Chapter 383: Torrent

"How can this be... the power of that Void Sword..." The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord's pupils shrank.

Judging by what Yaoguang has displayed in this moment, even without the array's power, he would likely be no weaker than an ordinary Void-Shattering expert. Did he actually possess such strength?!

"It isn't just Void Flicker that he's practiced to the mastery stage. His Void Sword has reached the mastery stage as well, which is the only way it could shatter your Eight Desolations Purgatory in a frontal clash. And the speed at which he releases his techniques... There's something wrong with that too!" The Dark Fiend Lord's mood was just as heavy.

Yaoguang is so powerful... He seems nothing like a newcomer who has only recently advanced to the Void-Refining Realm. He is more like one of those ancient beings who have reached the Void-Refining Realm for several thousand years; the only difference is that he has focused on studying his Dao Techniques. Two techniques at the mastery stage! Even an ordinary Void-Shattering expert is no better than this.

Having personally resisted an all-out assault from two Void-Shattering experts and still broken free of it with composure, Yaoguang was now feeling fully confident.

"It seems like my understanding of Void-Shattering strength from the information I obtained was correct." He raised his head and looked at the two Void-Shattering experts. "This... is the limit of what you can do."

"He's a Void-Refining cultivator! Mastery-stage techniques are an enormous burden on his grotto-heaven. Force him to fight with everything he has! He can't keep this up for long!" The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord shifted tactics without hesitation.

Void-Shattering experts were already figures at the peak of the world's stage, and in any battle they could naturally seek out an enemy's weakness at the greatest speed, playing to their strengths and striking at the weak to secure the final victory.

"Qi Sha, Wu Changfeng, Chi Yu, Ling Ruogu, all of you strike together. Their strength has been weakened by at least fifty percent. I don't ask you to defeat these four Void-Refining fiendish cultivators, only to tie them down!" After giving the command, Yaoguang charged boldly to meet the two Void-Shattering fiend lords.

"Yes!" Those who had received the order answered with a shout and rushed toward the four Void-Refining fiendish cultivators, preventing them from supporting the Void-Shattering experts.

Clashing with the two Void-Shattering fiendish cultivators head-on, Yaoguang circulated the Torrent of Time and, almost in an instant, released three Void Swords in succession.

One was meant to pin down the Dark Fiend Lord, while the other two flew toward the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord, who posed the greater threat to him.

Facing the Void Swords, the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord responded by releasing the Eight Desolations Purgatory once again, attempting to seal them.

Yet, when the two techniques collided, they proved evenly matched. The Eight Desolations Purgatory could not seal the Void Sword at all.

And because the speed at which Yaoguang released his Void Swords was abnormally fast, with one sword immediately followed by another, the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord had no time at all to prepare a new technique, falling into a disadvantage for a moment.

"The Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array!" The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord was both shocked and furious. "Eight hundred years ago, I once forced my way through the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, and back then it was not this strong. It can strip away two whole layers of our strength. Were it not for that, even though both are mastery-stage techniques, your Void Sword might not be able to cut through my Eight Desolations Purgatory!"

A Dao Artifact, something resembling the Two-Realm Ruler, flashed with light, seemingly about to carry the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord away from the path of the second Void Sword's killing strike.

But at that very moment, the Heaven-Sealing Stele swept in. Its powerful spatial sealing force prevented the enemy from teleporting more than half a kilometer away.

Using his psychic thought to control it, Yaoguang made the Void Sword alter its course slightly and slash hard into the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord's body.

As it struck him, this Void-Shattering expert produced yet another Dao Artifact, a suit of armor, which forcibly blocked the Void Sword's edge.

Despite possessing another Dao Artifact, the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord clearly had not practiced the technique corresponding to this one. In the clash between the two, the light of the armor artifact swiftly dimmed, but he seized the moment to retreat, widening the distance between him and Yaoguang.

"Four Dao Artifacts, very lavish!" Yaoguang remarked.

He himself had only three artifacts he could currently use: the Wandering Dragon Sword, the Two-Realm Ruler, and the Heaven-Sealing Stele. He owned no protective artifact at all.

The completeness of this Eight Desolations Fiend Lord's set of artifacts had already surpassed his own.

Though he marveled at the Void-Shattering expert's wealth, Yaoguang's hands did not slow in the slightest.

Amplified by the Torrent of Time, three Void Swords were once again released at once. But this time, just as the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord shattered the first Void Sword and tried to pull away, an azure chain suddenly fell from the heavens.

"Bastard!"

The treasure mirror above the head of the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord, who had been about to retreat with a violent burst of speed, spun around and shot out a beam of light that pinned down the Void Chain that had been rushing toward him.

At that same moment, the Heaven-Sealing Stele's spatial sealing force descended again, and with it came the second Void Sword's slash.

This time the fiend lord could no longer activate the armor artifact. The Void Sword's edge swept across his fiendish body, and the Void-Shattering expert was cut clean in two.

"Dark Fiend Lord, help me!" The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord's psychic thought shook.

Despite having been cut in two, he was still not much slower in releasing his techniques.

But because his fiendish body had split apart, his control over the origin fiendish qi within him had clearly dropped a great deal, so that the Chaotic Ten Directions Kill he hastily released was even weaker than a proficient-stage technique.

Over the last four years, the techniques Yaoguang had pushed to the mastery stage were no longer just the Void Sword and Void Flicker. The Starlight Glass Body and Supreme Selflessness were no exception.

