Shit. Tianyi only had this one thought as Leviathan Ancestor's attack landed on his body. There was a sense of unwillingness in Tianyi's heart as he felt his body crumble under the immense power of the seemingly harmless bubbles. He didn't even have time to activate any of his lifesaving means. Soon, his body popped under the barrage of bubbles, and his true qi of chaos poured out like mist.
I wasn't even killed by someone with the background of a character. What the actual hell. Fuck, I thought that I'd at least be killed by someone famous or a rising genius. To be killed by a caged rat in the Demon Cage Realm, so embarrassing. AND KILLED BY FUCKING BUBBLES! I can already imagine my epitaph; here lies Tianyi, killed by bubbles.
Tianyi waited and waited before finally realizing something eff.
Eh? Wait, I feel fine. Well, not a hundred percent fine, abnormal but still alive. Tianyi knew Leviathan Ancestor's attack had destroyed his body, but strangely, Tianyi didn't feel any damage at all. It was as if his body was still perfectly fine.
Tianyi tried to move his arms and limbs but discovered that although he was alive, his body was still gone. Still, he was very aware of what was happening around him except that he couldn't do anything.
I couldn't have become a ghost, right? Pei! Ghosts are just souls with a vast amount of negative emotions that defy the natural workings of the world and forcibly linger outside the Nether Realm. Getting rid of his useless ponderings, Tianyi began to focus in an attempt to figure out what the nature of his abnormal state was.
I seemed to have merged with the domain of the Vast Heaven Islands? Tianyi discovered that it felt like he had two inner cosmos. One was the one that had been born when he created his martial cultivation method on Tianwei Island, and the other was the Vast Heaven Islands that he had created based on his inner cosmos.
Tianyi wanted more time to uncover the mystery of his strange state, but he didn't have any more time as he discovered that the sea demon elder and the rest of the Unity Realm level demons were trying to flee the Vast Heaven Islands.
Stay!
Tianyi wanted to shout, but he remembered that he no longer had a body and could not speak. However, under Tianyi's will, the Vast Heaven Island's boundary seemed to have changed. Whenever the demons tried to leave the boundary, they would find themselves at the opposite end of the domain without fail.
Seeing this, Tianyi sighed in relief or at least thought of sighing in relief. Now I can quietly ponder on my changes.
After an unknown amount of time that felt short yet extremely long, Tianyi sighed. He finally understood the strange state he was in. Heh, this is like at the critical time, the protagonist discovering a bullshit ability that can save their life. Only this time, I'm not going to complain.
The strange state Tianyi was in wasn't the result of a technique. Rather than a technique, it was closer to an innate ability. Most commonly seen in demons and monsters that possess divine bloodlines, innate abilities were techniques that could be unleashed without understanding their principles.
Cultivators could also attain innate abilities through numerous methods. The space piercing reminiscent of the World Piercing Mammoth Boar exhibited by Dong Chifan was such an innate ability. The Truth-Seeking Eye that Tianyi cultivated was also considered an innate ability. As long as he successfully opened the third eye, Tianyi would be able to use miraculous abilities without needing to understand them.
If Tianyi had to compare, it would be like people on Earth being able to use power tools. They only understood the tool's basic use and energy source, but they did not know how and why it worked.
Tianyi's new innate ability was realm unification. Using it, Tianyi could merge his body and inner cosmos with any realms or domains under his control, such as the Vast Heaven Islands. Tianyi wondered whether he could merge with the Mountain and Seas Formation since he technically controlled it.
What should I call this ability? Perhaps I am the Heavenly Dao? Pfff, if I call it that, I wonder if the Heavenly Dao will deliver divine punishment upon me? For now, I'll just name this ability Realm Merge.
The reason he could never use this ability before was because he was not the master of the Demon Cage Realm or the Huang Realm. Tianyi had thought his control over the Vast Heaven Islands was because he was the master and controller, but the reality was that he had partially merged with the Vast Heaven Islands and exerted his will upon it.
