The power of Baihu's Rending was immense, catching the Mistblade Grandmaster off guard.
The Mistblade Grandmaster possessed immense cultivation and was undoubtedly the strongest individual in the entire Skyfire Realm. Not only was his cultivation formidable and his realm high, but he also inherited numerous precious treasures and artifacts from the Mistblade legacy. In terms of strength, even dozens of peak-level experts would struggle to match him.
Yet even such a formidable expert suffered a heavy blow under the attack of Baihu's Rending.
Furthermore, having just been injured in a vile manner by Lao Tie, the Mistblade Grandmaster vented his frustration by spewing out a mouthful of life-force-replenishing "Element-Breaking Blood Qi."
Wutie's right chest was pierced, leaving fist-sized blood holes in both his front and back breastplates. In an instant, a large amount of flesh, bone, and blood disappeared, leaving behind a gradually changing transparent pink film on the wound that halted the flow of blood. As a warm current circulated through his body, it gradually converged on the wound on his right chest.
The Mistblade Grandmaster, with only one arm, extracted a vial of medicine and bit off the cork with his teeth, swallowing the crimson potion. As he closed up the blood vessels on his left arm, the excruciating pain caused his vision to darken. Suddenly, he witnessed the miraculous effect of the white liquid consumed by Wutie.
Angrily, he burst out, almost spitting blood, "How does this brat have so many good things on him?"
At this moment, the two iron balls in the sky heavily landed, emitting a resounding "thud" as they rapidly expanded in size. In the blink of an eye, two humanoid figures, over three meters tall and entirely black, stood up.
The two figures resembled humans but had elongated proportions, especially their arms, which almost dragged on the ground. Their entire bodies were pitch-black and smooth, save for a blood-red singular eye embedded in their face, occupying almost half of their features. As the blood-red eye opened and closed, it emitted a crimson light that bathed the surroundings in a reddish haze.
Accompanied by a strange rumbling sound, the blood-red light patterns resembling circles and diamonds interlaced in their singular eyes locked onto Lao Tie. In a sudden leap, they transformed into two black whirlwinds and charged towards Lao Tie. They were just a dozen meters away when the two figures simultaneously swung their long arms.
Their elongated arms were akin to four flexible whips, creating piercing sonic booms as they swept through the air, producing countless afterimages as they struck Lao Tie from above. Lao Tie hastily retreated, his extended arm revealing countless arrow shafts that sprang forth like a fountain, engulfing the two metal figures.
The two metal figures squatted down on the ground, their arms intertwining, thus creating an extensive exchange of blood-red light. Circular patterns emerged on their backs, leading to the abrupt resonating "buzz" as a blood-red shield materialized, enveloping the two metal figures.
The twelve small arrows exploded, covering an area of hundreds of meters in a bluish-white blaze. Wutie had taken cover behind Lao Tie as his close-fitting armor covered his body. Under the protection of the bluish-white flames, Wutie only felt a rise in ambient temperature, resulting in profuse sweating. Although the temperature within the armor was tolerable, the discomfort intensified when dark flames began to burn over his left arm's bones.
The bluish-white flames lasted for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. As the flames slowly dissipated, the two metal figures quickly stood up and rushed at Lao Tie and Wutie once again. Their four arms brought forth numerous afterimages, tearing through the air with ear-piercing screeches and raining blows upon the duo.
Lao Tie raised his head, his eyes emitting a crimson light that merged with the blood-red light emanating from the metal figures' singular eyes.
Soon after, a booming sound echoed from within the two metal figures: "No authority... refusal... termination..."
Lao Tie clenched his teeth tightly, generating sparks as he ground them together while exuding an unpleasant grinding sound. "You two fools... who created you? How dare you go against my orders... Do you even know who I am?"
While shouting, Lao Tie abruptly lifted his drooping arms, causing the twelve arrows that had previously glowed with blood-red light to fly out from his arms like headless flies, enveloping the two metal figures. The metal figures failed to evade the onslaught, with each of them receiving deep cracks on their bodies from the arrows.
