Ten thousand I am across the heavens

The Five Elements Mage's expression was extremely grim. He had already realized what might happen next. His opponent, through this method of constantly splitting and recombining, could not improve his cultivation level, but he could continuously strengthen his body. Once strengthened to a certain degree, a single punch could shatter mountains and rivers, and cause the heavens and earth to collapse.

"We have to find a way to stop him. There must be some way to curb his splitting; my previous thinking was flawed." The Five Elements Mage closed his eyes, using his mental power to sense his surroundings. The opponent had already split into 15. Although he still had the ability to suppress them, if the number continued to increase, he might be the one being suppressed in return. Time was running out; he had to resolve the issue within the limited time available. On the other side, the numerous gathered eldest son clones had begun planning their escape. They had already tried several spatial attribute killing moves. With their abilities, it wouldn't be long before they could figure out the weaknesses in the battlefield's killing moves.

"My battle strategy was flawed. During the battle just now, I was constantly thinking about how to seal their main bodies. Sealing the fully-fledged individuals would indeed achieve the greatest results in one fell swoop. Instantly sealing and eliminating these powerful individuals would be the most direct way to eliminate this infinitely multiplying enemy. However, it is not the most efficient or effortless method."

I overlooked one issue: severed arms can also be sealed. Without a brain, just an arm makes sealing significantly easier, almost effortless. These severed bodies, while capable of quickly regenerating into new entities, still require time—at least a second or two. That time is more than enough for my sealing technique.

That's exactly it. I'd been overlooking this point, which led to the battle getting stuck. Actually, these enemies aren't difficult to deal with at all. They're not invincible during their self-replication process. Why can't we attack them?

Having grasped this point, the Five Elements Mage immediately changed his battle strategy. First, he unleashed a deadly attack on himself, accelerating his thought process. He even used a deadly attack to accelerate his subjective perception of time, ensuring he could seize every crucial opportunity in the battle. Then, countless metallic blades were created, transforming into a metallic storm that swept towards his opponent. Among the Five Elements, metal is the primary element of offense and attack, possessing the strongest destructive power; this metallic storm now possessed an effect akin to absolute cutting.

Seeing this, Hei Cheng couldn't help but sneer: "You want to gamble on whether I have enough true essence to split, is that it? Heh, then I regret to inform you that the true essence required for my split is far less than you imagine, although everything comes at a price. But the power gained in return is not something you can bear. There are very few cases in history of a seventh-level cultivator killing an eighth-level cultivator. Today, I'll show you how you will die."

After speaking, he charged towards the metal storm without any attempt to dodge. This devastating attack could slice him into countless pieces, meaning he could split himself countless times in a short period. This was practically a buff for him. After all, his body was already incredibly resilient; even maintaining his own body was quite difficult. Otherwise, he wouldn't have only split himself a few times after fighting for so long.

The cutting power of the metal storm was far greater than his own. His opponent was ultimately an eighth-level cultivator, and breaking through his defenses would be a piece of cake.

In an instant, the first Black City warrior to approach the metal storm was sliced ​​to pieces. His body and head were cut into dozens of pieces. And these dozens of pieces began to rapidly repair themselves, soon to regenerate dozens more.

But all of this hadn't even begun. The Five Elements Master appeared around the fragments of corpses as if by teleportation. His fingers moved with lightning speed, like playing the piano. These flesh and blood, devoid of self-awareness, were sealed almost instantly. Not a single drop of blood was spilled. In his accelerated thinking and subjective time slowing, everything before his eyes seemed to stand still. There was ample time to react. He sealed them all without leaving any hidden dangers.

In an instant, the entire black city vanished from the fragments. The sealed fragments were then infused with terrifyingly hot flames. These flames, imbued with the power of rules, burned away the mangled bodies, leaving no trace. In just a few breaths, the fragments of these bodies were completely incinerated.

In that brief moment, Black City, who had rushed into the metal storm, hadn't even had time to react. After all, regeneration takes time; those who rushed in were instantly sliced ​​to pieces and disappeared. This is normal; regeneration takes time, even for infants. If someone is sliced ​​too finely, the regeneration time will be even longer.

So several more Black City members rushed in as well. The speed at which they dragged the metal storm slowed down, as if some extremely tough leather had gotten stuck in a meat grinder. But as these people were also swept into the storm, Black City finally realized the problem: the previous split entities hadn't regenerated. Even if they were chopped into pieces, this much time should have been enough for new individuals to regenerate. Even if they were being cut up while regenerating, there should have been some scene of flesh and blood regeneration. But none of this happened; the individuals that rushed into the metal storm seemed to have vanished.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that the instant he was sliced ​​apart, he would be sealed and incinerated, leaving no trace of his body. Realizing this, he hurriedly retreated, attempting to escape the storm's pursuit. But having already reached this point, retreat was too late. The metal storm was also quite fast, catching up to him in just a moment. Fortunately, there were still enough people remaining, fleeing in different directions. Ultimately, four people managed to escape. The rest were swept into the metal storm. Their bodies were sliced ​​to pieces, and their deprived bodies were helplessly sealed and incinerated.

