Chapter 1293: When If Not Now?

“What are you guys waiting for? Let’s continue!”

When Ye Qing looked up, two contrasting colors sprung out of the profound light surrounding his person. They quickly circulated and turned into yin and yang.

Ye Qing’s aura changed at once from vast and heavy to enigmatic and profound. Somehow, his energies were changing constantly without a fixed form or momentum.

Once ready, Ye Qing charged toward Yue Wanfa, Xuanyuan De and Haotian Chengxing again.

Ye Qing’s fighting style had changed dramatically as well. No longer charging around like a bull and relying on brute strength and his fists to overwhelm everything, he became agile, unpredictable, and difficult to grasp.

He flitted left and right, up and down without any rhyme or reason whatsoever, flowing endlessly and unpredictably.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Yin and yang circulated around his body, allowing him to borrow strength to attack his enemies, neutralize forces that splashed against his body, and directing attacks away from him. He became as slippery and untouchable as an eel.

His techniques had become similarly unpredictable. They were as swift as the wind, as invasive as fire, or as immovable as a mountain. They became near impossible to decipher them like yin itself.

For a time, Yue Wanfa, Xuanyuan De, Haotian Chengxing, the Southern Ghost Emperor—no one was able to lay a hand on Ye Qing. The longer the fight continued, the more frustrating it became.

Before, Ye Qing was a rock; a stubborn old rock that took a stupid amount of time and effort to break down. Still, a rock lacked flexibility and agility, so they could still land their attacks.

But now? Ye Qing was water. Nothing in the world was softer and weaker than water. Yet, to attack the hard and strong, nothing surpassed it. Nothing could take its place.

Water was good for everything, yet it did not have to compete for the top and earn the ire of everything, so it was the nearest thing to the Way. The Way was ever without action, yet nothing was left undone[1].

As if that wasn’t enough, Ye Qing could always predict what they were going to do and react accordingly. He could always hit them where they were weakest and most unguarded no matter how they tried to defend themselves. It was uncomfortable to say the least.

As time passed, they grew more and more exhausted and irritated. On the other hand, Ye Qing became more and more confident and at ease. At some point, they discovered in astonishment that

they

were the ones who had fallen into a disadvantage.

Many hours passed. When the first ray of dawn broke from the distant mountains, a deafening boom suddenly came from the Unbounded Platform. An image wearing yin and yang as his crown, and dark yellow as his robe had risen into the sky with countless realms underneath his feet.

The next moment, the image pointed his left hand toward the sky, and his right hand toward the earth. He then rotated them in opposite directions.

Like a millstone, heaven and earth began grinding the world. Anything and everything were ground into nothing like wheat.

The danger was unmistakable. Yue Wanfa immediately manifested his yang god and true body in full. His true body over a hundred meters tall with three heads and six arms. Rivers were wrapped around his waist, and a mountain sat on one palm. His yang god was a nine-level pagoda casting countless beams of divine veluriyam light.

When the nine-level pagoda landed on his other palm, his true body and yang god also merged into one, granting Yue Wanfa immense, unimaginable power.

Xuanyuan De waved his hand and summoned a cloud of purple qi that was one thousand and five hundred kilometers long. He also manifested images of the sky, the earth, and the people.

The sun, the moon, and the stars were shining brilliantly in the sky.

The mountains and rivers were spread across the ground like pieces on a board, vast and impressive.

The people were farming, hunting, or fishing peacefully.

And the cities were overflowing with activity and red dust.

What felt like endless karmic light shone out of Xuanyuan De. Holding a painting of red dust in one hand and wielding a purple bronze sword in the other, the ordinary-looking man looked like the emperor of humanity[2].

Meanwhile, a crown of celestial bodies had appeared on Haotian Chengxing’s head, a robe of asterism around her body, and a golden mirror emitting dazzling divine light above her head. When she plucked a star out of the sky, it transformed into an arrow.

Only a godly, heavenly emperor could use the stars as arrows, arrows that were capable of shooting down any celestial, demon, god or Buddha.

As for the Southern Ghost Emperor, he had manifested his ghastly body and faced toward the south. He knelt three times and kowtowed nine times.

A gap suddenly appeared in the sky, and a hand reached out from it. The arm was created from many twisted pieces of flesh. It was also crawling with tentacles that were crawling with eyeballs that emitted dirty yin qi with every twitch or turn.

The unbelievably huge palm was covered in giant mouths. Each mouth had rows and rows of sharp teeth, and it made whispers that bewitched the mind every time it opened and closed.

