451: All the cards are out

The moment the entire Imperial Domain ascended, a blue light suddenly emanated from it!

Upon closer inspection, one could see that these lights were emanating from cracks within the Imperial Domain.

As the light intensified, rumbling sounds echoed through the heavens and earth.

Large chunks of shattered rock continuously fell off.

In an instant,

the entire Imperial Domain, high above the firmament, transformed into the shape of a giant sword as countless rocks detached!

The appearance of this giant sword caused ripples throughout the void, and cracks spread across the earth, as an intensely powerful and indescribable pressure continuously emanated from it.

It caused a colossal surge in the hearts of all who witnessed this scene.

No one had expected... that a shocking giant sword existed deep beneath the Imperial Domain!

Or, more precisely,

the entire Imperial Domain had been built upon this giant sword from the very beginning.

With the emergence of this giant sword, an incredibly massive face appeared on its blade.

This face was none other than the Martial Emperor's.

However, it had been dormant, with its eyes closed, until now.

Only when this giant sword appeared did the Martial Emperor's face on the sword open its eyes, unleashing a terrifying storm.

It then transformed into a heaven-shaking sword light, which, with a roar, directly hurtled towards the Martial Emperor.

Because of its immense size, a single shift brought it instantly above the Martial Emperor, and as it approached, this blue giant sword continuously shrank until, finally, it transformed into a normal sword and appeared in... the Martial Emperor's outstretched hand, where he grasped it!

The moment he grasped this blue Emperor's Sword,

the Martial Emperor's aura and presence instantly underwent a tremendous change.

He exuded an unprecedented majesty.

His eyes held sharpness, and even an icy chill.

Clearly,

this blue Emperor's Sword was the divine weapon befitting the Martial Emperor's Martial Dao Ninth Realm!

The Martial Emperor Halberd from the Emperors Armor was merely the weapon he used during his demigod period.

After he broke through to the Martial Dao Ninth Realm, the Martial Emperor Halberd was no longer sufficient.

However, even with the Emperor's Sword in hand, the Martial Emperor's expression remained grim, his eyes filled with rage.

Ever since he stepped into the Martial Dao Ninth Realm years ago,

he had buried this Emperor's Sword deep beneath the Tianwu Continent, continuously nurturing it through the entire world!

At the same time, after he founded the Great Wu Dynasty, he even built the entire Imperial Domain upon this Emperor's Sword to provide it with better nourishment.

Even if the Imperial Domain collapsed later,

its impact on the Emperor's Sword would not be too great.

As long as the Emperor's Sword remained buried deep beneath the Tianwu Continent, it could continuously absorb nourishment from the entire Tianwu Continent.

Thus, it would continuously grow stronger!

This Emperor's Sword... had always been the Martial Emperor's top secret.

Even Yan Huagu and others did not know that the Martial Emperor possessed such a divine weapon.

And the Martial Emperor's nurturing of the Emperor's Sword

was primarily to cope with the impending calamity of the Martial Dao Ninth Realm.

It was a powerful means he specifically prepared to deal with the calamity!

He had not even used the Emperor's Sword when he faced the calamity in his previous life.

Because he knew... that with his condition in his previous life,

even using the Emperor's Sword would still not be enough to overcome the calamity.

He wanted to nurture the Emperor's Sword until he could use five types of heavenly rules to advance to the Martial Dao Ninth Realm, and then use the Emperor's Sword to deal with the calamity.

However, due to the pressure brought by Xiao Shi, he was forced to use it prematurely!

This intensified his hatred for Xiao Shi.

First, the other party shattered his hope of advancing to the Martial Dao Ninth Realm with five types of heavenly rules.

Then, he forced him to use the Emperor's Sword prematurely.

He knew very well.

Once the Emperor's Sword was summoned from underground, causing it to “awaken,” it could no longer be continuously nurtured.

His path to becoming a Martial God in this life could be said to have been completely destroyed by Xiao Shi!

Even if he killed Xiao Shi now,

in this life,

he was destined to never advance to Martial God again.

This caused the Martial Emperor's hatred for Xiao Shi to reach its peak!

“Die for me!!!”

He raised the Emperor's Sword in his hand and, with a low roar, slashed down at Xiao Shi.

The brilliant blue sword light instantly tore apart the surrounding space, and what was most terrifying... was that wherever the sword light passed, time seemed to slow down, the firmament withered, and the earth rapidly cracked.

Even from a considerable distance,

Xiao Shi already felt his life force being frantically absorbed by the whistling sword light as this sword was unleashed.

A rumbling sound, unprecedented, erupted.

