In the formation, Tianyi stared at Lei Jingye. This encounter was their first meeting in years, but Tianyi felt as if something was off. The face was the same, and so were the hatred-filled eyes, but Tianyi just felt something off about Lei Jingye. It wasn't a feeling he could put into words.
Lei Jingye looked down, and his shoulders began to tremble. Tianyi wondered whether Lei Jingye became scared but immediately threw the thought away. How could a protagonist be scared? He should be excited that he has a chance to kill me or something, Tianyi thought. And as he expected, Lei Jingye began to laugh.
"HAHAHAHAAAhaahahaaa," Lei Jingye finally stopped laughing and began to rise in the air until he was slightly above Tianyi's eye level, allowing him to literally look down on Tianyi.
Tianyi had to resist rising any further so he could have the high ground to establish his dominance. Them getting into a height battle would be quite silly. He would allow Lei Jingye to have the high ground and look down on him for now. He was a generous person; he won't quibble with a dead person over such a small matter.
"Hairless brat, I didn't think you would deliver yourself to me before I looked for you." Lei Jingye said as if gloating Tianyi's destined defeat at his hand.
"You seem to forget, had you not run from our first two encounters, you would have long died under my hands years ago," Tianyi said, rolling his eyes. Lei Jingye sure has changed in Tianyi's opinion. Before, he would have already tried to kill him, but now he had time to gloat since his cultivation was higher?
"Don't compare me to that failure." Lei Jingye said, his voice full of ridicule. "I admit, compared to me yore, your current self is stronger at the exact same realm."
Tianyi froze as he heard "Lei Jingye's" words. He thought to the storyline he imagined for Lei Jingye, specifically him fighting the Dragon Emperor's soul for control of his body, eventually winning and inheriting all the Dragon Emperor's knowledge and wealth. But now, it seems the Dragon Emperor suddenly appeared before Lei Jingye had enough strength to fight back the possession.
"Speaking of which, I have to thank you. If it weren't for you, that twerp, Lie Jingye, wouldn't have been weakened enough for me to take over." "Lei Jingye" continued to speak. "Since I have taken over his body, I decide to take over his karma and kill the little thief."
Tianyi frowned when he saw "Lei Jingye" point his finger at him. "Thief? Haha, if I recalled correctly, weren't you, the Dragon Emperor, the one that kept stealing maidens and eventually got killed by all the sects. A thief calling another a thief, who would believe you?"
"No, that identity was supposed to be mine. Just as I was about to succeed, you invaded and took over. If you hadn't stolen that body from me, I wouldn't have needed to possess such a worthless identity." The Dragon Emperor said as he looked coldly at Tianyi.
It was as thunder had exploded inside Tianyi's head. The Dragon Emperor planned to become Xi Mengfei's son and use her to revive himself! Tianyi's eyes narrowed, causing them to look even more bedeviling. Xi Longyi was the identity the Dragon Emperor chose to revive himself with!
Immediately the memories of Xi Longyi torturing Daoyi surface, of how he took Mengfei's kindness for granted and even took advantage of her. The murderous intent in Tianyi's eyes grew even more. Not to mention, he knew that Tianyi wasn't originally supposed to be Mengfei's son!
Tianyi allowed himself to sneer at the Dragon Emperor. "Long Aotian, Long Aotian. What great plans, too bad that you underestimate my mother."
Fury colored the Dragon Emperor's face as he heard Tianyi brazenly use his name. At his peak, when he was the number one expert in the world, no one dared to casually speak his name, much less a lowly nascent soul grandmaster!
"You should thank me instead. After all, you have a chance at living longer. You overestimate yourself. Did you really think your schemes were unbreakable? I'll tell you, mother, long already saw through it. Even if you got the status, she would still kill you." The scenes of Xi Longyi attempting to transcend his Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation flashed through Tianyi's mind. Especially that last scene where his mother directly looked at him, he liked to think that was what caused him to wake up.
"Hmpf, don't try to swindle me. What does a hairless brat like you know?" Tianyi was almost tempted to expose that he saw Xi Longyi's life during the time he visited the ruin of the Immortal Court but stopped. Instead, he opted to give a smile that said, "I know something you don't." The Dragon Emperor felt his temper rising at Tianyi's smug smile.
