127: Who is the praying mantis and who is the cicada?

"Rumble!!!"

A ten-thousand-zhang divine mountain fell from the high heavens, freezing and compressing the Void Realm, letting out overburdened explosive roars!

Resplendent colorful spiritual light shone across three thousand li of the firmament, and the thick clouds of Yin-evil Death Qi, like ice and snow under a blazing sun, silently annihilated and dissipated!

"This is..."

"Taihe Mountain?!"

"True Monarch Taihe has arrived?"

"Launching a sneak attack, he has no martial ethics!"

In an instant, all the True Monarchs present reacted.

But it was already too late.

An invisible force of suppression instantly swept across a thousand li of airspace, enveloping the two Corpse Emperors, the three True Monarchs of Xuan Yin Palace, as well as the Yingu Cult and Du Yuan Mountain!

Bearing the brunt directly below were the two Corpse Emperors.

"Awoo~~"

The Red Skull Black Emperor reacted; the moment Taihe Mountain's pressure descended, the soul fire in its eye sockets burned frantically to the limit, emitting a screech that shattered the Divine Soul.

Its entire black armor erupted with an unprecedented dark glow, and those naturally formed hideous armor plates even detached from its body, soaring ten thousand zhang into the high sky to transform into a black shield three thousand zhang in diameter, covering the firmament overhead.

Beneath the shield, it assumed a defensive posture.

Its thousand-zhang body curled up, arms crossed to protect its head—this was its instinctive reaction when facing a fatal threat.

In just an instant, it understood that it could not win.

Since it couldn't escape, its only option was to endure; if the True Monarchs of the Xuan Yin Palace intervened to help, it might survive.

The Nine Nether Plague Emperor was also stunned by this sudden attack; its rotting body felt the suppressive force overhead more clearly and directly, leading to a momentary stiffness.

Then, for the first time, a clear emotion of fear surfaced within its turbid, pale eyeballs.

"Youquan, save me!!!"

It directly cried out for help.

Because it also recognized this mountain.

"Ang!"

Dense Corpse-Plague Miasma instantly erupted from its body, like countless hundred-zhang demonic dragons roaring as they soared into the sky, entangling with the armor shield condensed by the Black Emperor and continuously strengthening its defensive power.

The black armor blotted out the sun, and the demonic dragons roared incessantly.

In the next moment, Taihe Mountain's grand suppressive power that enveloped heaven and earth descended with a crash.

"Boom!!!"

The two collided violently, and the Black Emperor's soul fire screech turned into a wretched wail.

Under the radiance of the colorful spiritual light, the peerless defensive black armor that covered the sky became like thin ice under a blazing sun, rapidly losing its luster and developing dense, fine cracks.

Countless roaring miasma demonic dragons dissipated one after another, accompanied by earth-shattering booms as they all exploded in the high sky.

They didn't even last for a single breath.

Seeing Taihe Mountain still slowly pressing toward the ground at a steady pace, the two Corpse Emperors were left unable to move, only able to wail as they awaited death.

"Does Fellow Daoist Taihe not find such behavior to be despicable?"

True Monarch Youquan's angry shout resounded through the clouds.

In an instant!

Accompanied by a somber and mysterious humming murmur that vibrated through the sky, a towering and massive illusory figure rose from the ground, over two thousand five hundred zhang tall!

Its face was blurred and indistinct, its entire body pitch-black and covered with a dizzying, dynamic darkness.

It seemed capable of constantly refracting, absorbing, distorting, and devouring all surrounding dim light.

Its hands each held a Tier 4 Medium Grade Lifebound Treasure.

Its left hand held a massive stone tablet, ancient and rough, entirely black, with unparalleled powers of suppression and imprisonment; even before being activated, countless rays of light bent and collapsed toward it.

Its name was: [Youquan Sea-Suppressing Tablet]

Its right hand gripped a thousand-zhang long weapon with a hideous dragon-head design; the shaft was like a black dragon's coiled spine, with distinct segments and flowing dark light.

The shaft of the lance trembled slightly, emitting low dragon roars.

Within a thousand li, countless Cultivators and living beings felt their Divine Souls sway and their Three Ethereal Souls and Seven Corporeal Spirits become unstable, as if they were about to leave their bodies and plunge into that dragon's mouth.

Its name was: [Nether Dragon Soul-Absorbing Lance]

The moment the Dharma Idol manifested, the Youquan Sea-Suppressing Tablet flew out from its hand, transforming into a giant tablet several thousand zhang tall that rose Heaven-Defyingly to collide with the descending Taihe Mountain.

"Clang——————!!!"

A massive sound, as if to tear the firmament apart, rang out; the spiritual essence for thousands of li around completely rioted, dancing wildly with the ten-thousand-zhang storm at the point of impact.

True Monarch Youquan's giant tablet wailed as it was knocked backward, while Taihe Mountain only paused for a fraction of a second; its spiritual light didn't dim in the slightest as it fell at an even faster speed.

This time, there was nothing left to stop it.

