"Augh!" Venerable Slayingsword frustratedly shouted as he spun, disrupting the strength that pushed him back and bringing himself to a sudden halt. He wielded his sword, a pulwar with an exquisitely deep curve and three meters in length, as Sword Intent flared incessantly within his eyes. While he was exuding vibrantly sharp sword light, he felt a deep sensation of shock permeating his heart.
Wei Wuyin's strength vastly exceeded his imagination, breaking every belief of cultivation he had in his soul, and bringing him all sorts of inferior feelings. Firstly, his Worldly Domain overturned the heavens with a size of 777,000,000 meters, close to 500,000 miles, capable of rivaling the size of a starfield!
Moreover, he had never felt so restrained before. The ambient energies, solar essence, and mana within the Dark Void were seized by Wei Wuyin's Worldly Domain, causing him, an Ascended being, to fight solely with his Mystic Power. This was a scenario that he had never experienced since becoming a genuine Ascended being, his World Pressure was innate, and he could grasp ambient energies, essence, and mana with the utmost ease.
However, here, within this Worldly Domain, all of it was restricted from him accessing it despite repeated efforts. Moreover, it didn't stop there.
Woosh!
Wei Wuyin was casually stepping through the Dark Void, utilizing every ounce of available power that his Worldly Domain could convert to aid his movements, sending him thousands of miles with each movement. Venerable Slayingsword's eyes flared with sword light as his Mystic Power tapped into his innate spatial energies, intermixed the two, he exerted the Spatial Power of an Ascended, and attempted to Spatial Shift!
Kun Yiming was being chased—his wife—and Wei Wuyin had just shown that he has the ability to fight against Ascended beings, even injuring them as Kun Yiming and Venerable Bluecloud were bleeding. A type of fear surged in his heart as the thought of losing Kun Yiming urgently arose in his mind.
Yet, when his Spatial Shift was used, he felt as if a formless hand guided him elsewhere. If his Spatial Power carried out his will, he would've arrived before Kun Yiming, assisting her in a joint defense against Wei Wuyin. Unfortunately, he found himself roughly sixty thousand miles away. That's right!
This was Venerable Slayingsword's third attempt, but no matter what he tried, the moment he entered fixed space, he could no longer control his destination. He didn't know if this was due to the Worldly Domain or some other power that Wei Wuyin possessed!
"ARGH!" He violently roared defiantly, unwilling to accept this. With his sword gripped by two hands, he executed his movement art and cut through the Worldly Domain while attempting to approach Wei Wuyin.
Boom! BOOM! BAM!
He could only watch as Wei Wuyin used his limbs to strike the fleeing Kun Yiming. Despite her speed, whenever Wei Wuyin made a move, a terrifying gravitational force was summoned that considerably slowed her down, and she could only take several strikes.
She used her Silverflow Wings as a shield, using it to protect her against Wei Wuyin's strikes that carried the might of his own physical strength and power of nearly 500,000 miles of energies, essence, and mana condensed into a single move. Fortunately, those wings were mystic-graded and they withstood the strike, yet the resulting impact force somehow bypassed the wings and her Mystic Ward, hitting him without fail!
She tumbled backward with blood leaking from her nose and lips, cutting a desperate figure as she spun uncontrollably away.
Venerable Slayingsword had arrived after pushing his speed to the maximum, consuming copious amounts of Mystic Power to do so, and with his hands on his hilt, he lifted his sword above his head as he invested even greater amounts of Mystic Power. There was a tinge of desperation and forceful will within his actions.
SHIING!
He no longer held back; Venerable Slayingsword unleashed his strongest Mystic Art—God-Slaying Art: Greatfall! The grandiose name was backed by a grand strength, truly utilizing seventy percent of his power to unleash! He was no longer willing to allow Wei Wuyin to Utilize external power to beat him back, so he had to strike with enough power that could vastly exceed the limits of that converted power!
Wei Wuyin's head turned, his silver eyes reflected the sea of sword light that Venerable Slayingsword had become. But there was no fear in his eyes. Instead, he reached out as Draconic Void Force was brought to the forefront, and with a wave of his hand, the spinning Kun Yiming was enveloped in a grayish light.
