Chapter 822: Suppressing Aikun, Taking Control of the Labyrinth
Hearing Zhang Yu even steal his own words, Ying Aikun felt a surge of fury.
“Deceiving the Heavens!”
Especially upon seeing Zhang Yu unfurl the Immortal Grotto-Heaven, only one thought remained in Ying Aikun’s mind.
“Mine!”
“This Grotto-Heaven should have been mine!”
Waves of hatred surged from his heart, but this hatred wasn’t directed at Zhang Yu. It was aimed at his ancestor, Ying Xintian.
Ever since he was young, Ying Aikun had never been able to understand one thing.
“Old fool! Why must you always be like this? I just don’t get it. We descendants who toil tirelessly, risking our lives in battles and struggles everywhere for the prosperity of the entire clan… you ignore us.”
“Instead, you always give away the family’s treasures to those useless Lower Beasts, those failed wastes.”
In Ying Aikun’s eyes, Ying Xintian was the number one spendthrift of Kunxu, the least immortal-like Immortal.
“Wasn’t it enough that you caused the entire clan to collapse, leaving everyone destitute and penniless? In the end, you won’t even pass down your own Grotto-Heaven to your blood descendants?”
“Ying Xintian! Just how much do you hate your own bloodline? How much do you despise your own descendants?”
With a furious roar in his heart, Ying Aikun’s body pierced through layers of spatial structure, flickering rapidly around Zhang Yu.
In an instant, he seemed to have split into countless incarnations, appearing in all directions around Zhang Yu.
“Old fool, just watch! Since you won’t give it to me, I’ll take back what’s mine myself!”
In Ying Aikun’s eyes, dealing with a mere Spirit Transformation cultivator like Zhang Yu, even if he had just grasped some Grotto-Heaven force, would be as easy as flipping his hand.
With a thunderous shout, Ying Aikun’s magic power surged. As his hands formed Dao Seals, the entrance to the Cosmic Pot opened wide, its internal landscape instantly enveloping the battlefield.
“What Fu Xiantian? What Immortal Slayer? What Zhang Yu… Look at the Lower Beasts you’ve chosen! What worthless trash?”
“You failed, and your successors failed too. If not for us blood descendants, who would uphold the Ying family’s name?”
With that, Ying Aikun formed another Dao Seal. The Cosmic Pot once again slammed into Zhang Yu’s Immortal Grotto-Heaven, not to shatter it, but to temporarily seal its entrance.
“Lock!”
As Ying Aikun gave the command, a soft boom echoed through the air, sending countless ripples across the atmosphere.
Simultaneously, the entrance to Zhang Yu’s Immortal Grotto-Heaven… seemed to have been temporarily sealed by Ying Aikun’s Cosmic Pot, severing all connection between the inside and outside.
As a descendant of Ying Xintian and a former member of the Immortal Clan, Ying Aikun possessed an unparalleled understanding of spatial Immortal Dao Technology. He was intimately familiar with how to use such techniques in combat.
He knew that the first priority when facing an opponent with a Grotto-Heaven — an independent space — was to seal it off, preventing it from interfering with the material world.
This would effectively neutralize the opponent’s personal space for the time being.
Of course, the price Ying Aikun paid for this move was that his own Cosmic Pot would also be temporarily unusable.
But he didn’t care.
“A poor beast from the Lower Realm, Bu Yingshu’s useless dog! Without the Grotto-Heaven that old fool gave you, and with your Immortal Shuttle unable to enter, what will you fight me with?”
Ying Aikun extended his hand, and brilliant lights erupted from his body, like countless stars igniting at once, nearly illuminating the entire Laboratory District.
Before his family’s assets were seized, Ying Aikun had taken many measures to hide his wealth.
One such measure was to use his position at the time to secretly drain the lifespans of his numerous Soul Cultivator subordinates and outsourced employees. He collected the power generated by their burning lifespans and condensed it into a flame called Lifespan Flame.
This flame possessed immense power and had a huge market, whether as a pure energy source, a forging flame, or a weapon.
Moreover, Ying Aikun’s methods were so covert that the numerous Soul Cultivators and outsourced employees initially noticed no change. On the surface, they remained a batch of high-quality talent, unaware that their futures had already been cashed in by Ying Aikun and converted into roaring Lifespan Flames stored in his private coffers.
At this moment, as Ying Aikun circulated his magic power, the surging Lifespan Flame erupted violently. It poured from his sleeves and coiled around Zhang Yu.
The scorching flames instantly illuminated the entire sky, making it blindingly bright. Even from a distance, onlookers felt the unsettling illusion of their own life force being drained away.
