As Tianyi was flying into a distance, the area behind him began to distort, appearing like a drop of water atop a painting. The water droplet began to tremble and blur, and a magnificent saber-light was released. Majestic and domineering as if its intent was the law of the world.
Dragon Slaying Saber Art - Dragon Decapitation!
It was one of the Dragon Emperor's strongest one-hit-kill techniques, a secret technique that wasn't recorded and only known by the Dragon Emperor. It didn't only target the physical body, but the soul as well. Many dragons had been felled under this technique during the Human-Divine Beast War. And now the Dragon Emperor had taken out that consummate technique once more, although the Dragon Emperor's mastery of the Dao had weakened and he was only at the peak Nascent Soul Realm, the saber strike held a shadow of its former brilliance.
A hint of gravity appeared on the Dragon Emperor's face as his strike neared the back of Tianyi's neck. At the next moment, an illusionary mountain enveloped Tianyi and the Dragon Emperor, causing the bubble that hid his presence to be revealed. Inside the bubble, the Dragon Emperor appeared completely unharmed as if the Five Element Annihilation Formation hadn't struck him.
But even though the saber-like slowed down by the immortal mountain, it still was incomparably fast. The saber-light sliced through Tianyi's neck and continued until all its power was used up and it disappeared into nothingness. But the Dragon Emperor didn't show a delighted expression as he controlled the bubble to leave the range of the Mountain and Seas Formation. The range had shrunken dramatically due to Tianyi wanting to concentrate the power, so he escaped to outside of it easily.
The Mountain and Seas Formation not disappearing after his saber strike had sliced through Tianyi's neck was the greatest proof that Tianyi was still alive. Had the Dragon Emperor been any slower, he would have encountered some difficulty escaping the formation.
Inside the Mountain and Seas Formation, Tianyi gripped his neck with a single hand even as black gas leaked through his fingers. Tianyi hissed in pain and fear; having your neck sliced through was an extremely unpleasant fleeing. Had it been an ordinary nascent soul grandmaster, no, even a unity venerable would have likely died under that strike. Had it not been for his unique cultivation method, Tianyi would have likely perished.
"You didn't use this technique when we fought in the inheritance grotto," Tianyi said, his voice not affected in the slightest by the laceration on his neck. "No, you were also pretending to be angry!"
Although the wound seemed threatening, there wasn't any actual difference between a neck wound and a wound on any other part of his body. Tianyi no longer had any physical weakness of most living beings. The only slightly dangerous part was his dantian. If an attack could reach his spiritual cores or nascent souls, then he would be in danger. He no longer had a physical brain. Instead, it was his nascent souls controlling his body.
But if there were someplace that could hurt Tianyi, then it would be his forehead where the Heavenly Truth-Seeking Eye was gestating. The monetary loss would deal a tremendous mental blow to Tianyi.
"No, I'm not pretending to be angry." The Dragon Emperor said, churning anger under his calm smile. "My anger is real, but how could I let it control me? If I couldn't, I would have long died."
Then the Dragon Emperor smirked. "As for why I didn't use this technique. Did you really think I would reveal my strength to the world with so many eyes in a location not under my control? If my enemies were to discover that I'm not a mere clone created from a fragment, then I would have been hunted down."
Not under his control? Tianyi tried to control the formation that sealed the Dragon Emperor only to find it frozen. No matter how much he urged it, it would not budge at all. But he couldn't sense the Dragon Emperor's will behind, so he must have some other means like an artifact or something. "You already knew I didn't release the formation." It was a statement and not a question.
"I've been alive longer than you by a hundredfold. If you were able to trick me, I might as well just self-detonate. What worth would I be if I cannot even see through your little schemes?" The Dragon Emperor chuckled, leisurely enjoying his chat with Tianyi, but the murderous intent in his eyes did not diminish at all.
Actually, he had a headache as well. The Dragon Decapitation technique wasn't something he could use without any preparation. That was why even though he knew Tianyi was guarding against him, he still chose an opportune time to use it. He didn't want Tianyi to actually dispel the formation and contact the outside world with his information. But who knew Tianyi would be so hard to kill?
Tianyi sneered. "So you actually hid all this strength. I pity the women who followed you. You didn't even expose your true strength to save them. It seems that they are mere playthings to you."
The Dragon Emperor stood there, stunned for a slight moment before a smile graced his lips. Immediately after, a myriad of saber-lights crashed onto the immortal mountain, causing great turbulence. Could he say that he didn't have time to react to Immortal Concubine Chong's attack? Never, he would never admit weakness to Tianyi, so he displayed his displeasure instead. "I was thinking of letting you live a bit longer, but it seems you are just asking for death."
"Hmpf, I don't believe I can't withstand your attacks. The longer this goes on, the more disadvantage it is for you. I'm not the one on borrowed time here." Tianyi said within the protection of the Mountain and Seas Formation.
