Chapter 637: Desperate Situation

Pfft!

Demon blood sprayed. That broken immortal sword was fast to the extreme, cleaving open the formless and intangible immortal power barrier on the surface of the Ancient Demon's body, piercing through its thick, horny epidermis, and hacking into the bone deep within its flesh.

This Ancient Demon's bone was an immortal bone, surrounded and covered by layers of Great Dao secret patterns, indestructible.

But at this moment, with Li Hao unleashing his full power in coordination with the strength of the embryonic Heavenly Dao, that broken immortal sword was terrifyingly sharp. With extreme speed and impact, it brought forth a fearsome tearing force, cleaving even its bone in two!

The Ancient Demon was shocked and furious, letting out a roar.

This broken immortal sword's speed was incredibly fast; it hadn't even been able to react. Now that its bone was cleaved, and at its weakest point, it felt shock and fury in its heart, not knowing if this was a coincidence or if the opponent could truly perceive its weaknesses.

But in the blink of an eye, it mobilized its immortal power, intending to regenerate and heal the bone.

Yet the broken immortal sword, steered by Li Hao, swept rapidly along its body after cleaving the bone. He wanted to sever the connections throughout its body, causing it to perish in an instant; only then could he force out its Primordial Spirit.

If he gave it time to react, the wounds he had just inflicted would heal in the next moment, and he would only fall into a protracted, bitter struggle.

"Faster. Faster! Faster!"

Li Hao steered the sword to tear through its body at high speed, shuttling between the flesh, internal organs, and skeleton within it.

Those internal organs and flesh, containing immortal power, were extremely tough, like walls of copper and iron, but under the overbearing power of the broken immortal sword at this moment, they were torn apart by force.

Looking from the outside, blood mist erupted from all over the Ancient Demon's body. Its skin split and flesh burst; from its torso to its limbs, to its neck and head, blood was constantly exploding outward.

Seeing this scene, the Sages all opened their eyes wide in pleasant surprise.

"Is that Lord Hao Tian's attack?!"

"So strong, too fierce! That Ancient Demon actually has no power to fight back!"

"My god, am I seeing things? This is a True Immortal!"

"It's injured, instantly heavily injured!"

The Sages were trembling with excitement, doubting their own eyes, the shock in their hearts beyond measure.

It was too unexpected. Although they knew Li Hao was very strong, they hadn't expected it to be this exaggerated. In just a single exchange, the one being suppressed was actually this True Immortal-level Ancient Demon! However, unlike the Sages' pleasant surprise, Li Hao's expression turned solemn.

As the broken immortal sword he controlled successively severed the Ancient Demon's bones, Li Hao discovered that the broken immortal sword's speed was slowing down! Although it was a slowdown of less than one-thousandth, he still felt it, and this slowing was accelerating; soon, it was becoming slower and slower!

This feeling was like exhaustion.

But Li Hao knew that he was unleashing his full power at this moment; his body was not exhausted at all, and the power attached to the broken immortal sword remained strong.

Roar! The Ancient Demon suddenly roared, its immortal power rapidly condensing, turning into a barrier of surging black energy that shrouded itself.

Its physical body contracted, the immortal power in its blood was rapidly mobilized, and those injured parts were healing at high speed.

As the side of its abdomen, which had been pierced first, healed, Li Hao's heart sank.

He hadn't managed to kill it! His only way to kill this Ancient Demon was to destroy its physical body and then fight to the death with its Primordial Spirit.

But now, he was unable to destroy its physical body instantly.

"The sword has dulled!"

Li Hao's spiritual sense controlled it, and the broken immortal sword suddenly shot out from the Ancient Demon's cranium, flying back before Li Hao.

Li Hao looked; the edge of the broken immortal sword was indeed more wretched than before, with many curled notches.

This broken immortal sword had already lost its power, retaining only its own sharpness. Now, having successively hacked at bones, this sharpness had also greatly diminished.

His expression was incomparably ugly.

