Archfiend

Chapter 383: The Gold-Banded Staff (8)

“Pill Cauldron Is My Heart! Myriad Spirits Suppression! Ten Cardinals Purgatory!” 

In the darkness, the sharp teeth were like daggers. In the next instant, a furious roar rang out, and a resplendent firework exploded in the darkness!

“ROAR!!!” Ten purple fire-dragons devastated the behemoth’s mouth! Xu Yangyi didn’t care about the sharp teeth approaching him. No matter how, it was pointless… he had Life Hangs By A Thread and the Lotus Reincarnation.

He was gambling.

Gambling that one divine ability, automatically activated, would free him from the danger entrapping him in crisis.

Boom! Inside the monster’s mouth, countless rings of teeth closed shut. Even if Xu Yangyi was initial-stage Foundation Establishment, perhaps hundreds of large holes would still punch through him. However, only the sound of closing teeth echoed. There was no sound of teeth ripping apart flesh or moreover a wretched scream!

Amidst the Ten Cardinals Purgatory’s havoc, the monster’s tentacle-like tongues were accompanied by blood-curdling shrieks. All of them retreated. And in the teeth, Xu Yangyi’s body became illusory. At the same moment of release, he reformed!

“My bet was right!” Excited, he faced up and roared into the sky. The Voidspirit Immortal Physique activated! This demonbeast had no relation to qi. Its attack was “real”! Under the premise of the Lotus Reincarnation and Life Hangs By A Thread, he’d made the grand bet on the Voidspirit Immortal Physique’s activation. As expected, he wasn’t let down!

Swoosh! His hands emitted two one-meter-sized orbs of spirit light. Immediately… stretches of icy frost began to creep out from under his feet.

“I don’t have any more time to waste on you…” A cold sneer hung at the crook of his mouth. “Let’s see if your insides are just as hard as your teeth!”

“Heavenly Opening… Devour Blood!”

Zhao Ziqi nervously stood outside at his original position. He fixed his eyes on the precipice.

He knew he couldn’t go over. Him joining the fray right now was nothing more than an added nuisance to the beast. Still, his heart was in turmoil. The black mist cut off probing, and this demonbeast’s realm was unclear. After it swallowed Xu Yangyi, the behemoth soon flung its massive tail up and sunk into the ground of the overhanging cliff, simply unseen!

How… How the hell could this happen?! Zhao Ziqi flew around chaotically. All of a sudden, he stopped and looked to the inside of the triangular sea curtain with a little disbelief.

The ground… seemed to be shaking.

Not waiting on Zhao Ziqi to react, this time, the entire cliff seemed to tremble! Followingly, a world-shaking roar thundered!

“ROOOAAAR!!!”

In the next second, a creature, accompanied by a sky of black mist and bones, leaped out from the bottomless abyss!

God… Zhao Ziqi exhaled coldly. Even if he was knowledgeable, he’d never seen such an organism! 

It resembled a tadpole, yet it was countless times larger! It was no less than a thousand meters long! Its head was 300 meters in size, and there was a fin-like object on its head, extending straight to its tail. The length of its form was covered with great mouths of varying size. Rows of shining-white incisors glimmered within. Black scales armored its body, and between its mouths, there were hundreds of eyes of varying sizes that were irregularly filling the gaps.

Not to mention seeing, he’d never heard of such a creature!

What the heck is this thing?!?! Is it occupying the bottom of the staff? No, the abyss isn’t big enough to contain it… I understand! It’s like a centipede, it’s coiling around the stone pillar! It’s hiding in the black mist!

In his state of nothingness, he wiped away the nonexistent sweat on his forehead. He found himself soon staring blankly.

A strange question emerged in quite an untimely fashion on his mind.

If demonbeast that long is coiling around the stone pillar… then… how tall is this platform?

He heaved out sharply, controlling his frantic heartbeat and looking down below.

A pitch-black expanse seemed to lead to the underworld’s dark realm. One simply couldn’t see the bottom!

