Chapter 678: Assimilating Into A Higher Dimension, Black Devil Divine Pillar (1)
Chapter 678: Assimilating Into A Higher Dimension, Black Devil Divine Pillar (1)
A subtle change came over Metal Devil and Purple Secret’s countenances. Earth Immortal Yin Yan, standing not far away, also wore an interesting expression. None of them had expected Wu Yuan to outright refuse the request of the Sixth Tribulation High Immortal.
"Boy, do you know what you're saying?" High Immortal Zhuo Hao's face darkened. "I don't wish to offend members of the Spacetime Island, but I also know that even if I kill you, you can only come back to seek revenge after reforging your mana body in the future. The Spacetime Island won't intervene on your behalf.
I'll advise you one last time. Leave now, I'll complete your protection mission for you. Otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless," High Immortal Zhuo Hao said coldly.
"Senior, I'll also give you two options," Wu Yuan faced off against High Immortal Zhuo Hao from afar, his voice ringing out across millions of li. "Either wait outside the planet, and we'll naturally leave when the three days are up, or defeat us.
A Sixth Tribulation High Immortal is indeed powerful, but not enough to make me back down."
The exchange between the two sides was like a needle tip against wheat awn! [1] In reality, each had their own considerations.
...
These three imprint bearers likely have ulterior motives, most probably targeting my medicinal pills. This was High Immortal Zhuo Hao's final assessment of the situation, his killing intent already rising.
Spacetime Island imprint bearers? To High Immortal Zhuo Hao, all who blocked his path would be killed!
...
"We have no choice. If he allowed me to guard Earth Immortal Yin Yan together with him, I could ambush and kill Earth Immortal Yin Yan, when the time is up," Wu Yuan's voice echoed in the minds of Metal Devil and Purple Secret. "But this High Immortal is unwilling.
Once we leave this planet, we'd only have the option of launching another ambush to kill Earth Immortal Yin Yan. We'd have to fight this High Immortal sooner or later, and by then we'd have lost the initiative. At least right now, Earth Immortal Yin Yan is close to us, while this High Immortal is still outside the planet.
Moreover, I suspect this High Immortal will take Earth Immortal Yin Yan away with him right away. By then, if they hide in their sect's grand array or this High Immortal's lair, it'll be much harder for us to kill Earth Immortal Yin Yan."
Wu Yuan's analysis convinced Metal Devil and Purple Secret.
To complete this mission, they'd have to fight High Immortal Zhuo Hao sooner or later. It was better to engage now. The question was, how would they fight him?
"I'll strike down Earth Immortal Yin Yan's mana body. You destroy the planet's array and capture his true self alive, then flee far away, leaving the battlefield," Wu Yuan said decisively. "I'll handle this Sixth Tribulation High Immortal."
The mission only required that Earth Immortal Yin Yan not be killed during the protection period. It didn't say they couldn't capture him first. If they captured him first, then killed him after the protection time was up, it could still work.
As for killing his mana body? The death of the mana body wouldn't affect the survival of the true self.
...
Both sides prepared for battle in an instant.
Then, they all erupted into action almost simultaneously.
"Fellow Daoists, I don't think it's necessary..." Earth Immortal Yin Yan began to speak, being the most apprehensive and least willing to see the two sides clash. It wasn't that he was kindhearted, but rather that he was the weakest, and most likely to be caught in the crossfire if the two sides fought.
Silently, a cold light suddenly thrust out from the calm void behind Earth Immortal Yin Yan, reaching extreme speeds.
Squelch! The sword struck, piercing his skull. Sword qi erupted, and his body disintegrated.
Earth Immortal Yin Yan's mana body was dead!
In terms of strength, Earth Immortal Yin Yan was far weaker compared to those hunters. Faced with Wu Yuan's close-range ambush, he had absolutely no power to resist.
"Go!"
"Attack!" Metal Devil and Purple Secret also sprang into action in an instant, one transforming into a towering figure ten thousand zhangs tall, its imposing presence overwhelming.
