Illusory flames burned atop the warhorse, and Lu Yin’s Twin Suns also began to blaze.
The Twin Suns were both hurled at the warhorse, which neighed as the black flames on its body were suppressed. It continuously moved back while making a wailing noise.
Yōu Qi wanted to remount his warhorse, but Lan Si attacked him at that moment, and a Vacuum Palm struck Yōu Qi on his back, forcing him even further away. Although the Vacuum Palm had not managed to break through Dun Jiu’s shield, the attack had still pushed him further away from his warhorse.
Yōu Qi’s expression grew cold, and a terrifying star energy swept out in all directions as he released his Enlighter-realm power. He raised his hands, and the illusory black flames filled the sky before falling down.
There were quite a few cultivators off in the distance who had fled in terror.
Those black flames were of no threat to Lu Yin or Lan Si, but that was because their defenses were too obscene. However, it was different for the others, and these flames were enough to make them simply disappear.
Black and White had run even further away.
Ming Yu had also repeatedly pulled back, and she stared at the unfolding battle in shock.
Yōu Qi had revealed himself to be an Enlighter, and both Lan Si and Lu Yin were feeling the pressure. After all, their opponent was an expert from Burial Garden, and the fact that he dared to break through to the Enlighter realm showed that he had accumulated a satisfactory foundation. He had revealed his full power, not because he could not deal with these two opponents with the power of a Hunter, but rather because he did not want to waste hus time.
The warhorse was struck by Lu Yin’s Twin Suns, and it screamed in anguish as drops of its blood scattered about.
Yōu Qi spoke in an ice cold voice. “Defeating two of the Ten Arbiters at once is enough to pave my path to becoming one of the Cosmic Five.”
Lu Yin and Lan Si both moved at the same time: Vacuum Palm.
Yōu Qi’s eyes went wide, as he had no time to mount any sort of defense. The shield protecting his body immediately broke apart, and he was forced back a dozen steps.
Lan Si followed up with another palm, as he did not want to give Yōu Qi any time to recover.
However, the palm attack passed straight through Yōu Qi and struck the distant sea, which caused the water to sink in the shape of a palm.
Lan Si was surprised; what was going on?
Yōu Qi’s body seemed to have turned transparent and illusory. His cold eyes swept over Lu Yin and then over Lan Si. The same book from before appeared in front of his head. “An ancient powerhouse known as Liu Guai used the Eleventh Sword, Particle Diffusion.”
Lu Yin and Lan Si felt their scalps go numb when they heard Yōu Qi’s words: the Eleventh Sword? From the Thirteen Swords? Could this person even use the Liu family’s Eleventh Sword? How was that possible?
No matter how ridiculous this information was, the strange book above Yōu Qi’s head suddenly caused a burst of sword light to appear.
At this moment, Lu Yin felt a chill run down his spine, and every single one of his cells felt like they were trembling. He reflexively used the Ce Secret Art, and an Astral Chessboard appeared beneath his feet. At the same time, the air, the sea, and the nearby star energy all were turned into chesspieces as were Lu Yin, Lan Si, and Yōu Qi. There was also one more chesspiece: the falling Eleventh Sword.
Lu Yin had absolutely no idea when the Eleventh Sword had appeared or how the attack would strike. All he could do at this time was instantly shift his body to avoid the Eleventh Sword. He could not even save Lan Si.
The sword disappeared as the sea was slashed apart. The sword qi sliced past Ming Yu, Black, and White. All three women felt a cold chill that left them not even daring to move.
As for the cultivators who were even further away, they were all stupefied, as they simply could not understand this sword attack.
Everyone stared at Yōu Qi, though Yōu Qi himself was looking elsewhere, which happened to be where Lu Yin had appeared.
Lan Si remained in the same place as before, and his eyes went slack as he slowly bent over. Fresh blood dripped down his chest, staining half of his body red. He had suffered a direct hit from the Eleventh Sword, and he had not even had a chance to dodge.
Lan Si had long since known that the Eleventh Sword was terrifying. As one of the Ten Arbiters, he had naturally challenged Liu Tianmu. Lan Si had already gone up against the first Ten Swords, and he had believed that he should be capable of enduring the Eleventh Sword with his innate gift and defenses. However, he had never expected to be unable to even dodge the Eleventh Sword after finally encountering it.
He had not even seen when he had been sliced.
