The hole in Tianmo's chest was a grotesque window, revealing the shattered ribs and the pulsating violet light of his internal organs.
Yet, there was no blood. The Immortal Dao Body rejected the very concept of mortality, the wound didn't bleed, it crackled with spatial energy, and the edges of the flesh were already vibrating as they sought to stitch themselves back together.
It was hyper regeneration.
Tianmo looked down at the fist buried in his torso, then up at Li Chen. His expression didn't shift from its mask of indifference. Pain was but a sting, a temporary feeling in the path of absolute.
Li Chen frowned. It was the look a mountain might give a pebble thrown at it. How outrageous.
"You..."
Li Chen instantly jumped back, feeling his seventh sense tingling.
"Three breaths up!" Tianmo turned to the Holy maiden and grabbed her by her throat. Before she could speak any further, the devil fire instantly ignited, refining her into pure Dao essence.
However he didn't absorb Dao essence, it's better to give it to Ling'er. She possesses water spirit root and she is a virgin, so, she can easily absorb the essence and awaken the Ice Maiden physique.
..
"Arghhhhh!"
Li Chen roared, his eyes bloodshot. His auta flared even more.
Nascent soul second stage.
Third stage.
Fourth stage.
Fifth stage.
Anger, extreme anger.
Li Chen's vision blurred, the world turning into a haze of red. The Holy Maiden—his destined Dao partner, the key to his Supreme Nine Yang Body, the woman he had sworn to protect and eventually conquer—was gone. Erased. Reduced to a floating orb of shimmering energy before his eyes.
She didn't even get a chance to scream.
"You... You MONSTER!" Li Chen's voice cracked, the sound tearing from his throat like raw meat. "I will peel your skin, break your bones, and scatter your ashes to the winds! I, Li Chen, honoured between heaven and earth, vow to exterminate your seven generations."
"Oh!" Tianmo merely raised his eyebrows, the purple aura around his body intensifying, making the very reality before him bow.
"Heavenly Finger!" Li Chem screamed, pointing his finger at Tianmo.
The air shrieked.
A beam of golden light, so dense it distorted the space around it, erupted from Li Chen's fingertip. It wasn't just an attack; it was a spear of judgment, carrying the momentum of a collapsing star. This was the Heavenly Finger at True Mastery—a compression of will and matter so absolute that it could pierce the void itself.
Woosh!
The beam directly destroyed Tianmo's head, his brain matter shattering everywhere. A Smile appeared on Li Chen's face... But it quickly turned into fury.
All the splattered matter began to return to the original spot. It was like playing a video in reverse. The shattered fragments of bone, the scattered grey matter, the droplets of violet blood—they all defied gravity, rushing back together in a macabre dance of restoration.
The head reformed, the skin knitting seamlessly, the eyes flashing open with the same cold, purple light. The face, peerless, dustless, far from mundane.
"True Mastery? Interesting compression," Tianmo commented, his tone as casual as if he were critiquing a cup of tea.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Li Chen roared, his sanity fraying at the edges. "You... what kind of monster are you?!"
As someone with Dual Pupils, he could see all openings and weaknesses. He should have a chance of victory even when fighting a higher realm but here... Tianmo is obviously two major realms below him. How can he still fight?! Is this what a true talent is?! No. Every talent, every young master, every genius should fall and crumble before him.
Woosh!
He activated his Dual pupils, his eyes glowing with Yin-Yang, pure light, and dark chaos, his gaze piercing through the layers of reality to find the flaw in Tianmo's existence. But what he saw chilled him to the bone.
He saw a web of infinite lines, a tapestry of cause and effect so dense it made his head spin. Tianmo didn't just have a flaw; he was the flaw. The space around him bent naturally, as if the world itself was apologizing for his existence.
Li Chen began to bleed.
Immortal Master seeing this was even more interested. Li Chen's dual pupils were powerful enough to even erase his soul if he tried to possess him... But even his dual pupils couldn't see through Tianmo's existence?!
Jackpot. Primordial.
It's the Primordial bloodline.
What's more, it's the primordial dragon bloodline.
Primordial Dragon bloodline, 8 Supreme Dao bone, 8 Zodiac meridians, Immortal Dao Body, Immortal-grade Spirot root, Devil heart, Devil fire. It's the perfect vessel. Immortal Emperor was receiving soul-orgasm.
"You stare too much," Tianmo's voice echoed, not from the body standing before Li Chen, but from everywhere at once.
Li Chen's pupils constricted. The figure in front of him rippled like a mirage and dissolved into mist.
Void Step.
