Chapter 601: Infinite Soul Refining, Thousand-Jun Power |
Li Baobao had no idea about the shock and discomfort in her heart.
The moment Crimson Flame General slashed out his sword qi, Xia Hong had already clearly sensed that his current base strength was 298 jun, a full 128 jun higher than at his peak Sun Manifestation stage.
That was only his base strength, not his combat power at this moment!
A fifty percent amplification from the Sacred Mark alone added 447 jun. The instant he decided to turn and fight Crimson Flame, he swallowed a Bone-Burning Pill in a flash.
So the sword edge he unleashed after charging reached a force of 670 jun!
Crucially, he hadn’t used any martial arts moves—just a plain sword slash—so this 670 jun still wasn’t his absolute maximum combat power.
And it wasn’t just strength. His flesh body and the Battle Body Golden Body had not fully fused; the Golden Body remained an independent form. Considering the Dark Realm suppresses physical strength and only spiritual bodies can truly kill, in that strike he mobilized the Golden Body together with his flesh body.
Besides the Golden Body, there was the Sacred Cauldron!
It was Xia Hong’s first time seeing Crimson Flame; he didn’t know the man’s full power, but the very rank of a Demon General and Crimson Flame’s ability to casually summon flames made it clear this was no pushover.
Boom.....
After all talk, the river-of-stars sword qi charging through the sea of fire finally
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pierced through Crimson Flame’s body and sliced him cleanly in two.
"Aff......"
Being cut in half was only the beginning. The Cauldron’s Void Fire clung to the two severed sections, like throwing oil on a blaze. After sizzling noises, it rapidly spread, instantly burning his body into a transparent state.
The Dark Realm is made of soul bodies; transparency is their original state. Crimson Flame was being burned down to his origin. From the violent wails escaping his mouth, it was obvious how excruciating his suffering was.
Beautiful........
Crimson Flame did not simply accept death. Perhaps survival instinct kicked in. Seeing the Void Fire reveal his true form, his transparent body rapidly expanded, within a few heartbeats swelling to more than ten zhang. Then, like a warrior severing a limb to save his life, he actively cut off the portions touched by the Void Fire.
"Stop them all, block him!"
Could Xia Hong possibly pass up such a godsend opportunity?
He had only casually slashed once moments ago. The instant the river-of-stars blade contacted Crimson Flame’s fire dragon, he had detected the enemy’s displayed combat power was just over 500 jun.
With strength below his own and such fear of Void Fire, this was the perfect moment to strike while the enemy was vulnerable, so he didn’t hesitate and attacked again.
Seeing Xia Hong’s blade thrust toward him with even greater ferocity than the first strike, Crimson Flame’s face filled with terror. As his body frantically retreated, he still bellowed orders down to the large number of Demon Soldiers below.
To be fair, the Demon Soldiers of White Bone Mountain were loyal. After seeing Xia Hong’s terrifying blade and hearing Crimson Flame’s command, they showed no fear. One by one they leaped up and charged at him.
Huff.......
Xia Hong did not indulge them. The Sacred Cauldron could absorb spiritual bodies; his rapid successive breakthroughs owed much to the earlier scattered spirits. These Demon Soldiers before him were two levels higher than scattered spirits, and there were tens of thousands of them.
My pupils trembled slightly. I abandoned trying to finish off Crimson Flame and abruptly swung the Star Shattering Sword through the air, sending out several strands of white feathered light. Each feathered ray was studded with millions of tiny star fragments, like a dazzling river of stars—this was the inner view of the Star Shattering Sword, a unique visual effect produced when the blade moved too slowly.
Feathered-Blade Sword Technique!
Xia Hong was not originally a martial arts master; he was not proficient with blades. But the Enlightenment Lotus Platform had magnified his martial talent beyond norms, granting him rule-level martial mimicry and deconstruction. Martial arts no longer posed insurmountable difficulty, and he could iterate beyond their original forms.
The Feathered-Blade grew from his wife’s Lingmiao Sword Art and shared the latter’s eighteen sword shadows, each a critical strike. It wins by quantity: the number of feathered sword edges measures one’s progress—over a hundred was entry level, over eight hundred great success, seven hundred small success, and over a thousand reached the mastered level.
Back when he traveled the Four Feudatories, he could already summon over five thousand.
Now, the number of feathered sword edges he unleashed had broken ten thousand!
Shhhh....
What does one person unleashing ten thousand feathered sword edges look like?
