"Thought Or Telepathy"
"Character Communication"
"Loud Speaking"
"Emphasis 'On' A Word."
Madara: A New Journey
In an empty field, some distance away, a black symbol flashes alive and Madara Uchiha and Tang Shi shoot out into the ground like meteors. Both are dazed beyond belief, the feelings from earlier having thoroughly shaken them to their very core.
Each one of those creatures could have wiped them out in an instant, only for that damnable bird to summon something far more terrifying that slaughtered all of the creatures rapidly and then diverted to them when they attempted to make their escape, both Tang Shi and Madara would love to murder that bird.
Tang Shi struggles to his feet, still shaking with residual fright. His robes in dismay and his body slightly withered because of the sacrifice he had to make to escape. He noticed that Madara brought him outside the sect, he knew it was miraculous to do such a thing, certainly safer than where they entered.
In the opposite pit, Madara was in far worse condition, barely conscious and hunched over and barely stopping himself from screaming out in pain. He stopped some sort of attack before managing to escape, although he's positive that it wasn't the main part of the attack, lest he would be dead.
Tang Shi immediately made his way to him. The ground splinters when he slammed his fist into it to alleviate some of the pain he felt, it didn't work. He smiled wryly and spit out some blood. Standing to his full height, he sighed and explodes into blood and gore.
To say this horrified Tang Shi would be the understatement of the year, he was terrified and relentlessly checked himself for anything wrong and mentally prepared himself to be to die at any minute from something unseen and beyond comprehension, but nothing happened. He let out a long sigh of relief.
Looking at the gore pile, he shook his head, he couldn't help but lament at the huge setback of losing an additional ally, "Brother, you paid the ultimate price to get us out of that trap, I never expected Jin Fang to be so decisive, nor to catch on that quickly. I'm sorry" He clasped his hands and bowed deeply.
When he swung his sleeve to leave, at the corner of his eye, he spotted the blood and gore all vanished. In the next instant, Madara Uchiha was standing in the same position he had before, he checked his body and could tell that the force that was there before was no longer present within his body and soul.
He looked at the stupefied man and chuckled to himself. One of his eyes was grey due to the use of Izanagi, to think he'd have to use one of his most powerful abilities because of some bird truly and utterly pissed him off. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again, the grey eye was a Rinnegan.
Izanagi was not infinite, it required the sacrifice of a Doujutsu. To revive a Doujutsu, a massive amount of lifeforce is sacrificed, although his lifeforce is infinite due to Allheaven Abyss and Six Path Sage Mode, if he was killed repeatedly, he would eventually die for real. This was his ultimate trump card.
Still, to be killed by that crane was embarrassing, not at all the kind of battle he could except dying in. He decided that if he was strong enough, then in the future, he would most certainly slaughter that crane and if any of those swordfish remains until then, he'd eat fish and bird on that day.
He continuously sighed and shook his head while muttering some curses under his breath, "Do you think that Jin Fang thinks we are dead now? He caught on to us..." He was speaking to Tang Shi who had to pick up his jaw from the floor.
Tang Shi cleared his throat and hide his astonishment completely as he regained his sword-like yet boyish aura, "Honestly I thought he didn't even notice my treachery, so what does my opinion on it truly matter? But if I had to guess, yeah, he shouldn't know we're alive, that bird won't inform him."
Why that bird had to appear on this day, Tang Shi had no idea, but he did know what its identity was, it was a watcher, its status was above Jin Fang, but it doesn't mess with him or pay him any mind either, it just serves to some being called the Alba, but he doesn't do more than that.
When he thought about the bird more, his head started to ache and he got annoyed, so he stopped and tried to forget. Madara looked at him with a strange gleam in his eyes and he released that he was being stared at and blushed, "Brother, are you coming on to me?" He joked.
Madara smiled and then broke out into a full laugh that Tang joined in on. Their laughter eased the pain in their heart, the grief they felt from being wronged was lifted like a wet feather becoming dry and flying away.
The laughter faded, "I need to recover, I'll message you when I'm finished." He tossed over a jade slip that Madara snatched out of the air, "We can assume that Jin Fang will be cautious and wait for us to make a move, if he thinks we are dead or alive, the outcome of what he will do should be the same."
