Despite being impaled and having lost an arm, under the effects of Diyu Ding Zhe’s possession, Reverend Dark Moon did not even even the slightest of reactions. His face remained void of emotion, as the mithril spears pinned his body in place and while keeping him from falling over. 

Before Zhang could attack once again, Reverend Dark Moon’s vacant eyes suddenly light up and a reddish glow began emitting from his pupils. Instantly in the few moments that ensued, a crazed filled laughter filled the air causing shivers to run down the spines of all who heard it.

Madness, joy, anger, wrath and an endless mixture of other emotions was conveyed from Diyu Ding Zhe’s laughter.

“If the heavens deny me, if h.e.l.l forsakes me, if the world and all who live in it scorns me, then I will flood the land with blood and darkness, I will erect my own eternal holy land!!” Diyu Ding Zhe roared as his gaze swept across everything around him.

“s.h.i.t…” Zhang cursed as his body shot upward, raising up above the clouds. 

Waving his hand, Zhang caused dozens of flasks and barrels to fly out from within his interspatial ring. Grasping the air with his hand and crushing something not visible, Zhang caused the seconds of flasks and barrels around him to burst into bits and pieces. 

Moments later a shimmering rain began to descend from the sky, showering the battlefield below. 

“Ignite! Devour! Destroy!” Zhang roared as a flickering black flame danced in on the tip of his finger before being flicked across the air. Like in most instances, after being unleashed, the soul devouring flame began devouring all the essence in the air around it, gorging itself and growing ever so larger. Unlike most instances, this time, the soul devouring flame grow at an extremely rapid rate, nearly ten times quicker than it usually did.

Upon closer examination one would notice that every time the soul devouring flame came into contact with the water released from the dozens of barrels and flasks that Zhang had shattered moments earlier, it would grow exponentially. This was because the water contained in the flasks and barrels was actually highly concentrated essence water from deep within the dragon’s vein. Thus like fuel to the inferno, the highly concentrated essence water drastically increased the potential of the soul devouring flames.

Rather than giving off a dazzling light or illuminating the sky, the soul devouring flame blotted out the sky and hid away the stars as it descended.

“Such an interesting flame. Ah, why does it seem so familiar.” Diyu Ding Zhe mumbled to himself as a maddening grin appeared on his face moments before a confused expression took it’s place.

“Dammit! Dammit! Why can’t I remember!” Diyu Ding Zhe roared as his shadow swirled and a sea of bones erupted from within it.

It was clear that Diyu Ding Zhe’s mind was in shambles due to how long he had been imprisoned within the Reaper’s Coffin. Whilst he had put his conning on display, and despite being able to successful fool Reverend Dark Moon into a false sense of security and s.n.a.t.c.hing his body, Diyu Ding Zhe was now showing clear signs of instability.

Remains of fierce beasts, mighty warriors and countless immortals ascended from within Diyu Ding Zhe’s shadow, meeting Zhang’s soul devouring flame in an earth shattering collision.

“I can only imagine how powerful he is when he was at his peak.” Zhang thought as he watched charred bones, falling ash and dissipating fire disperse everywhere. Luckily for Zhang, thanks to his use of essence water, the soul devouring flame proved to be more tenacious than Diyu Ding Zhe’s shadows.

After suppressing the sea of bones, the soul devouring flames sped downward and engulfed Diyu Ding Zhe, igniting every fiber of his being with dancing black flames.

“This pain! What a wonderful sensation! Oh how long has it been since I’ve be able to feel! Ahahaha.” Diyu Ding Zhe laughed manically as shadowy wisps rose up from the darkness beneath him and began extinguishing the soul devouring flames.

Realistically speaking, the attribute of Zhang’s soul devouring flames were too similar to Diyu Ding Zhe’s essence absorbing shadows, making it difficult for him to gain an upper hand like in most of the other battles that he had fought before.

In most instances, the soul devouring flame would prove to be extremely useful against Zhang’s opponents, weakening them and allowing him to overpower him in a long term battle thanks to the Underworld Heart’s ability to both store and rapidly gather essence.

“Tch, to think he’s still able to muster so much power when he’s attention is split between two different places.” Zhang thought as he glanced toward Sky Cliff City, which was still surrounded from all sides by shadows and bones.

Thanks to the efforts of the four beauties, Sky Cliff City had momentarily managed to escape calamity, however thin cracks were slowly showing up and branching across the ma.s.sive barrier that encased the city, showing obvious signs of wear.

To date it could be said that, Diyu Ding Zhe had proved to be the strongest adversary that Zhang and the beauties had faced, being able to fight all five of them simultaneously without suffering many setbacks.

Not allowing himself to be deterred, Zhang soon enveloped himself in crimson lightning, and unleashed an onslaught of attacks upon Diyu Ding Zhe once again, not giving his opponent the opportunity to attack.

“Troublesome…” Diyu Ding Zhe muttered to himself before the shadows surrounding him roiled about and another wave of bones was sent rolling toward Sky Cliff City, his power surging through the sky and alerting nearly all of the experts in the vicinity of the Aurora Empire. 

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Elsewhere, thousands of miles away from Sky Cliff City, dozens of sparkling lights could be seen piercing through the sky at high speeds.