Rumble~ Rolling and surging like a vast ocean, countless streams of water appeared, along with icy chains that swept across the air. They lashed out at the planet's array that had just been activated.
Once they erupted into action, these two also showed their extraordinary strength, fiercely turning to attack the planet's core.
Not good. These damned imprint bearers killed my mana body? Earth Immortal Yin Yan was both shocked and enraged.
He had no idea that Wu Yuan and Metal Devil only intended to capture him for now. From his perspective, these imprint bearers had come for his life.
Everything had erupted so quickly that his mana body had no time to react. However, as an Earth Immortal, Yin Yan's reaction time was also extremely fast. In an instant, he had already devised a counterstrategy—abandon pill refining and activate the array in full.
"Die!" Earth Immortal Yin Yan's true self suddenly emitted streaks of fiery divine light. Countless fiery Dao patterns appeared across the thousand-li area of the core region.
Whoosh!!! The entire planet suddenly burst forth with endless brilliant light, and the surging magma flowing through the planet's core instantly transformed into terrifying fire dragons.
“Roar!” Each dragon exuded overwhelming aura, stretching thousands of li long. Roaring, they charged toward Metal Devil and Purple Secret.
This earth-shattering display of power caused Metal Devil and Purple Secret's expressions to shift.
In terms of strength, these fire dragons were each capable of overpowering an ordinary ninth-stage Earth Immortal. Simultaneously, those puppets with powerful auras also erupted into action.
This was the strength of qi refiners. In their own lairs, aided by arrays, puppets, and other treasures, they could unleash unprecedented combat power.
It could be said that ordinary High Immortals often avoided forcefully invading the lair of a powerful Earth Immortal. It would be too dangerous.
"Kill!" Purple Secret swept her icy chains through the air, lashing out at the fire dragons. Her violet robes fluttered, her expression as cold as frost.
"Out of my way!" Metal Devil's imposing presence was even more terrifying, charging straight through, each slash of his saber sending a fire dragon or puppet flying.
The two worked in perfect coordination, seemingly unstoppable.
This is bad. Earth Immortal Yin Yan's expression darkened. So fast? When these imprint bearers asked me to defend the planet with the array just now, was it intentional?
If his planet had been intact, activating the third level of the array could have increased its power by another thirty percent, allowing him to easily block an ordinary High Immortal. At least, it could have delayed them for longer.
But now, with nearly half the planet destroyed and many array bases ruined, it naturally couldn't unleash its full power.
"High Immortal Zhuo Hao, save me!" Earth Immortal Yin Yan anxiously sent a message through the voidrealm, calling for help.
"Do your best to delay them." High Immortal Zhuo Hao's voice also betrayed his shock. "This white-robed Earth Immortal has mastered the True Intent of Space. Hold on.”
"True Intent of Space?" While struggling to resist, Earth Immortal Yin Yan glanced at the scene in the distance and instantly despaired. "High Immortal Zhuo Hao is trapped?"
...
When Metal Devil and Purple Secret moved to attack the planet's core, intending to capture Earth Immortal Yin Yan, High Immortal Zhuo Hao instantly erupted in fury.
"Courting death. Stop right there!" His form moved, darting towards the planet.
A hundred thousand li per second! Two hundred thousand li per second! In the blink of an eye, he had accelerated to three hundred thousand li per second! A million li? He could cross it in two or three seconds.
This was the true power of a Sixth Tribulation High Immortal. Their strength was already at the limit of beings below Archimmortals. In terms of flight speed alone, they could approach the speed of light when going all out, even if speed wasn’t their forte.
At the same time, eight streams of fiery light encircled High Immortal Zhuo Hao, three of which shot out at speeds even faster than his own. They accelerated to near-light speed!
"Die!" High Immortal Zhuo Hao's eyes were ice-cold.
The three fiery light streams were actually three low-grade celestial artifacts, unleashing their full power as they hurtled towards Wu Yuan.
