Chapter 453: Desperate Struggle

Li Muzha's condition was even worse than Li Jing's.

He had reverted to the appearance he had when Tang Luo and the others first met him — no, even more severe; only half a torso remained, only one arm, and a horrific wound on his chest.

One could almost see the scene behind him through the wound.

Li Jing glared furiously at Li Muzha.

Li Muzha likewise glared furiously at Li Jing, pressing him back step by step.

Cracks began to continuously appear on the blade of the treasure sword in his hand.

Suddenly, Li Jing's expression changed; the treasure sword in his hand shattered with a boom, fragments flying and landing on himself as well as on Li Muzha.

At the same time, Li Jing's body flew backward.

Li Muzha, taking the blow head-on, was a beat slow with his Wu Hook; he could only tear open the armor on Li Jing, leaving an equally terrifying, hideous wound on his chest.

Suspended in midair, Li Muzha's long black hair fell down, covering half his face; the revealed eyes were blood-red throughout.

His aura was chaotic, verging on madness.

Li Jing did not look at Li Muzha, but looked toward where the Linglong Pagoda was.

There, in that instant just now, the pagoda was already gone.

Tang Luo stood there perfectly intact, not a trace of battle to be found on him.

A tiny cat crouched on his shoulder, looking half-dead — not injured, but how to put it, as if its body had been hollowed out.

That was indeed the case; Xiaotian Dog's vitality and strength had been mostly stolen by this illusory world.

The situation right now was that of a severely ill body; even wagging its tail felt exhausting.

Living people who stray into this world are slowly assimilated by it, becoming part of this illusory world; this assimilation is actually death.

"You played hide-and-seek well." Tang Luo said, looking at Li Jing.

The Linglong Pagoda was not actually suppressing Tang Luo; rather, it used another method to trap him.

Li Jing was no fool; he could not simultaneously suppress Tang Luo with the Linglong Pagoda and fight others.

The Victorious Fighting Buddha Tang Xuanzang was not his third son Nezha, who was naturally suppressed by the Linglong Pagoda and thus at a disadvantage.

Suppressing Tang Luo with the Linglong Pagoda would be very difficult.

So Li Jing infinitely stretched the space inside, formed a chaotic labyrinth, and threw Xiaotian Dog in as bait.

Trading space for time, wanting to delay.

So he could free his hands to deal with Li Muzha and the others first.

Unexpectedly, Tang Luo emerged far faster than he had imagined, and was uninjured to boot.

One must know, the Linglong Pagoda was not the true Linglong Pagoda, yet it was a projection.

In this world, it was already not far from the original Linglong Pagoda.

"You're not injured?" Li Jing asked, looking at Tang Luo, his gaze falling on his head of white hair.

This was clearly the outward manifestation of extremely severe injuries, even damaging his foundation, not yet fully recovered.

Li Jing certainly had this discernment, and could not have misjudged.

Yet up to now, the strength displayed showed not the slightest trace of injury.

"Sounds like something I've heard someone say before." Tang Luo said, "Who decreed that one cannot fight after being injured?"

"I'd like to see just how much longer you can fight, Holy Monk." Li Jing extended his hand; the magic treasure destroyed just now reappeared, and not only that, their number kept increasing.

They turned into a "hail of bullets," blasting toward Tang Luo.

The blurry world around them was continuously shrinking and disappearing; the black tide devoured madly.

Li Jing completely disregarded everything, fighting Tang Luo with his life on the line.

"Do we have a deep blood feud?" Tang Luo asked, a little puzzled.

Li Jing's rigid personality disliking Tang Luo's reckless, arrogant behavior was perfectly normal.

Needless to say, when Sun Wukong caused havoc in the Heavenly Palace back then, he clashed with Li Jing multiple times, and lost every time.

Hating the house and thus the crow, by extension he was also displeased with Tang Luo, Sun Wukong's master — very normal.

By the same logic, Nezha and Li Jing's relationship — calling them enemies is a bit much, but neither were they on good terms.

On the contrary, they got along better with Tang Luo, Sun Wukong, and the others.

Ao Yulie had very little interaction with Li Jing.

Zhu Bajie counted as Li Jing's colleague, and they had "eaten meals and drunk wine together."

They were actually old acquaintances who could sit down and talk.

Tang Luo had stated from the start that he would help neither side; he never expected Li Jing to charge in recklessly, intent on a fight to the death.

It feels like the roles have been reversed.

Usually it's me, Tang Luo, charging in recklessly; how come this time it's someone else's turn?

Although Xiaotian Dog had most of its vitality stolen, it wasn't a terminal condition; slow recovery would suffice.

Tang Luo had accumulated no small amount of merit power; spending some time to recover would be fast as well.

It wasn't something that absolutely required Li Jing to pay with his life.

Who knows what this guy was thinking.

But since Li Jing made his choice, Tang Luo naturally would not stand on ceremony.

With a movement of both hands, his sides were filled with palm afterimages — sometimes clenched into fists, sometimes fingers spread, sometimes forming claws, sometimes simply snatching away those incoming magic treasures.

A thousand hands cannot defend against it!

The forest of magic treasures collided with Tang Luo's palms, collided with the seized magic treasures, shattering one by one.

In the clash, power raged and vented, chaos twisting.

Li Muzha was also enveloped by Li Jing's magic treasures, but he could not be as effortless as Tang Luo; already "heavily injured," he was soon struck by a magic treasure.

That half of an arm vanished; wielding the Wu Hook, blocking was extremely difficult.

