Chapter 152: First battle against a God Gate.
Yao Jun did not doubt Yuan Shen's confirmation. He firmly believed that only another God Gate would be able to cause his own God Gate to tremble like that. Yao Jun narrowed his eyes, questions rapidly appearing in his mind as he opened his mouth and spoke out.
“You wouldn't be so kind as to tell me why you have to kill me, right? Nor will you tell me about your powers or who that Sister Yi is, right?”
There were several questions in Yao Jun's mind, the most prevalent one being why this unknown person wanted to kill him. But Yao Jun knew that the odds of getting an answer to any of his questions were slim. Yuan Shen responded to Yao Jun's questions with a polite smile, prompting Yao Jun to speak up once more.
“I can at least guess a little about your powers. Fire, wind, earth, wood, metal, and darkness. There might be more, but you don't seem to be able to control ice or lightning.”
Yao Jun's fire, wind, and darkness had been used against him, so it was easy to guess that Yuan Shen could use those elements. He had also used earth spikes to attack several times, controlled the metal arrows, and then used the grass around him to tie up Yao Jun.
He might have the power to control plants, but Yao Jun guessed that it was more likely that he used the wood element to control the plants, as the wood element was one of the five main elements. In response to Yao Jun's confident statement, Yuan Shen's eyebrow twitched slightly, but he still held a polite smile as he spoke.
“What if I am just lulling you into a false sense of security?”
Yao Jun had also had the same thought, but he had quickly discarded it after mentally going over the earlier barrage of attacks. He raised his left arm, forming a small arrow of ice and surrounding it with arcs of lightning, pointing it at Yuan Shen as he shook his head and spoke.
“I doubt it. If you were able to control ice and lightning, you could have caused them to backfire on me when I used them to escape from your previous attack, most likely killing me.”
Yao Jun shot out the arrow of ice, sending it towards Yuan Shen at high speed. Yuan Shen glanced at the arrow, but he could not take control over it. He waved his hand, causing a wave of wind to smash the arrow into the ground, his polite smile fading as he spoke with an expressionless face.
“Clever.”
Yuan Shen truly meant what he said, he had not expected Yao Jun to figure out so much from simply dodging a few of his attacks. After smashing the arrow into the ground, Yuan Shen touched his interspatial ring, taking out two small axes made out of a light green metal that was decorated by a wave like pattern. With both axes in hand, he pointed them at Yao Jun, his aura rapidly rising.
“I would really prefer it if you would just let this happen peacefully. I much prefer the quiet.”
Yuan Shen wore a confident expression on his face as he spoke. Guo Jiahao and Guo Zhe were both only at the late stage of the 2nd Mortal Earth, but he had already reached the early stage of the 5th Houtian Sky. To deal with Yao Jun who was only at the late stage of the 2nd Mortal Earth, that was more than enough.
Yao Jun's response to Yuan Shen's words was to grab the arrow stuck in his left shoulder, freezing it solid with ice and then shattering it, using ice to cover the wound. With the arrow out of his shoulder, he pointed his sword at Yuan Shen, arcs of lightning coiling around his body and causing his violet hair to dance.
“Sorry, but I really don't feel like handing you my life. But I would be more than happy to take yours.”
The moment his voice sounded, Yao Jun activated Crumbling The Nine Heavens, activated his own strengthening technique, and donned his black armor. Right now he only lacked a single piece to his armor, the piece covering his thighs and hips. Yao Jun's aura rapidly rose, settling at the early stage of the 4th Houtian Sky. Seeing Yao Jun's aura rapidly rise, Yuan Shen's expression changed into one of confusion as he could not help but curse out.
“What the hell is going on? No one told me about this!”
After his words sounded out, his expression grew somewhat serious as his clothing started to change. His wolf skin robe turned into a clean blue robe decorated with images of the various elements. With just a quick glance, Yao Jun was able to see fire, wind, earth, wood, metal, water, and darkness, it did not require too much thought to reach the conclusion that this was Yuan Shen's armor and these were the elements Yuan Shen could control.
Yuan Shen's aura did not rise after the robe appeared, but it grew denser and sharper, like an unsheathed blade. Yao Jun took a step forward, the grass around him turning to ash as it came into contact with the arcs of lightning that were constantly released from his body. His body shot forward like a black blur, heading directly towards Yuan Shen.
Yuan Shen was the strongest human Yao Jun had ever faced in combat, and even worse was that he faced him in a situation where the power he could use was limited to only lightning and ice. But none of that stopped Yao Jun from charging forward with his sword in hand, because he was confident in himself, confident that even if he could not grasp victory, he could at least flee.
Yuan Shen also charged forward, the earth quaking and the wind howling as he moved. The earth around Yao Jun started moving like waves, trying to push him over and ruin his balance. Blades of wind shot towards him, rending the earth wherever they touched it. A curtain of fire appeared in the air above the two of them, tongues of flames lashing down at Yao Jun, turning the earth to ash whenever they missed him.
