Book 7, Chapter 29: Duel (3)
Book 7, Chapter 29: Duel (3)
Sky City.
Eternal Night glanced through the report in his hand. “So the battle’s already begun?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Our observers have already reported this to us, and we’ve confirmed its veracity. We even made sure to double-check with our spies there.”
Eternal Night, however, didn’t seem too satisfied. “Tell them to report the condition of the battle to me again. I want all the details they have.”
Lonely Skyleap was taken aback. “Right now?”
“Yes,” Eternal Night said in a serious voice.
Lonely Skyleap hurriedly left.
A moment later, he returned with a new report in his hands. That had come from the Harpy observers on the front lines.
This was partly Su Chen’s fault. After all, he had given them transmission boxes, allowing both parties to be made aware of what was happening instantaneously.
Eternal Night’s expression grew solemn as he read through the report. Suddenly, he crumpled it and said, “Give the command to speed up. Head for the Skywild Plains at full speed.”
“Full speed?” Lonely Skyleap didn’t understand.
“Hm?” Eternal Night murmured. “There’s been a miscalculation. This giant falcon specializes in offense, not defense, and it probably won’t last three days. At most, it has one more day before it gets killed. If we don’t get there in time and give them two days to rest, the advantage we fought for will have gone to waste.”
Lonely Skyleap was still optimistic. “Desolate Beasts are strong. Even if the humans win, they will definitely pay a heavy price.”
Eternal Night replied straightforwardly, “Today is not yesterday. Both we and the humans are more powerful now than we have ever been. If the humans of old could defeat Desolate Beasts, what about the current humans? With Su Chen and the Boundless Sect present, their casualties might be far lower than either you or I expect. If we don’t get there right before their battle ends, we will have missed our opportunity. Two days is more than enough time for them to fully recuperate. Activate Sark’s Nucleus to its fullest extent! And activate all of our hidden assets, including those observers. Think of a way to destroy their formation.”
Lonely Skyleap was badly startled when he heard this. “The burden will be too great for the Origin Stones and the Arcana Masters to bear. Expending so much energy before the battle begins will definitely affect our performance. And if we use the humans and observers we roped in now, then later......”
“We don’t have the luxury to worry about later. Once the battle begins, it’s a matter of life and death. We need to use every tactic at our disposal right now and get there in at least a day and a half!” Eternal Night growled fiercely. “Even half a day is too much time for them to rest! Also, round up those human observers. From this point on, they are not allowed to transmit any news to the humans!”
“Understood!” Lonely Skyleap didn’t dare delay any longer and ran off to relay the command.
Sky City’s core began to creak and groan as Sark’s Nucleus was fully activated. Sky City, which had been moving at a leisurely pace earlier, suddenly began to pick up speed as it trundled towards its target.
Eternal Night had finally torn apart the pretenses for the sake of victory, openly acting against the human observers.
“Careful!” Gu Huiming’s voice echoed in Su Chen’s ear as the giant falcon opened its mouth wide, a vortex of wind forming near its mouth.
This time, its attack wasn’t a ball of wind but a vortex, pulling everything nearby into it.
Su Chen hurriedly teleported away, but discovered that it was much harder this time. It wasn’t that he couldn’t teleport at all, but the difficulty had greatly increased, and his teleportation distance had decreased.
Instead of teleporting to the location he had intended on jumping to, he had instead reappeared not far from the vortex.
This position caught Su Chen off-guard. An instant later, the powerful vortex began to pull him towards the giant falcon’s mouth.
Even Gu Huiming and the others were irresistibly pulled towards the giant falcon’s mouth.
Everyone began to panic.
Li Wuyi cried out, “Hurry and attack its mouth! Its mouth!”
“There’s no time! Burn those Lifesource Candles!” Gu Huiming roared.
All of the Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators simultaneously pulled out their Lifesource Candles, lighting them immediately. Even though there were only twenty or so candles, the light they emanated was dazzling and filled the entire battlefield.
A dazzling display of colors appeared in the sky, and the Shining Dragon manifestation grew significantly more tangible.
“RRAGHH!”
With a fierce howl, the Shining Dragon suddenly rushed forwards and headbutted the giant falcon, sending it backwards.
At the same time, the other Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators attacked with all their might as well.
These Lifesource Candles were indeed worthy of being treated as trump cards. The strength of these cultivators soared immediately. Even though there was no formal realm beyond the Ultimate Emperor Realm, these Lifesource Candles seemed capable of unlocking new heights for them.
Unfortunately, they had no time to familiarize themselves with these new heights. All of their focus was placed on unleashing attack after attack so as to not waste the precious power of the Lifesource Candles.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
Numerous attacks slammed viciously into the golden falcon’s body, blasting its beak into pieces. The vortex could not be sustained and began to disappear, causing everyone to let out a sigh of relief.
Their strength had more than doubled with the aid of the Lifesource Candles. As such, they were currently in their strongest state, which was why they were hurling attacks with reckless abandon. The giant falcon was being knocked every which way. It couldn’t understand just how these puny humans had suddenly gotten that strong.
At that moment, however, an explosion sounded from North-Facing Slope.
