The real Kao Dao Ji stared at her.
"YOU!" He roared.
"Do you think I am stupid? It was you, wasn't it? All of you. All of fucking you, be it Crimson Soul, Fang Yuan, and you, you are all my enemies.
I know of the powers of Star Constellation, and I know you have been plotting to get rid of us for a long time, so do not try to play innocent with me.
Even if you torture me to death, I will never reveal anything to you!"
The real Kao Dao Ji shouted; others may have actually believed that Heavenly Court had nothing to do with it, but based on what he had seen from the memories of the thief and based on his own experiences, he was absolutely certain about Heaven's Will's true nature.
Thunder Ghost True Monarch stared at him; her expression rapidly changed, turning into one of disinterest.
She knew the chances of persuading him were rather low, but there was another purpose.
Star Constellation had arranged a Dream Path Tribulation not only for Le Tu but also to confirm her suspicions.
Her doubts dissipated completely as she witnessed Kao Dao Ji completely unbothered before his so-called inner demon.
She had informed the people of Heavenly Court of this information; thus, she was perfectly aware of the two sides of him.
By saying those words, and revealing the death of so many people Kao Dao Ji cared about. She wanted to decrease the probability of the two sides cooperating, which was very crucial at this turning point, especially because she was not allowed to kill them.
…
Crimson Soul raised his arm towards Blue Lead Immortal, grasping his hand towards his chest.
The heart of Blue Lead Immortal trembled; it seemed to be about to come out of his ribcage.
And as this passed, his ribs bent and distorted, several of his bones cracked.
Turning outwards.
Whilst a protuberance in the shape of his heart could be seen clearly.
But before his heart could fully be taken.
A golden stream of light appeared; the force vanished without a trace.
But his bent ribs only stretched even more, creating a 'scissor.'
At that short distance, Crimson Soul was unable to dodge completely.
One of his legs was taken, yet just as it was sent flying outside his body, it healed perfectly in a single instant.
At the next moment.
The people of Heavenly Court opened another gap in the formation, whilst King Crimson unleashed another black beam towards Blue Lead Immortal.
The two were forced to retreat and also were forced to make use of their trump cards over and over again.
[Man as before, Man as before, Man as before] [Fate armor, Fate armor]
This fight seemed to have no end in sight, yet this was far from the truth.
Every activation of Fate Armor and Man as Before took a decent amount of essence, and while they could endure dozens and perhaps hundreds of activations.
They could not sustain it forever.
Under the intensity of the battle, they could not afford not to use them.
Blue Lead Immortal was outclassed in a direct confrontation.
But he had his own tricks. Blue Lead gas continuously accumulated, poisoning the body of Crimson Soul more and more, every passing second.
The most insidious part was that the gas adhered itself to several parts of the body, including bones and the brain. Even several crucial metabolic processes were disrupted by the lead.
Due to its odd nature, ordinary healing methods could not cleanse the lead; only Man as Before could do so.
Thus, even if Crimson Soul were not to be wounded once, he would still be forced to activate Man as Before sporadically.
This was a battle of endurance.
…
Or so it seemed on the surface.
Amidst the bloodshed, Crimson Soul secretly analyzed his environment.
"No…The distance between the two of us is too close. He may be able to interrupt it, and I may be caught in the aftermath." He muttered.
Another exchange began.
The two sides collided with their punches and were sent flying.
"Now? No…We are too far from the barrier. It will not be as effective if I do it like this…" He thought as the two exchanged blows with one another.
Changing the colors of heaven and earth with every blow.
In every exchange.
He was coldly calculating.
Until the hundredth or so exchange.
His eyes gleamed with a strange shine.
A seemingly plain crimson orb was rapidly condensed in his hands.
Which was shot at a tremendous speed towards Blue Lead Immortal.
Blue Lead Immortal casually raised one of his arms to block. This move, which was not enhanced by Cicada, could not threaten him in any------
His pupils suddenly contracted.
He finally realized that at the very center of the Crimson Orb, a tiny Cicada was resting by.
Its body was sealed by countless of spider webs, forcefully keeping it trapped.
Crimson Soul smirked.
"Goodbye Blue Lead…"
Finally, at that moment.
The concealed Gu Worm began to expand.
Its body rapidly grew in size in the blink of an eye.
And the Spring Autumn Cicada, which was trapped in the orb, could only open its mouth to scream.
From that mouth, a green olive beam was shot.