“Senior brother, are you sure it’s the inheritances of the fallen G.o.d?” A youth enveloped within a cloak of bluish light said as the flew across dozens of miles of land in a single breathe.

“What else could it be? Do you think anything else in this forsaken realm can produce such a phenomena? You should pray to the heavens that no one else beats us there, or else we may have our prize s.n.a.t.c.hed from underneath our noses.” A young man in his late teens said as he lead a group of thirty of so individuals toward the Aurora Empire, to be exact, toward Sky Cliff City and toward Zhang and Diyu Ding Zhe.

This one particular scene played out many times as all of the forces that had arrived from the higher realms began to converge upon Sky Cliff City at high speeds, activating various spells, and utilizing dozens of different magical treasures to increase their pace. 

Countless experts who were either too confident in their own abilities or blinded by the thought of possessing what many of them refer to as the fallen G.o.d’s inheritance, were all converging without sparing a moment’s thought as to what could possibly be happening. To them, the Wulin continent, and  the realm in which the Wulin continent resided, could not possibly house anything or anyone who could harm them.

With a mindset of superiority, one could say that all of these so called experts were sheep flocking to the slaughter, as they blindly raced each other toward where Zhang and Diyu Ding Zhe were.

Of course there were a few clear minded individuals who did not lose their heads in the heat of the moment.

Lazily soaring through the air was a particular middle aged man with long droopy eyebrows.

“You blind idiots, you think it would be so easy to find the inheritance of the fallen G.o.d? Converging on the same place because of an abnormal aura was released? Ha, you lot are looking down on the lesser realms too much. While it’s unlikely that a lesser realm can produce something truly powerful, there is always the chance of such a thing occurring.” The middle aged man said in a voice full of ridicule and scorn.

“I, Lao Zhizhe, will wait here for you fools to fight amongst yourselves and whatever is releasing that powerful aura, once you’re all spent and on your last legs I will move in a reap all the benefits.” The middle aged man laughed as his pace slowed to a crawl.

============================================================================

“Quickly! Pour more of your essence into the barrier!” Yuying could be heard yelling as the barrier enveloping Sky Cliff City was entirely covered in cracks.

“Sis, I don’t think we can keep this up.” Ai said as beads of sweat formed and rolled down her brow. 

Despite separate fighting both Zhang and the beauties, Diyu Ding Zhe proved to be an extremely powerful adversary.

Realizing that he was at a disadvantage, Diyu Ding Zhe had actually turned his attention toward the forces of the Order of the Blue Moon, dragging them into his shadow and draining their essence, leaving nothing but dried up corpses in his wake.

With the essence acquired from the members of the Order of the Blue Moon, Diyu Ding Zhe’s power skyrocketed, allowing him to quickly gain an advantage over Zhang and the beauties.

“Hold out for a little longer, if worst comes to worst I will active the grand spell formation!” Yuying said before an eerie voice made it’s way into her ears.

“Mei is that you? What are you doing here?” Diyu Ding Zhe’s voice sounded in Yuying’s ear.

“Mei? Mother?” Yuying thought.

“You… Why do you look so similar to her??? Who are you???” Diyu Ding Zhe’s voice echoed in Yuying’s ears again.

“Who are you?!” Diyu Ding Zhe’s voice said yet again.

“Why do you know my mother’s name?” Yuying asked while pouring more of her essence into the barrier surrounding Sky Cliff City.

“Mother? Good! Good! That mean’s you’re that b.a.s.t.a.r.d’s child! If I capture you then he will return her to me!” Diyu Ding Zhe’s roar sounded out through the air.

“It was he who kept her from me, or else… Or else she would have came on that day…” Diyu Ding Zhe’s mumbling continued on as his attackers were energized and elevated to another level.

“What are you talking about? Return her to you? My mother?” Yuying asked.

“Yes! If I capture you then he will definitely appear! This time I won’t lose! This time I definitely won’t let him steal her away from me again!!” Diyu Ding Zhe said as shadowy claws struck the barrier enveloping Sky Cliff City, leaving small gashes in the semitransparent membrane.

‘Steal her away from you? Hmph! Shut your mouth and stop slandering my parents! Don’t talk as if my mother was on intimate terms with you!” Yuying yelled as she performed a series of handsigns, quickly patching up the gaps within the barrier.

“Hah, such an outspoken child. If you don’t believe me then ask Little Mei herself and you’ll know the truth!” Diyu Ding Zhe’s voice said with a dry laugh, as he slowly withdrew focus from Zhang and focused the entirety of his attention upon Sky Cliff City and Yuying.

“What’s happening?” Zhang thought as he noticed Diyu Ding Zhe’s attacks weakening. Due to the distance between himself and Sky Cliff City, Zhang did not know of the exchange of dialog between Yuying and Diyu Ding Zhe, thus he was somewhat confused as to what was happening.

“Regardless of what is happening, I will stop you here and now!” Zhang said as he flipped his hand, activating the Ruler’s Domain and allowing a ma.s.sive golden streak to soar through the night sky.

With an earth shattering roar, a ma.s.sive dragon made up entirely of lightning unfurled its wings and filled  the dark night with blinding light.

“Cloak him in heavenly tribulation lightning! Turn him into cinders and ash!” Zhang commanded, moments before his creature unleashed a torrent of golden lightning from it’s maw.