A Will Eternal

Even as Zhou Hong, the young man with the feng shui compass, and numerous other chosen began to cry out in alarm, a massive, domineering air sprang up inside the spell formation!

A huge, shadowy figure appeared, clad in imperial robes, and wearing an imperial crown. Of course, thanks to the power of Bai Xiaochun’s mask, that image looked different to the people in the spell formation. However, the domineering air it exuded was still there, and caused even the minds of Zhao Dongshan and others further away to reel.

Gasps could be heard. Everyone felt as if, in front of this shadowy figure, they were nothing more than bugs, looking up with complete powerlessness.

Zhou Hong felt it most clearly of all. Back in the Necromancer Kettle, he had faced Bai Xiaochun’s Undying Emperor’s Fist, and could immediately tell that this shadowy figure was vastly more shocking than the one from before.

Not only was it more corporeal, it was also more domineering. In fact, the version he had faced in the Necromancer Kettle almost couldn’t compare at all to this new version.

“This… this….” Zhou Hong was physically trembling, as were the others who were powering the spell formation. Deep alarm and fear rose up from within their hearts to grip them relentlessly.

In that moment, Bai Xiaochun suddenly looked up, his face expressionless. Then he unleashed a vicious punch onto the fog in front of him!!

In his heart, he uttered three words.

“Undying… Emperor’s Fist!”

RUUUUMBLE! CRRAAAAASH!

The enormous, shadowy emperor also struck out with his fist. In fact, from a distance, it wasn’t even possible to see Bai Xiaochun. The only thing visible was the shadowy emperor, looking down with the scorn of a paragon as he unleashed a fist strike.

Massive energy erupted out that couldn’t be put into words. To Zhao Dongshan, it looked almost like an actual god had descended; the wind screamed, and a powerful will rose up, a will like that which belonged to the heavens!

“D-deva….” he whispered, stunned. Everyone else present felt their hearts pounding in their chests. Intense rumbling sounds echoed out from the spell formation, along with sharp cracking sounds. Everyone who was powering the spell formation, including Zhou Hong, could only watch as the glowing armor that covered them began to shatter.

A mountain-toppling, sea-draining force smashed against them, making them feel like tiny rowboats on a raging sea, completely powerless to fight back.

One of the soul cultivators’ glowing armor shattered, leaving him bereft of any defenses. Then, an agonized shriek rang out; it was as if he had been smashed into by a mountain. Gobs of blood erupted from his mouth as he was sent flying down to slam into the ground, completely unconscious!

After all, in addition to the force being exerted by Bai Xiaochun, they also had to deal with the backlash from the spell formation, adding injury to injury in a way that was extremely difficult to sustain.

Soon, a second person was similarly affected, then a third and a fourth…. Within the mere blink of an eye, a twentieth was hit, then the fiftieth, the eightieth…. One by one, the more than one hundred people who had been powering the spell formation screamed miserably as they were sent slamming into the ground, qi and blood in chaos, internal organs smashed. Many of them nearly lost their cultivation bases from the force of impact. All were seriously injured, and left gasping for breath.

That included Zhou Hong. Although he held out for longer than most of the others, eventually blood sprayed out of his mouth, and he was sent tumbling backward. The spell formation… had been completely destroyed!!

The young man’s feng shui compass crumbled, sending a backlash attack into him that caused him to visibly age. His hair turned white, and blood sprayed out of his mouth, filled with chunks of internal organs. After all, he had been operating the spell formation, and therefore, was hit with a bigger backlash than anyone else. He had tried throwing his longevity into the spell formation to stabilize it, but failed. Moments later, a bloodcurdling scream rang out as he exploded, killed in body and soul!

A massive blast of wind exploded out from the destroyed spell formation, sweeping out in all directions as Bai Xiaochun took a step forward!

His hair was in complete disarray, and the domineering air which had surrounded him was gone. He didn’t seem terrifying like he had moments before, and yet… to everyone present, he was like an immortal devil!

