Tianyi could count the number of times he faced death on one hand. Emperor Soulfish’s assault, the Dragon Emperor-possessed Lei Jingye, and third, the Inner Devil Tribulation. And now, he suspected he was going to face the fourth life-threatening situation in his life.
“Pangu!!!” the five-armed giant bellowed. His shout created a tornado with him at the center from sheer volume alone.
Tianyi stared at the five-armed, sphere-headed giant with slight confusion. The hatred in his voice reminded him of his first encounter with Lei Jingye. Only, the visceral emotion contained within the five-armed giant’s words exceeded whatever Lei Jingye himself said. It made his anger at Xia Yushan’s betrayal seem like a child’s tantrum in comparison.
However, Tianyi didn’t have time to ponder anymore as the heavenly punishment descended without giving him time to think. The bolt had no color. Rather, it appeared closer to a hole in reality covered in a golden hue. The worst part was the coercion. Normally, it was him freezing spacetime and shackling his opponent in place. Now, it was his turn to experience the unpleasant sensation.
While Tianyi struggled to escape the shackles, the five-armed giant already broke out of his restraints. “Pangu, as long as the five elements persist, I, Wuxing, shall never fall!”
Tianyi watched as a ring formed of five elements appeared on Wuxing’s back. The ring spun as the five elements blurred into one solid black color. Simultaneously, Wuxing’s five arms took on the same tone as the five elements perfectly merged into one greater supreme element.
Fist clashed against lightning. However, heavenly punishment wasn’t so easily dealt with. Wuxing’s fist only momentarily stalled the bolt of lightning. Just as it seemed the lightning would resume its strike, a second fist struck the bolt, then a third, a fourth, a fifth, and many, many more. Wuxing sent a barrage of fists that halted the bolt’s movement, and even started pushing it back.
Furthermore, cracks appeared on the bolt of heavenly punishment. The longer the barrage of fists continued, the more cracks appeared until, finally, Wuxing shattered the bolt of heavenly punishment with one last punch. But heavenly punishment was not so easily destroyed.
Whereas heavenly tribulation tested a cultivator’s mettle, the heavenly punishment’s aim was to utterly destroy the target. Unless the target’s strength outstripped his current realm or had a unique existence like Tianyi, it was almost impossible to overcome. Considering the Divine Realm was the limit, that was quite literally impossible for Wuxing to survive.
The shattered bolt of heavenly punishment slipped through Wuxing’s fists and stabbed toward the sphere-shaped head. Contrary to Tianyi’s spacetime attacks, the shards pierced the sphere and then dissolved into a shroud of void lightning. Wuxing roared in pain, but he still stood strong.
The five phases ring whirling on his back separated and shifted until the sphere was in the center of the rings. This placement made the sphere and ring resemble a planet and its planetary rings. The five phases aura spilled from ring and covered the sphere, disintegrating the lightning within its new shroud.
Wuxing didn’t have any time to breathe as a second bolt of heavenly punishment descended. Then a third, a fourth, and so on.
From the side, Tianyi watched with rapt attention. For once, he wasn’t the automatic target of the Heavenly Dao’s punishment or tribulation. ‘Is this what it feels like as a member of the audience?’
Tianyi shook his head. Now was not the time to dawdle like some dazed idiot. The clash between Wuxing and the heavenly punishment had loosened the shackles placed upon him, allowing him to break loose and retreat.
First, he lowered his sense of presence as much as possible. Although the heavenly punishment was currently preoccupied with Wuxing, it didn’t mean that it wouldn’t choose to strike at him. Second, the aftereffects of the clash between Wuxing and the heavenly punishment destroyed the surrounding area, and even true immortals stood no chance of surviving if struck by a stray aftershock. So, Tianyi teleported them into his inner universe.
He prioritized Daoyi’s safety and everyone else’s second. Of course, he didn’t have the strength nor reason to interfere with the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation battle against Grand Elder Zhang and Eternal Night Emperor. Even with the ongoing heavenly punishment, the three continued to duke it out while avoiding any stray shots.
After some hesitation, Tianyi decided to join the fray. After all, if Wuxing perished and the heavenly punishment targeted him, he could store the Grand Elder Zhang, the Eternal Night Emperor, and the members of the Anti-Earth Alliance in his inner universe.
