Chapter Eighty-Five: Father...

The sky, only an instant before still shrouded in smoke and cloud, was now beginning to blaze. The power of the Annihilation Bomb erupted in full over the heavens above Northward-Defying City.

Xiao Deyi and the other six martial emperors of the highest rank, together with the remaining defenders in the city and the Ninth Rank powerhouses who had rushed back, all ascended into the air at once, their dantian seas surging as they spread their strength over the entire city.

As the city’s commander, Xiao Deyi stood in the very front line against the force of the detonation.

What the combined might of three Annihilation Bombs could amount to was beyond reckoning. Fortunately, they had exploded high in the sky, their power scattering in all directions rather than striking Northward-Defying City directly.

The seven highest-rank powerhouses roared with ferocious faces, unleashing every ounce of their strength.

Seventeen Ninth Rank powerhouses followed close behind, erupting with all the force they could muster amid the crimson glare filling the heavens.

Around the city, the Eighth Rank Paragons, Seventh Rank Grandmasters, and Sixth Rank Masters all protected every comrade beside them and every inch of land.

Yang Fan was now entirely wrapped in an orange glow. The pressure was overwhelming. Even with many experts shielding him and the guardians of humanity contesting the sky above, some of the scattered force from the Annihilation Bombs still broke through layer after layer of obstruction and reached him.

Beside him, Li Xianyi suddenly rose with his sword and slashed at the firmament. A sword radiance burst forth across the sky, but before it had flown far, it seemed to strike something and collapsed with a thunderous scatter.

Sweat covered Li Xianyi’s forehead, and even his legs had begun to tremble.

Yang Fan had no time to worry about anyone else. The pressure on him was no less than on the rest.

The stray force was not enough to erase them, but the descending aura pressed tightly around him, sealing the space about him and wrapping around his body, from time to time crashing into his still-weak frame.

The feeling was truly enough to drive a man mad. Yang Fan laboriously raised his head and saw twenty-four figures drifting in the sky, each of them at that moment looking as though they could hold up heaven and earth.

All of this had happened in only a few seconds. Just as Yang Fan looked up and a thought was just beginning to form in his mind, one of the Ninth Rank powerhouses coughed blood and plummeted downward.

As that powerhouse was about to touch the ground, an Eighth Rank Paragon not far away came rushing over, his flesh splitting open in bloody cracks!

The instant the Eighth Rank Paragon caught the Ninth Rank powerhouse, his body gave a slight jolt, then shattered with a boom.

Without warning, an Eighth Rank Paragon had been smashed apart by the impact of a Ninth Rank powerhouse falling from the sky.

The Ninth Rank powerhouse crashed heavily to the ground, tears in his eyes, his powerless hands flailing helplessly in the air as if trying to seize something.

After he landed, Huang Yuetian, who was not far away, seemed to sense something. His expression changed abruptly, and then he drew a bow from the void and loosed an arrow.

Far behind Northward-Defying City, Li Tian had just shaken off that red arrow. His spiritual force had only just spread forward as he rose into the air.

The moment Li Tian’s spiritual force enveloped Northward-Defying City, he was instantly enraged and let out a furious roar: "You dare..."

Then he vanished from the void. In an instant, the previously calm sky behind Northward-Defying City was split by a rainbow-like streak that stretched for who knew how many li.

Yang Fan, still on the city wall of Northward-Defying City desperately resisting the aftershock of the Annihilation Bombs, heard only the words "You dare..."

Then he saw Xiao Deyi falling from the sky, an arrow driven through his head.

The arrow of golden aura pierced his brow. Xiao Deyi’s eyes dimmed little by little, filled with boundless unwillingness and reluctance.

On another section of the wall beside Yang Fan, a youth in military uniform raised his face and roared toward the sky: "Father..."

Xiao Deyi had been ambushed by Huang Yuetian with the strength of an Eleventh Rank strike. Needless to say, there was absolutely no hope of survival.

The instant Xiao Deyi withdrew his power, the unfinished aftershock of the Annihilation Bombs in the sky began to break through layer upon layer of defense.

The remaining twenty-two powerhouses in the sky all began to cough blood and tremble, yet they still held on.

Some had already begun burning their lives, their whole bodies wrapped in aura as blazing flames of vitality poured from them.

Some were already on the verge of mental collapse, their minds wavering in fitful dazes, forcing them to keep biting the tips of their tongues.

Huang Yuetian stood proudly in the void. The long bow in his hand drew open once more, and four aura arrows instantly formed upon the string.

The moment these four arrows tore through the air, endless blade-light began to flash behind Northward-Defying City.

Huang Yuetian’s expression changed at once. He put away the long bow, turned, and led Yu Tian and Cuili toward the dark curtain of the city’s defense, surging toward it.

Li Tian’s face was filled with fury. His long hair, which had originally been white and then black, now began to glow red.

With a wave of his hand, he annihilated the four aura arrows. Then he raised the long saber in both hands above his head and brought it down in a single stroke.

A vast blade radiance appeared in the void, then carried unimaginable force as it slashed toward the three Eleventh Rank powerhouses on the other side who were about to enter the dark curtain!

Huang Yuetian, whose combat strength was still relatively intact, shoved the two in his hands forward, pushing them into the fortress city within the dark curtain, then turned around. The long bow in his hand vanished, replaced by a delicate little dagger.

The dagger was entirely deep green. As it traced through the void, the space before Huang Yuetian immediately began to shatter.

By the time Li Tian’s blade radiance reached him, the space in front of Huang Yuetian had already gone black. The dagger had completely split the void before him, and spatial rifts kept appearing throughout the region.

Li Tian’s blade radiance instantly plunged into one of those rifts.

Standing behind him, Huang Yuetian watched the blade radiance vanish into the crack and let out a long breath.

Just as he was about to retreat, something felt wrong. A place in the void to his side seemed to ripple... no, the ripple was growing stronger and stronger.

Before Huang Yuetian could act, the void beside him suddenly split open, and from within flew a blade radiance no more than a meter long.

With absolutely no defense, it cut straight for Huang Yuetian’s head.

In an instant, Huang Yuetian’s brow began to shatter like glass, cracks spreading without end. His face was filled with terror.

With his broken body, he plunged into the dark curtain.

At this moment, Li Tian stood above Northward-Defying City, his long saber sweeping and dancing across the sky, annihilating every last trace of the Annihilation Bomb’s aftershock.

When the turbulence in the sky finally vanished, Yang Fan and the others instantly felt freedom return to them. The overwhelming force had disappeared.

Almost at once, everyone around them collapsed to the ground, Yang Fan included.

The great crisis had passed. Only now did Yang Fan realize how terrifying cultivation at the highest level truly was. The aftershock he had endured from the Annihilation Bomb’s eruption might not even have been one ten-millionth of the total, and even that had nearly cost him his life. Yet looking at that cheap master of his, Li Tian, an Eleventh Rank powerhouse, one casual wave of the hand had neutralized an Annihilation Bomb that had gathered who knew how much energy.

Just then, on a section of wall not far away, the youth who had just been roaring toward the sky ran toward the center of the city.

As he ran, he kept murmuring:

"Father..."