After defeating the Invincible Nascent Soul and the Immortal Fairy, Lu Yang could feel a tight connection between himself and his nascent soul, far beyond anything he had experienced before.
"Finally sorted out."
Squatting at the bottom of an unknown cliff, Lu Yang could hardly wait to experience the changes brought about by this victory.
"Come out."
Lu Yang attempted to command the Invincible Nascent Soul. Obediently, the miniature figure flew out from his mental space, no longer showing any hostility toward him.
"Go on, bring that rock over here."
Flying over, the Invincible Nascent Soul easily hoisted a boulder weighing a thousand jin and carried it before Lu Yang.
"Put it back."
Just as obediently, the nascent soul returned the giant stone to its original place.
Lu Yang could not help but tear up with emotion. Other cultivators could control their nascent soul the moment they reached the Nascent Soul stage, whereas he was practically on the verge of undergoing tribulation for Soul Formation before he could finally command his. It had been anything but easy!
Defeating the Invincible Nascent Soul had been grueling, yet the harvest that followed was equally astonishing.
The Invincible Nascent Soul was essentially another version of himself; all of his attacks could now be doubled.
However, his techniques packed too much power. This valley was far too cramped to unleash them properly.
"Time to head back to the sect and find someone to spar with."
Leaving the valley floor, Lu Yang sought out the nearest city, only to discover that his rapid succession of spatial leaps had carried him all the way to a neighboring province.
Impatient to test the Invincible Nascent Soul's might, he steered the Sword Cleansing Pool, speeding straight back to the Dao Seeking Sect to track down Li Haoran on Hundred Refinements Peak.
Old Meng and Man Gu were still in the Imperial City, and if Tao Yaoye used her Feathering Immortal Physique, he would not stand a chance against her either. When it came to peers who could serve as a worthy opponent, only Li Haoran remained.
"Junior Brother Li, are you free? How about you and I have a sp—er, you are Junior Brother Li, right?" Lu Yang asked, staring dubiously at the ironclad figure before him.
"It's me," a muffled voice answered from within the armor.
Li Haoran was clad in a suit of refined iron armor, wrapping himself up so tightly that not even his eyes were exposed.
Removing the helmet, Li Haoran repeated, "It's me."
"Junior Brother Li, what's all this?"
Li Haoran patted the armor with a grin. "A newly forged dharma treasure. I've named it the Battle Armor. Wearing it grants both offense and defense; even a Soul Formation cultivator would struggle to breach its protection."
Back during the battle against Daoist Master Wanfa, the Dao Seeking Sect had deployed an unrivaled treasure—Patriarch Guiyuan's armor, which could temporarily elevate a Body Integration cultivator's strength to the Tribulation Transcendence stage. Li Haoran had drawn inspiration from that, spending over a year forging a suit of armor of his own.
While it could not bridge major realms the way Patriarch Guiyuan's armor did, it genuinely raised the ceiling of Li Haoran's combat power.
"Then that's perfect! I've made some breakthroughs in my cultivation recently. How about we have a spar?" Lu Yang chuckled, pleased by the impeccable timing.
Li Haoran was quite confident in his Battle Armor, believing he was by no means inferior to Lu Yang.
"Sure."
"It's too cramped to let loose here. Let's find somewhere else."
Leaving the central grounds of the Dao Seeking Sect and crossing the outer plains, the two landed amidst a vast mountain range.
This territory also belonged to the Dao Seeking Sect, where disciples frequently went to test destructive techniques.
During their flight, Lu Yang noticed that wearing the Battle Armor had significantly boosted Li Haoran's flying speed as well.
"Shall we begin?"
"Bring it!"
Both had made breakthroughs and were eager to test their current combat strength in real battle.
Lu Yang did not dare underestimate Li Haoran. After all, this was a half-immortal possessing the rudimentary Reincarnation Dao fruit. Trying to fight across realms with his Overlapping Nascent Soul stage cultivation was bound to be extraordinarily difficult.
Drawing nine blades, including the Green Blade Sword, Lu Yang tossed them into the air to form a sword formation.
"Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation!"
Li Haoran immediately felt an invisible force radiating from the sword formation, compelling him to kneel. The invisible pressure was overwhelmingly domineering, brooking no resistance.
"I've long heard that Senior Brother Lu Yang possesses a sword formation capable of forcing people to their knees. Experiencing it firsthand today, it truly lives up to its reputation! However, this trick alone isn't enough to handle me!"
Just as Li Haoran yielded to the pressure and dropped toward the ground, his body abruptly disassembled into six distinct parts—head, torso, and four limbs.
The Immortal Exterminating Sword Formation was an exceptional crowd-control skill that forcefully made targets kneel; even Meng Jingzhou could not withstand it.
Yet being unable to withstand it did not mean there was no countermeasure.
Li Haoran's detached legs floated parallel to the ground, meaning he was technically still in a kneeling state, but it did not hinder his ability to fight in the slightest.
"True Fire Tornado!"
The True Fire coalesced into a raging vortex, wind fanning the flames and multiplying their destructive power exponentially. The surrounding forest transformed into an ocean of fire; everywhere it passed, trees instantly charred to cinder, and the earth blackened into scorched soil.
Although Lu Yang could also manipulate True Fire, he could not match Li Haoran, who possessed a Fire Spiritual Root.
