Chapter 473: Powerless to Parry

The destruction came in a chain of thunderous explosions, the momentum terrifying. Seen through the Dharma Eye, roiling demon qi surged around the Holy Rakshasa as she charged, while the force unleashed by Guan Fangyi rolled forward in brilliant waves like auroral light.

The Holy Rakshasa came on like a meteor from beyond the heavens, blasting through those surging waves of radiant force, smashing them apart, tearing them open, shredding them to pieces as easily as a gale scattering broken clouds. The sheer momentum of her advance nearly frightened Guan Fangyi out of her wits.

But once a Heavenly Sword Talisman was activated, it would not stop until all its power had been exhausted. Enveloped by that enormous force, Guan Fangyi no longer had full control over her own body. She could not break free from the energy binding her and could only continue guiding it into attack after attack. Nor could she simply stop attacking. With an opponent this powerful bearing down specifically on her, where could she possibly dodge?

Only now did she truly understand what it meant to face an expert comparable to the Nascent Soul Realm. Over the years, whenever she held a Heavenly Sword Talisman, she rarely even needed to activate it. Simply revealing one to an enemy was enough to intimidate any Golden Core cultivator. But the one before her feared no Heavenly Sword Talisman at all. She did not even bother dodging.

She simply ignored it.

Let the heavenly swords fall with the force of ten thousand thunderbolts—she still dared stride straight against the thunder. What was there for her to fear? The Heavenly Sword Talisman contained twelve sword auras.

Before Guan Fangyi could release even the seventh, the Holy Rakshasa arrived like a meteor smashing through rotten wood. One punch exploded the radiance coiling around Guan Fangyi's body and, with speed too fast for the eye to follow, shattered the offensive momentum of the Heavenly Sword Talisman outright.

Boom!

The deafening blast shook the air. The exploding gale-force shockwave ripped giant trees up by the roots and overturned them. Sand and stone surged outward like waves. Butterfly Rakshasas hovering nearby rocked violently in the wind, their wings struggling to hold them steady; the lower-ranked ones were blown about helplessly.

Pfft!

Guan Fangyi, who had poured every scrap of cultivation into resisting the blow, spat out a mouthful of blood. Several ribs in her chest snapped in an instant, and she was hurled away with the shockwave like a kite with its string cut.

Amid the raging wind, Yuan Fang, who had been fleeing with his head tucked down, glanced back. He abruptly sprang upward and caught the falling Guan Fangyi in his arms. Without saying a word, he turned and fled frantically through the forest. Who cared whether anyone else lived or died?

Escape first.

As far as Yuan Fang was concerned, managing to take Guan Fangyi with him while running for his life was already quite decent of him. At the center of the blast, silver wings snapped open once more.

The Holy Rakshasa hovered a little over a zhang above the ground, wings beating, her eerie face turning sharply toward another figure charging in. Against the outward-rushing shockwave, Yuan Gang came sprinting straight into it.

Every step stamped a deep footprint into the earth. Flying dirt and stones struck his body with sharp cracking sounds, but he ignored them. As he leaned forward into the charge, the shirt on his upper body tore apart with a ripping sound and vanished into the gale. The Holy Rakshasa gave a slight beat of her wings and adjusted her position to face him coldly. Niu Youdao, moving through the gale like a fish through water, saw this and was alarmed.

He did not dare imagine what would happen if Yuan Gang truly exchanged blows with the Holy Rakshasa, but at this point he was too far away to stop him.

"Break!"

Yuan Gang burst through the wind and leaped. The muscles across his bare upper body bulged like knots of stone, veins standing out over every inch of him. He swung the saber with both hands. A single flash of steel descended with an unprecedented chain of overlapping saber-images. The speed of that slash surpassed anything Yuan Gang had ever produced before.

"Awooo!"

A tiger's roar exploded like thunder. The chain of saber-images came crashing down.

Clang!

The sound of metal striking metal rang through the forest. The Holy Rakshasa lifted one arm to shield her head. Yuan Gang's saber struck her forearm—and actually produced a metallic clang and a burst of sparks. The strength of her physical body was almost beyond comprehension.

