The Vile-Emperor was initially suspicious of what was happening, and even the Saint-Emperor thought that it was impossible. As archaeans, they knew how difficult it was to reach the Archaean Realm, some of which pertained to a secret that no other cultivators in the Eternal Immortal Domains were aware of.
It had been many years since both the Vile-Emperor and the Saint-Emperor came to realize that it would be very difficult for another archaean to appear in the Eternal Immortal Domains. After all, in order to become an archaean, one had to gain the approval of the world!
That approval was not merely some nod of the head. It involved acquiring some of the qi flow of the world itself, essentially, taking some of its natural laws. That was the only way to become an archaean!
And thus, both the Vile-Emperor and the Saint-Emperor were suspicious about the situation. Although few others were aware of it, both of them knew that the Eternal Mother was very weak.
Therefore, even if Bai Xiaochun could do things that surpassed the Celestial Realm, neither of the other emperors could believe that he had actually become an archaean. However, there was little time to ponder the situation now, as Bai Xiaochun and the Vile-Emperor began to fight back and forth with complete ferocity.
A boom that surpassed the crash of heavenly thunder rolled out, and the Vile-Emperor staggered backward, blood oozing out of the corners of his mouth, his eyes shining with intense killing intent.
“Sun!!” he shouted. Suddenly, the sky above the Eternal Immortal Domains began to grow dark, as though the light were being sucked away. In the blink of an eye, all of that light appeared above the Vile-Emperor in the form of a bright red sun!
It was huge, and emanated stupefying heat. At the same time, black flames sprang up, connecting with it and making it seem like an extension of the Vile-Emperor himself!
The residents of Vile-Emperor City were trembling in fear, and backing away as quickly as they could. However, many of them were too slow, and were instantly transformed into dried-up corpses by the power of the sun!
Screams rang out everywhere as the black flames and the burning sun were sent directly toward Bai Xiaochun!!
The pressure from this sun vastly surpassed that from the bone dragon; it seemed hot enough to bake the entire world! Eyes flickering, Bai Xiaochun backed up and began to perform an incantation gesture.
“Sutra of Present Life and Death!”
It was the second divine ability from the Time Immemorial Codex!
As he waved his hands out in front of him, an ancient stone gate materialized, bursting with an aura of death. This gate representing dying, and was none other than the Gate of Death!
Simultaneously, another gate appeared behind the sun, a gate that thrummed with life force and vitality. It was… the Gate of Life!
This was Bai Xiaochun’s Sutra of Present Life and Death. He created two gates, one of life and one of death, and as the sun moved away from the Gate of Life and toward Bai Xiaochun, it approached the Gate of Death. That journey represented the passage from life into death!!
The instant Bai Xiaochun’s divine ability appeared, the heaven-shaking, earth-shattering sun began to grow dark. However fast it moved, the effects of death moved faster, and could not be reversed. And since the Vile-Emperor was connected to the sun, he began to age visibly.
Even his brightly glittering eyes began to grow dark!
Everyone present was struck speechless, and as for the Saint-Emperor, he felt like he was going crazy.
“That magical technique… is so domineering!!”
Next, a defiant shout erupted from the Vile-Emperor, who knew that he had only one option to deal with this magical technique.
“Detonate!” he shouted. Instantly, the fading sun exploded, sending out a terrifying shockwave that flattened nearby mountains and killed a large number of Vile-Emperor City residents!
When Bai Xiaochun fought, he did his best to protect the people watching. But the Vile-Emperor didn't care at all about the bystanders. All he wanted to do was hurt Bai Xiaochun, and if that meant killing other people, he didn’t mind!
As the horrific scene played out, Bai Xiaochun flew back at top speed, unleashing the power of his cultivation base to protect himself against the detonation of the sun. Then, he prepared to unleash a counter attack, only to find that the Vile-Emperor was now staring at him with an expression of unswerving determination.
“I don't know how you got this archaean battle prowess, Bai Xiaochun, but I'm going to show you that, without the approval of the world around you… you can never match a true archaean!” The Vile-Emperor then reached down and made a grasping motion in the direction of that astonishing trident!
“Trident of Emperors!!” he growled. In response, the gargantuan trident which was currently stuck into the ground trembled, and then slowly rose up into the air, simultaneously shrinking down to the point where the Vile-Emperor could easily grab it!
In that moment, cultivation base fluctuations rolled out from the Vile-Emperor that surpassed anything in the fight so far. Behind him, a huge vortex sprang into being, which caused all of the Eternal Immortal Domains to tremble as it spun.
“This is over, Bai Xiaochun!” The trident was already emitting black light, and a distinct aura that Bai Xiaochun was already familiar with. It was… the aura of the Mortal Renegade!!
As of this moment, Bai Xiaochun now had no doubts whatsoever: the Vile-Emperor was definitely a clone of the Mortal Renegade!!
He could tell that this trident was the very same magical item that had killed the true Vile-Emperor. Therefore… it was likely an object belonging to the Mortal Renegade. Knowing what he was up against, Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath, and then unleashed every scrap of cultivation base power that he could!
Incredible rumbling echoed out as another huge vortex appeared, this time behind Bai Xiaochun, vying with the Vile-Emperor’s vortex for domination.
In that moment, both parties attacked!
“The Vile-Emperor is putting everything on the line!” the Saint-Emperor thought. With that, he took a step forward and sped in the direction of the battlefield.
Before the Saint-Emperor could arrive, the Vile-Emperor swept his trident through the air, summoning black flames, black lightning bolts, and a black wind, which took the form of a black eye. Locking down on Bai Xiaochun, the eye opened!
That eye focused the power of the trident, sending it piercing through the air in a devastating attack!
The eye seemed to contain the power to exterminate worlds, to eradicate everything in its path. In fact, it caused a sensation of deadly crisis to rise up within Bai Xiaochun.
In that moment of crisis, Bai Xiaochun shouted, “Sutra of Future Pāramitā!!”
Waving his hand, he pulled out… a black stone!
That stone was a chunk of flesh and blood from the huge sovereign up above in the sky, and was the very same gift that the Vile-Emperor had sent upon the birth of Dabao and Xiaoxiao!
By using his Sutra of Future Pāramitā on the stone… he was tying his fate to it, and thus to some extent, to the Mortal Renegade, Devil Imperator!!
Bai Xiaochun was well aware that his cultivation base was not sufficient to do anything to the Mortal Renegade. But he could use this divine ability to connect his fate to that of the Vile-Emperor!
After all, the Vile-Emperor was a clone of the Mortal Renegade; of that much, Bai Xiaochun was certain. And that was the crux of his entire strategy! It was also one of his goals in his previous probing attacks!
Although all of this takes some time to describe, even as Bai Xiaochun used his Sutra of the Future on the stone, the enormous eye closed in. He trembled, grunting as blood sprayed out of his mouth like a fountain, and the Undying Codex went to work, healing him. At the same time, although the enormous Mortal Renegade high above the world did not move, the Vile-Emperor’s face suddenly fell.
“Impossible!” Even as the words left his mouth, a huge mass of blood erupted from his mouth, and he shivered, staggering backward several paces, his chest sunken in as though he had just sustained an unimaginably heavy blow!