Yue Clan’s residence had turned deathly silent. After entering the Defensive Array Formation, Yue Shang’s Spiritual Consciousness immediately swept past the bodies of the Yue Clan’s cultivator in the hall.
However, his expression immediately changed the moment he stepped into the hall after seeing the aftermath with his own eyes. He had left this place for only half an hour and had even instructed Yue Hai to silence that Celestial Novice Cultivator who had brought them the news. Unexpectedly, in just half an hour, he came back to the sight of a hall filled with dead Yue Clan cultivators.
Yue Shang’s hand trembled slightly. The higher-ups of the Yue Clan had left him in Lucky Heaven City to guide the Yue Clan disciples who had not yet left. However, at this moment, not only had Yue Huangfu fallen, none of the Yue Clan cultivators staying in Lucky Heaven City survived.
No, Yue Shang suddenly sobered up. Since the other party most likely wanted to kill everyone in the Yue Clan, why would that fellow go so far as to lure him away? Moreover, even if the other party tried to lure him away, instead of choosing a place from where he could rush back quickly, why did that fellow not use a farther site?
Just as Yue Shang thought of this, a horrifying murderous intent descended.
This definitely was a Celestial Bridge Cultivator, Yue Shang thought as he instantly brought out an iron tower-like weapon. However, even before he could completely unleash this iron tower-like weapon, a formidable domain immediately swept in with the intent of binding his movements.
Someone wanted to sneak-attack him, Yue Shang thought as he gave out a cold snort. The next moment, his Celestial Essence exploded out, and with a twist of his body, Yue Shang immediately moved to the side. Almost at the same exact moment, an incomparably fierce spear shadow streaked across his waist. If it were an ordinary Celestial River Realm’s domain suppression, Yue Shang could have completely ignored it while moving a little further; however, the quality of this domain had far surpassed that of the domains of ordinary Celestial Bridge Cultivators. As such, he could not wholly extricate himself from the influence of the murderous intent.
“Poof….” An axe accompanied with even more powerful axe intent slammed into his abdomen, directly blasting a gaping hole through his stomach and even brought out a section of his intestines on its way out.
A powerful aura suddenly appeared from the centre of the hall, and Ning Cheng finally stood up amidst the corpses of the Yue Clan cultivators.
“It’s you, no wonder you tried to lead me away. Turns out, you are just a Celestial Scryer Ant relying on Violent Celestial Pills. Daring to wait for me in this place, despite swallowing a Violent Celestial Pill and not dying, it sure did not bring you any luck. Or rather, maybe it would be better to say that it brought you quite the misfortune.” Yue Shang’s gaze and words dripped with ice-cold killing intent. He had long thought about countless ways to torture Ning Cheng. If he did not torture this ant-like Celestial Scryer Cultivator, then he was not a member of the Yue Clan.
Ning Cheng overflowed with murderous desire; at the same time, his cultivation had also started to skyrocket. However, his starry skies’ Sea of Consciousness managed to control the expansion brought about by the massive influx of Celestial Essence. However, Ning Cheng did not feel even a single bit happy within his heart. He had used the Violent Celestial Pill to raise his cultivation level forcibly to the Celestial Bridge Realm; as such, it was utterly different from naturally advancing to the Celestial Bridge Realm.
Although he managed to sneak attack Yue Shang, this fellow had unexpectedly escaped from his killing shot. Moreover, even the bloody hole carved out by the Wishful Demon Axe in his abdomen healed with speed visible to the naked eye. This highlighted the strength of cultivators in the Undead Realm.
Ning Cheng did not choose to talk nonsense with Yue Shang; bringing out the Treasured Thunder Spear, a flame-patterned spear shadow immediately shot out. He had to kill Yue Shang in the shortest possible time; otherwise, he could only wait for his death.
“Did you really think that you could kill me by forcibly raising your cultivation to the Celestial Bridge Realm and sneak-attacking me? Idiot. Most likely, Yue Huangfu must have fallen to your sneak-attack. Looks like apart from sneak attacks and swallowing Violent Celestial Pills, you don’t have any other methods of attack.” As Yue Shang spoke, the iron tower in his hand suddenly soared up and quickly expanded. In just a blink of an eye, it transformed into a three-storey tower.
Ning Cheng remained silent; at the same time, the Treasured Thunder Spear spat out even denser flame-patterned spear shadows, accompanied with even stronger spear intent.
