9 Fight of Immortals
Li Xiang was forced to come to a shuddering halt after colliding with the massive wall of divine essence. Rubbing her nose, she pouted fiercely. If she ever found the person who sent that wall of divine essence careening towards her, she would smack him back!
About to resume her journey after a light shrug of her shoulders, Li Xiang prepared to revolve divine essence around her body to travel at great speeds when she heard the sound of a clash. Aided by the auxiliary functions of the Heaven Core, Li Xiang carefully approached to source of the disturbance, and found two immortals locked in a heavy clash. Mindlessly locked in battle, these two immortals didn't even realize that they had attracted the curious gaze of a spectator.
In front of Li Xiang were two immortal beings locked in desperate combat. There, a spotless immortal with long black hair and dressed in white satin clothes held a slender longsword, facing a red-haired immortal with his torso exposed, and a hammer casually slung over his shoulder. One represented the epitome of serenity, and the other of wild emotion.
From observing the white-clothed immortal's heavy and dark expression and their desperate style of combat, Li Xiang guessed that they had some feud between the two. Sure enough, the red-haired immortal sighed and spoke.
"I say, Bai Xing, can you stop this nonsense? I didn't force your wife into spending a night with me, rather it was the other way around. Stop forcing your righteous arrogance as the collective construct, for though this father is quite wild with his actions, he does not force others!"
To the red-haired immortal's sigh and concession, Bai Xing merely snorted coldly before the slender longsword held in his right hand shot up towards the red-haired immortal. His face emanating cold rage, Bai Xing icily retorted,
"What do you mean you don't force, Long Xue Li? Do you think you are Buddha that old fart of a monk, to not force others to follow your whim? My Yue would never do such a thing for her temperament is gentle and faithful, so you must have forced her!"
Li Xiang observed this argument with interest. From within the white-clothed Bai Xing, she could sense a trait of contradiction embedded deeply into his soul, one that took the form of a righteous individual on the exterior, while hiding a nefarious spirit within. Compared to the Long Xue Li who publicly displayed his emotions without reserve, Bai Xing appeared to be more cunning and deceitful, more likely to force others to follow his whim. Perhaps his so-called wife Yue didn't like Bai Xing too much? How did marriage in the Immortal World work exactly?
Caught in a daze from her useless pondering, Li Xiang snapped back to her senses when Long Xue Li gave a painful shout, sporting a long gash on his chest. Bai Xing appeared no better, as his left shoulder and right kneecap had equally miserable dents on them. Though these two immortals appeared to be severely wounded, Li Xiang noticed that their divine essence reserves were quite stable, implying that the fight was just starting. Interestingly enough, the first immortals she encountered since leaving the Golden Residence lacked a spiritual core. Perhaps the Heaven Core was a rarity in the Immortal World?
Facing Bai Xing, Long Xue Li's frivolous expression gradually receded before being replaced by a grim one. He then gripped the hammer with both hands, and from his body, an oppressive might began to emerge. His voice appearing distorted by the increasing amount of manifested divine essence, Long Xue Li trembled violently before stabilizing his body and shouting with a loud voice.
"Bai Xing you bastard of contradiction! Take my meteor hammer of True Dragon bone, let's see if you can still spout nonsense!"
The hammer gathered the accumulated manifested divine essence before compressing into the unison joint of the hammer head and handle. As the compression of divine essence underwent its process, the entire hammer blazed with a scarlet glow, and a dragon's enraged cry rang throughout the void. An indistinct image of an Oriental dragon blazed into existence behind Long Xue Li, and as the dragon howled at Bai Xing, the hammer had accumulated and compressed the divine essence to its peak.
The dragon was completely scarlet, with whiskers of gold. Possessing four claws per limb, though the dragon was capable of emitting an oppressive might and powerful strength, Li Xiang noticed that the dragon was considerably lacking in its manifestation, otherwise the image wouldn't be so indistinct. The first problem she noticed was the eyes.
