Book 6, Chapter 52: Two-Faced
Upon hearing Long Pojun’s blasphemous words, Lin Mengze’s expression sank. “You…… are courting death!”
As he spoke, he activated his strength to its greatest degree. All around him, a boundless wind storm began to whip up, and the sky appeared to darken somewhat. A massive Dragon Centipede appeared in the sky. Its gigantic figure obscured the sun, and with a single roar, it unleashed a deluge of energy towards the ground below.
Despite this shocking display of strength, Lin Zuiliu appeared completely calm. He gathered his aura at the same time, causing poisonous flames to appear, surging to the sky.
Unlike Lin Mengze’s Dragon Centipede Bloodline, Lin Zuiliu’s Seven-Bloodline Mixture’s manifestation was a strange creature with a human’s head, an eagle’s wings, and a pig’s body. Even though it was clearly derived from a Dragon Centipede, the bloodline had taken on its own distinct properties.
The moment it appeared, both Dragon Centipedes in the sky hissed angrily and charged at each other.
These bloodline images were formed from concentrated bloodline power, and were equivalent to the maximum power that the two of them possessed. When the two Dragon Centipedes collided, a gigantic shockwave momentarily overshadowed the sun and moon. The shockwave expanded in all directions, rumbling off into the distance.
Even Long Pojun was knocked flying by this shockwave of energy.
When he looked up, he saw that the two Dragon Centipedes had already locked horns. Below them, Lin Mengze and Lin Zuiliu weren’t lazing around either; black clouds roiled in every direction as the two of them did their best to annihilate each other.
Lin Mengze gestured, and a small golden sword appeared in his hand.
“Go!” he cried out.
The golden sword turned into a streak of light and shot towards Lin Zuiliu.
The sword light moved as fast as lightning, heading straight for Lin Zuiliu’s forehead.
Lin Zuiliu knew exactly how powerful this sword was. In response, he activated one of his skills by spitting out a pearl that perfectly intercepted the streak of sword light. The sword light was incapable of penetrating the pearl and bounced off of it harmlessly.
Lin Mengze wasn’t surprised. He calmly pulled out another item, a jade roughly the size of a teacup, and then hurled it at Lin Zuiliu.
Lin Zuiliu, however, yelped strangely and turned into a streak of light. It seemed like he was completely unwilling to even try to block the jade.
“Heart-Slaying Sword and Soul Rending Jade, huh? Don’t you also have the Raised Sifting Umbrella and the Raining Smoke? Just take them all out! Let’s see whether your four treasures or my Seven Bloodlines is stronger!” Lin Zuiliu laughed.
Lin Mengze harrumphed. “If you want to die, I don’t mind obliging you.”
As he spoke, he pulled out another two items.
One was an umbrella. As soon as he opened it, an illusory hand appeared, grabbed it, and lifted it into the air. It seemed to naturally restrain Lin Zuiliu’s arrogant aura just through its existence. And not only that, but the air around it also began to whirl, rapidly forming a vortex.
The raging flames that Lin Zuiliu had formed were slowly but surely absorbed by the vortex until they completely disappeared.
This treasure was the Raised Sifting Umbrella. It was effective as both an offensive and defensive treasure, as it possessed the ability to absorb any damaging attacks.
At the same time, a swath of pale blue smoke snaked out from Lin Mengze’s body.
The pale blue smoke billowed forth from seemingly nowhere, and rain suddenly began to fall from the sky.
The rain should have come from the clouds, but the clouds were under the control of man. If the clouds had been forbidden from raining, then there would be no rain. Yet at this particular moment, rain nonetheless began to fall from the sky.
This rain, which also seemed to have come out of nowhere, continued to pour from the sky, obscuring the vision of the two fighters.
The rain falling from the sky set a nostalgic ambiance, as if the two of them had returned to the primitive days where man could not fly.
A mysterious sense of sorrow then began to pervade the surroundings.
Lin Zuiliu’s attacks grew noticeably slower.
Even Long Pojun could sense that Lin Mengze’s hatred had decreased slightly.
This was the effect of the Raining Smoke.
Well, to be specific, the effect of the rain coming from the Raining Smoke.