Blue Lead Immortal's pupils shrank; instinctively, he activated Fate Armor.
But his armor was like wet paper.
His stomach and one of his arms were pierced through.
And the beam kept advancing forward, reaching towards the barrier.
And as it finally reached it.
It exploded.
The Immortals of Heavenly Court reinforced the barrier as much as they could; they all gritted their teeth as there was no time to avoid.
And yet.
The Heavens were set alight.
…
Some mortals who were staring at the skies widened their eyes.
For a moment, a green star appeared in the heavens.
Thunder Ghost True Monarch widened her eyes, whilst she herself could sustain the move.
From this distance, the aperture of Kao Dao Ji would no doubt be ripped to pieces.
So she had no other choice but to use a Rank 6 Immortal Killer Move to block.
If she, from that distance, had to endure such a massive force.
What a great force had the others have to endure?
…
Those who were close to the range of the explosion did not even have the chance to scream; their body exploded into nothing.
Those farther from the explosion felt a wide range of sensations; some rapidly began to age.
Some saw their arms or legs shrinking. Their left and right side going in opposite directions.
Whilst time was commonly uniform inside the whole body, the overwhelming Time Qi surging was so intense that their bodies went at different times flow.
Their hearts were beating 10,000 per minute, their cerebellum was in overdrive, whilst the prefrontal cortex was at a halt.
Pieces of their soul began to wither. Whilst their apertures became a huge mess.
And on top of that, they also had to endure the backlash of their barriers shattering down.
Needless to say, most died in the spot, and others struggled in agony for a couple of seconds before dying with a whimper.
Only a few were able to preserve their lives, and even that seemed temporary.
Only those on the opposite side were able to escape the range of the explosion, even then.
They all suffered an immense backlash as the barrier exploded.
Of course.
Unleashing such a devastating force also had a huge cost.
Spring Autumn Cicada's body looked completely different from before.
Its body was utterly drained of strength. And seemed on the verge of death. Continuously withering. And its body was shivering.
Crimson Soul stretched his palm towards it.
He clenched his fist, and the Gu was squashed down like a bug.
"Goodbye, Red Lotus…" As he pressed his hand on the Gu, the body of Spring Autumn Cicada finally lost any strength to continue, its torn apart body began to fade into white particles of dust.
As if to show that the Autumn had turned into cold Winter.
Unlike any of his previous moves, this was a genuine Rank 9 Immortal Killer Move, or at least infinitely close to one.
The cost? Spring Autumn Cicada as well as a Rank 9 Time Path Material.
The sudden action and decisiveness of Crimson Soul seemed perplexing.
Even if he wanted to explode Autumn Cicada, it seemed utterly odd that he would trigger it at such an odd time.
With a Rank 9 Immortal Gu, surely, he could have accomplished more than killing three-fifths of the Immortals of Heavenly Court and heavily wounding the rest.
Had he been more patient, he could have killed everyone at the spot.
Crimson Soul chuckled.
"But precisely because it was done at such a random time. That nobody was able to figure out my intentions until it was too late…"
"Whatever great plans Red Lotus had arranged, they are now irrelevant. I won."
He stared at the heavily wounded Immortals from Heavenly Court.
Who stared at him with wariness.
Despite their wounds and fear, they were all elite of the elite.
They were ready to fight to the death, no matter what.
Even as King Crimson hovered even closer to him and he seemed ready to charge towards them, they did not budge an inch.
Still.
He was not the only one who had ended up intact.
All of Crimson Soul's subordinates had not been affected in the slightest by the Killer Move as they were in a safe spot.
"Hui Gui Yu..." Crimson Soul suddenly called, Hui Gui Yu who was among this group looked bewildered.
Why was he asking them to get close now of all the times?
Still, they could not defy the orders of their leader and so they approached.
Whereas the people of Heavenly Court dared not to get close to Crimson Soul in case this was a trap.
As Hui Gui Yu finally reached Crimson Soul's side...
They were grabbed by the throat.
Then.
Crimson Soul stared vividly at the group of members of Heavenly Court before chuckling and flickering.
But even though he had been staring at them, he flickered in the opposite direction.
Just a kilometer away from Thunder Ghost True Monarch.
Thunder Ghost True Monarch raised her eyebrows in utter bewilderment; she never predicted that instead of going against the wounded Immortals, he would go towards her.
Instinctively, she let go of Kao Dao Ji and the others and prepared for a fight.
