Archfiend

Rocjourney said in a soft voice, “He’s already gone mad.”

“Imprisoned for centuries, he went from Great Circle Foundation Establishment with hope for Core Formation to an eternal puppet now. His ego is too sensitive. Any ordinary words will be treated by him as a provocation.”

“Provocation?” Floatingcloud looked at Rocjourney in an exaggerated manner and waved his hand. “Nonono… nothing is wrong… nothing is wrong. I merely stand on an even higher plane and look at all of you as nothing more than slag.”

A faint smile emerged on Xu Yangyi’s face. Followingly, a streak of azure light fired out like a waterfall!

Nonetheless, the light didn’t hit Floatingcloud. A hand softly grabbed onto the light, and then the powerful spiritual pressure of middle-stage Foundation Establishment filled the plaza with a rumble!

Moonless’s gaze stirred, and he adopted a proper stance. Xu Yangyi and Rocjourney both grew solemn and looked at the man facing them.

Bladevessel!

He had actually received Xu Yangyi’s attack in Floatingcloud’s stead! As willfully as the azure light was launched, his hand likewise twisted the attack into motes of spiritual light with the same willfulness, sending them drifting through the air.

“Who dares attack him?” Bladevessel stepped forward, and his spiritual pressure completely exploded. Unexpectedly, a strange wall of black wind was formed!

“So these are your true colors?” Xu Yangyi’s hair and clothes rippled loudly in the wind, due to Bladevessel’s uninhibited qi. The full release of qi only illustrated one matter. If Xu Yangyi came over, then they would both fight to their last breath!

A battle to the death between Foundation Establishment cultivators!

“Those words about the passage back then were to deceive me. You went through a lot of trouble, too. Looks like all you said about gods and immortals is fake, right? Maybe that staff isn’t from something Great Sage Sun was suppressing? And you, back then you were afraid of Enihilus and the Dream Walker’s struggle because a sudden crack on the seal would bring the climax? You just didn’t want me coming in and disrupting the balance?”

“Let me guess, you’re another incarnation laid out by the Dream Walker? Or a native of the Clearcloud Realm that just happened to become aware of this?”

Bladevessel smiled. “You cannot be considered stupid. As for who I am, why would I tell you?”

A trace of deep disappointment flickered through Xu Yangyi’s heart. To this day, he had two opportunities to ask whether immortals were real. Xiaoqing hadn’t told him, and he’d originally believed himself to have seen the truth. Furthermore, it made sense based on reason. But unexpectedly, it was all a pack of lies in the end.

“For the sake of past karma, I will warn you of a word.” Bladevessel bore his hands behind him and drawled, “The Fellow Daoist Floatingcloud of now isn’t someone lowly dregs like all of you can hope to strive for. You simply do not understand this point of terror.”

“In an instant, mountains and rivers are formed, and the permanent and impermanent are freely traveled. Although it is late Foundation Establishment, it can be called the strongest figure under Core Formation. It is unparalleled. So…” He eyed Xu Yangyi as if he was looking at a dead man. “Don’t play to folly. At least you can still survive. Your strength is not bad. To die here is too much of a pity.”

Xu Yangyi said indifferently, “So I should kneel and live?”

Bladevessel answered in an unperturbed voice, “It is much better than standing in death.”

Xu Yangyi smirked and stowed his gaze, but his eyes and Rocjourney’s motionlessly intersected.

Currently, Rocjourney, Bladevessel, Floatingcloud, he, Moonless, and the puppet were present. A total of six people. Excluding him, Rocjourney, Moonless, and Floatingcloud, the other half of the seal could only be Bladevessel or the puppet!

Bladevessel’s actions now could almost immediately confirm for them who the other half of the seal was!

Floatingcloud looked at Bladevessel with seemingly deep meaning. “One who is solicitous without account hides evil intention… Fellow Daoist, you are quite unfamiliar. Let me guess, who are you Fellow Daoist?”

