Xu Xian wiped the corner of his mouth and gave a wicked smirk. "Don't I have you?"
"You want to perish together with me?" the Sovereign asked.
Xu Xian replied indifferently, "Think whatever you like..."
The Sovereign suddenly laughed, a sinister sound. "But you've forgotten—I am undying."
"I know," Xu Xian said as if it were obvious. "That's why I'm using your physical body to block this heavenly thunder for me."
"Interesting," the Sovereign sneered. "But... do you really think I, a dignified emperor, will be at your beck and call?"
Xu Xian's eyes burned with intensity. "We shall see."
The Twilight Emperor tilted his massive head back. Through the abyss, he stared at the blood-red expanse in the high heavens and spoke to himself.
"Once, twice, three times... Haha... You are the first in this star sea to make me retreat and compromise again and again."
Xu Xian remained silent.
"You truly are quite something."
"Even though you've made me look quite pathetic..."
"However,"
"It doesn't matter anymore."
"..."
After finishing those cryptic words, the Twilight Emperor's giant eyes suddenly shifted into vertical pupils.
Boom!
A surge of energy erupted from within him.
His massive face was contorted with the same agony and ferocity seen in his pupils.
His physical body was covered from the inside out with countless golden patterns.
Xu Xian's eyes darkened, and his heart tightened.
In the next second.
Amidst the surging energy, the Twilight Emperor's massive body suddenly exploded.
Rumble!
Another deafening roar followed.
The colossal body was torn asunder. The countless iron chains that had bound his flesh went flying in all directions along with the fragments of his corpse.
The entire prison shook violently.
The leaking energy swept through the surroundings like a storm.
Xu Xian circulated his spiritual qi with everything he had just to barely steady himself.
When he opened his eyes to look,
The space was empty.
Nothing remained but a ground littered with corpse fragments, cold chains, broken pillars, and golden liquid that hissed as it burned the earth...
Amidst the blood-red haze,
Xu Xian was also splattered from head to toe in golden blood.
The Twilight Emperor...
Had self-detonated!
Only a wisp of a soul remained, suspended weakly in the center. It was still bound by several iron chains, feeble and drained, yet its eyes were full of triumph.
Like a madman, he raved:
"No one can destroy my body, not even heavenly punishment. But I... I can do it myself!"
"Now,"
"It's your turn to endure the might of this heavenly punishment."
"I'd like to see how you could possibly survive this..."
Xu Xian was somewhat surprised, his thoughts briefly in disarray.
Choosing to commit such self-harm just to drag him down was indeed a move Xu Xian hadn't anticipated.
However,
The fact that he had resorted to such a desperate measure meant he was at the end of his rope.
Back then,
Even the various emperors of Cangming couldn't destroy his physical body, yet today, he had destroyed it himself because of Xu Xian.
As for the soul that remained,
Escaping or breaking free was now a distant, impossible dream.
As for swallowing Fanzhou's fortune, that was even more out of the question...
For him, the price was enormous.
But,
It was the same for Xu Xian.
With the Twilight Emperor having destroyed his own body, Xu Xian no longer had a shield. He would have to face the ninth strike of the lightning tribulation directly.
And this was no ordinary ninth strike—it was the three-thousand-mile blood lightning sea, infused with the reckoning of heavenly punishment.
He had no time to think, let alone search for a way to cope.
The heavenly punishment was about to descend.
He had no choice but to face the tribulation.
The Emperor's mockery continued to echo, and the little book spirit's cursing hadn't stopped either.
"That bastard! He's such a dog to pull a stunt like this..."
"To harm his enemy by a thousand while losing eight hundred himself—he actually did it!"
"What an animal!"
"We're finished, we're finished... We're really going to suffer for this."
"What do we do... think, think fast..."
Xu Xian turned a deaf ear to it all. He ignored everything and looked up, his throat bobbing as his fists clenched instinctively.
He whispered, "I wonder if I can hold out?"
In his eyes, the blood-red light grew more intense as the lightning filling the sky crashed down.
The ninth strike had arrived.
It was unlike the previous eight.
This time,
Every single bolt of lightning within the three-thousand-mile blood lightning sea pounced toward the mortal world in a single instant.
