1376 Chapter 1370: CKC, Those From Beyond (2)
Shui Fengbao's unrestrained gaze on the young woman's chest elicited a response so frigid that the light could cause ghosts and demons to shiver. The only saving grace was an utter lack of perversion within. However, that did little to temper the young woman's internalized anger as she felt assaulted by a little, puny Realmlord.
She wasn't typically one to underestimate individuals, and if this was the outside world, she would unhesitatingly depart or offer an expedient apology followed by a quick escape, but this was the Evercrown Ceremony; there were explicit rules that prevented threatening external forces from being used and severe consequences to any who dared to break them. She had no reason to feel any fear facing a Realmlord as a Mystic Ascendant Realm, especially one so young.
"You want my heart?" The young woman couldn't hold back from uncharacteristically asking, slightly accentuating her chest. She wasn't big, even slightly below average, but it revealed a good shapely outline with her brassiere through her dress.
Shui Fengbao's expression grew a little red, seemingly embarrassed by the implications of her words. He rubbed his nose shyly, "If you would give it to me, I'd be honored."
A throbbing vein formed on the young woman's clenched right fist as the urge to throttle this young man emerged in her heart. It burned intensely as her anger boiled over at the sheer shamelessness. Her eyes erupted with killing intent. However, she was extremely cautious.
This conversation was held in real-time, so several seconds had taken place, and during that time, she had ceaselessly swept the surroundings using a variety of spiritual spells that could only be considered slightly excessive. She once again verified that there was no one in the surroundings.
This confused her slightly as Shui Fengbao seemed unafraid, yet her Mystic Aura had always been openly noticeable after his fiery resurrection. She recalled her teacher's words to never underestimate her enemies but also to never fall for bluffs. Was he bluffing her to depart out of caution? A fearless act hiding a fearful heart?
The possibility was there as she had once deployed a similar tactic in an extremely tense and dangerous situation. Her eyes swept the cube behind Shui Fengbao, contemplation wild within her eyes.
"You're clearly the overthinking and cautious type," Shui Fengbao commented with a faint smile. "You remind me of Brother Yao. You probably wouldn't like him though. He's a little more decisive." Shui Fengbao's tone was overly casual.
The young woman felt that there was a 98.8% chance that he was trying to bluff her away. If there was something in the surroundings hiding, the best time to move was right as she attacked, and so she hadn't.
Moreover, the red-haired mortal had even brought forth another person's name as if to trigger a thought that there was certainly another person nearby, lying in wait. She ran through all of these mental calculations and considerations at an extremely fast pace, concluding that this Realmlord was 100% bluffing!
There was no one!
She, however, decided to take a few precautions and attack from afar. This was the Evercrown Ceremony, and the young man had a Saint Ring in his possession. Just the Saint Ring alone was sufficient reason to slaughter as the value of one was extremely high.
Besides Mystic Overlords, only talented Earthly Saint or above Internal Worlds could forge Saint Rings, and that required a significant portion of their cultivation base, nearly crippling if done properly, absolutely fatal otherwise. The stronger the Internal World, the higher the quality and power of a Saint Ring. After all, a Saint Ring wasn't simply meant for storage.
Moreover, grievances developed in the Chosen King Competition couldn't be avenged outside. Otherwise, the Chosen King would likely have endless enemies with insufficient backing, so there was simply a blanket ban on outside conflicts created by the Evercrown Ceremony. The Mystic Overlord of the past was an example of those who broke the rules of the competition, so she was entirely unafraid.
The young woman pointed her finger toward Shui Fengbao, amassing a few wisps of Mystic Power. Due to her cultivation base lacking a Zenith Origin State Mystic Soul, her Mystic Power did not contain the property of Permanence, so what she used she was unable to retrieve without proper cultivation or products.
The mere fluctuations from her finger were extremely horrifying as the nearby plants and vegetation began to wildly flutter caught within a hectic storm. The loose dirt and rocks began to levitate and a glow diffused into the air as a hue of verdant green tainted the area. This single finger could destroy planets and billions of mortal lives in the blink of an eye, and it was currently trained on Shui Fengbao!
A mortal!
