Volume One: The Cloud-Drifting Immortal Palace Arc Chapter Ninety-Three: Void Dimensional Slash

On Heart-Shaped Island, a woman in white and a woman in red stood side by side. They watched as the youth in white set out upon a path of near-certain death. A cultivator who had only recently advanced to the Golden Immortal realm was actually going to challenge a great immortal who had once been a true Immortal King. To call it a battle with no chance of survival would not be the slightest exaggeration.

“Miss Su, do you believe Zhou Hao can defeat that Dragon Queen?” Huahuo had grown unusually quiet at this moment, her whole demeanor solemn in a rare way.

“I don’t know how to answer that, but I will never let him die,” Su Qing said with absolute certainty. She bit her crimson lip with her pearly teeth and stared in a daze at the boy’s back as it receded farther and farther from her.

Out over the sea, a gigantic blue-black dragon head, ten thousand zhang tall, hung in the air like an ancient mountain of demons suspended above the waves. Yet at that very moment, the dragon head began to change.

Behind the head, in the void, a phantom body emerged. The dragon’s body, claws, and tail took shape, and little by little the illusion turned into flesh and blood. Bones supported the whole frame, blood surged into every inch of muscle, and veins linked up with the blood vessels throughout the body... In no time at all, a complete dragon body had stretched across the vast sea. The shadow cast by its enormous form nearly covered the entire surface of the water, revealing just how colossal it was.

“Roar!”

The giant dragon lifted its head and let out a cry that shook the heavens. Then, with a single bound, it flew from the sea up into the sky, so fast it was terrifying. Its eyes burned with intelligence as two blue beams shot out, striking straight toward Heart-Shaped Island below. It seemed dead set on destroying the island.

“You won’t succeed!”

At that moment, Zhou Hao rode his sword through the sky. The yellow gourd shielded him, allowing him to ignore the overwhelming pressure of Luo Tianyi’s great immortal might.

With a sharp clang, the two blue beams were scattered by a dark stone sword, and Heart-Shaped Island was successfully spared.

The tiny youth faced the enormous blue dragon that seemed as vast as heaven and earth. Though he was weak, though he knew he would die, he still advanced without hesitation. He was not merely challenging a strong foe; he intended to defeat one.

“Can you block this?”

The blue dragon spoke in a cold voice, and at once a blue sphere of light was fired from its mouth.

The moment it appeared, Zhou Hao felt as if the entire grotto-heaven world had dropped in temperature. Especially when facing it head-on, he only felt a bone-deep chill. If not for the yellow gourd instantly dissolving the frost, he would likely have been frozen into an ice statue before the sphere even arrived.

Hum!

Zhou Hao’s pupils changed. Two golden heavy pupils appeared in his eyes, and his power surged severalfold at once. At the same time, a golden sun rose behind him, the legendary Sun of the Great Sun, proof of mastery in the path of the sun.

“Great Blazing Sun Palm!”

He unleashed all his strength, without the slightest reservation, because he knew just how vast the gap was between himself and Luo Tianyi.

A colossal golden palm appeared, radiant beyond measure, its light blazing across the world. A grand and majestic aura spread to the four corners of heaven and earth. This was the first Great Blazing Sun Palm Zhou Hao had ever unleashed after obtaining the Sun of the Great Sun, and that sun could magnify the palm’s power by a full factor of two. In a battle against an equal opponent, he could crush them with it.

Boom boom boom boom!

The blue sphere and the Great Blazing Sun Palm collided in midair, instantly unleashing a terrifying wave of energy that swept across the grotto-heaven world.

Sky and earth seemed to collapse. The blood-red seawater surged upward in a violent reverse tide; waves rose ten thousand zhang high, like a heavenly river bursting its banks, like a waterfall cascading from the Ninth Heaven. The dim firmament split open, lightning striking down from the fissures. Across the sea, a shocking spectacle of crackling thunder and flashing light erupted.

“Not good, Heart-Shaped Island is in danger!”

Seeing lightning falling toward the island, Zhou Hao hurriedly struck again.

