***
Meanwhile a couple of seconds ago, just as the peanut galleries were using their ??? Phase abilities, called Time-slow, allowing them to dramatically slow down the speed of a nearby battle in a way that they had the time to comment and even react when by all logic they clearly
shouldn’t have
the time…
Meanwhile, meanwhile, Amelia’s 128 arrows were moments away from hitting the golden palm but just then—
“Condense.”
The instant Amelia uttered this word, the 128 ethereal arrows obeyed, they glowed and began to shine with a white light that made their forms unclear before they rapidly neared each other, and then these white glowing forms began to merge one into another.
The number of shining arrows diminished extremely rapidly until there was only one left, one who looked far, far more powerful; it was now a multiple-meters-long arrow, had gained a certain… ethereal quality, and faint runic markings married its surface, and its aura… it was
unimaginably powerful
, to be exact it was 128 times stronger compared to before!
“Oh? What a superb Archery Technique!” Varathen instinctively raised an eyebrow at this awe-inspiring display of archery, which when combined with Lian’er’s Sword Intent…
The angered Varnari lost some of his anger as he saw that both women were extremely talented geniuses and consequently were probably
worthy warriors
.
Inwardly Varathen lost his killing intent toward both women, as even though the crazed woman had been hostile and had even insulted him seemingly
without reason
, with the archer following in her footsteps by attacking him…
Even then, as a proud Varnari who was born and lived in a society with a culture that could be called ‘militaristic,’ where an extremely great emphasis was given to strength and worthiness, he simply
couldn’t bring himself
to smother these two talents!
‘Killing you two would be too much of a sin… but a punishment? Heh, that much is only natural.’ That was what he inwardly thought, though he didn’t show any of it on his face, merely responding to the archer’s attack with a cold snort just as the several-meters-long arrow was about to reach Heaven's
Collapse.
“Useless!”
BOOM!
The tip of Amelia’s
Thousand-Fold Convergence Arrow
crashed into Varathen’s
Heaven’s Collapse
, creating an extremely powerful explosion of energy while terrifying shockwaves spread outward, heading right toward the weak cultivators nearby!
Flash.
Fortunately, before a massacre could erupt, the Elders and Sect Masters of the Sects to which these weak cultivators belonged materialized before them and, using their own powerful strength, protected them against these overwhelming shockwaves.
Shrrrkt! Shrrrkt!
Meanwhile, Amelia’s
Thousand-Fold Convergence Arrow
continued to try to pierce through the immense palm, using its immense power to try to dispel this extremely powerful palm attack, unfortunately—
It wasn’t enough!
The difference in strength between both sides was
absolute
, so after a short confrontation during which
Heaven’s Collapse
was halted for barely half a second, Amelia’s arrow lost all its power and was crushed under the collapsing might of the palm, which continued on its path
seemingly unaffected
by an attack that even a Mid-Stage Core Formation cultivator would probably have died at!
“DIE, DIE, DIE”
‘It didn’t work huh…’
Lian’er continued to manically attack Varathen using her Sword Intent while Amelia sighed, seeing how her attack was pretty much useless, but contrary to the fear or even regret she might have been expected to feel as she threw her life away ‘for nothing’ and was now watching her death approach in the form of this golden palm that covered the sky, she—
‘Goodbye darling…’ her mind was peaceful as she watched everything happening around her with a certain detachment while her last thought went toward her beloved Mikael whose fate was unknown to her…
The golden palm, which was tens of meters wide and carrying the oppressive majesty of the heavens collapsing, continued its slow descent, its vast surface shimmering with condensed power that visibly warped and distorted both air and space beneath it.
Its immense power and suppressive force, which were locked onto Lian’er and Amelia, continued to grow stronger and stronger and stronger, to the point where the two beauties were moments away from being utterly crushed under it, but then—
“ENOUGH!”
With a sudden shout, Qiu Yuelan, in all of her beauty, materialized right into
Heaven’s Collapse
’s path just as her Cultivation erupted outward, and at the same moment she activated a powerful formation.
Celestial Petal Sword Formation.
Around the floating beauty, swirls of pale-gold petals carrying with them extreme sharpness manifested, these petals rotating around her and placing her at the center of a tens-of-meters-wide formation within which hundreds of ‘sword-like’ petals revolved.
The world seemed to dim as the titanic golden palm reached Yuelan formation, and then—
BOOM!
The descending palm collided with the revolving sword-petals, and the impact exploded into a deafening shockwave that sent dust and loose debris spiraling outward.
The petals shuddered violently at the first touch, dozens of them cracking or outright disintegrating under the terrifying force Varathen had
CASUALLY
poured into
Heaven’s Collapse
, yet even as they broke they reformed faster than they could be destroyed, layering over one another in a shimmering cascade of sword-light.
The golden palm ground downward little by little, each movement accompanied by an agonizing groan from the formation as sharpness and suppression clashed endlessly, as they did so the golden palm momentum was slowly ground down, same for its power.
Krrasssh–kracss.
It was after a couple of seconds of this terrifying confrontation that a victor emerged, and this victor was Yuelan!
The lazy beauty formation had successfully survived Varathen’s
Heaven’s Collapse
but it didn’t emerge unscathed and one third of her
Celestial Petal Sword Formation
was ultimately destroyed and that was with…
With Varathen having attacked relatively casually, after all he didn’t need to go all in; he was just attacking two Spiritual Foundation Realm disciples after all!
