Chapter 890: Border, Dispute (4)

A thick, barbaric demonic aura spread through the air.

All demonic beasts within the Heaven's First Trading Ground, whether ferocious wolves and tigers by nature or naturally timid white rabbits and sparrows, went berserk, fearlessly charging at the Wuguo garrison.

The commander overseeing the Wuguo garrison at the Heaven's First Trading Ground was Xiang Bai of the Xiang clan.

He was a direct descendant of Xiang Feiyu, stalwart and full-bearded, his aura fierce and violent, already having attained the first heaven of the Divine Sovereign Realm.

Under his command, the killing intent rose above the great formation of tens of thousands of Wuguo elites; three black, four-legged square cauldrons flickered in and out of sight, and a tremendous weight pressed down in all directions.

Countless weak demonic beasts rushed toward the formation, only to be crushed by that immense force, their bones breaking and tendons snapping as they screamed and fell to the ground.

Xiang Bai also wielded a halberd weighing tens of thousands of catties, roaring as he ran wildly around the formation; seven or eight sturdy men bearing heavy shields followed him, blocking attacks from both sides, while he simply swung the Moon Crescent Halberd, madly slaughtering the enemy.

When Wu Tie arrived, he happened to see two tiger-headed brutes cleaved into four pieces by a single thrust of Xiang Bai's halberd.

Xiang Bai's eyes were bloodshot as he roared madly: 'Get out here… who dares provoke the might of Wuguo?'

Wu Tie nodded in satisfaction.

The former nobles of the three kingdoms now felt sufficient loyalty to Wu Tie's 'Wuguo,' and the accompanying sense of honor that loyalty brings.

These demonic beasts daring to attack the Heaven's First Trading Ground undoubtedly challenged the entirety of Wuguo.

Wu Tie took great comfort in Xiang Bai's anger.

A vast soul power enveloped the entire Heaven's First Trading Ground; outside a trading hall reeking of alcohol, Wu Tie found the twisted bodies of Huang Xiu and a dozen soldiers.

They appeared to have been beaten by hundreds of men with clubs, their bones shattered, their organs reduced to pulp.

Their exposed flesh was covered in brutal wounds; they were not killed by a single blow, but beaten repeatedly to death.

Especially Huang Xiu, traces of demonic fire scorching remained on his body, his limbs burnt to charcoal.

The perpetrator was extremely vicious.

Wu Tie's eyes turned cold; he snorted and directly activated the power of the Primordial Crown.

At this moment, Wu Tie's cultivation had reached perfection, the utmost he could achieve at his stage; the three thousand great Dao, the eighty-four thousand lesser paths, and the myriad Dao patterns of foreign beings were all deduced to the ultimate state of the Divine Sovereign Realm.

His magical power had increased by an unknown amount compared to before.

The Primordial Crown emitted a low, deep rumble; its vast temporal power slowly spread, invisible ripples instantly blanketing the entire Heaven's First Trading Ground.

Wu Tie's body tensed slightly as a tremendous backlash surged from the void.

This force was so immense that Wu Tie's bones rang out with a loud 'clang'.

'Hmph!'

Wu Tie gave a cold snort, straightened his body; though the pressure was great, it only made him feel somewhat strained, not enough to crush him.

The Primordial Crown slowly rotated; above the ground, tens of thousands of corpses emitted a faint light, their shattered bodies rapidly mending; within a single breath, dead humans and demons alike shook their heads and stumbled up, bewildered.

Huang Xiu also trembled as he rose, frantically blinking, his hands patting and pinching himself all over with a series of 'pats,' then he burst into hysterical laughter: 'Haha, haha, I didn't die, I didn't die… haha, just now it was a nightmare, a nightmare…'

In an instant, Huang Xiu lifted his head and saw Wu Tie standing a thousand zhang above the ground.

His face twitched violently, and he snapped back to reality—what had just happened was not a nightmare, but his true beating to death.

Yet he had come back to life!

Huang Xiu fell to his knees with a 'thud,' shrieking: 'Your Majesty, your divine powers are unmatched; I am moved to tears… my broken body cannot repay even a fraction of your grace… from now on I will devote myself utterly to repay your heavenly favor!'

Wu Tie looked satisfied at Huang Xiu: 'Just now, who was it?'

While questioning Huang Xiu, Wu Tie slapped his right hand; boundless air in the void churned, forming a semi-transparent giant hand that descended from the sky with a 'hum'.

Inside the trading ground, all Wuguo forces remained unharmed, while the demonic beasts frenziedly attacking were each howling, vomiting blood and collapsing; though they could not rise from spitting blood, their eyes remained scarlet, they struggled hysterically, issuing abnormal, violent roars.

