abnabooks Chapter 2012 Beating Up
Chapter 2012 Beating Up
Chapter 2012 Beating Up
"puff!"
Another large mouthful of dark red demonic blood mixed with fragments of internal organs gushed out of Pang Yan'en's mouth, staining the ground in front of him a mess.
He struggled to support his nearly broken body with his arms, raising his head to look at the still-standing figure in the distance.
The previous rage, violence, and resentment in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a deep-seated horror and boundless despair.
Chen Fei calmly met Pang Yan'en's desperate gaze, his face expressionless. He slowly raised his right hand, his five fingers slightly spread, and gently clenched it in Pang Yan'en's direction.
"Buzz!"
The immense power of the formation was activated once again.
The final blow has arrived; there is no more testing, no more holding back.
Why did Chen Fei go to such great lengths, pretending that Chu Yufeng had seen through the formation, to lure Pang Yan'en into breaking it?
It's not about playing tricks on your opponent; in a life-or-death duel, any unnecessary action could bring unpredictable risks.
Chen Fei's real purpose was merely to test the waters.
When Chu Yufeng first spoke up and guided Pang Yan'en to accurately locate the array node, Chen Fei's heart stirred slightly.
There is actually a master of formations hidden within the demonic cultivator camp?
Just how skilled is this person in formations, and how much will he affect the course of the battle?
These are all unknowns, and the unknown is often the greatest danger.
So, Chen Fei took the opportunity to set up a trap.
He deliberately exposed an opening, guiding Pang Yan'en to attack according to Chu Yufeng's instructions.
Chen Fei was like a chess player, casting out bait to see just how capable this lurking fish was and what its playing style was.
The whole process, though seemingly thrilling, was actually entirely under Chen Fei's control.
The fluctuations and failures of the formation were all the result of his manipulation, in order to allow Chu Yufeng to fully display his abilities and to let Chen Fei see the true nature of this potential opponent.
The results of the test gave Chen Fei a clear judgment.
Chu Yufeng's skill in formations is indeed remarkable.
Being able to accurately locate several energy nodes of the linked formation despite the rules of the training ground, and to provide suggestions on the order of attack, demonstrates his profound knowledge of formations.
However, it only reached the level of being decent.
Chu Yufeng's performance was more like that of a polymath than a specialist.
He does understand formations, but he clearly doesn't devote most of his energy to them.
This is easy to understand. Those who can build a foundation in the Earthly Dao are all exceptionally talented individuals, and they must have their own preferred and more proficient combat path.
For them, formations are more of an auxiliary means, an embellishment, or a stopgap measure in the special environment of the Demon Lotus Realm.
They were well aware of the inherent drawbacks of formations, such as the time-consuming setup, inconvenient movement, dependence on spiritual materials, and vulnerability of the core formation base to attack.
In a real, ever-changing head-on battle, relying too much on formations is extremely risky. Therefore, a genius like Chu Yufeng would never make formations his fundamental reliance.
This also determines that there is a ceiling to his mastery of formations.
They might be able to see through the true nature of ordinary formations, but when faced with a cultivator like Chen Fei who has deeply integrated the study of formations with his own path of cultivation, they pale in comparison.
Of course, Chen Fei's mastery of formations and the path he took to improve it had a certain degree of chance and uniqueness.
Back in the Xuan Yu Realm, by a twist of fate, he fused and absorbed almost all of the realm's most outstanding inheritances, with array formations being just one of them.
I leveled up incidentally, that's all.
If other array cultivators heard these words, they would probably be so frustrated they'd vomit blood. But for Chen Fei, it was an objective description.
Inside the training ground, facing the destructive torrent surging in from all directions, from the sky to the ground, the despair in Pang Yan'en's eyes finally turned into hysterical madness.
"what!"
With no way out, there is only one option left: to fight, even if it means being like a moth drawn to a flame.
Pang Yan'en let out a heart-wrenching roar, completely abandoning all defenses and wishful thinking. He ignited the nearly depleted demonic essence within his body, which he had painstakingly cultivated for countless years.
"boom!"
A violent aura, far exceeding that of his previous peak, erupted from his shattered demonic body like a volcanic eruption.
The dark red demonic flames were so intense that they seemed to burn through the void. His body swelled up as if it were being inflated, and countless cracks appeared on his skin, revealing the burning demonic blood and bones beneath. He transformed into a demon god of destruction from the Nine Netherworlds.
Shattering the heavens and tearing the sky apart!
Pang Yan'en gripped the giant axe, which was also burning, tightly with both hands, and with all his might, he cleaved it forward.