And at this moment, as the broken immortal sword was recalled, the Ancient Demon's body healed in an instant; the various places that had been torn and bleeding were restored to their original state in a flash.

As its body healed, the Ancient Demon let out a roar, looking at Li Hao with a ferocious expression. It was too furious; it had actually been forced to struggle just to parry, and while its physical body was being rapidly destroyed, it had actually felt a trace of crisis! The opponent piercing its weakness at the first opportunity was definitely not a coincidence. From the path the broken immortal sword took while destroying its insides, it could feel that this human was extremely familiar with its body structure.

And to reach such a level of familiarity, one could only have witnessed it countless times, or have killed many, many of them to have such understanding.

Kill!

The Ancient Demon no longer looked down on him or held back. Having experienced the Battle of the Emperor Fall Era, it was a battle-hardened Ancient Demon leader. It immediately unleashed its innate secret technique, and a huge vortex appeared behind it, like a black hole born in the void, pulling in even the light.

When the Sages saw that vortex black hole, they immediately felt a sense of dizziness, as if their Primordial Spirits were being dragged in through their eyes.

At the same time, the Ancient Demon's sharp claws swung down again, fast as lightning.

This time, the area around the claws contained the power of an Immortal Domain.

Just as Li Hao was about to use the Eternal Dao Domain to resist, he discovered that the various Great Dao powers within the Eternal Dao Domain were all rendered ineffective under the shroud of that Immortal Domain.

The deterrent power of the Eternal Dao Domain was immediately weakened by more than half; the Sage Daos within were imprisoned, and the power of the laws was ineffective.

Li Hao had previously heard Nangong Jian say that True Immortals could ignore Sage Dao laws; this was the absolute suppression of Sages by True Immortals.

Clang! Li Hao drew his sword again. The Myriad Heavens Star Veins rolled up vast power, and the immortal power within his body also extended over a hundred strands, transforming into majestic Heaven and Earth energy in the void, all condensing on the sword body.

This sword strike was even more terrifying than the previous one, enough to cleave a small world!

As the sword light slashed out, the sharp claws appeared extremely ruthless. This time, they were not pushed aside, but instead constantly ground down the sword light, finally crushing it fiercely and swinging down.

With a bang, Li Hao's body flew backward, his huge frame vibrating, and the Dao bones within his body were somewhat cracked.

Just a single strike, and his body was almost shattered.

Li Hao's body healed in the blink of an eye, but the other Sages within the military formation turned pale, all spitting out blood together, feeling a sense of horror.

Each of them only bore one-three-hundredth of the damage Li Hao suffered, yet they were already heavily injured.

"Die!"

Li Hao's eyes were fierce. Ignoring the intense pain throughout his body, he controlled the broken immortal sword to kill again.

Using offense as defense, the broken immortal sword slashed toward the Ancient Demon once more.

The Ancient Demon was prepared this time and immediately activated its Immortal Domain to shroud itself, only its Immortal Domain was as pitch-black as a ghost realm, with chilling winds blowing within and the Great Dao distorted.

But the broken immortal sword remained fast, piercing through its Immortal Domain. This was the power condensed from a hundred Sages and the Myriad Heavens Star Veins, as well as the embryonic Heavenly Dao, plus the power transformed from the hundred strands of immortal power in Li Hao's body. Quantity led to a qualitative change; even if this power was consumed a thousand or ten thousand times over and constantly destroyed by immortal power, it could not withstand such a massive quantity.

Bang! The Immortal Domain was pierced, and the Ancient Demon's body was simultaneously stabbed by the broken immortal sword.

Subsequently, Li Hao unleashed his full power, driving his Primordial Spirit power to the extreme, and the divine bones within his Primordial Spirit shone with a reddish-gold light.

"Faster, even faster speed!!"

Li Hao roared in his heart.

The Heaven and Earth Dharma Image behind him and the surrounding Dharma Images of the Sages merged at this moment. The Sages' Dharma Images turned into strands of light, merging into Li Hao's Heaven and Earth Dharma Image, and subsequently becoming one with Li Hao's body.

