Chapter 1004: The Devil Descends (II)

Whoosh.

The Noble Dharma's attack was too swift. Gravely injured, Baize stood no chance of putting up a fight. The world flashed with blinding light as the Noble Dharma landed a palm strike on Baize's forehead.

The Mount Shu Sect's Vessel of God got there a beat later, descending straight onto the Noble Dharma's back with its full weight!

Wham!

Despite having a ninth-realm body, taking a direct hit from a legendary artifact sent him crashing hard to the ground. But that was all it did.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Noble Baize!" Di Nufeng shouted from the prow of the ship.

There was no answer from Baize. The black and white divine light in the sky gradually faded away.

The response Di Nufeng got instead was a surge of force from beneath the ship.

"

Huurgh...

"

A lone figure rose beneath the Vessel of God, lifting the massive ship over his head with one arm!

Even after being struck by the Vessel of God, the Noble Dharma appeared entirely unharmed. The durability of his corporeal body now rivaled that of Evil Ksitigarbha in his prime, perhaps even surpassed it.

Baize lay sprawled utterly still on the fractured ground, tattered and lifeless.

"YOU FUCKER!!!" Di Nufeng cursed and leaped off the ship.

She didn't charge recklessly. Instead, she opened her mouth and unleashed an endless torrent of divine fire, like a sea running to a river.

In an instant, the sky was engulfed in Samadhi True Fire. The fire was so scorching hot that it caused all vegetation within a hundred li to wither without even touching them.

At the same time, the Vessel of God gathered the Cloud of Determination's Dao essence once more and crashed down with a loud boom.

The Noble Dharma wrangled with the Vessel of God, stuck in a deadlock.

In that fleeting moment, Di Nufeng sent the full force of the Samadhi True Fire blasting down. The sea of flames became a dragon, diving ferociously straight for the Noble Dharma.

As the purple-gold fire dragon engulfed him, the Noble Dharma roared, "

Aaaaahhhhhh!

"

Soon after, a dazzling golden orb lit up within the fire dragon. The orb shone brighter, and the surrounding divine flames began to recede. Then the golden light exploded outward!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

It was a catastrophe.

Di Nufeng had gone all out. So, if she had let her sea of divine fire spread, it could have burned down the nine provinces.

When the Noble Dharma’s golden light exploded, he sent Di Nufeng's divine fire into the sky as a massive purple-gold mushroom cloud and then dispersed as raindrops of fire over the Southern Regions.

If the drops of fire came into contact with land, the land would be set ablaze. If they came into contact with humans or beasts, they would burn through the flesh. Anything the drops of fire touched turned to ash in the blink of an eye.

With the power of the Great Dao of Incinerating Heaven, the Noble Dharma brought death to the innocent people of the Southern Regions. Even the Mount Shu Sect's Vessel of God was blasted away, flipped over by the sheer force of the explosion.

As the golden light faded, the Noble Dharma chased down the Vessel of God. He had changed his target to Daoist Yan.

Fortunately, a ring of white light suddenly lit up in the sky and enveloped the Noble Dharma in one move. It isolated him from the rest of the world and sent him to another realm.

It was the Celestial Cosmic Ring!

Venerable Wen Yuan had finally appeared on the scene, but he was too late.

After spending much of his cultivation energy building the Yin-Yang Realm for Baize, he had gone into closed-door cultivation to recover. By the time he rushed out, Baize had already fallen.

Lu Jiuwai, in the Xuanhuang Battle Armor, arrived at the same time. As part of the Southern Regions alliance, the brothers of the Great Astral Sect once again went over to Mount Shu to assist the Mount Shu Sect on the battlefield.

Nonetheless, they were not the only ones. Upon hearing of the Noble Dharma's return, leaders of the Divine Nine and Terrestrial Ten assembled at Mount Shu at record speed.

After experiencing several world-shaking battles, everyone had become extremely proficient at communicating and taking action swiftly and efficiently.

That was the thing about battles—the more battles they fought, the stronger they would get.

The problem was that their enemy had evolved too. The Noble Dharma had learned from his last battle against the leaders of the Divine Nine and Terrestrial Ten. This time, he returned with a completely different approach.

Despite being trapped within the Celestial Cosmic Ring, the Noble Dharma merely sneered. "You think you can imprison me with a legendary artifact that once belonged to me?"

He turned into a beam of golden light and darted toward the boundary of the ring's inner world.

Venerable Wen Yuan swept his sleeve out wide, and the borders of the small world in the Celestial Cosmic Ring stretched, expanding in sync with the golden light's advance.

Nevertheless, that was bound to end eventually. Either the Noble Dharma would give up trying to break out, or Venerable Wen Yuan would fail to keep him in... The result was the latter.

The moment the golden light caught up with the inner boundary of the Celestial Cosmic Ring, a rumbling crack resounded through the legendary artifact's small internal world.

Boom!

With an explosive blast, the Noble Dharma tore through the spatial barrier and broke out. He knew the Celestial Cosmic Ring far too well. No one understood its weaknesses better than he did.

When he emerged, there were several legendary artifacts waiting for him in the sky.

