Wu Qi's current physical strength was at the level of a fifth-tier Gold Immortal. The palm strike unleashed by Prabhutaratna Buddha, on the other hand, was at the level of a fourth-tier Gold Immortal, just one level above Wu Qi's. For Gold Immortals, a tier difference in their cultivation levels was often equivalent to a hundred times difference in their overall strength. Therefore, Prabhutaratna Buddha thought he could easily capture the former with a force that was a hundred times stronger.
However, Wu Qi snorted coldly as he watched the golden palm closing in with a stifling pressure. Without hesitation, he exercised the Dragon Kill and abruptly transformed into a gigantic dragonman standing a hundred feet tall. Energy surged and filled his body as he began to murmur a spell and quickly waved his fingers in mid-air. From them, countless runes poured out like torrents, interlocking with one another into a black rune formation and branding onto his skin.
Enhanced by the rune formation, Wu Qi's strength instantly soared by a thousand folds. The incredible power made his blood vessels begin to bulge, pulsing so strongly that even his thick dragon scales could not cover them. Soon, they were as thick as water buckets, twisting and squirming like flood dragons all over his body. Even as that was happening, his blood began to boil, rushing through his veins together with semi-coagulated dragon energy. Faint roars of dragon could be heard coming from every bulging vein of his, as if hundreds of dragons were roaring inside him.
Ao Buzun widened his eyes in terror. He stared blankly at Wu Qi and grumbled under his breath, "Heck, don't tell me that you're a mix-blooded b*stard of a human and some little fellow from the dragon clan? But, this doesn't make any sense! Your fleshly body has been converted into a chaotic spirit body, and I've witnessed the entire transformation... You're not related to dragons! But, how can you cultivate the Dragon Transformation Script to such a state that all your meridians are taking the shape of dragons?"
As an ancient dragon himself, Ao Buzun knew very well how difficult it was to cultivate to this state. Even among the top geniuses of the dragon clan, few had come this far. Furthermore, Wu Qi was just a human being, not a dragon. So, how was it possible for him to cultivate the Dragon Transformation Script to such an advanced level?
Pitch-black Nine Nether Ghost Flame exploded out of Wu Qi's body and towered into the sky, within which, nine faint figures of dragons could be seen swirling about. The air rang with sharp and loud dragon roars as two black dragon horns suddenly stretched out of his forehead.
In the void, some existence hiding between the spatial barriers with a mighty magical artifact uttered a cry of surprise, "Wow, this little fellow's aptitude is pretty decent! To be able to cultivate Dragon Kill to such a perfect degree and transform into a dragon...Could he be a mix-blood of a human and a dragon?"
Wu Qi was certainly not a mix-blood of humans and dragons; all he had were the bloodlines of a hundred divine beasts he had extorted from the Thousand Spirit Palace. Just now, as soon as Prabhutaratna Buddha attacked, he had fused all these bloodlines with his body and made the chaotic energy quickly digest one particular bloodline—the bloodline of the azure dragon. Then, with the help of Seven Foundation Elevating Technique, the inner structure of his body began to transform to that of a real azure dragon.
He carefully controlled the changes of his body, so that when all his flesh and blood had become no different from that of a real dragon, his appearance remained the same, a human-shaped dragon. And as he was now exercising the Dragon Kill with the body of a dragon, his physical strength was instantly and terrifyingly strengthened. Accompanied by the loud noises produced from the squeezing between expanding muscles and bones, the scales covering his body and the dragon horns on his forehead were gradually covered in a mysterious and noble, pale blue hue.
As the air rang with his deep chanting, two beams of light shot out of his dragon horns. Countless runes swirled rapidly amidst the lights, then quickly interwove into a huge rune formation that was branded onto Wu Qi's chest. With that, a mighty force rushed like a torrent within his body, and his physical strength was abruptly elevated by three thousand times!
This was the limit that Wu Qi's fleshly body could withstand right now! Although there were more powerful runes in Dragon Kill that could increase his strength by ten thousand times, his fleshly body could not withstand such a tremendous increase. The three thousand times augmentation was the strongest power that he could control and use right now.
As soon as he was done with the transformation, Wu Qi opened his mouth and sprayed out a stream of Nine Nether Ghost Flame, which caused the golden palm strike that was about to smash down on him lose its brilliant gleam, smearing it with a vast amount of the dark aura of death. Then, he lifted both arms over his shoulders and forcefully slapped the golden palm. A loud rumble rang out as the palm strike, which Prabhutaratna Buddha had unleashed casually and thought he could use it to easily capture Wu Qi, was crushed into pieces.
With the help of Dragon Kill, Wu Qi's current overall strength was infinitely approaching that of a second-tier Gold Immortal. Therefore, how could the palm strike Prabhutaratna Buddha unleashed with only the power of a fourth-tier Gold Immortal withstand his full power strike? In just the blink of an eye, the golden palm shattered into countless fist-sized fragments that looked as if they were made of pure gold, falling all over the ground.
These golden fragments were the condensation of Prabhutaratna Buddha's pure power. As his palm strike was shattered by Wu Qi, he lost control over the power, thus causing it to crumble and fall into pieces like some physical object. Gradually, the fragments melted down and transformed into pale golden power of Buddha, spreading into all directions. Nourished by such power, the ground, which consisted of stones filled with rich natural energy, slowly transformed into relics and fine jades; soon, half of the hilltop was gleaming brilliantly.
The failure of his first strike had turned Prabhutaratna Buddha's gleaming face pale with rage. As one of the most famous Buddhas from the Buddhist League and the master of hundreds of millions of outer heavenly realms, Prabhutaratna Buddha had forgotten how long it had been since he attacked someone himself. This time, in order to kill Wu Qi who had killed his missionary disciple, while taking the opportunity to warn Great Yu for all their little tricks against the Buddhist League recently, he had personally come all the way to Pangu Continent.