Yuan Shen dodged into his own shadow as he got closer to Yao Jun, appearing at his left and slashing out with both his axes. Yao Jun immediately stopped his dash, stomping down onto the ground with his right foot, cracking and shattering the earth. Yao Jun slightly curled his body, pushing out his left shoulder and using the force from the stomp to close the short distance between him and Yuan Shen. Yao Jun dodged beneath the two axes, his shoulder slamming into Yuan Shen's chest and sending him flying backwards a short distance.
Yuan Shen was sent backwards, but Yao Jun's shoulder was left aching. He was not certain if it was Yuan Shen's armor or if it was his chest, but Yao Jun felt as if his shoulder had crashed into solid iron. But little did he know that Yuan Shen also wasn't feeling too good at the moment.
He realized that despite the difference in cultivation, he had been too slow to dodge Yao Jun's attack, only barely seeing how he moved. The place where they had made contact was also hurting slightly, lightning searing his flesh and a chill entering his bones. His face distorted slightly as he looked at Yao Jun, spitting out the words.
“What a good Demon God.”
After he spat out the words, Yuan Shen launched more attacks. The blades of wind grew more numerous, the tongues of flames were now accompanied by orbs that exploded into fire whenever they touched something, the roiling earth now sent out spikes of earth whenever Yao Jun's foot made contact with the ground, and even Yao Jun's own shadow started releasing tendrils that tried to pierce him.
Yao Jun's eyes were cold and solemn as he locked onto Yuan Shen and dashed towards him, constantly dodging the attacks that were sent towards him. He now realized how it felt when people faced him and were attacked by a barrage of different attacks, even having to be wary of their own shadows. But Yao Jun still had one advantage, his speed was faster than Yuan Shen's, allowing him to dodge most of the attacks that came towards him.
Yuan Shen did not speak any more words, dashing towards Yao Jun. Yao Jun was faster than him, but as long as he got close enough and could barrage Yao Jun with enough attacks, he was confident that he could wound him. Another reason he was confident was that Yao Jun had to rely on special techniques to resist him. The techniques would run out sooner or later, and then Yao Jun would be unable to resist him.
As Yuan Shen approached him, Yao Jun stabbed out with his sword, lightning and ice coating the blade as he used the first technique he had learned, One Sword To Free The Heart. Yuan Shen's eyebrow twitched slightly when he noticed how strong the piercing power of the stab was so he hurriedly slashed out with one of his axes.
The axe hit the sword, pushing it to the side as ice and lightning were released by the tip of the sword, shooting into the distance. The lightning scorched the earth and turned the grass to ash, while the ice turned into several arm thick spikes of ice forming a line into the distance.
When the two weapons made contact, the space around them seemed to be unable to support the force, as it released a loud cracking sound, almost shattering. Had they been in the outside world, this would have been impossible, but the space inside these ruins was already unstable, so cracking space was much easier. Luckily, the cracks did not expand, rapidly shrinking and vanishing.
Had Yuan Shen been fighting a normal person, he would already have used his control over metal to use the person's own weapon against them. But he had early on realized that he was unable to take control over Yao Jun's sword, as it did not seem to be made out of metal.
Having used one axe to intercept the sword, Yuan Shen used the chance to slash out with his other axe. The axe was swung towards Yao Jun, accompanied by attacks that surrounded Yao Jun from every angle. Yao Jun sent out an upward punch with his left arm, hitting the axe from underneath and pushing it up. The axe slid past the top of his helmet, an orb of fire hitting his back and exploding, sending a burning pain through his body.
Yao Jun used the force from the explosion to push himself forward, even closer to Yuan Shen. Both of Yuan Shen's hands were still busy with finishing their previous movements, so he could only use his legs to try and block Yao Jun. But before Yuan Shen could raise his knee in an attempt to hit him, Yao Jun stomped down on the ground and used the resulting momentum to halfway spin his body, kicking at Yuan Shen with his free leg.
Yao Jun's right ankle hit Yuan Shen's waist, causing his body to involuntarily curl up and be sent flying to the side, a chill entering his organs from the point where he was kicked. As his body was sent flying, he heard a slight chuckle coming from Yao Jun.
“Sorry, but I can't play too much with you just yet. Just wait for me to raise my cultivation a bit more, then I will be sure to pay you back in full.”
Several pillars of earth rose up from the ground, forcibly stopping Yuan Shen's body from flying further as he rapidly raised his head. But at that point, he realized he was already too late. Yao Jun's body vanished into one of the ice spikes that appeared after he unleashed his earlier sword stab, reappearing out of the spike closest to Guo Jiahao and Guo Zhe.
Before Yuan Shen even had the time to blink, Yao Jun sliced off the arms and legs of the two people and froze up the wounds with ice. He then grabbed the both of them and sped off towards the west, only leaving behind a faint trail of lightning that rapidly vanished. Yuan Shen's expression was volatile as he looked towards where Yao Jun had vanished. Despite being able to control most of the elements, he had been completely unable to stop Yao Jun from fleeing. Even worse, Yao Jun had stolen away the two people that Sister Yi had told him to bring along.