Chapter 155: Judgment of Darkness
"Incredible. What kind of battle just took place?"
As the robed elder descended, he was immediately struck with astonishment by the massive fissure torn across the ground before him. At the same time, his surprise deepened as he gazed upon Han Anshan, who was now shrouded in immense, billowing dark energy.
He well remembered that back when he was at the Heavenly Derivation Sect, Han Anshan's cultivation was barely around the tenth grade of the Spirit Void Realm, not even reaching the Golden Core Realm yet. Yet now, following consecutive leaps in advancement, Han Anshan was actually capable of defeating a figure of Luan Tianfeng's caliber.
Indeed, the black-robed elder was none other than Tian Ming, who had just escaped from the Great Gloom Sky-Covering Dome. Having absorbed ten million experience points, he had directly soared to the fourth grade of the Empyrean Net Realm. This method of rapid-fire leveling was a cultivation shortcut that never failed to thrill him.
"Heh, I never expected the first person to come to my rescue would be you..." With a self-deprecating chuckle, Luan Tianfeng did not wait for the robed elder hovering above to draw closer. Instead, as he slowly lifted his finger, a fiery red longsword rose instantly into the air.
Luan Tianfeng's previously ash-gray and lifeless eyes suddenly flashed with an incomparably sharp sword glare. Ah yes, this was hardly the time for him to give up.
"Senior Luan Tianfeng, what are you saying? We are both people of the Central Divine Continent, so naturally we should advance and retreat together," Tian Ming said dismissively with a wave of his hand.
Although he had never met this First Elder of the Heavenly Sword Sect before, Tian Ming had heard various rumors about Luan Tianfeng back when he was still in the Heavenly Derivation Sect.
The man was an absolute freak!
He was simply even more brilliant than Tian Ming himself, who possessed a system. Though Tian Ming found this deeply galling, he could only silently accept it—for no other reason than the fact that this man had helped him before.
"Quite right, what you say is true. But why do you address me as a senior every time we meet? Judging by your appearance, you must be around five or six hundred years old. Do we know each other?"
Luan Tianfeng nodded faintly, his sword-like brows furrowing as he looked at the black-robed figure before him. After a moment of deep thought, he asked with sudden curiosity.
...
"Cultivator of demonic arts, your time of death has come today!"
"Get out of our continent!"
"The Huahan Sect will triumph!"
...
Over a thousand cyan energy attacks streamed like rays of light toward the dark shadow in the sky. Every single one of these disciples exerted their utmost strength, for they had already witnessed the terrifying power of this demonic cultivator.
Dark Barrier.
Beneath blood-red eyes, the pitch-black figure hovered in the void, grasping a crimson scepter. Under its massive amplification, the surrounding forces were twisted almost out of shape.
With a shattering of space, a jet-black energy barrier instantly blocked all these onslaughts, while beneath those crimson eyes, a fresh volley of dark energy erupted, blasting down toward the thousands of cyan figures below.
Plop!
A heaven-shaking explosion of kinetic fluctuations blurred the entire expanse of space.
Figures in cyan Taoist robes could be seen coughing up blood one after another, plummeting down to the ground like birds with broken wings.
Dark Impact!
Seizing the advantage, Han Anshan let out a cold snort and once again raised his crimson scepter. A wave of dark energy erupted from its center, instantly sweeping away the remaining five hundred or so cyan figures who were still stubbornly resisting below.
This was a match of absolute, irreversible hierarchical suppression.
"Han Anshan, how dare you!"
A thunderous roar echoed across the entire sky. Gongzhong Ruixin, the Sect Master of the Huahan Sect, along with the various elders, arrived in an instant. Eleven majestic figures instantly formed a tight encirclement around the dark elder at the center.
The instantly materialized outline of a wood-element phantom nearly eclipsed the crimson light of those blood-red eyes.
In a flash.
Before Han Anshan could utter a word, eleven massive beams of energy led by Gongzhong Ruixin rapidly enveloped him, imbued with the laws of Heaven, Earth, and Wood.
