A rain of blood enveloped the sky. Those raindrops were not the black drops seen when the Ghost Emperor cast the "Immortal Slaughtering Great Magic," but rather bore a faint golden hue containing dragon breath and a kind of lightning-flickering power. There was also a supremely high, holy aura. This was because Fang Han's body harbored multiple powers, including the Lightning Bone Sarira, the Dragon God Pill, the life essence of the Seven Great God Kings, and the True God Seed.
The Ghost Emperor wholly cultivated the demonic path, slaughtering living creatures, possessing infinite resentment; therefore, his blood was naturally pitch-black.
But Fang Han had not slaughtered innocent creatures, hence his blood naturally carried a holy aura. Executing the Immortal Slaughtering Great Magic, its execution was much purer and the might was far grander.
The torrential rain of blood fell down and then combusted, costing Fang Han sixty years of his lifespan in an instant. This was simply an extremely extravagant act, but Fang Han, now carrying "nine thousand years," could afford such extravagance.
"Om!"
Amid the boundless bloody rain, Fang Han struck out with a lethal fist directly shattering the layer of astral qi surrounding Daoist Wood’s body, landing the lethal blow right onto his main body.
Daoist Wood was knocked backward, frantically spurting fresh blood from his mouth. Fortunately, the magical vestment draped on his body was a lower-grade Dao artifact, called the "Sal Vestment". It had been woven from the leaves of his original tree body, taking several thousands of years of time. He was a rogue cultivator, who, only through a stroke of extreme luck and fortuitous encounters, successfully cultivated into a Giant of Ages. Yet, his collection was lacking compared to the disciples of grand sects. It was already quite decent that he possessed a lower-grade Dao artifact, all refined by himself.
He never had the time to refine a mid-grade Dao artifact.
Vast expanses of green light flared off the "Sal Vestment," offsetting the force of Fang Han's fist, yet the garment was ruptured in multiple places.
Originally, with Fang Han's current strength plus the casting of the lifespan-consuming Immortal Slaughtering Great Magic, a single punch could have directly blown the lower-grade Dao artifact apart, breaking it down into raw primordial essence qi. However, Daoist Wood was a Giant of Ages, completely capable of drawing out the full might of a lower-grade Dao artifact, which was why the "Sal Vestment" only slightly tore apart, losing much of its spiritual efficacy. It could be restored with just a slight bit of sacrificial refinement.
"Fang Han, how could you have cultivated such a vicious demonic art!"
Daoist Wood's voice was thoroughly shaken, and a few traces of dread actually surfaced in his tone. Yes, he was frightened. As a Giant of Ages, a figure at the first level of the Longevity Secret Realm holding ten thousand years of longevity, he was actually scared! Right now, his strength was enormously damaged, and his core origin energy was suppressed by Fang Han's World Tree, yet Fang Han spared no cost in launching a lifespan-expending supreme demonic art, burning his own essence qi to exact the kill. He genuinely felt the danger of his own fall.
At this moment, a sliver of regret rose in his heart for coming to kill Fang Han.
To actually have been brought to such a state.
"Is this demonic art vicious? Hahaha, you are scared, you are scared. Since you are afraid, I'll cast it a few more times, to let you know how formidable I am!"
Fang Han was extremely astounded in his heart that his fist had surprisingly failed to kill Daoist Wood entirely, having been blocked by the opponent's Dao artifact vestment. One must know, this was his first time utilizing a lifespan-consuming demonic path method against an enemy. If it wasn't a Giant of Ages, he wouldn't even think of using it. A person's lifespan was far too precious.
Even when confronted by the joint siege of Fan Qingying and Yan Shuiyi, he had not used it.
Even on the life-and-death arena, when the Wind and Fire Tribulation erupted, he remained without using it.
But right now, he cast it.
However, the single strike was unsuccessful, successfully neutralized by Daoist Wood. The sky full of blood rain gradually dispersed, and the majestic aura began to recede. The power of the Immortal Slaughtering Great Magic had been exhausted in Fang Han's singular strike.
