by <unknown>
This area of the Sorcerers' River was the most prosperous land of the Great Qian Dynasty. Naturally, it was also the most populated place. The population in a town there was often larger than the population of a city in the southwest.
After the febrile typhoon landed, a lot of homeless victims had already fled westward along the Sorcerers' River, further adding to the population of the towns and villages nearby.
If the dams collapsed, allowing the Sorcerers' River to change course, it would spell the deaths of the thousands of homeless victims!
Li Yao could not wait and just watch such a tragedy.
However, with the temper and personality of Master Spiritual Vulture, he should not be a man who would fight for the ordinary people without considering anything.
Li Yao's hesitation was misunderstood by Dan Fengzi, who frowned and said, "Elder Spiritual Vulture, are you planning to take the three extraordinary demon cores?
"You must not!
"This dragon-type animal is probably a mutation of a 'Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon'. Judging from the size, it has already trained inside the Sorcerers' River for almost a thousand years. Chances are that it already existed before the Great Qian Dynasty was founded!
"Dragon-type animals are born with water. Right now, the surging flood has increased its ferocity. It is too risky to hunt it right now!
"If you are truly interested in the animal, we can always wait until it breaks the dams and escapes to the plateau. It will be much easier to be dealt with when it is stranded and the weather is better!"
Li Yao's lips moved. He was of a mind to ask Dan Fengzi if the guy had ever considered the ordinary people living on the two sides of the Sorcerers' River besides hunting the animal and taking the cores.
But he forced back the words before he said them out.
Dan Fengzi was talking so matter-of-factly as if he were considering Li Yao's interests made him lost for words!
"Ho! Ho! Ho!"
Right then, the three-headed Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon roared in the most deafening noise again. The three demon cores rushed out and, like three enormous magnets, attracted all the lightning nearby. Centered at the demon cores, three balls of lightning—one blue, one purple and one green—were formed!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The balls of lightning expanded quickly in the wind and soon expanded to more than ten meters in diameter. The storm clouds around them were disintegrated into mist, which surrounded the lightning hazily, further adding to the invincibility and indestructibility of the balls of lightning!
Seeing that the three balls of lightning were about to crash into the dams, Li Yao was about to rush out to 'slay the dragon and loot the demon cores', his heart pounding faster than ever, when bold brilliance suddenly shot out of the dark clouds toward the multi-headed dragon overwhelmingly like burning golden arrows!
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
Hundreds of arrows immediately hit the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon, riddling it with holes and making it bleed hard!
Because of the excruciating pain, the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon could only give up the dams and redirect the three balls of lightning toward the clouds!
Boom!
The balls of lightning tore apart the clouds and vanished into thin air. The only things left were three somewhat lackluster demon cores that were rotating in midair.
Above the broken clouds, a moon-white cassock, surrounded by a dim golden glow, was flapping in the wind, like a boat in the middle of a surging ocean.
Right above the cassock, a monk was standing.
He was possibly the most handsome man that Li Yao had ever seen.
It was not an exaggeration to say that he truly seemed to have been carved out of an entire piece of jade or marble, and nothing—even time, which could corrode everything—could detract from his handsomeness by one thousandth!
The only thing that slightly undermined his handsomeness was the vague bitterness that covered his face.
If one was to appreciate it carefully, the merciful bitterness actually brought his appearance to a whole new level, where one could not even feel jealous or inferior to him!
"Master Bitter Cicada of the Stupa Temple!" Dan Fengzi exclaimed in a low voice!
Chapter 1419: Fighting the Sky and the Earth! |
Li Yao was greatly shocked.
The handsome-looking monk who looked like a young man in his twenties was actually Master Bitter Cicada, who was not counted in the Three Saints and Four Rapscallions but also considered among the top ten experts!
According to Dan Fengzi and Yan Liren's previous remarks, Master Bitter Cicada's Cultivation should have been much greater than that.
He was a real genius in training who was naturally wise, and he had been a top expert seventy years earlier. He was even believed to be the best expert who had the highest chance to step into the Divinity Transformation Stage after Wu Suiyun and Meng Chixin!
Even the proud Sword Maniac frankly admitted that, if Master Bitter Cicada had been focused on training in seclusion without caring about anything else, his achievements would have been far higher than Yan Liren's!
However, Master Bitter Cicada's ambition did not seem to be the Divinity Transformation Stage. Instead, he was really putting the mantra of the Stupa Temple, which was 'universal salvation', into practice and spent most of his time and effort on resisting the natural disasters and assisting the ordinary people.
It was said that, in the past several decades, he had fought tsunamis dozens of meters high, extinguished a forest fire that had spread thousands of square kilometers, and suppressed a volcano near a prosperous town that had been about to erupt purely on his own. As a result, he had exhausted too much of his spiritual energy and been heavily wounded multiple times. His Cultivation had stagnated and was even dropping.
Master Bitter Cicada, who had half stepped into the Divinity Transformation Stage, was only on par with the Three Saints and Four Rapscallions, if not slightly weaker, after decades of hard work.