From the general tomes in the Golden Residence's library, Li Xiang understood that for a dragon, the eyes determined its limitations in strength. If the eyes possessed a powerful luster of gold or vitality, then the dragon would possess the capability of surpassing its physical limits, nearing the grand filter separating mortals and immortals, leaving even the mystical ancient phoenix and other prehistoric mortal creatures. Contrarily, if the eyes possessed a dull gaze, then the dragon could only emit the form, but not the substance.
Clearly, Long Xue Li's dragon was of the latter category. Though the general form of the dragon itself was quite indistinct, the eyes were not even present in the manifestation. Hidden in the scarlet blaze, this defect was incredibly well concealed, yet could not be hidden from the auxiliary gaze of the Heaven Core. Li Xiang noticed that although the general characteristic of the dragon's construct was of imperial arrogance and divine might, the actual result was nothing more than a dog barking like a wolf. The actual firepower behind Long Xue Li's 'majestic' attack sourced from his own reserves of divine essence, a truly inefficient technique.
Bai Xing, at the same time, was placing his sword in a reverse grip in his left hand, his right hand drawing the outline of a sunflower in the void. Each time his finger moved, a golden trail of divine essence pierced the void, constructing the foundations of a strategic array well concealed in the dazzle of the sunflower portrait. Li Xiang didn't understand why Bai Xing resorted to such convoluted tactics instead of declaring the Divine Script to [Form] an array; perhaps certain types of immortals didn't understand the Divine Script?
As if testifying to Bai Xing's contradictory nature, thought the sunflower portrait appeared noble and breathtakingly beautiful, secluded from all worries, the actual technique radiated sinister and deceitful characteristics. If Li Xiang was not wrong, the sunflower portrait was a mental assault; by throwing the target's mind into disarray via an illusion, the attacker would be uninhibited for a few moments, with the target bare and defenseless. Truly a work of beauty and commendable of praise, but the actual effects had to be vicious.
The dragon image behind Long Xue Li merged with the hammer, causing a miniature dragon of divine essence to coil around the handle, elevating the destructive potential of the hammer a margin further. As Long Xue Li swung the invigorated hammer down towards Bai Xing, the latter lightly swung his sword and flicked the sunflower towards the former, while secretly ordering the hidden array to activate and target Long Xue Li. The sunflower had long since burned into ashes; with each collision, the sword and hammer each respectively released a minor wave of compressed divine essence in the form of light, the hidden array was quickly exposed and devoured by the scarlet dragon, much to Bai Xing's chagrin.
As the two immortals locked in combat began to distance themselves from Li Xiang's position, Li Xiang wanted to rush forwards to continue observing, to gain further knowledge on the matters of the Immortal World, to determine how different the average immortal was compared to mortals. Until now, she couldn't glean much rigidness from either Bai Xing or Long Xue Li; though each had a foundational concept on their existence, these immortals retained emotional flexibility to the degree of being perfectly capable of blending in mortal society. Perhaps the immortals she had seen near the World Tree were exceptions?
As Li Xiang attempted to chase after the two immortals, she suddenly noticed that her body became immobile, and her ability to manipulate divine essence became considerable restricted. After forcing the restrictions to dissipate by flooding the environment with divine essence, the two combatting immortals were no longer in sight, with any trackable lead now unusable. Brimming with anger, Li Xiang whirled around to locate her attacker, only to discover a thin man dressed in grey robes slowly approaching her.
"Who are you? Why did you bind me?"
Li Xiang asked cautiously, with her vigilance raised to the peak. Though the thin man didn't seem much more powerful than the duo earlier, Li Xiang had a premonition that a single swipe from this thin man could easily force either Long Xue Li or Bai Xing into slumber, perhaps even both. With an indifferent countenance, the thin man bowed slightly, and a voice lacking emotional inflection rang out.
"Apologies, dear miss. I am Leng Bao Yuan, otherwise known as the Hungry Ghost. I am here to inform you that Lord World Tree has forbidden you from contacting other immortal beings until you have completed your punishment. Please forgive my invasion on your privacy, for I will bring you to your punishment this moment."
Li Xiang's expression darkened after hearing Leng Bao Yuan's introductory statement. Was she going to have to suffer her five-million-year suffering now? Just what was the contents of her suffering, that even the Hungry Ghost, the reputed right-deputy of the World Tree, was dispatched to pick her up!?
