Chapter Ninety-Five: Dark Power

The Magic Serpent King knew that, with Yi Tian’s ghostlike movements, his Yuanfa techniques would have a hard time striking him.

So he drew out the low-grade magical treasure, the Autumn Frost Sword.

Boom!

The Magic Serpent King slashed at Yi Tian, and a dreadful sword qi of icy coldness swept toward him like the hand of death.

Slash!

Yi Tian used the Godshift secret art to blink more than two hundred yards away, narrowly escaping that strike. But the instant he reappeared, the Magic Serpent King’s next attack came sweeping in once more.

All Yi Tian could do was keep teleporting.

With the low-grade magical treasure in hand, the Magic Serpent King could unleash sword qi hundreds or even thousands of yards long in an instant, its speed terrifying beyond measure. Again and again, Yi Tian had no choice but to rely on Godshift to evade the attacks, unable even to mount a counterattack for the moment.

Every blow from a foe wielding a low-grade magical treasure was incomparably fierce and fearsome.

With Yi Tian’s current cultivation, he could not possibly withstand the might of a magical treasure unleashed by a Yuanfa-stage expert.

Then, all at once, a Dragon Roar Bow appeared in Yi Tian’s hands.

The Sun-Shooting Heavenly Art surged madly. A brilliant shaft of light streaked across the sky and, with a thunderous crash, collided with the sword qi hurled by the Magic Serpent King. After the sword qi shattered the arrow, the remaining force was halted for an instant, and Yi Tian easily evaded it.

This time, Yi Tian had used the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Art and barely managed to withstand the Magic Serpent King’s attack. He was no longer so wretchedly on the defensive, and had at last gained a sliver of power to oppose him head-on.

In an instant, the sky and earth erupted once more in the fierce battle between the Magic Serpent King and Yi Tian.

Sword qi of unmatched cold brilliance sliced through the air in all directions, while shafts of arrow light kept colliding in the sky, bursting into dazzling radiance. Even though the sword qi was capable of cutting through anything, each successive arrow blunted its power dramatically, and what remained of the force was no real threat to Yi Tian.

Still, every use of the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Art placed a heavy burden on him. Each arrow consumed a vast amount of true essence.

Even though the space within his dantian could hold a sea of true essence, it could not be squandered for long.

“What!”

The Magic Serpent King grew more and more astonished.

He had never expected Yi Tian to unleash such a formidable archery art at the critical moment, repeatedly blocking the attacks of his magical treasure.

The Magic Serpent King’s killing intent soared. Sword in hand, he pressed forward again and again. The Autumn Frost Sword split apart one arrow after another, as he tried to force close combat. With the sword’s razor-sharp edge, nothing could obstruct its peerless锋芒.

But of course, Yi Tian would not let him come close.

He kept retreating.

At the same time, Yi Tian felt a trace of regret. If the bow in his hands were a magical treasure, then under the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Art, he might even have been able to slay the Magic Serpent King with a single arrow. But the Dragon Roar Bow in his possession was only a top-grade spiritual bow, its power limited. It could threaten only Human Realm experts, and if he were to unleash the true might of the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Art with Human Realm cultivation, the Dragon Roar Bow would never be able to bear it.

Moreover, the arrows in his hands were merely armor-piercing arrows, unable even to break through the aura defenses of a Human Realm expert. Only with the amplification of the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Art could they barely contend with the Magic Serpent King’s Autumn Frost Sword.

Unable to take down Yi Tian in a short time, the Magic Serpent King grew anxious as well.

Every time he drove the Autumn Frost Sword, it consumed a considerable amount of true essence. If this dragged on, he feared even he would not be able to sustain it.

At present, neither side could annihilate the other with overwhelming force. They were locked in a deadlock, and whichever one’s true essence ran dry would be the one to fall.

At that moment, both sides found themselves in a difficult position.

Yi Tian refused to fight the Magic Serpent King head-on, and this made the latter extremely furious. If not for Yi Tian’s slipperiness, he would have long since cut him down.

Since it was hard to kill Yi Tian in the moment, a cruel glint suddenly flashed in the Magic Serpent King’s frosty eyes.

He abandoned Yi Tian outright and turned back toward Lu Family Fort.

Yi Tian’s expression changed.

He instantly understood the Magic Serpent King’s intention.

Clearly, since he could not take Yi Tian down at once, the man intended to slaughter the people in Lu Family Fort, as well as the members of the Rebirth Squad, forcing Yi Tian to rescue them and compelling him into a direct confrontation.

“What a vicious scheme!”

