Chapter 0648: Powerful Dusk
When Ning Cheng counted to three, more than a dozen people decided to leave the black stone path. When Ning Cheng counted down to one, only fourteen people chose to stay back. In addition to the two cultivators who had initially selected the right entrance, the other twelve were the ones who came from the left array entrance. Of those twelve, Ma Ximen’s team of six were all there.
“I don’t believe that a cultivator in the Undead Realm would be able to block the siege of fourteen Heaven’s Mandate Cultivators.” Ma Ximen snapped back to reality and brought forward the Tri-gate Truncheon in his hand.
He was right in a way, the 14 people here were all Heaven’s Mandate Cultivators. Therefore, when Ma Ximen made his move, the remaining thirteen people not only brought out their weapons but also attacked Ning Cheng almost at the same time.
To the confusion of Ma Ximen and the others, Ning Cheng did not even fight back but brought out a vague shadow of a blue thunder city. The reason why they thought it was a thunder city was due to the faint electric lights that roamed around this dim blue thunder city shadow like a flurry of dancing silver snakes.
“Boom-Boom-Boom…..”
Explosions erupted as the various weapon lights bombarded Ning Cheng’s Thunder City one after another. Although the attacks from these Heaven’s Mandate Cultivator could not break through Ning Cheng’s Blue Thunder City, because of their full-strength effort, the powerful attacking force still forced Ning Cheng back.
The explosive attacks had indeed forced Ning Cheng back, but if one looked carefully, it looked as if Ning Cheng had intentionally let it happen. He used the force of the attacks to get close to the broken array entrance through which he had come inside this place.
Seeing Ning Cheng forced back this easily, some of the cultivator who went out regretted it. Some even wanted to come in again and besiege Ning Cheng. The only reason they had gone out was that they felt worried that Ning Cheng was a Heaven Seated Cultivator. But from the looks of it, Ning Cheng clearly was not a Heaven Seated Cultivator.
However, before those cultivators could even think of doing anything, Ning Cheng took out a large number of array flags and threw them out simultaneously. In just a few short breaths, the gazes and the Spiritual Consciousnesses of the cultivators on the outside were cut off.
“That Thunder City definitely is a Spirit Artefact. Let’s attack together …” Seeing Ning Cheng’s Blue Thunder City blocking the joint volley of more than a dozen Heaven’s Mandate Expert, Ma Ximen immediately cried out with a greedy glint in his eyes.
In fact, even without Ma Ximen’s reminder, everyone understood that Ning Cheng’s Blue Thunder City was not a simple thing. They would definitely attack Ning Cheng to snatch it from him.
However, this time, no one put in 100% of their power into their killing move. Ning Cheng was only a single person, once they killed off Ning Cheng, that’s when the real blood bath would start to snatch away this fellow’s resources. Therefore, they had to conserve their strength. Otherwise, one would end up making a wedding dress for someone else without even getting some soup to drink.
This time, Ning Cheng was not blown back like before; instead, he actually stormed into the siege, with the Everlasting Blue Thunder City still out, while shooting out six Spiritual Consciousness Blades.
In fact, he could produce more Spiritual Consciousness Blades, but to not waste too much of his Spiritual Consciousness and Celestial Essence, he decided to only use six blades. Ning Cheng directed these six blades towards the six cultivator with the weakest cultivations.
As soon as those six Spiritual Consciousness Blades shot out, the defensive ability of Ning Cheng’s Blue Thunder City reduced by a huge margin. In just a few moments, a crisp katcha sound resounded, and the vague shadow of the Thunder City cracked open. The Everlasting Blue Thunder City, after all, did not have a weapon spirit to augment with the treasure. Once Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness could not support it, the defensive abilities would also decrease significantly.
“Boom-Boom-Boom…..” As the Thunder City’s projection shattered, six successive weapon lights struck Ning Cheng, and Ma Ximen’s tri-gate Truncheon even managed to seal Ning Cheng’s Life Essence. At least that was Ma Ximen thought.
“He can’t move anymore. I’ve already sealed his Life Essence…..” Ma Ximen called out in excitement, but before he could finish his words, he felt something wrong. His Tri-gate Truncheon clearly sealed Ning Cheng’s Life Essence, but he did not even have a shred of control over Ning Cheng’s Life Essence.
