Chapter 528: The Final Trump Card |
"BOOM!!"
The full detonation force of a Fifth Revolution Grandmaster's Golden Core was unleashed without the slightest restraint at this moment!
The first to bear the brunt was Grand Lord Guli!
This peak Fifth Revolution Grandmaster who had dominated the northern border felt his scalp practically explode. Every hair on his body stood on end, and he had completely abandoned any thought of killing Chen Qing. The survival instinct drove him to push his lifelong cultivation to its absolute limit.
Mysterious Iron Steel Body! Rise!
The Fifth Revolution Golden Core in Guli's elixir field spun with a frenzy. True Origin flooded into every meridian throughout his body, and his dark skin was instantly covered in a metallic luster. The muscles across his body expanded and coiled visibly, his figure growing half a chi taller.
At the same time, the massive dark iron axe in his hand was held horizontally before him, and a dark iron axe shield several zhang thick condensed in an instant, sealing his entire person from top to bottom without a single gap.
Both feet stomped the ground with force, and he used the rebound to burst backward in retreat.
"CRACK!!"
On the other side, Grand Lord Rongyuan, already gravely wounded by Chen Qing's spear, had no margin to resist whatsoever.
He had been at the very edge of the stone platform. Though he was furthest from the explosion's core, his cultivation was the lowest, and he was already fighting with heavy injuries.
The instant the violent shockwave swept over him, the True Origin shield he had hastily condensed shattered like paper, and the impact hit his chest like a heavy hammer.
"Spit!!"
Rongyuan's entire person was like a leaf swept away by a violent wind, slamming into the ground and carving a bloody trench dozens of zhang long.
The worst off was Grand Lord Shipan, standing in sharp contrast to Blood Fang, who had taken shelter behind him.
The instant the explosion erupted, Shipan activated his divine ability secret technique, the Bedrock Rampart.
But he had never in his wildest dreams anticipated that Blood Fang at his side would give a flicker of his figure and tuck himself behind him, even pressing a hand against his back and continuously pouring his own True Origin into Shipan's Bedrock Rampart.
It appeared to be assistance, but in reality he had used Shipan as the perfect meat shield, using his rampart to absorb over ninety percent of the Exploding Core's impact force!
"BOOM!!"
The violent shockwave slammed into the Bedrock Rampart. Shipan felt a tremendous surge of impact come crashing over him, and the stone hammer in his hand was sent flying from his grip by the shockwave.
It lasted less than a single breath before shattering completely!
The residual force crashed into his physical body. His chest caved inward in an instant, darkness flashed before his eyes, and he nearly passed out on the spot.
And Blood Fang, sheltering behind him, though his qi and blood also churned and his organs suffered a shockwave, compared to Shipan's severe injuries, his wounds were almost negligible.
"Blood Fang!!"
Shipan pressed a hand to his chest, stumbling back several steps, and cursed every one of Blood Fang's ancestors in his heart.
He had never imagined that Blood Fang, a fellow member of the Jinting Eight Divisions, would use him as a shield at the critical moment of life and death, letting him absorb the vast majority of the Exploding Core's impact!
Right now every meridian in his body had been torn apart, his Golden Core was damaged, and he couldn't exert even three-tenths of his full power. There was no more fight left in him.
The only thought in his mind was to extricate himself immediately and get far away from this place of disaster, far away from Chen Qing the killing god, and even farther away from this vicious snake Blood Fang.
Yet just as he was about to turn and leave, the surrounding air suddenly became bone-piercingly cold!
Goose-feather ice crystals condensed in mid-air. Howling cold winds materialized from nothing, and in less than a single breath, the area within dozens of zhang had been transformed into a world of wind and snow.
Wind Snow Hidden Dragon Roar!
The freezing wind was sharp as a blade. Within every ice crystal was contained a razor-sharp edge of spear intent. Shipan's movements suddenly slowed within the wind and snow.
A dragon's cry that pierced straight through the soul came crashing into his Will Sea through the wind and snow!
His Will Sea had already been shaken into turmoil by the explosion. Struck by this dragon's cry, it was instantly thrown into a maelstrom of agonizing pain. His vision went dark, and he nearly stumbled and collapsed.
