Chapter 288 - 162: Mighty, Celestial Punishment
The massive disturbance rippled throughout all of Guangping City. People gazed up at the fissure tearing across the sky, their faces etched with shock.
Meanwhile, a hundred miles away, a cold-faced youth in a dark red robe stared at the same fissure, a look of sheer terror on his face. The third eye on his forehead, incredibly active, suddenly shot wide open!
’That was close, so close!’
He had actually managed to dodge an attack like that. Even though it came at a terrible price, Yan Hu pressed a hand to his chest, staunching the blood that trickled out. His face was a mask of horror, but his eyes held a glimmer of relief.
He was alive.
Yan Hu let out a sharp breath. ’This is an opponent I can’t fight head-on.’ In that instant, his mind raced. He took a deep breath, cupped his hands in a gesture of respect, and said:
"Sir, I am a True Disciple of the Red Moon Divine Palace. I am here on urgent business.
I hope you will give me some face."
The members of the Wang Family were aghast at his words. The name of a True Disciple from the Red Moon Divine Palace—a behemoth of a Sect in Cang Province—carried immense weight. They feared the white-robed expert who had saved them would agree, and if he did, they would be utterly doomed.
"Face?"
"Your face is worthless to me," Gu Yun chuckled.
As he spoke, the surrounding temperature seemed to plummet. A flicker of joy crossed the faces of the Wang Family members.
Then, in the next moment, Gu Yun’s tone took a sudden turn.
"So... how about something more tangible?"
Though Gu Yun spoke softly, his voice reached everyone’s ears.
Far in the distance, Yan Hu’s dejected expression immediately brightened. He hurriedly said, "What sort of tangible offer did you have in mind, Sir? I guarantee you’ll be more than satisfied!"
The members of the Wang Family below watched this scene unfold, their hearts filled with despair. Faced with this unpredictable powerhouse, their hopes plummeted into an abyss.
Gu Yun casually raised a single finger.
"A thousand Spirit Stones?" Yan Hu, seeing this from afar, blurted out almost instantly.
Gu Yun simply shook his head.
"Ten thousand Spirit Stones?" Yan Hu’s brow furrowed, his voice cautious.
Gu Yun shook his head again.
"A hundred thousand Spirit Stones?" Yan Hu finally said, as if making a great resolution, his teeth clenched.
Gu Yun shook his head again, a faint smile playing on his lips, as if the offer was still far from sufficient.
"Then... what is your price?"
"Sir, just name your price. I, Yan Hu, swear I will do everything in my power to meet it!" The blood-soaked Yan Hu, clad in his dark red robe and hovering in mid-air, finally said in a heavy voice.
’After all, with his status as a True Disciple of the Red Moon Divine Palace, his standing was immense—not just in the Land of Cang Province, but across the entire Southern Wilderness. Only the True Disciples of the Celestial Refining Demon Sect or the Supreme Sword Sect could be considered his peers. As such, there were few things in this world that he, Yan Hu, could not accomplish.’
"One hundred million Spirit Stones!" Gu Yun hovered in the void, hands clasped behind his back. His robes fluttered, his hair danced in the wind, and his deep eyes held a mocking smile, as if he were toying with the world itself. The cold, merciless number slipped from his lips.
As expected,
upon hearing this, Yan Hu’s expression turned grim.
"Are you fucking with me?!"
His ice-cold voice seemed to drop the temperature of the world, sending a chill deep into one’s bones.
"That’s right. I am fucking with you!
A mere True Martial Realm Ninth Layer like you dares to show off in front of me?!
You’re truly courting death!!" Gu Yun’s expression turned serious. His smile vanished, and his voice became bone-chilling, exuding an immense pressure.
In the next instant, a terrifying aura erupted from him. It contained invisible wisps of Dao Rhythm that caused the very heavens and earth to sink and shatter under its weight!
A hundred miles away, Yan Hu felt this aura, this Dao Rhythm. He was utterly terrified, so shocked he felt his insides would burst. His voice trembled with fear as he stammered:
"T-Tongxuan Realm!!"
’No!
Not quite!!’
’The Dao Rhythm is still faint. He’s probably not a true Tongxuan Realm cultivator yet.’
’But that still makes him a Half-Step Tongxuan!!’
’And with this world-suppressing might, what’s the difference between him and a full Tongxuan Realm expert?!’
