Chapter 793: Melee in Longevity Valley
He felt as though he were staring directly into Mr. Bai's profound eyes.
Li Fan's heart stopped cold.
"Just as I suspected," Li Fan reasoned, putting himself in the other's shoes. His own spiritual senses were screaming in alarm. "I wasn't wrong! The first thing he'd do after coming back to life is to get his hands on [Truth]!"
The thought of a powerhouse whose strength was equivalent to countless Dao Integration cultivators stacked together, about to descend upon him...
It was like watching a storm front roll in, an oppressive weight that nearly stole his breath.
He took a long, deep breath, forcing himself to regain his composure.
The Dao Transformation Stone crystal in his mind whirred to life, operating at peak capacity as he frantically reviewed his preparations, searching for any possible oversight.
But he knew that in the face of such a colossal power gap, all his schemes and calculations would ultimately come down to luck.
Facing a life-or-death crisis without the safety net of [Truth]...
Li Fan felt his anxiety gradually fade away, replaced by a profound clarity.
All distracting thoughts vanished.
He calmly began to contemplate his possible countermeasures.
"Although I've lost my empathic link with my clone, Xu Bai, this 'loss' might only be a one-way block."
"I can't rule out the possibility that Mr. Bai can still sense what's happening on my end, either through Xu Bai or even through the contamination from his original self."
"Therefore, the first step is to sacrifice Xu Bai. I have to try and sever, or at least weaken, the link between us."
"Otherwise, any plan I devise will be completely transparent to him."
"And after that..."
Li Fan's brows furrowed in deep concentration as he deduced and contemplated the various scenarios that might unfold.
All the while, he waited for Mr. Bai's arrival.
However, Mr. Bai seemed to be arriving much more slowly than anticipated.
Nearly half an hour went by, yet his figure was still nowhere to be seen.
"Don't tell me he went after Dongfang Yao first, to eliminate the lingering threat of those 'Remnant Shadows'?"
A thought flickered through Li Fan's mind, and upon checking, he found that both Dongfang Yao and the 'Remnant Shadows' were unharmed.
"Then where did he go?"
A flicker of doubt crossed his mind.
But it didn't take long for him to surmise a possible reason.
With Mr. Bai's current power, he could have easily shattered the spatial restrictions and teleported directly into Longevity Valley in an instant.
But one must not forget: the Dharma Spreading Heavenly Venerate was high above, watching and observing the Xuanhuang Realm.
Such a conspicuous act would be tantamount to deliberately exposing himself.
So, Mr. Bai had likely chosen a method that wouldn't attract undue attention: "walking" there at a measured pace.
Of course, this "measured pace" was only measured when compared to instantaneous teleportation.
"Regardless, he should be here soon," Li Fan mused, sitting upright in the center of his cultivation chamber.
Meanwhile, his clone, Xu Bai, had quietly moved to the entrance of Longevity Valley.
Li Fan's guess was correct.
Before long, the sealed spatial passage was abruptly forced open.
The Medicine King Sect disciples on guard were stunned.
They rushed forward to investigate, only to find that no one had come through.
Just as confusion clouded their minds...
A figure appeared within Longevity Valley.
Before the figure could even steady himself or utter a single word...
Myriad streams of black, baleful qi erupted like a swarm of hornets.
It coalesced into a sky-blotting storm of swords that rained down upon Mr. Bai!
Each strike packed enough power to grievously wound a Dao Integration cultivator!
"Yushan?!" Liu San's shocked voice cried out.
The storm of black, baleful swords was none other than the work of Jiang Yushan.
It was her ultimate technique, the [Fleeting Formless Sword].
Its formless sword intent, saturated with overwhelming baleful energy, could obliterate body and soul with a single touch.
Normally, unleashing a thousand strands of sword intent at once was Jiang Yushan's absolute limit.
But now, she had clearly pushed herself far beyond that limit.
It looked as though wounds were splitting open all over her body. Blood trickled from her skin, even from the corners of her eyes.
Such injuries might be trivial for a cultivator of the New Method, but for someone who followed the old ways, they were incredibly severe.
Yet Jiang Yushan paid it no heed.
The endless storm of black swords continued its relentless assault.
She wouldn't stop until one of them was dead!
Although he had no idea who this mysterious figure was, how could Liu San possibly stand by and watch as Jiang Yushan fought for her life?
"Fang Zaiji!" he roared, snapping the old man out of his artifact-refining trance.
At the same time, he thrust out both palms, unleashing a verdant radiance.
One stream of green light surged toward Jiang Yushan, mending her wounds.
The other stream instantly transformed into thousands of verdant threads, seeking to ensnare Mr. Bai.
Before the green threads could even reach him, a black warhammer the size of a small mountain materialized above his head.
Poised to crash down with immense force.
This pincer attack by the three Dao Integration cultivators of the Medicine King Sect was the first stage of Li Fan's plan.
Jiang Yushan had been the first to strike precisely because of the second [Truth Inducing Fruit] she had consumed earlier; under Xu Bai's instruction, she was to launch a relentless, life-or-death assault.
And as long as Jiang Yushan was locked in combat, Liu San was certain not to ignore her plight, and Fang Zaiji would almost certainly join the fray.
With a single Truth Inducing Fruit, he could compel three Dao Integration cultivators to enter the battle.
The three Dao Integration cultivators of the Medicine King Sect were somewhat weaker than their modern-day counterparts...
...but fighting together, they were undoubtedly a formidable force.
However, Mr. Bai seemed to have anticipated their joint assault.
A genial smile graced his features.
His figure flickered, vanishing from the encirclement of baleful swords, verdant threads, and the massive black hammer.
Moving at a speed no one present could follow, he appeared beside Liu San, Fang Zaiji, and Jiang Yushan in succession.
He extended his right index finger and tapped each of them gently.
The three Dao Integration cultivators froze on the spot, as if stripped of all their power, and began to drift gently from the sky to the ground below.
Only then did Mr. Bai turn his attention to their attacks, which still hung in the air, poised to unleash their devastating power.
He made a soft fist with his right hand.
In an instant, the volatile energies of their techniques were drawn into his palm as if they were nothing more than a tangled ball of yarn.
Then, with no apparent effort to neutralize it, the small sphere of terrifying energy was absorbed from his palm directly into his body.
Liu San and the others were unharmed.
They landed safely on the ground, staring in a stupor at this Mr. Bai, who bore such a striking resemblance to their Sect Master's clone, Xu Bai.
With but a casual gesture, he had effortlessly subdued them all.
Such power was far beyond anything they could have imagined.
"The Longevity Heavenly Venerate? But... why does he look exactly like the Sect Master's clone?"
A thousand questions flooded their minds.
But before they could begin to unravel the mystery, the scene shifted once more.
A massive metal furnace materialized out of thin air.
It hurtled toward Mr. Bai at incredible speed.
Fine cracks were already spiderwebbing across its surface.
The moment it neared Mr. Bai, it exploded with tremendous force.
Shrapnel from the furnace flew in every direction, only to be swallowed mid-flight by a twisting, expanding mass of demonic beast flesh.
"ROAR!"
A gargantuan sphere of flesh appeared, its surface a churning tableau of thousands of snarling demonic beast faces.
Its countless eyes seethed with pure, unadulterated violence and the will to destroy.
From the moment of its creation, the very first thing it saw was Mr. Bai.
The Diyi Beast let out a bizarre roar and charged savagely toward him.
Countless tentacles instantly sprouted from its body.
Each one, pulsing with demonic energy, whipped through the air.
Comments