Essence Devouring Art
Chapter 89 - 88: Hundred-Refined Steel, Spirit Sword Scraping
BOOM—
The terrifying gale from the Fist Force swept through like a tsunami. It kicked up countless bits of gravel and stone, which rolled back like a tide before blasting outward in two great curtains.
Inside his Spiritual Energy Shield, the Yellow Dragon Daoist was like a boulder rooted to the ocean floor, unmoving no matter how the violent winds and waves crashed against him.
’Heh, mere brute force. Child’s play... AHH!!!’
A look of disdain had just crossed the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s mind.
But the next moment, he felt his Divine Soul Shield, which was intermingled with his Spiritual Energy Shield, get rammed violently by a Barbaric Whale radiating endless tyranny!
That single blow was no less than a normal person smashing their head against a rock.
It left the Yellow Dragon Daoist dizzy, his skull ringing, feeling as if countless steel blades were scraping the inside of his brain.
In the center of the ’sea’ of Spiritual Qi in his Purple Mansion, his flourishing Divine Soul Dao Fire wavered violently. He was tormented by an infinite killing intent, and the pain made him cry out loud.
BANG!!
In that brief opening, the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s focus faltered, and the supply of Spiritual Qi to his Spiritual Energy Shield slowed for a beat.
Under the pressure of the follow-up Power, he was sent flying like a cannonball, still inside his shield. He smashed through ruined walls, crushed the air in his path, and was blasted away.
BAM—
CRASH!
Several hundred meters away, the Yellow Dragon Daoist, still wrapped in his Spiritual Energy Shield, was embedded deep inside a cliff face. Cracks spread out like a spiderweb, and the tremors caused a shower of countless rocks and earth to collapse and fall.
"Heh, not so tough after all!"
Wu Dao let out a sneering laugh. He knew his Divine Level Dominating Whale Fist Intent had done the job.
BOOM—!
He immediately bent his legs and kicked off, blasting the ground apart.
He instantly shattered the air in his path, his terrifying Qi and Blood Yang Fire scorching the surrounding vegetation as he shot forward. The entire Fuguang Mountain Peak was engulfed in flames, and the disciples in the Daoist Temple fled in a panicked rout.
It wasn’t that they were cowardly.
It was just that Wu Dao was too terrifying at that moment!
A pillar of Qi and Blood!
A terrifying Yang Flame enveloped the space in all directions for over a hundred meters. An extremely tyrannical Fist Intent ravaged the area, suppressing all Divine Souls. Getting any closer meant being melted and blown to bits.
A Demon of this caliber!
Who below the Innate Realm would dare step forward to help?
In the battles of the Extraordinary World, a swarm of ants can’t kill an elephant!
BOOM!!
A giant, steel-like fist smashed down. The towering, Heaven-Reaching cliff looked as if it had been hit by a high-explosive missile. Tens of thousands of rock fragments exploded outward, blasting a massive crater as if carving out a mountain.
But the Yellow Dragon Daoist was nowhere to be seen!
Amidst the howling dust and smoke, Wu Dao fully extended his Spiritual Perception, swiftly scanning the surrounding world. He instantly discovered the Yellow Dragon Daoist, his golden Daoist Robe shining brilliantly in mid-air. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
’Flying?’
Wu Dao leaped out of the deep crater and looked up at the Yellow Dragon Daoist hovering low in the sky, his eyes narrowing slightly.
On the cultivation path of this World, only those who stepped into the Innate Realm, reaching the Land Immortal Realm of the Qi Cultivation Third Step, possessed a Protective Gang Qi Shield strong enough to withstand the gales at high altitudes and fly freely.
’But this Yellow Dragon Daoist...’
’Is it the Talisman Power?’
Wu Dao noticed the golden, tadpole-like runes flowing across the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s dazzling golden Daoist Robe, and understanding dawned on him.
The path of the Immortal Dao.
It truly did bear some resemblance to the Immortal Saints of myths and legends.
Talisman Array and Pill Artifacts!
