Chapter 897: Beyond The Way Of The Sword
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
A giant formless hand grabbed onto the invisible staircase beneath the feet of the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage as hazy layers of the Heaven Extreme Universal Light continued to permeate the surrounding area and showed no signs of stopping. Everything that came into contact with this blinding radiance lost all color.
The rolling clouds in the skies above stopped moving and hovered in the air like pieces of stone.
The sparkling starlight above the void froze in that moment in time, as if the starry sky transformed into a man-made painting.
On top of the Xiaocizhi Mountain below, the smooth and shiny white jade grew dull and slow as the hot steam from the vein of Chi Lian Flaming Copper transformed into streaks of dust and smoke while the withering trees growing from within became fixed in place.
The only thing that was moving between heaven and earth was the invisible staircase beneath the feet of the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage.
Enveloped by the Heaven Extreme Universal Light and contained by the Heavens Arrest technique in a vice-grip, the originally formless staircase started to tremble violently and even started to disintegrate and shatter into a million pieces.
"Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders – impressive!" Green light flooded the vermillion eyes of the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage as he howled into the sky. The colossal gorilla light illusion ascending into the heavens gradually materialized into solid form as a formidable and overbearing aura started to permeate outwards.
The true form of the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage was a lot smaller than before. He was just a gorilla with a white-colored head, and was only about a hundred feet tall.
However, the explosive power was terrifying. It felt as if he alone could tear apart the skies above with his physical body.
Even though Shi Tianhao, Wang Lin and the others were covered by Lin Feng’s mana, they were able to watch the entire process. Shi Tianhao’s eyes sparkled as he looked at the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage up and down.
Among Lin Feng’s disciples, Shi Tianhao’s physical body was the strongest. Even Xiao Yan at the Immortal Soul Stage, who re-forged an immortal soul-level physical body using the Two-Phase Rotations Divine Stone, was inferior in terms of physical prowess.
Shi Tianhao was only in the Immortal Soul Stage First Level, but he possessed enough power to challenge most of the Immortal Soul Stage Third Level cultivators and Undying Demon Soul Stage Third Level demons.
However, his power paled in comparison to the physical power of the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage.
The Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage revealed his true form and loosed an ear-splitting roar as he stepped downwards with his limbs and re-stabilized the formless staircase.
The fiery footprints on the staircase started to detonate in an attempt to blast Lin Feng’s Heavens Arrest technique and the Heaven Extreme Universal Light.
The original plan was to use the fiery footprints to hinder Lin Feng in case he chose to climb up the staircase instead. However, he could count himself lucky if he was able to protect the staircase and no longer be bothered about anything else.
Lin Feng quietly observed the strength of the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage and nodded his head subtly. "He hasn’t completed the Alpha Tribulations. However, he has recovered to his peak condition from the last time he attempted a Decay Tribulation."
"If my estimations are correct, this demon is not too far from completing the tribulations. He probably needs to survive about one or two more instances of the Decay Tribulations to finish the process."
"This demon is still holding back a little, but there is enough information to make a rough guess."
"Without his true form, he’s about the same as the Cang Ming Swordmaster without his weapon. After revealing his true form, he is far more powerful than the Cang Ming Swordmaster equipped with the Cang Ming Ancient Sword." Lin Feng continued to deduce in his mind. Even though he had never directly battled the Cang Ming Swordmaster before, the Cang Ming Swordmaster had attempted to stop him when Lin Feng was converting the Immortal Heaven Universal Sword Formation into the Heaven-Destroying Sword Formation. Lin Feng used the Higan Golden Bridge to intercept him, and was relatively informed about the prowess of the Cang Ming Swordmaster.
As for the Tiangang Swordmaster and the Saintly Celestial Sword, Lin Feng was a lot more familiar. "Without considering the problem of the Power-Destroying Catastrophe and just by comparing mana and abhijna, this demon’s true form is comparable in power to the Tiangang Swordmaster with the Tiangang Sword. He is also able to put up a fight against Xin Longsheng and the Saintly Celestial Sword, but he will be no match against the Tiangang Swordmaster if the latter used the Saintly Celestial Sword."
His thoughts were rolling but his hands never stopped moving as the Heaven Extreme Universal Light continued to arrest the formless staircase in mid-air.
At the same time, streaks of seven-colored light radiance flickered and encircled his body.
These seven-colored light circles flowed towards the giant and invisible hand and started interacting with the Heaven Extreme Universal Light.
The Celestial Sect Teleportation Technique was called a "Teleportation Technique", but was not simply such; it was a spell that combined the elements of space and time and controlled it to the maximum possible level, while integrating the other natural laws within.
Lin Feng once used this spell to avoid the Power-Destroying Catastrophe, but there was a limit to the number of times he could use it. However, using it again to dodge the explosions of the fiery footprints from the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage was a lot simpler.
The seven-colored light circles churned and meandered and the explosive forces of the fiery footprints missed their targets.
The Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage’s eyes widened. "Not just the art of transforming space, and more than the art of manipulating reality – even the White Jade Dragon, who is at the same level of mastery as me, cannot dodge this spell so easily even if he used his natural talent."
The strength of the Celestial Sect Teleportation Technique was more than just a defensive spell – it formed a spiritual connection with the Heaven Extreme Universal Light and channeled more power onto the Heavens Arrest spell as Lin Feng continued to shake the invisible staircase beneath the feet of the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage.
Lin Feng’s eyes were calm as they radiated with bright colors and innumerable runes floated into the void and stacked their powers onto the formless hand that had the invisible staircase in an iron grip.
The countless numbers of runes leaned in onto the colossal hand as they released layers of blinding light – it almost felt as if the formless hand had transformed into one that was formed from radiant light.