Madara nodded and flew off into the horizon. He wanted to battle Jin Fang right away, but at the same time he wasn't particularly confident, he wanted to breakthrough in his cultivation and create an avatar before entering battle, if he couldn't before Tang Shi called on him, then so be it.
In a distant mountain range, he took over an abandoned cultivation cave, the resources were plentiful within, but frankly, to him, that was irrelevant, because when he practised cultivation, it was with the energy of the entire world, not just a small area around him.
Time passed, a week. In that week, Tang Shi had found a bunch of rogue Heaven's Blight cultivators to replace the equivalent of the third step cultivators in his stars. Afterwards, he took up one of their cultivation caves and began working on his internal injuries to his soul.
Unlike a cultivator, Madara was already fully recovered as soon as he used Izanagi a week ago, but he knew that it would be an epic challenge to breakthrough into the Nascent Soul stage with the limitation that his situation forced on him. He began absorbing the power of the world slowly.
Even an unsuitable amount when taken from everywhere, resulted in power that could instantly turn a first step cultivator into a third step cultivator if such a thing was possible to endure without the proper comprehension and control, but it was still not enough to break his core.
He realized that the core within him was like a dam that can hold vast amounts of water under constant pressure over a wide area, but if a condensed stream of an even larger supply of water crashed into it all of the sudden, that dam would undoubtedly break.
The absorption continued and instead of condensing into his core, it remained in his body, waiting for that moment in which it would shatter the core and nourish the Nascent Soul. One-per-cent, two-per-cent, five-per-cent. He absorbed so much of the power that certain people noticed in some areas.
Although those people had no way to know that it was happening everywhere, and he specifically avoided drawing from around the sect to prevent alerting Jin Fang so no one had a divine sense large enough to discover this reduction, this is at least what he thought.
However, something did notice. In an unknown place in some world, sat a seven-coloured crane perched upon a large and immaculate temple. In front of the temple was dozens of mirrors in each of them was a projection of a different world.
The crane lifted its head lazily and gazed at one of the smaller mirrors, "Is that boy making another clone for that world, a lot more wasteful than anything I've seen in the past, but if a dog fart produces a clone then it's only going to amount to another dog fart, silly lad, maybe he forgot, aiii, poor lad."
Down in that world, Madara sat crossed legged inside a cultivation cave, around him was vast amounts of black sludge that not only filled up a majority of the cave but when out into the outside and formed a lake that killed anything that touched it, even cultivators.
He was in a critical stage, and he knew that the moment of his effort producing fruit was nearing. On top of his head, a soul emerged, this was his actual soul, it possessed three eyes, the Rinnesharingan, and dual Six Tomoe Rinnegan with greenish ripples going throughout the eye, a further ocular evolution. It also had many midnight black horns that stuck out like a crown.
A thread existed between the soul and the body, it was black when he looked down at it. He had a crazy idea, but crazy was the only path available to him. To sever his astral thread at the moment his body achieved Nascent Soul, he would die to advance his cultivation.
When nearly fifteen-per-cent of the world's power was absorbed, he allowed it to flow into his golden core, immediately cracks formed. At that same moment, the spiritual body above reached down and took hold of the astral thread before destroying it. Washing away the impurity within.
Madara was dead, his body was without control and his soul felt a faint pull towards the spirit plane.
That pull was distant, however, as if it couldn't reach over the worlds to force his soul to enter the afterlife of his birth universe. He had already theorized this would be the case before pulling this risky manoeuvre off; the laws in this world originate elsewhere and act as a shelter for his soul.
His golden core broke down and then shattered to reveal a small humanoid floating in his dantian region that slowly exited. That was not the end, the world power was still plentiful and without the infection, the nascent soul sucked in that power like a black hole, quickly growing larger and more corporeal.
In an instant, it reached the great circle of the nascent soul realm, but again, it only took a tiny portion of the remaining world power. Beyond that realm were soul formation, soul transformation, and ascendent. Beyond that, illusory yin, corporeal yang, into the second step of the nirvana stages.
