Volume 2: The Life of a Bandit - Chapter 72

"Form the array!" Wulong's voice rang out.

"Form the array?" A sudden bad premonition flashed through Qin Si's mind.

An array was, in essence, a technique that utilized the connections between certain energies to either amplify energy or achieve some special effect. In other words, the stronger the foundational energy, the greater the might the array could unleash once formed.

Surrounding them right now were hundreds of God Kings. Even though they themselves were powerhouses among God Kings, facing an array combined from the strength of hundreds of God Kings would still be exceedingly difficult.

"Whoosh." Like a gust of wind, in the blink of an eye, the God Kings of the Tianyi Water Pavilion all retreated. Nearly five hundred God Kings arranged themselves into a circle, completely surrounding the twelve individuals led by Qin Si.

"Not good, let's get out first!" Qin Si's voice instantly echoed in everyone's ears. Having the lowest cultivation realm yet the greatest combat prowess among them, no one doubted their alliance leader's words for even a second. But just as they attempted to teleport away, they suddenly discovered that the surrounding space and time laws had completely changed; they were no longer the laws of the Divine Realm.

"The Space-Time Other-Dimension Grand Array!" As hundreds of voices sounded in unison, the space just outside Duanshui City seemed to completely vanish. The twelve individuals trapped inside were astonished to find that the hundreds of God Kings surrounding them had entirely disappeared. In their place was a boundless, endless expanse of space, and within this very space, the laws of space and time were entirely altered. Here, God Kings like them were completely unable to use teleportation, let alone time acceleration or time standstill.

"Damn it, we were too careless." Regret filled Qin Si's heart. Had they known this would happen, they should have struck first to gain the upper hand. They had just been a step too late, allowing the enemy to seize the initiative.

"This... this is an entirely different space?" Qin Sheng cried out in astonishment. When it came to the matter of different universes, he and Qin Si understood it most thoroughly. This was a space operating under rules completely different from the Hongmang Universe; strictly speaking, it was equivalent to an entirely new universe.

"What on earth is going on?" Duanshuai, Ziyan, and the others also crowded closer. In their eyes, the Divine Realm was the Divine Realm—how could there be any distinctions?

Only Li Yang seemed to have a faint glimmer of realization, though his brows remained tightly knitted as he carefully scrutinized his surroundings.

"Hahaha..." A burst of loud laughter suddenly echoed through the boundless space. Following that, Wulong's figure slowly materialized before Qin Si and the others, and he said arrogantly, "Well, Alliance Leader Qin, and my lovely traitor Ziyan, do you regret provoking the wrath of my Tianyi Water Pavilion now?"

"Hmph, you're courting death." Ziyan's figure instantly split into nine, surrounding Wulong in the center. Dense purple flames ignited in the hands of all nine Ziyans simultaneously, instantly enveloping and burning Wulong.

"Ha, Ziyan, are you a fool? You can't even tell the difference between your true body and your avatars, and you still dare claim to have nine avatars." Wulong, being scorched by the purple flames, showed not the slightest sign of injury; instead, he laughed aloud, mocking Ziyan. "Though that's hardly surprising. In my world, even your divine awareness is subjected to severe interference, so it's only natural you can't distinguish my true body from my avatars."

"Your world?" Ziyan paused in surprise.

"That's right, my world. Here, I am the heavens." Wulong's voice suddenly turned grave. In this boundless space, thunder suddenly roared fiercely, and immediately afterward, countless bolts of black lightning flickered incessantly above their heads, seeming as though they could strike down at any moment.

"The power of the Heavenly Punishment?" Li Yang looked up at these bolts of lightning and suddenly smiled.

"What are you laughing at?" Wulong demanded with great displeasure.

"I'm laughing at your arrogance, presuming to call this your world."

"Hmph, I'll let you witness the true might of my Space-Time Other-Dimension Grand Array." As Wulong spoke, his figure vanished, and instantly, thousands of figures materialized within the previously empty space.

"In my Space-Time Other-Dimension Grand Array, your cultivation can only be regarded as that of Deities. Meanwhile, my eight thousand Deities, aided by my Space-Time Other-Dimension Grand Array, will temporarily have their strength enhanced. For instance, they can completely control the spatial laws of this place. Go ahead and enjoy yourselves slowly first, hahahaha..."

"What do we do?" Duanshuai asked Qin Si with a bitter expression. "Does that spatial rift of yours have any effect here?"

Qin Si did not answer him. He surveyed his surroundings thoughtfully, paying not the slightest attention even to the eight thousand Deities closing in.

"Hey, Boss, don't play the fool at a time like this." Duanshuai suddenly reached out and waved his palm in front of Qin Si, saying anxiously.

"Big Brother..." Qin Sheng was also somewhat anxious. While he was confident in his ability to protect himself against these Deities, the others were different. Without the spatial and time laws, pitting them against eight thousand Deities was absolute suicide.

"Don't disturb him..." Li Yang spoke up suddenly. "Although the timing isn't ideal, Xiao Si seems to have gained some insight. Xiao Sheng, Duanshuai, protect him well. Ziyan, coordinate with me. Let's give these Deities a taste of my power."

