Bai Qi weakly coughed and was forced to spit another clump of blood before he was even able to speak.
"Who is speaking now? The shell of a man that thinks himself a god? Or the item that considers itself a real demon?" It was hard for him to speak, even so, his defiant gaze did not move from the enemy. An enemy that he could not even escape from, and probably would have to forfeit his life to.
"Item, you say? I am no item but a true demon, one birthed by the desires and wishes of the people you call our worshippers" Although it was strange for it to answer, the 'Bonejade' entity did. "So the calm voice is the Bonejade, seems that I was right" Bai Qi thought while closing his eyes and forcing his body to turn slightly.
*Thump*
He had been lying on his side after the kick, and now he was on his back. Eyes closed, and mind calm.
"READY TO DIE?! JUST REMEMBER THAT YOU ANT HAD BEEN OFFERED THE CHANCE!!!" A shout, or probably it should be called a shriek entered Bai Qi's ears, and this time, it was definitively the man who believed himself to be a god, even though he was simply being used by his, if it was so, creation.
"Die? Any being that follows the martial path should be prepared" Bai Qi did not feel the need to answer, but he did. Not that a single second could make the difference, but...
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The heavens, unreachable and at the same part so close to any living being, be it a mortal or a Divine Realm cultivator. They were a factor to be always taken into account, because as well as they could be willing to shower a being with fortune - they were equally capable of doing the opposite.
No one could truly say if they had some kind of sentience, or if they even physically existed as imagined, but the fact was there, they did exist and influenced trillions of things, from one's birth to one's talent. From the first breakthrough and to the last one. Cultivation was acclaimed to be the path that defied the heavens, but at the same time, no cultivator could truly advance if the heavens did not want him to.
And right at this moment, the heavens seemingly wished Bai Qi to...
"WHO DARES?!"
"Another disturbance?"
Two questions, one a crazed shout while another cold and detached sounded in unison, and from the same mouth.
*CRASH*
With a loud crash, the entire formation that had enclosed the area where all these events happened was broken. And in a single instant, it disappeared as it had never existed.
...wished him to be saved.
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It took all of Deng Guiying's willpower to not launch himself as soon as the aura appeared and he was able to track it down to a single mile. But if there was one thing that he had except curiosity was his love for battle, and having fought and survived for over 200 years made one accumulate an enormous deal of experience.
And experience said that rushing headfirst towards a powerful and unknown opponent, one that had managed to set up a formation in the city without alarming anyone was a sure way to let the enemy escape or to die or both.
So he waited, he waited until the Locating Formation pinpointed and revealed the formation, and until the message talisman from the City Lord arrived. It only took a few breaths for all to happen, with everyone in full alarm, but still...
"Let's go!" Half turning to Lord Shou and the latter's daughter, Deng Guiying commanded and took flight.
"I will take care of the formation, Elder Deng, Ming'er, be careful!" Lord Shou overtook them while beginning to while swinging his hammer and after arriving at the center of the dome landed a heavy smash with both of the spiked balls.
*CRASH*
The formation being meant to conceal and keep the people inside from leaving was dispersed with a single hit. And no wonder, as Lord Shou was not a Warrior King, no, he was one of the seven Emperors of the city!
Deng Guiying's aura expanded explosively and crashed against the cold aura that was now revealed. It could be said that the strength of both was even, and so both auras savagely clashed, making the qi, air, and even the all-present void in the middle of them explode, tear, and scream.
"What are you fiend? And why did you invade our city?!" Shou Ming was young, and probably inexperienced, which had shown in her previous panic. But now, even the frightful visage in front of her would not make her tremble, after all, it was an enemy, and she wasn't just a girl... She was the strongest of the young generation of the city, and even though she disliked being called or treated as such, it was a fact that she was the daughter of the Lord Commander of the Shuomen City Guards.
As for Lord Shou and Deng Guiying, they remained silent. The former carefully positioned himself above the abomination that stood in the center of the now destroyed formation, while the latter simply felt no need to speak. Truthfully, Deng Guiying did not even pay much attention to the strange demonic being standing in front, with his eyes centered on the heavily wounded and barely breathing youngster a few feet from it. There was also another man on the ground, one's whose presence was weak but still showed one of a Warrior King, and several dozens of bodies about half a mile from there.
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"We have to get this thing out of there and prevent him from using them as shields or just killing them" He transmitted to both of his companions.
"I will attack from the top while Elder Deng controls his aura, Ming'er, retrieve the two nearby cultivators and then go check on the ones piled back there"
"Understood" Probably Shou Ming would have said something different and tried to join the fight to prove herself, but she saw how Elder Deng's aura was only equal to the enemy, and that clearly showed that she, a peak Warrior Lord had nothing to do with such a fight.
***
"How tiresome..." As the new arrivals examined him, the demon? being? item? only murmured without even taking a glance at them.
Two Warrior Emperors and a peak Warrior Lord. The latter wasn't even something to be considered, as for the two former ones... The only one that had a slight possibility to fight for a bit was the old man that was using his aura. As for the one above, he was an intermediate 1st level one, barely enough to crash through the extended aura.
