Chapter 256: Fighting Back
The violet heavenly saber slashed down, hitting Master Shengyun’s life lamp defenses, and sending out even more intense ripples. Then, Master Shengyun’s heavenly saber also slashed forth, and when it hit Xu Qing’s, they both shattered.
Master Shengyun was shoved backward by the force of the collision.
But Xu Qing wasn’t done yet. Everything up to this point was actually a smokescreen. Next, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior unleashed his most powerful attack from within the iron skewer. Sparks shot out from the shattered heavenly saber as the skewer emerged with blinding speed. The patriarch was obviously in control of the electricity dancing on the surface of the skewer as he pushed it to its top speed.
The patriarch clearly knew how important his mission was. Furthermore, having seen how the shadow had been so critical to the fight so far, he was feeling very nervous. Fearful that he might fail, he went mad in his efforts, detonating lightning symbols to get a boost of speed and power. He became like a real bolt of heavenly lightning that pierced right through the life lamp defenses of the backpedaling Master Shengyun.
A boom could be heard. The life lamp defenses were shocking, and thus they didn’t collapse. However, the iron skewer’s speed and power allowed it to punch a tiny hole in them. Then the skewer was rebuffed. Spinning off to the side, it looked less bright than before, and agonized shrieking could be heard from the patriarch inside. The backlash he had experienced was clearly significant. As for the hole, it rapidly filled in, and a moment later, the defenses were back to normal.
Sneering, Master Shengyun said, “You can’t get through my life lamp defenses. Nothing you do will work.”
Despite his words, the attack had sent him staggering backward. The whirlwind attacks from Xu Qing, one after another, were just that effective. First was the bluegreen dragon, then the dharmaskiff self-detonation, and after that the heavenly saber. None broke through the life lamp defenses, but the fact that they came one after another was astounding. However, with those defenses in place, it wasn’t possible to truly harm Master Shengyun, any more than his attacks had harmed Xu Qing. That said, it was obvious that Master Shengyun currently had the upper hand. He had more divine abilities to call on, and what was more, the gleam in his eye indicated that he had identified Xu Qing’s weakness.
“You don’t have enough magical techniques! And you lack divine abilities that can unleash true might!”
Hearing Master Shengyun’s words, Xu Qing’s eyes turned cold. He didn’t respond.
Master Shengyun laughed, then performed a double-handed incantation gesture and prepared to target Xu Qing’s weakness. However, just before he unleashed a new divine ability, his face suddenly fell. His life lamp defenses had just faded slightly, and ripples were flowing across them. Even more noteworthy was Master Shengyun had just sensed the defenses corroding around the spot where the iron skewer had poked a hole moments ago.
That was when Master Shengyun recalled a time earlier in Seven Blood Eyes when someone mentioned Xu Qing using poison in his fight with Sima Ling.
“Poison is nothing! It can never be a great dao!”
Master Shengyun snorted coldly. From when he was young, he had always had a unique constitution that caused him to look down on ordinary poisons. He waved his hand, and his life lamp glittered. As its light spread out, the corrosion on the defenses disappeared. Having accomplished that, he again prepared to attack. But then his expression flickered even more dramatically than before. An intense pain had suddenly started to spread through his body, and greenish-black blotches had appeared on his skin from mutagen. At the same time, his life flames were flickering.
“What’s this??”
Gasping, Master Shengyun sensed the powerful poison inside of him and realized it was spreading far too quickly. His vision blurred, and all of a sudden, he was filled with a sense of deadly crisis. The poison was, of course, the little beetles. They had been sticking to his life lamp defenses this entire time, incapable of getting inside. They had just been waiting for an opportunity.
When Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior poked a hole, that was all they needed. In that instant, a host of beetles poured inside.
Master Shengyun was right. Xu Qing lacked a lot of powerful divine abilities. However, Master Shengyun was also incorrect, because though Xu Qing lacked amazing divine abilities, he did have his poisons!
The moment the beetles attacked, Xu Qing’s eyes flickered with killing intent, and he rushed forward. He had been waiting for this moment for the entire fight. As Master Shengyun dealt with the sudden poison flare-up, Xu Qing closed in with his hand clenched in a fist.
The golden crow appeared behind him, bursting with flame. His life lamp manifested overhead as a shocking black umbrella. And his fist rocketed forward, backed by five-flame battle prowess.
In his poisoned state, Master Shengyun was incapable of evading the blow. He tried to fall back, but Xu Qing just pressed the attack. A boom rang out as the blow landed on the life lamp defenses. A shockwave passed through Master Shengyun, and he was sent spinning off to the side like a kite with its string cut. Xu Qing followed up with another blow.
