Chapter 2000 - Primal Chaos Crystals

Bursting out of the Desolate World, Blackie sprang before the three Golden Immortals charging toward Liu Wuxie. The sudden appearance caught them off guard. No one had expected him to bring an expert along.

"@#%&^!" An incomprehensible torrent of words accompanied Blackie's emergence. No one could decipher them, but Liu Wuxie recognized Blackie's cursing. Upon reaching the three Golden Immortals, Blackie swung its staff at the man in front of it.

The blow sent blood and brain matter bursting outward, a ghastly flower blooming in red and white.

"Oh, shit!" The two surviving Golden Immortals felt the strength drain from their legs. Blackie terrified them so much that they even forgot to resist.

The Primal Chaos Crystals clearly drove Blackie to give its all. Every additional enemy it killed meant more crystals as payment.

Whenever Liu Wuxie condensed crystals, he stored them. Blackie could do nothing but scratch its ear in helpless frustration.

Long Yuanxiong had only just turned to assist his elder sister. Moments earlier, he had feared the three Golden Immortals might kill Liu Wuxie. Now he understood how needless that worry had been.

One Golden Immortal lay dead, and Blackie surged forward again with the unstoppable ferocity of a demonic fiend.

Elsewhere, Liu Wuxie darted around the area, altering the spiritual array to suppress Yu Yan and Pei Zhongyi. The five men had created it solely to seal the surroundings and keep word of their deeds from spreading. It possessed no means of attack.

He worked on their existing array, reshaping it into a cage that would bear down on the two Great Golden Immortals. When it came to spiritual arrays, Liu Wuxie was confident that few in the celestial realm could surpass him.

From the corner of her eye, Long Ying cast a glance at Liu Wuxie. Repeatedly, this unassuming Profound Immortal had overturned her expectations, drawing her curiosity ever deeper.

Her brother's intervention relieved much of the pressure on Long Ying, and Long Yuanxiong held his ground against his opponents. He was, after all, a disciple of the Long Clan, carrying the Dragon Clan's bloodline in his veins.

"Make it quick, Blackie," Liu Wuxie urged.

His rapid alterations to the array brought a sudden crushing weight upon the two Great Golden Immortals, as though a mountain had descended on them.

Blackie quickened its movements at his command, subjecting the two Golden Immortals to immense pressure.

"What is happening? Where is all this extra pressure coming from?" Yu Yan roared.

He and Pei Zhongyi each possessed strength far above Long Ying's. Under the array's suppression, however, neither could unleash their full strength.

Long Ying and Long Yuanxiong were both surprised. They had entered the battle ready to risk their lives. Now the array assisted them, and their increasingly fierce attacks hammered Yu Yan and Pei Zhongyi with relentless pressure.

A horizontal sweep of Blackie's staff caught both Golden Immortals off guard, severing them at their waists. Blood filled the gruesome scene with a stench strong enough to turn the stomach.

With the two enemies dead, Blackie retrieved two crystals from its staff and chewed them. Those were the last two it possessed, saved until now out of reluctance to consume them.

Killing three Golden Immortals earned Blackie a generous reward from Liu Wuxie. He produced three thousand crystals and tossed them over, prompting a delighted chuckle from the creature.

"Go help Long Yuanxiong with the other one, Blackie," Liu Wuxie ordered, sending it toward Pei Zhongyi.

The crystals disappeared into Blackie's mouth, and its physical strength rose once again. It sprang at Pei Zhongyi, startling him into retreating.

A single blow from Blackie had been enough to kill each of the three Golden Immortals. That sight shattered Pei Zhongyi's composure and sent his combat strength plummeting. His fear only deepened as Blackie's formidable physique allowed it to evade every attack directed at it.

Relief came immediately for Long Yuanxiong when Blackie joined him. Man and monster fought together with some awkwardness at first, but their coordination grew more precise as the battle continued.

Blackie took the lead in the attack, and Long Yuanxiong focused on a sneak attack. Their combined efforts drove screams of frustration from Pei Zhongyi. How could an exalted Great Golden Immortal such as himself have fallen into this predicament because of a mere Golden Immortal?

Meanwhile, Liu Wuxie found the array's suppressive power still insufficient and turned his attention to surveying the surroundings.

"Do as I tell you, both of you," Liu Wuxie instructed Long Ying and Long Yuanxiong through a private voice transmission.

Neither objected. What he had demonstrated at Cloud Mist Manor had already won their trust. They understood how dire today's outcome would have been without him.

To assist them with illusions, Liu Wuxie began activating the Divine Tribulation Pupil. Among the divine pupil's abilities was the power to imprison a victim in a brief hallucination.

Long Ying and Yu Yan fought fiercely, their closely matched strength denying either an easy victory. A prolonged battle would likely destroy them both. Liu Wuxie had no intention of letting matters reach that point.

Overcoming Pei Zhongyi would prove still more difficult for Long Yuanxiong and Blackie. Victory would require a clear opening.

"Divine Tribulation Pupil, unleash the illusion!"

Mental energy flooded out of Liu Wuxie, filling the surrounding area. Sudden screams broke from Yu Yan and Pei Zhongyi. Absorbed in their respective battles, they had no energy left to guard against him, nor had they imagined he could threaten them.

"Strike now!" Liu Wuxie commanded, forcing down the agonizing sting in his upper dantian as he pressed Long Ying and Long Yuanxiong to end the fight quickly.

