Chapter 1604: The Last Favor

[Asura-Fiendgod Transformation]

The beast king’s body grew to more than a hundred thousand meters tall. Two more faces grew on each of his temples, along with nine arms. His skin changed from a light pink to a deep blue, except for the three faces, which remained a deep red.

[Primordial Chaos Lotus Flower]

A humongous twelve-petal purple lotus materialized above the fiendgod’s head, showing its beauty and majesty. Each of the beast king’s hands glowed with a red hue of primordial chaos before smashing into the rage beast. The beast was immediately outraged, not because of the attack, but because the ants dared to become bigger than it.

So, it ignored the latter’s attack before also giganticizing. A creature of pure unbridled rage was already intimidating, but as a colossal entity, this was the stuff of nightmares. A red beam fired from the creature’s mouth with the intent of annihilating the Beast King. The primordial lotus is activated by releasing a protective shield.

Beast King survived, but he was not happy. Ten of the twelve petals had lost their luster. This technique was his magnum opus; it’s supposed to be the pinnacle of his skills. Even when facing a 6-tier Grand Skill, it should only lose two petals, three if it’s someone with extreme attacks like Yan Hai. But this beast almost eliminated all of them. The worst part is that it did it so casually.

As the Beast King watched the beast preparing for another attack, his complexion paled: "Gentle Soil," he yelled.

"I’m on it." She was already nurturing this purple fruit, and before the creature fired, she fed the fruit to the primordial lotus. Four petals regained their luster, but if the beast’s attack required ten of them to stop, what can six do?

Well, they can buy enough time for Beast King to evade and use another skill. The lotus was an absolute defense skill, but all cultivators who can reach the Beast King’s level understood the concept of balance, of Yin and Yang. So, when designing this spell, he made it so that once all the petals were extinguished, they would morph into a force that blessed his attack.

[King Seal]

Beast King appeared above the creature and released a rune that directly penetrated its Sea of Consciousness, attempting to suppress its mind like a majestic king dominating his subjects, or the king of a jungle pressuring all other animals with his mere presence.

The beast immediately became manic as it fought its fourth or fifth mental attack. Its body started to randomly shoot potent red energy beams, each with the power of a 6-tier Grand Construct Skill. The Beast King’s expression became twisted as he desperately evaded all these blasts. And he was not the only one. Qiyuan and the others had to move their position from the hidden void to avoid being hit.

"Glass Pen, how much more time do you need?" Beast King asked with an ugly expression. An energy blast struck his arm, instantly disintegrating it. The worst part is that this beast’s madness seemed to be slowing down his regeneration.

"I’m done," Glass Pen responded before summoning the painting above the creature. A terrifying suction emanated from the scroll as it tried to swallow the beast. The creature instinctively struggled, but its mind was still occupied by the king seal. Beast King immediately scanned the surroundings with wary eyes.

’Should we do something?’

’No need. Their plan is useless,’ Qiyuan replied.

’Are you sure about this?’

’Glass Pen is worried about the Qi Luck of the Literary Way and didn’t use as much as needed to make the seal an effective one. So, his plan is doomed to fail.’

’Let’s hope you’re...Hmm? That aura? It seems she has sublimated.’

’Let’s check on her.’ The three sent a divine sense projection to Yan Hai’s location. She still looked like a mummy wearing baggy clothes, but her eyes were brighter than the stars.

"You look different," Wang Chong commented.

"That’s obvious."

"No, I don’t mean in the sense you’ve become stronger, but your essence has a different aura."

Yan Hai looked at him in surprise. "It seems you also improved much in your retreat."

"That’s obvious, but you didn’t answer my question."

"If you must know, I’ve condensed a Transcendent Sword Will Embryo, which is a transcendent foundation. Although I need to return to my peak before I complete it, I can still use its power."

"A transcendent foundation? That’s great news," Qiyuan smiled.

"Congratulations, sister," Li Ming nodded.

"I’m only slightly ahead. I expect success for all of you, too," Yan Hai smiled, but with her appearance, that was just nightmare-inducing. Luckily, all three of them have seen her in a similar or worse state.

"We will accept your fortuitous words, but for now, let’s focus on the problem at hand," Qiyuan nodded. A dangerous light flashed in Yan Hai’s eyes.

"What’s Dugu Baitian’s situation?"

"See for yourself."

Qiyuan’s prediction was correct. The beast pierced through the painting world, and half of its body had already left the sealing dimension. Glass Pen gritted his teeth to add more luck, but the beast did not give him time. Beast King and Gentle Soil wanted to help him, but were unsuccessful — especially Gentle Soil. After handing over the alliance’s luck, she was essentially useless in this battle.

