The 76th Noble Prince's mangled arm was a stomach-churning sight yet his expression was one without the slightest hint of pain or emotion, with hazy golden eyes that resembled the gaze of a ruler observing an untalented jester. He was not amazed.
Since the beginning of his initial glance at Da Shan, determining her lineage origins, the 76th Noble Prince genuinely had not given her another. It was as if it was beneath his status to bestow a lowly existence like her. A level of complete disregard that was supremely earnest and heartfelt.
He was now looking her way; not simply her way, he was looking directly at the violet-skinned, golden-eyed, giantess of hellish strength and mountainous beauty completely, his irises reflecting her valiant and combative form.
"..." A mystical flow of golden light cycled across his ruined, blood-gushing arm. Within the blink of an Ascended's eye, time itself seemed to experience a reversal, causing the arm itself to rapidly jolt about until it was entirely unharmed, including possessing a pristine golden sleeve that covered the white, glistening skin under.
Temporal Reversal!
The powers of an Ascended being were phenomenal, but when they reach the Earthly Saint level, those powers experience a drastic increase of effectiveness and limits as they grasp Awakened Mystic Intent. The Ways of Mysticism slowly grasped in its entirety then, so they were well-regarded as nigh-invincible to those beneath their cultivation stage with few exceptions throughout existence.
Bai Yinyin's eyes sparkled with an unfathomable power of space and time allowing her frail, weak body and cultivation to perceive every microsecond of events in its entirety. She saw Da Shan, or Great Big Sister, dealing that arrogant, likely deaf young man a ferocious blow. She cheered with waves of her slender arms in her unique space, cute as could be. Unfortunately, no sound could be heard and no one noticed her unless they were looking her way.
At the moment, if they weren't eating dirt, knocked unconscious, or at a specific angle, all eyes were currently on the 76th Noble Prince and Da Shan.
The triplets of women had found freedom after Da Shan's strike. They took to retreating in unison, not separating like before, their eyes focused intently on the clash.
"Isn't that demonic spawn a Mortal? How did she...?" The yellow-eyed, yellow-haired woman asked hesitantly, confused to an extreme. Just earlier, her heart had sunk to an all-time low as the realization that this Chosen King Competition was likely their place her well-kept and protected chastity would be lost. Now, she was focused on something else entirely, not even able to properly celebrate her freedom and retain her purity.
The sight of Da Shan using her fist to cause the 76th Noble Prince's arm to suffer damage was indescribably unfathomable. Her centuries of cultivation were unable to properly process most of this. While there were legends of monstrously demonic talents that have fought against Ascended beings as Mortals, even claiming victory, there were several external factors that could be pinpointed as the cause, including the opponent's relative weakness within their cultivation stage, but the 76th Noble Prince was anything but 'weak' in any of his cultivation stages, and he wasn't a simple Ascended being but a genuine Earthly Saint!
"...Fang Huanghuang, look at the demonic spawn's armaments." The dark blue-eyed woman named Fang Lanlan pointed out, her eyes gleaming with spiritual light.
A human Ascendant who had withstood the calamitous eruption of force was near the trio, his eyes flashed as he recognized that these individuals seemed to be using the term 'demonic spawn' with natural ease causing his expression to darken considerably. He contemplated attacking these three women. After all, Da Shan was publicly known as His Majesty's woman, but he wasn't exactly certain about it due to the utter lack of Inherent maliciousness within it.
It felt as if it was a similar way that he would utter 'elf' or 'demon'. It was like a fundamental designation ingrained in their hearts, causing him to falter. Eventually, he decided to observe a little more.
The trio was unaware that their upbringing had instilled both confusion in someone and nearly brought a life-ending calamity upon them.
Fang Honghong's dark red eyes brightened as she carefully inspected the bronze bracers, greaves, and warhammer that Da Shan wore and wielded. "They are Mystic Armaments!" She exclaimed with realization. Moreover, not normal ones!