But while hovering in the air she had no firm footing. This was different from the overpowering impact she had produced while descending from above. Under Yuan Gang's slash, even the Holy Rakshasa was forced down until both feet touched the ground.

At the same time, a powerful and strangely familiar aura washed over her, making an unexpected light flicker in her eyes. Yuan Gang sensed something unusual from her as well.

The Holy Rakshasa's attacks were immensely hard and violent, yet they did not resemble those of ordinary cultivators. There was no surging spiritual power bursting outward when she struck. He realized that she showed no sign of using spiritual power at all. Her way of exerting force was actually closer to his own. The collision threw Yuan Gang's saber back. Still in midair, he twisted with the recoil.

"Awooo!"

Another savage tiger roar exploded as he turned the motion into a horizontal slash. Without the momentum he had built for the first blow, however, this second strike was clearly weaker. The Holy Rakshasa swept up an arm to block again.

Clang!

The saber struck her forearm with another ringing crash of metal on metal. The moment Yuan Gang's feet touched the ground, he was already preparing to slash again. Then silver radiance filled his vision. Before he could even understand what had happened, a booming impact struck him.

His ears rang, his vision blurred, and his entire body went numb under a force like a collapsing mountain and an overturning sea.

The instant the Holy Rakshasa blocked his second strike, she twisted and whipped one wing sideways, refusing to give Yuan Gang another chance to attack. That single blow from her wing sent him hurtling away.

Pfft!

He too spat out a mouthful of blood. His entire body shot through the air like a stone smashed from a sling. The Holy Rakshasa lowered her eyes to her own arm. Two marks had appeared on the hard external bone where Yuan Gang's saber had struck.

One was deeper.

The other was shallow.

"Take my sword!"

Niu Youdao shouted.

He was afraid the Holy Rakshasa would pursue Yuan Gang. With the difference in speed between them, Niu Youdao had no chance of catching up to her, so he shouted before reaching the fight, deliberately drawing her attention. The Holy Rakshasa snapped her head around. Several sharp sword qi strikes slammed into her body with ringing impacts. She did not even move. Those sword qi strikes might as well have been scratching an itch.

Yuan Gang's furious saber slash could trade blows head-on with a Golden Core cultivator and had still failed to injure her. How could Niu Youdao's sword qi possibly do anything? Niu Youdao himself knew this perfectly well.

Ever since learning that Yuan Gang could clash directly with Golden Core cultivators, he had frequently dragged Yuan Gang over as a sparring partner while practicing his own Qiankun Shift.

He would have Yuan Gang attack without restraint while he used his body to receive and dissolve the force, then let Yuan Gang unleash a storm of saber blows while he defended with his sword. So Niu Youdao knew very clearly just how violent Yuan Gang's attacks were. That was one reason he dared bring Yuan Gang out with him now. Yet this demon king had taken a full-power slash from Yuan Gang and looked almost completely unharmed. Her physical strength was monstrous beyond reason.

Niu Youdao truly could not imagine how powerful Shang Song, once called the foremost expert beneath Heaven, must have been to subdue a demon king like the Holy Rakshasa—let alone make her obediently serve as his spirit pet. How could Niu Youdao not know his own sword qi would fail to hurt her? He had launched those strikes only to pull her attention toward himself and keep her from chasing Yuan Gang.

It worked.

The Holy Rakshasa slowly turned to face him. She stared coldly, waiting for him to charge in and attack. Niu Youdao flashed forward and landed. But he did not attack. He knew perfectly well he was no match for her. Charging headlong into a fight would be suicide. That was the greatest difference between his temperament and Yuan Gang's. No matter what happened, Niu Youdao could remain calm. Once Yuan Gang's blood was up, he could cast away his own head and spill his blood without fear of death.

Niu Youdao would not throw his life away unless there was truly no other choice. He understood one thing very clearly.

Dying was easy.

But if he died, none of the others would leave this place alive.

"Don't you want to know who you are?" Niu Youdao asked with a smile, trying to calm her as much as possible.

The Holy Rakshasa answered with an attack.

Her figure flashed.

