The Tiankui Divine General fixed his eyes on Xue Tanglang’s hands.
In them lay a terrifying energy that could freeze all things. Not only was its nature bitterly cold in itself — Xue Tanglang had also fused into it the Sovereign Intent he had comprehended. Even though he had not fully grown yet, a Sovereign Intent as immovable as a mountain was something the Tiankui Divine General did not dare take lightly. If this ice-cold young man struck him while he was unprepared, the battle would likely turn a full hundred and eighty degrees on the spot.
He drew in a breath, then let it out in a shout — a roar so low and deep it could overpower the whole Succubus valley, like muffled thunder bursting underground.
All the golden light drew inward, and in an instant the Tiankui Divine General’s body turned into a dazzling comet that lit up heaven and earth. Silver light spewed out behind it in a long comet’s tail as it shot up into the sky, unstoppable.
When the comet reached the limit of the sky, it reversed in an instant, bringing with it a “Return” that seemed able to drag every star in the sky down with it.
“Shatter!” Beneath that suffocating Comet Return overhead, Ye Kong charged out first, both fists thrusting upward like an erupting volcano, meeting the Tiankui Divine General’s Comet Return head-on without giving an inch — forcing his fragile human body of flesh and blood against the Tiankui Divine General’s impact. Ye Kong had long since been through battle after bloody battle on the edge of death, and he had a wealth of experience. The moment his opponent leaped into the air, he understood how serious this kind of attack would be once it played out. When a power of the Tiankui Divine General’s level made his move and it was not an immediate killing blow, but instead opened up distance and used the time that bought him to build speed without limit, that proved this was the most terrifying kind of big move. The longer it went, the more power it built up, and once this Comet Return finally crashed into the ground, surely no one could survive the full blast.
It was like throwing an egg at a rock.
Ye Kong, leaping upward, was struck by the unstoppable Comet Return.
In less than a thousandth of a second he was flung back down, falling to earth ten times faster than he had leaped up.
A huge chunk of the ground vanished without a sound.
Only then did the shock wave burst out, a sphere swelling violently outward and shattering the space around it. A second later, a mushroom cloud rose over the place where Ye Kong had fallen. The block had failed. With his present strength, Ye Kong had no way of stopping the Tiankui Divine General’s Comet Return. Throwing himself at it like an egg against a rock had done nothing but make the Tiankui Divine General pause in midair for a moment.
But right after Ye Kong, two more figures leaped into the air at the same time, perfectly in sync, and threw their bodies of flesh and blood against the falling “comet” just the same.
They too were hurled back, as everyone expected, following Ye Kong down. And yet the Tiankui Divine General, at the core of the Comet Return, felt a ripple in his mind he had not expected.
“Freezing Storm!” A huge tornado burst from beneath Xue Tanglang’s feet and carried him rushing up at the comet, which had now stalled twice in midair. In that storm that froze all things, the plunging Comet Return, unbelievably, began to slow. The heaven and earth of the Succubus valley seemed sealed in ice. The Sovereign Intent Xue Tanglang had comprehended at the Gate of Life and Death seemed able to freeze even space and time.
“There is a great gap between ideals and reality. Sacrifice and friendship do not always equal success. Strength is everything!” As the Comet Return grew slower and slower, and just as the Freezing Storm was about to seal it completely in ice, the Tiankui Divine General burst out of the comet’s light from its core with a whoosh.
He leaned half his body out and swung both arms like meteors. His fists shattered everything — even Xue Tanglang’s Sovereign Intent was broken by them — and they slammed straight into Xue Tanglang’s chest and belly.
There was no wound on the surface of Xue Tanglang’s body. But behind him, the ground erupted in an explosion ten times more terrifying than the impacts when Ye Kong and the Liqie brothers had been hurled back. The shock wave swept the earth, instantly shaking the little rocky hill below to powder, and bit two deep gouges out of the ground like the Heavenly Dog devouring the moon, a hundred meters deep, the bottoms barely visible.
The light in his eyes vanished in an instant, and emptiness and annihilation filled them.
His body slowly fell toward the ground, both arms hanging limp.
Only as he fell did the blood begin to well from the corner of his mouth…
One move — and the super-genius whose strength in the team was second only to Yue Yang’s had been killed on the spot. And that was even after Ye Kong and the Liqie brothers had sacrificed themselves first; he still had not escaped this end.
“No!” Tianra Prince hurled himself forward like a madman, turning his whole body into a meteor of heavenly fire, ready to take the enemy down with him as he rammed the Tiankui Divine General in the sky.
“Boys, listen to me. Whatever little tricks you want to play, you will not play them in front of me!” The Tiankui Divine General reached out one hand, seized Tianra Prince by the throat and held him up in midair.
Tianra Prince, who had meant to die taking the enemy with him, could not even struggle, let alone blow himself up. Only in that moment did he understand the gap between himself and his enemy.
