Chapter Seventy-Two: Fierce Struggle

Chapter Seventy-Two

Li Hao and his two companions struggled bitterly against four scheming youths.

At this moment, outside the battlefield, Lu Yao watched the fierce fight unfolding. Besides her mounting worry, she found herself utterly powerless, unable to do anything to help. A sense of uselessness weighed heavily upon her, and she felt as though she was a burden to Li Hao and his friends. In her heart, she silently vowed to work hard to improve her own strength, determined not to remain a hindrance to her elder brother Li Hao, but to aid him in the future. Yet she also understood clearly that, for now, the greatest help she could offer was to protect herself, to avoid danger, and not to distract Li Hao and the others.

Within the fray, Li Hao gripped his Nine-Dragon Halberd tightly, thrusting, smashing, sweeping, hacking—his attacks were wild and unpredictable, a dazzling display that left his opponent at a loss, darting and dodging in confusion.

The longer the battle went on, the more alarmed Li Hao’s adversary became. Facing an opponent younger and of a lower cultivation realm, he was astounded by Li Hao’s seemingly inexhaustible stamina and strength. After nearly a hundred exchanges over the course of seven or eight minutes, Li Hao showed not the slightest sign of fatigue; on the contrary, he fought with increasing vigor.

At every level, Li Hao’s strength surpassed other prodigies by a factor of ten. Whether it was the power of the natural laws or the purity of their attributes, his was tenfold what other cultivators possessed. This was the formidable ability of his Formless Divine Physique, combined with the fact that both his dantian and spiritual sea had been tempered and expanded by primal chaos since childhood. Of course, this expansion was not limitless—it could only reach the apex of each realm, known as the “Extreme State.”

For any cultivator, two things were paramount: the spiritual sea and the dantian. One could not be without either. A dantian without a spiritual sea was like a vessel full of power but with no way to use it; a spiritual sea without power was mere empty talk. The contests between cultivators hinged on the responsiveness of the soul within the spiritual sea and the strength of the power stored in the dantian. Within the same realm, so long as Li Hao did not lose his thirst for cultivation, he was invincible. Anyone able to withstand over three hundred moves against him was a dragon among men, and to fight him to a draw was to be a true monster among prodigies.

At this moment, Li Hao fought relying solely on the responsiveness of his soul within the spiritual sea and his own overwhelming strength, battering his opponent with wild abandon. Though his fighting style was shameless, this very unpredictability left his opponent unable to anticipate his next move.

The enemy thrust his sword at Li Hao’s brow. Li Hao did not dodge, instead leveraging the length of his halberd, its dragon shadow darting towards the attacking youth. If the youth persisted in aiming for Li Hao’s brow, his own would be pierced first. With no other choice, the youth hastily drew back his sword to block, managing to withstand Li Hao’s full-force blow.

This was the simple advantage of reach.

A deep, muffled crash resounded as the forces of law collided.

Li Hao was shocked. “My full-strength strike was blocked so easily?”

His opponent was even more astounded. “Such immense power! He’s five minor realms below me, yet I nearly failed to block him. No doubt it’s largely due to that halberd—what a weapon! If I kill him, I’ll claim it for myself.”

As greedy desire flared in the purple-robed youth’s eyes, he unleashed his own field of laws, sending Li Hao flying back several yards.

As Li Hao retreated, the purple-robed youth pressed his advantage, spinning his sword into a dazzling arc and stabbing toward Li Hao’s chest.

Seeing the oncoming sword-light, Li Hao gripped the halberd by the end, assumed a one-legged stance, and spun in place, sweeping horizontally at the youth’s waist.

The youth had no time to evade and could only bring his sword around to block the sweeping halberd.

Another deep crash echoed as forces collided.

Li Hao’s hands were numbed and slightly trembling from the impact.

The purple-robed youth was forced half a step aside by the halberd’s force. Had he not blocked, even if his sword had pierced Li Hao’s chest, his own waist would have been shattered by a youth five realms lower than himself.

At this moment, Li Hao’s strength was not his alone; the power of Xiao Jiu, the spirit inhabiting the Nine-Dragon Halberd, matched his own, so the purple-robed youth was effectively facing two opponents of equal strength. Still, he did not feel truly threatened.

Meanwhile, Lin Xueyou’s battle was far more restrained. Her opponent could not land a blow, and while she was one realm higher, she could do little in return. Each time she gathered various laws with her Vermilion Phoenix Brush, her opponent scattered them with brute force, leaving her barely able to hold the enemy at bay.

If only she had an ally of equivalent strength beside her, the outcome would be entirely different.

