Journey of the Fate Destroying Emperor
chapter-1160

1160 True Empyrean Strength

Wang Wei did not immediately enter but instead brought this entire forbidden zone into the Void Battlefield. He frowned as he realized he never had a chance to upgrade the battlefield, so it still could not bear a true battle between two Empyrans. Without much choice, Wang Wei added a few quick arrays to temporarily support this place and prevent leakage of their strength; otherwise, one of them could destroy the entire lower dimension.

Once everything was set up, he removed all the seals on the Nether Hell. Old Man Nether slowly walked out, and Wang Wei squinted. 'His aura is different - fiercer and more warrior-like.' The previous Old Man Nether was like a wild beast, but Wang Wei could tell the latter had lost its fangs. But this one was another story - he was truly an apex predator.

"Was it your doing?" Wang Wei asked. "This three-way alliance, was that your idea, or am I giving you too much credit? Did you just come up with this idea, or have you been working with the Abyss Gap for a long time?"

"Are you sure you should be here?" Old Man Nether asked calmly.

"Don't worry, I've prepared for your little friend. As long as I kill you quickly enough, everything will be fine."

"It seems you have much faith in your people." Old Man Nether cracked his neck. "I would love for the plan to proceed normally and distract you long enough for us to escape, but I'm also fine with luring you here."

[King of Hell Mode]

The black bone armor materialized on his body as he used his most powerful state. His hair and beard turned into flame, but not the color purple as before, but dark red. His pupils were not blood red but pitch black.

'His aura and transformation are indeed different, but I don't sense any corruption or Abyss power from him,' Wang Wei analyzed as he activated his [Awakening], along with all his boosts to enter the Taboo Realm. He manipulated his aura to resemble the last time they fought, hiding that he had entered the Taboo Realm or had achieved perfection.

His proving Dao artifact turned into a silver sword, but to his surprise, his opponent summoned a halberd instead of the previous ax. Wang Wei squinted before rushing forward, clashing his weapon against Old Man Nether.

The sheer shock from their attack twisted the void from this infinite space composed of the power of nothingness. Luckily, it only twisted it without tearing it apart. The two had hundreds of shadows emanating from their bodies as their weapons clashed, but these shadows were not simple after images of their speed. Each shadow represented the fact they classed ten trillion times in less than an attosecond.

At first, the two were equal, but with the passing of time, Old Man Nether started to move backward. He could not help as Wang Wei's attack or swordsmanship was direct but scary. Each strike was powered by an infinite number of people from ancient to modern times; he accessed these people's lives from the River of Fate and borrowed their strength by controlling their fates. This [Fate Condensing Sword Technique] is not scarier because he could only access the fate of people weaker than him. Regardless, given the amount of people that existed in the lower dimension since the beginning of time, it was a truly scary number.

Boom!

Old Man Nether flew a dozen meters, sliding through the floor to prevent himself from flying away in embarrassment. However, Wang Wei would not give him the opportunity to rest as he continued his onslaught of attacks, forcing him on the defensive.

'It's different from our previous fight,' Wang Wei thought. 'It's apparent that his previous lack of battle experience was gone, meaning he spent all that time training. He must have used his created lifeforms to aid him.' Old Man Nether's rapid improvement could only mean he spent countless years fighting and training to compensate for his previous lack of experience.

Boom!

Old Man Nether was pushed back a second time. "If that's all you have, I'll be very disappointed."

"The battle has just started, brat," Old Man Nether sneered.

[Yin-Yang Divide]

Old Man Nether held the halberd with two hands to ensure his downward slash could use all its power. The all-white empty void of the battlefield instantly turned into black and white as the halberd descended. Wang Wei felt a terrifying power trying to divide him into two: his Yin and Yang self. He knew that if it succeeded, his strength would also be divided, making it easier for him to be slaughtered.

Wang Wei waved his sword, erasing the concept of Yin-Yang in the surroundings, thus turning Old Man Nether's attack into a simple weapon-based one. As for the weapon itself, he moved it to the side with his left hand. Wang Wei wanted to follow his two-piece combo/attack to a three-hit with a kick to his opponent's chess, but a terrifying force came out of nowhere and sent him flying a few thousand kilometers.

'What the hell just happened?' He was perfectly intact, without even a scratch due to his [Invisible Will Armor]. However, he was baffled since this attack originated out of nowhere. His senses did not detect anything, and he saw nothing.