In the middle of the thunderstorm, Master Bitter Cicada was standing on a moon-white cassock with Golden Stripes and holding a rusted black staff in his hand. A ring of enormous glass pearls was draped over his shoulder. Every one of the pearls was the size of a fist and translucent. A lot of colorful runes were vaguely popping up inside the pearls and glittering!
"Moo!"
Master Bitter Cicada looked at the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon full of pity and sorrow, but his stomach unleashed such a fulmination that sounded like a bell being tolled. The pearls that were on his shoulder flew up one after another. In the end, the eighteen pearls surrounded the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon and rotated quickly as if they were shooting stars!
"Buddhas in heaven and in hell, save the people now. Lock!" Master Bitter Cicada chanted. His voice pierced through the clouds and was delivered to everybody's ears clearly.
After each of his words, the brightness in the eighteen pearls got slightly higher and more transparent.
When the last word 'lock' was uttered, the eighteen pearls seemed to have melted into the air, and the octagonal, glittering runes sealed inside were all released!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The thousands of runes triggered a series of golden electric arcs that condensed into an overwhelming shackle, locking the three enormous heads of the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon!
The Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon screamed miserably and struggled hard, but it could not get away from Master Bitter Cicada's constraint at all.
The three demon cores seemed to have frozen in midair. They shivered for a long time but were unable to move at all!
Casting a spell with the realized runes! Li Yao was secretly surprised.
He felt that the pearls that Master Bitter Cicada used as a weapon had a similar attack mechanism to the member of the Pangu Clan that he had fought against on Kunlun.
At that time, the member of the Pangu Clan had cast spells by declaring his spirit and will with soundwav
es, which attracted the spiritual energy in the surroundings. He had then constructed the spiritual energy into erratic models and outputted them into techniques of different natures!
The pearls could also have been polished and modified based on a secret treasure from the Pangu civilization in the primeval era!
Under the pearls' suppression, the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon was unable to move at all and could only roar!
Master Bitter Cicada sat cross-legged on the moon-white cassock. He half-closed his eyes and put his palms together, his rusted staff resting in his arms. While he was mumbling the spells to himself, an air of transcendency and inviolacy was flowing out of his body.
As his runes were activated, the shackle of golden brilliance triggered by the eighteen pearls was tightened. Like an iron, it left deep stamps on the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon. Stinky, black smoke that even the storm could not quench soared into the sky!
The Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon was about to be suppressed by Master Bitter Cicada, when…
The violent spiritual energy in the area had been searching for the 'fattest prey' from the beginning.
Li Yao, Yan Liren, Dan Fengzi, and the empyreal swordsmen of the Purple Pole Sword Sect were all lying low and concealing their auras, not daring to act recklessly in the thunderstorm.
Even so, some of the lightning was even hitting their surroundings, and the electric arcs were swimming inside the veins and nerves crazily!
But right now, Master Bitter Cicada had flown high into the clouds. He was also summoning all of his spiritual energy and activating his magical equipment blatantly. He was essentially turning himself into the most eye-catching 'lightning rod'!
Boom!
Crack!
When he activated the power of the pearls to the maximum, countless streaks of lightning lunged at him from every direction and hit his moon-white spiritual shield brutally. Electric arcs and sparks were spluttering nonstop!
Struct by thousands of lightning, Master Bitter Cicada was shaking slightly, and a few streams of blood were zigzagging out of his eyes and mouth. Yet, his face remained utterly unchanged. With exactly the same vague pity and sorrow, he continued outputting his spiritual energy, his soul, and his life, trying his best to suppress the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon so that it would not have a chance to destroy the dams!
He was not fighting a Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon; he was fighting the sky, the earth, and the violent spiritual energy in between that could destroy everything in their path. He was struggling against the thunder, slashing the clouds, and suppressing the running tides with his body that was not all that strong!
The lightning became more and more frequent, and the thunder grew louder and louder. The crazier the storm was, the brighter Master Bitter Cicada's eyes became!
Li Yao had never realized that a man's eyes could be so brilliant. Some sort of flowing liquid light seemed to be flowing out from the edges of his eyes!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The lightning was striking Master Bitter Cicada's head incessantly. The moon-white spiritual shield was dying like a candle in a storm.
Master Bitter Cicada's skin had broken apart, but it was bright gold that was revealed below the fractures, as if a tiny golden buddha resided within his immaculate body!
Master Bitter Cicada gritted his teeth to persist. The rusted black club staff on his arms had already been dyed bright gold by his blood.
It was impossible for him to compete with nature by himself after all!
While Li Yao was hesitating, the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon had already caught its breath!
Its three heads were all expanding crazily. The sharp horns that looked like thorny needles on the heads all turned blood red.
Hiu! Hiu! Hiu! Hiu!
The thorny needles on the three heads of the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon darted out like a storm toward Master Bitter Cicada.
Perhaps, Master Bitter Cicada could have evaded, but if he dodged, the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon would break free, and after a tiny crash, it would destroy the dams!