The Beast King hadn’t even mastered the last Grand Construct, meaning all his skills were extremely draining. He was currently huffing, and his movement speed had drastically reduced. Overall, the situation looked terrible for the alliance.

"This is a good opportunity for a perfect strike on the best," Wang Chong said. "Should we use it, or let it continue to terrorize these bastards?"

"Let’s —"

The beast roared in agony as it cut off the lower part of its body, which still remained in the seal world. Then, it regenerated its lower body, followed by amassing an enormous amount of rage from its own action, resulting in another pair of wings growing on its back for a total of six.

"No, we can’t wait anymore," Qiyuan said. As much as he would like to allow the alliance to suffer, he did not want this beast to become too powerful for even them to handle.

"I’m ready," Yan Hai said directly.

"Do you need us to do anything?"

"I don’t think that thing can survive my sword, but out of caution, maybe you should render it immobile for a brief moment."

"Got it."

The three did not hesitate before taking action. Qiyuan activated his [Curse of Origin] that has been marinating in the beast’s body for all this time. Therefore, black marks spread to every corner of its body with immense speed.

Li Ming appeared behind the beast and hit a specific spot. His attack instantly disrupted the flow of power. Whether it was the creature’s powerful body, its soul, its spirit, or everything else that could be considered "energy" or "power," everything was disrupted for a brief moment. Wang Chong summoned his [Desolate Chains], which were not only virtually unbreakable, but they could also absorb a person’s energy and power to weaken them. They bound the creature’s limbs and six wings.

[Heaven and Earth Sword]

Most cultivation systems will come into contact with the power of Heaven and Earth at some point, and the Origin System did it in the Divine Body Realm. However, Yan Hai’s sword was not just doing that. The power mortal cultivators can borrow from the universe is akin to a single grain of sand on a beach. No, her sword was at least using a few percent of the sand on the beach. This sword was as if True Heavenly Dao itself took a moment to deal with the current situation.

The beast watched as a colossal black sword descended from the sky, and for the first time, it felt something it was never designed to experience: fear. An intense and uncontrollable amount of fear overwhelmed its mind. The beast did what any animal would do when afraid; it ran away.

Dugu Baitian regained experience, and he was now the one experiencing this existential dread. His mind worked faster than before for a solution before yelling: "I’m using the last favor: you can’t kill me today."

The sword stopped.

"I’ve already used two of the three favors, and now, I’m using the last one."

Qiyuan looked at him with an ugly expression. At the peak of the Second Origin War, the opposite side realized he was the key to everything, meaning this war might end as long as they eliminated him. The way they approached this problem was by targeting his brothers.

Li Ming escaped with great injuries, but these people reacted swiftly enough and sent even more people after Yan Hai, forcing her to hide. Qiyuan could not leave his posts at the time, and even if he did, he could not save her alone. Additionally, everyone else was preoccupied with their post as their side was fighting on multiple fronts.

As fate would have it, Dugu Baitian has just accomplished his objective for the war. So, Qiyuan had no choice but to ask him to save her. However, there was an immense risk involved, and based on the agreement they signed at the Grand Assembly, Dugu Baitian had the right to deny military orders if the risk was too high and it was apparent.

Without much choice, Qiyuan came to an agreement with the latter. He would help the Grand Chancellor three times, with the caveat that these requests did not willingly put him into mortal danger and did not directly negatively impact the Dao Opening Sect.

For the first favor, Dugu Baitian asked for help to capture someone, but Qiyuan needed to wipe his memories clean afterward. The second favor was during the Ultimate Taboo. Qiyuan did not remember precisely what had occurred, but it seemed Dugu Baitian had asked for help to acquire an item during one of the trials.

Qiyuan weighed the pros and cons. Unfortunately, the con is a terrible backlash that would devastate the sect’s luck and destiny. The capture of the Earth Sword God was enough of a victory for now. "Fine. But now, my karmic debt with you is paid."

"I know."

Yan Hai gritted her teeth before canceling the attack. She immediately received backlash for forcefully stopping and canceling such a powerful strike, which was beyond her capabilities. And with her previous injuries, she passed out and started free-falling from the void.

Qiyuan immediately caught her and cast numerous healing spells to alleviate her situation. However, this was not enough, so he returned to the sect to use the best resources to stabilize her condition.

Meanwhile, Dugu Baitian slowly returned to normal. "Let’s go," he said with a severe expression before teleporting away.