Demon Emperor Baizu was the weakest among the nine great commanders, yet his ferocious reputation was the most prominent of them all.
It sounded contradictory. If he was the weakest among the nine demons, why was his brutal notoriety the greatest?
To Luo Chen, however, this question was very easy to understand.
Reputation was never something flattered into existence by one or two individuals; it was spread far and wide by vast masses of people.
Demon Emperor Baizu's fearsome name resounded throughout the cultivation world solely because he was a powerhouse who cared nothing for grace or decorum.
In countless battles, he struck without the slightest scruple, never adhering to the unspoken rules of general facing general and king facing king.
He deliberately avoided grand human cultivators, preferring to target weaker early- and mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, and he would not even spare his magic power when slaughtering Golden Core cultivators.
It was precisely because of this cruel and ruthless style that he earned such a terrifying reputation among countless low-ranking cultivators.
During the nine days and nine nights of assault and defense at Lingtian Pass, seven Nascent Soul cultivators had perished.
Three of them had died by his hand.
In particular, he had offhandedly killed two Nascent Soul cultivators of the Mingyuan Sect, which once sent Perfected Person Hanyang of the Mingyuan Sect into a towering rage, pursuing and hunting him for an entire day and night.
And for this demon to discard all decorum was not merely due to his personal conduct, but also tied to his combat methods.
With just a single glance, Luo Chen saw the multitude of magic treasures adorning those hundred legs and hundred arms!
These were no crude demon-forged artifacts.
They were entirely standard magic treasures crafted by orthodox human artifact refiners.
A few among them were even True Artifacts!
Evidently, the demon's indiscriminate slaughter of human cultivators and plunder of their treasures had all been done to complement his multitude of limbs.
Clinking, clattering, popping, and crackling.
Amidst the ringing clatter of numerous magic treasures, the colossal centipede slowly reared upright, its divine sense firmly locked upon the motionless Luo Chen.
"Frightened?"
"Don't be! Once I bring you down, that blood sword in your hand will also become one of my trophies!"
With just a glance, Baizu recognized the formidable nature of the precious blade in Luo Chen's grasp, thick greed surfacing in his compound eyes.
Facing this provocation, the corners of Luo Chen's mouth twitched, and he slowly raised the blood sword high.
"You want it? Come take it yourself!"
In the next instant, Baizu charged toward Luo Chen with earth-shattering might.
Magic power surged, and radiant treasure light erupted.
In a single breath, Luo Chen was engulfed in a swirling dazzle of multicolored treasure auras.
"Break!"
Luo Chen let out a low cry, and the Yuantu Sword slashed out a brilliant sword light, scattering the encroaching magic treasures in every direction.
Soaring into the sky, Luo Chen frowned once more.
Due to the violent upheaval of heaven-and-earth world essence, he was utterly incapable of manipulating the free-floating spiritual energy in the air, which noticeably weakened his ability to drive the Yuantu Sword's power.
Glancing at Baizu in close pursuit, Luo Chen executed Moon Steps to narrowly evade wave after wave of treasure attacks, his mind racing for a countermeasure.
In such an environment, the ordinary techniques of cultivators would suffer immense drops in potency.
One could only rely on their own internal magic power!
Yet without ambient spiritual energy to replenish it, whether casting high-tier spells or wielding potent True Artifacts, the expenditure of magic power was terrifyingly steep.
Commander Baizu had eschewed demon arts from the very outset, directly manifesting his true form to brawl, clearly having realized this as well.
If that was the case...
Luo Chen hesitated no longer. Pointing his thumb downward, he struck his own chest.
"Transform!"
Boom!
Surging source power coursed through his entire body, and Luo Chen's frame began to swell and expand madly.
Not only that, the Xuanchen Armor shifted in response, tightly enveloping his whole body and leaving only a pair of brilliant eyes that gleamed with faint golden light.
In the blink of an eye, a nine-zhang-tall giant stood revealed to the world.
Luo Chen closed the distance immediately, brandishing the blood sword—which had expanded more than tenfold under the amplification of magic power—and thrust it viciously toward Baizu.
Confronted by the lunging Luo Chen, Baizu remained unfazed.
Even with that slight increase in size, the opponent was still insignificant in his eyes.
"An ant is an ant in the end!"
A flying sword shot forth abruptly, aiming straight for the back of Luo Chen's skull.
