1297: Chapter 1297 Sixth-Order Battle

Shadow did not answer.

His gaze swept past Emperor Hei Fan and looked toward the four directions of the distant horizon—there, four Level 6 auras were solidifying, climbing, and stabilizing at an astonishing speed.

Each aura was violent and chaotic, carrying a thick sense of bloodlust and desire for slaughter, like a Vicious Beast that had broken free from all shackles, greedily sucking up every wisp of energy between heaven and earth.

Grand Marshal Hei Zhan.

Marshal Heiman.

And the Marshals ranked third and fourth in strength.

They had made a Breakthrough.

It was not a normal Breakthrough, not the natural result of enduring great hardships and comprehending the Laws of heaven and earth—but a pseudo-Level 6 state, forcibly pushed up through forced empowerment and the sacrifice of living people.

But a pseudo-Level 6 is still Level 6. In the face of absolute power, no one cares whether that power is clean.

Further away, the auras of the other four Marshals had completely vanished.

Not enough energy.

Emperor Hei Fan said it lightly, as if those four Marshals who had fought for the Empire for hundreds of years were nothing more than four bundles of firewood thrown into a furnace.

Shadow withdrew his gaze.

"It's time to go."

His voice was very soft, as if he were talking to himself, or perhaps speaking to A-Mu behind him.

Before the words had even faded, the black shadow around him surged suddenly like a piece of black silk covering the sky, wrapping him and A-Mu inside, turning into a pitch-black rainbow that shot toward the end of the sky.

"Why be in such a rush?"

Emperor Hei Fan's voice rang out from behind, as polite as if he were trying to detain a departing guest of honor.

But his hands were not polite at all.

A pitch-black palm reached out from the Void Realm, its five fingers like hooks, grabbing fiercely toward that black rainbow.

The palm was so large it blotted out the sky, its five fingers like five mountain ranges, with thick death dao marks swirling at the fingertips. Wherever it passed, the space was corroded into five pitch-black holes, and while storms from the Void Realm poured out, they were instantly annihilated by the aura of death.

Shadow did not look back.

He just tightened the black shadow protecting A-Mu a bit more, and simultaneously slapped backward with his hand.

A pitch-black blade beam flew from his palm, silent and thin as a cicada's wing, yet sharp enough to cut through the Laws.

The blade beam collided with the giant palm in mid-air—there was no roar, no explosion, only a slight "pssh," like a sharp blade slicing through paper.

The giant palm was sliced neatly open from the center, the five fingers losing their support and falling powerlessly to the ground, smashing five bottomless craters into the earth for a hundred miles the moment they landed.

Emperor Hei Fan looked at his sliced palm; the wound was deep enough to see the bone, yet not a single drop of blood flowed out.

At the edges of the wound, black aura writhed, slowly healing.

"What a sharp blade."

He praised in a low voice, but there was no anger in his eyes, only a deepening smile.

He looked up, watching the black shadow that had already swept hundreds of miles away, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled up.

"But can you actually leave?"

The moment the words fell, the entire world changed.

With Emperor Hei Fan at the center, the Void Realm for a thousand miles around suddenly froze, like a frozen lake.

An invisible Domain expanded outward at a speed visible to the naked eye—wherever the Domain passed, all Laws were replaced by Emperor Hei Fan's will.

Gravity, time, space, energy flow... everything had become a plaything in Emperor Hei Fan's hands at this moment.

Shadow's speed plummeted.

It wasn't that he didn't want to be fast, but that this world was resisting him.

Every inch of space was squeezing him, every wisp of air was dragging at him, and even the shadow beneath his feet was trying to pull him back to the ground.

This was the Domain of a Level 6 Immortal-tier powerhouse—within the Domain, the Immortal is the Dominator, and the Dominator is the rule.

Shadow finally stopped.

He hovered in mid-air, his pitch-black figure slightly distorted within the Domain, like a drop of ink dropped into water, ready to be diluted or dispersed at any moment.

But he did not panic, nor did he even speed up to flee.

He just slowly turned around, his faceless countenance facing Emperor Hei Fan's direction, and remained silent for a long time.

Then, he moved.

Not to flee, not to defend, but to attack.

Shadow's figure instantly split into dozens of pitch-black afterimages, each one rushing toward Emperor Hei Fan along different trajectories, at different speeds, and from different angles.

Some charged straight from the front, some circled from the side, some erupted from the shadows on the ground, and one afterimage even crawled out from Emperor Hei Fan's own shadow.

Dozens of attacks landed simultaneously.

Each attack contained different Laws—darkness, shadow, death, devouring, annihilation... It was as if Shadow alone had mastered dozens of completely different Origin powers.

These powers erupted at the same moment, intertwining, stacking, and amplifying each other, forming a terrifying torrent capable of tearing apart a Level 6 Domain.

For the first time, a look of solemnity appeared in Emperor Hei Fan's eyes.

He thrust both hands out, and countless Darkness Dao Marks surged wildly from within his body, condensing into a pitch-black shield before him.

The shield was inscribed with ancient defensive runes, each one devouring the incoming power.

Boom! Boom, boom, boom!

Dozens of attacks slammed into the shield one after another; each impact made the shield tremble violently, and each tremor forced Emperor Hei Fan to take a step back.

At the first strike, cracks appeared on the shield; at the tenth strike, the cracks spread across the entire surface; at the thirtieth strike, the shield shattered with a roar.

The remaining dozen or so attacks drove straight in, slamming solidly into Emperor Hei Fan's body.

Emperor Hei Fan raised his hands to block, but the Astral Wind still shattered most of his imperial robes, revealing the body beneath, which was covered in black patterns.

Those patterns were like writhing venomous snakes, slithering, coiling, and devouring beneath his skin.

He looked down at the wounds on his chest—a dozen or so wounds of varying depths crisscrossed, the deepest one almost revealing his internal organs.

Yet there was still no pain on his face, only excitement.

"Good."

He spat out one word, his voice hoarse and deep.

"Good!"

The second word, his voice raised a bit, carrying clear pleasure.

"Good!!!"

The third word, he was already laughing.

That laugh was not a bitter smile forced out, but a heartfelt, hearty laugh, like a Martial Artist who had been stifled for a long time finally encountering an opponent worth fighting.

"It really is a feeling I haven't had in a long time; it's been too long since I felt like this!"

He spread his arms, the Darkness Dao Marks around him surging wildly, the wounds on his chest healing at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the shattered imperial robes were rewoven by new dark energy.

His aura not only did not weaken because of the injuries, but instead climbed even higher at this moment—that deformed heart in his chest cavity beat violently, every beat like a war drum, causing the entire world to resonate.