Tianyi didn’t immediately attack. Instead, he began to gather energy for Constellation Cessation. First, a miniature sun radiating gold and silver materialized in his palm, followed by orbiting planets of the same scale. Most exuded the aura of chaos, but some exuded the aura of life, death, fire, water, earth, wood, metal, yin, yang, and more. It was the proof of Tianyi’s comprehensions of the worldly laws he embarked upon.
He didn’t expect the technique to unleash the same amount of power as when he destroyed the Eight Pillar Sect’s headquarter, just enough to heavily damage the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation. If he did unleash it on the same scale, forget the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation, he just might kill Grand Elder Zhang, the Eternal Night Emperor, and the Anti-Earth Alliance and Buzhou Immortal Sect’s forces sieging the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation.
Still, Tianyi forgot that his action was akin to telegraphing to the whole battlefield that he was preparing a powerful technique. He wasn’t high in the sky out of most immortals’ sensing range, and they weren’t unaware either. So, it was no one’s surprise when the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation dropped its battle with Grand Elder Zhang in her Voidink Emperor War Formation and the Eternal Night Emperor to target him.
The Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation appeared in front of Tianyi. The giant humanoid formed of black and white energy clapped his its hand together with Tianyi between its palms. A moment passed, and the war formation intertwined the fingers of both hands as it increased the pressure between its hands.
Although squashed, Tianyi remained largely uninjured, although his form had distorted from the pressure. The problem was the yin-yang domain created between the palms. It would take tens of thousands of years for it to kill him, but the half-formed Constellation Cessation was a different story.
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The yin-yang domain constantly drained the Constellation Cessation’s energy, weakening it and powering the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation. Tianyi wanted to end the technique, but that would only make it easier for the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation to absorb the energy. Not even the corrosive nature of the immortal qi of primordial chaos could hurt the war formation, so he did the next best thing.
“Flee as far as possible from the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation!” Tianyi transmitted using his immortal sense.
The Eternal Night Emperor hesitated and glanced toward the Voidink Emperor War Formation. Within the war formation, Grand Elder Zhang hesitated for a moment before ordering all the available Buzhou Immortal Sect war formations to retreat as far and as fast as possible. The Eternal Night Emperor followed suit, relaying the same orders to the Anti-Earth Alliance war formations.
While the Buzhou Immortal Sect and Anti-Earth Alliance fled as far as possible, Tianyi did everything in his power to prevent his spell from losing qi. However, it was a losing battle. The breadth of wordly laws Tianyi mastered exceeded many immortal emperors.
But if there was one thing Tianyi could not exceed, it was the height that the long-time immortal emperors reached with their laws. As the controller of the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation, Emperor Infinity’s mastery dictated the height of power the sovereign-level war formation could unleash. Although he had not fused the Law of Yin and the Law of Yang into the Law of Yin-Yang, he reached an extremely high level in both. The level resulted in a gap that Tianyi couldn’t make up no matter how many other laws he’s mastered.
The Law of Spacetime, the Law of Five Phases, the Law of Space, the Law of Time, the Law of Fire, the Law of Water, the Law of Earth, the Law of Wood, the Law of Metal, the Law of Yin, the Law of Life, and many other laws close to mastery; none of them could fully resist Emperor Infinity’s might.
At least for now.
Once enough time had passed, Tianyi detonated the incomplete Constellation Cessation. Although the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation would likely disperse most of the force, it was better than stalling and letting it absorb the spell. Oh, and ignoring the fact that Tianyi was at ground zero.
A bright light engulfed Tianyi and the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation. The blast radius of the Constellation Cessation grew and grew, destroying the land even further, possibly to an irrecoverable degree.
The Buzhou Immortal Sect and Anti-Earth Alliance members who had stopped once they thought they reached a safe distance immediately resumed their escape. Even from thousands of meters away, they could feel the extreme heat and danger. Forget the explosion engulfing them. Just being within a certain distance of its radius might kill them. The mighty war formations that allowed them to contend with immortal monarchs and emperors seemed flimsy in comparison as of this moment.
Not even Grand Elder Zhang and the Eternal Night Emperor could remain calm after seeing the might of the Constellation Cessation. In their eyes, it appeared crude and closer to an innate ability than a spell that perfectly utilized the wordly laws, but its sheer devastation exceeded anything an immortal emperor could accomplish—perhaps even exceeding that too.
