When Ye Zichen yelled out his sword technique’s name, the limitless spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathered around him
The ground outside Dragon City started to collapse as massive boulders took to the skies.
Countless veins of earth* entered their line of sight. The spiritual energy contained within them seemed to materialize, flowing like water around Ye Zichen’s sword.
“Splitting the Heavens!
Boom!
He ruthlessly swung the Xuan-yuan sword. Unlike the first stance of the Heaven Plundering Strike, this attack lacked that monstrous golden light. The onlookers only sensed space itself rippling until finally, it split open.
It cut an opening into the dome of the sky. If you looked inside, you could see a pitch-black, barren void not of this world.
“He really split heaven and earth.”
The people gathered in Dragon City watched from afar. Words alone couldn’t express their shock. All they could do was gulp repeatedly, their gaze flickering between the hole torn into the sky and Denglong. Was he dead or alive?
When he unleashed the second stance, Ye Zichen clamped his hand over his mouth. When he opened his hands, there was a puddle of golden-red blood in his palm.
It was clear that at his current level, unleashing this particular technique was beyond the limits of his endurance.
Denglong, who’d only just barely struggled his way out of the pit, sensed the incoming wave. His pupils violently constricted.
The Heaven Plundering Strike’s first stance had already damaged his organs, making his movements slow and sluggish. He wanted to avoid this next blow but it was already too late.
“Awoo!”
He let out a mighty roar. When the distant onlookers heard it, their ears instantly started ringing.
The sword light passed through his body.
Denglong watched bitterly as the light passed through his body. To his surprise, the attack did no physical damage whatsoever. It simply passed through his soul.
After the people of Dragon City had just calmed down. However, when they saw this, they were astonished once more.
That sword had cut both heaven and earth yet it hadn’t had any effect at all on Denglong’s body.
“How is this possible?”
Everyone from the beast clansmen to the human experts of the outer Immortal Regions was visibly astonished. They simply couldn’t believe Ye Zichen’s attack would end in such a result.
Denglong gazed up in befuddlement as well. When he saw the blood leaking from between Ye Zciehn’s fingers, he burst into wantonly, incomparably arrogant laughter.
“Ye Zichen, I warned you not to be too full of yourself earlier,” Denglong laughed coldly and he exited the pit. Then he stepped into the air and gazed contemptuously at Ye Zichen.
“Is that so?” Ye Zichen merely smiled indifferently in response, regal disdain in his eyes as he looked back at Denglong. “Look beneath your feet.”
“Hmph, you’re just acting mysterious. Even if I look, what……” Denglong’s unyielding arrogance suddenly turned to surprise. He froze, unable to speak, and looked below in astonishment. His physical body stood beneath him; the current him, the one standing in the sky, was nothing but his soul body.
“You’re surprised, aren’t you? That attack was intended to extract your soul.”
When the onlookers saw this, they finally understood why that sword art hadn’t done any physical damage to Denglong’s body. It turned out his target had been the beast’s soul all along!
But they didn’t get it. Even if he’d extracted Denglong’s soul, so what?
With all three souls condensed, the Savage Beast Denglong was still an unparalleled existence. Could it be that Emperor Ye possessed techniques that specifically targeted the soul?
The Savage Beast Denglong reached the same way. When he realized his soul had been extracted, he was merely a bit stunned. Yes, his physical body really did possess astonishing defenses, but the true source of his power was still his soul.
Now that his soul had been extracted, he’d lost his physical body’s absolute defensive strength. Even so, in his soul form he was practically invulnerable. Only arts that targeted the soul could hurt him, but with his three souls combined, ordinary soul attacks were useless against him.
No matter how Denglong looked at it, he had the absolute advantage.
“I’m afraid you’ve made the wrong move,” soul-bodied Denglong laughed contemptuously. He now felt that victory was in his grasp.
“‘that so?” Ye Zichen replied, cold as ever. Then, to everyone’s astonishment, his soul emerged from his body as well.
“What’s Emperor Ye doing that for?”
The onlookers couldn’t for the life of them understand what Ye Zichen was up to. He’d gone to such great lengths to extract his opponent’s soul only to voluntarily draw out his own as well. Didn’t that mean he no longer held no advantage at all? Worse, he’d suffered backlash from his own technique.
No matter how they looked at it, it seemed like a bad move.
Denglong was startled as well, but if Ye Zichen was acting strange, there had to be a reason. He was certain something fishy was going on; he just hadn’t figured out the details yet.
“Kid, are you really sure you want to do this?”
The sword spirit Xuan-yuan Xiang transmitted into Ye Zichen’s consciousness. The Heaven Plundering Strike’s second stance should have been an attack, but Ye Zichen had changed course halfway through.
She’d realized Ye Zichen’s true intentions the moment he extracted Denglong’s soul,
“Yes.” Ye Zichen replied decisively and waved his right hand. A pearl cut through the skies and landed beside him.
The Soul Pearl Yiyuan.
This pearl had originally been intended to protect Tiantian. Now, shockingly, he’d summoned it here. The onlookers couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Denglong, too, knit his brows. He felt a sense of foreboding.
“Big Sister Xiang, Tenner, I won’t be a dictator. If either you don’t want to do this, just say so. I can sever your spirit brands and let you leave.”
The little boy Tenner blinked and shook his head. Xuan-yuan Xiang took it a step further and glowered at him.
“What kind of person do you think I am? Good horses don’t serve two masters and good wives don’t serve two husbands. I’ve followed you since your first incarnation. We’ve been through so much together. When have I ever abandoned you? And there’s no need to even ask Tenner; he’s a spiritual tool that exists to protect you. Now you’re saying stuff like that to us? If we leave, can you alone seal Denglong’s vicious soul?”
emerged from its blade. Tenner did the same thing; his soul exited the pearl and stood beside Ye Zichen.
Ye Zichen smiled at them but wasted no time talking. He only nodded and said, “thank you so much.”
The next moment, they saw Ye Zichen’s expression grow cold as his soul body pointed at Denglong’s.
Denglong immediately sensed that his three split then reforged souls were starting to show signs of collapse. He gave everything he had to try and stabilize them, only to see Xuan-yuan Xiang and Tenner fly towards him, one on each side.
At that moment, Denglong completely understood Ye Zichen’s intentions. His eyes brimmed with fear as he roared in fury, “Ye Zichen, you’ve gone mad!”
With that, he frantically scurried off into the distance, completely ignoring his physical body down below. When Xuan-yuan Xiang and Tenner saw this, they hurried after him. Meanwhile, Ye Zichen stood below and chanted coldly, “Soul Extraction! Seal!”