Shrouding the Heavens

Chapter 313 - Consecutive Slaughter

Ye Fan’s heart skipped a beat. On top of his previous strength, Gu Litian’s body and combat power had multiplied several times over. The danger he radiated was overwhelming.

“In the past half year, I’ve torn apart five cultivators in the Four Pillars Realm. Forcing me to unleash the flesh-forging divine art, Flood-Dragon Transformation, even if I die here, I can die proud!”

Once Gu Litian transformed into a humanoid purple flood-dragon, his beastly nature flared. Ferocious and savage, he said, “I smell the blood of the Primeval Desolate Sacred Physique. Why not spare your life, imprison you forever, and draw out your holy blood day after day to temper my flesh?”

“You’re speaking too soon!” Ye Fan showed no fear. He thrust out the Seal of Mountain and River.

A colossal black mountain descended from the sky, blotting out the sun, throwing a vast shadow across the land. Its pressure was boundless.

Gu Litian only grinned wickedly. His body radiated terrifying strength. With his right hand transformed into a violet dragon claw, he reached forward.

Crack!

That violet claw pierced into the black mountain itself, ripping it apart. The vast mountain shattered into countless fragments, bursting outward in an energy storm that darkened the sky.

Ye Fan frowned. His opponent’s flesh truly was abnormally strong, enough to contend head-on with him.

“The scent of holy blood… is intoxicating!” Gu Litian, half man and half dragon, was more terrifying than ordinary flood-dragons. His hybrid form carried the strengths of both man and beast.

Yet it had one fatal flaw, his beastly nature surged wildly, threatening to drown what remained of his humanity.

“You’ve chosen degradation. The human body holds endless mysteries, yet you twist it into this half-man, half-beast abomination. Today I’ll show you what true supremacy of the human flesh means!”

With a roar, Ye Fan shot forward like golden lightning. Though Gu Litian’s power had risen, Ye Fan felt no fear.

His golden fists crackled with thunderbolts, tearing open the void as he rushed in.

Buzz!

The void itself seemed like a scroll seized by a golden hand, shaken violently, an apocalyptic sight.

Ye Fan’s fleshly power was overwhelming, as if he might tear through the very bindings of heaven and earth.

At last, his golden fist slammed against Gu Litian’s violet claw.

Light exploded between heaven and earth. Gold and purple surged skyward, colliding like twin volcanoes erupting together.

The ground beneath them silently disintegrated. A vast pit appeared, the crimson soil reduced to ash, an entire expanse erased.

“Rooaar!” Gu Litian bellowed like a wild beast. From the violet radiance he lunged forth, his legs trembling like a dragon’s tail lashing as he pounced, eyes blazing with feral light.

Ye Fan only shook his head coldly. “You’ve lost yourself. No matter how much power you gain, what difference is there between you and a beast?”

Boom!

Ye Fan struck again, direct and simple, his golden fists smashing against Gu Litian’s claws.

Crack!

The ten violet dragon claws, his nails transmuted into talons, snapped one by one, blood spurting.

Gu Litian howled, both hands mangled. Even as a half-man, half-dragon, his flesh could not match Ye Fan’s. The agony forced back his beastly nature, restoring a sliver of clarity.

“Primeval Desolate Sacred Physique… is it truly this terrifying?!” He spat purple blood, his body blazing with surging energies and violet light like raging flames.

Ye Fan stood aloft in the sky like a God-King. Golden radiance cascaded from him, even his black hair shimmering with a golden glow. He pressed forward step by step.

Gu Litian invoked forbidden arts, twisting his bones, his face grotesque with scales.

“Flood-Dragon’s Nine Transformations!” he roared. His body warped unnaturally, dragon bones contorting. With a shudder, he shot forward, murderous aura surging, violet mist billowing as though a true dragon descended.

Buzz!

Ye Fan met power with power, his golden hand slamming out, shattering the firmament.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

After more than ten successive collisions, Ye Fan remained unmoved, wreathed in golden light. But Gu Litian coughed blood again and again, forced backward.

“Why?! I can feel I should be suppressing you, yet every clash I’m driven back!” Gu Litian’s voice trembled, his body drenched in violet blood.

“You’re burning your potential,” Ye Fan said coldly. “Once, twice, even thrice you may endure. But now you’re exhausted!”

He pressed in to finish it quickly.

“I’ll shed the flood-dragon and become a true dragon among men!” Gu Litian roared, swallowing several violet inner cores at once.