With a hum, the void seemed to tremble.

When the Law of Heaven and Earth merged with the Heaven and Earth Dharma Image, the Sages felt that the entire world seemed to be in Li Hao's grasp; that vast and surging power had already far exceeded the Sage level by too much.

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft!

A series of blood mist explosions erupted within the Ancient Demon's body; those were the sounds of its body being rapidly torn by the broken immortal sword, as well as the sound of bones breaking.

In just an instant, Li Hao severed over three hundred of the bones within its body, but over a hundred remained; these were the core bones supporting its body.

All of them had to be severed and pulverized to destroy its physical body in an instant.

Roar! The Ancient Demon reacted, letting out an angry roar, its immortal power erupting. The places destroyed first healed rapidly, while Li Hao's broken immortal sword continued to hack within its body, but its speed was becoming slower and slower.

Suddenly, the broken immortal sword slashed at a bone, but it suddenly trembled and became embedded in that bone.

Li Hao's heart trembled; he felt a sense of despair.

He had enough power, but the broken immortal sword was not sharp enough.

It was more than enough to kill second-tier and third-tier Ancient Demons, cutting through iron like mud, but this True Immortal-level Ancient Demon's physical body was comparable to a top-tier Nine-Tribulation Dao Weapon, grinding the broken immortal sword dull!

Pitch-black demonic power suddenly emerged within the Ancient Demon's body, wrapping around the broken immortal sword and pushing it out of its body.

Looking at the broken immortal sword that had caused it such huge damage, the Ancient Demon roared, suddenly exerting force with its palm, actually snapping the broken immortal sword, and then tossing it toward Li Hao like discarded scrap metal.

Li Hao tilted his head to dodge, but his cheek was still cut by a bloodstain, which healed in the blink of an eye.

"This, can it not be killed?"

"It was clearly suppressed and so heavily injured, yet it can heal immediately."

"The Three Imperishable Extreme Realm, this True Immortal-level Ancient Demon must have mastered it too. One must pulverize its entire physical body to kill it. This is no longer as simple as defeating it; it's a thousand times harder than defeating True Immortal Hai!"

Seeing this scene, the Sages all felt a sense of horror.

The previous pleasant surprise and excitement had now sobered up, realizing the difficulty of killing this True Immortal-level Ancient Demon.

The opponent's recovery speed was too fast. As long as one couldn't kill it instantly, any amount of effort and damage was futile.

They were only Sages. To be able to defeat a True Immortal in battle was already unprecedented, let alone killing it; the difficulty was unimaginable! The Sages looked at Li Hao's towering, giant figure, but felt despair in their hearts.

Li Hao's performance had already exceeded their imagination, but after all, the one before them was a True Immortal!

"I will crush you!"

The Ancient Demon stared at Li Hao, letting out an angry, ferocious roar.

It hated the youth before it to the extreme and would never let the opponent die easily.

Li Hao breathed constantly, adjusting his state. The surging, vigorous power in his body made him feel like he was standing in a furnace, hot and bloated. This power was enough to shake a True Immortal, yet it could not destroy it instantly.

"The broken immortal sword is not sharp enough. It was fine to use it to dissect True Immortal-level Ancient Demons before, but to pulverize and sever its entire skeleton in an instant is much more strenuous than cutting slowly while cooking!"

Li Hao's expression was ugly. Clearly, his power was barely enough, but he lacked a handy weapon. "I can only use more and more power to drive the broken immortal sword, using power to compensate for its lack of sharpness."

In just a moment, Li Hao's thoughts calmed down again. Another broken immortal sword appeared in his palm. As soon as it appeared, Li Hao burned a golden vein within his Primordial Spirit. His Primordial Spirit power was greatly enhanced, and with it, his speed of controlling objects also increased.

"Not enough, not enough!"

