Chapter 1007: Layer-by-Layer Crushing

Dai Bufan cast a sideways glance at Lu Yang, who stood obediently behind him.

Had the people of the Heartless Sect actually tracked them down first?

Then how did you know they were coming, and even think to return to the sect to summon aid?

Dai Bufan stretched his limbs, his bones crackling crisply; having managed the Mission Hall for many years, he rarely had occasion to use force, but that did not mean he was weak.

That he could assume control of the Mission Hall from the Chief Elder at such an early stage was only partly due to the elder's indolence; the crucial factor was that his strength was more than sufficient to bear the heavy mantle.

Among his peers, save for Yun Zhi, he had never known defeat at the hands of anyone.

"It is a rare occasion to cross paths with the Heartless Sect," Dai Bufan remarked with a touch of emotion, recalling that the sect members he usually encountered were nothing but dying souls; this was the very first time he had seen such lively elders.

"Heaven's Shift!"

Dai Bufan suddenly pointed a finger toward the heavens, and in an instant, dark clouds rolled in, unleashing a torrential downpour the likes of which Imperial Sovereign City had not witnessed in five centuries, bringing an immediate chill to the city and the surrounding desert.

Possessing the Water Spiritual Root, this place was now his domain.

In every direction, the entire world seemed transformed into a kingdom of water; the citizens of Imperial Sovereign City had lived long lives, yet this was the first time they had seen their city in such a state.

"Rivers Reverse!"

Rainwater coursed through the crevices of the streets like tens of thousands of streams, and these currents, as if endowed with life, transformed into small dragons of flood and mist, lunging toward the two elders.

"Black Tortoise Shell!"

"White Bone Flying Boat!"

Elder Bai Liting and Elder Wu Shui had not expected Dai Bufan to cast his spells with such terrifying speed, finding it hard to believe that he, too, was merely in the mid-stage of the Body Integration Realm.

The Black Tortoise Shell formed a protective barrier before Elder Bai Liting, while Elder Wu Shui hid within the White Bone Flying Boat, using its hull to withstand the onslaught.

These small dragons were nimble and volatile; upon crashing into the Black Tortoise Shell, they shattered into raindrops, only to crawl along the surface of the shell, reconstitute themselves, and lay siege to Bai Liting anew.

Elder Wu Shui brought forth the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls, sending countless spirits into a mournful wail as he commanded the flying boat's cannons to blast the small dragons.

The White Bone Flying Boat behaved like a true vessel, tossing and turning upon the swelling tide, liable to be smashed to pieces should it strike a reef.

The small dragons, though blown apart, coalesced once more as if possessed of infinite vitality; some unknown enchantment had been woven into them, allowing them to use their very bodies as cages to imprison the wailing spirits within.

Even with thousands of spirits inside Elder Wu Shui's banner, he could not sustain such a grueling war of attrition.

Elder Wu Shui's own cultivation method was also bound to water, and precisely because of this, he knew just how fierce Dai Bufan became in this state; he had to be contained.

"Hereby I decree the Rule: No rain shall fall upon Imperial Sovereign City."

Instantly, the skies above Imperial Sovereign City cleared into a boundless expanse of blue, and the small dragons formed of rainwater vanished into nothingness.

Battles in the Body Integration Realm relied on this very exchange of decrees, each imposing restrictions upon the other.

Yet, facing the rule invoked by Elder Wu Shui to disperse the clouds and rain, Dai Bufan showed no intention of using a counter-rule to retaliate.

Instead, he drew forth a crimson banner embroidered with auspicious clouds; the moment the Five-Colored Cloud Banner unfurled, countless magnificent and complex characters flew from it, branding themselves upon the void to form layer upon layer of formations.

The formation consisted of nine layers in total, known as the Nine-Layer Pagoda Formation; the moment it manifested, the two elders were instantly bent double, unable to even stand upright.

"Black Tortoise Manifestation!" Elder Bai Liting forced his spear to merge with the Black Tortoise Shell, summoning the corpse of the divine beast, intending to shatter the great formation with its immense weight.

But when the corpse struck the boundary of the formation, it was as though it had plunged into deep mire; despite possessing boundless strength, it found no purchase to exert it.

Dai Bufan charged into the formation, wielding the Five-Colored Cloud Banner as though it were a staff.

"Xuantian Axe!"

"Thunderfire Red-Gold Fist!"

