167: Desperate Storm: The Fall or Retreat of the God-Transforming Monster

Above the sky, the blood cloud, born from Lifebound Essence Blood and forbidden techniques, had become as dense as a true sea of blood.

A sense of ultimate ending, capable of withering all things and forcing even the Great Dao to retreat, emanated from within it.

The blood cloud churned violently.

A bloody palm print, vast enough to cover the sky and sun, slowly extended from within.

Every line on that palm print was clearly visible, yet each was formed by countless runes of tormented, wailing souls.

The pressure it exuded was no longer merely a crushing force, but also carried an absolute seal of the Domain Law.

Space.

Time.

Spiritual Qi.

Under this single palm, everything was imprisoned and twisted.

Every inch of space around Lin Fan became like solidified amber, so heavy it was suffocating.

All his escape routes were completely sealed.

This was a desperate, killing blow from an Old Monsters of the God Transformation Stage, wagering his Dao Heart.

It aimed to utterly erase him and any trace of his existence from this world, leaving him no chance of resurrection.

In the city.

All members of the Li Family trembled in their Divine Souls and their livers and gallbladders were about to split under this world-destroying pressure.

In their eyes, only endless despair and the shadow of death remained.

Li Hanyue's heart had sunk to rock bottom.

Her fingernails dug deep into her palms, blood dripping between her fingers, yet she was oblivious.

Her gaze was fixed intently on that solitary figure, enveloped by the bloody palm print.

However.

What she saw was not fear, not despair.

Lin Fan slowly raised his head.

He looked up at the slowly descending bloody palm print, which seemed capable of crushing the entire world.

A cold smile, with a hint of cruelty, actually curved at the corner of his mouth.

He had been waiting for this moment.

Under the horrified gazes of everyone.

Lin Fan did not choose to defend, nor did he attempt a futile dodge.

He moved.

Not retreating.

But advancing.

He transformed into a golden stream of light, flowing against the current, and charged resolutely towards the world-destroying bloody palm print.

Like a moth to a flame.

Or a sharp sword piercing the sky.

“Boom!”

There was no earth-shattering roar.

The moment he touched the bloody palm print, Lin Fan's body, like ice and snow thrown into lava, silently melted, disintegrated, and turned into the most primordial dust.

His Immortal Grade Nascent Soul, under that terrifying Domain Law, couldn't even put up a struggle before completely shattering.

His consciousness plunged into a brief darkness.

However.

Almost at the same instant his consciousness dissipated.

At another anchor point several hundred feet away from his original position.

A golden speck of light, dazzling to the extreme, suddenly flared.

That speck of light exploded with a roar, in a manner that defied all Laws of the world.

Lin Fan's figure reappeared out of thin air.

At the same time.

Every pore on his body spewed forth brilliant golden light.

The immense energy of “Resurrection Counterattack”, like a descending deity, once again filled his reborn body.

This time.

However, Lin Fan did not condense this power into a world-destroying fist.

The look of calculation in his eyes was extremely intense.

Clashing head-on was too wasteful.

A true God Transformation Stage powerhouse, even if severely injured, was not so easily killed with one blow.

If he was going to strike, he had to strike where it hurt.

Strike at his vital point.

Lin Fan perfectly fused that terrifying power, which surpassed the Nascent Soul Realm, with the shallow yet incredibly profound “Spatial Dao Rhyme” he had newly comprehended from Xuanji Zi's Formation diagrams.

This power did not transform into any tangible attack.

It merely became an invisible, intangible, and silent Spatial Blade.

This blade was as thin as a cicada's wing and as fast as lightning.

It silently sliced through the Void Realm locked by the forbidden technique.

Its target was not Blood Slaughter True Person's massive body.

But rather the Lifebound Treasure, that ferocious bloody scythe, suspended before him, connected to his mind, and radiating monstrous blood light.

In mid-air.

A ferocious, triumphant expression of revenge was appearing on Blood Slaughter True Person's face.

He refused to believe.

That after burning his Lifebound Essence Blood and unleashing the forbidden technique “Blood God Annihilation Palm,” that little beast could still be alive.

But the next second.

His smile completely froze.

He only heard an incredibly crisp sound, yet it exploded in the depths of his Divine Soul like a Nine Heavens thunderclap.

“Crack.”

The sound was subtle, yet fatal.

He abruptly looked down.

He saw it on his Lifebound Treasure, the “Blood Slaughter Scythe,” which he had refined for hundreds of years with the essence blood of countless living beings and was indestructible.

A hairline crack, as fine as a strand of hair, quietly appeared.

The dense blood light on the scythe receded like a tide, and its radiance suddenly dimmed.

“Pfft—!”

His Lifebound Treasure was damaged.

An irresistible, terrifying backlash instantly slammed into his Dao Heart through the Divine Soul connection between him and his Magic Treasure.

Blood Slaughter True Person was struck by lightning, violently spitting out a large mouthful of dark black essence blood.

His entire aura rapidly withered at a visible speed.

The ferocity and triumph in his crimson eyes vanished without a trace.

Replaced by a thick, almost overflowing disbelief.

And bone-chilling terror.

“You... you...”

He pointed at the unharmed Lin Fan, his lips trembling, unable to complete a single sentence.

He couldn't understand.

How the other party had survived.

Even more, he couldn't understand how the other party had instantly severely damaged his Lifebound Treasure.

However, Lin Fan gave him no chance to think.

Having succeeded with one strike, he did not press the advantage.

He began to exploit the greatest advantage of his “undying body.”

Attrition.

Endless, nightmarish attrition.

His figure flashed from its spot, instantly appearing behind Blood Slaughter True Person.

A simple Sword Qi silently pierced out.

Blood Slaughter True Person was furious and shocked, smashing the Sword Qi with a backhand palm.

