Chapter 289: Fighting Patriarch Tingyou!

Regarding Patriarch Tingyou's strength, Lu Yang had actually always been very curious.

If you asked if he was strong, the answer was definitely yes; his monstrous comprehension gave him an overwhelming advantage in magical combat, and his ability to mimic divine abilities was ridiculously exaggerated.

He was undoubtedly a perfect opponent for sparring.

Because Patriarch Tingyou was not only very strong and widely experienced, but also possessed astonishing comprehension, enough to help him accurately gauge Lu Yang's current level of strength.

"You want to fight me?"

Hearing Lu Yang's request, Patriarch Tingyou paused slightly, but quickly recovered, nodding his head: "Mm, it's not impossible right now."

He was actually quite curious himself.

After all, the Second Grade True Art was also a relatively unfamiliar domain for Patriarch Tingyou, so merely by looking, he couldn't be sure of Lu Yang's current strength.

Moreover, there was an even more important matter.

'If Lu Yang's strength is sufficient, combined with the incense system, perhaps... I can try passing down the true methods of the 【Yanmo Hall】 to him as well.'

The False Gold-Holding Position Art!

It was the life's work of Patriarch Tingyou, yet it failed to truly display its edge before being cut short halfway; at this moment, he saw hope in Lu Yang.

At the same time, Lu Yang rubbed his fists together, a smile on his face:

"Then, Patriarch, I won't stand on ceremony!"

With those words, the sharp blade left its sheath!

Although it was a spar, Lu Yang did not harbor the slightest negligence; he started immediately with 【Li Jie Bo】, and a brilliant starlight suddenly ignited on the sword's edge.

This single point of starlight showed no obvious power or depth.

Even the imagery within it was extremely simple: it was unyielding and unbreakable; no matter how many difficulties and obstacles lay ahead, they would all be severed by one sword strike!

"Boom!"

Patriarch Tingyou's figure offered no resistance; he was instantly slain by Lu Yang's sword strike, yet at the moment of his death, he transformed into an illusory afterimage.

The next second, the afterimage shattered.

Behind it, Patriarch Tingyou's true form emerged, his face still bearing a look of astonishment as he sighed with emotion: "So strong, truly too strong..."

Hearing this, Lu Yang was instantly speechless.

'【Xian Yi】!?'

One of the innate divine abilities of the Sword Dao avatar; within the range of the divine ability, everything unfavorable to oneself could be turned into nothingness, retaining only what was beneficial.

Patriarch Tingyou naturally could not fully reproduce its essence, but he had mimicked its surface appearance, creating a false body to bear the result of being slain by Lu Yang's sword, while his true form calmly escaped, unscathed, and even broke free from the lock of the 【Sword Intent】!

"Careful, I'm counterattacking."

Before his voice even faded, Patriarch Tingyou's figure vanished from the spot.

"This is..."

The familiar scene made Lu Yang's pupils contract slightly; although he had lost this divine ability after starting over, he was not so far gone as to fail to recognize it.

'... Ding Qin Shu】!?'

The innate divine ability Lu Yang had relied on most in the past was now being cast by Patriarch Tingyou in the form of a Daoist art, weakened countless times!

The next second, Patriarch Tingyou had already appeared behind Lu Yang.

The true 【Ding Qin Shu】 could achieve movement over extremely long distances, however, the weakened Daoist art version cast by Patriarch Tingyou had a limited range.

'【Xiao Zhu Tian Dun Kong Miao Fa】!'

Patriarch Tingyou formed a hand seal with glowing light in his hand and pushed forward; Lu Yang's figure instantly vanished from the spot, subsequently reappearing out of thin air several hundred meters away.

'Moving several hundred meters? What use is that?'

Lu Yang was still pondering when he saw dark clouds suddenly fill the sky around him; lightning snakes wove through the clouds, and in the blink of an eye, they transformed into a sea of thunder!

Heavenly Punishment Thunder Clouds!?

The next second, the sea of thunder from the sky crashed down violently, engulfing Lu Yang's figure.

However, before Patriarch Tingyou could even breathe a sigh of relief, sword light fiercely slashed out from the sea of thunder, tearing the dark clouds apart as Lu Yang walked out easily.

Although Patriarch Tingyou had seized the initiative, Lu Yang felt no frustration.

Instead, he felt a little excited.

'We can fight!'

Although the current Patriarch Tingyou was maintaining the status of a perfect Foundation Establishment realm only through incense, there should still be some distance compared to his peak period.

But in terms of strength, he was absolutely not weak; being able to fight him indicated that even in this broken place, his strength shouldn't be so inferior as to be slaughtered by peers of the same realm; at the very least, he possessed some ability to resist.

