Chapter 74 - Battle of the Aces
Zhong Yue looked at the pearl that seemed like it had ascended from the underground. Although the pearl seemed like it was very close to them, when he used his psyche to scan through the pearl, he could feel that the pearl was in fact very far away from them.
Yet they could sense the seemingly unlimited energy effusing from the pearl which made it seem exactly like a treasure that contained power beyond imagination!
This bright moon looked exactly like it had ascended from the underground, no wonder they did not think that it could be the moon. Besides, the power contained in the moon is so powerful and it looked like a pearl, it was natural for no one to be able to discover anything.
Zhong Yue felt a little bit weird and he thought, The monsters probably thought that no one would set up such a complicated and magnificent array formation just to protect a teleportation portal that was even limited to one person. Because no one would be so ludicrous….
“Maybe after another few ten thousand years, the nine layers of array formations I left behind would all been neutralized….” In Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean, Xin Huo bemoaned.
“Everyone!”
Suddenly, Gu Hongzi stood up and said, “I’ve gone through the ancient books and discovered something interesting; whenever this pearl appears, the power of the array formations set up here would enter the nadir of its power, which made them most vulnerable to neutralization. Since we are all here today, would the aces from the Swords Gate have the guts to decide your fates and our monsters’ aces fates here in the slaughtering arrays?”
Jun Sixie’s face changed slightly and when she looked down, she discovered that as the pearl ascended higher, the surrounding totem carvings and their powers slowly weakened as Gu Hongzi had said.
However, even if the totem carvings’ power decreased, the seals could still be able to wipe off their existence in an instant!
Feng Wuji and Lei Hong’s face also changed slightly as Gu Hongzi’s suggestion had caught them off guard. Under such circumstances, the last man standing may not be the strongest one as it would depend greatly on their luck!
Fang Jiange however, was indifferent and said, “We will just kill them in this one fight and no one will be able to stop us from killing the Lords of Sulphur Island and Jin Xiu Island.”
“Such arrogance, you little brat!”
On the third cliff, a shout could be heard and Zhong Yue looked towards that direction. He then saw the Lord of Sulphur Island and Jin Xiu Island, Yan Yunsheng and Xiu Tiancheng, both sitting there surrounded by sentinels of monster Qi Practitioners.
The two magnates of the monsters were incensed by the words of Fang Jiange.
The two of them had yet to recover from the heavy injuries they suffered in the Beast God Ridge and were even hunted on their way back by Fang Jiange and the others whereupon they were inflicted with even more injuries. With that, the two lofty figures of the monster race had almost lost their lives to the four young aces of Swords Gate!
It was merely a few ten thousand miles on the road between the Great Wilderness and Gu Xia City, but their escape back into the safety of Gu Xia City took over two months. All of this was Gu Hongzi walked down the cliff and entered straight into the arrays left behind by Xin Huo while saying, “Senior Martial Brother Fang is right. If the four of you killed us all, then there will be no one in the Gu Xia City who will be able to stop you guys anymore.”
As Gu Hongzi walked into the arrays, the air suddenly turned scorching hot and while the countless arrays were triggered, blazing fire shot out from the ground and turned into a huge totem carvings array. Dragon roars were the first to break the silence whereupon a flurry of fiery dragons flew out from the gigantic totem carvings array and pounced towards Gu Hongzi.
These fiery dragons may have been affected by the coldness emitted by the moon, causing their power to be weakened. However, if Gu Hongzi failed to exercise extreme caution, he would still end up being dismembered!
Gu Hongzi moved quickly and as his position flickered about the place, he managed to evade the pursuit of the blazing dragons.
His movement speed was very fast as with just a few steps, he had reached an incredibly far distance as he continued to evade the dragons, “Which senior martial brother from Swords Gate would gladly teach me something?”
“I will!”
Fang Jiange starting advancing and he entered the arrays, heading straight towards the sixth cliff. In mid -air, more and more fiery dragons appeared while slithering in the air before charging towards Fang Jiange as he walked deeper into the arrays.
As he continued his advancement, roars could be heard before the fiery dragons slammed into each other, clasping their claws together and formed a huge fire cage, trapping him inside.
Nine huge dragons were also formed and they each had huge bodies that were a few miles long and they could breathe scorching fire from their mouths. They looked just like an ancient gigantic fiery dragon from afar and whenever they breathed fire, it felt as if they wanted to melt down whatever was inside the cage!
The scene struck terror into the hearts of the onlookers and the faces of those monsters spectating the battle quickly changed as they knew that if they were in there, they would be melted within seconds!
And all of this was even after the weakening of the arrays; if the arrays were at their peak condition, perhaps not even those exceptionally strong ones would survive against such raw killing potential!
A bright Sword Qi suddenly appeared and pierced through the overlay of fiery dragons on top of Fang Jiange as Sword Qi could also be seen ravaging the insides of the blazing mesh surrounding him; the onslaught of the fiery dragons was disrupted and Fang Jiange showed signs of breaking free from the encirclement of the nine dragons.
Then, Gu Hongzi laughed and charged towards Fang Jiange with a speed beyond imagination while forming all sorts of totem carvings around him. He also formed a monster god with four pairs of wings and the head of a bird behind his back while he charged towards Fang Jiange!
At that moment, shock waves could be seen emitting from the nine dragons overlay and after a moment of dragon roaring and snake hissing, a huge golden divinity appeared behind the back of Fang Jiange. The golden god, with snakes dangling down his ears and two ferocious dragons under his feet, ascended in while he was shrouded with bright light and clashed with the monster god behind Gu Hongzi!
Fire blazed in mid-air and the air itself felt as if it were going to burn!