Shaking his head, Tianyi focused on more important matters.
The reason it seemed that his body had popped was because Leviathan Ancestor's attack had prevented some parts of his qi from leaving with him when he merged with the Vast Heaven Islands. If he had really popped, the amount of true qi of chaos that would be released would be enough to fill the Vast Heaven Islands ten times over and practically suffocate every human and demon within.
In the merged state, Tianyi discovered that his control of the Vast Heaven Islands had increased tremendously. Even the problem that had been plaguing him for years was easily solvable now.
But before Tianyi could shrink the Vast Heaven Islands and bring it with him, he had to deal with the demons still trapped inside. Using his will, Tianyi began to delve deeper and explore the nature of his new innate ability. He even allowed a hole to open to test what would happen to a demon that had been sliced by the closing boundary.
Tianyi frowned upon seeing that the top half of the crow demon was still alive and kicking despite missing his bottom half. The vitality of Unity Realm level demons is really extraordinary.
Still, even if Tianyi was amazed, he didn't plan on letting the injured demon leave. Although the demon was unlikely to heal in a short time, Tianyi was still feeling stifled by Leviathan Ancestor's attack that the sea demon elder unleashed. If he didn't vent a bit, he would feel as if a fishbone was caught in his throat. It was extremely unpleasant.
Under Tianyi's control, the Vast Heaven Island's boundary was shrouded in a black layer, cutting off the scenery of the outside from the inside. Tianyi had encapsulated the Vast Heaven Islands in his true qi of chaos, and from the layer, beams of qi were shot towards the fleeing demon.
Normally, the demon elder would have been able to block the qi beam, and even if he couldn't fully block it, at least ninety-five percent would have lost its effect. However, in his injured state, the qi beam directly struck him. The corrosive nature of the true qi of chaos was fatal thanks to the demon already being in a grievous state.
Like dry wood catching on fire, Tianyi's true qi of chaos spread all over the demon's body and continually disintegrated his flesh and soul. Anyone who heard the demon's excruciating howls of pain would have goosebumps all over their body, even on a sunny day. Not even Tianyi, who had unleashed the true qi of chaos, was unaffected by the howls.
Was my true qi of chaos always this torturous? He couldn't help but wonder.
Still, Tianyi continued to observe the final moments of the demon elder. When the demon elder lost all signs of life and his body was completely disintegrated by the true qi of chaos, Tianyi had an idea. Reaching out towards the true qi of chaos that was rampantly corroding its surroundings with his spiritual sense, he commanded it to return, and to Tianyi's surprise, it really did come back.
Why didn't I think of this sooner? Tianyi couldn't help but wonder. However, he soon discovered that it wasn't as useful as he thought. At most, it was another extension of his absorption abilities and aided him in recovering qi, which he almost never needed.
From the moment the demon escaped and was killed, only a few breaths of time had passed. Tianyi focused back on the demons inside the Vast Heaven Islands.
Under his control, all the cultivators and even Fan City itself were teleported outside of the Vast Heaven Islands. Once teleported outside, all the cultivators were in a state of bewilderment. The only ones who weren't surprised were the residents within Fan City since they hadn't comprehended what had happened.
While the cultivators were trying to adjust and figure out what had happened, Tianyi was focusing on the demons trapped in the Vast Heaven Islands. Hey, trapping them inside Vast Heaven Islands, isn't that like how the demons are trapped in the Demon Cage Realm? Very meta.
Tianyi even had the notion of raising a bunch of demons, like how the Buzhou Immortal Sect was rearing the demons inside the Demon Cage Realm as livestock, before quickly putting down the idea. In Tianyi's words, it was way "too troublesome."
