Chapter 974: The Rotting Ocean

The impact of Elder Zhan Mo striking the ground seemed to have shook the very foundations of the Primal Howl Realm. The crater left behind by his fall was immense and the surrounding ancient trees were flattened for miles in every direction. The remaining escort elders and stationed guards froze in the sky as their only hope against the beast in the sky was just smashed into the ground.

They stared down at the swirling dust with wide and disbelieving eyes. Their strongest combatant and the anchor of their defense was just swatted from the heavens like a common insect. Fear gripped the hearts of the surviving elders but they did not stop fighting completely. They fell back instinctively and put a large distance between themselves and the Blight Maw Kraken who was still roaring in pain.

They reached into their robes and pulled out life saving talismans and were ready to use everything they had to preserve their lives. These were incredibly precious and one time use items meant only for the worst case scenarios. Some talismans glowed with a brilliant jade light while others hummed with a volatile red energy.

They gripped the artifacts tightly and prepared themselves for any sudden movements from the beast above. However the Blight Maw Kraken did not dive toward the forest floor. It thrashed wildly in the sky and let out a series of agonizing wails. Black blood continued to geyser from the two large stumps where its tentacles used to be.

The fight with the Supreme Exalt had deeply exhausted the beast and it was in no shape to continue the fight. There was another significant factor at play, Li Yu was still draining its Qi. The tether of absorption linked from his Koi martial spirit was pulling the remaining energy from the aquatic horror. Li Yu could clearly feel the emptiness growing within the corrupted monster.

With two tentacles gone and the brutal damage sustained from the elder, the Kraken was also on its last legs. The other elders in the sky did not know this yet, they only saw a terrifying Creation Lord beast that had just crushed their leader. They assumed it was merely pausing to regenerate or prepare a final devastating breath attack.

"Attack the Kraken now! It is severely weakened and on its last legs!" He roared over the battle. The sound carried across the sky and reached the retreating elders, taking them and Zhan Chen by surprise

The elders hesitated in the air as they looked at the young man hovering within his glowing cocoon of death. They trusted that he would not lie to them about something so critical and could not hesitate now. They stowed their life saving talismans away and made their decision.

They surged upward with a renewed battle cry to strike the aquatic horror. Zhan Chen heard the call as well but he made a different choice. He stayed back to help the juniors and remained the unbreakable floor of the defense. He stepped directly into the path of three descending wyverns and crushed their skulls with three successive punches of physical strength.

He trusted the elders to handle the sky while he protected those below. Li Yu did not stay behind as he too charged directly at the Kraken as well. He pointed his staff upward and flew alongside the elders. The elders glanced at him and thought this was a completely suicidal move. They thought this kid was a bit too crazy even for the reckless standards of a Zhan. A Paragon level youth charging a Creation Lord beast was the definition of madness.

A new nickname was born in their minds as they all charged forward, killing every beast in their way. ‘The Spinning Calamity of Madness.’ Another name that was brutish and direct from what they saw this day.

Li Yu tore his way toward the Kraken without realizing that his new nickname had just become a bit longer and even worse sound now. He maintained his cocoon of death as the five flying swords continued to spin around him with terrifying speed. He continued to drain the beast through the tether of absorption while deflecting any stray debris or falling monsters.

Li Yu prepared to strike with everything he had as he knew that this beast was now their greatest threat. The elders utilized their superior cultivation bases and arrived before him though. They raised their warhammers and prepared to launch their supreme arts.

As they began to fight, they instantly realized that Li Yu was telling the truth. They could see that the beast could not fight back well. Its movements were sluggish and uncoordinated. Its remaining tentacles drooped heavily in the air and it lacked the strength it had from the beginning. It was a dying animal cornered in the sky.

However, an injured Creation Lord expert was still a Creation Lord. The Kraken felt the approaching threat and knew its physical body was failing as it desperately used its last trump card. The beast let out a final echoing shriek and projected an image of its inner world out into the real world.

This projection was an innate technique that everyone at the Creation Lord realm and up had. It was a devastating attack or could be used as a suppression field. It was also an incredibly dangerous move for any cultivator to attempt. If an enemy was able to damage that projected inner world, the backlash to the user was catastrophic.

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The inner world itself would be deeply damaged and it would take years of secluded meditation to repair. The sky above the Primal Howl Realm warped violently as the clouds vanished and were replaced by a sickly rotting ocean landscape. Towers of black coral and boiling acidic water overlaid the physical world. The conceptual pressure was crushing.