"Again!"

With a thought, Lu Yang withdrew his sword intent, instead illuminating the white jade halo behind him; majestic and solemn like a deity, he formed hand seals and made mudras with both hands:

'【Cheng Tian Gang】!'

This time, it was no longer used casually as against Emperor Yan Taizu and the Capital City God; the true light of the divine ability expanded violently, revealing scenes of the sun, moon, and stars, and images of mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas wherever it passed; like drawing bows with both hands to the left and right and clapping them together in the middle, it directly trapped Patriarch Tingyou within the brilliant splendor of the divine ability.

"What is this?"

Seeing this scene, even the widely experienced Patriarch Tingyou revealed a look of curiosity, clearly having never seen this form of divine ability manifestation before.

"This is my world."

Lu Yang grinned, then extended a finger, pointing it at Patriarch Tingyou: "Patriarch, do you see any difference between my divine ability and yours?"

With those words, brilliant light suddenly appeared.

"【Ding Qin Shu】!"

The next second, Patriarch Tingyou's figure vanished from the spot, similarly sent hundreds of li away by Lu Yang, and similarly plunged into a boiling sea of thunder!

In the flash of lightning and spark, Patriarch Tingyou laughed loudly, then clapped his hands together in a prayer position, before raising a towering mountain shadow; from top to bottom, he pressed down violently upon the sea of thunder surrounding him, instantly settling and extinguishing ten thousand laws, erasing divine abilities, and sweeping all lightning and thunderbolts away.

'【Bao Shou Shan】?'

Lu Yang understood in his heart; this was another Daoist art evolved from a divine ability by Patriarch Tingyou; no matter how many times one saw such world-shaking wisdom, it felt absurd.

Little did he know that on the other side, Patriarch Tingyou was equally filled with shock.

"How was this done?"

Undoubtedly, Lu Yang had just accomplished the same thing as him, actually managing to cast an innate divine ability that should have been lost!

However, the reason he himself could do it was because of his high comprehension.

But Lu Yang... wasn't he clear about Lu Yang's comprehension? It was merely average; there was a little, but not much, so how did he manage to do such a thing?

"Just a little trick."

Lu Yang waved his hand modestly: "It's just a slight marvel of 【Cheng Tian Gang】; didn't I just say that this is now my world?"

My world, I make the rules!

Within the small world created by 【Cheng Tian Gang】, Lu Yang could, to a certain extent, make his wishes come true; mimicking divine abilities was naturally not a problem!

Although it was only superficial, with an internal operating logic that was completely different, and the effect, like the Daoist art mimicked by Patriarch Tingyou, could not compare to the original divine ability, with much reduced power, it made up for it with great variety; as a means of dealing with enemies, it was already more than sufficient.

"Just like this..."

Lu Yang changed the hand seal in his hand, actually manifesting a towering mountain shadow as well, crashing down toward Patriarch Tingyou; it was actually 【Bao Shou Shan】 again!

"Boom!"

Patriarch Tingyou similarly changed his hand seal, colliding with the mountain shadow, resulting in both vanishing; immediately after, both sides changed moves simultaneously, switching to new divine abilities and Daoist arts!

"Die!"

Lu Yang spoke with the authority of heaven; it was clearly the technique of speaking and the law following from the Xuan Ling Realm.

"Live!"

Patriarch Tingyou was equally unyielding; in an instant, he saw the flaw in Lu Yang's method, then similarly emitted a thunderous sound from his mouth, washing away the influence of the divine ability.

"【Jue Ming】! 【Xian Yi】!"

Patriarch Tingyou attacked on two fronts; first, he cast a spell to create a false body, then used it to wield the sword of 【Jue Ming】, slashing fiercely toward Lu Yang!

In the process, he even mimicked 【Zhi Jian Zhang】, briefly shielding Lu Yang's perception of this sword strike; by the time he broke free from the influence, the sword light had already reached before his eyes, instantly piercing his flesh, destroying his tendons and bones, and blasting his entire body into a cloud of blood mist.

However, the next second, the scene changed.

The blood mist transformed into an illusion and vanished; Lu Yang's true form steadily retreated several hundred meters, his brows slightly furrowed; continuing like this would only result in mutual exhaustion, with no way to achieve victory.

Thinking of this, Lu Yang immediately withdrew 【Cheng Tian Gang】.

'Let's try this move again.'

Five divine abilities appeared behind him like stars, then connected with each other to form a ring, hanging behind his head and casting down a beam of pure white light like jade.

【Yu Shi Tong】!

(End of Chapter)