The instant he appeared, Zhao Dongshan let out a shriek of alarm and began to fly backward, not daring to remain in place for even a moment longer. The other chosen who had been rushing toward the area all scattered. At the moment, Bai Xiaochun was simply too shocking and terrifying for them to deal with.

Bai Xiaochun completely ignored the fleeing Zhao Dongshan and other chosen. His use of the fist strike moments ago had completely emptied him, and drained his fleshly body power down to nothing. Thankfully, his cultivation base was still in place, and he could use it to control his body, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to lift a finger.

As he moved, he rotated his cultivation base, flying toward the nearest of the more than one hundred chosen who had been blasted by his fist strike. All of them were severely injured, and also shell-shocked by Bai Xiaochun’s power. With one wave of his arm, he gathered them all together and deposited them onto the ground in front of him.

At the moment, he felt profoundly exhausted. When he let his cultivation base relax, his vision swam, so he bit his tongue to maintain lucidity. Panting, he glared at the more than one hundred chosen.

“Again and again and again!” he said in a hoarse voice. “You people push things too far!” As for the chosen, they stared back at him with completely ashen faces.

Never could they have imagined that this person would be so unbelievably powerful. It was outrageous!

“What divine ability was that…. He’s in the Nascent Soul stage! how could he possibly use a secret magic like that? Just what fist strike was that?!?!” Zhou Hong was cursing inwardly, but his face was still deathly ashen. In his bitterness, he realized that this Bai Hao had grown stronger since their last encounter, leaving him far, far behind.

That fist strike had already been the stuff of nightmares, and now, it was even more devilishly horrific than before.

He wasn’t the only one to react in such a way. Everyone looked at Bai Xiaochun with scalps tingling from shock and horror. For many, it was their first time actually encountering the Bai Hao that they had heard so much about. And as of this moment, they were thoroughly convinced that his legendary strength was no joke!! He was completely inhuman!!

Bai Xiaochun was currently fighting to get his breathing under control, but to everyone else, it made him look like an immortal devil chanting forbidden scriptures as he stared at them with bloodshot eyes. He pulled out a Heavencleaving Good Fortune Pill and popped it into his mouth. Its miraculous abilities instantly returned his cultivation base to top form, and also returned his body to good condition. Then he took a breath, hefted his Eternal Parasol, and walked over to the nearest terrified soul cultivator.

After stabbing the parasol into the cultivator, life force began to flow into him, further restoring his fleshly body power. The soul cultivator screamed as he withered up, but thankfully for him, Bai Xiaochun’s killing intent had ebbed significantly after using the Undying Emperor’s Fist. Therefore, after a moment passed, he extracted the Eternal Parasol and moved on to the next chosen.

Everyone looked on with scalps that tingled in terror, and that included both those who had not been present in the Necromancer Kettle, and those who had.

“Look, let’s talk this over, Bai Hao. Don’t-- AAAAAGHHH…!”

“Don’t be like this, Bai Hao! You already sucked me dry in the Necromancer Kettle! You don’t have to… hey don’t, AGGHHH…!”

“Do you truly dare to kill me, Bai Hao?!?!”

“How dare you! My clan’s patriarch is a heavenly duke! This isn’t the Necromancer Kettle, Bai Hao. This is Arch-Emperor City!!”

Pleas, curses, threats and all other types of words could be heard. The doors of many nearby shops opened up a crack as people looked out to see what was happening, whereupon gasps could be heard. So far, nobody had dared to look out, but now that they could, a shocking scene met their eyes.

There Bai Xiaochun stood, pulsing with vitality, having single-handedly reduced his enemies to a completely pitiable state. All onlookers felt chills running up their spines. This Bai Xiaochun was uncharacteristically, unfathomably profound!

The truth was that he actually wasn’t that indescribably powerful. If the entire group of several hundred soul cultivators had all attacked simultaneously, then he would have been seriously injured or even killed. But because they came at him in three waves, and because some like Zhao Dongshan had actually chosen to flee, he managed to defeat them soundly.