AGM 394 - Purgatory
Peng!
A thunderous sound rang out. There were scars of light marking the partitions of the Divine Stele, as though it could be separated into nine portions again.
The fused Divine Stele had a total of nine sides, but the amount of light each side radiated was different. The amount of ancient will radiating from each side was different as well.
“If senior is truly someone from the ancient kingdom, why is the Divine Stele now in my hands? Unless… Could it be that senior doesn’t know the summoning incantation?” Qin Wentian inclined his head and stared at the golden-robed middle-aged man standing in the air, only to see the golden-robed man laughing coldly as he took a step forward. “Boom!” Instantly, Qin Wentian let out a low groan, that single step felt as if the golden-robed man was trodding right on Qin Wentian’s heart.
“Boom!”
The golden-robed man took another step forward. Not only Qin Wentian, everyone standing on the arena platform coughed out fresh blood from the impact.
The disparity between their strength and his were too great—they were not of the same level.
“How dare you steal our Divine Stele,” the golden-robed man coldly stated. With a grabbing motion, an immense palm-type Astral Nova manifested and directly grabbed at the Divine Stele.
The Divine Stele burst forth with a resplendent light, inexorably blinding, as it suddenly disappeared from its original location, then appearing before the golden-robed man. A sword beam descended from the Heavens, radiant in its magnificent splendor, as it lacerated the void, containing a power of annihilation so mighty that everyone on the scene felt their hearts trembling with fear.
“Aren’t those the Stellar Transposition and Heavenly Swordplay arts?”
Thunderstruck expressions appeared on the faces of the spectators. The Divine Stele was actually able to execute the nine ultimate arts solely by itself?
A drop of blood appeared on the Divine Stele, right before it began to weep blood as a heaven-reaching might of destruction emanated forth from it.
The golden-robed man’s expression stiffened as an incomparably sharp light flickered in his eyes, “The ancient will from a few thousand years ago was not diminished in the slightest, is it still thinking of overturning the heavens?”
After speaking, the golden-robed man blasted forth with a palm strike. A great solar divinity seemed to emerge forth from that casual palm, the embers emitted a scorching temperature that evaporated everything around it.
“Sizzle…” The sword beam lacerated the void, breaking the manifested palm apart, as the golden-robed man rapidly retreated with explosive speed. The Divine Stele emitted a shrill echo as blood-colored palm imprints zoomed forth in all eight directions with incredible speed. Those from the golden-robed man’s faction drastically changed in countenance, as all of them immediately retreated backwards.
Not all were fast enough to evade that attack, and the droplets of blood from the blood-colored palm imprint sprinkled on the bodies of some. For the unfortunate ones, each droplet immediately burrowed into their bodies, corroding at a speed visible to the naked eye. Two breaths of time later, only their bones remained— they were deader than dead—causing the hearts of the others to palpitate with fear.
“One of the nine ultimate arts of Ancient Grand Xia—Bloodcurse Imprint.”
“What a powerful ancient will, the Divine Stele hasn’t weakened at all after all these years?”
The hearts and minds of the spectators trembled violently, but the people from the golden-robed man’s faction weren’t going to be so easily defeated. Terrifying divine weapons appeared in their hands, and an ancient stele of their own suddenly appeared in the air. Countless runic words could be seen projected from the ancient stele, shimmering in the air, as a terrifying sealing energy enveloped the entire space, attempting to seal the Divine Stele with its power.
The Divine Stele frenziedly began to struggle. A slash of inexorable might descended down from the Heavens—Thundergod’s Slash—directly cleaving one of the opposing enemies into two before it executed Stellar Transposition, fleeing from the gap it created.
The golden-robed man roared in wrath as a gigantic sword appeared in his hands, with radiant starlight revolving around its edge.
“Bzzz!” The gigantic sword flew up in the skies and flew to block the Divine Stele which was rushing towards the gap. With no way to break through it, the Divine Stele engaged in a violent and intense struggle with the gigantic sword of that gold-robed man.
“Seize him—I want him alive.”
The golden-robed man commanded coldly, his gaze directed on the rankers standing upon the arena platform.
Old Man Tianji frowned while the experts from the Great Solar Chen Clan stepped forwards.
