Chapter 894: Everybody In The Barren Expanses Knows You Have Arrived
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
The Marquis of Jinghuan had suffered losses at the hands of the Celestial Sect of Wonders time and time again; he had been executed by Xiao Yan and reborn from a close shave with death; he was currently trapped by the Golden Cicada Master who harbored hostile intentions towards him. Before this moment, the Marquis of Jinghuan treated everything as training and part of the grinding process towards his destiny.
No matter how challenging the obstacle was, he only had to cross the hurdle to the rest of his life and he would be able to soar ever higher.
However, at this very moment, everything in his memory became hazy and surreal as if not a single minute in his past had been real, as if everything was but a dream.
After a long moment of feeling faint in spirit and mind, he exploded once again. "No! That’s impossible! Everything is an illusion created by the Golden Cicada Master, and they are not the memories of my past lives!"
"Even if it’s real, I am the master of my fate and I can change everything!"
"That’s right, everything is different now, and the Divine Body Armor has been completely destroyed. My connections with my past lives have been cut off. From now on, I will be the captain of my soul, I will make decisions for myself and I will no longer have anything to do with that damned Divine Body Armor! You cannot influence me anymore!"
He was no longer concerned about the person that laid the Divine Body Armor to ruin, the person that he hated the most – Xiao Yan – as the whole issue had been thrown to the back of his mind.
"Everything will be different! When I escape this trap, I will reverse my fate and assume control of my destiny! I will turn everything back!"
The Marquis of Jinghuan’s eyes flushed red. "The Immortal Royal Flag, the Ancient Royal Sword, the Great Ice Moonlight Ruler, the God-slayer Puppet… I will take back everything that belongs to me in time!"
"The Supreme Heavenly Mirror, the Immortal Dragon City, the Imperial Palace, the Saintly Celestial Sword, the Great Void Holy Pavilion… One day, every single one of these treasures will belong to me!"
"Yan Mingyue, Long Ye, Xiao Zhener, Hu Yanyan, the Black Phoenix… One day, all these beautiful ladies will be in my arms!"
"The Golden Cicada Master, Xiao Yan, Liang Pan, Zhu Hongwu, Shi Yu, Yan Nanlai, Kuang Heng, Xin Longsheng… Even the leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders, Lin Feng, will bow before me one day!"
The Marquis of Jinghuan repeated the same words over and over again. "One day, one day! The day will come… Ugh!"
His words became stuck in his mouth and he could no longer finish the rest of his sentence as he stared in shock while the golden samsara surrounding him began to dissipate. However, instead of being able to escape the prison, his soul was withering away along with the samsara.
A haze of terror came over the Marquis of Jinghuan as he instantly realized that the Golden Cicada Master’s Spell was coming to an end.
Initially, the end of the spell would mean that he would just be trapped inside the golden bowl. However, due to his own incessant resistance, the effects of the ritual had been altered.
If the Golden Cicada Master did not stop him, there was a real possibility that he could have been reborn using the spell; he could even have ascended to the immortal soul stage.
The only problem was that he was in serious distress and was no longer in control, which caused something else to happen to the spell that he was not expecting.
The Marquis of Jinghuan’s remnant soul was about to be integrated into the golden bowl. Even though he was not technically dead, he was as good as dead as he would be bound to the golden bowl for his lifetime. He would not become the soul of the golden bowl and would not assume control over it. Rather, he would simply be tied to the item and he would even have to obey the orders of the golden bowl’s owner.
"NO! No! No…" The Marquis of Jinghuan was finally facing true fear. The integration with the golden bowl restored his soul with bedazzling speed, with the only caveat being he would be stuck at this level of mastery forever.
The moment his connection with the outside world was restored and his senses were working again, the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Lin Feng. Before he could open his mouth, Lin Feng swept his sleeves and retrieved the golden bowl, and all that was left were the agonizing cries of the Marquis of Jinghuan which never came out of his throat.
