Chapter 475: Dark Schemes Brewing
Banggong Cuo pondered. A-Mu's proposal was indeed sincere, yet also cunning. If Banggong Cuo broke his oath, it would effectively cripple his Soul-Worshipping Sorcery. Should he ever attempt to use it again, he would drop dead on the spot.
With that divine ability nullified, his threat level would plummet. That technique would become a lost art, never to appear in the world again. Banggong Cuo's menace and presence would be greatly diminished.
In truth, the main reason A-Mu could stand against Banggong Cuo, beating him bloody and humiliating him every time, was that the Soul-Worshipping Sorcery had no effect on him. If it were anyone else—even someone one or two realms above A-Mu—they would likely die with a single bow from Banggong Cuo, no exceptions!
Only A-Mu, whose very name was false, could resist Banggong Cuo's ultimate technique, forcing him into direct combat.
"Fine!" Banggong Cuo said readily. "Let us swear before the Ghostly Wu God!"
He immediately performed the Soul-Worshipping Sorcery, manifesting an altar behind him. Upon it, the phantom of the Ghostly Wu God appeared.
The two swore their oaths before the Ghostly Wu God, each scrutinizing the other's words for loopholes. But they quickly found the other's oath was cleverly crafted, leaving few openings—and those that remained were traps!
"Old (little) fox!" they both cursed inwardly.
Banggong Cuo exhaled a turbid breath. "I hid the Ghostly Wu God's physical body at Yang Mountain, the southernmost peak of the Great Ruins. His primordial spirit is sealed at Yin Mountain, the northernmost peak. Go to those two places, and you will find him."
He looked at A-Mu outside the mirror. "Chief A-Mu, it's time to fulfill your promise."
A-Mu probed, "You must have set some seals. Why not tell me about them?"
Banggong Cuo smiled enigmatically. "Chief, our oaths don't cover that. Besides, even if I told you, would you believe me?"
A-Mu laughed heartily. "No, I wouldn't. But remember, I swore not to kill you—that doesn't mean the Yan Kingdom's National Teacher won't."
Banggong Cuo burst into laughter, then suddenly turned into a black shadow, emerging from the mirror and reforming his physical body. "The National Teacher is blocked by the True Heavenly Mother. They're at a critical juncture now, evenly matched."
He circled A-Mu twice, then struck with lethal intent, cackling. "Chief A-Mu, our oath says you must let me go and cannot kill me—but it doesn't say I can't kill you!"
A-Mu's face changed. He retreated rapidly as Banggong Cuo attacked wildly, laughing uproariously, each strike exultant as if washing away past humiliations.
A-Mu struggled to defend himself. Their gap wasn't large, but with the roles reversed, Banggong Cuo gained the upper hand, steadily expanding his advantage. In the end, A-Mu might truly fall to him!
"Great Sage," A-Mu suddenly drew his sword and counterattacked, smiling. "My oath says I won't kill you—but it doesn't say I can't cut off your arms or legs! Rest assured, my medical skills are divine. Even if I amputate up to your neck, I can keep you alive—maybe even graft your head onto a pig!"
Banggong Cuo nearly lost an arm, stumbling back in fury. "You bastard!"
"You bastard!" A-Mu roared. "You hid your own schemes in that oath, waiting to ambush me!"
Banggong Cuo dodged frantically, then slapped his Taotie pouch. A sword case flew out, releasing flying swords that formed the Sixth Chapter of the Dao Sword. Seven golden lotuses bloomed, revealing wonders; the Qing Dynasty rejoiced in abundant grace, ever new!
This was the Dao Sect's Seven Stars Realm sword technique—swords flying like seven stars, stars transforming into lotuses, containing the five elements, absorbing sun and moon, immensely powerful.
A-Mu roared, unleashing the same Sixth Chapter. Their sword techniques clashed, and Banggong Cuo flew backward, diving into the earth. A-Mu charged forward, shouting, "Fatty Long, I'll wound him—you kill him!" He plunged underground.
In the distance, Long Qilin had been watching but never approached. Hearing this, he rushed over frantically. Just as he reached where A-Mu and Banggong Cuo had vanished, the desert exploded over ten miles away. Two figures shot into the sky. Long Qilin was about to go when suddenly both figures flickered with teleportation runes and vanished.
When they reappeared, they were another ten miles away, swords clanging in collision.
"Those two are escape artists—how can I catch up?" Long Qilin groaned. As he tried to pursue, A-Mu and Banggong Cuo vanished again, reappearing with sword light filling the sky, collisions dense, blood raining down.
"Chief, don't go forward!" Long Qilin's face changed dramatically. "Ahead is the battlefield of the National Teacher and the True Heavenly Mother!"
