Chapter 154 Battle in the Relic
The Breeze Valley, a previously ordinary valley in Sishui Country, had become bustling with people since an unexpected Immortal Devil relic emerged here millions of years ago.
Cultivators from powerful Almighty Immortal figures to juniors of at the Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment levels all gathered here for some opportunities. It was even said that some otherworldly masters at the Tao Master level or above had come here. But since no one had really seen it, it was undetermined.
The Breeze Valley now was as busy as before. But where there were crowds, there were troubles. The law of the jungle was highly applied here, and numerous robberies occurred among cultivators.
Since Lyu Liang and the other three companions arrived here, they had been stopped three times by robbers. Not surprisingly, the robbers were robbed in the end…
It was not those guys’ fault to be so unconcerned because these four were all good at hiding their auras, especially Lyu Liang and Zhu Yu. And for Yang Ying and Xu Mubai, who were used to concealing their cultivation, this was just common practice.
It was a good idea to hide their auras. After all, four Fairy Immortals gathering together was so eye-catching, and it would be more convenient to level down their cultivation. Therefore, all of them controlled their cultivation to be at the Nascent Soul level.
In theory, it should be feasible to control their cultivation at this stage, but the three groups of robbers they encountered were generally at the stage of Void Return. After discussion, the four improved their cultivation to around the Late-stage Void Return directly, which enabled them to enjoy the rest of their journey finally.
To avoid alerting the enemy, the four disguised themselves after setting off. They changed themselves fairly wholly, not only in their looks but also in their body shapes.
They arrived here one day in advance, and just wandered around the relic instead of going in.
Then the next day, five cultivators came from the southeast. Although they dressed differently, Yang Ying recognized them at once—they were the five of the Ghostly Fire Palace, with changed clothes but the same looks.
Deep in the Breeze Valley stood a towering ma.s.sive bronze gate, with a gap in the center wide enough for three or four people to pa.s.s at a time.
After they arrived here, they flew in without any hesitation or stopping. Lyu Liang and his companions also caught up after one look of confirmation. Their purpose was quite simple—as soon as they got in the relic, they would execute the plan of killing and robbing straight away.
Even if the Dragon-Teeth Dagger were here, it wouldn’t be found in a short time. If it could be found so easily, then it should have revealed itself somewhere. Before they could destroy the two enemy powers in the Wufang Territory, they had no time to waste on this undiscovered treasure.
Entering the bronze gate, they saw a ma.s.s of high mountains and lofty hills shrouded in clouds and mist. But before Lyu Liang could look around this place where his parents had met for the first time, Zhu Yu shouted, “Watch out!”
At the same time, several destructive beams and flows of Sword Qi came straight at him to overwhelm him. Before Lyu Liang could produce any response, Zhu Yu had protected him with an indigo shield.
Then a violent shake followed. Lyu Liang didn’t know how the others would be after such a hit, but he believed that he would have been hurt seriously without the protection of this shield, even though he had a robust body.
“The Treasure of Remote Antiquity? The Violet-golden Divine Shield? How did you get… Wu Lei! What are you doing?!” A roar burst in the air, turning from shock to fury.
At the moment, they had defended against all the destructive attacks, and Zhu Yu had put away the indigo shield. Finally, Lyu Liang could see what happened in front of him.
The five people from the Ghostly Fire Palace had been divided into two groups, more precisely, one alone and four together. Among them, a tall strong man with a purple beard was panting heavily with one hand on his left breast, brown blood flowing out between his fingers.
Zhu Yu winked at the three behind, and then all of them rushed at their respective targets! Wu Lei, with coldness in his eyes, hummed coolly, “I have been for thousands of years, and today is the time to reveal my real self! Brother Xu Huan, since you treated me the best when I was in the Ghostly Fire Palace for so many years, I won’t hurt you. But from today on, you have to follow me! Besides that, give me your Remanent Divine Cane!”
