Cultivating with Top Enlightenment Chapter 887 - 377: First Battle (Part 2)

Jiang Yingchu, Sect Leader of the Vast Immortal Sect, stood no chance against Ning Qi, who refused to squander any time on him.

"You two, handle the Sect Leader of the Vast Immortal Sect, while I take on the Saint Ancestor’s avatar!"

Ning Qi instructed Zhao Yujun and Gong Tiandao without hesitation.

Zhao Yujun, Gong Tiandao, and even Jiang Yingchu froze in shock upon hearing those words.

Heavens, could someone truly choose to confront the most formidable foe head-on?

Gong Tiandao spoke candidly, "Taoist Friend Ning, this isn’t the moment for empty bravado. Failing to restrain him would doom us all. Do you realize how long the Mountain Ancestor has schemed for this grand battle?"

Yet deep down, joy surged within him.

Without question, battling the Saint Ancestor’s avatar was his nightmare; Ning Qi volunteering fit his desires perfectly.

This fellow seized the advantages yet feigned superiority, hurling accusations before lifting a finger.

Such behavior flaunted his superiority and schemed to claim Ning Qi’s glory.

Through those remarks, Ning Qi’s success would merely fulfill obligation, while failure branded him the saboteur of the Mountain Ancestor’s grand design.

Ning Qi spared no thought for this idiot.

His mind locked onto the Saint Ancestor alone, battle fervor igniting his blood at the thrill of facing the avatar.

With a flash of instant movement, Ning Qi materialized behind the Saint Ancestor’s avatar and unleashed a devastating punch!

This strike warped the heavens and earth’s hues, instantly disrupting the power rules that both realms’ wills had synchronized moments before.

As Ning Qi struck, Jiang Yingchu, Zhao Yujun, and Gong Tiandao’s pupils shrank in alarm.

Even they might struggle to respond to such a blistering punch.

They stared in rapt attention.

However, the Saint Ancestor’s avatar parried Ning Qi’s assault!

His reflexes blazed; he whirled around the very instant of the attack, extending a hand to block it.

Surprisingly, though, Ning Qi’s punch carried force beyond his calculations.

Bang!

In that moment, Zhao Yujun and the others beheld Ning Qi barrel forward like a rampaging bull, his blow hurling the Saint Ancestor over a mile across the void.

A stark white trail blazed through the sky, etching the path of their clash.

The spectacle left everyone dumbfounded.

Jiang Yingchu reeled in shock, Zhao Yujun gaped in disbelief, and Gong Tiandao harbored deep suspicion.

"Is the Saint Ancestor’s avatar truly so frail? If only I’d known, I would have struck first. Now Ning Qi claims all the gain!" Gong Tiandao fumed with envy.

The three gawked as the duo hurtled away, briefly forgetting their own duties in the fray.

Suspended high above, the Saint Ancestor’s avatar loomed; his hunched frame now an unyielding bulwark, no longer yielding to Ning Qi’s might.

His eyes fixed on Ning Qi as an aged voice boomed forth.

"You indeed did not disappoint me, but the war has only begun. I have more important matters to attend to right now and cannot expend all my energy on you. Leave!"

With those words, the Saint Ancestor clamped onto Ning Qi’s luminous fist.

From his palm burst a rune brimming with rule power: "Retreat."

The "Retreat" rune gleamed with golden radiance, its strokes plain yet laden with worldly might.

Unprepared, Ning Qi succumbed, fully engulfed by the rune and flung backward.

At once, the rune stirred to life, its lines writhing like savage tendrils coiling around Ning Qi’s body, infused with the True Intent of the prior "Suppress" rune he’d endured!

Ning Qi seemed utterly immobilized.

The Saint Ancestor’s avatar effortlessly restrained Ning Qi before turning his gaze toward Zhao Yujun and Gong Tiandao nearby.

Zhao Yujun knitted her brows; the Saint Ancestor’s avatar was truly a force to reckon with!

Gong Tiandao broke into a cold sweat, silently damning himself after dismissing the Saint Ancestor mere moments ago, now thoroughly humiliated.