Therefore, Master Bitter Cicada did not dodge at all. Instead, he roared and threw out his black staff, which revolved rapidly in front of him and formed a bright golden shield. After a series of clanging noises, most of the thorny needles were blocked!
However, a handful of them penetrated through the shield silently when thousands of lightning were hitting Master Bitter Cicada brutally!
Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!
All the needles exploded abruptly into powder before they had the chance to touch Master Bitter Cicada's body.
But they distracted Master Bitter Cicada after all, allowing lightning that was thicker than Li Yao's thigh to strike Master Bitter Cicada's skull!
Boom!
Master Bitter Cicada grunted. Bloodstained electric arcs seemed to be squirting out of his eyes, nostrils, ears, and mouth simultaneously.
The runes that were used to suppress the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon faded, and the eighteen pearls reappeared!
The Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon took the opportunity to dash upward, freeing itself from Master Bitter Cicada's shackles.
The three demon cores that were frozen in midair returned to the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon. They rotated for a while and, attracting tremendous electric arcs, condensed into three bluish balls of lightning again, attacking Master Bitter Cicada together with the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon!
Li Yao could not wait any longer.
But somebody was even faster than him.
'Sword Maniac' Yan Liren roared. Immense spiritual from someone at the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage was fully unleashed toward the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon in a sword aura that was hundreds of meters long!
Huala!
He appeared like a firefly that was holding a lantern on a dark night. He was so obvious and attractive that many lightning bolts that had begun lunging at Master Bitter Cicada changed their direction and ran toward him!
"Be gone!"
Yan Liren's sword was not unsheathed yet, but the auras of the sword had already diverged into more than ten sharp edges, slashing the lightning into twisted electric arcs, before the electric arcs were shocked into starry sparkles!
It was not until this moment that a shining sword that was more than twenty meters long finally appeared in midair. Like a long, narrow magnet, it attracted all the electric arcs nearby to its body. The sharpness of the sword was immediately increased with the boost of the electric arcs!
It was one of the primeval swords that Yan Liren had used during the Dragon Spring Meeting.
The black sword, which was the largest one of all, was already completely wrecked and beyond repair.
The other two primeval swords were only riddled with cracks on the surface. After careful refinement, some of their power could still be restored.
Therefore, Li Yao had asked the disciples of the Purple Pole Sword Sect to collect the powder of the black sword that had completely collapsed. After mixing and refining it, he had added the powder to the other two primeval swords as materials of enhancement. It was sort of recycling.
After Yan Liren's sword slashed out, the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon's three heads retreated at the same time. Having no time to harass Master Bitter Cicada any longer, the animal quickly summoned the three demon cores, trying to block Yan Liren's enormous sword.
However, the sword that was dozens of meters long, under Yan Liren's manipulation, was as swift and agile as a soft sword that one could bind to their waist. Drawing a weird curve in midair, the sword crawled in through the gaps among the three demon cores. The very next moment, the middle head of the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon was chopped off!
Chapter 1420: A Monk's Mercy |
"Ow!"
The left and right heads of the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon screamed miserably at the same time. However, the head in the middle, which was larger than a mill, was floating in the river. A fracture a few meters in diameter was left where it had been chopped off. B
lack blood was spurting out, vaporizing into a venomous mist in the storm that covered the area!
Under the cover the venomous mist, the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon sank and fled toward the depths of the Sorcerers' River.
"You want to go? Not so fast! Leave your demon cores here!"
Amid scary chuckles, a green shadow lunged toward the top of the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon like a vulture that had opened the wings. Of course, it was Li Yao who pretended to be Master Spiritual Vulture!
Storm, thunder, and flood!
The violent spiritual energy between the sky and the earth!
They were also rushing toward him overwhelmingly!
Such a magnificent view of the sky breaking apart and the lightning surging out reminded Li Yao of the happy period of crazy training in the thunderstorms deep within the Grand Desolate Plateau in the Star Glory Federation!
Fighting the sky and the earth brought him endless pleasure. He was a guy who could slay tornadoes!
"Storm and thunder, you can go to hell if you have come to me!" Li Yao shrieked. The green flames of spiritual energy around him condensed into two enormous, sky-blocking wings. After one flap, the lightning and clouds that were coming at him were all shattered!
Then, the two wings were closed together. Under the precise control of his telepathic thoughts, the spiritual energy in the wings reformed. A monolithic claw took shape, which snatched right toward the heads of the Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon!
The Multi-Horned Bizarre Dragon had just suffered a heavy blow and lost the most important head. It was in such agony that it did not notice the traps that Li Yao had hidden in the green fire at all.
Hardly had the animal escaped from the snatch of the claw when it was caught precisely by a trap made of dozens of monocular mica threads.
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
As it desperately fled toward the Sorcerers' River, Li Yao pulled hard. The molecular mica threads cut off its tough scales, rough skin, and sturdy flesh, deeply embedding into the bones all over its body!