Chapter 467: Azure Ring of the Sky

Chapter 467: Azure Ring of the Sky

The gravity bomb was the Void Sky Unicorn's most trusted attack.

He had honed this ability for decades, investing a significant amount of time and energy. It was not only high-level and long-range but also near-instantaneous, appearing directly next to its target as if at his mere whim.

Even with precautions, it was challenging to dodge the gravity bomb.

Previously, Cang Ya had failed to evade it, and a mere brush with the edge of the bomb had been enough to dismantle her defenses.

But this time, it missed its mark.

The gravity bomb sucked in all matter within a hundred meters into the black ball, leaving a hemispherical crater on the island's ground with a smooth and even cut.

Boom!

Thousands of tons of rock were compressed into dense matter and then released in an instant, causing a massive explosion.

The entire island trembled and collapsed.

However, Void Sky clearly saw that just before his gravity bomb formed, Ji Xinghuo vanished into thin air.

It wasn't a starry domain transition nor a flash move, but a retreat into the shadows.

Then, he leaped from shadow to shadow, unconstrained by space.

"Hmm?"

Void Sky Lin attempted to lock his gaze onto the shadowy figure, but his opponent's speed was astonishingly fast, making it difficult to track with his eyes.

"Why is he unaffected by gravity control?"

Void Sky Lin furrowed his brows.

If it were him, he would have been slowed down in a gravity environment of over a thousand times the normal force. Yet, his opponent seemed entirely unaffected.

At that moment, an invisible energy spread out, enveloping not just the entire solitary island and its surrounding seas but far beyond Void Sky's range of void sensing. Everything appeared normal to his sight, but all his sensing abilities were being interfered with.

In an instant, he lost track of his enemy.

"What is this?"

Void Sky Lin was on high alert. Before he could finish his thought, a figure leaped out of the shadows—a giant over five meters tall, moving at an unbelievably fast speed.

Ji Xinghuo appeared on the back of the Void Sky Dragon, and the Skyfire Dragon Tooth Spear thrust forward, aiming for the back of the Void Sky Unicorn.

"Slash!"

Void Sky Lin turned around.

His right hand formed a palm blade, and he sliced through the air with a chop.

A thin, hair-like black line appeared between the two of them, like a crack on glass—straight, dull, and almost invisible, only a few meters long.

Ji Xinghuo swerved and turned, barely missing the black line by a hair's breadth, breaking out in a cold sweat.

This was the Rifting Slash!

Known as the sharpest slashing ability in the world, it could split space itself and cut through anything.

The next evolution of Qinghong's Rifting Claw was the Star Meteor ability, the Rifting Slash, but it required at least a Level 7 or higher cultivation.

Void Sky Lin's Rifting Slash missed, and as his gaze intensified, his spiritual energy manipulated the gravity to burst forth once more, instantly condensing another gravity bomb in front of Ji Xinghuo. Simultaneously, he and the Void Sky Dragon teleported over a thousand meters away, escaping the kill range of the gravity bomb.

Boom!

The void twisted, leaving a gaping hole in the sky, and the shockwave swept across the area.

Ji Xinghuo vanished again.

Void Sky Lin quickly scanned his surroundings but couldn't find any trace of his enemy, leaving him perplexed.

Invisibility and shadow escape should not have hidden him from my sight.

Ji Xinghuo, hidden in the shadows, saw the confusion on Void Skylin's face and coldly huffed. Within the dark domain created by the Ultimate Dark Orb, the "Formless in the Dark" ability of the Nine Yous truly came into play, allowing him to move without a trace.

"If it were that easy for you to discover me, how could it be considered one of the five-star treasures of the Apocalypse?"

As for the thousand-fold gravity...

The Eclipse ability, King of Darkness, transformed his physical body from solid to void, making him as light as a feather. It didn't matter if it was a thousand-fold gravity or even ten thousand-fold; it had no effect on him.

Ji Xinghuo didn't rashly reveal himself to attack. Instead, he continued to dart through the shadows.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him.

In just this short while, the stellar power he had consumed during the starry domain transition and the battle had already been replenished by absorbing the dark energy.