But Tianyi began to ponder on how he was able to see that dream. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now he was beginning to question why he had. And did it have any reason why he was separated from the rest of the sects when he entered the Immortal Court? It was just another mystery in the web that was his life.
"Hmpf," Lei Jingye sneered. "What do you have to be proud about. Your death is already a forgone conclusion. You need not worry. Once you're gone, I'll be sure to take care of your mother for you."
Tianyi felt his vein almost burst at the Dragon Emperor's words, and it took every ounce of self-control for him not to recklessly charge at the Dragon Emperor. The Dragon Emperor was still a former immortal emperor despite his current weakened state.
As Tianyi glared venomously at the Dragon Emperor, he felt he understood why the Dragon Emperor had been so hated. If the Dragon Emperor was as unbridled as this, his death was just a foregone conclusion. Or, he would sweep all the sects and clans once he attained enough power. "Hmpf, you are just an old fossil. Your era has already ended, wishing to resurrect, what sweet dreams! History will repeat, since we can kill you once, we can kill you twice."
The Dragon Emperor laughed. It was a mad laugh filled with ridicule. "Just with you? I may have lost to you once before that, but that was after my strength had been worn down thanks to your relentless disciple-brothers and sisters."
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Tianyi's eyes widened as he comprehended the implication of the Dragon Emperor's words. The Dragon Emperor didn't consider Tianyi's meeting with Lei Jingye as a meeting between the two. So for him to mention having lost once, then it could only mean that he had interacted with the Dragon Emperor. And the only instance when he met someone with the same face and they had battled with his disciple-brothers and sisters was at the Heavenly Connection Gathering. "You are Longwei?"
The Dragon Emperor released a toothy grin, his canines gleaming sharply.
Tianyi sneered. "Hmpf, look at your condition. You already lost to me once before, yet you can still boast like this. You are even in a worse state than in Ironword's inheritance grotto. Dragon Emperor? More like Delusion Emperor. Speaking falsities with open eyes, I really can't tell how you managed to ascend to the peak with that pig brain of yours. Did your brains regress because your soul was shattered? Just by being yourself, you will seek death."
"Enough talk! I will use your skull as an offering for Mu'er, Qin'er, and Wu'er!" The Dragon Emperor became a streak of golden light as he charged towards Tianyi, his saber clad in saber intent.
Tianyi was still in the process of replying as if he couldn't react fast enough to the Dragon Emperor's actions. Just as the Dragon Emperor reached a few meters away from Tianyi, his face suddenly changed as he immediately stopped and retreated. And not a moment too soon as the area was covered in a silvery layer that seemed to halt time itself.
"Tch," Tianyi grunted in disappointment. "Such a disappointment. I thought you were fearless. Turns out the death of your women only meant this little. You'll probably forget them when you find your next muse."
"You tricked me? You set a trap for me?" Disbelief was etched into his face. Then rage overtook the disbelief and twisted the Dragon Emperor's expression into a horrifying expression." YOU HAIRLESS BRAT BASTARD!!!"
Tianyi allowed his teeth to show in his excitement at how rage had consumed the Dragon Emperor. What he feared wasn't the Dragon Emperor's techniques or treasure but his wealth of experience. If the Dragon Emperor became a berserker, Tianyi was happy to allow him to do so. After all, in pure strength and qi reserves, he was confident no one was his equal at the same realm.
The Dragon Emperor charged through the layer of silver, but his speed dramatically slowed down as if something was pulling him back. This was the Web of Time technique Tianyi unleashed using the sea of time around the first mountain of his Moutain and Seas Formation. Since he controlled the formation that trapped the Dragon Emperor, he could easily hide the Mountain and Seas Formation within it as well.
The worst part of facing a formation master was being trapped in their formation. A strong formation would layer formation within formations, creating an endless number of formations for their enemy to face. Tianyi didn't consider himself a true formation master as it wasn't his sole focus, but he still considered himself an expert. And with a formation master as a mother, if he couldn't even do this much, he would be ashamed to call himself Xi Tianyi.