Starlight flickered continuously, and when the Chaotic Ten Directions Kill's power to tear apart the void reached his body, that power was simply distorted, unable to rip the starlight covering his skin.

Seizing the chance, the Great Annihilation Sword Qi, built around the Great Dao of destruction, came crashing down right after onto the fiend lord's split fiendish body.

"Dark Fiend Lord!" the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord let out a cry of shock and rage.

It was only then that the Dark Fiend Lord, arriving belatedly, unleashed the Six-Sense Deprivation.

Unable to dodge in time, Yaoguang lost all perception of space, time, direction, matter, and energy in an instant.

Having released multiple mastery-stage techniques in such rapid succession a moment earlier, Yaoguang's grotto-heaven had already begun to tremble.

Put another way, the power within his Dao Seed was draining so quickly that it would soon be unable to maintain the grotto-heaven's stability.

It was for this reason that the other Void-Shattering expert had let his movements slow a little, wanting the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord to drain more of Yaoguang's power.

That way, in the fight to come, he could win both more safely and leave the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord gravely wounded, so that when it came time to divide the spoils he could force the latter to give him a greater share.

There was never any true sincerity in the cooperation of fiendish cultivators. The moment a chance arose to kick someone while they were down and expand personal gains, they would not hesitate.

Once the Six-Sense Deprivation had Yaoguang under control, the Dark Fiend Lord unleashed another technique without hesitation.

"Infinite Descent!" the Dark Fiend Lord roared.

This Dao Technique could drag a person's perception into a bottomless abyss, an endless darkness, and the Great Dao power it drew upon was no longer the pure Great Dao of darkness alone but carried a hint of the Great Dao of soul.

What he did not know, however, was that although Yaoguang had been caught by his Six-Sense Deprivation, the radiance formed by the True Spirit Light instantly scattered all of that sense of being lost.

At the same time, with the position of the Dark Fiend Lord revealed by the True Spirit Light, Yaoguang mobilized the power of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array and once more sent out three azure chains, attempting to bind the Dark Fiend Lord and forcing him to flee into the darkness to escape the chains' attack.

It was then that Yaoguang drove the Torrent of Time to its limit. Focusing on the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord, he released two Void Swords in less than an instant, immediately following with four bolts of Great Annihilation Sword Qi.

Six techniques! Those six techniques that were like a joint assault from six Void-Shattering experts, each blow rushing at the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord.

The Void-Shattering expert knew that if his fiendish body really were to be struck by two Void Swords and then by the four bolts of Great Annihilation Sword Qi, he would risk dying!

"Yaoguang!" The Eight Desolations Fiend Lord roared, immediately deciding to abandon half of his own body.

He let the half that the Void Sword had earlier severed take on a state resembling an incarnation, serving as a decoy to withstand this string of six techniques, while his other half wrapped itself in fiendish flames and shot up into the air, rushing toward the sky.

Yet, with a loud crack, an azure light appeared in the sky.

Two Void Chains, looking like great azure pythons, bound the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord's body.

At the same time, one Void Sword, followed by two bolts of Great Annihilation Sword Qi, changed direction, climbing rapidly, chasing right after the enemy.

In this moment of life and death, the Void-Shattering fiendish cultivator could no longer spare a thought for the pain of spending his trump card. He swept his hand out and flung forth a stream of purple light. "Boundless Divine Void Lightning! Break!"

The entire Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array shook violently, rumbling loudly.

An unknown number of the buildings and pavilions serving as the array foundation collapsed, and a large fraction of the spirit stone energy sustaining the array art was drained dry.

Even though the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array's solidity and stability had risen a notch compared to before, it was still blasted open by a single Boundless Divine Void Lightning from the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord.

"Good!" Delight surged into the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord's eyes, knowing that he only needed an instant for his fiendish-flame body to sweep through the gap and escape with his life.

But at that very moment, Yaoguang took a single step through the void, his figure flickering to appear directly over the gap that had just been blasted open.

Void Flicker could save one's life at the critical moment. And just the same, it could be used to cut off escape.

"You're digging your own grave!" the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord roared as he unleashed Heaven and Earth Reversal.

But the instant he did, the Heaven-Sealing Stele's spatial sealing force pressed down, making this stretch of void as solid as iron and resisting the spatial inversion the technique sought to cause.

At the same time, Yaoguang abruptly spread both hands, and the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array was swiftly drawn back together, closing the gap just like that.

"No!"

Void power churned madly all over the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord, and another Chaotic Ten Directions Kill swept up against Yaoguang.

But even as he sealed off the gap, Yaoguang had already pushed the Starlight Glass Body to its peak, his whole figure turning into a sweep of brilliant, dazzling stellar radiance that lit up the heavens.

With half his body gone and his strength greatly diminished, the Chaotic Ten Directions Kill the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord hastily stabbed out, dimming the Starlight Glass Body's light quickly enough, yet it could not possibly break this mastery-stage protective technique instantly.

In the end, the fiend lord could only watch helplessly as the escape route he had blasted open closed once more. Then, the Void Sword and Great Annihilation Sword Qi that had been coming after him tore his body apart once more.

Yaoguang's grotto-heaven world manifested, and like the fiendish cultivator from earlier, the Void-Shattering expert was swept up by the grotto-heaven and sealed into its depths.