This couldn't help but make Xiao Shi's expression turn solemn.

At this moment, a strong sense of life-and-death crisis surged in his heart.

Although he had previously anticipated that the Martial Emperor definitely had some powerful trump cards up his sleeve,

with the Martial Emperor's deep foundation, it was impossible for him to have only these few methods.

But he hadn't expected the other party to have been secretly nurturing the Emperor's Sword all along.

After years of nurturing, the power of this Emperor's Sword had reached an extremely terrifying level!

However, facing such a terrifying strike,

Xiao Shi had no intention of confronting it head-on.

Buzz!

A halo directly appeared behind his head.

At the same time, a phantom of a pagoda also formed.

The entire halo emitted a constant, clear light, as if it could dispel darkness and bring light.

The moment this halo appeared,

the Martial Emperor was already shocked to discover... that the Emperor's Sword in his hand instantly dimmed, as if it had been sealed, and all the power on the Emperor's Sword completely vanished.

It directly transformed into a sword without any power.

At the same time, with the change of the Emperor's Sword,

the sword light that had already been unleashed also dimmed, gradually eroding and dissipating as it continued to fly towards Xiao Shi.

This sudden scene

left the Martial Emperor stunned.

He stared blankly at the Emperor's Sword in his hand, his face filled with confusion.

It wasn't that he hadn't seen powerful sealing methods.

But even the most powerful seal he knew of couldn't seal his Emperor's Sword in such a short amount of time.

After all, given the Emperor's Sword's level,

it could already be immune to most seals.

But the current situation

left him completely bewildered.

Xiao Shi's figure flickered, and he immediately seized this opportunity to continue his attack.

He knew that although the Myriad Treasure Pagoda could render one of the target's Martial Dao Ninth Realm items ineffective, there was a time limit, and he absolutely had to eliminate the Martial Emperor completely before the Emperor's Sword recovered!

Taking advantage of the Martial Emperor's current moment of surprise and confusion,

Xiao Shi instantly flashed in front of the Martial Emperor.

He raised his hand and pressed down.

Boom!!

Centered on the Martial Emperor, the ground within several hundred feet around him instantly exploded.

Countless clods of earth, exploding and flying, converged towards the Martial Emperor, instantly closing in and solidifying, forming an incredibly dense mountain peak!

It directly sealed the Martial Emperor within the mountain peak.

This was precisely the ability of the Mountain God Branch!

If the opponent wasn't the Martial Emperor, a Martial Dao Ninth Realm expert, Xiao Shi could directly seal him completely in this way.

However, he knew very well that with the Martial Emperor's strength, he couldn't be sealed so easily.

Of course, he wasn't just using the ability of the Mountain God Branch now; at the same time, he also incorporated the dream realm of the Dream Witch Lineage into the mountain peak.

This caused the Martial Emperor, while being sealed by this mountain peak, to also fall into a dream.

Previously, when Xiao Shi was a demigod, due to the limitations of his cultivation, he couldn't visualize dreams containing Martial Dao Ninth Realm experts.

But now that he had advanced to the Martial Dao Ninth Realm, he could already visualize Martial Dao Ninth Realm experts within dreams.

What he was visualizing now... was the Martial Emperor himself!

This meant that in the dream, the Martial Emperor would face another version of himself.

And he would have to defeat the other him in the dream to escape the dream.

Xiao Shi cleverly combined the abilities of the Mountain God Branch and the Dream Witch Lineage.

However, he knew.

With the Martial God's capabilities... this alone would still not be enough to threaten the other party.

As expected.

Although the Martial Emperor was subjected to the Mountain God's seal and the Dream Witch's dream,

he still possessed powerful methods he hadn't used before, besides the Emperor's Sword!

Boom!!

With an earth-shattering explosion,

a scroll suddenly unfurled across the entire ground.

This was a peculiar scroll composed of life and death.

One side represented life, the other death, and when intertwined, they formed this scroll of life and death.

Amidst the tremendous rumbling, this scroll of life and death continuously expanded.

The essence of life and death on it was extremely powerful!

The moment it appeared, it caused the entire firmament to change, seemingly splitting into two parts centered on the scroll's location: one part rapidly withered as if dying, while the other was full of vitality, like new life.

At the same time, with an extreme strangeness,

under a roar from the Martial Emperor,

Boom!!

With life and death as the boundary, the entire mountain peak trapping the Martial Emperor was directly torn apart.

Even the dream created by Xiao Shi was torn open by the Martial Emperor.

However, Xiao Shi had long anticipated that these two abilities alone would not be enough to defeat the Martial Emperor.

Therefore, he had already prepared a backup plan.

