Hey guys. Another chap for you today. Hope you enjoy! This small arc will be closing soon so shit will start speeding up. Don't worry guys. I will get to the training arc soon. Just be a little patient. I don't want to rush this story too much but at the same time I don't want the conflict to get dragged out TOO much. Enjoy!
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Everyone on the ground, including Feng Yun, stared at the figure hovering in the air with excitement filling their eyes. Most of the people were confused as they had never seen such a powerful figure before...even those who had resided in the city for a long time. However, the people who had large connections could instantly recognize who the old man was. Feng Yun, though he wasn't too influential about the world and its powerful figures, could still make a guess. The Howling Thunder Wolf laughed and said,
"Well well well, you have finally come. And here I thought that I would have to kill all of your descendants to draw you out!" The old figure looked at him indifferently and replied,
"Wolf. Invading my city is one thing. Killing one of my descendants...well that is another line crossed. I shall see to it that certain punishments are given to you." His tone was incredibly domineering and even though he only said a few soft words, everyone could feel the weight placed by them. They all stared reverently at the figure and knew that he was an absolute true expert that wouldn't go back on his word. The wolf cackled out loud and mocked him.
"Hmph, if it was a thousand years ago, perhaps I would be afraid. However, this formation of mine shall destroy you easily even if your cultivation is much higher than mine! Don't even think of beating me this time, Twin Viper!" The old man did not reply and instead just stared at the wolf. The crowd all processed the name within their heads before a burst of excitement fell on them. The ancestor of Twin Viper City...was actually here! This was too great of a shock to them.
"You have grown awfully arrogant because of this formation. However, I have been probing this formation for quite some time. It holds much more power than you can handle."
"Haha, that is certainly true. But once I kill you and seize the city's treasures, I will be able to make breakthroughs in my cultivation. Eventually, it will reach the point where I can use it to its fullest potential! You cannot stop me!" The old man smiled, one filled with mockery and disdain towards the opposition.
"Whatever. I am done talking with fools like you. I will kill you and avenge Li'er."
As soon as the words left his mouth, he had already sprung into action. Twin Viper slammed his hands together and an impossibly strong aura surrounded the perimeter of the wall and the battlefield. The aura was just too great! It was able to stretch for long distances and oppress cultivators from hundreds of kilometers away. The crowd felt their souls being stirred and faces growing red from excitement. Feng Yun was analyzing the flow of battle and the conversation of the two combatants from below.
"That wolf...is clearly an idiot. No matter how high his intelligence is, he still made a fatal mistake. He relies too much on that formation of his. Seeker Twin Viper doesn't seem like a stupid person. Clearly, he did something other than just merely 'probing' while watching."
Back to the battle, the green aura that had enveloped everything combed itself together according to Twin Viper's will. On his robe, the symbol of a venomous snake glowed with a fierce brightness. The wolf's pupils shrank as it inwardly thought,
Truth Artifact!
The robe had become something of an armor and the snake grew illusory. Soon, the ghost like snake emerged directly from the robe and appeared next to Twin Viper. The snake was ten meters long and had sharp white fangs laced with poison. It was green in color and its eyes flared with a red fury. Twin Viper chanted something to himself and the snake began to warp and extend. It grew larger and larger until it covered an astonishing fifty meters.
"GO!"
The snake obeyed Twin Viper's order, rushing forward at an undefinable speed. The rate at which it advanced was simply too much, even for the wolf, who had expected something strong to come from the old man. The wolf howled out loud and its size increased by two times, its muscles bulging from its skin. Its eyes grew red and a savage aura leaked from its mouth. Even its claws grew to several feet. This was the same form that it used against the City Lord in its fight.
"DIE!"
The wolf welcomed the snake, slashing its claws furiously at it. The metal met the ghost and the result was absolutely spectacular. The snake dodged the claws and curled its way around the wolf's arm, tightening its body at the same time. The wolf shook its body and tried to use its claw to wrench the thing away from his arm but the snake merely avoided it and opened its mouth. A violent green colored acid sprayed from its fangs at the wolf, who promptly realized that he needed to avoid it. Lightning crackled from its body as he formed a protective layer around his skin. The poisonous venom struck the shield and began to display its acidic properties.
The acid burned through the shield and green smoke began to rise into the air. The wolf exerted all of its power to increase the strength of the shield, making the blue glow around it much deeper. The acid soon reached the point where it was dissolved completely and only then did the wolf relax. But he could not do this for that long as Twin Viper had already prepared his next move. The old man's palms glowed with a bright blue aura that was tinged with green and gave off a threatening aura. He slapped the two palms together and a beam of bright blue light flew out from the gaps between his hands. It looked like a shard of blue aura flying at the wolf. Actually, there were multiple shards of blue light flying from the hands.
The shards traveled at a great speed and reached the wolf in very less time. The wolf charged lightning energy through its claws and slashed them at the incoming shards. The first couple broke immediately after meeting the claws but an anomaly happened with the third one. This fragment in particular suddenly glowed bright green when it reached less than a feet of the wolf. Before the wolf could even think about this anomaly, his claws slashed right at the fragment.
The claws should have slashed through this one just like the other ones. Unfortunately for the wolf, Twin Viper does not easily make mistakes. The green fragment met with the claws and sparks began to fly faster than light. As the wolf tried to resist, it found that it could not hold on for much longer. The fragment flew straight through the arm and sliced it in two pieces. But the fragment did not stop there. It dove straight into the core of the arm and suddenly melted apart, turning into...water.
