Chapter 631: Leverage
Chapter 631: Leverage
The golden-haired man immediately snapped back to his senses, then let loose a loud roar, and the golden flag in front of him instantly swelled to over a hundred times its original size, then released countless balls of golden light that formed a fiery golden river around him.
Several thick bolts of lightning struck the golden river, triggering violent waves, and the entire golden river began to tremble violently, looking as if it were about to disintegrate.
Radiant golden light erupted out of the golden-haired man's body, and he transformed into a giant golden dragon that was tens of thousands of feet in length.
The body of the dragon was long and sleek, yet still powerful in appearance, and it was entirely covered in a thick layer of golden scales. Every single scale was riddled with golden spirit patterns that gave them an indestructible appearance, while the dragon's claws were flashing with golden light and seemed to be able to tear through anything.
An enormous aura that was almost twice as powerful as that of the golden-haired man in his human form erupted out of the dragon's body, and it opened its cavernous mouth to send a thick pillar of golden light shooting into the golden river.
The golden river instantly brightened significantly while expanding to several times its original size, and the golden flames within it also began to flow several times faster than before.
The bolts of lightning were swept up in the golden river before quickly being inundated.
The purple-robed man made a hand seal upon seeing this, and a burst of black lightning erupted out of his body before quickly spreading outward to form a black lightning spirit domain that was dozens of kilometers in size, encompassing the golden-haired man within it.
Countless arcs of lightning were churning incessantly within the spirit domain, and there were around a dozen tall black humanoid figures standing amid the lightning, all of which were giving off astonishing lightning law power fluctuations.
The golden dragon's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, following which it prepared to also release its spirit domain as it roared, "If you insist on making this a battle of life and death, then I'm more than happy to oblige!"
However, the purple-robed man was a little faster, and he seized the initiative, chanting an incantation before pointing a finger at the black wheel, upon which all of the dozen or so humanoid figures in the spirit domain shot forth like lightning before vanishing into the black wheel in a flash.
The wheel instantly swelled drastically in size once again, and it turned semi-transparent while giving off blinding lightning.
Dozens of thick bolts of lightning shot out of the wheel, and most of them were hurtling toward the golden-haired man, but a small portion of them were being directed toward the giant golden ships.
"How dare you allow yourself to get distracted when facing me?"
The giant golden dragon was furious to see this, and the golden flames all over its body erupted outward, but instead of forming a spirit domain, it transformed into a giant golden fiery cloud.
Countless runes were churning within the cloud, producing an incessant rumbling sound, then converged before sweeping toward the purple-robed man with tremendous power, paying no heed to the lightning that was hurtling toward the giant ships down below.
The golden cloud clashed against the bolts of lightning, but there was no sound.
The bolts of lightning pierced through the golden cloud in a flash, then continued to hurtle directly toward the giant golden dragon without being slowed down at all.
However, the same applied to the golden cloud as well, and it continued to sweep toward the purple-robed man, appearing in front of him in a flash.
The fiery cloud then began to rapidly transform as if it were a living creature, taking on the form of a mountainous golden dragon's head that opened its cavernous mouth to devour the purple-robed man whole.
The purple-robed man's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and he shot back in retreat while making a hand seal, upon which the black wheel swooped over from afar to block the golden dragon's head.
At the same time, all of the lightning within the spirit domain converged to form a massive black lightning net that enshrouded the dragon's head.
The dragon's head whipped to the side to force the black wheel back, then let loose a thunderous roar, releasing a burst of devastating soundwaves that conjured up countless indistinct blade and spear projections, which pierced through the net of black lightning before inundating the purple-robed man.
The black lightning net was torn apart, and the nearby space was also shattered like a mirror.
The purple-robed man's body trembled violently in the face of the torrent of soundwaves, and gashes began to appear over his skin, as if his body were about to be torn apart.
Blood began to spray out of those gashes in all directions, and he was sent flying back through the air.
All of this had taken place in the blink of an eye, and at this moment, the golden dragon's entire body was enveloped within the river of golden flames.
Dozens of thick bolts of lightning pierced into the fiery golden river amid an earth-shattering boom, stirring the river of fire up into a frenzy.
However, the bolts of lightning were ultimately no match for the raging golden river, and the former quickly subsided.
At the same time, a string of explosions rang out down below as most of the giant golden ships were destroyed by the remaining bolts of lightning.
The golden dragon paid no heed to this at all as it shot forth directly toward the purple-robed man.
A thunderous draconic roar rang out as a giant dragon claw projection appeared in the sky above the purple-robed man before crashing down with vicious power, but right at this moment, a black vortex suddenly appeared beneath the purple-robed man before instantly sucking him in.
As a result, the dragon claw projection struck nothing but empty air, much to the golden dragon's bewilderment.
Several dozen kilometers away, the black vortex reappeared, and the purple-robed man flew out from within, following which a pillar of green light also shot out of the vortex into the purple-robed man's body.
He was instantly enveloped in a layer of bright green light, and his injuries began to rapidly heal, vanishing in virtually the blink of an eye.
