“They’re coming!”
Li Qingshan’s eyes narrowed. He had once personally experienced the might of the spear of fire, except the giant god of fire was much stronger than before now, so what kind of force would be behind that spear?
The timing that they chose to strike was extremely clever too, attacking when the surging torrents were about to break through the protective formation. The three Merfolk Kings were all occupied with breaching the formation, so they were incapable of freeing themselves to attack the giant god of fire. It was impossible for them to free themselves too, or the formation would stabilise and last a little longer. By then, victory would be even more impossible.
In other words, only Li Qingshan, Gong Yuan, Ye Duanhai, the Divine Nun of the South Sea, and Ji Changfeng could contend against the giant god of fire right now. Ji Changfeng was already utterly exhausted holding off the meteors, while the Divine Nun of the South Sea was with Xiao An, remaining at the very back of the battle formation. No one was certain whether she would provide any assistance. It was even possible for her to simply turn around and leave if the situation seemed bad.
The issue was they were not only up against the giant god of fire. The Fire Dragon of the Land that sprayed fire and crackled with lightning definitely was not an easy opponent. At the same time, the scarlet sun pressed down towards the battle formation at a rate much faster than it seemed. It possessed the might to destroy everything in its path. If no one blocked that attack, then it would be immediate annihilation.
Eight supreme cultivators had arrived with a great storm on their side, yet they actually faced great danger now that they had actually clashed with the fire devourers. Probably no one had thought of this.
From the giant god of fire’s heart, Zhu Yan stared at Li Qingshan who stood beside Gong Yuan with seething hatred. He hated him even more than Gong Yuan. If he had not come between them, they would have slain Gong Yuan twice already. Why would they have ever ended up in such a state? He was clearly a piece of trash that had not even undergone the third heavenly tribulation!
The giant god of fire poured its strength into the throw, and the spear of flames sailed through the sky, rising through the air.
Li Qingshan held Gong Yuan’s hand firmly. She had already fished out the Heart of the Abyss, mobilising the power of Ruin’s End and ready to fend off the enemy with him. But in the next moment, the sense of danger in their hearts suddenly slackened.
The scarlet streak of light sailed over their heads. The spear’s target was not them, but Ji Changfeng, who swung the Feilian flag vigorously in an attempt to stop the scarlet sun’s descent.
A finger severed for good was better than bruising all ten!
Zhu Yan understood this principle extremely well. Even the Divine Ray of the Sun from back then had failed to kill Li Qingshan, and the spear was slightly weaker than it, so he was even less confident about killing Li Qingshan with that. That was why he targeted the weakest out of them, Ji Changfeng.
Ji Changfeng was startled. Unprecedented danger screamed through his heart, actually even more intense than back then on Giant Ship island. Targeted by the spear, he seemed to go from a lofty great cultivator to prey in the forest. Even if he could control the winds, he could not escape.
“Splitting the Sea!”
An extremely glorious streak of light suddenly filled the surroundings, drowning out the glow of lightning and fire. It seemed to split the sky into two, severing the spear’s trajectory at the same time.
Ye Duanhai had finally taken action. His cloak drifted in the wind as he gripped the Sea-splitting sword in his hand. It was a little more than a meter long and inconspicuous in appearance. Just by looking at the sword, it was impossible to imagine it could produce a streak of light like that.
Great sword cultivators truly were terrifying. Li Qingshan felt secretly glad too. If they had actually fallen out back then, who knew what the outcome would be.
Strangely enough, the spear continued towards Ji Changfeng, but no one looked at it again. Ji Changfeng rode the wind and avoided the spear with a gentle flash. The spear continued for another five kilometers before suddenly snapping in half, exploding into a ball of flames.
Ye Duanhai’s slash had severed its essence. Once its connection with the giant god of fire was broken, all that remained was its outer appearance, which posed absolutely no threat to a great cultivator known for their speed like Ji Changfeng.
“Ye Duanhai, we spared you back then, yet you still have the courage to get involved and make an enemy out of Fire Melt mountain?” Zhu Fen bellowed furiously.
“If I had been present back then, would you still have been able to escape back to Fire Melt mountain?” Ye Duanhai said indifferently.
If the three Fire Devouring Kings had destroyed the Cloud Sail sect and butchered everyone, then perhaps he did owe them a slight favour, but they had been defeated. They had only managed to escape after the King of Southern Yue rescued them. In other words, the entire incident was them making a fool out of themselves.
“The Scarlet Sun Soars, Illuminating All!”
Zhu Fen was utterly livid. He waved the Fire Tablet of Heaven furiously, and the scarlet sun erupted with rays of light that shot towards the merpeople below. Despite his fury, he maintained his sharpness for battle. Killing a great sword cultivator like Ye Duanhai could not be achieved easily, but as long as they destroyed the Merfolk battle formation, then the tides would immediately turn in their favour. They would be invincible.
“One Sword as Three Thousand!” Ye Duanhai tossed up the Sea-splitting sword, which turned into two, then four, then eight…
This was a move that all sword cultivators practised, but when it came to him, it demonstrated startling power. The three thousand Sea-splitting swords turned into three thousand streaks of light, criss-crossing in the air and colliding with the scarlet rays.
However, the scarlet sun rapidly crushed down. The heat it gave off even dispersed the thick cloud layer, where only the cloud that the Merfolk stood on remained. They sensed the whistling winds turn into waves of heat.
Ji Changfeng was already incapable of stopping it, while Ye Duanhai had used his full strength to fend off the scarlet rays. Otherwise, the merpeople would be mostly dead before the scarlet sun had even arrived.
