Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Assault on Luzhou City (First Update)

The loud crash inside the room startled Yan Mengdie from her meditation.

"What happened?" she asked at once.

"Nothing, nothing! I was just trying to see what the stage of controlling objects is really like," Xu Cheng said, while shooting a glare at Ju Hua. The latter looked rather pleased with himself. If not for this fellow, he would never have lost control over the furnishings around him.

And no such accident would have occurred.

"At that stage, one can manipulate everything nearby with a single thought. Once the realm grows higher, one can even move mountains and fill seas with a mere intention," Yan Mengdie explained.

"My lord, since it is so late, why don't we strike at Luzhou City now?" Ju Hua was practically itching to move, eager to test his own cultivation.

"Very well, but we still go by circumstances. If anything seems wrong, withdraw at once!" Xu Cheng said gravely.

Their target was clear. They headed straight for the city lord's manor.

After a short while, the three of them stood upon the roof of the manor. There were a few patrolling soldiers, but none noticed them.

Xu Cheng did not release his spiritual power, and with Yan Mengdie and Ju Hua following him as he wound his way around the lotus-pattern seals laid down by the Blackwater Sect, they ultimately did not awaken anyone inside the estate.

"Mengdie, Ju Hua, let us all unleash our strongest spells downward together!"

In order to finish things quickly, Xu Cheng made the suggestion. The other two both nodded.

He and Yan Mengdie simultaneously invoked their primordial ascension art, then each released their strongest offensive spell.

This time, the Black Dragon Seal of Xu Cheng's Yellow Springs Reincarnation Immortal Art was several times more powerful than before.

Within the black, viscous liquid, a dragon's head as large as a hundred zhang emerged. It was far more solid than before, the scales on its head vivid and lifelike, and a trace of intelligence flickered in its eyes. In the blink of an eye, the black dragon swallowed the entire city lord's manor, while black currents hammered everything around it, making it seem as though none within could possibly survive.

Then a swarm of multicolored butterflies appeared in Yan Mengdie's hands, setting off a chain of explosions below, each blast accompanied by curls of yellow smoke.

Last came Ju Hua's technique. With an enormous Judge's Brush, he wrote with the fluency of dragons and serpents, painting in midair a terrifying ghostly head that sprayed downward blackish-red ghost mist capable of corroding all things.

Just as Xu Cheng believed the mission would succeed with ease, everything vanished.

A figure was revealed: a cultivator from the Great Xia Dynasty.

He had been formed by the fusion of five Great Xia cultivators, and they had actually remained in their merged state. Around them was a curtain of light that had forcefully withstood Xu Cheng and the others' attacks.

"Those cultivators from the other towns must have been killed by you," the man said as he rose to his feet. The curtain of light before him dispersed. "But your journey ends here."

Facing their assault, there was no way this fellow had emerged unharmed, Xu Cheng thought, staring intently at him as he quickly analyzed the situation.

This man had certainly lost a great deal of power.

Having broken through to the stage of controlling objects, the man finished speaking and immediately rushed toward Xu Cheng at an extreme speed, striking out. Xu Cheng narrowly evaded the blow, then regrouped with Yan Mengdie and Ju Hua.

After that, they activated the fusion of their dharma forms.

This time, the three of them merged their dharma forms, and sure enough, the aura emanating from it surpassed the level of pure yang primordial spirit.

"Fusion of dharma forms?"

The Great Xia cultivator, who had earlier been somewhat overconfident, suddenly frowned. He wondered when spell cultivators had produced something like this.

Before he could think further, the fused dharma form's attack was already ready to strike.

Several pitch-black spears, emanating a terrifying aura, appeared in the fused dharma form's hands, then shot toward the Great Xia cultivator like falling stars.

"Powerful indeed!"

The man was swift enough to avoid the attack at once, but he did not entangle himself with the fused dharma form. Instead, he circled around it and charged toward Xu Cheng and the others. Clearly, he knew that as long as these three were destroyed, the fused dharma form would naturally disperse completely.

Yet as fast as he was, the fused dharma form was even faster.

A newly formed spear in its hand blocked the Great Xia cultivator's path.

Its attack had been seen through; it seemed that unless the fused dharma form was dealt with, he could not reach the three hidden behind it.

He suddenly slapped out a palm, trying to force the fused dharma form back.

This proved quite effective. Xu Cheng and the others, controlling the fused dharma form, hurriedly retreated several steps.

The Great Xia cultivator's five heads abruptly merged into one, and his ten arms became two.

His strength did not change, but his aura grew considerably.

"Great Vajra supreme art!"

The Great Xia cultivator punched out fiercely. Under that single blow, even the space around the fused dharma form began to distort.

However, before he struck, chains of nether flame had already wrapped around the fused dharma form, while a barrier flashing with black light stood in front.

The barrier then caved in deeply beneath the punch, yet in the blink of an eye it recovered.

"Sword martial supreme art, man and sword as one!"

Then the man shouted suddenly. Sword light flashed around him, and in the next instant his entire body turned into a streak of golden sword light. Its speed was actually far greater than the fused dharma form's.

With a sharp crack, the golden sword light collided with the black barrier. Though the barrier blocked this incomparably fierce strike, cracks spread across it, and the nether flame chains ahead of it shattered.

Yet the golden sword light suddenly split into five, bypassed the fused dharma form, and then fused again at even greater speed into a single blade of light.

With a soft hum, the sword light pierced through Xu Cheng's chest.

His garments were utterly torn apart, and there was a hole in his chest. In an instant, the skin created by the Minor Five Elements Creation Art turned to dust, and every inch of the white bones beneath was covered in fine cracks.

He had not expected this martial cultivator's attack to be so terrifying.

Even Xu Cheng's primordial spirit was badly wounded. Gritting his teeth, he repaired his body, while the golden sword light hung in the air and then resumed human form.

"You still didn't die!"

Using the man-and-sword-as-one technique consumed a tremendous amount of power for a Great Xia cultivator, and it could not be unleashed endlessly.

This had to end quickly, Xu Cheng thought darkly. If his body had not possessed some immunity to martial cultivator attacks, he would already have been utterly dead.

"Nether flame chains!"

The voices of Xu Cheng, Yan Mengdie, and Ju Hua mingled from the mouth of the dharma form.

Taking advantage of the fact that the opponent could not release any formidable technique for the moment, they bound him tightly.

Then the infernal divine spear, condensed from a vast amount of power, finally took shape. It carried boundless hellish aura, at once searing and unstoppable.

"Die!"

With that, it was hurled fiercely. Like the sword light that had earlier pierced Xu Cheng's chest, it now pierced the Great Xia cultivator's chest.

Black liquid then appeared around the man, seeping into the gaping wound in his chest, while more black currents poured in through his seven apertures.

In the next instant, his body was completely ruined, leaving only five strangely shaped primordial spirits behind.

The moment the fused dharma form was dismissed, Xu Cheng quickly used the nether flame chains to send those five primordial spirits into reincarnation, offering them up.

He hoped that the meritorious golden light granted by the Yellow Springs would fully restore his body.