He sacrificed the yellow gourd once more. A void vortex opened at its mouth, and then, from a great distance away, those bolts of lightning vanished on their own. In the next instant, all of them had passed through the void vortex and arrived above Zhou Hao’s position in the sky.

“Take them!”

Faced with those bolts of destructive lightning, Zhou Hao did not waste a word and simply used the gourd to seize them all.

The battle here was far too dangerous for Heart-Shaped Island. He had to think of a way to put distance between them, preferably...

Zhou Hao’s mind raced like lightning. Suddenly, he looked up sharply toward the firmament.

Roar!

At that moment, the blue dragon had already rolled its body and pounced toward him. Its two massive claws were larger than hills, and the scales upon them gleamed with a cold metallic sheen.

“You want to kill me? Then come chase me! Hahahahaha!”

Zhou Hao made a taunting gesture toward the dragon, then fled without hesitation, turning into a streak of golden light that shot straight up into the sky.

Bang bang bang!

Luo Tianyi’s transformed blue dragon was enraged. It spat out dozens of blue spheres, blasting toward Zhou Hao in the heavens, while at the same time accelerating into the firmament. Its speed was so terrifying that in the blink of an eye it had caught up to him.

Zhou Hao, determined to ascend into the sky, dodged left and right, his speed likewise pushed to the limit. Golden light flickered in and out as he vanished into higher layers of cloud. Yet even so, he was still struck by several of the spheres. After all, it was a powerhouse at the pinnacle of the late Great Immortal stage in pursuit of him. Thanks to the yellow gourd’s protection, he was not killed outright, only coughing up a few mouthfuls of blood.

The sky here was even darker. Red lightning mingled within the clouds, and even the clouds themselves were a purple-black hue. The golden light formed by Zhou Hao tore through the void at extreme speed, with a blue dragon in relentless pursuit behind him. And it seemed even faster than Zhou Hao, about to overtake him at any moment.

“That should be enough. I’ll decide life and death with her here!”

Zhou Hao abruptly stopped his full-speed retreat. The yellow gourd was once again invoked, and white sword radiance gathered into a mass, slashing toward the blue dragon right before him.

With a sharp crack, a sound like metal shattering rang through the heavens. A blue shield covered in dragon scales exploded before the dragon’s face. Then the blue dragon rapidly shrank, and with a flash of blue light, it transformed into a human figure.

She was a blue-robed woman who looked no older than sixteen or seventeen by mortal standards. She was not especially tall, but not short either. Her hair was coiled into a bun, her features were delicate and lovely, and her eyes were curved and beautiful. If she smiled, she would surely be impossible to look away from.

“Luo Tianyi!”

Though the figure before him was an apparently harmless young girl, Zhou Hao’s vigilance rose to its highest point. There was not the slightest trace of goodwill in him.

“Deng Tulang, even after you’ve died, you’re still so obnoxious. Sometimes I truly wonder why I was blind enough to fall for you back then.”

Luo Tianyi tilted her head to look at Zhou Hao, making herself seem even more adorable, but the calmness in her words carried a chill that seeped into the bones.

“Hmph, I’m just as puzzled. How can someone with a face like yours possess such a heart?”

Zhou Hao’s voice became Deng Tulang’s. He gave a mocking laugh, though it sounded more like self-mockery.

“So that means you were seduced by my beauty, hmm? Hahaha.”

Luo Tianyi actually laughed at Deng Tulang’s words. She laughed until her whole body shook, laughing until she bent over and nearly doubled in laughter.

“No, I am...”

Clang!

The black stone sword turned into a streak of dark light as Zhou Hao drove it with all his strength toward the hollow beneath Luo Tianyi’s jaw. The strike was as swift as lightning; everything happened in the blink of an eye.

“I am taking your life!”

Having landed the blow beneath her jaw, Zhou Hao’s cold voice echoed through the dark sky.

“Heh, how amusing. You’re far too naive. No matter what, I am still the Dragon Queen. You think you can ambush me successfully?”

Before Zhou Hao could even rejoice, a mocking voice slid into his ears from behind.