This was the terrifying nature of Lifespan Flame: it could accelerate the decay and aging of matter, instantly reducing powerful physiques and indestructible magical artifacts alike to piles of scrap metal.
Witnessing the sky filled with Lifespan Flame, the many cultivators who had been observing from the shadows felt their hearts pound with alarm. Sensing the immense threat, they all retreated another significant distance.
“I never thought Ying Aikun still had a move like this.”
“It seems he really was holding back earlier.”
“Without the Grotto-Heaven’s empowerment, and now struck by such a massive amount of Lifespan Flame… I’m afraid Zhang Yu’s chances of survival are slim. In the end, the Immortal Legacy is destined to fall into the hands of the Ying family…”
Meanwhile, watching Zhang Yu instantly engulfed by the Lifespan Flame, Ying Aikun sneered, “Pathetically weak.”
“Just like all the other disciples and followers that old fool chose before — nothing but useless failures.”
He roared at the sky, “Ying Xintian! Do you see this?! You old ghost, you’ve failed again and again, a lifetime of failure!”
“Your successors have failed, generation after generation! And now, this new successor will be crushed under my foot just the same!”
“Whether you like it or not, your legacy, your power, will ultimately fall into our hands! Only we, your true descendants, can make it truly flourish!”
Just as Ying Aikun was howling at the sky, ripples began to appear in the air.
The Lifespan Flame that had completely enveloped Zhang Yu moments ago vanished from the air, as if erased by an invisible hand.
At the same time, with Zhang Yu’s body as the source, the landscape of the Immortal Grotto-Heaven suddenly manifested.
It was as if a new canvas, the Immortal Grotto-Heaven, had been laid over the canvas of the physical world, startling Ying Aikun.
“This is…”
Zhang Yu stated calmly, “Grotto-Heaven Manifestation.”
This was an ability Zhang Yu had gained when his Immortal Descendant trait reached Level 6. It allowed him to temporarily overlay the physical world with the Immortal Grotto-Heaven, transforming the thousand-meter radius around him into an overlapping state of both realms.
With a single thought, he could switch the space within this thousand-meter radius: one moment it could be the physical world, the next the Immortal Grotto-Heaven, and the moment after, back to the physical world again.
Just now, Zhang Yu had executed this very move, transforming the surrounding space into the domain of the Immortal Grotto-Heaven and absorbing the sky-filling Lifespan Flame entirely within it.
Having done this, Zhang Yu looked at Ying Aikun and said, “Grotto-Heaven Manifestation… You can’t do this? It seems I truly am more suited to inherit Senior Ying Xintian’s legacy.”
“Arrogant fool!”
Ying Aikun roared in fury. His body instantly shattered through layers of spatial structure, like crashing through sheets of glass. Wreathed in the sky-filling Lifespan Flame, he shot toward Zhang Yu like a dazzling crimson meteor.
But as the surrounding space warped, it seemed that in the next moment, Zhang Yu would use Grotto-Heaven Manifestation to drag him into the Immortal Grotto-Heaven.
Yet, as if sensing the spatial fluctuations a step ahead, Ying Aikun’s figure flickered and reappeared on the other side, continuing his charge toward Zhang Yu.
Leveraging his mastery of Spatial Technology, Ying Aikun repeatedly evaded Zhang Yu’s Grotto-Heaven Manifestation, never allowing himself to be pulled into the Immortal Grotto-Heaven.
From a distance, the spectators saw a crimson meteor constantly leaping, flickering, and charging, closing the distance to Zhang Yu with each flash and dash.
“I possess the bloodlines of two Immortals and am backed by the Supreme Truth Immortal Clan! The Supreme Truth Immortal herself stands behind me! What right do you have to fight me?”
“Ying Xintian was a failure who failed his entire life! The successors he chose are all failures too! Today, you are destined to fall by my hand!”
Zhang Yu replied coldly, “Lose?”
“Perhaps in your eyes, he was a failure.”
“But in my eyes, he was a victor.”
“He was a victor who persevered in a battle doomed to fail, passing on hope to those who came after.”
With a deafening boom, Zhang Yu moved — not dodging, not evading, but shattering the air as he charged head-on into the incoming Ying Aikun.
“Now, he has chosen me as his new successor.”
CRACK! A cataclysmic shockwave, like the collision of the sun and moon, erupted from the point of impact. Rippling waves of qi transformed into layered storms, blasting outward in all directions. Strewn with scattered Lifespan Flames, the blast pulverized countless buildings in the Laboratory District.
