Chapter 201: The Twins’ Challenge
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“You damn brats, prepare yourselves! You will no longer disrespect the power of a Venerable such as myself!”
Fang Gu Lan attacked Bing Xue’s children, Orion and Athena, as he pushed them away so he could fight Bing Xue on his own without their intervention.
He thought that the reason she was winning was because of their intervention and strength combined with their mother.
Therefore, he pushed them away as much as he could, creating dozens of Doppelgangers with his powerful Seven Paths Art to distract and kill them without their mother’s protection, as he was fighting her directly.
“Who do you think you are to say that?!” Orion barked angrily, his aura shaping as a gigantic white werewolf growing stronger, swinging its claws against the thirteen Doppelgangers around him.
“{Divine White Wolf’s Heavenly Claw}!”
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
He unleashed a barrage of slashing attacks; the claws of his Aura were as sharp as Blades, allowing the boy to unleash an imitation of Bing Xue’s Soul Blade which he had inherited and which he was rapidly integrating into his own fighting style.
“My Doppelgangers might be weaker than my true body, but I have specifically learned unique techniques with them!”
“{Seven Heavenly Paths}: {Seven-Colored Heaven Aegis}”
Fang Gu Lan smiled through all his clones as they unleashed the power of the Seven Paths of Heaven together, forming a swirl of colorful clouds that rapidly forged into a huge rainbow shield.
CLAAANK!
The attacks coming from Orion were barely resisted, as scratches and cracks spread through the shield, the Venerable quickly realized that although it worked, more attacks would break the shield instantly.
“This kid’s too strong! What did Bing Xue do to make her children cultivate to this point?!”
Fang Gu Lan was more than anything, incredibly jealous of their power and how easy they got it compared to him, even though he himself had an unfair advantage, a System capable of Stealing people’s Fate.
“Brother is not alone, you know?!”
“Hm?!”
The clones of Fang Gu Lan noticed Athena appearing above them, her hands generating two massive “magic circles,” which were actually her own unique technique and power: the ability to create Formations, customize them, combine them, and adapt to her foes’ powers.
“{Divine White Heaven Formation Arts}: {Heavenly Repulsion Formation}!”
The two formations in the girl’s hand activated as massive beams of pure light descended from the skies above, shocking the Venerable.
“What?! That’s not a Formation!”
As he screamed in disbelief at this "magic,” which was quite revolting even for a being such as himself, the beams hit his clones with immense explosions.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
As the beams exploded and engulfed his clones, they began to weaken as their Heavenly Ki was burning away, being used to increase the damage they took from these beams.
“Heavenly Repulsion is a Formation,” Athena said. “It simply uses the sky itself as part of it! By activating the Formation, the Skies absorb my Ki and then release it back towards my foes!”
“T-That’s just magic, isn’t it?” Orion wondered, glaring at her sister with surprise.
“I-It’s not magic!” Athena felt a bit embarrassed; it really looked like that. “Orion, concentrate on the fight!”
“Right!”
Orion nodded, rushing towards the Clones that were being weakened and taking great damage. His Aura howled mightily as he aimed at those that were weak and with several cracks on their bodies.
“{Divine White Wolf’s Mighty Howl}!”
“AWOOOOOO!”
As the wolf from his Aura howled furiously, a gigantic shockwave of heavenly energies and photon essence reached the clones of Fang Gu Lan, reducing the weakened ones to pieces.
Three out of thirteen died in that second; the remaining ten quickly fought Orion head-on without letting the boy recover from that attack at all.
“I’ll teach you how it’s done in Murim, you damned child!”
“I will enjoy tearing Bing Xue’s son to shreds!”
“Die!”
They began punching, kicking, and unleashing beams of light from their fingertips against Orion, while their Seven Heavenly Paths Arts activated, generating infernal storms of flames through the Red Heaven Path, destructive slicing winds through the Green Heaven Path, and downpours of freezing heavenly waters through the Blue Heaven Path.
“Nnnggh…!”
Orion placed his arms around his face as he took all the hits head-on, Fang Gu Lan constantly laughing as he distracted Athena with four other clones, making them six against the boy and four against the girl.
“Hahahahaa! You can’t use your flashy techniques if I overwhelm you from every angle, can’t you?!”
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
“Grrrghhh…!”