Luo Chen's figure flickered sharply, flying with incredible agility behind Baizu as the flying sword struck empty air.
From his left and right, an iron hammer and a stone stele converged in a pincer attack, but under a sweeping slash of sword light, both high-grade magic treasures were sheared in two.
With the obstructions cleared, the Yuantu Sword plunged toward Baizu's back.
Clang!
A shield resembling a tortoise shell suddenly materialized.
Luo Chen's expression turned fierce, and he channeled monstrous force into the sword, thrusting it violently forward.
"Break!"
*Screech...*
Like the impact of a sledgehammer, the tortoise shell shattered into fragments.
Yet just as Luo Chen moved to press his advantage, four colossal arms swung magic treasures from above, below, left, and right, descending upon him.
Luo Chen dared not take further risks. He wheeled around and thrust a palm into empty air, blasting open an escape route with a burst of powerful magic power.
He drifted backward as lightly as a fluttering butterfly, yet in the next instant, his figure shot violently upward into the sky. Gripping the blood sword with both hands, he cleaved downward through the air!
Baizu gave a sinister laugh, raising a saber and a sword across his two foremost arms to parry above his head.
*Crack!*
The moment they collided, the saber and sword crumbled into powder.
Yet a fist wrapped in silvery-white light suddenly thrust out from Baizu's chest.
Committed entirely to the downward strike, Luo Chen was caught off guard and took the blow head-on.
*Bang!*
His chest visibly caved inward.
"You're too green!" Baizu laughed rampantly as even more magic treasures flew toward Luo Chen.
Without a word, Luo Chen let source power circulate through his chest, restoring it instantly, then continuously evaded in midair with Moon Steps.
Seizing an opening, he dove back within a hundred zhang of Baizu.
His golden pupils spun ceaselessly, seeking to discern the opponent's flaws.
Yet whenever he relied on his nimble speed and the razor sharpness of the Yuantu Sword to carve out a local breakthrough, even more magic treasures would rain down upon him.
A nine-zhang stature seemed imposing under normal circumstances.
Yet before the Demon Emperor's seven-to-eight-hundred-zhang frame, it appeared pitifully small.
As the hundred legs and arms flailed about swiping at Luo Chen, it was like swatting at a mosquito.
Suddenly!
Luo Chen's eyes lit up as he spotted a gap between the carapace plates.
"Right there!"
When another spiked-club treasure smashed toward him, Luo Chen no longer dodged, taking the impact squarely on his back.
Borrowing the force of the blow, he lunged forward.
With a sonic boom tearing through the void, Luo Chen whipped out a single leg in a flying strike.
Thunder Kick!
Like a bolt of lightning, Luo Chen's kick struck dead center into the gap in the carapace.
Source power erupted, and the horrifying brute force sent Baizu staggering backward.
Just as delight flickered across Luo Chen's face, he suddenly sensed something amiss.
His right foot, which he sought to withdraw, felt as though it had sunk into a mire.
At the same time, four surrounding arms flicked their wrists, whipping out four golden ropes that bound Luo Chen's hands and feet in the nick of time.
Luo Chen gritted his teeth and flexed, discharging source power to snap the golden ropes, yet his entire stance had been left wide open.
In his line of sight, a sharp black awl plummeted from high above.
Without hesitation, Luo Chen thrust the Yuantu Sword upward.
*Clink!*
Sword tip met awl tip—a clash of needle point against wheaten beard!
Yet Baizu had lured his enemy deep and set this snare; how could he have only one or two tricks?
In the blink of an eye, dark ink bloomed across the black awl, and four identical awls branched off around it, hurtling down abruptly.
*Thud!*
*Thud!*
*Thud!*
*Thud!*
The four awls sank directly into Luo Chen's nine-zhang body, piercing clean through even the Xuanchen Armor.
Under their resonance, the central black awl deadlocked against the Yuantu Sword began to bear down slowly.
Luo Chen attempted to reinforce his blade with magic power, only to find the surging reserves in his body becoming sluggish and unyielding.
*Those four awls are suppressing my magic power!*
Luo Chen's expression turned ruthless. His magic power was suppressed, but he possessed far more than just magic power.
Source power poured forth like a torrential flood, and the Yuantu Sword flipped the black awl aside. Furthermore, a massive seal that resembled a falling mountain was sliced clean in two by the sword before it could even descend.
