Chapter 460: First Mover's Advantage
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
The Golden Roc Grand Sage flapped his wings, causing the remaining dozens of Cloud Forest Trees to start twisting.
The trees were covered with the Parasol Fairy's mushrooms which were trying to suppress the abnormal developments of the Cloud Forest World.
While the Golden Roc Grand Sage's control over the world had been disrupted by her, he still possessed a massive amount of control.
Regardless whether it was the Golden Roc Grand Sage or the Parasol Fairy aided by the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage, neither one of them could become the absolute master of the world if the other sought to undermine him/her.
Furthermore, the formation of the Cloud Forest World was set by the Golden Roc Grand Sage. If he wished to destroy it, there's nothing the Parasol Fairy could do.
The Heavenly Charms Grand Sage turned her head to look at the Golden Roc Grand Sage but she did not stop him. Her attention was concentrated on the Hades' Dark Mantra in the plate.
"Is it a success?"
Lin Feng and Yan Mingyue looked at the plate covered with light. In the black hole at its center, divine purple shone slightly as the terrifying aura calmed down. It was no longer as powerful.
This did not mean that the Golden Roc Grand Sage had failed. In fact, he had succeeded!
The divine purple light was the ultimate move used by the Hades Emperor all those years ago to dominate the world. That was the Hades' Dark Mantra.
After it had been formed, the Hades' Dark Mantra began to consciously retract its aura. It would only deploy its terrifying aura in battle.
Yan Mingyue looked at the Hades' Dark Mantra for a long while before saying slowly, "So that's it then. The Golden Roc Grand Sage expected Long Ye and the Sirius Grand Sage to mess about. He was also ready to begin the sacrificial rites without having all nine sacrifices present."
"He sacrificed three of his navagrahas to ensure his control over the Hades' Dark Mantra because he wanted to leech on the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage's power from the very start to form it."
"It appears that the Golden Roc Grand Sage was not fully confident that he could form the Hades' Dark Mantra. From the beginning, he counted on the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage's powers," Lin Feng said, nodding his head. "The Hunyuan Demonic Code of the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage was the closest remaining spell in the Barren Expanses to the Hades' Dark Mantra."
"That terrifying demonic light just now was the combined efforts of two supremely powerful demons."
Yan Mingyue's gaze shifted between the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage and the Golden Roc Grand Sage. "No wonder the Golden Roc Grand Sage did not panic when he saw the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage breaking the seal and coming in. This was part of his plans from the start. He specifically spared the Parasol Fairy to give her the key to the Cloud Forest World."
"The Heavenly Charms Grand Sage recognized this point, but she chose to go along with it for the Hades' Dark Mantra. She chose not to interrupt his cultivation process until he formed the Hades' Dark Mantra and instead, she went after the Grand Sage of Qiong Qi."
Lin Feng's eyes narrowed as he said, "Now that the cultivation had succeeded, the Golden Roc Grand Sage owns the Hades' Dark Mantra. However, the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage obtains control over it too. Now, they two of them will decide for themselves who does it truly belong to."
With the successful cultivation of the Hades' Dark Mantra, everyone within the plate, except Long Ye and the Sirius Grand Sage whose powers were supplemented by the Cloud Forest Trees, particularly Shi Zongyue and the other human cultivators, wore pained expressions on their face. Their skin turned greenish-grey and their spirits were broken. They were like candle wicks that had almost been burned completely through and were about to be extinguished anytime soon.
Their Immortal Souls were all severely damaged and they appeared to be at the end of their lines, bordering on death.
The purple light slowly sunk into the black hole at the center of the plate. Looking at this scene, the Heavenly Charms Grad Sage slashed the air next to her instantly, a rip in space appeared.
In the rip, an immensely horrific demonic power came out. Those were the powerful demon cultivators under the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage. The ones with the lowest mastery had at least an Undying Demon Soul. Many of them were demonic saints with their original true spirits.
The Golden Roc Grand Sage did not bring his powerful minions over from the Barren Expanses. If they were to fight full force, he would lose to the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage.
Hence, he used his own demonic powers to powers to destroy the formation that he had cast with the Cloud Forest Tree.
The thick trunks of the Cloud Forest Trees grow downwards as if it had entered into an endless void. At the bottommost part of the tree branches, space itself twitched and turned. It was almost as if ten light pillars had come together to form a single large pillar.
Now, because of the Golden Roc Grand Sage's movement, these tree trunks began to separate one-by-one. They no longer clumped together as they extracted themselves from the void.
The big and small Cloud Forest Worlds all started shrinking and returned to their original shapes and sizes. Looking at them now, the twist in the void that allowed Lin Feng and the rest to enter appeared once again.
The seal of the Cloud Forest World had been completely broken!
The Parasol Fairy sought to take over control of the Middle World and tap on the powers of the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage to seal the world, but it was too late.
The Golden Roc Grand Sage did not want to fight the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage alone, so he turned it into a free-for-all.
For the powerful human cultivators of the Great Void Sect, the Great Zhou Empire and the rest, they would break into the Cloud Forest World at the slightest shift in power.
