Chapter 1003: Battle Against Mid Integration Stage

At the sudden arrival of these two figures, Master Duanchen’s heart missed a beat.

One of them had surfaced within the memories of the Three-Eyed Ghost Monk—none other than the monk's direct superior, Elder Bailiting of the Heartless Sect, a cultivator of the Body Integration Stage.

Since the other individual stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Bailiting, it stood to reason that he, too, possessed the might of the Body Integration Stage.

Two masters of the Body Integration Stage were actively plotting against his beloved Imperial Capital!

Could Almsgiver Lu and Almsgiver Meng truly withstand them, and if they failed, whatever would become of the city?

"May the Blessed One protect us," Master Duanchen murmured under his breath, chanting Buddhist scriptures to pray for the safety of the two youths and the Imperial Capital.

"The Heart-Forgetting Poison? I suppose that name is accurate enough," remarked the other Elder of the Heartless Sect, a man who went by the name of Wushui.

"Why have you unleashed the Heart-Forgetting Poison?!" Lu Yang demanded in a sharp, censuring tone; try as he might, he could not fathom what the people of the Heartless Sect were ultimately driving at.

"What do we intend? To refine the Heart-Forgetting Pill, naturally." Elder Wushui spoke with the supreme confidence of a man holding all the cards, not minding in the least to reveal a fragment of the truth to the two before him.

They might not be able to withstand the ferocious onslaught of the Meng family clan, but surely they could handle two young prodigies who had merely achieved early fame?

"Man is the most spiritual of all creation. If one speaks of a natural alchemical furnace, it is, of course, the human body itself."

An absurd notion took root in Lu Yang's mind: could it be that this Heart-Forgetting Pill was being refined by using living human beings as vessels?

No wonder the Immortal Fairy had failed to recognize the refinement technique; it was a method she had never encountered before.

"Your Meng family has uprooted our arrangements in the Buddhist Kingdom one by one, making it impossible for us to remain. If we didn't leave a little something behind before our departure, wouldn't it make our Heartless Sect appear far too weak and yielding?"

"You happened to stumble upon the tracks of our sect here in the Imperial Capital, and by sheer coincidence, you are both present. If we did not make use of this occasion, would it not be a terrible waste?"

Lu Yang’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Oh? If I am understanding the two of you correctly, you do not merely intend to tamper with the citizens of this city, but also mean to deal with the two of us?"

"Naturally we mean to deal with you. You two are the chief culprits who caused our sect's movements to be exposed. To think that instead of fleeing back to the Great Xia, you swaggered about and remained in the Buddhist Kingdom—you truly have no inkling of how the word 'death' is written."

These two Elders of the Heartless Sect had long since achieved the Mindset of Heartlessness; they spoke in flat, uninflected tones devoid of any emotional cadence, which fell upon the ear with a deeply bizarre effect.

"I really don't know how the word 'death' is written!" Lu Yang raised his Azure Peak Sword, preparing to exert his true strength. He had already consulted the Immortal Fairy; both of these Elders were cultivators at the mid-Body Integration Stage.

He had slain an Elder of the Heartless Sect at the early Body Integration Stage once before, but that had been after Mangu and Lanting had worn the man down through a prior round of combat, which was why that battle had proceeded with relative ease.

Now, both of these Heartless Sect Elders were at the absolute peak of their condition, making this an undeniably arduous encounter.

Even so, it was worth a trial.

"Arrogant junior," Elder Bailiting said coldly. In his long life, he had beheld no small number of prodigies, yet he had never once encountered a mid-Soul Formation youth capable of threatening him!

"One Sword Transforms into Ten Thousand!" Lu Yang roared. Beneath his feet, the golden embryonic form of a Sword Dao Domain manifested, and countless Azure Peak Swords composed entirely of sword-qi carpeted the air, resembling a vast, grand highway.

Lu Yang casually drew a single sword and slashed toward Elder Bailiting; a brilliant flash of sword-light ignited, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Elder Bailiting, who had initially thought little of Lu Yang, felt his hairs stand on end. This single strike was fast beyond all his expectations, and in a flash, he drew a piece of tortoise shell from his storage ring to block the descending gleam.

The sword-light left nothing more than a faint, white scratch upon the shell.

As it was merely a probing strike, Lu Yang felt no surprise that it failed to injure Bailiting; what did surprise him, however, was the tortoise shell the man had produced.