Before Li Chen could pivot, a finger, glowing with a terrifying violet light, pressed gently against the center of his forehead.
"Heavenly Finger."
BOOM!
The impact was silent but devastating. Li Chen could see it... See the beam coming at him at a hyperslow speed. He could see the spiritual energy coming from Tianmo's dantian to his meridians and to his left hand... Yes. This is how his pupils works. He also used Void step to dodge the heavenly finger. The beam collided with the earth, creating a loud explosion, causing a small earthquake that shook the entire eastern region.
"Haah... Not good, I am definitely stronger than him, so what am I losing?! It makes no sense... Master help me," Li Chen gasped, his chest heaving. He had dodged, but the residual shockwave from the Heavenly Finger had still grazed him, tearing a bloody gash across his shoulder.
His robes were tattered, and the golden aura of the Nascent Soul realm flickered erratically around him. He looked at Tianmo, who stood amidst the smoke, his clothes pristine, his expression completely composed.
"Boy, calm your heart," the Immortal Emperor's voice echoed in his mind, devoid of the panic Li Chen felt. "You rely too much on the eyes. You see the lines of Qi, the flow of energy, but you do not see the intent. You are reading a book while he is living the story."
"Then what do I do?!" Li Chen screamed internally.
"Stop dodging. Use the True Mastery of the Heavenly Finger. If you compress your Qi enough, it doesn't matter if he moves. The space he moves to is already part of the strike."
Li Chen gritted his teeth. He understood. The Heavenly Finger at True Mastery wasn't just a straight line; it was a domain of destruction.
"Fine! Let's see you dodge this!"
Li Chen floated higher into the air, his arms spreading wide.
Woosh! He summoned his Divine Soul—his nascent soul. It was small but the pressure was terrifying. It looked like a baby but with a crown on its head.
"Nine Yang... Divine Incinerator!"
The baby opened its mouth and inhaled, drawing in the ambient Qi of the world, compressing it into a singularity of pure Yang energy. The sky above turned blindingly white, the heat vaporizing the remaining clouds and turning the rain into steam before it could even fall.
Li Chen hovered in the center of this blinding brilliance, his body burning like a star. He pointed both index fingers downward, aiming at Tianmo, who stood like a shadow amidst the light.
"Heavenly Finger: Lethality Manipulation!"
His fingers moved, tracing intricate geometric patterns in the air. The compressed Yang energy followed the compressed Qi, the spear of god, creating a dual rotating energy beam, slowly merging into a singularity.
WOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHH!!!!
The finger descended. It was silent at first, a vacuum of sound that sucked the air from the lungs of every living being for miles. Then, the world shattered, and the reality began to crumble. The sheer power could even eliminate a soul emperor. It was the ultimate move Li Chen just created.
The space directly in front of Li Chen's finger didn't just break; it vanished. A tunnel of absolute nothingness, rimmed with fracturing reality, shot towards Tianmo.
Boom!
The power was so devastating, yet, Tianmo tanked it, his body exploding into billions of pieces.
Silence.
Absolute, suffocating silence descended upon the ruined Azure Cloud Sect. The dust began to settle, coating the broken statues and shattered pavilions in a grey shroud.
Li Chen hovered in the air, his chest heaving, his arms trembling from the exertion of channeling such forbidden power. The light of the Nine Yang Divine Incinerator faded, his Nascent Soul baby retreating back into his soul space, exhausted.
He looked down at the crater where Tianmo had stood.
Nothing remained but a smooth, glass-like depression in the earth, superheated rock that was slowly cooling and cracking.
"I... I did it..." Li Chen whispered, a manic grin stretching across his face. "The monster... is gone. My Dao heart can finally rest."
He landed softly on the edge of the crater, his boots crunching on the superheated stone. He peered into the center, expecting to see ash, or perhaps a lingering spatial distortion.
But there was nothing.
"Master! Did you see that?!" Li Chen's mental voice was triumphant, echoing with the rush of victory. "My technique! It was perfect! The compression, the rotation, the sheer density—it erased him from life! The Heavens themselves could not have survived that strike!"
The Immortal Emperor did not reply immediately. The silence in the ring was heavy, contemplative.
"Boy," the ancient voice finally rasped, sounding less like a mentor and more like a judge. "Look closer."
Li Chen frowned. "What do you mean? There is nothing there. I vaporized him. I turned his bones to dust and his dust to atoms. Even his soul is vaporized in my destructive Yang."
"Look at the air," the Immortal Emperor commanded. "Look at the flow of the Qi."
Li Chen narrowed his eyes, activating his Dual Pupils to their limit. The world shifted into shades of grey and glowing lines of energy. He looked at the crater.
