Chapter 929: Two Strikes
The descent of darkness, advent of light, and raging roars of war, chaos, and slaughter. It was as if the darkest hell had arrived, plunging the entire starfield into a never-ending, all-encompassing night!
Horrifying.
The hearts of all viewers thumped in panic, and some outright screamed hysterically enveloped in their fear of this unknown. Light was a constant to the lives of many in a Starfield of nine Solar Stars, and only artificial light and calculated rotations brought about a night, but even this 'night' was brighter than night. As such, when the darkness engulfed their visual senses, it was an understatement to say panic was their response.
It was madness. Unpredictable madness.
The Soul Saint King's words had been stuck in his throat when darkness fell. An unimaginable degree of shock pounded his heart and mind with relentless force. He was unable to control his natural response, gawking in awe and disbelief!
The Soul Saint King, one of the strongest figures of the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, was stunned into a stupid expression!
And the War Commander was the cause! With his halberd in hand, Mystic Aura flaring strongly, and his eyes revealing a chilling light through his helmet's slits, Zhan Zheng had violently clenched his empty fist.
All rays of light veered in his direction, drawn uncontrollably to his right fist. It kept flowing into his palm. Light rays of millions of millions of miles encompassing the entire Ninestar Starfield from border to border in every direction were gathering!
Those at the Astral Core Realm and higher could still perceive the world through their Spiritual Sense, but it felt disorientingly odd. Like a human familiar with observing the world in rich, vibrant or dull colors suddenly began to see only in black and white shades. The absence was so glaring that it shook their minds to a state of absolute pause.
"Wh-what?!" Sun Li screamed! What was this? What type of power was this?! What…the… flying fu-
"All the light is being attracted to it!" Han Yuhei pointed out disbelievingly. Despite witnessing the exact action, he found it extremely difficult to accept. Should an Earthly Saint be able to do this?! What mystical art can absorb all the light of a starfield in less than a single breath?!
"...Light…" The Soul Saint King whispered to himself. Suddenly, his eyes contracted and his expression dramatically changed.
"Oh no!" Those words barely left his lips as he tried to retreat. However, the War Commander was a step faster. Pressing against the solid space that acted as his footing and foundation, Zhan Zheng pushed off with explosive might. He was like a roaring tiger, leaping at his prey!
With prodigious speed worthy of an Earthly Saint, he rushed towards the Soul Saint King! His entire body was glowing with a radiant light, pure and untainted, and it caused him to seem like the only light in a world of absolute darkness. An exceptionally beautiful streak of light was all everyone could see, illuminating their hearts and minds.
The Soul Saint King's eyes shrunk considerably. Without hesitation, his Radiant Light Mystic Soul pulsed with tremendous power. His light power surged throughout his body in a profound manner, interacting with his meridians, rousing and bolstering the internal Mystic Runes within his body, and he, just like Zhan Zheng, emitted a bright radiance. However, it was clearly weaker than Zhan Zheng's radiance!
How could he compare to an entire world's light energies! Somehow, Zhan Zheng had converted the entire starfield's light energies to his strength! This wasn't outrageous at all. The Radiant-type Mystic Rune, a portion of Awakened Mystic Intent, allowed the control of ambient mystic-graded light energies, including absorption and refinement. The issue was the scope.
The scope was unimaginably massive!
For an extremely short period, the War Commander had reached speeds exceeding what the Soul Saint King could accomplish! Baffled, the Soul Saint King could only watch as Zhan Zheng approached with his crescent-blade halberd in hand, his fist glowing brightly, and his eyes emitting an icy-chill.
Using this strange art, the War Commander had forcefully raised his speed beyond the Soul Saint King! As one of the fastest, if not the fastest Earthly Saint in the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, the Soul Saint King was absolutely floored. Instinctively, he brandished his Ninestar Radiant Sword, emitting his Sword Intent to its maximal extent. He was readying a counteroffensive!
Unfortunately, the Soul Saint King swiftly came to the realization that as the War Commander grew closer, his radiance was diffusing from his body, drawn to the War Commander's glowing fist with uncontrollable fervor.
'SHIT!' Immediately after the thought, The Soul Saint King felt the overbearing gravity engulf his body, redirected from the entire world and solely pressed against him. When the War Commander opened his hand, opening into a palm, and directing it to face the Soul Saint King, he knew he was royally fucked.
His opponent hadn't just exceeded his speed!
This strange Earthly Saint held a BLACK HOLE in his hand! It formed an event horizon within his palm, and while extremely beautiful, it was something that vastly exceeded his current imagination of understanding. How could a cultivator hold a black hole?!
If he knew that Wei Wuyin, a mere mortal, actually contained a black hole within his body, he would be absolutely stupefied. Even if he met a Black Hole in the vast Dark Void, he would have to avoid it at all costs. This was especially so if it was a black hole formed from a mystic-graded Solar Star's collapse.
The Soul Saint King soon felt himself gradually slowing down. The gravitational force emitted from the black hole was growing stronger as the distance closed; he was unable to escape it! Furthermore, all his light-attributed mystic power was drawn in the very instant he tried to counteract its effects through circulation.
If frustration was an image, it would be his current expression.
Countered!
Countered!
COUNTERED!