Of course to reach all that, one requires the comprehension of a domain. Without that, the nascent soul cannot advance to further stages, and yet as more power fused into the peak nascent soul a bizarre change occurred. This was undoubtedly a new path of cultivation being forced into existence.
As he watched this change, he debated whether to proceed with the avatar technique or to allow this evolution to continue. On one hand, not following an established path of cultivation would be far more challenging, besides, the avatar technique sacrificed the nascent soul to increase latent talent.
"Hm, forget it, walking the easy path has never been my destiny." He decided to proceed and at that moment, the nascent soul opened its eyes and spoke as another Madara with a vicious expression. "From now on, my path will be one I alone have walked, both in cultivation and in life!"
"The path I walk will be one of endless devouring! The Dao of Devouring! The Devouring Essence!" The outward appearance of the nascent soul crumbled away and fell inside the humanoid-shaped abyss that devoured the remaining power like a hungry demon that had starved for countless years.
Nothing was safe from this rabid devouring, even the infection sludge that was expelled was pulled in. The five elements of Heaven and Earth, Time and Space, Heat and Cold, everything trembled before the tiny fragment of an unseen devouring essence that formed inside this single nascent soul.
From Tang Shi's location inside a distant cultivation cave, the trembling forced him to stand, his cultivation base, even his soul, felt like it was being pulled from his body in the direction of the East. Many cultivators within this world felt the same thing and started heading in that direction.
Madara knew what formed this essence, it had to be formed from Allheaven Abyss, it seemed impossible, but despite the lack of connection from his true soul to his nascent soul, that connection somehow opened a new path to cultivation, that being the Dao of Devouring.
From henceforth, the nascent soul could no longer be called as such, it was a Devouring Dao Embodiment formed in reflection of Allheaven Abyss. His cultivation instantly skyrocketed, but he still needed a nascent soul to sacrifice to lay the groundwork for a Heaven-Defying latent talent.
The Dao Embodiment looked down thoughtfully for a moment, he could tell that it was only a fraction of devouring and that its foundation was unstable, it simply couldn't handle further completion of such an essence, let alone a completed one, he would need to create an unshakable foundation.
From there, he could form a completed Devouring Dao Embodiment, who knows what would happen then, it was simply instinct telling him that once he reached such a level, something incredible would happen for his future cultivation avatar, something truly terrifying.
Madara's true soul floated back into his body to possess it, with his astral thread destroyed, he will never be able to become one entity with that body again. Even if he was able to reconstruct his astral thread, the infection would reform and continue to destroy the body, in a way, this was better.
His Dao Embodiment sat down in a lotus position onto the cave floor and placed two fingers to its dantian region and another two on his head while his real self transformed into flesh and blood and cut a huge gash onto itself before pouring the blood onto the head of the Dao Embodiment.
The blood wrapped around him and more world power entered. The Dao Embodiment slowly sacrificed itself to form a body and true soul of unprecedented latent talent. The spiritual root within was in the shape of a tree. Spiritual and Physical Soul aspects, meridians, and acupoints all formed.
It was a body without impurities, without sealed channel, meridians, or acupoints, with countless spiritual and physical aspects all in the realm beyond perfection, eternal. When his cultivation reached a certain level, it would naturally achieve an eternal stratum.
The blood turned white as white jade, it was the skin. Midnight black strands like the blackness of the universe shot out, it was hair. It looked like Madara, except beyond perfect, any flaw in his appearance was weeded out by natural selection, a beauty with eternal grace and unrelenting superiority.
Clouds formed above all the realms in all the mirrors within the area that the seven-coloured crane sat and vanished before anything could even take note of it, it happened far too quickly and not a soul noticed it, not even the supposed supreme existence know as Alba.
The avatar stood up slowly and when it opened its eyes, they were completely black, if one looked close enough, however, they would spot an endless horizon of clouds that vanished with a blink, the eyes returning to normal, a jade green. He felt a calling from some distant world like another him existed.
He didn't understand it at all, but instinct he didn't have filled his mind, a cultivation path was known to him loosely. He looked to his other self, both are his the true self in all senses of the word, except one had Allheaven Abyss, and the other had the potential for the Dao of Devouring. One created the other.