Li Qingshan and Gong Yuan wanted to help out, but the giant god of fire had already rushed over on the giant dragon with a spear of flames in its hand. The Fire Dragon of the Land pulled its head back slightly and sprayed out lightning fire. Within the roaring flames, there was a flash of light. The tip of the spear immediately filled their faces.
This time, Zhu Yan did not attack anyone else. He poured all of his hatred and fury into that thrust.
Li Qingshan wanted to draw his blade, but Gong Yuan’s voice rang out in his mind, “Work together. Now’s not the time for you to play the hero!”
“Yes, your majesty!”
“All Water to Ruin’s End, Black Water Like the Abyss!” Gong Yuan raised the Heart of the Abyss high into the air, and black water surged out. It was not as turbulent and violent as the flood below, but it possessed a much deeper and more deathly aura than it, silently swallowing the lightning fire from the fire dragon and gushing towards the dragon itself.
The spear paused and also ran into the water. The giant god of fire let out a furious roar, and the spear continued through the water, with enough force to penetrate everything, right towards Li Qingshan.
Gong Yuan wanted to use another technique when Li Qingshan suddenly pulled her to him. He said, “Hang on tight!”
He gripped his blade with both hands and leapt up. Tiger’s Fang exited its sheathe, and blood-red light filled the air, slashing down at the tip of the spear.
Gong Yuan shot a glance at him, but all she could do was embrace him firmly from behind. She chanted, “All Water to Ruin’s End, Droplets to Ice!”
Compared to the spear of fire, the blade was like a toothpick to a lance. However, in the moment the blade and spear clashed, the light they emitted recoloured the world.
A great boom drowned out the rumbles of thunder. All gazes were drawn over, wanting to see how he challenged a god with his insignificant size.
A tremendous force travelled through the spear, making Zhu Yan widen his eyes. How can he be this strong!?
He never saw Li Qingshan’s battle against the giant god of fire in the Asura Field. Afterwards, they did formally clash once over the ocean, but Li Qingshan had only received a strike from the Divine Ray of the Sun. His body was stripped of flesh, only leaving a set of tiger bones. He was unable to utilise much of the Strength of the Ox Demon. Yet right now, not only was he in perfect condition, but he had even merged the power of the tiger demon and ox demon together.
In the very beginning, when brother ox taught him these two transformations, he did not call it the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine, but the Strength of Nine Oxen and Two Tigers. The strength of the tiger demon was nowhere close to the ox demon, but it was still extremely great. Individually, they were both on par with regular Daemon Kings.
Now that Li Qingshan possessed the fifth layer of the ox demon and tiger demon, his strength was so terrifying that did it matter if he was up against a god?
Under numerous gazes of disbelief, the spear met an obstacle and was forcefully halted!
Li Qingshan let out an explosive bellow and swung the blade as hard as he could. The spear actually shifted.
Even Gong Yuan who was the closest to Li Qingshan right now could not believe he had just done that, yet she also had a feeling that it made perfect sense. Their bodies and minds were tightly linked, so she could clearly sense the tremendous strength flow and surge through him, turning into a flood that no one could stop.
She obviously would not let this opportunity slip by. The surging black water had already condensed into black ice crystals. This was the most destructive form of the power of Ruin’s End. It exceeded the limits of coldness, even harder to condense than ancient ice. It shot towards the giant god of fire’s chest like black ice rain, right at where Zhu Yan resided!
The Fire Dragon of the Land suddenly raised its hand and swallowed the ice rain before lunging towards Gong Yuan and Li Qingshan.
Like a black mountain was collapsing before them, Li Qingshan rapidly retreated with Gong Yuan until there was no more room left. Right behind them was the Merfolk battle formation. They could not dodge, or who knew how many merpeople would die. The battle formation could definitely crumble too.
Gong Yuan scoffed gently, while Li Qingshan just stood there. The colossal dragon head arrived before them then suddenly collapsed, turning back into a ball of surging smoke. It swallowed Li Qingshan, Gong Yuan, and the entire battle formation, but it posed no harm to them.
The pieces of black ice could not be swallowed that easily. If water was said to regulate fire, then the water from Ruin’s End was the greatest regulator of fire.
“Bitch!” Zhu Zai’s face paled. She had been in control of the Fire Dragon of the Land. The destruction of the dragon’s head meant she suffered a backlash too, so she could not help but swear aloud. Then she said, “I’d like to see just how much longer you can stay complacent!”
The entire clash had unfolded in an instant, but the scarlet sun had already fallen. It was over a hundred times larger than any regular meteor. Some of the weaker merpeople could not help but howl, like they were being incinerated by fire. The smell of roasting filled the air.
There was nothing Ye Duanhai could do about this either. Sword cultivators were powerful, but their forte was not forcefully receiving attacks, while Zhu Fen had always been the strongest fire devourer. They also had the four hundred kilometers of Fire Melt mountain as a foundation, so the overall destructive power behind the scarlet sun was even more terrifying than the Divine Ray of the Sun.
Li Qingshan and Gong Yuan had to face the giant god of fire and the rapidly-regenerating Fire Dragon of the Land beneath its feet, so they could not spare any strength at all. Moreover, from this distance, even if they took down the scarlet sun, the resulting explosion would still kill a majority of the Merfolk.
The three Fire Devouring Kings were delighted, but the three Merfolk Kings paled in fright. “Granny” called out, “Divine Nun, when are you going to wait until?”
Far away, at the very back of the battlefield, a voice suddenly rang out, “Dharmagupta-vinaya, Dharma of Vinaya!”
