The Skull-Diving Duel

“How has he become so strong? My Fiendgod body can’t block him at all?” The Dragon Whale great demon felt the ant-like human youth easily burrowing into its skull, and panic set in. “Force him out!”

Ji Ning had already drilled a hundred zhang deep into the Dragon Whale’s skull. Suddenly, surging streams of water-green light converged from all directions, slamming into him.

“Divine power!” Ji Ning understood instantly. This was the Dragon Whale’s divine power.

Divine power permeated every inch of a Fiendgod body.

At this moment, with a single thought from the Dragon Whale great demon, the vast quantities of divine power around its skull surged like a flood to crash against Ji Ning. The impact was ferocious. The endless tide of divine power actually made Ji Ning pause for a moment.

“How can it have so much divine power?” Ji Ning suddenly realized that his chances of killing this Dragon Whale great demon were slim. The colossal body contained divine power hundreds or thousands of times greater than his own. To slay such a behemoth, one had to be overwhelmingly superior in strength; otherwise, at best he could only wound it.

“Break!”

Ji Ning activated the Starseizing Hand, charging forward with incomparable ferocity. He split apart the divine power that blocked him like a flood, charging straight toward the vital point within the Dragon Whale’s skull.

RUMBLE…

Wherever Ji Ning passed, his twin sword-lights danced freely, wantonly destroying the interior of the Dragon Whale’s skull.

The head was the core of the body.

If the vital parts of the skull were damaged, an ordinary Xiantian Fiendgod would die instantly. For one who had reached the Blood-Drop Rebirth stage, death was not immediate, but the loss of control over the body would be severe, leaving only instinctual attempts to reform the divine body. At the Wanxiang level, a Fiendgod could easily alter its appearance and form through its control of the body. However, if the skull’s vital point was damaged, even if total loss of control didn’t occur, control would be weakened to an extreme, allowing only the simplest of measures. At the Primal level, a Fiendgod could even split off parts of its flesh and blood to create avatars.

For a Fiendgod Body Refiner at the Zifu stage, the ability was Blood-Drop Rebirth.

At the Wanxiang stage, it was the ability to alter appearance and form.

At the Primal stage, it was the creation of avatars.

…

Plucking a single strand of hair to form an avatar was a simple matter for powerful Fiendgods.

For a Primal-level Fiendgod, the head held no special meaning for the divine body. But at the Wanxiang stage, the head was still important. At this level, the soul was still mainly located within the ‘Sea of Consciousness.’ Once the skull was damaged, the soul’s control over the body naturally dropped dramatically.

“BOOM!” With Ji Ning’s sword-light piercing the skull’s vital point, the entire Dragon Whale great demon’s body trembled in midair, then began to fall.

As it fell, the Dragon Whale’s body continued to twist and struggle.

Below, Mu Northson and the azure-robed girl watched, tense with anxiety. When the azure-robed girl saw the scene before her, she could hardly believe it. She sent a joyful mental transmission: “Could it be that he’s going to win? Is your senior brother really so powerful that he can defeat even this Dragon Whale great demon?”

“It seems so,” Mu Northson said, also looking up.

“But the Dragon Whale is a Fiendgod; it won’t be defeated so easily,” the azure-robed girl said, watching with worry.

Inside the Dragon Whale’s skull.

Ji Ning had pierced its vital point, and he immediately sensed that the Dragon Whale’s resistance had weakened to an extreme. He understood that its control over its body was now incredibly faint.

“Excellent.” Ji Ning’s eyes lit up. “Water-Fire Lotus.”

Instantly, enormous lotuses of water and fire began to appear around him, tearing at the Dragon Whale’s body. These lotuses, each dozens of zhang in size, directly manifested inside the Dragon Whale’s mouth, madly grinding away at its tongue and other parts.

But…

SCREECH… SCREECH…

They couldn’t cut through!

“Hm?” Ji Ning’s eyes widened.

He couldn’t cut through?

“Smaller. Smaller. Smaller.” With a thought, Ji Ning began to shrink the Water-Fire Lotuses, their power increasing as they shrank. Six lotuses, each now around ten zhang in size, finally began to cut into the Dragon Whale’s body.

“What a monster,” Ji Ning thought, shocked. “My Water-Fire Lotus is countless times more powerful than before. But when spread wide, it couldn’t even cut its body. Its flesh and blood are too resilient.”

A range of ten zhang was the limit at which Ji Ning’s Water-Fire Lotus could maintain its maximum power.

Clearly, the lotuses had to be pushed to their absolute limit to cut through.

But… what good was cutting through such a tiny amount of flesh and blood on a three-thousand-zhang body? How long would it take? The rate at which he could destroy its body might not even match the Dragon Whale’s own rate of regeneration.

“BOOM!” The Dragon Whale’s skull suddenly exploded.

Ji Ning was sent flying backward.

“Good one. It actually gave up its own head.” As Ji Ning flew backward, he was also shocked by the Dragon Whale’s decisiveness. Although its control over its body was very weak, it could still perform simple measures. Blowing up its own skull was child’s play.

The head had completely exploded. The Dragon Whale’s massive body tumbled, and as it rolled, a new head regrew.

It let out a furious roar.

“ROOOAR!”