Both of them breathed a sigh of relief. That was very stressful and could have resulted in failure and death, but everything went much better than expected. All he needed to do now was wait for Tang Shi to contact him, until then, he can cultivate in this immortal cave.
Neither of them knew of what transpired outside, the trembling that made a mass of cultivators head in this direction. Both small sect, large sects, and rogue cultivators created shooting stars across the sky in a mass exodus for what was thought of as a heavenly treasure.
In one direction some distance away, a Feng Shui compass was being carried by hundreds of war chariots. A young man dressed in red robes touched the lips of a young fairy next to him and said, "Rest assured, that treasure will make belong to you, my princess. I'd like to see the elder generation compete!"
In yet another direction, a lone figure cut through the air on a giant Phoenix, "I wonder why master warned me not to sow bad karma?" In another area, a group of ninety-nine temples flew in formation. In countless directions, many such sights could be seen all converging on his location.
He sat in his immortal's cave and breathed in spiritual energy through his pores with the greatest of ease, even the blessing of Heaven was devoured into submission naturally and his talent was already unparalleled, creating a truly blessed individual.
Unfortunately, he lost Allheaven Abyss after severing his true soul from his astral thread.
It originated from his true soul. No infection, no Allheaven Abyss, a fair trade considering the use of it was limited regardless, he would be better off finding a way to permanently remove the infection and then he could reconstruct an astral thread to a suitable body.
He flew through the stages of Qi Condensation, he stopped for an hour at the tenth level, but then broke through to the thirteenth, his power was now far stronger than the first time he reached the foundation establishment, he was ten times stronger.
He reached the fifteenth level and reached another bottleneck. The fifteenth level would be the limit, in fact, nobody even knew that it was possible to go beyond, in some cases, Heaven limited the stage to the ninth level, but that limit was not there, he reached the sixteenth, twentieth, thirtieth, fiftieth.
A lake of Qi formed within his dantian region and continued to grow into an ocean as he reached the seventeenth level, and then the ninetieth level. When he reached the ninety-ninth level an entire Qi ocean resembled a planet of the pure ocean. He was shocked at this progression.
He squeezed his hand and felt that his power was likely equivalent to nascent soul or soul formation while only in the Qi Condensation realm. He laughed, not a fake laugh but a hardy laugh of excitement, his other self looked over and smiled along, "I will shock the cultivation world!" He laughed further.
It was then that he noticed that his world ocean was spinning into a vortex at the north and south pole. Yet again, the strange and unknown instinct told him to focus the Qi within those vortexes and condense it. He closed his eyes and did just that.
At first, this instinct made him warry, but he recalled that feeling of another him, and he subconsciously knew what it was, it was someone who possessed the Dao of Devouring in another universe and had already walked this path.
That person and himself then became one, as only one could use the Dao of Devouring, but the distance between universes kept them from merging that person that is now him has yet to reach such a Godly level as to overpower such a barrier, yet the instinct existed in him regardless.
A particular sword watched all of this and felt some of it from within Madara, he was an entity similar to the one it just felt, a part of Madara once he achieved Allheaven Abyss, why this happened it did not know, but it knew that it was always meant to happen and had watched Madara for a long time.
He didn't know this other self, but he felt his desires to rule over Heaven, to banish all who dare stand above, and he understood those feelings all too well, he was a comrade fighting in another universe, both of them strongly desired to meet in person but couldn't, that left only the option to grow stronger.
While he condensed the Qi within the vortexes, outside, the first patch of cultivators started to arrive into the massive mountain range that he took residence within, it would take an unholy amount of time to search and nothing would be abnormal about the area because there was no treasure, there was only him.
One of them noticed these people instantly but laughed them off, they were nothing more than insects coming for whatever reason, if they saught death he would deliver it in full, but if they didn't, he wouldn't interfere.
Time passed and more cultivators arrived to scour the lands, fights broke out in mass as surprisingly they found treasures. After all, this mountain range made for a good hiding place and many experts hid items throughout the aeons, some well-hidden and sealed, others less so.
