Close-Quarters Combat
The Devil Lord seemed to realize something and suddenly abandoned the slow and steady approach, instead launching a full-scale attack!
As his Dharma form trembled, boundless Black Mist emerged, resembling dark clouds, dust, strong winds, and torrential rain. Evil deeds, evil words, evil intentions, and evil returns continuously arose, and demonic mist surged all around, creating waves of evil atmosphere!
An invisible pressure squeezed the earth of the conscious world, and cracking sounds echoed in the air. Cracks appeared on the ground, spreading in all directions like a spider web.
The ground of the underworld began to shake, and the earth trembled and suddenly cracked open. A dark cloud of mist rose from the collapsed area.
Even the underworld collapsed!
The demon's form erupted with countless black lights, resembling a black sun, or perhaps... it transformed into a dark void that devoured all light.
In an instant, the shockwave spread out, and with a series of booming sounds, the terrifying gravity distorted everything around it, and the Buddha was directly swallowed up into the black sun!
A huge black cloud suddenly rose up, reaching the entire sky, and a great rain fell all around. The rain was pure hot water, which boiled and simmered, scorching the heavens. Demonic fire raged, and all things were like butter placed in the fire, being scorched and destroyed, leaving nothing behind.
On the treasure ship, Li Qi let out a muffled groan. Shen Shuibi's amulet glowed again, and several of its hairs silently turned to ash and disappeared completely.
Li Qi ended the ritual without hesitation and then cut off the sacrificial passage.
The slightest aftershock almost cost Li Qi his life.
Fortunately, he was protected by a talisman, which allowed him to barely survive and stop the ritual in time, thus avoiding further damage.
The intensity of a battle at the fourth rank was still too high for Li Qi.
He could provide intelligence by using his identity as a second-generation disciple of the Heavenly Demon, but he could not directly intervene in the battle, and even watching the battle required risking his life.
Oh, he won't be watching the battle. He's still on the treasure ship, which is still a fifth-rank vessel and continues to exert its power to protect the passengers. That's why Li Qi wasn't harmed by the extreme weather in the underworld. So as long as he doesn't actively establish contact, and the other party doesn't directly attack Li Qi, the aftershocks shouldn't be able to hurt the people on the ship.
Moreover, Li Qi felt that the other party was unlikely to attack him.
The reason is quite simple.
For these fourth-rank officials, their State of Mind had already shifted from whether or not to kill people.
For them, killing is just like opening a soda can—a means to achieve their goals. A fourth-grade Dao heart will not be affected by a soda can, nor will they play with soda cans for no reason.
Ultimately, achieving the goal is the key. Whether or not to kill someone is just a means to an end. Right now, all we need to do is kill Canghou. Li Qi is dispensable and there's no need to worry about him.
Thinking this through, Li Qi realized that he couldn't contact Canghou and had no way to intervene in the battlefield. The other side was also too lazy to pay attention to him, so he could only start watching the battle.
He's quite magnanimous; that's his main consideration.
If one can glean even a tiny bit of insight from a battle at the fourth rank, it will be of immense benefit.
Now that the task has been completed and the weaknesses of the Five Aggregates Demon and the characteristics of the demonic path have been revealed to Canghou, all that remains is for Cang Canghou to demonstrate his abilities.
Li Qi began to watch the battle intently, only to see that on the other side of the battlefield—
Countless black ropes flew out from the body of the Devil Lord Moloyan. These black ropes were like countless pythons, dazzlingly wrapping around the Heavenly Principle Barrier Canghou, enveloping it into a black sphere.
Then, these ropes began to roar. Every rope on the black sphere formed by these ropes trembled, rolled and spun at high speed, and howled!
That's right, the rope itself was screaming! Upon closer inspection, Li Qi realized that this wasn't a rope at all!
These ropes are clearly a large clump of living souls piled together!
Incredibly, these souls were stretched into ropes, each one incredibly long and thin, about seven or eight meters long, tangled together, with countless long, thin arms radiating from the center of their bodies. These arms were twisted and intertwined, forming a large, fibrous rope.
Countless souls make up these ropes.
These are the living, wronged souls that were refined by the Devil Lord! Moreover, among these souls, the highest cultivation level is the fifth rank, and the lowest is the seventh rank!
They howled incessantly, then deliberately used their own lives to launch an attack, constantly eroding the protective barrier of Heavenly Principle Justice.