Even though the Sect Master of the Eidolon Path Sect had used a powerful attack, not wanting for the humiliating situation of them surviving it happening, it was still
nowhere near
his full power!
Qiu Yuelan understood that and this is why even though she was just ‘won’ this exchange she couldn’t smile, her expression becoming grim and serious as she looked upward and spoke,
“Lian’er is clearly not in a proper state of mind, I am sure you can see that as well as anyone, considering that taking offense for her words and action is… unbecoming of a senior, I hope Sect Master Varathen can be merciful and ignore her offense.”
Her words which were relatively deferential would have been the kind of talk which would have pleased an human cultivator, probably defusing the situation, but—
Varathen wasn’t human!
And it showed in his reaction as he didn’t grow calmer, his cold gaze landing on her her as the pressure of his aura and cultivation continued to weigh on the surrounding, “Unstable stable of mind or not, she insulted me and the entire Varnari race and this isn’t something that I can simply ignore because this ‘Lian’er’ is in an unstable—”
Varathen stopped mid sentence while an extremely dangerous glint appeared in his eyes, the reason?
Slash.
Lian’er who had previously stopped attacking him—having been affected by the shockwaves of Varathen and Yuelan clash—once more began to attack him, her sword infused slashes flying toward the burly Varnari!
“Lian’er!” Qiu Yuelan's expression changed for the worse, ‘This is bad’ she realized as she saw that the previously ‘calm’ Varathen gained a dangerous glint in his eyes.
BOOM!
“Amelia, make sure Lian’er doesn’t do anything stupid again.”
As she said these words Qiu Yuelan used the full power of her cultivation coupled with an illusion formation to make Lian’er fall asleep within moments, not wanting for Amliea to take care of Lian’er and make sure she doesn’t worsen the
situation even more…
‘Seriously Lian’er why do you have to make my life difficult!?’ sighed in her heart Qiu Yuelan.
The next instant she refocused her attention onto Varathen whose aura wasn’t contained anymore.
Thud, crack, shatter, boom!
In an instant, nearly all the nearby cultivators were brought to their knees under the overwhelming difference in power, of course the cultivators weren’t the only ‘victims’, the terrain was also affected for miles around.
Trees were uprooted, the earth split apart as tens-of-meters-wide fissures tore downward into the depths, and winds strong enough to rip entire trunks from the soil howled outward in chaotic waves, even lifting boulders as though they weighed nothing. Even space itself did not remain untouched, the air around Varathen twisting and growing faintly unstable under the sheer pressure radiating from his body.
At that moment, the full power of a Core Perfection powerhouse was laid bare before the horrified eyes of the gathered cultivators—who, when confronted with Varathen’s might, felt no different from powerless mortals.
Whoosh, crackles.
Qiu Yuelan answered in kind and also displayed the full might of her aura, instantly there was an invisible clash between both aura who clashed silently or… not so much as the terrain was further affected and destroyed by the
simple weight
of their presence.
Cultivators all around the two powerhouses who had been brought to their knees could only look up in horror, not having the strength to rise under the overwhelming pressure of Varathen’s and Yuelan clashing aura!
Neither of the two powerhouses talked, their gaze eying each other as the tension rose higher and higher, with the weaker cultivators not even daring to breathe loudly as the pressure intensified.
This continued on until it felt like the very air might rupture at any moment while both Sect Master seemed moments away from erupting in a devastating battle that could cause unimaginable casualties for all the ‘powerless’ cultivators present…
***
3 months later.
Inside a relatively small stone cave which could be classified as everything except ordinary, the only exception to this would be the walls which was the only thing ‘normal’.
This stone cave ground wasn’t made of cold stone as it could be expected but was actually covered in a beautiful, luxurious carpet which looked particularly comfortable.
Its presence was only slightly unordinary, what truly made this small stone cave unordinary was the fact that it was actually a Cultivation Abode and a special one at that, and this could be easily seen by any skilled formation master who examined its Qi Gathering Formation, they would immediately recognize its quality and efficiency.
Of course it didn’t stop there as there was something
far more obvious
which didn’t need you to be a skilled formation to notice, you only needed to open your eyes and you would immediately see the presence of white mist swirling silently through the room
White mist which was actually condensed Qi, to a point that the usually invisible energy transformed into an extremely visible white mist, something that showed the density of Qi present, showing that this is a high quality Cultivation Abode!
But…that wasn’t all!
As the Abode wasn’t empty as in the middle of it and partially obscured by the white mist was a figure seated in a meditative position and if its figure was to be believed it was clearly a woman.
Her slow but steady breathing resounded in the room, bringing with it the illusion of peace, one that—
“Cough, cough”
Shattered moments later when the woman lurched forward before violently coughing blood!
The blood that splattered and tainted the carpet, coupled with the woman movement allowed to reveal her visage and identiy…
She was Hua Lianyu, more commonly known as Lian’er!
Author Note:
Enjoying the story?
A quick
review
or
follow
helps more readers discover this world.
A few words from me below.
———
The little Time-Slow at the start was rather obviously a little pike to nearly 100% of cultivation novel existing and even my novel has it, in the above situation we saw the crowd reaction and I tried to make it more logical where Varathen attack was slow which gave them the time to react but it still somewhat flawed on that point…
Anyways, another thing is that we are really really really(for real this time) approaching the end of the volume 4, chapter 350-351 should be the end of Volume 4.
———
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— End of Chapter —