His heart burned with all-encompassing rage. When faced with a life-or-death decision, Earth Immortal Yin Yan had abandoned pill refining to focus on defense. He couldn't blame him for that. But it also meant that even if the pill refining process was restarted in the future, the chances of failure would be extremely high.
"Wasting my time? Truly deserving of death!" High Immortal Zhuo Hao's heart was filled with unquenchable killing intent.
Boom! Boom! Boom! It was as if three miniature suns had exploded in outer space, igniting endless flames that illuminated the vast cosmos.
This display of power caused even Metal Devil and Purple Secret to pale mid-fight. The Law of Fire was known for its ferocity. When a Sixth Tribulation High Immortal wielded celestial artifacts with full force, one could only imagine how frightening the attack was.
If those attacks landed on them, even Metal Devil, with his powerful self-preservation ability, would be severely injured.
A Sixth Tribulation High Immortal? It seems he's close to fully comprehending the Inferno Dao. Wu Yuan's expression remained incredibly calm.
The Inferno Dao was one of the most common Lesser Laws within the Law of Fire. A head-on confrontation? Relying solely on the Law of Space, Wu Yuan knew he was no match for his opponent. The gap in mana was too great.
However, he only needed to block them!
Whoosh! Wu Yuan took a step forward, and his body suddenly integrated into space, vanishing without a trace. No aura remained.
In the next moment, he reappeared tens of thousands of li away, meeting those three overwhelming fiery stars head on. It was as if he had teleported.
True Domain, spatial distortion. An invisible ripple of spatial fluctuations materialized around Wu Yuan, instantly enveloping the three flaming stars. It also encompassed High Immortal Zhuo Hao.
Moreover, it blanketed everything in a million-li radius, warping space in this region. Whether it was Soul Will, line of sight, or other probing-type artifacts, all were inexplicably affected.
Those flaming stars, originally moving at nearly the speed of light, visibly slowed tenfold when engulfed by this wave of distortion. If they could originally traverse millions of li in one or two seconds, it would now take at least ten to twenty seconds to cross the same distance. It was extremely bizarre.
“Spatial intersection, an application of the Law of True Domain.” Metal Devil and Purple Secret, observing from afar, were utterly shocked.
"Ming Jian hasn't just crystallized Space True Intent, he must have advanced the True Domain Dao to the seventh-level True Intent stage at least. Only in this way can he trap a Sixth Tribulation High Immortal with Earth Immortal mana."
"Ming Jian has indeed crystallized Space True Intent. His body can truly integrate into higher spatial dimensions, making him practically able to appear anywhere in an instant."
Both Metal Devil and Purple Secret had some understanding of the Law of Space. Purple Secret, who was cultivating the Law of True Domain and had crystallized True Intent, naturally recognized Wu Yuan's technique in no time. It far surpassed her own mastery.
The True Domain Dao, as one of the three Intermediate Laws of Space, excelled at domain and binding techniques.
Domains created with the application of the Earth Dao, Water Dao, and other Greater Laws often merely strengthened the restraining power and expanded the area of effect.
Yet the Law of True Domain, when cultivated to profound levels, had many wondrous uses. It didn't simply clash head-on with enemies, but warped the very existence of space itself.
The original space was a million li across, but under Wu Yuan's control, it was distorted and stretched to over ten million li! Whether launching attacks in or attempting to flee from this area, it would take over ten times as long.
Moreover, unlike arrays, Wu Yuan could traverse through higher spatial dimensions, constantly moving the region affected by spatial fluctuations. Those trapped had no way to break free. This had a similar effect to the time dilation of the Law of Time.
"Hurry!"
"This Sixth Tribulation High Immortal is trapped. But Ming Jian can't hold him forever, hurry!" Metal Devil and Purple Secret quickly realized that they had been presented with a rare opportunity.
Under the effects of spatial distortion, one million li was equivalent to ten million li. It would take High Immortal Zhuo Hao at least four breaths to reach the core of the planet.
These four breaths were their window. They had to seize Earth Immortal Yin Yan, then flee for their lives!
1. 针尖对麦芒, means two equals going head to head ☜