Explosion
Mo Tao's true body was not present, and his fighting strength was greatly diminished. Fu Yuan's presence was as deep and vast as the sea, golden sword intent and Sword Qi circling him like an emperor reigning over the world.
The Taotie were among the most savage of ferocious beasts and a top-tier race even in the vast Imperial World. Yet they had never produced an ancient emperor, and even if they could contend with the White Tiger and Vermilion Bird, they remained a rank beneath them.
Unlike an emperor's son, Mo Tao had no pride he cherished as dearly as his life. To him, there were only kings who won and outlaws who lost.
As long as he could win, even the most despicable and underhanded methods were good.
The crimson fire puppets' bodies were filled with raging flames. The deep-blue ice puppets unleashed piercing cold with every movement.
There were earth puppets refined from living body cultivators, as well as blue-and-black poison puppets: three hundred in all. Every one of them was stronger than the middle-aged Daoist's puppet, capable of fighting and killing cultivators at the fourth or fifth level of the Nirvana Realm, and each had its own characteristics.
Their beastlike howls made hearts tremble. The living puppets charged at the front, leading the attack to wear Fu Yuan down.
"No matter how many ants there are, they're still only ants!" Fu Yuan's eyes were icy as imperial sword intent surged across the sky, and hundreds upon thousands of golden streaks of Sword Qi came crashing down.
The golden rain of swords illuminated heaven and earth, magnificent and dazzling.
The earth puppets charged in front. As the rain of swords fell from the sky, shrill, anguished howls rang out without end, severed limbs scattered everywhere, and earth puppets fell with every passing breath.
They felt no pain and had no thoughts, stepping over their companions' corpses as they pressed forward and lunged at Fu Yuan.
"Courting death!" Fu Yuan shouted softly. His great hand transformed into mountain after mountain and slammed down, smashing deep craters into the ground. The living puppets' limbs scattered everywhere, their eerie, bloodless flesh utterly revolting.
In a single clash, all fifty earth puppets were wiped out before they ever came face-to-face with Fu Yuan.
Such astonishing killing power shocked the beings positioned all around, who had been gathering their strength and preparing to strike.
He was indeed a sword Dao emperor's son, foremost in slaughter. His Sword Qi flowed without end; no human-wave tactic could defeat him.
The ice puppets opened their gaping mouths and spewed streams of cold Qi, condensing it into countless pillars of ice that sped toward Fu Yuan. Even heaven and earth feared that bone-piercing chill.
Air and dust alike froze, as though the world had returned to an age of ice.
Fu Yuan raised a hand, and blood Qi as deep as an abyss erupted from him. He advanced swiftly, the pillars of ice unable to approach him. His blood Qi was too terrifying, like a blazing sun; within a hundred meters ahead of him, the ice melted and ice crystals burst apart.
It was as though an ancient Saint Emperor had set out: strange phenomena appeared in the void, all people submitted, and even the great Dao of heaven and earth sang his praises.
Controlled by the demon envoys, the fire and poison puppets suddenly burst forth at unprecedented speed, closing in around Fu Yuan.
"Pay the price for your pride and carelessness." The Thousand Winds Demon General looked smug, and his gaze held a trace of pity as he looked at Fu Yuan.
An emperor's son's pride is truly pitiful. Let me trample it to pieces.
His heart filled with smug satisfaction. When poison puppets and fire puppets exploded together, the resulting power was terrifying enough to leave even a cultivator one minor realm higher without a corpse.
And now there were a full hundred poison puppets and eighty fire puppets. The force of their explosion drove the ground down several hundred meters.
No Nirvana Realm being could survive an explosion that could destroy heaven and earth. What of an emperor's son? What of the spirit body of a Holy Body or Divine Body? All would be annihilated.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
All at once, the 180 living puppets exploded a hundred meters from Fu Yuan. No one could open their eyes. What terrifying power it was! The whole world was filled with firelight, and even the Three-Demon Formation, which could have trapped a pureblood White Tiger, was blasted open.
Flames filled the entire area for ten thousand meters around. The ground was blasted through, leaving an enormous hole of unknown depth.