It dealt no direct damage, unlike the Heart-Slaying Sword or the Soul Rending Jade. It was just a plume of smoke and rain, but it affected a person’s will to fight.
All hatred, anger, sorrow, and despair would fade away, causing a person to lose their desire to continue fighting.
Fighting intent!
It was a mysterious, intangible concept, and yet it truly existed.
The difference between a person’s strength with a sharp combat intent versus a dull one was as clear as night and day.
The Raining Smoke had a potent calming effect. Any person who was enveloped by the smoke and rain would gradually lose their will to fight, and their attacks would become soft. It was basically the equivalent of a debuff across the board.
Lin Mengze was the emperor. Not only did he possess peerless strength, but he also possessed incredible wealth. Naturally, the Origin Tools that he used were only the best of the best.
All of the four Origin Tools that he had used were peak-tier Grade One Origin Tools, and each one of them was incredibly powerful.
Most people wouldn’t even get the chance to use one in their entire lifetime, but Lin Mengze had four, and he could use them simultaneously. This only served to amplify their effects.
In comparison, Lin Zuiliu was far poorer. Apart from the Star-Fixating Pearl, which was the Grade One Origin Tool that had stopped the golden sword light, he had nothing else.
Even so, if Lin Mengze expected to win just solely based on these four treasures of his, then it was obviously still too early to celebrate.
When Lin Zuiliu saw Lin Mengze bring out all four of his treasures, he laughed loudly. “Let me show you the full power of my bloodline mixture then!”
He abruptly let out a loud roar.
Following this roar, a blood-red smoke seeped out from the strange Dragon Centipede-based manifestation.
This blood-red smoke constantly billowed forth. Everywhere it went, the surroundings corroded away.
The claw that Lin Mengze’s Dragon Centipede had just stretched out corroded almost immediately. Even though it rapidly regenerated it due to the powerful bloodline supporting it, Lin Mengze’s strength had still taken a slight but noticeably hit.
And most shockingly, the effect of the Raining Smoke was greatly diminished by this blood-red smoke.
Lin Mengze was stunned. Only with the help of the Raised Sifting Umbrella, which began to glow even more intensely, was he able to barely stop the advance of this blood-red smoke.
“How is it? Do you like what you see? This is the result of mixing the Windbite Bloodline with the Dragon Centipede Bloodline — the Similarity Dust. It is capable of nullifying many different kinds of attacks, including your Raining Smoke!” Lin Zuiliu arrogantly declared with a loud laugh.
“I haven’t seen much,” Lin Mengze harrumphed as he jabbed out a number of times, using those rapid attacks in conjunction with the umbrella to force the Similarity Dust back.
Lin Zuiliu didn’t seem to mind his resistance. The Dragon Centipede behind his back raised its head and roared again, spitting out a mouthful of fog. Its aura surged yet again.
In fact, a scarlet-red glow even began to emanate from its body, shining in all directions and exuding an intense amount of pressure.
“This is……” Lin Mengze’s pupils contracted in shock.
“Golden Bird Shining!” Lin Zuiliu roared as he unleashed a mighty attack. A massive, golden sun appeared and descended from the sky, directly colliding with Lin Mengze’s Soul Rending Jade.
That jade item was incredibly vicious. It could easily erode away a person’s consciousness, even if it merely glanced them.
However, Lin Zuiliu’s Golden Bird Shining was infused with the power of the Golden Bird Bloodline.
The Golden Bird Bloodline belonged to the Cheng Clan of Owl Country. This sun was infused with an imposing imperial aura, which counteracted the sinister nature of the Soul Rending Jade.
Lin Zuiliu and Lin Mengze had fought a number of times in the past. As such, Lin Zuiliu knew exactly what treasures Lin Mengze had and had made his preparations accordingly.
The Similarity Dust dealt with the Raining Smoke while the Golden Bird Bloodline nullified the Soul Rending Jade.
Lin Mengze didn’t dare to continue using the Soul Rending Jade, so he could only hurriedly stow it away.
But Lin Zuiliu’s might continued to descend.
Thankfully for him, Lin Mengze wasn’t a pushover either. He unleashed a barrage of palm strikes with one of his hands, which eventually converged into a single palm that forcibly pushed the Golden Bird back.