A large amount of viscous, molten fluid poured out from their bodies as they emitted deep growls, vigorously shaking their arms. The blood-red glow emerged from their arms, similar to Lao Tie's transformation, causing Lao Tie to angrily curse, "You miscreants... who used such high-quality materials on you? Are you all insane? Or am I the crazy one?"
These two metal figures were constructed from materials that closely resembled Lao Tie's own. Although slightly inferior in quality, the difference was negligible, as they were still able to harm Lao Tie's robust physique.
Lao Tie was the first to notice the marks on his arms caused by the metal figures' attack. He became even more furious, continuously berating himself, "Wastrels, utter wastrels... How can you creatures with no possibility of 'Enlightenment' or 'Primordial Transformation' use such high-grade materials? Have you all gone mad or what?"
"Enlightenment? Primordial Transformation?" The Mistblade Grandmaster had already distanced himself, his three remaining Mistblade high-level experts guarding his core position.
Upon hearing Lao Tie's roar, the Mistblade Grandmaster thoughtfully nodded and said, "It appears that you possess knowledge of ancient secrets... If I can capture you alive, that would be splendid..."
As Lao Tie bellowed, his ten fingers suddenly emitted ten crimson lights that shot forth like beams from his fingertips. The intense red lights vibrated, producing a humming sound. Ten beams of red light, resembling ten swords, were aimed towards the two metal figures. Unfortunately, the metal figures were unable to dodge the assault and received deep wounds as the red lights sliced through their bodies, creating deep fissures.
A large amount of molten and sticky fluid resembling magma flowed out from the metal figures' bodies. They growled in anger and vibrated their right arms. Similarly, eery blood-red lights emanated from the ends of their arms.
The blood-red lights, nearly three meters in length, vibrated violently, resembling the hum of swords.
Lao Tie cried out, "Those who created you... must be insane... with your limited capacity... how can you withstand..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Lao Tie's light swords suddenly dimmed, and his arms drooped weakly.
Lao Tie slapped himself across the face, exclaiming, "You jinx... it was I who couldn't bear it first."
The two metal figures pounced on them, using their four arms to violently slash and chop recklessly. Lao Tie could only use his waning strength to fend off their attacks, as "schlepping" sounds resonated. Lao Tie's arms and body were lacerated by countless shallow wounds.
Lao Tie bellowed in anger, howling like a mad dog.
Wutie trembled all over, witnessing Lao Tie's true injuries for the first time. These two ancient anomalies possessed the power to severely injure or even kill Lao Tie!
In their arms, they also harbored powerful weapons from ancient times.
Countless blood-red lights surrounded Lao Tie, gradually enveloping Wutie as well. Wutie widened his eyes, enduring the excruciating pain from his left arm, and suddenly flipped over, tumbling out from beneath Lao Tie's belly, landing almost parallel to the ground below. In an instant, he reached the feet of one of the metal figures.
The armor on his left arm shifted, revealing a forearm enveloped in dark flames.
The flames burned the skin and cracked it open, while the recently ingested white liquid medicine repaired the damaged arm. Wutie gritted his teeth through the intense pain in his right chest wound and the unbearable itch caused by the tissues' regeneration. With his left hand, he firmly grasped the ankle of one of the metal figures.
His left hand's fingers trembled fiercely as blood-colored brilliance coated the metal figure's lower leg, forming a magnificent and intricate pattern of blood-red interlocking lines. Wutie's fingers felt as though they were gripping onto diamond, causing his arm to resonate with a "cracking" sound due to the counterforce.
The metal figure abruptly lowered its head, and its blood-red light locked onto Wutie. It raised its right arm, preparing to strike with a single sword motion.
Hoarse and desperate, Wutie screamed, "Break open!"
Ignoring all consequences, he poured his entire cultivation from these past few days into his left index finger. The first joint of his finger suddenly emitted a peculiar light that seemed to encompass all colors. Despite its gloominess, it produced an unbearably dazzling illusion.
