Chapter 252: Storm Formation
Grand Yan Sword sect.
The battle between Gu Mo's avatar and the Nascent Soul Great Perfection demon lord was still ongoing. Although the demon lord had been suppressing Gu Mo's avatar the whole time, he just couldn't finish him off.
What was even more unsettling was that the situation the demon lord had been waiting for—that Gu Mo's avatar would exhaust his true essence and mana—never happened. Instead, after launching wave after wave of ferocious attacks, it was the demon lord himself who had consumed a large portion of his own power.
At this moment, a trace of doubt surfaced in the demon lord's heart: Could it be that I truly cannot take down this Lin Wu?
"No, this mission must not fail!"
The demon lord took a deep breath. No matter what, this Lin Wu had to be killed. The boy was already monstrously difficult to handle. If he were given more time to grow, he would become truly unmanageable.
Since conventional methods couldn't kill Lin Wu, then he had no choice but to use self-damaging techniques.
"Heavenly Demon Disintegration!"
The demon lord directly activated the second stage of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Art. As a classic inheritance of the demonic path, many knew it.
But unless it was a moment of utmost desperation, no one would use it lightly. The first and second stages would at most cripple one's foundations, but the third stage? That was outright self-destruction, risking not just cultivation, but one's very life.
So even now, the demon lord only unleashed the second stage, not the third.
Even though the third stage would increase the chances of killing Lin Wu, sacrificing his own future for the sake of the faction's benefit? Even the righteous path's cultivators weren't so selfless—let alone a demonic cultivator.
To go this far was already an act of aligning his personal interests with his faction's. After all, the higher his cultivation and status, the greater the faction's rewards to him.
But no matter how great the faction's interests, they could never outweigh one's own. The demon lord had already decided: if even this didn't work, he would retreat.
"Afraid of even gambling your life."
Sensing the burning essence and mana in the demon lord's body, Gu Mo instantly recognized the second stage of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration.
He shook his head slightly. If the demon lord had immediately entered the third stage, then Gu Mo's avatar would truly have been in trouble—for the eruption of a Nascent Soul Great Perfection burning his core was not something he could resist at the moment.
But with only essence and mana being consumed, he could still hold on. And more importantly, the opportunity he had been waiting for had finally arrived.
The Heavenly Demon Disintegration consumed essence and mana at a terrifying rate. As long as he endured this wave, the opponent would inevitably enter a period of weakness—and that would be Gu Mo's moment to strike back.
With that thought, the twelve flying swords in Gu Mo's body arranged themselves into a formation enhancing speed. From here on, he wouldn't confront the enemy head-on, but simply drag the fight out, until the demon lord could no longer maintain his secret art.
"Die!"
The demon lord, in the second stage of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration, unleashed a torrent of blood energy that crashed toward Gu Mo. Facing such large-scale attacks, Gu Mo found it hard to dodge and was forced to take them head-on several times.
Luckily, the Heaven-and-Earth Nascent Soul possessed excellent regenerative abilities. Otherwise, a few more blows like that would have left his avatar crippled.
"Damn it, why won't you die?!"
The demon lord grew anxious. Even after several hits, Lin Wu remained vigorous and lively. In order to pin down such a slippery opponent, he had been forced to use wide-area killing techniques. Yet while their power spread thin, with his cultivation and the state of disintegration, they should have been enough to injure or kill.
But still, he couldn't finish him.
I can't keep this up.
Feeling his essence and mana burning away, the demon lord knew he had to make a choice.
To retreat after paying such a price was unbearable. All this, and yet to gain nothing?
Suddenly, his gaze fixed on the distance—where Xuan Tianhen had fled. Without hesitation, the demon lord turned into a streak of blood light and shot off in that direction.
Clearly, he intended to try using Xuan Tianhen as leverage against Lin Wu. Even if that failed, killing Xuan Tianhen would at least serve as some consolation.
"You want to leave now? Don't you think it's a little late for that?" Gu Mo's avatar sneered.
In an instant, his twelve swords shot forward, chasing the fleeing blood light. The blades arranged themselves in a circle in the sky.