As the dragons under the feet of the golden god and the snakes dangling down at the ears of the golden gods changed their stances, they opened their mouths widely and bit at the monster god.
At the same time, Fang Jiange and Gu Hongzi clashed together as their Sword Qi pierced the skies. Gu Hongzi transformed into a creature with a bird’s head and a human’s body and as he expanded his wings, his feathers let out metal crackling sounds as each of these feathers was the condensation of Sword Qi. His wings slashed forward from behind and in a split second, he swung his wings so many times trying to overwhelm Fang Jiange with with a rapid flurry of attacks.
“Since Gu Hong City Lord has begun, let us not waste any more time.”
The muscular and furry Lang Qingyun suddenly reached out his hands into the air as if he was grabbing something and a huge hammer suddenly appeared within it. He held his huge pumpkin shaped hammer as he walked forward while challenging, “Anyone?”
Feng Wuji held his umbrella back and replied, “Shall we?”
The small-sized Qiu Qingshan leaped out from the cliff and asked while laughing, “Who will be my opponent then?”
Lei Hong walked with big steps as lightning crackled around his body, “I’ll cut you down!”
Jun Sixie looked at the two monster girls on the cliff and smile while asking, “Dear senior martial sisters, which one of you are willing to have a little duel with me?”
The innocent looking girl, Lian Xin laughed and said, “Senior Martial Sister Jun, there’s only one of you and two of us, so the both of us fight you.”
Her succubus companion, , Chilian Nu, remained at her position and her neck suddenly protracted to an incredible length while her head transformed into a huge snake head with crimson red scales covering all over her skin, menacingly gnawing towards Jun Sixie. She laughed and said, “Senior Martial Sister Jun, we are all women so we won’t act recklessly like those men in the arrays and fight inside there. I suggest that we stay at the cliffs and fight! Please enjoy our joint attacks!”
Jun Sixie’s face changed slightly and suddenly, she moved horizontally for a few miles and as she moved, she shifted her position from the cliffs into the arrays to evade the attack of this Chilian Snake.
If she fought with them on the cliffs, she would be trapped by the joint attacks of the two monster girls. Thus, she did not hesitate to take on the risk of diving into the arrays, trying her best to avoid being surrounded by the two monster ladies!
Lian Xin continued her pusuit, following closely behind Jun Sixie and as she flicked her fingers, pink petals could be seen spinning towards Jun Sixie. Each twirl of a petal would incite a deadly ray of Sword Qi to slash towards Jun Sixie!
Whereas Chilian Nu stood on the cliffs and her neck became longer and longer while her head became bigger and bigger as she reached out her head to pursue and bit towards Jun Sixie!
On the other end, Jun Sixie kept on moving to evade their attacks while her zither enlarged, floating around her while playing melodious rhythmics. Each time the zither played a rhythmic chord, a ray of Sword Qi would be launched from the strings of the zither!
As the zither sound increased in tempo, more and more Sword Qi was launched out, repelling the joint attacks of Lian Xin and Chilian Nu.
The three ladies; one human and two monsters, fought with all their strength.
Meanwhile, more and more fiery dragons appeared all over the area around the eighth layer of the array formation. These huge dragons slinked through the air and charged towards everyone, making the area a purgatory of fire and death with the only safe haven appeared to be the area where the spectators were standing.
On the battlefield, all four aces of Swords Gate, Gu Hongzi, Lang Qingyun and the others had to pour in whatever they had as they faced the direct attacks of the fiery dragons in order to be able to survive unharmed!
On the cliffs, it did not matter who they were, be it the lord of Sulphur Island and Jinxiu Island, or the others strong individuals from the monsters, they were all awestruck by the scene. This was all because of the spectacular strength of those nine individuals fighting together that simply belied their age. Their visualization arts and Sword Qi were all controlled with the utmost precision. Their powers were so condensed such that they were able to exhibit supreme offensive strength seemingly capable of indiscriminately piercing through anything.
This is my chance! No one will notice me as they are all attracted by the battles!
As much as he wanted to stay behind to watch the battles, but no matter how amazing and blood-boiling their battles were, the experience and insights possibly gleaned from spectating paled in importance in comparison to achieving the level of Qi Practitioner. Therefore, he proceeded to quietly and discreetly walk away.
As he sneaked away, no one seemed to notice him as everyone was incorrigibly enraptured by the battles of these nine strong individuals.
“Xin Huo, how are we supposed to enter the teleportation portal?” asked Zhong Yue.
“I was wrong, I was really wrong… I should have known that whenever the teleportation portal opened, the cold air in the moon would disrupt my array formations.”
In his psyche ocean, the little flame dude was still lamenting and said, “I was wrong, really….”
“Xin Huo?”
The little flame then cheered himself up and said weakly, “After a few ten thousand years more, these guys will actually neutralize all my array formations … Fine … After this time, the teleportation portal would be as good as useless, just let them waste another few ten thousand years to neutralize them… Now, follow my instructions, we will now head to the teleportation portal located at bottom level!”
Zhong Yue looked at the arrays with fiery dragons dancing around and he was stunned. He blinked his eyes and said, “Xin Huo, you have to be more reliable this time, we can’t afford to make any mistakes.”
“Of course.” answered Xin Huo.
The little flame laughed and said, “When have I been unreliable before? You can trust me on anything! Young man from the Fuxi race, let’s jump down courageously!
Zhong Yue gritted his teeth and he leaped out without hesitation while saying, “Xin Huo, you must not make any mistakes….”
Suddenly, the little flame dude seemed to hesitate and said, “I kinda felt like I have forgotten something, what could it be… Hahahaha, I was just scaring you, look at you!”