Book 7, Chapter 28: Duel (2)
Desolate Beasts had their own pride.
The giant falcon was completely enraged by the fact that its attacks were doing nothing.
A blazing golden light began to s.h.i.+ne from its entire body.
Following this flash of light, a violent squall was whipped up yet again, and blades of wind began to appear in the sky.
Golden Wind Edge.
It was as if a ma.s.sive blade formation had suddenly materialized out of nowhere, and each blade carried a dense aura of death and extermination.
Wind Edge was one of the weakest Arcana Techniques, and would often be discarded by cultivators as low as Yang Opening.
The Wind Edges being unleashed by the giant falcon, however, were radically different, and the aura they gave off was exceptionally threatening.
One of them happened to appear next to a cultivator. Even before it had completely formed, it seized the opportunity and slashed downwards, slicing that Origin Qi Scholar into two.
The Origin Qi Scholar’s name was Feng Siye, one of Feng Zhuying’s uncles. He was also an Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivator, yet this Wind Edge had bisected him before he even had time to react.
Even so, Feng Siye’s body sealed itself back together. His face was much paler, and he yelled, “It just severed a portion of my lifespring!”
Lifespring was the foundation supporting these powerful experts. Simply put, it was their life’s value.
A portion of one’s lifespring was roughly equivalent to a tenth of a person’s life value.
In other words, Feng Siye could only handle nine of these attacks. The tenth one would kill him.
Everyone present was badly startled when they heard this.
Even though being able to tank ten of these attacks didn’t sound bad in theory, these attacks were being unleashed on a large scale.
A simple misstep could result in being skewered by a few dozen blades all at once. In other words, death in a single blow.
As soon as Feng Siye cried out, Su Chen immediately roared, “Cursing Heaven Formation!”
A grey l.u.s.ter immediately began to envelop the Northern-Facing Slope.
This grey l.u.s.ter cast itself onto the golden falcon’s body, causing the falcon’s brilliance to dim significantly. The same occurred to the golden Wind Edges descending from the sky.
The Cursing Heaven Formation was yet another formation designed by the humans to be used against Desolate Beasts. Its function was to weaken the Desolate Beast’s attacks by thirty percent, and was yet another useful tool in the human a.r.s.enal.
However, the Cursing Heaven Formation was extremely expensive to operate, and was virtually impossible to maintain throughout an entire battle. As such, Su Chen hadn’t dared to activate it from the very beginning.
It wasn’t until the giant falcon had begun attacking in earnest that Su Chen had hurriedly issued the command.
Even though the giant falcon’s attacks had been weakened, however, no one wanted to get cut by those Wind Edges. They were still terrifyingly powerful.
Everyone began to dodge as quickly as possible.
The golden blades of wind in the sky began to whizz through the sky.
Whoos.h.!.+
Golden light filled the sky, scattering everywhere.
This time, the golden falcon seemed to have wisened up. Instead of trying to destroy the formation, it was attempting to kill the annoying mosquitos buzzing around it first.
The twenty or so Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators dispersed immediately. These mosquitos were elite mosquitos, after all, and each of them had their own unique strength and speed.
Feng Zhuying transformed into Windbite, melding with the wind; Du Qingxi rapidly ascended on a cloud; Jiang Jusheng formed a number of water clones to soak up the damage in his place; and Su Chen simply teleported out of range.
The Gu Clan, however, dealt with this issue the most elegantly.
After all, they made up more than half of the human race’s peak-tier strengths. The twelve of them had simultaneously sprang into action as soon as the giant array of golden Wind Edges had appeared. An image of a majestic s.h.i.+ning Dragon had appeared behind each of them.
The twelve s.h.i.+ning Dragons flew towards each other as soon as they appeared, merging to form a giant s.h.i.+ning Dragon. The dragon roared imposingly, shattering all of the golden Wind Edges descending in their direction.
The twelve elders had managed to withstand an attack from a Desolate Beast.
This was the power of an Origin Beast bloodline.
The human race had a number of important trump cards they relied on, including the Meteor Formation and Lifesource Candles, but it was still the Gu Clan’s elders that put on the most impressive show on the battlefield!
These elders possessed the most powerful bloodline, the longest lifespans, and the weightiest foundations. They were the only ones that had the right to ignore the majesty of a Desolate Beast.
Of course, none of the elders dared to face a Desolate Beast on their own, but when enough of them were together, they were able to produce a realistic manifestation of an Origin Beast.
This Origin Beast was a manifestation, not an illusion. It truly existed.
After nullifying the giant falcon’s attack, Gu Huiming called out, “s.h.i.+ning Dragon’s Flames!”
White-hot flames began to spurt forth from the s.h.i.+ning Dragon manifestation’s body.
Even the golden falcon trembled when the s.h.i.+ning Dragon manifestation had appeared, but it very quickly realized that the s.h.i.+ning Dragon was not the real thing. As such, it retaliated without hesitation by unleas.h.i.+ng a violent barrage of wind at the dragon.
This giant falcon was obviously a Beast with mastery over the wind, but it seemed to have some metal attributes as well. This was why its attacks could be so chaotic and violent yet razor-sharp at the same time.
The s.h.i.+ning Dragon’s flames immediately sent turbulent streams of energy surging in all directions upon slamming into the wind storms, forcing everyone else back and keeping them from
No, there was one more exception.
Su Chen’s figure flickered, reappearing above the golden falcon’s head. The Lightless Blade instantly grew to its full size, slas.h.i.+ng down directly onto the golden falcon’s head.
Whoos.h.!.+
Blood sprayed everywhere. Some splashed onto Su Chen and began to sizzle against his skin.
