Chapter 169: The Dissipation of Baxuan Hua
The self-detonation of a pinnacle ninth-rank powerhouse is a terrifying thing.
Bashan Wujiang was only a single step away from reaching the realm of his dreams, but that final step was never taken before his death!
Bashan Wujiang’s secret chamber was located in the southern part of the city, and now, the south of the city had been reduced to ruins! Originally, Bashan Hua’s attack in the sky had not reached this far, but now it was as utterly devastated as everywhere else!
Bashan Mo emerged from the ruins, clutching his shoulder!
Bashan Wujiang’s self-detonation had ultimately inflicted injuries upon him!
The smile was gone from Bashan Mo’s face, and his aged countenance seemed to suit his gloomy expression even better than before!
Stepping out, one pace at a time, from the deep crater blasted open by Bashan Wujiang, Bashan Mo muttered to himself, "Ants... Heh, to think I would be injured by an ant. It seems I have grown slack over the years!"
Scarcely had the words left his lips when Bashan Mo instantly raised his intact right arm and threw a punch straight toward the firmament!
In the sky, Bashan Hua had arrived unobserved, bringing down a fierce palm strike whose mighty aura tore the air apart!
Bashan Mo shattered this attack with a blow, sneered at Bashan Hua in the sky, and soared straight up into the heavens!
By now, Bashan Mo no longer wished to waste breath. There was no need to keep up any pretexts with people who knew him to the bone. Since they dared to rebel against him, they might as well go die.
Bashan Mo had cast aside the mindset of a cat toying with a mouse!
Bashan Wujiang’s self-detonation had changed Bashan Mo’s mind! He would slaughter these ants with the utmost speed and then reinstitute order over the currently chaotic Bashan Clan!
Seeing Bashan Mo charge toward him, Bashan Hua crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Bashan Mo slammed a fist into Bashan Hua’s crossed arms!
Bashan Hua was sent flying by the immense force of the impact!
Bashan Mo pressed the attack in hot pursuit!
...
High in the sky, Bashan Hua was reduced almost entirely to passive defense, coughing up blood continuously under Bashan Mo’s fierce onslaught. Every single clash sent him hurtling backward!
"Bashan Mo, if you want to kill me, then do it quickly..." Bashan Hua roared into the air after being knocked flying once more!
Bashan Mo sneered. Without a word, he continued his assault on Bashan Hua!
As he rained blows upon Bashan Hua, Bashan Mo cursed inwardly.
If he could kill him, he would have dispatched this bastard long ago! He was thoroughly sick of these ungrateful wretches who knew neither the height of the heavens nor the depth of the earth!
Yet as his years accumulated and his vitality continually drained away, he no longer possessed the offensive might he had wielded back then when he drove Bashan Hua deep into the earth. Though he remained formidable, his aging physique severely limited the peak strength of his former attacks!
...
By now, Bashan Hua’s consciousness was growing hazy. The medicinal efficacy of the Carefree Flower was growing ever stronger while Bashan Mo continued his relentless attacks, subjecting him to torture of both flesh and spirit!
Despair had settled over Bashan Hua; it would not be long before he suffered utter defeat.
The potency of the Carefree Flower was simply too great!
Even if Bashan Mo were to halt his assault right now, he would not be able to hold on much longer!
Just as Bashan Hua’s consciousness was being continuously eroded, scene after scene from the past flashed through his mind.
Scene after scene.
There was the memory of Bashan Mo standing before him to protect him when they were young; there was the memory of Bashan Mo patting the top of his head and praising him as a genius after he achieved a breakthrough!
There was the time they wept bitterly together when their parents passed away; there was the time he met her while traveling abroad!
There was that rainy night when he held her and wept uncontrollably!
There was the scene a hundred years ago when Bashan Mo ruthlessly struck him down into the depths of the earth!
Scene after scene of the past flashed through Bashan Hua’s muddled mind, and his emotions shifted with every memory!
The very instant he witnessed the death of his beloved, Bashan Hua completely lost control!
The aura of a tenth-rank powerhouse surged violently!
A brilliant flash of light instantly pierced his previously clouded eyes.
The moment Bashan Mo launched yet another attack, Bashan Hua completely abandoned all defense. Concentrating his formidable aura within his dantian and sea of Qi, he allowed Bashan Mo’s arm to pierce straight through his body!
In a single instant, high above the southern sector of the Bashan Clan city, an incomparably magnificent firework blossomed!
Within the fireworks, there seemed to be the sound of loud laughter... yet also angry roars, and if one listened closely, weeping could be heard as well!
And with the blossoming of this breathtakingly beautiful firework, Bashan Hua, the peerless prodigy of a generation within the Bashan Clan, perished utterly!
In the exact same place, on the very same day, with barely any time between them, Bashan Mo had endured the self-detonations of two powerhouses!
This city had lived through the self-detonations of two mighty figures!
Bashan Hua, the Tenth-Rank Martial Emperor, was no more!
...
At the same time, two heaven-piercing auras erupted from within the city of the Bashan Clan!
Tremendous ripples of tenth-rank power enveloped the entire clan!
Bashan Gui and Bashan Hong leaped forth from the underground. Stationed in two different directions of the city, they locked their gazes simultaneously upon the south of the city!
There lingered traces of Bashan Hua’s aura that had not yet dissipated, along with the lingering shockwaves of the recent self-detonation!
...
Bashan Mo was in no mood to bother with anything else at the moment! Half of his body was a bloody mess, and his right arm had vanished entirely!
Hovering midway in the air, Bashan Mo made a difficult descent!
He had never expected his younger brother to choose self-detonation. More accurately, he had never expected his brother to embrace death with such composure!
In Bashan Mo’s mindset, death was a terrifying thing. Therefore, ever since he first stepped onto the path of cultivation, he had constantly worn a mask, doing whatever it took to survive when he was weak!
After all these years, even having attained a lofty position and strength that reached the pinnacle of this world, some habits remained impossible to shed—such as smiling...
As for Bashan Hua, Bashan Mo understood him well. Though his younger brother possessed fine natural talent, growing up perpetually under his protection had left him somewhat cowardly in character! And utterly in awe of him!
These were Bashan Hua’s weaknesses, and Bashan Mo had always been well aware of them.
Such a cowardly individual, someone who didn't dare to end his own life even after being sealed away by him for a century, had actually chosen to perish together with him the very moment he broke free! And he had come perilously close to succeeding!
The mere thought filled Bashan Mo with lingering fear!
Had he not sensed the crisis at the very last moment and condensed his aura to protect himself, that final self-detonation would have been enough to inflict true, grievous injuries upon him, or perhaps even dragged him down to the grave as well!
After all, weak as Bashan Hua might be, he was still a genuine tenth-rank powerhouse!
Tenth-rank powerhouses varied in strength, but that was judged based on the circulation of their aura and the mastery of their battle techniques!
There was no difference in the sheer quantity and quality of their auras!
A self-detonation was a weakling's ultimate means of striking back against the strong!
Cross-legged on the ground, Bashan Mo with great difficulty retrieved a porcelain bottle, shook out a medicinal pill, and forced it into his mouth!
He needed to tend to his injuries.
Everything that happened today had exceeded Bashan Mo’s expectations!
When had things begun to slip beyond his control?
It seemed to have started when he confronted Bashan Wujiang! Bashan Wujiang’s self-detonation had wrenched everything out of the palm of his hand!
Bashan Wujiang blowing himself up the moment he was tracked down was only the beginning, and Bashan Hua’s self-detonation had completely shattered all of his plans! The pieces on his chessboard had been overturned and scattered upon the earth!