She hadn't even realized the formless and intangible-like light had enveloped her, manifesting from areas where Wei Wuyin had previously struck, leaving behind this power, so when she felt her body shift through space, her expression became aghast as the sea of sword light reflected similarly through her pupils.
Kun Yiming found herself held; Wei Wuyin was currently grabbing at her left wing with his left hand and her neck with his right. His two hands had undergone partial Draconic Transformation, possessing hexagonal scales that astonishing beauty and sharply exquisite dragon nails, and exerted a strength that Kun Yiming couldn't break in a short period despite her vigorous attempts.
Her Mystic Ward rippled as she resisted Wei Wuyin's strength, but her heart was full of shock as the sea of sword light approached! Her currently perilous situation immediately dawned on her as her heart grew extremely cold, and she struggled fiercely.
"Stop!" She cried out in fear.
Venerable Slayingsword's sword contained the vast majority of his power, and it contained an unfathomable locking strength that had seized onto Wei Wuyin, typically meaning he had to face it or exert a strength powerful enough to shatter those fetters. Yet, Venerable Slayingsword had never imagined that Wei Wuyin would use his wife as a meat shield!
He was aghast; with an urgency like no other, he roared in his heart as he forcefully shifted his Mystic Art away, exerting the entirety of the remaining of his Mystic Power and even tapping into the depths of his reserve power within his Mystic Soul, bringing out everything simply to change trajectory!
WOOSH!
SHIIIIIIING!!!
An extended sword howl screeched as the sea of sword light by Wei Wuyin and Kun Yiming, missing by a hair, but the spurting sharpness still sliced into Kun Yiming's Mystic Ward, slicing apart her skin and delivering thousands of mini-cuts. She was instantly a bloody figure as she wailed in pain.
Wei Wuyin was unharmed as he effectively used her as a proper shield. Venerable Slayingsword's eyes revealed the deepest of exhaustion, and grim elation as he could sense Kun Yiming's lifeforce. That art of his could slay any Soul of Mysticism cultivator that didn't have exceptional defenses, and his wife wasn't known for her defenses, but her speed and illusory abilities to conjure clones, beguiling her opponents. If it hit, she was certainly dead.
His heart was happy that she was alive but equally as depressed that Wei Wuyin still held her by the neck, and she was not only exhausted and unconscious but severely injured. She was at his mercy.
He gulped with heavy, exhausted breathing. "Lo-Lord Wei! We-" Venerable Slayingsword tried to send a spiritual transmission to beg Wei Wuyin at this juncture, unable to muster the slightest strength in his body. In fact, he was no longer flying of his own power, simply floating helplessly within the Dark Void.
Wei Wuyin, however, didn't listen. He gripped Kun Yiming's neck harder, causing it to squeeze to an unnatural extent. If it wasn't for her refined physique, her neck might have been thoroughly crushed.
"Gah!" She cried in pain despite her unconscious state, her voice stifled in her about-to-be-crushed throat.
"No!" Venerable Slayingsword fearfully shouted. He mustered what little Mystic Power he had and tried to fly towards Wei Wuyin, madness seeping from his eyes.
While this all took time to describe, it was roughly completed in the blink of a mortal's eye, and Venerable Bluecloud was still tumbling from Wei Wuyin's strike. At this point, the old man finally regained his bodily stability and saw the scene of a sea of sword light flashing for hundreds of thousands of miles until it eventually dissipated, expending all its power.
Wei Wuyin held Kun Yiming like a helpless cub, and Venerable Slayingsword was slowly flying toward the two with a maddened expression. He instantly realized the dire situation they were in. His heart, mind, and soul felt an unimaginably sharp jolt from this event.
In a few exchanges, Wei Wuyin, a mere mortal at the Temporal Eye Phase, had single-handedly fought against three Ascended beings. In fact, this might be considered a defeat. His fighting tactics from beginning to end were impeccable, truly capitalizing on each of their strengths and vulnerabilities.
He took the spell caster out of commission by continuously blitzkrieg him with physical attacks, discombobulating him endlessly at every available opportunity. While he was nearing a Demi-Mortal Lord, his type of physique is more durable than powerful, a type of process that those at his level typically performed to handle the Demi-Mortal Lord's Ascension.