A single move had defeated his entire cultivation base. But the danger wasn't just that, the War Commander had already arrived before him, the black hole in his palm mercilessly gathering all of his light power. The distance and speed at which their actions were occurring, the Soul Saint King was no longer able to muster any other response, whether it was a Spiritual Spell or Mystic Art, he was unable to find the time after wasting so much.
A battle between experts was often taught to be extremely fast, decided in a few exchanges. The Soul Saint King believed this, applied this, and claimed many victories because of this, and this type of battle was where the Soul Saint King thrived in.
Yet he was now forced to face the same fate as his past opponents.
Who was this Earthly Saint?
WHO THE HELL WAS WEI WUYIN?!
Those were his last thoughts before his Mystic Ward was impacted by a two-strike combo.
The first, a hyper-charged halberd strike. It pierced his Mystic Ward and deflected his Ninestar Radiant Sword, the last line of the Soul Saint King's defense, with a violent thrust, entering his center of mass, and exiting through the other side in a splash of glowingly white blood that effused an alluring brilliance. For a second, the emissions felt as if a river of light was about to be born.
The second strike was presided by a twist and yank of the halberd, latching the crescent blade to the Soul Saint King's spine, pulling him into a closer range as the War Commander of a Legion slapped the black hole towards the Soul Saint King's chest and crumbling Mystic Ward. The black hole's event horizon was the gathered energies of light from both the starfield and the Soul Saint King's light power, returning it all onto him!
The impact wasn't explosive.
Instead, there was a spine-chilling dull sound followed by a harsh, heavy grunt of hellish pain!
A burst of blindingly glaring light erupted that caused everyone to go blind, mortal and Ascended. Not even Spiritual Sense could peer through the light.
The light lasted for an entire two minutes!
At the end of which, it was clear who had claimed victory.
While that was going on, two minutes prior, in the heart of darkness, 1,000 Ascended met three Earthly Saints in battle!
The three Earthly Saints, the Soul Rumbling Saint, Soul Falling Saint, and lastly, the giant of a man, the Soul Martial Saint, were all rushing at full speed to the Soul Saint King, seeking to reinforce his position and regain control of the situation.
But their rush was blocked by an army of Ascended that took them by surprise. These 1,000 Ascended beings divided themselves expertly into three units of roughly three hundred in number, each led by two Demi-Mortal Lords, who were exuding an exceptionally bloodthirsty aura befitting soldiers of a thousand battles. Their gathered Mystic Aura cascaded towards the Earthly Saints.
The Soul Monarchs glanced at each other, seeing the shock in each other's eyes, but reacted nevertheless. The Mystic Aura served as an effective interceptor. If they bone-rushed through it, they could suffer injuries. They were unified in their split-second decision, segregating and deciding to swiftly deal with these lesser Ascended beings with extreme prejudice.
They each had appalling levels of killing intent within their eyes as they acted. And when they acted, they acted swiftly! A rare show of respect and urgency. When the entire starfield trembled, and subsequently descended into total darkness, they knew they needed to deal with this situation with the greatest swiftness imaginable!
"Don't hold back!" The Soul Martial Saint roared out as he clenched his gigantic fist, exuding tremendous physical strength that distorted fixed space.
The other two had already agreed, not needing this reminder, but they knew about the Soul Martial Saint's close relationship with the Soul Saint King and skepticism surrounding all these events. He was definitely the most invested in the Soul Saint King's safety, not trusting them to give their all unless they knew they may suffer later should they not.
They could only sigh in their hearts. But they listened; they held nothing back!
They firstly used their greatest advantage as Earthly Saints! Spatial Powers! They sought to entrap these Ascended beings into World Prisons, and then deal them a devastatingly charged blow that could eradicate them entirely.
However, with shocked expressions, their World Prisons collapsed as quickly as they formed. The World Prisons broke into fragments of solidified space and were pulled to the Legion Commander in the far-off distance. It would be a mistake to label their current thoughts as astonished!
However, the Soul Falling Saint suffered the worst. He executed Spatial Shift alongside his World Prison, traversing through fixed space through immersion, and he felt the unimaginably terrifying levels of attractive force the Legion Commander was outputting! Just as half his body entered, he screamed in abject horror!
The old taoist, the Soul Falling Saint, broke free with a burst of mystic power! But just barely. When he escaped, the fear and trepidation within his aged eyes was at an all time high, likely never reaching such limits before in his long life. He couldn't help but look at his tattered right sleeve where a whole freaking arm once was.
Unfortunately, he was unable to process this loss as a combined force of over three hundred Ascended struck! Together, they formed a gigantic sword of white light surrounded by violet-colored gas. It sliced towards the Soul Falling Saint with mind-boggling speeds!
The other two were better off, but they were forced to face the combination of the other squads. The Soul Martial Saint faced a fist clad in steel, its knuckles layered in golden spikes. He clenched his fists and lobbed several forceful punches that shook space!
The Soul Rumbling Saint was faced with a sanguine flame the size of a tiny-sized planet. He was overwhelmed in moments, engulfed entirely. The bloody stench was sickening.
Three battles took place that were shocking yet the focus of almost everyone that could perceive through the darkness was concentrated on the Soul Saint King and War Commander's clash!