"Where is she located?"
Li Zhenlong pondered for a moment before asking.
Hearing this, the Death Emperor immediately told Li Zhenlong the region where Margot Moxi was located, not caring in the least whether Li Zhenlong was trying to coax information out of him.
Sure enough, the very second the Death Emperor gave his answer, Li Zhenlong's saber impaled his body. Margot Moxi... Li Zhenlong certainly wanted to challenge her, but the prerequisite was eliminating this troublemaking nuisance of a Death Emperor first.
If the Death Emperor did not die, how could he possibly fight Margot Moxi with an undivided mind?
Although he did not know how the Death Emperor had slain the Eye-Snatching Demon, from the moment he confirmed that the demon had fallen by the Death Emperor's hand, he had never intended to let the Death Emperor live.
The Death Emperor had to die.
Yet this time was just like before: the moment the strike landed, Li Zhenlong realized the tactile sensation was off.
The bandages on the Death Emperor unraveled, revealing a toad-faced ghost creature. Before dying, this creature spewed a mouthful of green poisonous gas right at Li Zhenlong.
"Hmph!"
Li Zhenlong snorted coldly, sweeping his saber in a domineering arc that cleaved the surrounding arms in two.
As for the toad's poison gas, it could not even get within a single centimeter of him, utterly ineffective.
Next, he furiously attacked the arms all around him, intending to eliminate them first. He refused to believe these arms were truly infinite. Once deprived of them as cover, the Death Emperor's doom would arrive.
"Death Emperor, you might need to fake your death once."
Yu Xian had been observing the battle all along. From the look in Li Zhenlong's eyes, he was certain that Li Zhenlong had taken the bait hook, line, and sinker.
The reason Li Zhenlong did not intend to seek out Margot Moxi right away, obstinately insisting on slaying the Death Emperor first, stemmed from two likely motives: first, the Death Emperor still possessed Calamity Origin; second, Li Zhenlong believed the Death Emperor had killed the Eye-Snatching Demon, so he had to kill the Death Emperor to vent his lingering hatred.
Of course, there was another secondary consideration: Li Zhenlong did not want a third party lurking in the shadows, watching like a tiger eyeing its prey, while he had a thrilling, all-out duel with Margot Moxi.
Therefore, the Death Emperor had to die once to set Li Zhenlong's mind at ease.
Hearing Yu Xian speak, the Death Emperor immediately caught on to the underlying logic. He said, "Understood. In that case, I will go all out and give him a proper fight!"
"Mm. Use your full power to put his mind at ease!" Yu Xian nodded.
The Death Emperor clenched his fists. In the next moment, his bandages slowly unraveled, revealing a lean, muscular physique. His skin was coated in a layer of black substance reaching up to his neck, while tattoos etched across his face gave him a fierce, ancient aura.
Just then, a wave of sword energy dispersed the surrounding arms. From below, Li Zhenlong instantly locked onto the Death Emperor hovering in midair. With a crooked smirk, he chuckled, "What? No more hiding, no more dodging?"
"My preparations are nearly complete. Next, we settle this once and for all!" the Death Emperor said impassively, his violet pupils resembling an abyss that continuously swallowed the surrounding light.
As Yu Xian's most trusted subordinate, the Death Emperor had mastered no fewer than three rules: the Death Rule, the Hell Rule, and the Yin-Yang Rule.
Over all these years, he had not stagnated in the slightest; he had constantly progressed and diligently cultivated.
Although he was not as strong as Li Zhenlong, he was by no means weak. Against the vast majority of Mighty Ones, he could fight on even ground, fifty-fifty. Only against the topmost elite echelon would he fall short.
Unfortunately, Li Zhenlong happened to be one of that select few.
In truth, Li Zhenlong was not an all-rounder, but he had plumbed the depths of his own power to an extraordinary degree. Furthermore, his combat prowess was much like Xiao Feng's in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils—even the simplest moves wielded immense might in his hands.
To take the simplest example: Yu Xian had possessed numerous abilities in the past, but he rarely used most of them now. Why?
Naturally, it was because those abilities could no longer keep pace with his cultivation and realm; the match was entirely gone. If those skills were handguns, Yu Xian was now a Gundam. Holding a tiny pistol, who was he supposed to shoot?
Thus, he simply discarded those abilities altogether.
Li Zhenlong, however, was different. Many of his low-tier martial dao abilities remained in active use to this day.
