Chapter 303: Utterly Terrifying Powers of One at the Airborne Realm
The level shown was far above that of one at the Celestial Realm.
His level of cultivation was such that he was far from being a weakling among those at the Celestial Realm, and there was hardly anybody from the Celestial Realm capable of putting so much pressure on him.
Only someone above the Celestial Realm, such as someone at the legendary Airborne Realm, could have done so.
Before that day, he only saw one at Airborne Realm—Lu Xuan. He did speculate that there were perhaps of Airborne Realm beings out there.
However, he never saw any others before that.
Yet, at that moment, there was one right before his eyes. Someone capable of flying in the sky—one of the trademark abilities of on in Airborne Realm.
The muscles all over his body tensed up. His powers were locked and loaded, ready to be unleashed.
He felt himself taking on some terrifying beast.
“If you’re not one, what are you doing yapping about all that!” The crone said coldly, “Tell him to come out and meet his doom!”
Duan Shan wore a serious experience and finally realized that the crone before him had anything but goodwill.
She definitely came specifically for Lu Xuan.
He felt the woman behind that crone to be a very familiar face as well, and he suddenly remembered who that woman really was. Isn’t that the damned remnant of the Luo Clan we were hunting, Luo Ying? he thought.
Lu Xuan himself did not bother with that woman. Divine dragons in the sky had no business being petty with ants on the ground, after all.
But then again, Lu Xuan’s subordinates did not share such generous sentiments.
Be it Yang Chengsi or Zhang Hongyang, both definitely held a grudge.
Yang Chengsi had sent men out searching for Luo Ying’s whereabouts in secret when he was still the boss of the Coalition of the Woods in Min Province.
He just failed to get a hold of her, that was all.
After Lu Xuan established the Heavenly Palace, both Yang Chengsi and Zhang Hongyang became two of the 12 military governors. The two of them were of a higher status than the others.
Everyone knew that everyone else among the 12 was assigned from other places, and every single one of the 12 was someone of fearsome background.
Lu Xuan was a genius like no other, and he had great ambitions, so he did not care about any of that. For anybody who managed to accomplish orders he gave, he would gladly pile rewards upon them. That was just how generous he was.
However, the others thought otherwise. It was also apparent that there were factions among the 12, divided according to their original statuses and backgrounds.
Yang Chengsi and Zhang Hongyang, due to where they came from, naturally became the two military governors of the highest status, as they were Lu Xuan’s men in the truest sense.
All the others were people strategically recruited by Lu Xuan, and those two were the only servants that Lu Xuan truly trusted.
As such, both of them naturally followed every order from Lu Xuan to the letter. They went about scouring any piece of intelligence regarding Luo Ying’s whereabouts on the very first day the Heavenly Palace was established.
Duan Shan learned of that as well but hardly paid any heed to it. He did not understand why the two of them would be so strung up over a weakling of a woman.
He finally realized that both of them had been doing the right thing. The proof was right before him. The lapse in judgment caused Luo Ying to bring someone of extremely fearsome powers.
Not tying up loose ends was a surefire way of attracting future troubles.
“The Palace Lord is unavailable now. If you insist on seeing him, I’m afraid you’d be disappointed,” Duan Shan replied.
“I hear that this is Lu Xuan’s lair, and you all are his people in the inner circle. In that case, I’ll just have to kill all you, and that should draw him out,” the crone held the snakehead staff in her hand as she commented coldly.
What she said caused everyone in the base to shudder; it felt as if they had just fallen into an icy cave.
It was especially so with the representatives of other forces; they looked even glummer.
Unfortunately, all of them were in the base at the moment, which meant that they were all within the range of attack from the crone.
None of them would have been so alarmed if the intruder were to only be someone of the Celestial Realm.
A Celestial Realm being who dared to intrude the Heavenly Palace base would essentially be asking to get killed.
However, that crone was of the legendary Airborne Realm.
The concept of Airborne Realm had once been something far away in their minds; however, as Lu Xuan went about showcasing his overwhelming combat capacity, the concept became increasingly real.
There was only one thought that everyone shared at that moment—run.
While it seemed as if a long time passed, it was all but a single moment. The crone attacked right there and then.
She swung that snakehead staff of hers, and a beam of brilliant light flashed in midair. The beam transformed into a huge snake immediately, launching itself in Duan Shan’s direction shortly afterward.
While it looked to just be a beam of light conjured by Spiritual Qi, the power it packed was more terrifying than common high-grade cold weapons.
Duan Shan did not hesitate. He roared, growing his height to over two meters, becoming a tiny giant.
His powers became noticeably more powerful after activating his lineage of the giants when compared to his status just a month ago.
Boom!
Duan Shan threw a punch right away, filling the sky with the force of his punch, clashing hard with that huge snake.
Boom!
Duan Shan was already clearly at a disadvantage after the clash. He was sent flying without being able to last for even a second, crashing hard to the ground like a kite with its string snapped.
Pfftt!
Duan Shan rolled around on the ground and spewed blood. He was seriously injured. He felt that several ribs of his were broken.
He felt himself getting increasingly dazed.
So, this is how terrifying beings at Airborne Realm is then?
Duan Shan recalled the time Lu Xuan sparred with all of them, and he deduced that his master had probably hardly used one percent of his latent powers, so much so that the sparring was simply considered to be a game on Lu Xuan’s part.
The power difference between the Celestial Realm and the Airborne Realm was that between heaven and earth. Just any single move from someone at the Airborne Realm was more than enough to incapacitate someone at the Celestial Realm. Worse still, what happened right there resulted from Duan Shan activating his special abilities, which strengthened his constitution. It gave his body toughness that was far beyond that of the usual Celestial Realm beings.
He would have probably ended up killed right there and then otherwise.
All of the representatives from the other cultivation forces were frightened to the core from what they saw.
Duan Shan was incapacitated with one move.
He, at the moment, was no longer some nameless punk that he had been a month ago. All 12 military governors of the Heavenly Palace had become far more powerful than they had ever been before.
The growth was so frightening that all of them became widely known figures.
It was especially so in the case of Duan Shan, who had even defeated several Celestial Realm beings who resisted arrest, enabling him to come to serious fame. While he had not been making the breakthrough for long, he nonetheless became known to be among the strongest of those at Celestial Realm.
All of that served only to show just how terrifying that crone was.
Many gasped when they realized that.
Duan Shan lost all combat capacity right there and then, from just taking one single move.
Pfftt!
He spewed blood yet again, holding in the intense pain inside, and shouted, “Activate the barrier and notify the military.”
The crone muttered, “huh,” under her breath. While she never used anywhere near her full powers with that attack, she was still confused about how a mere Celestial Realm being managed to survive her attack.
An impossibly huge barrier was erected right above the Heavenly Palace at that moment, enveloping the entire place.
The crone reacted with lightning speed, bringing her snakehead staff down hard yet again.
However, that snakehead staff, which seemed to gave her every advantage she needed, did not manage to break that barrier. The barrier rippled from the attack, yet it managed to stay intact.