Like a silver vase shattering, like a star river exploding, like an enormous black avian of the starry void spreading its titanic wings and revealing billions of points of light as it plunged toward the earth.
More precisely, it plunged toward the tens of thousands of White Bone Mountain Demon Soldiers.
Heh..........
The moment the first Demon Soldier came into contact with a feathered sword edge, the sword’s light points ignited. At first it was only a few sparks, but the sheer number of light points made the second and third and many subsequent sparks chain-react.
.......
"Ah!"
The first Demon Soldier was consumed by flames that erupted from the light points, screaming.
The billions of light points across the ten thousand blades flared simultaneously. The original black starry avian seemed to undergo a fiery rebirth, instantly transforming into a
phoenix
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A phoenix of fire descended. Hundreds to thousands of Demon Soldiers in the front ranks were instantly engulfed. Their bodies dissolved in an instant, and their Underworld Weapons and Underworld Armor were all burned into thick smoke and reduced to ash.
The first Demon Soldier at least managed a pained scream, but the thousand that followed gave no sound from contact with the phoenix wings to their vaporization—the whole process was silent; they didn’t even have time to show panic.
"Run!"
No one spoke the word, but nearly all the remaining soldiers had that single thought. Those in the rear who hadn’t yet leaped turned into limp shrimp, staring at Xia Hong behind the fire phoenix with terror in their eyes. A few even retreated several steps.
l........
Yet dozens of spirit-light beams suddenly descended from the sky, striking precisely those retreating Demon Soldiers.
The struck soldiers swelled like inflated balloons, their Underworld Armor bursting open. Horror filled their faces; they tried to beg, but no sound came out. They could only watch themselves expand into large spheres.
'....l........
When they reached their limits, they inevitably exploded into countless light points and utterly dispersed.
"Whoever dares retreat further will meet the same fate. Madam brought you out from Qishan; did you forget such a great debt?"
The Demon General Crimson Flame, who had been cut into two pieces, had recovered so quickly that those dozens of spirit-lights were clearly his doing.
Hearing his threat, the remaining Demon Soldiers glanced at the dozens of exploded light clusters, immediately putting away their fear. They raised their weapons and looked toward Xia Hong as he charged a second time.
This time they didn’t rush headlong in a muddled way. Instead they spread out, skirting to Xia Hong’s left and right, clearly intending to encircle him.
"Forty-eight, Golden Body grew five zhang again. Absorbing these Demon Soldier-level spiritual bodies greatly enhances my Golden Body. This is the infinite soul refining the Six-Armed mentioned. The Dark Realm truly is my blessed land...."
Half-step Tribulation Body, base strength comparable to a three-turn Tribulation Body. Golden Body scale: forty-eight zhang. Although the exact tier was unclear, from Li Baobao’s shocked face one could guess it was above her level.
Only six days in the Dark Realm—equivalent feel to six years—such astonishing growth filled Xia Hong with delight.
Normally in the Ice Abyss for six years, not to mention half-step Tribulation Body, even breaking through to late Sun Manifestation would be questionable.
If not for concern for Great Xia, he truly wouldn’t want to leave the Dark Realm.
Stay here a little longer, train for a year or half, and not just the Revered Form Realm, but levels beyond it would be within his confidence.
"I already used martial arts. With a fifty percent amplification, the strongest combat power has broken past a thousand jun, and I still only annihilated a few hundred Demon Soldiers..."
Seeing the mass of Demon Soldiers beginning to encircle him, greed shimmered in Xia Hong’s eyes, but reason prevailed. Especially noticing the great number of Demon Soldiers still rushing up behind Crimson Flame, he didn’t dare delay. He turned and dragged the still-stunned Li Baobao and the other woman along, continuing to flee deeper into the Misty Marsh Forest.
The single sword earlier had failed to kill Crimson Flame, and the enemy had recovered quickly. Crimson Flame’s first wave had numbered over ten thousand, and more were rapidly arriving.
Even at his strongest, he could only kill a few hundred at a time. His Golden Body and flesh body had not fused; he relied on his flesh’s strength to pull the Golden Body. Flesh has limits; he could not indefinitely use feathered sword edges the way he had just done.
If truly surrounded and unable to escape, the outcome would be grim!
Worse, these Demon Soldiers and that Demon General were all coming from White Bone Mountain—likely Madam Jade’s subordinates. Who knew if an even stronger presence might arrive?
What if the Blood Pool Patriarch came?
Thinking of that, Xia Hong sped his escape, heading for the forest’s depths so as to give Crimson Flame no chance to catch up.