The Five Aggregates Demonic Path obscures the Five Aggregates, controls these souls, and makes them believe in illusions that they are making some kind of unavoidable sacrifice, protecting and saving their loved ones or things.
In reality, they were merely being controlled by the demonic path, wasting their lives in vain. Their lives had already ended in the hands of the Devil Lord Moloyan, becoming his weapons. They had been deceived by the Five Elements Illusion all along.
The protective barrier of Heavenly Principle Canghou, under the impact of such vengeful spirits, was like a ship in a storm, violently rocking. Every fiber within it could not maintain its balance. The Canghou was pulled along by this shaking, and was even dragged out, as if it were being put on a gallows.
Li Qi stared at it carefully. If it was just a simple pull, Li Qi himself could break it by using some methods to reduce the force.
But clearly, it's not that simple.
These black ropes are all undergoing simple harmonic motion.
The vibrations of all the ropes are not perfectly synchronized; each rope vibrates slightly slower than the one above it.
Each rope can move up and down and left and right relative to the black sphere below. Each relative motion must be subtracted by a time interval dt, which is the time difference between the last time the rope below moved the same distance. The motion equations are then listed separately. There are four equations for each rope, and four intervals for each equation. If we connect them into a whole equation, it may require 4 to the power of n equations, which would then result in 4 to the power of n intervals...
Add to that the sheer number of ropes and the subjective outburst of the vengeful spirits within them...
This means that the combined force is almost impossible to calculate, and the force can only be forcibly endured; it is impossible to counteract it through force-relief measures.
The methods of a fourth-rank official are truly... divine.
Moreover, besides the Devil Lord Moloyan, there is another true dragon, Ao Guangxiao.
Ao Guangxiao's body suddenly swelled up, and the flesh of the true dragon burst forth with extremely terrifying power, which could even go head-to-head with martial arts experts!
The Way of Evolution is the self-selection of life.
True dragons, on the other hand, represent the pinnacle of the Way of Evolution; they are things that have existed since time immemorial.
It is precisely because of its flaws and inability to adapt to the environment that it evolves.
Without flaws, there is no evolution, nor is there any need for change. As the ultimate product capable of adapting to all environments, the true dragon's physical body is the strongest among all Dao Lineage, truly an 'eternal and unchanging thing'.
The dragon's body has well-established internal organs, strong muscles, abundant blood, robust tendons and bones, and strong meridians. A body only one foot tall has the strength of hundreds of millions of pounds. Now, its body is growing larger and larger, expanding rapidly and even lengthening thousands of times!
Li Qi estimated that Ao Guangxiao was at least ten thousand li tall! He must have immense brute strength!
At the same time, Ao Guangxiao took a deep breath, swallowed the Heavenly River, and instead of using the water of the Heavenly River to wash away the debris, he raised his dragon tail and fiercely lashed at the Heavenly Principle Barrier in front of him!
Li Qi did not sense any Divine Ability; it was just a simple brute force beating.
Only--
The surging of the air came from the surging of the dragon's tendons. The boundless power was twisted together like a rope, and the muscles of the dragon's body were completely relaxed. A barely perceptible ripple slid across its surface.
Li Qi, who was watching the battle, felt his body tense up and tremble all over! Even his hair stood on end!
Fortunately, he wasn't wearing a hat at the time; otherwise, it would probably have been completely knocked off by his spiky hair!
Whiplash effect.
When a flexible, whip-like arc begins to undulate, the whip tip effect occurs. At this point, the displacement of the protruding part is several times that of the main body. When the whip swings at high speed, it curls up and forms a undulating shape. When this undulation reaches the tip, it increases the speed brought by the whip body many times over.
Therefore, when spinning a top, a small whip can produce a strong sonic boom with a gentle flick, easily making a top weighing tens of kilograms fly up.
If a small whip is so powerful, what about a dragon's body that is thousands of miles long?
Li Qi witnessed firsthand how the small ripple gradually extended across the dragon's body, with endless power piling up on it, layer upon layer.
At the same time, Li Qi also sensed a familiar Technique Method.
That was a technique Shen Shuibi used when traveling outside the realm, Technique Method to increase the speed Heavenly Way Limit.
The Heavenly Way Limit are insurmountable; it is absolutely impossible to break through them. The closer one gets, the more energy is needed. Reaching this limit requires infinite energy, so it is impossible to achieve.
However, this limit itself can be manipulated by the laws of nature, raising the upper limit of this limit so that the speed can continue to increase without worrying about hitting the limit.