A cold killing intent locked onto him in an instant. Shipan's heart lurched in terror, and he used the very last of his strength to try to pull back and dodge.
"CRY!!"
The dragon's cry rang out again. The Jingzhe Spear transformed like a dormant Jingzhe Dragon unfurling, cutting through the wind and snow and striking with unerring precision!
Shipan only saw a spear shadow expanding to fill his entire field of view. He wanted to retreat, but his feet were as though nailed to the ground, unable to move.
"Thud!"
A tearing sound rang out, and the spear tip pierced through his lower abdomen!
Shipan jerked his head down and looked at the long spear protruding from his back, warm blood still dripping from its tip.
His mouth opened. He tried to say something, but all that could rise in his throat was mouthful after mouthful of blood. His body finally went completely limp, collapsing to the ground and falling completely still.
Fourth Revolution Grandmaster, Stone Plate Division's Grand Lord Shipan, was dead!
Chen Qing flicked his wrist, and the Jingzhe Spear was withdrawn from Shipan's body. With a light shake of the shaft, every drop of blood on it was shaken clean.
He reached out and retrieved the Golden Core.
At this point, the stone platform was already a scene of complete devastation.
Of the five Jinting Grandmasters who had originally surrounded Chen Qing, Jinya and Shipan had died one after the other with their Daos extinguished. Rongyuan lay in a pool of blood with barely half a breath left. Only Guli and Blood Fang were still standing, though both had taken serious injuries.
Blood Fang gripped his curved saber and looked at the figure standing with his spear lowered. A bone-piercing chill shot straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his skull.
He could not fathom how a seemingly certain encirclement and kill could have fallen to this state.
Five Grandmasters, one at the peak of the Fifth Revolution, two at the Fourth, one at the Third, one at the Second. A lineup like that would have had the power to fight even a Sixth Revolution Grandmaster, yet against Chen Qing at the Second Revolution, they had lost three people in just a few breaths!
Chen Qing's strength was certainly formidable enough to be terrifying, but what shook Blood Fang even more was this person's scheming and calculation, refined to the absolute extreme!
From feigning weakness and fleeing from the very beginning to lure them into the pre-laid spear formation, to timing Grand Lord Guli's attack to the precise moment needed and detonating the Fifth Revolution Exploding Core buried within the formation, every single step had been calculated into their bones. Every link connected to the next, killing intent at every turn, transforming them from hunters into prey in an instant.
Grand Lord Guli spat out a mouthful of stagnant blood.
Yet he was after all a peak Fifth Revolution Grandmaster with an incomparably deep foundation. He raised a hand, flipped it over, and a pill fell into his palm. He tilted his head back and swallowed it down.
"Young man, your tricks just keep coming!"
Grand Lord Guli's massive dark iron axe came down with a heavy thud. His eyes blazed red, fixed unblinkingly on Chen Qing. The killing intent in his eyes had nearly condensed into something physical. "But unfortunately, you have already played every trump card you have! Now, it is time for you to die!"
Before the words had finished, the Fifth Revolution Golden Core in Guli's elixir field suddenly spun with a frenzy.
"HUM!!"
Within a hundred-zhang radius, countless black axe shadows materialized from thin air.
Second Layer Axe Domain!
This was the second-layer domain that Guli had spent hundreds of years immersed in the martial path to barely cultivate. Compared to a first-layer domain, its power was more than doubled!
The instant the Axe Domain spread, the spear formation's lingering presence that had been filling the air was forcibly suppressed by several degrees!
"Die!"
Guli let out a battle roar, both feet stamped the ground, and his figure transformed into a streak of black light. The massive dark iron axe was heaved high, carrying the full power of the Second Layer Axe Domain, and came crashing down toward the top of Chen Qing's skull!
This axe stroke sent the axe radiance surging dozens of zhang outward, as though it would split the entire world in two.
It was his ultimate killing technique, the final form of the Mountain-Splitting Axe, Sea-Cleaving!
