The five-element giant crashed into the ground, causing the land to change. Rivers sprouted, vegetation grew, rocks turned to magma, and iron sand materialized. From above, Tai Wuling reared his fists back and unleashed a barrage of punches upon the five-element giant.
The very air shattered, as did the land beneath the five-element giant. Cracks appeared on the shell encasing the five-element giant; it appeared as if the giant would become a pulverized pulp soon after. However, the moment one of Tai Wuling's fists punctured the five-element giant, the five elements exploded forth like a tidal wave, blasting Tai Wuling back.
When Tai Wuling regained his bearing, he stared at the mess of elements that had once been the five-element giant. Outwardly, Tai Wuling's sphere-headed form only appeared slightly injured. Sparks of ember lingered on his torso, vines grew from his earth first, sand diluted the water fist, shards of metal dotted his body, and slick slime covered his legs.
"Finally died," Tai Wuling said with a sneer. Just as he turned around to help his fellow sect members, he paused. "Stubborn bastard."
The sludge of elements bubbled, and a humanoid figure arose out of it. He donned black robes and possessed elegant features that none could denounce. Most striking was the lack of scratches or even a ruffled fold on his robe.
"Impossible, how are you unharmed?" Disbelief tainted Tai Wuling's voice.
"I have my ways," Ba Shifang said.
"Not for long. I don't believe you have enough qi to form another giant!" Tai Wuling shouted as he rushed at Ba Shifang.
Ba Shifang retreated, fleeing in essence. His actions only confirmed Tai Wuling's conjecture that he didn't have much qi left. Ba Shifang did his best to resist, but the spells he cast only bounced off of Tai Wuling's body, and it didn't take long for him to catch Ba Shifang in his grip. "Any last words?"
The captured Ba Shifang gazed at Tai Wuling with an eerily calm expression. "Idiot."
The moment he spoke those words, Ba Shifang's skin turned clay-like, and his hair turned into vines. Tai Wuling's eyes widened as the puppet fell limp, not that anyone could tell with his current spherical head. He scanned the surroundings, searching for Ba Shifang's true whereabouts. "Where are you? Come out, you coward!"
Tai Wuling's question was answered by a loud bang. Ten thousand meters away from him, another five-element giant had formed. However, instead of reengaging with Tai Wuling in battle, the five-element formation charged after the Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation commanded by Yang Linyin.
"You bastard!" Tai Wuling shouted as he rushed toward the Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation.
Ba Shifang snorted inside the five-element giant. Only an insane person would repeat the same act over and over again. He had the confidence to outlast Tai Wuling, but it would be far more productive to take down other threats first. Then, they could all focus on dealing with Tai Wuling.
The five-element giant tackled the Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation from behind, knocking the war formation off balance and interrupting its attack. Then, the five-element giant clasped his arms around the war formation and started deforming.
First, a layer of rocks and soil shrouded the Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation. Beneath the layer of rocks and soil, the war formation's surface started turning to stone. Still, it continued to struggle, but Ba Shifang wasn't done.
The layer of rocks and soil started turning red as intense heat radiated into and off of the war formation. Then, a film of water covered it next and immediately turned to steam, but before it could be evaporated, tree roots bounded and covered the war formation, leaving no gaps. Finally, a metal shell in the exact shape of the Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation trapped it.
The metal shell creaked and screeched as the Eight Trigrams Emperor Formation resisted. Nothing the war formation did could escape the five-element shell. In turn, nothing Ba Shifang did in the short term would bring it down, but at that moment, an eerie and haunting tune filled the battlefield.
A shining orb of silver appeared a thousand meters away. Inside, Jiang Daoyi sat in a lotus position with a zither on her lap. Her hands plucked the strings in a mesmerizing motion. It was as if one could hear the song just from the movement of her hands alone.
The air in the battlefield trembled as the musical tones echoed. They penetrated the five-element shell encasing the Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation, and the sound of screeching metal stopped.
"Use this chance well! Take down the rest of the Eight Pillar Sect members now!" Ba Shifang ordered.
The Buzhou Immortal Sect members complied. Without the Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation's aid, the current members of the Eight Pillar Sect fell to an extreme disadvantage—one that snowballed as their numbers fell at increasingly higher rates with each passing second.
As for Ba Shifang, he summoned another five-element giant onto himself. And not a moment too soon as Tai Wuling slammed into him. "Out of the way."
Naturally, Ba Shifang wouldn't allow Tai Wuling to succeed. The five-element giant grappled Tai Wuling and attempted to hold him down. Keyword, attempted to.
Tai Wuling swiped his arm and launched the five-element giant off its feet. He ignored the downed elemental giant and rushed toward the trapped Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation, but he halted to a stop as vines exploded forth from the elemental giant and wrapped around his ankles.
"Annoying!" Tai Wuling shouted as his flaming arm slashed the vines wrapped around him. The vines became brittle and black, but not long after, the burnt parts fell off to reveal healthy vines.
Ba Shifang successfully prevented Tai Wuling from aiding Yang Linyin and the Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation. The latter released an enraged roar and attacked the former with all his might. And contrary to their previous clash, Ba Shifang was severely suppressed.
The five-element giant's movement had become stiff. Not only that, where it would have taken ten punches to damage it, now, Tai Wuling only needed one. Still, whatever damage dealt to the five-element giant was immediately regenerated.
Tai Wuling tried numerous times to disengage from the battle and save Yang Linyin, but Ba Shifang always pulled him back. As the two giants battled, the magnitude of Jiang Daoyi's music increased, further weakening the war formations deployed by Eight Pillar Sect. More and more war formations collapsed due to the immortals forming it receiving soul damage.