In the future, should I focus on using qi-based moves instead of physical moves? Personally, punching and kicking are quite wasteful since I have so much qi. En, I should be focusing on my strengths and amplifying them, and my greatest strength is my vast amount of qi. Though, I shouldn't neglect my martial abilities. My body is stronger than Unity Realm level demons, after all. Making up his mind, black lightning began to gather and strike the demons inside the Vast Heaven Islands.
Upon seeing this, all the demons attempted to dodge the lightning strikes. Core Formation Realm level demons who were struck immediately perished into a burnt corpse. Nascent Soul Realm level demons were grievously injured in one strike and dead on the third strike. Only the Unity Realm level demons were able to fend off Tianyi's attacks, but not fully.
The black lightning formed from Tianyi's true qi of chaos contained trace amounts of tribulation essence. Normally, when Tianyi infused tribulation essence into his attacks, the Heavenly Dao would erode most of it, but this was no longer an issue since he had merged with the Vast Heaven Islands, which was devoid of the Heavenly Dao. To be more accurate, Tianyi was the Heavenly Dao of the Vast Heaven Islands.
Even the Unity Realm level demons were shocked by the tribulation essence. For demons at the Unity Realm level, they only feared two things: true demons like the ancestors of the three demon clans and heavenly tribulation. Suddenly facing tribulation lightning, many demons despaired and allowed the lightning to destroy them in body and soul without resistance.
Some demons attempted to escape and flew straight towards the boundary that seemed to lead into the Vast Void. Staying would result in death without even the chance of reincarnating. Why not commit a final gamble?
However, they made the wrong gamble.
Tianyi used that demon to test his control of the spacetime boundaries of the pseudo-realm. After Tianyi acclimated to controlling the boundary, he formed a layer of true qi of chaos within the Vast Heaven Island. Once the demons touched the newly formed true qi of chaos barrier, it was as if they had caught on fire. The true qi of chaos immediately engulfed their whole body and disintegrated them into a crisp. The other demons who still had some hope left despaired. They can only quietly await their fate.
The Unity Realm level demons, on the other hand, weren't so willing to give up. Seeing the situation worsen, the six remaining elders of the Golden Crow Clan gathered together and unleashed a combination defensive technique.
The sea demon elder also wanted to defend himself, but he couldn't because over fifty percent of the lightning was directed towards him. It was not that he was afraid of lightning specifically, but as a sea demon, he was weak against high temperatures, especially Tianyi's abnormally powerful black lightning.
Dandan and Shuijing had already long been teleported out by Tianyi, so even if the sea demon wanted to use them as hostages, he couldn't.
Tianyi also had another advantage in this state, and that was the amount of qi he could use. Normally, his instantaneous output was limited by the amount of qi he could draw from his inner cosmos at any given time. But once he merged with the Vast Heaven Islands, the limit was increased tremendously since it was akin to directly using his qi without drawing it out from his body. So Tianyi's current power was over ten times what he could typically unleash.
Under the constant assault, the sea demon elder's qi reservoir was quickly used up. If he could harmonize with heaven and earth, he would be able to infinitely block Tianyi's attack thanks to the endless amount of qi he could absorb. Unfortunately, he was trapped in the Vast Heaven Islands.
Seeing this, the elders of the Golden Crow Clan felt despair. It was not that the Golden Crow Clan elders had any sympathy for the Leviathan Clan elder. In fact, they hated that he couldn't die fast enough were it not for the fact that if he died, the majority of the lightning would aim towards them. In their eyes, had he not brought out the tooth that could unleash Leviathan Ancestor's might, the master of the Vast Heaven Islands wouldn't have reacted so decisively. If they couldn't figure out a method to resist and escape, they would suffer the same fate as the sea demon elder.
"Fellow elders, we can no longer retreat. Our only option is to expend the immortal's qi and hope that we can outlast him." Hearing Ashflame Crow's suggestion, the crow demons gritted their beaks and formed a defensive barrier using their combined might.