Chen Qing's eyes sharpened, and the Supreme Void Vanishing Heaven Technique activated instantly to its absolute limit!
The air rippled gently like water. His figure left a faint trailing afterimage at his original position, while his true form had shifted dozens of zhang sideways in an instant, barely managing to avoid this axe stroke.
"BOOM!!"
The massive axe slammed into the ground, and a trench dozens of zhang long and several zhang deep was carved open in an instant.
Yet the moment Chen Qing's figure steadied itself, his brows furrowed slightly.
Within Guli's Second Layer Axe Domain, the air around him felt as though it had turned into a thick and sluggish bog!
"Within my Axe Domain, where do you think you can escape to?"
Guli let out a savage grin. His wrist twisted, and the massive dark iron axe swept sideways once more, a black axe radiance carrying unmatched force, slashing toward Chen Qing's waist and abdomen!
The instant the axe radiance was on the verge of touching the hem of Chen Qing's robe, the Jingzhe Spear in Chen Qing's hand suddenly halted!
"HUM!!"
A far more domineering spear intent erupted with Chen Qing as its center, with a thunderous force!
Within a thirty-zhang radius, spear intent crossed in every direction. Eighteen completely distinct yet perfectly merged streams of spear intent condensed into an airtight Spear Domain!
Within the Spear Domain, every inch of space was saturated with an unstoppable spear edge, colliding head-on with Guli's Second Layer Axe Domain!
"This Spear Domain?!"
A look of disbelieving horror exploded in Guli's eyes!
He could never have imagined that Chen Qing had not only cultivated a domain, but that the strength of his Spear Domain was in no way inferior to the Second Layer Axe Domain he had spent hundreds of years cultivating!
To think about it, how extraordinarily difficult was it to cultivate a domain? Some people could spend their entire life and never manage to form even a first-layer domain, to say nothing of cultivating a domain to the point where it could stand equal to a Second Layer Axe Domain!
"This young man cannot be allowed to live! He must die today!"
A sky-filling killing intent surged instantly within Guli's heart.
He turned his head sharply and roared at Blood Fang beside him. "Blood Fang! Move! Kill him together!"
Blood Fang heard this, and a cold gleam flashed in his eyes, without even a moment's hesitation.
He also understood clearly that if they could not kill Chen Qing today, neither of them would have any good days ahead!
The curved saber in his hand lit up with a golden radiance, locking onto Chen Qing's figure. His body transformed into seven or eight afterimages, carrying a fierce saber wind as he stabbed at Chen Qing's back from the side!
Front and rear assault, every path of retreat sealed off by saber light!
But just as the combined attack of the two was on the verge of landing, Chen Qing let out a low shout, and the True Origin in his elixir field erupted in a thunderous burst!
Nine Shadow Void Evasion Art! Separate!
In that instant, True Origin churned around Chen Qing, and once again nine figures identical to his true form split away in the blink of an eye!
The nine figures hovered briefly in the air, then raced off in nine completely different directions, each putting dozens of zhang of distance between themselves in less than a single breath.
"Hm?!"
Guli and Blood Fang were both startled simultaneously, and their attacking momentum came to an abrupt halt.
Just as both were confused and frantically searching for Chen Qing's true form, an aura of danger pushed to the absolute extreme suddenly erupted from among the nine figures!
That familiar aura of obliteration swept across the entire area in an instant!
"Not good!"
Guli's scalp went numb in an instant, every hair on his body standing on end, and he roared in his heart with alarmed uncertainty, "Does this young man actually have another Exploding Core?!"
"You guessed right!"
All nine figures let out a cold laugh simultaneously, the voices overlapping so that the source was completely indistinguishable.
Immediately after, one of the figures raised a hand and flicked it. A Golden Core, like a shooting star, hurled toward Guli and Blood Fang!
Both Guli and Blood Fang's expressions changed drastically. With no more thought of distinguishing the true form, both turned and burst backward in a frantic retreat, simultaneously pushing their True Origin to its limit and condensing protective shields before themselves!
But the Golden Core slammed into the ground with a dull thud, rolled a few times, and lay there quietly. Far from detonating, it didn't even produce the slightest True Origin fluctuation.