“ROAR!!!” An anguished screech interrupted Zhao Ziqi’s train of thought. As far as his eyes reached, the strange, giant demonbeast was violently twitching! It was in such pain that it jumped and rolled at the same time!

On its body, some parts of its flesh were visibly shriveled. It was just that these injuries couldn’t be considered mortal wounds to such a colossal mass.

Boom! Rolling in the air, its maw snapped open, and ten fire-dragons snarled as they stormed out. Along with the black smoke of scorched flesh, a shadow flew out at the same time.

Big bro! Zhao Ziqi shouted out in excitement once he got a clear picture of things.

Xu Yangyi was panting for air. Using several great killing moves in succession consumed a majority of his spiritual force. His left hand clutching the supreme-grade spirit stone, he slowly absorbed qi. His camouflage attire was broken in quite a few places. Regarding Zhao Ziqi’s shout, he had no time to look. He raised his right hand, and the curving qi chain suddenly drew taught in a straight line. His body rushed towards the staff!

Bang! Yet just as he charged out thirty meters, he became stuck.

“Damn!” His fiery gaze looked to the abyss below. Like lightning, a flesh-red tongue stretched out from underneath him and latched onto his left hand.

“Fuck…” he cursed viciously and turned his head to the central platform. His heart was wracked by terrible anxiety!

If he’d arrived a second faster, he could’ve absorbed a fraction more! Now, although there were a few scattered qi orbs running over… how many spirit-masters did the Clearcloud Realm have?!

The qi of mortals, even a lifetime’s accumulation, was a cup of water on a burning cart if the amount wasn’t in the tens of thousands! He roughly estimated that without a million qi orbs, he basically couldn’t assail middle-stage Foundation Establishment!

At this moment… each second of drainage was the qi of several hundred thousand people! In a few minutes, this staff would absorb all the qi of the Clearcloud Realm’s deceased. Those who died in the last ten years! There would be no share for him!

And below… this damned demonbeast was tireless and relentless, leaving him anxious but without alternatives.

This was the first time after Foundation Establishment that he felt his divine abilities weren’t enough again. Without a Foundation Establishment killing move, he was in all too much of a need for a hidden trump that was like the Qi Condensation Ketu-Rahu Sword.

Swoosh… Swoosh… Swoosh swoosh swoosh! Not waiting for his thoughts to end, a puff of black mist exploded up from far away! Afterwards, a long tongue covered with fanged mouths leaped out from it!

But there wasn’t just one… there were dozens! A hundred! In an instant, the stone platform’s surroundings at the overhanging cliff became a field of scarlet tongues. They swayed back and forth, again and again!

“HISS!!!” A towering roar rang out, and an extremely slender tongue extended out from the black mist. There was only one mouth on it, but this mouth was aimed at the qi chain!

Once the qi chain broke, Xu Yangyi would fall into the endless abyss!

His right hand was fastened to the qi chain, and his left hand was being locked down by the tongue. He physically couldn’t move an inch!

Big bro!!! Zhao Ziqi dashed over with great worry.

A thousand pounds hung by a thread, the intersection of life and death. Xu Yangyi didn’t fall to turmoil, but instead took a deep breath. His eyes flashed with a wisp of determination.

“This really is… a familiar situation…”

A crack then followed. His left arm was severed at the base.

Now, the qi chain stretched taut again. He was like lightning, forcibly pulling over the chain! Precise in his actions, he disappeared outside the abyss!

CRACK! At the same time, the tongue bit down at his original position, and a crunch rang out. Soon though, the beast paused, seemingly in doubt. Where was the intruder?

Xu Yangyi’s left arm simultaneously dropped into the boundless darkness. In the black mist, great billows quickly whirled in number. The endless tongues caused the ocean of black mist to completely boil! Like a frenzied dance of serpents, they all charged over to where the arm fell! 

Clap… Xu Yangyi’s footsteps landed exactly on the staff, and he made a long sigh.

One second. Four scenarios. A spark of flint. The rising hare and the descending falcon.

In the next second, an angrier snarl than before rang out from within the entire mass of black mist. The roar already stood at the peak of violence. “HISS! HIIISSS!!!”