"A tortoise shell of the Black Tortoise Clan?" Lu Yang let out a cold sneer. This Elder of the Heartless Sect truly operated with absolute impunity, actually daring to utilize a Black Tortoise Clan shell as a dharma treasure; was he truly not afraid of being discovered by the clan itself?

Lu Yang spoke no further. The embryonic Sword Dao Domain shuddered, and handle after handle of the Azure Peak Swords rose from the ground to hover in midair, their gleaming tips trained directly upon Bailiting.

"Go!"

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—

Countless Azure Peak Swords transformed into streaks of sword-light, hurtling toward Bailiting. Guarding himself with the Black Tortoise shell, Bailiting was forced backward step after step; these streaks of light were not only astonishingly potent, but the sheer physical force behind them was extraordinarily immense!

"What a fiercely sharp assault."

Bailiting dared not treat the matter lightly. The Three-Eyed Ghost Monk and the Void Shadow were his subordinates; when he heard that Lu Yang had fought the Three-Eyed Ghost Monk in public and proclaimed the monk to be a ghost king of the Body Integration Stage, he had assumed Lu Yang was merely given to wild exaggeration.

The actual combat prowess of such individuals was usually far lower than the rumors suggested.

Yet this was clearly a display far stronger than any rumor!

Master Duanchen was overjoyed; Almsgiver Lu was indeed a youth of profound capability.

"But what of it? The rules mastered by the Body Integration Stage constitute a chasm you can never hope to cross."

"Let it be decreed here: [Rule: My physical resilience shall be elevated to the level of the Black Tortoise Shell]."

The power of rules flooded into Bailiting’s form, remaking his body entirely from the inside out. Now, even without the aid of the Black Tortoise shell, these streaks of sword-light could no longer harm him; they struck his flesh with a sharp, clattering din, yet failed to inflict the slightest wound.

"Disciple of Buyu, what will you do this time?"

Bailiting stepped directly into the embryonic Sword Dao Domain, holding a bronze spear in one hand and the Black Tortoise shell in the other, a perfect fusion of offense and defense.

Close-quarters combat was inherently the advantage of a sword cultivator, who could unleash exceptionally sharp sword-light at short range. Yet with the sudden surge in Bailiting’s defensive power, Lu Yang’s advantage was severely blunted, as the hastily condensed sword-light could not pierce his foe.

The spear thrust out from treacherous, unpredictable angles; unable to find an opening to attack, Lu Yang was forced into passive defense. The Black Tortoise shell was likewise utilized as an offensive tool, its immense weight making it a devastating blunt weapon.

"Tortoise and Serpent, Unite!"

The spear and the Black Tortoise shell merged into one, coalescing into the massive corpse of a fallen Black Tortoise that crashed down upon Lu Yang with immense violence.

Boom!

Lu Yang was smashed directly down into the earth below!

Just as Bailiting assumed this strike had severely incapacitated his opponent, he discovered that Lu Yang had taken advantage of the momentum to burrow straight into the soil. A Bodhi tree instantly sprouted from the ground, and beneath its branches, two Lu Yangs emerged.

While flying in the air previously, there had been no opportunity to deploy the Tree Planting Technique; now, having been intentionally cast down, the perfect chance had finally presented itself!

The Bodhi Avatar was born, inhabited by his primordial soul and holding the Chengying Sword—a complete and perfect duplicate of Lu Yang!

The two Lu Yangs soared into the sky, moving in seamless, unspoken harmony.

"One Sword Transforms into Ten Thousand!" The Bodhi Avatar was equally capable of manifesting the embryonic Sword Dao Domain, laying out an infinite expanse of Chengying Swords. The embryonic domain erupted into raging flames, accompanied by the piercing cry of a Golden Crow.

The Samadhi True Fire and the Golden Crow True Fire!

The two supreme true fires fused perfectly with the embryonic Sword Dao Domain!

Within the small world of the Azure Peak Sword, the Seven Stars Sword Set coalesced.

Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Ancestor, the Immortal-Destroying Sword Array!

Lu Yang pointed his sword directly at Bailiting and barked a thunderous command: "Let it be decreed here: [Rule: Kneel]!"

Bailiting’s pupils contracted sharply, and with a heavy thud, he dropped straight to his knees.

