Chapter 1172: Black Tortoise Battles Vermilion Bird |
Two crimson lights flared upon the surface of the shield as a black halo spread outward, infused with golden divine energy.
A crushing weight descended from the heavens. The blue motes of faith energy that had already been gathering toward Tang San now condensed with even greater speed.
According to the legends, there were four Divine Beasts whose manifestations could appear in any plane: the Azure Dragon, the White Tiger, the Black Tortoise, and the Vermilion Bird.
Clearly, this was the case on Planet Falan just as it had been on the Douluo Continent. Provided that a divine realm appeared, the dragon race would give rise to the manifestation of the Azure Dragon. The White Tiger had the White Tiger Demon Emperor, and the moment he stepped into a divine realm, he would become the true White Tiger. The Vermilion Bird would be, of course, embodied by the most powerful member of the phoenix race. But for the Black Tortoise… there was nothing in particular. The extant turtle and tortoise demons were all far too weak to become its representatives.
And yet, the four phenomena were essential to any world. Since this plane had the Azure Dragon, the White Tiger, and the Vermilion Bird, how could it lack the Black Tortoise? Tang San's theory was that the so-called Dark Turtle should not have become an Emperor originally, but because it was the being most similar to the Black Tortoise, the plane had imbued the essence of the Black Tortoise into it, allowing it to ascend and evolve. At the same time, since a mortal plane could not allow the rise of true divinity, the plane had suppressed its potential and caused it to die of old age, leaving behind its shell that was actually the Black Tortoise's concentrated essence.[1]
The Black Tortoise ruled water and earth—the turtle and the serpent fused as one. And now, through his Sea God's divine power, Tang San awakened the shield's water aspect.
The shield's black glow shifted to deep blue, and ripples of blue light spread outward. The two crimson lights became the vertical-pupil eyes of a snake. They started flashing, and a black serpent's head stretched out from the surface of the shield.
The shield then expanded once more, turning into a hundred-meter-wide tortoise shell that encompassed Tang San and Xiao Wu.
The Phoenix Meteors exploded one after another with apocalyptic might. Yet after that first impact drove them down a hundred meters, the fully awakened Black Tortoise Shield did not move even a hair's breadth.
The rain of fire fell like flowers of destruction scattered by the wind of doom, bursting upon the carapace in dazzling sprays of crimson flame. The sky itself twisted like water under the searing heat. To observers below, it looked as though Tang San and Xiao Wu had been swallowed completely by the Phoenix Meteor Storm.
But the Undying Demon Emperor's gaze never wavered, and he did not relax even for a moment. He could feel it: The vast water energy surging from that tortoise shell had indeed withstood his and the Parasol Tree Nymph Emperor's combined strike. Yet he did not relent. Tang San had fought too many battles already; even armed with such powerful divine items, he had to be exhausted by now. If the storm continued without pause, could he truly endure?
And so the Phoenix Meteor Shower raged on, wave after wave.
Tang San, hand in hand with Xiao Wu, was in no hurry. He knew the Black Tortoise Shield all too well, and in his hands, it could unleash the power of the Divine Beast itself. Without him, the shield would have lain dormant until Planet Falan became a divine realm or was connected to one. But now, through his divine seat, he awakened its buried might.
Without this shield, defeating the Perching Phoenix Duo would not be easy. Even as true gods, he and Xiao Wu would have had a tremendously tough time. But the Black Tortoise was the Vermilion Bird's natural counter, and due to the difference in personhood between a true god and a mortal being, it actually suppressed the demon-nymph combination. Thanks to that suppression, their attacks were far easier to endure.
Yes, the onslaught consumed his strength. But Tang San had recovery methods no other Emperor possessed. That was why, from the start, he had activated his Sea God's divine seat—to draw faith energy and restore his divine consciousness. As for his physique and bloodline power, they were being nourished by the Blue Gold Palace's Life Tower.
Tang San never acted without purpose. The palace and tower had been built precisely for this day. Even now, through the Heart of Nature, he was being nourished by lesser immortal energy.
He hid it well, and none of the Emperors realized it, but after each battle, his strength actually grew. Each clash allowed his bloodline imprints to absorb his opponent's blood essence, pushing them from the eleventh order to the twelfth.
The clearest cases were the fights with the Golden Mammoth and Sky-Splitting Demon Emperors. Through them, his Golden Armor Transformation had now become a twelfth-order transcendent bloodline—a power that, in and of itself, was beyond the limits of this world. In fact, even without the Black Tortoise Shield, Tang San could have resisted the fire meteors with his Golden Armor, although it would have put him under considerably more strain.
Thus, even though each fight was indeed draining, the foundations of his power only grew deeper. Even the Celestial Fox Demon Emperor had failed to figure this out. This was why Tang San chose this moment to undergo Conquering the Heavens; it was not to exact revenge and neither was it to weaken the Court. It was because, at this point, this was the fastest way to grow stronger.
This was the case now as well, in this battle against the Undying Demon Emperor, he was drawing in phoenix blood essence, causing that bloodline imprint to also reach the twelfth order. Even better: Thanks to the resonance it had with the essence of the Parasol Tree Nymph Emperor, the Immortal Flame Phoenix bloodline imprint was also evolving into a transcendent one!
As for those bloodlines that could not be improved individually, their power could also be raised as a whole once his Chaos Blue Silver Emperor fully ascended.
The Phoenix Meteor Shower raged for over ten minutes, scorching the sky itself. Yet the tortoise-shell shield stood immovable.
At last, the Undying Demon Emperor raised his hand to stop the flames, pausing for breath.
The Black Tortoise's carapace had turned dark red, with waves of heat rippling around it. But it still endured.
1. This paragraph has been altered to reflect the description in 972 and is not an accurate rendition of the raws. According to the original here, the shield simply appeared out of nowhere and there was no Dark Turtle involved. ☜