The Qi there was... still.
It wasn't flowing, it wasn't circulating rather it was frozen.
And in the center of that frozen space, a single point of violet light began to pulse.
Thump.
It was faint, like the heartbeat of a dormant beast.
Thump. Thump.
The rhythm grew stronger, and with each beat, the surrounding space began to warp. The glass-like rock of the crater began to vibrate, shedding its solid form to turn back into dust.
The True Devil Heart began to beat.
"What... what is this?" Li Chen took a step back, his bravado crumbling. And before anything.... Tianmo returned back to life.
Unless someone refines him, he can't die. But on higher worlds, this isn't something new.
"Li Chen... You did well, but since you have exhausted your Dual Pupils, it's time for me to possess your body. I hope in your next life you will become more sensible."
A white light came forth from the ring and directly entered into Li Chen's forehead.
Pain.
It was not the sting of a blade or the burn of fire. It was the erasure of self. A sensation of being poured, drop by agonizing drop, into a vessel that was too small, too rigid, too... mortal.
Li Chen's mental screams were silent to the outside world, but within the confines of his own soul, they were a tsunami of terror. He clawed at the walls of his own consciousness, trying to hold onto the memories of his humiliation, his love for Yang Bingyun, and his hatred for Tianmo. But the white light was a glacier, grinding his existence into fine, meaningless dust.
"Quiet, child," the Immortal Emperor's voice boomed, shaking the foundations of the soul. "Your emotions are loud. Your fears... boring. Be still. Become the throne."
"No! NO! I am Li Chen! I am destined to shine above all! I am—"
"What nonsense..."
The thought severed. Li Chen's identity flickered and died, replaced by a cold, ancient awareness that settled into the driver's seat of the body.
The physical change was instantaneous.
Li Chen's body, hovering above the crater, jerked violently.
His spine arched unnaturally, the sound of bone realignment cracking like thunder. The terrified, manic expression on his face smoothed out, replaced by a mask of imperial arrogance that had withstood the erosion of eons.
The aura of the Nascent Soul realm, previously unstable and wild, condensed instantly. It didn't just become stable; it became heavy, possessing the density of a black hole.
The figure floating in the air was no longer Li Chen. It was the Immortal Emperor, reborn in a vessel of flesh and blood.
"Ah..." The Immortal Emperor flexed Li Chen's fingers, staring at the palms with a critical eye. "The Nine Yang Supreme Body... It is adequate. A bit crude, lacking the refinement of my original form, but the potential is... acceptable."
He turned his gaze downward, toward the crater where the violet light was pulsing with increasing vigor.
The air around the crater began to distort. The dust swirled, defying gravity, coalescing into a vortex that spun faster and faster. From the center of this chaos, a figure began to rise.
His clothes had been vaporized, but his body regenerated instantly, new skin weaving itself over muscle and bone in the blink of an eye. He hovered there, naked, his skin glowing with a pearlescent sheen, the eight Zodiac Meridians beneath his flesh burning like constellations.
His eyes opened.
They were no longer just purple. They were vortexes. Spirals of violet and black that seemed to contain the hunger of a dying universe.
The Immortal Emperor watched this, his new eyes narrowing. He could feel it, the pressure. Even with the Nine Yang Body and the power of a Nascent Soul powerhouse, he felt a distinct, primal unease.
However, he was a powerful soul cultivator. He would destroy this world. He was at the pinnacle of this world.
"The Formless Spiritual Root..." the Immortal Emperor muttered, his voice vibrating with power. "And the True Devil Heart... To think such a mongrel would appear in this lower realm. A perfect vessel. A far superior vessel to this... Yang furnace."
He didn't hesitate. With the decisiveness of a ruler who had crushed thousands of realms, the Immortal Emperor raised Li Chen's hand.
"Kneel."
The word was backed by the authority of the emperor. A wave of psychic pressure, invisible but heavier than a mountain, slammed down towards Tianmo.
Tianmo's head tilted slightly. He looked at the descending pressure, then up at the figure floating above him.
Bang!
Tianmo was instantly pushed to his knees, with no resistance.
"Good. Kneel proud, I, Immortal Emperor declare you the being with the most potential, within nine realms and eighteen heavens. However, your journey ends here... Even your Immortal Dao body can't save you from this emperor."
"Feel honored. You shall be a stepping stone in the journey of this Immortal Emperor. I shall give you a proper burial and make your mother my personal maid."
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Q/a: Just want to know, are my cliffhangers good?! I mean I am not so great at it. But these few chaps I am making tension go Fahhhh! Donate PS and GT.