“No…..” Ma Ximen had just said the word when he felt the space around him collapsing into a void.
In the middle of the Void Collapse, countless terrifyingly hot tongues of flames swept out in all directions. If he did not retreat quickly, the Void Collapse would not only suck him inside it, but the fire inside would even turn him into ashes. However, because of the Void Collapse, it made it increasingly impossible for him to retreat, as it seemed to pull him in forcibly.
Ma Ximen felt his soul leaving his body. Was this a spirit technique related to the Laws of Space? He had no time to think about it, and frantically burned his own Essence Blood to retreat one slow step after another.
The rest of the cultivators also had the same idea as Ma Ximen, and although all of their previous attacks were directed at Ning Cheng, once they got sucked into the Void Collapse, it would mean death.
Eight cultivators successfully managed to rush out of Ning Cheng’s Maximal Flame Spirit Technique, while the other six, the weaker ones, got sucked into the Maximal Flame Spirit Technique, causing a tremendous explosion.
Although the six cultivators sucked into the Maximal Flame Spirit Technique wanted to retreat, but something had inexplicably cut off their connection to their respective Sea of Consciousnesses. The tearing pain left them unable to do anything for a short while. Maybe if they had a few moments more, they could have managed to retreat in time. However, Ning Cheng would never allow them those precious moments.
“Boom-Boom….” The Maximal Flame Spirit Technique expanded into a blazing fire, causing several miserable screams to erupt from the inside. As for Ning Cheng and the other eight cultivators, they used the force of the explosions to retreat.
Ning Cheng had wounds covering his body, and it looked bloody and horrible. However, only he knew that none of the injuries that he suffered was fatal.
Ma Ximen and the seven other cultivators stopped at the same time. Although they did not suffer too many injuries, everyone had paid a significant price to get out of the maelstrom formed by the Maximal Flame Spirit Technique that had tried to suck them inside. Ning Cheng, on the other hand, stood opposite to the eight people, on the other side of the ravine created by the Maximal Flame Spirit Technique.
After a face-to-face confrontation, the two sides once again ended up opposite to each other across a ravine. But the difference this time was that the number of people on Ma Ximen’s side had reduced from fourteen to eight.
“This fellow is a Nirvana Body Forging Cultivator …..” A Heaven’s Mandate Cultivator standing beside Ma Ximen spoke with fear clouding his eyes. If it were any other cultivator, stuck simultaneously by eight Heaven’s Mandate Cultivators, even if not in the Undead Realm, his or her corporeal body would definitely reach the brink of collapse, if not already collapsed. Yet this cultivator in front of them, although covered in blood and looked severely injured, did not even have a single broken bone or a frayed sinew. If this person was not a Body Forging Cultivator, then who was?
What was even more frightening to them was that Ning Cheng had unleashed something similar to a space-related spirit technique.
Ma Ximen forcibly calmed down from his initial panic while still grabbing onto the Tri-gate Truncheon, before speaking, “We don’t have to worry too much. What this person used was not a space-related spirit technique; however, it instantaneously absorbs all the fire elements within the area to cause a false spacial collapse. Let’s attack together once again. He most likely can use this spirit technique only once at most. Even if he could use it again, we can still guard against it.”
What Ma Ximen implied with his words was that Ning Cheng had not cast the real Maximal Flame Spirit Technique, but created a fake spacial collapse. Even if Ning Cheng reused this technique again, they would be prepared to avoid Ning Cheng’s Maximal Flame Technique in time without the need of burning their Essence Blood. However, what no one knew was that Ning Cheng could easily cast the Maximal Flame Spirit Technique five to six times, without much exhaustion. No one here knew the strength of Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness.
“Together….” Despite their fear of Ning Cheng, all eight people rushed across the ravine towards Ning Cheng. This time, no one decided to hold back. They already understood by now that Ning Cheng was not an ordinary cultivator, but wan an expert within experts.
Ning Cheng also did not concede even half a point at all. He also rushed towards the eight Heaven’s Mandate Cultivators, completely ignoring the weapons lights shooting towards him and the suppression from their Domains. Stabbing out with the spear in his hands, eight seemingly ordinary-looking spear traces shot out.
Ning Cheng had waited for this moment since the start.