The Parasol Fairy ultimately was not a Third Level Undying Demon Soul demon who had a syncretic star soul. Before she was able to control the Middle World, the humans outside had already rushed in. The entire situation became chaotic!
At this time, Lin Feng moved.
His target was the dozens of Cloud Forest Trees. He rushed towards them. There, the Parasol Fairy attempted to re-form the giant tree by combining the Cloud Forest Trees. Lin Feng did not give her this chance as his body glowed with a bright, cold light and a powerful explosion sounded.
Wherever the light touched, the mushrooms on the trees started to crumble to dust as they retreated. None dared to stop Lin Feng.
"Go!" Lin Feng bellowed. Shi Tianhao, Zhu Yi, Xiao Yan and Yue Hongyan rode towards the Cloud Forest Trees using the Kun Peng Pavilion.
In the void above everyone's heads, a terrible aura could be felt as the human cultivators rushed into the Cloud Forest World.
The Hades' Dark Mantra, the Nine Luminaries Heaven-Crushing Formation and the Cloud Forest Trees were what they were all after.
The Heavenly Charms Grand Sage and the Golden Roc Grand Sage began to fight in earnest over the Hades' Dark Mantra.
At this very instance, Lin Feng acted first to his advantage.
The Kun Peng Pavilion swung its doors open as Zhu Yi, Xiao Yan and Yue Hongyan rushed out and landed on the closest three Cloud Forest Trees.
In that instant, the Parasol Tree Wood Essence suddenly gave off a strong power as an unlimited amount of hot spiritual energy surged into the trunks of the Cloud Forest Trees.
From afar, the intersection between the two turned red-hot as the red light spread in all directions. Very quickly, they covered the entire Cloud Forest Tree. Even the leaves were tainted by the red light.
Understand the protection of the Flame Dragon Celestial Armor, Yue Hongyan extended her two hands which became similar to dragon claws as she grabbed onto a tree branch and swung from it.
This would have been comical if not for the sudden burst of power from the Flame Dragon Celestial Armor that caused the tree to tremble.
This was because Yue Hongyan's mastery was still low. Had she been in the Nascent Soul stage, she would have uprooted the Cloud Forest Tree with help from the Flame Dragon Celestial Armor.
Shi Tianhao and Zhu Yi were more relaxed. The two of them operated the Kun Peng Pavilion and activated the Two Elements of Creation Formation. They managed to directly take one Cloud Forest Tree. The giant pavilion and the powerful spell formation were like two beasts that devoured the Cloud Forest Tree.
On the other side, Xiao Yan and Yue Hongyan were both able to shake the foundation of their Cloud Forest Trees. Shi Tianhao and Zhu Yi rushed to help them as together, they uprooted the trees and stored them.
Time was of the essence and Lin Feng was even more impatient. After he kept his powerful sword (Translator's Note: This refers to the sword borne by the maiden/woman), he touched his forehead as an unlimited amount of purple gas began to appear.
"Rise! Rise! Rise!"
Lin Feng waved his hand and the Heaven-Revolving Purple Clouds turned into a humongous hand. It grabbed three more Cloud Forest Trees as if it was grabbing a bunch of sticks.
There were a total of 18 Cloud Forest Trees. Earlier on, the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage uprooted three and gave them to Long Ye, the Sirius Grand Sage and the Parasol Fairy. Now, only 15 were left.
After Lin Feng and his disciples were done, they managed to take 7 more. In an instant, they stole close to half.
However, in that short span of time, the sky split open and the many human cultivators rushed inside. They all saw what Lin Feng and company were doing.
"Put them down!" Many loud voices bellowed together, causing the Middle World to tremble.
As the clouds burned and a brilliant light shone, a shadow appeared. One could not see it clearly but one could feel that it was heavy, majestic, powerful and august. It seemed to be the manifestation of the powers of an absolute sovereign.
The golden light flew towards Lin Feng and his disciples. However, a sword qi moved even quicker.
The sword qi appeared to split the heavens and earth itself. It was born from the chaos of Creation and with a single cleave, it managed to split the heavens and earth apart and form the world.
Even the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage and the Golden Roc Grand Sage who were engaged in a life-or-death battle could not allow Lin Feng to make off with so many Cloud Forest Trees. The two of them each released a burst of demonic aura towards Lin Feng.
The Heavenly Charms Grand Sage conjured a dim ball of light to form a tiny world with her demonic powers. Then, she destroyed the small world and a light burst forth from its destruction. That was the Disruptive Original Demonic Light of Silent Destruction.
The Golden Roc Grand Sage moved even quicker. Speed-wise, even the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage could not match him. A golden feather dropped from his body and disappeared into space. Then, it appeared before Lin Feng.
It was a targeted assassination attempt that cut through space and time. Merging with the powers of time, even an Immortal Soul stage cultivator who could manipulate time was unable to its advance. Escape through the void was almost impossible.
In that time, confronted by the many attacks coming his way, Lin Feng's face was calm and neutral. He predicted everything and he had already kept his disciples within the Kun Peng Pavilion. With a final bit of effort, he plucked one more Cloud Forest Tree.
In the same instant, Mount Yujing, within his soul, trembled.
At this time, the Golden Roc Grand Sage's attack had already reached him!