Chapter 1755: Lightning Formation
The human race was situated in a secluded corner of the Tian Yuan Continent, and it was far weaker than the major races on the continent. It wasn’t even much more powerful than its few neighboring races.
Thankfully, they were able to ally themselves with the demon race, which was roughly comparable in power. Furthermore, the three regions and seven territories had all been sealed away by a super restriction set up by the primordial mighty figures of the two races.
Aside from Deep Heaven City, there were no other entrances leading into the land of the two races, and this was what had allowed the two races to exist in the Spirit Realm to this very day.
Of course, Deep Heaven City was regarded as an extremely important place by the two races. Not only were there large numbers of powerful beings from both races constantly stationed there, the city itself had a panel of elders that was solely responsible for defending the city.
There were only 10 members in the panel of elders, but all of them had to be at the early-Body Integration Stage or above. If one of them were to perish, another Body Integration Stage being would immediately be elected from the two races to take the perished elder’s place.
It was through these arrangements that Deep Heaven City had always remained an impregnable fortress.
At the same time, Deep Heaven City was the only exit available to the cultivators of the human and demon races if they wanted to access the primordial world.
Most cultivators didn’t dare to venture too deep into the primordial realm and only scoured the area that was within a month’s travel away from Deep Heaven City. If they were to encounter any powerful ancient beasts or other hazard, they would still have a chance to return to Deep Heaven City for refuge.
Of course, there were also many courageous characters who were confident in their own abilities and ventured much deeper into the primordial world, but the mortality rate among those beings naturally spiked dramatically.
In the air above a lake in the primordial world, there were currently several human cultivators who were in this type of imminent life-threatening danger.
This group consisted of four humans, two male and two female, and they had been trapped by a gargantuan ancient beast in the lake.
The giant beast had the body of a massive turtle, but there were a dozen or so tentacles on its back that were sweeping through the air, creating fierce gusts of wind and forming a giant net that trapped the four people within.
The four of them were all powerful Deity Transformation cultivators, and the treasures they were wielding also appeared to be quite powerful, but regardless of whether they were flying swords, flying daggers, huge wheels, or giant staves, all of them were instantly repelled by the tentacles, leaving the four cultivators completely trapped.
There was a scholarly middle-aged man among them wielding a particularly powerful silver scepter treasure that withstood most of the pressure being exerted on them by the huge net of tentacles. If it wasn’t for that treasure, they would’ve already had their defenses breached and been killed by this giant beast.
Even so, all four of them were panting heavily and sweating profusely, clearly unable to last much longer.
"Brother Huo, release your Extreme Lightning Bead! We have to make one final roll of the dice now!" the scholarly man yelled in an urgent manner to the man beside him.
A crimson-armored man with a set of hideous facial features replied in a grim manner, "The Extreme Lightning Bead is indeed powerful, but I’m afraid that setting it off in such an enclosed space would harm us as well."
"I’m aware of that, but we’ll just have to risk it. This Stone Origin Turtle possesses early-Spatial Tempering Stage powers, and my Hundred Spirit Scepter won’t be able to last much longer against it. If we don’t use the Extreme Lightning Bead now, we won’t get another chance!" the scholarly man insisted in a decisive manner.
The crimson-armored man was still rather hesitant. Right at this moment, the ancient beast’s tentacles began to accelerate, and the sound of howling winds and rumbling thunder rang out. The enormous power erupting from the giant net also increased significantly.
The countless streaks of white light conjured up by the scepter quickly dimmed significantly after a few more clashes, and the safe enclosed space around the four human cultivators shrank even further.
This turn of events finally prompted the crimson-armored man to make up his mind, and he gritted his teeth before flipping a hand over to produce an egg-sized bead.
The bead was shimmering with blue light and had blue patterns all over its surface, giving it a rather mysterious appearance.
The two female cultivators were quite alarmed at the sight of the blue bead, and one of them hurriedly changed something before waving both of her sleeves through the air, summoning a dozen or so high-grade talismans that formed layers of light barriers around all four of them.
Meanwhile, the other woman raised a hand to send a small black bell flying through the air.
The bell then expanded drastically before releasing a layer of black light amid a faint clang, and this black light also encompassed all four human cultivators.
A ferocious look appeared in the scholarly man’s eyes as he expelled several mouthfuls of blood essence in succession. With each mouthful of blood essence expelled, his complexion would pale slightly, but that didn’t stop him from pointing his finger rapidly into the air.
The blood essence vanished into the scepter up above in a flash, and the spiritual light that had dimmed slightly immediately brightened, manifesting into a dense barrier of white light.
Seeing as all of his companions had adopted defensive measures, the crimson-armored man didn’t hesitate any longer as he tossed the blue bead forward.
As soon as the bead left his hand, it transformed into a ball of dazzling blue light.
The crimson-armored man made a hand seal, and the ball of blue light instantly expanded to the size of a wagon wheel, then crashed directly toward an oncoming tentacle.