No longer a single axe blade, but countless sharp, pitch-black axe blades imbued with a self-destructive will, like exploding black stars, overwhelming the destructive torrent.
This was the final lament of a trapped beast, a final strike imbued with all his life, cultivation, and even his very soul.
"boom!!!"
The next moment, an indescribable, earth-shattering explosion suddenly erupted.
It was as if hundreds of stars had exploded at the same moment, and the terrifying energy storm instantly engulfed the area where Pang Yan'en was.
Blinding light enveloped all directions, and violent shockwaves crashed wildly against the rules barrier of the martial arts arena, causing the entire Sky Martial Arts Arena to tremble slightly.
At the epicenter of the explosion, the space was riddled with cracks, revealing the primordial chaos behind it.
Pang Yan'en's desperate and unwilling roar was like a pebble thrown into a raging torrent amidst the earth-shattering roar, barely audible, and then abruptly stopped.
Along with it, his powerful yet rapidly annihilating demonic aura also vanished completely.
The light faded, and the energy subsided.
The epicenter of the explosion was completely empty.
Only the pure yet deathly silent demonic particles, like fireflies, slowly drifted away in the void.
Demonic cultivator Pang Yan'en, a cultivator at the Earthly Origin Dao Foundation stage and a fifteenth-level extreme expert, was annihilated, both body and soul!
In this bloody battle at the Sky Arena, the first powerful figure to fall appeared, and he fell at the hands of a late-stage fifteenth-level cultivator.
At that moment, the entire Demon Lotus Realm seemed to fall silent for a brief instant.
Above a desolate plain in the Demon Lotus Realm.
Ji Botao watched the earth-shattering battle unfolding in the sky from afar. The moment Pang Yan'en's aura completely dissipated, he couldn't help but shiver. A chilling coldness shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
"Just like that, I died..." he murmured to himself, a strong sense of lingering fear surging within him.
Ji Botao recalled the resentment and frustration he felt when he admitted defeat, but now those feelings had vanished, replaced by a sense of relief at surviving a close call.
Compared to losing all the original lotus seeds and having the kill count reset to zero, living is more important than anything else.
Look at Pang Yan'en, how arrogant he was before, how much he reaped, but now? All gone!
Thinking about it this way, the small amount of loss Ji Botao felt due to admitting defeat suddenly became insignificant. In fact, looking at the spot where Pang Yan'en had fallen, he even felt a strange sense of balance and relief.
Inside the training ground, with the fall of Pang Yan'en, the power of the rules naturally began to operate.
More than a hundred primordial lotus seeds, radiating a soft glow, slowly condensed from the void and flew toward Chen Fei at the center of the formation.
However, Chen Fei did not rush to collect the lotus seeds, but let them float in mid-air. He first flicked his sleeve, stripping away and collecting all the fragments of his demonic cultivation essence and fortune from Pang Yan'en.
After completing all this, Chen Fei slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping once again toward the direction of the demonic cultivators' camp outside the martial arts arena.
His gaze locked onto Lai Taihong, a demon cultivator in the demon cultivator camp, whose aura was effeminate and whose face was somewhat pale. This demon had forged the Xuan Yuan Dao Foundation.
Xuan Yuan Dao Foundation, anywhere in the myriad realms, would be considered a top-tier expert among the fifteenth level. Even in a place like the martial arts arena where powerful figures gather, he would be able to win more than ten consecutive matches.
However, at this moment, in this Sky Arena, Lai Taihong, who had reached the Profound Origin Dao Foundation, had become the weakest one.
Chen Fei raised his hand, pointed at Lai Taihong, and his cold, clear voice echoed throughout the entire training ground:
"I am willing to offer all the primordial lotus seeds in my hand as a sacrifice to forcibly initiate a life-or-death duel with you!"
"I surrender!"
Almost the instant Chen Fei finished speaking, Lai Taihong shrieked out those three words in a shrill voice.
Even Pang Yan'en, who cultivated the Hunyuan Wuji Technique and whose strength far surpassed his, was killed by the other party like a chicken or a dog. What was Lai Taihong, a mere Xuanyuan Dao Foundation cultivator, doing going up there? Was he just going to his death?
Pang Yan'en serves as a cautionary tale. Admitting defeat now, though at a cost, will at least save his life.
"Om..."
In response to the rules, Lai Taihong's figure instantly became blurry and transparent, and disappeared at the edge of the training ground in the next moment.
Meanwhile, the thirty-seven primordial lotus seeds he originally possessed appeared from the void, flew towards Chen Fei, and gathered together with Pang Yan'en's more than one hundred lotus seeds, hovering beside Chen Fei, their light flowing, creating a magnificent sight.