He had been confident that a single blow could instantly obliterate experts like Wan Lianshan, Jiao Fei, Xue Wuyang, or Xing Miexie, directly killing them on the spot. Yet he didn't expect a Giant of Ages to be far more formidable than he imagined. But since one strike failed, he absolutely didn't mind a second attempt, or a third!
"Pfft!" Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Facing the shocked and twisted face of Daoist Wood, Fang Han consecutively spat out blood five times in a single breath. Every spurt of blood was larger than the first. Each mouthful of blood instantly transformed into a sky-filling shower of blood that cascaded downward before blazing ferociously.
In an instant, Fang Han actually cast the "Immortal Slaughtering Great Magic" five consecutive times. For each cast, spitting out one mouthful of fresh blood, he consumed sixty years of his lifespan. In just this short flurry, he expended a solid three hundred years of his own longevity!
A full three hundred years of lifespan, consumed just like that.
This complete madness left everyone, not only Daoist Wood, but even the Dark Terror King, Star Cloud Baby, the artifact spirit of the Sun and Moon Essence Wheels, and the Wheel Turning Holy King incarnated from the Blood Night King, in utter shock. They all felt Fang Han's sheer insanity.
Only with Fang Han's specific constitution could one launch the Immortal Slaughtering Great Magic five times straight. If it were any other demonic path expert, even possessing thousands of years of lifespan, their physical body simply couldn't endure such ravaging.
But Fang Han's half Undying Body could.
Furthermore, his lifespan of over nine thousand years offered enough to squander. To slay a Giant of Ages, he risked everything. This was an exceptionally perfect opportunity. Had it been Daoist Wood at his peak condition, uninjured, even if Fang Han sprayed fifty mouthfuls of fresh blood, exhausting three thousand years of his longevity, he might still not have successfully killed the opponent!
This was exactly the fearsomeness of a Giant of Ages.
"Not good! Break for me!"
Locked away momentarily by the Eight Division Pagoda, Daoist Dragon also sensed the dire situation. His life-bound Heaven and Earth Morphology swelled open, multiplying its power a thousandfold, actually vibrating the Eight Division Pagoda into non-stop shaking. Pfft! The Dark Terror King and the Star Cloud Baby both spat out a mouthful of fresh blood simultaneously.
"Pfft!"
At this crucial moment, Fang Han once again spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. However, this mouthful of blood was not directed at Daoist Wood, but instead at the Eight Division Pagoda.
He performed the Immortal Slaughtering Great Magic one more time.
An intense rain of blood showered down heavily onto the Eight Division Pagoda and was immediately absorbed by the treasured pagoda. The Heavenly Demons inside vastly amplified in power once again. Concurrently, the Sun and Moon Essence Wheels and the major artifact spirits received an abundant supply of origin energy, ruthlessly suppressing Daoist Dragon down anew.
Daoist Wood had long perceived that the situation turned ill and had prepared to flee, but he was completely intercepted by Yan utilizing the Gate of Avici and the Bridge of Helplessness. He was half a beat too slow.
In that brief pause, Fang Han's five mouthfuls of rain-blood, the Immortal Slaughtering Great Magic, completely descended, thoroughly blanketing him. Burning brightly with blood flames, Fang Han resembled a demon god reborn in blood. With a shake of his body, he divided into over ten shadows. Every shadow launched a striking force of one hundred million galloping fierce horses. Furthermore, the divine abilities of his Golden Core explosively erupted into a coordinated siege against Daoist Wood.
Overwhelming magic power, blood flames, and all arrays of divine abilities flashed constantly. This swathe of sky, this piece of land, was utterly engulfed in endless ruination, destruction, nightmare, ferocity, cruelty, and pure power…
"This old Daoist will risk his life to take you down!"
At this moment, Daoist Wood knew that attempting to escape was already in vain, never expecting Fang Han to reach such levels of insanity and ferocity. However, even at this critical juncture, he hadn't considered self-detonating his own Heaven and Earth Morphology. Because he knew that detonating his Heaven and Earth Morphology meant true, absolute death.
But matching blow for blow in a desperate struggle offered a sliver of hope, even if during the fierce clash his physical body was shattered and his life-bound Heaven and Earth Morphology split. As long as a singular wisp of origin energy managed to bolt free, he could possess a body and be reborn, retaining his original memories. Being able to start entirely over was profoundly better than absolute death.
