Chapter 1563: Shocked and Enraged

Yuan Gang had indeed attacked. Kunlin Shu, who had been working with him, had failed to stop him.

Kunlin Shu cultivated a fire-aspected art and possessed a certain sensitivity to changes in the elements in the air. He had also come into contact with the demonic qi Wu Chang released before, so he had sensed something abnormal and suspected a problem. He warned Yuan Gang not to act rashly.

Yuan Gang charged in anyway.

Had Kunlin Shu tried to stop him with some other argument, it might have worked. But what Kunlin Shu told him instead made Yuan Gang realize that Wu Chang had already seen through their intentions and was deliberately waiting for him to take the bait.

He had also seen the others lose their unity because they could no longer see any hope of victory.

He had seen that none of them could withstand even a single strike from Wu Chang.

Their original plan had been for everyone else, together with the Crow Generals, to create cover for Yuan Gang's attack. With the group no longer united, the chances of that plan succeeding had become slim.

And if Wu Chang did not die, who knew how many more people beneath Heaven would perish?

So long as Wu Chang died, the chaos across the realm would soon come to an end.

"If I do not enter Hell, who will?"

With those words, Yuan Gang charged out.

Kunlin Shu was deeply shaken. Yuan Gang's words struck him to the heart, and he stared wide-eyed at the man's back as Yuan Gang plunged into the chaotic tide of Crow Generals...

Two tiger roars sounded.

One saber struck.

Two figures flashed past each other.

Yuan Gang instantly knew his slash had missed.

There really was a trap!

Breathing hard, he twisted around and swung his arm, pouring every ounce of strength into a savage reverse cut.

But before the saber could properly rise, an illusory demonic claw seized his wrist and checked the blade.

In that instant, Wu Chang finally experienced just how immense Yuan Gang's strength truly was. He blasted away the Crow Generals swarming him and closed in along the pull of the demonic claw.

The Crow Generals attacked only Wu Chang. They ignored everyone else.

Yuan Gang smashed his free fist down and shattered the demonic claw holding him.

Then a real hand closed around the wrist of his saber arm.

Wu Chang had arrived.

He clamped down on Yuan Gang's wrist and prevented the saber from rising again.

There was a saber in Wu Chang's other hand as well. He had killed so many Crow Generals that he had simply snatched up one of their fallen weapons.

A cold smile touched the corner of his mouth.

The way he looked at Yuan Gang was the way one looked at a dead man.

His attack came fast. Taking advantage of the instant in which Yuan Gang was drawing his fist back, Wu Chang slashed.

Cold saber-light swept diagonally from Yuan Gang's left shoulder toward his right ribs.

The instant the blade struck, Wu Chang sensed something was wrong.

The resistance of the flesh was wrong.

Yuan Gang's skin and muscle were astonishingly tough. Even a saber driven by Wu Chang's cultivation found it extraordinarily difficult to cut into his body.

Impervious to blades and spears?

The thought flashed through Wu Chang's mind.

Then came a metallic scraping noise.

The saber had finally cut through Yuan Gang's flesh, but as its edge dragged across the bones beneath, it produced a harsh metallic rasp.

Wu Chang's Dharma Eye flicked across the wound.

For the briefest instant, he thought he might be seeing things.

The bone exposed beneath the split flesh across Yuan Gang's chest seemed to possess a faint golden sheen.

What the hell was this?

There was no time to think.

Wu Chang reversed the blade in the same motion, sweeping it horizontally.

This time he intended to concentrate his full cultivation into the strike and cut Yuan Gang in half at the waist.

But Yuan Gang was not slow either.

His other hand slammed down and caught Wu Chang's saber wrist.

The instant his wrist was seized, Wu Chang was shocked.

This time he clearly felt the terrifying restraining power erupting from Yuan Gang's hand.

Even with Wu Chang's cultivation, he could not shake the grip free.

"Roaaar..."

The third tiger roar arrived late.

Its soul-shaking resonance burst across Heaven and Earth.

Countless Crow Generals were affected at once. The eerie red lights in their eyes flickered chaotically, and for that instant every one of them stopped attacking, as though their souls had been thrown into confusion.

At the window, Shang Shuqing trembled violently at the tiger roar. It frightened her badly.

Niu Youdao, however, went utterly still.

He waited.

He listened.

He did not know what result Yuan Gang's slash had produced.