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The water was green in color surprisingly. It did not have the features of normal water but if one looked closely, you could visibly see that the core component of the substance was water. The green water spread on the core of the arm, burning it with a high temperature.
"AAAAH!"
The wolf screamed loudly and its roars shook the mountains. It could not believe that its entire arm had been chopped off and furthermore, there was no chance of regrowing it. Theoretically, beasts could regrow torn limbs that been severed by some means in the span of a few hundred years. The healing factor did not apply to the vital regions of the body. However, if a poison or health degenerating substance was placed in the core of the wound, then it was impossible for the wound to ever heal. This meant that the arm that had been dismembered was now a load of destroyed flesh and would forever remain that way.
"YOU BASTARD! You fucking bastard! Water! You cultivate the element of water?! How? Water cannot become poison! Water is a weak element!" The wolf screamed in shock and disbelief, added to the fact that he was suffering from intense pain. Twin Viper closed his eyes and calmly said,
"That is what the majority of the world thinks. However, I have done extensive research for thousands of years and have figured out how to make water a much better offensive element."
"But how?! This shouldn't be possible!"
"Indeed. It was impossible at first but I gained an enlightenment while adventuring somewhere. Water does have acidic properties. In fact, it is one of the most violent and offensive elements out of them all. Its potential just needs to be exploited!"
Feng Yun was listening carefully and was astounded by the level of power that the element of water could display. Upon hearing that water had a deeper form, his interest peaked. To his understanding, water was a purely supportive element that dealt with healing and defense rather than offense. But hearing that it could be turned into poison, this truly changed things for water element cultivators. This would take the cultivation world by storm if the method was released.
"Although I managed to do this, I only managed to do it over the course of a thousand years. I needed tough research and seclusion. And most importantly, I needed enlightenment. Without a strong luck, you cannot achieve what I did. Even if I handed over my research to everyone here, nothing would come of it." The old man sighed in regret, as if he was disappointed in the end result. "It is truly a shame that water element cultivators will not completely regain their pride back."
"Ahhh! Regain their pride, your grandmother! I'll kill you! Chishi, the formation---again!"
The tiger like beast heard the command and the blood wall began to change. The external layer of the wall began to release tendrils of blood that stretched towards Twin Viper quickly. Thousands of strands opened out of the wall and flew at the old man. Even still, the blood wall had no holes and the City Lord and the two elders were still trapped inside. Twin Viper gazed at the wall with indifference and even traces of disdain within his eyes.
"It is indeed a profound formation. Unfortunately for you, in addition to the element of water, I have obsessed over formations as well in the past few thousand years. Right now, this formation is absolutely nothing!"
Twin Viper waved his hands and an extremely powerful energy extended from his palms. The energy swarmed itself around his arms and very carefully, he began to form hand symbols. At the same time he was whispering a small chant to himself, the energy around him growing thicker by the second. The blood wall's tendrils had already reached the point where it was only a few meters away. If it was allowed to move any longer than a few seconds, Twin Viper would be impaled.
The blood wall's tendrils longed for the flesh of powerful experts. It survived on the flesh and blood of powerful experts. This was why the blood wall was so attracted to Twin Viper. The savage tendrils had an evil conscience that wanted to devour any living thing that moved. In exchange for these "offerings" the Blood Congealing Formation would exude extreme power that could threaten those of the Tyrant and Truth realms and even kill them easily. Twin Viper was no ordinary Truth realm cultivator however.
Finally, Twin Viper finished his chants and hand signals and then opened his tightly closed eyes. Brilliant light flowed out of the eyes and seemed incomparably blinding to the crowd and the wolf. Twin Viper reached into an interspatial ring that was on one of his fingers and a long staff came out. The staff held a skull at the top and a wooden stick to hold it. Though it looked simple, the staff exuded an unnatural and powerful aura. The eye sockets on the skull glowed red as it sensed the incoming tendrils of blood. With a low shout Twin Viper said,
"Demonic Dispelling Staff!"
The skull glowed with an even brighter shade of red and the dangerous waves of power drifted out from within it. It appeared to be using Twin Viper's body as power as the energy from his palms were flowing into the staff. Then, ripples and waves of bright energy stretched out of the staff, attacking the blood tendrils. The bright light overwhelmed the blood tendrils and began to absorb them into its own. The tendrils seemed to scream as horrible sounds were released into the air. However, the blood tendrils did not disperse. Rather, they were being used for the bright light to travel on. The light extended towards the actual body of the wall and completely filled the whole exterior. Twin Viper narrowed his eyes and said,
"Break!"
The blood wall began to crumble before the eyes of everyone on the scene. The strong and dense layers of blood skin that were so tightly packed together now fell apart like boulders. The crumbling wall revealed the insides, showing Wu Lao and the other remaining elders inside. The Howling Thunder Wolf cried out in shock and disbelief grabbed at its head. Not only was the blood wall dissolved, but the formation as well.
The symbols and runes of the red formation down on the ground now disappeared and turned white. The original strong energy that it exuded was now gone and the carcasses of the beasts now had no worth. The tiger like beast Chishi yelped at the scene and began to panic, trying to figure out what happened. But their attempts to diagnose the problem were of no use as the formation had already dissolved. There was nothing left.
Twin Viper now let out a cold smile as he stared at the distressed wolf, who stared in horror at the dissolved formation.
"Now, where is your formation that you are so proud of?"