While he had defeated several rivals, who intended to approach the center of the cloud of stars, in rapid succession, Zhu Yi did not let his guard down. The remaining rival, who controlled the Blood River Primordial Water remained a threat.
Blood River Faction, which existed since the Primordial Age, was a super demonic sect that had its moments of glory. It had historically been an enemy of Mount Shu Sword Sect and had even been successful with flooding Mount Shu with the Blood River on one occasion. While they have eventually been driven back, the battle had been one of the biggest tribulations in the history of Mount Shu Sword Sect.
Unfortunately, Blood River Primordial Water truly incited hatred. Even during the harshest periods of the stand-off between humans and demons, everyone in the divine lands remained hostile to Blood River Faction; even the demon faction could not tolerate them. The overall hostility eventually led to the sect"s demise.
In the Primordial Age, Blood River Faction had also dispatched strong cultivators to enter the Ying Sea to seek control of the three celestial mountains. However, as they attempted to scale the Fangzhang Celestial Mountain, they eventually fell under the crus.h.i.+ng might of the Ying Sea triggered by the Celestial Mountain.
Only a few cultivators of the third level of Immortal Soul stage had ever fallen in the Ying sea, and Blood River Prince had been one of them.
As Zhu Yi had observed, the one who possessed the starlight body formed by the remnant soul of Blood River Prince had a high cultivation level as well.
Among those who entered the spatial illusion, if they had a low cultivation level, they would not be able to utilize the power of their starlight soul bodies to their fullest potential even if it was infused with the soul remnant of an incredibly strong cultivator. This was similar to how a three-year-old child could not wield a thousand-pound hammer properly, if at all.
But the one before Zhu Yi"s eyes had formidable strength even if he did not fully utilize the former Blood River Prince"s full power.
However, before engaging this person in battle, Zhu Yi sensed a greater danger approaching him. A ball of shadow closed in on him from below; its shape resembled that of an abyssal monster opening its mouth, ready to sink its teeth on him.
Zhu Yi frowned slightly and utilized the maneuver technique of "Wing Fire Snake" move to evade the shadow, but the ball of shadow immediately expanded itself to an enormous size as it tried to engulf him.
Faced with this ma.s.sive a.s.sault, Zhu Yi decided to hold his ground. He braced himself in a fighting posture and eyed the enormous ball of shadow calmly.
Zhu Yi"s starlight soul body, while seemingly standing still, was, in fact, s.h.i.+fting at a maniacal pace that the human eye couldn"t see!
Zhu Yi stood with one leg in front of the other; his back was perfectly straight. His entire upper body seemed like the chord of a fully strung bow that had just fired its arrow.
"Star Sun Horse!"
The star mansion had the form of the Sun and a shape that resembled a horse, hence the name Star Sun Horse. It was the fourth mansion of the south, forming the eye of the vermillion bird region. The eyes of birds tend to twinkle like the stars, giving the mansion the name "star."
The Star Sun Horse move in the Celestial Fist of the Twenty-Eight Mansions countered moves by remaining still. Its user would move last after astutely capturing his opponent"s movements and spotting flaws in the enemy"s a.s.sault. This way, the user would keep still when his enemy keeps still. Once his enemy strikes, he would be able to land his attack first!
In the mere split second of a moment, many information ran through Zhu Yi"s mind.
"This is the mantra of the Dark Emperor, one of the Emperors of Man in the Primordial Age... It is not the complete Dark Emperor mantra, but a version recreated by his descendants. "
"Among the powerful demonic cultivators in the Middle Ages, Demonic Shadow Sect had a powerful cultivator at the second Level of Immortal Soul stage who died in the Ying Sea for the three mountains. He was known as the h.e.l.l Shadow Holy Man, so this person must have possessed the starlight formed from h.e.l.l Shadow Holy Man"s soul remnants."
As he thought about the situation, Zhu Yi controlled his starlight soul body. With a flex of his fists, his entire body emitted a wave of seemingly realistic pugilist"s blood aura. The orifices all over his body trembled at the same time. From each orifice, an ethereal star rose into the air.
The glimmer of starlight all over his body repelled the shadow around him. The fierce aura of the fist around him slowly condensed into a surreal illusion, within which innumerable stars twinkled.
Physical martial arts of Emperor Chen, Divine Palm of Three Enclosures, Heavenly Market Enclosure Divine Palm!
After battling Monk Da Kong, while Zhu Yi"s starlight soul body almost disintegrated when he forced the use of his Essay of the Sages, he had gained a greater understanding of the martial arts of Emperor Chen, learning the Divine Palm of Three Enclosures which he had not been able to master.
The three enclosures refer to the upper Supreme Palace Enclosure, the middle Purple Forbidden Enclosure, and the lower Heavenly Market Enclosure.
The martial art that Zhu Yi was using at the moment was the Heavenly Market Enclosure Divine Palm. As the truth of the martial way condensed, it almost formed an expansive universe.
As the palm strike landed, it seemed as fierce as the fall of stars, fully demonstrating the prowess of Emperor Chen, one of the most powerful pugilist of the Primordial Age, the true form of the one who tore Primordial demons apart with his bare hands.
The ball of shadow stalled for a moment when it faced the Heavenly Market Enclosure Divine Palm. It then suddenly split into smaller b.a.l.l.s of shadow that veered to the sides to avoid Zhu Yi"s palm strike.
While he could execute the Demonic Shadow Sect"s Abhijna to convert his body into shadows which allow him to defend or even devour many different types of Abhijnas and spells, a direct physical martial strike such as this could still damage his soul.
While the shadow splited, it did not intend to give in. On the contrary, the b.a.l.l.s of shadow continued to split seemingly endlessly in s.p.a.ce before launching themselves at Zhu Yi in an enormous barrage of attack.
