Chapter 169 - 158: Reverse-Slaying a Foundation Establishment (3)
Chapter 169: Chapter 158: Reverse-Slaying a Foundation Establishment (3)
Zheng Feng subconsciously reached out his hands to catch Zheng Fan. The moment he did, a sliver of relief—’I finally got him’—flashed through his mind. But that emotion vanished the instant he saw the eerie smile on Lu Zhao’s face. Drawing on his years of experience, he instinctively sensed that something was wrong.
However, Zheng Feng quickly found out why. He was instantly overwhelmed by a sense of crisis so intense it felt as if he were being targeted by a primordial beast!
Zheng Feng’s scalp went numb in an instant, and his very soul trembled!
"This is bad!"
The thought had barely formed when disaster struck!
From within Zheng Fan’s body, which he was holding, a violent and destructive power—a torrent of blood-red, malevolent lightning—erupted like the core of an ignited powder keg!
BOOM—!!!
With Zheng Fan’s body as the epicenter, blinding, blood-red bolts of lightning erupted from thin air, blanketing a hundred-zhang radius!
This was no ordinary heavenly lightning, but a malevolent Blood Yin Thunder, imbued with the power of destruction and defilement! Countless twisting, leaping scarlet snakes of electricity writhed like living things, rampaging madly as they tore through the air. They let out a sickening, high-pitched crackle that set one’s teeth on edge, instantly swallowing the slow-to-react Zheng Feng and the Zheng Fan in his arms!
A massive, scarlet sphere of lightning, formed from pure destructive energy, bloomed atop Luming Mountain Peak!
But the very instant he had thrown Zheng Fan, Lu Zhao’s body erupted in a flash of blood-red light. A thick, metallic scent of blood filled the air as he transformed into a crimson streak, moving at a speed that far surpassed the limits of the Qi Cultivation Stage. He instantly reappeared behind a rock two hundred zhang away!
After using the escape technique, Lu Zhao staggered before barely managing to steady himself. His face had turned a deathly pale, completely drained of blood, and his aura was feeble, as if he were recovering from a severe illness.
He fought back the weakness from using the Blood Shadow Escape and the excruciating pain lancing through his meridians, which felt as if they were being pierced by countless steel needles. Taking a Jade Bottle from his Storage Bag, he forcefully tipped out several crimson Pills—Red Blood Pills—and stuffed them all into his mouth. He swallowed hard. As the Pills entered his stomach, a tyrannical, scorching torrent of medicinal power surged through him, shoring up his weakened body. At last, he felt some relief.
Simultaneously, his thoughts raced. The Corpse Nurturing Bag at his waist flashed three times, and three slightly smaller but equally fierce and bloodthirsty figures instantly appeared before him: Strong Iron Ape Corpse Puppets, their bodies seemingly forged from bluish-black Refined Iron!
The moment these three Tier One High-Grade Corpse Puppets appeared, they let out low roars like the screech of grinding metal. Their auras instantly linked with that of the Tier Two Strong Demon Ape Corpse Puppet that had just charged over. The puppets’ immense Evil Qi began to merge, vaguely forming the beginnings of a simple yet murderous Battle Array aimed at the area enveloped by the terrifying, blood-red tempest.
The blood-red storm arrived in a flash and vanished even faster. The destructive, scarlet sphere of lightning was ephemeral, raging madly for only four or five breaths before its light suddenly imploded, was annihilated, and then dissipated completely.
All Lu Zhao could see now was a terrifying, scorched pit left in the storm’s wake. The crater was several zhang deep and about a zhang in diameter, its edges as smooth as polished glass.
His gaze traveled past the pit’s edge to its bottom, where a figure lay sprawled on the ground, looking as frail and broken as a tattered doll.
This person was, of course—Zheng Feng!
He was utterly unrecognizable. What trace remained of the dignified image of a Foundation Establishment Ancestor? His magnificent Daoist Robe had long since been reduced to ash, with only a few scorched, curling shreds of fabric hanging from his body like rags.
His exposed skin was charred black, like wood that had been burned in a raging fire. His body was covered in cracks deep enough to reveal bone. At the edges of these wounds, faint wisps of blood-red electricity still lingered, continuously eroding his Vitality.
His hair and eyebrows were burned away, and half his face was a mangled ruin of flesh and blood, revealing the grayish-white of his cheekbone. His aura was as faint as a candle flame in a gale; it had plummeted, barely clinging to the threshold of the Early-stage Foundation Establishment. He looked as if he might completely fall apart at any moment.
However, Lu Zhao’s sharp eyes noticed Zheng Feng’s right hand, now as withered as a chicken’s claw, tightly clutching the remnants of a cyan talisman. Its Spirit Light was completely gone, and its surface was covered in a spiderweb of cracks. Evidently, this precious Tier Two Defense Talisman had blocked the most fatal part of the impact at the critical moment, allowing him to narrowly escape being blown to smithereens. But Zheng Feng had clearly reacted a hair too slow, and the Tier Two Talisman hadn’t been powerful enough. He had still paid a terrible price in the form of grievous injuries.
Yet, more severe than his shocking physical injuries were the despair and trauma inflicted upon Zheng Feng’s soul. Trembling, he managed to lift his head. His cloudy, lifeless eyes first swept blankly over his own scorched body before drifting, unfocused, toward his arms—they were empty! All that remained was a small pinch of charred ash that quickly scattered in the wind.
His great-grandson, his pride and joy, the boy who carried all the hopes of the Zheng Family, the future pillar of their clan—right before his very eyes, at the very moment he had personally caught him... had turned to ash like a fleeting dream!
"Fan... Fan’er..." A hoarse, rattling sound, like air being forced from a broken bellows, escaped Zheng Feng’s throat. His cloudy eyes stared fixedly at the scattered ashes, filled with disbelief and bewilderment. His thoughts ground to a halt.
"AHHH!!!"
The next moment, that bewilderment was utterly replaced by boundless fury, a maddening frenzy, and an all-consuming desire for destruction!
Zheng Feng snapped his head up, his eyes instantly turning blood-red. The remaining flesh on his face twisted and flushed crimson with extreme venom and rage, making him look like a Fierce Ghost! A violent, chaotic, and self-destructive wave of blood-colored Magical Power erupted from his ruined body like a geyser—he was burning his Original Essence Blood!
"You little animal! I’ll have your life—!!!"
He roared, his voice like a demon weeping blood. He completely disregarded his collapsing body and his dissipating Cultivation, forcefully activating a Life-or-Death Secret Technique that burned his Essence Blood to overdraft his very life force!
His charred and broken body was enveloped in an eerie blood-red light, transforming him into a blurry, frenzied blood shadow. With a desperate resolve to take his enemy down with him—to make jade and stone burn together—he brazenly ignored the surrounding Corpse Puppets. He focused all his remaining power and will into one final strike, hurtling toward the equally weakened Lu Zhao in the distance!
He moved with a speed that far surpassed what should have been possible in his grievously injured state—he was even a fraction faster than when he had first arrived on his Flying Shuttle!
"Hmph!"
Lu Zhao had clearly anticipated this kind of suicidal lunge. The moment he summoned the three Iron Ape Corpse Puppets and had them form a rudimentary Battle Array with the Demon Ape Corpse Puppet, he had already forcefully drawn upon the searing Medicinal Power of the Red Blood Pills in his Dantian. His body erupted in another violent flash of blood-red light!
He activated Blood Shadow Escape again! For a second time, his body transformed into a crimson streak, vanishing from its original spot. He reappeared at the edge of a cliff one hundred and fifty zhang to the side, having narrowly dodged the deadly lunge by a hair’s breadth!