Chapter 645: Body
Translator: Radiant Translations Editor: Radiant Translations
A dark-grey stone stick appeared in Protector Cheng Yun's hand. As he swung it over, all of the surrounding space began to collapse.
"Chi~chi~chi~"
His stone stick met the incoming Blood Serpent Spear whose movements gave it the feeling of a large, slippery snake. The spear-pointed blade seemed like a whirlpool, while the spear's shaft twisted with a strange force. Though the stone stick also contained the Profound Mystery of the Void, its attack could use no more than 20-30% of its force as it parried the spear. This was the result of a difference in comprehension realms.
"Mn?" Despite it being no more than 20% to 30% of the maximum output, Xue Ying still felt it.
"Such power!" Protector Cheng Yu was surprised. He thought he would just smash away his opponent's spear. "The power of the cultivators from this cosmos should be much weaker. This Dong Bo Xue Ying might have just broken through, but he is still just a newly advanced Paragon. How could he become so strong that I was unable to crush him?"
"Interesting." Xue Ying's pupils contracted. "Although I can hope to gain the upper hand in a direct clash, it will be hard for me to actually kill him. I must get an advantage… I'll just use my superior comprehension, then."
Xue Ying immediately changed his spearmanship.
"Hu~ hu~ hu~"
This time, his Blood Serpent spear took on the vivid image of a real, large snake. He simultaneously unleashed his spear attack. Each attack fell light as a feather, but at crucial times, it would unleash a powerful force. Protector Cheng Yun had already retracted a huge number of his hairs to envelop him, all while trying his hardest to defend his life using his stone stick.
"Pu." Due to the big difference in comprehension, the spear was free to continue the assault. After roughly ten strikes, Xue Ying finally managed to penetrate Protector Cheng Yun's defenses. A hole appeared in the protective layer made up of his numerous hairs, and Xue Ying's spear then successfully made contact with Protector Cheng Yun's stone stick around the latter's abdominal area. The true god weapon had been letting out its Dao of Slaughter in its attack from the very beginning, so it managed to pierce through Protector Cheng Yun's tough skin and right into his flesh, leaving behind a bloody hole in his body. By now, Protector Cheng Yun was simply receiving and blocking Xue Ying's Blood Serpent Spear attacks using just his body.
One side was attacking, the other was simply using his body to receive these attacks.
'Hmph, these kinds of injuries mean nothing to me,' Protector Cheng Yun thought, brimming with confidence. His powerful body was also accompanied by good recovery abilities. Although Xue Ying's spear was accompanied by that aura of slaughter, Protector Cheng Yun felt he could easily heal his injuries.
'How can this be?' Protector Cheng Yun was suddenly left surprised. He had just noticed a type of mysterious energy lingering around his injured area, and it was slowing down his healing to a crawl. In fact, other than affecting his healing speed, this energy was also attempting to seep out from his injured area and into other parts of his body. As a result, Protector Cheng Yun was forced to move split part of his focus from blocking and into isolating the energy.
Protector Cheng Yun's expression changed. 'Venom? This Dong Bo Xue Ying… is he proficient in his cosmos' hexing poisons? That type of poison is so potent that even I can feel some threat from it.'
Facing this Ancestor Mother Religion Protector, Xue Ying, who still some distance away, had already decided: 'As long as I rely on my Luminous Sun and Extreme Annihilation Mysterious Body, my power is roughly equal to that of an apex paragon, even though I only recently opened my dao. Facing this Protector Cheng Yun, though, my strength is still only about half of his. After my spear passed through the protective layer formed from his hair, it was left with no more than 30-40% of its power. It would be hard for me to enter a frontal battle against him. I would have few advantages in such a fight.'
After all, Xue Ying's combat power was still weaker than his opponent's. His attack did manage to pass through Protector Cheng Yun's defensive layer, but those hairs were still extremely tough. By the time his strikes reached his opponent, they would have lost even more of their power, to the point where he had only about 30% of his opponent strength.
While his opponent also couldn't use his full power thanks to the venom, that alone wouldn't change the outcome.
'Based on Monarch Hex Cricket's information, this man is just an ordinary protector of the Ancestor Mother Religion. Despite that, his strength is still comparable to Monarch Hex Cricket's, and he is stronger than what I can handle using my two absolute arts.' Xue Ying was starting to feel the difference between the cultivators from two different cosmoses, and that difference was big.
Protector Qing Yun was becoming even more furious. 'I've been a protector for how many years, yet I'm still being suppressed by this kid? Monarch Hex Cricket is one thing, but for a puny Dong Bo Xue Ying's spearmanship to suppress me…'
The two of them had reached a stalemate.
One side's power stemmed from his absolute arts, which provided him with good enough strength, but still lacking when compared with his opponent's.
The other side was questioning why, even after having been a protector for so long, he was still being bullied by a newcomer.
'Looking at his current recovery rate, it would seem that this Blood Serpent venom is indeed extraordinary.' Xue Ying seemed pleased. He immediately launched another attack using his spear.
The Blood Serpent Venom was indeed an insidious and terrible venom.
Xue Ying's True God weapon imbued with the eternal Dao of Slaughter, which could only mean that it had been at least refined by a ruler! That existence had also deliberately infused it with the Blood Serpent Venom. Of course, the venom wasn't weak—according to the white-haired old man from Starting Ground, this spear could easily kill any existence with a weak constitution or who lacked life-preserving techniques! Even those who had stronger bodies or constitutions, upon being stabbed by the spear, would find it difficult to expel the venom. Since they couldn't get rid of the venom, it would become much harder for them to recover.
