Chapter 938: Slaying

The Turtle Immortal Patriarch’s blood and demon power roared, drowning the sky. Like a god-demon overlord on the move, he wielded boundless might and ground Luofuzi’s picturesque mountain-and-river domain to pieces. Peaks collapsed, ancient trees shattered, and chains of void explosions rolled on without end.

As this happened, his hunched, gaunt frame shot up. His eye sockets sank, his mouth tore wider, and a pair of ghostly blue horns pushed from his brow.

Once a beast advances to fourth rank it can wear a human form, grasp some arts and divine abilities, yet when it erupts fully the true beast form is still stronger.

In less than a breath the Turtle Immortal Patriarch became a dragon-turtle dozens of yards long.

Limbs thick as sky pillars, a carapace scored with ravines, he radiated a terror beyond words.

Good thing this was in the Heavens Beyond the Heavens.

If not, the Immortal City of Damengze would never withstand this sweeping devastation or the residual shockwaves.

“Who are you, and when did I ever offend you?”

Under Lu Changsheng’s soul secret arts, Luofuzi managed to stay conscious, yet his sea of consciousness throbbed and he couldn’t focus.

Facing a two-pronged assault on soul and flesh, he was no match at all.

He raised the spirit treasure Xuanqing Twin-Dragon Staff, unleashing peerless radiance as if two flood dragons coiled around him. Above, the Nine Peaks Agarwood Bead shook madly. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth as he shouted.

A moment ago he still held the advantage and had destroyed Lu Changsheng’s external incarnation.

In the blink of an eye the tide turned.

True Lord Yangming used some method to disrupt the link between his spirit treasure and domain divine ability, introducing a fatal flaw.

Then the Turtle Immortal Patriarch appeared.

Even Lu Changsheng’s display of a late-stage Nascent Soul spirit-soul had shocked him.

But that shock was nothing compared to the impact of the Turtle Immortal Patriarch.

“How does this man have a top-tier demon king at his side!”

Feeling the terror rolling off that demon power, Luofuzi’s heart pounded. He could hardly believe it.

He had once joined a friend to slay a mid–fourth-rank demon king.

Yet the Turtle Immortal Patriarch’s aura and pressure far surpassed that, like a late–fourth-rank great demon king.

Late fourth rank corresponds to a late-stage Nascent Soul grand cultivator.

Such beings stand atop the cultivation world. A single thought can stir wind and cloud.

Yet one such existence actually lay in wait to ambush him.

This…

He had done plenty of such things on his path of cultivation.

But after breaking through to Nascent Soul he carried himself with status.

Besides, aren’t most demon kings proud by nature? Why would they stoop to join hands with someone to ambush him?

Luofuzi was baffled.

He had no time to dwell on it. He wrenched the twin-dragon staff free as his Mountain and River Suppressing Peaks Dao Body drew endless turbid earth fiend qi and the power of the void, surging up to contend with the Turtle Immortal Patriarch.

He shouted at Lu Changsheng, “Fellow Yangming, I concede. I’m willing to pay compensation.”

They had no wager before crossing blows.

But now that he knew he wasn’t a match, he conceded at once and offered compensation.

Lu Changsheng had no intention of humoring him.

Come when you want, fight when you want, stop when you want?

Since when is the world that kind.

“Ah Wu! Nine-Leaf!”

Lu Changsheng ran Eighteen Echoes of God-Devouring at full force, scrambling Luofuzi’s soul and will, while the 【Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror】 and 【Nine Calamity Sword】 moved on their own.

With item spirits, they could burn spirit stones on their own or draw his power directly to drive Sun Profound Light and Lunar Profound Light.

Nine Calamity Sword wasn’t a spirit treasure, but it was born from Nine-Leaf Sword Grass and could attack without a wielder.

In a flash it cleaved out strand after strand of razor sword light, sword qi pouring like a waterfall.

Without Lu Changsheng steering it though, its might dropped a level.

Just then the Two-Headed Earth Dragon snarled at the sky through the chains of the Hunting God Chariot. Its maws spewed searing magma and a low thrumming as it charged at Lu Changsheng, fearless of death, trying to buy Luofuzi time to breathe.

“Spirit Whale!”

In the earlier exchange with Luofuzi, Lu Changsheng never drew Lu Lingjing out of the 【Heavenly Yuan Lotus】.

One reason: using the Heavenly Yuan Lotus as a second dantian during a duel would disrupt the flow of his magic.

Another: Lu Lingjing had been gravely wounded several times before and had only just recovered.

If she took heavy injuries again against Luofuzi, he couldn’t bear it.