“He’s obtained the position of first ranker, so wouldn’t it seem a little inappropriate for you all to make a move now?” Old Man Tianji slowly spoke, clearly wanting to stop this.
“Senior, you are too polite. Although this brat obtained the position of first ranker, his character is atrocious. He’s actually stolen the stele belonging to my Great Solar Chen Clan. I’m going to seize him for interrogation.” An expert from the Chen Clan spoke as he glanced at the surroundings, “What do you guys think?”
“The stele from my Hua Clan was stolen as well. I agree to the interrogation.” A person from the Hua Clan coldly spoke, taking a step forward to indicate his stance on the matter.
“After the issue has been resolved, I can return the stele to your respective clans,” Qin Wentian stated, his countenance ice-cold.
“Since you’d decided to be a thief, you have already gone past the point of no return. With your personality, you’ll definitely bring great trouble to Grand Xia in the future. Best to eliminate you right now.” A frigid voice echoed out, the person who spoke was from the Wang Clan of the War continent.
The various transcendent powers all stated their stance. Qin Wentian’s talent was too outstanding and in their hearts, they were all extremely unhappy with him—he had already offended many transcendent powers prior to this. Even if the golden-robed man wasn’t around, they would still try to do something in the shadows to deal with Qin Wentian. Now that there was this ready-made excuse, how could they still allow Qin Wentian to safely exit the ancient kingdom, fully ablaze with glory from being in the top ranked position on the Heavenly Fate Rankings?
Leaving aside Qin Wentian, Mu Feng, Qin Zheng and the rest were all people with rankings nearing the top. In the future, it was a certainty that they’d all become extremely fearful opponents. If they landed in the hands of the golden-robed man today,, their souls would be thoroughly searched, causing them to be turned into idiots before being finished off.
“What an eye opener this is, and truly showcases the majestic transcendent powers of Grand Xia. I can practically see the dark mark of jealousy all over your faces. So, tell me, does this mean all the younger generations in your respective clans are nothing but trash?” Ouyang Kuangsheng coldly laughed—the fact that Qin Wentian had stolen their steles was nothing but an excuse for them to act.
“It seems like the ancient will is slowly weakening,” Yun Mengyi added in a low voice as she gazed at the Divine Stele.
In this current era, the imposing and majestic Divine Stele of Ancient Grand Xia had actually been held captive in the hands of a few mere Heavenly Dipper Sovereigns.
Qin Wentian’s eyes flickered as he stated, “All of you leave first.”
This matter arose because of him, and all these enemies were here solely because they wanted to target him.
“Fool. Since we are already standing here with you, it already means that we have no intention of leaving,” Ouyang Kuangsheng replied. Ouyang Kuangsheng stared at the transcendent powers, before shifting his gaze onto his own Ouyang Aristocrat Clan.
“Kuangsheng, come back here!” Ouyang Kuangsheng’s uncle shouted, only to be met with a shake of Ouyang Kuangsheng’s head. Helpless, his uncle could only call out to the other transcendent powers, “Please pardon my nephew and try not to injure him.”
“My disciple is there as well.” Over in the direction of the Mystic Moon Palace, Bai Qing’s master quietly spoke as well.
At this moment, those who wanted to deal with Qin Wentian were the seven grand clans. They couldn’t stop them and they had no reason to stand against the seven grand clans for matters of the junior generations. It was too illogical.
“Bailu Yi, leave.” Qin Wentian didn’t want to implicate the others, and glanced towards Bailu Jing and Bailu Yi. Bailu Yi adamantly shook her head, she would not leave here unless Qin Wentian did the same.
“Hu…”
Qin Wentian was extremely moved. And when he shifted his gaze back onto the approaching figure, his eyes flashed with a cold and terrifying light.
“If I leave, the rest of you must immediately leave, too.”
Qin Wentian spoke to his friends. After which, he took a step forward as his eyes glimmered with a demonic light.
Directly facing the crowd, Qin Wentian had a cold grin on his face as he started to mumble an incantation. Instantly, as this low sounding rumble from his voice resonated in the air, a surge of ever-increasing torrential energy descended right from the heavens.
“Rumble…” The space within the area began to tremble, as demonic qi madly gushed forth in astronomical amounts. The qi gave rise to a demonic wind that contained an immense aura of destructive might within.
