Chapter 18 – Fatal Weakness
Book 10: Chapter 18 – Fatal Weakness
Back when Xue Ying fought the Reincarnators from the Temporal Temple, his victory would have been much less certain had he only relied on his True Meaning of Extreme Piercing. In fact, it would have been very difficult even with the True Meaning of Star backing him up as well. It was only after unleashing his True Meaning of Mirage that the difficulty of the mission was bumped from Hard to Nightmare. As soon as he used the Mirage, his opponent could no longer resist his attack; if he wanted to kill them, he would do it!
“He can strike whenever and without warning! As soon as he makes his move, the spear is already before his opponent!”
“As long as he doesn’t strike, there’s no way to find him!”
“His True Meanings complement each other. He’s completely overpowering Nuo Nuo An!”
“When it comes to strength, more isn’t always better; it must be properly unleashed. His two True Meanings mesh well, which turns every strike into a fearsome attack.” Lord You Lan shook his head. “The most dangerous part of it is that if he doesn’t make a move, we can’t even detect him. His attacks are also very swift; as soon as he strikes, he quickly withdraws. We’ve no way of capturing him.”
Extreme Penetration was originally exceedingly fast.
With how fast Xue Ying’s strikes were, he could withdraw as soon as he attacked! The advantage his opponents had from their numbers was nullified.
General Ku Meng transmitted with a perplexed tone, “Don’t tell me…Nuo Nuo An is going to die?”
“In this mortal world, Nuo Nuo An’s power is that of an Era Suppressor! How could he so easily be killed? This Dong Bo Xue Ying is only able to suppress him because his True Meanings work together so well. To suppress Nuo Nuo An is one thing, but to kill him? The victor is not yet set in stone.” The corners of Lord You Lan’s mouth twitched upwards slightly. “Look, Nuo Nuo An is going all out! Having lived in the Dark Abyss until now… he can’t be that simple.”
“Aaah!” The large group of evil spirits all began to roar in fury at the same time. “Dong Bo Xue Ying, I want your death!”
All of a sudden, a pair of ominously glowing green eyes appeared in mid-air. It was Nuo Nuo An’s Deity treasure!
The green light forming the eyes began to expand and shape itself into two channels, out of where countless evil spirits flew.
Xue Ying’s wrinkled his brows inside the Mirage. “What’s going on? How can there be so many evil spirits?”
“Th-th-this….”
In the distance, the Xia Clan Transcendents inside Battleship D9 were stunned by this scene.
Even the hundred evil spirits from before had been troublesome enough, but those which had just rushed out of the eyes numbered in the hundreds, with more still coming. In what felt like the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of evil spirits, enough to cover the lands and blot the skies, had appeared—each exuding an oppressive aura. They seemed to be confused and began howling.
An instant later, the tens of thousands of evil spirits were attracted by an invisible force which force them to quickly converge in the center.
Countless horrifying energies surged.
A towering devil appeared, its body a mass of darkness with large fangs. It had twin eyes of radiant green, and atop its head were no less than nine black horns. Its body emitted an endless Qi which seemed to engulf the heavens and earth, smothering the surrounding Mirage. The white fog couldn’t get closer than five kilometers to his location.
“So strong.”
Inside the Mirage, Xue Ying was inwardly surprised. “What mighty Qi. It’s gotten much stronger than it was at first.”
“Ten Thousand Ghost Body? Hadn’t Nuo Nuo An only practiced to the level of Hundred Ghost Body?” General Ku Meng asked, surprised at the sight.
“Of course he doesn’t have a Ten Thousand Ghost Body. Had he cultivated that, even I would have a hard time defeating him. He has evil spirits in the tens of thousands, but he normally only controls up to 100. He’s currently going all out by relying on his Deity treasure to forcefully engulf the evil spirits and form a sort of Ten Thousand Ghost Body. Look, his strength is spilling; he has no way of restraining it in the least. There’s no way he can control it. If you look at his eyes, you can tell his mind is confused. But this is still enough.” Lord You Lan revealed a smile.