Or, more precisely,

his attack this time consisted of two steps.

The linkage of the Mountain God Branch and the Dream Witch Lineage was only the first step.

The second step... was his true killing move!

His skin was already stained black, his face looked as if he was wearing an Evil Ghost mask, and his shoulder blades tore open to form a pair of massive Evil Ghost wings.

A spiral horn covered with numerous intricate patterns sprouted from his forehead.

At the same time, numerous Evil Ghost phantoms condensed behind him.

Emitting sharp shrieks.

With a boom,

a terrifying aura erupted from Xiao Shi's body.

Inside and outside his body, numerous crimson blood mists simultaneously gushed out.

The surrounding void twisted in that instant!

Xiao Shi, enveloped in blood mist, was completely suffused with blood-red, as if immersed in endless blood.

He slowly raised his head, a low, hoarse voice emanating from his mouth.

“Red Fiend!”

As the words left his mouth,

his body vanished from its original spot with a boom.

He shot towards the Martial Emperor at a terrifying speed that could traverse the void and time.

This was the linkage of the Crimson Tiger Lineage and the Evil Ghost Branch!

With the power of the Evil Ghost Branch as a supplement.

To propel the Red Fiend!

Thus allowing the Red Fiend to unleash even more ferocious power.

And he seemed to have calculated the timing of the Martial Emperor breaking through the mountain peak well in advance.

As soon as the Martial Emperor broke through the mountain peak,

Xiao Shi, enveloped in blood mist, had already arrived in front of him.

The Martial Emperor's pupils suddenly contracted.

His hair stood on end.

This move of Xiao Shi's cast a great shadow over him, after all, his demigod clone had died from this very move of Xiao Shi's last time.

So much so that when he faced this move of Xiao Shi's, he actually had a conditioned response.

Especially since Xiao Shi had calculated everything in advance.

Not giving him any time to defend or dodge.

This left the Martial Emperor with no choice but to use the scroll of life and death beneath him to form a powerful force, attempting to block.

However, this power of life and death had no effect on Xiao Shi at this moment!

Or rather... Xiao Shi transferred this effect to the Evil Ghost phantoms behind him.

He himself remained unaffected.

With a boom,

Xiao Shi, covered in blood mist, crashed heavily into the Martial Emperor.

Pfft!

Even with the Martial Emperor's current physique,

the moment he was struck by Xiao Shi, his entire body was sent flying heavily.

And the blood mist that enveloped Xiao Shi, upon touching the Martial Emperor's body, directly absorbed a large amount of the Martial Emperor's life force.

Although it wasn't like when Xiao Shi fought the Martial Emperor's clone, where it directly sucked him dry to skin and bones, it still caused a massive loss of the Martial Emperor's life force.

In addition,

the potent poison of the Evil Ghost Branch also seeped into the Martial Emperor's body, continuously corroding his physique.

The Martial Emperor coughed up blood.

A layer of black qi covered his face, and the black qi subtly formed an Evil Ghost's face, continuously twisting on the Martial Emperor's face.

His entire chest was caved in from the impact.

Before he could get up,

Xiao Shi was already whistling and charging again.

Last time, Xiao Shi merely struck the Martial Emperor's demigod clone and instantly killed it on the spot.

This time, Xiao Shi was facing the Martial Emperor, a Martial Dao Ninth Realm expert, so it was naturally impossible to kill him with a single strike.

However, this also allowed Xiao Shi to display the full power of Red Fiend!

Red Fiend, as the most powerful killing move among the Four Branches now,

was far stronger than the power of the other three branches.

Especially now that Xiao Shi had advanced to the Martial Dao Ninth Realm, the power of Red Fiend was also much stronger than when he faced the Martial Emperor's demigod clone.

And the power of Red Fiend was far more than just the initial impact.

After absorbing a large amount of the Martial Emperor's life force through the blood mist, the power of Red Fiend had already increased to a greater extent based on its previous foundation.

It even caused the blood mist lingering on Xiao Shi's body to subtly transform into the Martial Emperor's phantom.

Xiao Shi's eyes were filled with chilling killing intent.

Under the influence of Red Fiend, his temperament also became more ferocious than usual.

“Martial Emperor, I will kill you today!!!”

Xiao Shi roared and slammed into the Martial Emperor.

An incredibly intense life-and-death crisis stimulated every nerve of the Martial Emperor.

His eyes also gradually filled with madness.

“Kill me? With just you?!”

He let out a roar.

The moment Xiao Shi crashed into his body,

a mask instantly appeared on his face.

It was... the Divine Envoy's Mask!!