Chapter 838: Tianyang, Towards Death and Life
It bore a slight resemblance to Ink Death.
But it lacked that overwhelming, murderous aura, possessing instead a deeper, more profound darkness.
"Now!"
Li Fan commanded mentally, his hands moving without pause as he fully activated the mutated Heavenly Profound Spirit Sealing Array.
In an instant, a profound and mystical power enveloped the Inkstone.
The creature, having already detected Lin Ling and Tianyang and preparing to strike, suddenly went rigid.
Its form rippled like water, shimmering slightly.
For a fleeting moment, it was as if a white veil had been draped over it, its color fading just a fraction.
Just as the Inkstone was caught in the array's influence, Lin Ling and Tianyang's attacks arrived.
A colossal fist of swirling red and black flames slammed into the Inkstone's body.
It sent faint ripples across its surface.
Lin Ling's thousands of green tendrils, sharp as flying swords, followed immediately after.
They descended upon it, as if to pierce its heart with a thousand arrows.
Faced with their ferocious assault, the Inkstone merely cast a cold glance at them.
It made no move to dodge or defend.
"Flee!" The instant the Inkstone looked at them, Li Fan, who was observing from the outside through their shared vision, sensed danger and shouted a warning.
Simultaneously, he drove the array to unleash another wave of suppression against the creature.
Lin Ling and Tianyang both trusted Li Fan implicitly.
The moment they heard his warning, they retreated without hesitation.
And just as they moved away, the space around the Inkstone shattered without any warning.
It transformed into a void-cavern, just like its surroundings, filled with the black aura of annihilation.
"Dodge!"
Li Fan commanded calmly, his voice unflustered.
His intuition had been correct.
After withstanding their combined attack and retaliating, the Inkstone's form squirmed and slipped into an adjacent void-cavern.
In the next moment, from the countless apertures riddling the vast underground space, black tentacles shot out.
They thrashed about wildly, launching an indiscriminate assault on everything in their path.
It was like a raging tempest. The spirit-sealing array that contained this space was battered by a tremendous impact.
It teetered on the verge of collapse.
Fortunately, the Final Dissociation Disc was there to instantly analyze any weaknesses that appeared in the formation.
Li Fan could then act swiftly to mend and reinforce them.
Though the situation was perilous, the array held firm, never breaking.
Within the array, however, Lin Ling and Tianyang, who were contending with the Inkstone, were not faring so well.
Even with Li Fan's advance warning, this wide-area attack left them with almost nowhere to hide.
They could only weave through the chaos, trying their best to minimize the number of hits they took.
The black tentacles also possessed the power to shatter space.
Even Tianyang's durable puppet body vanished in an instant wherever a tentacle struck.
In the blink of an eye, the surface of Tianyang's body was riddled with gaps.
As Tianyang struggled to evade the attacks, he took out a round, black stone.
With a gentle squeeze, the stone melted into a liquid that flowed into the holes on his body.
It repaired the damage.
Lin Ling, on the other hand, was under less pressure.
After all, she was at the Dao Integration stage, and this body was not her true self, merely a manifestation of energy.
Even if a part of her was obliterated by a black tentacle, a flash of green light was all it took for her to regenerate completely.
After dozens of such repairs, her aura showed no signs of fluctuation or weakening.
"Hold on. I've used the array to sever its connection to the world. An attack on this scale can't possibly last long."
"We'll wear it down until it drops!" Li Fan declared coldly.
However, the Inkstone's stamina far exceeded Li Fan's expectations.
Throughout the subterranean space, black energy raged and churned.
It annihilated everything it could reach.
The commotion was terrifying. If not for Li Fan's preparations and the dual concealment provided by the ancient earth-vein tree, the disturbance would have likely been detected by the cultivators of Qiling Prefecture, despite being so deep underground.
If Li Fan hadn't always been so thorough in his preparations, providing ample supplies for Lin Ling and Tianyang, they probably would have failed to endure this first phase and been defeated.
"Worthy of the 'Ink' name. It's so much stronger than Crimson Flame," Li Fan thought, a sense of alarm rising within him.
Yet, amidst the stalemate, Li Fan's calm observation revealed a few clues.
It seemed that because the Inkstone was bound by its duty to repair the underground caverns, it couldn't unleash its full power.
Thus, when the tentacles lashed out, the surrounding normal space, though affected, would only shudder for a moment before returning to normal.
"If its attacks weren't restricted, it could have easily turned this entire area into a void."
"But that would contradict the duty it was born to perform. So even when its life is threatened, it cannot go all out."
Li Fan mused.
"This also serves to highlight, from another perspective, just how powerful Ink Death is."
"Besides its own astonishing strength, Ink Death's duty is to destroy everything. That's why it acts with such reckless abandon..."
While Li Fan was lost in thought, the Inkstone, seeing its prolonged assault yield no results, finally stopped.
It gave Lin Ling and Tianyang no time to breathe, changing its method of attack in a heartbeat.
The dark tentacles extending from the void-caverns broke apart, forming smaller, individual versions of the Inkstone.
Their forms flickered as they closed in on Lin Ling and Tianyang.
They formed a massive encirclement that relentlessly shrank towards the center.
"Break out!" Li Fan made a swift judgment.
Lin Ling and Tianyang exchanged a look. Then, Lin Ling transformed into a layer of green light that coated Tianyang's body.
The light erupted, charging towards the rapidly approaching black silhouettes.
Black and green light collided.
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only the swift dimming of the green glow, like a candle in the wind, threatening to extinguish at any moment.
The black encirclement, however, was like an immovable reef against the tide, merely trembling slightly.
It was unbreakable.
Countless smaller Inkstones devoured what little room Lin Ling and Tianyang had left.
Seeing herself slowly being forced into a dead end, Lin Ling, who had virtually no combat experience, was the first to panic.
Her morale plummeted, and for a moment, she was overcome with despair.
She gave up resisting, standing still to await her end.
"In all my life..."
Just then, Tianyang, who had been silent ever since waking in this life, finally spoke.
A pulsing red light flared in his eyes. He stared at the Inkstone not far away, without a trace of fear.
"...I have never been second to anyone!"
Amidst a strange, guttural roar, an immense power erupted from within Tianyang's body.
His puppet form swelled hundreds of times in an instant, carrying Lin Ling with him as he charged towards the Inkstone!
Even if it was like a moth to a flame, a futile gesture.
Even if his body began to dissolve into the void the very instant it touched the Inkstone's defensive line.
Tianyang showed not a hint of hesitation.
He launched his resolute, final charge!
And Lin Ling, as if infected by his conviction, unleashed a powerful, verdant life force unlike any she had before.
It protected Tianyang's core, resisting the Inkstone's corrosive power.
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