'Hehe, mercy!' Wu Tie chuckled lightly, and a cluster of intense golden light appeared behind him.

Strands of 'Salvation Zen Light' poured down from heaven like boiling sulfuric acid, splashing onto these demonic beasts. 'Salvation Zen Light' is a secret Buddhist art from the primordial mythic age, specially used to cleanse the spirits of foreign beings, forcibly converting them into Buddhist disciples—a domineering method.

As Wu Tie employed the Salvation Zen Light, he saw countless demonic beasts each exhaling black smoke, emitting shrill, abnormal howls.

The blood in their eyes swiftly faded; their originally ferocious gazes quickly turned gentle and pure, as if transforming from savage, vicious wolves into goofy, lovable second-tier huskies.

Even the innate wildness in their bone marrow was thoroughly purged by Wu Tie's domineering Buddhist technique.

Even their innate foul stench was washed clean by the golden light, leaving a faint sandalwood scent; their inner violent, wild demonic power was also forcibly cleansed, becoming pure and gentle, like meltwater from a spring mountain stream.

Some inherently ferocious wolves and tigers stood dazedly in place; after a moment, they all knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Wu Tie.

At this moment, Wu Tie was their sole supreme, the highest god in their hearts.

'Regardless of your reasons, if you dare assault Wuguo soldiers, you shall… atone with this.' Wu Tie's voice thundered, echoing 'rumble rumble rumble' through the clouds.

Huang Xiu lifted his head, his gaze swiftly scanning the surroundings, then he leapt up and pointed at a few men not far off, wielding clubs, faces grim, hair standing straight like needles, shouting loudly: 'Your Majesty, it's them, they started this trouble!'

The men stood motionless, their clubs visibly still smeared with blood, flesh, and hair.

Wu Tie lowered his gaze toward those men.

The men lifted their heads, staring at Wu Tie without weakness; a layer of dim azure light flowed over them, and the Salvation Zen Light that Wu Tie had spread across the trading field had no effect on them.

The radiant golden Zen light and the azure mystic light collided like ice and fire, continually emitting a 'hiss' sound; Wu Tie's Zen light was continuously consumed, while the azure light suffered no damage.

Clearly, this layer of faint azure light far surpassed the quality of Wu Tie's scattered Zen light.

The one who laid down this layer of azure light was a realm above Wu Tie in cultivation—so a Demon Venerable had intervened.

Wu Tie looked down at those men; the men stared back at him without fear.

A man with a blackened face suddenly gave a strange laugh, pointing at Huang Xiu and saying, 'Gua zao.'

With a 'whoosh,' the man leapt up several dozen zhang, sprang a hundred zhang away, and brought his club down upon Huang Xiu's head.

Huang Xiu could clearly see each of the man's movements, but a fierce, murderous demonic qi pressed down like a mountain, stiffening his body as if he were in a nightmare, unable to move even a finger.

As the thick club descended toward his head, Huang Xiu involuntarily let out a mournful wail from deep within his chest, a sound as feeble as a cat besieged by vicious dogs.

'Impudent!' Wu Tie barked, pointing his right hand; Huang Xiu's entire body instantly turned into an azure glazed state.

Huang Xiu's body became azure and translucent; his skin, muscles, bones, organs, even brain marrow and bone marrow, all turned into clear, pure azure glaze.

This is a wondrous manifestation of a lawful body attainable only when certain Daoist supreme body cultivations reach their utmost.

Although Huang Xiu was still a hundred and eight thousand miles from attaining that state, Wu Tie now possessed vast divine powers and miraculous abilities, able to turn stone to gold with a fingertip; he pointed and directly transformed Huang Xiu's body into that condition.

A sea-bowl-thick staff, accompanied by an evil wind, fell with a booming sound on Huang Xiu's head.

A tremendous roar sounded, and the raging wind rolled outward in all directions.

Huang Xiu opened his mouth and let out a hysterical scream of "Ahhh!", thinking he was about to be beaten to death again, and cold air sprayed from every pore of his body.

But when the staff landed, Huang Xiu only felt a jolt through his body, and then no pain followed.

His clothes had been torn to shreds by the blow, but Wu Tie reversed time, forcibly reviving the tens of thousands of dead present, and even their clothing returned to normal.

As the staff fell, Huang Xiu's clothes, shoes, and socks exploded completely, revealing his crystal-clear, flawless body.

The soot‑skinned man's body shuddered, and he staggered backward dozens of steps.

His tiger mouths split open, and a trace of black, chilling blood flowed down the staff, dripping drop by drop onto the ground, where it hissed and corroded the surface, creating one after another water‑jar‑sized pits that plunged straight down to the depths below.

