Chapter 4595 — Annihilating the Mystic Ascendant

And in that moment, Wei Zhao and the spirit bird, caught beneath that canopy of staff-shadows, were like a lone skiff upon a raging sea, tossed and battered, liable at any instant to be overwhelmed; let one of those staff-shadows so much as graze them, and their doom would be sealed beyond all recovery.

"No wonder they call you a first-rate Mystic Ascendant novice—you really are no simpleton!" At the sight, Wei Zhao smiled without the slightest haste, not a trace of tension in him; instead he seemed abruptly to come alive with excitement, a rare brilliance kindling in his eyes, his lust for battle surging high.

Facing the ferocious, howling torrent of staff-shadows that came sweeping down from every quarter of the sky, Wei Zhao's killing intent abruptly hardened. His right hand curled into the shape of a dragon's claw, and from each fingertip surged a single-hued thread of true qi—five threads gathering swiftly in his palm, taking shape amid a soundless dragon's roar that seemed to rise from the deep places of the world: the Five Elements Killing Qi soaring heavenward against all fate!

"Ha! You talk so big I took you for a man of some substance—and it turns out you're nothing but a peak early-Nascent Soul weakling. A mere firefly's glow, daring to vie with the sun and moon?" The curly-bearded giant roared with laughter at the sight. Earlier, when Wei Zhao had concealed his strength, the man had felt a lingering uncertainty; now that he had seen through Wei Zhao's true measure, his last scruple vanished entirely.

A peak early-Nascent Soul cultivator could not be called weak—but that depended on whom one compared him to. In some ordinary backwater he would of course be an overlord in his own right. Before a Mystic Ascendant such as himself, however, he was at best a fart. The two were separated by nearly an entire great cultivation realm, and so vast a gulf had long since written the ending in stone.

What struck him as even more ridiculous was that the boy plainly knew the disparity in strength, yet instead of looking for a chance to flee, he had to go bullheaded and meet him head-on in open battle. The lad's brain was simply beyond saving!

The curly-bearded giant laughed uproariously. Sharp-tongued folk were generally short on real wisdom, and that saying was plainly no lie—so at least it seemed to him. In his view, even if the boy had chosen to flee, that would have been no less stupid: his own Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle was far swifter than that trash spirit bird of theirs. How could they possibly escape?

"Die with a peaceful heart—Ten Thousand Staffs Shatter!" The curly-bearded giant let out a heaven-shaking bellow, and in an instant that vast, black, sky-covering expanse of staff-shadows drew together into a single point, becoming one solid, heaven-piercing cudgel of baleful force that came crashing down upon his head. Each individual staff-shadow had carried a thousand catties of force; this heaven-piercing cudgel, into which countless shadows had been gathered—how much greater than ten million catties was its power?

"Heh. You'd best keep those words for yourself." Wei Zhao smiled faintly. Though shrouded beneath Ten Thousand Staffs Shatter, he remained unmoved as Mount Tai collapsing before him. The man's martial skill was indeed formidable—but he would never believe that the Five Elements Killing Qi he had gleaned from the Five Venoms Flood Dragon would lose!

Even as he spoke, the Five Elements Killing Qi that had risen against heaven transformed into a flood dragon with fangs bared and claws spread, meeting that heaven-piercing cudgel of baleful force head-on. For a thousand li around, ghosts wailed and wolves howled, and the very wind and clouds changed color.

"To think that conjuring up a dragon shape would stop my Ten Thousand Staffs Shatter—how absurd beyond wor—" The curly-bearded giant was just seizing his last chance to heap on the mockery. But before the words were out of his mouth, the scene unfolding before him froze his face in an instant.

Utterly unlike what he had pictured, the flood dragon wrought of Five Elements Killing Qi was not smashed to pieces by the cudgel. Instead, before the heaven-piercing cudgel's might could peak, it followed the staff upward—the flood dragon coiling about the pillar!

And more outrageous still was yet to come. After the Five Elements Killing Qi wrapped itself around the heaven-piercing cudgel and caught it, the five hues of divine light upon its body whirled at furious speed, and that insolent, invincible cudgel came apart at the seams in the blink of an eye, ground to pieces alive by the thing's writhing coils!

The curly-bearded giant's tongue nearly fell out of his head with fright. Ten Thousand Staffs Shatter was the strongest martial skill in his bottom drawer. He had struck just now in anger, holding nothing back, not a shred of carelessness or contempt for his foe—so how could a Mystic Ascendant novice, striking with full force against a mere peak early-Nascent Soul, produce this outcome?

He could be beaten to death and still never puzzle out why it had happened—and in truth, he was about to be beaten to death indeed. After the Five Elements Killing Qi had ground the heaven-piercing cudgel to pieces head-on, it did not disperse into the void. Full of lingering force, it sought out the man himself. The curly-bearded giant and the Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle beneath him had no defense at all against it, and beyond all doubt both were pierced through by the Five Elements Killing Qi, each left with a gaping bloody hole in its chest.

"The Five Elements Killing Qi really is one of the most terrifying martial skills in all the world—this time I've truly struck it rich." Watching the curly-bearded giant and the Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle drop stiff as planks into the sea, Wei Zhao could not help but be shaken.

He had indeed expected the Five Elements Killing Qi to stand against a Mystic Ascendant cultivator—but he had never imagined it could be this easy. A single exchange, and the man was annihilated on the spot!

Wei Zhao and the spirit bird lingered a while in the air. The man was, after all, a Mystic Ascendant cultivator; though a bloody hole drilled through his chest was a frightful sight, with his formidable vitality there was still some chance he might live, given prompt treatment.

"All right, let's go. A fine Mystic Ascendant cultivator, out to waylay travelers—why bother?" Wei Zhao shook his head. Once he saw the splash thrown up by the curly-bearded giant and the Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle as they plunged together into the sea, there was no need to watch further: the man's death was certain beyond doubt.

Sure enough, the very moment Wei Zhao and the spirit bird flew off, the curly-bearded giant and the Ghost-Eyed Golden Eagle were surrounded in a tight ring by several sea beasts drawn by the scent of blood, and in the blink of an eye they were torn apart and devoured clean. This time, the man was dead beyond any possible doubt.

Continuing on toward North Island, the route would pass by Middle Island; barring the unexpected, they would arrive before long. Wei Zhao very much wanted to see Middle Island—after all, he had friends there, Di Xingdao, Cai Zhongxuan, Hou Guanqi and the rest, and above all Tian Chan and Shirley, those two confidantes of his heart. After so long apart, he missed them deeply.

Yet after turning it over carefully in his mind, Wei Zhao finally abandoned the tempting notion of diverting to Middle Island. Unless one obtained permission from the Middle Island Lord's Pavilion, no flying spirit beast was permitted to approach Middle Island's airspace without authorization; to enter Middle Island, Wei Zhao would have to go through any number of troublesome maneuvers along the way.