Archfiend

In the illumination, Xu Yangyi’s face was as still as a lake. He narrowed his eyes and surveyed his vicinity.

The holy white radiance faded away and was replaced by a domain of dense white fog. This holiness carried an unparalleled arrogance and supreme respect, spreading through the area.

Something was here…

Something unknown, but his intuition was telling him that it was very formidable.

Swoosh… In the white mist, two golden lanterns suddenly brightened. In the next moment, the entire mist lightly trembled.

Afterwards, a long continuous flow of breathing was heard, and the fog sea began to surge.

Xu Yangyi didn’t speak, but rather looked at the arena underneath him.

Moments ago, following the inhalation and exhalation of that unknown entity, fist-sized pieces of rubble on the ground evenly floated up and then slammed down again afterwards.

Thump… Thump…

Like the Devil was knocking on the door.

The arena was so silent that a falling needle could be heard. All kinds of gazes with uncertain overtones watched the center of the arena.

Gradually, something appeared in the white fog. Three seconds later, everyone clearly saw a figure.

That of a majestic stag.

It wasn’t large, the same size as all stags. The only thing different… was that magnificent blues runes were roving all over its body. Its antlers were not truly antlers, but instead two tremendous tree branches that were far larger than itself! They were over twenty meters long! It was as if a butterfly of bone was growing form the white deer’s head.

On the branches, there were flowers, leaves, and green lights swirling like a vortex. From time to time, flowers bloomed and sprouted, and leaves fell and fruits ripened. There were even dozens of butterflies flitting between the antlers.

“What is this?” Xu Yangyi took a step back and assumed a defensive stance for the first time. He sensed the strong aura of a Grand Duke coming from the incredibly sacred-looking deer.

“The Sacred Spirit Whitedeer King Malorne.” The white deer opened its mouth, and Althorne’s voice was heard. “Among the Elves, this is the most perfect form of those titled with a Sacred Spirit’s name.”

“I only have one attack. While it’s true I still have at least two-thirds of my essence, I will only be exhausted by you and slowly defeated if the fight continues how it was a while ago. So…” The white deer raised its front hooves, rearing its head back and neighing. Countless flowers bloomed underneath its feet.

Althorne lowered his head, golden pupils boring into Xu Yangyi. “Let us decide victory and defeat in one move.”

Xu Yangyi laughed, “As you wish.”

The surroundings quieted down. The first battle was about to end. This would affect which one of them would be a competitor in the next round. In particular, Xu Yangyi was terribly more serious about the next opponents from the Black Witches Coven and the Sirens.

Boom! Althorne fiercely stomped his front hoof, and gorges cracked open underneath him. Wild flowers and creeping vines grew out from them. Meanwhile, the ground around Xu Yangyi and the white stag sunk downwards.

Xu Yangyi’s expression was rather grave. With barely just this move, he knew. Ignoring that this white deer wasn’t large, it was a creature on an absolutely different level than the greatbear and the mammoth from before.

“GRUNT!” The white deer faced up and let out a long cry. Its body arched, and then it charged straight over with a sky of green light!

Ruuumble. The horns on its head frantically grew. Thirty meters… fifty meters! In half a second, they actually became over a hundred meters long, like a cartoon, and sharp spurs grew out! No longer were these antlers, but a colossal wall of thistles and thorns!

Bluish-green veins spread along the horns. Everyone soon discovered that these horns… were actually drawing the outline of a giant deer head! Wherever it went, there seemed to be a vast shadow horde of bears, tigers, leopards, and snakes inside the green light. They appeared to follow the wind and flicker away. The ground was shuddering, and ten-odd-meter-tall waves of sand and stones seemed to rise up everywhere like a bulldozer.

In front of him, Xu Yangyi felt as if he was facing all of nature. The bramble wall stretched as far as the eye could see, and wild howls thundered. The ground under him was cracked apart to look like a spider’s web. All his muscles swelled dramatically, and all of his qi poured into each of his muscles.

“He’s going to face the Sacred Spirit head-on?” This scene caused all the elves to cry out in surprise. Those who were sitting down not long ago were almost fully standing now. With wide eyes and gaping mouths, they watched the coming clash of epic proportions.

“Impossible! A Sacred Spirit’s power can destroy entire landscapes! Even if it’s a divine avatar, there are no more than five Marquises who can take it head-on in the West!”

“If he can pull through, wouldn’t that mean his power is in the top five of western Marquises?!”

“God… there’s no one among the Elves that would risk doing something like this! Is he crazy?!”

“If he can’t resist it, he’ll be leaving the arena as a complete mess! This…”

This was the best opportunity to test A Thousand Li Invincible’s upper limit! Xu Yangyi turned a deaf ear to the crowd. Gaze like a sword, he crouched and then stormed forward without the slightest hesitation!

Iron Mountain Learning! [1]

Rumble! There was no time for awe. In the next second, a world-breaking explosion screamed out, and two figures, one white and one azure, violently collided.

“Hmph!” Xu Yangyi tightly gritted his teeth and groaned heavily. In this instant, he deeply felt that he hadn’t struck a deer, but rather a wall. A wall that was infinitely thick! Perhaps it could be said he was confronting the savage charge of ten thousand beasts!

“It really is strong!” His teeth audibly grinded, and a mountain-crushing impact leveled down on him. He even heard the sound of his arms whining from the unendurable heaviness.

In kind, Althorne sensed his situation. His lowered head exploded with a neigh of a great joy, and all the talismans on his body sparkled again. The white deer’s hair that reached the ground began to blow. A mad snarl rang out, and the enormous bramble wall unexpectedly pushed Xu Yangyi back with swiftness. The ground that Althorne crossed seemed as if it was crushed by an aircraft carrier. The bramble wall plowed the earth so that it was a pale shadow of its original form.

