As Sun Shan shouted that chant in his heart, the presence of his burning life spreading out from his body immediately started changing based on some sort of law in the universe.
This change seemed to be working in accordance to the clouds, the stars, the wind around them, the terrain of the ground itself, and everything else in the world. It also formed a tight connection to the Rune that was formed after Sun Shan pushed the eight needles into his body.
It was as if Sun Shan"s body had turned into an invisible black hole at that moment, one that was connected to a place somewhere tens of thousands of lis away. It resulted in Sun Shan turning into a medium connecting two points through s.p.a.ce, and his body becoming one of the two points. A Nascent Divinity would then be able to descend on him after traveling through the medium!
Sun Shan was laughing coldly in his heart. He believed that this plan he prepared was foolproof. Unless Su Ming absolutely did not believe in him and immediately cut him off at the moment he started casting this Art before killing him, Sun Shan was absolutely confident that he could make him walk straight into his deathtrap.
Everything he had done previously was for this final moment. At the instant Su Ming"s attention was attracted by the cave abode opening up, he would make this energy in him explode. He only needed an instant for this to work. Even if Su Ming noticed it later, it would still make no difference!
However… all of these idealistic situations he"d imagined would usually not work as planned in reality. For example one could take the fact that when Sun Shan started shouting the chant in his heart to have his Master"s Nascent Divinity descend on his body, he saw Su Ming, who he thought would be looking at the cave abode opening up… looking at over at him coldly instead.
There was a hint of scorn in that aloof gaze, and once Sun Shan saw it clearly, a shudder went through his body. Su Ming"s gaze was like a sharp blade that pierced his body, and he felt as if all his secrets had been revealed under that gaze. He could hide nothing from Su Ming.
"Impossible! He couldn"t have possibly noticed my thoughts! I didn"t slip up even once!"
Sun Shan"s heart let out a loud thump, and his body started trembling, but he no longer had time or freedom to be thinking too much. He swiftly lifted his hands and formed a seal before striking his own body.
Sun Shan started trembling violently with a bang, and a powerful might spread out from his body, as if another divine sense had appeared within him out of nowhere. That divine sense swiftly grew larger, rapidly turning into a Nascent Divinity to occupy Sun Shan"s body and take control over it.
Right from the start till the end, Su Ming never tried stopping him. When Sun Shan saw this, his heart went wild with joy, but at the same time, he also grew uncertain. The feeling that he could not see through Su Ming"s thoughts rose within him once again.
"Are you done descending yet?" Su Ming asked flatly.
At the instant he voiced that question, Sun Shan"s heart started trembling violently. All of the things that he thought had happened to him by luck fell to pieces. He knew that this person had learned of what he intended to do a long time ago, but he still let him complete the entire process of calling his Master to descend on him. This would only have happened if he was either an idiot, or he had complete confidence in himself!
He was confident that even if Sun Shan asked his Master to descend on him, he would still be able to completely dominate him!
But Sun Shan was a little too slow in his realization. These thoughts had just appeared in his head when his consciousness disappeared with a bang and fell into deep sleep. He had finished casting his divine ability, and the divine sense that had appeared out of nowhere in his body had already expanded and gathered together to turn into a Nascent Divinity.
His eyes fell shut and his head rolled downwards, then all his Qi disappeared with his consciousness. But at the same time that happened, a terrifying might swiftly replaced his Qi and exploded from his body, but the radius of the explosion was limited to only a circular area of ten thousand feet. Clearly, whoever it was did not want to spread that explosion too far away to avoid Evil Spirit Sect"s detection.
"Sir, aren"t you being a little too careless to just watch me descend…? How should I repay you?" A hoa.r.s.e voice came from Sun Shan"s lips. When he started speaking slowly, his shut eyes swiftly flew open, and a brilliant sparkle appeared in them, like a flash of lightning, before he lifted his head.
When he did so, his body began rapidly aging right before Su Ming"s eyes. Almost in the blink of an eye, the young Sun Shan was no longer there, but was replaced by an old person who exuded an ancient air. His skin was filled with wrinkles, and his hair had already turned gray. A powerful presence that did not belong to Sun Shan slowly spread out from his body.
"If you want to repay me, then tell me how many fusions of Dao you can do with your Hidden Execution of Justice," Su Ming"s said flatly, his expression remaining calm.
Cracking sounds came from Sun Shan"s body at that moment, and Sun Shan"s master slowly stood up. His gaze was like lightning as he looked at Su Ming, and he suddenly began laughing.
"So you were after Hidden Dragon Sect"s Hidden Execution of Justice! I can fuse six Daos within that Art!"
At the same time the old man said those words, he took a step towards Su Ming. When his foot landed on the void, powerful waves spread out under it and started sweeping outwards in all directions, as if the air had turned into water, and his foot had turned into a stone that could create ripples on the surface once it fell in.
Those waves seemed normal, but in truth, each one contained the power of the old man"s cultivation base. As it spread out and closed in on Su Ming, he also lifted his right foot and took a step forward.
At the instant his foot landed, waves also started spreading out from under his foot and crashed into the waves that the old man had created with his cultivation base. When the opposing waves connected, interconnecting loud bangs rang out continuously. The old man let out a m.u.f.fled grunt and staggered a few steps backwards. When he lifted his head, his expression changed.
