Chapter 140: Testing the Lifebound, Unleashing Might!
Chapter 140: Testing the Lifebound, Unleashing Might!
"Foolish arrogance!"
As Lv Yang's words echoed, True Man Huan Wu of the Divine Martial Gate erupted in fury. His rage alone transformed the eight-hundred-mile expanse of Skull Mountain into a roaring inferno.
The Divine Martial Gate had long teetered on the brink of collapse. Their last Foundation Building Late master had been slain thirty years ago at Skull Mountain's edge. Two Foundation Building Mid elders had followed soon after, leaving the sect in the hands of its current acting leader - the Foundation Building Initial True Man Huan Wu.
He knew the gate's demise was inevitable. Yet bitter resentment gnawed at his heart. Faced with this reckoning, his fury boiled over.
"If that's the case", he roared, channeling his full spiritual power, "I'll personally test this devil's prowess!"
With a thunderous crack, Huan Wu's Dao Foundation erupted into the heavens. A colossal war deity materialized, clad in celestial armor, its righteous visage locking eyes with Lv Yang.
"Your Celestial Martial Dao Foundation lives up to its reputation", Lv Yang mused with a smirk, unfazed. His third eye blazed with the radiance of the Ultimate Heaven Instrument, piercing through illusions to see his opponent's wounded state.
The truth was grim - three decades ago, when True Man Yinshan had perished at Skull Mountain, the Divine Martial Gate's masters had been steadily dying or defecting ever since. But Lv Yang bore no qualms about crushing a weakened foe. Huan Wu's frailty made him perfect for testing his current limits as a Foundation Building Initial cultivator.
"Excellent!"
Lv Yang's battle cry sent his own Dao Foundation surging skyward. A golden tempest of auspicious clouds stretched a thousand miles, within which shadowy dragons twisted and coiled.
The collision shook the heavens.
Unlike his previous skirmish using Yanmo Hall against the half-dead Heaven-Mending Peak Master, this was a full-force clash between Foundation Building True Men manifesting their Dao Foundations. The shockwave convulsed Skull Mountain, sending Refining Qi cultivators below reeling from turbulent spiritual energy. The weakest collapsed unconscious, their minds shattered. Above, layers of piercing heavenly winds scattered like mist, revealing the blazing midday sun.
Outside Skull Mountain, three streaks of light halted abruptly.
"That's Yuan Tu battling Divine Martial Gate's True Man?"
The three Foundation Building Initial True Men from Holy Sect had arrived. "Reckless", one muttered. "Youngsters always rush in headstrong. We should've waited until all three arrived. Divine Martial Gate may be a dying centipede, but it still has venom."
Their spiritual light blazed as they rushed forward, prepared to intervene if Lv Yang faltered.
They froze mid-air.
The heavens roared with golden clouds rolling like tidal waves, while Huan Wu's armored colossus staggered, its divine armor cracking and flaking.
"Yuan Tu's Dao Foundation is astonishingly powerful!"
"I heard he cultivated the Third-Rank True Martial Dao, his Dao Foundation pointing directly toward Golden Core enlightenment", another remarked.
Among them, True Man Yu Jie's eyes gleamed with intrigue. "Ten-Thousand-Chariot Dragon Sovereign Dao Foundation... Could he really be destined for Citadel Earth? If Yushu's reports were accurate, he might've even refined his lifebound treasure..."
Below, Zhao Xuhe watched, breath stolen.
This celestial battle spanning a thousand miles - if it had occurred within Skull Mountain instead of above it, the entire range would've been reduced to lifeless wasteland. As Refining Qi disciples, even those with cultivation ranks could be wiped out by stray energy waves.
"Foundation Building... This is Foundation Building might", Zhao Xuhe mused, his longing reaching fever pitch. To reach such power - he'd gladly die a hundred times.
Suddenly, the battle turned.
Seeing his Dao Foundation crumbling, Huan Wu's face contorted with fury. "You damned brat!" With a complex hand seal, his colossal form planted feet wide, then suddenly bellowed from its throat:
"Zhà!"
The golden clouds froze mid-turbulence, as if shackled by a thousand tons of invisible weight.
"Celestial Stasis Shout!"
His lifebound divine ability paralyzed motion through the heavens. No matter one's power, once struck, they'd be helplessly rooted in place.
The armored colossus lunged, now wielding a mountain-sized cleaver entwined with two blazing Jiao Dragon spirits. The weapon carved a crimson arc through the sky.
"Heavenbound Azure Serpent Cleaver!"
Divine Martial Gate's ultimate treasure, forged from Jiao Dragon essence and twelve terrestrial Sha elements, its spiritual treasure radiated lethal brilliance. Combined with Huan Wu's Dao Foundation, the strike threatened annihilation itself.
The watching True Men paled.
Yu Jie moved to intervene, but...
Lv Yang stood unshaken. The Ultimate Heaven Instrument blazed between his brows as he intoned, "To walk the path of cultivation is to embrace propriety's essence."
A divine ability manifestation emerged from his golden clouds - obscured by thick mists, impossible to divine. White radiance erupted, swallowing Huan Wu whole.
When the light faded, the cleaver struck empty air. Huan Wu stood miles away, stunned.
A lifebound ability?
Before he could react, icy dread gripped his spine. The same white light returned him to Lv Yang's side - mid-strike, his spiritual power depleted from the cleaver's release.
Lv Yang's hand closed around the Avici Sword.
"Slash!" the sword cried in an immature child's voice.
The blade sang free, unleashing an endless sea of slaughter. The cleaver's strike never landed - the Avici Sword pierced through Huan Wu's Dao Foundation colossus, cleaving it clean at the waist.
Blood erupted like a crimson meteor shower, staining the sky. Skull Mountain's cultivators stared upward as fist-sized blood drops rained down like falling stars, leaving charred craters in their wake.
A muffled groan of agony echoed through the blood-soaked heavens.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
