1073 The Slaughter
Huo Fenghuang's White Tiger Slaughter Sword clashed with one of Qian Heng's axes, and she moved her body to evade the second. They continued this simple clash for a minute, testing each other. Their clash reverberated throughout this world community.
Then, Huo Fenghuang suddenly switched to using speed tactics in one swift motion, so she stabbed her swords more than a billion times in less than a second. Qian Heng crossed the axes before him to block.
Bang!
Huo Fenghuang's sword attack was a distraction, and her actual attack was a kick to the chest. Qian Heng's battle instincts kicked in, and he raised his knee to block the kick. He frowned as he sensed a red imprint on his legs oozing with the aura of slaughter.
He activated his Dao Will and Will Manifestation to remove the Slaughter Mark, but Huo Fenghuang had also placed these things in the mark to counter him.
Boom!
Qian Heng kicked his opponent with the marked leg, and as soon as it came close, he exploded the leg before regenerating it, but his tactic failed as the mark was still there. Additionally, he discovered the mark was slowly siphoning his blood and stamina.
[Death Aura]
Qian Heng's ring released a dark aura that rapidly ate the mark. Then, he rushed to his opponent and used a Void Double Slash. With the two swings of his ax, all the chaotic spatial energy in the Void dispersed, creating a vacuum of energy, matter, and concepts.
Huo Fenghuang calmly made a circular motion with her sword, creating a Yin-Yang Symbol before her, which absorbed the power of the two ax attacks. Then, she rebounded them toward their creator.
Qian Heng tried to divert the slashes to the side, but the Yin-Yang Symbol not only rebounded them but also increased their potency. Finally, he had to bear the brunt of an even more potent attack, resulting in a few injuries. Huo Fenghuang did not give her opponent time to breathe, so while he was blocking, she had already appeared before him - her sword shining all red.
[Spinning Ax Technique]
Qian Heng did not physically spin, but his body was surrounded by a tornado of ax slashes as if he had spun with tremendous speed. The glowing sword sliced through the tornado, but it gave him enough time to protect himself with a shield created from death power.
Huo Fenghuang made a brilliant move as she used her Yin-Yang Dao to duplicate her sword, materializing it in her left hand. Qian Heng was caught off guard, but it was too late to react. Her sword contained a technique to kill death, so it sliced through the shield along with the right side of Qian Heng's body.
Boom!
Huo Fenghuang flew more than ten thousand meters away because of a single punch from Qian Heng's left hand; she was surprised and did not expect this. However, she was not injured; a dragon scale appeared where she was hit.
'The ax is considered a heavy weapon; did his body take on this particular characteristic of the weapon, thus drastically increasing his physical strength?' analyzed Huo Fenghuang. 'That's an interesting technique; maybe I underestimate him.'
She then frowned as she saw Qian Heng's right side of the body regenerated. Although it looked gray and lifeless compared to the other parts of his body, it did regenerate.
'This was a clean hit with Dao Will and Will Manifestation, so he should have been severely injured. But now, he looked perfectly fine.'
Her gaze shifted to the ring; this artifact was the only reason Qian Heng could keep up with her lower 4-fold Strength.
'Let's remove it from the equation.'
Huo Fenghuang rushed toward him but discovered Qian Heng was running away, heading toward his home world. 'Not on my watch,' she thought before turning into a Phoenix, chasing him.
Roar!
Billions of skeletons and undead appeared in her path as Qian Heng used the ring to summon them. However, Huo Fenghuang did not stop for a moment and burned everything in her path. As she reached him, a voice suddenly appeared in her mind.
"No need to chase."
'Wang Wei?' she thought, wondering why he stopped her. Then, her Heavenly Eyes saw the reason. Qian Heng had nearly reached the coverage of the array protecting the Martial Hegemony World and had control of it. If he used it, his strength might reach the domain of 5-Fold.
"Coward," she muttered, her voice echoing in the void. However, Qian Heng did not react. Instead, he roared: "Retreat!" The martial artists were surprised by this order since they had the advantage with their immortality but would not disobey their commander.
Meanwhile, Tie Gang received a communication from the War Room, and they swiftly hashed out a countermeasure. "Talisman Legion, provide Sealing Talisman to everyone. All legions are ordered to seal the area and prevent the enemy from escaping. Third Layer Immortal Combatants, your job is the same - prevent the enemy from retreating.
"Li Jun, you're up."
"It's time to go all out?"
"Yes, kill as many as you want and as swiftly as possible."
"Haha, that's what I want to hear," laughed Li Jun, who no longer held back, releasing his aura on par with peak 3-Root Dao Ancestor. As he mobilized his blood, the heat from his body drastically increased the temperature in this void and empty space.
He flickered his spear, and the thing began to elongate at an alarming speed. It moved like an infinite snake, and everywhere it passed, it pierced through the head of a martial artist. With this one attack, the spear pierced more than 10,000 martial artists, scattered over millions of light years.
With a thought, the spear returned to its original length. Li Jun then applied enough physical force to the spear's tip that space-time collapsed, creating an enormous black hole that swallowed more than a million martial artists.
"Stop him!" yelled a top of Heaven Chosen from the Martial Hegemony World. He was one of the top contenders in this generation after achieving 2-Leaf strength. Sadly, the world had the Demon Cult Leader and, in a terrible twist of fate, Xu Shi.
Li Jun ignored him. In front of him, these so-called "immortals" are a joke. He raised his left hand, and millions of metallic threats manifested out of nowhere. As he pulled, millions of martial artists had their heads sliced off. Li Jun looked at the top Heaven Chosen and used his [Slaughter Word Art].
"Explode."
As soon as he uttered these words, these people could not resist. A cacophony of explosions echoed in the void, forming an intense melody that embodies war and destruction.
[Death Plague]
Li Jun's body released a dark aura, and everyone it hit dropped dead as their face turned white. A check with divine sense would show a terrible virus that targets their bodies and souls. With this attack, another few million people died.
Li Jun went on a killing spree. He has no problem killing these people's immortality with his Slaughter Dao, turning him into a dragon in a sheep's den. He used various intricate and unique ways to kill as many people as possible.
The martial artists in the other layers wanted to save their young ones, especially the promising and talented ones. Unfortunately, they had their own trouble to worry about.
Additionally, in this time of stress, many people have begun to abandon their spirit and choose to run or retreat.
The Myriad Emperor World's Heaven Chosen watched this battle with shock. They knew Li Jun, someone from the same era as the Heavenly Emperor, was powerful since they challenged him for the number one spot. However, they never knew the full extent of his power.
Cai Renshu looked at this slaughter with clenched hands. He knew the top 10 Heaven Chosens was a difficult moat to cross, but seeing the strength of number one shook him.
He currently ranked 23rd, which is excellent considering the billions of participants and that in his world, only the Moon Goddess made the ranking, and she's 2,879th (out of 3000), almost not making the list.
However, he knew his situation was not the best. With the expansion, the Martial Hegemony World will enter the competition, so his rank might decrease further. The good news is Li Jun seemed to be slaughtering all this generation's geniuses, but the one still sealed might be an issue.
The second bad news is his relationship with the Emperor Enlightening Academy. They supported him in conquering the world as it made spreading the Mortal Civilizations and other projects simpler. However, their response was vague or ambiguous whenever Cai Renshu suggested he wished to join them. He did not know whether this was because he blasphemed against the headmaster or another reason, but this situation worries him.
It also did not help that he could not ask other factions since his Su Dynasty was in the Academy's domain, and his actions might offend a top-class Eternal Emperor.