Both Guli and Blood Fang's retreating figures came to an abrupt halt. They looked at the perfectly ordinary Golden Core on the ground, and realized in an instant.
They had been tricked!
"You insolent wretch!"
Guli's eyes blazed red with fury, and a roar burst from his mouth. He, a peak Fifth Revolution Grandmaster, had been made a fool of again and again by a Second Revolution Grandmaster. It was a humiliation beyond all measure!
Without a moment's hesitation, both transformed into two streaks of light and charged furiously toward Chen Qing's nine figures!
But just as their figures had barely begun to move, an aura of obliteration far more terrifying than anything that had come before suddenly erupted from the ground beneath their feet!
"BOOM!!"
The second Fifth Revolution Grandmaster Exploding Core was fully detonated at this moment!
This Exploding Core was something Chen Qing had buried beneath the stone platform at the very same time he was laying the True Martial Demon-Quelling Spear Formation!
From the very beginning, he had never planned to resolve everything with just one Exploding Core. The first core had been to break the formation open, while this second one was the true killing blow!
This explosion was even more violent than the first!
Chen Qing had used the formation's carved patterns to lock the self-detonation force of this Exploding Core entirely within a twenty-zhang radius, specifically waiting for Guli and Blood Fang to step into this zone and deliver them a lethal blow!
Golden radiance again swallowed heaven and earth, and the deafening roar made the entirety of existence tremble!
Chen Qing had been prepared in advance. The instant the Exploding Core was triggered, he had already recalled all nine shadow figures. Using the Supreme Void Vanishing Heaven Technique, his true form retreated a hundred zhang away in a single instant, simultaneously driving the Dragon-Elephant force to push the True Origin shield to its maximum, blocking the Exploding Core's aftershocks entirely.
Blood Fang, at the core of the explosion, was not so fortunate.
He had used Shipan to absorb the first Exploding Core's impact and had come away largely unscathed. Caught completely off guard now, he was struck directly head-on by the full detonation of a second Fifth Revolution Exploding Core, and could not hold on for even a single breath before it took him apart!
"ARGH!!"
Blood Fang let out a blood-curdling scream. The violent shockwave slammed into him with full force, and his left arm was ripped apart by the blast in an instant. Every meridian in his body was severed inch by inch by that obliterating force.
His entire person was then sent flying like a shredded ragdoll, crashing heavily into the ground. Blood erupted wildly from his mouth, and he lost all ability to fight back, barely clinging to the last thread of life.
And Guli, the instant the explosion erupted, knew he had once again fallen into Chen Qing's calculations!
Nowhere to retreat, nowhere to dodge!
"Boom!"
The enormous sound erupted as the shockwave surged. In that instant his hand flipped, and a superior-grade spirit treasure shield was already held horizontally before him.
This shield was a supreme treasure he had obtained within the ruins. Its spiritual radiance surged explosively at this moment and took the direct impact head-on. Though the greater part of the force was blocked, a portion of the force still broke through the shield.
This peak Fifth Revolution Grandmaster, with no more room to hold anything back, immediately activated the trump card he had kept at the very bottom of everything, the Frost Eagle Soul-Burning True Form!
"With my blood, I honor my ancestors! With my soul, I summon my Frost Eagle!!"
Guli spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the massive dark iron axe in his hand. The frost eagle totem on the axe body came alive in an instant, letting out a sharp eagle's screech!
The Fifth Revolution Golden Core in his elixir field began to burn furiously, and the essence blood throughout his body was ignited at this moment!
His entire body was instantly covered in a thick layer of ice-blue feathers. Both arms transformed into sharp eagle talons, and behind his back spread a pair of frost eagle wings dozens of zhang wide.
This was the Frost Eagle Division's forbidden divine ability, temporarily surging one's own strength by a substantial margin. Even against a Sixth Revolution Grandmaster, one could hold their own!
"BOOM!!"
The Exploding Core's shockwave slammed into the Frost Eagle True Form. Guli let out a muffled grunt, and the feathers on his chest were shattered for the greater part. Another great mouthful of blood erupted from his mouth. But he had, in the end, endured the full detonation of this Fifth Revolution Exploding Core!
