"Palace Lord, you have to go, quick!" Li Wudi said as he came slashing with the Firstbane Saber. His strength was magnificent and his moves were savage. His rabid slashes even caused Autarch Qian to furrow his brow.
"An octabane is truly powerful. Your strength is equivalent to a first-level empyrean saint, right? It's too bad that the heavens shall eliminate you before you truly become an empyrean saint. Today, the two of you must die!" Autarch Qian said with a relaxed smile. He knew that Weisheng Yunxi would be able to reinstate the Evil Suppression Formation once she returned to the dao palace, so letting her escape meant wasting all of his effort. As such, no matter how fiercely Li Wudi attacked, the autarch focused on her alone, making it so that she wouldn't be able to leave.
"Old friend, hold up this person for me," Autarch Qian said.
The autarch beast left the whale alone and engaged Li Wudi and his Primordial Bloodbane Kunpeng.
"Weisheng Yunxi, the fact that your dao palace was able to meet the powerful descendants of Li Shenxiao shows that you have great luck. It's a shame that you were too foolish. If only you’d waited for him to break through and become an empyrean saint, I’d be in real trouble. Come to think of it, I've always had quite the lucky streak. Back then, I managed to kill Li Muyang when he became an empyrean saint. And now Li Wudi has come to me himself. To think that my old hands get to kill unparalleled geniuses like these…. Hahahaha!"
He continued unleashing one savage move after another. The Cyclic Mirror in his hands didn't stop furiously attacking. After he had absorbed millions of souls for his cultivation, he was at his strongest point in his whole life. Each time he used the mirror, he would be able to fight back against the heavens and steal part of his lost lifespan and saint ki back.
"Evil shall naturally perish!" Weisheng Yunxi groaned as she desperately fought back. Even if her whale came to help her, she wouldn't be able to escape with how thorough her foe's attacks were. If it weren’t for Li Wudi leading the autarch beast away, she would have been dead already.
"Ah, the musings of the desperate. Such drama queens," Autarch Qian said with a disapproving shake of the head.
"You’re truly fierce, animal!" Li Wudi rammed the autarch beast away and came slashing with his blood-colored saber.
The autarch merely smiled and punched, sending thick waves of fist intent that knocked Li Wudi flying and smashing into the ground, forming a crater where he landed.
"The Bloodfiend Body is truly tough. This must be the Li Saint Clan's Bloodfiend Transformation, huh. I might be a little troubled trying to kill you later. To think you'd be such a troublesome fish. Thankfully, I managed to lure you out with bait. Oh, is this what they call a double hook?" He laughed heartily at his magnificent catch during this stormy fishing day. "I’ll kill your huge whale first, Weisheng Yunxi. Since ancient times, the big fish of the Weisheng Clan have always been nothing more than seafood before the Theocrats. Since when did you dare jump off the cutting board?"
The autarch seemed jolly as a child. "Come on. Don't stay silent, little girl Weisheng. I know you hate me. Without me, you wouldn't have gone blind. I wonder how it feels to be unable to see? Don't just fight me. Bullying you is getting boring. You might as well give me a few more hot-blooded platitudes about justice, like your parents did. I'm always a big fan of those, you know—a fish that doesn't struggle just doesn't taste as good!"
The Cyclic Mirror shone brightly once more, letting out a piercing glow that flayed the flesh of the Nebula Emperor Whale.
"Oh, there's quite a bit of blubber there…." His laughter reverberated throughout the battlefield.
……
Within the Sun-Moon Imperial Formation, Tianming was bathing in slaughter. Too many Theocrats had their eyes on him. Now, his life was worth almost as much as Li Wudi and Weisheng Yunxi's. It wouldn't be that easy for him to pave a way for the Seven Astral Legions. Anyone who saw him would immediately come slaughtering his way.
Tianming's Grand-Orient Sword was entirely covered in blood. He couldn't afford to shift his attention to Li Wudi and the others’ fights at all, or he would immediately be killed.
His Dark Astral Armor was almost entirely torn off, and there was an arrow wound on his bloody chest. The arrow had shot out from somewhere with awesome force. If he hadn’t evaded just in the nick of time, it would have pierced his head.
Thunder began rumbling as more rain fell. The only thing he could see beneath him were corpses; the rainwater mixing with blood made for a ghoulish sight indeed.
"Feng, don't stray too far from me," Tianming yelled, standing on Lan Huang's back as he charged. But he was immediately flanked, forcing him to retreat. Looking up, he saw two people and four qilin saint beasts ahead.
Two of the qilins were silver and surrounded by moonlight, while the other two were purple and glittered with starlight. They were both saint beasts with more than seventy stars and were in their adult stage. In fact, they were beginning to age. These were the signature beasts of the Moon Qilin Branch and the Star Qilin Branch. The two beastmasters were old, and already past a hundred. They were the Exalted Ones, Jing Yue and Ling Xing. They mounted their beasts and blocked Tianming's way with a fierce glare.
"Make way!" Tianming and his three beasts, coupled with Ye Lingfeng and the soulfiend, charged toward them.
"Li Tianming, as a descendant of the Ancient Qilin Clan, you've actually betrayed the nation with Decimo Dao Palace. This is a sin that cannot be pardoned. As your seniors, we have to personally take your life to redeem ourselves before His Majesty!" Jing Yue announced.
