If the nightmare soulworm’s attack was allowed to continue, they might end up trapped in an eternal nightmare. h.e.l.l"s Eye seemed to have opened up a gateway straight to the afterlife! While the soulworm didn"t have much in the way of offensive capabilities, its abilities could affect the soul in terrifying ways. People who knew better would never dare to underestimate it.
It wasn"t just Feiling; Ying Huo, Meow Meow, Lan Huang, and Xian Xian all stopped moving in a daze. They even smiled blankly as if they were completely charmed before abruptly turning to the giant eye. Tianming could see Xian Xian’s spiritform do that clearly within his lifebound s.p.a.ce as well. Its gaze was completely blank. Even the Radix World Tree, which didn"t have eyes on its main body, wasn"t impervious to its effects.
However, all of his enemies were unaffected. The ethereal ghostree, kilosword t.i.tanrhino, cloudsky fiendtoad, and goreblood seadevil launched rampaging a.s.saults against the unmoving lifebound beasts and Tianming.
Timber Woodchild had been waiting for this moment for far too long. The reason she had said what she did to Tianming was that she knew that the worm"s ability was about to be unleashed. So far, she had never been disappointed by its amazing effects. To her, falling under its effect was akin to going through an eternal nightmare, having felt what it was like herself before. As long as one couldn"t wake up, they would experience eternal suffering.
"So much for your big mouth! You were never our match to begin with!" The death of her siblings had left her heartbroken, but she wouldn"t let a rare opportunity like this go. Swiftly, she charged straight toward Tianming alongside the corpse puppets from her tree. It would probably only take some two to three seconds for her and her puppets to tear Tianming apart and devour him in full. But before the last moment, she felt like she was seeing things.
"How could this be?!"
Was it just her imagination? Tianming"s gaze seemed a little too calm to her. "Impossible. Even Ghoul King Po Suo said that she wasn"t immune to the effects of h.e.l.l"s Eye…."
She knew that she couldn"t afford to turn back. However, the next moment, she saw Tianming’s Dragonhide grow even more savage. He wielded his swords in an even more imposing manner, as if the Dragonhide was giving him an even stronger boost.
Brilliant flashes of the sword could be seen as tens of thousands of sword apparitions manifested alongside nine great beasts in a neat formation. It was the Ninesky Beastsoul Formation, now boosted with the Dragonhide"s effects. Each of the beast souls were formed of tens of thousands of sword ki strands.
At the same time, a hundred thousand swords came raining down from the sky in a huge torrent, tearing apart each and every corpse puppet from the tree.
"No...." Timber Woodchild could only watch as all of them were torn to shreds.
"Die!"
The Grand-Orient Sword came bearing down on her, striking her down. The tower beneath her completely crumbled into dust as a b.l.o.o.d.y flower bloomed where it had once stood. Now, four of the five wraiths had been killed, and Timber Woodchild"s fate was the worst of the lot.
She had believed in the nightmare soulworm so deeply that she never could have imagined that its ability would fail her. There was no way she could take Tianming"s strongest move in that shocked state of mind.
Soon, the dust settled, but Tianming didn"t even stop for a moment. The five wraiths" lifebound beasts were unrelentingly attacking Ying Huo and the rest. The slightest delay could result in their deaths. Even Feiling was still unconscious, as evidenced by the effects of Spiritual Attachment wearing off. There was simply no time to lose!
The instant Tianming killed Timber Woodchild, he charged through the smoke and dust, ramming straight through a few buildings, and lashed out with Archfiend. The whip crashed through countless buildings as it stretched three kilometers in length straight to the h.e.l.l"s Eye, the nightmare soulworm itself!
"I wonder if you can bleed!" Tianming wanted to make a gamble that he would regret not making ever in his life! Archfiend pierced through the worm"s body in a flash. "Your flesh was that soft all along? No wonder you"re so huge!"
Tianming was almost beaming with joy. For an eleventh-level death phase tribulation beast to only be as tough as one in the Sky Saint stage, it was a complete gla.s.s cannon. Normally, it would be really powerful with its ability and nightmare bugs, not to mention it would be protected by the ghoul king"s other lifebound beasts. But now, its ability didn"t work on Tianming, who had the Soul Tower to counteract it!
"Die!" The full length of Archfiend was now even longer than the worm. With a swing, the chain tore through countless lengths of flesh immediately as it wrapped around the worm tighter and tighter. The worm"s body shook as h.e.l.l"s Eye"s effects faded. As it didn"t have a mouth, it couldn"t even cry out in pain; however, grey blood was oozing out of its body as it struggled fiercely, knocking down one building after another.