Lin Feng kept the golden bowl once he perused the image of the Emperor of Violence studying the golden bowl. He never really paid any attention at all to the Marquis of Jinghuan. For him, this was a prize for his disciple as a result of his labor. He was aware of the Marquis of Jinghuan’s situation; he just didn’t care.
Once he was done with exploring the golden bowl after returning to the mountain, he would bestow this entire gift and the person along with it to Xiao Yan and let him play with it as he wished. The only problem was that Xiao Yan himself may not be interested anymore.
Perhaps the golden bowl would be thrown to the younger generation of disciples? Lin Feng couldn’t care less as this bastard would never see the light of day again.
He pocketed the golden bowl and the cicada wings that were used to set up the formation. Lin Feng studied them for a moment and nodded with satisfaction. Even though finding the Golden Cicada Master was still relatively difficult, the latter would not be able to escape as easily this time.
He turned his head to the other side and noticed that Shi Tianhao and the Nine Infants Grand Sage were in the climax of their battle. The great demon was truly formidable, and his demonic powers were actually impressive and powerful enough to hold back Shi Tianhao, would had only recently ascended to the immortal soul stage.
Demons did not typically use magic treasures as their original demonic form was the most powerful weapon in the arsenal – especially so if they were already in the second level immortal soul stage. When their connection with heaven and earth got stronger, the power of their true form was far superior to humans at the same level of mastery.
The cultivation of the virtual entity and everything after was in the pursuit of, in a way, forming one’s own heaven and earth. This heaven and earth still paled in comparison to the Greater World.
However, just like how normal humans used different tools and weapons to fight off ferocious and predatory beasts, human cultivators were able to use magic treasures. Humans that had magic items in possible no longer needed to fear great demons of the same level of mastery. Sometimes, the chemistry established between the humans and their magic treasures vastly amplified their powers and would render them superior to the great demons at the same level of mastery.
Of course, there were the few powerful human cultivators that had the ability to overcome great demons of the same level of mastery without any magic items whatsoever. Some were even able to defeat great demons of a higher level of mastery – still, this was just the minority.
The individual who would emerge victorious still depended on the actual situation and the varying circumstances and could not be generalized.
However, Lin Feng’s disciples were generally the kind to get much more excited and motivated when faced with powerful opponents. Furthermore, Shi Tianhao had ample experience engaging in battle with demons. His battle with the Nine Infants Grand Sage was perilous, but the Nine Infants Grand Sage also had to pay special attention in their battle.
In reality, the Nine Infants Grand Sage was quite astonished. He recognized Lin Feng, but his understanding of Shi Tianhao was limited. The battle of Mount Shu in the Divine Lands shook the heavens and the great demons of the Barren Expanses were disturbed – they could not avoid paying attention to the event even if they wanted to.
On the other hand, obtaining information regarding the entire process of the battle at Mount Yujing was relatively more challenging for the great demons. The Nine Infants Grand Sage was shaking inside as he realized that Shi Tianhao was only in the first-level immortal soul stage and was fearsome enough to hold his own against a third-level undying demon soul stage great demon.
Wang Lin gripped the Heavenly Gods-Sealing Banner in one hand and simply stood quietly by the side. His gaze alone already heaped pressure onto the Nine Infants Grand Sage, let alone Lin Feng, who was on the other side as well. Even if Lin Feng wasn’t looking this way, the Nine Infants Grand Sage could feel his innards knotting up.
Lin Feng had retrieved the golden bowl and was now looking this way – the Nine Infants Grand Sage’s heart sank to the bottom.
"We will capture him first for you guys to practice. Now, we have to search for the Golden Cicada Master," Lin Feng smiled faintly as he stretched his finger out like a sword and shot out a stream of Heaven-Destroying Sword Qi.
Shi Tianhao backed off immediately and the Nine Infants Grand Sage tried to escape as well but the grey patch of sword radiance was already before him. The power of the sword was the epitome of ferocity and felt like it could eradicate everything. The Nine Infants Grand Sage was the typically fearsome one, but even he felt a chill run down his spine.
The Nine Infants Grand Sage let loose a shrill howl as the seven stars started moving concurrently as they gathered to defend.