The boy gritted his teeth as his skin was constantly covered by bruises; his Aura gained a red tinge, growing larger and stronger as his eyes turned red.
His white fur began growing longer across his body, and his tail, wolf ears, and sharp claws also became larger; the more fur grew across his body the more furious he became.
“RAAAAHHHH!”
As he roared furiously while being punched in the face six times in a row, his Aura exploded, sending a gigantic shockwave everywhere.
TRUUUUM!
“Ungh?!”
“Argh!”
“What the…?!”
The clones of the Venerable gasped as they glanced at Orion in disbelief; the boy’s body had changed, becoming slightly taller, more mature out of nowhere, as if he had aged a couple of years, looking more like a teenager than a child.
“GRRRHHH…! GRAAARRR! LEAVE MY SISTER ALONE!”
With a furious roar, he opened his jaws, firing a massive beam of pure white energy towards the clones, who generated the same shield as before.
Yet…!
BOOOMMM!!!
The shield was instantly pierced, three more clones disintegrating before the boy’s wrath as the boy rushed towards Athena, who was constantly being attacked.
“I-Impossible! Three clones died instantly?!”
Fang Gu Lan consciousness spread through his many clones; they couldn’t believe the situation right now! However, as a Venerable, he had quick thinking and adaptation abilities.
“{Seven Heavenly Paths}: {Divine Heavenly Weapon Forging}!”
Using the remaining fragments of the clones that were destroyed, he forged three powerful weapons: a rainbow sword, a black spear, and a golden axe.
With these three powerful weapons being wielded by the three clones fighting Orion, he quickly pushed the boy back where he came from, as he roared angrily that his sister was being attacked too unfairly!
The powerful weapons created ripples in space as they attacked the boy, breaking his defenses and constantly slicing through his fur and body, leaving behind scratches and small wounds.
SLAAASH! CRAAASH! BAAAM!
“COWARD!”
Orion roared angrily, glaring at the clones as they laughed maliciously, without letting him even fight back as the weapons began to burn through his own Ki, making it harder for the boy to unleash it like a beam.
“Cowards? Why, that’s such a harsh word!”
“I am not a coward; I simply adapt.”
“What’s wrong with this? You were doing the same before against me with your mother!”
“IT’S NOT THE SAME!”
The boy furiously roared, opening his jaws and catching a sword slash, crunching with all his force and shattering the sword instantly.
“RAAARRRGH!”
Crack, crack…! CRAAASH!
Fang Gu Lan was once more surprised by what the boy did. He used his teeth to shatter a treasure of the level of a Venerable; that was simply too ridiculous!
“I have to kill these brats before they become too big of a problem!” he thought. “I’ll slaughter them right now, before they grow and can surpass me!”
The merciless Venerable threw the shattered sword towards the boy as it exploded into hundreds of sharp knives that pierced through the boy’s skin, leaving them covering his body.
“Die.”
“Ugh?!”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
“ORION!”
Athena screamed as she saw her brother being engulfed in countless explosions from weapons piercing his body!
“I don’t think you’ve got the time to be worrying about your brother, little bitch!”
“Aaarrgh!”
Fang Gu Lan grabbed Athena’s long hair and swung her around like a ragdoll, sending her flying down as the two other clones intercepted her, unleashing powerful techniques of their own.
“{Seven Heavenly Paths}: {Green Heaven’s Storm}”
“{Seven Heavenly Paths}: {Black Heaven’s Void}!”
The Green Heaven Storm and the Black Heaven Void merged together, rapidly forming a gigantic storm of black void, engulfing her completely.
FLUOOOSH!
“Uuggh…!”
Athena was trapped inside as void constantly attempted to consume her very being. She glanced at her brother fighting, struggling.
At first it seemed like their victory was assured, but the more they fought, the more resilient and trickier Fang Gu Lan became.
This was the Venerable’s way of fighting; he would let his opponents get the better of him first, studying their movements, techniques, and powers.
And then, when they least expect it, catch them off-guard with a powerful attack and adapt to their fighting styles.
This is how this monster had won against so many foes stronger than him before.
However, it was when Bing Xue used the same tactic against him that he lost.
“The Void is consuming Mama’s Protection…!” Athena thought, gritting her teeth. “I have to fight more… Better, stronger… I need to adapt; I need to overcome this on my own or else…!”