Each ball of shadow morphed into a shadowy Taoist figure wearing a tall hat and old black clothing.
Zhu Yi remained undaunted by the attack. He swung the fists of his starlight soul body, preparing to strike these shadowy figures down one by one.
Soon, however, he realized that he was in trouble. The black Taoist figures did not attempt to dodge the incoming fist strike but instead faced it head-on. The power level of these Avatars remained at Level two of Immortal Soul Stage and did not diminish by splitting into so many Avatars.
Zhu Yi remembered: "The Yuan Shadow Avatar of the Demonic Shadow Sect, which was pa.s.sed down by the Dark Emperor!"
A Yuan is equivalent to 129600. According to legend, When the Primordial Dark Emperor cast this spell, he would be able to summon 129600 Shadow Avatars that could be anywhere, and each avatar is as strong as the Dark Emperor himself.
When this Abhijna first appeared, it shook the entire Greater Worlds. Many strong demon cultivators had been slain by this move, yet none of them could even find Dark Emperor"s real self. Even the Chieftain of the Immemorial Celestial Dragons, the Emperor of all Demons, the First Dragon Xuan Shang had a hard time dealing with the move.
It was only much later when Xuan Shang discovered the details of this powerful Abhijna that he was able to defeat and slay the Dark Emperor.
While the Yuan Shadow Avatar summoned numerous Shadow Avatars, not all of them were as strong as the real person. Instead, the caster can swap his real body with any of these avatars at will.
There were many spells with the same effect. Many cultivators of Immortal Soul Stage did not even need a spell to swap the location of their real body with that of an avatar.
Nonetheless, it was exceedingly rare to be able to complete the swap as quickly as the Yuan Shadow Avatar, which transposed at the mind"s will.
A strong cultivator like the Dark Emperor could swap numerous times in the blink of an eye, which was amazingly quick.
Being able to execute the swap at lightning speed effectively gave each avatar strength equal to the real body.
In this situation, unless one possessed superior strength such as Emperor Jue, Xuan Sheng, had over the Dark Emperor and launched strong areof-effect attacks that damaged all the Shadow Avatars and the real body at once, it would be impossible to hit the real body.
However, areof-effect attacks spread the attacker"s strength thin over a large area, making it hard to defeat the Yuan Shadow Avatars.
Hence, in battles between equally matched opponents, the Yuan Shadow Avatar remained a difficult Abhijna to deal with.
"The Yuan Shadow Avatar is an advanced Abhijna in the lineage of both the Dark Emperor and the Demonic Shadow Sect. It would have been challenging for this person to cast the Abhijna with his starlight soul body." Zhu Yi mused: "The lineage of the Demonic Shadow Sect had been broken a long time ago, so he must have figured out the Abhijnas himself as I did."
While Zhu Yi grew more cautious mentally, he was not afraid of the Yuan Shadow Avatar given that he knew about its secrets. He opened his mouth, and his starlight body gave out an inaudible roar.
While no sound can be heard, all the starlight bodies around him shook slightly.
At the next moment, Zhu Yi controlled his starlight body. With a sway of his body, he seemingly produced many copies of himself that blinked in and out of existence in the void. The fists of all of the figures attacked the Shadow Avatars in unison.
Zhu Yi achieved this not because he could summon countless numbers of avatars like his opponent. Instead, he used the explosive force of a pugilist to dash across short distances and strike with his fists repeatedly at the speed of lightning.
While his speed was no match to that of the Dark Emperor, the Soul Remnant of his opponent"s starlight body belonged to h.e.l.l Shadow Holy Man and not the Dark Emperor himself!
Faced with his lightning fast strikes, Zhu Yi"s opponent retaliated unrelentingly. He braced the impact of Zhu Yi"s fist blows, cast one Demonic Shadow Abhijna after another, trading each attack with an attack.
Many a time he allowed Zhu Yi to take down some of his Shadow Avatars to attack Zhu Yi with a powerful spell.
He even made use of the swap between his real body and the avatars to mislead Zhu Yi, hiding genuine critical blows under the guise of fake loopholes in his stance.
In the matter of mere moments, their fight had grown so intense that whoever dared to be close to them, be it chaotic starlights or starlight soul bodies controlled by people, would be affected by the fight and end up either injured or dead.
After the round of battle, the duo stopped together and rushed towards the doorway at the center of the cloud of stars.
The person who possessed Blood River Prince had already cleared away a large number of starlights blocking his way and was going to reach the center of the cloud of stars.
Zhu Yi and the person who possessed the starlight of h.e.l.l Shadow Holy Man attacked in unison to stop him. The Heavenly Market Enclosure Divine Palm and a giant net of shadow landed on the starlight surrounded by the Blood River.
However, their opponent would not be defeated so easily. The starlight extended the Unholy Blood River that surrounded him into the void and shaped it into a dozen dark red lotuses that blocked the duo in their paths.
The shadowy starlight didn"t hesitate and controlled a dozen shadow avatars to collide into the lotuses, attempting to clear them away.
Zhu Yi gave a silent cheer. While the shadowy starlight had been a formidable opponent, he could not have been a better teammate when they attacked someone else together.
The Unholy Blood Lotuses of Blood River Faction naturally could not be overcome so easily. However, at the very moment when the Blood Lotuses engulfed the shadow avatars, Zhu Yi took the opportunity and unleashed all of his pugilist"s blood aura, boosting his speed to its maximum which allowed him to pa.s.s through the blockade formed by the lotuses to reach his opponent.
At the same moment, another cl.u.s.ter of starlight arrived from another direction. Golden flames erupted from its surface, its glow as glaring as sunlight. It transformed into a three-legged golden crow and attacked the starlight surrounded by the Blood River.