When the nova disappeared, they all saw the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation. Although the sharp definition of its form had turned hazy, its stalwart figure weighed down on the observers’ mind like a mountainous pressure. Even in the face of that devastating explosion, it still stood. Was there nothing that could take it down?
Grand Elder Zhang and the Eternal Night Emperor frowned as they sensed the lowering morale. They doubted that the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation was unharmed as it appeared, but knowing logically and emotionally were two different matters. If they could not raise the morale, the casualties might exceed their expectations. They didn’t think they would lose, it was more a matter of how many losses they would sustain.
Moreover…
“Do you sense Monarch Xi?” Grand Elder Zhang asked. She couldn’t sense Tianyi normally, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
“No, I can’t sense him with my immortal sense or my eyes,” the Eternal Night Emperor said. “Did he sacrifice himself once he saw that he couldn’t escape?’
Grand Elder Zhang hesitated. She didn’t like Tianyi because of the single fact that he was a potential Dragon Emperor clone, but she knew how important he was to the sect. Sect Master Xia has shared some information regarding Tianyi’s abilities, so she didn’t think the chances of his death were high, but she couldn’t help but worry.
Her worries were for naught as the Eight Trigrams Sovereign Formation was launched into the air, as if something had struck its abdomen with a monstrous force. Or rather, someone. Grand Elder Zhang’s eyes narrowed as she caught sight of Tianyi’s positively miniscule figure next to the giant war formation. He appeared largely unharmed, but the same couldn’t be said for his robes.
“Charge!” she commanded, leading the forces of the Buzhou Immortal Sect and the Anti-Earth Alliance with herself in the lead, with the Eternal Night Emperor following close by.
Once Grand Elder Zhang engaged in battle with the last of the Eight Pillar Sect, she noticed that Tianyi’s skin took on a tone that resembled the night sky. She didn’t have time for questions as she had to focus on her attention on Emperor Infinity and the war formation he commanded.
The Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation had weakened down partially because of Tianyi’s Constellation Cessation, but more significantly due to the prolonged battle against Grand Elder Zhang’s Voidink Emperor War Formation, the Eternal Night Emperor, and the siege against it. The situation didn’t turn for the better as Tianyi released the Buzhou Immortal Sect members that formerly held down the Eight Pillar Sect members he killed.
“Elder Xi, if Emperor Infinity suddenly attempts to self-detonate, we’ll be relying on you to save us,” Grand Elder Zhang said. Without waiting for Tianyi to reply, she charged again.
Tianyi paused. He nodded even if Grand Elder Zhang couldn’t see it. Since he had to watch out for the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation’s self-detonation, he disengaged from close-range and started using spells. With a swipe of his hands, he opened a portal to the Nine Heavens Universe. From within, hundreds of stellar incarnations charged out and self-detonated once the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation entered range.
While the Buzhou Immortal Sect and the Anti-Earth Alliance waged war against the last of the Eight Pillar Sect, Wuxing continued to defy the Heavenly Dao and the heavenly punishment. However, the heavenly punishment continued endlessly, and Wuxing tired. He was just one being facing the might of the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System.
“I’m unwilling, unwilling to die like this after I finally revived after all these years!” Wuxing said. Madness entered his nonexistent eyes.
Shockingly, he didn’t resist the next bolt of heavenly punishment. The bolt struck him and an explosion formed of five elements spread. So great was its might that the battle between the sects temporarily halted as they did their best to protect themselves. But this did not concern Wuxing at all as a ringed sphere shot out of the explosion.
It accelerated, rocketing past the black clouds and to the boundary of the Huang Realm. In less than ten seconds, Wuxing had torn a hole in the boundary and escaped into the Vast Void. Seeing his chance, Emperor Infinity followed Wuxing’s trail.
“Not on my watch,” Tianyi said as he appeared in front of the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation, blocking its path.
“Since you want to die so badly, I’ll grant you your wish!” Emperor Infinity said from within the war formation. Black and white light shrouded the war formation’s palm as it reached for Tianyi.
Not to back down, nine Stellar Silences appeared in Tianyi’s palm as he met the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation head on. Before the two blows could connect, a bolt of heavenly punishment shot toward them—or more specifically, Tianyi.
“Dammit!” Tianyi said. In the rush of battle, he had forgotten that heavenly punishment only existed within the realm. Once Wuxing escaped to the Vast Void, he would become its only target.