He immediately transmitted a shout—”Nuo Nuo An!”
“I’ll assist you by manipulating the flow of time in your area, but Dong Bo is proficient in Extreme Penetration, and he can use it to forcefully pierce through the obstructions of time and space. My Time Flow will probably only have a limited effect at the most! The rest you will have to do yourself. Remember, he has a fatal weakness.”
Lord You Lan’s voice was transmitted into Nuo Nuo An’s ear in his Ten Thousand Ghost Body form.
He replied, “Rest assured, my lord. I know of his weakness. It just so happens that my Death Howl is able to restrain him.”
All of a sudden, a spear appeared behind Nuo Nuo An. The surroundings had slowed down, but the Stellar Fire Cloud Spear strived to forcefully pierce through anything. In its attempt to penetrate this type of time slowing obstruction, it had inevitably slowed down a touch.
Nuo Nuo An turned his head in a flash but kept his body in the same position.
He spread open his mouth to reveal his fangs, akin to a ferocious beast.
Hou!
Simultaneously, a pair of large hands, with nails painted an inky black, slashed towards the spear lightning-fast.
Pu! The Stellar Fire Cloud Spear stabbed straight into Nuo Nuo An’s towering head, a hundred meters high in the air. Its size alone reached two meters, but after getting hit by the spear just once, the head began collapsing. Soon, however, it began reforming!
Xue Ying quickly withdrew his Stellar Fire Cloud Spear, but it was affected by the Time Flow and it ended up being struck by Nuo Nuo An’s attack.
“My Death Howl will be enough to kill you.” Nuo Nuo An was brimming with confidence. “The True Meaning of Mirage has next to no defensive ability, while the True Meaning of Extreme Piercing is even worse. You don’t even have Qi to protect you body! Do you perhaps have a Deity Warrior protecting you? While they might not be afraid of soul attacks, they are also worthless when it comes to stopping them. Try blocking this!”
Transcendent Mages would, for the most part, all study the soul.
But even so, most soul attacks were not particularly powerful, with Transcendents generally enduring them by relying on their own souls.
However, Nuo Nuo An’s situation differed!
He had condensed a Deity Heart using the grade three True Meaning of Death. By using that Deity Heart in conjunction with the Ten Thousand Ghost Body to employ his Death Howl, he could unleash a terrifying soul attack!
Deity Warriors, Deity grade armor, and other treasures would normally not have much of a diminishing effect on soul attacks.
Transcendent Qi and Magic Power, on the other hand, were the special energies wielded by Transcendents and usually had good effects.
But the best by far were still the True Meanings! There were even some mysterious ones which specialized in defending that would be able to completely block them.
Within the Mirage.
In his Ten Thousand Ghost Body form, Nuo Nuo An’s hands collided with the spear, the resulting impact being transmitted into the Mirage, albeit with sharply reduced force. Xue Ying’s dominant hand holding onto the end of the spear barely registered the attack. And that was only because the spear had acted as a conduit for the force. Had there been no object to transmit the impact through, this sort of pure power wouldn’t even have been able to enter the Mirage!
Hou! The successive roar was the real terrifying attack.
Surprisingly, the bellow had formed black ripples visible to the naked eye.
The howl coming from a Ten Thousand Ghost Body—The Howl of Death!
Faced with this howl, ordinary peak Demigods would be instantly turned into a pile of gore.
Once the ripples crossed the threshold of the real world and passed into the Mirage, their power was immediately reduced by 90%. The remaining 10% still crashed into Xue Ying’s body, which was covered with a protective layer of True Meaning of Star!
These years…..
Although he had been diligent in his practice of his spear techniques, not the same could be said for comprehending True Meanings.