Reaching dire straits, Tai Wuling ignored the five-element giant's attacks as he raised both arms above his spherical head. The moment the two hands clasped together, the five elements merged, and Ba Shifang felt the charm of the Law of Five Phases rolling off.
It was a crude fusion with numerous flaws, but it had unimaginable power. Ba Shifang launched numerous attacks, including the Supreme Chaos Cannon, that landed on Tai Wuling's body, dealing him numerous injuries, but he powered through them all as power continued to accumulate in his fists.
"Die!" Tai Wuling shouted, bringing the merged fist down like a divine hammer. The air boomed, and space distorted.
The five-element fist shredded the upper torso far faster than it could heal. Stripped away of the elements protecting it, the black core where Ba Shifang resided revealed itself. Without any hesitation, Tai Wuling split apart the merged fist and unleashed a torrent of punches.
His punches hammered the dantian region, where the black core resided. The five-element giant couldn't regenerate fast enough to protect its core. Thus, a crack appeared after tens of punches. With a roar and one more punch, Tai Wuling punctured the core.
He felt something crack and turn to mush under his fist, and the black core disintegrated like a shattered mirror. Along with it, the elements forming the giant also fell apart, either dissipating or becoming a useless pile of mud or the like.
Tai Wuling didn't confirm the kill. He needed to save Yang Linyin, now!
The sphere-headed giant rushed toward the trapped Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation. Tai Wuling stopped upon reaching it, unsure of how to crack the shell. If he were to tear into it recklessly, he might cause more harm than good.
Finally, the water arm transformed into a torrent that covered the entire metallic outer shell. Soon, rust started to appear, causing the metal to become brittle that easily broke with a few taps. Steam blasted out without the metal shell trapping it, and the metal arm formed a sharp-clawed appendage that sliced through the wood.
For the layer of magma, Tai Wuling doused it with water, causing it to cool and harden. Although the cooled rock still emitted a fiery heat, it was nothing to the current Tai Wuling. He tore through the rock and saw nothing but empty space. There wasn't even a shadow of the immortals that formed the Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation, much less the formation itself.
His heart sank. "Linyin! Where are you?!"
Just as anger was about to cloud his mind, the air rippled and split apart, revealing Yang Linyin holding the Eight Way Mirror. Behind her were the hundreds of immortals that formed the Eight Trigrams Emperor War Formation.
"You're okay!" Tai Wuling said in relief. His smile did not last long as he saw the pale faces of Yang Linyin and the rest of the immortals. Compared to before, their numbers had dropped, and they no longer had enough people to form the war formation again.
"The situation is disadvantageous to us, we should flee," Tai Wuling said.
Yang Linyin shook their head. They directed their gaze to the distance where the Eight Trigrams Sovereign War Formation battled with the Voidink Empress War Formation and Eternal Night Emperor. "We can't leave without Grand Elder Infinity. If he falls, it'll be practically over for the Eight Pillar Sect."
"Alright," Tai Wuling said. "You flee first, and I'll try to think of a way to distract the enemy and give Master a chance to flee."
Tai Wuling's body tensed as he saw a gigantic shadow overhead. He looked up to see a flaming meteor over a thousand meters long crashing toward him. Red, black, yellow, green, and white vapors leaked off it as it continued downward.
"Get beneath me!" Tai Wuling shouted as he stood tall and raised both hands. His figure stood valiantly against the incoming catastrophe.
Then the meteorite landed. Tai Wuling's leg sunk into the ground as his back hunched from the force of the descending meteor. Moments later, he was brought to his knees, and just as it seemed that he would be flattened, adrenaline filled his body.
Tai Wuling groaned as he strained his body. Still, slowly, he was pushing the meteor back up. Before the triumph and relief could set in, the meteor started exuding an all-encompassing golden light.
"Ah, no!" one of the Eight Pillar Sect immortals shouted in fear as his body started to petrify into stone. He wasn't the only one, as numerous others also experienced the same effect.
The Eight Way Mirror in Yang Linyin's hand exuded a bright white light that cascaded over the Eight Pillar Sect members. The petrification slowed, but her face paled as her qi reservoir plummeted.
"Hrah!" Urged by a sense of crisis, Tai Wuling pushed the meteor back into the air and unleashed a flurry of punches that shattered the meteor into smaller rocks that fell harmless onto the destroyed land.
"Honestly, I'd hoped you ran out of qi by now."
Tai Wuling snapped his gaze toward the voice. There, he saw Ba Shifang floating in the air. He was clutching his right shoulder, and his right sleeve fluttered in the air, devoid of anything. Blood dripped from the sleeves, but Ba Shifang showed a calm expression as if he hadn't lost an arm.
"You!" Tai Wuling shouted. "I should have made sure you were dead!"
"Don't mistake my continued life as your carelessness. Even if you tried, you couldn't kill me, at least not without my main body's consent," Ba Shifang said to Tai Wuling's confusion. "Enough. I grow tired of this, I shall end you now."
"Just as I wanted," Tai Wuling said as energy started to roll off his body. Although he didn't show it, his qi was running near empty, and the only reason he could continue to fight was the energy released from the Wuxing Core supporting him.
A talisman in the shape of turtle shells with wings attached to both sides appeared in Ba Shifang's hands. He raised it and stopped, snapping his gaze toward the distance.
Tai Wuling raised his guard, fearing a trick from his foe. However, he soon noticed something amiss. A second later, he realized the haunting melody had disappeared. He turned his head, and confusion appeared.
A sword was sticking out of Jiang Daoyi's chest, but that wasn't what made him confused. Tai Wuling would have congratulated his sect member for stopping one of the greatest dangers from the Buzhou Immortal Sect, but the problem was that it wasn't anyone from the Eight Pillar Sect.
The person behind Jiang Daoyi who had impaled her was none other than her fellow sect member, Xia Yushan!
