Chapter 368: Emperor Soulsilk
Chapter 368: Emperor Soulsilk
While the Constellation Cessation did its work, miniature suns exuding a terrifying heat appeared in both of Tianyi's hands. As if he was playing baseball, Tianyi threw them one after the other into the ongoing explosion, only stopping after the ninth Stellar Silence he unleashed.
Tianyi continued to stare and watch the devastation his technique wrought. Constellation Cessation wasn't an attack that would end fast like Stellar Silence, but a prolonged technique designed to destroy even the ashes in its wake.
Even immortal monarchs would find it nigh impossible to survive once inside the blast radius, much less true immortals. Mortals didn't need to be mentioned; they couldn't even be compared to bugs in the front of Constellation Cessation.
He glanced at his hands. He likely killed millions of people in an instant, if not hundreds of millions of people. Honestly, the scale of the devastation exceeded his expectations. The range far exceeded the boundaries of the Eight Pillar Sect. Perhaps he should not have pumped so much qi into the technique.
Luckily, no mortal nations or mortal settlements were located near the Eight Pillar Sect, although he was quite sure he decimated some unique species of animals and monsters that lived in the area and a few demons. However, Tianyi's worry should be that he didn't put enough qi into Constellation Cessation.
The Eight Pillar Sect and the surrounding area had turned into a massive crater. Tianyi could even detect the lower boundaries of the Huang Realm. Earth and metal spiritual qi from the spiritual veins began to flood the lower boundary, transforming into sediment, dirt, rocks, metals, and minerals in an attempt to repair the damage.
Above Tianyi, dark clouds gathered, and lightning roared, as if in warning. Tianyi didn't pay attention to the stormy clouds—causing them to thunder even more. No, he was staring at the floating temple surrounded by a crumbling mountain; it floated where the core area of the Eight Pillar Sect would have been situated.
The temple charged toward Tianyi, and once it got closer, he could see the finer details. The temple had eight pillars supporting it, half black and half white. In addition to the five elements, it also exuded the complete Law of Yin-Yang. Tianyi's eyes glimmered, "It's not considered stealing if it's a spoil of war, right?"
Tianyi reached out and clenched his fist, attempting to teleport the yin-yang temple into his Nine Heavens Universe. However, space was too stable around the temple, preventing him from accomplishing his goal. It seemed that he could only force it to run out of energy or kill its controller before claiming it.
Instantly, a miniature silver and gold sun appeared above his palm again. Faint apparitions of eight planets manifested and orbited the miniature sun. Before Tianyi could complete his technique, twin dragons of black and white shot out toward him.
Although incomplete, Tianyi sent the technique toward the incoming yin and yang dragons. Upon clashing, the incomplete Constellation Cessation exploded. The yin dragon started to shrink and grow smaller, while the yang dragon grew larger and more powerful.
Still, it was obviously at a disadvantage in the face of Tianyi's technique. With each passing moment, the Constellation Cessation's range grew larger. Just as it seemed that it could no longer hold back, three more white dragons shot out and slammed into the Constellation Cessation.
With four white dragons, the incomplete Constellation Cessation started to be suppressed and even pushed back toward Tianyi. Two black dragons exuding immortal qi of yin manifested and charged toward Tianyi, releasing roars that would have knocked out the average immortal monarch.
Tianyi flattened his hand and slashed the air in front of him, causing it to split and reveal the void of the Nine Heavens Universe. Thousands of Tianyis formed of starlight floated aimlessly. With a snap of his fingers, the copies formed from his Stellar Incarnation Technique shot out like sniper rounds toward the three black dragons and the temple.
Once the stellar incarnations neared the black dragons, white dragons, or the yin-yang temple, they exploded using the Nuclear Self-Detonation Technique Tianyi devised. During the years at the Eight Pillar Sect, Tianyi had further refined the technique so that its destructive properties further increased without increasing the qi requirements.
If the Constellation Cessation Technique already made the sun in the sky seem dim; the Nuclear Self-Detonation Technique cranked it up to eleven. The detonating stellar incarnations added tens to hundreds of smaller suns in the sky. Even if it was at night, the people at the edge of the Heaven and Mortal Continent would be able to see day shining on the Earth Continent.
The stellar incarnations streaming from the Nine Heavens Universe seemed endless, and under their relentless assault, the black and white dragons' forms faltered, turning from real to illusionary. The Constellation Cessation's range widened again and started to reach the temple, incinerating whatever was left of the crumbling mountain that sheltered it.