The next moment, the demon lord's escape technique faltered. He forced himself forward again with another blood escape—but then, twelve beams of sword light stabbed into the ground, forming a second circle.
Thus, the Grand Yan Sword sect's top sword formation—the Storm Formation—was complete.
The moment it activated, a powerful binding force erupted. This power had touched upon the path of the void. The Storm Formation was one of the extremely rare sword arrays involving the void—though only superficially. Even so, it was enough to suppress a Nascent Soul Great Perfection demon lord, making his every move sluggish as though trapped in slow motion.
"What—what is this?!"
The demon lord's face darkened as he felt the oppressive force. Never had he expected the Lin Wu who had barely been holding on to reveal such a trump card.
"Break!"
Sensing danger, the demon lord decisively entered the third stage of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration, burning his very Nascent Soul.
Indeed, to reach Great Perfection in the demonic sects meant there was no room for hesitation. Realizing the situation, he truly gambled with his life.
The eruption of a Nascent Soul Great Perfection burning his very core was terrifying. The Storm Formation trembled violently, almost collapsing under the pressure.
If not for its connection to the power of the void, any other sword array of the same level would have shattered instantly under such an outburst.
But even now, the Storm Formation wouldn't hold for long.
"Heavenly Demon Disintegration—it's not as if you're the only one who can use it."
Gu Mo's avatar cast a cold look at the struggling demon lord within the array.
In the next instant, the twelve swords forming the array burst into flames. This time, it wasn't only sword cores being sacrificed—the twelve half-spiritual swords themselves were also burning, granting Gu Mo's avatar even greater strength.
Of course, he would never burn the Heaven-and-Earth Nascent Soul. That belonged to his true body, and destroying it would make reconstructing sword cores nearly impossible, not to mention harming his own foundation.
But the avatar's belongings? Those could be sacrificed. The Heaven-and-Earth Nascent Soul could always condense new sword cores, and with the swordheart bamboo treasures, Ding Shiyan could raise replacements again.
But the true body's foundation was untouchable.
Still, burning twelve natal swords was already more than enough.
Now, the Storm Formation once again suppressed the demon lord, who was still struggling inside.
Forcing a Nascent Soul Great Perfection to burn his own core—that alone was already victory. Even if he somehow escaped, his cultivation would plummet, leaving him a cripple compared to before.
Of course, if he could apply a bit more pressure and force the other side to burn more of his Nascent Soul power, then the drop in cultivation might be even greater.
With that thought, Gu Mo's avatar stepped into the Storm Formation. Grabbing a sword at random, his figure turned into a streak of sword-light that slashed straight toward the Nascent Soul Great Perfection Demon Lord trapped within the formation.
Compared to the Demon Lord's every-step struggle inside the formation, Gu Mo's avatar moved with terrifying speed—that was the blessing of void power.
This made his strike so fast that the Demon Lord didn't even register it before a sword mark appeared across his body. Gu Mo's avatar still held the sword in striking posture, only what remained was a residual afterimage from speed too great to comprehend.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
The Demon Lord looked down at the sword mark belatedly. It hadn't inflicted much actual damage—after all, at this moment he was in the third stage of the Heavenly Demon Disintegration, with overwhelming strength that also granted him overwhelming defense.
But right now, deep unease and a flicker of fear stirred in his heart.
Clang!
Before he could act further, another sword-light flashed past, leaving a mark deeper than the last.
At the same time, yet another afterimage of Gu Mo's avatar slashing a sword appeared inside the formation.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sword-lights streaked across one after another, afterimages multiplying in the array. Sword marks continued to multiply across the Demon Lord's body.
Pffft!
When the eighteenth sword-light cut across, the Demon Lord's defenses finally broke. Sword-light carved him open, and blood sprayed forth.
"You want to kill me? Dream on!"
With his defenses shattered, panic set in. Roaring wildly, the Demon Lord's Nascent Soul burned all the fiercer. He was even ready to enter the fourth stage of Heavenly Demon Disintegration—burning his very soul.