The battlefield fell into a momentary silence.

Across Heaven and Earth, apart from that tiger roar, there seemed to be no other sound.

Even Shang Chaozong and Meng Shanming, hidden far away underground, were startled. The roar penetrated clearly into the earth.

The two exchanged bewildered looks, neither knowing what had happened.

Old Second Wu and Old Six Xu, responsible for guarding them, were equally alarmed.

Lü Wushuang's expression turned extraordinarily grave.

She knew Yuan Gang had attacked.

She did not know the result...

Amid that suddenly frozen battlefield, Yuan Gang refused to release Wu Chang's hand.

Wu Chang did not dare release Yuan Gang's either.

If he did, the Three-Roars Saber in Yuan Gang's hand would chop him apart like meat.

Wu Chang's flesh was nowhere near as monstrous as Yuan Gang's.

The two men actually locked together in a stalemate.

Their entangled arms trembled violently as each fought the other's strength.

Both men braced their legs against the earth so hard that the ground beneath them sank, and together they slowly descended into the soil.

Wu Chang's gaze dropped toward Yuan Gang's chest.

Blood seeped from the long wound there.

There was actually a faint golden-pink hue within it.

Yuan Gang, still breathing violently, had likewise discovered that he had finally encountered someone whose sheer strength exceeded anything he had ever faced before.

He had wrestled strength with the Holy Rakshasa.

Wu Chang was much stronger than the Holy Rakshasa.

Yuan Gang had to use every bit of strength he possessed merely to keep Wu Chang from breaking free.

Niu Youdao and Zhao Xiongge had judged correctly.

Wu Chang truly had used the sinister arts recorded in the Demon Canon to increase his strength in secret.

Back in the Desolate Marsh Deadlands, when he received Yin Ji's secret letter asking for a meeting, he had already been wary. Before going, he sacrificed a group of people and rapidly elevated his cultivation.

That was also the true reason his control of the Boundless Demon Domain had suddenly advanced to an entirely different level.

This time, he had shared Hei Shi's suspicions.

He dared come here because he had once again forcibly increased his strength.

Using a needle-stabbing method, he had turned a group of Golden Core cultivators into wooden, obedient walking corpses who knew only to follow commands. Then he sacrificed a great many more Golden Core cultivators.

This time Wu Chang had driven his cultivation all the way to the limit his body could bear.

He had raised his strength to the point where he could clash head-on with the Holy Rakshasa.

Only after reaching that level, with nothing left to fear, had he dared come here with confidence.

He knew doing this would cause him tremendous suffering.

He still believed the price was worth paying.

So long as he eliminated this pack of vermin, the long years ahead would give him all the time he needed to heal himself slowly.

Yet even with his present strength, he still could not shake free of Yuan Gang's brute-force restraint.

Wu Chang was shocked.

Truly shocked.

He had no idea what sort of monster he had encountered.

Now he finally believed it.

This man truly might have regrown a severed arm.

The countless Crow Generals that had paused for a moment suddenly roared and resumed their frenzied assault on Wu Chang.

Wu Chang shook his shoulders.

Numerous demonic claws extended from his back and swept across the Crow Generals charging to their deaths.

The moment he diverted spiritual power to deal with them, Yuan Gang felt the pressure ease noticeably.

The Three-Roars Saber in his hand began pressing toward Wu Chang's neck.

If Wu Chang relaxed even slightly, Yuan Gang's terrifying offensive power would cut straight through his throat.

At the same time, Yuan Gang roared, "Attack!"

Wu Chang was furious.

Yuan Gang plainly intended to cling to him until death and create an opening for everyone else.

For the first time, fear stirred in Wu Chang as well.

He had laid a trap to lure in his prey, never imagining that the thing rolling into the trap would be a giant boulder big enough to block the mouth of the pit.

How could he allow Yuan Gang to succeed?

He was just about to unleash a technique to inflict a crippling blow on Yuan Gang when red light suddenly flared behind him.

A sword of fire blasted apart the Crow Generals in its path and shot savagely toward Wu Chang's back.

Kunlin Shu had not hesitated.

He moved urgently to relieve Yuan Gang, hidden within the fire sword as he poured every scrap of cultivation he possessed into the attack.

Wu Chang snapped his head around.

The tentacle-like demonic claws behind him interwove into a barrier.

Boom!

They stopped Kunlin Shu's strike.