But Lin Fan's figure had already vanished.

The next moment.

He reappeared to Blood Slaughter True Person's left.

This time, he didn't even attack, merely giving Blood Slaughter True Person a mocking smile.

Then, before Blood Slaughter True Person could react, he was once again shattered by a blood-light instinctively fired by Blood Slaughter True Person.

And resurrected with full health at an anchor point in another direction.

“Old geezer, is your magical power still enough?”

Lin Fan's voice, like a devil's whisper, echoed from all directions, constantly disturbing Blood Slaughter True Person's mind.

Sneak attack.

Harassment.

Provocation.

Suicide.

Resurrection.

He played this entire sequence with masterful skill.

Each death, for him, was merely the cost of changing positions.

But for Blood Slaughter True Person, each strike was a real consumption of magical power.

Every time he saw Lin Fan blown apart by himself, only to reappear elsewhere, alive and kicking.

It was a cruel torture of his Dao Heart.

Blood Slaughter True Person was completely drawn into Lin Fan's rhythm.

Like a trapped beast being toyed with, he roared furiously and struck wildly above Hanyue City.

All his ultimate moves.

All his trump card life-saving techniques.

All his proud Divine Abilities and secret arts.

In the face of Lin Fan's almost rogue-like fighting style, they all seemed so pale and powerless.

He could hit Lin Fan a thousand times, ten thousand times.

But if he was even a fraction of a second slow due to depletion of magical power just once.

He would be the one to die.

Despair.

An unprecedented despair, like maggots on bones, began to madly corrode his will.

His Dao Heart, in those futile attacks, finally began to show fine cracks.

“Family Head Li.”

On the ground, Lin Fan's voice suddenly rang in Li Hanyue's ears.

“Tell your people to prepare.”

Li Hanyue suddenly stiffened, snapping out of her immense shock.

“Activate the remaining power of the Family's protective Formation. No need to attack, just create some light and sound to distract him.”

Lin Fan's command was calm and clear.

Li Hanyue didn't hesitate for a moment.

She immediately turned and gave instructions to the equally stunned core members of the Li Family behind her.

The next moment.

In Hanyue City, the extinguished Formation nodes once again lit up with faint glows.

Ice walls rose from the ground without warning, blocking Blood Slaughter True Person's vision.

Patches of false illusions quietly formed around him, causing countless overlapping images of Lin Fan to appear in his eyes.

Piercing screams came from all directions, interfering with his Divine Thought lock.

These auxiliary attacks had minimal power.

For Blood Slaughter True Person in his prime, they wouldn't even count as a tickle.

But at this moment.

With his mind already exhausted and his magical power greatly depleted.

These harassments became the final straws that broke the camel's back.

Making his already irritable mood even more chaotic.

Making his already sluggish reactions even slower.

Combined with Lin Fan's elusive harassment.

Blood Slaughter True Person was completely thrown into a state of disarray.

Time passed, minute by minute.

This bizarre war of attrition lasted for several hours.

In the sky.

Blood Slaughter True Person's aura was now extremely chaotic.

He was covered in blood, his hair disheveled, no longer possessing any of the majesty of a God Transformation Stage powerhouse, looking utterly disheveled.

His magical power was almost exhausted.

His gaze, from initial rage to terror, and now, only held endless fatigue and deep fear.

He finally understood.

He couldn't kill Lin Fan.

Never could.

And Lin Fan, however, could endlessly, perpetually, drag him to death here.

Fear.

And the fatigue that had lasted for several hours.

Finally, completely overwhelmed his pride and dignity as a God Transformation Stage powerhouse.

“Ah—!”

Blood Slaughter True Person let out a roar filled with unwillingness and venom.

He took one last deep look at the young man, who was still smiling at him from a distance like a devil.

Then, he no longer hesitated for a moment.

He violently tore open the space in front of him and plunged in without looking back.

Fleeing in disarray.

As Blood Slaughter True Person's figure disappeared into the spatial rift.

The blood cloud shrouding Hanyue City also vanished into thin air.

The sky returned to the clear expanse it should have been over the ice plain.

The mountain of death that had weighed down on everyone's heads finally disappeared.

Dead silence.

After a brief dead silence.

The entire Hanyue City erupted in a deafening cheer of relief, as if reborn after a catastrophe.

“We won!”

“We won!”

“Senior Lin Fan is mighty!”

Countless members of the Li Family wept with joy, embracing each other, releasing the excitement and ecstasy in their hearts.

They had never imagined.

That their Sect, one day, could force a genuine God Transformation Stage powerhouse to retreat.

And the one who created this miracle.

Was merely a Cultivator in the Middle Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

Lin Fan floated quietly in mid-air, listening to the cheers below, yet without much joy on his face.

He looked in the direction Blood Slaughter True Person had fled, his eyes deep.

Although this battle was won, it also exposed his current greatest weakness.

The cooldown time for “Resurrection Counterattack” was too long.

Once used, he would lose his strongest burst ability before the cooldown ended.

If not for this Blood Slaughter True Person's unstable Dao Heart, easily led into his rhythm, today's outcome would have been unknown.

It seemed that in the future, the strategy of “courting death” still needed to be refined further.

Just as Lin Fan was deep in thought.

He felt a burning gaze.

He turned his head and met Li Hanyue's extremely complex eyes on the city wall.

Those eyes, which had once been as cold as ten-thousand-year-old profound ice.

Now, however, seemed to melt the spring water of the entire ice plain.

Within them was adoration, gratitude, lingering fear, and heartache.

Finally, all emotions converged into a strange, warm light that Lin Fan had never seen in her eyes before.

That light was tightly fixed on him.

Causing Lin Fan's heart, for no reason, to skip a beat.

He suddenly felt.

As if something very important was quietly changing.