Some cultivators came to make their profit, by selling things, a mass gathering like this with fighting made the perfect spot to peddle medical pills, treasures, cultivation manuals and magic techniques to all who needed and wanted it. A city was established in an instant and more arrived.
While all that happened, the vortexes within him started to create a golden platform, the name that he felt inside him was called an ascension platform. Each platform became an island that interlocked together to form a solid landmass over the world ocean.
One after another took shape, outside, the people noticed that almost all the spiritual veins in the area had turned to ash and the remaining spiritual energy in the air was being reduced to almost zero, this sent panic and excitement throughout the crowd.
In the following hour, each new platform interlocked and eventually covered up all the water beneath, his cultivation experienced an unprecedented boost with each platform, he felt like he could battle nirvana scryer cultivators. The ascension world was established, this was his form of foundation establishment.
He stood up, he was at his limit, he could progress no further without comprehension. He suddenly glared out to the entrance as a rumbling sound hit the entrance of the immortal cave, a simply bolder that he had used to cover the entrance.
With a look at his other self, he smiled and headed for the entrance when a voice echoed in, "Open up!" He paused and smiled maliciously before opening up the cave entrance and stepping out onto the cliff.
He was greeted by a man and woman, both young and orderly, dressed in the same robes, they were part of the same sect. When he stepped out, the female blushed at his divine appearance and the man was even surprised by his aura and beauty, but then they saw his cultivation and scoffed.
He also looked them over could tell at a glance that these two were at the early-stage nirvana scryer realm, not that these two ever imagined he could, "Seniors, how can I help you?" He clasped his hands but didn't bow, and he talked in a soothing and divine voice that sent chills down the woman.
The man looked angry and spoke as he looked, "A trifling foundation establishment junior coming to greet us?" He was insulted, "This can't be your immortal cave, what sect do you belong to? Bring out your master at once!"
The man was trying to discover his background before acting too hastily, "Also, present your bag of holding for an inspection!"
He smiled and spoke sarcastically, "Well senior, I am just a rogue cultivator and I happened upon this cave by luck alone I assure you. I would even give you my bag of holding but unfortunately, I never managed to get one in my travels."
When the man heard his words, he nearly burst a blood vessel. He snorted in response, a snort meant to crippled his foundation, but he was surprised when the youth just stood there without so much as reacting to his attack as if nothing happened. The woman looked into the cave with wariness.
"Seniors no need to attack! I'm an upright individual I swear it, if I lied, let Heaven strike down with lightning!" All of a sudden a bolt of lightning appeared above and descended.
It didn't head for him but instead, diverted to strike the man in front of him who let out a miserable scream and was sent flying back like a kite without strings, blood gushing out of his mouth, nose, eyes, practically every orifice.
He smiled wryly, he honestly didn't plan that, but it was pretty amusing so he continued, "Senior that was seriously was just a coincidence." He turned his gaze at the mouth gaping female, "You saw right, that had nothing to do with me, seriously.
He patted his chest and stood firm, a picture of dignity. "If that had something to do with me, let lighting descend twice!" A slight gleam existed in his eyes that revealed his evil intent to the outside world.
When the woman heard his words, she went numb and was about to say something when clouds formed above.
The man was recovering when he also saw them, one bolt descended towards the woman and another went right for him. He screamed out at the top of his lungs while attacking the bolt, "Who is doing this, show yourself?!"
He simply couldn't believe that a trifling foundation establishment cultivator could command Heaven to strike with tribulation.
Never in cultivation history had a foundation establishment cultivator been able to effortlessly defeat nirvana scryer cultivators, but when the woman saw the lighting descend, she thought that although he may be the one controlling the lightning, the man himself couldn't stand a single blow from her.
"If you push it, it doesn't matter what sect you belong to or what protection you have, you will die today!" She stepped forward, pulling out a mirror treasure and tossing it up into the sky to deflect the lightning away, with another step she was directly in front of him with a sword in her hand.
It came down with deadly killing intent, she planned to slice him in half if he didn't truly have someone protecting him. He was about to dodge, but he didn't feel any deadly crisis, he was surprised because even he didn't know how strong his fleshly body has become, he didn't imagine he could battle them.
