'He broke the earth just by using his spiritual pressure?!' Longyu Tian cried mentally. She wanted to shout, but the pressure was simply too intense for her to open her mouth. And that was with her Rank 94 cultivation realm. The rest of the Spirit Kings and Emperors were all spiralling down into the abyss, pushed down by the intense pressure that the Allfather was giving out. Only the four Spirit Saints could force their bodies up, preventing themselves from the bitter fate of the White Knights.
"RETREAT!!!" Saint Geom screamed for the first time in a hundred years. He'd lost his nerve, as would anyone in this situation. The Allfather didn't need to use any of his spiritual abilities. Just his spiritual pressure alone was capable of sending hundreds of the world's best to their doom.
Heaving and hurling, the Spirit Saints did everything they could to escape past the Allfather's sphere of influence. They enhanced their bodies, they unleashed their domains… Anything… In the end, after dozen-odd attempts, the four Spirit Saints were finally able to push through the vortex of despair.
Saint Longyu Tian looked back at Mythpoint Reach. They had traversed two kilometres away just to reach the place where the Allfather's spiritual pressure couldn't affect them. All the Spirit Saints dropped their hands on their knees, as an overwhelming fear crept into their very souls. Every single Spirit King and Emperor that the Alliance had sent were now crushed into a fine dust. The White Knights, the champions of the human race that were supposed to annihilate the plague of the Black Masks, had just lost to the might of one man...
"W-W-WHAT IS THAT?!" They all exclaimed.
Using spiritual pressure in battle was commonplace in the majority of battles between cultivators. Once a Spirit User had formed their Spirit Core, they would unlock the ability to dominate their opponents just by the use of their presence. Shin had used it many times to slow the movements of lower-ranked opponents or just to scare them off. However, the spiritual pressure that the Allfather was emitting was in another realm altogether.
Matter was air to it and breaking down the earth was as simple as lifting a finger. The Allfather didn't even need to move a muscle, and the ground morphed into an abyss. There was no one else in the world that had that kind of power.
"Spiritual pressure…" Saint Geom apathetically replied. "For a cultivator or a Spirit Beast to create that kind of spiritual pressure… They must be at the very apex of the world..."
"You can't mean..." Longyu Tian glanced over her shoulder and studied the elderly man's expression. There were no falsehoods in his words, and neither was his face crunching up. Saint Geom was no longer thinking about beating the Allfather, and neither was he foolish enough to raise his sword against this unknown enemy right now. Especially since...
"That's right… The Allfather… He's at least Rank 99… Half-step into immortality..." The elderly man's reply rang like a resonant bell in the other three Spirit Saint's minds.
Rank 99… The elusive cultivation level that all Spirit Saints hoped to reach. The Himmel Empire, Lantis Republic, Kori Federation, Healer's Association, Blacksmith League and Mercenary Guild combined only had fourteen Spirit Saints. Of the fourteen, only two of them had reached Rank 95. That was the Kori Federation's Saint Geom and the Lantis Republic's Saint Jingyu Han. There was only one living being that surpassed that threshold to reach the acclaimed upper echelons of the Spirit Saint realm. And that was the Himmel Empire's ancestor with a cultivation level of Rank 96.
Known as the most powerful being in the world, the Himmel Empire's ancestor alone held the power of two Spirit Saints. Due to the unique qualities of the Spirit of Himmel, some might argue he possessed the power of three or more Spirit Saints. Still, even for the insurmountable man, there were some limits.
The Spirit Saint realm was much different than the earlier stages. A Spirit Saint needed decades, sometimes centuries of cultivation just to increase their rank by one. And the difficulty was incremental. Advancing from Rank 91 to 92 was twice as difficult as from Rank 90 to 91. Rank 92 to 93 was the same. In the end, the difficulty spike would be so immense that advancing to Rank 99 was almost impossible. That's why, in the long history of humanity, there were only twenty-one Spirit Immortals. Only twenty-one humans, out of the million years of history that their race had ever ascended into the heavens above.
"Peak Rank 99…" Saint Longyu Tian snapped her head back at the hooded figure. He was still casually floating atop the endless abyss. Umbras that should have been crushed were now lifted up by the Allfather's mana. "I should've guessed..." Before, Longyu Tian couldn't gauge the shadowy man's aura at all. That was a telltale sign that the opponent was in a realm far above her own.
"Rank 99?!" Saint Thor, the weakest Spirit Saint among them all, unconsciously pivoted his body away from the Allfather, ready to bolt at a moment's notice. "How are we supposed to beat someone at Rank 99?!"
"..." There was no answer. Or to be precise, there was nothing that the Spirit Saints could answer. Saint Geom was at Rank 95 and even possessed the Samingeom, the only Immortal-Grade spirit armament in the Daelgom Sect. Yet, even he felt pessimistic about his ability to defeat the Allfather. No, even if they gathered all the Spirit Saints in the world, there was no guarantee that the Allfather could be taken down.
At this point, the Allfather seemingly lost interest in the four Spirit Saints. He raised both his hands up, sending a significant amount of spiritual energy into the abyss below. The chilling autumn night became even colder, and the air became ever so dense. Even though the four Spirit Saints were two kilometres away from the Allfather, they could feel the eerie effects of the dominant being. Their skin crawled, and gut turned, as the Allfather's spiritual energy peaked. From the abyss under the ten Payiricis, flaky flames congregated from the darkness. There wasn't any heat from the fire. In fact, it was the contrary. The blaze cooled the atmosphere just as glaciers did. The fires weren't overwhelmingly bright, but even under the thicket of night, the flames were still visible to the naked eye.