Seeing this terrifying projection manifest, the elders that were only at the Sovereign level backed off immediately and used their quick movement technique to get away. You needed an inner world of your own to fight against a projected one. They did not have one yet and the rotting ocean would crush their souls and bodies if they stayed within its area of effect.

They dove back toward the lower canopy to escape the suppression field with only the elders at the Creation Lord realm remaining because they could withstand the pressure. They halted their advance and channeled their own inner worlds. They did not project it outward as an attack but they formed a protective shield around themselves with it and they braced against the projection. They looked back and saw Li Yu still flying directly into the area of effect.

"Get back down here! Escape!" One elder yelled. The elder thought the boy simply did not understand the terror of an inner world suppression.

Li Yu did understand though. His parents had already taught him about these exact mechanics during his early training and projected their own for him to see. He knew exactly how dangerous a projected inner world was and while he could not project his own out into reality or use it in any offensive way, he possessed a vast advantage.

Having an inner world already naturally protected him from the suppression of another as he learned from his parents during their training. He had formed his conceptual forest of laws within that very inner world, far ahead of schedule. The rotting ocean washed over him and the suppression pressed against his skin.

His internal world acted as a shield in the shifting reality. He flew straight through the domain without a single flinch but was instantly slowed down. The other Creation Lord elders were completely stunned. They watched him resist the attack with wide eyes as they realized he was truly a freak of nature. He was entirely fitting of his new name. The Spinning Calamity of Madness was simply a freak.

As they were all resisting its last desperate attack, Li Yu was stuck resisting it as well. However, he was still able to attack using his swords but was only able to move two of them. He sent Pale Extinction forward into the fleshy bulk of the beast and began drilling holes. Firmament's End was on the outside and was hacking at the beasts, causing a lot of small wounds.

However, its body was simply so large that he was not able to do too much vital damage. The two swords were like small needles striking a mountain of flesh. Li Yu hovered in place and continued his slow and steady drain while his swords chipped away at the monster.

The stalemate broke a moment later. The sky high above the Kraken tore open once again and a new spatial rift appeared. It was not a sickly purple tear but was a brilliant and stable gold rift. The Zhan clan leader stepped through the opening along with ten other high ranking elders.

They took in the apocalyptic scene in a fraction of a second and the ten elders struck out immediately. They bypassed the Kraken and targeted the purple rift that was still spewing the remaining mutated beasts. Their combined assault pushed through any beast in its way, turning them into mist in the wind and then slammed into the dimensional rift. The force collapsed it entirely. The sky sealed shut with a deafening boom and the seemingly endless tide of monsters finally ceased.

The clan leader then headed directly to the Blight Maw Kraken. He stepped right through the rotting ocean projection as if it were nothing but a light show, his cultivation base was so deep that the desperate trump card of the beast could not even touch the hem of his robes as he arrived directly above the struggling aquatic horror.

He raised his hand and killed the already weakened with a single strike but even at full strength the result would have been the same. It was a simple unadorned palm strike that carried endless weight. The impact shattered the projected inner world instantly and crushed the skull of the Kraken.

The beast died before it could even register the blow as its colossal body began to plummet toward the forest floor. Li Yu watched the beast fall with slight regrets, he had brief thoughts of trying to capture it but he decided against it in the end. Since it was so heavily mutated, he determined the risk was too great. The corrupted laws and toxic blight within its core were not worth polluting his own internal ecosystem.

The clan leader gave a series of swift orders in regards to cleaning up the battle field. The ten newly arrived elders fanned out across the Primal Howl Realm to eradicate the remaining beasts that had already fallen into the forest. The escort elders rushed down into the large crater and they dug Elder Zhan Mo out of the shattered stone.

The Supreme Exalt was unconscious and heavily injured but his robust vitality was already fighting the toxins and recovering. They administered high grade healing pills and stabilized his condition for transport. Zhan Chen landed among the junior disciples and the group of sixty youths was exhausted and covered in blood but all were alive.

They stood among piles of crushed monsters and shattered bones as Zhan Chen assessed the damage. The disciples had held the defensive line thanks to the combined efforts of everyone that held the sky for them. However, the battle was not without consequence. One of the juniors lost a limb to a wolf during a desperate exchange.

The young man stood stoically while his peers bandaged the stump. He embodied the brutal resilience of his lineage while the others had minor and some major injuries as well. But they will all be fine with time and proper medicinal pills, the Zhan Clan cultivators healed exceptionally well. The Primal Howl Realm grew quiet once again as the remaining survivors gathered their wounded and prepared to return home.