Now he only needed her and the Hunting God Chariot to stall the Two-Headed Earth Dragon for a moment. That was enough.

Hearing her master’s call, Lu Lingjing stepped from the Heavenly Yuan Lotus and first thing fixed on the raging, hideous Two-Headed Earth Dragon.

Its aura dwarfed hers.

But as a fourth-rank demon king, she felt no fear.

White light burst from her petite armored body as she turned into a dragon-whale clad in black-gold scales and roared as she slammed into the Two-Headed Earth Dragon.

Luofuzi’s pupils snapped tight when he saw the Abyssal Sea Dragon Whale. He knew his plan to sacrifice a pawn to save the king and slip away had failed.

“Yangming, are you really going to wipe me out today?”

He gritted through the pounding in his sea of consciousness, struggling against the Turtle Immortal Patriarch and the Nine Calamity Sword, eyes flushing red. He never imagined Lu Changsheng had this many cards.

And the man had kept all these back and never used them at the start, making his intent to kill plain.

Luofuzi cursed himself for taking him too lightly.

Even so this fight turned mostly because Lu Changsheng’s methods exceeded his expectations.

Otherwise, no matter what happened, he would have coped.

Lu Changsheng ignored him and poured himself into Eighteen Echoes of God-Devouring, keeping up the interference.

When Ah Wu signaled ready, he gave the cicada in his sleeve the order.

“Chirr—”

A cicada cry like one rising from the long river of time rippled across heaven and earth, a formless wave born of the power of years.

“Not good!” Luofuzi had already suffered once under the Spring and Autumn Cicada, when his arts and treasures fell into disorder and a flaw appeared.

Hearing that chirr again, his heart clenched. He burned refined blood and used a secret technique to steady his arts, waiting for a chance to flee.

But the terror of the Spring and Autumn Cicada lies in how impossible it is to guard against.

Even as a mid-stage Nascent Soul powerhouse, he had nowhere to hide.

His arts, treasures and magic suddenly lagged, time flows went out of sync, and his qi stuttered.

At any other time that would have been manageable interference.

Now it was fatal.

Boom!

Seizing the opening, the Turtle Immortal Patriarch pressed even harder. His colossal body crushed the sky, shattered Luofuzi’s Xuanqing Twin-Dragon Staff and Mountain and River Suppressing Peaks Dao Body, and drowned him in endless netherfrost.

Heaven’s thunder split the air like a billion bolts, mountains fell and the world groaned.

This stretch of sky became a vast black hole that swallowed all ten directions.

Lu Changsheng, Lu Lingjing, and the Two-Headed Earth Dragon weren’t spared. Gale-force winds howled like ghosts and gods as they raged.

Lu Changsheng could see Luofuzi’s flowing rivers and towering ancient trees collapse to nothing under the Turtle Immortal Patriarch’s assault. Only the Nine Peaks Agarwood Barrier above his head and a tattered, fading Mountain and River Suppressing Peaks Dao Body remained.

That spirit treasure was tied to his domain’s qi.

With the domain broken, its effect plummeted and its spirituality would be damaged in moments.

In that instant, the 【Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror】 Lu Changsheng had been nursing slipped from his arms like a rising full moon. It froze the raging winds and surging shockwaves and cast a dreamy, pale beam at Luofuzi.

The light was cold and mysterious, beautiful and deadly. It froze the howling winds and the lingering mana in the Heavens Beyond the Heavens.

“A top-tier spirit treasure, a Celestial Treasure!?”

The moment the 【Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror】 appeared, Luofuzi’s heart lake thundered. He sensed unprecedented danger.

When the Lunar Profound Light lanced at him, his hair stood on end.

He knew he absolutely could not take that hit.

But the Turtle Immortal Patriarch pressed him down. Without his Nascent Soul leaving the body he couldn’t break free.

In a lightning instant he slapped his dantian with a pained face. His Nascent Soul made a seal, clutching an earth-yellow effigy.

Crack, crack, crack!

Under the combined might of the Turtle Immortal Patriarch and the Lunar Profound Light, the Nine Peaks Agarwood Barrier around him shattered into motes.

The 【Nine Peaks Agarwood Bead】 above wailed as cracks spread across it, and the Mountain and River Suppressing Peaks Dao Phase behind him collapsed.

An instant later Luofuzi was swallowed by the Lunar Profound Light and the Turtle Immortal Patriarch’s onslaught.

The 【Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror】 was terrifying, but it had a flaw.

Once unleashed, Sun or Lunar Profound Light takes no sides.

Fortunately the one grappling with Luofuzi was the Turtle Immortal Patriarch.