However-
King Crimson struck suddenly, and she was sent flying away; whilst not killed in one blow, she was sent very far away.
Then he turned his gaze towards Kao Dao Ji and the others.
"Kao Dao Ji…He was Fated to become a Rank 8; one of the consciousnesses inhabiting his body had a deep affection towards his Clan and no doubt harbors a great hatred right now.
Whilst with my current ability, elevating him to Rank 8 is impossible, as I no longer possess Spring Autumn Cicada. Future Self can still elevate him to the peak of Rank 7."
Whereas.
Hui Gui Yu.
"My original plan was to wait until Hui Gui Yu matured fully, with their resentment towards the world. Once they reached Rank 7, they would have made for the perfect refinement material of Black Soul.
But as the circumstances changed, so did my plans..."
Either of those materials would have been sufficient to refine a Black Soul, but for his greater purposes, they seemed utterly lacking.
"Especially now that their state is only imaginary…With materials that do not actually exist, refining the Immortal Gu would be freakishly difficult; even if I succeed by a miracle, the Gu will be hollow.
And will automatically explode in a few moments.
However. If the right technique is employed, and during the period of refinement, a Rank 9 Time Path Material is added. The gaps can easily be filled, and the refinement becomes trivially easy. As the 'hollowness' of the materials make it easier to work with them, and in the latter stages it can be forcefully filled by the rank 9 material."
He smirked.
Such a profound refinement method, that used materials that didn't actually exist yet.
Could never have been grasped by him, but the dutiful Red Lotus had given him the full method some time ago.
As well as several Rank 9 Time Path Materials.
All he had to do was to make use of them, as well as the current environment filled with Soul Qi (due to the high number of Rank 8 who died), to refine Tainted Black Soul Gu whilst King Crimson protected him from the side.
From the other side, Kao Dao Ji's pupils shrank as he saw Crimson Soul's gaze.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! What the fuck do I do now? I am not even in control of this body anymore…
Shit! Even if I did, what can I do now? Spectral Soul only taught me a couple of Cloud-Strength Dual Killer Moves and a method to target the Spring Autumn cicada.
Also, what about the prophecy?
Cicada will stir its wings and burrow within the shell.
Bullshit! Spring Autumn Cicada is gone!"
However, Le Tu, who was still inside Kao Dao Ji's Aperture, witnessed the flickering expression of Kao Dao Ji.
Both the actual owner of the body and he seemed to have different expressions. One side of his face looked utterly furious and hateful.
The other looked fearful and anxious.
Le Tu suddenly had a realization.
With the little time he still had.
He activated Dreaming Gu.
Both sides of Kao Dao Ji turned their gazes as Le Tu randomly activated the Gu.
While the real Kao Dao Ji believed this to be useless, he did not wish to give up, so he cooperated.
'Union' Gu activated in succession.
They adhered themselves to the effect of the Gu, and yet-
As the effect of the Gu reached their minds, it had a completely different effect than before.
The contradicting thoughts of both minds, the raw hatred the original consciousness of Kao Dao Ji had for the thief who had put him in this position.
Perhaps this and other factors influenced the result, but their dream looked far more chaotic than before.
Several bubbles appeared, like those of a volcano, as the dream itself seemed to melt.
And this was just the beginning.
As their shared dream reached its peak, Kao Dao Ji regained control over his body.
He manipulated his aperture.
A singular 'needle' was shot towards Crimson Soul.
Crimson Soul raised his eyes in mild surprise at the audacity, but his surprise grew even more.
As he saw the exotic, bubbly particles of the Dream Realm, and the absurd speed of the attack.
Using his newly acquired Strength Dao Marks, the speed at which he could send those 'needles' increased massively.
Crimson Soul nimbly avoided it, yet.
The body of Hui Gui Yu began to resonate.
As 'Dreaming' and 'Union' Gu acted in unison, the twin souls of Hui Gui Yu seemed to respond in resonance to the twin souls of Kao Dao Ji.
Thus, even without hitting him directly, the dream aurora began to shine brightly, threatening to trap him in the dream realm.
Crimson Soul did not know this, yet he still, with his attainment of Soul Path, realized the source.
So, he had no other choice but to let go of Hui Gui Yu and retreat!
Before a Rank 6 Killer Move, he actually had no other choice but to stare as the Dream Realm began to take shape before his very eyes.
For the three bodies to escape,the five minds must unite —share their dream and escape the blight.