After he had said that, a dark green rope suddenly appeared in the air, with one end in his hand, and another tied to a white-bearded old man among the four.
“The Divine Soul Rope? You hid it so deeply! But do you think you can tie my soul and restrain me with it?! You court death!” The old man’s stooped body stretched out suddenly. With a golden flash, he turned into a 10-meter-high monster in silver armor, with a single eye and a single horn. Holding a huge azure ax in his hand, he rushed at Wu Lei directly, regardless of the rope tied to him. Then, after a white flash, they disappeared together.
Ignoring the others, Lyu Liang rushed at Ji Chang, who had been in the Zi Tong Sect with him and was now called “Zi Huo”.
Ji Chang seemed to have prepared for it. He sneered, and with a golden flash, five puppets of different shapes appeared right before him. Judging by their auras, three of them were at the Peak of Almighty Immortal, and the other two were at its late stage. While Ji Chang himself, shining with golden lights, had retreated from the battle range.
At the moment, Zhu Yu and Yang Ying also encountered their targeted enemies. All of them chose to disperse. After all, the effective range of the battle between powerful figures was so extensive that it could disturb their own performance.
Seeing that his opponent summoned the puppets directly, Lyu Liang also waved his hand and called out two puppets at the late stage of Almighty Immortal, which had been improved by Xu Liang and Xu Xiaotao in the cave residence, as well as the huge bear. All of them lunged at the enemy’s weaker puppets at the late stage.
Lyu Liang, instead, dashed toward the three at the Peak. Just then, the Land Spirit, who had been silent all these days, voiced out, “Stupid boy, there is a puppet at the Tao Master level in the Virtual Land. Do you want it or not?”
Lyu Liang was stunned at first, and then he messaged excitedly, “Yes! Please help me!”
“This puppet was created through the combination of the ones in the Training Tower after you refined the realm. Now there is a soul inside left by the master, which can support you for 90 minutes. If you want to use it after this, you need to refine it by yourself!” After Land Spirit had said this, Lyu Liang felt a destructive aura immediately bursting from inside his body.
Then, a human-like, 20-meter-tall puppet emerged. It had eight arms, each holding a divine weapon, exuding the aura of an Early-stage Tao Master!
Lyu Liang threw back his head and laughed. He ignored the puppets before him, stimulated the Devil Thunder Wing and the Kun Peng Skill, and rushed at Ji Chang, who was apparently in shock.
Ji Chang was indeed astonished by Lyu Liang’s high-quality puppet, but as he saw Lyu Liang coming at him, cunning and cruelty also reappeared on his face.
When Lyu Liang came over to him, he didn’t act rashly but just stared at Ji Chang. Clutching his hands, he said, “Senior brother Ji, I still remember our camaraderie when we were in the same sect, and I never expected that we should fight today. It is so unwanted and unimaginable!”
At the moment, a cyan claw blade appeared in Ji Chang’s hand. Hearing Lyu Liang’s words, he laughed and said, “The muddle-headed Dumb in the past should become today’s eminent Lyu Liang! Where is your Giant Tiger? Is my strength too insignificant to match your move, or is that move too powerful to be used at random?”
Lyu Liang gave a wry smile. Ji Chang was so smart. Although the time limit would be sensed by the enemy sooner or later, Lyu Liang wouldn’t let himself admit it!
At this critical moment, he didn’t disguise any longer but summoned the Ghost Devil Head at once and united with White and Ape. The great Power of Law of the Field Domain surged out suddenly. He took a sword in his left hand and waved his right fist, attacking Ji Chang directly.
The light-cover around Ji Chang was so weird that Lyu Liang clearly felt that his Power of Law couldn’t penetrate it. Even if he slashed the cover with the Power of Time-s.p.a.ce Teleportation, he could only knock his opponent back some distance. But he didn’t give up and continued to use his sword to hack with one hand and set formations with the other.
