Mo Tao
The beam of destruction, powerful enough to kill someone at the seventh or eighth level of Profound Opening, failed to shake Fu Yuan in the slightest. The enormous hand seemed to meet no resistance as it continued forward.
"Run!" The vicious beast Zheng's hair stood on end. A strike he had unleashed with all his might had failed to shake his opponent in the slightest. Before the fifth realm, their way of cultivation differed from that of humans.
In the Spirit Nurturing Realm, they did not need to nurture a true spirit, but instead communed with their own true spirit. Though his strike just now had not been his strongest art, he had held nothing back.
No longer caring in the least about saving face, the vicious beast Zheng had no other thought left in his mind. This human was a monster through and through, an unparalleled prodigy more terrifying than a Black Tortoise at the same realm. He could only run-the farther the better.
"Can you escape?" Fu Yuan murmured. Two figures suddenly appeared, their cultivation at the eighth level of Profound Opening erupting in full: two selves, one bloodred and one golden.
These were the spirits he had nurtured, the spirits of his true self. The bloodred one was his devil body, utterly evil; the golden one was his divine body, mysteriously sacred. Together with his original body, they formed the aspect of three lives.
It was still the Star-Plucking Hand, but faster and more terrifying. In an instant, it crossed the void and reached for Zheng, seeking to seal off every path of escape and confine him within a single hand.
This was the Star-Plucking Hand unleashed in full, a six-star reward obtained from signing in. Once cultivated to major completion, it could briefly confine heaven and earth and spacetime, and capture all things.
Three hands-red, gold, and white-overlapped, their three colors of light flowing together. They bore the might to blot out the heavens and the sun, the power to seize the galaxy.
The vicious beast Zheng's hair stood on end. The scent of death drew ever closer. This hand could actually confine the surrounding heaven and earth, chilling him to the bone. This was not because Fu Yuan had mastered the Great Dao of space, but because the art was so powerful that it barely touched upon spacetime.
"Fight!" the vicious beast Zheng roared, unleashing his strongest strike. His nine tails erupted with crimson light, and an aura of slaughter spread out as he sought to break free of the confinement, leap off the stairway, and flee the Lone Lamp Pavilion.
Boom!
Nine rays of crimson light intertwined. Faced with a powerful enemy unlike any he had seen before, the vicious beast Zheng erupted with everything he had.
The enormous hand, capable of plucking stars and seizing the moon, reached for him. The nine crimson rays merged into a pillar of light, and the two collided in an instant. Terrifying sonic booms rang out without end. Every onlooker was horrified; the clash was far too astonishing, far too powerful.
"Kill!" The vicious beast Zheng was fighting for his life. His bloodline power fully activated, different again from the bloodline pagodas of human cultivators, and a hazy blood-colored shadow enveloped his crimson body.
This was an art that awakened the bloodline, laying his vicious nature bare. His eyes were deep red, making him look like an evil ghost that had crawled out of the abyss. The crimson pillar of light grew deeper in color and vaster, threatening to shatter the blue heavens and bring down the firmament.
"A remarkable art, but can you escape?" Fu Yuan's smile grew wider. His bloodred ocean of a Qi Sea churned, and his spiritual platform shook as the Life and Death Gu, which had just fallen asleep, beat its wings and departed.
Behind Fu Yuan, his blood-colored devil body shone brilliantly, a force of destruction surging forth. Blood flames eclipsed the gold and white, and the Star-Plucking Hand was transformed into an art of slaughter.
The void thundered and burst. All the spectators were dumbfounded; it was as though that palm were all that remained between heaven and earth.
As the hand pressed down, Zheng's hair stood on end, and even his soul trembled. He wanted to flee, but the space around him was confined. The crimson pillar of light collided with the Star-Plucking Hand, and crimson light carrying flames of blood and fire filled a corner of heaven and earth.
At that moment, Zheng felt as though he were facing a vast galaxy, pressing down upon him with boundless might. How tiny he was before it! His body trembled, his soul wanted to prostrate itself, and he could scarcely muster the slightest will to resist.
How absurd was this? He was Zheng, a pure-blooded being who had dared to challenge a young Black Tortoise, a powerful vicious beast who had dared to face a White Tiger head-on! Yet when faced with a mere human, he was afraid, on the verge of losing his fighting spirit.