"Great completion in the Berserker Soul Realm!" His pupils shrank.
"Early stage in the Ascendant Stage!" Su Ming"s body swayed slightly, but he did not back down as he looked at the old man and stated slowly.
"Are you Man Ya? Or are you perhaps Wu Shuang, Xue Sha, Tian Qi, or Chi Lei Tian, appearing before me after you went into hiding and changed your appearance?" The old man stared at Su Ming and blurted these five names in one go. Su Ming was familiar with Chi Lei Tian"s name among the five he mentioned, but he had never heard of the other four before.
However, if the old man would say these names when he presumed that Su Ming was a Berserker who had attained great completion in the Berserker Soul Realm, then these people must surely have the same level of cultivation as what he presumed Su Ming to have!
"These five people must be the five Berserkers who have attained great completion in the Berserker Soul Realm within Eastern Wastelands. Besides Chi Lei Tian, one of the names he mentioned should include All Ent.i.ties Clan"s progenitor, who had fought against me across the sea."
Su Ming did not answer his question. When his foot landed, a glint appeared in his eyes before he took another step. At the moment he moved forward, a vast amount of power erupted from his body and fused into his foot, causing the weather within ten thousand feet to change and a huge vortex to appear in the sky.
At the same time, a huge foot materialized in midair. This one step belonged to a certain divine ability - the G.o.d of the Berserkers" Seven Steps!
Sun Shan"s Master swiftly moved back. He was cursing in his heart at that moment. He might have come here with his Nascent Divinity instead of his real self, but if his Nascent Divinity was injured or destroyed, it would also be a disaster for him.
He did not expect that his disciple would call him here to face a powerful enemy who had attained great completion in the Berserker Soul Realm, which was the equivalent of the great circle in Ascendance. If he knew about this earlier, he would not have bothered about a single disciple"s call or about his survival, even if that disciple had the rare potential to search for dragons.
Even if the presence of Bright Yang Stone here had allowed him to descend in this place while ignoring the consequences, but all of this was not worth it in his eyes if he had to fight against a Berserker who had attained great completion in the Berserker Soul Realm!
After all, it did not matter whether it was his disciple or that Bright Yang Stone, both of these things were just external objects. Besides, that Bright Yang Stone did not have his soul, so he did not have to worry about his own survival either.
As he retreated, his expression turned dark and he lifted his hands while biting down on the tip of his tongue to cough up a mouthful of fresh blood. Once he formed a seal and pointed forward with both hands, the blood swiftly spread out and turned into a humanoid that charged forward.
Immediately after, that blood humanoid"s body swayed as it moved forward and turned into two before it swaying once more and splitting into four. When nearly a hundred humanoids were in the air, they moved in unison towards the foot in the sky, and towards Su Ming.
Su Ming did not stop moving even for a single instant. He took the seven steps in swift succession. When he completed them, the world rumbled, and a powerful force of impact swept horizontally in all directions, starting from this place itself. Under the loud rumbles, the face of Sun Shan"s Master turned stark pale. He swiftly retreated, and blood trickled out of the corners of his mouth. Shock also appeared on his face.
"He"s not in the great completion stage of the Berserker Soul Realm, but is halfway into the path to Life Cultivation! He"s already equivalent to those in Illusory Yin and Corporeal Yang!"
The old man did not hesitate in his retreat. He already did not have the heart to continue fighting. The only thought he had in his mind at that moment was to widen the distance between them and strive for a chance to leave this body!
However, before he managed to retreat up to even some hundreds of feet, Su Ming charged forward like an arrow in the mid of that force of impact and subsequent shattering of s.p.a.ce. When he lifted his right hand, wisps of black smoke spread out and turned into the Undertaker of Evil"s Spear on his palm. Once he gripped it, he swiftly threw it forward.
A piercing hum came from the Undertaker of Evil"s Spear as it turned into a long black arc that charged towards the old man, whose pupils shrank once again. He was already at a disadvantage because he could not bring with him any Enchanted Treasures when he descended to this place, and there was simply too big of a disparity between their combat abilities. When the long spear closed in on him, he swiftly lifted his hands and formed a strange seal that seemed like a vase before pus.h.i.+ng it forward.
A vase that had streams of light flowing from it immediately manifested and crashed into the long spear. With a loud bang, the vase shattered, and the long spear shot through the broken pieces, slicing through the old man"s right arm.
With a loud bang, the old man"s right arm shattered instantly and turned into a b.l.o.o.d.y mess of torn flesh. His face turned even paler, but he still gritted his teeth and continued retreating hastily. With each step he took backwards, his presence in the body would reduce slightly.
"Soul"s Return in Six Steps!"
The old man no longer had any will to fight. The only thought he had in his mind at that moment was to have his Nascent Divinity return to Hidden Dragon Sect. Once he took three steps back, his presence reduced by a large margin, but just as he was about to take his fourth step back, Su Ming closed in on him!
Translator"s Notes:
1. Hidden Execution of Justice: It was mentioned by Hong Luo to another old man in the past, and Hong Luo s.n.a.t.c.hed his eye after the old man casted it.