No one could articulate the scene of these two immense experts desperately matching blows in that moment. Blood rained chaotically. Torrents of origin energy were churned into total chaos, resolving into primal churning. Streaks of flowing light thrust directly up into the sky, thoroughly piercing through the Nine Heavens Heavenly Wind Layer, rising out cleanly into the outer cosmos, where they eventually dissolved entirely.
Daoist Wood, stepping rhythmically in a dragon-shape footwork, channeled his magic power. Consolidating all his divine abilities, he smacked out palm strike after palm strike, each containing the surging power of heavenly dragons. The surrounding mountains were completely ripped right out of the ground, peak by peak. This momentum vastly dwarfed that of Hua Tiandu's mountain plucking that day.
Fang Han on the other hand flickered form to form, stepping with a mountain-style footwork—the Meru Stomp of the Meru Mountain King Fist. On his Golden Core, one of the supreme divine abilities, the Book of Countless Stars Limitless, was forced completely open. The endless stellar energy of the night sky poured down without any thought to cost, whilst the World Tree between his brows incessantly tapped down origin energy from the Immortal World. Even more aggressively, his Five Emperors Great Demon Divine Ability siphoned up all the five elements origin energy in the surroundings directly into his body. Various demonic arts within his Golden Core began oscillating, causing the wretched spirits and ghosts across hundreds of miles to wail with a cheep cheep cheer, utterly consumed entirely into his body.
The Great Devouring Technique rattled forcefully. Much of the magic astral qi blasted out by Daoist Wood was utterly consumed by it.
In just a few brief exchanges, amidst clashes between palms and fists, both conjured up hundreds of thousands of hands, crashing head-on against one another.
In a span of just somewhat more than ten breaths, the two crashed hands altogether for millions of times! So fast it defied belief, and the power as unfathomable.
Swish!
Following the vicious clash, the two broke apart instantaneously. Dozens of mountain peaks directly uprooted around them by magic power successively exploded. Roiling thick smoke and dust blasted to the sky much like volcanic eruptions, blanketing hundreds of miles, even sweeping outward thousands of miles downwind.
Daoist Wood, Fang Han, separated in a flash.
After just a blink of an eye, Daoist Wood's body suddenly exploded apart, transmuting into uncountable rains of blood and flesh. Yet the deluge did not tumble out; instead, it spun unendingly in place through the air. Within the very center of the raining blood and flesh, a tree condensed out from cyan qi emerged. It fielded exactly sixty-four branches. Each individual leaf bore diverse flowing talismans. Such an impressive display was actually sixty-four diverse types of divine abilities!
Daoist Wood was a Giant of Ages; naturally the amount of divine abilities he cultivated was significantly higher than folks in the Divine Ability Secret Realm. Additionally, those in the Longevity Secret Realm owned ten thousand years of lifespan; he enjoyed sufficient time to cultivate his divine abilities.
This tree condensed from cyan qi was precisely Daoist Wood's life-bound Heaven and Earth Morphology, though severely wounded down to its origin energy from the battle. His physical body was also entirely ground apart!
However, he deeply loathed losing the flesh/blood essence of his physical body, desperately yearning to gather it back up, and then escape. To possess an expert in the future and cleanly swallow down their blood and qi could perhaps bring back one-tenth of his cultivation base, remarkably better than cultivating bitterly from scratch.
Fang Han's physical body also exploded! Yet his head remained totally intact! The root systems of the World Tree coalesced over his cranium into sheets upon sheets of robust roots, successfully stalling out Daoist Wood's life-bound origin energy.
If changed to Daoist Dragon, against this blow, Fang Han's head would have shattered completely as well. Because the World Tree couldn't decisively suppress Daoist Dragon's origin energy.
And this was exactly within Fang Han's calculation.
Killing a Longevity Secret Realm giant absolutely necessitated paying a brutal price of blood. Being dragged into mutually assured destruction wasn't the least bit strange either.
However, since his head remained un-shattered, Fang Han simply was not taken down for mutually assured destruction.