Martial Peak C.5999: Clash of the Strongest

Each shadow represented a Yang Kai from subsequent 1,000-year periods in the future. In other words, the eight shadows represented 8,000 years worth of future Space-Time.

These eight shadows combined with Yang Kai’s main body to establish the Nine Palaces Formation. For that reason, the power of the Battle Formation was even greater than the Nine Palaces Formation formed between Zhang Ruo Xi and her eight Personal Guard.

Zhang Ruo Xi, who had harmonized the power of Yin and Yang with her Heavens Order Bloodline, was certainly stronger than any of Yang Kai’s individual shadows. Be that as it may, the strength of the eight Personal Guards had held her back. Taking the overall situation into account, Yang Kai’s Nine Palaces Formation was undoubtedly the strongest Nine Palaces Formations that had appeared on the battlefield. Moreover, the difference in strength was significant!

After establishing the Nine Palaces Formation, Yang Kai’s main body took a step forward and charged towards Mo with the combined strength of the other eight shadows.

The Six Paths Formation was already sufficient for Yang Kai to fight Mo on even terms, so the Seven Stars Formation and Eight Trigrams Formations had left Mo at a complete disadvantage. At this moment, Yang Kai was practically invincible thanks to the Nine Palaces Formation. With the combined forces of the main body and eight shadows, Mo was powerless against their intense assault.

Black Blood and Black Ink Strength splattered everywhere.

The nine Yang Kais moved around swiftly, each one of them having mastered the 10,000 Grand Daos. As they were shadows of Yang Kai himself, there was no need for them to worry about their cooperation. The connection between the shadows was so close and firm that there were no flaws in their movements at all!

Mo naturally wanted to break free, but it was not easy to escape the besiegement of the Battle Formation.

The Ninth-Order Masters watching the battle from afar were stunned. Nobody could have imagined that such a strange scene would appear during the final battle. The mysteries of the Shadow Technique had exceeded their comprehension and imagination.

Looking at the current situation, they couldn’t help feeling hopeful and excited. That was because they finally saw a glimpse of hope in defeating Mo. In the past, the issue of defeating Mo had always been a plague to the Human Race. Although they never deliberately avoided the topic, the reality was that they simply did not have sufficient means or strength to oppose Mo.

Zhang Ruo Xi’s support had certainly been a pleasant surprise; unfortunately, even she was not strong enough to compete with Mo in battle.

The battle on the main battlefield was over, and the entire Black Ink Clan had been obliterated. If Yang Kai could defeat Mo, then the Black Ink crisis that had been plaguing the Human Race since the Late Ancient Era would be resolved in one fell swoop. A bright future was awaiting the Human Race! The light would eventually expunge all darkness!

However, the veteran Ninth-Order Masters soon began to look worried. The current situation might be favourable for them, but nobody knew what price Yang Kai had paid to wield the Shadow Technique like this. Seeing as the Secret Technique far exceeded his own abilities, the price he paid would correspond to the strength he obtained. In other words, the greater the strength Yang Kai obtained, the greater the price he had to pay! Furthermore, they did not know how long he could persevere in such an intense battle.

The truth was just as they feared. Yang Kai had indeed paid an unimaginable price to wield the Shadow Technique in such a fashion. His body was also forced to bear the incredible pressure that came from obtaining strength that exceeded his own abilities. In other words, he could not maintain this state for long! He had to finish this battle as soon as possible, and for that reason, he did not hesitate to join the battle himself just to defeat Mo a little faster!

Mo was steadily being pushed back under the suppression of the Nine Palaces Formation. At this point, he was backed into a corner with no ability to fight back.

The vexing situation infuriated Mo. As the ancient Supreme Being, he was a Master who not only originated from the same era as Mu, but also once held the opportunity to reign over the entire Universe. Even if more than 30% of his Source had been suppressed and sealed, he could still not tolerate a Junior acting so presumptuously in front of him; especially when this particular Junior had stolen Mu’s final legacy from him.

