Chapter 546: Wang Lin VS Shi Tianyi!
Shi Tianyi stood on the Road to River Styx created by Wang Lin’s mana, calm as ever, having stabilized his own soul to prevent it from being corroded by the power of the Samsara. His pair of Polycoria eyes glistened. Although onlookers were unable to differentiate one eye from the other, Wang Lin, staring directly at him, clearly noticed that only a pair of his pupils was gleaming with boundless radiance. It did not give off actual light, instead reflecting Shi Tianyi’s increasingly energetic soul.
He was born with Polycoria, which blessed him with a soul that was inherently far stronger than ordinary people. And after internalizing the "Exploration of the Great Void Thinking" manual, his soul was now more intrepid than ever. Although he was only in the Beginner Nascent Soul stage, even Grandmasters in the Advanced Nascent Soul stage cannot compete with him when comparing the tenacity of their souls alone. The degree of his soul’s tenacity surpassed that of all other cultivators with the same mastery level by a mile.
Amidst the radiant lustre of Shi Tianyi’s Polycoria eyes, Wang Lin could vaguely make out the figure of a person donning a coronet and loose robes, exuding grace and dignity, looking straight at him. The figure carried himself with a particularly regal and imposing manner like he was the guardian of truth, the ruler of the world, and the maker of all laws. It was as if he alone represented all of the heavens and lands!
Even the onlookers spectating from the side-lines were experiencing dizzy spells and blurred vision, feeling as though the thoughts in their mind were gradually bogging down to a halt.
"This is a spell of the soul. Is Shi Tianyi’s soul really so overpowering that it can even suppress the flow of thoughts in our minds?" The crowd was aghast. They were merely spectators and not Shi Tianyi’s main target, yet they were already enduring such immense pressure. One could only imagine how torturous the pressure pounding on Wang Lin would be.
All the cultivators present finally understood the reason Shi Tianyi was so exceptionally strong. He has been hiding the true extent of his strength all this while during his previous battles but could still overcome his opponents with relative ease. If he had employed his Soul Suppression Spell then, there would be no suspense at all in determining the outcome of any of his matches.
Shi Tianyi relied on the strength of his unyielding soul and visualized the image of the Great Void Sect’s Grandmaster who created the secret manuals of soul spells, smothering the souls of his opponents with incredible might. Such a formidable move could even damage the souls of Advanced Nascent Soul cultivators.
However, Wang Lin just looked back at Shi Tianyi calmly with nonchalance written all over his face. Only his eyes gleamed faintly in a dim shade of pale yellow. Upon noticing the yellow glow, the domineering man in Shi Tianyi’s Polycoria eyes instantly trembled a little.
"I heard that you possess the River Styx Primordial Water. How could you dare to use it to refine your soul?" Shi Tianyi’s face finally expressed a hint of shock.
The River Styx Primordial Water is one of the Six Great Primordial Waters, passed down since ancient times and sourced from the Unholy River Styx of the Netherworld. The River Styx is also known as the ’River of Forgetfulness’, hence the River Styx Primordial Water gained the informal label of being the ’Water for Forgetting’. It has the ability to purify everything under the heavens and return the target to its original, most primitive state. Once a person’s soul is stained by a tiny amount of this Primordial Water, he would lose all of his memories.
Even though Shi Tianyi boasted a naturally tenacious soul due to his Polycoria, he did not dare to refine his soul by cleansing it with the River Styx Primordial Water. The underlying risk was simply too great, even more dangerous than walking a tightrope.
However, Wang Lin first comprehended the River Styx Nirvana Mantra before subsequently integrating the concepts of the River Styx Primordial Water with the Great Celestial Way of the Eight Trigrams. Hence, he actually employed the River Styx Primordial Water for cultivation to strengthen his own soul. After experiencing a series of fortuitous encounters in the Void Battleground, his soul has hardened even more. With the aid of the River Styx Primordial Water, the strength of his soul was now in no way inferior to Shi Tianyi’s despite only reaching the Advanced Aurous Core stage.
Shi Tianyi intended to utilize the ’Exploration of the Great Void Thinking’ to restrain Wang Lin’s soul, but was now met with a huge wall. Wang Lin was one of the handful of cultivators below the Immortal Soul stage who could realistically compare against him in terms of the strength of his soul. Shi Tianyi’s natural advantage gifted by his Polycoria was unfortunately useless against Wang Lin.
At the end of the Antiquity Age when the rule of the Emperors of Man reached its final days, heralding the dawn of the Middle Ages, the Divine Lands plunged into a war between the Just and Satanic Ways.