"So, the great son of Sword Empress Xi is a coward!" The Dragon Emperor ridiculed.
Tianyi only smiled, but like the Dragon Emperor, his eyes contained killing intent. "I'm only showing you the proper respect. Even if you are a mere has-been, you were still a former immortal emperor."
"Not immortal emperor, but half-immortal sovereign." The Dragon Emperor said.
Tianyi furrowed his brows. half-immortal sovereign? Did that mean he was half a step into the fourth realm of the Immortal Realm? But so what? All his former resplendence is useless for the current Dragon Emperor.
Seeing that Tianyi wasn't coming out of the formation like a turtle hiding in its shell, the Dragon Emperor frowned. When he fled from Immortal Concubine Chong years ago, he ended wasting many of his treasures, so he was even poorer than during the Heavenly Connection Gathering. But that didn't mean he didn't have any methods.
A crack plate appeared in the Dragon Emperor's hand. The plate was black and seemed ordinary, but when the Dragon Emperor threw the plate at the Mountain and Seas Formation, Tianyi felt as if the formation no longer obeyed his command. Furthermore, the immortal mountain and the sea of time began to conflict as if they could not allow the other to exist under the same heaven!
The end result was him being affected by his own formation. It was much like when Tianyi used the Mountains and Seas Formation like a millstone to grind Lie Jingye's body into a pulp. Although the effect wasn't strong as Tianyi controlled, he still felt his body being ground by the opposing forces, sometimes strong, other times weak.
Tianyi felt that he could resist for a long time, but he didn't know whether Elder Meng would be able to crack the formation. And his mother needed an indefinite amount of time to refine the divine artifact. He never planned on having reinforcements. He just wanted to exhaust the Dragon Emperor's resources and hidden cards as much as possible. But it turned out the Mountain and Seas Formation couldn't shield him much.
The Dragon Emperor catapulted his body the second Tianyi left the formation. But as his saber sunk into Tianyi's body, true qi of chaos exploded from Tianyi's body and buffeted the Dragon Emperor. The Dragon Emperor used his saber intent to block the secondary effects of the true qi of chaos, but injuring the Dragon Emperor was never Tianyi's goal in the first place.
The Dragon Emperor quickly retreated as an endless stream of true qi of chaos was released from Tianyi's body. The black gaseous qi began to fill the surrounding, covering the earth and shrouding the heavens.
Within the mass of black qi, Tianyi's body was nowhere to be found. Since the true qi originated from him, every part of the space felt like Tianyi's aura, making it difficult to discover his location. The Dragon Emperor unleashed several saber-lights, but they all passed through the black qi and only destroyed a little bit of them. But that amount was minuscule compared to the sheer amount of qi that filled the environment.
How is he able to unleash such a colossal amount of true qi? Even if he is continuously consuming pills to replenish his qi, he should not be able to produce this much, this fast, much less control it all. True qi was different than the spiritual qi found in the environment; the most significant difference was that true qi was produced by a cultivator's spiritual core.
Soon, rather than a desert or even a location within the Huang Realm, the surrounding resembled the primordial Vast Void infinitely more. The Dragon Emperor felt his sense of direction of up, down, left, and right being distorted, much less the four cardinal directions. Furthermore, the innate ability of chaos was destruction. So just being present in this environment, although not as destructive as the true Vast Void, was taxing his body and mind.
The Dragon Emperor was cladding his body in saber intent to combat the corrosive effect of the true qi of chaos. But with each passing moment, the more he used his saber intent, the more it would weaken. Saber intent wasn't an infinite source of power and was tied directly to his mind. If someone were to destroy his saber intent, it would double as a mental attack on his mind. For his current body, any exposure to the true qi of chaos was a terrible idea. He had already experienced it firsthand, after all. And in such a copious amount, it was nearly suicidal.
"Can you only hide! You're a disgrace to your mother! Rather than having such a cowardly son like you, it'd be better for me to comfort her!" The Dragon Emperor loudly proclaimed, trying to bait Tianyi out.
There was a snort, but it seemed to come from all directions. "You have fallen quite low for you to resort to riling me up in order to discover me. Weren't you the number one immortal in the past, surely a technique devised by a junior like me is nothing to you."
Junior? The Dragon Emperor wanted to rebuke that Tianyi wasn't anything but a regular junior. What nascent soul grandmaster could unleash such great amounts of true qi? The scariest part wasn't that the amount was comparable to an immortal's reservoirs, but that there seemed to be a limitless amount and the innate destructive concept it contained.
"If you're already finding trouble before I began even attacking you, you should just quietly forfeit and die." Tianyi's cold voice rang throughout the space. The chaotic qi changed and began to exhibit a terrifying aura of extermination. The Dragon Emperor recognized it immediately since it was the Dragon Extermination that Tianyi had used against him numerous times.
