Chapter 160: A Cataclysmic Battle

"What?"

A fresh tremor rippled through the crowd.

How could Ling Xiao survive such a terrifying explosive shockwave? You’ve got to be kidding me! Is this kid made of indestructible steel?

That Nine-Suns Death-Reaper Talisman was capable of instantly obliterating a martial artist at the fifth-layer of the Martial Venerable realm! Not to mention, Young Master Guo had just infused it with three drops of his very own vital essence!

Forget a fifth-layer Martial Venerable; even someone at the sixth-layer Martial Venerable realm shouldn't have had the slightest capacity to resist it!

Yet right before their eyes, Ling Xiao had successfully withstood it, without a single scratch or even a tear on his clothes!

This kid—surely he isn't human anymore?

As Guo Quan gazed at that figure, both his body and his heart trembled uncontrollably!

Ouyang Xiaobai looked at Ling Xiao and let out a self-deprecating laugh.

"Utterly ridiculous! To think I was arrogant enough to believe I was strong! I even wanted to treat Ling Xiao as my rival, and earlier, I actually advised him to back down! Only now do I realize how laughable those thoughts truly were."

"I... am completely unqualified to be his opponent!"

Ling Xiao stood proudly suspended in the void. As everyone gazed up at that unyielding figure, their eyes were filled with an inexplicable terror!

At this very moment, the name Ling Xiao had become an inescapable nightmare etched into everyone's hearts!

"Are you kidding me?"

"Th-this... who could possibly fight this? This guy is completely unbeatable!"

"I can't take it anymore! I... I'm not fighting anymore!"

With a shrieking cry, the crowd panicked and began fleeing wildly downward like a swarm of madmen.

Guo Quan gritted his teeth to the bone.

"Get back here! No running! Do not run!"

He hacked and slashed frantically around him, but it was entirely useless!

The crowd would rather face him; doing so might at least leave them a sliver of a chance to escape! But facing Ling Xiao? They would probably be reduced to dust without a single scrap left behind, with zero possibility of winning!

"Damn it!"

Guo Quan gnashed his teeth, staring fixedly at Ling Xiao up in the sky!

"Ling Xiao, you forced this on me! All of you forced me into this! If that's how it's going to be, don't blame me! Absolute God Formation, open!"

The moment those words left his mouth, the expressions of everyone nearby shifted drastically.

"Are you out of your damn mind?"

"The Absolute God Formation is a forbidden art! Do you intend to use our lives to trade for Ling Xiao's life?"

A savage, twisted grin spread across Guo Quan's face.

"Shut your traps, all of you! If I cannot have it, no one else will either! If I'm going to die, I'm dragging Ling Xiao and Ouyang Xiaobai down with me to the grave! To have two of the Four Great Young Masters of the martial world accompany me in death—even if I die, I will have no regrets! Hahaha..."

"He's insane! You're completely out of your mind!"

"The Absolute God Formation can only be used once in a lifetime! The moment it's activated, your lifelong cultivation will be reduced to ashes! Not only that, but you're also burning the blood of every single one of us to forge a supreme strike! To kill Ling Xiao, you're willing to sacrifice yourself and the lives of so many of us—we must have been blind to ever form an alliance with you!"

Outcries and curses echoed continuously, but this did nothing to stop Guo Quan.

Ling Xiao's overwhelming strength had filled him with a suffocating pressure, a deep-seated fear, and an intense, blinding rage!

Weren't they all martial arts practitioners? Weren't they all young masters? Why on earth should Ling Xiao be allowed to be this powerful?

Guo Quan refused to accept it, which was why he was resorting to this ultimate technique. Even if it meant sacrificing himself and the lives of countless others, he was determined to kill Ling Xiao.

At that moment, the fleeing crowd around him made a horrifying discovery: their own lifeblood was slowly stripping away and being forced out of their bodies.

Hundreds of thousands of people began to wither and waste away before their very eyes!

"No—!"

People screamed in despair, but the power of the Absolute God Formation was far too overwhelming!

Even as they ran frantically for their lives, they remained trapped within the radius of the formation, unable to escape its pull, while their blood was extracted at an even faster rate!

Even the pools of blood on the ground were being frantically drawn up and gathered together!

Ouyang Xiaobai pulled out a small golden dagger from who knows where! This blade firmly locked down his power, sealing it within a barrier of brilliant golden light.

Even so, Ouyang Xiaobai vaguely felt as though his own energy was desperate to tear itself free from his body.

With a face full of horror, he muttered:

"Is this the power of the Absolute God Hall's Absolute God Formation? I had heard rumors that while the Absolute God Hall's individual combat prowess isn't extraordinary, they possess horrifying, crowd-clearing abilities! Seeing it now, those rumors are entirely true! Aside from my master, the First-Layer Martial Emperor Saber Emperor, I doubt anyone can withstand this move! Ling Xiao... I'm afraid he won't be able to either."

At that moment, Ouyang Xiaobai felt a lingering trace of regret.

He had originally believed he was the strongest of them all! Yet now, whether it was Ling Xiao or Guo Quan, both possessed trump cards far surpassing his own! How terrifying!

These two freaks were practically born of monsters!

As the blood coalesced, a colossal crimson sphere of blood formed above Guo Quan's head, towering even higher than a hundred-story building!

After all, this was condensed from the blood of four hundred thousand people!

The power contained within it was entirely comparable to a strike from a Martial Emperor!

Guo Quan laughed hysterically and hideously as his body was gradually swallowed whole by the blood sphere.

"Ling Xiao, feel true terror! I will show you that making an enemy of me is the single greatest regret of your life!"

With those words, he completely merged into the blood sphere, which then erupted with dazzling crimson radiance, resembling a baleful blood moon suspended in the sky!

The sheer pressure exerted by this bizarre blood sphere struck a primal fear even into the heavens, cowing the rain and forcing it to halt.

Once fused with Guo Quan's consciousness, the massive blood sphere hatched and mutated, transforming into a heaven-shaking crimson phoenix. With a single heavy stomp of its claws, it cleaved the Jiangnan Mountains cleanly in half, splitting the landscape into twin peaks.

Then, it let out a long, piercing cry and plunged straight toward Ling Xiao's face.

The piercing screech pierced the heavens, its shockwaves physically shattering the dark clouds and tearing everything apart.

Directly above Ling Xiao's head, a patch of clear sky was carved out, revealing distant stars and the moon in a bizarre yet breathtaking spectacle.

Ouyang Xiaobai stared with wide, unblinking eyes, terrified of missing a single detail of this battle.

In stark contrast, Ling Xiao stood in the sky without a shred of fear, allowing that devastating power to hurtle straight toward him.

Only when the crimson phoenix was right upon him did Ling Xiao slowly raise his hand.

Ouyang Xiaobai's heart pounded wildly in his chest.

"What is this guy doing? Has he lost his mind? That's the condensed power of four hundred thousand souls; it's utterly impossible to block! Why isn't he running? He's crazy! Truly crazy! The man is a lunatic!"

With a calm and indifferent expression, Ling Xiao flicked his wrist, sending a golden blade of light shooting straight up into the firmament.

The moment that blade appeared, the surrounding dark clouds rapidly converged once more, immediately unleashing torrents of lightning that crazily intertwined and wrapped around the blade in Ling Xiao's hand!

A suffocating, oppressive might suddenly descended upon the world!