His Vacuum Palm was an attack that relied on speed while the Eleventh Sword disregarded speed entirely. It was as though the attack simply emerged from the void.
With a thump, Lan Si fell down to the sea below. A circle of blood soon appeared on the water’s surface.
Lu Yin waved a hand, pulled Lan Si up from the sea, and tossed him over to Black and White. “Take care of him.”
After that, Lu Yin turned around and faced Yōu Qi with a serious expression.
Yōu Qi stared at Lu Yin, as the cavalier had assumed that the battle would end with that attack. He had never thought that Lu Yin would be able to dodge the Eleventh Sword. Yōu Qi had always been the one that others made assumptions and guesses about, as he was a mysterious existence. But at this moment, he was feeling that towards Lu Yin, as Yōu Qi could not fully grasp Lu Yin’s strength.
Evading the Eleventh Sword was not as simple as just using the Ce Secret Art; otherwise, Ce Jiu would be a nigh unbeatable existence. This was a matter of awareness and timing, and Lu Yin’s battle awareness was extremely acute. Once it reached a certain level, he would be able to use it to predict the future.
Lu Yin was just a Cruiser, so what had he relied on to dodge the Eleventh Sword? And that wasn’t even mentioning how an Enlighter had used the technique.
Lu Yin stared at Yōu Qi. “You can borrow the strength of the dead? Exactly what sort of existence is your Burial Garden?”
The pages of the book above Yōu Qi continued flipping, and the black flames covering his body surged as his warhorse trotted over from the distance.
He leaped onto the steed and stared at Lu Yin. “My Burial Garden is not something that you can understand. However, you’ve exceeded my expectations by dodging the Eleventh Sword, and you’re qualified to be my opponent. Unfortunately, you will still ultimately be defeated.”
Lu Yin frowned, as Yōu Qi was truly a difficult opponent, and his innate gift was completely bizarre. It allowed him to borrow the Liu family’s Thirteen Swords and also completely disregard his Vacuum Palms. How had he done that? Was Yōu Qi actually able to ignore his Vacuum Palms? If so, then why had he not done so at the beginning?
“Seventh Bro, you have to get the Progenitor’s blood! Please!” the Ghost Monkey solemnly begged.
Lu Yin’s eyes flashed, and he kept a wary eye on Yōu Qi while slowly tightening his fists.
Off in the distance, at the foot of another mountain, Shang Qing looked up before proceeding to slowly climb the mountain. Below him, at the base of the mountain, floating in the sea, were the defeated Ce Jiu, Ku Lei, Unseen Light, and other contestants.
At the same time, Lei Nü made her way up her mountain as Tai Yuanjun, God Qingguang, and the others had similarly been defeated by her. To her, such people were meaningless, and the so-called “contest” to become one of the Cosmic Five was merely a formality.
In one corner of the Mountain and Seas Zone, an heir from the Xia family was participating in the contest, and he was known as Xia Kang.
At this moment, Xia Kang was lying on the sea and staring up at the golden screen in the sky. His eyes slowly closed as his body gradually vanished.
Yuhua Mavis was also climbing a mountain as not even God Taiyi had been able to stop her. This was an inevitable conclusion.
However, in this place, Xia Tian’s body was gradually dissipating in the same manner as Xia Kang’s.
Qiu Shi made her way up a mountain since Hui Santong and the others had already been beaten. Starsibyl stood at the foot of the mountain, her eyes flickering. It was impossible to know what she seemed to be calculating.
There were five mountains and five directions; the battles at the other mountains had already concluded, and Yōu Qi was the only Enlighter who had encountered a variable. However, in Yōu Qi’s perspective, this was nothing more than a delay, and he would quickly finish it.
“I’ve heard of your name, Lu Yin. You’ve united the Outerverse and then consecutively defeated two of the Ten Arbiters. Within the same generation, you can be considered unrivaled. If I hadn’t already become an Enlighter, then this battle with you would be incredibly taxing. However, your fate today has already been decided,” Yōu Qi slowly declared, his voice as gloomy as ever. As he spoke, the warflag that he had been carrying this entire time suddenly melted down into a strange forcefield that wrapped around his body. Then, Yōu Qi’s entire aura seemed to undergo a massive change, and even the sky grew darker.
Lu Yin’s pupils shrank, as Yōu Qi’s rune lines had already been much greater than Lu Yin’s own, but at this moment, their number actually surged even higher.
