Chapter Twelve: Fury for a Beauty (Part One)

At the very moment it swallowed that immortal sword, a surging tide of immortal spiritual power flowed without end from the haft of the spiked club into Li Chengzhu, replenishing the nascent soul that had been left slightly depleted after fully unleashing the God-Destroying Bow.

The two immortals stopped attacking at the same time and stared blankly at Boss Li. Yuanmu’s eyes bulged so far they nearly popped out, his jaw all but dropping to the ground as he muttered nonstop, “Good heavens...” For all his experience and knowledge, he still could not fathom what rank Li Chengzhu’s magic treasure belonged to.

For a moment, the whole scene turned strangely eerie.

After quite a while, the immortal who had lost his sword finally remembered to act. His hands flew through one seal after another, trying to command his immortal sword to break free from the entanglement of that white club. At the same time, Yuanmu threw himself at his own opponent again. If he did not strike now, once the two enemies joined forces again, they would become much harder to deal with. Yuanmu, who had clawed out a living for several hundred years, understood this truth all too well.

Li Chengzhu, already one with the God-Destroying Bow, sensed the struggle inside the club at once. The swallowed immortal sword had not been melted away; it had merely been stored within the spiked club. Then the club absorbed the immortal aura contained in the sword and converted it into energy with the same spiritual-pressure fluctuation as his own before transmitting it to him.

This thing was practically a spiritual power absorber and converter.

Boss Li was thrilled.

Everyone had their own unique spiritual-pressure fluctuation, as distinct as fingerprints. Yet this thing could actually adjust those fluctuations by itself.

This white cudgel was even more dazzling than any star-sucking secret art.

“Trying to run?” The instant the immortal made his move, Li Chengzhu quickly formed seals as well, clamping the immortal sword tightly within the body of the spiked club.

A grim little smile touched his lips. If he did not drain it dry, would he not be letting himself down?

They struggled for a while, but the immortal sword still could not break free from within the club. That discovery left the immortal utterly despondent.

A mayfly trying to shake a great tree; it would not budge in the slightest. Boss Li gave a cold inward laugh as the phrase rose in his mind.

Then sudden savagery flashed across the immortal’s face, and his fingers moved rapidly through another set of hand seals.

Li Chengzhu felt an explosive force suddenly erupt inside the white club, spreading outward with the immortal sword at its center. The spiked club swelled sharply to twice its size.

It felt just like inflating a balloon.

But immediately after, the balloon slowly shrank back down. A heavy muffled crack sounded from within the club, and even the air rippled in rings.

At the same time, the immortal swayed in midair, thin threads of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Li Chengzhu knew at once: this was clearly damage to the primordial spirit. If he did not kill the enemy now, when would he ever?

With a snap of his fingers, the little creature shot forward, a glazed needle clenched in its mouth, moving too fast for the naked eye to catch. Having eaten its fill, it was abnormally excited, and its speed had been pushed to the extreme. Li Chengzhu swung the spiked club in his right hand while his left formed seals. Eight hundred flying swords gathered into a tiny space above his head, their points all aimed at the immortal, and then Li Chengzhu charged after them.

Li Chengzhu was fast, but someone else was faster.

At the very instant the little creature’s glazed needle pierced the immortal’s dantian, Yuanmu suddenly appeared behind him. Pouring all the immortal spiritual power in his body into the Meteor Sword, he thrust it straight at the immortal.

Yuanmu would rather spend a tremendous amount of immortal power on teleportation if it meant snatching this chance.

The glazed needle had only just broken the immortal’s defenses, and before he could restore his protective spiritual aura, the immortal realized with despair that he had been struck by a sneak attack.

Filled with all of Yuanmu’s immortal spiritual power, the Meteor Sword slammed viciously into the immortal’s back, only to be stopped outside his body by the last shred of protective aura he had left. Though Yuanmu possessed ample immortal power, without the imprint of the primordial spirit, he still could not draw out the Meteor Sword’s full might.

But then Boss Li made matters worse. With a hand seal, he activated the attack array inside the Meteor Sword.

What lay inside the Meteor Sword was his own elemental avatar, so Li Chengzhu could naturally command it. Earlier, he had only held back for fear of distracting Yuanmu. Now at last it had its use.

Just like the immortal sword that had exploded inside Gu Linglong’s body, the Meteor Sword pressed against the immortal’s protective aura suddenly erupted in a blinding flash. Then, with a thunderous bang, the attack array activated and shattered the already battered defensive aura completely.

Li Chengzhu looked on with a cold smile at the despair in the immortal’s eyes.

In the next instant, all eight hundred flying swords struck the immortal’s utterly defenseless dantian at once. A rapid succession of sounds rang out, like bombers blasting an enemy pillbox, and brilliant bursts of color exploded in midair. Then the swords passed through his body, dragging streams of blood behind them.

Clenching his teeth, Boss Li swung up the spiked club and roared, “To hell with your ancestors!” Then he brought it crashing down on the immortal’s head with all his might.

The immortal fell from the sky like a plummeting meteor and was smashed straight into the earth with a deafening crash.

The instant the blow landed, Boss Li felt it again: an even stronger flood of immortal aura was drawn into the body of the spiked club.

The little creature had been waiting for this moment for a long time. With a sharp whoosh it dove after the immortal’s body, then repeated the same trick and sucked out the immortal infant.

“Pillar! Come help me!” Yuanmu shouted, drenched in sweat.

Teleportation had consumed too much energy, and the effects brought by the Sixfold Universe Formation had already faded. After such prolonged fighting, Yuanmu could barely endure anymore. Even so, after ambushing that immortal, he still struggled to keep the remaining one entangled, denying him any chance to escape.

The last immortal was already covered in wounds. Worst of all was the sword strike between his legs. Though it had recovered somewhat, that blow had been vicious beyond measure. Even now, walking still felt inconvenient to him, let alone engaging in a prolonged battle.

“This time, I’m finished,” the immortal thought bitterly. When he saw below him that little pig tearing at his companion’s immortal infant like a hunting tiger, his whole body began to tremble.

Li Chengzhu’s arrival greatly relieved Yuanmu. Boss Li’s ferocity was something Yuanmu had never before witnessed. Even on the Redrock Plateau, perhaps not even the bravest immortal could match the madness that possessed him now.

He thought of Gu Linglong’s fragile, injured form. He thought of Little Shadow stepping forward without the slightest hesitation, using her own body to take those two sword strikes for him. The veins stood out across Boss Li’s forehead. If he did not slaughter these people here today, then in the future he would have no face to call himself a battle-hardened warrior who had survived the Redrock Plateau, and no face to stand before Gu Linglong and Little Shadow again.

The white club in his hand whistled and rang as Li Chengzhu swung it again and again. The eight hundred flying swords attacked the immortal without the slightest pause. With Yuanmu harrying him from the side from time to time, the immortal found himself less and less able to endure.

A lesson drawn from another’s fate becomes a warning to oneself. By now, the immortal did not dare meet Li Chengzhu’s white club head-on at all, afraid that his own immortal sword would be swallowed too. But to his sorrow, he discovered that even if he used all his strength to avoid the club’s attacks, even the lightest brush between his immortal sword and that white weapon would still drain the immortal power within the sword, while his control over it from afar steadily weakened.

“What in all creation is this damned thing?” the immortal cursed savagely, on the verge of tears.