“I will make you understand that his choice was absolutely correct.”
His physical body steadily decaying under the constant burn of Lifespan Flames, Zhang Yu roared and slammed a vicious punch into Ying Aikun.
Ying Aikun bellowed in fury, countering with a wave of his hand that sent a vast sheet of Lifespan Flame surging toward Zhang Yu.
Simultaneously, Ying Aikun’s figure flickered repeatedly, evading Zhang Yu’s attacks while his fists, wreathed in Lifespan Flame, struck Zhang Yu again and again.
Ying Aikun roared, “Scum! Fall!”
But in the next moment, Zhang Yu’s figure also began to flicker, disappearing and reappearing in flashes.
Ying Aikun’s gaze narrowed. He instantly understood. Zhang Yu was using Grotto-Heaven Manifestation, alternating between the physical world and the Immortal Grotto-Heaven, allowing him to phase in and out of existence.
With this technique, Zhang Yu, who had been forced onto the defensive, could now not only dodge Ying Aikun’s attacks but even land counterattacks, striking from nowhere.
“Why?!” A surge of resentment welled up in Ying Aikun’s heart. “Why can he master Grotto-Heaven power so quickly? How can he use Grotto-Heaven Manifestation so proficiently already?”
“Could it be that his talent in this area is truly that exceptional? Even greater than ours…?”
In the next instant, Ying Aikun forcefully suppressed these distracting thoughts.
“So you like to hide? Let’s see where you can run!”
Like a blazing sun, Ying Aikun erupted in scorching brilliance, showering the entire battlefield with Lifespan Flame.
Now, no matter how Zhang Yu flickered, as long as he reappeared anywhere in the vicinity, he would be within Ying Aikun’s attack range.
Yet, through clash after clash, bombardment after bombardment, Zhang Yu — though severely burned by the Lifespan Flame — remained fiercely defiant. The power he unleashed showed no sign of weakening, a sight that sent a chill through Ying Aikun.
This resilience was partly due to the physical defenses Zhang Yu had painstakingly forged since his Qi Refining days, which constantly resisted the Lifespan Flame’s destructive effects on his body.
Furthermore, Zhang Yu was secretly using the Blood Tide Essence Qi Sacred Contemplation to transform his muscles and organs into flames, allowing him to better counteract the Lifespan Flame.
Moreover, with each disappearance and reappearance, Zhang Yu sent clones emerging from the Immortal Grotto-Heaven to fight Ying Aikun in his place.
Any clone that sustained significant injuries would retreat into the Immortal Grotto-Heaven to circulate its energy and heal.
At this moment, Zhang Yu wasn’t fighting Ying Aikun alone. He was controlling over thirty clones, cycling them between healing and combat, using Grotto-Heaven Manifestation to assault Ying Aikun in a relentless succession.
“Impossible!” The longer Ying Aikun fought, the more incredulous he became. “He just reached the Spirit Transformation realm! How can he fight me to this extent?”
“Ying Aikun…” Just then, Zhang Yu’s voice suddenly cut through the chaos. “I’ve familiarized myself with Grotto-Heaven force. So…”
“The warm-up is over. Let’s settle this.”
Hearing these words, Ying Aikun’s eyes narrowed sharply, his mind racing with countless thoughts.
“What did he say? The warm-up is over? What arrogant nonsense is this? He must be bluffing!”
But in the next instant, an intense sense of threat surged within him. The source of this threat was…
“Myself?”
Just as Ying Aikun realized the danger originated from his own body, thirteen Grotto-Heaven Bridges violently erupted open within him.
This was another enhancement Zhang Yu’s Immortal Descendant trait gained after reaching Level 6, allowing him to open a total of 18 Grotto-Heaven Bridges.
While clashing with Ying Aikun earlier, he had secretly left 13 Grotto-Heaven Bridges on his opponent’s body.
Meanwhile, on the other side of these bridges, within the Immortal Grotto-Heaven, Zhang Yu’s thirty-plus clones, along with his battle corpse components — the Light Cannon Array Dragon and the Sorting Demon — were poised to strike.
The remaining Immortal Crystals gifted by Jiang Xuyi now ignited violently, transforming into surging torrents of pure immortal aura and spiritual energy. This energy poured into the numerous corpse components, instantly pushing their power output to the absolute limit.
In the next moment, a barrage of assaults crossed the Grotto-Heaven Bridges and landed directly on Ying Aikun.
First, the Sorting Demon’s Occupational Curse trait activated, causing Ying Aikun’s Lifespan Flame to spontaneously combust all over his body.