Even so, Ashflame Crow couldn't help but despair. In his eyes, the chances of the master of the domain being an expert on the level of their ancestor was incredibly high. The chances of outlasting him were infinitely small, but there wasn't anything else they could do. Am I really going to die here today?
Recalling the day five years ago when Golden Crow Ancestor asked for their vote, Ashflame Crow wished to travel back in time and beat himself up for voting to attack the cultivators. You already knew you weren't the cultivator's opponent. Why did you deliver yourself to die?!
Still, even if Ashflame Crow's intestine became green with regret, there was no medicine for regret, and he could only grit his beak and hope for a miracle. However, a miracle did not occur.
The six remaining demon elders could only watch as the massive demon army they brought perished under the consecutive lightning strikes before all bolts started to target them. There was no great battle between the edge of life and death, only the growing despair as their qi continued to dwindle until nothing was left.
Ashflame Crow glared at the heavens with unwillingness in his eyes. He had imagined his death countless times. Whether it was from a battle against his rivals or against demons more powerful than him, but he never imagined that he would be killed without even seeing his killer's face.
"I AM UNWILLI–"
Ashflame Crow never finished his words as the black lightning broke through his body's defenses and killed him instantly.
Tianyi controlled the demon's corpses and placed them on one of the floating islands. "Now, how should I unmerge myself?"
Outside, the disciples and the residents of Fan City who had discovered the abnormality stood in a crowd, watching the gargantuan black sphere.
"Senior Brother Xi is the only one in, and there are at least six Unity Realm level demons. I wonder how long he can last." One male disciple said aloud.
"Last? You got it wrong. It should be how long those demons can last. Did you see Senior Brother's methods? When the demons first invaded, with one move, he exterminated half of them!" Another one, a friend of the former, said, obviously a Tianyi fan.
"Brother, I know you admire Senior Brother Xi, but you have to face reality. If Senior Brother Xi were a unity venerable, I wouldn't doubt your words, but he is a nascent soul grandmaster like you and me. Don't you remember the battle five years ago? Back then, Senior Brother Xi couldn't defeat a Unity Realm level demon. How can he defeat six at once? Not to mention the tens of thousands of remaining demons." A voice of reason said, but his conversation partner only huffed.
"Just you wait, this is nothing for Senior Brother Xi!"
Before the disciple could speak, another voice interjected.
"Right, how could mere demons give Prince Xi any trouble?"
The disciple looked at the newcomer. A girl with her hair tied into double buns and worshipful expression said. Who else could the girl be but Jian Wuyan?
The disciple moved to speak but was interrupted again. He growled in frustration as he glared at the newcomer, only to still when he saw her sickly appearance.
"How could Daoist Xi lose before fulfilling his promise to me?" The speaker was a girl with long black hair and sickly white skin, Duwa of the Nihility Sect. Behind her were her two nascent soul attendants.
"You hussy, when did Prince Xi ever promise you anything?!" Jian Wuyan questioned as she pointed at Duwa.
The disciple wanted to speak again but was interrupted by his friend.
"Sister Jian is right. Senior Brother Xi is our Buzhou Immortal Sect's. How can a mere core formation master from a vassal sect be worthy of a promise from him?"
The disciple opened his mouth and closed it before sighing. Forget it, towards these braindead fans; he had nothing to say. Instead, the disciple observed the gargantuan black sphere that was the Vast Heaven Islands.
Huh, is it just me, or did the sphere get smaller?
No, it wasn't the disciple's imagination as the black sphere that was the Vast Heaven Islands did shrink. Soon, not just him, but more and more disciples noticed the change and began to pay attention.
As the black sphere shrink, so did the black barrier that prevented the onlookers from looking inside. Once the black barrier completely disappeared, the Vast Heaven Islands was so small enough that it could fit in someone's palm, and inside, there was nothing abnormal except there seemed to be a thin glass sphere encasing the Vast Heaven Islands.
