Book 7, Chapter 27: Duel (1)
The sky had grown dark because the giant falcon was blocking out the sun.
The falcon’s wings churned up an extremely powerful gale, making it hard for the soldiers to stand up straight. Miniature tornados sprang to life, enveloping all of the humans in the battlefield within. Most shockingly, the cultivators discovered that their attacks seemed to have been nullified by the violent winds being generated by the falcon. It was as if they had suddenly reverted to being commoners, unable to fly and having lost complete control of their body.
In their weakened state, the violent wind blew them around mercilessly. Any cultivator below the Light Shaking Realm was like a decaying leaf tumbling in the wind, and the Spirit Burning Realm cultivators were just trying not to smash into anything else. Only those at the Thought Manifestation Realm and above could avoid being tossed about.
Even so, this was the effect of a casual flap of the wings from the giant falcon. It hadn’t even truly begun unleas.h.i.+ng its full power yet.
“Get into formation!!!”
The officers responsible for directing the cultivators roared as loudly as they could, but the wind carried away their commands as soon as the words left their mouths.
Thankfully, it was at that moment that a thunderous voice suddenly boomed in everyone’s mind. “Activate the Star Fixing Formation!”
It was Su Chen!
By relying on his powerful consciousness, Su Chen managed to transmit this command into the minds of all of the human soldiers present.
Boom!
A streak of starlight shot from the North-Facing Slope into the sky, piercing the clouds overhead.
Wherever the starlight was scattered, the winds grew weaker.
The human armies had no idea just what kind of Desolate Beast they were facing yet, or what unique properties it possessed, but they did know that stabilizing themselves was the top priority.
As such, a formation like the Star Fixing Formation, which could stabilize the Origin Energy and cultivators nearby, had managed to be completed prior to the giant falcon’s arrival.
Once the formation was activated, the winds being generated by the giant falcon noticeably weakened.
The giant falcon shrieked in displeasure, raking its giant claws through the sky.
The falcon’s talons were as large as a mountain. This simple motion tore up nearly half of the North-Facing Slope.
The humans were far smaller and weaker in comparison to the giant falcon, which was emanating a majestic, imposing aura.
Shadowy figures began to appear in the sky.
The Gu Clan’s twelve elders, Chu Yuan, Li Wuyi, Jiang Jusheng, Feng Zhuying, Du Qingxi, Cheng Qikong, and the other Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators all made their moves, rus.h.i.+ng forward to meet the giant falcon. Even the Void Seahorse made its appearance, unleas.h.i.+ng a seemingly invincible Dimensional Slash.
Dimensional Slash was a spatial technique that could ignore all physical barriers. Even a Desolate Beast would be incapable of defending themselves against it.
Whoos.h.!.+
The Dimensional Slash left behind a deep wound on the golden falcon’s body, and golden blood began to spray hotly in all directions. The blood splashed on a few unlucky cultivators who were standing too close, immediately turning them to ashes. The power of a Desolate Beast’s blood was impossible to withstand for most normal cultivators.
But even though this Dimensional Slash had managed to injure the giant falcon, it was incapable of completely cutting through. In fact, to a creature of its size, this wound was no more irritating than a mosquito bite.
The golden falcon didn’t even feel it - it completely ignored the Void Seahorse, instead descending mercilessly upon the Star Fixing Formation.
This formation, which was inhibiting it from unleas.h.i.+ng its full power, was far more irritating.
The Star-Fixing Formation’s resilience was only average. This claw would most likely destroy it completely.
At that moment, Su Chen’s voice suddenly resonated in their hearts once more. “The Stars Change Positions!”
Following his command, the nearby s.p.a.ce began to distort strangely.
The giant falcon suddenly found that its claw strike had missed its target. Instead, its attack had struck a nearby hill.
What was that all about?
The giant falcon was having a hard time wrapping its head around what had just happened, but if it couldn’t figure it out, it just wouldn’t think. After all, the Desolate Beasts had always relied on their strength and not their brains to resolve issues.
If one claw strike wasn’t enough, then what about a second.
Even so, the s.p.a.ce nearby distorted yet again, and the giant falcon’s attack missed once more.
This was the point of The Stars Change Position.
Most formations would be protected by impenetrable barriers.
This time, however, the humans had not chosen that tactic.
Without Sky City and its ninety-nine Arcana Towers, fighting a Desolate Beast head-on was idiotic. Even the most powerful defenses the humans possessed wouldn’t be able to withstand more than a few attacks from the Desolate Beast.
Su Chen and the others had been prepared for this possibility a long time ago, and they had spent quite a bit of time discussing their experiences fighting against Desolate Beasts.
Eventually, they reached the conclusion that it wouldn’t be possible to stop a Desolate Beast with an iron-clad defense alone. If that was the case, there was no point in mounting such a defense in the first place.
Instead of trying to fight, they had taken the tactic of avoidance.
If I can’t withstand your attacks, I’ll just dodge!
The Stars Change Positions was borne out of such ideology - a tactic used specifically to deal with the Desolate Beasts. It could use spatial methods to redirect a Desolate Beast’s attacks. In fact, this method was effective against attacks from other races as well. No matter how powerful an attack was, it was useless if it didn’t hit its target!
Of course, such a concept was something that only Su Chen could dream up.
Su Chen’s comprehension of spatial Method Power was extremely deep. With his guidance, Jiang Hanfeng and the other talented Origin Formation specialists under his command managed to come up with this supplementary formation.
This was one of the reasons why the Boundless Sect dared to fight against the Beasts.
