When he opened his eyes, Di Tanxue found himself floating in the air a distance away from where he was seated.
There was no need for Di Tanxue to look down to know that the clothes above his chest had been torn to shreds leaving it bare naked.
The culprit behind it, Old Man Wang, stood in his original position with an outstretched palm.
"Eh? You dodged it!"
The old man looked up at Di Tanxue with surprise and some embarrassment.
"Cough… Young man, to roam the living world so courageously with no fear of being sniffed out by the three Hegemons;
I truly admire your bravery!"
Old Man Wang cleared his throat and gave Di Tanxue a compliment while turning his outstretched palm into a thumbs-up gesture.
"Come, come let's have another drink;"
The old man beckoned with a smile as he brought out a new bottle of wine.
No sooner had those words escaped his mouth, he disappeared and arrived next to Di Tanxue using the bottle as a weapon to hit his head.
Unfortunately for him, his attack missed its mark by a slight margin which in turn gave Di Tanxue enough time to create a safe distance away from the old man.
Old Man Wang's second attack also ended in failure.
As for the first, it was a few moments ago when Old Man Wang had taken advantage of Di Tanxue's momentary distraction to launch a surprise attack which sadly went off course and instead of harming Di Tanxue, only tore off a part of his clothes.
To miss an attack at such a close distance, for a brief instance Old Man Wang had even doubted his own state of mind wondering whether he had unknowingly gotten drunk.
But now that even his second had missed, he was sure that it was Di Tanxue's little tricks that seemed to be affecting him somehow.
'Heh, Let's see just how much longer can you dodge;'
Once, twice, thrice and many times more. The old man's barrage of attacks continued in an unstoppable fashion. Fists, palms, kicks, weapons and long-ranged spells; everything was used yet to no avail.
At the crucial moments it was either the old man's attacks would go off-course slightly or his body would inexplicably stiffen, all resulting in Di Tanxue surviving those attacks smoothly.
"Heh… heh… heh;"
Grinding teeth in irritation, the old man began making use of attacks with a wider range of destruction such that even if they missed, would make it so that Di Tanxue suffered some damage.
But that is exactly when the truly maddening thing occurred!
The wide range attacks did not miss their trajectory and he saw them hit the target, Di Tanxue right in the centre but the target remained standing in his place completely unscathed and the expected explosions and shower of attacks manifested far away from them deeper within the forest!
Old Man Wang silently watched a gigantic mushroom of explosion rising to the sky in the distance with a complex expression. Just now he had sensed every change that took place…. This world, it was the Crimson Echo itself that moved the point of impact away from Di Tanxue.
If the world itself was not cooperating with him, just what could he achieve?
Standing still with a confused mind, he could feel Di Tanxue's bored gaze piercing with a single question; is that it? Are you done yet?
"No, I'm not!"
Seemingly enraged beyond what words could describe, the old man made one last move of desperation.
Domain. An ability that one learnt at seventh stage and truly made it their own at ninth stage of Mortal Transcendence realm.
Old Man Wang as someone with a naturally developed anchor of his own was obviously in the ninth stage and just half a step away from the Sprouting Radiance realm.
His domain unfolded itself out of his body and shrouded an area close to five miles with him at the centre.
The previously moonless sky was now adorned with a beautiful full moon that enveloped the aforementioned five miles range with its ethereal light.
This spectacle of beauty which was capable of bringing a smile on one's face however hid a grave danger. Wherever and whoever the moonlight touched was forced to experience an immense pressure weighing down on them.
All the bugs, rodents and beasts within the range were crushed to a pulp almost instantly. The trees and rocks held on for a moment longer but were soon ground to dust leaving behind a barren wasteland.
In the centre of this wasteland, Di Tanxue himself was also close to the point of collapse and appeared incapable of offering any resistance which left Old Man Wang pleasantly surprised.
He did not understand why Di Tanxue seemed to have become so feeble all of sudden neither did he try to. As long as he could take advantage of this opportunity to defeat him, that's all that mattered.
Operating his anchor to intensify the pressure while he himself made preparation of another round of attacks with a hearty laughter.
"Hahaha, young man, it seems like I win- eh?!"
Boom!
Crash!
A moment. Just a single moment was all it took for the moon in the sky along with the whole of Old Man Wang's domain to break down and collapse completely.
Feeling his body ache with intense pain, the old man could not remain standing and was forced to lay flat on the ground.
He could vividly feel his anchor slowly disintegrating out of existence which filled him with both spiritual and physical torment.
Decades of cultivation, all gone to waste.
Di Tanxue on the other hand let out a sigh of relief and calmed himself down. He had gotten truly close to death just now.
While he did have ways to ensure his survival, it was never not heart-pounding to get so close to death. If he had wanted he could've easily extricated himself from the old man's domain but it would've only further extended his confrontation with the old man.
Not to mention, it was the first time Di Tanxue witnessed a domain being used offensively which left him somewhat fascinated and with an urge to emulate it.
For a denizen of Crimson Echo, a cultivator's domain was something they were intimately aware of. The cities and various settlements they lived in were all named 'domains' as they were literally just that after all.
Hence it was Di Tanxue's apprehension with continuing his fight with the old man along with an urge to somehow emulate a domain that resulted in his delayed response to the old man's domain.
In the end however, Di Tanxue was left disappointed with the results. As he was just a second stage Mortal Transcendence cultivator, it was impossible for him to cast a domain that could last for longer than a single moment.
All he had was a moment to counterattack against the old man which he used to utterly crush his domain and extend some of its power to incapacitate the old man.
In that moment, Old Man Wang too had reacted quickly and instantaneously erected a plethora of defenses. Unfortunately, they proved to be ineffective as Di Tanxue's attack bypassed his physical body directly and instead targeted his anchor, crushing it to dust.
Letting out another breath with a complex expression, Di Tanxue approached Old Man Wang.
A second stage cultivator had managed to defeat a ninth stage cultivator yet there was no joy on his face. To have achieved such an impossible feat, Di Tanxue himself knew the precarious situation he was in.
This formidable might, it was this very power that could so easily defeat a ninth stage cultivator that Di Tanxue might soon have to contest with for the ownership of his own body.
Eyeing the old man for any tricks, Di Tanxue ensured that he'd truly given up and only then did he rummage through his body taking away his spatial storage bag and everything else of value.
Once done, Di Tanxue remained still for a moment and suddenly burst into action dismembering the old man's four limbs along with his head apart from the torso.
This was the main reason why he had approached Old Man Wang in this forest, it might seem like an attempt to kill him but no, instead Di Tanxue was just confirming a guess of his.
He did not have to wait for long to notice his four limbs and torso sneakily expel a moat of golden light each. Seemingly afraid of being captured by Di Tanxue, those moats of light rushed towards Old Man Wang's dismembered head but alas.
They could not escape Di Tanxue's grasp.
"Threads of destiny… what else did I expect?"
He commented looking at the five golden threads in his right hand. They were all extremely fine in thickness and just an inch long, making it easy for Di Tanxue to store them away.
Once done, Di Tanxue gave the old man's dismembered head a deep look and turned around, walking away in the same leisurely pace he had arrived. Just a few steps away, he seemed to remember something and asked, turning around.
"Old man, what was your wish? Why choose to become a parasite?"