Though the techniques he had unleashed earlier—the Nine Heavens True Martial Demon-Subduing Sword and the Nine Nether God-Slaying Buddha-Extinguishing Demon Saber—sounded cool, flashy, chuunibyou, and domineering, both were actually merely Hegemon Rank skills.
Had it been Yu Xian, he would never have continued using such skills.
Yet in Li Zhenlong's hands, these two skills retained tremendous power, rivaling even the methods of Mighty Ones.
This was what made Li Zhenlong so terrifying, and it meant his skill pool was exceptionally deep. In virtually any situation—perhaps every situation—he possessed a matching move to counter it.
The Death Emperor and Li Zhenlong faced off for three seconds. Suddenly, the world was split in half: one half turned black and white, while the other took on the hues of twilight.
"Yin-Yang Finger!"
The Death Emperor's body split into two: one side black and white, the other dyed in twilight.
The two Death Emperors descended from above, flanking him left and right, their fingers jabbing toward Li Zhenlong's body. Infused with the Yin-Yang Rule, this attack would cause any struck target's yin and yang to fall out of balance.
Under ordinary circumstances, an imbalance of yin and yang was perfectly normal.
In fact, the vast majority of ordinary mortals lived with an imbalance of yin and yang—some had an excess of yang qi, others an excess of yin qi.
Yet the Death Emperor's Yin-Yang Finger was clearly not so simple. If Li Zhenlong's yin and yang fell out of balance, he would be placed under the Death Emperor's control the instant the imbalance occurred: if yang qi prevailed, he would be dragged into the twilight plane; if yin qi predominated, he would plunge into the black-and-white plane.
In the twilight plane hung a sun; the moment it sank completely below the horizon, Li Zhenlong would trigger an instant-death rule. That was a manifestation of the Yin-Yang Rule's power—even if Li Zhenlong survived the strike, he would be gravely wounded.
If he plunged into the black-and-white plane, he would be severely weakened, capable of utilizing only fifty percent of his full strength. Ordinarily, in such a predicament, even a Mighty One could only endure a beating.
But how could Li Zhenlong ever allow himself to fall into such a disadvantage?
Hemmed in by the two Death Emperors attacking from both sides, the sword in his hand shifted back into a staff. With a subtle flick of either end, one strike cracked against the left Death Emperor's finger, while the other struck the right Death Emperor's finger.
Colossal force instantly transmitted through the staff into the Death Emperor's body, causing his palms to explode on the spot. Both bodies recoiled backward simultaneously, ultimately fusing back into one in the center of the scene.
"Great Sage Opening Heaven!"
The instant the Death Emperor recombined, Li Zhenlong stepped forward, bringing his staff crashing down toward the Death Emperor's head from above.
Yet at that precise moment, the Death Emperor's body shifted into monochrome black and white. When the staff struck him, the Death Emperor collapsed like a trash bag, flattened into a crumpled heap that dropped to the ground.
Then his body slithered like a serpent, instantly reappearing beside Li Zhenlong, his fingers spiraling as they jabbed toward Li Zhenlong's neck.
"Yin Snake!"
This strike was extraordinarily sinister and vicious.
Once it struck a target, it would leave behind a yin qi mark. Thereafter, any attack of the yin attribute would teleport directly along the mark to strike the target.
Teleporting attacks meant every subsequent strike could ignore distance, smashing straight into the target's face.
Unfortunately, how could Li Zhenlong fall for that? The staff in his hands shifted shape, transforming from a staff into a three-section staff. The trailing section whipped backward in a blind hook right into the Death Emperor's hand. With a flick, the Death Emperor was sent flying.
Yet it did not end there.
Having neutralized the Death Emperor's assault, the trailing section of the three-section staff swiftly shifted into the form of a scepter. The gem at its tip blazed with golden light, causing gray smoke to billow from the Death Emperor's monochrome body.
Left with no choice, the Death Emperor was forced to revert to his original form. But Li Zhenlong had already anticipated this: he flashed before the Death Emperor in an instant, wielding the scepter like a warhammer and smashing it viciously down upon him.
In this moment, the Death Emperor sighed deeply in his heart.
The gap was simply too vast. For every move he possessed, the man had an exact counter. He felt like a swordsman confronting a master of the Nine Swords of Dugu—feeling nothing but utter, suffocating frustration.
Chapter 696