How could this be? Lu Yang was a mere mid-Soul Formation cultivator; how could he possibly wield the power of rules?!

On the other side of the battlefield, Elder Wushui produced a flying vessel constructed entirely of bleached bones. Holding the Banner of ten thousand souls, he stood proudly at the prow as wailing spirits poured from the banner to fill the entire ship.

The dead souls acted as sailors, each attending to their duties as they turned the ship's cannons to aim directly at Meng Jingzhou.

"Dead souls? Laughable!"

Meng Jingzhou gave a mighty shout, and behind his back, a golden dharma idol rose slowly like a soaring sun, appearing as though it were born from the ancient solar core, wild and untamed.

Illuminated by the radiant light of Meng Jingzhou's dharma idol, the dead souls wailed in agonizing torment, white smoke billowing from their forms.

Before the Supreme Pure Yang Dharma Idol, all dead souls were reduced to mere illusions!

"Let it be decreed here: [Rule: My dead souls shall not fear the power of Pure Yang]."

"So what if they don't fear it? Do you truly believe this young master's dharma idol is only good for shining light?!"

Meng Jingzhou leapt high into the air, bringing his hands together to smash down violently upon the bone vessel. The hundred-foot-tall Pure Yang Dharma Idol mirrored his movement precisely, and with a single, devastating blow, the flying ship shook violently.

"Old Lu, give me a light!"

The Supreme Pure Yang Manifestation extended a massive hand, seizing a portion of Lu Yang's embryonic sword domain. The True Fire of the Golden Crow fused seamlessly with the manifestation, causing it to resemble a true sun more than ever before.

With sharp sword qi gripped firmly within both of its fists, the manifestation's power surged accordingly!

"Eight Styles of Shaking the Sky!"

The Third Elder had only managed to devise six styles. However, after Meng Jingzhou returned to the Meng family and received guidance from Meng Junzi, the grandmaster had personally taken up the brush to append two more forms to the original technique. He had also modified the existing styles, tailoring them to perfectly suit Meng Jingzhou's combat habits.

This set of fist techniques was no longer what it once was!

"This young master wants to see just how sturdy your boat really is!"

"Arrogant fool," Elder Wushui sneered, spreading his arms wide. A torrential deluge of seawater erupted from behind him, coalescing into a hundred-foot titan that locked in fierce combat with Meng Jingzhou!

As water and fire collided, Meng Jingzhou's eyes burned a furious crimson, as if ready to spew flames. The pure yang energy of his Single Celibate Spiritual Root erupted violently!

"Constantly having to distract myself to suppress this lustful fire is a real nuisance!"

Meng Jingzhou pulled out the Pills of Forgotten Emotion and swallowed them all in one single gulp.

These were the very pills plundered from the Three-Eyed Ghost Monk, and the majority of them had ended up in his possession!

Elder Wushui froze for a brief moment, almost mistaking Meng Jingzhou for a fellow member of their Emotionless Sect.

He snapped back to reality quickly, but the Supreme Pure Yang Manifestation had already grown vastly in power, threatening to collapse his own creation at any moment!

Meng Jingzhou felt his condition reach an unprecedented peak. His mind was utterly clear, allowing him to finally throw his entire soul into the battle without having to worry about his bodily affliction any longer!

"Kill."

Just as the four were locked in a chaotic melee, an even more tyrannical pressure enveloped the City of the Sovereigns, abruptly cutting their clash short.

"It seems the youth of today possess rather extraordinary capabilities, even daring to challenge those in the Integration Stage."

An ancient figure materialized, wearing a hollow smile while casting furtive glances toward Lu Yang from time to time.

"So, you are Ye Zijin's youngest junior brother?"

"Vice Sect Master!" Baili Ting and Wushui ceased their attacks immediately, flying to the side of the aged figure to bow in deep reverence.

The Vice Sect Master of the Emotionless Sect!

"The time is ripe. Departing from the Buddhist Kingdom, we ought to take something with us to give both this realm and the Great Xia a lasting lesson. It is time for this City of the Sovereigns to leave as well."

The ancient figure spoke dispassionately. The City of the Sovereigns trembled violently as the entire metropolis tore away from its foundations, ascending into the heavens.

Immediately afterward, the world before Lu Yang's eyes plunged into darkness.

"Old Lu, do you want to see how their fight is going?" Meng Jingzhou asked, pointing toward the arena.