In the audience stands, the elves’ words were harshly stuck in their throats again as if they were pinched there.

Xu Yangyi hadn’t broken!

They had expected him to be instantly sent flying away like a ruined ragdoll, or smashed into pieces, but it didn’t happen! On the contrary, Xu Yangyi was now frantically retreating from Althorne’s charge. All his muscles swelled up, his eyes were a little red, and his veins were bulging out. Nonetheless, he forcibly resisted Althorne’s strongest attack!

“He…” An elf gulped. Her feelings were complicated in scope and range. “He… actually resisted Althorne’s stampede with his fleshly body… I-Is that even human? Only the top five can do this in the West, right?”

“Is he a human, or a human-shaped monster?!”

At the very front of the elves, there was a figure as imposing as the sun. No one could clearly see his face, but at this moment his eyes slowly opened for the first time, and he gave Xu Yangyi a deep glance. For the first time, he spoke.

“Not bad.”

“He’s strong.”

Xu Yangyi was none the wiser about the ongoings beyond Lawrence’s protective light. His expression was cool and his body was stretched taut like a bow, but he couldn’t resist the mountain-cleaving force in front of him. The ground, changed beyond all recognition, had a very long gorge cut into it. Amidst flying rubble, he now saw that the light-cover behind him was getting closer and closer!

Once he slammed into the Core Formation protective shield, he didn’t have the faintest hope that he would be able to manage a lucky escape. When the moment came, he was doomed to become mincemeat.

As expected… on just merely his fleshly body he wasn’t a Sacred Spirit’s opponent. He inwardly sighed, but he was already very satisfied. The impact force just now was like a crashing planet. If any other cultivator were in his position, perhaps their bones would’ve already been reduced to nothing.

“Stop. I’ll spare you.” Xu Yangyi gritted his teeth, looking straight at the two already-reddened eyes facing him.

Althorne seemed to be deaf. Once an arrow was shot there was no going back. What answered Xu Yangyi was a furious howl and the brightening of the white deer’s tremendous antlers.

“You got a death wish!” Xu Yangyi roared, his hand now pressed down on Althorne’s head. Streaks of black qi swirled at his fingertips. “Heavenly Opening… Devour Bone!!!”

“URUGH!!!” Althorne let loose a world-shaking roar. Xu Yangyi’s attack was not made indirectly. Instead, as the vector of the Heavenly Opening Six Erosions, the demon slayer was in complete contact with the elf. In an instant, the light shooting all around from the two giant antlers unexpectedly dimmed a little!

A heart-splitting pain spread into Althorne’s mind. He hadn’t expected that a seemingly normal hand could actually create such wounds.

Xu Yangyi furrowed his brows.

This hand… was much more powerful than he’d anticipated towards Althorne’s injury!

Furthermore, he didn’t know why, but as he seized onto Althorne, a kind of indescribable hunger soared up in him.

To eat Althorne!

In a wink, a muffled voice was echoing in Xu Yangyi’s mind. His eyes slightly drew back, and he grabbed Althorne’s head again unhesitantly.

“Devour Blood!”

Boom! Five black lights loudly erupted. Xu Yangyi’s claw seemed to strike leather, surprisingly seizing into Althorne’s skull. Not before long, the white deer’s entire body began to scatter into motes of white spirit light.

This light wasn’t spirit light, however.

No… the hundred-meter-long antlers were surprisingly like a sand castle in a wild squall. At lightning speed, they eroded away!

It was spiritual grains of sand!

But in this moment, the unperturbed man, who stood among the elves as a sun god, unexpectedly bolted up to his feet!

“This is…” His eyes were like two suns, brilliant rays beaming into the arena. “A Human Pillar?”

No one answered him. Everyone present was stunned. The Elves were one of the powerful clans in the West. A great deal of people clearly understood the strength of the Five Sacred Spirits. But right now, one of the Five Sacred Spirits, the avatar of the Whitedeer King Malorne, had actually eroded away in the wind at such a mind-boggling speed?

“God…” A Count looked up at the sky in shock. White motes of spiritual light filled the air, but soon all of them hailed down like a tempest.

Their objective was not Althorne, but Xu Yangyi!

“He… is absorbing the Whitedeer King’s avatar?” Pale Dragon watched this scene incredulously. If it hadn’t happened before his eyes, he simply wouldn’t have believed it!

In the past several centuries, this had never happened!

Not even he could do this!

He didn’t want to believe this, but if this wasn’t absorption, then what was it?

As motes of spiritual light descended like the rain, grand and complicated tattoos unexpectedly appeared on Xu Yangyi’s body. They started from his hand, and creeped towards his heart and back.

“The Conservation of Energy?” In the second row in the audience section for the Black Witches Coven, there a woman wearing not black, but rather red from head to toe. She pushed down on her hat and coldly gasped, “This isn’t destruction; it’s absorption… This X… His identity is perhaps very deep!”

Holy Whip Lawrence sent the sun god-like man a deep look. He had sensed the other’s line of sight. The man then regained his wits. Afterwards, he let out a bitter laugh.

“It’s no use…”

“This is a fight between Sacred Spirits. We Grand Dukes are unable to interfere.”

“Once it begins, there is no way for it to end.”

1. “铁山靠”, so this is an actual Chinese martial arts technique from Bajiquan (八极拳), Eight Extremes Fist. Often translated as Iron Mountain Leaning. Depending on the school of martial arts, it’s either a shoulder tackle or a turning-back blow.