He gave Chen Qing a deep, lingering look.
Even with the numerous precious medicines and pills obtained within the ruins available, recovering from injuries was no simple matter. And at this point he had sustained serious wounds, his Golden Core was burning, and his actual strength had already dropped by more than half.
Moreover, this young man Chen Qing's trump cards kept coming without end. Who knew whether there was a third or fourth Exploding Core in his hands?
If the fight continued, forget killing Chen Qing. He was going to leave his own life here today!
The frost eagle wings behind Guli fanned powerfully. A violent storm of wind and snow churned around him, and his figure transformed into a streak of ice-blue light. At the fastest speed he could manage, he fled desperately into the depths of the ruins.
Chen Qing watched Guli's panicked, fleeing silhouette, and the Jingzhe Spear in his hand lifted faintly, but in the end he did not give chase.
He understood clearly in his heart the principle that one must not pursue a cornered enemy relentlessly.
Guli was after all a peak Fifth Revolution Grandmaster. Even with serious injuries and pressed to his limits, he certainly still had other life-saving trump cards in reserve. If he truly gave chase and drove Guli to a mutual destruction last stand, even if he ultimately killed him, the price to pay would inevitably not be small.
Moreover, within these Ancient Kingdom Ruins, danger lurked at every turn.
The Jinting Empire still had Grand Lord Feili, also a peak Fifth Revolution Grandmaster, whose whereabouts were unknown.
There was also Ling Xuance of the Great Snow Mountain, and the various experts of the Que Religion, the Buddhist Kingdom, and Taiyi Upper Sect, all watching greedily in the shadows from various directions.
If he and Guli fought to mutual ruin, all that would do was benefit those who had been lurking like orioles waiting to strike from behind.
As for the Sixth Revolution Exploding Core, Chen Qing did indeed have the opportunity to use it to intercept and even kill Guli. But this Exploding Core was his ultimate final trump card. Using it here against a Guli who was already fleeing in panic would be a tremendous waste.
If in the future he encountered even more powerful opponents, this Exploding Core would be his greatest tool for reversing an impossible situation.
Chen Qing withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Grand Lord Blood Fang, lying on the ground with barely half a breath left.
Blood Fang looked at Chen Qing walking toward him step by step. "If you kill me, Grand Lord Feili will never let you go... I have treasures, I'll give you everything I have, please spare my life..."
Chen Qing's expression was blank. He simply could not be bothered to waste words on him.
The Jingzhe Spear in his hand gave a faint push, and a cold flash of light at the spear tip blinked.
Then he turned, walked over to where Rongyuan lay in a pool of blood, and ended his life.
With this, of the five Jinting Grandmasters who had surrounded Chen Qing, only Guli had fled in wretched disarray. The other four had all died with their Daos extinguished.
Chen Qing lowered his spear and stood still. Looking at the bodies and the devastation all around, he thought quietly to himself, "Those Exploding Cores are truly remarkable. A pity there is only one Sixth Revolution one remaining."
Today, if not for those two Fifth Revolution Exploding Cores catching the five Grandmasters completely off guard and disrupting their encirclement, even if he could have ultimately prevailed, he would certainly have paid a significant price, and might even have been drawn into a prolonged battle that invited more Jinting experts.
"That Guli was able to endure a direct hit from a Fifth Revolution Exploding Core through his trump cards and still escape in one piece. He must have obtained quite a few extraordinary things."
Chen Qing reflected quietly. "Within these Ancient Kingdom Ruins, hidden tigers and crouching dragons are everywhere. Every person has their own ultimate trump card kept in reserve. I must be even more careful."
He did not dwell on it further. His sleeve swept lightly outward, drawing the shield Guli had dropped in his panicked flight, along with the beast-hide pouches from Blood Fang, Shipan, Jinya, and Rongyuan, all into his hands.
Chen Qing stored everything into the Cosmic Myriad Manifestations Diagram, then used his True Origin to reduce all the bodies to ash. Only then did he turn and race off.
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