With a roar that shook the heavens, it swept its enormous, fan-like tail at Ji Ning. It was too fast! The tail alone was nearly a thousand zhang wide, and Ji Ning, with no footing in midair, was far less agile than on solid ground. He couldn’t dodge in time.

Since he couldn’t dodge, he wouldn’t.

“Break for me!”

Ji Ning gripped his Northsea swords in both hands and let out a battle cry. His twin sword-lights transformed into two rivers of sword-light, directly striking the sweeping tail.

The enormous tail was like a fan that covered the sky.

The two sword-lights seemed to pierce the very firmament.

They collided.

BOOM!

As if heaven and earth were splitting apart, the air exploded violently. Vivid red blood sprayed everywhere, staining the sky crimson. Ji Ning himself was sent flying like a meteor, crashing straight into the wilderness ground below with a thunderous rumble. Deep, cracked ravines spread across the earth.

Ji Ning had already been driven deep underground.

“Human.” High in the sky, the Dragon Whale great demon’s massive tail bore a horrifying wound. A gash hundreds of zhang long had nearly torn the tail apart, but it was rapidly healing.

It looked down, easily sensing that the human’s aura deep within the ground was equally powerful and fierce, with no sign of weakening.

It understood…

This human was also a Fiendgod Body Refiner. Even if a mere slap injured him, he could recover completely in an instant.

“I didn’t expect your Fiendgod Body Refining to be even stronger than your Ki Refining. You’ve been hiding it deep.” The Dragon Whale great demon’s voice boomed. Then it transformed into a streak of light and swiftly fled, the formation flags that were hovering all around flying back to it.

SWISH.

Ji Ning leaped out from deep underground, shooting into the sky and landing on the surface.

“It left?” Ji Ning held his Northsea swords, watching the distant Dragon Whale great demon as it fled.

“Senior apprentice-brother, you actually drove that Dragon Whale great demon away?” Mu Northson said excitedly.

Beside him, the azure-robed girl was utterly stunned. She looked at the spot where the Dragon Whale had disappeared, then back at the delicate-featured youth before her, who looked almost exactly as he had back then. “You… you drove away the Dragon Whale great demon? Do you have a twin brother?”

“What are you thinking?” Ji Ning said with a laugh.

“But how are you so strong? I’ve had a lot of lucky encounters!” The azure-robed girl stared at him, wide-eyed. “That was the Dragon Whale great demon! I heard it’s even escaped from Primal Daoists alive. It’s incredibly powerful.”

“It is powerful,” Ji Ning said. “Especially with a body so vast, the divine power within it is almost inconceivably deep. To try and kill it? I simply can’t. Even Primal Daoists would need to be overwhelmingly superior to kill it. Otherwise, even some ordinary Primal Daoists might not be able to do anything to it.”

Among Wanxiang Adepts, there were differences in level.

The same was true for Primal Daoists.

For instance, the Primal Daoists of the Black-White College had all comprehended an entire Dao before stepping into the Primal level. And then there was ‘Beishan Heihu,’ the next candidate for the Marquis of Anchan, who gave Ji Ning an equally intense sense of threat. These were all outstanding figures among Primal Daoists.

“Since you can’t kill it, why did it flee?” the azure-robed girl asked.

“Because it couldn’t kill me either,” Ji Ning said with a smile. “And having experienced having its skull’s vital point pierced, with its control over its body weakened, any Fiendgod would dread experiencing that a second time.”

Being able to sense the divine body with the soul, yet due to damage to the head, control over the body was incredibly faint.

That feeling was a nightmare.

“Plus, it lost out in this fight. It probably has some lingering fear in its heart. It might think I have some other tricks up my sleeve,” Ji Ning said. “Under these circumstances, the best move is to leave quickly.”

“Oh.” The azure-robed girl nodded.

She couldn’t help but feel admiration for Ji Ning. Her eyes practically sparkled as she looked at him. He was incredible. Back when she had fought him, he was only at the Houtian level. Now, he had grown this powerful. Even the Dragon Whale great demon, which she found impossible to match, had retreated, and the other ten-plus Wanxiang great demons had been slaughtered like chicks.

“Actually, if we had kept fighting, even if it hadn’t left, I would have had to leave,” Ji Ning said with a sigh.

His Starseizing Hand allowed him to unleash astonishing power.

But this divine ability consumed divine power at a terrifying rate. Its might was far above that of abilities like Heavenly Transformation, surpassing them by several tiers. This was what allowed Ji Ning to unleash such combat strength. But the consumption was equally monstrous. Ji Ning couldn’t maintain this level of power for long.

“Senior apprentice-brother, don’t say that,” Mu Northson said, pouting. “If you keep being modest, I won’t be able to take it. The one that just fled was a Wanxiang-level, Fiendgod Body Refining great demon with divine abilities, the Dragon Whale!”

Ji Ning blinked.

“Ji Ning, young master!” the azure-robed girl suddenly called out.

“Hm?” Ji Ning looked at her. “Little snake, what is it?”

“Do you have a spirit-beast by your side? What do you think about me following you?” the azure-robed girl suggested. “I’m a Skygreen Serpent. I can grow quickly. And I’m good at finding treasures… You would have to use minor teleportation talismans for spatial travel, but for me, it’s as easy as breathing. And when I reach a higher realm, even those space-locking formations won’t affect me.”

Ji Ning blinked. “I already have a spirit-beast by my side.”