If it had been the Golden-Winged Roc or the Abyssal Sea Dragon Whale, Lu Changsheng wouldn’t have attacked like this.

Even so, a layer of frost formed on the Turtle Immortal Patriarch’s mountain-sized body, leaving him wounded.

Luofuzi, the main target, fared far worse. His protective shield, flesh and meridians were all eroded by the Lunar Profound Light.

“Hm?”

When Luofuzi’s body held for a few breaths under that light then burst apart, Lu Changsheng sensed something off.

His eyes shone bright as ripples spread and another Luofuzi coalesced.

“A Calamity-Substitute Treasure!” Lu Changsheng realized the man had used a substitute artifact and technique to dodge his almost perfect killing strike.

“A Nascent Soul giant does have depth.”

Lu Changsheng sighed inwardly at the man’s foundation.

His arts and treasures were impressive, and he still had lifesaving means like this.

But compared to Lu Changsheng’s surprise, Luofuzi was more shaken.

A Celestial Treasure!

Even if that mirror wasn’t a true Celestial Treasure, it was a quasi-Celestial Treasure!

This man had a late-stage Nascent Soul spirit-soul, two fourth-rank spirit pets, a top-tier divine weapon, a chariot treasure that bound powerful beast souls, and a Celestial Treasure!

Is he even human?

Worst of all, his cultivation was at most fourth or fifth layer of Nascent Soul.

If he were late-stage with such depth, Luofuzi would have had nothing to say.

“My friend, there’s no need for a fight to the death today. I’m willing to pay a heavy price as compensation.”

Pale-faced, light-yellow Dao robe snapping in the wind, Xuanqing Twin-Dragon Staff in hand and several secret treasures hovering, he kept blocking the Turtle Immortal Patriarch and the fading Lunar Profound Light.

No cultivator chooses Soul Escape unless they must.

Once the body is lost and one must seize a new one, breaking into late-stage Nascent Soul is almost out of reach.

“What price will you pay for your life?” Lu Changsheng’s eyes narrowed, his face cold.

“At our level ordinary spirit items won’t tempt you. I have a top-tier rarity that can be used to cultivate an external incarnation—”

Luofuzi spoke in a low voice, hoping to stall him for a breath, then flee.

He hadn’t finished when another cicada cry rolled out like the river of time.

“Not good!”

Alarm bells exploded across his heart lake and every hair stood up. He felt a life-or-death crisis.

The Turtle Immortal Patriarch struck again, and the seemingly spent Lunar Light Mirror erupted anew in a dreamy, icy glow.

“What is that cicada cry? And a Celestial Treasure drains mind and mana, he just used it, how can he drive it again already!” Luofuzi had questions but no time.

He had no room to think.

His protective shield shattered at once under the Turtle Immortal Patriarch and the rekindled Lunar Profound Light.

The light-yellow fourth-rank robe tore.

Under it a soft armor spirit treasure shone with undying brilliance.

But rushed as it was, it couldn’t withstand the Lunar Profound Light and the Turtle Immortal Patriarch’s assault.

Luofuzi knew the game was up. True Lord Yangming had no interest in talking.

In his Purple Mansion, his armored Nascent Soul clutching a small seal spat a mouthful of origin blood and vanished.

At the same time, the soft armor on his body was ripped apart by the Turtle Immortal Patriarch and the Lunar Profound Light, and the 【Xuanqing Twin-Dragon Staff】 in his hand exploded.

Rumble—

That staff was his life-bound treasure, already top-grade among spirit treasures.

Its self-detonation was terrifying, shaking heaven and earth with shockwaves.

Fortunately the Turtle Immortal Patriarch was a pureblood true spirit just a step from late fourth rank. His defense far surpassed peers. Otherwise at this range he might not die, but he’d be crippled and need a century to recover.

The blast swept toward Lu Changsheng, the Abyssal Sea Dragon Whale and the Two-Headed Earth Dragon without distinction.

But all three had fourth-rank physiques. Lu Changsheng wore the Nine Abyss Black Tortoise Armor and held the Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror.

Through the world-rending shock, Lu Changsheng caught the fleeing trail of Luofuzi’s Nascent Soul.

Drawing on his experience capturing Nascent Soul cultivators, he flung out the 【Starrealm Compass】 first and then rushed in with the Misty Dust Banner and Nine Calamity Sword.

Even so, the northern giant’s Nascent Soul fled faster than he expected.

The instant the compass flew, Luofuzi slipped into the Great Void and vanished.

Whoosh! Lu Changsheng drove the Misty Dust Banner and crossed the void, the Spring and Autumn Cicada chirping in his sleeve.

