Transcending the Nine Heavens

Ye Di silently counted before he said, “If we push it, six times.”

“Good!” The Dharma Supreme said, “Make the most of our time and let the casualties recover. Use medicine if you have any. The other clans will stand in for now; after we’ve gone a full round, it’ll be the Ye Clan’s turn again!”

Ye Di nodded heavily.

Subsequently, starlight lightning manifested incessantly in the sky. Left with no other choice, Zi Xieqing dealt with them one by one.

As the array had blocked out human presence and Heavenly Secrets, she couldn’t sense anything at all, only able to fight on passively!

However, Zi Xieqing’s stance had changed. Unlike the initial dashing about, she now stood quietly at a high point, allowing the lightning to come crashing down before she countered with her palm!

As the lightning strikes became more and more frequent, Zi Xieqing finally started to show signs of fatigue, as if suffering from serious injuries. When countering the lightning, she began to retreat more and more, her body swaying harder and harder...

It seemed like she was running out of steam...

Ye Di, the Dharma Supreme and the others were all secretly gloating inside.

So what even if you’re so powerful and so mighty? How much more can you stomach? Just wearing you down alone can kill you too!

But what they didn’t know was that Zi Xieqing was feeling pretty good too.

The power of these attacks wasn’t small; every time she countered one head-on, the energy she expended was certainly sizable. However, Zi Xieqing’s cultivation was limitless. Her current look of fatigue was merely a pretense she put on after countering over thirty lightning strikes.

If she were to really do an estimate based on her cultivation, Zi Xieqing was pretty confident that she would still be able to endure more than a hundred of such heavy hits.

Of course, if she were to take into account the six Nine Tribulations Pills that Chu Yang had given her, Zi Xieqing would be able to endure at least 1,500 of these hits at the very least...

However, it was absolutely impossible for the Nine Super Clans and law-enforcement ward to deal 1,500 of such hits... Just a hundred times were already more or less their limit...

Every time a recoil from an attack occurred, at least two to three people would die... Even the Nine Super Clans wouldn’t be able to sustain such a loss! However, the current situation was such that as long as the array remained intact, nobody would be able to leave!

As of now, the starlight lightning had struck a total of 34 times. The Nine Super Clans and law-enforcement ward originally had 771 Supreme Martial Artist experts; in the battle earlier, 190 were killed and now another 32 were lost in the hands of Zi Xieqing!

There was still a total of 549 people involved in the crusade against Zi Xieqing!

However, while the enemy did look like she was increasingly in a bad state, they had also lost another 117 of their men with these 33 strikes of starlight lightning!

The current survivors made up a total of 432...

Both parties were feeling pretty smug on the inside right now, but there was no knowing who the one having the last laugh would be.

Though the one in the best mood was probably the Dharma Supreme.

No matter which clan had dealt an attack, the Dharma Supreme would go over and show them some concern —”How’s the loss? How many died?”

And as he asked, without even batting an eyelid, he would absorb the life force origin energy of the Supreme Martial Artists who had died.

And he even got the gratitude of the nine clans in return.

Another tens of strikes followed. Zi Xieqing remained tottering, hanging on by a thread. However, the headcount of the Nine Super Clans and law-enforcement ward experts had already been reduced to 360...

Bu Liuqing and the other two who had been holding their breath also finally relaxed.

Ye Di and the rest also realized something was amiss.

F*ck! Who’s wearing down who now? Why does this look so odd?!

“Lord Dharma Supreme! Something doesn’t seem quite right,” said Ye Di with a frown, “The array has concentrated our cultivation into one, which boosts our strength to more than thrice the original. With the help of the stars, it was then increased by yet another several times, right? According to that, even if ten Ning Tianya’s and Bu Liuqing’s joined hands, by right, our current attacks should be able to kill them in one hit! But now... This woman started swaying back and forth since an hour ago and now she’s still doing the same thing...”

A loud gasp escaped from Ye Di. “She’s trying to wear us down!”

The Dharma Supreme frowned. “Is it that serious?”

Ye Di heaved a heavy sigh. “I’m afraid so. Within this array, she can’t find us at all nor does she have any way of attacking us. Thus, she can only use such a method to expend our strength... Lord Dharma Supreme, as the headcount gets reduced, the number of people who die from the recoil every time we activate a starlight lightning strike is increasing... We cannot allow this to go on.”

Frowning, the Dharma Supreme contemplated for a while before he said, “If that’s the case... I’ll speak with Zhuge and have all nine move in unison! We’ll destroy the enemy in one hit and be done with this once and for all!”

Ye Di replied gratefully, “I am thankful for Lord Dharma Supreme’s kindness.”

The Dharma Supreme then turned and left.

There was only one sole motive why the Dharma Supreme had organized and tried his best to incite such a battle of Slaying of the Tao — Absorbing life force origin.

To him, Chu Yang wasn’t the Nine Tribulations Sword Master anyway. No matter how strong he got or how big his influence became, it was but just a force in the Nine Heavens. So what even if he developed into a force as influential as the Nine Super Clans? He couldn’t possibly threaten his position as the Dharma Supreme, could he?

However, if he didn’t incite such a great battle, where would he go to collect this much life force origin energy? The nine Supremacies nourishing the Heavens only took place once every thousand years; he couldn’t possibly go around hunting Supreme Martial Artists, could he?

Right at that point, Zi Xieqing made a domineering appearance, giving the Nine Super Clans a sense of crisis. And so, the Dharma Supreme elaborately planned this great battle of Slaying of the Tao!