“Who I am isn’t important,” Bladevessel said indifferently. “I stand on your side. Isn’t this reason enough?”

Floatingcloud cackled darkly and then curbed his smile. He sneered and said, “It is not.”

Bladevessel’s gaze suddenly needled. He wasn’t alone, however. The gazes of everyone present faintly skipped… because in the next second, without any spiritual force, a massive palm that was thirty meters in size appeared out of thin air! With the momentum of a thunderbolt evading ear cover, it slammed towards Bladevessel!

“I don’t need trash!” Floatingcloud’s raging laughter quaked the heavens. “If you want to serve me then prove you have the qualifications!”

“Divine ability?!” Rocjourney took a step forward in shock. “Impossible! His qi sea is ruined! He doesn’t have a single trace of spiritual force! How could he use a divine ability!!!”

Bladevessel’s gaze shrunk. With crisis approaching, his figure rocketed back, and the massive palm slammed into the ground with a rumble. Immediately… spider-web cracks quickly spread everywhere!

BOOM!!! A visible white shock wave exploded from where the massive palm was! In the moment of eruption, everyone’s hearts trembled!

So strong!

There was no spiritual force whatsoever, but this shock wave… was actually at the realm of Great Circle Foundation Establishment!

Bang bang bang! Without hesitation, Xu Yangyi, Rocjourney, Moonless, and the puppet all flew away thirty meters as the shock wave spread. Very swiftly, the palace unexpectedly followed with a rumble, and it split into countless pieces! They were all linked together with fine chains!

“A single palm… broke a palace hall that’s hundreds of meters all around! T-This is the Great Circle! A true Great Circle Foundation Establishment!” Rocjourney was dazed. Afterwards, his head snapped over to the old man chained in the plaza. No one had expected the power of Floatingcloud’s strike. Not only was it not weak, but it was instead comparable to when he was at the peak of his power!

“Running?” Floatingcloud cackled cruelly. In the next second, his massive palm transformed into a sky of spiritual light and vanished. Soon, this light formed into palm-sized vipers, all of them aimed at Bladevessel in midair!

“Impossible!!!” Moonless’s eyes went round. As if he was telepathically linked with Rocjourney, the two of them stepped forward and cried out in alarm, “Creation! This is Creation! This is impossible! Any divine ability can only transform into a similar qi divine ability! How could material objects appear?!?!”

“If he can reach this step, then he’ll be at the realm of gods and immortals! Creation! Destruction! These are the legendary skills of gods!” As a bodhi seed of the twin sal-trees, Rocjourney found this matter harder to believe. He rocked his head back and forth and said in a shaky voice, “If he was able to reach this step, then he became an immortal long ago! This step… isn’t just the significance of a few snakes! But the difference of the Creator!!!”

“Nothing is impossible.” Floatingcloud chuckled heartily. “In my domain, I am the Creator! I am an immortal! A god! An existence that you lot of swarming flies and aimless dogs are wholly unable to comprehend!!!”

“Kneel, mortals!”

Xu Yangyi didn’t reply. The transformation of qi and living creatures, in a broad view of history… no, mythological history, only one person had achieved this!

Nüwa!

Qi could only transform into a qi divine ability. Once qi turned into a living being, even if it was a housefly, as long as it was a living creature, that was a transformation of nature! To tread into the scope of gods and immortals!

“But there’s another possibility…” Gaze like lightning, he gritted his teeth and looked to Floatingcloud. “But if that’s how it really is… then I’m afraid the danger this time is a whole lot bigger than what I predicted!”

Whoosh! Legions of vipers surged towards Bladevessel like rolling thunder and flashing lightning.

Bladevessel’s complexion was incomparably grave. He hadn’t expected that Floatingcloud, having been trapped for centuries, would be this strange! The old man said he would attack and so he did! Without a trace of hesitation! Even though he himself had expressed that he was standing on Floatingcloud’s side!

