Chapter 322: Battle at the Immortal-Fanqiao

In just the time it took to exchange a few words, another large swath of people around him collapsed once more.

Ding Huan couldn't even be bothered to pay this fellow any attention.

"Fellow Daoist, as long as you are willing to let us go, I, Lou Wushang, swear I will not seek revenge against you, and every resource collected from Jiuyuan Star will be given entirely to you."

Lou Wushang cupped his fists, his tone sincere.

Ding Huan said coldly, "How rare. If I kill you lot, won't the things be mine anyway? Seek revenge on me? You don't need to swear — you won't get the chance either.

Today I will not only demand justice for the Third Heaven Star Land, but also demand justice for all the innocent souls who have died under your Jiuyuan Sect over the years."

"May I also ask how I should address Fellow Daoist?" Lou Wushang's tone grew even more sincere.

Ding Huan was taken aback — something was off.

Jiuyuan Star was now wrapped in poisonous essence, and with every breath another pile of people died.

By all reason, Lou Wushang should be urgently throwing every condition on the table, begging him for his life.

Yet the man was still asking how to address him?

Stalling for time?

The moment this thought struck Ding Huan, he seized the Jia Baili beside him without hesitation and executed an Extreme Shadow Escape.

Almost the instant after Ding Huan fled, the space where he and Jia Baili had been standing suddenly compressed, then exploded with a roar.

That violent, tearing aura — Ding Huan was certain that had he not left, his physical body would have been pulverized.

"Ding—"

Jia Baili didn't know why Ding Huan had suddenly grabbed her and retreated, but she only managed a single word before staring in shock at the spot where she and Ding Huan had just been standing.

The space at that spot had been torn apart — one could see how terrifying that strike had been.

"Immortal-Fanqiao realm?" Jia Baili stared in shock at the gray-robed man who had appeared before her.

"Old Star Lord, save us…" Lou Wushang cried out urgently.

The gray-robed man raised his hand and threw a punch straight at Ding Huan.

"Ding Huan, dodge quickly, don't take it head-on — he's at the Immortal-Fanqiao realm…" Jia Baili screamed in terror.

The Immortal-Fanqiao realm was an ancient realm of the Third Heaven Star Land; many cultivators of the Third Heaven Star Land today didn't even know that above Earth Immortal there was still such a realm.

The curtain of starry-sky killing intent rolled up by that punch was as if an entire planet had been seized and hurled at Ding Huan.

Anyone else, at this moment, would have only one option — dodge immediately.

Let alone Ding Huan, who was only at the Star Bridge realm.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, Ding Huan not only did not dodge, but instead charged straight at the gray-robed man, the parting spear in his hands blasting out a world of slaughter in kind.

Everything in the cosmos seemed, beneath this single spear strike, to slowly vanish, wither, dissipate…

One spear, one world; where the spear passed, ten thousand dusts were annihilated!

The second spear of the Nine Divine Powers — Annihilation.

Boom! The world of slaughter unleashed by Ding Huan's spear collided head-on with the gray-robed man's fist-formed curtain of starry-sky killing intent.

At this moment the cosmic space itself trembled; the killing intent's Dao essence slammed into the protective array of distant Jiuyuan Star, and the array swayed again and again.

"Puh!" Ding Huan spat out a bloody arrow, the bones in his arm shattering inch by inch, and he was sent flying backward.

Jia Baili rushed over and caught Ding Huan; the Grand Cosmos Art circulated through Zhou Tian, and Ding Huan had already shot out from beside Jia Baili once more, standing before the gray-robed man.

He knew very well that he absolutely could not give this gray-robed man a single breath of free time.

That punch from the gray-robed man earlier had only been meant to force him back, so that the man could then act to break open Jiuyuan Star's seal.

How could Ding Huan possibly let the other party succeed at that?

He had been ambushed once by this fellow earlier; if not for his quick reaction, he would have been smashed to pieces long ago.

If he, Ding Huan, allowed himself to be outmaneuvered twice in a row by the same fellow, he wouldn't have survived until today.

"You are strong, but to kill you I need less than ten breaths. Step aside, and today I can spare your life." The gray-robed man, knowing his intentions had been seen through by Ding Huan, simply spoke them out plainly.