From the sky, a shadow as huge as a mountain came down and smashed hard onto the top of the Tiankui Divine General’s head. At the same moment he was struck, the sky suddenly turned into a sea, and a vast whirlpool swallowed the whole comet that the Tiankui Divine General’s energy had become.
A pair of slender, jade-white hands reached out of the void and stabbed like daggers at the Tiankui Divine General’s eyes.
Under attack, the Tiankui Divine General let a faint smile rise at the corner of his mouth.
He ducked his head.
The mountainous shadow coming down on his back sent its gigantic fist brushing past his cheek, impossibly, and slamming down on Tianra Prince instead. And the jade-white hands stabbing at his eyes like little daggers were caught by the comet’s pull, sped up, and drove hard into the mountainous shadow — very nearly running that huge shadow clean through, front to back…
A golden fist appeared before his eyes in an instant.
Within a ten-thousandth of a second it became hundreds and thousands of pillars of light, all of them striking the utterly unprepared Tiankui Divine General.
This blow was the real killing strike. Everything before it — Ye Kong, the Liqie brothers, Xue Tanglang and Tianra Prince, and even the jade-white hands and the shadow that came after — had been a cover. For this final success, they had been willing to sacrifice their own lives.
It was an attack like a solar storm — and a sneak attack at that. By the time the Tiankui Divine General reacted, it was already too late.
“Die!” The Tiankui Divine General heard a familiar voice roar in his ear, and then his whole comet-like body was drowned in a blast like a solar storm…
The solar storm swept across heaven and earth. For a long time, the order of space could not return to normal, and heaven and earth alike lost their color under that blow.
When all the light had faded, the one standing at the center was the Tianyue Divine General, who had gone missing before.
It was he who had struck that fatal blow just now and brought down the invincible Tiankui Divine General…
What — what on earth is going on? Wasn’t he Ye Kong’s and Sea Fatty’s enemy? How did he end up working with Xue Tanglang and the others to ambush the Tiankui Divine General?
“Monkey, Coffin Face, don’t you die! This great young master got beaten that badly and didn’t kick the bucket — and you two are going to die from a few little wounds like that? You’re not allowed to die! I won’t allow you to die!” The huge, ugly shadow climbed out of the ground and dug frantically at the dirt and sand around it, trying to dig out Ye Kong and Xue Tanglang, who had just been killed luring the enemy in, and bring them back to life.
The owner of the slender jade-white hands was the Wind-Breath Seabird. She held Tianra Prince up and found a deep hole punched through his chest.
That was the Tiankui Divine General’s last blow. It should have landed on the Wind-Breath Seabird, but Tianra Prince had taken it in her place and traded his life for hers. And even if he had not taken that fatal blow, he had also been hit full force by Sea Fatty in his beast form, with most of his bones shattered and his organs badly injured. He could hardly have survived.
“They didn’t die for nothing. Killing Tiankui is the beginning of our success.” The Tianyue Divine General gritted his teeth. “We’re leaving right now. Dongfang will discover my betrayal any moment. If you keep dithering, their sacrifice will be wasted! For the final victory, sacrifice is inevitable. This is only the beginning. In the battles to come, maybe it’ll be us who are sacrificed…”
“Why didn’t you come out and attack sooner? It was you — you got Monkey and the others killed!” The beast-form Sea Fatty grabbed the Tianyue Divine General by the collar and roared, out of control with rage.
“Without their sacrifice — without them luring him in — do you think my strength alone could have killed Tiankui? He’s second only to Ziwei among the Divine Generals, more than ten times stronger than that Solar Divine General you beat! If I didn’t have my ‘Uproot’ talent, in a straight fight I couldn’t have lasted three of his moves! Calm down. If you keep this up, they really will have died for nothing! While there’s still time, we have to keep going — until that Ziwei Divine General has been ambushed and badly wounded too. Only then can we lend even the smallest scrap of help to this brutal battle that Yue Titan is turning around…” The calm Tianyue Divine General suddenly lost control of himself. He knocked the beast-form Sea Fatty down with one punch and roared back in fury, “Do you know how big a risk I took to work with you? I’m gambling my own life and my whole clan’s lives on this! The odds of success aren’t even one in ten thousand, and I still chose to throw in with you! Can you understand what I’ve given up? Do you know what happens to me if I fail? Not just me — my whole family, my kin, tens of thousands of my clansmen and hundreds of thousands of vassals under me will all die with no place to be buried!”
“I don’t care! Monkey and the others didn’t have to die! That wasn’t the plan! It was you — you changed the plan on purpose and got them killed!” Tears of blood streamed from the beast-form Sea Fatty’s eyes.
“You think I wanted this? I had to be one hundred percent sure before I struck. Cut the grass without pulling up the roots, and we couldn’t even beat one Tiankui — so how would we ever turn the tables on Dongfang? You think I didn’t want to strike? Without certainty, all it would do is waste their sacrifice! Do you understand? You damned idiot of a young master — your whole life has gone smoothly, you’ve never had the slightest setback. Do you think victory comes without paying any price? Before, you had Yue Titan. He’s gone now. You have to learn to stand on your own two feet. It’s only you now. Do you want them to die with their eyes open? Is crying all you can do?” The Tianyue Divine General kicked the beast-form Sea Fatty away.