The two elders respectively conjured an axe capable of cleaving space itself and a fist carrying a trace of heavenly tribulation's power.

Dai Bufan remained unmoved, his brow not even twitching as he struck with his banner; a single blow shattered the Xuantian Axe and caught Elder Wu Shui squarely in the face, battering the two elders so severely that their teeth littered the ground, rendering their supreme methods and healing arts utterly useless.

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou stood atop the Imperial Sovereign Temple, looking up at the battle; seeing the usually gentle Senior Brother Dai transform into a battle maniac and slaughter all before him, the two of them trembled in fear.

"It's the first time I've seen Senior Brother Dai beat someone up."

"He hits terribly hard."

Theoretically, the two of them were capable of contending with an ordinary mid-stage Body Integration cultivator.

But if they were to encounter a cultivator like Dai Bufan, their fate would be no better than that of these two elders.

An ancient, weathered voice echoed through Imperial Sovereign City.

"To possess such cultivation at so young an age, you are no ordinary junior."

With the appearance of the elderly figure, the Nine-Layer Pagoda Formation collapsed without a blow, and the two elders were finally liberated, scrambling to seek the old man's protection.

"Vice Sect Master."

"Lou Nan?" Dai Bufan held his crimson banner, his battle intent undiminished.

Lou Nan, the Vice Sect Master of the Heartless Sect, in the early stage of the Tribulation Transmutation Realm.

"The people of this entire city have been poisoned; those cultivators may fare well enough to cleanse themselves, but the mortals possess frail bodies, and only this old man holds the method to cure them."

"If the poison in these people is not neutralized, they will perish within ten days."

"If you wish for this city to live a little longer, you had best hand them all over to me."

As he spoke, Lou Nan released his Tribulation pressure, directing it entirely onto Dai Bufan alone, forcing him to convert his body into a water form to alleviate the burden.

"Quite a clever junior indeed," Lou Nan mused, considering whether he should simply abduct Dai Bufan along with the rest.

The cure was known to Lou Nan alone; neither Bai Liting nor Wu Shui knew it, and if Dai Bufan wanted the city to survive, he had no choice but to let him take everyone away.

"Why is he so intent on taking the entire city?" Lu Yang was perplexed; the loop before last had been exactly the same, with Lou Nan directly uprooting Imperial Sovereign City.

The Immortal Fairy lay upon her lotus throne and guessed casually, "Probably to condense the embryonic form of a Dao Fruit. By observing the heartless deeds of a whole city over a long period, if one's luck is good enough to gain enlightenment, there is a chance to form an embryonic Dao Fruit related to heartlessness."

"Master Lu, what do we do?" Tang Chuanwu broke into a cold sweat; the moment Lou Nan appeared, Dai Bufan, who had just seemed like a god of war, was reduced to a bitter struggle, powerless to resist. Must they initiate the next loop to seek a new way out?

Lu Yang smiled at Tang Chuanwu, "Rest assured, I have plenty of people on my side."

With that, he soared into the sky, standing shoulder to shoulder with Dai Bufan, and steadily raised his Azure Peak Sword.

"To take the people of this city, have you asked my sword?"

"Mid-stage Soul Formation." Had Lou Nan not attained the Heartless State of Mind, he would have burst into laughter.

Could a mid-stage Soul Formation cultivator truly turn the heavens upside down?

"Take a strike from me!"

Lu Yang raised the Azure Peak Sword high, his sword intent brilliant and grand; as the strike descended, a small world opened, and a great snow mountain large enough to cover the entirety of Imperial Sovereign City drifted out from within, striking Lou Nan and sending him flying.

If Dai Bufan's summoning of wind and rain earlier had merely cooled the city, the appearance of the great snow mountain brought a biting winter.

Two figures flew out from the snow mountain, one tall and the other petite.

The tall figure looked at Lou Nan with a cold smirk, "Calling everyone a junior, old man, are you truly so ancient?"

"Is a heartless poison so difficult to cure?" the petite figure sneered.

Lou Nan took a clear look at the two visages, and his Heartless State of Mind shattered instantly; his previously calculated and composed demeanor vanished without a trace.

"Daoist Master Hanhai... Perfected Cultivator Zhuiyue!"

Two Half-Immortals!

Run!

Lou Nan turned and fled on the instant, but just as the open gates of Kaihuang City came into view, a spectral doorway materialized out of thin air, snaring him and casting him back to the very spot where he began.

"Trying to flee? Did you think to ask for my leave?"