"...husband-in-name…"
That sentence seemed to last for one thousand years as it echoed in Xu Hui"s ears. The words were long, drawn-out, and slow. They rang in her ears as if they were from a different era.
A layer of ripples stirred in Xu Hui"s heart, which had gradually fallen into dead stillness… Those ripples were like a blossoming flower that continued spreading outwards. They echoed in her… until they turned into a force which allowed her to open her eyes at that moment.
Her eyes that could be seen through the slit they had opened were dark, without light, and l.u.s.terless. Still, they saw things, and they focused on the figure of her husband-in-name standing beyond the crumbling barrier. The pieces from the barrier seemed to be serving as a background, as a foil to his figure, making him into the center of attention.
Su Ming"s words echoed far and wide, causing the illusory old man"s heart to sink, and the person with the bow standing by his side hoisted the bow in his left hand without hesitation. He swiftly drew the bow with his right hand, then released the bowstring, and a sound of an arrow shooting through the air could be heard. A sharp arrow formed from sand charged towards Su Ming at lightning speed, and within an instant, it appeared in front of him, who was walking through the broken barrier.
The arrow was so quick that its speed was difficult to describe with words. Even if it was still in the distance before a person blinked, it would be at the center of the person"s brows when he finished blinking.
Su Ming raised his head and looked towards it coldly. At that moment, he was infinitesimally close to Solar Kalpa Realm, which was due to the power sent to him from his Ecang clone. However, this was not his strongest form before his Ecang clone personally came to this place.
He could… become even stronger!
As he raised his head, he lifted his right hand. He did not retreat, but instead took a step forward once more. Before his foot even landed, he had already seized the air before him, and a powerful force spread up his body from his hand.
That force was like an entire mountain range cras.h.i.+ng into him, causing Su Ming"s arms to go numb, but as the power was split across his body, he forcefully resolved that great power. At the same time, he completed his sixth step.
Bang!
The ground trembled due to Su Ming"s foot, and the sand s.h.i.+vered because his foot had landed on it. Clouds and wind surged up at that instant. As the winds howled, they grew stronger, sweeping up Su Ming"s long hair, because of which he looked frightful and aloof. There was also a monstrous sinister air about him.
What he had seized with his right hand was the sand arrow the person with the bow had shot!
That arrow hummed in his hand, but it could not escape from his palm. Su Ming lowered his head and cast a glance at the arrow in his hand. A strange glint slowly appeared in his eyes, and that strange light turned into a sun, a moon, and a star that tumbled backwards in his eyes, as if time itself was flowing backwards there.
Once the person with the bow and the illusory old man saw the strange light in his eyes, their expressions changed, especially that of the illusory old man. He even instinctively took a few steps backwards and cried out shrilly, "Power of time, you-you-you"re an apostle of the Temporal Spirit!"
"It"s this bow… this arrow…" Su Ming seemed to not have heard the illusory old man"s piercing voice. He looked at the arrow in his hand, and various scenes flashed in his eyes. In them were Xu Hui"s heroic figure from moments ago and her resistance as well as counterattacks when faced with the arrows.
When Su Ming saw the Eighteen Strikes of the Lake of Phoenix and the person with the bow firing three arrows, the powerful piercing light from the final moment was like a final blast of flames that burned his eyes. The scenes disappeared in the fire, and his eyes returned to normal at that instant.
"... that hurt her."
Su Ming raised his head. With a squeeze, the sand arrow crumbled in his hand, turning into fine sand that fell through the gaps between his fingers. Wind blew past and swept up this sand, turning it into a veil that floated past Su Ming.
"Kill him!"
The illusory old man retreated swiftly as his shrill voice echoed in the air, and the remaining sand giants charged towards Su Ming with a furious roar. At that moment, the person with the bow had an incredibly solemn expression on his face. As he rushed forward, he drew the bow once again, and this time, there were three arrows on the bow.
As the illusory old man retreated, the sand blade in his hand disappeared. A black, illusory skull appeared in his hand, and as he rubbed it, complex chants tumbled out of his mouth.
As they rang in the air, m.u.f.fled bangs came from up in the sky, as if it had turned into a barrier and there was someone behind it trying to break through.
A cold sneer appeared on Su Ming"s lips. He swiftly moved forward and instantly came in front of a sand giant. He then lifted his right hand to press against the center of that sand giant"s brows.
His size might seem as insignificant as an ant"s compared to that of the giant, but when he pressed his hand between its brows, the sand giant started trembling violently. Despair appeared on its face, and cracks tore through its forehead, then spread through his whole body. Su Ming"s strike contained the offensive power that was infinitesimally close to that of Solar Kalpa Realm, and it was definitely not something that a Malicious Sand Spirit with the power equivalent to those in the later stage of World Plane Realm could withstand.
Bang!