At present, there appeared to be four or five Lin Xueyous on the field. Only one was real; the others were false forms conjured by the Vermilion Phoenix Brush, using the laws of heaven and earth. These duplicates, along with her true self, drew all manner of phantasms to confuse her foe.

Her opponent, wielding a blade in both hands, struck one of the Lin Xueyous, cleaving her in two. From afar, Lu Yao watched this, her heart leaping in terror, petrified on the spot.

But within a heartbeat, the blade-wielder realized he had struck an illusion and frantically searched for the real target. With four or five identical Lin Xueyous before him, he could only fall back on the clumsy method of attacking each in turn.

Lin Xueyou, observing his actions, would hardly let him succeed so easily. Her Vermilion Phoenix Brush whirled like lightning, dazzling the blade-wielding youth. For a brief moment, he was so entranced by her grace and courage that he froze—and in that instant, Lin Xueyou’s brush took the form of a halberd, remarkably similar to Li Hao’s own. Channeling the laws of heaven and earth, she thrust the halberd straight at his chest.

He was blasted a dozen yards back by the force of the laws. Seizing the advantage, Lin Xueyou pressed her attack. Her opponent was stunned by her mastery of calligraphy, expecting to break her illusions easily, only to find himself repelled.

Her victory was due not only to her calligraphic prowess but also to the quality of the Vermilion Phoenix Brush, no less than the Nine-Dragon Halberd in Li Hao’s hands. The difference was that while the halberd housed the formidable spirit Xiao Jiu, the brush, for all its quality, was without an artifact spirit.

As her opponent retreated, Lin Xueyou drew a sword a hundred feet long, instantly gathering the laws of heaven and earth from eight hundred feet around, and slashed at him. He, in turn, shed the force of the halberd, drew in the laws from seven hundred feet, and shattered the giant sword before surging forward to destroy yet another of Lin Xueyou’s phantasms.

Fortunately, neither of his last two attacks struck her true form. By now, Lin Xueyou was drenched in fragrant sweat, her heart pounding, but her mind remained composed as she continued to deal with her foe.

On the sidelines, Lu Yao watched, her nerves stretched taut, praying silently for their safety.

At the same time, Li Hao’s avatars sensed the peril confronting his true form. But without a summons, they could not return, and even racing back at a hundred miles per breath, they would not arrive in time to help. Worried as they were, they could do nothing.

The closest to Li Hao’s true body were the Desire Avatar and Kuihu’s group.

“Hurry, they’re in danger—we must help them,” said the Desire Avatar urgently to Kuihu, Li Zhan, and Qin Zhen.

Hearing their friends were in peril, the three grew anxious. The four of them sped toward Li Hao’s group, but in such dire straits, their pace felt agonizingly slow, like snails crawling compared to the distance they had to cover.

Zhenba, wielding a crescent-moon saber, swung it in a cunning arc at the youth’s neck. The boy, tracking the blade’s trajectory, gathered the laws from several hundred feet around into his sword and blocked the strike. As he managed to fend off the unstoppable blow, a second saber came at his chest from another direction. It would have cut him clean through had not another youth stepped in to block it.

Seeing his weapons deflected, Kuihu charged forward, channeling the laws from eight hundred feet into his fists and striking at both youths’ chests. The two boys summoned all their might to throw off the sabers and then exchanged blows with Zhenba before swiftly retreating.

Seizing the moment, Zhenba recalled his paired crescent sabers—one large, one small, named the Arcmoon Yin-Yang Cut, a family heirloom and a symbol of the Flowing Light Star Domain’s dominion.

The move he had just used was the first stance of the Arcmoon Yin-Yang Cut: the Yin-Yang Waning Moon Slash.

There were nine forms in total: First, Yin-Yang Waning Moon Slash; Second, Yin-Yang Waning Moon Sever; Third, Moon Divides Yin and Yang; Fourth, Twin Moons Shine Together; Fifth, Twin Moons Unleashed; Sixth, Twin Moons Bar the Stars; Seventh, Power of the Twin Moons; Eighth, Twin Moons Journey West; Ninth, Twin Moons Unite.

The Arcmoon Yin-Yang Cut, also known as the Arcmoon Yin-Yang Saber, was a fearsome technique in which each successive form doubled the power of the previous and accumulated its strength. With single and dual saber variations, the nine forms became eighteen. Mastering all forms was exceedingly difficult, but at its peak, the ninth form released twenty thousand times the force of the first—measured within the same realm.

Zhenba recalled his sabers and, with a flicker of movement, appeared before the two boys, his blades flashing toward their throats.