The Serpent sword slowly swung vertically, it moved mesmerizingly slow from top to bottom while it was held in Ling Tian's hand. He felt 90% of his Qi mysteriously disappear...
Nothing seemed to happen at first... Everything was calm... Only a deafening silence had removed the sound from the world.
A moment passed and Ling Tian wondered, 'Did it fail?'
The world seemed to be frozen, even the gigantic worm in front of him seemed to be frozen...
Then suddenly, all hell broke loose...
A bizarre tearing sound filled the entire upper dungeon area, thousands of miles across... It was so loud, many who heard it screamed in pain as they held their ears.
Ling Tian's eardrums exploded instantly as he was blown back by the effect of his own attack, Smoke, dust, and steam exploded forth in every direction as an extremely bright but thin line vertically appeared dividing all the space in front of Ling Tian's previous location for dozens of miles.
The left side of the line began sliding down as the right side began sliding up! Then a loud shattering sound even louder than the previous one came. This one even reached the people on the surface of the realm through the ceiling of the dungeon.
Thousands of great explosions rocked across the area but these were merely the aftereffect of Qi moving so fast, causing the air to explode. The sword Qi of Heaven Cleaver was so fast that even the laws of the world took a moment to catch up to it. It tore apart space and anything else on its path.
An extremely powerful shockwave expanded in two directions from the center of the attack and did horrendous damage to the floor and ceiling of the dungeon as the intense winds blew away all on their path.
The attack itself had happened so fast that not even Ling Tian had noticed what was going on, these were only the after-effects...
In a manner of seconds, the entire area with a radius of 60 miles was turned upward down. The fierce winds and shockwave would affect more than 250 miles in a manner of minutes...
In the middle of a crater, Ling Tian slowly sat up as he coughed blood, his back was covered in a cold sweat, 'What the hell?! I almost died! It's better to not use this attack before I am a Divine King unless things go really south...'
His blood Qi had depleted itself healing him, the damage he had taken from his own attack was very lethal, he had not even felt it as his nerves were destroyed before he could feel the pain. He only felt the pain of regeneration... He realized he needed to become much stronger to use attacks of such caliber, besides, the Qi in his Dantian was almost dried up as well!
The attack was just too terrifying... It also helped to calm him down and make his bloodlust fade away.
He entered cultivation mode on the spot for a minute to gather some Qi in his Dantian and regenerate fully. He then quickly stood up and flew up. The crater he was in was surrounded by thick dust and steam in the air...
He flew up then his eyes widened in shock as the dust and steam slowly vanished revealing the scene...
Rays of sunlight pierced through the clouds of smoke and dust lighting up the area through the thin line in the ceiling of the dungeon. Above him, it seemed as if a beast had clawed away the ceiling for dozens of miles in a very ferocious manner to the point it had reached the surface!
Below him was a dark rift with no end in sight to its abyssal depth, the rift looked very sinister as it stretched from his location to the unknown in a straight line. A very sharp and dark aura filled with killing intent was being emitted from the rift, similar to Ling Tian's sword intent.
The shockwave was still visible as it traveled further away, destroying all on its path... It was a breathtaking sight, almost as if he was in the eye of a storm and looked at everything around being swept by the storm. The entire area was filled with a lot of white steam due to the heat of the attack...
He used his Divine sense to search for the worm but found nothing as if it had vanished into thin air.
Ling Tian frowned but for a different reason, his divine sense interacted with the steam in the air in a very strange way. 'It's as if the steam is trying to fuse with it?' He thought and let it happen.
To his surprise, his mind seemed to expand in a very strange way. 'I feel as if I am everpresent? It's like this place is my backyard... What a unique feeling.'
He felt as if he was everywhere in the surroundings as long as there was steam around, he quickly realized something, 'Must be due to the Sea God's sword art!'
He didn't analyze further as he felt something within this strange area, a suttle source of Qi that would have escaped his divine sense normally. He felt as if he could just appear there and suddenly as he willed it, his body morphed to steam...
The 7 eyed heavenly king was in his human form, he had taken a lot of damage but thanks to his demonic vitality and the fact that his heart wasn't damaged, he survived the attack. He was scared out of his own mind by Ling Tian's attack.