And yet, his calculated strike was easily countered by Wu Qi!
It was humiliating! Wu Qi was just a puny existence as strong as a Gold Immortal. Although he was stronger than an ant, he was still an insignificant existence in the face of a Buddha. Despite that, he was able to render Prabhutaratna Buddha's strike completely useless, which meant a loss of face for the mighty Buddha.
Taking a deep breath, Prabhutaratna Buddha said in a cold voice, "You are asking to die, vile creature! Initially, I intended to make you the Protector of my Buddhist Kingdom, but it appears that you have failed to distinguish the good from the bad. The predestined relationship between the Buddhist League and you is now severed! It looks like I've no choice but to get rid of you today, so that the development of the Buddhist League will not be hindered by a vile creature like you!"
A golden bell and a jade bell emerged within Prabhutaratna Buddha's palms as he lifted both of his arms over his shoulders. The golden bell was shining gloriously with sharp energy beams constantly shooting out of it, while within the jade bell was a clump of dense smoke, from which, the crisp chime of a bell could be heard occasionally. It sounded as if the chimes were ringing right from the depth of one's soul, giving those who heard it a desire to fall asleep right away.
In fact, Prabhutaratna Buddha was famous for artifact crafting, and he was one of the top master craftsmen in the Buddhist League. All the artifacts he crafted were the best and choicest, and other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas often had to spend several Buddhism Kingdoms they had crafted with hard efforts to exchange for one or two handy artifacts from him. The golden bell and jade bell were the artifacts of demon severing he had crafted for himself regardless of the cost, giving them a mighty power and countless magical abilities.
As the crisp chime ringing out of the jade bell was distracting Wu Qi's divine soul, the golden bell soared into the sky with eighteen golden dragons wheeling inside rapidly. Countless weapons of the Buddhist League, such as evil severing blades and swords, vajra staffs and swords, lotus seals and swords, along with many others, were shooting out from within the golden bell, flashing with blinding golden light as they smashed down toward Wu Qi like a rain. All these weapons were crafted by refining acquired energy of gold element with the power of Buddha; therefore, each of them could expand or shrink, harden or soften, and increase and decrease in weight at will. At their lightest, they weighed like a feather, and at their heaviest, they weighed more than an entire mountain.
The loss of his face had driven Prabhutaratna Buddha to control the golden bell with his full power, unleashing countless evil severing weapons of the Buddhist League and smashing them down toward Wu Qi. Each weapon was shiny and sharp, weighing more than a mountain. With so many of them raining down, it seemed Wu Qi would soon be chopped into pieces.
In an attempt to try their power, Wu Qi thrust his arm toward an evil severing blade.
The sound of metal cutting through flesh rang out as the blade easily sliced through his thick arm. His strong dragon scales and tough muscles could not stop the sharp edge of the blade for even a brief second. Blood spurted out like a fountain as the blade went deeper and deeper, cutting through his muscles and bones. Luckily Wu Qi was quick to retract his arm; otherwise, the blade would have removed it from his body.
He quickly took a few steps back in horror. Even with his incredibly strong fleshly body, he was unable to withstand a random blade shooting out of the golden bell. In other words, if he were to let all these weapons fall onto his body, he would be certainly sliced and chopped into a meat paste in just a flash!
In the heat of the moment, Wu Qi waved his arms, and the wound caused by the blade began to heal rapidly. Then, a sheet of purple mist visible to naked eyes wrapped his arms as he pointed a finger at his blood that spurted out of the wound previously. By the doing that, he caused it to fly up into the air and transform into countless vicious runes, interweaving into a rune formation that was shaped like a snake slithering toward Prabhutaratna Buddha with a strange hissing noise.
It was called the 'Thousand Snakes Devouring Heart Spell', one of the countless malicious forbidden spells of the Directorate of Celestials. Those hit by this spell would suffer the pain that felt like their heart was being devoured by a thousand snakes, and the pain would be so intense that it could be lethal. With Wu Qi's current level of cultivation, even a top Gold Immortal would not want to let this spell touch his body.
But, Prabhutaratna Buddha was not a Gold Immortal, neither was he weaker than a Gold Immortal. Looking at the spell unleashed by Wu Qi, he said with a cold grin, "You're like a grain of rice fighting back against the sun and moon! Face your death now, vile creature!"
Dozens of golden swords flew out of the golden bell and easily sliced Wu Qi's forbidden spell to pieces. The destruction of his spell caused him to suffer a backlash, which forced him to stagger back for dozens of steps while blood oozed out from underneath the scales on his chest. The spells of the Directorate of Celestials were fierce and malicious, and whenever they failed to hurt the enemy, they would bring a backlash to the caster. It was the same reason why Yu Miao's few disciples and sons were killed by Yu Huai's counterattack when they failed to kill Wu Qi with their spells.
Countless weapons of the Buddhist League shot out of the golden bell and blanketed Wu Qi's body.
Wu Qi laughed deeply as a beam of black light suddenly rushed out from the top of his head, from within which, the new Dark Yin Celestial Tower came flying out speedily, transforming into a sheet of black light that had him firmly protected within. Then, he sent all his energy into the tower, and in the next moment, the speed of time within the void about one mile around him abruptly increased by a hundred folds.
The speed of time around him had increased by a hundred folds, but it remained the same around those weapons.
Like a stream of light, Wu Qi traveled effortlessly among the countless weapons, and none of them could touch his body.
Prabhutaratna Buddha's expression became even more bizarre. "You can manipulate time? Then, I've to kill you no matter what!" With a flip of his hands, the jade bell placed atop his palm slowly let out a crisp sound.