Though grateful Ning Qi tested the waters first, irritation at Ning Qi’s shortfall gnawed at him, leaving him to puzzle over facing Zhao Yujun in this crisis.

As their eyes remained glued to the Saint Ancestor, Jiang Yingchu abruptly soared in.

A smirk played on his lips; despite matching Zhao and Gong as a sect leader, the avatar had overshadowed him until now.

"You two, stay aside!"

No sooner said, Jiang Yingchu brandished a brush-shaped artifact, tapping it twice to summon runes mirroring the avatar’s own.

Those runes ballooned midair, morphing into colossal peaks that thundered toward the pair!

Zhao Yujun and Gong Tiandao sprang into action at once.

With Ning Qi ensnared, they now pitted against both Jiang Yingchu and the Saint Ancestor’s avatar, the strain exploding manifold!

Capture would doom their fellow cultivators to helpless slaughter!

Zhao Yujun thrust out her right hand, manifesting a White Bone Sword.

Forged from the bones of an Exotic Beast originating in the Endless Sea, this sword gleamed fiercely.

It exuded a weighty sharpness combined with an ancient, contradictory essence.

Seizing it firmly, she swung towards the approaching binding characters.

Sword Qi erupted outward, cleaving the massive character with unyielding might.

At the same time, Gong Tiandao expelled a miniature tower.

Its composition remained a mystery, shrouded in an enigmatic aura.

Moments afterward, the tower expanded massively, hurtling at the character mountain and piercing clean through.

These moves unfolded in a blink, exposing how Jiang Yingchu's prowess fell short of the Saint Ancestor's, unable to ensnare Zhao and Gong.

Zhao Gong kept his guard up, perpetually tense over the hidden Saint Ancestor’s avatar.

Yet once Jiang Yingchu was repelled, the Saint Ancestor’s avatar vanished without a trace.

They swiftly scanned his former spot, nearly frightening their souls away.

Aloft in isolation stood the Saint Ancestor.

He scribbled with wild fervor, converting the heavens into his writing board.

Treating the void as parchment, his Divine Intent roused the forces of rules, inscribing enigmatic patterns.

Though Zhao Gong couldn't decipher his script, the consequences were strikingly clear.

Shadows materialized from the emptiness amid his writing, coalescing like celestial warriors plunging down.

Such feats by the Saint Ancestor echoed the fabled rite of summoning troops from beans.

Every shadow he invoked became an avatar, each pulsing with formidable energy.

In mere heartbeats, more than a dozen shadows took form.

Earlier, he declared that upon the fight's outbreak, assailing Ning Qi wasn't his main focus—another vital deed loomed.

Evidently, evoking these avatars constituted that mission.

Such summons reinforced the Vast Realm's ranks of harmonized beings and its forces.

Ning Qi's prior tribulation had slain over a thousand harmonized cultivators, leaving them trailing Mountain and Sea.

Nonetheless, Zhao Gong—and Ning Qi himself—questioned why the Saint Ancestor hadn't summoned them earlier.

The answer likely lay in the Central Domain's constraints.

In the past, clashing realm wills had splintered it, curtailing the power needed for shadow conjurations.

"Stop him!" Zhao Yujun shouted desperately.

"I’ll stall Jiang Yingchu; you stop him," Gong Tiandao shot back.

Zhao grudgingly accepted she must move, but Gong casually shifted the burden.

Jiang Yingchu perceived their scheme.

A second Jiang Yingchu materialized at his side, intercepting Zhao.

Right then, a Sword Qi whipped across, pulverizing the manifested shadows.

Ning Qi shattered his restraints, teleporting instantly to the Saint Ancestor's flank.

"Did I permit your summoning?"

A crisp voice boomed across the void, freezing Zhao's advance and leaving the three in stunned silence.

Ning Qi's daring escape left them utterly shocked.

The Saint Ancestor himself faltered briefly, setting his brush down.

"It seems you’ve grown rapidly, even surpassing my avatar’s power to suppress." He sighed softly.