But the Web of Time couldn't hold the Dragon Emperor back for long. Even as the Dragon Emperor was being frozen in time, his thoughts slowing to a crawl, it still wasn't enough to stop him. But that was okay. Although Tianyi made the trap for Lei Jingye, he expected Lei Jingye to break through it as well, much less a powerful expert like the Dragon Emperor.
Tianyi raised his hand into the sky and formed a hand seal before bring it down like an executioner's blade. Space began to distort even inside Tianyi's formation as a massive mountain bearing immortal qi began to descend down. Using his maximum effort, Tianyi smashed the immortal mountain onto the Dragon Emperor.
The silver layer began to accumulate around the mountain like a silver sea once more, trapping the Dragon Emperor even more as the mountain smashed him into the ground. Like a cataclysmic earthquake, the ground shattered under the horrifying weight of the mountain.
Tianyi stared suspiciously at the aftershock. The immortal mountain was embedded into the ground like a nail, and through his connection with the Mountain and Seas Formations, he could detect the Dragon Emperor's ruined body underneath. Hell, he hadn't even expected this to work on Lei Jingye, much less the Dragon Emperor. Was it because Lei Jingye was a protagonist character and the Dragon Emperor was a villain type?
Just to make sure, Tianyi controlled the immortal mountain to spin on its center axis in one direction while he spun the sea of time in the opposite direction, turning it into a grinder. Under his perception, the Dragon Emperor's, or rather, Lei Jingye's body, began to be pulverized into chunks of meat and bones.
Once Tianyi was done with that, he recalled the Mountain and Seas Formation back into its jade pendant form on his waist. He reached into his robes and felt for the golden pill. After using his spiritual sense to instruct the pill and carving several formations on it, Tianyi left it in his robes as insurance. After that was done, Tianyi descended down the giant crater to see the remnant flesh of Lei Jingye's body, chunks of meat, bone fragments, and blood-coated sand everywhere. Tianyi couldn't even discern which part was which muscle or organ anymore, but even seeing this, Tianyi still kept a careful distance.
"So much for the Dragon Emperor, so weak that I didn't even need to personally take action," Tianyi said, his voice reverberating in the whole area. "How did such a person make it to the peak? What a weakling. Having dreams of grandeur but not the strength to back it up, what a joke."
Releasing his spiritual sense, Tianyi tried to sense any abnormality. But no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't discover anything. Even if Tianyi actually did trap and defeat the Dragon Emperor, if the Dragon Emperor had the skill to hide, Tianyi doubted he could discover any clues. In the end, Tianyi didn't go near Lei Jingye's flesh scraps and ascended above the crater.
Tianyi took out a small sphere from his spatial ring. The sphere was about the size of a large pill, but its shiny metallic surface had numerous glowing green lines, giving it a strange yet mesmerizing appearance. If someone on Earth were to see it, they would immediately link the green glow to radiation. Truthfully, even when Tianyi knew that his body was not affected by it, he still felt apprehensive handling it due to years of reinforced lessons that radiation was dangerous.
Flipping his hand, Tianyi dropped the metal sphere down where Lei Jingye's remains were. Once it reached a certain point, Tianyi formed several hand seals. Formations began to all over the metallic sphere. They had always been there, just invisible, and when Tianyi formed the final hand seal, all the formations shattered and disappeared.
For a moment, it was as if the world lost all sound before a horrifying heat emerged. Even Tianyi, who had designed the detonating false core, was buffeted by the generated winds and pushed back, his clothes flapping. Tianyi's eyes glinted as he saw the mushroom-shaped cloud began to rise up high into the air as the nuclear bomb did its work. Once the bomb finished its purpose, the ground below was just glass. The extreme heat had melted sand into glass, its appearance full of impurities, but it was especially reflective even with its uneven surface.
Tianyi searched the surrounding once more but found nothing. Even as the master of the formation, he couldn't sense anything. Waving his hand, Tianyi stored the formation he had constructed. As if time had reversed, the scarred lands vanished and were replaced by an untouched desert free of damage. Having an uneasy feeling, Tianyi immediately began to fly off into the distance when suddenly he felt a harrowing sensation on the back of his neck!