In a blink Luofuzi’s Nascent Soul had fled a hundred miles and even split into several phantoms to confuse him.

The 【Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror】 could still pierce the truth and lock onto him.

But Luofuzi’s Nascent Soul was too fast. After half a quarter hour he escaped beyond the mirror’s range.

A Nascent Soul spirit body ignores all sorts of arts and restrictions.

For a top-tier Nascent Soul like Luofuzi, his escape speed was no worse than a late-stage cultivator.

Even with the Misty Dust Banner, Lu Changsheng couldn’t catch up to kill him.

“As expected, completely erasing a Nascent Soul giant is extremely hard.”

Lu Changsheng let out a slow breath without much regret.

He had expected this outcome.

Even an early-stage Nascent Soul’s spirit is hard to seize without a late-stage soul or tools like the Starrealm Compass and Misty Dust Banner.

Let alone a top-tier one like Luofuzi.

“With Soul Escape, even with preparations, he’ll need twenty to thirty years to get back to mid stage.”

“And without these treasures and methods, his combat strength will drop by at least thirty percent.”

He dared to go for the kill despite knowing he might not finish it because a mid-stage Nascent Soul who must seize a body needs decades to return to peak.

Two or three decades is enough time for him to go straight to Luofu Mountain.

And besides cultivation, a cultivator’s strength hinges on arts and treasures.

After seizing a new body, it’s hard to rebuild the same arts as before.

Especially those that require rare materials to refine.

As for treasures, their importance needs no words.

Owning spirit treasures versus not owning them makes a massive difference.

Without delay, Lu Changsheng rode the Misty Dust Banner back to the battlefield.

Without his control, the Hunting God Chariot’s beast soul power had dropped sharply.

But with the Turtle Immortal Patriarch helping, they had already subdued the Two-Headed Earth Dragon and pinned it down.

Seeing its master’s body destroyed and the Nascent Soul fled, the Two-Headed Earth Dragon knew its fate and even tried to self-detonate, but its essence pill was crushed under the Turtle Immortal Patriarch’s power.

“Master.”

The Turtle Immortal Patriarch and Lu Lingjing called to Lu Changsheng.

Both of them had taken no small injuries in that last exchange and blast.

Especially the Turtle Immortal Patriarch.

He not only held down the aftershocks of the Lunar Profound Light but also took the self-detonation of a life-bound treasure head on.

Only his bloodline defense saved him.

Any other fourth-rank demon king would have been half-crippled.

“A’Gui, you’ve worked hard.”

Lu Changsheng nodded to the Turtle Immortal Patriarch, voice sincere, and signaled Ah Wu to purge the Lunar Profound Light lingering in his body.

With the 【Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror】 he could have driven Luofuzi off.

But without the Turtle Immortal Patriarch’s help he wouldn’t have shattered the man’s body.

“Lingjing, you worked hard too.” He glanced at the several scars on the Abyssal Sea Dragon Whale’s body and spoke gently.

Then he swung the Nine Calamity Sword down at the Two-Headed Earth Dragon.

As a demon king that was Luofuzi’s spirit pet, he couldn’t take it in.

Even if he did, he wouldn’t trust it. Better to kill it.

The Turtle Immortal Patriarch surged with demon power and crushed the Two-Headed Earth Dragon in place.

Before that oceanic might, even the Abyssal Sea Dragon Whale couldn’t help but feel fear.

When the Two-Headed Earth Dragon hung on its last breath, the Hunting God Chariot’s Sun-Devouring White Tiger image stirred awake and locked onto it.

Clatter—

Nine pale-silver chains shot out to bind its heads, body, limbs and tail, beginning to enslave it.

In the last fight the Dragon-Croc beast soul had spent much of its strength and could only fight two or three more times.

So he naturally wouldn’t waste this Two-Headed Earth Dragon.

The Hunting God Chariot could enslave three beast souls, though it placed a heavy burden on the driver’s spirit-soul.

After the chariot subdued and enslaved the earth dragon’s beast soul, Lu Changsheng looked over Luofuzi’s ruined body and the spirit treasures and spatial tools he hadn’t had time to take.

For the northern giant’s wealth, Lu Changsheng felt real anticipation.

From the treasures he used, the calamity-substitute and defensive artifacts, it was clear Luofuzi’s wealth far outstripped an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator’s.

Earlier he chose not to burn life and force the 【Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror】 to the limit partly to spare the Turtle Immortal Patriarch.

Another reason was that doing so would have destroyed the treasures and spatial tools on Luofuzi’s person.