Dazzling radiance surged among the three; the wounds on Li Jing's body were rapidly "restoring," even his armor and cloak returned to their original state.

But his body began to turn semi-transparent, as if a gust of wind could blow him apart.

"Is it really necessary to go all out like this?"

Ao Yulie, currently battling the heavenly soldiers, let out a startled cry; the surrounding heavenly soldiers' power suddenly surged.

Not only did it instantly reach its peak, it directly ignited, forming a terrifying suicidal attack.

In a trance, Ao Yulie suffered a serious injury; golden dragon blood spilled across the vast sky, merging into the void, vanishing without a trace.

"What's going on?" Zhu Bajie frowned; a moment ago, caught off guard, he had also taken some minor injuries.

Moreover, there was a feeling that his whole person was being seized, his power and vitality being snatched away; at the wounds on his body, the sense of power draining away was especially obvious.

"Li Jing, you don't want to resurrect, do you?"

The rake reversed, sweeping out an area, driving back the heavenly soldiers around him; Zhu Bajie looked at Li Jing and couldn't help but ask.

Li Jing had already completely staked his "life."

After this battle, regardless of who wins or loses, this world will no longer exist, because the foundation of the world's existence — the heavenly soldiers and the pagoda's power — have both been completely mobilized by Li Jing.

It can be understood as: originally slow-burning firewood, now turned into a bomb, set to explode in this instant, unleashing extremely strong killing power.

While injuring Tang Luo and the others, he was also seizing their power.

Zhu Bajie thought for a moment; besides "resurrection," there didn't seem to be any other possibility.

Only...

As the ruler of this world, Li Jing shares a relationship of shared glory and shared loss with this world.

The vitality and power seized from them to supplement this world cannot compare at all to Li Jing's accelerated death consumption.

His condition is a classic final rally before death, then giving himself a bottle of glucose solution.

Absolutely no possibility of resurrection.

Even if the Merit Jade Lotus consumes merit power, it's still a "hopeless, just wait to die" situation.

"One last thrill before death?" Ao Yulie's breath was unsteady, his tone faint; one careless moment and he ended up like this.

"Never mind, send them on their way!"

A fierce glint flashed in Zhu Bajie's eyes; his figure suddenly swelled, turning into about five meters tall.

The skin on his body instantly turned a blue-black color; the nine-toothed rake in his hand also turned black, and there seemed to be blood qi coiling around the rake.

That face with a pair of flapping ears and an upturned nose also turned into a pig's head.

Not a household pig's head, but a demonic pig's head with a blue face and protruding fangs, full of ferocity.

A swing of the rake whipped up a black gale; the surrounding heavenly soldiers were all swept in, torn to pieces in the black "gale," slowly disappearing.

Quite a few heavenly soldiers also attacked Zhu Bajie from the other side, fearless of death.

Sharp blades pierced into the blue-black skin, yet could only cut a few extremely shallow wounds, a few drops of blood seeping out.

"Haven't seen Second Senior Brother like this in a long time." Ao Yulie murmured.

This form, like his dragon-man state, is "yao," a form for battle and slaughter.

Shows Zhu Bajie has quite a bit of fire in his heart.

Moves wide open and sweeping, incomparably wild; Zhu Bajie simply didn't defend, trading injury for injury; the surrounding heavenly soldiers fell piece by piece like wheat at autumn harvest.

The collapse of the entire world grew even faster.

Over there, Li Jing's figure grew ever dimmer, yet the power controlling countless magic treasures grew ever more vast.

Li Muzha had no choice but to come to Tang Luo's side; relying on Tang Luo's Thousand Hands Cannot Defend, he could barely guarantee he wouldn't be swallowed by this dazzling and dangerous tide.

Tang Luo was like a reef; the magic treasures assaulting around him were merely "shattered splashing" spray.

"Tang Xuanzang!"

Li Jing shouted wildly; the golden armor on his body emitted blinding light.

A golden pagoda's phantom appeared in midair, enveloping Li Jing.

He "leaped up," his whole person merging into the pagoda; the torrent of magic treasures attacking Tang Luo abruptly vanished.

Replacing it was Li Jing transformed into the pagoda, an earth-shattering strike.

Tang Luo's brows furrowed slightly; he deployed the Glazed Nirvana Great Hand Seal, a palm appeared, grasping at the Linglong Pagoda; the two collided.

The Great Hand Seal shattered on impact, unable to block the pagoda's path forward.

Tang Luo was not surprised; his hands clapped in succession, the Great Hand Seal emerged again, landing on the Linglong Pagoda.

The Linglong Pagoda kept trembling, shattering one Great Hand Seal after another; cracks appeared one after another on the pagoda.

It became considerably more illusory.

Watching as it was about to be stopped by Tang Luo's Great Hand Seal, achieving nothing.

The remaining heavenly soldiers still fighting Zhu Bajie suddenly turned into streams of light and merged into the Linglong Pagoda.

The Linglong Pagoda blazed with golden light, its might surging; it vanished in an instant, crossing the distance, striking at Tang Luo's chest.

Tang Luo withdrew his hands, right hand clenching into a fist, then pointing a finger forward.

Reincarnation Salvation Finger!

Glazed flames coiled around the finger, light blinding, like a tiny sun.

Pagoda tip and fingertip collided.

Li Muzha beside Tang Luo suddenly felt a blank whiteness before his eyes; he protected his whole body with all his strength, only then avoiding being completely torn apart by the aftermath of the two powers.