"Ha, ha, hahaha!" Huang Xiu touched his completely unharmed body and couldn't help but let out a hysterical scream: "Your Majesty's divine might is invincible... ha, monster, give me another strike, come on, another strike!"

Beside him, Xiang Bai stared wide‑eyed, blinked repeatedly, and joined Huang Xiu in hysterical shouting: "Your Majesty's divine might is invincible! Your Majesty... eternal longevity!"

Xiang Bai looked rough and tumble, but he wasn't stupid; seeing Wu Tie display such an inconceivable means, he immediately began to flatter him profusely.

Tens of thousands of Wuguo's elite troops also stared dumbfounded at Huang Xiu, then they all shouted in unison, following Huang Xiu and Xiang Bai in chaotic cheers.

Immediately afterward, the proprietors, clerks, servants, and laborers of every trading house in the Heavenly Stem Number One Trading Exchange all shouted in unison.

Many people far away had no idea what was happening here, but seeing Wu Tie hovering high in the void and countless comrades shouting loudly, they immediately joined in the cheers.

"Who are you, and why do you disturb the law and order of Wuguo?" Wu Tie descended slowly from a height of thousands of zhang, lowering himself to just over a hundred zhang above the ground. As he descended, a terrifying pressure fell from the void, enveloping several gloomy men.

Several gloomy men burst forth with a blue‑black phosphorescent light all over their bodies, helping them block the terrifying pressure that Wu Tie had deliberately created.

"We are not people you can provoke." The black‑faced man who had just struck Huang Xiu with a staff laughed "hehe", tilted his head to look at Wu Tie, and his eyes flickered with a sinister, eerie glow.

"On the contrary, it is you, Martial King Wu Tie, who uses Buddhist heretical arts to forcibly convert my monster‑folk... your crimes are monstrous and unforgivable!" The black‑faced man's voice rang out loudly, and countless Wuguo citizens in all directions heard him.

"Impudent!" Huang Xiu roared.

"How dare you!" Xiang Bai bellowed: "Your Majesty, I beg permission to execute this villain, to serve as a warning to others!"

Xiang Bai's body suffused with a bloody mist, and the Xiang family's bloodline—which grows braver with setbacks and stronger with severe injuries—was unleashed to the fullest, causing his blood vessels to swell all over his body like tiny snakes coiling around him, making him look extraordinarily ferocious and terrifying.

Wu Tie stood with his hands behind his back, smiling and nodding.

In the vast Wuguo, with countless soldiers and civilians, he cannot possibly handle everything himself.

Having subordinates who dare to take responsibility is a good thing.

Xiang Bai let out a hoarse shout and charged at the black‑faced man.

The Moon Halberd swept forth thousands of razor‑sharp, wolf‑fang‑like icy gleams, howling as they wrapped around the black‑faced man's entire body.

There were no mystical transformations—just speed, just courage, just surging blood energy, just unmatched divine power. The body‑cultivation school's combat is exactly this simple and brutal.

The black‑faced man gave a cold snort, glanced warily at Huang Xiu—whose blue light was fading and whose body was returning to its normal fleshly form—and shook his staff, turning it into a coiling black mist like a poisonous snake that lunged at Xiang Bai.

The Moon Halberd and the staff clashed violently, producing an earth‑shaking roar.

In an instant there were thousands of collisions, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, even millions of all‑out blows.

When Xiang Bai's and the black‑faced man's weapons first collided, the flesh on Xiang Bai's arm burst open instantly, revealing bronze‑colored bone. It was obvious that he was absolutely no match for that black‑faced man.

But at the crucial moment, Wu Tie pointed a finger, and a golden light descended; instantly, a thousand strands of Buddha light rose from Xiang Bai's body, which quickly turned radiant gold as if forged from gold. Streams of Ten‑Thousand‑Character Buddha Seals mixed with Lotus Buddha Seals rolled out from within him, his aura surged, and his power increased linearly in leaps and bounds.

At the second impact, Xiang Bai fought the black‑faced man to a standstill, merely falling slightly behind.

At the third impact, Xiang Bai and the black‑faced man were evenly matched; neither gained an advantage nor showed any sign of weakening.

After clashing like this over a million times, Xiang Bai and the black‑faced man soared into the sky, roaring as they madly slaughtered each other, clashing head‑on without cease, until their weapons sparked and emitted incessant piercing screeches.

After clashing a million times, a loud bang rang out; the Moon Halberd in Xiang Bai's hand suddenly shattered, and the black‑faced man's staff struck his chest hard, sending sparks flying and causing him to spit blood as he was flung backward.