Following that explosion, the formation light covering the North-Facing Slope dimmed significantly.
It was the Cursing Heaven Formation.
Without the suppression of the Cursing Heaven Formation, the giant falcon’s strength surged. It let out a keening cry of joy, and the pressure it was emanating grew significantly.
“What just happened?” someone cried out in agitation.
Stopping the Cursing Heaven Formation at this moment? Were they trying to get them killed?
Su Chen’s expression shifted. “This is not good. Something’s happening below us.”
He knew that this wouldn’t happen for no reason. Something had definitely taken place.
A Boundless Sect disciple hurriedly flew up to report. “Sect Master, some humans have betrayed us and infiltrated the area where the Cursing Heaven Formation was being kept to destroy it.”
“Traitors! Spies!” Everyone cursed when they heard this.
“Can it be repaired?” Su Chen hurriedly asked.
“Yes, but it’ll take time,” Jiang Hanfeng interjected.
“Then hurry and fix it. Increase our control over the Meteor Formation and kill all the traitors. Capture all of those observers for me!”
“Understood!”
Even though they had reacted quite quickly, the destruction of the Cursing Heaven Formation greatly increased the pressure on everyone present.
A batch of Lifesource Candles, gone just like that. It was impossible for them not to feel a pang in their hearts - Lifesource Candles were strategically important resources and were limited in quantity, yet the battle against a Desolate Beast was going to last an entire day. They might need to burn hundreds of Lifesource Candles just to make up for the deficit.
The golden falcon was still continuing to attack with reckless abandon.
It was if the disappearance of the Cursing Heaven Formation had driven it mad. Countless blades of golden wind whizzed mercilessly through the sky, putting an immense amount of pressure on them.
Su Chen was forced to redirect more of the Meteor Formation to help alleviate the burden, but this only increased the casualties they suffered. His heart ached whenever he thought about it.
That damned Eternal Night!
Su Chen couldn’t help but begrudgingly admire Eternal Night’s resolute, decisive, and sinister tactics.
The pressure was only continuing to mount. Some were already pleading with Su Chen to bring out the Titan-Class puppets. If fifty Titan-Class puppets were to appear, they would definitely secure victory. It was also likely, however, that Eternal Night still had cards up his sleeves. If even a single Harpy had gone unnoticed, Su Chen’s secret trump card would have been exposed.
Su Chen couldn’t help but hesitate.
Just as the pressure was about to force him to bring out some of them, a sweet-smelling fragrance wafted past him.
The image of the Shining Dragon, which had been flickering only moments earlier, suddenly seemed to have stabilized.
“Qingluo?” Su Chen was ecstatic.
He turned around and found Gu Qingluo standing behind him, smiling gently at him.
Gu Qingluo’s appearance greatly strengthened the Shining Dragon Manifestation, stabilizing the situation.
At the same time, Su Chen also saw Zhu Xianyao, and a creature following closely behind her.
His eyes glittered. “Crow Skyking?”
“Mhm!” Zhu Xianyao nodded sincerely.
“He’s about to break through as well.” Su Chen immediately perceived the Crow Skyking’s strength. “The Heavens really are helping me.”
Su Chen laughed loudly, then teleported to the Crow Skyking, tapping his finger on the Skyking’s forehead.
Following that tap, the Crow Skyking’s body began to tremble violently.
“What are you doing?” Li Wuyi and the others were stunned when they saw this.
“Creating an even more powerful helper,” Su Chen murmured.
He retracted his hand. The Crow Skyking knelt on the cloud as his wings unfurled, sending large waves of demonic Qi in all directions.
This demonic Qi grew thicker and thicker.
Suddenly, the Crow Skyking tilted its head back and let out a high-pitched shriek.
Plumes of demonic Qi surged from his body as his aura began to rise to the Heavens. A powerful pressure began to emanate from him.
“An emperor!” Someone perceived what was happening.
So the Crow Skyking had become a Demonic Emperor just then.
No, a Demonic Sovereign.
As soon as the Crow Skyking ascended, he became a Sovereign - a significant increase in strength. And this servant was Zhu Xianyao’s slave.
This was the effect of Su Chen’s God-Sealing Method Power.
God-Sealing Method Power could theoretically confer consciousness to an inanimate object, but Su Chen wasn’t at that point yet. He wasn’t even capable of sealing emperors yet.
But since the Crow Skyking was already half a step into the Demonic Emperor Realm, Su Chen was more than capable of giving him a small push.
Zhu Xianyao pointed forwards. “Let me see what new abilities you’ve gained. Go and deal with that thing!”
The Crow Skyking let out a long, keening cry as it rushed towards the golden falcon.
The golden falcon unleashed a golden Wind Edge. Even though they were both Beasts, the golden falcon had no intentions of showing mercy to a traitor.
The Crow Skyking’s body morphed into a cloud of smoke, allowing it to bypass the giant falcon’s attack.
An instant later, a black door appeared in the sky.
Thick black fog poured out of the door as an ancient voice spoke. “Crow, you’ve finally become an Emperor and can summon me now? Very good, very good!”
A black hand stretched forth from the black door.