"Haha, I bet you said the same thing during my father's incident back then, didn’t you? To think that there’s people who can serve as lowly dogs without any shred of dignity. Why do you call yourselves the Ancient Qilin Clan when you lick the feet of the Nineshades Clan? Might as well call yourselves the Bootlicking Clan!" Tianming spat. He didn't think those two, out of all others, would be the ones to block his way.
"He's already too far gone, thanks to the dao palace's brainwashing. There's no saving him. The Ancient Qilin Clan is complicit in the blame for giving birth to such a traitorous father and son," Ling Xing said with a sigh.
"That's right. You’re all sinners, and your sentence is death. I shall carry out the sentence!"
Tianming felt his blood boil. He exchanged glances with his three lifebound beasts. Ye Lingfeng and the soulfiend also had their targets in sight.
"Feng, let's take one each!"
"Sure!"
The will of the Infernal Soul Race began burning in Ye Lingfeng. Being in such a dire predicament ignited the blazing flames in his eyes. Over the past forty years, the Ancient Qilin Clan had been their torturers. So what if they were cursed with the lifetime curse? It was their fault for being the unassuming dog of the Theocrats!
"Die!"
Tianming and Jing Yue charged toward each other.
"I really regret not killing you back then!" Jing Yue roared.
"Haha…." Before Tianming was even near to him, he lashed out with the Three-Thousand Starfield, executing the Ninesilver Astral Art—Nine Stardust. This was the most powerful empyrean-ranked battle art he knew. His whip split into nine galaxies and descended from the skies. Stars gathered within each galaxy and surrounded Jing Yue’s head. His sky saint ki coupled with more than six thousand strands of Invincible Sword Ki, went blasting out.
With a loud bang, Jing Yue was knocked flying with his armor all torn apart. He was so weakened by the blow that he could barely get back to his feet.
"Someone of your meager capabilities actually tried to kill me? Dream on!" Tianming mocked as he swapped his weapon to the Grand-Orient Sword.
Flapping his Celestial Wings, he appeared right in front of Jing Yue and gave a wide swing with Shenxiao Sword Art's fourth strike, the Imperealm Sword Formation, and all six thousand strands of sword ki. His most powerful and brutish strike streaked toward Jing Yue's head.
"Chong Yang, save me!" Jing Yue cried in a panic, then was split in two.
"Farewell!" Tianming's emotions didn't fluctuate in the slightest. He returned to join Meow Meow, as it was keeping the Moon Qilin busy, and swiftly took the qilin’s head.
"Die, die, die!"
In a flash, four lifebound beasts and two beastmasters fell to him and Ye Lingfeng. When Tianming came to join the fight against Ling Xing, he took both legs at once and Ye Lingfeng followed up by stabbing him in the throat.
"You two…."
The two exalted ones had never imagined Ye Lingfeng would be strong enough to fight Ling Xing on even footing. They had initially thought they were going to gang up upon Tianming.
"You have to be reasonable in life, you know. Just because you like to kneel doesn't mean you should force others to!" Tianming smirked and pushed Ling Xing's corpse away before joining the fray once more. "Those who block me will die!"
Lan Huang used its Azure Oceanic Purgatory and paved a road of blood for them. Now, they were incredibly near to the border of the Sun-Moon Imperial Formation. As they neared it, an old man dressed in black and gold robes looked at his two old comrades' corpses with great grief. He was none other than Chong Yang.
The three of them had come together, but he had been stopped on the way by Life Hall King Situ Qinghe, leaving only Jing Yue and Ling Xing to take on Tianming, only for them to end up dead.
"Li Tianming, you traitor…. For you to dare to kill exalted ones from your own clan…. You truly are a heartless animal!" Chong Yang's teeth shook from the rage.
"Chong Yang, stop trying to sponge off their fame. Your shitty clan doesn't deserve Li Muyang and Li Tianming!" Situ Qinghe said.
The combined effort of the warriors of the dao palace eventually managed to open up a tear in the formation, allowing them passage outside. They immediately charged toward the Decimo Dao Palace. Among them was the Sky Hall King, Weisheng Yumo, who had gone back in advance to set up more defensive formations. While they wouldn't last long, they would help just a little bit in the hopes of Weisheng Yunxi being able to run from the autarch back to the dao palace and redeploy the Evil Suppression Formation.
"Everyone together! Don't give up!"
"The dao palace won't be defeated! The palace lord won't let us down!"
"Hold on! We’re already out of the formation! The Theocrats aren't able to stop us now!"
The warriors were filled with the will to survive, thinking of nothing but returning to the dao palace. However, would Weisheng Yunxi really be able to hold out against Autarch Qian?
……
Thunderous roars, heavy rain, harrowing cries, screams of agony, and beastial roars sounded out all across the battlefield, blending into a discordant symphony. Yet Tianming managed to hear a sound that seemed to be emitted from the depths of the sea. He could tell it was the cry of the Nebula Emperor Whale.
He froze and couldn't help but turn back, only to see a gigantic mirror floating far above the Imperial City, rotating and forming a vortex into which the souls of countless dead fighters were drawn.
The whale was already being sucked into the bottom of the vortex. It almost seemed to be boiled from the steam that rose from its body as it cried and struggled in abject suffering. The Cyclic Mirror was devouring its soul!
Beneath the Cyclic Vortex was Autarch Qian, wielding a black sword in one hand and the Cyclic Mirror in another as he fought to stop Weisheng Yunxi, whose fervent attacks weren't able to do anything to save her whale.
