On the east bank of the Spirit River, to the east of the dark creatures' Far East Army camp, Li Shuhe held her sword. Leading seven others, she shattered layer upon layer of checkpoints and charged into the Hunting Ground...
Behind them, horns blared and war drums thundered in a chaotic din. Black baleful qi churned as thousands of troops and horses surged forward in pursuit.
Ahead, a hundred thousand Blood Armor Army troops were arrayed across the sky in the distance, blocking the path. Their battle flags fluttered, blotting out the sun in a vast expanse of bright red.
Nearby, a streak of brilliant white light tore through the sky. An eight-foot spear swept across the void, carrying a majestic spiritual pressure that rolled out in all directions.
"Vile creature, prepare to die!"
Beside herself in a place of total encirclement, besieged on all sides, Li Shuhe did not avert her blade. Instead, her speed increased as she charged head-on to meet the attack.
The two clashed in a world-shaking instant. Astral winds were torn apart, and a deafening roar erupted.
Even though they were protected behind Li Shuhe, many among the seven were still dazed by the residual shockwaves. Their blood surged, and they spat out mouthfuls of fresh blood.
"Ugh..."
Li Shuhe had no desire to linger in battle; she only wanted to protect the group and break through the Hunting Ground. However, the newcomer would not let her have her way. The attacker's offensive was extremely fierce, the spear techniques literally cleaving the sky.
Li Shuhe was forced to respond, and the two became locked in combat. Their momentum was equal, but her sword intent clearly suppressed the other's spear intent.
Having spent a long time on the battlefield, Spirit Sequence Seven was naturally sharp. She immediately sensed the gap between them and realized it would be extremely difficult to cut her opponent down.
She could only stall. Sensing Li Shuhe's intentions, she immediately changed her strategy, avoiding Li Shuhe's sharp edge to strike at the seven people instead.
"You think you're worthy to protect these little things from my hands?"
Caught in a hurried response, Li Shuhe realized things were going poorly. If she didn't deal with this person, she could never lead Xu Xian and the others safely across the river.
Furthermore, the army of a hundred thousand was still standing in formation ahead.
Since there was no way to avoid it, she could only fight with everything she had.
She struck out with a vertical slash.
"Cut!"
The sword qi fell horizontally toward Spirit Sequence Seven. Spirit Sequence Seven thrust her spear upward, summoning a black baleful dragon that swallowed the sword intent and crushed its power with its claws, neutralizing the attack with ease...
Taking advantage of this brief moment, Li Shuhe shifted a thousand miles. Choosing a spot within the Hunting Ground, she used the edge of her blade to create a Ground-Binding Sword Prison.
Wherever the blade passed, sword intent rose like a curtain toward the sky. Finally, it converged into a single point, condensing into a sword intent trapping formation that protected the seven people within.
She gave a firm instruction: "Do not move!"
Spirit Sequence Seven charged in an instant, her spear intent lunging toward the spot. Within Li Shuhe's blood-red pupils, a divine radiance burst forth. A grey sword immortal rose from the clouds, standing ten thousand feet tall.
With a gentle tremor of the sword in the phantom's hand, the attacker was forced back.
Li Shuhe spoke. "I will be the one to contend with you."
Spirit Sequence Seven shook her spear, a luster appearing in her emerald eyes. She likewise manifested an Immortal King dharma body that seemed to reflect the heavens, suspended above the Hunting Ground.
It was a jade-green python-dragon with eyes like the stars and moon. Its green scales shimmered with light, its teeth were sharp, and its dragon horns were hideous. Compared to Li Shuhe's grey sword immortal, it was larger, more massive, and longer...
"Then I shall grant your wish."
Li Shuhe didn't waste another word and charged with her sword. Her towering dharma body followed her like a shadow. In an instant, the two were locked in combat again. The surrounding mountains and rivers for thousands of miles began to collapse from a single strike.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rang out one after another. The wailing winds never ceased. The python-dragon roared and the sword intent shrieked, the sounds blending into one.
An ordinary person's mind would tremble with fear just watching this. A true battle between Immortal Kings was erupting right before the eyes of Xu Xian and the others, overturning all their previous understanding.
It was too powerful.
To them, watching this battle was like a frog at the bottom of a well gazing at the vast sky.
Even Lu Yuan gritted his teeth and murmured, "These fellows are no weaker than I was back then..."
This was an evaluation from a former Immortal King, and also an acknowledgment from one.
Far away on the east bank of the Spirit River, the people in the Immortal City could already hear the massive commotion and noise coming from across the water.
