Chapter 580: A Historical Relic
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When the Gate of Dao’s people saw the demon with human body but had a snake tail that could only be seen on classical illustrations and rock paintings appearing in front of them, with its long body rising in a heavenly manner and its bright star-like eyes staring down at them, most of them could not help but be seized with fear at once. Horror and fear began to creep on their faces.
Upon seeing this, Lu Tiandao, who had been remaining calm, snarled loudly, “This human-headed demon is only the transformation technique used by the ancient witchcraft’s successor to save himself. He has been seriously injured, so he’s just putting up air to gather his energy and make a strike to turn the situation around in a pretentious attempt. Don’t let his pretense catch you. Kill! Kill! Kill…”
After she shouted out the reminder, the other Taoist priests around her began to look clearly at the monster that had a human upper body but with the lower body of a snake that was crawling up from the heaven pit while stretching its body. Its body had countless fine wounds; there was also a bloodied trace at the corners of its mouth. It was clear that it was already heavily injured.
When these Gate of Dao’s people recalled how such a wrecked manner of their enemy still could grip them with fear, they could not help but feel ashamed.
“Senior Sister Lu is correct! That scoundrel has used some unknown demonic spell to transform into a monster and is now trying to mystify himself deliberately. Don’t worry about it, everybody. Just hurl your spells and charge at him!” An old Taoist who snapped back to reality even exclaimed out loud with a completely flushed face. He flew to the sky and gestured with both of his hands to squeeze out real fire from his Dantian. Opening his mouth, he sprayed the fire at the monster.
“This shot of fire is your ten years of arduous hard work! Since both of us who call ourselves as ‘true brothers’ has already reached the age of 60, and you have chosen to go all out with your old life, I will also keep you company to the end…” when a handsome Taoist with short beard beside the fire-spurting old man saw him casting his ultimate killing tactic, he smiled elegantly and shook his body. At once, tens of thousands of green light shot out of his 365 orifices.
When those green light shone to the ground, they turned into seeds, and at once, countless elegant bamboos were produced and instantly grew to a hundred meter tall. They spurted out of the ground in unison and transformed into an endless bamboo sword torrent in the sky that stabbed straight towards the enemy.
Looking down at the Gate of Dao’s disciples who had gone all out to hurl out their ultimate tactics, Zhang Lisheng smiled calmly and muttered coldly, “Water, come.”
In an instant, the sea that was shackled initially by the Three Killing Tactic began to rose to a substantial billowing wave. Water vapor filled the air above the island and condensed thick water streams in the sky to drown the Dao spells that covered the sky. After that, like a milky way hanging upside down, they gushed onto the young man.
Relying on the infinite water power, Zhang Lisheng swam and rose to the sky. When he left the ground, he brought with him countless of soil to wrap around his body along with the rolling water. At once, the thousands of wounds on his body disappeared without a trace.
The power demonstrated by the enemy repeatedly surpassed the imagination of the Gate of Dao’s disciples.
When the Taoists witnessed the ancient witchcraft’s successor transform into a snake monster and effortlessly escaped from the Three Killing Tactic in the one of the Taoist Classics—the ‘Hidden Talisman Classic’—and the Binding Spell cast from human immortal’s foundation, to how he healed his body that was covered with wounds in just a blink of an eye, they could not help but be horrified.
Those who were in a daze muttered, “W-What is this? W-What should we do…”
Those who were bewildered muttered, “H-How can the power of ancient witchcraft be so powerful? N-No! There must be some secrets! There must be some secrets…”
Those who were not afraid of death muttered, “Good move, you scoundrel! My life is worth it even if I die in the hands of the true seed passed down from the Ancient Goddess Nuwa today!”
However, they did not know that Zhang Lisheng, who was swimming in the heavenly river above, was exhausted too.
At first, before the young man set foot on the road into becoming a god with the help of the opportunity of becoming a Grand Wizard, just the formation that four to five Taoist priests setup was already enough to kill him.
Now, in this topographical and human conditions that were ten times more unfavorable to him, he first exhausted eight Taoists meditating in the Heaven Gate to death. He also forced a Taoist master whose strength was only under a human immortal to pay a heavy price and choose a dying method hundred times more terrible than death by having his body and soul shatter just to cast a forbidden spell. This finally forced the person who had the most chance in making a breakthrough to the human immortal in the Gate of Dao in a hundred years to cripple her own foundation.
Other than this, he had even killed half of the several dozens of elite disciples besieging him. Compared to the results of these two battles, it was clear that his strength had not only doubled in this short span of just several hundred days. Instead, it had increased by tens, or even hundreds, of times.
However, the stronger the power was, the more the accumulation of deep foundations was needed. Although Zhang Lisheng had already liberated his mind and had left the scope of godhood, it had only been ten years since he started to become a wizard, so the word ‘accumulation’ was not even applicable to him. If this had taken place in the Shrimp World No. 2, he would have been able to mobilize the power of faith easily, and it would have been easy for him to kill the remaining ambushers.
However, in Yingzhou, where the Gate of Dao’s ancient sage transformed as their cultivation place, Zhang Lisheng, who had exhausted all energy in his body, was facing a life-and-death crisis.
On both sky and ground, both parties of god and the Taoist priests were feeling apprehensive now. One to two Taoists who were unafraid of death charged upward to the sky in their lonesome. The young man, who was pretending to be at ease but was using the entirety of his might, in turn, killed them. Thus, both parties fell into a stalemate.