Then, he refused to fight against Venerable Slayingsword in close combat, while attacking his wife, causing the Sword Cultivator to grow more and more mentally unstable and pressed while staying close to use her as a shield when the Sword Cultivator eventually used a big sword move that might be able to slay careless Demi-Mortal Lords. After all, Sword Cultivators were renowned for having one of the strongest offensive powers, especially those who grasped Sword Intent like Venerable Slayingsword.
There was a reason why Kun Yiming pursued Venerable Slayingsword despite their age difference. He was astonishingly talented, and powerful, and forged his own path as a Void Hunter, forming an organization that was only slightly inferior to the Kun Clan.
Venerable Bluecloud gathered his Mystic Power, executing a movement art as a fluffy azure cloud formed around him, carrying him through the Dark Void until he arrived by the exhausted Venerable Slayingsword.
"Stop! There's nothing you can do," Venerable Bluecloud said as he restrained the weakened and exhausted Venerable Slayingsword. The latter struggled slightly, but he found himself thoroughly incapable. Gritting his teeth, he stared daggers at Wei Wuyin. His eyes seemed to say that if Kun Yiming died, he would ignite his Mystic Soul and bring the world down with him!
Venerable Bluecloud's eyes looked to the hapless Kun Yiming and the indifferently faced Wei Wuyin that was a few hundred miles. Taking a deep breath, he bowed respectfully. "I apologize for our disrespect, Lord Wei."
Apologize?
Venerable Slayingsword glared at Venerable Bluecloud, a wisp of confusion in his eyes.
Woosh!
The Worldly Domain of Elemental Origin receded, completely returning to his Domain Seed within his Dantian.
"At least you're not slow in your realization," Wei Wuyin released his grip on Kun Yiming's left wing and tossed her towards the two. She flew with a trail of blood left in her wake. Venerable Bluecloud hurriedly brought her towards himself, and Venerable Slayingsword rushed to inspect her, feeling a wave of relief knowing she hadn't experienced any permanent harm, but she was definitely in tremendous pain as bits of sword light flashed in her wounds. He wanted to ask Venerable Bluecloud to use Temporal Reversion, but he held himself back knowing the cost.
Suddenly, Wei Wuyin tossed a Saint Ring to them. Fortunately, Xu You had dozens of Saint Rings, and while most were low-grade, they were likely gifts for disciples or spoils of war from battles.
Venerable Bluecloud reached out and took the Saint Ring, inspecting it promptly and his breath released a soft exhale. It seemed his assumption was correct.
Wei Wuyin brought out an hourglass designed to last three hours, filled with dark grayish sand that sparkled with solar light. It was like a miniature star, hard to miss in any environment.
"...!" Only then did Venerable Slayingsword realize the truth—the battle hadn't started!
Venerable Bluecloud warily smiled; they vastly underestimated Wei Wuyin and had been scattered instantly. It was more of a 1v1v1v1 than a 1v3, especially considering how Kun Yiming was trying to flee, Venerable Slayingsword was trying to attack, and Venerable Bluecloud was just blitzed into the inability to act. This was all the result of their carelessness! Not truly treating Wei Wuyin's words of warning with any worth!
Moreover, Wei Wuyin hadn't exuded the slightest killing intent while attacking. If he wanted to kill them, he could've slayed Venerable Bluecloud first due to his slow reaction, especially since Venerable Slayingsword wasn't attacking with his all and Kun Yiming was focused on escaping the Worldly Domain than supporting shortly after their initial clash. Instead, they were using Mystic Power exhausting methods to do everything but fight.
All in all, they weren't fighting as if their lives depended on it.
"The ring has recovery and energy replenishing products at the Mystic-Earth grade, and I'll give you guys three days to refine them as well as plan your strategies. Then, your life and death will be decided in three hours." Wei Wuyin calmly stated, causing shivers to course through Venerable Bluecloud's and Venerable Slayingsword's spines.
Kree!
Bai Lin streaked across the Dark Void, allowing Wei Wuyin to ride her within an instant. He flew back to the Original Dawn Palace.
"..." Venerable Bluecloud was silent, but he realized that the three of them had expended most if not all their Mystic Power, yet besides Venerable Slayingsword, most of that wasn't against Wei Wuyin. This time, they would understand that their lives were truly at risk, and it wasn't Wei Wuyin's Safety that they needed to be worried about, but surviving themselves.