Seizing the opportunity, Luo Chen slapped a palm onto Baizu's vibrantly patterned carapace, using the recoil to leap backward.
*Thump! Thump! Thump!*
His heavy body stamped massive footprints into the earth.
Leaning on his sword, Luo Chen dropped to one knee, his expression pitch-black.
He had never expected that in body refinement, the path he was most proficient in, he would be outmaneuvered.
Unlike ordinary demons, this Baizu had not neglected body refinement. He was a dual cultivator of both body and magic, just like Luo Chen!
Even if he did not walk the path of blood Qi, his physical constitution was unequivocally at the fourth-tier level!
And now, with his magic power temporarily sealed by the four awls, Luo Chen found himself at a distinct disadvantage.
Amidst the crumbling ruins, Baizu looked upon the scene with a vicious grin, his voice dripping with arrogant laughter.
"Hahaha, how do the Five Elements Law-Suppressing Awls from Tianfan City taste?"
Paying no mind to the gaping wound Luo Chen's kick had gouged into his abdomen, Baizu squirmed forward, step by step toward Luo Chen.
"Now you cannot mobilize your magic power, and your physique falls short of mine. How will you resist?"
"Come back with me!"
"Don't worry, I won't hand you over to Ao Kuang. After all, your skill in alchemy and medicine is famous even among us demonkind."
Luo Chen kept his head lowered, saying nothing.
Baizu paid it no heed. He knew human cultivators were all like this; getting them to beg for mercy required a bit of persuasion.
He simply needed to apply a little more pressure.
At worst, he could snap the man's four limbs and haul him back bound in golden ropes.
Still, this man's combat methods did not seem extraordinarily profound. How had that fellow Qi Xi managed to lose to him?
Could it be because of that blood sword?
Baizu could tell the blood sword was exceptionally extraordinary, and this human had likely not even unleashed half of its true power.
If he obtained it and drew out its full might, his own strength would advance by leaps and bounds.
Even standing before Ao Kuang, he would possess the confidence to hold his ground!
*Applying pressure gradually is best, lest this man prove stubborn and self-detonate his treasures. That would cost me more than I gain.*
With this thought, Baizu had already closed within a few li of Luo Chen.
Suddenly, his expression shifted, and he instinctively glanced at his surroundings.
Yet after a careful scan, doubt crept into his face.
"Nothing?"
"Why did I feel the sensation of a great desolate beast watching just now?"
"No!"
Baizu's face hardened, his gaze snapping down to the man below.
Wisps of crimson mist spewed from Luo Chen's pores like steam, completely engulfing his nine-zhang body.
The mist grew denser and broader, even blanketing a portion of the adjacent thousand-li expanse of Lake Taihu.
"There's something wrong with this guy!"
Baizu did not hesitate. Raising one arm high, he flung out a miniature mountain that spun as it flew.
The mountain expanded with the wind, transforming into a towering peak in an instant.
With a sweep of his arm, the mountain crashed down.
Boom!
A deafening roar tore through the air, and before Baizu's horrified eyes, the great mountain was flung violently aside.
Countless tendrils of crimson mist snapped backward, sinking into the giant's form.
When the blood mist cleared, a five-hundred-zhang-tall giant draped in black armor slowly rose from the earth.
The nearby low peaks only reached up to his waist.
His golden eyes radiated endless, untamed ferocity.
He glared fixedly at Baizu, then bent his legs.
Muscles as hard as granite compressed to their limit.
Thick sinews rippled beneath the armor, coiled like fully drawn bowstrings.
In the next instant!
*Bang!*
The giant blasted forward like a cannonball, charging straight for Baizu.
A savage look crossed Baizu's face, and he thrust both silver-gloved hands out with all his might.
*Smack! Smack!*
The giant's palms clamped onto the silver-white arms, and immediately, horrifying brute strength came crashing down like an overturned mountain.
Terror filled Baizu's eyes as he realized that in terms of pure physical strength, he was completely outmatched.
His massive true body was now being forced backward uncontrollably.
Rumble!
Rumble!
Dilapidated palace halls collapsed and pulverized one after another.
Vast plumes of dust and grit blotted out the sky.
*Splash!*
Towering waves erupted.
The two colossal forms crashed into Lake Taihu.
