Chapter 783: Brahma Blossoms
"Ha... ha... ha..."
Shiyue Mojun finally completed his transformation. Even he himself hadn't expected that a transformation which once took but an instant would now consume such a long time. After transforming, Shiyue Mojun's aura surged, the dark demonic aura swirling around him having thickened a full twofold. But his face did not reveal the complacency or arrogance that came with absolute power; instead, it was filled with even more twisted rage... and hatred.
Because he was not the Shiyue Mojun of a million years ago! This transformation would delay the complete recovery of his life source by at least a thousand years!!
But he could clearly sense... if he hadn't done this, he might truly have died today at Yun Che's hands!
"Now this king can kill you in just ten breaths!!"
"Die!!"
The transformation state caused Shiyue Mojun's power to skyrocket, but the enormous burden made him feel as if he might shatter into pieces at any moment. He didn't waste another instant. With a roar of fury, he soared into the air and charged straight at Yun Che, his speed so terrifying that it shocked Yun Che.
After Shiyue Mojun's transformation, his speed had also increased dramatically! Yun Che instantly judged that Shiyue Mojun's current speed had already surpassed his own limit speed under Phantom Lightning Extreme! This meant that even if this weren't the Slay Moon Demon Cave but an endless open space, he couldn't rely on speed to evade and avoid his onslaught!
The demonic aura surged, eerie winds howled. As Shiyue Mojun sped through the air, sand, stones, and debris were all swept up. The terrifyingly extreme wind pressure carved a deep trench into the extremely tough ground!
Two dark demon claws, wrapped in black light and twice as large as before, shaped like dragon claws, smashed straight down toward Yun Che's crown... Though still a hundred zhang away, they already made Yun Che's entire body stiffen, the ground beneath his feet rapidly sinking.
Yun Che's eyes turned cold. He took a deep breath, and Star God Remnant Shadow flashed him away in an instant.
BOOM—
Shiyue Mojun's two claws violently struck the ground. Instantly, the stone walls several dozen zhang around all shattered. Yun Che, who had flashed away, was also hit in the chest by a surging tide of darkness as vast as an ocean's roar. He let out a muffled groan and tumbled backward.
"Die!!"
Shiyue Mojun's strike had missed, but he instantly locked onto Yun Che's location. His body sprang up like a projectile, his enormous dark shadow completely enveloping Yun Che.
In midair, Yun Che rapidly turned around. His profound energy surged, and phantom images of a Phoenix and Golden Crow appeared behind him simultaneously. An unusual cyan light blazed on his left arm. The giant sword glowing with crimson light swung down horizontally, bearing the divine flames of the Golden Crow and Phoenix.
This was Yun Che, facing the transformed Shiyue Mojun whose power had skyrocketed, still engaging in a straightforward, no-frills head-on collision!!
Boom!!
Darkness and flame instantly interwove into a sea of disaster, mercilessly swallowing everything in the Slay Moon Demon Cave.
Within the sea of disaster, Shiyue Mojun roared, his long hair flying wildly in disarray. He felt his power being blocked and raised his head to laugh... but his laughter only lasted an instant before abruptly stopping. Because he sensed that his power had not, as he had imagined, instantly shattered the fragile obstruction and completely engulfed Yun Che. Instead, it was firmly restrained three zhang in front of Yun Che, unable to advance any further.
"Wh... what!?" Shiyue Mojun's pupils dilated. He sensed that Yun Che's aura hadn't changed, but another aura had suddenly appeared beside him! That aura was roughly only half as strong as Yun Che's, yet together with him, they had forcibly withstood his power!
Shiyue Mojun was enraged. His arms, already covered in bone armor and horrifically thick, swelled further. His claws lashed out like a torrential storm, the terrifying dark demonic power boiling like a tsunami, frantically smashing toward Yun Che, who had nowhere to dodge or escape.
"HAH!!"
Yun Che bellowed, and the Heaven-Defying Demon-Slaying Sword struck with full force. Every swing brought a storm of profound energy capable of destroying heaven and earth. By his side, Arcane Firmament, transformed into a greatsword form, danced together with the Heaven-Defying Demon-Slaying Sword. The two greatsword storms converged, forging an overwhelmingly domineering "Greatsword Domain" that forcibly held back Shiyue Mojun's rampaging dark demonic aura outside the "domain."
"This... this is impossible!!"
Shiyue Mojun's scalp tingled, his pupils constantly dilating. That Yun Che could contend with him earlier had already exceeded his expectations by countless times, and had even forced him to pay a tremendous price to transform into his combat form. He had thought that once he unleashed his full power, he would completely crush Yun Che and control his life and death at will. He never imagined that even after his transformation, his power would be completely blocked by him!!
His power was being released in a frenzy, every strike using his full strength without holding back in the slightest. But after thousands of consecutive strikes, all of them were blasted apart by Yun Che!!
"AHH!!"
Shiyue Mojun's flying hair all stood on end. The blood moon mark on his chest suddenly released a terrifying dark red light. Every demonic pattern on his body also flickered with a chilling blood light.
All the dark demonic aura instantly froze. The world fell into a moment of absolute silence, as if time had suddenly stopped. Then, a roar that seemed to come from the deepest pits of hell burst forth from Shiyue Mojun's body. All the dark aura in the Slay Moon Demon Cave churned wildly, transforming into a massive demon god from the abyss of the nine netherworlds, swallowing the insignificant Yun Che into endless darkness.
"Eternal Night Sinking!!"
Endless darkness pressed in from all directions, devouring light, devouring space, and even devouring his greatsword storm. Perhaps in the next instant, it would completely devour both him and Arcane Firmament.