Everyone's attention was enraptured by the miniature Vast Heaven Islands. Some of them even had the notion of grabbing and claiming it for themselves. They had seen how Tianyi was able to deal with the demon army just by using the Vast Heaven Islands, but before they could take action, a milky white hand had appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the sphere.
Tianyi stood there, wearing his purple robe and golden coronet with not a lock out of place. The onlookers didn't feel any aura coming from Tianyi, but there was an indescribable pressure bearing down on their souls as if they were facing some monstrous beast. Just Tianyi's leisurely look could make them feel threatened once they remember how he dealt with the army of demons.
Hey, say something. Why are you all silent? Is it because I'm alive? Is it because you wish I were dead? If you don't speak, I'll really think you guys wish I were dead! Tianyi thought, feeling aggrieved by the people's lack of reaction.
"What happened to the demons? Did you get rid of them all?" Daoyi, who had just pushed through into the front, asked.
Tianyi wasn't worried for Daoyi. The moment the sea demon elder had brought out the tooth, he had teleported Daoyi and Xi Ri to safety. Among the cultivators, those two were the least affected by Leviathan Ancestor's attack.
"Naturally," Tianyi said.
The stronger the cultivator was, the stronger their senses were. So even though Tianyi's voice wasn't loud and was talking to Daoyi, many cultivators still heard him. Hearing Tianyi's answer, even the male disciple who said Tianyi could defeat all six Unity Realm level demons showed disbelief. Not just him, but the majority of the people who heard Tianyi's words showed expressions of disbelief.
Tianyi's lips twitched. Controlling the Vast Heaven Islands in his palm, he teleported the corpses of the demons out, creating a veritable mountain out of the demon's corpses.
"There are too many demons. Although many of them are damaged, you can take whichever you like. After all, we're comrades, so good things have to be shared." Tianyi kindly said, but inwardly he was thinking something. Hmpf, don't believe me? Then I'll show you proof.
Upon seeing the shock coloring the cultivator's faces, Tianyi inwardly smirked. Soon, more and more disciples came forward to collect some demon corpses. They didn't allow greed to take them over and take everything they could grab. They still had to consider their image after all.
After grabbing about three or four corpses each, they all thanked Tianyi, praising him, causing Tianyi's smile to widen bit by bit no matter how hard he tried to suppress it.
Tianyi is probably only sharing the nascent soul and core formation master equivalent demon corpses. He is probably keeping the Unity Realm level demons for himself. Xia Yushan thought as he stared at the mountain of corpses and then stared at the sphere in Tianyi's hand. However, he was soon proved wrong.
"Daoist Xi, this is a Unity Realm level corpse. Can I really have this?" One Core Formation Realm disciple from the Bright Ascension asked, his breathing rough from exhilaration. Upon seeing Tianyi nod, the disciple quickly stored the corpse and thanked Tianyi before leaving, guarding against others who wanted to take it from him.
After this instance, the other disciples, even those who were too prideful, stared at the mountain of corpses with heated gazes. Even Xia Yushan had the urge to search the mountain of corpses for a Unity Realm level corpse.
However, this would be akin to owing Tianyi a favor, something Xia Yushan was unwilling to do. Thinking about his need for the blood essence of the Golden Crow Clan, he stepped forward but stopped. Even if I can condense the yang essence out of the blood, I would leave a shadow in my heart because I would attribute Tianyi for my success. My success can be aided by others, but it definitely can't be because of Tianyi. I'll have to think of another method. That yokel from the Demon Cage Realm...
No matter how many disciples came, the pile of corpses never seemed to shrink. Even Tianyi felt troubled by this. Ah, I have too much that I don't know what to do with them.
Suddenly a girl with tears streaming down her face ran forward and pointed at Tianyi. She wore a white dress, but it was marred by dirt and soot, giving her a pitiful appearance.
"Prince Xi, how could you? How could you kill Senior Brother Ji?!" The girl, Bai Weiwei, said with a voice full of grief and anger.