Her eyes began glowing with white and silver light, and as the girl’s entire Aura started to fluctuate, her body also started to transform like her brother did, temporarily maturing as her fur, ears, and tail became longer.
Her Aura became a giant, ferocious white wolf, although it rapidly became more majestic, resembling a fox rather than a wolf.
“GRRHHH…!”
She grabbed the formations in her hands and then infused them into her body.
“{Divine White Heaven Formation Arts}: {Heavenly Armor Formation}!”
FLAAASH!
The Heavenly Beams rushed from the skies, hitting the tornado made of void and destroying it. Fang Gu Lan’s clones glared at the girl, as her entire body was covered with massive mechanical armor of white and silver color.
From watching her mother and her sister Hekita constantly inspecting, analyzing, and improving the Mechanical Gods, Athena slowly began to also gain a great interest in them.
Her formations, her chosen path and techniques, could sometimes potentially feel limiting, but the more she learned these things, the more her technique expanded at the same time as her imagination.
“Full body armor?”
“That won’t work either way!”
“Your Divine Protection easily shatters before my might!”
Fang Gu Lan’s three clones reached Athena instantly; the girl moved alongside the mechanical armor covering most of her body, and propulsors unleashed explosions of white and blue flames, helping the girl immediately reach him.
“HYAAAH!”
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
And then she clashed against him; gigantic metallic claws infused with her heavenly powers moved alongside her own, intercepting her foe’s attacks from every angle.
“Tail!”
A long mechanical tail appeared behind the mechanical armor, connected to her own; it moves dexterously, stopping the bastard from sneaking behind her.
CRAAASH!
And piercing right through one of the Venerable’s clones as her tail transformed into a spiraling drill made of pure Ki.
In fact, the entire Armor was a Formation that used her Aura, Ki, and the Sky around her to crystalize; therefore, it was an evolved form of her own Aura, in a way.
“Guuaargh?!”
As the clone was quickly destroyed and exploded into pieces, the other two clones rushed to gather the fragments and create a new weapon.
But the girl stopped them, instantly grabbing the fragments herself and using her Formation again.
“Don’t think I’ll let you!” she said angrily. “{Divine White Heaven Formation Arts}: {Heavenly Weapon Formation}!”
The fragments of Fang Gu Lan’s clone, which were rainbow-colored crystal-like materials, were rapidly merged together through a cube-shaped formation, fusing with it into a giant golden and rainbow-colored spear, covered with White Heaven Thunder constantly zapping.
“HYAAAH!”
With an angry roar, the girl swung the spear forward, piercing through the Heavenly Shields and Barriers of her foes and pushing them back constantly.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
“She’s using the clone’s leftover fragments as her weapon?!”
“Dammit! What’s the meaning of this?!”
The two clones couldn’t believe Athena’s cunningness. It only took her a moment to see them doing that for her to copy their technique almost flawlessly and even improve upon it.
Since she began her path towards growing stronger, the girl has always been fascinated with Formations themselves and the endless possibilities they can do.
Within her, the Path of Formations had become clearer as she fought and almost reached her limits.
“Just stay away from her range!”
“She sacrificed her special techniques for stronger physical strength; she should be easy to take down from a distance now.”
The two clones kept their distance while using Black Heaven Void constantly, pushing her back and beginning to break her armor; however, the girl wasn’t going to just hopelessly chase them around.
Her Aura changed colors, from white…
To black.
“Like two sides of the same coin, Light can also give birth to Darkness, Athena,” Bing Xue once told her. “Never forget this. Although your strength is definitely within the White Heaven Formation Arts, you can also unleash its opposite force. Practice, you’ll get it eventually.”
“{Divine Black Heaven Formation Arts}: {Black Void Gravity Formation}!”
TRUUUM!
Darkness engulfed the two clones as they felt an immense gravitational force towards the girl; gravity itself twisted before the power of the Black Heaven Void technique.
Which she not only copied but improved, fusing it into her own techniques!
“W-What is the meaning of this?!”
“Uuaarrghh!”
The two clones panicked, attacking Athena with everything they had!
However, she rushed through the flames and winds with her armor as it was being destroyed, swinging the massive spear and impaling both of them at the same time.
CRAAASH!
“Urrgh?!”
“Arrgh!”
Crack, crack…!
BOOOM!
The clones screamed in agony, their bodies instantly exploding into pieces, fragments that the girl wasn’t going to let go to waste.
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