Since Lai Taihong conceded defeat without even taking the stage, the primordial lotus seed that Chen Fei intended to sacrifice was not actually consumed and remained suspended intact.
Outside the training ground, the remaining six demonic cultivators had faces so gloomy they could drip water.
The original overwhelming advantage of nine to six, a favorable situation, was completely reversed in the blink of an eye by this mere late-stage fifteenth-level green-robed cultivator, who used a strange and powerful chain formation.
The remaining six demonic cultivators exchanged glances, each seeing solemnity, apprehension, and an indescribable sense of frustration in the other's eyes.
They couldn't think of a good way to break this complex array. Previously, Ji Botao had tried to use the Void-Piercing Brush to penetrate the array walls and attack the array base directly, but he failed.
Despite attacking the node under Chu Yufeng's guidance, Pang Yan'en still perished.
Of course, the demonic cultivators also knew that their approach to breaking the formation was theoretically correct.
Directly attacking the array base is always the most effective and fundamental way to break the array. Just by looking at how much attention Chen Fei pays to the layers of protection for the array base, it is clear that once the array base is effectively attacked, it will definitely have a serious impact on the linked array, and may even lead to its collapse.
The problem is that the attack power of the base is insufficient.
Ji Botao's Pen of Breaking the Void has unique characteristics, but while it has sufficient penetrating power, it lacks destructive power and fails to truly threaten the heavily protected array core.
Just as the demonic cultivators were racing with thoughts, Chen Fei's gaze moved once again in the training ground.
This time, his gaze was fixed on the demonic cultivator Chu Yufeng.
Chen Fei wasn't sure if other demonic cultivators were hiding array masters, but he had already roughly figured out the depth of Chu Yufeng's array skills.
The existence of this demon poses a certain threat to the formation.
Since that's the case, let's eliminate it first.
We can either force him to admit defeat, greatly reducing his strength, or kill him outright to eliminate any future trouble.
Chen Fei pointed at Chu Yufeng: "I am willing to offer all the primordial lotus seeds in my hand as a sacrifice to forcibly initiate a life-or-death duel with you!"
All eyes instantly focused on Chu Yufeng.
Chu Yufeng's expression turned serious the moment Chen Fei pointed at him.
"I surrender!"
Without even a moment to think, Chu Yufeng gritted his teeth and squeezed out those three words.
Chu Yufeng was well aware of the dangers of a duel between array masters. When one side's array mastery was significantly superior to the other's, his own understanding of arrays could become a huge trap.
A master strategist excels at creating illusions and setting traps. You might think you've found a way out, but it's actually a dead end. You might think you've found a weakness, but it could just be bait.
Once on stage, Chu Yufeng might not be able to resist using his knowledge of formations to analyze and attempt to break the formation, which would fall right into Chen Fei's trap.
Even if we take a step back and assume he can suppress his instincts as a formation master and break the formation entirely without relying on his knowledge of formations, but solely on his own strength...
So, what are Chu Yufeng's chances of winning?
Is his actual strength comparable to Pang Yan'en's?
Pang Yan'en's Hunyuan Wuji Technique was far superior to Chu Yufeng's in direct, forceful attacks. Even Pang Yan'en couldn't break the formation and was instead killed by it; if Chu Yufeng went up against it, the outcome would only be worse.
Since one's mastery of formations is useless and one's own strength is inferior to others, what's the difference between going on stage to accept a life-or-death duel and actively courting death?
"Om..."
As Chu Yufeng conceded defeat, his figure quickly became blurry and transparent, eventually disappearing completely at the edge of the martial arts arena, withdrawing from this duel in the heavens.
Where he disappeared, the void rippled slightly, and forty-three primordial lotus seeds materialized out of thin air, tracing graceful arcs as they merged into the already dazzling lotus seed galaxy beside Chen Fei.
"Wow!"
The moment the forty-three lotus seeds merged, the total number of primordial lotus seeds floating around Chen Fei suddenly exceeded two hundred.
More than two hundred primordial lotus seeds gathered together, slowly swirling and floating around Chen Fei, their energy merging and emitting astonishing fluctuations like the ebb and flow of the tide.
In the demonic cultivator camp, Lian Guanlin, the top expert who had forged the Heavenly Origin Dao Foundation and achieved fifty kills, suddenly opened his eyes, which had been slightly closed.
"The lotus seeds this child has obtained are about to reach a critical point."