Lu Yin had been able to fight against Yōu Qi so far because he had been relying on Truesight to constantly erase some of this person’s rune lines. But now that Yōu Qi’s power level had surged, Truesight would no longer be enough to compensate for the difference in power levels.
The warhorse whinnied, and Yōu Qi pulled at the reins as it charged at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin raised a hand: Vacuum Palm.
The illusory flames surrounding Yōu Qi’s body twisted the void, and Lu Yin’s Vacuum Palm slammed into the flames, shattering a portion of them. However, it was only a portion.
This was the difference in their strength. If Yōu Qi had not become an Enlighter, then there would have been no way for Yōu Qi to block Lu Yin’s Vacuum Palm that easily.
As it stood, Yōu Qi was using the disparity in cultivation realms to forcefully make up for the disparity between Lu Yin’s Vacuum Palms’ power and his defense.
The black flames merged into a long spear that thrust forward, and the black radiance on the spear tip left Lu Yin’s scalp feeling numb. His body flickered and disappeared.
Yōu Qi’s eyes grew cold, and his black flames swept out in all directions, covering everything around him. Countless black lights flickered about like the infinite stars of the universe.
When Lu Yin reappeared, the black lights all flashed towards him. Although he was able to dodge several of them, he still ended up being struck by a dozen. The black lights beat Lu Yin’s Fatesand back into his body while also nearly shattering his nine lined battle force.
Lu Yin crashed into the sea, and Yōu Qi raised his spear to thrust it forward again, the black light on the speartip utterly terrifying.
Down on the seafloor, Lu Yin looked up and waved his left hand to activate the Yu Secret Art.
The black spear was forcefully diverted in a different direction, which caught Yōu Qi off guard. The spear stabbed into the sea, but at the very last moment, Yōu Qi managed to suddenly stabilize his weapon, and the black light at the tip of the spear caused ripples to spread across the seafloor.
Lu Yin could tell that something was wrong, so he immediately dashed out of the sea.
The next moment, endless black flames covered the sea, and at the same time, Yōu Qi pulled his spear back and thrust it at Lu Yin once again.
There was no place to flee to, not in the sky above nor the earth below. Even if Lu Yin dodged at his top speed, he would still eventually be smoked out by the endlessly spreading flames.
Off in the distance, beyond the black flames, Black and White helped Lan Si up as they watched the flames in fear.
Ming Yu was stunned by this sight. This was truly one of the top-tier battles in the Mountain and Seas Zone.
Lu Yin’s expression grew fierce as he looked at Yōu Qi’s approaching spear. In response, he raised a finger and tapped out.
Nine lined battle force twined around the finger, and a domain suppressed everything as spiritual force wound around it as well. At the same time, the tip of the finger contained the Overlaying Stacks Path while Truesight weakened the enemy’s runes. This was the battle technique that the Eversky Bridge had derived from Lu Yin’s various techniques as he walked across it. This was a battle technique that was unique to him alone.
He had named it the Seventh Bro Finger.
The Seventh Bro Finger was an attack that encompassed spiritual force, physical strength, and even Lu Yin’s domain.
He tapped out with a finger, and Yōu Qi felt stunned; his spear was able to block the Overlaying Stacks Path and the battle force on it, but it was unable to stop the devastating spiritual force.
Lu Yin’s spiritual force was powerful enough to withstand Nightking Zhenwu’s Skybreaker, and no one in the same generation had a spiritual force that surpassed Nightking Zhenwu’s. Even if Yōu Qi’s spiritual force was not weak, he would still faint for the briefest moment.
Lu Yin had been aiming for that exact moment, and he lifted a hand to unleash a Vacuum Palm.
As the palm descended, it pierced through the black flames, but then it passed through Yōu Qi and struck the sea.
Lu Yin immediately pulled back as he stared at Yōu Qi.
What was going on? How was this person able to avoid his Vacuum Palms? Was it an innate gift? No, his innate gift was that book.
Across from Lu Yin, Yōu Qi raised his head to look at Lu Yin. “You might be the most powerful person under the Cosmic Five. Not even the Ten Arbiters’ Liu Tianmu is guaranteed to be your match. If you had reached the Enlighter realm like me, then it’s true that I might not be your opponent. However, for now, this battle can’t be changed.”
Lu Yin felt helpless, as he could not defeat this person. Even his Seventh Bro Finger had failed to gain an advantage, as Yōu Qi was able to take such an attack head on.
