Bai Xiaochun had returned right into the middle of a tense situation. The matter with the Giant Ghost King had occurred without any warning, and if matters had been left only to the clone he left behind, then it was impossible to say what could have happened.
Thankfully, Bai Xiaochun had finally finished several important tasks. Bai Hao had been resurrected, Song Que was showing signs of waking up, and Bai Xiaochun’s cultivation base was now in the Archaean Realm.
His fight with the old ghost woman, and his regular sparring sessions with his two archaean slaves, had pushed his battle prowess to the point where he was now much more confident than before.
If his enemy were not the Vile-Emperor, Bai Xiaochun would have simply attacked like lightning, crushed him, and taken the Giant Ghost King back. But he had learned years ago that this Vile-Emperor was an imposter, and considering what he had learned from the memories of the Worldly Daoist, he had long since come to a conclusion about the matter.
“This imposter Vile-Emperor definitely has something to do with the Mortal Renegade, Devil Imperator!” As Bai Xiaochun whistled through the air, his eyes were narrowed with thought, but soon, they would be bursting with killing intent!
It didn’t matter what techniques the Vile-Emperor had up his sleeve, Bai Xiaochun knew that at this moment, he had no other choice than to fight. Otherwise, the Giant Ghost King would be in peril. And besides, the Vile-Emperor would never stop probing him.
Bai Xiaochun remembered how, back when his children had been born, the Vile-Emperor had given him a gift in the form of some sovereign blood, encased in a black stone. The sense of danger he had experienced from that stone had enraged him back then, but he had been forced to do nothing.
Now, new grudges piled on top of old ones, causing his killing intent to grow even stronger. Rumbling sounds echoed around him as he left Arch-Emperor Dynasty territory and entered the lands of the Vile-Emperor Dynasty. Considering the speed he was capable of, it didn’t take long before he saw an enormous trident rising up into the sky ahead of him, around which was wrapped a bone dragon! On the skull of that dragon was none other than the imperial palace!
“Vile-Emperor!!” he growled, his voice echoing like heavenly thunder.
Everything shook in response to his words, and all of the cultivators in Vile-Emperor City, even the celestials, looked up in shock.
“It’s the Arch-Emperor!!” Everyone in the city knew that the Vile-Emperor had taken the Giant Ghost King captive, and were also aware of his Dharmic decree, demanding that the Arch-Emperor Bai Xiaochun come to free his subordinate. Although some of them were slightly worried about what might happen, most of them were excited, and were convinced that Bai Xiaochun was no match for their Vile-Emperor.
After all, it was only by teaming up with the Saint-Emperor that Bai Xiaochun had managed to fight the Vile-Emperor to a standstill years before.
This time, the Vile-Emperor had dared to take the initiative, and therefore, everyone assumed that he was well prepared. However, all such confidence began to crumble as soon as people heard Bai Xiaochun’s booming voice.
As the city trembled physically, black smoke erupted from a certain location within the imperial palace, rising up into the sky to take the shape of a huge face.
“Bai Xiaochun!” the face said, its voice thrumming with an awe-inspiring force that was the perfect countermeasure to Bai Xiaochun.
Anyone else would have been forced to slow down, but not Bai Xiaochun. Eyes flashing with cold light, he said, “Where’d you get guts like that, Vile-Emperor? If you want to back out on our agreement, fine, but how dare you kidnap my father-in-law!”
He waved his hand, and instantly, eight beams of Archaean Luminescence appeared up above and shot toward the Vile-Emperor’s projected face.
They didn’t mince words. Bai Xiaochun had come to fight, a fact which was revealed by how he instantly called on his Archaean Luminescence. In response, the Vile-Emperor’s eyes shone with mysterious light, and a snide smile appeared on his face.
“Is that the only thing you can do, Bai Xiaochun?” The enormous face distorted as nine bright lights appeared within the smoke. Closer inspection revealed that the lights were nine huge crystals, which sent tendrils out to connect to each other, quickly becoming an enormous black mirror.
The mirror formed almost as soon as the Archaean Luminescence arrived. However, the booming explosion everyone anticipated didn’t occur. Strangely, the mirror acted like a mass of sludge, which simply swallowed up the Archaean Luminescence!!
“If that’s all you’ve got,” the Vile-Emperor said coolly, “then… I have to say I'm very disappointed.” He strode out from his palace and floated up into the air, coming to a stop in front of the crystal mirror, his archaean aura raging.