Their research and utilization of the Power of Heaven and Earth far surpassed the other two paths. It was reasonable that they could fly and burrow through the earth ahead of schedule.
However, it was limited to low altitudes.
The higher one flew, the fiercer the Clear Gang Qi became, which was mixed with the killing intent of heaven and earth. It would lash out and ravage the Divine Soul!
Only true masters could roam the Nine Heavens, free and unrestrained.
His thoughts flashed like lightning.
"Just a clumsy bird. What’s the use of flying?"
Wu Dao gave a cold laugh, his body crouching slightly to gather immense Power and Fist Intent. He prepared to use the Hammer Whale Technique, the same one he had used to deal with the Stone God, to knock the Yellow Dragon Daoist out of the sky.
"Profound Mountain Array, rise!!"
But just then, the Yellow Dragon Daoist in the sky let out a deafening shout. His Daoist Robe billowed, his Purple Mansion’s Dao Fire blazed, and his Spiritual Consciousness enveloped the entire mountain peak.
BUZZ—
Instantly, a brilliant Profound Yellow light erupted in a radius of several hundred meters.
Wu Dao’s brow twitched. Within his Spiritual Perception, a series of Eight-Sided Lanterns suddenly lit up beneath the mountain. They were arranged like stars in the sky, and the Profound Yellow light they shot out sealed off heaven and earth, forming an airtight, cylindrical Grand Array.
VMM!!
The moment the Array formed, a crushing pressure assaulted him from all directions.
Spirit and body!
It felt as if he were carrying a mountain on his back.
The terrifying weight forced even Wu Dao’s physique, with his Giant Whale Dominating Body unleashed, to bend slightly. His bones and tendons creaked and groaned, and the flow of his qi and blood grew sluggish.
A hundred meters up in the air, the Yellow Dragon Daoist breathed a sigh of relief seeing Wu Dao suppressed by the Profound Mountain Array. Sensing the grievous casualties among his disciples in the Daoist Lecture Hall, his eyes turned red as he roared:
"I don’t know who gave you the guts to barge into my Daoist Temple, nor what grudge you hold."
"But since you dared to run rampant here!"
"Don’t even think about leaving!!"
After decades of reclusive, bitter cultivation, he had not fought anyone.
The Yellow Dragon Daoist admitted that he had become somewhat complacent, and his battle experience had declined significantly.
That, coupled with Wu Dao’s monstrous, Fierce Beast-like brute force and the unreasonably powerful Fist Intent that bombarded his Divine Soul, had led to a moment of carelessness.
He had fallen into a trap and ended up in a pathetic state.
But Qi Refining was, after all, Qi Refining.
Even though he couldn’t bypass Wu Dao’s spiritual barrier to see his foundation, he was certain that Wu Dao was using pure brute force, because there wasn’t even a fluctuation of Innate Primordial Qi.
He might be extremely wary of a Horizontal Refining Third Daoist Martial Artist who had reached the Innate Realm.
But to fight a Qi Refining cultivator with mere brute force before reaching the Innate Realm?
Wishful thinking!
As long as he didn’t give Wu Dao a chance for close-quarters combat, he was confident he could wear him down and kill him from a distance, like flying a kite!
As these thoughts surged through his mind, the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s Purple Mansion’s Dao Fire blazed, and his Spiritual Consciousness connected with the Treasure Artifacts and Talismans he had refined in his temple for many years.
SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH—
The sound of something tearing through the air came from all directions, and the sky above the mountain peak was suddenly filled with brilliant, flowing lights.
Handleless Spirit Swords.
Sheets of golden Talismans.
They swarmed in from all sides like bees from a hive, radiating brilliant light and releasing violent fluctuations of Spiritual Qi. They made the Yellow Dragon Daoist look like a Celestial God passing judgment upon the world, filled with immense majesty.
"I’ll make this vermin understand what a world of difference is!"
With a cold snort, the Yellow Dragon Daoist willed it, and the surrounding Killing Swords and Talismans shot toward Wu Dao inside the Array like a meteor shower.
’If six Spirit Swords refined with Spiritual Qi couldn’t break his defense, then what about dozens?’
