit being the soul essence and natal essence energy he had painstakingly cultivated over tens of thousands of years.
The breakage of the fake Xuanyuan Sword and the explosion of the hilt would have happened only when the reborn Emperor Haozun found Torch Dragon. But, this was the ability of Princess Zhang Le’s God of Scourge; she was able to bring forward all the bad things that could happen in the future. If it were one incident or two, it did not matter so much. But, if there were seven to eight incidents, it would be a major headache. And, if there were ten to twenty thousand bad things happening at the same time in a short period, it was certainly going to kill someone.
For example, an immortal was struck by the princess’s curse. Currently, he was an eighteen-tier Gold Immortal, and he could step into the realm of Primordial in the future. In other words, he would have to transcend eighteen thunder tribulations before he could become a Primordial expert. But, the curse had triggered all the eighteen tribulations and made them descend upon him in a day or two. So, no matter how much preparation the immortal had made, his death was inevitable.
This was the true nature of the divine power the God of Scourge possessed. It could trigger one’s future calamities ahead of time, and then increase their impact as much as possible.
Just as this soul was cursing and roaring in rage, the light beam unleashed by the dragon python brothers struck the reversed scale on Torch Dragon’s chest without any obstacle. It was his toughest scale, a hundred times stronger than his teeth. However, as dragon pythons were all dragons’ nemesis, the beam easily pierced a fist-sized hole on the scale that was a thousand miles in circumference, causing an arrow of blood to shoot out crazily.
Torch Dragon’s body swayed ponderously. Behind the reversed scale was his heart, and it was now pierced with a hole as well, blood gushing out with each heartbeat. While roaring, he circulated his blood and energy as he tried to repair the wound. But, streams of ice flames a hundred times more intense suddenly came spewing out of the bronze pillars, pouring into his body through the chains.
With that, the blood in his veins was almost frozen to ice while his bodily functions were halted instantly.
Meanwhile, a pressure that was a hundred times heavier than the previous one came pouring out of the stars in the sky, and Torch Dragon’s frozen body sunk abruptly. Cracks of different length, hundreds of them, spread out across his body in the blink of an eye with jarring, crackling noises. What came spraying out of them was not blood, but dazzling black ice flames.
The deafening thunderclaps had made his head reel. Numerous bolts of lightning darted out of the thundercloud vortex behind Ao Buzun and flew across the void like shooting stars before exploding as soon as they hit Torch Dragon’s body. Each one of them seriously wounded him, blasting away his scales and skins, and reducing them to ashes.
All of a sudden, Torch Dragon let out an unpleasant, shrill howl, as the Soul-splitting Spear, which was disguised as a bolt of black lightning and hidden among the others by Ao Buzun, smashed his waist. The spear stabbed into his body effortlessly, then grew to hundreds of feet in thickness and over a hundred miles long, pinning him on a block of huge black ice suspended in the void.
Even Ao Buzun was surprised that the attack had yielded him such a great result. “Torch Dragon, you’ve grown weak. Aye…someone from the Chaotic World should not be this weak!” Torch Dragon’s performance today fell far short of Ao Buzun’s expectations, and the strength of his fleshly body was pitifully weak.
Torch Dragon threw his head back and howled while fuming. “How could you have defeated me so easily if Xuanyuan hadn’t imprisoned me for so many years, leaving my fleshly body petrified and stiff?”
A wan smile crept over his face as the old dragon muttered, “Well, well…What use is this body to me now? When I take a new identity in the future, I’ll no longer be the same Torch Dragon, and there will be a new world in front of me. Why am I still attached to this huge, bloated body?”
A golden lotus throne drifted out of his forehead. Amidst a deep, strong voice of chanting, both his souls stood on the throne and flew up into the air. The throne emitted a faint Buddhist light, due to which the immense pressure Wu Qi had gathered using the sword formation could no longer pose them any threat. The huge Sun and Moon Torch had floated up as well, surrounding the throne with a faint blue light.
Torch Dragon’s heavy, colossal body fell heavily onto the ground. Right at that moment, Ao Buzun, Gold Horn, Silver Horn, Gold Feather, Silver Feather, and Catfish hurried over and leaped over it. In the meantime, Lord Xiansheng thrust the Illusion-breaking Halberd at the lotus throne, Yuan Qing lifted his staff high and brought it down hard toward Torch Dragon’s souls, and Little Que’er and Feng Tianling opened their mouths and poured out two streams of Nanming Flame at both souls.
The lotus throne swayed briefly while an immense Buddhist light broke out of it, deflecting all the attacks and forcing the four attackers to retreat.
Wu Qi’s eyes lit up as he stared at the lotus throne and said with a smile, “What an amazing treasure!”
Both Torch Dragon’s souls glared at Wu Qi and sneered in unison, “Of course! It is materialized from a lotus leaf taken from Lord Buddha’s Eight Treasures Lotus Throne, which is the ultimate artifact of the Buddhist League known for its incredible defense. You can never…HEAVEN!”
Torch Dragon, proud in his explanation, was suddenly struck dumb as he witnessed Wu Qi transform into the Buddhist avatar, with four faces and six arms. A beam of Buddhist light shot out of Wu Qi’s eyes and swept across the lotus throne; he had exercised the technique of retrieving found in the Great Light Indestructible Amitabha Treasure Scripture, and the golden lotus throne fell into his hands obediently.
Seeing that, Torch Dragon’s souls screamed together. A blaze of blue light burst out of the Sun and Moon Torch and wrapped up both souls, about to flee when all the stars in the void suddenly shone brilliantly. They transformed into countless silver swords and rained down on the torch. Meanwhile, a column of blue flame, ten thousand miles in circumference, rushed out of the huge torch to meet the incoming swords.
Wu Qi roared and threw out the Heaven-pacifying Sword; Ao Buzun made the Soul-splitting Spear fly and Lord Xiansheng the Illusion-breaking Halberd. Princess Zhang Le, on the other hand, produced her three artifacts at the same time: the Immovable Lotus, the Cardinal Tower, and the Heart Seal. Emitting a blinding light, six powerful artifacts instantly froze the pillar of blue flame.
Although they were not a match of the Supreme Artifact of Primal, the six Spirit Artifacts of Chaos still managed to delay the blue flame for a brief moment. And, within that brief delay, countless sword beams had engulfed Torch Dragon’s souls, ripping them to pieces.
Wu Qi sent out his Innate Thievery Energy, which quietly devoured all the natal energy essence released by Torch Dragon’s souls.
Upon sensing the demise of his souls, Torch Dragon’s true form suddenly let out a long hiss while blood began to pour out of the stiffened body.
The Ancient God, Torch Dragon, had fallen.