Shui Fengbao's eyes remained unfazed as he stood there. Silently, his Domain Seed was interacted with as an invisible power swept the world, exuding a faint pressure. The air grew hot.
"A Worldly Domain?" The young woman scoffed as she sensed the domain's presence. As a Mystic Ascendant Realm cultivator, they no longer needed to unfurl their domain as it was always existing with them as the center. Anything within the range of their senses were 'technically' in their Worldly Domain. This wasn't a Domain of Mysticism but a Worldly Domain, and this was how she instantly noticed Shui Fengbao's domain enveloping her.
It was very similar to a Demi-Mortal Lord's Demi-Mystic State and an Earthly Saint's Mystic Physique. The former was active and costly while the latter was passive and required no price to sustain. Unfortunately, a Venerable's Worldly Domain has limitations of being within Mortal Limits despite their cultivation, so it was useless against others, and towards mere mortals, a simple exertion of their aura was enough to end the vast majority of them.
"Shatter!" She softly uttered in the Language of Mysticism as her voice was infused with pervasive power. A Worldly Domain might be powerful in the Mortal Realms, but against an Ascended, it was as fragile as paper mache! She intended to teach Shui Fengbao the last lesson he'd ever learn in this lifetime.
Her voice emitted sound waves that visibly rippled space, expanding in every direction.
Sizzle!
Suddenly, and unexpectedly, the sound waves began to grow hazy. The air grew hotter. The further they reached, the less impact they had on the world as ripples in space lessened considerably. The young woman's eyes widened slightly.
A foreboding sensation swept her mind as she no longer delayed her actions, unleashing her attack!
The attack sundered the immediate area as plants flew and dirt scattered for half a mile. If it wasn't so concentrated, the finger would have been able to devastate swathes of land! The entire area would have been flattened instantly!
Wei Wuyin was watching all this from within his cube, his silver eyes' Celestial Gaze saw everything. He shook his head slightly. The moment he saw the cautious nature of the young woman, her deliberate delaying tactics, her lack of decisiveness, and the restraint on her usage of power, he knew the outcome of this clash had been decided.
"Well, it does make sense."
Just as those words left his lips, the ray of Mystic Power aimed at Shui Fengbao reached ten feet from him. Then, like water reaching the sun's wrath, it began to rapidly transform into vapor, dissipating before an extreme heat! The sight was indescribable! Within moments, all the mystic power seemed to have melted away and vanished!
Shui Fengbao's red hair fluttered amidst the raging winds as his gaze remained utterly calm. "My turn?" He asked before he pointed his finger at the young woman, his posture and stance were exactly the same as the young woman's!
The young woman's star-pupils shrunk to their utmost limits!
Suddenly, all the energy, essence, and mana in the area seemed to have been infused with a potent, irresistible will. The Child of Fire's will issued a single command that reverberated throughout heaven and earth:
"Burn."
The young woman of the Celestial Race instantly felt a sensation of unimaginable deadly crisis as she sensed time and space burn from all around her. Her body wanted to move yet she found herself in a cage of sorts, restrained by heavy World Pressure that burned her skin. This unexpected delay left her caught. Within a tenth of a blink of an Ascended's eye of time, the energies and mana all around her were converted into fiery, blazing force!
A titanic maelstrom of wild flames erupted with her as the epicenter, enveloping her in a blazing twist of burning chaos and incineration! The flames blasted upwards in a thick pillar, reaching tens of thousands of meters in height, breaching past the atmospheric layer!!
BOOSH!
From everywhere on this stage of the Chosen King Competition, the sight of the fiery storm could be seen or sensed. The temperature of the air grew hotter!
"AHHHHHHHHH!!!" A heaven-shaking shriek of pain erupted! It pierced through the sky and shook the soul of all those who could hear it amidst the burning crackling of the flames!
Wei Wuyin watched as the young woman was engulfed whole by a pillar of flames as it received endless fuel from the world itself, burning hotter and hotter. He could see her silhouette try to escape, but the thick, stormy pillar of flames kept her firmly imprisoned. She tried to exert her Mystic Aura, but due to not establishing it prior, any iota of it that poured out was viciously set ablaze, incinerated as it came, and as she used internal spatial arts to attempt to shift away, opening up foxed space, she only received a heated backlash as it only served to fuel the pillar as spatial energies poured out, igniting all the same!
