The people in the Eternal Immortal Domains had no way of knowing what exactly was happening within the two energy passageways, nor did they have any sense of the dangers involved. All they could see were two glowing spots of light that represented Bai Xiaochun and the Saint-Emperor, both slowly making progress through the sealing strips.
Whenever those lights stopped moving, it meant they were facing resistance!
As for Bai Xiaochun, he finally stopped moving completely when nine specters materialized in front of him, all of them with archaean cultivation bases!
Their auras were weak, but they were still archaeans, and their expressions were violently brutal as they glared at Bai Xiaochun. To them, he was the Mortal Renegade, and they wanted nothing more than to cut him down!
“Dammit! I'm not the Mortal Renegade! You hate him! Why are you venting on me!?” Bai Xiaochun knew that they were projections created by the Mortal Renegade’s divine sense, and that they were motivated by the hatred which had existed in them before dying. But he was still irritated.
Clenching his hand into a fist, he struck out, not with the Undying Sovereign’s Fist, but rather, the Undying Emperor’s Fist. Even still, that level of battle prowess was shocking!
Booms rang out as the two parties clashed. Bai Xiaochun did nothing to evade being hit; he relied on the powers of regeneration from his Undying Codex to simply attack relentlessly. After shattering one of the shadowy archaeans, he shot toward another one, and unleashed another fist strike!
And thus the battle went for the course of a few breaths’ worth of time, with Bai Xiaochun unleashing explosive force and speed, and relying on his Undying Codex to heal him. In quick succession, he defeated all nine archaean specters!
Before they could reform, he sped on, gasping for breath, and even pulling out a few medicinal pills to replenish himself.
Before long, he encountered another group of archaean specters, even more than before. Much to his frustration, there were over twenty this time. However, he had no options; eyes bloodshot, he howled and unleashed the Sutra of Future Pāramitā!
Then, he utilized his Throat Crushing Grasp, Mountain Shaking Bash, Live Forever Lamp, and other divine abilities and magical techniques that didn’t draw too deeply on his cultivation base.
He knew that he still had a long way to go, and that the going would probably get tougher. Draining his cultivation base wouldn’t be a good idea, especially considering that the energy passageway he was in didn’t have any spiritual power in it that he could use to replenish himself with.
On the other hand, there was plenty of bloodline power, ensuring that his fleshly body and powers of regeneration were actually performing better than on the outside. Launching forward with another attack, he crushed his opponents and moved on. Before long, he realized that he was seeing fewer and fewer shadowy specters.
And yet, that only put him more on guard than before. Soon, his divine sense revealed to him that a shocking aura was brewing somewhere ahead of him.
A bit of time passed, and then he suddenly lurched a stop, pupils constricting. There ahead in the energy passageways, a floating crimson coffin had appeared out of thin air.
It contained an aura that caused even Bai Xiaochun’s heart to pound. It almost seemed as if this wasn’t a cultivator, but some thing of unparalleled ferocity and madness. Shining with blinding light, it shot toward him with incredible speed.
“Lord Bai isn’t even afraid of ghosts! You think he’s gonna be scared of some coffin!?” Performing an incantation gesture with his right hand, he waved his finger, causing the area around the coffin to distort as the powers of gravity were called up. Time slowed, and the coffin’s speed was reduced significantly.
Without the slightest hesitation, Bai Xiaochun shot toward it, and for the first time, utilized his Undying Sovereign’s Fist. Rumbling sounds echoed out in all directions, and the image of an emperor appeared behind him, striking out in exact coordination with him.
The coffin tried to avoid the blow, but was stuck within the area of slowed time, and could not. As soon as the blow struck its target, cracks spread out on the coffin’s surface, and it shattered!
As it did, an enraged howl could be heard, and blood-colored light exploded from the remnants of the coffin, creating a huge sea of blood. Within that sea was a blood-colored crocodile that instantly lunged toward Bai Xiaochun, its jaws opened wide as if to swallow him up!
It also emanated archaean fluctuations so powerful that Bai Xiaochun’s heart lurched in his chest. These fluctuations seemed no less powerful than what he had sensed from the Vile-Emperor in the past.
On the outside, Bai Xiaochun would have been less leery. But he knew that in this location, this creature was eternally indestructible. Even if he destroyed it, it would form back up, meaning that if he got involved in a protracted fight, he would not only be wasting time, but he would also be giving more of the shadow figures a chance to converge on his location.
“Well, if I need to end this fight quickly… I know just the move to use!’ Quickly performing an incantation gesture, he shoved his hand in a downward motion.
“Waterswamp!”
He was inside the body of a sovereign, and yet, water vapor still swirled out in all directions, creating a huge, illusory swamp.
“Kingdom!!” he shouted. This was his first time unleashing the Waterswamp Kingdom as an archaean, and was the only thing he could think to do to deal with this damned crocodile.
As soon as the words left his mouth, an aura far more brutal than the crocodile’s erupted from the watery swamp. The ferocious crocodile shivered, its previously maddened eyes suddenly filling with terror and shock. Then, before Bai Xiaochun’s life essence spirit could even appear, the crocodile turned tail and fled!
Bai Xiaochun looked on, stunned. Finally, he shook his head. Nothing like this had ever happened before when using the Waterswamp Kingdom. As far as he could tell, the crocodile from moments ago had been formed by the Mortal Renegade’s divine sense, and shouldn’t have been able to flee.
“Maybe it wasn’t formed from the Mortal Renegade’s divine sense. Or maybe it was so strong in life that, even after it died, some of its original instincts remained.” Under normal circumstances, Bai Xiaochun wouldn’t prevent his life essence spirit from coming out into the open. But right now, time was of the essence, and spiritual power was not abundant. Therefore, he waved his hand and, ignoring the frustrated howl of his life essence spirit, dispelled the Waterswamp Kingdom.
Now was not the time to sit around planning his next move; he immediately blurred into motion as he continued along his way.
Meanwhile, the other bloodline sealing strip was already ninety percent repaired, and the Saint-Emperor was closing in on the Mortal Renegade’s dantian region. That was when… he encountered someone blocking his path that he couldn’t possibly defeat!!
He lurched to a stop, trembling as he looked at a figure hovering ahead of him, unmoving, but with eyes slowly opening!
It was a handsome, scholarly man, with a fireball sigil on his forehead. As he opened his eyes, it was possible to see an ancient moon glowing in his pupils!
“Saint-Ancestor!!" he murmured, his voice laced with pain.
Right there in front of him was the Saint-Ancestor, one of the three Eternal Sons! He was the original ancestor of the Saint-Emperor, and the source of his bloodline!
There was no suspense regarding how this battle would turn out. And although this projected Saint-Ancestor had the same blood in him as when he had been alive, his thoughts were different. Instantly, his desire to do battle burned hot inside him!
The fight didn’t last long. Soon, the Saint-Emperor was coughing up blood, and was forced to leave the bloodline sealing strip. If he did not, he would die. As he emerged, everyone in the Eternal Immortal Domains saw that sealing strip… shattered into pieces!!
The Saint-Emperor had completely failed!
Despair gnawed at the heart of the Saint-Emperor, and all of a sudden, he realized that the struggling of the giant sovereign… had actually been an elaborate trap!
Clearly, he hoped to use the Saint-Emperor and Bai Xiaochun to destroy the sealing strips even more quickly than before!