Chương 169: Thunder's Judgment

BOOM! Huaijin's palm descended, and a cataclysm of lightning power crashed directly onto Yangu Bone Demon's body. Shock streaked across the demon's face. He summoned a massive bone warhammer, channeling his energy to awaken its power. Dense, vicious bone spikes erupted from its surface as the full might of his Tier 3 fourth level cultivation exploded outward. BOOM! Lightning ravaged everything. With that single strike, the bone warhammer shuddered violently, its spikes shattering into fragments.

Yangu Bone Demon's body stumbled backward, driven against his will. Where the lightning had passed, even the cloying demonic miasma thinned to near nothing. The Bing Yang Thunder Palm was a technique Huaijin had personally derived from his Bing Yang Thunder, a power that could only be wielded with fire-attributed lightning. He had already contributed this self-realized technique to his family's archives, and under his command, every strike now reached the level of a true Tier 3 attack. Lightning. Radiant light.

Fire. All three were anathema to demonic cultivators. And among them, lightning was the deadliest. Huaijin's display stunned everyone, friend and foe alike. Not even his own Tier 3 allies had known he was a lightning cultivator. He strode forward like a dragon unleashed, electricity crackling around his body until he seemed less a man and more a thunder god descended to earth. Technique after technique poured from his palms in unbroken chains. The Blood Dragon Sword in his hand dissipated into motes of light.

The Thunderclap Nether Sword appeared soundlessly in its place.

"Azure Flame Slash!" Lightning and fire wove together, augmented by a spiritual assault that struck at the soul itself. They condensed into a savage, terrifying sword-light, nine full meters of devastation, nearly ten meters of annihilating force, that locked onto Yangu Bone Demon with deadly, unerring precision. BOOM! The demonic miasma scattered like mist before a gale, and the attack hurtled down toward the demon's skull.

Fang Xingyu (new Tier 3 of the Fang clan) and Zhou Sinuo found their footing again, as if a new leader had taken command. They drove their artifacts forward, harrying Yangu Bone Demon in relentless waves, splitting his attention, carving openings for Huaijin to exploit. The rumors were true. Huaijin's combat prowess was nothing short of monstrous. Deep within his dantian, the lightning power of the Bing Yang Thunder surged without end, like an inexhaustible wellspring. Huaijin continued his relentless barrage.

"Bing Yang Thunder Palm!"

"Thunderfire Spear!" Techniques filled the sky. Within a thousand-meter radius, the battlefield had become an ocean of crackling, roaring lightning. Even the thick, suffocating demonic miasma had been blasted into a vacuum. SHUNK! The nine meter long Thunderfire Spear slammed into Yangu Bone Demon's body, hurling him backward and tearing open his chest in a spray of black blood. The demon was wounded. Fang Xingyu and Zhou Sinuo grew more astonished with every passing moment.

Huaijin's spiritual energy reserves were simply unimaginable. Every single lightning technique struck with the peak power of the early Purple Mansion stage. The final Thunderfire Spear had even reached mid Tier 3 might. And yet, Huaijin's aura showed not the slightest sign of weakening. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He possessed a Supreme Dao Foundation, and within his dantian, a lightning seed was gestating, a source of power that made his reserves far deeper than any ordinary cultivator's. As spectacular as his attacks appeared, the drain on him was never as devastating as one might expect. Huaijin pressed forward without pause, giving Yangu Bone Demon no chance to draw breath.

He swung his Thunderclap Nether Sword again and again, sending lightning sword-lashes screaming through the air, so fierce they seemed to twist and distort the very space around them. He hounded the demon into a miserable, desperate state. Fang Xingyu and Zhou Sinuo grew more excited by the moment. Yangu Bone Demon was already wounded, his energy flagging. He was no match for Huaijin. Not even close. Zigu Bone Demon and Chigu Bone Demon spotted the crisis unfolding on their ally's battlefield.

They tried to break away and rush to his aid, but Fang Jisheng and the others blocked them with relentless determination. Huaijin's combat power stunned not only the demonic cultivators but his own allies as well. Now even Yangu Bone Demon, a cultivator at the fourth level, was being completely and utterly suppressed.

"This is going too far!" Yangu Bone Demon spat out a mouthful of black blood, looking battered and broken. After exchanging blow after blow with Huaijin, his injuries had grown steadily worse, his movements slower, his defenses more desperate. He had been cautious, but he had still underestimated Huaijin's strength. No wonder Blood Infant Elder had died at his hands. Huaijin said nothing. He simply kept attacking. Merciless. Relentless. Inevitable. The other two battlefronts remained locked in stalemate.