He turned to look, and the “Luo Tianyi” he had stabbed exploded with a bang, leaving only a single blue dragon scale behind.

“Too bad for you, you’re no longer the Dragon Queen!”

Zhou Hao turned to face Luo Tianyi, the blue-robed girl, his voice still carrying Deng Tulang’s tone.

Luo Tianyi did not get angry. She blinked, lively and adorable.

“Do you know what I’m thinking?” she said. “I’m thinking whether I should boil or fry your newly acquired gourd successor later. You know, whenever I’m with you, I always especially enjoy eating. I’m a complete little glutton, after all. Heeheehee.”

After hearing this, Zhou Hao’s face twitched involuntarily. That was his own physiological reaction; he and Deng Tulang were now sharing one body and two minds, so naturally he could perceive everything Luo Tianyi did.

“You’re that confident of victory? Be careful not to overturn your cart in the ditch.”

Deng Tulang offered a “kind” reminder.

“Hahaha, I never expected that even while fighting for your life, you’d still have the heart to worry about your enemy. I’m actually starting to like you a little again.”

Luo Tianyi smiled brightly, utterly like a dazed and innocent young girl.

“Kill!”

Seizing the moment when Luo Tianyi loosened her guard, Zhou Hao quickly urged the yellow gourd above his head to attack. In an instant, sword qi roiled through the void, white brilliance dazzling to the eye, as one streak of sword light after another slashed toward Luo Tianyi’s jaw.

Crack, crack, crack...

Luo Tianyi’s brows furrowed slightly. With a light wave of her jade hand, countless blue dragon scales flew up to clash against the sword light, but the effect was poor. The sword light was unstoppable, pressing forward with overwhelming force. Her scales could not last even a second before shattering into pieces.

“As expected of a peerless immortal artifact. It seems I was careless.”

With a light tap of her foot, Luo Tianyi moved like a phantom, her speed reaching the extreme. She was actually dodging the sword light, and even as strong as she was, she did not dare meet those sword energies head-on.

Pfft!

A mouthful of brilliant blood arced through the air in a graceful curve. Luo Tianyi ultimately failed to evade the sword qi unleashed by the yellow gourd. A streak of white light pierced straight through her chest.

“Die!”

Luo Tianyi roared in fury. One slender jade hand extended outward, then lengthened and enlarged hundreds upon thousands of times in an instant, reaching toward Zhou Hao’s tiny body.

But it was futile. The sword qi was too dense, and it prevented Luo Tianyi’s arm from extending. It was severed on the spot, and bright red blood sprayed high into the air.

“Could this be... the legendary Void Dimension Slash?”

Suddenly, Luo Tianyi exclaimed in astonishment, as if she had discovered something earthshaking.

“That’s right. I already warned you not to overturn your cart in the ditch. Do you still think you’re certain to win? The Void Dimension Slash cuts down all things. Not to mention you, even a true Immortal King would come only to become a soul beneath the sword!”

Zhou Hao spoke in Deng Tulang’s voice.

At this moment, above the dark firmament, purple-black clouds drifted by, within them red lightning weaving and flashing. Yet all of that tranquility was shattered by the descent of the two of them.

A yellow gourd hovered in midair. From its mouth poured a blinding radiance of snowy-white sword qi. The surrounding void resonated, and invisible sword light emerged from the blackness of space. Instantly, the void exploded, and one crack after another spread outward to the farthest reaches.

Zhou Hao was inwardly shaken to the core. This was the first time he had ever seen the yellow gourd reveal its true might, and it was exactly like this: the void torn apart, invisible sword qi flying out from within to annihilate all things, capable of reducing time and space to nothingness. Utterly terrifying.

“Hmph, don’t think I don’t know. The Void Dimension Slash can’t be sustained forever. With the tiny bit of immortal power you have left, flickering like a candle in the wind, how long can you keep this up? You’d better pray to the Supreme Lord that you can kill me before you vanish completely from heaven and earth. Otherwise, your successor and your grotto-heaven will be buried with you!” Though Luo Tianyi was deeply wary of the Void Dimension Slash, she had also seen the crux of the matter.