Swallow the sky, Fukkatsu!
Yet, as Fukkatsu was about to turn into a lightbolt to try and stop the attack, it was blocked and sent away by the wraps which had come loose earlier.
He looked at Feng Wuqing with an incredulous gaze.
What are you doing? His eyes seemed to ask.
Those battlefields hidden within were dry and empty, not even skeletons remained within.
He refused to let a single body fall on his hands, to enter his eyes in such a way.
"Trust me." Was all he heard as the Devouring Fist which had been reversed arrived back at her.
Heaven Swallowing Bands…
Her body lit up, or to be more precise, her clothing did.
The massive fist accompanied by the raging waters of the Yan Sword River were directly surrounded by the bands!
…Devour.
Crunch!
The bands tightened with a vice-like grasp over the devouring fist, stopping it but a few moments from disaster!
Those experts pulled back their powers immediately upon seeing the attack was useless, it had been blocked by a powerful artifact!
Yet, they couldn't pull it back!
When they'd activated the Reverse of the Yan River Stroke, the core of the technique had to accompany the strike the entire way in order to stop it from dissipating.
Not knowing that it was be so sturdy the artifact to actually prevent them from retrieving the core of the technique, they suffered a heavy backlash!
"That's not an artifact…!" One of the expert's eyes churned in horror.
Indeed.
It was no artifact.
Hidden within the fabric of the bands, something ran, and danced, biting, ripping, tearing and feasting upon their powers.
"It's a Spirit Weapon!" They paled.
Any hope of winning this fight was directly flushed.
At lower realms, it was no uncommon for a single piece of equipment to be unable to turn a fight due to the fact they couldn't wield anything of substance.
However, at the Law Realm, one could begin to see the true value of such items and draw out some of their potential which was enough to turn fights between cultivators.
If an Unchained Expert held a Spirit Weapon, they would even be able to fight more than three realms up from their position!
They did not fluster any longer, and activated their best escape techniques!
A concentrated power descended upon them, shattering their legs.
"Where are you going, causing trouble within our territory?"
Landing upon the ground, though still hovering just off it, a man stood with a squadron of experts.
Those Unchained had arrived.
Those experts who were brought down, did not speak for many had died leaving only but one who could move.
His eyes swept over his fallen comrades, moving his lips he let out a scream!
"FOR GREAT YAN!"
Eyes bloodshot, his Inner Sea ignited!
The ignition of the soul, cultivation and body of a Law Expert at the Fifth Stage was something that an Unchained Expert could survive, but it could easily level a mountain!
Shadows twisted away from all the buildings, slithering about as though they were alive and leaving the buildings beneath the sun without shadows.
Coalescing into a ball around the man, countless arras began to form, but it was too slow.
Leave behind not even scraps, Severing Step.
At the edge of a blade bleed the land, Sword Step.
Earth shattered as Shou Xin kicked off the ground, summoning Fukkatsu to protect Feng Wuqing who was closest to the impending explosion.
At precisely the same time, Feng Wuqing raised her Heaven Devouring Bands, her body becoming lithe and agile as the clothing fell away from her, the storm of bands around her kicking up the blood and bodies.
Arriving within it just as it finished forming, Shou Xin starred outward coldly, Fukkatsu wrapped around Feng Wuqing protectively.
With Fukkatsu's help, the defensive maneuver by Feng Wuqing managed to finish in time, and using his own Sword Step, he carried her out while she focused on defense.
His desperate steps were defeaned however.
Tsss….
It was only a little noise at first, yet it stood above all other sounds.
The air dragged inwards towards the source, a suction enough to tear flesh from bone.
At first, it was a small circle that cracked around his feet, and then it expanded into a larger one.
Then his eyes rolled back.
…Boom!
Whoosh!
The Heaven Swallowing Bands warped inwards as the explosion slammed into them!
Shou Xin was thrown off his feet and Fukkatsu roared.
Slamming it's tail against the earth, Fukkatsu's Flaming Lightning went on a rampage, fighting off the explosion, trying to burn it all away.
Feng Wuqing's eyes widened as she saw Shou Xin getting thrown by the force of the blast, "Xin!"
She reached out!
Yet, he moved out of her grasp, a glint in his eye as he turned away to the explosion's entrance, where the Heaven Swallowing Bands had begun to shatter.
Fukkatsu roared, it's tail slapped the ground and it shot forward to Shou Xin's side.
Light poured into the little world through the cracks of the Heaven Swallowing Bands, his shadow was cast into the small dark world.
…Devour my heart, shatter my mind, kill my body.
Fukkatsu Kiru.
Blood dripped from the corner of his lips, his eyes bled and his body withered.
Yet, his sword glowered, the explosion ripping past everything around his slash, not able to pierce the single move.
His best move.
His first move.
His origin.
Fukkatsu Kiru.
In that moment, his mind spun.
The laws in his body which were weak but connected shown with all their might, his cauldron cracked in various places.
His teeth shattered.
Time slowed.
He sensed something.
A call.
A shape.
A pillar.
Something was trying to connect to him, a familiar sensation.
He tried to grasp it, but the explosion kept him away from it, turned him away from it.
His hands grasped but found nothing in the dark.
It slipped away.
—
"Xin!" Her voice tore through even the explosion's terrible blast.
The ground was cut apart on both sides from where he had stood.
He fell to his knees, Fukkatsu caught him albeit barely as it's own body had too grown withered and weak from defending that blow.
It was now more a big snake, than a dragon.
Using it's last reserves of strength, it took Shou Xin in it's mouth and flew out from the smoke and destruction left behind from the battle at breakneck speeds.
Feng Wuqing looked up and followed it with her eyes, yet she couldn't follow, using the Heaven Swallowing Bands so much, and for such big moves one after the other had left her exhausted.
She knew that Fukkatsu knew that.
She knew it was taking him away because of that.
Because she was deemed not strong enough to protect him, and so it would do it itself.
Her face was dirty and pale, her clothes in tatters, she yelled, "Is he still alive!?"
Fukkatsu however, had no intention of turning around. He needed to get it's master away from the danger and it was not convinced that she was capable.
"Give chase!" An authoritative voice cracked through the destruction.
However, by the time the Unchained Expert's could find Fukkatsu's location in the sky, it had already turned into a bolt of lighting and trail of fire flying diving under the earth with a movement technique.
"The earth's veins are concealing it's location. We've lost it." Came the reply from the pursuers who'd shot into the sky.