One golden vein, two golden veins... five golden veins, burning simultaneously!

Li Hao's Primordial Spirit burned with golden-red flames. It wasn't that Li Hao didn't want to burn more, but his Primordial Spirit had a limit to what it could bear; it had already reached the limit of his Primordial Spirit at this moment.

The broken immortal sword's speed suddenly increased, piercing through the Ancient Demon's side and once again roaming rapidly within its body.

The Ancient Demon felt the pain and only then reacted, shocked and furious. The broken immortal sword's speed was too fast; it couldn't stop it at all. Unless it turned and fled, it couldn't block it.

Feeling the wanton destruction of the broken immortal sword within its body, it roared constantly, using all its immortal power on itself, intending to regenerate the destroyed parts.

As the Primordial Spirit burned, this broken immortal sword's speed was even more ferocious than before. Bang, bang, bang—the sound of explosions rang out constantly. In just the blink of an eye, it destroyed all the flesh and internal organs within the Ancient Demon's body, severing over three hundred of its bones. Almost ninety percent of its body was paralyzed and necrotic!

But twenty or thirty bones remained unsevered.

And at this moment, the immortal power within the Ancient Demon erupted, and its injuries were restored instantly.

"Still not enough, still missing a little..."

Li Hao's heart was filled with unwillingness. Was this the limit? Moreover, the lethal attribute hadn't triggered. Was it ineffective against True Immortals, or was the speed too fast, counting his strike as a single attack? "How could this be..."

"Can't kill it, simply can't kill it!"

Seeing the Ancient Demon's aura grow strong again, the Sages felt terrified. They had already seen Li Hao display many terrifying means, unleashing all his extreme realms, and even those Myriad Heavens Star Veins, circling around the Heaven and Earth veins, were suspected to be the power of the Final Realm.

But it still failed.

The power Li Hao had condensed at this moment alone made them feel terrified, yet facing this True Immortal-level Ancient Demon, he lacked the power to kill it! Bang! As soon as the Ancient Demon's body recovered, it charged directly at Li Hao. The vast pressure of the Immortal Domain suppression seemed as if it would crush Li Hao's bones.

The Eternal Dao Domain was shrouded by the Immortal Domain and forcibly infiltrated, and all the laws within were rendered ineffective.

The Ancient Demon opened its bloody mouth, biting toward Li Hao's head, intending to suck his soul out directly and refine and torture it slowly within its body.

Li Hao's expression changed. He abandoned that broken immortal sword; after the previous round of attacks, that broken immortal sword had become even more rotten, its edge curled, and there was no point in retrieving it.

"If only there were a real immortal weapon, as long as it was sharp enough..."

Li Hao clenched his fists, having the urge to smash something hard. Clearly, his power was enough to fight it! Two broken immortal swords appeared between his palms, and his Primordial Spirit power split into two, each wrapping around one of the broken immortal swords, killing toward the Ancient Demon leader.

This time, it was still an attack on the weak point of the side abdomen, but Li Hao no longer tried to destroy its physical body. The broken immortal sword in his hand simply couldn't do it. He could only pin his hopes on that lethal attribute. That one-percent probability was his greatest hope at this moment!

Bang, bang, bang! The two broken immortal swords bypassed the Ancient Demon's attacks, stabbing toward the opponent's body at full speed like swimming dragons.

The previous attacks were a dismemberment method Li Hao had mastered after dismembering Ancient Demons. If counted as a technique, it was only one move. Now, Li Hao was stabbing wildly and rapidly! Every stab of the broken immortal sword counted as one attack, which could also trigger the lethal attribute faster.

While the broken immortal sword was attacking, the Ancient Demon's sharp claws had already embraced Li Hao. Their sizes were similar. Li Hao had no intention of fighting head-on and retreated backward successively. Now that his movement technique had reached the Nine-Dan level, his maneuvering was no longer as crude as before; he had entered the Dao and could borrow force anywhere in the void.