“Earthmother’s Divine Art!” His hands weaved seals at a dizzying pace. Just as the countless vipers lunged towards him with the sound of piercing wind, yellow light glimmered in front of him, and a massive door loudly appeared with a flash!

BOOM!!! A resounding noise echoed, and the door crumbled apart in an instant. Bladevessel gasped coldly, and his hands transformed. A second door formed out of thin air. Still, another sky-shaking noise rang out, and the second door was broken again!

The impact force of these little vipers was actually similar to a giant’s!

“Still not enough!” Floatingcloud laughed gleefully. “If you want to be my hunting dog, then you must have a hunting dog’s ferocity! You’re nothing more than a Persian cat!”

His wizened left hand squeezed, and all the vipers promptly fell apart! They turned into motes of spiritual light again, and quickly gathered afterwards. This time, a massive black ax appeared! On the ax, there was a blood-red eye!

“Destruction… Transformation in a weapon…” Eyes wide and mouth ajar, Rocjourney was already dumbfounded. “Could it be… Could he really have stepped into the legendary realm of immortals? No… No! All immortals in this world are legends! There’s no evidence that can prove their existence!’

“But granted that this man did, then it’s still actual history! Later on is the art processing! How could he break through to this step?!”

Rocjourney suddenly felt a stab of pain in his mind. This was the sign of qi deviation, but he wasn’t to be blamed. While this scene before their eyes appeared simple, it had in fact already surpassed a boundary. This attack on his ideology was already affecting his cultivation.

At this moment, a refreshing qi moved into his qi sea, and he turned his head around appreciatively. Xu Yangyi’s hand was on the middle of his back. He silently nodded, yet the graveness in his heart was impossible to be rid of no matter what.

He absolutely hadn’t expected that Floatingcloud, whose qi sea had been ruined, would actually still be as fierce as when he was Great Circle Foundation Establishment centuries ago!

Anyways, how did he survive these past hundreds of years? Didn’t he outlive the lifespan for Foundation Establishment?

Rocjourney didn’t see that behind him, Xu Yangyi’s gaze was shimmering. The demon slayer seemed to be deep in thought.

“No… it’s a little like over doing things… like drawing legs on a snake… Why do I keep on feeling something is off…”

“He’s Great Circle Foundation Establishment. All he needs is one move to flatten all of us. Why use Bladevessel to establish his strength?”

“Does he need Foundation Establishment cultivators? No way, a Foundation Establishment cultivator in themselves can’t injure him. Is he short of people? Even more unlikely. Does he even need anyone?” He intently observed Bladevessel and Floatingcloud’s fight. “There’s definitely some other reason in this… I just haven’t found it yet…”

Bladevessel took a deep breath, his expression terribly grave. His hands became a mirage, and seven giant doors formed behind him less than half a second later! They firmly protected him!

“Chop!” Floatingcloud’s voice was like a great bell, and the ax struck downwards. Following Bladevessel’s roar, seven earthen-yellow hands suddenly extended from his seven great doors. Surprisingly, they doggedly held up the ax!

“Hmph!” A cold snort rang out, and a great shock traveled through Bladevessel’s entire body. A smidgen of blood spilled out from the crook of his mouth.

Just as Bladevessel was about to use his next divine ability, however, the strange giant ax, twenty meters in size, vanished into motes of spiritual light. His chest heaved up and down like a bellows, and he wiped away the blood at the corner of his mouth, silent.

Floatingcloud said apathetically, “You, come over here.”

Bladevessel was silent. Without a word, he walked over and stood at Floatingcloud’s side.

Deathly silence reigned.

No one spoke.

Everyone, including Moonless, had adopted battle stances. Xu Yangyi’s Animus Armament was already unsheathed in his hand. From Rocjourney’s body, countless leaves grew out from under his skin. Some of these leaves were in bloom, bearing fruit, or wilted. Layers of white hair surfaced on Moonless’s hands. Even the three eyes of the puppet were emitting golden light, looking at Floatingcloud with great wariness.

Great Circle Foundation Establishment… was enough to slay everyone here!