He quickly used his escape technique to run away only to despair when he looked to his front and saw Ling Tian's figure appear from steam...
The sword tip was the last thing that morphed back, right in front of the heavenly king's heart.
"You survived that? Wow..." Ling Tian was truly shocked, he just realized how dangerous and powerful heavenly kings were... He knew that he would not be able to survive the attack if he was 3 times stronger...
The heavenly king's expression turned uglier in rage, "You bastard! The Devil Emperor will hunt you down if you kill me!"
Ling Tian sneered, "Empty threats, let him come. I will kill him as well." He casually replied and prepared to kill him.
Seein his death was close, it roared and said with hatred, "Their screams were loud and fulfilling, especially the girl who led them." It said to anger Ling Tian.
The sword paused just as it was about to pierce the heart, the heavenly king continued with an evil smile, "You were with them right? Dao Sect's pathetic disciples... Now they are dead, where were you to save them?" From his tone it was obvious he was ridiculing Ling Tian, "Serpent Sword Scion?! HAHAHA!"
He spat blood as he fell down due to internal injuries yet he continued, "Especially the girl who led them, A pity she had a Talisman of a Divine King so I couldn't kill or rape her but I made her suffer pain and humiliation so terrible that broke her mind."
'Lian Qiu's sister...' Ling Tian didn't care the slightest bit about the group since they had left him to die, but he felt indebted to Lian Qiu who in his perspective had given his life to save him; In his eyes, Lian Qiu's family was the same as his own family. Even though he didn't like her at all, she was his friend's sister... 'She must be alive then... He won't be able to rest in peace like this... I need to find her and make sure she is returned to her family to honor him.'
Ling Tian's eyes lit up in a blazing red color as a chilling smile appeared on his face, the sword retreated from the heavenly king's body who rejoiced and prepared to escape when he broke down in despair like other righteous cultivators but then froze as Ling Tian said, "So you have chosen a long and painful death. Tell me where she is..."
Roars and screams of terror and pain filled the area...
Meanwhile, Lian Qiu and Huo Bing entered the capital of the Xuan Empire. The trio of 2 humans and a suspicious pet toured the giant city for a whole day yet they found no clue on Ling Tian.
They gave up late at night and found a simple restaurant to eat dinner, Lian Qiu was feeling annoyed, Huo Bing looked tired and the crocodile ate with gusto. They attracted the attention of everyone in the restaurant.
"I never knew he was such a mystery! What to do..." Lian Qiu muttered to himself, he was in a rush since he wanted to return to the Mystic dungeon.
Huo Bing on the other hand was happily eating dinner, "Let's try searching for clues tomorrow! We have found no one knowing someone named Ling Tian with the description we gave so there is a possibility he changed his name or something. Are you sure he is from this place?"
Lian Qiu nodded, "Little girl, I have thought of all this ahead of you. If he truly changed his name, there is no way we will find it."
The two began arguing again.
The little crocodile on the other hand was smiling with a full belly, its smile was both cute and bizarre to the onlookers, 'This is life, these 2 are not so bad after all. Maybe it is time for this Emperor to rule again! My time has come. I have 2 servants now but in time, I will gather millions... Yes, that is my dream!' It imagined with joy and hope.
All of that went away the moment he saw something resembling an old poster on a wall, 'AHHHHH! He won't leave me alone!'
It bared its teeth at the poster thinking it was a person but then calmed down as it realized it was a mere picture, 'Wherever I go I see his face...' it thought with anger.
The duo noticed the crocodile's behavior, Huo Bing asked it as she petted the crocodile who happily accepted, "What is wrong, dragon god?" The crocodile burped in joy, it seemed very satisfied with the name she had given it.
Lian Qiu rolled his eyes as he turned to look at the direction the crocodile had reacted toward, "Who names their pet dragon go..." He stopped mid-way as he saw it.
"What did you say?! I think..." He ignored Huo Bing's retort as he quickly stood up and inspected the old poster more closely.
"Xuanyuan Wenhao?"