Chapter 141 - Intense
They both charged at each other with renewed desperation, leading the battle across the Purple Lotus Sect’s devastated landscape.
Wang Yunfeng deliberately led Cale toward walls and buildings, attempting to force him into attacking structures rather than maintaining his offense.
The strategy was: if Cale wasted energy destroying infrastructure instead of directly attacking, it would drain his reserves faster.
Cale still had one final use of Soul Shattering Strike remaining in his arsenal.
As they reached a massive pillar, Cale swiftly pivoted around it and unleashed a heavy air slash with all his remaining power concentrated into the attack.
"Tsk, this..." he sighed.
Wang Yunfeng deflected half the attack with his remaining defense artifact, the Divine Tier shield materializing just in time to block the worst of the impact.
’Why isn’t he using that puppet jiangshi?’ Cale wondered mid-combat. ’Don’t tell me he doesn’t have much soul power remaining to use it continuously and is waiting for the last few minutes?’
Taking a risk, Cale decided to commit.
He channeled every ounce of his remaining spiritual power into a single, devastating technique.
Soul Shattering Strike.
The attack landed directly against Wang Yunfeng’s soul.
His entire body shuddered violently, convulsing as though struck by lightning.
For a brief moment, his physical form seemed to lose all control as unbearable pain erupted from somewhere far deeper than flesh and bone. It was as though an invisible hand had reached into the very depths of his existence and violently torn at his soul, ripping it apart.
His pupils trembled uncontrollably.
The Soul-Shattering Strike attacked the soul directly; no armor could block it, no physical defense could stop it.
Yunfeng gritted his teeth, desperately trying to maintain consciousness as the devastating spiritual force continued to ravage his soul, threatening to shatter his very being into fragments of memory and regret.
Seeing the opening, Cale didn’t hesitate.
Wang Yunfeng was still reeling from the soul-shattering attack, his body momentarily frozen as he struggled to regain control of limbs that no longer obeyed him.
Cale stepped in ruthlessly.
His fist drove forward with brutal force, smashing directly into Yunfeng’s abdomen with enough power to crush mountains.
BOOM!
The impact violently compressed Yunfeng’s stomach. His body folded around the punch like wet paper, the force of the blow surging through his torso and sending tremors through his entire structure.
He couldn’t even recover from the previous strike before Cale had already followed up with a devastating combination of strikes, a relentless barrage of punches that left him gasping for breath and coughing blood.
Thud thud thud...
Heavy footsteps could be heard approaching rapidly.
The giant jiangshi came running to save its master, showing its massive body with arms spread wide before Cale in a protective stance. It was attempting to shield Wang Yunfeng from further punishment.
Cale attacked the creature, cutting deep into its body. But as his blade drove through flesh, it suddenly got stuck — trapped between the jiangshi’s dense, roasted muscles where the decomposed tissue clung to the blade.
While Cale was occupied fighting the giant, Wang Yunfeng suddenly threw a smoke bomb, creating a veil of obscuring mist.
Cale kicked the giant’s chest to leap back, using its body as a springboard to escape the chaos.
’As soon as he recovers, he too will start attacking with this monster. I need to do something,’ Cale thought grimly.
But then, suddenly, a voice cut through the chaos.
"I’ve made you wait, hehe but here I am..."
Liushen stood at the doorway, his hands clasped behind his back.
Yunfeng’s eyes brightened with hope and relief.
"Yes, yes! Ah, lord, thank you for your support! Now I can kill this accursed brat!"
Liushen’s body looked slightly battered from whatever he’d been doing, but he quickly made a hand sign, and his entire form began to glow with black light that seemed to absorb the surrounding illumination.
Cale’s eyes widened with shock.
’He... he’s got a beast transformation!’
Wang Yunfeng likely didn’t possess one. Most cultivators only unlocked a full or partial beast transformation at Emperor stage, but it wasn’t necessary for everyone. Only those with rare bloodlines — like Cale and apparently Liushen, or a few other exceptional individuals possessed such abilities. Even the Wang Family’s Vice Patriarch didn’t have one.
Liushen’s transformation was violent and complete.
His human form twisted and reformed, bones cracking and restructuring as black fur erupted across his body. His limbs elongated, becoming powerful. When the transformation completed, a massive black panther stood where Liushen had been — a beast the size of a small building, with muscles corded like steel cables. Most striking were his eyebrows: brilliant red flames that burned like living fire.
The beast released a roar of fury that made reality itself seem to vibrate.
Cale took several steps backward, his mind processing the new threat level.
’Bad... this is getting worse now. One weakened and two transformed opponents? Liushen is an Emperor, and this giant doesn’t seem to be that much weaker.’
As both the black panther and the jiangshi charged at him simultaneously, Cale deflected their attacks with desperate moves, but then Wang Yunfeng attacked from behind, forcing him to dodge at the last possible moment.
"Argh! Fuck... it’s three on one... how do I—"
The giant swung its massive arm in a wide arc. Cale crouched beneath it, but the black panther pounced immediately, attempting to drive him into the ground. Cale was below its massive body, but just as the panther’s jaws opened to crush his head, he escaped by rolling sideways.
From the observation points, Fiora, Emma, Niva, and others watched with growing horror.
’Should I go for support?’ Fiora thought, her instinct screaming at her to intervene.
But she quickly dismissed the idea. There was nothing they could do against three Emperor-stage cultivators. Interfering would only get them killed.
Cale was on full retreat now, with Wang Yunfeng attacking from behind while he fought the giant and the panther. He could only attack them when he was absolutely certain he wouldn’t be cornered from multiple angles.
But as his eyes escaped Wang Yunfeng for only a few seconds, the Vice Patriarch rejoined the battle and attacked from behind.
Cale dodged, but the black panther pounced at precisely that moment, its massive jaws closing around his left arm.
CRUNCH.
The arm was severed cleanly, torn from his shoulder in one brutal bite.
Cale retreated, groaning in agony.
"Ugh... cough... cough... this... fuck! Fuck!"
But he didn’t waste time in despair. Using telekinesis to slightly move his severed arm’s position, he snapped his fingers.
The arm erupted into a explosion of chaos flames, burning all three of his opponents with the unexpected blast.
’How long would it take to recover an entire arm? It could take an hour or so, I guess,’ he guessed even as pain radiated through his body.
But he had no time for healing.
Cale prepared himself to unleash something he’d been saving, something he didn’t want to showcase because it would reveal connections to the demonic cult. But there was no choice left.
’Eternal Cycle of the Four Seasons.’
He didn’t want to expose more of the demonic cult’s techniques. People would keep realizing his origins and connections. But survival took priority over secrecy now.
He started the sequence.
One vertical slash!
The blade descended with finality, tearing through stone pillars like they were paper. The attack was so powerful that the entire landscape seemed to crack beneath it.
The giant quickly retreated from the slash’s trajectory. Wang Yunfeng tried to attack from behind, but Cale quickly grabbed his arm and threw him directly onto the giant, using its massive body as a landing zone.
Cale then attached a barrier and explosive talisman onto both of them simultaneously.
The barrier formed, locking them inside and preventing escape.
Then:
BOOM!
The explosion was catastrophic, engulfing both the Vice Patriarch and the jiangshi in flames. They definitely took a significant amount of damage from the combined barrier-explosion attack, but it wasn’t powerful enough to end the battle.
The first move of the Four Seasons technique was complete.
Three more remained.