At the moment of impact,
The pillar of blood lightning was a full thousand miles thick. Upon landing, its impact radius reached nearly ten thousand miles, and its residual power swept across almost the entire Northern Borders.
It was as if an entire planet had crashed down.
The wind roared and the thunder howled,
Throwing the mortal world into chaos.
Near the center of the lightning's rampage,
Space collapsed,
And the void emerged.
Nothing could be more world-shaking or world-destroying than this.
The scene was something even a saint could not fathom.
Words,
Speeches,
All descriptions were ultimately pale and powerless before what was unfolding.
If it was like this for those on the outside,
What was it like for the one inside?
Having lost the protection of the Twilight Emperor's body, Xu Xian fought a battle with no retreat.
As the heavenly punishment surged toward him,
He manifested a formation with a single thought, but it shattered in a heartbeat.
He struck with his sword in a single thought, but the sword light was instantly extinguished.
He summoned the Void Mirror in a single thought... but the Void Mirror shattered in the blink of an eye.
Xu Xian connected to the sword mound in a single thought, drawing swords across space. Ten Thousand Swords Crossing, they surged upward, yet they couldn't hold out for even half a heartbeat.
The lightning was swift and fell with extreme speed.
Xu Xian's movements were even faster.
In just a few breaths, he employed countless methods.
All of them were defeated.
Seeing the lightning pillar about to smash into his head, Xu Xian used his final move: the Heavenly Manifestation unique to a saint.
At the same time, he summoned the Sword Tower and gave the five sword auras he had previously borrowed from the five sword spirits to the little book spirit.
On Xu Xian's saintly phantom, the phantom of the little book spirit, the book sword immortal, manifested in sync.
Xu Xian drew his sword.
The little book spirit also drew its sword.
Together, they struck at the lightning, attempting to weaken or even block the descending thunderous might...
However,
This thunderous might was meant by the heavens to punish the Twilight Emperor. Its power was unprecedented in all of history.
Xu Xian's methods, let alone cutting through the heavenly punishment,
Couldn't even break the astral winds that preceded it before being crushed into powder.
The blood lightning filling the sky naturally slammed into his body.
His newly manifested dharma body
Crumbled inch by inch.
Just like the Twilight Emperor's self-detonated flesh.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Xu Xian was instantly submerged by the lightning. His entire body was slammed violently into the ground, nearly flattened against the earth.
"Ugh..."
He spat out a mouthful of turbid blood, which was instantly vaporized.
Within the blood-red curtain of lightning, Xu Xian was in so much pain he couldn't breathe.
He couldn't even let out a scream.
The Twilight Emperor's remnant soul was also caught in the crossfire, being purged by the lightning.
His soul body, neither solid nor void, twisted and dispersed, groaning in agony as its power was continuously swallowed. He continued to shrink.
Yet his mouth never stopped for a moment.
In his agony, he said to Xu Xian, "Boy, I told you—to harm others is to harm oneself. You can't hold out..."
"Your last chance."
"If you don't want to die,"
"Hurry and drink that Emperor's Blood."
"..."
Although Xu Xian was in extreme pain and felt like his body could be torn apart at any moment, he knew exactly what the Twilight Emperor was thinking.
Having destroyed his own body, the Emperor only had a soul left. Even if the Sky Gate opened, it would be difficult for him to reach the Upper Realm or reconstruct his body.
If Xu Xian drank that cup of Emperor's Blood,
His body would become indestructible,
Immortal and undying.
If the heavenly punishment couldn't kill him, he would surely become an immortal.
At that time,
The Emperor would surely seize his body, possessing him to take away this acquired sword body.
In that way,
The Emperor would become the ultimate winner.
And all of Xu Xian's efforts and schemes would merely be working for the Emperor's benefit.
How could he let him have his way?
Xu Xian gritted his teeth, his words nearly squeezed out from between them as he roared, "In your dreams! Even if I turn to ash, I will never do as you wish!"
The Emperor continued to persuade him, "How stubborn. Then go ahead and die. At worst, I'll just sleep for another few hundred thousand years. I have plenty of time. But you—once you're dead, you're dead."
Xu Xian ignored him, pressing both palms against the ground as he let out a furious roar toward the sky.
"Agh!"
Rate on N.U.