Moreover, blazing fire and heavy World Pressure invaded her entire body, spreading to her Sea of Consciousness as she was forced to divert energy to defend against that, her Meridians, her Dantian, and assaulting her Mystic Soul. She couldn't muster a strong enough defense while distracted! To make matters worse, she wasn't trying to resist Shui Fengbao, she was within his Worldly Domain, so her opponent was the entire world of the stage itself!
She tried anything. She tried everything. The shriek of pain was her last remaining effort as if she was trying to plead Shui Fengbao for mercy, but the crackling and fizzling of air overwhelmed her throaty, pleading voice.
Wei Wuyin couldn't help but amusingly reminisce about his past. When he wanted to test his Temporal Eye cultivation base against Ascended beings, he fought against Kun Yiming, Bluecloud, and Venerable Slayingsword, and they had similarly made the mistake of allowing him to establish his Worldly Domain, losing initiative instantly.
Similarly, they also failingly tried to shatter his Worldly Domain and escape it as a last resort, just like the young woman had. Unfortunately for her, Shui Fengbao wasn't trying to test his powers—he was out for the kill!
Shui Fengbao was not the same as him. He was a child beloved by the law of fire, chosen by it. From the very beginning, Shui Fengbao could grasp any fire-attributed Intent with enough time, and even Bai Lin's Nirvanic Flame Intent was comprehended without the corresponding method.
He was an abnormality among abnormalities!
Wei Wuyin inspected Shui Fengbao's Worldly Domain. The stage of the Evercrown Ceremony was utterly massive, stupidly vast, yet the entire world was within his range. After all, it reached over 200,000 miles in every direction!
The Law of Fire and Fire Soul Light permeated throughout every iota of the Worldly Domain, intermingled with its World Pressure. If Wei Wuyin had fought against this Worldly Domain as a Realmlord, his Worldly Domains would've been hard-pressed to defeat it. Perhaps only by using their unique state…
As the heat seemingly about to intensify yet again, the fiery maelstrom of chaotically burning flames began to rapidly abate instead. The temperature lowered as Shui Fengbao reined in his Worldly Domain. He grimaced slightly as he did, a wisp of burning blood leaking from his lips. He gently touched his Dantian as he felt the faint cracks on his Domain Seed's surface.
This wasn't due to the young woman. While she was strong, she allowed him to fully unleash his Worldly Domain without even conjuring a Mystic Ward. She was utterly defenseless despite her precautions.
No, the issue stemmed from the others; a few cultivators had attacked his Worldly Domain when it was unfurled, damaging it considerably. If not for his Seed of Fire which reinforced his cultivation base and Wei Wuyin's numerous Domain-enhancing products, he would've had his Domain Seed shattered. In fact, if he kept it out for a few seconds longer…
While the young woman wanted to teach him a lesson, she hadn't failed; he learned that covering the entire world in his Worldly Domain was a fast way to suffer injuries. He coughed a little, fiery blood leaking onto his palm. He sighed softly as he sucked it back into his body. An unforgettable lesson.
His eyes turned toward the young woman. Shockingly, the area around her was damaged as the vegetation and plants remained untouched as if the heat hadn't affected them at all. The trees were still upright and strong. The only change was the young woman.
She was a scorching husk, reaching out desperately with her left hand. Her skin was darkly burnt, her hair entirely gone, like overcooked fried chicken. She was… …crispy.
Any semblance of beauty there once was—gone. Her fluffy tail had disappeared as well. When Shui Fengbao noticed this detail, his eyes instantly narrowed as he spat out a single word:
"Shit."
Wei Wuyin couldn't resist the urge to smile. The Celestial Race had all sorts of strange, unique powers. Moreover, "It's not that easy to kill a Blessed."
Wei Wuyin chuckled as he watched Shui Fengbao extract the young woman's heart, revitalizing it with an elixir. Normally, most would've just thought that the young woman was dead, but Shui Fengbao was a Prime Ascendant, and Wei Wuyin did not hide information regarding the Titan Race and Celestial Race from his Ascendants.
So they all knew that the Celestial Race's Dantian was not located in their torsos but in their tails!
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