"This guy's combat intelligence is incredibly high; he discovered my weakness so quickly. Although he paid a price, greatly reducing the energy consumption of splitting and significantly boosting his combat power in the short term, the lack of self-awareness in the severed body is a flaw that can't be remedied. In the end, his weakness was exploited. It's a pity; I originally had a self-destruction technique as a trump card. Now it seems that this move is probably useless. An eighth-level expert's movements are simply too fast. Even if I self-destruct into a blood mist in an instant, this guy should have enough time to react and seal every drop of blood. In that case, I can only activate my final trump card ahead of time. I wonder if I can buy enough time. As expected, none of those who can cultivate to this level are simple."

During Black City's escape, two more individuals were caught, brutally torn apart, and sealed away. Now only two remained, on the verge of annihilation. Just as they were about to vanish, fleshy buds suddenly sprouted from the nape of the necks of the numerous eldest son clones. These buds took root and grew rapidly, instantly multiplying into thousands of Black City clones. This was a contingency plan left before they were sealed in. The clones remained on the bodies of the eldest son clones, protecting them. And when necessary, these clones would be hatched collectively.

However, these buds were differentiated from those within the eldest son's body, and their strength hadn't undergone the recent enhancement; they were merely at the most basic seventh-tier strength, the kind that would be easily crushed by a Five Elements Mage. Nevertheless, the sheer number of them born at once was excessive. This caused the Five Elements Mage some chaos, as these individuals immediately unleashed self-destruction techniques upon birth, exploding into a cloud of blood mist. It's estimated that when they split again, their number will reach tens of millions. The only question is whether their stored immortal essence is sufficient.

The Five Elements Mage was caught in a dilemma. Driven to the brink, his opponent finally revealed his last trump card. These clones, though weak, could become incredibly powerful if their numbers swelled to a certain point.

Without much hesitation, the Five Elements Mage made his choice. Those two that could self-split after fusion were the real threat. The rest, no matter how quickly they split, wouldn't pose much of a problem in the short term. But if those two strengthened Black Cities also activated their self-destruct secret technique, instantly splitting into tens of thousands would be the end of them.

Therefore, he didn't hesitate to chase after one of the two, while simultaneously sending the metal storm to pursue the other. He wasn't disturbed in the slightest by the Black City's revealed trump card. In an instant, he tore him to pieces. At the same time, he sealed and incinerated the fragments, leaving no possibility of resurrection.

Meanwhile, the exploding flesh buds had begun to rapidly split. The blood everywhere was quickly growing into one new black city after another. If they were all allowed to grow, their number could probably reach millions. Theoretically, splitting into tens of millions was also possible, but immortal essence isn't consumed that way. Even though his eldest son had given him a lot of immortal essence, it was probably almost used up by now.

Upon witnessing this, the Five Elements Mage decisively unleashed a wide-range fire attack. The raging flames nearly covered the entire battlefield. While the intensity of the flames wasn't enough to kill a sixth-rank expert, it could certainly incinerate most of the debris from the explosion.

A small number of individuals that had just begun to regenerate were reduced to ashes in the incineration. Regeneration takes time, and the smaller the fragments, the longer it takes. In the short term, only about 10 fragments were able to regenerate into human form.

Amidst the raging flames, these newly thrown individuals continued to suffer casualties, but their self-healing abilities were also formidable. The rate of burning couldn't keep up with their healing speed; it seemed that once they reached this number, they could no longer be contained.

But the reality is clearly not like that. Even the most powerful killing move is limited by the Immortal Essence. This move has already consumed most of the Immortal Essence gained from the Immortal Gu, so its strength is justified. However, the power of this move ends there. Ultimately, the two sides' resource reserves are not on the same level; if they continue to fight a war of attrition, Black City will eventually be defeated.

Therefore, after reaching such an extremely high number during the splitting period, he finally began to have each split entity unleash a celestial killing move. Even though each move only consumed one wisp of celestial essence, the consumption at this moment was still enormous.

Countless jet-black arrows were unleashed. Originally, this killing move only released three arrows at a time, targeting the forehead to inflict fatal damage. But now it was like a volley of arrows. The Five Elements Mage felt a chill run down his spine.

He had originally planned to wait for his opponents to hesitate before unleashing a wide-ranging sealing spell, along with a large-scale, comprehensive attack, to quickly seal them away. But no one expected them to be so decisive. Without any hesitation, they unleashed their ultimate immortal technique, revealing their final trump card.

Even if he wanted to defend, he couldn't. Such a dense barrage of attacks, all with a locking effect, was enough to annihilate his body in an instant. Even with his own strength, which held a crushing advantage over a seventh-rank cultivator, his opponent had essentially multiplied his peak killing move ten thousand times. The size difference between a seventh and eighth-rank cultivator was only around a hundred times, and even considering the various advantages of an eighth-rank cultivator, the gap between them barely reached ten thousand times, making it impossible for most geniuses to complete a challenge beyond their level. But a hundred thousand times was still a terrifying multiplier, especially since this killing move was a small but precise type. Its locking effect meant the damage wouldn't be wasted, and it could even be controlled autonomously, ensuring all attacks arrived almost simultaneously. The Five Elements Mage felt today was his death day. He could only gamble on whether his remaining resurrection trump card could revive him. His opponent had simply played his trump card too decisively, giving him no chance to prepare.

As countless black arrows converged upon him, suddenly about two-thirds of them shot out in all directions, changing their trajectory. The Five Elements Mage, witnessing this, paled. He saw that each black arrow was aimed at a crucial spatial node of the battlefield's killing move. Now, with his own survival in jeopardy, he had no way to protect the killing move itself, which meant the battlefield's isolation effect was about to be torn apart.

[To be continued]

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