The sound of metal hitting metal screeched, causing the woman to cringe, the vibration in her hands caused her cultivation base to become unstable and blood to spill out of the corners of her mouth, the sword then let out a miserable squeal and broke.
The sight of her sword shattering against someone far weaker than her caused the mind to be disorientated, this went against logic. He was completely unaffected, only the robes he put on were cut by the blade, his skin was hard enough to ignore attacks from cultivators of such a level.
He made to talk but was cut off by the woman screaming and turning to flee with the man, "You're not in foundation establishment, you're in the nirvana cleanser realm!" The man pulled out a jade slip and crushed it with a message as they ran at top speed towards their base of operation.
He stepped to the edge of the cliff and watched them flee into the distance, he clenched his fist and looked back into the cave and then turned to look ahead again with a vicious smile before chasing after them.
The two thought that he didn't follow as they had already lost sight of him, but then he appeared on the horizon with a speed that made their hearts drop. They both used forbidden techniques that sacrificed lifeforce to flee even faster, but his voice drew closer, "Why flee seniors? I only want to talk!"
His divine sense locked on them and made their skin crawl, the killing intent they felt made them tremble and both of them understood that he could kill them with a thought, but was just toying with them for whatever sick reason that they could think of as they attempted to flee.
It was true, he was toying with them, he wanted to test out his cultivation, but apparently, the nirvana scryer realm wasn't worth much, he was waiting for them to lead him or for someone more powerful to show up, which was only a matter of time after that jade slip was crushed.
As time passed, he followed just close enough to make them constantly use special techniques to lengthen the distance, to which he slowly closed in again, the process repeated, when they slowed, he would use the divine techniques he got from the memories of all those cultivators he killed.
Soon a roar could be heard as everyone came to a stop, "You dare attack juniors of Phoenix Flame Sect!" The voice sent ripples into him, forcing him to a stop as well, he even trembled at the pressure exerted on him. Mountains crumbled below and rivers dried up as the voice slammed into them.
A rolling cloud came towards him and wrapped up the two that he was chasing. When the cloud parted, it revealed a throne upon which sat an old man with a bald head, but a snow-white beard that went down below his waist, the two juniors flanking his either side with thankful and relieved looks.
"Thank you, Elder!"
"I am eternally thankful, Elder!"
The elder passed a glance at them with a nod and then turned to look down at Madara with scorn as he scanned him only to sense a foundation establishment cultivation base, which he knew couldn't be the truth, that told him that this person had higher cultivation than himself. His expression changed at that point.
The elderly man cleared his throat and spoke neutrally, "Fellow Daoist, I am the East Sub-Protector of Phoenix Flame Sect, Wu Xiaosi. We are tasked with searching the area for the cause of the disturbances that occurred and I sent these two in my place, why did you hunt them down?"
He looked up at the old man and at the two at his sides, who shivered under his gaze. He could tell that the old man was much smarter than those two, he acted respectfully and determined his strength despite his appearance he was used to dealing with conflict on some level due to his position.
A sigh was released, he didn't want to back down before a fight, but at the same time, it would be shameful for him to just push the matter without reason, "I don't have a name and I have no sect, I am just a clone..." When the three heard the word clone, they all looked on in fear.
"Those two juniors attacked me even when I allowed them to search me, sadly lightning fell on them and they fleed before I could explain myself." He put on a remorseful expression and sighed repeatedly, "Senior, I ask that you provide over justice, I want compensation, in the form of, a duel!"
Wu Xiaosi stared on for a moment, in somewhat of a daze. The two at his side looked on with strange looks in their eyes. He cleared his throat again, "I'm sorry, you said you wanted a duel? You want to exchange tips for compensation?" He laughed heartedly, "Now that is admirable, truly seeking nothing more than the Dao for compensation, amazing! Very well, let us have a friendly exchange, I'll let you have the first exchange."
Stepping down from the cloud, Wu Xiaosi was then in front of him with a bit of distance between them, he waited with no aura of supremacy, he was genuinely ready for a battle in which they earnestly exchanged blows to hone themselves.