"Boom!!!"

The Red Skull Black Emperor's arms, crossed to protect its head, were the first to give way under the peerless pressure; amidst a series of dense explosions, they snapped inch by inch and were completely crushed!

The towering body of the Corpse Emperor was as if struck simultaneously from all directions by an invisible giant hammer, disintegrating, shattering, and turning into powder from the outside in!

The deep purple soul fire struggled and flickered frantically, yet it still rapidly dimmed, finally going out completely with a "poof."

Simultaneously, the Nine Nether Plague Emperor's body, covered in rotting flesh, instantly vaporized under the suppressive spiritual light like a snowman thrown into boiling lava, revealing the interlaced black and yellow bones beneath, which also began to rapidly disintegrate.

The multicolored, thick corpse fluid was evaporated into poisonous colored miasma before it could even drip, but as soon as the miasma appeared, it was swept away by the colorful spiritual light.

The ten-thousand-zhang blood pool was completely covered and crushed by Taihe Mountain, vanishing entirely, followed by rolling smoke and dust soaring a hundred li into the sky.

The hard ground was now like a water basin kicked over by a giant, kicking up muddy yellow waves several thousand zhang high, a mixture of crushed rock and compressed air, sweeping in all directions at speeds far exceeding sound.

Wherever the wave crest passed, hills were leveled and deep valleys were filled.

Countless low-level Cultivators of the Xuan Yin Palace, Yao Beasts, and even peripheral Formation outposts that couldn't escape in time were completely turned to powder without even letting out a single wail.

At the center of the impact, a bottomless giant crater a hundred li wide with edges smooth as glass was instantly formed.

The sky for a thousand li around was completely obscured by the rising mushroom cloud column of rock dust and fire, and the million Cultivators across the entire Baitu Hills instantly fell into a dead silence.

From the moment the tai he precious mountain revealed its spiritual light until now, only seven or eight breaths of time had passed.

The two Corpse Emperors who had previously displayed their Divine Might on the battlefield had already perished here, with not even ashes remaining.

The shrunken Taihe Mountain turned into a streak of spiritual light, flying up a thousand li from the bottom of the deep pit and landing in the hand of the now-visible True Monarch Taihe.

"Fellow Daoist Taihe had an agreement with our sect; acting in such a way is perhaps a bit despicable, isn't it?"

"That's right!!"

True Monarch Xue Po and True Monarch Ming Gu flew into the sky, their mocking words spreading for a thousand li, as their Dharma Idols manifested behind them.

True Monarch Xue Po's Dharma Idol was the silhouette of a woman over a thousand zhang tall.

Her figure was graceful and exquisite, with proportions so perfect she didn't seem mortal; her entire body was a tender red like a newborn's skin, yet it shimmered with a jade-like luster and a translucent texture.

Her body was covered in a flowing, roiling dress of blood, with countless faces shrunken ten million times appearing, screaming, and annihilating on the "hem," over and over again.

In her hands, she held two Lifebound Treasures.

In her left hand, she held the Magic Treasure [Blood Sea Love-Thread Entanglement]; its threads could extend and contract at will, reaching up to a hundred li. When thin, they were formless and substanceless, capable of penetrating any gap to strike directly at the Divine Soul; when thick, they could turn into blood-river chains to bind immortals and gods.

In her right hand, she held the Magic Treasure [Beauty's Withered Bone Sword], carved entirely from red crystal; within the blade was sealed the ever-changing silhouette of a slender woman, sometimes combing her hair in a mirror, sometimes covering her face and weeping, and sometimes laughing maniacally.

True Monarch Ming Gu's Dharma Idol was a Skeletal Demon Lord over one thousand two hundred zhang tall.

It was grayish-white all over, with a human-shaped skeleton as its main trunk, but from its shoulder blades extended eight pairs of bone wings pieced together from various vertebrae. Each wing was as large as a cloud hanging from the sky, with dried membranes and tendons still dripping black blood hanging from the edges of the wingspan.

Its Lifebound Treasure, the [Ten Thousand Skeletons Return to One Whip], was a "living thing" made of countless microscopic yet clearly discernible skulls of living beings strung together like fine sand.

Its end grew from deep within the right arm bone of the Dharma Idol; with every swing, new skulls would condense from the void and join with a wail, while old skulls that couldn't withstand the power would shatter into bone dust and scatter.

The whip had no fixed form, sometimes straightening like a bone spear piercing the firmament, sometimes winding like a bone serpent strangling the earth; in the eye sockets of every miniature skull, pin-sized soul fires flickered and wailed.

The two, having revealed their Dharma Idols, came to True Monarch Youquan's side.

Having just endured a strike from True Monarch Taihe, his face now appeared flushed, and the towering Dharma Idol behind him was still vibrating incessantly.

True Monarch Taihe ignored them.

He merely looked around in all directions thoughtfully, then said in a flat tone, "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind."

"It seems today I have become the mantis, and I've even conveniently gotten rid of two disgusting things with rebellious intentions for you."