Tens of thousands of years ago, when a full-on war broke out between the two opposing sides, there were almighty warriors from the Great Void Sect who relied on this same spell to massacre countless cultivators of the Satanic Way, revolutionizing the power dynamics of the human race in one fell swoop. Following the final decisive victory of the cultivators of the Just Way, their Way flourished while the cultivators in the Satanic Way became rats scurrying on the streets. They may have reputable talent appearing from time to time but none manage to make any notable impact. This marked the end of the Middle Ages and the official start of the Modern Age, setting in place the basic hierarchy of power among the human races of the Divine Lands today.
The Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar is a legendary spell that astounded and shook an entire era.
The Nascent Soul Grandmaster shook his head, "I never would have expected that such a revolutionary spell told only in legends would actually be summoned in the hands of a Beginner Immortal Soul cultivator not even seventeen years of age."
He gazed at Wang Lin and exclaimed with certainty, "Wang Lin is bound to lose. During the Middle Ages, the River Styx Sect, the super-sect of the Satanic Way that exploited the arcane qualities of the River Styx Primordial Water to the extreme, perished miserably from the Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar conjured by the then powerhouses of the Great Void Sect! And now, history shall repeat itself again."
The pillar of light advanced forward, cleaving the heavens into two. Even the River Styx Primordial Water could not withstand such a tremendous force capable of suppressing and demolishing everything in its path. Even though a portion of Shi Tianyi’s mana has been dissolved by the Primordial Water, the Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar was so overwhelmingly strong that it simply ripped the River Styx into two!
The heavenly white light fired towards Wang Lin with a deafening blast as the blinding luminance scorched the crowd until their faces turned pale. All the Grandmasters in the Advanced Nascent Soul stage were thoroughly dumbfounded. This pillar of light right before their eyes could easily decimate their Cosmic Forms, unstoppable like divine justice from the gods.
Wang Lin stared at the incoming Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar without a hint of concern. His eyes finally glimmered a little, becoming colder than ever. He clasped his palms together, causing the Netherworld-like dark space he was occupying to tremor violently before rapidly caving in and shrinking towards a point at its centre.
The hellish view of the River Styx disappeared entirely but the terrifying aura of destruction grew denser and stronger, causing the hearts of those in the vicinity to palpitate wildly. It felt as if a star was on the brink of death, when all its matter would compact towards its nucleus before imploding. All the dark energy shrouding Wang Lin vanished, having condensed into a tiny black ball above his head.
Bang!
The Absolute Destructive Stage of the River Styx, Ultimate Destruction!
Following a thunderous explosion, the tiny black ball morphed into a black thunderbolt which instantly ripped through the space and struck the Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar before anyone could react. Wang Lin pushed the power of the Destructive Stage of the River Styx to its absolute limit by concentrating all its energy into a single point before releasing everything at once, transforming every drop of his mana into terrifying destructive powers.
Even the Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar cannot withstand such an intense attack. The black thunderbolt instantly penetrated and pierced through the divine pillar of heavenly light.
Shi Tianyi’s Polycoria eyes flooded with light as countless illuminated talisman images appeared amidst the blinding effulgence.
He activated all his mana and summoned a series of rapidly evolving spells, conjuring beams after beams of raging mana to repair the crumbling Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar. After being struck by the black thunderbolt, the pillar’s energy foundation has been severely damaged, like a skyscraper on the verge of collapsing.
However, as violent and overpowering as Wang Lin’s Ultimate Destruction spell was, it lasted for a mere instant. After it impaled the pillar, the spell dissipated into thin air. Shi Tianyi quickly stabilized the pillar of light with the glow from his Polycoria eyes and patched up the damages, successfully holding the Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar together and restoring its resplendent glow to its former brilliance.
The crowd gasped in admiration at the extraordinary strength of Shi Tianyi’s mana and Abhijina, yet could not help but feel a little sorry for Wang Lin. His Ultimate Destruction technique was truly breathtaking, even the Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar could not resist it unscathed, but he unfortunately burnt up all his mana for this single spell. While Shi Tianyi still possessed sufficient energy to continue the battle, Wang Lin did not. It was such a waste - just a little more, a tiny bit more, and Wang Lin would have crushed the elite legendary Abhijina technique of the Great Void Sect that have awed countless generations.
Then, just as the crowd was expressing sympathy for him, a deafening crack reverberated through the air. Another black thunderbolt had struck the Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar!
"Impossible!"
The crowd was flabbergasted, and even Shi Tianyi was completely taken aback. He fixed his gaze intently at the source of the attack and was greeted only by Wang Lin’s cold, expressionless face.
Just as Wang Lin’s mana was almost sucked dry, his body was suddenly cloaked in rays of flickering white light. In the time that he took for a single breath, his mana had been miraculously replenished back to the brim. In the following instant, the white light enveloping him had vanished and the black clouds reappeared, condensing into another tiny black ball. Then, a third thunderbolt struck the Supreme Evil-Suppressing Pillar with unmatchable fury!