“I have a.n.a.lyzed your tactics carefully. Although I can’t tell the details, I suppose that you have laid some traps like sword formations around. As long as I touch them, I will trigger them and then get injured unexpectedly! If so, I will disappoint you!” Ji Chang moved back irregularly as he defended against Lyu Liang’s attacks.
Lyu Liang felt a sudden pain in his head. He knew that Ji Chang was smart, but never antic.i.p.ated that he would be so intelligent. It seemed that his first scheme had failed. However, this was also a reminder to him. “There is always someone more powerful. I will certainly meet another smart man again. If my trump card is cracked, my strength will certainly decline significantly. So if I have any time after this, I must try to improve my tactical schemes in actual combat.”
Lyu Liang rolled his eyes, and a smile appeared on his face again—he had come up with a new tactical plan. He paused suddenly and waved three swords of Giant Tiger on the left, right, and in the middle, which then rushed to besiege Ji Chang.
Then he pulled out the Wanshen Lock, a Pure-yang magic treasure that he hadn’t used before, and threw it at Ji Chang.
Although Ji Chang was defending against the attacks from the Giant Tigers, he also paid close attention to Lyu Liang’s actions. When he saw Lyu Liang take out a lock he had never seen before, he was on high-alert. With a roar, two slender hands about seven meters long stretched out from his back and s.n.a.t.c.hed up the lock thrown at him.
Standing not far away, Lyu Liang smiled imperceptibly. Suddenly, he stimulated the Power of Divine Soul, and Ji Chang stared immediately with his eyes wide open, following which, a rare expression of shock and panic appeared on his face. He opened his mouth wide but couldn’t say anything.
Lyu Liang was the cla.s.sic type “looting a burning house”. The Kunwu Sword exuded an atmosphere of chilliness and sternness, hints of blood emerging on it. Holding it in his hand, Lyu Liang hacked straight at Ji Chang.
Just as Ji Chang caught the lock, he suddenly felt an uncontrollable shiver in his Divine Soul. Although he recovered within only a breath of time, he couldn’t defend against the attacks from Lyu Liang’s sword anymore.
With a crisp sound of cracking, the golden light-cover around Ji Chang was broken as Ji Chang was thrown back through the air and hit the ground heavily after smashing a mountain behind him. Then he just lay there motionlessly without any aura.
With a sigh of relief, Lyu Liang flew to somewhere not far away from Ji Chang. After consideration, he waved his right fist again and was about to give him another blow with Ape’s power. But just then, something unexpected happened. Ji Chang should have been lying still on the ground, but his head shot up suddenly and knocked Lyu Liang back through the air directly when he was unprepared.
At the same time, among the five puppets in the sky, the three that had fallen apart on the ground began to shake violently and then began to move at full speed toward Ji Chang’s headless body.
And the two completely intact ones also dashed down. When all these puppets and fragments gathered around Ji Chang, a dazzling golden light swept over, and a 20-meter-tall, 27-meter-wide swaggering puppet spider emerged. His face was that of Ji Chang, filled with cruelty and fury. “You should force me to reveal my real body! I have never shown it since I came to the Ghostly Fire Palace! You court death!”
Lyu Liang turned over and got up, suddenly spitting out blood from his mouth. When he wiped his lips, panic rushed over him. The head should knock his Divine Soul out of the body. How immense its power was!
Now one hour remained for the Ghost Devil Head’s effect, and the Tao Master puppet, which had almost run out of Spiritual Qi, had returned to the realm. Looking at the spider puppet with a l.u.s.t for killing before him, he also felt scared inside.
“Your puppet heart should have broken through the 11th Peak to the Second Secret Realm! You deserve to be a talent in puppets valued by our Master! Senior Brother Ji, it has been a long time since we’ve met!” Just as the abrupt speech finished, two giant human-like puppets over 16 meters tall emerged in the air and landed right in front of Lyu Liang.
When he recognized the two puppets’ faces, he was surprised and excited, and couldn’t believe what he saw. He calmed his nerves again, and whispered to himself, “It seems that there’s hope this time!”