Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 1868 - 980: Bitter Struggle (Part 2)

Even Sword Elder himself couldn’t make many Sword Tokens; every single token consumed one of his Spirit Imprints, and that kind of consumption was no small matter.

Just look at those Cultivators: once a Spirit Imprint inside a magic treasure is destroyed, it will cause their soul to suffer a shock; let alone at the Great Power Realm, where the impact of a destroyed Spirit Imprint would only be even more severe.

Li Yuanba was also making preparations. Although the two Dukes of Thunder and one Red Demon had not been summoned out, they had long since been poised to strike, just waiting for his command to launch their attack.

"Slash!" Sword Elder’s Avatar said in a low voice.

Although spoken softly, the voice carried an indescribable sharpness that made the skin of any Cultivator who heard it prickle in pain.

Right after he uttered "slash", the flying sword that Sword Elder’s Avatar had transformed into shot toward Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar.

Ten ice walls had already risen up in front of Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar, each one carrying a powerful Ice Rules Power.

The flying sword that Sword Elder’s Avatar had become, just as it was about to touch the first ice wall, caused a fissure to appear in the void ahead of it. The sword slipped into the fissure, then emerged from a spatial crack behind the tenth ice wall.

Li Yuanba was stunned; although he had mastered spatial abilities, he was far from capable of something like this.

Because this strike from Sword Elder’s Avatar was not performed with a space ability at all, but purely used peerless Sword Intent to slice open the void, performing a short-distance spatial shuttle—this had little to do with space abilities.

On this technique alone, Li Yuanba was far inferior.

It was probably also Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar’s first time fighting Sword Elder; he didn’t understand Sword Elder’s combat style well, or perhaps this ability of Sword Elder had never been revealed before.

In any case, Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar was caught completely off guard; by the time he reacted, the flying sword was already slashing in front of him.

As the flying sword neared, a thick layer of ice armor appeared on the surface of Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar’s body.

The friction between the flying sword and the ice armor triggered intense energy fluctuations; the sword cut into the ice armor, continuously slicing inward.

The ice armor was cut through, and the flying sword stabbed into Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar’s body.

Unfortunately, after piercing an inch in, the flying sword had no strength left. It turned into motes of light and dissipated.

"Yuan Ba, run!" Sword Elder’s voice transmission rang by Li Yuanba’s ear; it was the last reminder before the energy of the flying sword formed from Sword Elder’s Avatar completely dissipated.

Li Yuanba did not run. With a wave of his hand, the figures of the two Dukes of Thunder flashed and appeared beside Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar, while the Red Demon stood in front of him.

Once Sword Elder’s Avatar had dispersed, it could no longer see Li Yuanba’s subsequent actions.

Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar had taken a strike from Sword Elder’s Avatar. Although the sword wound was not deep, it was still a sword from Sword Elder. Even though the energy within the avatar was limited, the Sword Intent it unleashed was absolutely real.

Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar hurriedly tried to expel the Sword Intent that had invaded his body. If he let this Sword Intent go unchecked, it would probably take no time at all before it destroyed half of his body.

Yet just as he was attempting to purge the Sword Intent within, he hadn’t expected Li Yuanba not to flee, but instead to choose to launch an attack.

This was something unimaginable. Rumor had it that Li Yuanba had slain a Half-step Great Power before, but how could a Half-step Great Power possibly compare to a Great Power Avatar?

Even if a Great Power Avatar’s strength wasn’t equal to the true body, the combat power it could display was still at true Great Power Level.

The problem was that Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar was splitting his focus to drive out the Sword Intent within his body. At this moment, the attacks launched by the two Dukes of Thunder were something even he didn’t dare allow to land unchecked.

Unable to calmly purge the Sword Intent in his body, Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar could only dodge.

He activated a fresh layer of ice armor, which spread outward, blocking the two Dukes of Thunder’s attacks.

The Dukes of Thunder struck the ice armor, and cracks appeared across the impacted area.

Their attack speed was extremely fast; at most half a breath’s time would be enough to shatter the ice armor.

But half a breath was enough time for Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar to dodge to the side.

Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar chose to use Space Movement, prioritizing Li Yuanba as his target—this was capturing the ringleader first to catch the followers.

In his view, as long as he subdued Li Yuanba, all those battle strengths summoned by Li Yuanba would obediently fall in line.

He appeared right in front of Li Yuanba, and countless ice arrows shot toward Li Yuanba.

These ice arrows also covered the Red Demon within their range. Above the Red Demon’s head, the Infinite Fire Peak appeared, and at the same time, the fifth-grade Infinite Immortal Fire within his body surged up. All the incoming ice arrows were blocked by the flames emitted from Infinite Fire Peak.

The flames released by Infinite Fire Peak were empowered by the fifth-grade Infinite Immortal Fire. The flames unleashed by the Red Demon himself thus reached Half-step Great Power Level.

On top of that, with Infinite Fire Peak and the fifth-grade Infinite Immortal Fire further amplifying it, the flames were infinitely close to true Great Power Level.

The massive barrage of ice arrows unleashed by Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar collided with flames of equally terrifying power, triggering an explosion between the two opposing energies.

In the midst of the explosion, a Golden Bodhisattva Protector appeared before Li Yuanba. He grabbed the Golden Bodhisattva Protector with one hand, using it as a shield.

The violent blast sent the Red Demon’s body tumbling uncontrollably through the air, but Li Yuanba wasn’t worried about the Red Demon; the Red Demon wasn’t that easily injured.

The Dukes of Thunder and the Red Demon refined by him all possessed extremely strong recovery abilities. Even if severely wounded, they would recover in a short time.

This was a capability derived from Corpse Refining, yet under the effect of tens of billions of Refining Corpse Runes, their recovery had been pushed to the extreme.

Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar was also affected by the explosion. He probably hadn’t expected the flames released by the Red Demon to be able to contend with his ice arrows and cause a point-blank explosion.

Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar did not lose control of his body and spin away like the Red Demon; instead, his body merely staggered back several meters.

But at this moment, the two Dukes of Thunder appeared behind Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar, and his retreat brought him right up beside them.

The two Dukes of Thunder simultaneously reached out and grabbed his two arms.

The ice armor on Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar flashed, attempting to use it to blast the two Dukes of Thunder away.

But at close range, the raw strength advantage of the two Dukes of Thunder was fully displayed; it was nowhere near so easy to shake them off, and for the moment both sides were locked in a stalemate.

At this time, Li Yuanba finally moved.

The Xingyi Sword revealed its full power with no concealment, displaying the aura of a true spirit treasure.

Li Yuanba activated the Power Storage Secret Method, pouring all of his Chaos Sword Intent, as well as his most recent insights into Sword Intent, into the Xingyi Sword.

With the Power Storage Secret Method triggered, he squeezed every last bit of energy and Sword Intent from within his body to the limit. Only a spirit-treasure-grade Xingyi Sword could withstand him pouring in his energy and Sword Intent without any reservation.

"Slash!" he intoned softly in his heart.

The Xingyi Sword swept out, and with the blessing of the Speed Rule Imprint, it was almost upon its target the instant it was drawn.

At the very same time, the two Dukes of Thunder activated their lightning ability together. Lightning flared up on their bodies and then enveloped Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar completely.

Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar was in terrible shape now: he still had the Sword Intent left behind by Sword Elder’s Avatar inside him.

He had also been shaken by the explosion caused by colliding ice and fire energies, leaving his stance unstable and giving the two Dukes of Thunder an opening to close in. With their lightning now erupting, his entire avatar felt numb.

The ice armor on his body, under the impact of the lightning, was almost on the verge of collapse.

At this moment the Red Demon released another burst of flame, shattering Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar’s ice armor completely.

Thus, when the Xingyi Sword struck Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar, the defenses on his body were in a fully dispersed state.

As the Xingyi Sword neared Yingchuan Bodhisattva’s avatar, the Chaos Sword Intent on the blade erupted with a terrifying might.

And in Li Yuanba’s eyes, the faint phantom of a Sword Intent Stele appeared. In that final moment, as he forced himself to mobilize his Sword Intent to the utmost, he also infused his latest insights into the Sword Intent Stele into the Xingyi Sword.