He smiled wryly, that was too easy, he didn't want to be too overbearing with beings he's just toying around with. He clasped his hands and stepped forward. He didn't have any amazing Daoist Abilities or many Divine Abilities, he simply had a powerful cultivation base and physical body.
So, when he stepped forward, the only thing he did was punch out with his cultivation base and fleshy body combined, the effect of which he had no idea the theatricality of it, but the mountains collapsed and a huge fist materialized and shot towards Wu Xiaosi who felt a deadly crisis well up in his heart.
He backed up and used his strongest ability, the phoenix materialization spell. Fire surrounded him and formed a projection of a phoenix behind him that quickly transformed the fire into flesh and blood to become somewhat like a real phoenix. The area around it melted away into ash.
It screeched and shot forward with its razor-sharp talons and made contact with the fist. A massive rumble shook the area and caused blood to spray from the two youths in the clouds who could barely stop themselves from being blown away and caught in the fire to be destroyed in body and soul.
Wu Xiaosi stopped himself from retreating and joined the phoenix with his fist, the two then struggled to push the fist back, but it didn't budge, it simply sucked in the power of the world around it and grew stronger to push them back and overwhelm them.
Coughing blood, Wu Xiaosi's face became ashen and the feeling of imminent death only grew stronger with each passing minute, this wasn't a friendly duel, this was a slaughter with a single punch, the chance to fight back was like when one tries to transcend tribulation, that is the feeling building up in his heart.
The phoenix started to tremble and break apart, its flesh was stripped and the fist could no longer be held back even the tiniest of bits as he slammed into the phoenix and shredded it into a pulp of flesh and blood.
Wu Xiaosi spat out five mouthfuls of blood as he fell back and waved his hand forward to unleash the natural laws of the world to try to restrain the fist, but the fist sucked in those laws and grew stronger and larger. Neither he nor his two disciples could believe the power of a single punch. He was dead for sure.
He threw out every treasure he had to try to flee further, but it only served to be absorbed. The fist became corporeal, the treasures melted and became skin, flesh, and bone. It seemed an attempt to stop this attack made it stronger, he didn't know how one could fight such a thing.
The scariest part in his head as he was about to die, was that he was just fighting a clone. When the fist became his world, all vision obscured by his new fist formed Heaven and Earth, it stopped short, just when it almost made contact. Even still, he continuously spewed blood from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
When the fist scattered, he breathed a sigh of relief and almost collapsed from exhaustion, but kept standing to meet the gaze that locked onto him, "Fellow Daoist, your attack was incredible, I stood no chance, thank you for holding back!" He clasped his hands and bowed. The weak respects the strong.
Madara was also surprised, he looked down at his fist. A wave of it had caused an attack that could defeat a nirvana cleanser, either he was far too strong, or those in nirvana were far too weak to be a match for the power that they should have at that stage, which was most likely given what he knew.
If he encountered a real nirvana cleanser from the immortal astral continent, it would be a far better match. The only thing to do now was to battle a peak nirvana cleanser or even a nirvana shatterer, although he knew he'd lose that fight with his current power, fake or not.
"What is your cultivation base at?" He asked cooly, "I just had a cultivation breakthrough you see, I would like to test my cultivation base a bit more, do you know any Fellow Daoists who would be willing to exchange blows?"
Wu Xiaosi replied, "I am a middle-stage nirvana cleanser." He paused and thought about those at his sect, he didn't want to cause trouble by sending a monster to battle his friends, but he felt obligated to give one request after he lost, "As for your request, why not come with me to a settlement set up nearby by a trading sect? Usually, competition is fierce and fights do tend to break out all the time, even those in the nirvana shatterer realm will participate."
He tilted his head to the side and considered it, then with a smile, he nodded and jumped into the air and approached Wu Xiaosi's clouds and his two disciples who clasped hands and bowed with the utmost respect that they would only show to a patriarch of their sect.
Wu Xiaosi smiled and jumped up to join them as they flew off into the horizon.
Meanwhile, Tang Shi had just sent word to his other self, who opened his eyes from within the immortal cave, "So you've finished. I guess I'll leave my clone to play around for a time, maybe he can advance. I can always teleport him when I need him to send him to the Immortal Astral Continent!"
Madara: A New Journey