"Big Brother Li Yang..." Qin Sheng said, "Sect Master Duan, Pingtian, Zhao Yongkui, all of you protect my big brother well. I will fight shoulder to shoulder with Big Brother Li Yang."

"Good... Xiao Sheng, today I'll let you open your eyes and see what a true Heavenly Punishment really is!" A trace of excited light flashed through Li Yang's eyes.

"Big Brother Li Yang, don't worry, fight however you want! If worst comes to worst, we still have a Supremacy!" Qin Sheng said with a resolute gaze.

Li Yang gave Qin Sheng an approving look and smiled, "Don't worry, I'm confident I can handle these Deities. As for the God Kings—don't think Wulong that bastard doesn't want to send them in; there must be some restriction on this grand array."

Li Yang had guessed correctly. Wulong desperately wanted to throw the remaining three hundred odd God Kings into the Space-Time Other-Dimension Grand Array in one go, but that was simply impossible. For other God Kings to enter the Space-Time Other-Dimension Grand Array from the outside was a very slow process. If they entered too quickly, the energy within the God Kings' bodies would inevitably disrupt the operation of the grand array, and even the slightest damage to the array would cause it to instantly collapse.

Not only that, even Wulong, acting as the anchor of the array, had no possibility of launching attacks.

"Hmph, let's see what methods you have." Wulong, who had completely merged into the grand array, simply did not believe Li Yang could come up with any solutions.

Disbelief aside, Wulong still carefully arranged for the God Kings to enter the array one by one with utmost caution. Just in case those eight thousand Deities truly were defeated, a few God Kings entering could still easily slaughter them.

"Haha, Wulong, didn't you say this is your world? I'll let you see for yourself how I use the Heavenly Punishment in your world to kill your men."

As Li Yang spoke, five-colored lightning flashed within his eyes.

"Big Brother Li Yang, didn't you swear an oath not to use the power of the Heavenly Punishment?" Qin Sheng suddenly recalled the agreement Li Yang had made back then with Thunder Punishment City.

"Rest assured, our pact back then was restricted to the Divine Realm. This place is no longer the Divine Realm; both the spatial laws and time laws make that abundantly clear to us." Li Yang smiled with a hint of craftiness, then sighed, "I haven't used the power of the Heavenly Punishment in a long time. Let's use them to test it out."

"Boom..." Thunder rolled suddenly across the previously silent sky. Lightning of various colors crazily darted around, and some multicolored lightning bolts even intertwined to form even more formidable bolts of lightning.

"This... how is this possible?" Wulong's heart trembled violently. "The Heavenly Punishment within this Space-Time Other-Dimension Grand Array is actually slipping out of my control? How can this be?"

"Heavenly Punishment..." Li Yang softly uttered those two words. Following that, countless bolts of lightning plummeted from the sky, virtually blanketing the entire space. Even with the ability to teleport, those eight thousand Deities had no way to escape this large-scale, indiscriminate lightning assault.

While a large-scale attack was suited for group combat, it also had a drawback: single-target attack power was insufficient. Even with Li Yang's formidable lightning onslaught, by the time the strikes actually landed on these Deities, their power had weakened significantly. As a result, many Deities were struck by lightning without sustaining fatal injuries. Even so, after this round of attacks, a full ninety percent of those Deities had suffered varying degrees of injury.

However, Li Yang's control over lightning was exceptionally superb. Despite it being an indiscriminate attack with countless bolts of lightning flashing all around them, not a single bolt struck their group.

Duanshuai and the others had already widened their eyes, staring in disbelief at the scene before them. "I'm afraid even if Zhou Tian were here using the Lightning Origin Spirit Pearl, he couldn't pull off an attack like this."

"Ziyan, unleash your nine avatars to attack together! Your purple flames may burn God Kings slowly, but dealing with Deities is more than enough," Li Yang said as beads of sweat dripped from his brow, immediately adding, "Xiao Sheng, follow right behind Ziyan to clean up. Anyone not burned to death by the purple flames, you finish them off. Be quick!"

"Understood!" The two replied almost simultaneously, rapidly flying toward the eight thousand Deities.

Instantly, countless screams erupted. Ziyan's purple flames possessed the ability to scorch the soul. The soul was different from the physical body; even for Deities, physical injuries could easily be healed, but the soul was another matter entirely. Being scorched by the flames caused a pain that even Deities found extremely difficult to endure, and for some Deities whose souls were burned away completely, their true spirits dissipated entirely.

Qin Sheng's Profound Cyan Qi Staff, infused with the aura of primordial chaos, possessed a might even stronger than top-tier Hongmang spiritual treasures. His Staff of Fighting the Heavens was also a group-combat staff technique; a single strike was enough to kill nearly a hundred Deities.

In the blink of an eye, fewer than a thousand of Wulong's eight thousand Deities remained. Even so, the situation for Qin Si and his companions remained precarious, because Li Yang appeared to have exhausted his strength.

Meanwhile, the enemy still had a thousand combat-capable units remaining—not to mention the several God Kings who were about to enter.

(To be continued)