Chapter 295: The Mysterious Foe Behind the Scenes Appears

Heaven and earth dimmed of light, as pale-gray, biting astral winds ceaselessly howled.

At an altitude of several thousand meters, Baichuan had never been so shocked.

There were gods, immortals, demons, spirits and sprites, and there was Taiyangzhishin, who drove the Sun Chariot — after all this time spent learning, he had assumed this realm was one of those Heaven Round Earth Square continents out of myth and legend, but the scene now before his eyes overturned everything he thought he knew about this world.

At this moment, looking from afar, the shape of the land that met his eyes was a somewhat irregular round landmass!

That appearance was so familiar to him — he who had, in another world, soared into the high skies countless times, trying to break free of a planet's confines!

Because that was the land of a planet-type world.

If it were only this, it would still be fine, but what followed was somewhat horrifying.

Above the white, boundless Ice Plains, only at this moment did Baichuan truly see the Ice Plains that spanned the Dongfang Quyu in their actual form—

Shaped like a ship as massive as a mountain range!

At the southernmost end of the Ice Plains, there was even a stern rising up from beneath the land, fitted with thrusters.

What spanned the Dongfang Quyu was unmistakably a super-cosmic warship that had crashed here!

And the Ice Plains were perhaps the result of the energy-matter released by that super-warship's crash.

In a world he had assumed to be Heaven Round Earth Square and full of gods, demons, spirits and sprites, the land was actually an irregular circle, and there appeared the crystallisation of technology — starships that sailed through the cosmic Xingkong!

Baichuan was utterly stunned.

He had assumed that only after truly breaking free of the planet and the world's confines, and stepping out into that vast Xingkong, would he possibly encounter such starships.

He never, ever expected to come across them in a world like this.

"Sigh…"

Just then, a faint, drawn-out sigh rang out right by Baichuan's ear.

"Who?!"

In an instant, Baichuan snapped awake. As he violently retreated, his terrifying spiritual power surged out wildly, heedless of the knife-like biting astral winds' ravages, and swept out in all directions.

One must remember, this was at an altitude of countless meters — at such a height the air was already thin, and not only the air, even the Spirit Qi Baichuan sensed was abnormally thin, and combined with the clamour of the astral winds, it was basically very hard to hear the sounds of other creatures.

Yet at this moment, he had heard, right by his ear, an exceptionally clear and distinct sigh, as if some creature had leaned close to his ear and spoken.

In a flash, he recalled the mysterious behind-the-scenes existence he had previously speculated might truly be there.

Originally, after sensing the elevation of his authority and the ability to conjure Spirit Qi from nothing, he had suspected such an existence might not actually exist.

But unexpectedly, there really was one!

But where was it?

And by what means had the other party spoken by his ear?

The first thing Baichuan suspected was the Star-Devouring Worm avatar in his claw, suspecting whether there was something fishy about those abilities and that authority.

In an instant, while observing his surroundings, Baichuan was also constantly prepared to abandon this Star-Devouring Worm avatar at any moment, lest the other party have some means of implicating him.

At this moment, he could not afford not to be cautious.

From the moment he saw the starship, he had already begun to be extremely wary — after all, a super-starship capable of sailing through the vast Xingkong would inevitably carry some form of large-scale weaponry.

Even if its weapons might not possess the power to blast a star with a single shot, the power to destroy a continent should exist.

No sooner said than done.

In just the few breaths between the sigh appearing and Baichuan warily retreating—

A flash of light abruptly appeared not far from Baichuan, then, like warm sunlight, began to expand from where the light was, and shortly after transformed into a slender human figure.

The newcomer wore a suit of armor red threaded with gold, a halo symbolising sunlight perpetually hovering behind his head, his skin was white as jade, strange patterns were traced across his face, and — oddly — his eyes had been tightly shut the whole time.

This was precisely the Solar Heavenly Sovereign who had always driven the Sun Chariot in the Dongfang Quyu, scattering down boundless warmth.