It had been played!

The hero’s severed arm didn’t allow the demonbeast’s excitement to last for a second. 

It soon realized that it had been played by that vile ant! 

Zhao Ziqi’s footsteps also came to an abrupt halt. He looked at Xu Yangyi in astonishment. Only until he saw the demon slayer’s left arm emitting orbs of white light did he wipe away his cold sweat. So that’s how it was… I-Isn’t that a grand master’s masterpiece?

Rumble… Xu Yangyi coldly eyed his surroundings. This time, following the flare of black mist that filled the sky, not only did the demonbeast’s massive head come up, but countless similar hundred-meter-long tongues did as well!

“HIIISSS!!!” An ear-piercing screech shook the world. The demonbeast was already in the grip of madness. In the surroundings of the ten-odd-meter-sized stone platform, a sea of tongues resembled a forest of flesh! And at this moment, this forest was madly dancing in the all-consuming black tide!

Xu Yangyi focused his gaze for three seconds. He still couldn’t make out a rank from this demonbeast, but… it appeared to be terrified of the staff. It didn’t dare to cross these ten-odd meters of half-steps! It had no choice but to snarl all around and kick up tides of black mist. It even circled around the stone platform, as if the platform’s surroundings was a black sea, and it was like a behemoth revolving around a lonely island in the ocean.

“No way to vent your fear, huh,” Xu Yangyi laughed coldly and then looked to the peak of the staff with a roiling-hot gaze.

Yes… all the qi was hurrying over to the middle of this staff. From here, he was still over 4,000 meters away!

Swoosh! He suddenly took out the Animus Armament and quickly fell down. The behemoth circling around snapped its head up and let loose an excited screech. Hundreds of tongues wildly danced. But in the next second, Xu Yangyi swung his right hand again, and the armament pierced into an even higher place on the staff with a qi chain! Afterwards, Xu Yangyi fired off again like a catapult!

Clang… Swish… Clang… Swish… These continuous sounds rang out. His speed was much slower without the Ketu-Rahu Sword that made his left arm, but he continued to climb. His distance from where the qi was gathering was closing in.

After a few of Xu Yangyi’s leaps, the behemoth’s initial excitement turned into a gloomy snarl. Finally, its cries became impatient howls of anger!

A lonesome figure scaled the endlessly long staff. In the surrounding black mist filling the sky, the behemoth hissed. This scene was so magnificent that one was left bewitched.

Clang! Xu Yangyi gritted his teeth as he dripped with sweat. Without his left arm, he couldn’t absorb qi. Right now, he could only rely on his physical strength and barely remaining spiritual force to go up and up again. Perspiration already drenched his entire body, and his two legs were tightly pressing down on the staff from both sides. Once more, he launched the Animus Armament in his hand.

He breathed in heavily. This was his rest. All of a sudden though, the entire sky seemed to flash.

He lifted his head and looked over in amazement. However, he discovered that the surrounding coffins… were actually decreasing in number! Behind the water curtain, the amount of coffins left could be clearly seen!

The number of surging qi orbs was obviously much less than before!

“The staff’s gonna be done absorbing them soon!” His temples throbbed violently, and veins flushed out against his forehead. As if he was the most passionate mountain climber, Xu Yangyi rushed up again!

Clang… Clang… Dull sounds echoed through heaven and earth. A few minutes later, Xu Yangyi had finally climbed up several thousand meters!

In surveying the vicinity, he saw a curtain of seawater. Behind this curtain hundreds of millions of pale fires glittered through. Below, black qi lingered, and the behemoth grumbled. Above, the triangular sky whistled in the eye. Orbs of flocking qi were all around.

Yes, there were many, many less qi orbs than before, but… it was adequate. Ten seconds was still several ten thousand qi orbs, enough to leave him the resources to assail middle-stage Foundation Establishment!

“Come on…” He closed his eyes. Upon reaching his current position on the staff, he finally relaxed, and all his pores opened. In a flash… tens of thousands of qi flowers that were rushing to the staff all swooshed towards him!

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