One claw shot straight for Niu Youdao. After Yun Ji's ambush, Yuan Gang's killing strike, and Niu Youdao's sword qi, the Holy Rakshasa had completely lost whatever faint trust she might have had in him. She was no longer interested in listening to a word he said. Niu Youdao smiled bitterly inwardly, but his hand moved without hesitation. Cold light flashed from one hand as he prepared to unleash the killing move of the Taiyi Light-Splitting Sword.

Then the sword froze.

Clang!

It could not move another inch. The Holy Rakshasa's claws had already seized the blade. Her speed was simply too fast. Their reaction speeds were not even on the same level. Before Niu Youdao's sword technique could unfold, she had caught the weapon in one hand. The razor edge of the blade meant nothing inside her claws.

In the next instant, the Holy Rakshasa clenched her fist around the sword and drove both fist and blade straight toward Niu Youdao's chest. The punch came like a thunderbolt. Niu Youdao had attacked with one hand while keeping the other raised in defense. When his sword strike failed, he followed the motion and released a Qiankun Palm with his other hand.

Bang!

His palm force was smashed backward by her punch. The back of his own hand slammed into his chest. Niu Youdao felt the bones in his chest crack with perfect clarity. Even though Qiankun Shift had dissolved most of the incoming force, the remainder was still far too powerful for him. It was more than enough to inflict serious injury. The attack was simply too violent. The sword flew from his grasp. His body was blasted backward in the same instant.

Against the Holy Rakshasa, he was as helpless as a toy. The gap between them was too vast—one in the heavens, the other on the earth. The moment she truly attacked, he had no power to parry at all. He crashed to the ground and immediately rolled back to his feet.

Blood trickled steadily from the corner of his mouth. His chest and abdomen felt as though rivers and seas were overturning inside them, and he hurriedly circulated spiritual power to calm the turmoil. The webbing between thumb and forefinger of his sword hand had split open. Blood dripped from his fingertips. The hand that had met her punch with a palm trembled uncontrollably. That entire arm hung low. The impact had dislocated it. Even Qiankun Shift had not been enough to keep him from injury. Inside, Niu Youdao was cursing.

Who was it that said, "Give me a fulcrum and I can move the world"?

Where was he supposed to find something large enough to use as a lever for a whole planet? And even if he found one, how could a speck of dust without sufficient mass possibly move a planet?

Still, taking one direct punch from the Holy Rakshasa and remaining on his feet already made him vastly stronger than Guan Fangyi, who had been knocked down by a single sweep of her wing and could not even get back up. And Guan Fangyi was a Golden Core cultivator. Niu Youdao, meanwhile, had just taken the Holy Rakshasa's frontal strike head-on. Even the Holy Rakshasa herself looked faintly surprised. She could sense how weak Niu Youdao's cultivation was. Yet one punch had failed to put him down?

Niu Youdao slowly raised his head and stared at her. He now had the same impression Yuan Gang had experienced earlier. A Holy Rakshasa this powerful actually possessed no spiritual power. Her offensive force came purely from terrifying physical explosiveness.

The spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth she absorbed was not converted and circulated as true qi. Instead, like Yuan Gang, she seemed to store it directly within her physical body, ready to erupt at any moment.

One thing was obvious.

Yuan Gang was still nowhere near the Holy Rakshasa's present level. The Holy Rakshasa seemed surprised again. She turned her head because another weak little creature she had struck still had not stayed down. Blood hanging at the corners of his mouth, Yuan Gang once again forced himself upright with the saber planted into the ground. He panted heavily and shook his dazed head with force.

Clatter.

A sword fell to the ground. The Holy Rakshasa had released the weapon she had seized. She looked down at the back of the hand Niu Youdao had struck with the Qiankun Palm. Something like confusion appeared in her eyes. Watching her closely, Niu Youdao felt a flicker of hope. At this point, all he could do was hope that the Qiankun Palm he had landed would have some effect.

That hope immediately shattered.

The Holy Rakshasa flashed forward and threw another punch straight at him. Niu Youdao could only sigh inwardly. As the old saying went, when you ride the jianghu long enough, sooner or later the horse stumbles. Today, he had finally stumbled.

[End of Chapter 473]