To burn the soul was to walk a road with no return. Yet in this desperate situation, the Demon Lord had no choice left.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Even as the Demon Lord launched a frenzied last counterattack, Gu Mo's avatar pressed forward without a ripple of hesitation. Each sword-light now tore open vast wounds.
"Ahhhhhhh!!"
Cornered to the extreme, the Demon Lord finally stepped into the fourth stage of Heavenly Demon Disintegration. In that instant, a ghostly projection emerged from him.
It was the shadow of a burning soul, bearing a resemblance to a Soul Transformation sovereign's Nascent Spirit manifestation—giving him a measure of power close to that realm.
"Die!"
The soul-shadow raised its hand. Instantly, heaven and earth seemed to collapse into its grasp, pressing down on the formation.
"So this is the power of a Soul Transformation sovereign?" Gu Mo's avatar felt the crushing force of heaven and sky. Then he grasped the final sword in the array.
And he swung.
At the moment his last strike was released, all of the afterimages merged together. The resulting sword-light flared with unmatched brilliance.
Even the void cracked beneath its radiance. The Storm Formation was a sword array that touched the void itself, and its strongest stroke was one that could cleave through it.
The Demon Lord had burned his soul, forged a false Nascent Spirit projection, and seized a fragment of Soul Transformation might. Gu Mo's avatar answered with the Storm Formation's final void-rending strike.
This was a clash beyond the Nascent Soul realm. The outcome—life or death—was about to be decided.
"Wait—that's…!"
Fleeing far away, Xuan Tianhen felt the crushing pressure at his back. Instinctively, he turned—and saw the vast sword formation. As a Nascent Soul Sword Lord of the Grand Yan Sword Sect, he recognized it at a glance. It was none other than the sect's highest legacy sword array: the Storm Formation.
Thinking of the array's terrifying power, Xuan Tianhen froze. Then the sword-lights within began flashing, each one exuding power that made even his seasoned heart quail. His disciple had already surpassed him completely.
But soon, when that false Nascent Spirit projection rose inside the array, Xuan Tianhen nearly thought a true Soul Transformation sovereign had intervened.
After all, the Nascent Spirit manifestation was the mark of a true Soul Transformation. A Nascent Soul cultivator condensed a Nascent Infant; to step into Soul Transformation, one must condense a Nascent Spirit into manifestation.
Yet that shadow inside the formation was destroyed almost immediately by the dazzling void-rending sword-light. After all, the power of the void—even most Soul Transformation sovereigns rarely commanded it.
And such power could erase a false projection with ease.
"He… he won!"
For a moment Xuan Tianhen was frozen in awe of that sword-light. Then the realization struck him like thunder: his disciple had slain a Nascent Soul Great Perfection Demon Lord. What an unthinkable display of strength.
Back in the Golden Core stage, Gu Mo's avatar had already crushed the true disciples of every great sect. Now at Nascent Soul, he was still displaying that same overwhelming dominance.
But to dominate at the Golden Core level was one thing; to dominate at the Nascent Soul level was an entirely different matter. The higher the cultivation, the harder it was to battle across realms.
"Hahahaha!!"
Suddenly, Xuan Tianhen burst into wild laughter. He knew then that his disciple had truly grown. At last, the Grand Yan Sword Sect could rise again.
If his disciple could slay a Nascent Soul Great Perfection at early Nascent Soul, then when he himself reached Great Perfection, he might truly stand against a Soul Transformation sovereign. Even without ascending to Soul Transformation, their sect could become the seventh top-tier sect.
Buoyed by joy, Xuan Tianhen hastened toward Gu Mo's location. Such a mighty sword formation—his disciple would surely be in rough condition afterward.
Yet just as he was about to set off, his eyes went wide with horror. In the distant sky, a towering figure appeared.
"A… A Soul Transformation sovereign!"
Xuan Tianhen's very soul trembled as he gazed upon that colossal presence. This was no illusory imitation—this was the true Nascent Spirit manifestation of a Soul Transformation.
"No…"
Even as he shook at the power of that manifestation, dread flooded him. That figure had extended one finger—pointing straight toward Gu Mo's avatar.
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