This was also the first time Baichuan had truly and clearly seen the human form of a Heavenly Sovereign-level existence — in the past, whenever these Heavenly Sovereigns or Main Gods appeared, they were either shrouded in radiance, or had directly taken their true forms, and upon death would spontaneously revert to their true-form shape.

Only this Solar Heavenly Sovereign before him, suspected to be the true behind-the-scenes one, had appeared before him without any concealment.

Then, what was His true form? Or was He in fact one of those rare genuine humans?

Baichuan did not know. As his thoughts flickered ceaselessly, he kept observing on one hand while preparing for battle on the other.

"Forbidden to step out of Tianyuan Jie."

The next instant, the Solar Heavenly Sovereign spoke.

Then He moved.

A large hand, white as jade, reached out gently, tapping over as lightly as a breeze brushing one's face.

Though His eyes had not even opened, He seemed able to see exactly where the true dragon was, even though the true dragon was constantly restraining its aura in a faint, elusive way.

In an instant, heaven and earth responded of their own accord, and above this firmament an invisible finger-force, carrying the momentum of heaven and earth, stabbed forth.

Baichuan, who had long been on constant guard, dodged it the very instant he sensed the other's movement.

The invisible finger-force grazed the true dragon's dragon-body and struck the tiny ground below.

"Boom!"

A few breaths later, the ground thundered, sending up countless clouds of dust.

A large chunk had plainly been smashed apart — fortunately, Baichuan was now over the uninhabited, desolate Ice Plains, or else who knew how many would have died from that single strike.

Yet the two beings in the sky above had no time at all to pay attention to such a startling disturbance.

Because Baichuan had counterattacked — as his dragon-body dodged, a long, powerful dragon-tail swept out across the vast distance through the air, and a terrifying shadow of a dragon-tail was seen to detach from the true dragon's tail-end and hurtle forth.

Immediately after, while the dragon-tail shadow was attacking, Baichuan also violently gathered his strength, then spewed forth a thick, golden Dragon Breath — this was unmistakably 【Golden Flame】!

Above the firmament, boundless golden flames began to spread, spontaneously igniting out of thin air, transforming into a vast sea of fire, so conspicuous within this dim heaven and earth.

Yet faced with such a perilous situation, the Solar Heavenly Sovereign simply flickered and was gone.

Immediately after, His right hand thrust forward and violently clenched toward Baichuan's direction.

In an instant, spiritual power vanished; Baichuan felt his Star-Devouring Worm avatar lose its connection to this stretch of heaven and earth, and at the same time the spiritual power within his body fell silent.

What came with it was that the raging, inextinguishable sea of fire, having lost its support, slowly dissipated and vanished.

"As expected, my guess was right after all."

At this moment, looking at the situation before him, Baichuan sighed inwardly.

Ever since arriving in this world and seeing all manner of situations that carried a sense of déjà vu, Baichuan had harbored a premonition: this power called Spirit Power had an owner.

If he didn't investigate everything thoroughly, the new power and new system he gained in this world would be nothing more than a castle in the air — not only could he not take it with him, but it would also be riddled with all kinds of flaws.

Now it had finally been verified.

Fortunately, although Spirit Power was important to his current self, it wasn't strictly indispensable.

While pondering inwardly, Baichuan directly tentatively activated the power of Yin Energy Manipulation.

Unexpectedly, this power was likewise restrained by the opponent through some unknown means.

It seemed he could only use his own inherent power.

Thinking this, Baichuan watched the Sun Heavenly Venerable clench his fist and charge forward with a punch, and responded in kind with a powerful Dragon Claw.

In an instant, the massive Dragon Claw carrying the Light Point Power clashed against a seemingly tiny iron fist.

"Boom!!"

A terrifying sonic explosion erupted. Baichuan was directly sent staggering backward by the opponent's strike — clearly suppressed in raw power by the opponent's tiny human frame head-on.

"What?!"

