The Violet Flame King could no longer sit still, finally standing up and charging out with his violet gold warhammer.
He flew high into the air and shouted, "Arrogant fool, die!"
The warhammer flew at Tang Jie, preceded by a tongue of violet flame.
"Using fire to burn me?" Tang Jie chuckled.
He thought about letting out his avatar to take the flame, but after thinking about it some more, he put aside the idea. This violet flame didn't seem like some high-class flame, so exposing the Mountain River State Diagram for it wasn't worth it. Instead, he might as well temper his fire resistance.
Thus, he let the violet flame blaze across his body, the immense pain causing him to howl. The Violet Flame King laughed, "Let's see how long you live when burned by my Violet Toxin Flame!"
But a moment later, he saw that giant engulfed in flames jump up and laugh, "Refreshing, refreshing!"
He punched at the Violet Flame King.
The Violet Flame King was caught off guard and hastily raised his hammer to block, but even though his cultivation level was on par with or even exceeded Tang Jie in some aspects, his strength was far inferior. His warhammer failed to block the fist, and it slammed into the fiend king's face, caving in his face and sending him flying.
"Awooo!" The Violet Flame King roared as he tumbled through the air and turned back to his original form: a violet-maned lion. It angrily roared at Tang Jie, and violet flames swept toward Tang Jie and sent him tumbling.
The Violet Flame King then assumed human form and shot forward, appearing in front of Tang Jie. His violet golden warhammer let out a blinding light as it smashed into Tang Jie's face, causing blood to flow freely from his nostrils.
The two of them seemed to be evenly matched.
The Violet Flame King laughed. "What do you think of my Worldshaker Hammer?"
"Not bad!" Tang Jie chuckled as he wiped away the blood on his face.
If they actually compared, the Violet Flame King wasn't actually his match in strength, but he had already faced off against those thirty-some fiend generals earlier. Though he seemed to be brimming with fighting intent and only getting stronger as the battle went on, he had been greatly drained. It was just that the Dao of the Martial Lord placed the greatest importance on one's resolve. So long as one could still stand, one would never lie down. Even if one was eventually beaten to death, one's opponent would never be able to tell that their foe had actually been utterly exhausted.
But there was no avoiding the effect on his strength, or else they wouldn't be evenly matched.
Nearby, the fiend generals were dumbfounded.
Their king had been struck by a human!
A mighty upper-grade Transformation great fiend, the Violet Flame Lion King, had his face all black and blue from a human's beating! If this matter got out, countless fiends would be laughing so hard their teeth would fall out.
It had been many years since the fiend race had experienced something like this.
While the fiends reeled in shock, their king turned and shouted in displeasure, "What are all of you just standing around for?"
The fiends woke from their stupor and began to rush at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie snorted and shook his right arm, producing the Desolate Heavens Halberd.
With a swing of the halberd, a powerful wave of energy swept out, engulfing the fiend king and his generals.
The fiends put on a strong front, casting a spell in unison. A sandstorm stirred, filled with poisonous smoke that threatened to drown Tang Jie. Assisted by the fiends, the Violet Flame King was much stronger than before, and even Tang Jie couldn't overpower him anymore. But Tang Jie was fearless, and his halberd shone with a brilliant light as it danced in the black smoke.
This was the Dao of the Martial Lord. So long as one still breathed, one would fight to the very end, no matter how many people one had to fight against!
Even though he was vastly outnumbered, Tang Jie was not afraid, nor would he say that this was unfair. All he would do was fight, fight, fight!
Of course, this didn't mean that he was actually foolish enough to fight until death. To be unyielding was to be bloodthirsty, not stupid, and even the Martial Lord didn't promote brainless battle.
As the dark cloud encroached upon the city and fiend energy overflowed, Tang Jie laughed and threw out a formation diagram.
Countless stars instantly shone in the sky.
The Treasure Cosmos Formation.
But compared to before, the formation was much changed.
The most defining difference was that it was completely full.
Ten thousand treasures had completely packed the formation diagram, and while there were still some low-grade treasures there to fill space, there was no longer that previous lack of numbers. The formation without sufficient numbers had basically been half-complete, meaning that none of the treasures within were able to fully unleash their power. But now, the Treasure Cosmos Formation was the complete product.
This was a qualitative boost in power.
Having added the divine treasures from the Celestial Flame Pagoda to the ones he originally had, he now had ten-some divine treasures within the diagram, and their powers combined were awesome to behold.
The countless stars projected figures of light, and everything could be seen within them: sabers, spears, swords, axes, birds, fish, insects, beasts, pavilions and courtyards, zithers, books, paintings, pearls, jewels, silk brocade, and even pots, pans, ladles, rice, oil, salt! And all the objects of the world also represented almost all the colors of the world, producing a most beautiful and magnificent sight.
But this gorgeous light was brimming with endless lethality.
Each beam of light, each wondrous vista, was brought together by the formation into a most terrifying power to assail the fiends.