These Flood-Dragon Cores, fierce and yang in nature, erupted inside him. His entire body blazed violet, scales crackling with lightning. He became a violent beast, more monster than man, even his eyes purple.

“The taste of holy blood… with it I’ll become stronger!” His voice dripped with madness.

Ye Fan, like a divine king, radiated golden brilliance. His left hand formed the Solar Seal, his right the Lunar Seal. Twin discs, vast as grinding wheels, rumbled through the heavens as he pushed them forward.

Sun and moon revolved at his command. Their dazzling light filled the sky, divine and majestic.

“You’ve already drained your potential, you are dried out!” Ye Fan’s voice shook the land.

Boom!

Gu Litian charged like a feral beast. Yet he was met by a blazing sun. The sacred radiance struck him head-on.

Pfft!

He was hurled away like a broken doll, blood spraying.

Swish!

He twisted back, charging again, only to be struck by the shining moon. Blood spewed from his mouth as he fell from the sky.

“This ends now!”

Ye Fan descended. This time, the Seal of Mountain and River condensed into a black peak at his fingertips, more solid than ever before.

Gu Litian roared, violet light flashing in his eyes as he clawed at the mountain, hoping to rip it apart as before. But this time it did not budge.

Boom!

Ye Fan smashed the black mountain down upon him. The earth quaked violently.

Gu Litian screamed. His dragon-forged body cracked apart, scales bursting, blood pouring.

Slash!

Ye Fan’s fingers glowed with divine light. With a flick, Gu Litian’s head tumbled from his neck. A follow-up Mountain-River Seal reduced his headless corpse to ash.

Landing on the ground, Ye Fan carved a single character, “Ye”, into a crimson stone beside the severed head. “Radiant Light’s Ten Young Masters were unleashed to slay me. You are the first I’ve killed.”

A single word for a life. All who saw it would understand. The Northern Region would soon erupt in turmoil.

“The Ten Young Masters, I’ll meet each one in turn.” With the God-Striking Whip on his back, Ye Fan strode deeper into the crimson wilderness.

This battle, he had not used the Nine Secrets, nor summoned the Cauldron. He had relied only on his flesh, force against force. Against Radiant Light’s ten geniuses, this was the perfect trial by fire, a way to hone himself, to sacrifice these foes as stepping stones.

By noon, Ye Fan encountered a second enemy. After a fierce battle, he killed him as well.

Before sunset, he faced a third, this one at Dao Palace Fifth Stage, yet rivaling a Four Pillars cultivator. His combat strength was terrifying, but in the end, Ye Fan slew him as well.

The earth ran red with blood. Beside the third severed head, Ye Fan carved a third “Ye”.

The setting sun, crimson as blood, merged with the scarlet earth in a bleak and tragic scene.

It was clear. Within days, the Northern Region would quake. Of the Ten Young Masters trained by Radiant Light’s hidden elders, three had already perished at Ye Fan’s hands.

The wind rose. It howled across the empty desert like the wailing of spirits.

Ye Fan suddenly turned back. Against the wind came three figures. They wasted no words, striking immediately with killing intent.

His heart tightened. One was at Dao Palace Fifth Stage, the other two at the First Stage of the Four Pillars Realm.

Buzz!

From the sky descended golden radiance, a massive golden gourd pressing down with crushing might, like a mountain falling.

Ye Fan dodged aside, avoiding it.

But his instincts screamed danger. In a flash, he summoned his Cauldron above his head. The ancient vessel spilled out strands of Motherly Energy, shielding him.

Clang!

At the same instant, a silver ring smashed into him. The impact blasted him and the Cauldron back over a hundred meters.

Ye Fan’s face darkened. Without his sudden premonition, without the Cauldron’s protection, he would have been killed. That strike had been unbelievably powerful.

Regaining his stance, he looked up. Hovering in the air was a silver, gleaming circlet, the weapon that had struck him.

Ahead, three young men stood shoulder to shoulder, around twenty-one or twenty-two years old, each with heroic bearing and sharp presence.

One bore a golden gourd above his head. Another held a five-colored feather fan. The man in the center wielded the silver circlet.

“The Primordial Motherly Energy truly is formidable. Even my Diamond Bracelet could not break through.” The voice of the young man standing at the centre was calm.

Ye Fan’s heart sank. So it was the Diamond Bracelet, the same artifact spoken of in myth, able to ensnare the heavens themselves. Could it truly have appeared in this world as well?

He drew the God-Striking Whip from his back, holding it firmly as he faced the three.