“With the chant of demonic divinities, the ancient will stretches across the skies…”
A terrible light flashed past Qin Wentian’s eyes. His head was inclined, staring at the dome of heavens as demonic qi gathered around him from all eight directions. The demonic wind gusted with increasing strength, striking fear in the hearts of people. What energy was this?
“What’s going on?” On the platform, Ouyang Kuangsheng’s long robes were fluttering about, he found himself unable to keep his eyes open in the face of that terrifying demonic gale. Expressions of shock appeared on all their faces—what kind of power was Qin Wentian using?
A long bird screech filled the air as Heaven and Earth trembled. The immense silhouette of the Vermilion Bird of the Vermilion Bird Formation appeared again, its illusory form interposing with that of the Purgatory Vermilion Bird as the entire space turned into a Purgatory world.
“This…”
The crowd stared at the immense body of the Purgatory Bird hovering above them, cloaked in perpetual flames. The pressure it emitted caused the entire location to violently tremble, and even the surrounding earth began to crumble from its might.
“Do it.”
Those approaching Qin Wentian transformed into beams of light and dashed towards him, only to hear a terrible screech thundering out from the Purgatory Vermilion Bird.
Peng! Its wings created a powerful gust of wind that slammed right into Qin Wentian, disrupting his chant.
He inclined his head and stared at the Purgatory Vermilion Bird with his eyes red, “I can transform into a demon divinity, why are you stopping me?”
“But, you are unwilling to…”
A voice rang out in Qin Wentian’s heart. At this moment, he involuntarily trembled—he could actually hear the thoughts of his Purgatory Vermilion Bird.
Qin Wentian saw unshed tears in the eyes of the Vermilion Bird, filled with a deep sadness. It was no longer just a being in spirit form—it had a life now.
A terrifying palm strike slammed forth towards Qin Wentian, only to see the Purgatory Vermilion Bird separating itself from the illusory manifestation of the Vermilion Bird Formation, then swoop down to place itself before Qin Wentian in an attempt to absorb the blow from him. With a thunderous sound, its body was blasted backwards, causing it to spit out blood. Yet, the perpetual flames around it grew even stronger, as the illusory manifestation of that immense Vermilion Bird grew significantly larger.
“Courting death.” The expert from the Great Solar Chen Clan coldly spat, as he slammed another palm strike downwards.
A wail of anger echoed from the Purgatory Vermilion Bird, it rushed out to block the strike again. RUMBLEEE, its body seemed about to break apart yet its eyes remained clear of terror.
With a sad-sounding screech, the Purgatory Vermilion Bird turned back and looked deeply at Qin Wentian, its gaze filled with an incomparable longing, as well as sadness.
A bright light flashed, as the bird transformed into a ray of light shooting straight up to the heavens, once again merging itself with the illusory silhouette of the immense Vermilion Bird. But this time around, boundless light shone from its body, as it exploded forth into shimmering astral motes that covered the entire skies, giving birth to a Purgatory Constellation. The dark flames rained down madly, and the entire world transformed into darkness.
“What’s going on?”
At that moment when the crowd inclined their heads and gazed upwards, they could only see the Purgatory Constellation forming a pair of eyes and opening them. The entire region trembled, transforming back into a formation world once again.
“Purgatory!” Qin Wentian’s heart was assailed with pain when he stared at the constellation birthed by the distant silhouette of the Purgatory Vermilion Bird.
He had never once treated the Purgatory Vermilion Bird as a tool, but rather, a true companion. Those eyes filled with deep longing casted one last glance, drawing a scar on his heart.
Because it knew that he wasn’t truly willing to become a demon, the Purgatory Vermilion Bird had chosen to sacrifice itself.
At this moment, the immense body of the Purgatory Vermilion Bird flew over, and fixed its gaze onto the expert from the Chen Clan. Great balls of dark flame hurled towards the expert, and the Chen Clan expert’s silhouette flickered, in an attempt to escape. But in a mere few breaths of time, he was surrounded by a sea of flame that transformed into Purgatory Lotuses, wanting to burn him to death despite his resistance to fire.
A bloodcurdling scream rang out, that powerful Heavenly Dipper Sovereign from the Great Solar Chen Clan was instantly incinerated into ashes.