"When a single person accumulates four hundred Origin Lotus Seeds through their own killings, they can disregard the opponent's wishes and initiate a one-on-one killing duel. They can forcibly summon any target with a cultivation level no lower than their own and engage in a life-or-death battle."
This rule was a prompt that was directly imprinted in Lian Guanlin's soul when he achieved forty kills.
It was precisely because he knew this rule that Lian Guanlin actively promoted the opening of the Sky Arena.
The goal was to leverage the overall advantage of the demonic cultivators to quickly accumulate four hundred lotus seeds, and then forcibly summon those hidden cultivators one by one to hunt them down, quickly clear the battlefield, and secure victory.
But to his utter surprise, before he could even achieve his goal, that mere late-stage fifteenth-level junior in green robes was already heading in that direction.
Lian Guanlin's words were like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, stirring up a storm in the hearts of the remaining demonic cultivators.
The expressions on the faces of all the demonic cultivators instantly turned extremely ugly.
They instantly understood Lian Guanlin's concerns and realized the seriousness of the situation.
Once Chen Fei's lotus seeds reach four hundred, with his interconnected and unparalleled array of attacks and defenses, he will become the nightmare of other demonic cultivators at the late stage of the fifteenth rank or above within this Demon Lotus Realm.
Even a demonic cultivator who had forged a foundation in the Earthly Dao was completely suppressed within the formation and ultimately died a tragic death. What would happen if an ordinary late-stage or even peak-stage fifteenth-level demonic cultivator were forcibly summoned into the formation?
At that time, Chen Fei will not need to search around at all. He can simply launch forced summons again and again to slaughter all the high-level demonic cultivators in the Demon Lotus Realm.
This will be a one-sided massacre. The numerical advantage of the demonic cultivators will vanish, and the entire battle situation in the Demon Lotus Realm will be completely reversed.
The thought of that scenario made them suddenly regret initiating this killing spree.
But who could have imagined that they would be suppressed in this way by a late-stage fifteenth-level cultivator?
Almost at the same time that more than two hundred primordial lotus seeds appeared beside Chen Fei, a cold stream of rule information also appeared out of nowhere in Chen Fei's mind, the content of which was exactly the same as what Lian Guanlin had said.
"Accumulating four hundred Origin Lotus Seeds individually... allows for the forced initiation of a killing duel..."
This sudden information caused Chen Fei, who had maintained a calm expression, to suddenly shift his gaze.
Chen Fei's previous strategy was to rely on the Sky Arena and use the rules to weaken the top combat power of the demonic cultivators as much as possible, in order to save the cultivators' camp.
But Chen Fei wasn't sure if this approach would ultimately work.
But now, this rule of four hundred lotus seeds offers a more efficient and disruptive path.
Once he accumulates four hundred lotus seeds, he can jump out of the arena and hunt down relatively weak ordinary fifteenth-level demonic cultivators.
Regardless of where they escaped to, a duel can be initiated according to the rules, which will save a lot of time.
This move can quickly reduce the manpower of the demonic cultivators, fundamentally reversing the balance of power between the two sides.
"The key to breaking the deadlock lies here."
His previous battle strategy was instantly overturned. A more aggressive plan quickly took shape in his mind.
Thoughts flashed by in an instant.
Chen Fei instantly locked onto Lai Hongxuan, a demonic cultivator in the demonic cultivator camp whose aura was relatively weak and whose expression was somewhat unpredictable.
Chen Fei raised his hand and pointed at Lai Hongxuan:
"You, come up!"
It was no longer a life-or-death duel, but reverted to a regular martial arts arena challenge. This was because a life-or-death duel required the sacrifice of a large number of lotus seeds.
Chen Fei's goal at this moment has changed from killing the demonic cultivators on the other side to obtaining more Origin Lotus Seeds.
Chen Fei's challenge made the demonic cultivator Lai Hongxuan's face turn extremely ugly.
He subconsciously turned his head and looked at Lian Guanlin, the core of the camp.
They conceded defeat outright and refused to play.
It immediately loses half of its original lotus seeds, and these lost lotus seeds will fly directly into Chen Fei's hands, bringing Chen Fei's total number of lotus seeds close to the critical point of four hundred.
This method made it far too easy for Chen Fei to obtain the original lotus seeds.
Go up and see if you can defeat this junior cultivator?
However, if he is defeated on the field and forced to admit defeat, Chen Fei will be able to obtain more Origin Lotus Seeds.
The primordial lotus seeds cannot be traded in this realm, so Lai Hongxuan could not transfer his lotus seeds to other demonic cultivators in advance.
(End of this chapter)