Yan Hu’s heart sank completely. Even the third eye on his forehead grew dim, as if portending some grim fate.
Gu Yun, however, showed no hesitation. If he was going to strike, it would be a killing blow.
The man had already surprised him by using some special technique—one involving a Space Divine Skill, no less—to forcibly evade his Eight Desolates Star Slash. He wouldn’t let his opponent escape so easily again.
A flash of lightning sparked in Gu Yun’s eyes, like a thunderbolt tearing through the dim sky, gleaming with an unprecedented edge.
RUMBLE!
Bolts of thunder erupted all around. In an instant, the area for hundreds of miles was transformed into a Thunder Domain. Arcs of lightning slithered through the void like serpents, tearing through space, shattering the heavens and the earth, and exuding the might of Heaven-Reaching Thunder!
Countless arcs of lightning coiled around Gu Yun. His eyes glowed with deep and terrifying Purple Lightning, transforming him into a peerless Thunder God, a being who could suppress the heavens and the earth!
"Die for me!!"
As Gu Yun raised his hand, he spread his fingers toward the void. A Thunderous Hand, formed from a maelstrom of lightning, instantly condensed. The terrifying momentum it exuded made it seem like the very hand of Celestial Punishment!!
The next instant, this hand of Celestial Punishment, condensed from a storm of Thunder, tore through layer after layer of space. With supreme, boundless power, it blotted out the sky as it descended upon the distant Yan Hu to crush him!!
"Is... Is that a Celestial God, descended to the mortal realm?"
"So powerful, just so powerful!"
"He’s a peerless Thunder God!"
"How could anyone possibly withstand a move like that?"
The members of the Wang Family below stared up at the peerless expert. He was like a Thunder God, suppressing the world as he unleashed a palm strike that seemed to be an act of divine judgment. They were all dumbfounded, their mouths agape, their eyes revealing an unprecedented level of shock. The mere aura leaking from the attack was enough to terrify them, robbing them of any courage to resist.
"Which... which great master is this, here in my Guangping City?" Atop the ninth story of the magnificent City Lord’s Mansion in the center of Guangping City, a middle-aged man stared at the boundless power of the lightning in the sky. He wore a black robe, carried a Longsword on his back, and had eyes as sharp as a hawk’s.
Lin Xuance could feel that the residual power alone—a divine might like that of Celestial Punishment—would be enough to crush him completely.
’Now this is a true master,’ Lin Xuance sighed to himself. ’I wonder if I’ll ever be able to touch such a Realm in this lifetime...’
...
Yan Hu, hovering in mid-air, watched the Thunderous Hand descend upon him. It was hundreds of miles wide, blotting out the sky and sun, a hand of Celestial Punishment that seemed capable of suppressing all existence.
His entire body trembled violently. It felt as if the world were collapsing, the supreme pressure crushing down on him, leaving him without even a shred of will to resist.
"No!"
"I want to live!"
"I still have to find the Great Dream Daoist’s fated opportunity! I have yet to achieve the Dao of a True Monarch!
And I must climb, step by step, to the very pinnacle of this world!!"
"How can I, Yan Hu, die in a place like this?!"
Like the final, desperate struggle of a man cast into an endless abyss, Yan Hu roared in his heart.
Suddenly, he seemed to remember something.
Just as the giant, Celestial Punishment-like hand was about to crush him, a scarlet glint flashed in Yan Hu’s eyes. With a wave, a talisman appeared in his grasp. It shone with a hazy, blood-red light, was carved with mysterious inscriptions, and pulsed with the Red Sun Dao Rhythm.
’This was the Life-saving Mansion his master, Crimson Sun True Monarch, had given him. It contained one of the True Monarch’s peerless strikes and was the most powerful ace up his sleeve!’
Immediately, Yan Hu began chanting a Divine Technique. He formed a hand seal and released the Seal on the Talisman. The Talisman—glowing with a hazy, blood-red light, covered in profound Inscriptions, and pulsing with a terrifying Red Sun Dao Rhythm—erupted with an unprecedented radiance.
In the next instant, the Talisman floated into the air and transformed into a colossal, blazing sun, as if the real sun had descended upon the mortal realm. It hung there, a crimson sun radiating for countless miles. The world for hundreds of miles around was instantly engulfed, becoming a Fire Domain, an endless furnace intent on refining heaven and earth. The immense, searing heat radiating from that colossal sun was enough to reduce the world to silent ash!