The Stars Change Position consumed spatial materials, including Void Crystals and Void Starmetal, so Su Chen hadn’t been willing to use it lightly. He even refused to use it when the Beasts had begun their onslaught.
Now however, this formation was finally seeing use.
With its protection, the golden falcon’s attacks all missed, and the Star Fixing Formation remained intact.
The golden falcon, however, seemed to take offense to this and unleashed a flurry of attacks against the formation. But no matter how closely it focused, all of its attacks missed. On the other hand, the formation’s surroundings had been completely decimated.
The North-Facing Slope was originally no more than a small slope, but the giant falcon had gradually sculpted it into a mountain with its attacks.
A mountain surrounded by a basin.
No matter how the falcon attempted to change the way it attacked, its target remained untouched. Meanwhile, the human soldiers were taking advantage of this opportunity to attack with all their might.
All of the Thought Manifestation and Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators had joined hands to attack from above, while countless Origin Qi Scholars unleashed joint techniques at the falcon from below. The Desolate Beast was so large that missing was not a concern. The only concern was that wounding it required tens of thousands of soldiers to attack in unison rather than hundreds or even thousands.
“GRRAHH!” the giant falcon keened angrily.
The Stars Change Position couldn’t redirect sound waves, and the ear-piercing cry sent intensely powerful shockwaves of sound radiating in all directions. The weaker disciples were killed by this attack immediately.
Long before the giant falcon uttered its angry cry, however, Su Chen had given a third command.
“Wave-Flattening Formation!”
A transparent light surged, rapidly enveloping the entire battlefield and emanating with boundless warmth.
Its only function was to quell soundwaves within a certain area, greatly decreasing the killing power of any sound-related techniques.
Many Desolate Beasts possessed such abilities. Throughout Intelligent Race history, there had been too many records of Desolate Beasts slaughtering countless soldiers with a single roar.
This was why the human race had developed the Wave-Flattening Formation - to deal with these attacks from Desolate Beasts.
But just like the Star Fixing Formation, it was quite fragile and needed to be protected by The Stars Change Position.
Even the falcon’s cry was stifled. It opened its beak once more, but this time, a white ball of wind began to gather.
The ball of wind continued to grow larger and larger as it descended towards the North-Facing Slope.
Even though this ball of wind appeared quite ordinary, no one wanted to find out what would happen if it was allowed to hit the North-Facing Slope.
Actually, Desolate Beasts didn’t really possess many complicated techniques. They were just too powerful.
If legendary Arcana Techniques could be considered to be the equivalent of roughly Thirteenth-Ring, then any attack from a Desolate Beast was at least the equivalent of Twentieth-Ring.
This kind of might was simply impossible to withstand as an individual, so it could only be kept at bay with formations that took advantage of numbers to give soldiers an opportunity to land a blow - even if death would follow imminently.
The core strategy of how to deal with Desolate Beasts remained unchanged no matter how the peripheral matters s.h.i.+fted.
This ball of wind appeared to be traveling quite slowly and seemed as if it would be quite easy to disperse.
Even so, this slow speed perfectly countered the effects of The Stars Change Position.
The ball of wind had locked onto North-Facing Slope. No matter how The Stars Changed Position, they could only delay the descent of the ball of wind, but not redirect it entirely.
The Stars Changed Positions three times in a row but were incapable of evading the ball of wind, which continued to descend slowly but steadily.
“Stop the formation!” Su Chen gave the command. The Stars Change Position consumed precious spatial materials every time it was activated, and these materials were exceptionally hard to produce. Su Chen himself had to go to the void to harvest them, and the yield was often quite low. It took lots of time and effort to do so. As such, when Su Chen saw that The Stars Change Position was not effective, he hurriedly gave the command to stop.
Just as the ball of wind was about to land, Su Chen unleashed a finger strike.
If the attack was unavoidable, then it needed to be dispersed by force.
This finger strike, however, did nothing.
The ball of wind seemed to have completely ignored Su Chen’s interference.
Indeed, the Origin Skills of Desolate Beasts were not so easy to destroy.
But at that precise moment, Su Chen activated his microscopic eyes. His eyes rapidly flickered across the scene, capturing as much detail as they could about the revolving ball of wind.
Even though the wind ball was large, it was still made out of Origin Energy - albeit significantly more Origin Energy than usual. Even so, it was precisely because there was so much Origin Energy that figuring out its secret was much easier.
Su Chen was using his method for investigating the chaotic flow of Origin Energy. Decades had gone by since he had first gained this ability, and his skill had advanced in leaps and bounds. Factoring in the size of the ball of wind, Su Chen was able to almost immediately identify the principles behind it.
He unleashed another finger strike, this time imbuing it with a trace of immortal energy.
The ball of wind exploded violently upon collision.
The ensuing shockwave was terrifyingly powerful
But even if the shockwave was powerful, it had missed all of its intended targets apart from a Thought Manifestation Realm cultivator, who had unluckily happened to be standing in the way. Even the shockwave from the forcibly dispersed attack immediately ripped that cultivator to shreds.
“GRRAHH!”
A thunderous cry rumbled through the sky, one that even the Wave-Flattening Formation had a hard time controlling.
The golden falcon was infuriated.
From the moment it had first attacked until now, only a few dozen Origin Qi Scholars had died, yet its body was already riddled with thousands of b.l.o.o.d.y holes.
If this were to happen, wouldn’t it go down in history as the Desolate Beast that had killed the fewest Intelligent Race members?
That was absolutely unacceptable!
The golden falcon’s intense humiliation gave way to surging, red-hot anger.