In the instant Wutie's entire primordial energy was devoured, the resonating frequency of the loins in this joint of his index finger reached staggering billions of times.
The blood-red patterns shattered with a crisp sound, and in the next moment, the metal figure's entire right leg disintegrated from the thigh down.
The colossal thigh exploded into numerous metallic particles, and an astonishing amount of luminous brilliance, resembling a broad river, was engorged by Wutie's first index finger into his body.
Dark and deep flames ignited all over Wutie's left arm.
With one leg gone, the metal figure lost its balance and toppled to one side, in a disheveled state. Following Lao Tie, whose eyes emitted two tangible streams of blood-red light, they traced the path of his blood-red light across the metal figure's body, severing its right arm at the shoulder.
Wutie howled as he used every ounce of his strength to leap up, stabbing his left index finger fiercely into the waist of the other metal figure, and with a final roar, he shouted, "Die!"
The bone in Wutie's finger vibrated at an even higher frequency, akin to taking a madness-inducing elixir.
With a loud bang, the second metal figure's waist shattered, splitting its body into two sections from the waist down. A large amount of magma-like high-temperature fluid sprayed forth from the metal figure, obliterating nearly a third of its body and being absorbed into Wutie's left index finger.
Dark flames ignited all over Wutie's body.
The burning sensation caused Wutie's flesh and skin to emit smoke, accompanied by a sizzling sound similar to throwing meat onto a hot iron plate. Wutie's vision throbbed, and he could no longer withstand the excruciating pain coursing through his entire body, causing his legs to go limp, and he collapsed onto the ground.
Lao Tie cursed angrily as he forcefully raised his lowered arms. The twelve arrows that still glowed with blood-red light shot out from his arms like buzzing hornets, engulfing the densely packed Mistblade killers nearby.
Lao Tie had always avoided causing excessive harm to the Mistblade killers.
Intentionally, he refrained from inflicting broad-scale damage.
However, now that he witnessed Wutie's severe injury, and it occurred so mysteriously, Lao Tie once again seemed to break through some sort of boundary. Without any hesitation, he struck hard against the Mistblade killers present.
Each of the twelve arrows emitted small blood-colored runes, with a constant "beep-beep" sound, as if undergoing some peculiar transformation. These arrows formed arcs of blood-red light, converging upon the heads of the Mistblade killers. In a resounding "boom-boom," the arrows exploded upon contact.
This time, the exploding arrows did not release terrifying yet restrained flames of bluish-white color, but rather erupted with raging flames of crimson hue, filled with unbridled fury.
With each arrow's detonation, a flesh-visible shockwave emanated from it, sweeping an area several hundred meters wide. Numerous Mistblade killers roared in pain, while thousands of mercenary soldiers screamed in agony, one by one being swallowed by the flames.
The entire Mistblade camp was nearly enveloped by flames.
Numerous low-level Mistblade killers and mercenary soldiers of mediocre cultivation were pulverized, while the more powerful killers and warriors were propelled by the flames to distant locations where they collapsed, spewing blood from their every orifice, writhing and wailing on the ground.
The explosion lasted only an instant. Lao Tie hoisted Wutie, whose entire body emitted a scorching heat, and turned to charge into the nearest passage.
The Mistblade Grandmaster's face contorted violently as he roared, "Dead or alive, I want to see their bodies... Follow them! Kill, kill, kill!"
As soon as the three "kill" words left his mouth, a melodious and prolonged chant floated from another passage: "In heaven and on earth, only I am everlasting."
A hundred-meter-long black wooden ship glided out of the passage, its bow filled with men, women, and children dressed in gorgeous clothing.
Subsequently, one wooden ship emerged after another, in quick succession...
In the short span of a tea ceremony, over thirty wooden ships, each over a hundred meters long, surged from the passage. Powerful auras surged into the sky, causing the Mistblade Grandmaster's expression to turn extremely ugly.
(End of the chapter)