The next moment, the first level of Yue Shang’s tower spewed out layers of black fog. This caused Ning Cheng to feel slightly surprised. Was this poison mist? Although feeling surprised, Ning Cheng’s hands never stopped. With just a wave, many array flags emerged.
Then, one after another, array discs started to appear all around Yue Shang and sword shadows, blade shadows, spear shadows, axe shadows… Erupted with full intensity. In just a blink of an eye, these attacks completely overwhelmed Yue Shang.
Yue Shang gave out a cold snort, “Just some garbage array discs, and yet you dare use them against me.”
Yue Shang felt anger welling up in this heart. He felt angry with Ning Cheng; an ant-like cultivator unexpectedly tried using grade 3 celestial arrays to deal with an expert in the Undead Realm.
The black fog spewed out from the first level of the tower began to coalesce, forming into a huge net to trap Ning Cheng. However, the attacks from Ning Cheng’s hundreds of celestial-grade array discs immediately halted the movements of this net.
Ning Cheng had yet to unleash his Traceless Spear Intent when the second level of Yue Shang’s tower suddenly lit up, and half-moon blade lights shot out from it, one after another.
These blade-lights quickly ripped through Ning Cheng’s Celestial River Domain and tore through Ning Cheng’s attacks from his grade 3 celestial arrays, causing them to pop like exploding popcorn kernels before disintegrating into pieces.
Seeing this, Ning Cheng’s heart sank as he finally realised what fearlessness due to ignorance meant.
Ning Cheng immediately realised his ignorance. He had initially thought that forcibly pushing his cultivation to the Celestial Bridge Realm could allow him to deal with Yue Shang’s cultivation in the Undead Realm. However, from the looks of it, the other party did not any worse for wear. If not for the Violent Celestial Pill, Ning Cheng would have died countless times already.
He had to rely on the Violent Celestial Pill to ascend to the Celestial Bridge Realm forcibly; although it could not compare to naturally advancing to the Celestial Bridge Realm, it allowed him to climb to a state several times stronger compared to his initial Celestial Shatterer Realm. Even so, it was still not enough to take down Yue Shang. This made him realise that the difference in strength between the Undead Realm and the Celestial Bridge Realm was like a vast chasm.
Ning Cheng had utilised a variety of favourable conditions to sneak attack Yue Shang, yet still could not cause any apparent fatal injuries to Yue Shang.
“Buzz…..” Although Ning Cheng fully utilised the Wishful Demon Axe for defence, the first half-moon blade-light that flew out of the second floor of Yue Shang’s iron tower still managed to send his axe flying. As for the black mist net, which survived the annihilation-like attack from more than a hundred Grade 3 Celestial Killing Formations, immediately started contracting once again.
Ning Cheng still had two options, one was to bring out the Everlasting Blue Thunder City, and the other was to use his Dusk Spiritual Technique.
Ning Cheng knew it very well that in the face of such a formidable opponent like Yue Shang, whether he used his Maximal Flame Spiritual Technique or brought out the Everlasting Blue Thunder City, he could only buy himself a little time. However, the Violent Celestial Pill could only last for half an hour in total.
Because of a lack of understanding about cultivators in the Undead Realm, coupled with his overestimation of the effects of the Violent Celestial Pill, Ning Cheng found himself in an utterly desperate situation.
Yue Shang clearly knew that Ning Cheng had no path to retreat, and gave out a cold snort, “Realising the immensity of heaven and earth, are we?”
He was not in a hurry to ask why Ning Cheng hated the Yue Clan to such an extent. Once he captured Ning Cheng’s Life Essence, he would then destroy everything connected to this ant before forcing everything out of this ant.
“Poof…” The half-moon blade-lights from the iron tower’s second floor finally managed to tear through Ning Cheng’s domain and brushed past Ning Cheng’s waist, creating a wound even severe than the one Yue Shang suffered.
Watching the third floor of Yue Shang’s iron tower flashing, indicating that it was about to unleash its attack, Ning Cheng realised that he could no longer wait. He immediately stabbed out with the Treasured Thunder Spear in his hand, causing thunder to flash around it.
“Looking for death…..” Seeing Ning Cheng unleashing an attack seemingly without any cause or reason, the corners of Yue Shang’s mouth revealed a cold sneer. Looks like this Celestial Scryer ant finally lost his wits in panic; cannot even cast a fundamental skill.
