A Will Eternal

Upon self-detonating, he could send the resulting ripples of force out to destroy the nine frigid clones. Few people would have the resolve to make a decision like that in the mere time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. But devas were the type of people who had experienced countless battles, and could react on an instinctual level in many situations.

As Patriarch Polarity River exploded, the resulting shockwave shattered the 500-kilometer frigid domain and overwhelmed the nine frigid clones. At the same time, the patriarch's nascent divinity shot out and began to flee at the highest speed possible.

He was afraid. More afraid than he had ever been before in his life. Furthermore, his hatred for Patriarch Starry River only continued to grow more intense. As far as he was concerned, if it wasn’t for that useless patriarch, they would have been able to achieve a victory. But now… Patriarch Starry River was unharmed, whereas Patriarch Polarity River had destroyed his fleshly body, leaving behind only his nascent divinity.

His heart throbbed with animosity and terror, and he already had begun to wish that Bai Xiaochun’s magical eye had locked onto him instead….

As all of those things happened, Patriarch Starry River drew dangerously upon his cultivation base to break free from the power of Bai Xiaochun’s Heavenspan Dharma Eye. He could hear the howls of rage coming from Patriarch Polarity River, and the truth was that he was equally furious. But at the same time, he was deeply astonished. Panting, he looked at Bai Xiaochun, a person who attacked with unbridled madness, whose mountain-toppling, sea-draining blows had destroyed a deva’s fleshly body and forced him to flee in nascent divinity form.

If it had only been once, he might have been able to accept it. But in defiance of all imagination, he had witnessed it a second time. Shivering, he chose to not even try to help Patriarch Polarity River, and instead turned around and fled in the opposite direction.

The scene which had just played out left him shaken and filled with fear, to the point where he didn’t care at all about his reputation, or the fact that tens upon tens of thousands of cultivators from the three sects were watching.

As he fled, he reminded himself that Bai Xiaochun was absolutely terrifying, and that if he didn’t flee, he would be in deadly danger.

The sight of Patriarch Polarity River being reduced to a nascent divinity, and Patriarch Starry River fleeing in fear, caused shouts of alarm and rage to rise up from the cultivators down on the ground.

The shouts of alarm came from the Dao River Court and the Starry River Court, whereas the shouts of rage came from… the Polarity River Court!!

“Patriarch!!”

“Patriarch Starry River, you….”

Bai Xiaochun was quite taken aback. He had assumed that Patriarch Starry River would instantly attack him after freeing himself, or at least try to stop him from pursuing the other patriarch. He never could have guessed that the man would just up and flee.

“How shameless of you, you bastard!!” Patriarch Polarity River howled. At this point, his nascent divinity felt unstable, and his spiritual energy weak to the point of near-collapse.

One of them was fleeing to the east, and the other to the west. As for Bai Xiaochun, his eyes burned with killing intent. Had Patriarch Starry River come after him, he would never have been able to finish off Patriarch Polarity River. But now that both of them were fleeing, that meant… he did have a chance to kill a deva!

It was without hesitation that he ignored Patriarch Starry River, and locked his gaze onto the nascent divinity form of Patriarch Polarity River. Killing intent seething, he threw his arms up into the air.

“Waterswamp!!”

Water vapor erupted out in all directions, instantly enveloping both of the fleeing patriarchs.

From a distance, it looked as if all heaven and earth had transformed into a watery swamp!

Mist roiled, and heaven-shaking, earth-shattering pressure weighed down everywhere, provoking gasps from the cultivators in the area. Up in the air, Patriarch Polarity River suddenly felt the most intense, terrifying sensation of imminent danger that he had ever felt in his entire life!!

“No!!” he shrieked, the pleading, begging tone in his voice clear for all to hear. The fleeing Patriarch Starry River was shocked, but he simply bit his tongue and focused on picking up speed as he fled.

Under the shocked gazes of everyone present, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes flashed, and he threw his hands down.

“Kingdom!!”

RRRUUUUMBLE!

The sound which exploded out surpassed heavenly thunder. As Bai Xiaochun’s Waterswamp Kingdom was unleashed, curved mountains shot up into the sky. All of a sudden, the entire world seemed to be taken over by some shockingly large beast who wielded mountain-toppling, sea-draining power!

The sky went dim until it was almost black. However, it was still possible to see that, stretching out from within the watery swamp, clear for all to see, was the clawed hand of a beast!

“That’s… that’s the Waterswamp Kingdom!” The eyes of the Spirit Stream Division cultivators went wide, especially those who had come from the former north bank. What they were seeing completely defied all expectation and imagination.

As the enormous, clawed hand shot out from the watery swamp, minds went blank as both Patriarch Starry River and Patriarch Polarity River… were struck by the claws!

RRRRUUUUUUUUMBLE!

Mixed in with the deafening crash was the miserable shriek of Patriarch Polarity River. He attempted teleportations and other techniques to try to evade the clawed hand, but nothing did any good. In the blink of an eye, he was struck!

Before his scream could be fully voiced, his nascent divinity's eyes went wide, taking in his last view of the world. Then his nascent divinity was destroyed, and the patriarch… was wiped off of the face of all creation!! He had been killed in body and soul!!

Patriarch Starry River still had his fleshly body, and furthermore, was on the very edge of the watery swamp. Therefore, he wasn’t as badly hurt. Roaring, he summoned countless stars and heavenly bodies to defend himself, and managed to escape, coughing up blood and terrified, but alive.

Upon seeing the other patriarch’s nascent divinity destroyed, he was frightened, but at the same time convinced that his action of fleeing so decisively was the main reason he had escaped with his life!

He also considered himself lucky that he had been the one Bai Xiaochun picked to bind with fetters…. If it had been the other way around, he would likely be dead right now.

“You died, Fellow Daoist, and I lived…. If you want to blame someone, Patriarch Polarity River, don’t blame me for not saving you, blame yourself for being too weak….” Feeling profoundly lucky, the patriarch sped away.

Bai Xiaochun hovered there over the battlefield, watching the patriarch flee off into the distance. The man was moving too quickly to catch up with, and besides, although he didn’t look tired at all after crushing two devas in a row and killing one of them, it had taken all of his cultivation base and fleshly body power to do it. He was mentally and physically exhausted. Although defeating someone in the early Deva Realm was not very difficult, killing someone of that level was.

Furthermore, he had used his Heavenspan Dharma Eye three times in a row to lock a deva down. That alone had his qi and blood in chaos, kept in force only by the power of his fleshly body.

The truth was that he couldn’t have done it a fourth time. Furthermore, if Patriarch Starry River had attacked him, then he would have only had one trump card left… his Undying Emperor’s Fist.

That would have left him completely and utterly powerless, without a scrap of energy left to battle. At that point, if Patriarch Dao River had come back, he would have been in serious danger.

Although he looked majestic as he hovered there, he was actually in bad shape, and extremely tired. However, when he looked down at the deathly pale faces of the cultivators of the three sects, he realized that this was a good opportunity to shake them a bit more. Glaring off into the distance at Patriarch Starry River, he swished his sleeve.

“I’ll give you three breaths of time to get out of my sight, Patriarch Starry River. If you don’t, then I’ll swish my sleeve again… and reduce you to ashes!”

When Patriarch Starry River heard that, terror gripped his heart, and his mind began to spin. Holding nothing back, he drew upon his longevity for another burst of speed, and then disappeared over the horizon….