Master Shengyun gasped for breath, and his eyes were completely bloodshot. Relying on his defenses to keep him safe, he tapped into his imperial-class technique. The piercing cry of the ravagemist bird rang out, sweeping through him to dispel the poison. At the same time, the seven-colored umbrella above him radiated dazzling light to the same effect. However, Xu Qing then waved his hand, and his black umbrella spread out and put crushing pressure down onto Master Shengyun. Intense rumbling sounds echoed everywhere as blood sprayed from his mouth. The sensation of crisis welled up stronger in him. There was no time to deal with everything that was happening, and he felt more than ever that this was a life-or-death moment. Then Xu Qing’s fist arrived.
Master Shengyun backed up again, and Xu Qing shot forward like lightning to keep up the attack. He threw out fist after fist, and slashed down with the heavenly saber over and over again. The golden crow used all its strength, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior once again went all-out to try to pierce through the enemy’s defenses.
As for the shadow, it took advantage of this moment in which Master Shengyun was forced to deal with the poisons. Stretching out, it covered a second dharma aperture.
Xu Qing was going all out in every respect!
Master Shengyun continued to fall back, blood spraying out of his mouth. Each mouthful of blood contained masses of poisons and when it fell, it melted the ground it touched. And his life lamp defenses glittered as Xu Qing shoved his hands against them. Then, a shocking boom rang out as the defenses finally couldn’t take it anymore and shattered. Poison rushed in and blood sprayed out of Master Shengyun’s mouth. He tumbled backward, his face filling with rage. And yet he couldn’t even fight back. He just tried to get out of the ruins and into the forbidden region.
“What poison is this??” he howled. He refused to believe that this was really happening. Before, he had six life flames, and should have been able to crush this opponent easily. But because of that shadow, his battle prowess had dropped, and then his opponent used an incomparably terrifying poison on him. He felt madness building within him. His hair was disheveled and he looked completely bedraggled. His once-dazzling golden robe was now pale and dull. Altogether, he looked to be in very bad shape.
If any disciple from the Seven Sect Coalition could see him now, they would be completely flabbergasted. No one had ever witnessed Master Shengyun in a state like this before.
Master Shengyun felt bitter and enraged. But Xu Qing’s killing intent raged as he closed in again. Finally, Master Shengyun took out a jade slip and quickly sent a voice message, calling back the three dao protectors who he had sent out looking for various specific items.
Unfortunately, his dao protectors had been away for quite a while, and none of them had even considered that Master Shengyun would face something truly dangerous. It was going to take time for them to arrive, and time was something Master Shengyun didn’t have a lot of right now. The poison inside of him was erupting violently, and his battle prowess was dropping. In that critical moment, Xu Qing was pressing the attack, leading with the golden crow, which obviously wanted to assimilate Master Shengyun alive.
As the ravagemist bird appeared, Xu Qing launched a fist strike. Master Shengyun tried to defend, but blood sprayed out of his mouth as a result. Expression vicious, Xu Qing head-butted Master Shengyun in the face.
Master Shengyun grunted. His face was covered in blood, and his eyes radiated madness. He wanted to extricate himself from this fight, but black balefire spread out from Xu Qing, creating a gaping maw that surged toward Master Shengyun. His eyes burned with ferocity; he wanted to take Master Shengyun’s soul and use it to open dharma apertures!
The madness in Master Shengyun’s eyes grew more intense. Howling shrilly, he caused his golden daoist robe to suddenly expand until it exploded.
The daoist robe was a treasure in its own right. Borrowing the force of the explosion, Master Shengyun shot backward. It was at that moment that his life lamp finally managed to expel all of the poison from within him. His life flame flickered unstably, and he could tell it wouldn’t stay strong for much longer. That, coupled with how viciously aggressive Xu Qing was being, ensured that Master Shengyun didn’t hesitate at all about what to do next. Now that he wasn’t being constantly injured, he shouted loudly and pulled something out from his ring of holding!
It was a dilapidated piece of wood that seemed to be a chunk taken from something larger, and the moment he took it out, it erupted with terrifying fluctuations.
Xu Qing’s expression flickered in response. He could sense that his life flames were about to be extinguished, and his dharma apertures vibrated so badly they seemed like they might pop out of him.
The door even seemed to affect the dome of heaven, and the surrounding lands. Plants and vegetation in all directions started withering. Streams of life force began madly rushing toward the piece of wood, causing it to quickly transform into a pitch-black doorway covered with countless scratch marks from fingernails. A sinister, gruish aura emanated from it, especially from the scratch marks, which were ghastly, and seemed to be filled with dried blood. The scratch marks were all of different lengths and depths, which made it seem like different people at different times had desperately tried to claw open the door. The sense of horror it imparted filled the area.
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed and he backed up.
Meanwhile, madness filled Master Shengyun’s eyes as he pointed at Xu Qing.
“Open!”
The pitch-black door creaked open in Xu Qing’s direction.