That's how it is now.
Ao Guangxiao used his own body as a whip, and in a very short instant, the speed of the whip broke through the body's ten thousand miles!
This is a whip strike that far exceeds the speed of light!
Speed plus mass equals destructive force.
The massive body struck the Heavenly Principle Protective Barrier Canghou at a speed far exceeding the speed of light!
This is absolute brute force, absolute destruction!
All I saw was a flash of light—
There wasn't even a sound, because the speed was countless times faster than sound!
With that flash of light, the earth of hell cracked open.
A massive mushroom cloud rose, and the raging winds from the explosion seemed to threaten to destroy the world. The Fifth Rank Treasure Ship instantly erected protective walls to resist the aftershocks and protect the crew inside.
Li Qi could see nothing but endless light, which was not soft light but the light and heat generated by the explosion!
This was absolutely the most dazzling sight Li Qi had ever seen in his life. A torrent of colors and light swept past him, and pure energy surged and burned before Li Qi eyes.
Li Qi couldn't help but shed tears, because the excessively bright light filled his eyes. He was like an ordinary person who presumptuously looked directly at the midday sun and was hurt by the light. All he could see was a white blur, as if he had covered his eyes with a thick layer of frosted glass.
It took a full four or five seconds for the torrent of light to gradually disappear.
Li Qi rubbed his eyes; he had no choice but to use his Divine Ability to begin healing his injuries.
The aftershocks were completely blocked by the talisman and the Fifth Rank Treasure Ship; all he saw was light.
But these lights alone burned the eyes of a seventh-rank cultivator. He had just gone blind and was forced to use his Divine Ability to rebuild his eyes.
When Li Qi finally opened his eyes, he saw that the surroundings had turned into an endless void.
Tens of thousands of miles away, the red walls could still be seen, and the ground could be seen below, but the treasure ship was floating in the air.
Li Qi immediately realized what had happened.
The true dragon's strike shattered the surface of Hell! And created a massive cavity spanning tens of thousands of miles across the continent! They are now inside this cavity, and the red walls in the distance are a section of the Hellish landscape after the explosion blasted out this enormous cavity!
"Damn it..." Li Qi cursed. He could feel that some hellish yin Yin Qi was invading the treasure ship, and his surroundings were already being eroded by hell.
There is only one reason why this happened: the treasure ship has cracked. The aftershocks of the fourth-rank official have caused damage to the treasure ship that cannot be repaired on its own.
Truly, this is the aftermath of a fourth-rank battle...
Fortunately, the Fifth Rank Treasure Ship was sturdy enough to withstand the aftershocks, preventing him from dying instantly.
The others around them were still under the influence of the demonic energy and had not yet come to their senses.
So, what's going on on the battlefield? Li Qi looked up, activated the pupil insect into his eyes to enhance his vision, and once again gazed at the battlefield thousands of miles away.
Then he discovered that he didn't need to drive the pupil worm.
Because both sides' bodies had expanded to a size of several thousand miles or more!
The Dharma form of Moloyan is already thousands of miles high, and the true dragon does not need a Dharma form at all; its physical body alone is tens of thousands of miles long.
On the other side, Canghou, who was a fourth-rank Reason Way master, had no physical form, but he was showing the true essence of Reason Way at this moment.
That's the Law Treasure!
Li Qi saw two enormous puppet Law Treasure, both of the fourth grade, each with a body spanning tens of thousands of miles, standing majestically in the hollow cavity!
Li Qi could see that they were two... Giant Spirit God!
The two Giant Spirit God each had broad chests, strong bones and muscles, and were majestic and imposing. White breaths from their mouths and noses reached ten thousand feet into the clouds.
What a majestic presence descends from the clouds, and divine might ascends to the heavens!
Its body is thousands of miles long, with golden rings shining in the clouds, eyes shooting out rosy light, iron armor covered in frost, and mouth swallowing the shadow of the sun.
A Giant Spirit God, enraged, swung his great axe, piercing through the demon-locking gate, seemingly capable of splitting Mount Tai in two.
A Giant Spirit God, majestic and imposing, wielding a heavy hammer, its radiant light blazing with fury, seemed to have already overturned the ocean.
Yuan Biao Biao opened his eyes. Two fourth-grade divine puppets, with Canghou, who had given up his defense, in between, began their counterattack!
Li Qi knew that with both sides employing various tactics, the battle was likely to escalate into a life-or-death melee!