The sand giant"s body crumbled, disa.s.sembled layer by layer. When Su Ming left, it had already turned into a small hill of sand. The creature had lost its spirit and its life force.
At the same time, another sand giant swung its gigantic fist, and like a sandstorm, it swept up Su Ming"s robes. At the instant it closed in on him with a furious roar, he turned his head. He did not attack, and neither did he dodge, but in his eyes appeared the shadows of the sun and moon!
Ths was… the Illusion of Stars, Sun, and Moon. This Art contained a power that existed if one believed in it, and it was something Su Ming had mastered a little in Black Ink Planet.
That power had fused into his Illusion of Stars, Sun, and Moon. At that moment, it erupted, and the incoming sand giant"s body immediately trembled. Its fist came to a swift halt in front of Su Ming, and a dazed look appeared in its eyes. There was also a hint of struggle in them.
Su Ming no longer bothered about the sand giants. With a leap, he stepped onto one"s head, then jumped into the air as his long hair danced in the wind and his robes fluttered. His gaze was bitingly cold, and it was not missed by the person with the bow.
At that instant, booms echoed in the air. There were still eight sand giants that were coming towards Su Ming, along with the three arrows from the person with the bow. Whistling, they sliced through the air towards Su Ming, who was airborne.
Before they closed in, a low roar tumbled out of the mouth that belonged to the person with the bow.
"Explode!"
While his voice echoed in the air, loud bangs rang out from the three arrows. They crumbled at once and exploded in midair. These arrows were not used to injure someone, but to use the impact from the explosion to shock the enemy. This was the intention of the person with the bow.
As booming sounds echoed in the air, the person with the bow paused momentarily on the ground. He stabbed the bow into the sand as his body trembled, then pulled the bowstring and let out a roar that shook the skies.
"Murder in a Hundred Arrows!"
As he roared, the sand around him floated up. Within an instant, it turned into a hundred sharp arrows. At the instant the man released the bowstring, the whistles from the one hundred arrows shook the sky and earth. They shot out in one motion and charged towards the airborne Su Ming.
"Long-distance attacks are indeed effective. Are you taking advantage of me for not having such an Art?" Su Ming asked flatly. At that moment, he tapped his storage bag with his right hand, and immediately, a gourd appeared in his palm!
He swept his left hand across the gourd before he released it in the direction in front of himself. Then, he bowed down to the gourd.
"Treasured gourd, please kill!"
Once he said these words, a powerful light erupted from the gourd. That light contained six colors, and as they continued changing, an eye appeared. It locked onto the person with the bow, and a small person with a sharp blade in its hands flew out from the gourd. The little thing did not have eyes, but it still managed to instantly charge towards the person with the bow.
It flew past the hundred arrows as if they weren"t even there, which was an incredibly shocking The hundred arrows continued to come for Su Ming, while the treasured gourd came for the person with the bow!
"Murder in a Thousand Arrows!"
The expression of the person with the bow standing on the ground changed, and his pupils shrank. At the instant the treasured gourd was taken out, a sense of danger rose in his heart, especially when the eye on the gourd locked onto him. In fact, this gourd reminded him of a treasure he"d seen in the memories he inherited. That item had made him tremble in the same manner, and it looked very similar.
Under this threat, he executed his most powerful divine ability without hesitation. Once did so, a gigantic vortex appeared around his feet.
Some of the Sand Earthlings who did not manage to escape in time let out shrill screams of pain in the vortex, for their bodies were reduced to pieces of flesh and blood. But at that moment of danger, the person with the bow could no longer care about the Sand Earthlings. Protecting his own life was the most important thing.
Sharp arrows shot out from the gigantic vortex. Thousands of them came out, causing loud bangs that shook the sky and earth as they sliced through the air. The sight that this created was one that would definitely be handed down through generations if it was painted into a picture!
The arrows closed in on Su Ming at an incredibly fast pace, and a glint appeared in his eyes. He lowered his head in midair, ignoring the arrows. Instead, he looked at his own right palm.
He looked at it and at the palm lines there. At the moment the arrows closed in on him, he pushed forward with his right hand.
"G.o.d of Berserkers"... Palm!" he said flatly.
Immediately, an illusion that was several tens of thousands of feet tall appeared in the air. That illusion spread around Su Ming, eventually forming a huge palm!
The palm lines on in were the exact same ones as those on Su Ming"s right palm. At that moment, the shadow of the sun and moon in his eyes also started flickering.
The palm stood erect when it appeared in the world. When Su Ming pushed forward with his right hand, booming sounds surged into the sky. The palm seeped through his body, then traveled forward with deafening booms. Cracks appeared in s.p.a.ce, and fissures tore through the sky. Like a wall, the palm crashed into the thousand arrows.
This was Su Ming executing an Art of the G.o.d of Berserkers after his level of cultivation had come infinitesimally close to Solar Kalpa Realm!