At this time, an invisible wave rippled from the yin-yang temple. Whenever it crossed a stellar incarnation, it either prematurely detonated or dissipated into harmless qi.
Tianyi frowned as he received the feedback from his incarnations. The incarnations relied on strands of immortal sense to operate, almost like the CPU in a computer. The wave was a soul attack that disrupted the process, hence the results.
The stellar incarnations stop charging out of Tianyi's inner universe. However, if the surviving Eight Pillar Sect members thought he had no more tricks up his sleeve, they were dead wrong.
Before long, celestial bodies ranging from asteroids to smaller-sized planets shot out of the entrance to the Nine Heavens Universe. One asteroid left a flaming trail in its wake, while another was entirely made of ice. A third was extremely small, but its mass was greater than a large planet. Wherever the ashen planet passed, everything died, even the air itself.
In short, all sorts of strange and terrifying celestial bodies appeared.
Tianyi had no doubt in his mind that the mortals of the Earth Continent were in a state of panic after witnessing the abnormal changes. Even the immortals would feel the need to bury themselves and hide in the face of this cataclysmic event.
'Now, what are you going to do now that your soul attacks are no longer effective?' For all their power, soul cultivators did not have any advantage against soulless objects.
Eight lights of black and white streamed out of the yin-yang temple. They folded over and formed a spherical yin-yang symbol over ten thousand meters large, but instead of the two black and white seeds inside, a white carp swam in the yin area while a black carp swam in the yang area.
When the celestial bodies slammed into the yin-yang sphere, they were redirected away. Even the Constellation Cessation's explosion disappeared upon hitting the yin-yang sphere.
Tianyi narrowed his eyes. After the soul ripples, his immortal sense could no longer accurately detect the situation, but his eyes could still see the yin-yang sphere downsizing, no matter how minute the change was. He snapped his fingers, and portals appeared in the trajectory of the celestial bodies. Once they entered, they were once again shooting toward the yin-yang sphere.
Next, five constellations, representing the Law of Five Phases, shot out of the Nine Heavens Universe. With the Yellow Dragon Constellation at the center, the Azure Dragon Constellation to the east, the Vermillion Bird Constellation to the south, the White Tiger Constellation at the West, and the Black Tortoise Constellation at the north to round it up, Tianyi formed the Five Phase Stellar Formation.
A hundred thousand meters of space was surrounded by a mixture of fifth-step immortal qi of fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. Everything started to break down to spiritual qi, even the very air molecules, fueling the formation—everything except the yin-yang temple surrounded by the yin-yang sphere at the center of the formation.
It was as if Tianyi's Five Phase Stellar Formation did not affect the yin-yang sphere, but upon closer inspection, that was not the case. The formation stalled the rotation of the yin-yang sphere, draining its energy. Simultaneously, the energy consumption for the yin-yang sphere drastically increased each time a celestial body struck it.
Tianyi continued to bombard the yin-yang sphere from all aspects. If the surviving true immortals thought he would run out of qi soon, they were in for a rude awakening. In fact, Tianyi wanted them to compete in endurance.
In his entire life, Tianyi could only recall one time he had run low on qi after entering the Core Formation Realm.
Time passed, and the Constellation Cessation eventually disappeared, running out of energy. However, the Five Phase Stellar Formation had not disappeared after disintegrating everything within it except the celestial bodies and the yin-yang temple.
While he was battling the last remnants of the Eight Pillar Sect, his conduits on Daoyi, Ba Shifang, and his mother updated him on the war situation. He frowned when he received news that Tai Wuling was actually more powerful than his clone.
He used a lot of resources and effort to cultivate Ba Shifang. Of the people who cultivated the Nine-Five Scripture, only Tianyi managed to form the seventh-grade Nine Mandate Cores, Five Heaven Souls, and only Ba Shifang had cultivated the sixth-grade Eight Symbolic Cores, Four Direction Souls.
Granted, the number of people who cultivated his Nine-Five Scripture could be counted on one hand, but he had confidence that the fifth and sixth grades could compare to the Ten Heavenly Scriptures, so it surprised him that Tai Wuling could suppress Ba Shifang.
Even if he cultivated one of the Ten Heavenly Scriptures, it wouldn't be enough to suppress Ba Shifang. There had to be something more. The only reason Ba Shifang hadn't lost yet was because of the continuous qi supply his conduit provided.