However, he quickly felt that something had gone horribly wrong. The two of them clearly were inside the hall, yet he actually felt as if he saw a sun about to set below the horizon. Then, he saw a beautiful glow of the sunset manifest at the tip of Ning Cheng’s spear.
Such a mesmeric sunset, Yue Shang lamented while noticing his iron tower suddenly come to a standstill. Even his black mist net had come to a stop along with those half-moon blade shadows. Even the third floor of his iron tower, which was about to unleash its attack, looked frozen in time.
No, it was not dusk; this was the result of a spiritual technique, a time-related spiritual technique….
Realising that Ning Cheng actually displayed a spiritual technique that seemingly controlled time, it immediately caused Yue Shang to lose his wits.
Even Ning Cheng felt shocked. This was not the first time that he used this time-related spiritual technique; however, it brought him a great surprise this time. For the first time, Ning Cheng noticed the setting sun, induced by his spiritual technique, and even felt the cycle of sunset and sunrise.
Even he found himself losing his mind within this beautiful sunset; however, Ning Cheng quickly sobered up and realised that it was his own spiritual technique, Dusk, that had caused such a phenomenon. The glow of the setting sun had abruptly shown itself, not because the Dusk Spiritual Technique had changed, but because his cultivation level had improved. Ning Cheng had forcibly raised his cultivation to the Celestial Bridge Realm, which also meant that the strength of his cultivation had also improved by several times, albeit forcefully; therefore, casting the Dusk Spiritual Technique ended up bringing forth a vague looming sunset, accompanied by a rainbow-like afterglow.
In the future, after his cultivation level rose again, his Dusk Spiritual Technique could transform into something even more exquisite; however, this delicate beauty would also carry a kind of sadness that arose from a sunset.
Yue Shang immediately reacted to this Time Spiritual Technique; knowing that this Celestial Scryer Cultivator had touched upon the Laws of Time, he no longer could look down on this fellow in contempt.
He madly ignited his Spiritual Consciousness and Celestial Essence, trying to break free from this mesmerising sunset twilight.
The half-moon blade shadows started to move again, albeit slowly, while the black net also began to show signs of movement. It felt that both of them showed signs of regaining their lost vitality.
Ning Cheng felt even more shocked seeing this; he never thought that Yue Shang could still break through his Dusk Spiritual Technique. Moreover, it was after he ingested the Violent Celestial Pill. If he had not swallowed the Violent Celestial Pill, the Dusk Spiritual Technique might not have shown any effect on Yue Shang.
“Poof….” A blood mist erupted as the Treasured Thunder Spear pierced through space, while Yue Shang could only look at Ning Cheng in shock. Before this moment, he would have never believed that the cultivator in front of him, who ingested the Violent Celestial Pill, had managed to touch the Laws of Time.
However, the facts proved to him that in the face of spiritual techniques related to time, even if he was a cultivator in the Undead Realm, the only path for him was that of death. He could have indeed broken free of this time-related spiritual technique if given a spare moment. No, just two breaths would have been enough to turn defeat into victory and kill this little Celestial Scryer Cultivator.
Sadly, he could not even obtain half-a-moment. By the time Yue Shang broke free from this time-related spiritual technique, the spear had already pierced through his glabella.
“Katcha…” The Treasured Thunder Spear twisted a bit. Not giving Yue Shang’s life essence the time to escape, the shockwave from Ning Cheng’s Treasured Thunder Spear annihilated it.
A feeling of extreme weakness welled up, causing Ning Cheng to forcibly prop his body up using the Treasured Thunder Spear and heave in several mouthfuls of air. If not for the Dusk Spiritual Technique, he probably would not have even half-a-chance of survival today.
The strength of the Undead Realm made him understand that it was a foolish move to improve one’s cultivation forcibly. Fortunately, he had successfully drawn away Yue Shang initially; otherwise, even with the Dusk Spiritual Technique, it would have proven extremely difficult to come out alive today.
Ning Cheng threw out a few fireballs and turned everything inside to ashes, only then did he look at the Treasured Thunder Spear in his hands while giving out a deep sigh in his heart. From now on, he cannot call this spiritual technique as ‘Dusk’; instead, he ought to call it ‘Twilight of the sunset’.
The almost-berserk flow of Celestial Essence and Spiritual Consciousness let Ning Cheng know that after casting the Dusk Spiritual Technique, the Violent Celestial Pill’s backlash was on the verge of eruption. As such, he could no longer stay here. Quickly inspecting everything for any evidence that could connect to him, Ning Cheng hurriedly left the hall.