The enormous true dragon seemed somewhat incredulous, apparently unable to believe that a dignified dragon body had lost to a tiny human. It roared once more and lashed out with a Dragon Claw.

Seeing this, the Sun Heavenly Venerable, already holding the upper hand, didn't hesitate either, and once again formed a fist seal to clash head-on.

In an instant, with another explosive boom, the nearly two-hundred-meter true dragon was sent flying by a figure less than three meters tall.

However, this time Baichuan didn't even have a chance to adjust his stance before the Sun Heavenly Venerable, using his tiny human body, swiftly adjusted his posture and flashed in for another attack. The tiny fist once again carried tremendous Spirit Power fluctuations, and taking advantage of the true dragon's massive opening, it aimed straight for the true dragon's head!

At this moment, Baichuan had clearly fallen into a perilous situation!

"Whoosh—"

But just then, a whistling gust of wind rang out.

It was a powerful dragon tail, carrying terrifying gusts of wind, attacking from behind the Sun Heavenly Venerable.

The dragon tail, formed from countless razor-sharp threads, smashed toward the opponent just like that.

At the same time, a chain resembling a spirit snake materialized out of thin air. As it produced a peculiar sound, it emitted an eerie fluctuation, then suddenly thrust out a sharp spearhead.

The agile dragon body also raised its dragon head and spewed a thick black-purple flame toward the opponent — this was the fire of Dragon Breath.

In an instant, the situation took a dramatic reversal: the dragon tail attacked from behind, slicing the opponent's flesh; the Immortal-Binding Chain directly carried the power of Spirit Shock to stall his movements, then activated the Anti-Magic Domain to prevent the opponent's Energy-Form flashing, attacking from the side; the soul-attacking Dragon Breath fire struck head-on.

In a flash, while selling the opponent a deliberate opening with his divided attention, Baichuan had laid out a death trap for the opponent.

True, Baichuan had lost his Spirit Power and found it difficult to clash head-on with the opponent's Spirit Power-amplified strikes using his pure flesh and blood body, but he wasn't that bad either. Let's not forget he still possessed his exclusive power — the Light Point Power.

Although the Light Point Power was in no way as versatile as the opponent's Spirit Power in various effects, in terms of raw power amplification, it was no inferior to the opponent's Spirit Power.

The reason he hadn't used it before was simply because he saw that the opponent's Energy-Form flashing was too troublesome to deal with. If he couldn't quickly pin the opponent down, it would easily devolve into a stalemate.

That was why he deliberately put on such an appearance, luring the opponent into taking the bait.

Facing the "death trap" Baichuan had laid, even the Sun Heavenly Venerable couldn't help but freeze for a moment, his figure stalling, and was immediately engulfed by wave after wave of terrifying attacks.

"Boom boom…!"

Amidst the dense energy fluctuations, explosions rang out continuously.

But facing this scene, Baichuan felt not the slightest joy, because the sensation transmitted from his dragon tail told him the opponent wasn't dead.

Sure enough, as the energy dissipated, it revealed a Sun Heavenly Venerable who appeared disheveled but was in fact unharmed.

At this moment, perhaps because he had suffered a major loss, the next instant the opponent raised his head and looked toward Baichuan's dragon head. The eyes that had been closed all this time finally opened!

In an instant, an invisible fluctuation swept across, and immediately a pair of eyes resembling an eternal, inextinguishable sun appeared before Baichuan.

Meeting the opponent's gaze, even Baichuan couldn't help but feel a sharp pain shoot through his eyes, and he couldn't help but look away.

But he also saw a wisp of orange-red flame slowly flowing out from the opponent's eyes, gradually wrapping the opponent in a ball of fire. The aura emanating from the opponent had changed.

Terrifying heat continuously radiated outward. The biting gale hadn't even arrived before it was baked by the high temperature into something soft and gentle, and the already thin atmosphere instantly became warped and bizarre.

Endless heat spread out from the opponent's body.

At this moment, Baichuan seemed to truly see a sun, a star, standing before him — not a living being.