Lin Feng moved forward casually with movement that seemed neither slow nor fast but appeared before the Nine Infants Grand Sage in the blink of an eye – and pierced through one of the stars!
Even though the stars had been cultivated by the Nine Infants Grand Sage and was fused with his demon soul, stars were ultimately stars, and the vastness of their powers was beyond reckoning. Still, Lin Feng pierced through the stars as if they were butter and they instantaneously withered away, much like a dying flame that was extinguished after moments of flickering.
The star that was taken down provided no obstruction whatsoever, and Lin Feng reached forward and tapped one of the snake heads of the Nine Infants Grand Sage.
The true form of the Nine Infants Grand Sage was formidable, and his defensive capability was a force to be reckoned with as well. Shi Tianhao and his various offensive moves such as the Final Holy Light or using the full force of his physical body to channel the Stone Sword only left faint wounds on the demon’s body.
Lin Feng’s strike tunneled right through that head as the radiance of the sword continued downwards and all the way into the long neck.
The other eight heads of the Nine Infants Grand Sage cried out agonizingly. There was a tiny and bloody spot on the head that had been skewered, but it felt as if its life had been taken away as it drooped down like a limp rope.
The force of Lin Feng’s sword was still flaring. If he let the radiance of the sword continue on its ravaging path, he would have pierced right through the Nine Infants Grand Sage’s intestines – if that didn’t kill him, he would definitely be severely injured.
Lin Feng channeled the sword with his right hand and made a grab with his left hand. In the next moment, the head avatar cultivated by the Nine Infants Grand Sage was securely in his grasp.
"Even though I have no clue why you physically connect your original body with your avatars, it’s good for me as I can capture everything at the same time," Lin Feng said plainly, "I am able to understand and see through most of the profundities of the Golden Cicada Master’s Buddhist mantras and the connection to his demon form. However, there is still one more thing I am unsure about and I can use you to figure it out."
"I am showing you mercy. I can cut off eight of your heads as I only need one – you should settle down."
The Nine Infants Grand Sage fell into silent deliberation for a long while before he passed a message with his consciousness. "I don’t know where my master is."
"I don’t need you to know," Lin Feng replied indifferently as he captured the main body and all the avatars of the Nine Infants Grand Sage. Subsequently, he took Shi Tianhao, Wang Lin and the others out of the Great Jingyun Swamp.
Lin Feng studied the Buddhist avatars of the Nine Infants Grand Sage while he analyzed the connection between the cicada wings and the golden bowl in an attempt to find the Golden Cicada Master.
The more he understood about the Buddhist avatars cultivated by demons, the more he would understand about the Golden Cicada Master.
There were definitely human cultivators or demonic grand sages in the Vipralopa Stage that were superior in battle prowess to the Golden Cicada Master. However, in terms of escape spells and other deceptive techniques as well as the combination of Karma and the way of the Samsara with innate special abilities, the Golden Cicada Master was undoubtedly one of the few most outstanding cultivators in the same level of mastery.
In other words, amongst cultivators of the same standards, the Golden Cicada Master was one of the hardest to kill.
Some were possibly able to defeat him. However, defeating him did not mean that they were able to end his life. In order to kill him, one had to have unique mantras that were specifically designed to counteract the Golden Cicada Shell Escape Technique, or one had to be far stronger than he was. If not, it was highly likely that he would be able to escape with his life.
The problem was that the Golden Cicada Master was already in the Vipralopa Stage, and there were hardly anybody superior to him in power in the first place.
For Lin Feng, such an opponent was not that difficult to deal with – he was simply irritating.
As he flew, he received a voice-projected message from Tun Tun’s father – the Taotie Grand Sage.
"Master Lin, the Golden Cicada Master has spread the news of your arrival throughout the Barren Expanses. Everybody in the Barren Expanses knows you have arrived, and I think there will be a few great demons who are going to seek you out."
Lin Feng chuckled in response. He had predicted such a circumstance from the moment he failed to stop the Golden Cicada Master from escaping. From his perspective, this was not too bad as it facilitated his search for the Golden Cicada Master.