Illusions overwhelmed Yu Yan and Pei Zhongyi's vision, robbing them of any sense of where they stood. Wild swings of their swords were all they could manage.

Ensnaring two Great Golden Immortals in illusions meant taking a dangerous gamble. Even the smallest error could rupture Liu Wuxie's upper dantian. He wouldn't even get a chance to regret his decision.

Having fused with his body, the Divine Tribulation Pupil was now a part of him. A rupture in his upper dantian would inflict damage upon his soul sea unlike anything it had suffered before.

Long Ying roared the invocation. "Sacred Dragon Manifestation!"

"Vast Dragon Sword Art!" Long Yuanxiong's response came without a moment's delay.

Long Ying vanished, soaring skyward as she became a purple divine dragon and charged at Yu Yan.

"Dragon aura given form," Liu Wuxie murmured. The purity of Long Ying's Dragon Clan bloodline far exceeded his expectations. Even more surprising, she possessed the bloodline of the Indigo Dragon, a lineage rare even among the Dragon Clan.

Long Yuanxiong unleashed a formidable Dragon Clan technique of his own. His broadsword swept down from the sky, likewise taking the form of a divine dragon before striking Pei Zhongyi's body.

Blackie joined the assault. Its body swelled rapidly, evoking the descent of a Black Demon God, before it brought its staff crashing down. Blackie and the siblings unleashed their strongest attacks, making full use of the opening Liu Wuxie had provided.

The impact of the Indigo Dragon left Yu Yan dazed. Still unable to grasp what had happened, he slammed into a distant hill.

Pei Zhongyi's situation was no better. Long Yuanxiong had torn open a wound across his body, though the injury did not threaten his life. Blackie's strike proved far worse. At the last instant, Pei Zhongyi managed to clear his head, but the staff smashed into his shoulder, making him wail.

Numbness swept through half his body. His left shoulder collapsed completely, strewing blood and fragments of bone over the ground.

"AAARGH! THE PAIN!" Pei Zhongyi screamed. His cries alone were enough for anyone to imagine the torment he endured.

"There's my opening!" Long Yuanxiong lunged at once with his broadsword. The move carried grave risk. Even with such severe wounds, Pei Zhongyi was still beyond what a Golden Immortal could handle.

Yet a chance in battle could vanish in a moment, and Long Yuanxiong had committed everything to this blow. Sword energy condensed from his blade and shot straight toward Pei Zhongyi's neck.

"Protect him, Blackie!" Liu Wuxie shouted.

Reason had deserted Pei Zhongyi. Watching Long Yuanxiong charge, he licked his lips and brought his sword down in a blaze of light. Injury had not changed his standing as a Great Golden Immortal. He gathered the immortal energy still remaining within him, determined to take Long Yuanxiong's life.

"Fall back!" Long Ying screamed upon landing.

Although she and Yu Yan were evenly matched, her strike had forced him to cough up blood. Pallor covered his face, and his combat strength had diminished considerably.

Long Ying abandoned the chance to press her advantage and rushed to her brother's rescue.

At that moment, Blackie darted into the path of Pei Zhongyi's attack, using its body to intercept the blow.

The sword cut across Blackie's shoulder, leaving a wound roughly thirty centimeters long. Pain made it bare its fangs, but the injury was far from serious.

Long Ying forced herself to stop. How had Blackie endured a Great Golden Immortal's all-out strike and suffered nothing more than superficial injuries? She could not comprehend it.

Blackie's willingness to take the blow for him moved Long Yuanxiong. He swung his broadsword down and severed Pei Zhongyi's head. As soon as his opponent died, he collapsed from exhaustion.

Liu Wuxie would not squander a Great Golden Immortal's corpse. It was a treasure, after all. He secretly summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and commanded it to swallow Pei Zhongyi's remains.

Once she saw that her brother was safe, Long Ying turned her charge toward Yu Yan.

Trembling in fear, Yu Yan shouted, "Spare my life!" Five men had stood on their side, yet these three had overwhelmed them.

"Lady Long, keep his corpse intact, please. I can still put it to use," Liu Wuxie said. He feared she might destroy Yu Yan's body and leave nothing worth refining.

Long Ying gave a nod. Without Liu Wuxie, she and her brother would have faced grave danger today and might even have died. Her strength should have allowed her to escape alone without difficulty, but abandoning her brother was another matter. How could she do that?

There wasn't a flicker of expression on her face as she advanced on Yu Yan. Upon coming within reach, she brought down her purple sword.

Meanwhile, Long Yuanxiong produced various medicines and applied them to Blackie's shoulder. Its terrifying appearance did nothing to deter him. That absence of fear pleased Blackie. It was accustomed to seeing dread in most humans' eyes when they saw it.

Seated quietly on the ground, Blackie allowed Long Yuanxiong to treat its injuries. It retrieved several crystals and crunched them.

"A-Are these Primal Chaos Crystals?!" Long Yuanxiong exclaimed. A wisp of primal chaos energy reached his senses, and the porcelain bottle slipped from his hands.

Long Ying rushed over, hearing her brothers shout. The crystals in Blackie's hands left her every bit as shocked.

"Where did you get these crystals?" Long Ying asked.

The Dragon Clan cultivated differently from humans. Its members also used immortal energy, but refining primal chaos energy could hasten their growth.