Chapter 403: Underworld, Part 2

Fang Rui’s will was firm, and he remained unaffected. He pressed on single-mindedly, speeding toward the predetermined location.

“Ancestor, it seems he’s deliberately luring us in?”

“Indeed, we must be cautious!”

“It’s of no concern. We’ll humor this junior for a while!”

Liao Yuanhua maintained an expression so calm it seemed the heavens could fall without fazing him. In his hands, however, he unreservedly poured Spiritual Power into the Magical Treasure Golden Ship, pushing it to its absolute limit. The vessel blazed with a brilliant golden light, steadily closing the distance to Fang Rui.

「A short while later.」

Just as the distance between them shrank to an effective attack range—

‘This is the place!’

Fang Rui abruptly turned and formed a giant hand of Spiritual Power, coating it with explosive Spiritual Essence. He then slammed it down toward the relatively minuscule Golden Ship behind him as if swatting a fly.

“Up!”

Liao Yuanhua never imagined his opponent would dare to strike back.

But his vast experience showed. As he formed a hand seal, Spiritual Power surged, creating a spherical golden shield around the Golden Ship.

BANG!

The aftershock of the collision sent translucent ripples spreading through the air. The spherical golden shield around the Golden Ship warped and buckled before popping like a soap bubble. Though it had blocked Fang Rui’s attack, the sheer inertia slammed the Golden Ship downward.

“Ancestor?!”

Liao Jiang and Liao Ba, the two Seed Path Martial Saints, cried out in alarm.

“I’m fine. This junior has some skill. His power is on par with my own.”

Liao Yuanhua led the other two as he floated out of the Magical Treasure Golden Ship, his expression turning much more solemn. “Junior, you’re impressive. You have real skill.”

“However,”

A hundred-foot-tall Half-Immortal Dharma Aspect unfurled behind him, its blazing aura sweeping across the battlefield. “The resources of a Half-Immortal Family like mine are beyond anything you can imagine. In the face of absolute power, all else is futile…”

Beside him, the two Seed Path Martial Saints likewise unleashed their own massive, seventy-foot-tall Martial Arts Saint Bodies.

“Oh, is that so?!”

With a wave of Fang Rui’s hand, layer upon layer of a brilliant Array’s Spiritual Light surged upward, enveloping the entire area.

Then.

“SCREEE!”

A dense, dark mass of eight thousand Tribulation Demon Black Eagles appeared, forming a battle array. A scorching aura of slaughter swept out, suppressing the Half-Immortal Dharma Aspect and Martial Arts Saint Bodies of Liao Yuanhua’s trio, causing them to flicker violently as if they were a bad signal.

—These were the Tribulation Demon Black Eagles that Fang Rui had empowered over the last ten days using Tribulation Enlightenment, bolstered by others he had summoned from the surrounding area.

“Now, we can talk.”

Riding his Purple Feathered Crane, Fang Rui looked down upon them.

“How is this possible?!” The faces of the two Liao Family Seed Path Martial Saints changed drastically.

The confident smile on Liao Yuanhua’s face slowly began to freeze.

“Liao Jiang, Liao Ba, assist me!”

Realizing the battle was slipping out of his control, Liao Yuanhua wasted no more words and immediately launched a powerful killing blow.

He and the two Seed Path Martial Saints behind him formed a trinity formation. Using a Secret Technique, he blended his Spiritual Power with their Spiritual Essence, unleashing it as a terrifying bolt of black-purple Yin-Yang divine lightning.

“Perish!”

Yet with a single flap of its wings, a colossal phantom Divine Eagle—formed from the aura of slaughter under Fang Rui’s control—obliterated the attack.

A vast wave of energy swept out from the impact, forcing all three to retreat as they coughed up blood.

‘These eight thousand Demon Soldiers are equivalent to tens of thousands of elite troops?! This level of power… I fear…’

Liao Yuanhua’s expression shifted rapidly, as if he had just made a difficult decision. He raised his hand and unleashed a purple jade decree.

It was the True Monarch’s Profound Intent.

WHOOSH!

A Yin Yang Domain expanded to counter the military formation. A pair of three-hundred-foot-tall Bi Yi Birds soared into the sky and clashed with the Divine Eagle, but they were ultimately losing ground.

‘I’ve tested this before,’ Fang Rui thought with a cold smirk. ‘One hundred thousand Tribulation Points were enough to cultivate seven thousand Tribulation Demon Black Eagles capable of matching a True Monarch’s Profound Intent. This time, I brought a full eight thousand of them!’

He was just about to command the Divine Eagle, formed from Slaughter Army Qi, to completely annihilate the True Monarch’s Profound Intent and then settle the score with Liao Yuanhua.

But at that very moment—

“Ancestor!” Two shrill, miserable screams suddenly rang out.

It turned out that Liao Yuanhua, seeing the situation was dire, had detonated the ‘Spirit Seeds’ inside his two subordinates, forcing the two Seed Path Martial Saints to self-destruct.

BOOM! BOOM!

The terrifying shockwaves shattered the layers of Arrays that Fang Rui had so meticulously laid out.