Crimson Flame pursued relentlessly for a long while, but his injuries were too severe. Soon the three had vanished from sight. If even he couldn’t catch them, the Demon Soldier horde behind him certainly couldn’t.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it! Those three escaped!"
Crimson Flame looked down at the wound across his waist that had not fully closed, fury burning in his heart. Seeing the slow arrival of the Demon Soldier army behind him, he roared, "Form teams of a thousand. Scatter into the Misty Marsh Forest to search. This is their territory; they won’t get far."
Having learned from the previous disaster, the Demon Soldiers dared not think anything else. They immediately split into wave after wave of thousand-man teams and poured into every part of the Misty Marsh Forest.
They kept neither too close nor too far from one another so they could search the widest area while still supporting each other to avoid being picked off by Xia Hong one by one.
"Ran?"
Crimson Flame did not idle either. Seeing the army scatter, he prepared to chase toward Xia Hong’s escape route, but as soon as he moved a sultry voice sounded from behind, penetrating his bones.
He stiffened and hurriedly turned, bowing respectfully toward the rear.
"Crimson Flame pays respects to Madam!"
A spot of pink spirit light suddenly rose behind him, spreading and quickly shaping into a pink skeleton figure.
The pink skeleton slowly raised a hand, lightly stroking its cheek in an affectation of self-admiration. Then, as if realizing something, it trembled.
A bright yellow dress materialized on the skeleton as if from nowhere. With a touch of its finger, the dress’s details completed, gaining fashionable design and fitting the figure more closely.
Though the garments accentuated the figure, the skeleton remained a form. If one avoided looking at its face, it might pass. But once someone actually saw that face, a sense of the grotesque would arise. Coupled with its oddly human gestures and expressions, the overall effect bordered on the horrifying.
"Was this how I told you to guard White Bone Mountain?"
"Madam, forgive me. These three are strong—especially that man. He used Taixu Karmic Fire. I was careless and took its effects just now..."
"Taixu Karmic Fire..."
The skeleton cut Crimson Flame off, then mused for a moment and looked east.
"Bring the Demon Soldiers back!"
"Bring them back, this...."
"Hmm?"
Crimson Flame was stunned and immediately protested, but before he finished speaking a cold snort from the pink skull interrupted him.
Realizing he’d overstepped, Crimson Flame hurriedly prostrated himself.
"They all came from the Ice Abyss. To the east of the Misty Marsh Forest lies Qishan, south is Soul-Severing Cliff, north is the Sea of Dragontide. They have nowhere to run. This land has only one spatial rift. If they want to return to the Ice Abyss, where else could they go?"
"It was my mistake. I will summon the army and weave a heaven-and-earth net around White Bone Mountain. If they dare show up, death is certain."
"Go."
Crimson Flame kowtowed again, then rose and flew off toward where the Demon Soldiers gathered.
The pink skeleton remained, continuing to stare east. After a moment, its skull slowly showed a trace of confusion and distress, and it asked two baffling questions.
"Is this my territory? Am I the lord of White Bone Mountain?"
"Lord Xia will soon reach the foot of Qishan. He cannot head east."
"South is impossible too. Beneath Soul-Severing Cliff dwells an Ancient Demon stronger than the Blood Pool Patriarch. Going there would be suicide."
"North is out as well. The lord of the Sea of Dragontide, Blood River Dragon King, hates being disturbed."
After Xia Hong had fled in panic through the Misty Marsh Forest for quite some time, the white-clad woman reminded him of these three things. Sensing no Demon Soldiers pursuing from behind, he finally stopped and loosened his grip on the white-clad woman and Li Baobao.
"What’s your name?"
After landing, Xia Hong didn’t look at Li Baobao. His gaze went straight to the white-clad woman. Realizing his tone had been too harsh, he instinctively lowered his voice and gently asked, "Do you know me?"
"My name is...."
Li Longyu hesitated, then continued, "Hong Yu."
As soon as she finished, she immediately looked at Li Baobao and signaled with her eyes.
Sure enough, when Li Baobao heard the made-up name, she immediately turned her head to look, but receiving the eye-signal from Li Longyu, she quickly averted her gaze without blowing the cover.
Their little exchange did not escape Xia Hong. He didn’t dwell on the fake name; he assumed the two women had some acquaintance. He continued observing the younger girl as she answered the second question.
Li Longyu then began to invent on the spot in her head.
"I am a girl from the Lulong Feudatory. I have long heard of Lord Xia’s fame and have admired you for a long time...."