Amid the intense battle, Mo abruptly turned to look in a certain direction and fixed his gaze on one of Yang Kai’s figures. Naturally, it was Yang Kai’s main body.

The main body was easy to identify. Not only was the aura of the main body the weakest among the other shadows, but the appearance of the main body was also the most dishevelled and worse for wear due to the effects of performing the Shadow Technique.

To break the Shadow Technique, it was necessary to either destroy the Space-Time River that acted as the foundation or the main body that acted as the Core. At this moment, the Space-Time River was nowhere to be seen because it had been evenly divided between Yang Kai’s eight shadows. In that case, Mo only had one option left.

Mo turned to face the storm of attacks coming from so many shadows and disregarded the injuries he sustained, even when the strongest shadow chopped off his arm. In the end, the heavy price he paid was worthwhile indeed. He successfully broke out of the encirclement created by the shadows and arrived in front of Yang Kai’s main body.

Black Ink Strength surged. Raising his remaining hand, Mo blasted his fist at Yang Kai. The punch was quite a distance away from Yang Kai; nevertheless, the force of the punch was enough to cause space to shatter, time to stop, and the universe to collapse. The blow containing Mo’s full strength could not be dodged or avoided.

Mo could almost see Yang Kai’s main body being smashed into paste, and a hint of triumph flashed through the fury in his eyes, but unexpectedly, the imagined scene did not appear.

Despite the incoming blow, Yang Kai’s main body did not show the slightest trace of panic; on the contrary, he stepped forward and threw himself in the direction of the blow.

Mo was stunned by the strange turn of events.

Meanwhile, Yang Kai’s main body suddenly unleashed a burst of power that far exceeded his own strength. The force directly penetrated the shackles of Space and caused the stagnant Time to flow again. Then, he punched out at the same time.

[Damn it!] Mo abruptly realised that he had fallen into a trap.

For a long time now, the Core of the Nine Palaces Formation had always been sustained by the strongest shadow. Nevertheless, the fact that Yang Kai’s main body could exert such a powerful burst of strength indicated that the Core of the Nine Palaces Formation could be transferred to the main body.

The method to break the Shadow Technique was to defeat the body which existed in the current Space-Time. That was something both Mo and Yang Kai knew. Seeing as the former was bound to target the main body, how could the latter not take precautions? It could even be said that Yang Kai had been waiting for this very moment.

A violent force swept out, pushing Mo’s figure backwards. In the meantime, the eight shadows attacked from all directions. Dao Strengths fluctuated wildly, and the barrage of attacks left Mo staggering from the impact.

If that were all, Mo’s situation would have been bad enough; however, each of the eight shadows actually exerted strength that far exceeded their limits with every blow that they unleashed. The position as Core of the Formation was constantly being transferred around! To be precise, the position as Core was instantly transferred to whichever shadow was attacking Mo at the time.

Such a feat would have been impossible to achieve if it was any other configuration for the makeup of the Battle Formation, but Yang Kai could freely transfer the position as Core between his main body and his shadows without any obstruction.

This was the same strategy that Zhang Ruo Xi had carried out previously. She and her eight Personal Guard had both been the Cores and not the Cores at the same time. Such a perfect Nine Palaces Formation could be said to have no flaws whatsoever. More importantly, there was no need to fear the weak links being targeted; in fact, there was only one method to destroy this Battle Formation, which was to totally annihilate it by brute force!

The biggest reason why Zhang Ruo Xi had been defeated by Mo was that her Personal Guard could not withstand the intensity and ferocity of the battle. Transferring the Core position to her Personal Guard was a huge burden on their bodies. Each time they became the Core, they would also suffer heavy damage from the pressure; hence, there was a risk of their bodies collapsing after numerous transfers.

The same was also true for Yang Kai! In fact, the burden was greatest on his main body! The main body had already been greatly weakened after performing the Shadow Technique. With the addition of the pressure from being the Core of the Formation, he couldn’t help vigorously coughing up blood, his complexion turning as pale as a sheet.