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By pure willpower, Bai Qi had remained conscious until now. Was he glad that reinforcements arrived? Probably yes. His senses could not scan the surroundings with the two Emperor tier auras clashing above, but it seemed that the Gate Elder, as it was his presence the one he clearly could discern, was capable of fighting the 'Bonejade'.
"I have to inform him about my findings" Even thinking was becoming difficult, but Bai Qi again conjured all of his will, or whatever was holding him until now and ignored the slurred thoughts and total lack of any mind power to code it, prepared himself to send a qi transmission.
***
It could appear that the three Shuomen City cultivators that had arrived and the demonic being simply stood, the former in the air and the latter on the ground, but it wasn't so. Deng Guiying's aura had managed to reach an even point with the one in front, and so he was infusing qi and soul power to keep it like that as if he didn't, Lord Shou's attack would simply fail to reach the enemy, not to mention that Shou Ming had no chance to approach Chen Guang and the others if the aura wasn't kept controlled.
He observed the strange grey-skinned being and could not understand what it was. It looked like a man, at least originally, but the absolute lack of muscles and any visible organs, the claws, and most importantly that bone leg made him think of whatever but a human. He was about to try and speak with the being, but at that moment, a weak qi transmission reached him. It was so weak that some of the contents were lost, but still, what did reach him was enough for him.
"Shou Tian, we are dealing with something special here"
"What do you mean, Elder Deng?" If Deng Guiying was using his name in place of the title, it meant that there was something very important going on.
"The youngster down there just send a transmission to me, the thing in front of us is just a shell, the true owner of the aura is..."
Qi transmissions had the absolute advantage over speech when it came to speed, as even the simplest word took time to be spoken and understood, while transmissions appeared right in the mind of the target. And so, albeit it could appear that explaining about the 'Bonejade' and everything else took several minutes, it actually took only a few moments.
"Heavens! We can not allow it to escape if it's already so powerful as to fight by itself, just what would happen if it keeps adding layers, as you say?"
"My thoughts exactly"
***
"Have you finished strategizing?" The Bonejade asked in a deadpan manner just as they did, making anyone believe that it was reading their minds. Not that it could, at least not against an Emperor, but as it had implied before, demons were demons.
"We did, actually. But before anything, just who, no what are you?" Deng Guiying believed in everything Chen Guang had said, but still, he wanted to confirm at least the identity of the 'thing' in front.
"WHY WOULD I EVEN SPEAK WITH ANTS?! KILL THEM, KILL THEM ALL" The eyes of the man suddenly crazily gleamed and in place of the detached voice he shrieked.
"Wishes are meant to be granted" And even before the words finished being said, the Bonejade took over again.
"Shou Ming, retreat for a mile and as soon as we leave, go!" Deng Guiying only had a moment to transmit his command, before the previous still point was broken, with the demonic aura suddenly growing far stronger.
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For cultivators above the Warrior King realm, battles rarely turned into an exchange of physical blows as for the weaker cultivators. They were a complex mix of aura clashes, where the losing one would restrict the amount of power a cultivator could release, showdowns between skills, and breakneck speed. The sheer destructiveness that a full-power attack of that level had could easily level a small city, or in the case of Shuomen, an entire district - and so, they were normally fought in the void, or when surrounded by protective formations.
But the demonic being that had been born from the Bonejade was not a cultivator, and it did not follow any rules. Not because it did not know them, no it did perfectly, but to show its disdain towards everyone and everything. Its host and creator was of the same mind, or no, he was even worse. The man that now looked like an incarnation of the word 'demon', simply desired to kill and destroy all and everything.
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The Bonejade aura clashed against Deng Guiying's one, and this time it was more powerful and controlled. Not enough to overpower the old veteran, but enough to pin him on the spot and force him to spend far more qi and soul power than before.
"Savage God of Water, Crashing Waterfall!" Lord Shou had been prepared to launch his attack since the confrontation began, and he had gathered an enormous amount of qi into his Royal Martial Technique.
Lord Shou launched himself down, with his weapon wildly flaying around him as his entire aura turned into a raging current of water.
It could be called beautiful, if not for it being so deadly. An entire river worth of water appeared from nowhere, and in the faint lights of the rune torches and the moon, it was akin to a stream of jewels falling from the sky.
But the Bonejade entity did not care for either beauty or the strength behind the attack. It did not even look up while his aura made a bony hand, one with every single finger being the size of a small building, appear in the path of the falling water.
*Swoosh*
Before the attack even reached it, the enormous hand just clenched.
The water torrent slashed without inflicting any damage, and not even a single drop of the water formed from qi reached the ground, disappearing in the darkness that colored the Bonejade aura.
As for Lord Shou, he did not even have the opportunity to avoid before he was gripped and the hand began tightening its grip, fully intent on simply crushing him.
"Savage God of Water, Raging Whirlpool" But he wasn't someone to be done so easily, and just an instant later, a whirlpool appeared, preventing the bony hand from entirely closing. And it did not stop there, with every passing moment, the whirlpool grew larger and stronger, forcing the bony fingers to unclench and then to begin fading.
"Not bad, but absolutely futile" It was only at this moment that the Bonejade reacted, and without calling any names, or even without any movement in the surrounding qi, the sign of a technique or skill, dozens of smaller hands began appearing...