Bang!

Another attack from an invisible being and Wang Wei still could not see or sense anything. Now that he anticipated the attack, he reduced the force from the attack the moment the assailant's hand touched his protection, but that only prevented his body from flying away.

'This attack felt like it originated from a large and blunt weapon,' Wang Wei analyzed.

Old Man Nether rushed in to attack, but Wang Wei ignored him as he did not believe the latter could easily penetrate his defense which was boosted by his current strength. Wang Wei received two more attacks before finally seeing the creature attacking him after blessing his eyes with all his Daos. In other words, he condensed Samsara Eyes, Fate Eyes, Luck Eyes, Yin-Yang Eyes, Destiny Eyes, Time Eyes, Disorder-Order Eyes, and Freedom Eyes into one.

He saw a bone creature holding a large mace. The creature was weak, maybe even too weak, but its weapon was Empyrean Tier, hence the source of most of the damages from the attacks.

"Is that a Creation Lifeform?" Wang Wei asked.

'So, even this tactic did not work,' Old Man Nether thought.

"You sacrifice all its power and development potential to increase its Invisibility Ability. Then, you gave him an artifact to compensate for its attack potency, not caring that every use would drain its life force. That's not a bad design or plan," Wang Wei commented.

During the time he was preparing to attack the Death World, Wang Wei saw that a few more pages from Wu Hong's notebook were unsealed and read them, so he knew about Creation Lifeforms. As the name implies, they are creatures born from an Empyrean through their Grandmist Wheel or the Inner Worlds of Dao Rulers.

"This should not just be all of it. Why don't you show me the others?"

"As you wish," Old Man Nether responded with squinted eyes. Originally, the Creation Lifeform Tactic should have been reserved as a trump card for the end of the battle. After all, the longer he can prolong this battle, the more advantage their alliance will have. However, in the short period since this fight started, Old Man Nether realized his opponent had improved faster than anticipated.

That terrifying defense alone gave Wang Wei an overwhelming advantage, not to mention his usually brilliant techniques. So, Old Man Nether decided not to waste time and go all out to eliminate this foe.

Wang Wei's eyes squinted as he saw more than 300 hundred people rushing out from the Nether Hell, each of them with the aura of an Empyrean.

'This is not good news,' he thought with great somberness. He knew all these people were Creation Lifeforms, meaning Old Man Nether created them. He was not surprised by this fact but by the fact that they were all Tier 11.

According to Wu Hong, there are strict rules for Creation Lifeforms. Inside their creator's world, they can be as powerful as they wish or have any ability the creator desires - there are no limits. However, as soon as these creatures leave their home world, they will experience [Creation Tribulation], and Grand Dao does not play around with this tribulation.

The more powerful and broken a Creation Lifeform is, the scarier the tribulation will be, resulting in a terrifyingly low survival rate. In fact, 99.9% of Tier 12 Creation Lifeforms die in that tribulation - even if their maker is a Paragon.

'Hong'er said that creators must consider the art of balance to ensure their creation can pass the tribulation.' He glanced at the bone creature. This thing perfectly personified that idea as his creator balanced him out by taking away all his other attributes to ensure his invisibility was amongst the best.

'She also said that only talented Empyreans can create lifeforms on the same cultivation as them, and only Creation Dao can create lifeforms above their tier without any resource aid, but that was not recommended.'

It was a foolish idea to create any lifeforms above your tier for a few reasons. Talented people like Wang Wei might succeed if they had enough Tier 12 resources, but it would be best to use it on himself than on something like this. However, this was not the main reason that it was forbidden.

The main reason is they cannot control their creation. No matter the method, a Tier 11 Empyrean cannot control a Tier 12 Creation Lifeform. Once they pass the tribulation and achieve Paragon strength and status, no controlling method will work unless another Paragon assists the Paragon in controlling the lifeform. The only way to gain the loyalty of a higher-tier Creation Lifeform is through charisma or building a deep relationship beforehand. However, after the latter becomes Tier 12, it's easy to discern whether the relationship was genuine or a ploy for control.

'I never thought Old Man Nether was talented enough to create lifeforms on par with his tier, let alone 300. I truly underestimate that old monster.'

The situation was not looking good for Wang Wei. It seems obvious that he only needed to use a Clone Technique to even out the number, but his opponent can do the same and possibly worsen the situation. So, he now had no choice but to battle over 300 Empyreans.