Yun Che showed no fear. His gaze was icy cold. The flames burning on his body, already at their limit, forcibly rose another notch. He raised both the heavy sword in his hand and the heavy sword formed by Arcane Firmament, releasing two vast, fierce auras capable of making heaven and earth lose their color.
"Annihilation of Heaven and Earth!!"
BOOM!!!
The terrifying roar swallowed all sound in this small world.
The horrific energy explosion spread wildly. Heaven and earth trembled. Even space itself cowered in fear before this terrifying force, emitting mournful cries heralding collapse.
In the next moment, a thousand zhang of void collapsed completely! Before such power, space was as fragile as paper.
Dozens of large and small black holes flashed into existence in that instant, then vanished just as quickly.
At the center of the energy explosion, Yun Che and Shiyue Mojun naturally bore the brunt of the massive impact and recoil.
The two were now separated by a hundred zhang. If not for the extremely tough dark stone walls blocking them, they might have been blasted dozens of li away.
Yun Che leaned against a stone wall and slowly stood up. As he stood, that dark stone wall also collapsed with a rumble.
Streams of blood dripped down from the Heaven-Defying Sword. The terrifyingly immense force just now had been mostly borne by his arms. The tiger's mouths of both hands that gripped the sword were split open. The flesh on his arms was turned inside out, and at least a dozen cracks had been shaken into his arm bones. Yet he felt no pain... The numbness was so severe that his arms had almost completely lost sensation. It was only through sheer will and obsession that he still firmly grasped the million-jin Heaven-Defying Sword.
Arcane Firmament had also vanished, directly dispersed by the force just now—but Arcane Firmament was a power of the bloodline. Even if it were dispersed ten thousand times, it could be released again at any time.
Shiyue Mojun's injuries appeared much lighter. Apart from the sternum that Yun Che had broken earlier, only the bone spurs on his right arm had snapped off, gushing blood.
But that was only the surface. In truth, his condition was far worse than Yun Che's.
When Yun Che released Arcane Firmament, it only increased his profound energy consumption.
But in his transformed state, not only did his consumption double, but his body also had to bear an enormous burden! And he had just been continuously unleashing his full power under this overloaded state—the consequences were predictable.
If Yun Che got closer, he would see that the scales and bone armor on his body's surface were now covered in tiny cracks.
Shiyue Mojun collapsed to the ground, his entire body limp. He couldn't stand up for a long time. His two dark pupils contracted violently, as if in the midst of a nightmare.
"Shiyue Mojun... is this... already... your limit!!"
Yun Che dragged the Heaven-Defying Sword, step by step walking toward Shiyue Mojun. His voice had become somewhat hoarse, his steps exceptionally heavy, and his breathing extremely labored. The earlier use of Arcane Firmament and "Annihilation of Heaven and Earth" had caused him great exhaustion. Coupled with his injured arms and heavily damaged internal organs, his current state was abysmally poor.
But he could tell that Shiyue Mojun was in even worse shape than him! At the very least, although he still maintained his transformed state, his aura had dropped to a level slightly weaker than his own.
Even if his own injuries were ten times worse, he wouldn't waste a single moment attending to them... He absolutely could not give Shiyue Mojun even a single breath's respite.
"You... you are not... human!!" Shiyue Mojun propped himself up to stand. He tried his utmost to gather demonic aura, but his demonic body seemed to have become a leaky wooden bucket. No matter how he tried to gather it, he still couldn't suppress Yun Che's aura.
Now, he simply couldn't believe that Yun Che was a human... How could a fragile, insignificant human body possess vitality and endurance even greater than his own!
"I'm sorry to disappoint you! I am a human born and raised on the Tian Xuan Continent! Today is your death day... and the price you pay for despising humans!"
Sensation began to return to his arms. Agony replaced numbness. Yun Che panted heavily, gripping the Heaven-Defying Sword tighter and tighter.
"Wooo... hehehehe... hahahaha... awoo awoo wooo..."
At that moment, an extremely eerie and terrifying sound came from deep within the cave behind Shiyue Mojun. Sometimes crying, sometimes laughing, like crying and like laughing. Just hearing it made one's entire body ice-cold, a shiver of terror coalescing throughout.
Yun Che's footsteps instinctively stopped. This was the sound of the Netherworld Brahma Flower. But he remembered that when they had first entered the Slay Moon Demon Cave with Zi Ji and the others, they had heard the wailing of the Netherworld Brahma Flower when they were about forty to fifty zhang away from its location. And when they temporarily left or fought Shiyue Mojun to the death, once they exceeded that distance, they would no longer hear this sound.
But now, his current position was roughly three li away from where the Netherworld Brahma Flower was located, yet he heard the wailing incredibly clearly, as if right at his ear! Moreover, it was even more sinister and soul-shaking than what he had heard before, sending chills down the spine of anyone who heard it.
But Shiyue Mojun's face suddenly revealed an expression of ecstasy.
"Heaven helps this king... ha... hahahaha!!"
Shiyue Mojun let out a nearly insane laugh, frantically channeling all the remaining power in his body. Allowing wounds all over to split open, he suddenly whipped up a wave of dark aura and charged deep into the Slay Moon Demon Cave.
Yun Che was momentarily stunned, then his expression changed. Could it be...
"Stop him immediately!!" Mo Li suddenly shouted. "The Netherworld Brahma Flower must have fully bloomed! It contains a vast Yin Nether power. If he eats it, not only will it repair his soul source, but it will also rapidly restore his power and injuries in a short time!"
BOOM!!
Yun Che erupted with all his profound energy. The wounds on his arms all burst open, blood spraying everywhere. He instantly retracted the Heaven-Defying Sword, and his entire body turned into a bolt of falling lightning, chasing straight after Shiyue Mojun.