Mahayana 138
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Chapter 138: Blood Ignition! Follow! Shatter the Golden Core? Follow if You Dare!
TL : Cnine
ED/PF :
Part 1
He stopped playing. Power erupted from him as he struck without restraint. He opened his mouth and expelled a miniature Nascent Soul, which streaked towards Su Miaoqing like a dart of condensed malice.
His figure blurred, then split cleanly in two. One half dissolved into writhing black mist, slipping through space to ensnare Lin Xiao. The original body, meanwhile, shot directly towards Mo Shuiyao.
He had already realised that although Su Miaoqing possessed considerable combat strength thanks to the Immortal Bird’s source blood, she was still the weakest among the three. Therefore, he used his strongest Nascent Soul to deal with her, hoping to end the battle swiftly.
The Nascent Soul flickered like a malignant star, impossible to pin down. In its tiny hand gleamed a venomous green fork, which it drove towards her without mercy. Su Miaoqing reacted by instinct, her immortal sword flashing as she deflected the strike by a hair’s breadth. Even so, the impact hurled her backwards.
The Nascent Soul gave her no chance to catch her breath, transforming into several streaks of green light that darted back and forth around her.
Su Miaoqing struggled to defend herself, yet the Nascent Soul was simply too fast. She could not evade it in time.
Finding an opening, it pierced straight through her lower abdomen in an instant. Blood sprayed into the air as she was flung backwards, crashing onto the ground. Blood flowed endlessly from her wound, and for the moment she lost all ability to fight.
The other two were faring no better. Lin Xiao was only at the early Golden Core Realm and was completely suppressed by the opponent’s clone, barely managing to avoid defeat.
Mo Shuiyao was facing his true body, so the situation was even worse. He teleported unpredictably, and the black mist he released could corrode magic artefacts, forcing her to divide her attention.
Her attacks, when they landed on the Strange Man, were neither painful nor effective. While she was concentrating fully on defending herself, the Strange Man’s Nascent Soul suddenly abandoned Su Miaoqing and lunged towards her.
Caught off guard, she raised her dagger to block. Although she stopped the strike, she was knocked flying. The Strange Man appeared behind her in a flash, wrapped an arm around her, and exerted force with his hand, sealing her Golden Core. Her whole body went limp in his grasp.
Holding her heated delicate body, and seeing that her clothes were somewhat in disarray, the Strange Man gave a grotesque laugh. “You’re mine now. How fragrant!” he said, extending a long tongue to lick her face.
Mo Shuiyao’s stomach churned. Revulsion clawed at her throat. She tried to gather her strength, even to detonate her Golden Core and die with dignity—
The Strange Man glanced at Su Miaoqing lying in the distance, her fate unknown, and sighed. “What a pity such a beautiful body. It seems I can only refine her into a puppet.”
“Courting death!!!” The roar tore from the void, cold and abyssal, like judgement echoing up from the Nine Netherworlds. In the same instant, a monstrous sword qi split the air and crashed down from nothingness itself.
The Strange Man was startled. He intended to teleport away with Mo Shuiyao, but the sword struck the arm with which he was holding her. The entire arm was severed cleanly at the root.
Seeing more sword qi descending, as if intending to cut down Mo Shuiyao along with him, he did not dare hesitate and teleported away alone.
Mo Shuiyao was less than a finger’s breadth from the sword qi and broke into a cold sweat. Freed from the Strange Man’s restraint, she regained her strength and immediately flew away.
She was decisive. In an instant, she attacked towards Lin Xiao’s position. A crescent blade slashed towards the two of them. The Strange Man’s clone did not dare receive it head-on and hurriedly hid behind Lin Xiao.
Unexpectedly, Mo Shuiyao did not hesitate in the slightest, as though she intended to cut Lin Xiao in half along with the Strange Man
The Strange Man cursed inwardly and did not dare remain. In an instant, he turned into flying ash and returned to merge with his true body.
Lin Xiao unfolded his folding fan before him, absorbing the incoming crescent blades into it. However, a small crack appeared in the fan. He gave a bitter smile and said, “Fairy Mo, could you not be a bit gentler when rescuing me?”
“That fellow wasn’t gentle when rescuing me either,” Mo Shuiyao sneered. As she spoke, she took out two medicinal pills and swallowed them. Lin Xiao followed suit and swallowed two Spirit-Replenishing Pills.
Xiao Yifeng appeared beside Su Miaoqing as if teleporting and examined her injuries.
He discovered that flames were faintly burning at her wounds. The areas scorched by the flames were rapidly recovering. In addition, with the protection of her mid-grade immortal artefact feathered robe, her injuries were not fatal.