The trio weren't the only ones to notice the exquisite properties of Da Shan's armaments, the 76th Noble Prince had also noticed and finally learned the reason for his disastrous loss earlier. A Mystic Armament wasn't too rare or difficult to handle, he had plenty, but his keen senses could detect a bloody scent emanating from those armaments. They were forged and refined with the blood of some unfathomably powerful creature.
As he eyed the warhammer, he noticed the shaft was layered with scales across its entire surface. Snake scales? What type of creature did those scales belong to?
WHOOSH!
Air rent, space exploded, and mana roared; Da Shan's movements were domineering, all brought forth by a single, world-leaping step that brought her eight-foot figure before the 76th Noble Prince within a blink of an eye. She violently slammed her warhammer at the 76th Noble Prince's head, Intent on smashing it into a meaty, unrecognizable pulp. His Earthly Saint cultivation base be damned!
Da Shan's fearlessness shook the hearts and souls of those capable of viewing the fight.
The 76th Noble Prince executed minimal movement yet every millimeter taken was as if a mile of momentum was gathered, and he struck the warhammer with an uppercut of his palm. His hands had fingers that were slender and a palm that seemingly hadn't seen a day's worth of hard work surged with a flash of golden brilliance.
BOOM!
The world once again experienced a dramatic upheaval as storms of sand, air, and mana swept the area for tens of thousands of miles. These two individuals exchanged a single move yet were exerting power that caused the minds of everyone to turn numb!
The 76th Noble Prince was unmoved; this time he had prepared himself thoroughly, taking into account Da Shan's impressive innate strength and the Mystic Armaments she wielded. Not even the sleeves of his robes were ruffled a little by the tumultuous winds nor had he taken a single step back.
Da Shan was not dissuaded from attack due to the prince's composure or strength, only the light of ardent excitement and fighting will flowed through her pupils. She clenched the shaft of her warhammer with both hands and a faint image of a violet mountain manifested behind her as the air thickened instantly. A World Pressure descended for tens of miles, crushing sand into finer granules than before.
"Rah!" Da Shan unleashed a war cry as her arms bulged, her tall form expanded slightly, the bracers and greaves glowed, and her warhammer moved! As it moved, the 76th Noble Prince who had remained unmoved since the beginning skidded back a single centimeter, causing the platform of mana that he stood upon, solidified with his vast powers, to screech as if it was glass on the verge of shattering.
"..." The triplets all had the same reaction! Their pupils constricted violently in shock! Unbelievable! In their eyes and minds, this was the same as seeing an ant move a god-darn tree! Their hearts were beating with indescribable violence as if being beaten on by a horde of monkeys.
The 76th Noble Prince frowned. This frown seemingly caused a shift in heaven and earth, twisting the essence, mana, energy, and air into a frenzy. He lifted his arm slightly. Da Shan found her warhammer repelled violently as it whipped back, causing her body to be pushed along with it.
Then, the Noble Prince of the 76th Exalted Title moved. It was as if the world was in slow motion, but Da Shan, everyone else, even air itself seemed to have stopped in Bei Yinyin's eyes. Her big, bright eyes bulged as the power of Laws shone from within.
Flow Acceleration!
There were countless profound powers of the Way of Mysticism's nine runes, and the most common were the Nine basic abilities that relied on a singular Mystic Rune. For example, Permanence gains that Everlasting, self-sustaining power or Temporal gains Temporal Reversion, but when multiple runes are intermixed together, incredible powers are devised and invented.
The Internal World, for example, was one such power.
Flow Acceleration!
It required Mana, Spirit, Radiant, Spatial, Temporal, Infusion, and Oceanic Runes! Together, they created the ability to rapidly increase one's physical speed as if existing on a different 'flow of time', almost as if time itself was rapidly accelerated around them and only them!