Night Hunters who knew some of the inside story couldn't wait to climb the beacon towers towering atop the high mountains.
They gazed into the distance, extending their divine sense.
Even though the battlefield was nearly a hundred thousand miles away from the Immortal City—as vast as an entire province—these immortals could still see a mass of clouds churning in the distant sky, with blinding flashes of light erupting from within at intervals...
They knew very well that a fight had broken out in there.
And it was a battle at the Immortal King level. Those ten-thousand-foot-tall dharma bodies that occasionally flashed through the grey sky were a grand divine ability that only powerhouses in the Immortal King stage could perform: the Immortal King dharma body!
On the highest beacon tower, the three Immortal Kings guarding the Immortal City hadn't moved from the beginning, nor did they have any intention of moving.
They simply watched from afar.
They were stronger, so they saw everything more clearly and understood more.
At least from their perspective, the struggle between Spirit Sequence Seven and Sword Shuhe was visible.
It was a grey sword immortal dharma body against Spirit Sequence Seven's python-dragon dharma body.
Lu Bai was anxious. His divine sense continued to extend across the boundless Great Desolation. There were four auras in the distance and two nearby—a total of eight. Yet he couldn't detect a single familiar breath among them.
Grandfather said...
Great-Grandfather has come. He is very close to the Spirit River, as the Immortal King soul lamp has reacted.
Lu Bai had originally thought the Immortal King who was steadily approaching was him.
But the opponent had manifested a grey sword immortal, and his Great-Grandfather was not a swordsman.
Furthermore...
All six auras contained the baleful qi of darkness.
Two of the breaths were somewhat different, yet they were both human. They had nothing to do with his beast race.
Had he not made a move yet?
Or had Grandfather been mistaken?
Lu Bai couldn't tell for a moment...
Even the angel-like girl and the ant-like old man beside him began to doubt their previous guesses.
Could it be that Lu Bai was right, and something had simply happened within the family, rather than what they had suspected?
"That grey sword immortal... is actually human?"
"It's a human. Only a human Immortal King's dharma body would take a human form. It's not like she could be an Immortal Emperor, right?"
"It could also be a descendant of the God race..."
"Impossible. The God race died out long ago..."
The Immortal King dharma body was a second body condensed from Immortal King power.
When manifested, it was at least ten thousand feet tall and could drastically increase the caster's combat power, fighting alongside the main body.
Very few powerhouses from any race reached the Immortal King stage, and their dharma images were all different.
They tended to resemble the original source of their bloodline!
By the same logic, only a human Immortal King's dharma body would look like a human.
Legend had it that in the middle of the Era of Ancient Immortals, before the time of the Emperors, records stated that Immortal Emperor powerhouses could not only evolve an Emperor Domain to summon a piece of the world, but their dharma images were also like deities. They descended to the mortal world in the form of heavenly gods, and their appearance closely resembled humans.
But in the current Cangming, besides the three Ancestors among the dark creatures, where would an Immortal Emperor come from?
If she truly were an Immortal Emperor, how could an Immortal King possibly stop her?
If Cangming had an Immortal Emperor, how could it have lost so tragically ten thousand years ago?
Therefore...
There were only two possibilities.
The newcomer was either a human Immortal King or a remnant of the God race. Between the two, they leaned toward the former.
Because the God race had died out long ago.
They had perished even before the darkness arrived.
After the darkness descended, the human race—once the darling of the Cangming Heavenly Dao—saw its powerhouses almost completely wiped out. Due to the lack of spirit qi, no more Immortal Kings had appeared among their descendants.
Yet today...
One had popped up, and from the territory of darkness no less. It was indeed strange.
It wasn't necessarily good or bad.
As long as it wasn't that lost Immortal King of the Beast Mountain Lu family, it wouldn't change the current balance of the Immortal Land.
As for external threats...
At least the Spirit River blocked the way.
Internal worries...
In the Immortal Land behind the Immortal City, where land was scarce but spirit souls were many, the three cities had never known peace.
"Can she break through?"
"I doubt it!"
The ant-like old man took a deep drag of strong tobacco. As he exhaled, he gave a sinister smile. "Come, let's take a closer look..."
As soon as he finished speaking...
His body seemed to be frozen in time, but a wisp of blue smoke floated from the top of his head, crossing the Spirit River and vanishing into the Hunting Ground...
The other two looked at each other and scrambled to follow suit.
"We're going too..."
"Let's go!"
Spirit projection? That was a little trick anyone in the God Immortal stage could do.
Rate on N.U.