His stellar power recovery far outpaced his expenditure, and as long as it didn't deplete in an extremely short period, it would never run dry.

"As expected of the Eclipse ability!"

"The true power of the King of Darkness..." Ji Xinghuo swiftly moved through the dark domain, putting over ten kilometers between himself and the Void Sky Dragon.

Then, he created a shadow clone.

This shadow clone invested a full 30,000 points of stellar power, reaching the upper limit of a Level 4 shadow clone, possessing seven-tenths of his combat power!

Ji Xinghuo's main body was left with just over 7,000 points of stellar power, causing a significant drop in strength, but he immediately recovered by absorbing dark energy.

The shadow clone weaved through the dark domain, approaching the Void Sky Dragon.

Then, it launched its attack.

Ji Xinghuo's main body observed from a distance. This surprise attack by the shadow clone didn't succeed. After a brief exchange with Void Sky Unicorn, the clone retreated into the shadows and began to move about, not straying too far. Instead, it struck out every few seconds, drawing Void Sky Unicorn's attention.

A few minutes later...

After absorbing a substantial amount of dark energy, Ji Xinghuo's stellar power was fully restored. He immediately created a second shadow clone.

Again, he invested 30,000 points of stellar power.

However, Ji Xinghuo didn't make the second shadow clone appear right away. Instead, he lay in wait on the other side, biding his time for the right moment to strike.

The first shadow clone engaged Void Sky Kirin frequently, displaying tremendous strength, defense, and combat instincts.

Void Sky Lin unleashed his full repertoire of skills.

Gravity bombs, Rifting Slash, high-energy rays, void storms, and more—as a dual cultivator of the Gravitational String and Vacuum String, he employed a succession of formidable abilities, yet none of them could harm the shadow clone. On the contrary, he seemed to be at a disadvantage.

"He's probing."

Ji Xinghuo had long seen through Void Sky Unicorn's intentions.

Moreover, his Void Sky Dragon wasn't exerting its full strength either. Occasionally, it would teleport alongside its master or block an attack for him, but for the most part, it was holding back.

"You're probing, and I'm buying time," Ji Xinghuo said calmly. Then, he created a third shadow clone.

The two sides continued to clash, attacking and countering while maintaining a certain restraint.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth...

Each shadow clone was identical to the main body, a giant over five meters tall. They were in the amplified Dark Incarnation state, their auras masked by the Fraudulent Mask, and they each wielded a synchronously enlarged Skyfire Dragon Tooth Spear. As soon as they appeared, they began to weave through the shadows, dispersing to various parts of the battlefield.

Ji Xinghuo wanted to create even more shadow clones, but suddenly, a sense of danger arose in his mind. Void Sky Unicorn was about to go all out!

His main body quietly distanced itself from the battlefield.

On the other side, the first shadow clone, which had been entangled with Void Sky Unicorn, pretended to be unaware and continued to leap through the shadows, launching sudden attacks.

The Skyfire Dragon Tooth Spear stabbed straight at Void Sky Unicorn's head.

The distance between them was less than a dozen meters.

"Hmph..."

Void Sky Unicorn lifted his hand and performed a Rifting Slash. However, the shadow clone neither dodged nor retreated. Instead, its body suddenly liquefied and transformed into a black and fiery wave, allowing the Rifting Slash to split it in two before coalescing once more and surging forward.

Cold Flame Wave!

This was the first time Ji Xinghuo had used an ability other than Dark Shadowless since the start of their battle.

Just as the black wave was about to reach him, Void Sky Unicorn disappeared.

The Void Sky Dragon had teleported him away by over a thousand meters.

The shadow clone immediately resumed its human form and accelerated forward once more. Void Sky Unicorn's gaze intensified, and a gravity bomb formed between them, distorting the void and absorbing all matter before exploding violently.

The powerful explosion drew his attention as he wanted to assess the outcome.

Suddenly, a black energy vortex appeared above Void Sky Unicorn's head, with a diameter of more than twenty meters, generating a massive suction force that pulled him towards its center.

Even the massive Void Sky Dragon was pulled in.

Dark Energy Vortex Field!

