Chapter 622: Breaking Out of the Formation
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh_
The air was filled with a towering killing intent. As soon as Han Xin bolted towards the monsters, three large stars rose from behind his back, all emitting a dazzling light that illuminated the surroundings. One of them was full of sharp edges, the Seven Killing Star; one was pitch black in color and looked like a black hole, the Greed Star; and the last one was red as blood, with countless ghosts crying and wailing in it, the Vanquisher Star.
With bright tails that measured thousands of feet long, the Seven Killing Needles pierced through the air, landing over and over again on the thirty-six burly figures like a fierce storm. Layers of white light kept springing up, then cracking and shattering, filling the air with thunderous booms that made Han Xin's body tremble violently. His armor of Greed shone with a cold gleam while both of his Vanquisher swords thrust into the air, flashing and slashing.
Before very long, he was surrounded by thirty-six monsters who rained down giant palms on him, each blow strong enough to topple a mountain and drain an ocean. Plumes of dense, dark green poisonous gas swirled about the void, filling every inch between Han Xin and the monsters.
Pretending that he was replenishing his energy, Wu Qi took out a few lower-grade immortal stones, drawing all the energy from them in just a few short breaths of time and turning it into chaotic energy. He did not continue to release the divine flame, but lifted both hands at the same time. His left hand locked into an incantation gesture to throw out numerous primordial runes, which conjured many elemental storms such as wind, earth, fire, and slammed into the monsters. His right palm had beams of blue light shooting out constantly, called the Shivering Ice Thunder; it was a very powerful Yin thunder he learned from the Dark Yin Water Scripture. The attacks made those monsters' bodies flicker with bright light and be overflowing with cold breezes.
Han Xin had proved to be an excellent human shield; Wu Qi was awed by the incredible strength of his fleshly body. He was fighting against the monsters' giant palms with only his fists, each blow strong enough to pierce a hole in the sky, and still pushing the burly beings back again and again. His blows were also blended with the killing intent found only in the battlefield, so fierce and brutal, and had easily dispersed the dark green poisonous gases.
Although Wu Qi was the real target of these monsters, he found himself in an advantageous position with such an excellent human shield blocking all the attacks for him. All he had to do was keep showering those giant beings with all kinds of spells, without having to worry about defending himself. Starshark had turned into a beam of silver-and-green light, wheeling rapidly around him while letting out loud and sonorous cries from time to time and emitting starlight in all directions.
The battle went on for a full hour, and finally, a monster was hit by dozens of Shivering Ice Thunders in a row, which consumed all its fiend armor talismans and allowed three thunderbolts to smash its body at the same time. A cold air capable of freezing and shattering even diamonds rushed into its body along with the thunderbolts, and the white strips twisted around the monster were ripped and shredded to reveal its true look.
Wu Qi could not help but suck in his breath.
The giant monster looked very ferocious. It should have been made from the corpse of a Long Bo man. Its chest was hollowed out and filled with an unknown paste, some kind of medicinal paste. Inside it, a strange heart that was about the size of a man's head was beating violently. Hundreds of black-and-red veins stretched out of the heart to all parts of the monster's body, and the beating heart was constantly pumping power into its body.
Its skin was shriveled and ugly; its muscles were bulging but all tensed up, with fibers clearly visible. It looked like a toad which had been dried up under the sun, full of indescribable cruelty and evilness. And, it had no normal facial features—in its sockets were red crystals instead of eyeballs, its nose and lips had been cut off, and its mouth was full of sharp teeth, all a few inches long and sharp as daggers.
When Wu Qi hit the terrible-looking monster with three thunderbolts at the same time, its body was immediately covered with a thick layer of ice, which caused its movement to slow down suddenly. Seizing the opportunity, Han Xin charged at it like a mad tiger, swinging both his swords to cut off its limbs and head together.
Black blood splashed in all directions, twisting violently in the air like some vipers. All of a sudden, it flew back into the monster's body, pulling the limbs and head back to their original positions. Then, in just the blink of an eye, all the wounds were healed, and the monster casually swung its hand and smashed Han Xin in the back.
Han Xin, who had turned around thinking that the monster was killed, grunted and staggered a few steps forward. The palm strike was at least ten times stronger than all of the previous blows. Fortunately, he was clad in the armor of Greed, which was an immortal item and had prevented the poisonous gases from penetrating his body. Even so, the tremendous force still made him see stars and washed his spine with a severe pain as if it were breaking apart.
"Damn it, what the hell is this thing?" Han Xin cursed, spraying spittle all over Wu Qi. "My Vanquishers bear the killing intent of the stars, capable of destroying the vitality of all living beings. But why is this monster still alive?"
Wu Qi cleared his throat and said indifferently, "How could fellow Daoist Han's swords kill them when they never had any vitality?"