After h.e.l.l"s Eye was gone, Ying Huo and the rest awakened from their slumber. Thankfully, they’d had the healing effect of the Greenspark Tower to keep them from dying while they were out cold. Before they had been hit by that ability, they were dominating their enemies. Now, they hurriedly ran away to heal their battered bodies before striking back with even more ferocity than before. Back then, they wouldn"t be nearly that powerful as they didn’t have the same benefit Tianming got from Feiling’s Spiritual Attachment, but the Greenspark Tower had changed everything.
Soon, Feiling reawakened. Even though she was still a little drowsy, the power she had been feeding Tianming returned. "What happened just now?"
"Worry about that later. We have to focus!" He grunted as he pulled on Archfiend with both hands as forcefully as he could, moving the kilometer-long worm. He then charged into the Azure Oceanic Purgatory and tied Archfiend to Lan Huang.
"Go!"
Lan Huang roared and charged with great momentum, dragging the nightmare soulworm along all through Fufeng City. The obstacles in their way battered away at the worm"s soft body, leaving a trail of grey blood in its wake.
"Don"t even think of running!" Goldspirit Ghoulmount cried despite his heavy injuries. He was the only surviving sibling and he gave chase desperately.
"You"re the last one remaining! Go reunite with them in h.e.l.l!" Tianming quickly approached as Goldspirit Ghoulmount was about to cut off Archfiend. There was no way someone with his severe injuries would be able to handle the white-haired youth. He used the last of the Dragonhide"s power to deal with him before it vanished.
Apart from that, there were four other lifebound beasts giving chase. The ethereal ghostree had already been set alight by Ying Huo, though it may not be dead just yet. As for the goreblood seadevil, cloudsky fiendtoad, and kilosword t.i.tanrhino, Tianming killed them one after another until n.o.body was left to pursue him.
"Nightmare soulworm!" Tianming had waited long for this outcome. The worm was far too big and it would take him the better part of a day to cut it apart with the Grand-Orient Sword. So, using Archfiend to drag it across and let friction peel away at its layers was ideal. Soon, Lan Huang felt the weight on its back lighten and turned back, only to see a b.l.o.o.d.y chain and nothing else.
"Did it run away?"
"No." Tianming stood on one of the kui mountains on its back. Bloodied and haggard though he was, he could still smirk. "It got turned into mincemeat by Archfiend."
......
Within Fufeng City, Ghoul King Si Ling stopped her technique. As she was unable to recoup most of the converted necromantic energy, she and her three lifebound beasts bled from their orifices from the severe injuries caused by blowback from Necromantic Metamorphosis. They would recover from it with enough time, but that wasn"t the pressing issue. Her real worry was that her soul link with the nightmare soulworm had been cut off. Right before its death, it cried to her and begged for help. Even though she had immediately decided to stop the technique, it was already far too late.
By the time she looked in Tianming"s direction, the sight that greeted her caused her eyes to turn bloodshot and almost pop out. It had happened too quickly. During the time she stopped the technique phase by phase, the Five Wraiths of Shoal Mountain had been killed. Even h.e.l.l"s Eye had lost its effect, and that meant the nightmare soulworm had suffered certain death!
Had she known the full extent of what was happening, she would have immediately stopped the technique even if she had to suffer worse repercussions from it. However, it was too little too late. It was just one of the many drawbacks of using forbidden arts. "Li Tianming!"
She took such a deep breath that new wrinkles seemed to form on her face. She immediately charged toward him with her three beasts.
......
"She"s coming!"
Tianming had Xian Xian and the rest return to his lifebound s.p.a.ce the moment he felt a killing intent homing in on him.
"Let"s go!" He got on Meow Meow and left, laughing the whole way. "We really made a killing this time! Let"s see if I"ll be able to get off scot-free from being chased by an eleventh-level death phase samsaran."
Tianming"s actions had been reckless, to say the least. He had bet on the fact that the forbidden art wasn"t something that could immediately be stopped, and he was right on the money.
"No matter what, Ghoul King Si Ling is different from Ghoul King Fu You and the rest. Meow Meow, I"m counting on you."
He turned back and saw grey mist rapidly closing in on him.
"Hmph! There"s no way they"ll catch up to me!" Meow Meow charged forward with even more intensity than before.