If Dragon Extermination were used against anything non-dragon-related, then the power would drop by more than ninety percent. But in exchange for its simple purpose, it was hard to counter against. The Dragon Emperor felt as if he was the Heaven Equalling Great Sage being refined in the Immortal Court's Pill Cauldron.
After Longwei, or rather the Dragon Emperor, escaped from Tianyi in Ironword's inheritance grotto, Tianyi had been thinking of a way to prevent him from escaping. This was the method he created. The greatest advantage Tianyi had wasn't his Nine Strokes Sword Arts, his claw arts, or all the treasure he had, or even his cosmos body. No, his greatest advantage was his bottomless true qi. Not even a true immortal would dare to claim to be able to outlast Tianyi.
So using the insights he gained from the Eight Strokes Word Art and his techniques, he developed this Chaos Refining Formation. Using his true qi of chaos to construct the formation, Tianyi could unleash it anytime he wanted. And by combining the concept of Eight Strokes Word Art and his Nine Strokes Sword Art, Tianyi was able to make it so that just being inside would cause damage to the Dragon Emperor. The only downside was that it required Tianyi to set up the core of the formation beforehand and continuously supply it with his true qi.
Tianyi used the sword that had accompanied him for over twenty years as the core since the basis was the Nine Strokes Sword Art. And as for the usage of true qi? Tianyi had never run out of true qi ever in his life. Even when he was testing, he only stopped because he became too bored after seven days and seven nights.
Since he couldn't defeat the Dragon Emperor in terms of quality, then he will use quantity to smash the Dragon Emperor to death. Tianyi didn't believe that the Dragon Emperor could outlast him as a nascent soul grandmaster!
And the Dragon Emperor was indeed feeling stifled. If it was just a normal battle or even a one-against-many, he wouldn't be this frustrated. Tianyi didn't play by the rules. Rather than fighting a person, he felt as if he had fallen into a danger zone.
A red glow covered the Dragon Emperor's body, and a golden suit of armor materialized. His Red Dragon Lotus had yet to be repaired. It was already damaged when Lei Jingye found it, but its foundation was nearly wrecked after Immortal Concubine Chong's assault. If possible, the Dragon Emperor didn't want to bring it out, but he had no choice.
How laughable, a mere nascent soul grandmaster had forced him to use his Immortal Realm artifacts. The golden armor with dragons engraved was the same. It was one of the armors he used while he was a true immortal. But since he had not reached the Immortal Realm, the Dragon Emperor had to supply the Red Dragon Lotus and the golden armor with his limited supply of immortal stones. His heart just bled at the thought!
Tianyi may treat the immortal stones the same as spirit stones, but for the Dragon Emperor who did not have a steady supply, it was rending his heart. Not even when Immortal Concubine Chong chased him had he reached such a point. But how could Tianyi be done with just this?
Swords formed from the true qi of chaos materialized in the mini Vast Void, each containing the power of Dragon Extermination.
Ping!
Ping!
Ping!
Like bullets against a steel shield, they struck the Dragon Emperor before shattering back into black qi.
Reusable and recyclable, how eco-friendly!
The Dragon Emperor cursed Tianyi. With the new assault, the expenditure of immortal stones rose to a whole new level. His abilities to battle head-on were unmatched. Comparatively, his investigating skills were lacking, especially in his current realm. He gritted his teeth and continued to be on the defensive. Right now, his plan was a battle of attrition. He didn't believe Tianyi could continue to uphold the formation for long.
But after several hours passed, the Dragon Emperor saw red. How many immortal stones has he used already!? Not just the Red Dragon Lotus and the golden armor, he had brought out two more Immortal Realm Artifacts and used them, but to no avail. He regretted not going all out before Tianyi had yet to unleash this domain move. The cost he incurred would be nothing. At this rate, he felt as if Tianyi would really kill him.
Tianyi wasn't as confident as the Dragon Emperor thought he was. Compared to when he tested the move out, the amount of mental fatigue he accumulated was staggering. There were several times that the Dragon Emperor broke out of his formation, forcing him to restructure his Chaos Refining Formation, draining his mental strength. If this went on, Tianyi didn't know if he could outlast the Dragon Emperor.
He had more than enough true qi, but if he were too mentally fatigued, it would be easy for the Dragon Emperor to defeat or even kill him. Sensing the threat of death from the Dragon Emperor, Tianyi brought out a talisman. It was a talisman that contained an attack at the level of an immortal monarch. For the revived Dragon Emperor to fall to this attack wasn't a waste at all.
Tianyi activated the talisman and sent the attack at the Dragon Emperor. The sword-qi that flew out wasn't an all-encompassing brightness but rather a shadowy, almost invisible sword-light. It soared towards the Dragon Emperor, and just as it was about to reach its target, Tianyi felt his consciousness explode in pain.
"FINALLY FOUND YOU!!!"