The fire sword exploded apart, and many nearby Crow Generals screamed beneath the scattered flames.

Kunlin Shu flashed backward.

But instead of losing confidence, his spirits surged.

Yuan Gang was tying down most of Wu Chang's strength. Wu Chang's attacks were no longer anywhere near as terrifying as before.

Kunlin Shu immediately flashed forward again and attacked.

Shing!

Another figure rushed in with sword drawn.

Sword qi tore furiously through the air.

Zhao Xiongge had arrived.

He fought shoulder to shoulder with Kunlin Shu, battling the lashing demonic claws.

Zhuge Chi charged in next.

His hands became like twin dragon-seizing claws as he met one demonic arm after another head-on amid rolling explosions.

Yuan Cong followed, purple radiance surging around him as he joined the attack.

Wang Zun came immediately after.

Once they saw that Yuan Gang had restrained Wu Chang and sharply reduced the power of Wu Chang's attacks, everyone else's confidence surged.

At last they could see a chance to kill him.

Those who had hesitated became ruthless in an instant.

Xi Haitang, Wen Hua, Yan Zhutian, and Gong Lince all joined the assault.

For a time, Heaven-shaking explosions rolled without end.

Wu Chang had been dragged into a bitter battle.

Ao Feng rushed forward as though about to join in.

Then he stopped.

In the next instant, he slipped away.

He was not fleeing.

He went straight back to Niu Youdao.

Niu Youdao could already hear the fierce battle outside. The moment Ao Feng appeared, he asked, "What's happening?"

Ao Feng said urgently, "Yuan Gang has Wu Chang tied down. Everyone is surrounding and attacking him. Right now the Crow Generals have become a hindrance instead."

"Wu Chang has no scruples. He can slaughter them freely. For us, they only get in the way."

"With this many Nascent Soul cultivators fighting at once, the Crow Generals are throwing their lives away if they charge in. Better to pull them back!"

Niu Youdao immediately nodded toward Shang Shuqing. "Commandery Princess!"

Shang Shuqing closed her eyes at once and murmured under her breath.

Outside, the Crow Generals rolling forward like a tide abruptly withdrew and scattered in every direction.

The moment space opened up, Kunlin Shu immediately retreated some distance.

He thrust both arms forward and sent a fire dragon roaring toward Wu Chang.

No matter how Wu Chang tried to interfere, Kunlin Shu kept the fire dragon burning without pause, subjecting him to continuous fire refinement in order to accelerate the drain on his spiritual power.

Trapped in the struggle, Wu Chang saw the saber edge in Yuan Gang's hand gradually pressing closer to his neck.

Suddenly he opened his mouth.

Rolling demonic qi poured directly into Yuan Gang's face.

Yuan Gang immediately shut his eyes and mouth and held his breath.

But the demonic qi behaved like a living thing.

It forced its way madly into his nostrils.

It burrowed into his ears.

Even his narrowed eyelids could not stop it.

Blood began running from his eye sockets.

In an instant, both ears lost all sound.

Worse still, Yuan Gang's body began swelling visibly.

Agony twisted across his face.

His entire body trembled violently from the pain.

Afraid the pain would grow too great and cause him to release Wu Chang, Yuan Gang suddenly let go of the Three-Roars Saber altogether.

Following the motion, he seized Wu Chang's wrist with his freed hand.

Now both hands clamped around Wu Chang and refused to let go.

The deadly saber edge was no longer pressing against his throat.

Wu Chang continued spewing demonic mist into Yuan Gang's body, a savage expression appearing on his face.

All he had to do was kill this man.

Once his hands were free, everyone else would cease to matter.

Then the savagery on Wu Chang's face abruptly turned to astonishment.

A low rumbling like distant thunder came from Yuan Gang's abdomen.

The swollen bulge in his stomach rolled back and forth like a half-sphere moving beneath the flesh.

Wu Chang discovered that the demonic qi he had poured into Yuan Gang had somehow become almost like air Yuan Gang could breathe freely.

A cloud of pale golden mist suddenly sprayed from Yuan Gang's nostrils.

Then, together with Wu Chang's demonic qi, it was drawn back into his abdomen in a continuous breathing cycle.

Wu Chang could clearly feel it.

His demonic qi had encountered a natural enemy.

The golden mist within Yuan Gang's breath was rapidly annihilating it.

[End of Chapter 1563]