Just as Lu Yang dared not be careless against Li Haoran, Li Haoran was equally on guard, deploying one of his trump cards right off the bat.
While Li Haoran was regarded in the outside world as an unrivaled prodigy of the Nascent Soul stage, he knew full well that the one who truly swept across the entire realm was not himself, but Senior Brother Lu Yang.
To the outside world, Acting Sect Master Lu and Young Cult Master Lu were both universally acknowledged as peerless geniuses.
Yet Li Haoran knew those two identities belonged to the same person. When Senior Brother Lu Yang had achieved the title of supreme genius while displaying only half his true strength, how terrifying would his full might be?!
"Sword Qi Morphing into a Tiger!"
The sword qi condensed into a bone-winged Qiongqi that roared forward, violently dispersing the True Fire Tornado.
"Descent of Skyfire!"
In an instant, heaven and earth altered their colors. The sky turned a blazing crimson as rain of fire poured down, rendering the air parched and burning hot, enough to sear one's throat with every breath.
Li Haoran had previously been incapable of executing this move, but with the Battle Armor's empowerment, the arrays built into the armor alleviated the magical strain and shortened his casting time.
"One Sword Into Ten Thousand Swords!"
Plunging the Green Blade Sword into the scorched ground, countless replicas sprouted like bamboo shoots after spring rain. Ten thousand swords shot forth in unison, vowing to pierce through the heavens!
This time, Lu Yang and the Invincible Nascent Soul unleashed the technique simultaneously, straight up doubling the blade count. A dense curtain of flying swords ascended into the sky, forming a barrier that prevented even a single spark of skyfire from reaching the earth.
The Invincible Nascent Soul could cast spells straight from the dantian.
Had any Soul Formation cultivators been watching from the sidelines, they would have been left trembling with terror. Uprooting mountains, parting seas, altering the meteorological phenomena—how was this a battle between Nascent Soul cultivators? Barely any Soul Formation cultivators could even manage a display on this scale!
Suddenly, a dark silhouette materialized behind Lu Yang, launching a fierce assault. It was yet another suit of Battle Armor!
Whatever materials had gone into its forging, it had completely bypassed divine sense detection.
A great Buddha manifested as Lu Yang activated the sixteen-foot golden body, evading the Battle Armor's sneak attack.
Glancing at Li Haoran's segmented body hovering in midair, and then back at the armor that had ambushed him, Lu Yang broke into a knowing smile.
"Junior Brother Li, there's a corpse of yours inside this armor, isn't there?"
Li Haoran was capable of regenerating severed limbs. He could stitch his discarded parts together into a new body, then use the corpse-driving art to control it in battle.
"As expected of Senior Brother Lu Yang, figuring it out so quickly." Li Haoran's voice emerged from the ambushing Battle Armor; it was the corpse speaking.
Li Haoran felt that only Senior Brother Lu Yang could have reacted so swiftly. Anyone else would likely have remained clueless even after the battle concluded.
"Senior Brother Lu Yang, you're just too strong. Don't blame me for making this two against one."
Lu Yang's smile broadened. "How could I possibly blame you, Junior Brother?"
The Invincible Nascent Soul flew out from his dantian, instantly battering Li Haoran's corpse with a barrage of the Arhat Fist, pounding deep dents into the Battle Armor.
"A nascent soul?!"
Li Haoran had always felt that Senior Brother Lu Yang's nascent soul differed from everyone else's. It seemed endowed with an extra touch of sapience, appearing less like something commanded by Lu Yang and more like an independent entity launching attacks on its own initiative.
"Fire Nascent Soul, emerge!"
Li Haoran summoned his own nascent soul, which blazed with crackling flames—hence its name.
Now, Li Haoran had to simultaneously control his fire nascent soul and the corpse to combat the Invincible Nascent Soul, while his true body engaged Lu Yang directly.
Such multitasking imposed an extreme burden on his mental energy, preventing him from finely maneuvering both the fire nascent soul and the corpse.
Yet the Invincible Nascent Soul seemed to require no active command whatsoever. Every single blow struck precisely at critical vitals, several times even disrupting the mental connection between Li Haoran and his corpse.
It was virtually identical to fighting a second Senior Brother Lu Yang!
Just what in the world was up with Senior Brother Lu Yang's nascent soul?!
"Junior Brother Li, try this move on for size—watch out!"
Lu Yang roared. He and the Invincible Nascent Soul executed Town in the Palm simultaneously. The sky fractured as a colossal hand descended from above, and the mountains crumbled as another gigantic hand erupted from the earth!
"Fire Nascent Soul, return!"
Horrified, Li Haoran hastily recalled his fire nascent soul, merging with it to transform into a being of pure flame.
In the past, adopting this fiery form had allowed him to phase through all attacks with unfailing success; even Meng Jingzhou could never lay a finger on him.
Yet before these two converging palms, evasion proved utterly impossible.
Against an area-of-effect strike on this scale, there was nowhere to flee even if he ran.
*Boom—*
The two giant palms slammed together, flattening Li Haoran in his flame form.
Town in the Palm was a spatial divine ability. This was no simple clash of two massive hands, but rather the violent collision of two micro-spaces. The devastating force unleashed was far beyond what any Nascent Soul cultivator could withstand.
Lu Yang cheerfully withdrew his hands.
Teaming up with the Invincible Nascent Soul in battle produced astonishingly fantastic results.
Chapter 963