But sometimes, a more laid-back attitude would actually bring better results. It was the same as in the case of how Xue Ying had practiced his spear techniques focusing on the aspect of speed; the more he pursued this goal, the faster his True Meaning of Extreme Piercing had improved. Naturally, his Extreme Piercing had advanced by leaps and bounds.
Until now.
All of his True Meanings had reached the peak of the stage two realm, but breaking through stages had always been difficult. Xue Ying had reached this peak several years ago.
The body of a cultivator of the True Meaning of Star was akin to a celestial body, proficient in both offense and defence. Gravity only seemed to serve as a complement.
Hua, hua, hua! The surface formed by the True Meaning of Star had the depth of the Earth and the stars.
The onslaught of the black ripples was completely repelled by the protective force.
In truth, had he been forced to face the Death Howl of the Ten Thousand Ghost Body outside the Mirage, he would have been injured at most, thanks to the defense granted by the True Meaning of Star.
If he could resist even outside the Mirage, by receiving the attack inside the mirage with the True Meaning of Star, he wasn’t injured in the least!
The gigantic Nuo Nuo An wondered to himself expectantly, Is he dead?
Pu.
The Stellar Fire Cloud Spear struck out once more, crushing his hopes..
“He’s still alive?” General Ku Meng and Lord You Lan were also dismayed by this result.
“It must be due to that Six Ghost Resentment hexing poison. His many years of enduring its suffering are bound to have tempered his mind and strengthen it. But with my Ten Thousand Ghost Body, I can resist for longer than he can! I trust that in about eight to ten more exchanges, he’ll drop dead.” Nuo Nuo An instantly focused his thoughts. Once more, he faced the attacks slowed down by the Time Flow and countered them. Not only was the True Meaning of Extreme Penetration incredibly fast, it also had the ability to pierce space. By the time it left the Time Flow, it would already penetrate the skull.
Too cruel!
Hou!
Hou!
Hou!
The terrible Death Howl, formed with the grade three True Meaning of Death at the base and built upon the foundation of the Ten Thousand Ghost Body, was unleashed time after time. Each of these instances unleashed was terrifying.
Inside Battleship D9.
The Xia Clan Transcendents nervously watched on, overcome with worry. The black ripples created by the Death Howl spread outwards, disintegrating everything in an area of 50 kilometers. Be it leaves, soil, even the rocks on the ground, all were shattered and wiped from existence.
“This move contains the True Meaning of Death,” Mountain Lord He explained. “Moreover, it’s a soul attack which turned even the stones and soil in the distance to nothing. The effect it will have on the soul will be even more devastating. Xue Ying might have the Green-Armored Protector, but its proficiency doesn’t lie in blocking this type of attack.”
Si Kong Yang asked anxiously, “Can Xue Ying take it? His body is so weak.”
Despite being struck by Xue Ying’s spear more than eight times, Nuo Nuo An’s gigantic body showed no signs of being affected. The Ten Thousand Ghost Body was clearly very sturdy.
But what of Xue Ying?
“Oh, Xue Ying.” Palace Head Chen was worried sick, but he couldn’t even send him a message while he remained in the Mirage!
Xue Ying struck with extreme speed.
The afterimages of his spear pierced Nuo Nuo An time and time again, seemingly from every angle.
Ten, twenty, thirty attacks…
“How is he able to keep going?” Nuo Nuo An’s titanic figure was gradually shrinking. With each stab, some more of his energy spilled.
“This can’t be! The True Meanings of Extreme Penetration and Mirage don’t specialize in defense, and he doesn’t even have Qi. How can he still be standing?”
Fifty, sixty attacks…
“No, No …….” Nuo Nuo An’s body began shrinking faster and faster, prompting him to bellow a frightened yell.
He couldn’t comprehend it.
He had come from the Dark Abyss, and here, in the mortal world, he was at the level of an Era Suppressor! He was so strong, so how could he die so easily?
He simply couldn’t believe it. “How come he isn’t dying? What’s keeping him alive? Is he really stronger than I am?”
**