“A fine plan — but you picked the wrong target to assassinate.” The Tiankui Divine General, who had been killed, suddenly appeared behind the Tianyue Divine General, without a scratch on him.
The moment he appeared, the Tianyue Divine General very nearly came apart.
The beast-form Sea Fatty and the Wind-Breath Seabird wore looks of despair too.
He’s too strong! This Tiankui Divine General really is ten times stronger than that arrogant Solar Divine General. After all that — after the fatal blow the Tianyue Divine General unleashed with his Uproot talent — he’s still without a scratch. This — this is too hopeless…
“No — impossible! This is an illusion Dongfang has put on me. Otherwise it could never happen!” Cold sweat poured down the Tianyue Divine General’s forehead.
“Hahaha! Tianyue, the moment you disappeared, I knew what little trick you were up to. Well, well — you actually meant to rebel? How insane! A loyal Divine General conspiring with the enemy in the middle of battle and betraying his lord! I would really like to know what drove you to such rebellious thoughts. Even if I cannot quite approve, I have to admire your courage. Rebelling against Grand Hall Master Dongfang — Tianyue, you are without a doubt the bravest warrior in the history of the Central Divine Hall!” The Tiankui Divine General reached out and laid a hand on the Tianyue Divine General’s shoulder, and the Tianyue Divine General could not even dodge. With that one hand, he was pressed down to his knees on the ground.
The Tiankui Divine General raised his right hand high. “Go ahead, say it. When you’re done, I will send you on your way. In recognition of your courage, I will not report it. I will let you have the honor of dying loyal on the battlefield! How merciful of me. What can I do? Who told me to be the friend who admires you most?”
Struggling was useless. The Tianyue Divine General suddenly gritted his teeth, seized with both hands the left hand the Tiankui Divine General had pressed on his shoulder, and at the same moment roared, “Sea Fatty, have you lost your mind? You’re still not leaving? Are you waiting for everyone to die here? I’m already done for. You damned fatty, get lost right now… If you’re lucky enough to live to see the moment Yue Titan wins, please look after my family for me. I’ve never asked anyone for anything in my whole life. I’m asking you now. Go! I don’t want to die for nothing. Go — don’t let me die here for nothing!”
“No! I’m not leaving! I can’t leave! I’ll just die here with you! Monkey and the others are dead anyway — I don’t want to live either!” The beast-form Sea Fatty did not retreat but charged forward instead, which nearly made the Tianyue Divine General cough up blood from sheer fury on the spot.
It was the Wind-Breath Seabird who stayed calm. She was ready to seize him by force and carry him away.
But no one expected what came next.
The Tiankui Divine General brushed his right hand lightly through the air. Space shattered, and the bodies of Ye Kong, Xue Tanglang, Tianra Prince and the Liqie brothers all came tumbling out. None of them was dead. They had only been sealed inside ice sculptures by some special ice power. The corpses that had appeared before turned into blocks of ice and, under the Tiankui Divine General’s divine power, slowly melted and flowed back into his body.
“You were wiped out to the last man, not one of you left. Never mind that I had more than enough ability and time to catch you — even without it, I could have killed you all in a single move. The few of you think you can play tricks in front of me? The moment that Xue Tanglang made his feint with that burst of aura, I knew what your scheme was, so I just went along with it and played my part… Tianyue, I do not mean to deny your courage, but you are still too green. Rebelling against Grand Hall Master Dongfang — hahaha, even an old bone like me would not dare dream of it. You really are reckless!” The Tiankui Divine General suddenly drew his hand back, kicked the back of the Tianyue Divine General’s leg and sent him flying more than ten meters away, and then all at once threw back his head and roared with laughter.
“?” Sea Fatty and the Tianyue Divine General stared at each other, dumbfounded.
What is going on with this Tiankui?
Why isn’t he killing us all of a sudden?
Only the Wind-Breath Seabird, as clever as she was, had a flash of insight in her eyes. She grasped some possibility, and joy spread across her face. For a moment her tears came pouring out, more than she could ever wipe away…
“Rebellion — something this interesting and this promising — how could I not want a share of it! You should know that long ago, before the Prison Emperor’s bloody war six thousand years ago, I already had thoughts like this. I just never had the chance to act on them. This time I’ve made up my mind to go a little crazy too. Hahaha! Surprised, aren’t you? Look — with me on your side, you finally have a chance of succeeding. Otherwise, with that little bit of strength of yours, you think you could rebel? Turn the tables? What a joke!” The Tiankui Divine General’s words left the Tianyue Divine General completely dumbstruck. No way. The one who really wanted to rebel was actually Tiankui — the most loyal of them all?
(End of Chapter 1280)