But under the suppression and shroud of that Immortal Domain, Li Hao's body movement seemed to slow down tenfold, and he was still caught by those sharp claws.

The Ancient Demon also ignored Li Hao's two broken immortal swords, instead directly holding Li Hao and intending to bite his head.

A single broken immortal sword couldn't kill it before, let alone two. The speed was half as slow as controlling one, and it could barely react and dodge.

"Fast, trigger fast!"

Li Hao gritted his teeth. He wanted to push away the Ancient Demon's sharp claws with his arms, but his physical strength, which he was proud of, felt like pushing against a giant mountain, difficult to shake.

Just as the Ancient Demon was about to bite down, suddenly, its body trembled violently, and a strong feeling of death shrouded it.

The Ancient Demon's pupils shrank. This feeling was too strong, even greater than the threat Li Hao had posed when he heavily injured it with the broken immortal sword before. It had a feeling, as if some irresistible power was approaching rapidly. That power was similar to the Heavenly Dao, yet higher than the Heavenly Dao; it was some kind of power beyond the Heavenly Dao.

Whoosh! The Ancient Demon's body suddenly exploded, turning into countless pieces of flesh.

This scene left Li Hao stunned.

The sad and desperate Sages were also startled by this sudden situation, watching in a daze, hope reigniting in the depths of their eyes.

"Is it dead?"

"Is it Lord Hao Tian's attack? How did it suddenly explode?"

The Sages stared eagerly at the countless exploding pieces of flesh.

After Li Hao was stunned, he suddenly sobered up and immediately understood the reason.

It wasn't the lethal attribute that caused it to self-destruct, but rather this Ancient Demon using this method to avoid the influence of the lethal attribute.

He saw that among the exploding pieces of flesh, quite a few were suspended in the void, not falling like dead corpses.

Soon, from those suspended pieces of flesh, black mist surged, and the Ancient Demon's body rapidly condensed.

"Kill!"

Seeing this opportunity, Li Hao hurriedly controlled the broken immortal sword to kill at full speed.

Bang, bang, bang! The deformed Ancient Demon just condensed from the pieces of flesh was immediately severed, and the Primordial Spirit within was stripped from the physical body.

Li Hao's Primordial Spirit killed out rapidly, slashing and extinguishing the stripped Primordial Spirit.

But this Primordial Spirit was not the Ancient Demon's complete Primordial Spirit, only a wisp.

The remaining pieces of flesh were now growing rapidly, all changing into the appearance of the Ancient Demon, flying toward each other and fusing rapidly.

The broken immortal sword Li Hao controlled slashed over, hacking constantly during the opponent's fusion process. But at this moment, a silver-gray light suddenly appeared, and immediately after, a terrifying power struck the broken immortal sword, shaking the Primordial Spirit on it into a brief stagnation.

And in this brief moment, the Ancient Demon's body had already condensed.

Li Hao's expression was ugly. The opponent used self-destruction and destiny-reversal to transfer the lethality of the lethal attribute.

That lethal attribute would act on the body, but if one used a destiny-reversal opportunity, one could transfer the traction of the lethal attribute. When he killed the Four Standing Realm cultivator before, he had let the opponent's soul abandon its body and escape. Now that the opponent was a True Immortal, it didn't need to abandon its body at all to dodge it.

Hum! As the Ancient Demon's body recovered, a silver-gray light appeared on its forehead, emitting surging, condensed immortal power.

At this moment, the void suddenly shook, and the Ancient Demon leader arrived before Li Hao in almost an instant. Its sharp claws swept across, drawing a dark, destructive arc of light, directly severing Li Hao's body at the waist! After Li Hao consumed the demon body of the Hun Tian Sage, his physical body was comparable to a Five-Tribulation Emperor Weapon. After spending twelve years on the ancient road outside the Immortal Gate, his physical body had improved and advanced, comparable to a Sixth-Tier Emperor Weapon. Only the Yuan Ancestor's Heaven-Suppressing Whip could cause him some damage, but it couldn't destroy him.

