Chapter 771: Disaster-Grade Guards

Upon sensing the frightening presence behind him, Fang Yi forced himself to remain calm. He kicked backwards with his right leg.

"[Wind's Spirit]!" His leg, crackling with lightning, landed directly on the disaster-grade sand scarab's head with such force that it caved in, its crystalline exoskeleton cracking.

Simultaneously, Fang Yi used the momentum from that kick to launch himself forward like a bullet, treating the sand scarab like a springboard off of which he launched toward the top of the pyramid.

Just as he was about to reach its apex, another disaster-grade sand scarab pounced on him. Fang Yi opened his eyes wide—there was another such scarab?!

The scarab swallowed up Fang Yi whole before he could react.

"[Heaven's Judgment]! [Tiger's Howl, Dragon's Bellow]!" A shout and a thunderous impact could be heard from within the disaster-grade lifeform's body, and the power of wind and lightning erupted from its exoskeleton.

A spear formed from wind and lightning pierced the scarab's body, and Fang Yi emerged from that hole. Wind and storm combined and crackled at the tip of Fang Yi's spear, and a dragon's howl echoed resoundingly in the air.

Half the scarab's body was ravaged by the elemental energies. After emerging from the scarab's body, Fang Yi continued heading straight for the apex of the pyramid.

Waiting for Fang Yi was a gigantic hand made out of the black cloth unraveled from the black spirits' bodies, as well as yet another disaster-grade scarab.

The scarab sprayed out a burst of black sand and leapt toward Fang Yi, while the black hands descended toward him.

Fang Yi, unable to react in time, was sent flying by the two attacks. He marshaled the wind and landed firmly on the desert floor, skidding to a halt and leaving long furrows across the sand.

Black sand rose up in a wave around him. The sand that the sand scarab had sprayed at him had no small amount of venom, which was already starting to corrode Fang Yi's body.

Fang Yi scoured his body with lightning, cleansing whatever motes of black sand remained on his body. Fortunately for Fang Yi, he had a remarkable constitution bolstered by limit fragments. Anyone else inflicted by such poison would have collapsed already.

Fang Yi saw two disaster-grade scarabs scurrying around the side of the pyramid, defending it from all intruders. It looked as though he wouldn't be able to make it inside without getting rid of the two scarabs—and if he didn't make it inside, he couldn't find the king of the black spirits and kill him.

The two scarabs opened their maws and shot out black sand like pillars of water.

Fang Yi leapt high into the air and avoided the attack. Black cloth suddenly emerged out of thin air above his head, blocking Fang Yi's retreat.

"[Shadow and Light]!" At that very moment, Fang Yi morphed into countless clones, each of which moved independently through the desert and broke free of the trap by brute force.

His next opponents were the two disaster-grade sand scarabs, both of whom had activated their disaster-grade domains.

The black sand within that domain began to froth, as though each particle of sand had become a miniaturized bullet. The stacked domains were far stronger than each would individually be; the only reason Fang Yi was able to survive at all was because of his constitution. A superior-grade lifeform would have been devoured whole by the black sand.

The two sand scarabs advanced, sandwiching Fang Yi from left and right. Fang Yi knocked one scarab to the ground and sent the other one flying; the scarabs that had come from left and right were now up and down.

As black cloth shot toward Fang Yi, he rotated his body in mid-air and avoided the attack. His spear glowed with energy. The wind around him spun him faster and faster. Lightning gathered by the tip of his spear, sending sparks flying as the spear scraped against the scarabs' exoskeletons and left long scratches on their crystalline exterior.

"[Floating Clouds]!" The wind and lightning formed a loop around Fang Yi's body. He shot out of the entrapment, again heading straight toward the apex of the pyramid.

He pierced through the black cloth with the charged tip of his spear, but just moments later, the two disaster-grade scarabs had caught up. They were right about to spit out black sand at Fang Yi when he used another technique.

"[Born of Lightning, Swallowed by the Wind]!" Temporal energy surged toward the tip of his spear. The spear pierced space abruptly, spawning a rift that turned its surroundings gray. All movement was locked in time.

The wind, the black cloth, the scarabs—everything had frozen. The massing black spirits were completely still, as were the two disaster-grade scarabs. The only color in the space came from Fang Yi and his crackling spear.

As his spear revolved and the grayscale world returned to normal, the two scarabs' heads exploded, and their crystalline bodies slumped to the ground.

"[Wheel of Time]!" A wheel of light appeared behind Fang Yi, taking on the form of a clock.

Fang Yi thrust his spear forward so quickly it left dozens of afterimages in all directions, knocking aside the black cloth that threatened to swarm him.

The two sand scarabs, who had somehow survived, circled around Fang Yi and gradually closed in on him like a trap about to spring.

"[Heaven's Judgment]! [Tiger's Howl, Dragon's Bellow]!" Fang Yi attacked the two scarabs before it could happen. Wind and lightning shout out from his spear, striking the two scarabs and causing their bodies to shake and vibrate. With a huge, resonant crack, the two scarabs' bodies split apart in a huge explosion.

Even so, the shocking vitality the scarabs possessed meant that they could still fight. In addition, the remnant parts of their bodies shook and trembled. A head and tail grew out of each part; the two sand scarabs had split into countless smaller scarabs, each of which were stronger than an ordinary peak-grade lifeform.

They were small only in comparison to their disaster-grade "parents", but larger compared to an ordinary peak-grade lifeform. They scurried through the sand, accompanied by endless strips of black cloth from the air.

Fang Yi launched his spear, crackling with wind and lightning, with incredible force. It sent wind howling and lightning flashing through the skies. He thrust his spear forward so quickly it left dozens of afterimages in all directions, knocking aside the black cloth that threatened to swarm him.

As he fought, more and more wheels of time began to stack behind his back. The two disaster-grade scarabs shot out streams of black sand toward Fang Yi, and the black cloth again blocked off any means of escape.

The smaller sand scarabs drew close and emulated their disaster-grade counterparts.

Faced with such a formation, Fang Yi had no opportunity to slowly stack more and more wheels of time.

"Everything's aligned now!" Fang Yi had been moving in such a manner so as to align the black pyramid and the two sand scarabs in a straight line.

Wind and lightning surged around his spear in quantities far larger than seemed possible. Fang Yi combined that energy with temporal energy, causing the light around his spear to flash a dazzling array of colors, blue and black and purple, as though he had broken open a wormhole right in front of him.

Fang Yi grinned.

"[Heaven's Judgment]!" Once again, Fang Yi broke through the constraints of time and returned to the frozen world of gray, with him the only spot of color within.

The wheels of time he had steadily amassed to date were necessary to help defray the cost of maintaining and moving in the frozen world.

Wind and storm combined and crackled at the tip of Fang Yi's spear, condensing as they circled around the tip of Fang Yi's spear and sucking in the nearby space, turning it to putty. The combination of elemental, temporal, and spatial energy at the tip of the spear multiplied the strength of Fang Yi's attack beyond what should have been possible...