The myriad of runes and glyphs surged around within the layers of light and transformed into small magic formations that undulated as they connected into one long string. The final product, a giant magic formation, imprinted itself onto the giant formless hand.
Life and Death, Illusion and Reality, Heaven and Earth, Eternity and An Instant, Yin and Yang, Light and Darkness.
Six different concepts of power that were opposites of each other glimmered at the same time on the giant hand – they were the Six Forms of Creation and Destruction from Lin Feng’s Two Elements of Creation Formation.
Lin Feng had studied and understood the changes and the various techniques in handling the Two Elements of Creation Formation to the highest possible level, and was able to integrate it into his personal mantras; he was able to convert the magic formation into a spell at whim, from the Two Elements of Creation Formation to the Two Elements of Creation Spell.
Li Yuanfang watched on with enlarged pupils from within Lin Feng’s protective mana and was immediately enchanted.
Powerful cultivators who were adept with magic formations no longer needed the right geographical location or the help of magic items to set up magic formations and they were able to do so at whim. However, magic formations set up hastily were definitely inferior in power to magic formations that were meticulously erected.
This category of magic formations did not typically include powerful magic formations that were used to protect mountain gates. The reason was because these magic formations typically needed a geographical advantage and had to channel the power of heaven and earth to possess incalculable volumes of power.
Because of this very reason, the Celestial Sect of Wonder’s Two Elements of Creation Formation and the demons’ Nine Luminaries Heaven-Crushing Formation were so valuable.
To convert powerful magic formations like the aforementioned into spells required a high level of mastery. Besides that, the cultivator needed to have good control over his or her mana and mantras, while possessing the highest possible level of mastery with regards to the magic formation.
To the best of Li Yuanfang’s knowledge, there had been less than five people who were able to channel the power of powerful magic formations such as the Two Elements of Creation Formation at whim since the beginning of civilization. In their current era, there was nobody else but Lin Feng.
The Tai Yi Holy Man of the Great Void Sect was able to convert the Seven Lights Defense Formation into the Seven Lights Defense Spell, and that was already an unrivaled performance that shocked the entire world. However, the Seven Lights Defense Formation was inferior in power to the Supreme Yin-Yang Void Formation or the Two Elements of Creation Formation.
Overall power and battle prowess aside, Lin Feng was undoubtedly superior in terms of his mastery with magic formations.
Li Yuanfang watched everything unfurl before his eyes and suddenly began to feel dizzy and dazed.
"Polar reversal of the six changes, go!" Lin Feng’s cool voice echoed between heaven and earth. The changes of the Two Elements of Creation Formation that were attached to the giant hand immediately unleashed vast power caused by the sudden reversal of its elements.
The invisible staircase that was re-stabilized by the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage started to tremble violently once again, as if it would fall apart at any moment.
The Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage was positioned at the very top of the space-time staircase as he stared staright down at Lin Feng.
"That’s it. Legend has it that during his invasion of Mount Shu, even though he made use of a lot of magic treasures, and he also dodged the Tiangang Swordmaster’s Power-Destroying Catastrophe using the seven-colored light circles, he used swordplay to battle against the remainder of the swords of the Mount Shu Sword Sect."
The Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage heaved a heavy sigh. Even though he had yet to give his all, he knew that Lin Feng was holding back as well. Besides the other hidden techniques that Lin Feng had under his sleeve, there was another trump card that everyone in the Grand Celestial World knew he possessed – the Holy Light of Creation.
The act of stabilizing the space-time staircase did not fully display the power of the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage’s true form. In a real battle, there were a lot more variables and things he could do.
However, in the case of a real showdown, Lin Feng would have struck with his Heaven-Destroying Sword Qi.
"Leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders – you are powerful, I admit defeat," the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage shook his head subtly as he resolved to give up this endeavor. In the end, if both parties used full strength, he would still lose to Lin Feng. If Lin Feng shattered the staircase and dragged him down from the void, that would be truly embarrassing.
With that exclamation, the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage wasted no time and withdrew the formless staircase.
Lin Feng followed suit and withdrew his various mantras with a swing of his sleeve and the giant sparkling hand dissipated.
The true form of the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage vanished as well, and the giant gorilla light illusion reappeared once more on the summit of the Xiaocizhi Mountain and gazed upon Lin Feng, as another Crimson Gorilla Ape Demon leaped out from its mouth.
This demon ape was in the Undying Demon Soul Stage Second Level, but seemed a little listless at this moment.
The Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage said, "Seems like I made a fool of myself. This is one of my kinsman, and he was the one that provided the obscure hiding place for the Golden Cicada Master to reside in before this. However, the Golden Cicada Master retreated to someplace else not too long ago."
"I inspected that location myself, and came back with some leads." As he spoke, a light shadow surged out of one of the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage’s pupils and drifted before Lin Feng.
The light shadow was intangible and radiated with faint light. Lin Feng glanced at the light shadow and noticed that it was a trace of the Golden Cicada Master’s mana.
The Golden Cicada Master was in the Vipralopa Stage, and it was unlikely that the Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage would have been able to grab onto his tail. However, with Lin Feng in close pursuit, the Golden Cicada Master had no choice but to keep moving around and carelessly left a trace behind from all that hastiness.
The Crimson Gorilla Grand Sage was unable to find the Golden Cicada Master with this trace. However, Lin Feng had the golden bowl and the cicada wings, and along with this new clue, he was well on his way to find the Golden Cicada Master.
Lin Feng pocketed that light shadow and was about to speak when his heart skipped a beat. He turned his head into the far end of the horizon as the entire patch of sky flashed an azure green.