Han Xin was struck dumb, then he roared furiously, and the three stars behind his back glowed brighter. He swung both swords rapidly to unleash thirty-six runes, all pitch black in color and shaped like wolf heads. With bright beams of light that measured thousands of feet long, they shot toward the thirty-six monsters. Laughing grimly, he said, "Who said I can't kill them when they don't have any vitality? Even if they are ghosts, I'll let them die one more time! The Greed Slaughters the World… Perish!"
As his voice rang out, the white light that shrouded the monsters finally faded away, and the black runes smashed and penetrated their bodies. All of a sudden, numerous streams of dazzling starlight fell onto the dark void, engulfing the monsters while spinning rapidly like sharp blades. Chunk after chunk of flesh and bone kept falling off their bodies, only to be quickly pulled back to their original positions. For the moment, the cutting and healing reached a strange balance.
Seeing that Han Xin was dealing with those monsters with some mystic art, Wu Qi slowed down his attacks. Displeased, Han Xin turned to look at him and bellowed, "Why are you slowing down? Quickly help me kill them!"
Wu Qi smiled faintly, pointing out his finger to unleash dozens of primordial runes, which conjured into layers of elemental defensive barriers around him. Only then did he continue to attack with thunderbolts, covering the monsters' bodies and broken limbs with cold air and ice.
The piercing cold air seemed to be very effective in weakening those monsters' incredible ability of self-healing. After Wu Qi began to attack seriously, rarely any of the broken limbs returned to their original positions. Many chunks of flesh and bones were falling to the ground. Exulted, Han Xin burst into a wild laughter while he kept swinging his swords, raining down slash after slash onto the monsters as he hacked them into pieces.
The shower of thunderbolts had frozen the monsters' mutilated bodies, as well as their weird self-healing ability. Together, Wu Qi and Han Xin had finally ripped them apart, turning them into a pile of broken flesh that was soaked in a pool of black blood.
Suddenly, they heard a faint sneer. "... indeed defectives… Not only weak in offensive strength, their self-healing ability can be restrained by coldness. Hmph! Next time, if those old b*stards still refuse to give me the best, I'll never help them again!"
Han Xin snorted coldly and cried out, "Found you!"
He put away his swords and took out a silver-white immortal talisman; he then bit his tongue and sprayed a mouthful of blood on it. Immediately, a large sheet of immortal light burst out of the talisman, sticky and glistening like molten glass. A hazy figure emerged in the light; it fitted an arrow to the string of a bow, slowly drew the string to its ear, and released it in the direction where Han Xin's finger was pointing at.
"Seven Killing, Vanquisher, Greed, three stars fuse as one!" As Han Xin's voice rang out, starlights of three different colors sprang out from the top of his head, chasing up the arrow and attaching onto it; turning into a long beam of light, it shot somewhere in the dark void. "Get out of here and face your death, you sneaky b*stard! I've got three hundred and sixty tortures waiting for you here. I'll surely find out who is scheming against me from the dark!"
The beam of light flew across the void, piercing through countless layers of dark smoke that filled the air.
Suddenly a plume of billowing green smoke poured out of the void, amidst which, a colossal skull made its appearance. As soon as it appeared, the skull opened its jaw to spray out a stream of ghost flame, which collided with the tricolored beam of light and produced a deafening boom that shook the void. In the next moment, Han Xin's immortal talisman burst into a silver flame, then quickly vanished into a puff of smoke. Immediately, the beam of light expanded by at least a thousand times, surging forward like a fierce tide. The skull let out a miserable howl before it was crushed into countless broken fragments and fell down to the ground with tailing dark smokes.
Amidst the noises of ripping and tearing, countless white strips fluttered down from the air, and the natural light once again fell upon them. The formation in which Wu Qi and Han Xin were trapped had been shattered by the enormous power released by the immortal talisman.
While frowning, Wu Qi suddenly shrunk himself into a tiny speck of dust and sneaked into a thick undergrowth.
A strange laugh came from somewhere in the void. "Someone had paid me to kill you, boy! Ha, your body is quite strong… Indeed a man who has cultivated the True Body of Heaven and Earth Scripture to the Nine Stars Realm of the First Pangu Heaven, an excellent ingredient for making the dharma corpse! Ha… Where did you get these magical items with such a strong killing intent? They are truly powerful!"
Wu Qi, who had turned into a speck of dust, was laughing in his heart while Han Xin jumped up suddenly in anger.
"What is this True Body of Heaven and Earth Scripture? I am Han Xin, the assistant of Liu Bang, who is the Celestial Ambassador of the Heaven. Who cultivates the True Body of Heaven and Earth Scripture?"
Han Xin hastily turned back in exasperation. But, no matter how he glanced around with his divine sense, he just could not find Wu Qi's trace.
A wrathful cursing drifted across the air, and a short, shriveled old man suddenly flashed out of the void, along with a stench of corpses.