"What!?"
Yu Qing and the others trembled, their hearts gripped by terror. What kind of horrifying power was that? It had blasted apart the ferocious beast manifested by a Precious Technique and destroyed a powerful Treasure Tool.
Could that still be called the Blood Moving Extreme Realm?
Where had this monster sprung from? Could anyone like him be found anywhere in the vast Stone Kingdom? Even the Heaven Mending Pavilion or Deer-Chasing Academy probably could not nurture someone like this.
"Stake everything! Offer our lives as sacrifice!" Yu Qing and the others understood that they faced an unimaginable opponent. His flesh alone could absolutely rival a Heaven-Ranked Primordial Ferocious Beast. Cultivation realms could no longer measure him.
"Nine Heavens of the Rain Path!" The others nodded, then roared together. Every one of them shone, and discs resembling volcanic craters appeared around their bodies.
This was an inherited Precious Technique of the Rain Clan, a large-scale divine skill that required many people to perform together. The more participants, the greater the power of their combined strike.
For that reason, the requirements for being allowed to learn this Precious Technique were not particularly strict, and all of them had mastered it.
Legend held that the ultimate form of this Precious Technique could unleash the forbidden power of a deity. It touched upon the Rain Clan's origins and possessed extraordinary might.
Of course, they certainly could not reach that level. At most, they could unleash two or three heavens before reaching their limit.
Even so, it was still a Precious Technique passed down by a deity, possessing inconceivable power. Now that they offered their lives as sacrifice, they imbued it with even greater spiritual potency.
With a boom, the void shook violently. Water sprang from dry ground, and enormous waves surged into the sky. In mere moments, the area became a watery realm.
Then a dazzling curtain of light appeared. An enormous lotus bloomed amid the waters. As its petals unfurled, an immensely powerful fluctuation swept outward, splitting the sky and striking at Di Yi.
"Roar!"
The Golden Hou let out a long roar. Its entire body shone, densely covered in runes, and a golden vortex appeared. It was the thunder pool, which instantly expanded and swallowed the towering waves.
It was not worried about Di Yi's safety, because in its eyes, that mysterious watery realm could not harm him at all.
It had acted only to show what it could do, so it would not seem useless.
After all, if Di Yi handled everything, would it not become dispensable baggage? If Di Yi stopped taking it along to play, where could it go to cry its grievances?
Rumble!
The mysterious watery realm shook, and the rain curtain expanded. As a Precious Technique passed down by a deity, its foundational laws were already beyond anything in the mortal world. Bearing a certain will, it clashed head-on with the thunder pool.
Unfortunately, those wielding it were simply too weak. They could not compare with the Golden Hou at all.
Amid the brilliant lightning, lotus petals were pierced and scorched black, one after another, while countless runes were swallowed by the golden vortex.
The first heaven of the Nine Heavens of the Rain Path was dissolved with effortless ease.
"We were all blind! That's no Strange Dog—it's a Primordial Remnant!" Yu Qing was exerting his full strength. At this moment, through the Nine Heavens of the Rain Path, this Precious Technique, he gained a profound appreciation of the Golden Hou's power.
The Nine Heavens of the Rain Path was a deity's Precious Technique. Its runic mysteries were formidable, and it should never have been so easily dispelled. Even the ferocious beasts of the primeval forests lacked such deep reserves.
"We might meet our end here." The others' expressions shifted repeatedly.
Earlier, the Strange Dog's battle with the middle-aged City Lord had appeared evenly matched from what they displayed outwardly. They had assumed it was, at most, an ordinary ferocious beast.
Yet now, the strength displayed by that Strange Dog had actually risen. The evenly matched battle they had witnessed before had merely been the result of it not exerting itself.
A man whose flesh had surpassed its limits and a doglike Primordial Remnant-this was not a combination they could withstand.
But did they have a choice?
No.
They had already unleashed the Nine Heavens of the Rain Path and offered their lives as sacrifice. They could only hope that the Sacrificial Spirit of Cloud-Rushing Town would save them before they could hold on no longer.
Rumble...
The second layer of the rain curtain took shape.
An even larger lotus bloomed, its power rising far beyond the previous one's. The Golden Hou met it with disdain, driving the thunder pool forward to collide with it.
In an instant, heaven and earth thundered. The mysterious watery realm shook with a deep rumble and nearly boiled, as though the extreme heat radiating from the lightning and thunder would evaporate it dry.
"The power of water..." Standing within the vast watery realm, Di Yi did not immediately join the Golden Hou's attack. Instead, he stood quietly where he was.
He was using true understanding. Interested in the Nine Heavens of the Rain Path, he was learning this Precious Technique.
Soon, he understood the true essence of the Nine Heavens of the Rain Path. The enormous lotus growing amid the watery realm could bloom nine times in succession, each blooming raising its power far above the last.
Moreover, after its ninth blooming, it could draw power beyond the limits from some unknown place-a kind of projection unconstrained by the wielder's cultivation realm.
"Roar!"
Di Yi's lack of movement did not mean the Golden Hou remained idle as well. Upon seeing a third lotus appear after the previous one was destroyed, it abandoned its playful attitude and truly struck.
In an instant, the thunder pool unfurled completely, vast and surging.
Now, there were no longer merely dozens or hundreds of lightning bolts, but an entire expanse of them. Like a mountain torrent pouring down, they erupted with endless radiance within the mysterious watery realm.
In just an instant, the rain-curtain world was pierced until it lay in shattered fragments, no longer able to separate the world within from the world outside.
At the same time, after breaking out of the rain-curtain world, that expanse of lightning left one terrifying scar after another upon the ground, splitting open countless great fissures as its power erupted in full.
As though thunder were scouring the earth, the densely forested mountain terrain was utterly destroyed in the blink of an eye.
"Pfft!"
Yu Qing and the others, who were performing the Precious Technique outside the rain-curtain world, all screamed as the tremendous lightning struck them. They barely had time to make that single sound before exploding into blood mist, leaving neither flesh nor bone behind.
This was the Golden Hou, the uncrowned king of the mountain range. Now it revealed its former might once more, using an ox-cleaving blade to slaughter chickens. Yu Qing and the others could at least count their deaths as no poor bargain.
"You killed them too quickly." Di Yi had been using true understanding and had fully analyzed the runes of the first three heavens of the Nine Heavens of the Rain Path. Just as he was waiting for the fourth, everything ended.
That left him somewhat frustrated. Although the Nine Heavens of the Rain Path's true essence had been grasped through True Understanding, he had not analyzed all the specific runes needed to perform it. He could be said to have learned only a third of it.
"Roar?" The Golden Hou could not understand Di Yi's words, but it felt they must be praise. Flaunting the results of its battle, it rubbed against him as he descended.
"Never mind. Since its true essence has been grasped through True Understanding, it's not as though I can't deduce the runes for the rest." Di Yi stroked the Golden Hou's fur without blaming it.
Clang!
Suddenly, a crimson streak of sword light slashed toward him, accompanied by lightning, heading straight for Di Yi's skull.
Like a comet crossing the sky, it trailed a long tail of radiance, illuminating the entire ruined mountain ridge with a force that seemed capable of piercing heaven and earth.
Clang!
Di Yi reacted swiftly, moving even faster than the crimson sword light, and the two collided.
Everything happened so quickly that by the time the Golden Hou reacted, it was already over. All that remained in the sky was the belated ringing of the sword and a shower of runic light shattered across heaven and earth.
"Someone else wants to step forward?" Di Yi looked toward the direction from which the sword's ringing had spread. That seemed to be where Cloud-Rushing Town lay.
Before you continue