Baizu looked down in horror; his two foremost arms had been shoved violently into his own chest.
The snapping of sinews and shattering of bones brought agonizing pain.
Baizu roared in fury.
"Luo Chen!!!"
Luo Chen answered with a furious bellow of his own.
"Baizu!!!"
Boom!
Surging waves rolled across heaven and earth.
Ten thousand qing of lake water exploded into mist and rain.
...
The boundless Lake Taihu stretched for a thousand li.
The lake had earned its name from the Nascent Soul upper sect, Taihu Palace, but its true foundation was a complete fourth-tier water vein.
Now, due to the fierce clash of two mighty combatants within the lake, the water vein was thrown into turmoil, sending vast quantities of spiritual energy billowing outward.
Mist and rain drifted hazily between heaven and earth.
In ordinary times, it would have been a breathtaking sight.
Yet at this moment, it served merely as a fragile backdrop to the simplest, most direct physical brawl.
Within the great lake.
Luo Chen and Baizu engaged in combat stripped of all flourish.
There was no clash of soaring spells, no grand aerial maneuvers—only fists and kicks.
The giant swung his palms to box both ears, followed with an iron elbow to strike the mountain, then clasped his hands together to concentrate source power into a crimson orb, blasting it forth with a palm strike.
Baizu staggered backward across the surging waves, thumping heavily.
Under his command, one magic treasure after another smashed toward Luo Chen.
Yet Luo Chen paid these attacks no heed, allowing them to rain upon his body.
Sabers and axes cleaved, but the black armor held fast.
Flying swords and spears thrust, only to bounce off knotted muscle.
Baizu watched this spectacle in utter disbelief.
Demons possessed natural advantages when refining their physical bodies.
How could a mere human reach such a realm?
Even when he summoned a True Artifact flying sword plundered from the Mingyuan Sect to pierce through the black armor's defense, it was firmly clamped between dense bone and terrifying muscle, unable to advance another inch.
A ruthless resolve surfaced in Baizu's heart. Clasping the sword with one hand, he beckoned toward the distance with the other.
"Mountain, come!"
The massive mountain previously batted away by Luo Chen came rumbling back, crashing down toward the giant.
Faced with this, Luo Chen grinned savagely and opened his mouth to spit.
The Hunyuan Cauldron spun out, swelling with the wind until it stood a hundred zhang tall.
Ordinarily, a hundred-zhang cauldron resembled a small mountain, but in Luo Chen's current grasp, it felt remarkably light and nimble.
He hoisted the colossal cauldron and swung.
*Bang!*
A heavy collision resounded, and the great mountain went tumbling backward once more.
Towering sword light erupted from Baizu's hands.
Luo Chen brandished the Yuantu Sword, substituting source power for magic power, and slashed out a vast arc of sword light.
Clang!
By this point, both sides had abandoned all other methods.
Luo Chen's magic power was sealed, leaving him unable to cast spells, relying purely on his formidable physique and the Xuanchen Armor to endure.
As for Baizu, his ordinary magic treasures were useless against Luo Chen, serving only to waste his magic power and divine sense.
All that remained!
Each held a blade, hacking at the other.
A cauldron and a mountain, hurled back and forth.
Amidst these relentless collisions, the tremendous recoil forced their internal organs to groan and creak, even making them spit blood.
By comparison, Luo Chen fared noticeably better; his five viscera had been nourished for years by the Thousand-Year Five-Shrine Immortal Brew and were far beyond the ordinary.
Yet even so, the duel degenerated into a pure contest of attrition and traded wounds.
Mist and rain hung desolately; the sun and moon lost their luster.
Without realizing it, this grueling battle had stretched late into the night.
Following yet another clash.
Boom!
Baizu stared in disbelief at the rain of shattered rock.
The True Artifact mountain he valued so highly had been smashed to pieces by the opponent's cauldron.
"You destroyed my treasure! Die!"
Gripping the hilt with both hands, Baizu poured magic power into the True Artifact flying sword plundered from the Mingyuan Sect. Its blade expanded wildly before cleaving downward.
Luo Chen tossed the Hunyuan Cauldron into the sky, then swung the Yuantu Sword once more.
Boom!
Another draw.
Yet in this clash, something occurred that left Baizu utterly dumbfounded.
He slowly raised his hands and looked at the blade he held.
It was broken!
