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The tiny devil sword in her palm shifted to her fingers as she grabbed it. Flicking outwards, Shun instantly felt a stifling pressure boring down on him.
This sword seemed to originate from the void, aiming directly at his sea of consciousness, rushing within it. That devil sword was still in Lia's hands, but it seemed as though it was already right in front of him.
"Careful!" Juyu acted the moment Lia flickered her fingers outward. A black-colored seemingly indestructible shield appeared before Shun, shimmering with the power of darkness.
"Kacha!"
Only to see that the powerful devil shield was shattered into pieces and that sword intent hasn't dispersed at all, continuing on its way towards Shun.
At this moment, the runic characters around Shun all congregated together, transforming into a gigantic palm imprint that protectively blocked the path before him. The sword intent landed, causing piercing sounds to ring out.
Lia took another step forward, causing the devil might to grow more intense as the sword penetrated through, aiming for Shun's head.
A phantom instantly covered Shun, but the layers of protection were easily penetrated. This sword might was simply too fast and strong, Shun now, could only lift his hands and blocked it before his face.
When the sword intent slammed into his hands, the might of it had already weakened a lot. A brilliant light then radiated from his hands, forcefully dissipating the sword might after it left a bloody wound.
"For experts who gained control of a trace of chakra-king might, even if they are not top-tier martial artist, one cannot underestimate their attacks." Shun mused silently. "My physical body is still stronger though."
This attack by Lia was extremely terrifying. The power contained within that sword was sufficient to kill ordinary peak-level chakra or devil-sea experts.
Dropping his hands down, Shun's gaze turned even more terrifying. At this moment, he began to treat this battle seriously.
However, Lia was frowning. That overwhelmingly powerful strike of hers should have been a sure-kill technique. Yet, it actually failed to take Shun's life. This made her extremely bewildered.
Although she was bewildered, Lia was still a general that has experienced countless battles. Sword lotuses started to manifest around her, and when her palm pressed forth again, all the devil energy sword lotuses started to bloom, wanting to annihilate everyone who was within its boundary.
{A/N: Senbozakura}
In that instant, the battlefield was filled with the lotuses, one couldn't even manage to see Lia's silhouette.
"I will destroy her attack, I will leave the one-hit sure-kill to you." Shun spoke to Juyu. For the other protector, he was helpless before Lia's attack. Under the absolute disparity between their strengths, he was completely useless.
And although Juyu was bewildered as to why Shun was so confident, since he has already spoken, she would do her best.
Shun advanced forward, the aura from his perfect grade chakra-sea erupted in the air as chakra energy shrouded him entirely. The sword in his hands had the ability to penetrate through all destructive might. As he stepped out, he unleashed a strike augmented by the power his breathing.
Third form; Destruction
The sword was like a dragon, invincible. With that strike, dragon roars filled the skies as a golden dragon of absolute destruction manifested in the air.
"ROAR!"
With the roars of the dragon, it appeared like the sky collapsed. The dragons also radiated the light from runes of destruction, intent on shattering everything. The sword then slashed forth with indomitable might, aiming for Lia.
Lia's countenance turned incredibly unsightly. She could feel that there was a towering might contained within this strike, and it actually filled her with a strong sense of dread.
Lia gritted her teeth, a straight-up black-colored sword light emitted from her, transforming into an extremely powerful gigantic sword that stabbed towards the golden dragon.
Huge rumbling sounds rang out. The sword and dragon were both trembling from the impact. Lia pointed at the demonic dragon in the air, wanting to destroy it but at this very moment, Juyu arrived. Her palms slammed mercilessly into Lia's body, wanting to annihilate her.
Lia turned pale as she screamed loudly, "I concede!"
As the sound of her voice faded, Juyu retreated. Despite Lia fusing with the sword manifestations, she was still severely injured by that palm strike as she coughed out blood.
Her aura weakened as her expression turned ashen. Inclining her head and staring at Shun and Juyu, a grimace could be seen on her face. To think that when the two of them joined hands, they could actually injure her so badly.
She, Lia, initially wanted to improve her ranking in this battle. Never would she have imagined that her rank would fall to #14 instead.
Shun's eyes were calm as he stared at Lia. He then turn and spoke to Juyu beside him, "Let's go back."
Juyu nodded lightly as the two of them prepared to depart.
Lia stared at the back of Shun as she coldly spoke, "If it were not for you two joining hands, I would definitely have killed you."
"I already said it before. Since you were so cowardly to abandon me because of your fear to face off against the third-ranked general, you have already lost." Shun didn't turn back. His words caused Lia's heart to be filled with reluctance.
"Even now, I still believe in my choice," Lia knew what sort of person the third-ranked general Zonn was. Although she was defeated, she didn't regret giving up on Shun. Her state of heart wouldn't be wavered.
Being able to climb up to her current position, she has experienced too many things and suffered many defeats before. But as long as she was alive, everything could be gained back. This was the conviction of experts on the devil path.
Everyone stared in shock at the two of them. Shun's strength was actually strong enough to restrict Lia. In that case, it wouldn't be an easy thing to eliminate his devil general Juyu from the battlefield this round.
If they wanted to eliminate Juyu, they first had to defeat her protector.