The eight people, including Ma Ximen, who attacked Ning Cheng despite the fear, felt puzzled. Although Ning Cheng’s Maximal Flame Spirit Technique could be described as something unexpected, it was still quite powerful. So how could this fellow expect to injure them with just these eight simple spear traces? If these eight spear traces could actually hurt them, then they should really strip away their Heaven’s Mandate Cultivation that they had painstakingly reached after so many years.
The rampaging Celestial Essence from the eight cultivators gathered and crushed down over Ning Cheng’s Celestial River Domain. Even if it had strength, it could not stop the eight of them from joining forces. The Celestial River Domain shattered apart inch by inch, and it felt like it would turn into nothingness in the next moment. Ma Ximen’s tri-gate Truncheon also unleashed a sucking force that wanted to suck in the heart and soul of the cultivator it faced. If the soul of the cultivator grew even slightly weaker, perhaps the Tri-gate Truncheon might be able to lock it.
Seeing Ning Cheng’s Celestial River Domain break apart, and Ning Cheng about to turn into ashes under the joint attacks of the eight people, Ma Ximen immediately grew ecstatic. Stimulating their Celestial Essence to this extent, even if Ning Cheng could connect with the heavens, he would be unable to turn the situation around for himself.
Ma Ximen was not the only one feeling joy, but the seven other cultivators also grew happy at this sight. They didn’t expect that such a formidable opponent who they struggled against just a few moments ago, would end up losing this quickly. It seems that a bitter battle was unnecessary. In such a scenario, even if it were a cultivator in the Heaven Seated Realm, they would have to concentrate on defending themselves. With a single person facing the full-powered attacks from eight of them, even a cultivator who reached the Heaven Seated Realm would have to suffer some severe injuries.
However, at that very instant, the eight cultivators attacking Ning Cheng suddenly felt that their attacks seemed to be slowing down. A fraction of a moment later, it grew slower and slower, till the attacks completely froze.
Ning Cheng’s plain and dull spear lights turned into a beautiful sunset. So beautiful that they simply couldn’t even bear to continue thinking about killing Ning Cheng. They just wanted to immerse themselves in this beautiful sunset.
Ma Ximen was the first to sober up and roar. No, it wasn’t a sunset, it wasn’t a sunset at all. It was a spirit technique related to a particular law, the Laws of Time, the most challenging law to comprehend.
How could a cultivator in the Undead Realm comprehend the Laws of Time? This was an impossible matter. However, everything in front of him had come to a frozen stop. No, only one thing had not stopped; the eight spear lights that had concealed such a powerful attack.
Ning Cheng had taken great pains to cover up this area for using Sunset’s Twilight. Since there were fourteen of them in this place, Ning Cheng himself wasn’t sure if he could kill them all at the same time. Therefore, Ning Cheng first killed the weakest six using a combination of Spiritual Consciousness Blade and the Maximal Flame Spirit Technique. As for the remaining eight, Ning Cheng believed that he could definitely kill them all with the Sunset’s Twilight.
Facts proved that Ning Cheng was right. Faced with his Sunset’s Twilight, the eight Heaven’s Mandate Cultivators reacted with endless fear in their eyes. None of them could break away from his Sunset’s Twilight at this moment.
Even if they felt despair, they could only accept their destiny. That was the main difference between a Heaven’s Mandate Cultivator and a Heaven Seated Cultivator. Although Heaven Seated Cultivator might feel despair while facing this level of attack but they could still break away from the Sunset’s Twilight cast by Ning Cheng. As for these Heaven’s Mandate Cultivators, not just their Celestial Essence, even their Spiritual Consciousness could not compare to Ning Cheng. Therefore, despite trying to use everything they had in their despair, they had no choice but to accept their fate. Instead of struggling during the final throes of death, it at least was better for them to die while appreciating the beauty of the sunset.
For the dying cultivators, this moment felt infinitely long, but for Ning Cheng, who cast the Sunset’s Twilight, this was just a short moment.
The eight spear light, in just a flash, pierced through the glabellas of the eight people and brought out eight trails of blood while exiting.
“Laws of Time, I understand…..” Ma Ximen spoke up with a weak voice while falling into the middle of the ravine. Whether it was mumblings out of despair or not, no one knew what he understood.