“I’m afraid this scoundrel is starting to have the intention to play us slowly to death like how a cat would play with rats, but this is an opportunity for us. I’ll restore my power for the time being, and later on, Junior Brother Song, Junior Sister Jinqiu, and I will do our best to keep him busy here in Yingzhou. Lianbao, Qingyu, the two of you will take the opportunity to leave this paradise and activate the Three Relation Talisman and summon all Taoists within the vicinity of ten thousands of miles to come. Tell them that the ancient witchcraft’s successor has almost cultivated the True Goddess Nuwa, so no matter how big the price we have to pay, we must kill him today…” Looking up at the snake demon flying leisurely in the sky, Lu Tiandao suddenly transmitted her voice calmly.
Looking and studying her expression, Duan Lianbao could already guess that this aunt who had loved her since when he was young no longer had the desire to survive. At once, his body trembled as he said, “No! I won’t go! I will never leave! Auntie, I’ve already fled last time! I’ve already fled last time, so I won’t do it again this time…”
“Shut up! Don’t call me Auntie when we’re taking down a demon! The matter of killing the ancient witchcraft’s successor now concerns the calamity of the Gate of Dao, so how can you have the audacity to doubt? Don’t tell me that you’re starting to belittle me too now that you have obtained the inheritance of the deity and god!? Hurry up and focus on gathering energy to restore your power!” Lu Tiandao snarled without so much as turning her head to interrupt Duan Lianbao’s words.
Upon seeing her so, Duan Lianbao gritted his lip until it bled but did not dare to say any more words. The other Taoists, on the other hand, felt that an ill-boding battle would soon take place, so if they could restore more of their strength, they would stand a higher chance of surviving. Therefore, they began to gather energy to recover too.
However, when they tried to do so, the Taoists felt horrified to realize that the spiritual energy around the island had reduced. Thus, the recovery speed of their power had also become 70 to 80% slower. At once, somebody began to whisper in shock, “W-What is going on? Could it be that the ancient witchcraft’s successor can even shackle immortal spiritual energy? Even a sage is not as omnipotent as that since the power attributes differed, so a witchcraft ancestor can’t have this ability, right?”
When this voice of suspicion stopped speaking, an old Taoist with long shoulder-length hair of half black and half white tied loosely behind him who gave off a bookish aura placed his fingertips together and suddenly exclaimed in surprise, “Don’t panic, everybody! Who knows, this may be a good thing…”
“How is having the spiritual energy disappearing by half a good thing?” A fat Taoist with most of his dopo robe ripped off, revealing his thick chest, blurted out.
“It’s energy conservation. This spiritual energy is also an energy, so how can it possibly disappear for no reason all of a sudden?” The Taoist with half black and half white hair explained through his voice transmission mysteriously. “Besides, Yingzhou paradise is the place of reclusion for our Gate of Dao’s saint since ancient times, and that time, the Gate of Witchcraft was not weak at all. So, to obtain serenity, how could the island not possibly have any defensive formation…”
“Gasp…” The fat Taoist gasped and said in surprise, “You mean…”
As he was speaking, the gleaming sky above the paradise island lit densely with thousands of stars
Ground veins and ridges began to bulge out from the ground. The scene was identical to when the perished skinny old man cast the Three Killing Tactic just now, but it was a hundred times more powerful and dynamic now.
“Hahaha, as expected! As expected, this is really the so-called gift left behind by the immortals. Haha… This ancient witchcraft’s successor is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime, rare talent that is hard to come by in tens of thousands of years for being able to trace his bloodline to obtain his ancestral wizard’s phenomenon now. Unfortunately, he’s arrogant and thought that he’s unrivaled. To think that he dares to play tricks and swagger around this place where ancient sages of Gate of Dao cultivated. Look, now that he has activated the formation the saints left behind, it’ll be impossible for him to escape his death now!” When the old Taoist with long white and black hair saw the phenomenon, he shouted wantonly.
In his overjoyed shouts, a faint, ancient-sounding chanting echoed in between the sky and earth, “When Heavens commits murder, the stars pulled out of the sky; when the earth commits murder, the dragons walk the planet; when human commits murder, the natural way is reversed. When Heaven and Earth unite, ten thousand things will settle…”
Accompanied by the incantations in ‘Hidden Talisman Classic,’ the thousands of stars in the sky gradually dimmed; only 10% of them were emitting a more and more bright light.
The starlights shone down on Zhang Lisheng, who transformed into a human-snake figure in the clouds and could not dodge at all. Without warning, they suddenly intertwined into translucent chains that shackled him firmly.
At the same time, most of the criss-cross network of earth veins on the island had slowly calmed down, and several dozens of them transformed into a dragon-snake figure that soared up into the sky with their heads raised high to sink their teeth onto Zhang Lisheng’s body.
His scales were torn apart, causing him to be drenched wet with blood and flesh. Shackled by the light chain, it did not take long for the young man who was attacked by the formation left behind by the ancient immortals to become seriously injured. He struggled with all his might with angry howls, but his blood still dripped down like raindrops.
When the Gate of Dao’s disciples saw the enemy’s blood showering down like rain, they felt at ease right away. A happy and relaxed expression could be seen on each of their faces.
However, as they were looking at each other happily with pleasure in their heart, they suddenly heard a thunderous roar that resounded across the sky. The snake monster that was trapped in the cloud had its tail upright as it stood up in the clouds. With both of its hands, it used its entire might to pull the light chains and stabbed them into the sky. With a rip, it distorted the space and made a crack in the air.