This power was on par with the full power of a Violet Palace True Lord, though it was somewhat more dispersed, more suitable for attacking groups rather than individuals—perfect for the situation at hand. As the storm rolled in, the fiends were left stunned. The Violet Flame King was at the very front of this group and was struck by several hundred rays of light.
Even though the Treasure Cosmos Formation was primarily intended for attacking groups, the several hundred rays of light still had him screaming in pain. It wasn't long before he reached his limit and tumbled from the sky, throwing up so much blood that it was clear he could no longer be counted as one of the living.
Tang Jie quickly grabbed that falling lion corpse, smoothly dismantling it and taking its fiend pellet.
The thirty-some fiend generals were soon engulfed in the treasure light. At their peak, they might have been able to hold it off, but they were still fatigued from their battle with Tang Jie. One by one, they fell to the Treasure Cosmos Formation, the bodies of Transformation great fiends raining from the sky. In the end, only a few fiend generals managed to escape.
The fiend soldiers were left dumbfounded.
But they weren't faring much better.
They were facing the endlessly hungry and ever-growing Black Sin, after all.
No matter how fiercely the fiend soldiers fought and how many vines they cut down, more vines would grow out, pulling one fiend soldier after another into the abyss, feeding the beast within. Theoretically, if there were enough fiend soldiers and if Tang Jie could last long enough, he could have just waited until Black Sin had grown enough such that he wouldn't have needed to use the formation diagram. Of course, theory was always difficult to put into practice.
And while the Treasure Cosmos Formation had primarily been attacking the fiend generals, as it was meant for attacking groups, it also took down several hundred fiend soldiers in the process.
The fiend soldiers were stunned by these horrifying events, and the surviving fiend generals ran as hard as they could, not even looking back. This sapped the remaining fiend soldiers' will to fight, and they scattered and fled.
The fiends scattered in all directions, so Tang Jie knew that he couldn't kill them all. Thus, he decided to not even try. In any case, the formation had expended the power of the treasures. He waved a hand at the air, returning the formation to the diagram. It would need some time to rest and recuperate before he could use it again.
Tang Jie shrank back to the size of a normal person and said to Yiyi, "Clean up the corpses. Let's take everything we can and then get out of here."
"Eh? Haven't we already defeated them? Why are we in such a rush to leave?" Yiyi asked.
"It's only one city. News will quickly spread to the other fiend cities, and once the fiends concentrate their forces, we won't be able to stop them. Let's just make do with what we have," Tang Jie replied.
Yiyi was curious. "Isn't the Dao of the Martial Lord about never backing down? So why are we retreating?"
Tang Jie laughed. "Silly, going too far is just as bad as not going far enough. Principles are dead, but people are alive. While the Martial Lord's Dao might be about pressing forward no matter the opposition, what it means is to emerge alive from desperate straits, not throw oneself into dire situations whenever one's bored. We can only make a profit if we catch the enemy by surprise. If the fiends come in force, we'll be the ones facing misfortune. Far better to just take the victories where we can and be content with it."
"Understood."
While they had been talking, the bean soldiers had been cleaning up the city.
The bean soldiers had suffered in the battle in the Treasure Paradise.
But after leaving the Blood River Domain, Tang Jie had planted the seeds in the Mountain River State Diagram, and two years drifting in the infinite void had allowed the bean soldiers to rebuild their numbers. They now numbered 25,000.
The bean soldiers were organized in 100-bean divisions, and with 250 divisions in all, they swept the streets clean, like a monster invading a village. Let alone ordinary fiends, even Transformation fiends didn't dare to face them, either dying or running.
The mighty Hundred Battle City was quickly emptied of both humans and fiends.
Yiyi did some after-battle calculations and found that they had killed four to six thousand fiends in all.
Tang Jie had killed around eight hundred, including the upper-grade Transformation fiend king and 34 fiend generals—8 at the upper grade of Transformation and 26 at the lower grade.
The bean soldiers had killed around 2,600 fiends, both soldiers and ordinary fiends.
Finally, Black Sin had devoured one thousand to three thousand fiends. The lack of bodies made it impossible to give a precise count. However, it was certain that this guy had gotten much stronger.
Finally, he had obtained around 1,100 fiend pellets. Around eight hundred of these were thanks to the bean soldiers, but most of them were spent. Tang Jie had gathered fewer—around three hundred—but most of them were intact. Besides that, there were copious quantities of hide, blood, and bones, and also some spirit stones.
After putting this all away, Tang Jie gazed at this city that he had personally depopulated and sighed. "I really want to put it into the diagram."
An entire city disappearing would definitely draw the attention of a Titan, as something like the Mountain River State Diagram was taboo no matter where one went. While Tang Jie had no compunctions about challenging the fiends who reigned supreme in the Verdant Cloud Domain, he cared a lot about violating taboos.
After taking one last look at the city, Tang Jie departed.
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