He had just tested Ding Huan's spear-Dao divine ability and knew clearly that if he went to unseal Jiuyuan Star without dealing with Ding Huan first, he was very likely to be ambushed by Ding Huan.

And dealing with Ding Huan would probably take several dozen breaths; once that time passed, even fewer people on Jiuyuan Star would still be alive.

Ding Huan sneered coldly, "Your Grandpa Huan was scared into being what he is."

Killing intent in the gray-robed man's eyes gradually took on substance; he raised his hand and seized a plainly-styled long blade.

Before the long blade was even unleashed, its blade-domain had already bloomed out in bursts of cold, sinister killing intent.

Even Jia Baili, who was still several hundred zhang away from Ding Huan and the gray-robed man, felt her whole body go cold and couldn't help but retreat.

Jia Baili watched Ding Huan grip his long spear and stand unmoving before the gray-robed man, and knew that compared to Ding Huan, she was lacking by far more than a little.

She knew very well that if she went up now, she wouldn't be able to help in the slightest.

Ding Huan's strength was probably no weaker than those Earth Immortal experts who had come to her Jia Star Mountain last time; her own meager strength going up might actually hinder Ding Huan.

After so many years and countless battles, Jia Baili knew very well what she ought to do.

She carefully retreated, putting more and more distance between herself and Ding Huan.

The gray-robed man's long blade chopped down; a black scar appeared in the starry sky, and one after another violent void-edge blades shot out from that black scar.

Ding Huan's pupils contracted sharply — he knew this was the other party tearing open the void realm with a single blade.

It seemed this fellow intended to kill him first before saving anyone.

But Ding Huan was certain the other party was dreaming.

Whether or not he could be killed, the people of Jiuyuan Star would definitely be poisoned to the last one — not a single one would survive.

What Ding Huan was thinking, however, was not about letting this fellow save anyone; he was thinking that if he couldn't kill this gray-robed man today, all his efforts would likely come to nothing.

Because this gray-robed man might very well rebuild Jiuyuan.

Although it was only one blade, Ding Huan was completely bound within the other party's domain by that single strike; he could only feel the chill of the void and watch helplessly as the blade was about to split into his brow.

In the distance, despair welled up in Jia Baili's heart — she desperately wanted to help Ding Huan, but she couldn't.

Ding Huan was strong enough, but his opponent was even stronger—outrageously so.

Ding Huan took a deep breath and closed his eyes instead. The domain of the Grand Cosmos Art churned wildly, and his body, which had been bound by that cold, sinister blade intent, finally regained its freedom.

Ding Huan understood this was because his Great Dao was far stronger than his opponent's, and because his Grand Cosmos Consciousness Sea possessed a profound foundation, allowing him to tear through the killing momentum of the opponent's blade intent.

In that instant, Ding Huan summoned the Parting Spear, and what it conjured was still a world of slaughter—the Nine Dao's second spear, Annihilation.

Although Ding Huan could unleash his divine-sense technique Yellow Flower Kill at any moment, he acted as if he didn't even know he had such a divine-sense technique, with not the slightest intention of using it.

Boom!

The grey-robed man's blade tore through Ding Huan's world with even greater ease.

Although Ding Huan's domain allowed him to break free of the opponent's killing intent and summon the Parting Spear beneath the pressure of that blade intent, compared to this strike of his opponent's, the gap was still vast.

The Parting Spear was blasted away, and though the cold, sinister blade intent had been partially suppressed, it still reached Ding Huan.

"Puh!" A streak of blood-light split down from Ding Huan's brow all the way to his chest.

A mist of blood sprayed from Ding Huan's body; that blade had nearly cleaved him in two.

Ding Huan's flesh and blood halted the spread of that deathly blade intent—on the surface, it let him escape with his life.

The grey-robed man swept a cold glance at Ding Huan, paid him no further attention, and turned to lunge toward Jiuyuan Star.

He knew Ding Huan was doomed.

How could his Yinming blade Qi be so easily withstood?

On the surface, Ding Huan had blocked this strike, preventing it from splitting him clean in two.

In truth, the Yinming blade Qi of this strike had instead been fully absorbed by Ding Huan's body. In less than an hour or so, Ding Huan's body would shatter inch by inch like porcelain.

