Chapter 1516: Gathering Heroes to Face the Demon

Boom!

Nine platforms of Marquis Realm, rendered in a grey-black hue and swirling with eerie, bone-chilling energy, stood towering in the sky, radiating vast and overwhelming might that caused the surrounding void to constantly shatter.

Diwu Mingxuan, Sheng Que'er, and the others could not stop their expressions from changing.

Even Li Luo and Jiang Jiang Qinge frowned slightly; no one had expected that Shen Shen Jinxiao would actually choose to directly devour his companion Zhou Jun, thereby temporarily elevating his own strength to the Nine-Pin Marquis Realm.

Nine-Pin.

This was the highest tier of the Marquis Realm, standing atop all other marquises; thus the Nine-Pin Marquis Realm also carried a fine name, known as the "Pinnacle Marquis."

Of course, this so-called "Pinnacle Marquis" naturally excluded the existence of the Unparalleled Marquis; after all, the Unparalleled Marquis had already transcended the Marquis Realm, and using it to compare with ordinary Marquis Realms would truly be bullying.

Nine-Pin Marquis was the final threshold leading to the King Realm, and also the most difficult chasm to cross on the path of the Marquis Realm. Throughout the ages, who knew how many astonishingly talented prodigies had stopped here, their potential exhausted, unable to take this step.

Looking across their Li Li Tianwang lineage, in the past three generations, if one did not count the missing Li Taixuan, the highest achievers today would be Li Luo's eldest uncle Li Li Qingpeng and the Dragon Bloodline's Golden Blood Hall Grand Hall Master Li Li Jiluo. Although it was said that one of these two was good at hiding and the other good at accumulating, regardless, the realms they had previously revealed were still only at the peak of Upper Eight-Pin.

Precisely because of how strong and how difficult Nine-Pin was, when Diwu Mingxuan, Sheng Que'er, and the others saw Shen Shen Jinxiao's nine Marquis Platforms at this moment, their expressions changed so drastically.

Previously, their side still held a numerical advantage and could intercept the opponent, but with Shen Shen Jinxiao now directly stepping into the Nine-Pin Marquis Realm, the situation immediately reversed.

Shen Shen Jinxiao wore a smile, pressed his palms together, fingertips forming seals. The nine Marquis Platforms above his head roared and trembled, and a grey-black domain suddenly expanded outward, shrouding this stretch of heaven and earth.

"Marquis Domain, Devour Evil!"

Sheng Que'er, seeing this, hurriedly urged her own domain to meet it. Of the original "Four Scholars," Zhou Jun had defected, Song Jing had been eliminated, Lin Ju had been killed; now only she remained.

"Marquis Domain, Golden Light!"

A golden domain, with Sheng Que'er as its source, suddenly swept forth and collided with the grey-black domain. Yet at the instant of impact, Sheng Que'er's domain was directly eroded, suppressed, and continuously shrunk, finally becoming a halo of about ten zhang around her body, struggling to hold on.

In this first encounter, Sheng Que'er, whose strength had reached the Upper Eight-Pin Marquis Realm, was nearly utterly defeated.

A Nine-Pin domain was already approaching perfection; its suppressive force simply crushed an Eight-Pin domain.

Thus the grey-black domain successfully occupied this stretch of heaven and earth, and everyone within it detected with drastically changing expressions that their own phase force was gradually draining away, as if being devoured by this domain.

Clearly, this Marquis Domain of Shen Shen Jinxiao's could devour and erode the phase force of all living beings within it.

Hum!

And within this grey-black domain, one after another, ten-pillar golden platforms flowing with a perfected aura rose into the sky, splashing forth mysterious light, resisting the devouring and eroding power that permeated the domain.

"A Nine-Pin domain is indeed formidable."

Within Li Luo's purple-golden dragon pupils, a solemn intent filled his gaze. Previously, when clashing with Zhou Jun and Song Jing, their Eight-Pin domains had already struggled to produce much suppressive effect on him, but now facing Shen Shen Jinxiao's Nine-Pin domain, he once again experienced the suppressive nature of a Marquis Domain.

And if even he was like this, the situation for the others was even worse.

If they lingered here too long, with one side weakening while the other grew, it would likely bring the peril of annihilation.

"Do not fear him. Strike together. He has only relied on devouring Zhou Jun to barely raise himself to Lower Nine-Pin. If we join forces, we may yet break his domain!"

"And as long as we hold him off until the Li Tianwang of the Academy Alliance arrives, he will undoubtedly die!"