‘He took advantage of me being tied down by the True Monarch’s Profound Intent to sacrifice two Seed Path Martial Saints, blow open the Array, and break through. That Liao Family ancestor is certainly decisive!’

With a sigh, Fang Rui extinguished the energy of the True Monarch’s Profound Intent and quelled the remaining aftershocks.

But by then—

Liao Yuanhua had already shot into the sky, splitting into numerous streaks of light that fled in every direction.

‘Such a realistic Illusion Technique. But I have the Emperor’s Gaze Divine Technique, which renders it useless against me!’

Fang Rui identified Liao Yuanhua’s true body at a glance. He didn’t give chase immediately, however, instead performing a quick divination. ‘Greatly auspicious. Does this mean he has no more True Monarch’s Profound Intents on him? Let’s go!’

SWOOSH!

This time, he didn’t even bother with the Purple Feathered Crane, transforming into a streak of light as he gave chase. The Tribulation Demon Black Eagles, slightly slower, were left far behind.

…

“Misery! Utter misery!”

Liao Yuanhua streaked through the sky as a ray of light, the naturally sorrowful cast of his face now etched with even deeper misery.

He had come to capture Fang Rui, thinking it was a surefire victory, but events had spiraled out of control. First, Fang Rui’s strength exceeded all expectations, then came the ambush by the Demon Soldiers. He’d had to use a True Monarch’s Profound Intent and sacrifice two Seed Path Martial Saints just to escape with his own life…

“No, I haven’t escaped yet!”

Liao Yuanhua suddenly noticed a streak of light rapidly closing in from behind. ‘Impossible! My Floating Light and Shadow technique has reached the Great Success stage! My ancestors always said that no one below the rank of Profound Monarch could see through it. How did he find my true body?’

With no time for detailed thought, he abruptly used a Secret Technique to accelerate.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

Spiritual Power surged from Fang Rui, forming an Energy State Flowing Cloud Cyan Simurgh beneath his feet. Behind him, Spiritual Essence ignited like a jet thruster, and his speed skyrocketed.

“You’ve gone too far!”

Seeing he couldn’t shake Fang Rui and was, in fact, being rapidly overtaken, Liao Yuanhua sneered inwardly. ‘Without your army of Demon Soldiers, do you really think I fear you?’

SWISH!

He took out his Lifebound Magical Treasure, the ‘Profound Vagina Pearl,’ and sent it flying backward.

This Profound Vagina Pearl had been refined from the impure blood of 129,600 women—the exact number of a Yuan cycle—along with other exotic materials. It excelled at defiling one’s physical body, Spiritual Power, and Magical Treasures.

‘What a dense, defiling aura,’ Fang Rui thought. ‘But, heh! It’s perfectly countered by my Taiyi Golden Pearl!’

With a flash in his eyes, Fang Rui summoned the Taiyi Golden Pearl. “Go!”

One red and one gold, the two Lifebound Magical Treasures dueled in mid-air.

BANG!

The defiling light of the Profound Vagina Pearl was scattered into chaos by the Taiyi Golden Pearl. With a hum of protest, the former was sent flying backward from the impact.

“WAH!”

Liao Yuanhua spat out a mouthful of blood to suppress the backlash. He saw a faint crack appear on his Profound Vagina Pearl, but he had no time to feel the sting of the damage.

Because Fang Rui was upon him.

“Bind!”

With a sharp cry, he sent streams of Magical Talismans flying from his Spirit Ring, which transformed into thunderbolts, a sea of fire, tornadoes, frost, and arrows of light…

But this Magic was all extinguished by the Taiyi Golden Pearl in an instant, buying him only a breath or two of time…

And in that brief moment—

A flash of light enveloped Liao Yuanhua, and he suddenly split into a man and a woman, both of whom fled in different directions.

“Huh?!”

Fang Rui used his Emperor’s Gaze Divine Technique and discovered that, impossibly, both of them were real.

After a moment of thought.

He manifested his Martial Arts Saint Body, infused it with a wisp of his Divine Soul Will, and sent it to pursue the male body. He himself went after Liao Yuanhua’s female form.

“Junior, I’m not Liao Yuanhua, the man is!”

“Junior, stop chasing me! We can talk this out!”

“How dare you be so insolent to me?”

…

Regardless of whether Liao Yuanhua tried to entice, beg, or threaten him, Fang Rui remained unmoved. He captured and sealed the female body.

Meanwhile, the male version of Liao Yuanhua had already self-destructed in despair by the time the Martial Arts Saint Body caught up.

Next.

Through Soul Searching, Fang Rui learned that Liao Yuanhua cultivated the Celestial Human Transformation Scripture. At the Source Realm, one could cultivate both a male and a female aspect. These two could be temporarily separated, and if one aspect died, the other could be re-cultivated at a great cost.

‘An interesting Cultivation Technique,’ he mused. ‘But what I’m truly interested in are this world’s deeper secrets, such as that nascent Underworld, and the reason the world’s will has remained dormant for so long…’

He murmured as his Divine Soul Will violently surged into Liao Yuanhua’s mind to begin a deep Soul Searching.