But at this moment, with this sweep of the Ancient Demon, Li Hao's body broke like bean curd dregs.

At the fracture, it seemed to be constantly burning, and a special power imprisoned Li Hao's regenerative power, making it unable to heal.

A large amount of blood sprayed, and the power throughout Li Hao's body was draining away.

The Ancient Demon leader didn't roar, just stared at Li Hao incomparably coldly. The breath of death from that moment just now made it shudder. If it hadn't transferred and dodged it, if it had reacted a bit slower, or if it had taken it head-on, it felt it would really have died! The kind where both form and spirit are destroyed! This made it truly furious, and its killing intent was stronger than ever. It didn't even have the mind to torture Li Hao, just wanting to kill him quickly!

With a boom, the void shook, and the Immortal Domain unfolded, suddenly covering the military formation.

The Sages felt the terror of that Immortal Domain and all changed color, hurriedly dodging. But over a dozen Sages were still shrouded by the Immortal Domain, annihilated within it. Only their Primordial Spirits remained imprisoned in the Immortal Domain, unable to even struggle, and were sucked into the Ancient Demon leader's mouth right in front of everyone.

Li Hao knew that once eaten by this Ancient Demon, there wouldn't even be a chance for reincarnation; they would be thoroughly annihilated, disappearing from the world forever!

"Fast, run fast!"

Li Hao's face was pale. He hadn't expected that even with the combined power of the Sages, the encirclement and suppression would fail.

The broken immortal weapon in his hand was not sharp enough to help him instantly destroy this Ancient Demon's physical body, and destroying its physical body was only the first step to killing it. Next, there was the contest and slaughter of the Primordial Spirits.

"Lord Hao Tian, we have no way to retreat. Do you have any other way? No matter how many die, if we are missing, we will fill in, as long as we can kill it!"

The Ming Clan Supreme Sage hurriedly asked Li Hao.

"Where can we run? We have committed sins and have no way to escape." The Law Sage also said, his voice desolate, not as cold and solemn as usual, revealing a kind of bitterness: "Even if we all sacrifice ourselves, it doesn't matter. Do you have any other way?"

He knew that once they ran now, there would be no more chance to contest with this True Immortal-level Ancient Demon; they would only be hunted down and killed one by one.

"There's no way..."

Li Hao felt the Sages' conviction, and his impression of them had changed, but at this moment, these things had no meaning.

"You run, go to my Holy Land to take refuge. I will block it!"

At this moment, Li Hao no longer wanted to make things difficult for these people. He broke free from the military formation. He was the eye of the formation and could control it. As he took the initiative to dissolve it, the power of the Sages within the military formation was also severed, returning to their respective bodies.

A look of madness appeared in the depths of Li Hao's eyes as he killed toward the Ancient Demon. He didn't want this battle to end so quickly. In such a short time, if he also ran away, no one could block this Ancient Demon, and it would be too late to take refuge in the Holy Land.

As for the Sages, staying here had no meaning. They couldn't help him. Under this Ancient Demon leader's Immortal Domain, numbers had no advantage.

Seeing Li Hao's back, the Sages were stunned, and then felt a sourness in their throats.

Previously, they had slandered and maliciously speculated about Li Hao, but now that they had reached this step, it was the opponent who was covering their retreat, just like the Yuan Ancestor and the God King before.

"Go!"

Li Hao roared, and then killed toward the Ancient Demon leader.

The two broken immortal weapons erupted again, attacking constantly.

This time, the Ancient Demon leader was somewhat cautious, using its Immortal Domain to slow down the broken immortal weapons, and it also dodged.

It vaguely felt that the danger that had made its spine chill before was related to its own injury.

Otherwise, this human wouldn't be attacking wildly in such a futile way, without any meaning.

The Ancient Demon dodged constantly, and Li Hao also attacked constantly. He knew he couldn't stop. Once he stopped, the Ancient Demon would immediately counterattack.

(End of chapter)