The four Spirit Saints paled. The darkness elements were now dancing around in a frenzy. The full moon that brightened the night sky was now covered with heinous black mist. Mythpoint Reach was no more… With the black ceiling covering the land, the centre of the world was now firmly in the grasp of the enigmatic Allfather.
"H-How..." Saint Thor felt his blood run cold. How were they supposed to fight an enemy like that? The Allfather had the ability to eclipse the entire world, the Spirit Saints were certain of that. So why? Why was he still remaining in the mortal realm?!
"Allfather!!!" Saint Firebird hollered out. His eyebrows transformed into a line of fire and the Phoenix Avatar continued to flap its wings with full effect. Once his masterpiece was completed, the hooded man slowly dropped his hands and looked at the Himmel Empire's Spirit Saint. Before, Saint Firebird was confident enough to stare straight into the darkness of the vile man. However, that all changed with the Allfather's one move. Struggling to keep the line of sight, Saint Firebird had to force his head into place to stare right into the Allfather's visage.
"If you're this powerful, why are you still seeking out death and destruction?!" Saint Firebird screamed. "Why don't you ascend to the Immortal Realm and leave us alone? Why are you ignoring the Saint's Pact? Why did you create the Black Masks and order them to perform such massacres?! What are your motives?!"
"..." The Allfather didn't reply at first. He stared at the loud Spirit Saint, amused that the man had even asked him that question.
"Why should I tell you?" A succinct response. Quite haughty as a matter of fact. For the Allfather, these four Spirit Saints were just pawns on his chessboard. They were among the most powerful entities that were currently living in this world. However, the Allfather simply didn't care. He was far more powerful than all of them combined, and he was willing to prove it.
Raising his hand, the leader of the Black Masks summoned out dozens of darkness tendrils, and the blanket over his head got ten times thicker. The tendrils slapped the air wildly as they crept closer towards the Spirit Saints. Saint Geom was the first to respond. Being the Spirit Saint with the highest cultivation level, the swordsman felt a certain degree of responsibility. The Samingeom flashed with a divine radiance, as Saint Geom's sword spirit merged with the Immortal-Grade Spirit Armament. At the same time, an avatar of his very same sword spirit appeared behind the elderly man.
All of a sudden, the air seemingly warmed, and the atmosphere turned a little pinkish. The hellish aura that the Allfather had released was somewhat calmed by the falling peach blossom petals that fell from Saint Geom's Sword Avatar. His form was perfect. Bent knees and leaned forward torso, the man was ready to strike the vicious darkness tendrils at any moment now.
"DISAPPEAR!!!" Saint Geom shouted. His blade flew from its scabbard, and with supreme anger, the Immortal-Grade sword obliterated them to a crisp.
Alas, the Allfather wasn't done. Using his darkness element, the supreme being summoned out millions of dark lightning bolts from the black curtain above the ten Payircis. A thunderstorm in the wild ravages of the oceans had nothing on the current scene. Mountains were flattened and woods cleared. Even the earth, which should have been immune to lightning, was now disintegrating into pieces.
This time, it was Longyu Tian's turn to react. "GET IN!!!" she cried at the top of her lungs. A pillar of golden-grey light engulfed the four Spirit Saints. At that moment, time slowed down for all four of them. They could see the lightning bolts slowly encroaching upon them, and once the thunderbolts reached the pillar, they would be rapidly slowed by the Saint of Time's domain.
"HAH!!!"
Like the fable of Zeus, Saint Thor summoned out a million coils of lightning to counter the Allfather's power. Longyu Tian's domain, which slowed her enemies and increased the speed of her allies made it much easier for Saint Thor to aim and bring out the appropriate amount of force. And to top it all off, Saint Firebird summoned out a flaming bow and condensed a fraction of his Phoenix essence into a blazing arrow.
Gone was the chilling effects of the Allfather's mana. Saint Firebird's fire made their surroundings feel like they were still in the midst of summer. With Longyu Tian's buff, Saint Firebird was able to charge up the fire arrow much faster without any repercussions until finally…
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
The fire arrow was released. Buffed by Saint Longyu Tian, the arrow moved at a speed ten times greater than it usually would. Even the Allfather couldn't dodge an attack that moved at the speed of light. Without moving a muscle, the hooded figure burst into flames after experiencing the full effects of the Phoenix arrow.
"Did we get him?" Saint Thor asked, careful not to overvalue their actions.
"No..." The elderly swordsman, who had the highest cultivation realm among them, was the one to respond. He continued to grip onto the handle of his sword and was ready to rain down hell once more. "Not yet..."
"Amusing..." The Allfather's voice continued to resonate with complete calmness, even though he was engulfed in an intense fire. "I'd never thought I'd see the day where four Spirit Saints from the three Superpowers would work together…" The cloak of darkness that shrouded the Allfather was shred and his entire being transferred down into yet another body. It was as if the Allfather was a ghost. There was no physical form for the man. Or at least, his physical form wasn't present in Mythpoint Reach.
"Haha, it doesn't matter… That will all change in a few years..." The hooded man answered his own question, stifling a laugh. "For now..."
Spread all five fingers on his right hand, the Allfather sent a wave of pure darkness crashing straight into the four Spirit Saints. There was no escaping the tidal wave of energy, and the four Spirit Saints were sent flying back before the Allfather's voice rang in their heads once again.
"Return from whence you came… We'll meet again..." The Allfather turned into a puff of smoke and disappeared back into the massive barrier.
The four Spirit Saints looked at one another, face ghast and fingers trembling. They were all dominant cultivators in their own right, but now, they were granted mercy by just one man. It was both humiliating and humbling at the same time.
"Looks like… We'll need to summon out all the Saints in the world now..."
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