Zheng suddenly realized that this human's earlier words had not been a simple joke. This was a human imperial scion even more powerful than a pure-blooded Black Tortoise or White Tiger, with astonishing power behind him.
Between life and death, Zheng erupted with everything he had, using his innate divine ability and burning his blood in exchange for immense power. The crimson pillar of light grew ever more radiant, destructive power surging within it, and a crimson vicious beast that could shake heaven and battle earth roared.
He was fighting for his life, unleashing everything, seeking a sliver of hope.
Boom!
A thunderous rumble rang across the stairway. The deep-red pillar of crimson flame met the star-plucking hand head-on, blocking Fu Yuan's attack. The two powerful arts struggled against each other.
"He used his bloodline power and burned his Qi and blood, yet he still can't drive him back. How is that possible?" A prodigy of the Black Spirit Snake Clan on the seventh level flicked his tongue, reined in his vicious might, and spoke with difficulty.
"Before reaching Profound Opening, he challenged a pure-blooded Black Tortoise and held out for fifty moves before losing. How can he fare so poorly?" The Coiled Turtle at the peak of the seventh level drew back his head and spoke in a low voice.
This was Zheng, a pure-blooded being who had made a resounding name for himself while still young. His fame had spread across an entire star region, and many seniors held him in high regard, considering him extraordinary. Even in the era of the Dao's decline, he had the potential to become a Saint, and his future was promising.
"You can't kill me!" His Qi and blood were burning too quickly. Zheng's crimson body began to dim, and the blood fire filling his deep-red eyes was fading. He had expended too much to hold on. He roared, his voice ringing throughout the Lone Lamp Pavilion. "I am Lord Mo Tao's follower. Do you mean to make an enemy of him?"
With his life hanging by a thread, the vicious beast Zheng roared himself hoarse, revealing the figure behind him.
"That one??" A being was horrified. He was a supreme prodigy of the Imperial World, a pure-blooded Taotie whose bloodline had reverted to its ancestral form. Extraordinary and peerless, he had fought a True Dragon, defeated a Black Tortoise, and battled a White Tiger and Zhu Yan alone. His devil flames reached the heavens. He was a leading figure of the Imperial World's younger generation, a being who could contend with a human imperial scion.
"That banquet?" The Coiled Turtle's enormous body trembled slightly as he recalled the banquet for the young Black Tortoise five years ago. A divine beast of the highest order had appeared, with the ambition to sweep through the world and swallow mountains and rivers.
The Black Tortoise was a divine beast of the highest order. Even in its youth, having only just entered the Profound Opening Realm, it was still incomparably powerful. It had decisively defeated several pure-blooded beings; even the divine beast Azure Luan had lost, able to hold out for only a hundred moves.
It was a banquet to celebrate the young Black Tortoise's rising fame. The Black Tortoise's kind had invincible defenses; even the White Tiger, whose kind was said to possess the strongest power of slaughter, found them hard to break. Many held high hopes for the young Black Tortoise, believing it would shine brilliantly in this age.
Even several Saint patriarchs had come to witness what made it extraordinary. But when the uninvited guest from the Taotie Clan arrived, his matchless power of slaughter drew the attention of countless spectators. There was actually a being in the same realm who could break the Black Tortoise's defenses, defeating it in three hundred moves.
A banquet for a young Black Tortoise had made Mo Tao's name. How ferocious his might had been.
"Mo Tao?" Fu Yuan murmured.
Hearing Fu Yuan speak Mo Tao's name, quite a few beings from the Imperial World breathed a sigh of relief. There was an unwritten rule in the cultivation world: prodigies of the same rank did not kill one another's followers.
Killing a follower was a slap in the face, forcing the other party to become an enemy. Clashes between imperial-scion-level figures were unpredictable, so they did not kill without a grudge.
"He must be quite famous. Blame my ignorance," Fu Yuan said, the corners of his mouth curling up and his eyes curving slightly. "Taotie meat tastes foul and bloody. If I meet him, I'll just beat him to death."
As soon as he finished speaking, the blood flames around his devil body burned even fiercer. The Star-Plucking Hand displayed its divine might, forcefully destroying the crimson beam of destructive power and capturing the vicious beast Zheng in its grasp.