Neither side could break through anytime soon. But this Yangu Bone Demon, he had to die. SHUNK! Yangu Bone Demon's face went deathly pale. He bit his tongue and spat out a mouthful of his blood essence, a desperate, costly sacrifice. On the bone warhammer in his hand, dense crimson patterns crystallized, and terrifying flame power surged upward like a pyre ignited. The warhammer let out a grating, agonized crack-crack sound.

Energy intertwined, and a phantom image began to take shape behind him, a Fire Demon Phantom. In legend, these were the true demons of the Demon Realm, beings born at the Purple Mansion realm, creatures of pure annihilation. Yangu Bone Demon's face was as pale as parchment. His fingers formed seals with desperate speed, and the Fire Demon Phantom swelled with even more terrifying power. Faintly, it began to radiate the might of Tier 3 sixth level!

Demonic miasma from all around converged on it, drawn like moths to a flame, making the image even more hideous, more grotesquely powerful.

"DIE!" Yangu Bone Demon howled, unleashing a wave of berserk, devastating power. The Fire Demon Phantom raised the bone warhammer, demonic energy soaring to the heavens, and brought it crashing down toward Huaijin with the force of a collapsing mountain.

"WATCH OUT!" Fang Xingyu and Zhou Sinuo didn't hesitate. They each flung out two talismans, top-tier Tier 3 low grade spiritual talismans, treasures that would have cost a fortune on any market. Blasts of ice and storm energy erupted, trying to slow the Fire Demon's advance. They drained their own spiritual energy to the dregs and unleashed their strongest attacks without reservation. Their artifacts and talisman forces combined, crashing head-on into the Fire Demon Phantom in a desperate bid to buy Huaijin time.

The enemy's attack was simply too ferocious. All they could do was whittle down its power, shave away its edges, give Huaijin the opening he needed. BOOM! The Fire Demon paused for only a few seconds before shattering all the chaotic energies before it like glass. Both cultivators staggered backward, faces pale, blood trickling from the corners of their mouths.

"Spirit Ruin Burial Extinction!" Huaijin's will surged like a tidal wave. His combat power exploded outward. Lightning converged from every direction, and in the space of a single breath, it transformed into hundreds of lightning sword-energies. They flickered like interwoven dragons and serpents, coalescing into something vast and terrible, a thundercloud made flesh. Immeasurable power surged forth.

Within the storm of lightning swords, a sword-coffin materialized, woven from lightning and flame, ancient and annihilating. BOOM! The two cataclysmic attacks collided. A deafening thunderclap tore through the air, a sound that seemed to split the very heavens. Two utterly opposed forces savaged each other, grinding and annihilating in a vicious, unending cycle. For a thousand meters around, the ground quaked and cracked.

Dense layers of bone fragments shattered into powder, the remnants of countless battles reduced to dust. Yangu Bone Demon's eyes went wide with horror. Because his Fire Demon Phantom was visibly dimming, being encircled and consumed by the lightning forces. The demonic flame was being directly suppressed, overwhelmed by a power that was simply greater.

"No... impossible!" Yangu Bone Demon's eyes filled with maddened savagery, a cornered beast's last defiance. He burned more of his own blood essence, sacrificing decades of cultivation to bolster the Fire Demon Phantom's power. Hundreds of lightning sword-energies shattered one by one, slowly grinding away at the Fire Demon, each loss paid for in demonic flesh and blood. Inside the White Bone Demon Lair, tremors spread. Even the black stone mountains around them began to crack and groan.

Huaijin's expression remained calm, a serene mask over a storm of power. He surveyed the entire battlefield, taking in every detail, every flicker of hope and despair. His will moved like a blade drawn from its sheath. The sword-coffin opened. A lightning sword-energy that had been gestating for a long time, nurtured in the heart of the storm, waiting for this very moment, shot forth like an arrow loosed by a god. SWISH! A red dot appeared between Yangu Bone Demon's brows.

For a single, frozen instant, nothing happened. Then lightning erupted from that very spot. In the blink of an eye, it had turned into a tidal wave of thunder that engulfed Yangu Bone Demon's body entirely, consuming him from the inside out. CRACK! Thunder converged. Black smoke billowed. Yangu Bone Demon's body shattered into ash, scattered to the winds, leaving nothing behind. No grave. No remains. No memory. Oblivion.

Huaijin had claimed the life of yet another Tier 3 demonic cultivator, following his victory over Blood Infant Elder. The battle was far from over, but the message had been sent, carved into the very bones of the lair in lightning and fire. And the remaining demonic cultivators knew, with a cold and creeping dread… They were next.