Invisible energy continuously swept out from the opponent's body in the form of radiation. Even doing nothing, Baichuan felt his own flesh beginning to feel discomfort.

Then the opponent moved, charging toward Baichuan like a streak of flowing light.

Yes, charging in with nothing but his physical body.

Carrying a highly condensed, unknown flame power as he charged.

The large number of Light Points previously scattered around began to collapse and die from being unable to withstand the opponent's power. But fortunately, Baichuan finally used this to clearly see the opponent's attack, and barely dodged it the instant the opponent moved.

In that instant, Baichuan felt as if he had been rammed by an intensely hot fireball.

That high temperature was scorching even to Baichuan — one must know that his own body temperature was常年 at several hundred degrees Celsius, let alone that this heat had been continuously accumulating and had long since undergone a qualitative change from quantitative accumulation.

Moreover, he had used various means to gather oxidizers, upgrading the flame's power considerably.

It could be said that Baichuan's own heat resistance was extremely high, yet even so, he still felt the flame on the opponent's body to be scorching beyond compare.

The flame power he had once been most proud of had finally met its match.

The opponent truly lived up to the name of the Sun God!

This was an existence above Heavenly Venerable — a Planet Overlord on the same level as Baichuan!

And also the first truly formidable enemy Baichuan had ever encountered.

At this, Baichuan smiled.

The blood in his body, rarely stirred, began to surge with excitement.

Not only because he had met a worthy opponent, but also because he had seen the greatest treasure of this world!

This was a true, complete planet-level powerhouse. If he could take him down, the gains would truly be explosively immense.

"Cling cling..."

Countless crystalline sounds rang out.

It was countless Light Point energies spreading out from his body, transforming into a layer of crystalline, translucent super armor!

In an instant, the True Dragon's appearance changed; the already massive, beautiful coral-shaped great horns now displayed a layer of dazzling multi-faceted crystals wrapped around them, the whole looking like a sharp, hard arrowhead, appearing even more brilliant and ever-changing under the firelight.

Countless Light Points condensed on the two flowing dragon whiskers into longer, softer golden ribbons, layer upon layer of semi-transparent scales covered its body, giving a sense of being unbreakable, and at the Dragon Claws sharp spikes thrust outward, carrying terrifying destructive power.

This was Baichuan's strongest form; the armor he once gave the Primordial Dragon was originally modified based on this very form of his.

Not only did it possess even greater Burst power, it also granted him extremely powerful defense.

The next moment, Baichuan moved.

In an instant, his greatly changed appearance lit up, a layer of brilliant, multicolored light shone forth from his body.

At this moment, it was suddenly discovered that the surrounding void had long since been filled with countless Light Point Powers, and the majestic Light Point energy now completely Burst forth, bringing Baichuan a surge of tremendous power at the cost of its own collapse.

Between the dim heavens and earth, countless specks of starlight suddenly lit up, as if deep within the cosmic Xingkong, and during this a Crystal-Armored Dragon rose up, carrying an irresistible force like an arrow of light, shooting forth.

At the same time, the Sun Heavenly Sovereign also moved, rising up with endless flames that transformed into streaming light to crash forward.

In an instant, a streak of flame streaming light and the arrow of light collided head-on!

No stalemate, not the slightest suspense.

Just like a hot knife cutting through butter, the arrow of light silently pierced straight through the center of the fireball.

The next instant, the arrow of light returned to its Crystal-Armored Dragon form, and behind it was a sun that had been completely pierced through.

In an instant, violent flames exploded open, just like the explosion of a dying star, bringing a grand fireworks display to this heaven and earth.

Baichuan did not look back, as the Crystal Armor silently transformed back into Light Points drifting down and dissipating, because they had already completed their mission and could no longer bear the strain, dying.

With this, the Sun Heavenly Sovereign fell!

If this move had a name, Baichuan hoped to call it 【Bringing the Dragon to Life with the Finishing Touch】.

……

(End of this chapter)