At this moment, Diwu Mingxuan stepped forward. His expression was solemn, yet he showed no fear. Six Marquis Platforms shot up from his heavenly spirit cover, among which three ten-pillar golden platforms were dazzlingly radiant, holy light surging, continuously resisting the erosion of the grey-black energy.

Diwu Mingxuan's bearing was quite extraordinary; even facing such a situation, he still maintained his fighting spirit and showed no sign of weakness. This demeanor was indeed worthy of one who had earned the fine name "Light Marquis."

If not for being excessively unlucky along the way—first having some of his thunder stolen by the two monsters Li Luo and Jiang Jiang Qinge, then inexplicably being sneak-attacked and seriously wounded by Zhou Jun, and then chased all the way by Shen Shen Jinxiao—he would surely have been the most outstanding in presence.

Diwu Mingxuan clenched his hand, and a crystal orb appeared in his palm. He crushed it, and a longan-sized pill flowing with holy light fell into his hand, the pill like a dazzling star, radiating brilliant bright light.

He gazed at this holy-light pill, a flicker of heartache crossing his eyes. This was the True Light Pill, bestowed by his teacher, capable of elevating one of his Lower Nine-Pin light phases to Middle Nine-Pin within the time it takes an incense stick to burn.

This effect was roughly similar to Li Luo's "Little Dragon Saint Seed," but it could only be used once, and its effect was also very brief.

Yet even so, this item was enough to become Diwu Mingxuan's trump card.

Were the current situation not so dire, he would not bear to use it.

Diwu Mingxuan took a deep breath and swallowed the "True Light Pill" in one gulp. Immediately, vast and tremendous light energy poured out within his body like a tide, and the six light Marquis Platforms atop his head suddenly grew even brighter. Countless beams of holy light swept across heaven and earth, scouring away the grey-black evil energy.

At this moment, the phase-force fluctuations emanating from Diwu Mingxuan's body even faintly surpassed those of Upper Eight-Pin Sheng Que'er.

However, it still could not catch up to Shen Shen Jinxiao, who had stepped into Lower Nine-Pin.

"I shall be the vanguard; I ask you all to aid me!"

Diwu Mingxuan spat out a mouthful of essence blood, within which flickered countless holy crystalline particles—those were the ultimate condensation of his own light phase force. The essence blood fell upon the "Holy Seal Ruler" in his hand, as if adorning it with ten thousand stars.

He howled toward the sky, swung the holy ruler, and rolled up vast holy flames, slashing toward Shen Shen Jinxiao.

Sheng Que'er's eight Marquis Platforms above her head roared and trembled. The long spear in her hand erupted with ten-thousand-zhang golden light; light phase force fused with the sharp golden-phase power, like a golden blade cleaving the firmament, piercing through the air.

Lv Qing'er also struck in succession. The two ten-pillar golden platforms above her head looked somewhat thin in this situation, but the ice phase force they carried was exceptionally domineering; cold energy spread, and even the grey-black evil energy originating from this Nine-Pin domain gradually showed signs of congealing and freezing.

However, constrained by her own insufficient phase force, as the endless grey-black evil energy surged forth, that cold energy was continuously eroded along with it.

Even Ning Meng struck, a bolt of light phase force piercing through the sky.

Li Luo went even further, directly activating the "Dragon Seed True Pill," pushing his Heavenly Dragon phase to Middle Nine-Pin. Instantly, the Heavenly Dragon form he had transformed into grew even more massive, and terrifying Heavenly Dragon might swept forth. At the same time, his dragon claw gripped the Dragon-Elephant Thunder Blade, and with all his might he cleaved out a thousand-zhang blade wheel, as if dragon and elephant circled, with Lei Ting coursing; wherever the blade wheel passed, the void completely collapsed.

Above Jiang Jiang Qinge's head, three giant swords of luminous glass condensed into being, each inlaid with gorgeous, sacred gems, cleaving the firmament, descending from above, wrapped in killing intent, slashing toward Shen Shen Jinxiao.

At this moment, these top-tier powerhouses from the Academy Alliance all held nothing back, and with a vast and tremendous bearing, launched their full-force assault against Shen Shen Jinxiao.

What a truly magnificent painting it was—a scene of gathering heroes to face the demon, brimming with majestic momentum.

And facing the joint attack of the crowd, Shen Shen Jinxiao also howled toward the sky, his laughter like thunder.

He formed seals with both hands, and in the next instant, continuous and vast black thunder, like a sea of lightning, carrying endless rumbling, poured forth from the void behind him.

"Good, good, good! Today let me, Shen Shen Jinxiao, test just how much stronger you, the most elite mentors of the Academy Alliance, truly are compared to this former mentor of the Holy Profound Star Academy!"