A-Mu chased Banggong Cuo, who was desperate to escape, gritting his teeth as he plunged into the sandstorm. A-Mu followed.
The wind howled, whipping up sand into a terrifying storm. Lightning flashed, and countless grains of sand, like tiny spirit weapons, struck A-Mu's skin, nearly breaking it—painful.
"True Dragon Overlord Body!" A-Mu roared. His recent fusion of the Nine Dragons Emperor Technique and the Overlord Body Three-Dan Technique manifested: energy like dragons coiled around him, blood like dragons surging, muscles like dragons, movements like thunder.
The sand grains bounced off him, barely painful. Light shot from his eyes, evaporating sand before it reached him.
A-Mu looked around. His vision was limited, but Banggong Cuo was nearby. He attacked. Banggong Cuo stood on a large shield covered in turtle patterns, glowing and forming a beautiful turtle-shell barrier around him.
His treasures were beyond imagination. When the National Teacher had destroyed the Golden Palace, Banggong Cuo must have taken many spirit weapons he'd collected or forged over ten thousand years. The turtle-pattern shield was clearly another powerful artifact.
They clashed in the sandstorm. Neither could stabilize themselves in the vicious storm, their bodies tossed by the gale. Even their spirit weapons couldn't fly far without being swept away.
Lightning struck around them repeatedly. Suddenly, a terrifying wave hit them, shaking their bodies violently and sending them flying. It was a spatial fluctuation, stretching and compressing them—sometimes over sixteen feet tall, sometimes only five feet—extremely uncomfortable.
Whoosh—
A massive black sun rolled past them, carrying immense heat that ignited the surrounding sand and wind, turning them into blazing fire tornadoes, ferocious beyond measure.
A-Mu and Banggong Cuo couldn't hold their ground. They were swept into the fire tornadoes, spinning upward. Ding, ding, ding—they exchanged over a hundred sword strikes within the vortex. Then a flat sword slash cut through the tornado, and they spun wildly, unable to stabilize.
Before they could recover, a sand serpent hundreds of feet wide roared deafeningly, lunging at them with open jaws.
A-Mu sprinted; Banggong Cuo tumbled through the air, barely avoiding the colossal serpent. The sound of it burrowing into the earth shook them both, making them spit blood.
The True Heavenly Mother and the Yan Kingdom's National Teacher were fighting too fiercely. Even the residual waves from these two gods' divine abilities were storms they couldn't withstand. They might be buried in the sandstorm at any moment.
Banggong Cuo dodged the serpent and fled the storm. But then, earth-shaking footsteps came. A-Mu and Banggong Cuo froze. A continent moving through the desert appeared beside them, distorting space into rippling waves.
Space was normally invisible, but now, crushed by the Sun Ship, its fluctuations were visible!
"Run—!" Banggong Cuo screamed, but his voice was swallowed by the storm.
A-Mu ran, but even with the Cripple's Heaven-Stealing Divine Leg technique, he couldn't move fast in this wind—it was too strong.
A fierce divine might slammed into them, making them spit blood. Neither A-Mu's True Dragon Overlord Body nor Banggong Cuo's turtle shield could withstand it.
They were already at the peak of the Seven Stars Realm, a step away from the Heavenly Being Realm. But the divine might from the storm was too overwhelming.
Thud, thud.
A-Mu was pressed against one of the Sun Ship's legs, unable to move. His face wrinkled from the wind. Spatial fluctuations suddenly stretched him to over twenty feet long. His head felt thin and pointed; his vision warped.
Next to him, Banggong Cuo was also stretched like a noodle, stuck to the Sun Ship's leg.
Finally, the wave passed. The wind subsided. Their bodies snapped back. A-Mu spun his sword, hacking along the leg toward Banggong Cuo.
Banggong Cuo stood on his turtle shell, parrying, then grunted as A-Mu sliced off half his leg.
Boom—
Another wave from the Sun Ship burst outward, flinging them away, compressing them into spheres.
Then A-Mu saw a sword light cut through the sandstorm. The National Teacher, amid the terrifying fluctuations, stepped onto the Sun Ship. His sword split the True Heavenly Mother's head between the four pillars. But she smiled cruelly. A massive black sun rolled toward the National Teacher from behind.
That black sun crushed almost everything on the Sun Ship, tumbling off the back, flipping the colossal vessel, rolling it, lifting it—long before it settled.
A-Mu was hurled by the terrifying storm. The wind raged, devouring more of the flaming desert. Even Long Qilin was swept up, struggling weakly a few times before resigning to fate, letting the storm carry him away.