Of course, a big cheer could be heard from within Vile-Emperor City, and numerous cultivators stepped forward and clasped hands in greeting.
Bai Xiaochun didn’t say anything in response to seeing the mirror formed from nine crystals. Waving his right hand, he summoned ten more beams of Archaean Luminescence, all of which shot directly toward the Vile-Emperor.
“That won’t work,” the Vile-Emperor said, keeping his hands clasped behind his back, a faint smile visible on his face. “I already created the perfect counter to your Archaean Luminescence. You won’t be able to break my Vile Imperial Crystals!” The illusory mirror suddenly shot forward, passing through him to block all of the shots of Archaean Luminescence.
Rumbling booms could be heard as the Archaean Luminescence faded away, with the mirror remaining behind, seemingly undamaged.
“That’s almost twenty, Bai Xiaochun. Do you have any more shots left? I'm very curious to see how many you have in total!” The Vile-Emperor still had not removed his hands from behind his back, and his smile continued to radiate scorn.
Because this Vile-Emperor was connected to the Mortal Renegade in some way, Bai Xiaochun knew that no matter how much he wanted to fight him, he had to be careful. Therefore, he kept his cultivation base well-concealed, making it seem to the Vile-Emperor that he was still a celestial.
Not even the Vile-Emperor’s taunts could get him to reveal his true cultivation base. Besides, he had plenty of trump cards to call upon, so unless the Vile-Emperor truly attacked him with force, he would not draw upon the full level of his battle prowess.
“You wanna see? Fine. I’ll show you how many shots I have!” Chuckling, he performed an incantation gesture with his right hand and then waved his finger, causing the sky to tremble as more than fifty beams of light appeared!!
Everyone in Vile-Emperor City was shocked by that, and began to cry out in alarm.
“So many!!”
“Heavens! Wasn’t everyone saying that the Arch-Emperor only had about twenty shots of his Archaean Luminescence?!?!”
In contrast, the Vile-Emperor didn’t seem to be alarmed. Although he was surprised, he was still confident, and simply watched as the fifty beams of Archaean Luminescence shot toward his black mirror. Intense rumbling sounds could then be heard as the light was absorbed by the mirror, which still seemed just as tough and durable as before.
The Vile-Emperor burst out laughing. “So, that’s your limit, huh. Well, you--”
However, before he could say anything else, Bai Xiaochun waved his hand again. This time… a hundred beams of light appeared up above!!
It was such a shocking scene that even the Vile-Emperor’s eyes went wide, and his mind began to spin. And yet, before anyone could wrap their minds around what was happening, Bai Xiaochun performed another incantation gesture, causing another group of more than one hundred beams to appear!!
In total, there were now 267 beams! And if anyone had been closely counting how many shots he had already used, they would realize that it was a total of 361!!
That was exactly how many playing spots existed on the Go board on the boat in the fan face, and was the true limit of the divine ability. Right now, nearly three hundred beams of Archaean Luminescence were causing all heaven and earth to tremble!! [1]
“Impossible!!” the Vile-Emperor breathed, visibly shaken. It wasn’t just him. In the Saint-Emperor Dynasty, the Saint-Emperor was watching the battle play out, and was also completely taken aback.
“You said you wanted to see how much I could do at once, right Vile-Emperor?!” Waving both hands out in front of him, Bai Xiaochun sent nearly three hundred shots of Archaean Luminescence toward the Vile-Emperor like a rain of bright light!
The Vile-Emperor’s eyes were completely bloodshot as his black mirror began to expand to its full limit. It did everything in its power to hold firm as one beam of light after another pierced into it. However, it didn’t matter how durable and tough the mirror was; it simply couldn’t stand up to so much Archaean Luminescence, and soon, cracks were spreading out over its surface.
After it blocked about eighty percent of the incoming shots of Archaean Luminescence, it couldn’t hold on any longer, and shattered into countless fragments. As for the nine Vile Imperial Crystals that the Vile-Emperor had toiled so hard to make, and had even used his own life force to forge, they were all destroyed!
As that happened, a deafening boom erupted out, shaking nearly half of the Eternal Immortal Domains!!
It almost looked like doomsday had arrived as a massive shockwave rolled out across the lands, toppling mountains, smashing the lands, and even threatening to cleave apart the sky!
1. A standard Go board consists of a 19x19 grid of lines that creates 361 points