Tianyi began to grow interested in what Tai Wuling's secret was. As his thoughts drifted, he suddenly noticed that the resistance from the yin-yang temple drastically decreased. The yin-yang sphere shrunk by nearly thirty percent, and the black and white carps curled into dots.
Just as Tianyi moved in for the kill, he sensed an abnormal spatial disturbance next to him. He turned to look and nearly got the fright of his life.
A blue phantom attacked him. The blue phantom possessed the general form of a human, but it had eight bug-like eyes full of hatred, mandibles jutting out from its lips, and three pairs of arms, each wielding a curved dagger.
Tianyi bit a scream as he recoiled, but his reaction was too slow, and the monstrous humanoid managed to slash him with one of its weapons. The dagger managed to split his skin, dripping a six-colored liquid into his body.
"Xi Tianyi! I just poisoned you with Six Desire Venom. Suffer for all the death you caused to my Eight Pillar Sect!" the monstrous humanoid hissed.
Tianyi glanced at the healed wound on his arm. Inside his Nine Heavens Universe, he collected the drop of Six Desire Venom for future use. Unless it was a poison that destroyed spacetime or realms, they couldn't affect him at all. Instead, he observed that creature straight from his nightmare.
Recalling the information the Buzhou Immortal Sect supplied him and the white and black robes the monster wore, Tianyi guessed his identity. "Emperor Soulsilk, so you didn't die."
Although Tianyi couldn't see any changes on Emperor Soulsilk's insectoid face, he could sense the frustrations rolling off. The Eight Pillar Sect's grand elder blurred as he neared Tianyi.
Tianyi glanced at the yin-yang temple and continued to pressure it. Simultaneously, numerous portals opened around Emperor Soulsilk, from where numerous stellar incarnations popped out and activated the Nuclear Self-Detonation Technique.
Before the explosions even died off, Emperor Soulsilk phased through the nuclear blasts, untouched. The six daggers in his hand stabbed toward Tianyi with a vengeance, and in response, Tianyi solidified the spacetime around him.
The daggers couldn't pierce Tianyi's spacetime aura, but the Six Desire Poison rolled off of the blade and into Tianyi's inner universe. Tianyi stretched his hand out as a portal to the Nine Heavens Universe opened within his sleeve. It began to suck in the surrounding space in front of him, but to Tianyi's surprise, Emperor Soulsilk stayed in place.
More than that, he actually started retreating.
Tianyi increased the intensity of his immortal sense and saw Immortal Soulsilk was actually in his soul state. He was not unfamiliar with this technique as Daoyi was also well-versed.
A soul cultivator could draw out their soul and fight beyond their flesh's limits. In addition, material attacks would no longer affect them. Tianyi's Nuclear Self-Detonation actually had a soul-attacking effect, but it seemed the effect was too low for Emperor Soulsilk.
The mark on Tianyi's forehead disappeared, and a vertical line took its place. Then, it opened to reveal Tianyi's Truth-Seeking Eye. A beam of light shot forth and into Emperor Soulsilk's forehead.
He knew that his soul techniques were inferior to a soul emperor. Since that was the case, he would crush the other party's mind and immortal sense through sheer quantity. The beam contained the immensity of Tianyi's willpower from the Nine Heavens Universe.
As Tianyi expected, Emperor Soulsilk halted his movements. He took this chance to fly forward and made a grab for the soul emperor. Unfortunately, Emperor Soulsilk broke out of Tianyi's spell and reeled back out of his reach.
'Damn, my soul techniques need more work,' Tianyi thought. Had it been a normal monarch, they might have become dazed for five to ten minutes, not the scant seconds Emperor Soulsilk received.
Tianyi blinked and turned toward the yin-yang temple. Emperor Soulsilk could stop his spacetime teleportations, but what if the yin-yang temple could not, and it was only through Emperor Soulsilk that it could?
Without another thought, Tianyi shot toward the yin-yang temple.
"Come back here!" Emperor Soulsilk shouted as he chased after Tianyi.
Tianyi reached forward and opened a portal to the Nine Heavens Universe within his sleeve upon nearing. His eyes blinked when he saw a black-and-white-robed man step out and charge at him. The man's skin was pitch-black. He had no eyes, only pits of evil, and radiated an aura of absolute death.
The man's sheer speed broke the sound barrier as he dug his fist into Tianyi's body. However, Tianyi showed no pain and just stared at the man. "Plague-Grade Jiangshi!"