Itsuki didn't feel that it was unexpected as he watched this scene. If Shun was too weak, there would be no meaning at all.
Since Shun is a member of his clan, he naturally would have some capabilities.
The battles next were extremely interesting. Although Juyu originally was the last-ranked general, there was actually no one else who dared to challenge her.
Everyone had personally watched as the ninth-ranked general Lia fell from grace. If they wanted to challenge Juyu, most probably, only those generals who ranked before Lia, would have a chance to succeed.
"When are you prepared to act?" The third-ranked general Zonn stared at Itsuki beside him as he asked. Zonn had no doubts with regards to Itsuki's strength. Despite Shun being very strong, there was no problem if Itsuki wanted to kill him.
"There's no hurry. Allowing him to pass is simply because I want his life. Since he will die sooner or later, just let him enjoy himself a while more. After all, only then would there be meaning to killing him." Itsuki laughed in a low voice. He then continued, "In addition, general, don't you feel that it would be an extremely interesting matter for the previous last-ranked general to be able to reach the top seven now?"
"Let him continue climbing up. When he stands at an unprecedented peak, wouldn't it be more fun if he fell into the abyss of despair from there?"
Zonn shook his head and laughed. He didn't feel that this was very interesting. Strength was everything on the devil path, Juyu has already advanced to a point where she shouldn't be at. She should be eliminated now as she was not qualified to be part of the top seven.
But since Itsuki wanted to play, just let him play then.
Because no one challenged them, Shun and Juyu actually continued advancing smoothly. Juyu could reach the #7 rank because of her protector's strength. But everyone was clear that that was her absolute limit.
Juyu understood that herself as well.
"For the next round where we determine the top seven, generals can only have one protector. Generals will fight generals while protectors will fight protectors. If two battles were lost, that party would be eliminated, if a team won one out of two battles, they can temporarily still remain on the battlefield. For example, if we clash against third-ranked Zonn and you defeat his protector but I'm defeated by him, my ranking would still be behind him."
For the next round where the rankings of the top seven were determined, in truth, Juyu's path has already came to an end.
"This means that even if I can defeat all the protectors, as long as one of the generals defeats you, your ranking would still be behind them? Does this also mean that…"
"It means that since I'm already at the last rank of this round, even if you win all the battles and I can't defeat any of the generals, I will still be ranked #7. Unless…" Juyu directly spoke.
"Unless what?" Shun asked.
"After a protector defeats all protectors, they can represent their general to fight against the other generals. Unless you can defeat the generals as well. This is also the reason why someone as powerful as the third-ranked Zonn also wanted to find a powerful protector. He needs his protector to block those aiming for him, while also testing out the strength of the first and second-ranked generals."
Juyu slowly spoke. But she knew it was impossible for Shun to fight against the top six generals. Even if he could win against all the protectors, she had no intentions of asking him to do this.
"When I invited you to be my protector, I also didn't expect that I could reach this step. The valley emphasizes on strength, even if one's protector is strong, the devil general also needs to have a compatible strength-level with his or her protector before they can sit on their seat in a stable manner. The higher you bring me up, the more shaky my seat would be."
Shun could understand somewhat. But he asked with a puzzled look on his face, "In that case, doesn't that mean that there's no meaning even if I help you to improve your ranking?"
"Nope there's some meaning to it. At the very least after the ranking battles, I can still receive many benefits." Juyu replied. Shun nodded. If that was the case, things are still not too bad.
For this coming round, their opponents were the top six ranking generals. Their strength made it so that they have secured their ranks for a very long time. Most probably, it would be hard for any to touch their position.
Although Lia was injured, she was still watching the battle. The Juyu and Shun right now, seemed so tiny and inconsequential in front of the top six generals.
Next for the top six ranks, even if it were the protectors of the generals, none of them would be weak.
The sounds of footsteps rang out. Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, the first person who walked out was actually the protector of the third-ranked devil general Zonn, Itsuki.
He stared at Shun as he coldly laughed, "Who would have thought that I would encounter you in the devil sect. What a pity, although you have reached this step, you still have to die."
"Do you believe that you are very powerful?" Shun stared at Itsuki as he asked.
Itsuki laughed when he heard these ridiculous words, "Maybe you haven't managed to have a glimpse of the gate leading to the Chakra king realm. Remember this, the name of the person who kill you, is Itsuki of the Nine-Emperors Empire."
As the sound of his voice faded, Itsuki's aura was released. His chakra light manifested the silhouette of an emperor. Boosting his aura to an astonishing degree.
"No wonder hes acting like those arrogant young masters. He's an Otsustsuki plus the fact that this technique is probably an art from his empire' Shun thought to himself
"Itsuki, after you finish him off, help me to kill his general as well. The last-ranked devil general shouldn't have managed to climb so high up. Since she did so, there's no need for her to exist any longer." From the back, Zonn coldly commanded.
"I'm willing to do the honours." Itsuki laughed as he replied.
Shun stepped out. Stretching his hand, a sword materialized from his Chakra. He stared at Itsuki as he spoke, "A pitiful low-grade trash from the Nine-Emperors Empire. If I can't settle you within three strikes, this incident would be a humiliation for me!"
"Arrogance? Please, who can't be arrogant?" Shun thought as she smirked coldly.