Yi Tian could not help but gain a deeper understanding of the Magic Serpent King’s character.

“If you want a fight, then I’ll give you one!”

Yi Tian used Godshift several times in succession and appeared directly in front of the Magic Serpent King, blocking his path.

The next moment, Yi Tian’s consciousness descended into the starclay avatar and entered the star within the three-headed hellhound.

Roar!

In an instant, the starclay avatar blazed with dazzling light, and a three-headed hellhound several dozen yards tall appeared before Yi Tian’s eyes.

The Magic Serpent King stared in shock at everything before him.

It was all far too astonishing. An unknown ferocious beast had suddenly appeared in front of him, and a terrifying aura of danger surged in all directions. It had already locked onto his position.

“Kill!”

Though startled, the Magic Serpent King’s killing intent erupted immediately after that. The Autumn Frost Sword shone with blinding radiance, and with a heaven-shaking roar, a monstrous sword beam slashed toward the three-headed hellhound.

Roar!

The three-headed hellhound inhaled, and in an instant that sword beam was torn to pieces and swallowed into its enormous maw.

Then the dark head in the center suddenly spat out a streak of black radiance, like an unrivaled war spear that could slay gods. It crashed through heaven and earth in a single blast and appeared before the Magic Serpent King in an instant.

The Magic Serpent King had a dreadful feeling that even if he fled to the ends of the earth, this strike would still hit him.

Even by substituting a clone, he would not be able to escape this attack.

“Slash!”

The Magic Serpent King drove the Autumn Frost Sword to its limit and struck directly.

Boom!

That black radiance swallowed both the Autumn Frost Sword and the Magic Serpent King whole.

“Aaah...”

A scream rang out, then stopped abruptly.

The three-headed hellhound vanished, and Yi Tian’s figure reappeared in midair.

By now, the Magic Serpent King had been utterly consumed by the power of the dark head. Yi Tian picked up the Autumn Frost Sword after it fell to the ground, only to discover that the low-grade magical treasure had already been corroded by the power of darkness. It had lost all spirituality, as though it had rotted away for hundreds of years.

Hiss!

Yi Tian could not help but be shocked by the terrifying power of the three-headed hellhound’s dark head.

This was the first time he had taken the form of the three-headed hellhound and unleashed the power of the dark head. The darkness was simply too powerful, too terrifying; it could even corrode a magical treasure into scrap iron.

Before, although Yi Tian could transform into the three-headed hellhound, using either the dark head or the head of death consumed an appalling amount of energy, far more than he could afford to sustain.

Only the head of devouring used relatively little by comparison. Its power lay in swallowing, and the energy it devoured and refined could make up for the vast majority of the three-headed hellhound’s energy consumption.

That was precisely why Yi Tian had always relied on the head of devouring in the past.

Among the three heads of the three-headed hellhound, the weakest in offensive power was the head of devouring. Yi Tian had not been confident that he could swallow a Yuanfa-stage expert like the Magic Serpent King. With the slightest misstep, the opponent could have slipped away.

Thus, whenever Yi Tian transformed into the three-headed hellhound, he struck with his full strength from the very beginning.

After dealing with the Magic Serpent King, Yi Tian immediately rushed toward Lu Family Fort.

The battle between Yi Tian and the Magic Serpent King had taken place more than fifteen miles away from Lu Family Fort, which showed just how fierce the fighting had been.

By the time Yi Tian returned to Lu Family Fort, the battle was nearly over.

With people like Yi Feng and the others from the Rebirth Squad holding the line, those bandits and criminals who had come without the Magic Serpent King were destined to fail.

Still, the assault by tens of thousands of bandits and villains had brought heavy losses to Lu Family Fort, with the dead and wounded numbering well over ten thousand.

“Let’s go.”

Yi Tian then took his leave of the chief of Lu Family Fort together with Yi Feng, Yi Shan, and the others.

With the Magic Serpent King gone, Lu Family Fort was at least safe for the time being. Yi Tian and the others declined the fort’s gifts and soared into the air, heading for Eagle-Beak Heaven Peak.

Eagle-Beak Heaven Peak was already in sight.

The group traveled across it from end to end. Though the bandits stationed at Eagle-Beak Heaven Peak discovered them, by the time they went to report to the various bandit chiefs and those chiefs finally appeared, Yi Tian and the others had already crossed the entire mountain.

The great bandit chiefs of Eagle-Beak Heaven Peak did not give chase. Thus, Yi Tian and the others left the territory of Eagle-Beak Heaven Peak unharmed.