An earth-shattering boom rang out, and the blue ball of light exploded as soon as it came into contact with the tentacle, sending bursts of blue shockwaves erupting forth in a frenzy.
The giant net formed by the dozen or so tentacles was instantly inundated by blue light, and the shockwaves spread to cover a radius of over 500 meters. Gale-force winds howled incessantly within the blue light amid a string of explosions, and four streaks of light rushed out of the blue light before linking up in a flash and fleeing into the distance.
The four human cultivators within the streaks of light were all in an extremely sorry state. The scholarly man had blood all over his body, and one of his arms had gone missing.
His three companions also had extremely pale complexions, and their clothes were in tatters, clearly having also sustained severe injuries.
Thankfully, none of them had lost their abilities to fly, and they were still able to flee at an astonishing speed.
Moments later, the shockwaves in the air dispersed, and the blue light faded as well.
Most of the ancient turtle beast’s tentacles had been destroyed, and the remaining ones were also all charred and incomplete.
A thunderous roar of fury erupted from the ancient beast’s mouth, and green light flashed from its mangled tentacles, upon which they began to rapidly regenerate. Turbulent waves then surged over the nearby surface of the lake, following which a vast amount of water was swept up before enveloping the giant turtle. The vast expanse of water then formed a giant cloud that was several acres in size before setting off in pursuit of the four human cultivators.
The four of them were naturally quite alarmed by this, and they fled as quickly as they could to try and shake off the cloud.
However, despite its enormous size, the giant cloud was able to keep up with the combined speed of the four human cultivators, and not long after that, the cloud and the human cultivators had flown for hundreds of thousands of kilometers.
As time passed the gap between the two gradually dwindled. This wasn’t to say that the cloud had suddenly sped up; instead, the four human cultivators were slowing down.
They were all bearing severe injuries, and after fleeing as quickly as they could for so long, they were finally beginning to exhaust their supplies of magic power.
The four of them had naturally realized the perilous situation that they were in, but in the face of the almighty ancient beast behind them, they were powerless to do anything.
Finally, after flying for around another 100,000 kilometers, the distance between the ancient beast and its prey had been whittled down to just over 1,000 feet. Right at this moment, the ancient beast let loose a thunderous roar, and the cloud suddenly blurred before exploding on its own.
White water-attribute spiritual Qi surged before dissipating, but the giant turtle was nowhere to be seen.
The four human cultivators had naturally been keeping a constant eye on their pursuer, and the scholarly man’s expression immediately changed drastically upon seeing this as he exclaimed, "Look out!"
However, before the four of them had a chance to do anything, spatial fluctuations suddenly erupted up above, and several black tentacles swept toward them like lightning.
Even before the tentacles reached, the massive wind pressure they were exerting was already causing the spiritual light around them to flicker violently and fluctuate in brightness.
The four of them let loose cries of surprise, and they reflexively dispersed, flying in different directions to avoid the attacks.
In doing so, they were able to evade the powerful tentacles, but they had also been split apart. The four of them looked at one another, and all of them had grim expressions on their faces.
Even their combined magic power had been unable to shake off the ancient beast; now that they had been forcibly dispersed, it would be impossible for them to escape.
A massive black shadow flashed up above, and the giant turtle emerged out of thin air before appraising the four cultivators with a frosty look in its green eyes.
The human cultivators’ hearts sank, and they knew that there was a good chance this would be their final resting place.
However, the four of them had cultivated to their current powers and dared to venture deep into the primordial world, so they clearly possessed strong will and wouldn’t just resign themselves to their fates.
Thus, they forcibly reinvigorated themselves before releasing their treasures again to prepare to make one final struggle.
The giant turtle beast let loose a low roar upon seeing this, and a humanized look of disdain flashed through its eyes. The dozen or so tentacles on its back swept forth again before transforming into black blurs, and it appeared that another battle was about to commence.
However, right at this moment, peculiar looks appeared on the faces of the four cultivators and the giant beast, and all of them abruptly looked up almost in unison.
A head-sized ball of lightning had appeared over 1,000 feet in the air above them, and the ball of lightning was flashing with countless thin arcs of silver lightning, but it was completely silent. The violently flashing lightning created a stark contrast with the complete lack of sound, creating an extremely unsettling sight to behold.
However, before the four cultivators and ancient beast had a chance to react, the lightning ball suddenly swelled to several times its original size amid a resounding boom.
A successive string of loud booms rang out immediately thereafter, and countless arcs of lightning sprang forth as the ball of lightning instantly formed a circular formation that was several tens of feet in diameter.
This was a formation that was comprised entirely of silver arcs of lightning, and countless silver runes appeared amid violent flashes of lightning.
An earth-shattering thunderclap rang out, and a bolt of lightning that was as thick as a water tank crashed down from above. The lightning faded, and a humanoid figure stumbled out onto the center of the lightning formation.
As soon as this humanoid figure steadied himself, he immediately delivered a crass tirade. "Lei Yunzi, you old bastard! Don’t let me catch you again or I’ll make sure you get what’s coming to you!"