The falcon let out a bitter cry of pain. All the feathers on its back stood upright.
It only felt such pain because Su Chen had imbued his attack with a little immortal power. He only had a limited amount, so he was using it sparingly. Even so, just a little was more than enough to greatly amplify the strength of his attacks.
“Careful!” Gu Huiming yelled.
A small arrow of golden wind shot forth from its wings.
Su Chen hurriedly retreated, his figure flickering as he easily dodged the attack. Everyone else felt incredibly envious when they saw this.
It wasn’t that they didn’t have similar techniques. The Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators all possessed some kind of teleportation skill, but none of them could jump as far as Su Chen could.
Desolate Beasts were just too big, and the range of their attacks was astounding as well. Each attack seemed simple, but even a simple talon strike was capable of destroying nearly half a city. Normal teleportation skills simply weren’t effective. This was no different than Sun Wukong not being able to escape from Buddha’s palm [1. ]. If they couldn’t even teleport out of harm’s way, what was the point of teleporting at all?
Su Chen, however, was different. His comprehension of spatial Method Power allowed him to teleport far further than most would be able to. As such, he was the only one who could use such tactics on the battlefield.
As such, the battlefield was immediately divided into three areas.
The main area was still the North-Facing Slope, which was where all of the Origin Qi Scholars were gathered. This allowed the Origin Qi Scholars to utilize their numbers advantage to its greatest effect when fighting against the Desolate Beast. A total of eighteen different formations had been developed to deal with Desolate Beasts. If used in a rotation, they would have been more than capable of killing the Desolate Beast, unfortunately, due to time constraints they were only able to set up five. The remaining thirteen were incomplete, which was why their firepower was still severely lacking. This was also why some of the Origin Qi Scholars were building the formations as they fought.
The second group of power was the Gu Clan’s twelve elders. The s.h.i.+ning Dragon manifestation really was incredibly powerful, and after the golden falcon’s attacks had been weakened, the Gu Clan’s twelve elders were even able to withstand one of its attacks head-on. Of course, this was merely temporary; as time went on, they would begin to run out of strength.
The third group was naturally Su Chen himself.
His main responsibility was to output damage.
His powerful teleportation abilities made him the only individual that could deal significant amounts of damage. When factoring in the immortal power in his possession, his damage output was equivalent to that of everyone else combined.
He would teleport behind the falcon from time to time like a ghost. Every time he appeared, he would deal quite a bit of damage to the golden falcon.
The other Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators were obviously having a much tougher time.
The giant falcon’s strength was simply too great, to the point that these Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators didn’t even dare remain within its range for too long. Otherwise, they would definitely die. All they could do was unleash attacks from afar, then retreat further to avoid follow-up attacks. Only once the wave of attacks had pa.s.sed could they close in once more.
From time to time, the golden falcon would unleash a flurry of attacks at once.
If that happened, they could only endure.
Bang!
Boom!
Speaking of which, the giant falcon chose that moment to do that very thing.
A fan of ten thousand blades followed immediately by a violent ball of wind.
This time, its target was the “flies” in the air.
The violent explosion of wind sliced through everything in its path. An Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivator and Thought Manifestation Realm cultivator were caught within the storm.
The Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivator was able to regenerate, but the Thought Manifestation Realm cultivator died on the spot.
An attack that would claim one-tenth of an Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivator’s vitality would claim one hundred percent of a Thought Manifestation Realm cultivator’s vitality.
Both sides were slowly but surely wearing down the other.
Unlike the battle against the Thousand Poisons Toad, the golden falcon’s attacks were obviously much more powerful.
The golden falcon’s speed and offense were both high, whereas the Thousand Poisons Toad possessed potent poison and an abundance of lifeforce. The battle against the golden falcon was thus far more intense, with both sides hurling powerful attacks at the other from the very beginning.
Without the Boundless Sect’s support and the timely-arranged formations, the humans would have lost countless lives in such a high-intensity battle.
Even so, their casualties began to mount as time dragged on.
In addition, The Stars Change Position couldn’t be used repeatedly. The cultivators hugging the North-Facing Slope couldn’t possibly activate it just to avoid the battle’s shockwaves, so they could only endure the violent waves of energy was.h.i.+ng over them. Once the golden falcon discovered this, it drew closer to the North-Facing Slope, putting the cultivators there between a rock and a hard place. Their numbers were beginning to dwindle as wave after wave of powerful energy crashed into them.
A particularly powerful explosion killed nearly a thousand cultivators all at once.
Su Chen had no choice but to bring out the Meteor Formation as well to help alleviate some of the burden. Unfortunately, this gave the golden falcon an even clearer target, as the Meteor Formation was not protected by an Origin Formation.
The number of casualties only continued to grow.
Even so, this was the reality of battle.
Nothing gained, nothing ventured. As the battle’s intensity increased, they were forced to make a difficult decision, causing both their casualties and their expenditure to go up as well.
The only good news was that the golden falcon’s defenses and vitality were only average. Less than half a day had gone by, and its wounds were beginning to show. If this were to continue, Su Chen really would be able to finish off this Beast in less than a day.
It was just hard to say how many more lives would be lost before that happened.
If only Gu Qingluo were here, Su Chen couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
Even though Gu Qingluo wasn’t an Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivator, her bloodline purity was the highest. When factoring in Sky Armor, the s.h.i.+ning Dragon manifestation would definitely be more powerful with her present, giving him more opportunities to attack.
“Careful!” At that precise moment, Gu Huiming suddenly called out.
The situation suddenly took a turn for the worse.