’What about hundreds of Talismans?’
’A direct, all-encompassing saturation strike with no blind spots!’
The Yellow Dragon Daoist refused to believe that Wu Dao was truly indestructible!
But what was strange was that, faced with the sky full of Killing Swords and Talismans raining down on him, the expression of Wu Dao inside the Array didn’t change in the slightest. He just stared silently at the Yellow Dragon Daoist in the low sky, his eyes, which spewed terrifying Blood Flame, looking at him as if he were already a dead man.
THUMP~
The Yellow Dragon Daoist caught a fleeting glimpse of Wu Dao’s abyss-like eyes, and his heart skipped a beat. A dark premonition of danger arose, growing stronger and stronger.
’An illusion!’
’It must be an illusion!’
’The Profound Mountain Array has been refined to perfection for decades.’
’Not to mention all these Spirit Swords and golden Talismans.’
’It can trap and kill even a rampaging Innate Martial Artist!’
’This mere brute...’
BOOM BOOM BOOM—
Before the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s thoughts could even settle, the Profound Mountain Array had already become a bombing zone.
The killing light of the Spirit Swords ravaged and sliced through everything!
The Thunderbolt, fierce flames, frost, and golden light from the exploding Talismans were like an explosion in a dye factory.
They instantly turned the hundred-meter area of the Profound Mountain Array into a sea of Chaos. The ground was continuously blasted, collapsing and sinking.
The entire space roiled with dust and smoke. Streams of High-energy Spiritual Qi ravaged every inch of space, turning solid rock to fine powder in an instant.
In such a killing Array, never mind a body of flesh and blood, even a man cast from solid steel would be turned to ash!
But there wasn’t a trace of joy on the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s face. Instead, his expression grew darker and darker.
Because...
CLANG CLANG CLANG—
The screams he had imagined never came.
From within the shroud of smoke, a series of grating, metallic collisions rang out instead.
It sounded as if countless knives were hacking away at a Vajra Divine Being, yet even as the knives were shattered and broken, they had no effect whatsoever!
WHOOSH~
Within the chaotic Grand Array, the crimson Yang Flame that blazed toward the sky showed no signs of extinguishing. On the contrary, it grew even more vigorous, as if it had consumed a Great Nourishing Pill.
The surging, scorching Blood Flame burned the entire Grand Array, causing it to twist and distort. Earth and stone melted, and the myriad of colors were slowly suppressed by the singular color of blood!
"Die!!"
Within the slowly clearing chaos of the Grand Array, a terrifying, sky-supporting silhouette still stood tall. The Heart Lake Alarm Bell in the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s mind rang wildly.
He roared in fury and hurled all of his remaining Spirit Swords and Talismans into the array like a meteor shower.
BOOM BOOM BOOM—
A new round of bombardment began.
Even more violent streams of High-energy Spiritual Qi ravaged and destroyed everything within the Array like a tornado.
It was so violent that even Spiritual Consciousness couldn’t penetrate it.
It was impossible to see what was happening inside.
HUFF HUFF HUFF~
Controlling hundreds of Spirit Swords and Talismans at once was taxing. Even for the Yellow Dragon Daoist, who had polished his Qi Cultivation First Layer for many years and possessed an extraordinarily powerful Divine Soul Dao Fire, it was too much to bear. He gasped for breath, only feeling slightly better after swallowing a Concentration Pill.
"He should be dead by now..."
The Yellow Dragon Daoist stared uncertainly at the chaotic, churning area of the Grand Array.
Those last dozen or so Spirit Swords and the golden Spirit Talismans... he had spent the most effort on them and had refined them for the longest time. A concentrated strike from all of them together could shatter a Spiritual Energy Shield and severely injure an Innate Qi Refining cultivator of the First Step.
He refused to believe the physique of a Horizontal Refining Third Gate cultivator could be so freakishly powerful!
WHOOSH~
The Spiritual Qi storm gradually subsided.
The Yellow Dragon Daoist immediately extended his perception into the Grand Array, eager to see a pile of bloody mush.