Not only would this battle offer him abundant Supreme Martial Artist life force origin energy, if it was successful, he could even harvest the life force origin energy of a super expert of the Tao state like Zi Xieqing...

This was something he dreamed of.

By the twentieth-odd time, the Dharma Supreme could already tell that Zi Xieqing was expending their resources. However, he was preoccupied with energy collection then and also felt that they had sufficient resources. Thus, he wasn’t anxious at all.

But now, he felt that it was about time.

Now that he had already collected the final life force origin of over 400 Supreme Martial Artists, though it was nothing in comparison to extracting it from live humans such as during the time of the nine Supremacies nourishing the heavens, it was already considered an abundant harvest to the Dharma Supreme. He might as well get rid of Zi Xieqing earlier so that it would be a load off his chest.

If not, the fact that this wasn’t his original body — which in turn caused his own origin energy to always be suppressed in the body and unable to be used — would always be an issue of great concern after all!

Under the arrangement of the Dharma Supreme, every clan made swift adjustments.

Zi Xieqing was just wondering why it had suddenly turned quiet when the entire sky lit up with the sparkle of stars the next moment. Then, nine bolts of starlight lightning came at her!

The nine bolts of starlight lightning circled in the sky before they converged into a single bolt. Spanning a girth of several tens of feet, it was accompanied by burning white light and a prismatic colorful glow with a faint hint of purple aura. Then, it came crashing down with tremendous momentum!

With a loud shout, Zi Xieqing’s white robes suddenly billowed and her hair ribbon snapped into two. Her head of long silky hair was blown upward and a misty purple aura emanated from her. With a shake of her arms, her sleeves exploded and disintegrated into dust!

Her slender form slowly ascended. Her face was covered by a layer of purple aura while her hands were wholly covered in the purple aura, their original flesh color no longer visible.

This lightning was no ordinary strike, and so Zi Xieqing finally displayed her true power!

Her hands criss-crossed a few times before her body shot forward, meeting that thick bolt of lightning head-on!

Before she got near, her hands had already struck out several times. In the night sky, waves of purple aura, as though brilliant strikes of lightning, shot one after the other at that bolt of starlight lightning!

In the shadows, the mouths of Bu Liuqing and the other two were agape.

This was the decisive strike between life and death, victory and defeat!

Everyone was well aware!

With this strike, should Zi Xieqing die, the Slaying of the Tao would be successful!

Should Zi Xieqing survive but suffer grave injuries, it would only be half-successful... And should she only suffer light injuries, then that would indicate the decline of the Nine Super Clans and law-enforcement ward!

Because Zi Xieqing would never let them off! With the power that Zi Xieqing currently displayed, once she was out of this Great Nebula Divide of Heavenly Secrets Array, the Dharma Supreme and Wu Juecheng wouldn’t be her match either, even if they joined hands!

There was no denying it!

The eyes of several hundred people watched anxiously the clash between the white and purple rays of light in the sky. They stared fixated, not even blinking, their hearts throbbing anxiously...

Under their watchful eyes, Zi Xieqing’s first purple palm strike finally made contact with the lightning bolt!

A deafening boom thundered!

The entire Mount Xingyun trembled!

Then, the second palm strike, third palm strike, fourth...

Booms echoed one after another. Before the recoil even hit them, a few Supreme Martial Artists below third-grade had already died from the reverberation caused by the thunderous booms!

Blood sprayed from the facial orifices of every Supreme Martial Artist below sixth-grade!

Zi Xieqing hit out 99 times. At her hundredth palm strike, she made direct contact with the starlight lightning with both palms. Her long hair fluttering in the air, she shouted with great impetus, “Die, all of you!”

And she pushed out with great force!

With a loud boom, her bare hands actually shattered the starlight lightning, and it dissolved into rays of light that shot all about in the sky.

A loud sound like that of glass cracking could be heard coming from the sky above them that had been completely locked down by the array. Then, all of a sudden, the darkness enveloping them lifted!

Heavy snow continued to drift around them!

Loud tragic cries and screams filled the air. The forms of the Supreme Martial Artist experts in each area were all exposed. The unimaginably strong recoil threw out every Nine Super Clans’ Supreme Martial Artists who had been supporting the array.

The reverberation reduced the majority of the weaker ones to a bloody pulp in the air!

The horrification of this recoil was practically unparalleled. Out of 360 Supreme Martial Artist experts, 352 were eliminated right away!

The sky looked as if it was raining blood in the heavy snow!

Even Wu Juecheng at the top let out a tragic cry, spewing out blood as he plummeted!

They were only left with Ye Di, Xiao Se, Ling Fengyun, Zhuge Hutu, Ye Qingchou, the Dharma Supreme, Wu Juecheng and an eighth-grade apex Supreme Martial Artist from the law-enforcement ward!

Among them, other than the Dharma Supreme who was completely fine because he didn’t participate in the attack at all and so didn’t suffer the recoil, blood trickled down the corners of everyone’s mouths, including Wu Juecheng. The slightly weaker Zhuge Hutu, though he managed to keep his life, laid on the ground, unable to lift even a finger.

On the opposite side, Zi Xieqing was also thrown back. She retreated several steps, deep footprints appearing on the ground with every step. She took a total of nine steps back before she finally stopped. She coughed up three mouthfuls of blood, her face as pale as paper!

With sheer brute force, she had broken the Great Nebula Divide of Heavenly Secrets Array with just the power of one! In a situation where she didn’t even come into contact with the enemy, she had slayed practically all the enemies in one fell swoop!

This level of cultivation was practically earth-shattering!