Chapter Ninety: Pure Yang Ancient Thunder

“Old Yuan, have you found the shrine yet?”

The little bald boy sat atop a golden meteorite, scratching at one ear with a bent little finger, his head tilted to one side. Threads of gorgeous, ghostly blue starlight were drifting out from his ear.

The child possessed a truly marvelous constitution. His skin was rosy and lustrous, translucent as crystal, pure as divine jade, flawless and unstained. At a glance, he was clearly a peerless seedling for cultivating cosmic arts.

Not long after, he puckered his lips, lifted his white robe, and touched his round, soft little belly. A string of hungry growls answered him, and his face instantly turned aggrieved.

Tan Ya was truly something else. She had hurled him over so hastily that she had not even prepared enough food.

That sweet potato from earlier had not come close to filling him up.

“Don’t worry, Young Master. My Primordial Beginning Sect is unrivaled when it comes to tracking special energy fluctuations.”

Old Yuan held a divine mirror steady in both hands. Reflected within it were superclusters upon superclusters and countless stars.

A flood of information streamed back through the mirror and was rapidly sifted and filtered through his divine sense.

“I found them! Three shrines, all at once, in the northern reaches of the cosmos!” Old Yuan suddenly cried out in delight.

“Really? Then let’s hurry!”

The little bald boy brightened and leaped onto Old Yuan’s shoulder. Old Yuan beamed with joy, delighted to carry his young master, and clamped the child’s pair of plump little legs firmly under his arms.

“Sit tight, Young Master. We’re off.”

“Faster, faster!” urged the little bald boy.

Whoosh!

With a simple, honest smile, Old Yuan turned into a streak of light. His legs powered him forward, swift as a fading afterimage; a single step covered seven or eight light-years.

Such speed was practically beyond the limits of the spirit-energy cosmos.

...

At the Pure Yang Sect’s grounds.

Hu Gumiao stood motionless as a mountain. Fierce astral winds stirred his gray beard. Facing the Elder of Night who came charging at him with a yellow-hide shrine in hand, he remained cold-eyed and indifferent. With a slight twist of the wrist, four blazing scarlet beams instantly pierced through the void.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Each beam of solar light blazed red and brilliant, cracking like thunder as it annihilated both body and soul.

The yellow-hide shrine was struck. Its enormous mountain-like base shook violently, and from below one could clearly see four gaping holes pierced straight through it.

“You—”

The Elder of Night felt a chill run through him. The beams had pierced the shrine’s base and were now shooting straight toward his face.

“This is soul-killing!”

The Elder of Night was horrified. Among the Six Slaughters Grand Array there was indeed a move called Soul Kill, one that could pass through space and strike directly at the soul, impossible to guard against. He had never expected Hu Gumiao to be the one controlling it.

It was a killing technique that targeted the divine soul itself.

The four holes in the shrine’s base were only as thick as a thumb. At first glance it seemed the shrine had been pierced through, but the wound was actually slight. A single tremor from the shrine, and the holes began healing at remarkable speed.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The four beams of solar light struck the Elder of Night squarely in the face, chest, and both ribs. His features twisted instantly in agony.

His expression froze, and his soul began to emit a harsh sizzling sound as his aura rapidly withered.

“Aah!”

The Elder of Night cried out in terror, his face draining white. Still carrying the yellow-hide shrine, he retreated swiftly.

These solar beams inflicted devastating damage upon the soul. Two of them were enough to grievously wound a Reversal-Slaying expert, much less four.

“Brother Hu’s Soul Kill is indeed formidable. This Elder of Night suffered at your hands back then and only learned of the power of the Star-Cutting Scissors. How could he have known how skilled you are in attacks on the soul?” said a silver-haired elder with a laugh.

“Beware the Black Sun,” Hu Gumiao warned. Though he had wounded the Elder of Night, the Pure Yang side had not yet gained the upper hand.

A black sun hung high above, dark and unfathomably deep, endlessly pouring out armies upon armies that could not be fully slain. All sides were pinned down and unable to spare their strength.

“Guard against Hu Gumiao!”

The Elder of Night withdrew, his face deathly pale, the terror still not yet fully faded. The yellow-hide shrine was an object of immense force; given time, it could smash even stars to pieces.

Yet the solar beams that struck at the soul cared nothing for physical defenses, and were an utter bane to him.

“Is that so? Then I’ll have a taste of it myself.”