"With power like that, even an emperor's son would be left without a corpse." The ferocious beast Zhu Yan was shaken, and his gaze held a trace of wariness as he looked at the Thousand Winds Demon General. He no longer looked down on him.
"You underestimate an emperor's son. The power was indeed astonishing, but not enough," the Nine-Headed Lion said with authority. Had he been at the center of the explosion, he would have paid a heavy price, but it would not have damaged his foundation.
"If hundreds or thousands of Saint Realm puppets exploded at once, they might be able to blast a Great Emperor to death and shatter heaven and earth," Mo Tao said with a wicked smile.
The ferocious beasts around him all shuddered. Their lord truly lived up to his name, to have such a terrifying idea. It filled them with longing.
The Thousand Winds Demon General's smug expression faded. Mo Tao was too mad; no wonder he had become a demon king of the Carefree Sect.
Ten thousand meters below, ocean currents churned and layers of rock and earth fractured. A tiny crack appeared where the Soul Heavenly Gold had been, and a wisp of black Qi emerged from beneath it.
Fu Yuan had been immersed in the joy of comprehending the Suppress Character Art and taking the Soul Heavenly Gold away, and had not investigated the place.
But now, with both "Suppress" and the Soul Heavenly Gold gone, nothing miraculous remained there. Caught in the explosion, it developed a crack barely visible to the naked eye.
A wisp of black Qi emerged from below. If Fu Yuan had been there, he would have been shocked. This power was far too pure and strong.
Fu Feng had also been caught in the explosion, and his soul power had been significantly depleted. He looked toward the billowing dust with some concern.
Dust rolled across heaven and earth. From time to time, balls of fire mixed with rubble flew out of it, smashing craters into the ground.
"I'm very unhappy right now!" A voice came from the smoke, carrying boundless killing intent.
A man in ink-black robes emerged from the smoke, covering dozens of meters with each step. He showed no sign of injury, and not even a speck of dust had settled on his clothes.
"So, are you all ready to die?" A brilliant smile hung on the young man's face, but his tone was icily cold.
Fu Yuan covered thousands of meters in a breath. It was not teleportation; he was simply too fast. The Thousand Winds Demon General and the others could see only an ink-black afterimage. Even the ferocious beast Zhu Yan looked terrified. He could not see-could not make out this human's movements.
"That's far too fast," the Seven-Footed Black-Feathered Eagle said with difficulty, his feathers standing on end.
Even the Nine-Headed Lion wore a grave expression. An explosion like that had failed to shake this human in the slightest. Were the bodies of sword Dao emperor's sons all this terrifying?
"Fellow Daoist, you truly are extraordinary. I never thought that, besides Dugu Baitian and Ao Jue, there was another person like you in this age. Your sword Dao, speed, physical body, blood Qi, and everything else are comparable to those of the strongest emperor's sons." Even Mo Tao's clone was astonished, learning for the first time just how extraordinary Fu Yuan was. He was a monster on the same level as Mo Tao's main body, having cultivated not just one aspect to the extreme, but being flawless in every respect.
"Why should a dead man talk so much?" Fu Yuan snorted coldly. In a few breaths, he crossed tens of thousands of meters, his undisguised killing intent dyeing heaven and earth red.
Facing more than thirty opponents alone, he was the dominant one. He attacked at once, using neither the Emperor Sword Art nor the Star-Plucking Hand, but striking with great casualness.
He was too fast-too fast for the demon envoys to see clearly, too fast for the ferocious beasts Zhu Yan and the Heaven-Swallowing Python to react, too fast even for the Seven-Footed Black-Feathered Eagle, whose greatest strength was speed, to keep up.
Only the Nine-Headed Lion and Mo Tao's clone could barely make out Fu Yuan's movements.
So casual, yet so powerful. Fu Yuan was like a god of death from hell, taking a life with every strike.
"Don't scatter! Form a formation, form a formation!" the Thousand Winds Demon General roared, his smugness gone without a trace and his heart and gallbladder almost bursting with terror.