"Hmph! Dissolution of the body? What a lovely dream. Aren't you afraid I'll refine your Nascent Soul, leaving you no chance even for reincarnation?" Barbarian Beard stared fixedly at Wan Tianming's Nascent Soul, his voice frigid.
"If you truly possess such power, then I deserve to die at your hands — what objection could I have? But I suggest you first figure out how to withstand my True Thunder!" The infant muttered this with a slur, then without hesitation hurled one of the two thunder beads from his palm.
The moment the object left the infant's hand, it detonated, expanding into a purple sphere of light the size of a cart wheel. It rolled toward Barbarian Beard with menacing force.
Barbarian Beard's brows shot upward, a fierce gleam crossing his face. His golden hand swept out, and he hammered his own chest twice with brutal force. In response, celestial tones chimed above his head, golden light blazed in all directions, and a Nascent Soul with faintly golden skin materialized.
This Nascent Soul looked exactly like Barbarian Beard, stood two and a half inches tall, and appeared slightly larger and sturdier than Wan Tianming's. But its eyes were shut tight, and both hands clutched a small green shield without letting go.
The shield was round, exquisitely crafted, and at its center sat a transparent crystal no larger than a soybean, radiating brilliant light.
Though the Nascent Soul had not opened its eyes, it seemed to sense the purple sphere of light bearing down on it. It raised the small shield, and a pale cyan barrier of light shot forth, enveloping Barbarian Beard's entire body.
The purple fire crashed against it without mercy.
On the other side, Tianwu Zi and Ji Yin, along with the others, watched both combatants send their Nascent Souls out of their bodies and felt a chill run through them. They knew these two were truly fighting to the death.
A thunderous explosion split the sky. The entire space above the barrier turned a purplish red, and a mass of lightning clouds over ten zhang in diameter materialized without warning, swallowing Barbarian Beard within. The barrier sealed him in, watertight against wind and rain.
Purple lightning arced and slashed wildly through the clouds — roaring, howling, blinding flashes interweaving in an instant, like divine punishment descending, as terrifying as the Thunder God himself arriving in the mortal world.
The others caught a glimpse of this and were shocked to their cores!
They had long heard of the might of the Heavenly Net True Thunder, but witnessing its release firsthand was something else entirely. It was every bit as fearsome as its fearsome reputation suggested.
Yet even as their hearts trembled at the True Thunder's power, their hands only grew crueler in their attacks, pressing their opponents harder by two or three measures.
Wan Tianming's Nascent Soul paid no attention to Barbarian Beard, trapped within the storm clouds. Instead, it waved its small free hand, and a tiny purple sword suddenly appeared in its grasp.
A flash of purple light — and both the Nascent Soul and the sword vanished without a trace.
When they reappeared a heartbeat later, they were only four or five zhang from the five-colored light sphere below.
"Nascent Soul Sword-Teleportation!"
The four who had been locked in fierce combat all changed expressions at once. This was no visual trick born of extreme speed — it was the genuine article, a direct spatial jump. It was one of the special abilities a cultivator's Nascent Soul gained once freed from the constraints of the physical body.
But this wondrous escape art came at a devastating cost to one's vital essence. Although every Nascent Soul-stage cultivator knew the formula, none would employ it lightly.
Now that Wan Tianming had used it so unexpectedly, how could the others not feel a jolt of alarm?
Ji Yin and the old man in Confucian robes simultaneously abandoned their opponents, wheeling around and dashing toward the Heaven Mending Pill.
Their adversaries — Tianwu Zi and the thin, dark-skinned elder — exchanged a glance. For reasons unknown, they merely feinted with a few minor spells instead of going all-out to block the two fleeing figures.
Thus Ji Yin and the Scholar broke free of the entanglement and shot downward like arrows.
Wan Tianming's Nascent Soul did not look back, but it had already detected what was happening behind it. A cold smile — entirely at odds with its infant face — flickered across its features. At this distance, the Heaven Mending Pill would be his in the next instant. Who could possibly stop him now?
Sure enough, after another flash, the Nascent Soul materialized right beside the five-colored light sphere. A giant purple hand materialized and snatched the sphere from the air.
The five-colored radiance vanished as the massive fingers squeezed shut, leaving only a glistening, five-hued pill resting in its palm.
Wan Tianming's heart surged with elation. But Ancestor Ji Yin and the robed old man, arriving right behind, certainly would not give up so easily. Ancestor Ji Yin's eyes blazed with fury as he growled: "Wan Tianming — leave the Heaven Mending Pill!"
A vast curtain of Black Yin Demonic Energy swept down from above. Countless threads of cyan light followed, dense beyond measure, a swarm of them slicing through the air.
"You think you can trap me?" The infant let out a high, thin laugh. A flash of purple light, and it teleported out of the range of both the cyan beams and the black mist.