The Fiend Li laughed loudly. He wore a suit of blood-red armor, surrounded by vile souls and resentment. The instant solar energy touched him, it was shredded to pieces by a thick, sinister fury.

This was the most vicious of shrines, one that had been empowered by sacrificing countless cultivators alive.

Earlier, he had single-handedly held back two corners of the Pure Yang Diagram. Even the two Reversal-Slaying experts of the Pure Yang Sect could do nothing against him. Seeing the Elder of Night suffer a setback, he changed targets, condensing a blood-colored spear in his hand and hurling it at Hu Gumiao with a sharp hiss.

Hu Gumiao frowned.

He countered with four beams of solar light, only to find them entangled by the blood spear. Like insects glued to its surface, the brilliant light gradually went out.

“My blood spear is packed with the resentment of living souls. Your soul-killing move won’t work on me!” said the Fiend Li coldly. With a sweeping palm strike, a vast ocean of force formed and slammed toward Hu Gumiao.

Hu Gumiao could not remain calm. Divine arts flickered as he shifted his body aside.

At the same time, this corner of the Pure Yang Diagram burst with radiance. A mighty scarlet fire beast was born, raising its head to let out a long howl, roaring across the cosmic void as it charged furiously toward the Fiend Li.

“Die!”

The Fiend Li brought his great hand down.

Boom!

The fire beast gave a pitiful cry. It had only just appeared when it was smashed apart by the Fiend Li’s palm.

“Joint kill!”

The gaunt Pure Yang Master gave the order. The six great powerhouses each formed hand seals and unleashed their utmost means.

The Six Slaughters Pure Yang Grand Array erupted into full frenzy. Bladed wheels, solar fire, and flaming swords swirled and danced through the field, incinerating one star fiend after another. Yet the three great shrines were equally vast in power. The Fiend Li and the Elder of Night led the charge, fully pinning down the array’s Reversal-Slaying experts.

“Puh!”

The Purple Nine-Fire Taoist coughed blood. Sun, moon, and stars all dimmed as three thousand star fiends swarmed him. They actually refined together into a violent black beam that slammed into his heart gate and left him severely wounded.

“I’ll do it!”

The gaunt Pure Yang Master’s expression darkened. He swept his whisk sideways, and blazing solar patterns erupted, instantly hurling those three thousand star fiends backward.

However, the black armor on those fiends shone with light, carrying them back toward the black sun.

Of course, a small number of the star fiends were unlucky and were killed outright, unable to be remade in the furnace.

This sect master had once stood at the peak of the Reversal-Slaying realm and attempted to strike into that miraculous next realm. Though he had stepped back down and his blood vitality had withered, his battle strength remained astonishing.

“Sect Master, the situation is not good,” said the silver-haired elder, concern showing on his face. He had every confidence in the power of the Six Slaughters Pure Yang Grand Array. At full strength, it could even refine stars.

But these three shrines were unexpectedly difficult to deal with.

Especially that dark shrine. It had granted more than ten thousand star fiends bodies that could not die.

“Hold on. I’ll be using the Ancient Pure Yang Thunder soon,” said the gaunt Pure Yang Master. His skin was sallow, his cheeks hollowed, lacking the vigor of abundant blood and qi, yet his voice remained forceful. With a turn of the hand, four crimson thunder beads appeared in his palm, their color like living hearts.

“Ancient Pure Yang Thunder? The sect still has some?” the silver-haired elder exclaimed.

The Pure Yang Ancient Thunder was no trifling matter. It was forged by collecting the essence of the eternal sun, the thunder of the nine heavens, and flashing yellow lightning, then tempering them for four hundred years in the fire-heart earth veins of the Pure Yang Diagram. Once thrown, it could injure a large number of Reversal-Slaying experts.

With so many star fiends in black armor packed so densely together, it was indeed the perfect treasure to use.

“Good, good, good. If we have the Ancient Pure Yang Thunder, there is naturally no problem. It’s just that these Pure Yang Ancient Thunders were forged by the third-generation sect master. He was a master artificer. Even if we gather all the materials now, we still would be unable to forge them ourselves. One bead less is one bead lost...” The silver-haired elder’s expression turned hesitant.

“It matters not. As long as we kill these three, the reward from the Starlake Sacred Abode will more than make up for our losses,” said the gaunt Pure Yang Master indifferently.