Then, the Light Cannon Array Dragon’s Blood Malevolent Divine Light swept in, coiling around Ying Aikun’s Primordial Spirit and frantically corroding it.
The other corpse components simultaneously extended tentacles and sprayed blood vessels, using all their strength to suppress Ying Aikun.
As for Zhang Yu’s thirty-plus clones, they unleashed wave after wave of Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Divine Power.
At the same time, Zhang Yu pressed down gently with a palm from afar.
Finally, coordinating with his main body, a total of thirty-three layers of Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Divine Power erupted violently. It was as if an entire continental shelf had been smashed onto Ying Aikun, sending him plummeting like a meteor. He crashed into the ground of the Laboratory District with a deafening boom.
Seeing that he had to rely on Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Divine Power to suppress his opponent, Zhang Yu couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
He had previously used Kunlun in the Palm to suppress opponents, but that was because they were different.
After all, Kunlun in the Palm merely manipulated space; it didn’t suppress with raw power. Against a formidable opponent like Ying Aikun, who was also skilled in spatial technology, simple spatial manipulation was of little use. Even if Zhang Yu compressed the space, Ying Aikun’s power remained unsuppressed, allowing him to break free at any moment.
To suppress Ying Aikun, Zhang Yu needed to unleash truly formidable power.
He felt that while his abilities in self-preservation, support, and utility were already highly refined, he ultimately still lacked an Immortal Sect Technique with enough raw power. Perhaps I should consider cultivating one soon…
Under the immense pressure, Ying Aikun was pinned to the center of the massive crater. No matter how he struggled, he couldn’t even lift his head.
“Corpse components? Is this the power of those berserk corpse components? Did that old bastard pre-stock Zhang Yu’s Grotto-Heaven with combat-ready corpse components?”
“Damn it! If my previous physical body hadn’t been destroyed, how could I possibly be suppressed by him!”
“Old bastard! If you hadn’t gotten me expelled from the sect, causing the Myriad Laws Sect to revoke all my Sect-Guarding Techniques, how could this little beast have gained the upper hand!”
Though suppressed by Zhang Yu, Ying Aikun’s heart surged with overwhelming indignation.
“Ying Xintian! If you hadn’t spent your entire life favoring outsiders and undermining your own descendants… how could I have been defeated today? How could I have lost?”
Meanwhile, the numerous Spirit Transformation cultivators nearby watched this scene in astonishment.
In fact, the actual battle hadn’t lasted long. From Ying Aikun’s initial attack, to their fierce clash, and finally to Zhang Yu slamming Ying Aikun into the ground with a single palm strike, the entire sequence had unfolded in just a few moments.
If, at the beginning, they had entertained thoughts of fishing in troubled waters — hoping to seize the Immortal Descendant powers while the two combatants were locked in battle — those notions had now completely vanished.
Seeing Zhang Yu effortlessly suppress Ying Aikun and display the profound mysteries of Grotto-Heaven force in the process, they no longer dared to seek any opportunities.
“Unbelievable… truly unbelievable…” Deputy Minister Jiang Xuyi thought to himself, his eyes fixed on the scene. “I originally assumed the Immortal legacy was all but guaranteed for Ying Aikun. Who would have thought it would end up with Zhang Yu?”
“Could all of this have been within Dao Monarch Bu’s calculations? Was Zhang Yu the candidate chosen by the Myriad Laws Immortal Clan to contend for the Immortal legacy all along?”
At this moment, both the distant Dao Monarch Bu and Zhang Yu before him became increasingly profound and inscrutable in Jiang Xuyi’s eyes.
Meanwhile, Ling Chiye, who had been observing from the entrance of the Laboratory District, frowned slightly.
He didn’t know why, but starting just a moment ago, the divine light emanating from Ying Aikun had first flared brightly, then begun to flicker intermittently, and finally dimmed rapidly, as if it had been snuffed out by a giant hand.
“What happened?”
“Could it be… Senior Ying has claimed the Grotto-Heaven and is testing it by entering and exiting? And now he’s staying inside?” Ling Chiye nodded slightly at this thought, feeling he had guessed correctly.
Within the Laboratory District, the colossal corpse turned to Zhang Yu and said, “Young friend, you have claimed the Immortal Legacy. From now on, you control this labyrinth.”
“But this news cannot be hidden for long. Soon, it will be known throughout the world. The gazes of countless sect leaders, Heavenly Court Righteous Gods, and even Immortals will converge upon you. Yun Taizhen will not spare you either. Have you considered how you will face all this?”