Be that as it may, he did not hesitate in the slightest. Taking full advantage of the opening created by the eight shadows who were besieging Mo, Yang Kai stepped forward and approached Mo’s arm that had been severed earlier. Although the arm was bleeding profusely, it was not a fully physical body part.

“Open!” Yang Kai raised his arm and pointed at the arm. His Divine Sense surged turbulently. A moment later, a huge set of doors suddenly appeared in front of him. The door opened slightly to reveal a small gap, and then an indescribable pulling force seeped out from within and devoured the entire severed arm.

This arm contained part of Mo’s Source! Previously, some 30% of Mo’s Source had been suppressed and sealed by Yang Kai with the help of the Profound Source Gate.

If Yang Kai could not suppress and seal this piece of Mo’s Source quickly, the opportunity to retrieve his severed arm and reabsorb the piece of his Source he had lost would remain. Once Mo did so, he would return to full strength again.

Now that this piece of his Source had been sealed, Mo’s aura dropped significantly. Although Black Ink Strength surged at the spot where his arm had been severed and formed a new limb in the blink of an eye, the power that had been suppressed and sealed could no longer return.

With the success of this attack, Yang Kai’s confidence increased tremendously! This was the first crucial step towards victory. It was also the hardest and most dangerous step in the entire process! This step had paved the way for the rest of the path, making what came next easier.

Retrieving the Profound Source Gate, Yang Kai turned around and charged towards Mo. The furious battle resumed once more!

The secret that the position as Core of the Nine Palaces Formation could be freely transferred between the shadows had already been exposed; therefore, Yang Kai had no reason to hide his movements anymore. Dao Strengths fluctuated violently around him, and his offensive grew increasingly vicious.

Mo was already no match for Yang Kai when the Nine Palaces Formation was formed, so now that he had lost a part of his Source, his situation worsened even more.

After a brief but intense battle, one of Yang Kai’s shadows found an opening and chopped off one of Mo’s arms again.

Mo immediately attempted to retrieve his severed arm, but Yang Kai was already prepared for such an opportunity in advance. In the end, Mo was incapable of extricating himself from the battle due to the constant assault by the various shadows.

Yang Kai’s main body swiftly approached the severed arm, and for the second time, he summoned the Profound Source Gate and devoured the Source piece!

After completing his task, Yang Kai coughed up another mouthful of blood. He raised his head and glanced at the battlefield. Perceiving the condition of his shadows, he knew that he could not persist for much longer.

His main body was not the only one who was severely wounded by now, the rest of the shadows were also in a similar condition. However, only a small portion of these wounds were caused by Mo. Most of them had come from carrying the burden of being the Nine Palaces Formation Core.

Yang Kai’s immense strength and heritage had allowed him to bear an unimaginable amount of pressure from being the Core. That was only possible because it was him. If it were any other Ninth-Order Master instead, they would not have been able to withstand the pressure after being a Core three times in such a situation, regardless of their strength.

“I have to end this as quickly as possible!” Yang Kai muttered under his breath; then, he stepped forward and joined the battlefield.

In the next moment, his strongest shadow took on the boundless pressure from being the Core and unleashed a continuous storm of attacks without care whether his body could withstand the burden or not!

Mo clearly faltered under the violent bombardment of the strongest shadow.

While Mo was busy stewing in rage, the strongest shadow threw himself forward and disregarded Mo’s counterattack to restrain Mo firmly. At such a close distance, he grinned at Mo and revealed a sinister row of fangs!

Mo immediately understood Yang Kai’s intentions. Roaring furiously, he desperately struggled to escape; however, the attacks that came blasting from all directions rained down on Mo and the shadow the next moment!

Even the strongest shadow could not withstand this barrage of attacks; thus, he exploded and disintegrated completely! Likewise, Mo’s body was battered from the attack. The left part of his body was gone, revealing the internal organs within his abdomen cavity.

Mo staggered backwards weakly, a strange light flashing through his eyes for a moment. Before he could do anything though, another shadow charged towards him.