In the World Beyond, this type of power was referred to as a Seventh Way Ascension Art while something like World Prison or Spatial Shifting would be regarded as a First Way Ascension Art. These Ascension Arts were the core powers of all Earthly Saints and beyond! Moreover, the same combination of runes could create wildly different effects based on their focus, creating countless variations across cultivation societies.
The path of cultivation was endless.
In Bei Yinyin's empowered view, she saw the prince move as if the world was in slow motion. An unfathomably cold, vicious, and angry light flashed across his normally indifferent and unbothered expression as if only here, when no one would be able to see his emotions leaking, was he able to fully let them out.
He clenched his fist for the first time, gently punching toward the slowly moving Da Shan's stomach. The fist looked slow but it was stupendously fast! If this fist empowered by his full cultivation base landed on Da Shan, her flesh, bone, spirit, and soul would be torn asunder leaving not even a fragment remaining!
The 76th Noble Prince had considered being lenient on this demonic spawn, but she had humiliated him before an audience by forcing him to take a single centimeter back! The act warranted death a thousand and one times, but he'll have to do with a single thorough death.
Bei Yinyin's eyes widened as she wanted to scream aloud but her voice carried no power!
The fist soon reached an inch from Da Shan's abdomen.
BOOSH!
Suddenly, a gushing tempest erupted that caused the 76th Noble Prince's eyes to widen ever-so-slightly. Then, he was left stunned as he was pushed back, his Flow Acceleration Sixth Ascension Art ending instantly causing his expression to grow slightly pale due to the horrific exhaustion of Mystic Power.
Bei Yinyin felt the entire world resume once more. Da Shan, however, had a fierce glow in her eyes. Her mood was not good as she felt a familiar presence erupt from her body. She bit her luscious lips tensely as she angrily eyed the 76th Noble Prince whose expression was unsure and a little confused.
In Da Shan's mind, Wei Wuyin's voice echoed. It scolded: "When have you ever been one to continuously hold back? To play around so recklessly?! Is that the woman I know? This is not one of our fights that last for days and nights on end! This is a battle of life and death, not a game."
The voice was something Da Shan was extremely happy to hear, but the contents had her cursing the 76th Noble Prince fiercely. She immediately realized from the lingering sensation of deathly crisis that she was almost killed and Wei Wuyin had timely interfered.
This so-called noble prince was incredibly powerful, and she had indeed been testing him by scaling her powers upwards. Her complacency has gotten the best of her, causing her to forget that battles of life and death were often decided in one or two arts and spells, not continuous blows between individuals until all one's trump cards were exposed and revealed.
Whoever killed their enemy was the winner, not whoever showed off the most. She had nearly forgotten that. Her edge had unknowingly been whittled down by persistent dominance. In the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, none of those prodigies and outstanding talents or Ascended beings could rival her, so she had somewhat lost the urgency of battle.
This largely had to do with her status as the Titanic Hell-Crushing Queen's disciple and as one of the Ascendant Emperor of Neo-Dawn's beloved. Unlike Wu Baozhai, Xue Yifei, Na Xinyi, and the Ascendants who fought for their opportunities with their lives despite receiving Wei Wuyin's support, she stayed mostly in the sect and enjoyed life a little too much.
This moment caused her to heavily self-reflect. It was a great learning experience. Fortunately, thanks to Wei Wuyin, she didn't have to learn it on the way to her next life.
Calming down, she no longer had complacency in her golden eyes.
"What was that power?" The 76th Noble Prince once again spoke out, unable to contain his curiosity as he felt an unfathomably oppressive aura that felt as if he was standing before his father. His entire cultivation base was deeply suppressed and he almost felt as if he was a peasant before a king.
Da Shan didn't answer him; she tapped into her Skeletal Astral Core and bloodline as a titanic, oppressively heavy aura descended upon the entire world. Directly above the strange, starless sky, a violet mountain began to manifest! It was as if...it was becoming a missing star!
Her bodily frame began to rapidly and explosively grow!!