The boundless energy fluctuations at that moment were blindingly brilliant.
Crack!
Bolstered by multiple practitioners, the exceptionally pure law of the wood element pierced through the dark barrier like a bamboo split open by a cleaver.
"Truly detestable! Do you grand sects know only how to outnumber others and resort to sneak attacks?"
The massive energy explosion magnified continuously before Han Anshan's eyes. The dark scepter in his hand grew powerless, and the shattered dark barrier left his aura somewhat unstable.
Successive massive energy explosions instantly drove him crashing into the ground.
Law: Verdant Glory of the Earth!
"Betrayer, you have lost!" The final synchronized, resounding war cry echoed ceaselessly in Han Anshan's ears as gorgeous cyan energy surged from the ground.
Under the spellcasting of the eleven figures, the earth split open, and ancient, towering green handprints burst forth from the depths of the soil. Countless wooden energy laws filled the sky, tracing irregular trajectories as they hunted down the dark figure on the ground.
"Blood Eyes, protect me!" Blood trickled from the corner of Han Anshan's mouth. Gripping his scepter, he once again conjured darkness, directly drawing the blood-red eyes from the sky down toward himself.
The massive blood-red eyes instantly intercepted the energy handprint protruding from the ground. Watching the green energy flickering relentlessly behind him, Han Anshan waved his sovereign scepter, meeting the onslaught with waves of dark energy.
Bang! Bang!
Countless scattered clusters of cyan energy rained down upon the earth. As Han Anshan's black figure shifted and blurred, he vanished in the blink of an eye, reappearing high above the eleven deep-green figures.
Suddenly.
Deep beneath the earth, the massive crimson pupils of the blood eyes exploded violently, and simultaneously, the giant cyan energy handprint vanished into nothingness.
"Traitor to the sect, where do you think you're going?!"
Just as Han Anshan stabilized himself in mid-air, an ancient sword qi as fiery as molten lava erupted from the massive abyss below, piercing the air with a shrill hum.
"You've all arrived, it seems."
At that very moment, a crimson soul on the dark scepter darted straight into the center of his forehead. A flash of red gleamed in Han Anshan's stern eyes as a blade of dark energy instantly shattered the incoming sword qi.
Boundless, dark-qi energy rippled outward beneath his feet like waves on water.
Dark Verdict!
The sky plunged once more into pitch darkness, where one could not see one's hand before their face. Thick, crimson-tinted dark energy flickered continuously in Han Anshan's hand. With an eerie, cackling laughter that seemed to echo from primordial times, massive black lightning bolts struck the earth.
Rumble...
Amidst the grinding friction of the clouds above, thousands of monster-like tentacles emerged, blanketing a region spanning tens of thousands of miles. The energy in the darkened zone grew so intense that spatial turbulence began to form.
"Stop him!" Treading upon his fiery sword, Luan Tianfeng shot directly beneath the dark firmament, slashing sword qi imbued with fire laws straight toward the crimson scepter.
Gongzhong Ruixin and the elders also reacted swiftly, eleven massive energy attacks trailing right behind the sword qi as a heaven-shaking assault evolved once more.
Hum! Hum!
Having long sensed the turbulent ripples of battle here, the Sect Masters and elders of the Heavenly Sword, Heavenly Derivation, and Water Dream sects transformed into streaks of light and rushed over in succession.
Blades gleamed and swords flashed as countless legal forces exploded across the heavens.
Piercing sword qi illuminated the firmament.
Deep-blue ocean-like tides continually washed over the darkness.
Verdant pine-wood blades bloomed with deep green radiance!
...
The indestructible ultimate power grew blindingly dazzling beneath the firmament, nearly stripping the world of its light. A violent hurricane took shape upon the earth, threatening to shatter heaven and earth itself.
At this moment, unnoticed within a golden palace sitting at a depth of ten thousand zhang, a blurred figure clad in a golden crown and battle armor gazed down upon everything below, surrounded entirely by ethereal, drifting auspicious clouds of immortal energy.