The two of them growled simultaneously. Lin Mengze’s expression paled and Lin Zuiliu groaned — the Golden Bird might have been able to handle the Soul Rending Jade, but it clearly couldn’t withstand the might of the Dragon Centipede.
A moment later, the Heart-Slaying Sword appeared yet again. Lin Zuiliu responded by summoning streams of water to defend himself.
His seven bloodlines hadn’t been completely mixed into one yet, but despite this gap, he had already achieved a bit of success.
Every time he attacked, he could imbue it with the power of two different Desolate Beasts. However, one of these had to be the Dragon Centipede. After all, this was his original bloodline.
As such, he could make six different combinations, allowing him to unleash six different powerful skills.
His Similarity Dust was the combination of the Windbite and Dragon Centipede bloodlines while the Golden Bird Wheel was the combination of the Golden Bird and Dragon Centipede bloodlines. This time, he was naturally combining the Luo You and Dragon Centipede bloodlines.
The Dragon Centipede was said to have had thousands of hands. Apart from its innate ability to utilize and resist poison, its vast number of hands allowed it to unleash many attacks at once. It could simultaneously unleash tens or even hundreds of Origin Skills at once. However, this also expended the corresponding amount of Origin Energy, and the user had to have the ability to use that many Origin Skills in the first place.
In any case, the Dragon Centipede’s explosive power was quite impressive.
And that was precisely what Lin Mengze had just done; he had unleashed countless Origin Skills at once, and then merged them together. This was the Primordial Continent’s equivalent of the Buddha’s Palm.
Lin Zuiliu was also utilizing this aspect of his bloodline to his advantage.
The Dragon Centipede’s multiple hands and Luo You’s control over water merged to form hundreds of streaks of water. Even though it was hard to tell the difference, each streak of water was actually its own water-type Origin Skill.
Lin Zuiliu had basically activated a thousand water-type Origin Skills at once, and then superimposed them to defend himself against the Heart-Slaying Sword.
The Heart-Slaying Sword’s offensive capabilities were impressive, but when faced with a thousand Origin Skills, it had no way of penetrating through.
The moment the two forces collided, the Heart-Slaying Sword bounced off in a different direction, and Lin Zuiliu’s ball of water disappeared as well.
Both of their expressions sank simultaneously, but they didn’t rest for a single moment and immediately unleashed another attack.
In terms of strength, Lin Zuiliu’s bloodline mixture research had reached the stage of small success while Lin Mengze’s personal strength was declining due to the nightmare curse. In addition, Lin Zuiliu had wounded him with his earlier sneak attack. As such, he was definitely the weaker one in these exchanges. However, Lin Mengze also had quite a few treasures on him. In addition to the four peak-tier Origin Tools, he had a number of supplementary treasures, which included pills, formations, and one-time consumables — a veritable treasure trove. As the battle progressed, he would take some out and use them from time to time.
As a result, the two of them fought on quite even footing.
Under normal circumstances, it probably would have taken a few days to determine a winner and a loser.
All Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators possessed immense amounts of Origin Energy, and it was difficult to burn through it all in a short period of time.
However, Long Pojun was also present in this battle.
He hadn’t attacked yet, because he knew that he wasn’t Lin Mengze’s opponent even if he did join in.
But as the battle went on, Long Pojun gradually began to get a feel for the rhythm of the battle and started to identify the gaps between their attacks. As such, he began to stealthily sneak closer and closer to Lin Mengze’s position.
Because of his brawny physique, he typically fought by charging in head-on. Rarely did he ever try to ambush someone.
But today, for his own sake, and for the sake of the woman who had died for him, he was going to carry out a sneak attack.
Long Pojun spotted an opportunity and sprang into motion. He punched out at Lin Mengze’s back. “Die, Lin Mengze!”
Lin Zuiliu’s expression drastically shifted. “Don’t!”
Long Pojun watched on in shock as Lin Mengze chuckled in his direction.
Was he laughing?
Wait a moment!
Wasn’t his back facing him?
Why was he able to laugh at him?
His face?
Long Pojun discovered to his great surprise that a face had actually appeared on the back of Lin Mengze’s head.
A face…… had appeared on the back of Lin Mengze’s head.
A moment later, Long Pojun’s vision went dark as his body involuntarily flew into the air.