In addition to the Xuanhuang Battle Armor, the Dharma Lotus Platform and the Divine Mirror of the Eight Trigrams were at Mount Shu. The Dharma Lotus Platform cast a rainbow light over the Xuanhuang Battle Armor, while the Divine Mirror of the Eight Trigrams bound the Noble Dharma in a layer of golden restraints.

With the support of two additional legendary artifacts, Lu Jiuwai, in the Xuanhuang Battle Armor, charged fearlessly at the Noble Dharma!

Nevertheless, the Noble Dharma paid it no mind. He shot straight toward the Mount Shu Sect's Vessel of God as a beam of golden light.

The Noble Dharma had flipped the Vessel of God over, and Daoist Yan had only just gotten it airborne again. She was in the middle of recovering her strength. This was a prime opportunity for the Noble Dharma to attack her.

Lu Jiuwai landed a heavy punch on the Noble Dharma's back, but the Noble Dharma took it without flinching. He even used the force from the punch to accelerate. His ninth-realm corporeal body had given him the confidence to pull off a move like that!

Just like that, the Noble Dharma quickly landed on the deck of the Vessel of God.

This was, in fact, one of the Vessel of God's weak points. If an enemy managed to reach the deck, the Vessel of God's most powerful attacks couldn't touch them. That was why every time Daoist Yan manipulated the Vessel of God into battle, Di Nufeng would guard the deck for her.

Di Nufeng had already returned to the deck before the Noble Dharma landed, but how could she possibly stop him from coming aboard?

A massive and mighty golden hand smacked down toward Di Nufeng, yet she didn't step back even half a step. That was because Daoist Yan's cabin was right behind her!

Boom!

Di Nufeng's blazing wings collided with the Noble Dharma's terrifyingly powerful hand. This was the very same palm strike that had killed even someone as powerful as Baize.

"Ah Feng!"

At this critical moment, Daoist Yan burst out from behind Di Nufeng. The Heavenly Cloud Ancient Sword unleashed surging tidal waves of sword qi, engulfing the Noble Dharma before his palm strike succeeded.

Nonetheless, the Noble Dharma didn't dodge or retreat. He burst out from the sea of sword qi in a sphere of golden light, and the massive golden hand slammed down onto Daoist Yan.

Wham!

Blood sprayed out from Daoist Yan's mouth as she was hurled through the air, her white robes fluttering in the wind.

"YAN ZI!" Di Nufeng cried out, her eyes wide with shock.

She caught Daoist Yan mid-fall, saving her from crashing into the ground. However, Daoist Yan's breaths were weak, strands of air hardly filling her lungs. She was dying.

The Noble Dharma moved to finish Daoist Yan off, but more legendary artifacts had arrived.

Venerable Wen Yuan activated the Celestial Cosmic Ring, reversed the power of Primordial Chaos, and shifted the Vessel of God to a different location. The Noble Dharma was suddenly alone and exposed in the sky.

At that instant, a beam of swordlight pierced through the sky from afar and struck the Noble Dharma.

Shhhk.

The Noble Dharma's ninth-realm corporeal body had withstood even the Samadhi True Fire without harm, yet this sword strike sent him flying. A hairline crack appeared on his golden light barrier, and his sleeve was sliced open. A line of blood leaked from his wrist.

It was the work of the Imperial Supervisory Commissioner. He had rushed over with the Seven-Star Sword in hand!

The moment he received word about the Noble Dharma's return, the Imperial Supervisory Commissioner had gone to the Celestial King Sect to borrow the Seven-Star Sword from Enlightened Wulou and then hurried over to the battlefield.

However, even the Seven-Star Sword failed to cause significant damage to that devil.

Even as the Noble Dharma looked at the many powerful cultivators and legendary artifacts gathered before him, he remained nonchalant. "You're all here, huh... Perfect."

He was surrounded, yet his calm demeanor made it seem like he alone had surrounded all of them. It was the powerful cultivators of the immortal sects who felt intimidated.

The Noble Dharma's current corporeal body was at the ninth realm. Furthermore, he had refined it through the Great Dao of Primordial Origin, so it was even stronger than the corporeal body that the Demon God had refined through the Great Dao of Devouring. There was pretty much nothing that could inflict the Noble Dharma with a severe injury.

Before fusing with the ninth-realm corporeal body, the Noble Dharma's cultivation level had already rivaled Evil Ksitigarbha's. He was now a matchless force in this world.

Could they truly defeat someone like the Noble Dharma?

In the hush that followed, a helpless and sorrowful wail rang out. "

Hreeooorrh!

"

The Baize youngling ran in like a gust of wind, stopping at the center of the battlefield where golden blood had pooled. It found Baize lying motionless on the ground.

The Baize youngling nudged its mother with its nose, trying to wake her. However, Baize's life force had long faded. It was hopeless.

The Noble Dharma glanced down at the scene, then he sneered and raised his hand.

"YOU DEVIL!!!" someone screamed from the lotus platform. They had figured out what the Noble Dharma was about to do.

Fwoosh.

The Noble Dharma fired a beam of golden light and struck the Baize youngling dead on, giving the newly orphaned celestial beast an explosive death.

"You're all going to die anyway." The Noble Dharma's golden eyes wore a cold and maniacal gaze. "What difference does it make if I kill it a little sooner?"

...