Every time the Southern Ghost Emperor dropped to his knees, the gap in the sky would grow just a tad larger. Every time he kowtowed, the arm would extend another couple hundred meters or so.

The ghost emperor kowtows nine, life and death lies in one palm. It was as if a great terror that could easily decide the fate of the entire humanity was descending to the world.

The main combatants weren’t the only ones who were revealing their trump cards. Yue Wanfa and Haotian Chengxing’s subordinates were executing their hidden techniques as well.

However, nothing seemed to work against the mill of heaven and earth. It all seemed so puny and feeble like wheat and grains. Magias winked out, yang gods dimmed, true bodies cracked, and even space itself dissolved into primal chaos.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Yue Wanfa, Xuanyuan De and more roared at the top of their lungs, but it was futile. In the end, they all dissolved into dust.

Even after the grand millstone of heaven and earth disappeared, it left behind countless spatial gaps throughout the mountains. They would not heal until a very, very long time later.

Of course, Yue Wanfa, Xuanyuan De, Haotian Chengxing, and the Southern Ghost Emperor weren’t dead yet. When they reappeared though, their expressions were gloomy, their faces were pale, and their breathings were weak. It was clear that they had all suffered a not insignificant amount of damage.

On the other hand, Ye Qing’s fighting spirit and aura resembled a titanic pillar that penetrated heaven and earth. Despite his sorry appearance, none was more impressive than him right now.

“Hahaha! What Ghost Emperor? What disciple? What young master? You’re all weak! Trash!”

Laughing loudly, Ye Qing looked away as if he had lost interest in the quartet before staring at a certain point in space. He then asked, “Mei Qihe, Yuan Zhantian, Bai Huaxian, Li Qingping, how much longer are you just going to stand there and watch?”

“When are you going to enter the battlefield if not now?”

“Hahaha! I was going to wait a little longer, but I shan’t turn down your kind offer!”

As soon as Ye Qing finished, a white crane immediately flapped its wings and flew toward him. A man in white robe was sitting on its back.

The man’s hair was draped loosely across his shoulders. His face was refined, and his presence was one-third uninhibited, one-third confident, and one-third elegant flavored with a pinch of romanticism.

“I am here!”

RUUUUMBLE!!!

The white-robed man had just touched down on the Unbounded Platform when another man descended from the sky. He impacted the arena so hard it was like a meteor strike, causing the East Radiance Mountain to shake like an earthquake and kicking up a seemingly endless storm of violent, rampant demonic flames.

A man who looked to be in his forties stood in the middle of the dark, flaming storm. Tall and muscular, he possessed a rugged, bearded face. Demonic qi gushed out of him like it was free and conjured mirages of demon gods here and there. He looked quite intimidating to put it mildly.

Barring a handful of people, everyone watching the battle turned white in the face and blanked out for an instant. A good number of them looked like they were about to suffer a martial deviation as well.

“Restrain yourself, Yuan Zhantian! Do not harm the innocent!”

It was at this moment white clouds bloomed amidst the howling, rampaging storm of demonic flames. Literally, they bloomed everywhere like the flowers that welcomed their first gust of spring.

A closer inspection would reveal that the clouds were, in fact, not clouds. They were sword qi weaved into puffs that looked like white clouds.

Incredibly, the clouds of sword qi annihilated the demonic intent contained within the fiery storm instantly, leaving not a speck behind. It was the same for the demonic intent that had invaded the spectators’ minds and bodies as well.

Even more incredible was the fact that the sword qi did no damage to anyone. It was as gentle as silk.

After the wisps of demonic intent were slain, the clouds combined into one and revealed a beautiful woman who looked as pure as the clouds or the water.

“Seventh on the Earth Champions Ranking, the ‘Crane Riding Gentleman' Mei Qihe!”

“Sixth on the Earth Champions Ranking, the ‘Heaven Turning Great Sage’ Yuan Zhantian!”

“Fourth on the Earth Champions Ranking, the ‘Celestial In The Clouds' Bai Huaxian!”

Everyone gasped when they finally recognized the trio who entered the stage. Before they could catch a breather, Yuan Zhantian abruptly looked in their direction and caused them to jump on their feet. They felt as if a violent beast had set its eyes on them, and their hearts nearly stopped beating because of it.

1. Lines from Tao Te Ching mixed here and there. ☜

2. Except it’s not you bro, this all belongs to the Human Sovereign. ☜