The golden dragon was just about to pounce at the purple-robed man, but it stopped in its tracks with a hesitant expression upon seeing this.
The purple-robed man was looking rather pale, but he was able to move just fine now, and he stood up before extending a deep bow toward the black vortex. "Thank you, esteemed Devilish Monarch."
The golden dragon's expression changed drastically upon hearing this, and it abruptly turned and fled toward the spatial passageway without any hesitation.
Right at this moment, a cold, seemingly omnipresent voice rang out. "You think you can just get away after slaughtering so many of my brethren?"
As soon as the voice trailed off the space above the fleeing golden dragon abruptly caved in, and a giant silver spatial hand that was several acres in size emerged before descending upon the golden dragon.
The golden dragon was instantly slowed down, and even though the silver hand still hadn't fully descended upon it, the surrounding space had become incredibly heavy as it compressed upon it from all directions.
In that instant, it was as if time were standing still. All sounds faded, and the only thing that the golden dragon could see was the giant silver hand expanding in its field of view.
"No!"
The golden dragon roared with all its might as bursts of ferocious golden flame erupted out of its body.
A series of massive holes were instantly scorched into the surrounding space that was compressing toward it, but the pressure weighing down on it wasn't lessened at all.
The giant silver hand gently descended upon the golden dragon, and the latter was instantly crushed into a huge pile of mincemeat like a fragile egg.
Everyone at the scene was completely rooted to the spot, unable to believe what they were seeing.
The entire battlefield had become deathly silent, but in the next instant, a chaotic commotion ensued as all of the Heavenly Courts High Zenith cultivators fled toward the spatial passageway as quickly as they could.
The giant silver hand gently flicked a finger through the air, and a burst of silver light shot out of its fingertip.
A string of dull thuds rang out as all of the Heavenly Court's High Zenith cultivators were abruptly rooted to the spot. A hole had appeared on each of their foreheads, and blood and intracranial fluids were gushing out from within.
The light in their eyes quickly faded, and they began to plummet out of the sky like dead weights.
The silver hand then flew toward the golden vortex before crashing into it with tremendous power, and the spatial passageway was instantly cast into a state of violent instability.
However, right at this moment, strips of golden runes surged out of the spatial passageway, forming a golden array that was doing everything in its power to stabilize the passageway, but it seemed that this was only delaying the inevitable.
A cold harrumph rang out from within the giant silver hand, following which it closed tis fingers around the spatial passageway before grabbing down with unmatched power.
The spatial passageway finally completely collapsed, and it slowly closed amid a resounding boom, quickly vanishing into thin air.
The Heavenly Court army was cast into complete despair upon seeing this.
In contrast, the morale for the devilish army was significantly elevated, and they were able to easily tear through the ranks of the opposing army to commence a one-sided massacre.
The purple-robed man paid no heed to what was happening down below as he flew over to the giant silver hand with an embarrassed look on his face. "My sincerest apologies for my incompetence, esteemed Devilish Monarch. If you hadn't intervened, the consequences would've been catastrophic."
The silver hand transformed into a humanoid silver figure, then said, "Our Devil Realm still isn't powerful enough to stand toe to toe against the Heavenly Court, so even if someone else had been in your place, the outcome wouldn't have been any different."
The purple-robed man's expression eased slightly upon hearing this.
"Don't kill all of these Heavenly Court cultivators. Only kill a third of them, then restrict the cultivation bases of the rest and send them to Asura Island to serve as slaves," the silver figure continued.
"Why should we spare their lives? They've killed many of our brethren. If we spare them, that could elicit a great deal of dissent," the purple-robed man asked with a perplexed expression.
"Right now, the primary enemy of the Heavenly Court is the Reincarnation Palace. Even though they've sent out an army against our Devil Realm, there are no Dao Ancestors leading this army, which indicates that the Heavenly Court isn't going to fully declare war on us.
“Otherwise, they run the risk of having to face both our Devil Realm and the Heavenly Court at once, and that's not a situation that they want to be in. This battle is going to end very soon, and killing a third of the enemies will already be enough to satisfy most of our brethren.
“By keeping the rest alive, we'll have leverage that we can use in negotiations with the Heavenly Court, and we'll be able to enjoy some peace for the immediate future," the silver figure explained.
"Your wisdom is truly unmatched, esteemed Devilish Lord!" the purple-robed man praised with a slight bow.
"I'll leave things to you here. Make sure to continue to conduct stringent surveillance over the Heavenly Court," the silver figure instructed, then vanished into the nearby space.
The purple-robed man stood in silence for a moment, then descended toward the battlefield down below.
Behind the battlefield, the body that Han Li had possessed cracked open its eyelid a tiny sliver, then heaved an internal sigh of relief.
That giant silver hand had struck him with a far more formidable sense of pressure than even the two Great Encompassment Stage beings on the battlefield, and as soon as it appeared, he immediately retracted his spiritual power so that it was hiding in the deepest recesses of the body's mind, and only now did he dare to peek out ever so slightly.