And this was exactly what happened to Protector Cheng Yun—he found it difficult to recover.
"Hu~hu~hu~" With mirage-like movements, the Blood Serpent Spear struck at Protector Cheng Yun. Not every attack landed, but every now and then, Xue Ying would successfully slash his opponent's body.
Protector Cheng Yun howled angrily, waving his stone stick with firm and forceful strength. However, this did nothing to improve his situation. It had a minimal effect on the Blood Serpent Spear, and with every ten attacks, perhaps no more than one would even land.
On the opposite side of things, his body had already suffered eight attacks from the Blood Serpent Spear. Each attack had left a gaping hole in his body, and there was even one such hole in his throat. Although Protector Cheng Yun had tried his hardest to recover, the process was extremely slow, and he had only managed to heal a very small portion of his injuries. He had no way of completely expelling the Blood Serpent Venom from his body, and each attack from Xue Ying's part that landed on his body only served to further saturate the venom in his body.
'This Xue Ying is all alone, and I still can't win over him!' Protector Cheng Yun suddenly raised his head and let out a roar. His countless strands of hair were fluttering and flickering with green light. A type of pattern began to appear on every strand of his hair, and even the air around him seemed to become sharper. He sent Xue Ying a sinister look, then waved his stone stick, causing the surrounding space to collapse in the process. This new move of his was very fierce.
Staring from a distance, Xue Ying knew that Protector Cheng Yun's moves had just become more powerful than ever.
'He went berserk?' Xue Ying was secretly shocked. He had already heard from his teacher that the members of Ancestor Mother Religion had extremely strong and tyrannical bodies and that at critical moments, they could go berserk. While they remained in this state, their power would increase exponentially. However, this state only lasted for a very short time.
"Hu." Xue Ying could not truly believe it yet, so he tried using his spear to clash directly against Protector Cheng Yun's attack; he was trying to test just how much stronger his opponent had become.
"Hong!"
The two weapons collided in mid-air, and the resulting impact sent Xue Ying flying downwards. Upon reaching the ground, the impact left a huge crater behind him.
'His strength is three times that from before.' Xue Ying rushed out of the crater while looking high above, only to see that Protector Cheng Yun had started to dive in his direction at high speeds. 'His strength was already overwhelming; how is it even possible for him to gain so much more of it?'
From the very beginning, Xue Ying had been looking down on the people from the Ancestor Mother Religion. He thought them to be brutes with low comprehension of the realm and crude techniques.
However, this time, he understood that they simply had their own cultivation methods! Although they lacked in terms of their comprehension of the realm, they made up for it with great power and speed. These two trains of thought were essentially equal, and even under normal circumstances, an ordinary Protector would have strength comparable to Monarch Hex Cricket's. Upon entering this berserk state, they would reach three times their original strength. Such power placed them on the level of rulers!
Although their comprehension was lower, this kind of power was also frightening in its own way.
'Thankfully, my strength is not too bad when I add up those two absolute arts. I'm somehow able to fight him off even when he is in this berserk state.' While Protector Cheng Yun was furiously rushing over, Xue Ying simply brandished his Blood Serpent Spear. However, this time he was not attacking, but rather wholeheartedly focusing on defense.
"Peng~peng~peng~"
The stone stick was backed by fierce might.
When Xue Ying was also attacking, about 30% of his opponent's strength could land on him. However, now that he was focused on defense, no more than one-tenth of his opponent's power was able to reach Xue Ying. Although an innumerable amount of Protector Cheng Yun's strands of hairs were flying about, twisting and turning, they only served to slightly bother and distract Xue Ying; they were not affecting his defense in any way.
'I can't hurt him.' Protector Cheng Yun simply watched as his last attempt ended in failure, while his opponent's Blood Serpent Venom was entrenching even further into his body. 'The berserk state will end soon. I have to get out.'
"Hu."
Turning his body, he immediately began to move away. Since he was still in his berserk state, his flying speed was also boosted.
"Religious Leader! Are you sure that the intelligence regarding Xue Ying being just a stage four World Deity is correct?" As he fled, Protector Cheng Yun sent a message over to the Ancestor Mother Religion Religious Leader. "His strength is much higher than what is recorded in our intelligence reports! He seems much less like a stage four World Deity, and way more like a paragon."
"A paragon? He became a paragon after cultivating for just a million years?" The Religious Leader couldn't believe it. The more he understood about this cosmos' cultivation, the more he felt that one of its natives becoming a paragon within just a million years was too incredible.
"How could I be mistaken? I was fighting him up until now, and I'm currently fleeing from him," Protector Cheng Yun urgently transmitted.
Meanwhile, Xue Ying, who was still chasing behind him, took out a flying knife.
"Hong."
This was one of his True God Weapon, the flying knife.
Xue Ying put all of his power into this strike, which served to enhance the knife's Dao of Massacre. It appeared right in front of Protector Cheng Yun's forehead and, without any warning, moved out of the mirage and into the real world. Considering Protector Cheng Yun's low comprehension of the realm, he could only react after he saw the flying knife appear in the real world.
"Peng!" His head was bombarded by more spear attacks, eventually leading to his head splitting open. However, as soon as it split open, another one started to regenerate. Unfortunately for Protector Cheng Yun, this regeneration left space for the Blood Serpent Venom to move up his throat and spread onto the newly formed chin.
"It's a flying knife!" Protector Cheng Yun suddenly remembered that Xue Ying still had another True God Weapon.
"You won't be able to get away from me," Xue Ying's voice was loud and clear. It reverberated throughout its surrounding with a tinge of passion.