It seemed the Immortal Bird’s source blood was healing her.
Fortunately, Su Miaoqing had not yet formed her Golden Core. If she had already reached the Golden Core realm, that strike might well have taken her life.
Given the terrifying battle strength Su Miaoqing had displayed, the strange man must not have realised she was only at the Foundation Establishment realm. That was likely why he had assumed she had perished.
Xiao Yifeng helped Su Miaoqing to her feet, placing one hand against her back as a steady stream of fire-attribute energy flowed from him into her body.
Su Miaoqing leaned weakly against him. Feeling the aura around him, she said angrily, “Xiaofeng, have you formed your Golden Core? How could you rush your breakthrough into Golden Core so recklessly?”
She had never expected that Xiao Yifeng’s so-called solution would be to form a core. And since there had been no heavenly tribulation, it was clear that he had formed the lowest grade Nine-Turn Golden Core.
His future was ruined! A man with boundless potential had chosen the Nine-Turn path instead.
Xiao Yifeng shook his head and smiled. “Don't worry Senior Sister, leave the rest to me.”
He turned to face the Strange Man, then asked Lin Xiao and Mo Shuiyao, “Do you two still have the courage? Do you dare to join me as the Golden Core realm cultivators to slay much powerful Nascent Soul?”
Lin Xiao’s spirit surged as he laughed boldly. “A Nascent Soul as fragile as collapsing soil and broken tiles? Why would I not dare to kill him!”
Mo Shuiyao’s lips curved into a radiant smile. “When such heroes stand before me, how could I, though merely a woman, refuse to stake my life beside you?”
“Since that’s the case, stop holding back. Use whatever methods you have! He dared to hurt my Senior Sister. his dog life ends here!” Xiao Yifeng said with a grin, as he took the initiative to ignite his own essence blood.
Seeing that Xiao Yifeng had directly ignited his vital blood, Lin Xiao and Mo Shuiyao exchanged a glance. Remembering how they had nearly died at the Strange Man’s hands, they knew this was no time to conceal their strength.
The two of them had also burning their Vital Blood. At the same time, they unleashed various secret arts. Their auras rose level by level, their presence surging explosively.
Yet the Strange Man merely sneered. Their surging power did not even warrant his concern. “That’s it? You lot think you can kill me?”
But Xiao Yifeng was far from done. Without hesitation, he stacked three separate blood-ignition secret arts at once.
Heaven Inquiry Sect secret art: “Forsake Life and Forget Death!”
Formless Temple secret art: “Sacrifice the Self to Achieve Benevolence!”
Star Sanctum: “Blood Demon Grand Art!”
His power did not merely rise. It accumulated in monstrous layers, stacking higher and higher until the air itself felt crushed beneath it. A dreadful aura rolled outward from him like a tidal wave.
Blood spilled from his lips, yet he laughed. “Is this enough? If not, I can go further! Core-Shattering Art.!”
Without hesitation, he crushed the Nine-Turn Golden Core he had only just forged. His entire figure erupted like a column of flame piercing the heavens, blazing wildly and exuding a madness that made one’s scalp prickle.
Mo Shuiyao and Lin Xiao stared at Xiao Yifeng in shock. Under the influence of his secret arts, his aura had surged from the initial stage of the Golden Core Realm to the middle stage in an instant. After shattering his core, it leapt again from the middle stage to the peak stage of the Golden Core Realm before finally stabilising.
When Xiao Yifeng burned his Vital Blood, they burned theirs. When he activated multiple secret arts, they followed. They had committed. Completely. But they had not expected that, in order to kill the Strange Man, Xiao Yifeng would even shatter his own Golden Core.
They had not expected that Xiao Yifeng would actually shatter his own Golden Core just to kill that strange man.
The duo instantly went pale.
Boss! You can’t just break your Golden Core! That’s illegal! That’s irresponsible! You’re too hardcore for us. We respectfully decline. Here, have some tea and calm down.
The consequence of shattering one’s core was that one’s cultivation would fall back to the Foundation Establishment stage, and breaking through again would be extraordinarily difficult.
Xiao Yifeng did not expect the two of them to be as reckless as him to go as far as shattering their cores with him. If they really did that, they must be ill. His Nine-Turn Golden Core — he did not feel the slightest regret over it.
Obsidian Snow rested in his palm. His presence swelled, sharp and oppressive. He flexed his fingers, tasting the explosive strength rushing through him.
Secret arts usually came with a price. Borrowed power ran wild, devouring its wielder, blunting itself in the process. But Xiao Yifeng had once stood at the peak of Mahayana realm. This borrowed strength? A spark in a furnace.