He had no time to keep killing Ding Huan; he had to break open Jiuyuan Star, or every single person on Jiuyuan Star would be slaughtered.

Jiabaihe covered her mouth; she understood exactly what that strike just now meant.

Ding Huan was absolutely the most talented cultivator she had ever seen, the one with the greatest ability and potential—and he had actually fallen here.

And Ding Huan hadn't even done it for himself.

Jiabaihe decided to take Ding Huan's corpse away.

Just at that moment, something happened that neither Jiabaihe nor the grey-robed man could believe.

Ding Huan had actually summoned the Parting Spear once more; the long spear transformed into clusters of an icy cold—different from the grey-robed man's sinister chill—and blasted toward him.

Compared to his earlier attacks, this spear seemed much slower.

How could this be possible?

Could this guy simply not be killable?

The grey-robed man dared not continue breaking through Jiuyuan Star's protective array; he turned, and his long blade surged once more.

Just because he didn't regard Ding Huan as worth his attention didn't mean he dared to leave his back exposed to Ding Huan.

This time, the long blade conjured mountain after mountain of blades, its momentum seeming to draw upon the death Qi of this entire stretch of cosmos to crush Ding Huan right here.

He understood: until Ding Huan was thoroughly killed, he could forget about rescuing anyone.

In that case, then die.

At this moment, what Ding Huan's Parting Spear churned up was no longer spear-gleams or spear-curtains, but endless, boundless killing Dao rhymes.

These killing Dao rhymes coalesced into a single mass of icy, deathly spear-curtain.

At first it was only one mass of icy deathly spear-curtain, but as the killing Dao rhymes churned by Ding Huan's Parting Spear grew stronger and stronger, that one mass of icy killing spear-curtain split into two…

Then two became four, four became eight…

In less than a single breath, an area a thousand zhang across in the vast cosmos seemed to be entirely filled with masses of icy killing spear-curtain conjured by Ding Huan's spear.

An unprecedented killing intent erupted in the grey-robed man's eyes.

Now, in his eyes, if Ding Huan wasn't killed, he would absolutely be an eternal calamity for Jiuyuan.

As Ding Huan's endless masses of spear-curtain came crashing in, his blade-mountains also multiplied madly, and faster than Ding Huan's masses of icy killing spear-curtain multiplied.

Just at that moment, he sensed a vortex of killing momentum crash down between the domains of his divine techniques.

The blade-mountains he had been madly gathering and multiplying abruptly stalled, while Ding Huan's spear-curtain grew denser and denser.

Gradually, it even showed signs of tearing through his protective domain.

Not good—in his carelessness just now, he had actually been ambushed by Ding Huan with a divine-sense technique.

The grey-robed man burned his essence blood, and the vortex of killing momentum that had crashed into his divine-technique domain instantly collapsed.

"Such petty tricks dare to be played before me, Lou Xihe." The grey-robed man snorted coldly; the killing momentum of his blade-mountains surged even fiercer. He admitted he had underestimated Ding Huan time and again.

"Dong!" A muffled drumbeat exploded through the starry sky!

Lou Xihe stared wide-eyed—what did he see?

An iron drum, fully ten zhang tall, stood upright in the starry sky.

Dong dong dong!

Lou Xihe's consciousness sea was suddenly struck as well by the low, heavy drumbeat.

The killing momentum of the blade-mountains he had just gathered was on the verge of collapse in an instant.

That drumbeat was as if, amid a battlefield of slaughter and carnage, it had sounded the horn of war,

As the drumbeat exploded within his consciousness sea, the dense drum sounds seemed to be amplifying Ding Huan's unstoppable, forward-charging killing spear intent.

Spear intent and drumbeat intertwined!

A thought gives birth to a thousand drumbeats; a spear shatters ten thousand souls.

The drumbeat rolled on without end, striking straight to the deepest depths of the soul.

Dong!

Lou Xihe finally couldn't hold it any longer; he opened his mouth and spat out a streak of blood.

Lou Xihe realized: while the opponent was using this iron-drum treasure to attack his divine soul, his divine sense had also gathered drumbeats to assault his consciousness sea.

(That's all for today's update, goodnight my friends! Please support with monthly tickets at the end of the month!)