A True Artifact personally refined by a Nascent Soul cultivator from a Soul Transformation sacred ground had actually snapped?
Luo Chen watched this coldly, knowing his improvised adjustment to his fighting style had worked.
Faced with Baizu's countless arms and myriad magic treasures, agility was paradoxically a vulnerability.
Only by meeting force with force could he directly expose the opponent's weaknesses!
Indeed, Demon Emperor Baizu possessed countless treasures for offense, defense, restraint, and ambush, appearing omnipotent and devoid of flaw.
In truth, to be proficient in everything was to be master of nothing.
His soul was not particularly exceptional, and the quality of his magic treasures varied wildly.
Above all, none of those treasures had been personally forged and nurtured by Baizu; they had all been seized by force.
As long as he was forced into a brutal clash of brute force, these minute deficiencies would continue to amplify!
As for this five-hundred-zhang giant form, it was his true body!
The nine-zhang stature he normally assumed was merely the optimal size for contending with human cultivators.
Whenever he chose to unleash his source power, he could manifest this towering, hundred-zhang form.
"This battle has dragged on too long."
"Let it end!"
Forming a sword incantation with one hand and lifting the blood sword with the other, Luo Chen strode forward toward Baizu.
The turbid lake water parted before his steps.
Baizu's expression changed, and he turned to flee.
"Last time, Qi Xi escaped. How could I let another tiger return to the mountain!"
Luo Chen slashed down.
The centipede's body was severed clean through the middle.
At that very moment, a beam of golden light shot out from within its corpse, piercing through the void.
*Swoosh!*
In an instant, it struck the center of Luo Chen's brow.
The colossal giant held the massive blood sword, standing frozen within Lake Taihu.
The clear moonlight draped over him like a gossamer shroud.
From within the bisected giant centipede, a figure crawled out with great difficulty.
Panting heavily, he looked upon Luo Chen with lingering terror in his eyes.
How could this fellow be a cultivator?
He was a fucking desolate beast!
In fact, because he wielded magic treasures, he was even more troublesome than those ancient beasts of the untamed wilderness!
Had Baizu not kept a trump card in reserve, he would have truly perished here tonight.
"Fortunately, when I assumed human form, I nurtured a Soul-Weaving Needle. Though I lacked the proper technique and its power is ordinary, ordinary people still cannot withstand it when caught off guard. Especially with his magic power sealed, he can only sit and await death."
Baizu slowly rose to his feet, preparing to gather his severed body.
Yet out of the corner of his eye, his entire body froze.
The motionless giant was slowly raising the sword incantation formed by his left hand.
A surging fluctuation of magic power radiated outward, impossible to conceal.
"How is this possible..."
Baizu swallowed hard. Forgetting his broken corpse, he scrambled toward the sky in utter panic.
Right at that moment!
Within the turbid waters of Lake Taihu, a great python broke the surface, opening its fanged maw and hissing shrilly at Baizu.
Struck by the screech, Baizu's divine soul shuddered.
Though he broke free of the influence in an instant, it was already too late.
A finger tapped out lightly, striking his body from across the void.
Without a physical body to shelter it, how could a mere Nascent Soul withstand the Wither-Bloom Dao Finger!
In an instant, the tender centipede Nascent Soul shriveled into a withered husk.
The magic power coalescing the Nascent Soul began to disperse uncontrollably.
Baizu stared blankly at this sight, still unable to accept his fate.
*Why was he unaffected by the Soul-Weaving Needle? It clearly struck his brow and entered his sea of consciousness!*
*When did his magic power unseal? How can he cast divine abilities?*
*Why does he have an ally inside Lake Taihu? That phantom looked like the Nine Nether Phantasm Python, but that creature died long ago!*
Countless questions ultimately coalesced into a single thought.
*I shouldn't have stopped.*
*Pop!*
A generation's Demon Emperor saw his Nascent Soul burst like a bubble. His vast magic power dissipated naturally like withering vegetation, without even stirring a storm of spiritual energy.
Amidst the churning waters of Lake Taihu, only the giant remained standing beneath the bright moon.
The giant's rough, rock-like fingers slowly relaxed. Turning his neck, he looked down at the rolling lake water.
A phantom of a great python swam toward him, but as it drew near, it halted hesitantly.
"Master?"
The giant split his mouth into a grin.
Chapter 863