This was the doing of another shadow clone that had been lurking, choosing the perfect moment to strike. It appeared alongside the shadow clone that had just escaped the gravity bomb, and the two charged straight at Void Sky Unicorn, who was now trapped within the Dark Energy Vortex Field. They thrust their spears towards his head and heart.

Facing these two unexpected enemies, Void Sky Unicorn showed no hint of surprise.

Instead, his eyes held a hint of contempt.

There was also a hint of "You've finally taken the bait" in his expression, along with a touch of pride and the confidence of having the situation under control.

Void Sky Unicorn was trapped and unable to move, but in his hand appeared a ring.

It had a diameter of about ten centimeters.

It was unclear what material it was made of, but it shone with a cyan-blue radiance. As soon as Void Sky Unicorn took it out, it activated.

Buzz!

Invisible waves instantly spread out, creating a spherical barrier with a diameter of a hundred meters. It resembled a transparent barrier, enveloping Void Sky Unicorn and the two shadow clones within it. The barrier also had a faint silhouette of the Void Sky Dragon roaming within it.

There was also a third shadow clone that had been sneaking up for a surprise attack, but it too was caught within the barrier's confines.

In an instant, the three shadow clones were like insects frozen in amber. Although they could still move, their speed had slowed to less than one-hundredth of their original pace.

The Dark Energy Vortex Field was also frozen within the barrier and had lost its effect.

Void Sky Unicorn and his dragon teleported away.

"It's an honor for you to die within the Void Prison created by the Azure Ring of the Sky." Void Sky Unicorn said arrogantly.

As his words fell, the Void Sky Dragon, which had already turned around, opened its massive jaws and exhaled a "Void Dragon Breath". It drew chaotic energy from the void, forming a gray waterfall a hundred meters wide, which surged into the Void Prison and engulfed the three shadow clones.

At the same time, Void Sky Unicorn threw a gravity bomb into the Void Prison, causing a heaven-shaking explosion.

Boom!

A deafening explosion reverberated through the sky.

The three shadow clones instantly turned to ashes, and the Void Prison collapsed along with them.

Void Sky Unicorn watched as his enemies perished, but his face suddenly changed as he felt the presence of the energy field that interfered with his senses. This indicated that the three clones he had just defeated were not the main body, and he exclaimed in disbelief, "This is impossible!"

Based on his experience, it was already a stretch to create two shadow clones with strength comparable to the main body.

Creating three was almost impossible.

That was why Void Sky Unicorn had dared to use the Azure Ring of the Sky, seizing the opportunity to control his opponent's main body and two shadow clones, intending to finish them all at once.

He had been wrong!

Void Sky Unicorn's head darkened as another Dark Energy Vortex Field appeared above him, pulling him towards its center. The Void Sky Dragon was also pulled in.

Then, on both sides, enemies appeared.

Identical ones.

Giants over five meters tall, holding long spears, charged at him with lightning speed, stabbing at him.

This time, Void Sky Unicorn's face finally showed a hint of panic. The Azure Ring of the Sky required 320 stellar times to recharge before it could release another Void Prison. In this critical moment, his vision blurred, and the Void Sky Dragon teleported him out of the Dark Energy Vortex Field.

However, before he could catch his breath, a massive spear pierced his back.

A shadow clone had been lying in wait here, as if it had anticipated that Void Sky Unicorn would appear at this location. It had gathered its strength and thrust its spear forward.

The spear tip penetrated the protective force field.

Void Sky Unicorn's proud void barrier, along with the external vector shift and the Void Sky Dragon's dragon scales—these three layers of protection were of little use against the terrifying force of the spear. They only managed to slow it down slightly.

Puff!

The spear tip pierced through Void Sky Unicorn's chest, nearly turning his body into a ragged mess.

Just as the shadow clone was about to exert more force for a finishing blow, the enemy before him and the dragon beneath his feet suddenly vanished.

The Void Sky Dragon had taken its master and fled into the void, frantically weaving through the void to escape.

The thousand-fold gravity suddenly dissipated.

A cyan-blue ring fell from the sky, and Ji Xinghuo's main body appeared, reaching out to catch it.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end