Chapter 19: Myriad Palm
"This is getting annoying. I shouldn't have guaranteed the safety of Hu Immortal blessed land with my life on the line."
Vicious Lightning Fiend swiped the disgusting mix of sweat and blood off his chest. Although he moved as if uninjured his body was riddled with small holes and covered in black patches of burned skin.
"I'm starting to hate these creatures," Vicious Lightning Fiend muttered. Barely ducking down enough to avoid a blast of lightning shot at him from one of the cloud beasts.
"Should I give up and summon my Lightning Deities? I've already wasted fifty immortal essence beads and nothing has changed since the fight started. Eventually the cost of using normal methods so many times will exceed the one time expense of using Lightning Diety."
Vicious Lightning Fiend spoke out loud, causally dodging and weaving between the cloud beasts without difficulty. His life had never been in danger during the fight, but he wasn't able to kill the cloud beasts. They always reformed, stronger and more invulnerable to Vicious Lightning Fiend's attacks. This formed an awkward stalemate of neither side being able to kill the other.
There were many times when Vicious Lightning Fiend thought he landed a killing blow only to be disappointed by a blast to the face. After many cycles of this he was starting to get worn down. Individually the cloud beasts weren't incredibly powerful, only about the same strength as the average rank 6 Gu immortal, but they couldn't be killed. Over time the negligible attacks that Vicious Lightning Fiend used to ignore were starting to pile up.
"The situation would change if Fang Yuan gave me the Lightning Diety Gu. But he would never do that. He's far too distrustful of other people to not consider the possiblity that I might be able to break alliance agreements. Until the calamity is dealt with he won't hand me anything."
The agreement between Fang Yuan and Vicious Lightning Diety wasn't very complex, but it was very restrictive. Especially the non disclosure part. Neither Fang Yuan nor Vicious Lightning Fiend were allowed to share any information about each other to outside parties. That included sects, Gu Immortals and the like. Everything seen within the blessed land was to be keep under wraps. This included killer moves, immortal Gu, Gu materials, beasts kept in captivity, and everything else in the blessed land.
This was completely fine by Vicious Lightning Fiend. In truth, he had no intention of exposing Fang Yuan of anything. Much more the opposite. He hoped that Fang Yuan would gain no exposure and exclusively be his personal Gu refiner. Once Fang Yuan did become popular in the wider Gu immortal circle then his prices would also skyrocket. The only reason why his price was so low was because he didn't have any previous experience beyond the various rumors of him refining an Immortal Gu as a mortal.
But what Vicious Lightning Fiend regretted about the agreement was that he swore to not leave the blessed land until he dealt with the calamity. This resulted in the worst possible situation. Vicious Lightning Fiend was forced to defeat an enemy that he couldn't kill. The clouds beasts were unkillable with lightning path methods which was Vicious Lightning Fiend's specialty.
Lightning path revolved almost entirely on powerful area of attack strikes that stunned and burned enemies. Since lightning path focused on offense it had very little options against weird opponents like these cloud beasts that could absorb lightning path attacks. Vicious Lightning Fiend was stuck endlessly fighting against something he couldn't defeat.
"I have no other option. I'll need to sacrifice a Lightning Diety puppet in order to win. That's a loss of at least four hundred immortal essence stones. But it's the only thing I can do."
Vicious Lightning Fiend sighed and summoned a single Lighting Diety from his immortal aperture. In terms of appearance it was almost the exact same as the clouds beasts. Just a form of a natural disaster personified as a humanoid creature. The only difference was that the puppet had no intelligence while the cloud beasts very clearly had some type of sentience. This was the difference between a puppet and a beast.
"Krrrkkkkk!!"
With the appearance of a new enemy the cloud beasts quickly encircled the Lightning Diety while Vicious Lightning Fiend flew off to the side, patiently waiting for the right moment. The cloud beasts immediately blasted beam after beam of lightning down on the Lightning Diety, but it did nothing. Just like the cloud beasts the Lightning Diety was largely immune to lightning path attacks. Even with the opportunity to attack, it didn't move, silently floating in the air as the cloud beasts got closer and closer.
"Alright I think that's close enough." Vicious Lightning Fiend flew back as fast as he could with his fingers stretched out. "Thunder Wave Web."
A net of lightning shot out of his fingers and created a sphere like web that left no ways to escape. Vicious Lightning Fiend lifted one hand up and half heartedly detonated Lightning Diety just in time to hear a voice coming from the other side of the sphere.
"Myriad Palm!"
"What?"
The sky was filled with thousands apon thousands of strength path hands. Each one was no bigger than the hand of an average man, but when they flew through the sky they blocked out the sun like a cloud of ash. They ascended between the Lightning Diety puppet and the cloud beasts, forming a thick walls of flat palms that completely trapped the two parties. The Lightning Diety puppet exploded, but not a single sound escaped the cube of densely packed palms.
"I'm sorry Vicious Lightning Fiend, but I have a good use for these cloud beasts. I hope you understand."
Fang Yuan slowly flew up to meet him, with a strange immortal Gu in his hands. The second Vicious Lightning Fiend felt it's aura his eyes widened.
"You have a rank 7 Gu?"
Fang Yuan smiled and turned away from Vicious Lightning Fiend, easily tearing a hole through the lightning path web with a swipe of his hand. He stared the cloud beasts down and extended his fist.
"Myriad Dragon."
All Vicious Lightning Fiend heard was the roar of a dragon before a massive strength path phantom rose from Fang Yuan's body. It was massive, easily reaching a hundred meters in length. It had dark black skin and a massive horn shaped like a dagger poking out of it's head. It had no wings but it's slender body was covered in sharp metal like frills that shined with a dangerous luster.
The dragon breathed a single huff and smacked the stunned cloud beasts right into the palm wall that had protected them from death just a moment earlier. Their bodies hit the wall and they immediately suffered massive damage, almost dissolving completely. Fang Yuan got closer and finally activated the Gu worm in his hands.
A strange light descended onto the wounded cloud beasts and something strange happened. The hostility the cloud beasts had towards Fang Yuan was wiped away and replaced with a subservient and empty gaze. They all reformed back to their original state and obediently went to Fang Yuan's side. Fang Yuan had completely enslaved their body and mind with the new immortal Gu he exposed to Vicious Lightning Fiend.
"Beast Enslavement Gu..."