Chapter 818: Saint Ruler Killing Formation

Jian Chen looked at the giant, ten-thousand-meter long earthwyrm below his feet and became extremely solemn. Chaotic Force immediately poured into the Ruler Armament in his hand, causing the hazy glow of the weapon to be suppressed and immediately replaced by a dark light, radiating with the presence and energy of destruction.

The Heavenly Enchantress glanced down at the earthworm below before looking upwards at the huge, scorching sun of terrifying heat. She hoarsely said, “This is a Saint Ruler killing formation, a formation specially prepared to kill Saint Rulers. Once a Saint Ruler falls into it, it’s almost certain death. Even Ninth Heavenly Layer Saint Rulers are not exempted from this. With the corrosion of time, the formation is no longer as powerful as it once was, though it is still extremely powerful.”

“Let’s use our full strength and burst through this formation,” Jian Chen growled.

“The true danger comes from the sky, not from the earthwyrm below us. You handle the earthwyrm. I’ll break the formation.” The Heavenly Enchantress’s tone was also rather grim. Shortly afterwards, she sat down cross-legged in the air and placed the Zither of Demonic Cry on her knees. She began to play it both of her hands, ready to burst through the formation with the force of sound.

As the zither was played, sound waves visible with the naked eye shot towards the scorching sun in the sky with lightning speed. The densely-packed waves shook the surrounding space, causing the space in this region to ripple like water. In that very moment, the entire region seemed to have become an extremely huge zither, where the water-like ripples in space functioned as constantly-trembling strings.

Jian Chen raised his head and looked at the sun. His eyes narrowed very slightly, by an undetectable amount. The sun in the sky was not a real sun, but rather a huge killing mechanism. It grew larger and larger as he watched it, as if it was descending with a terrifying speed, falling towards the two of them.

With the descent of the sun, the surrounding temperature shot up abruptly. The region seemed to become a huge oven as even the air was vaporised.

Roar!

The giant earthwyrm, completely made of sand, gave out a great roar from below. Its great, pitch-black and cavernous mouth gave off a stink as it shot into the sky to bite at Jian Chen and the Heavenly Enchantress.

A serious light flashed across Jian Chen’s eyes. He no longer looked at the sky, instead placing all his attention onto the earthwyrm below. Although it was created from the formation, the sand beast was very powerful, equivalent to a Class 7 Magical Beast.

Jian Chen arrived before the earthwyrm with a flash. With the Dragon Slaying Sword in his hand, he stabbed into the head with great speed. Chaotic Force, churning with the aura of destruction, immediately spewed out from the Dragon Slaying Sword, wreaking havoc wildly in the earthwyrm’s head.

As soon as head of sand met the Chaotic Force, it turned to dust from the aura of destruction. The sand immediately began to loosen, turning into large quantities of dust and gushed away.

In the blink of an eye, a huge hole appeared in the great head, like someone had forcefully carved away a portion of flesh.

But the earthwyrm was just like the living dead, just like the warbeast. It felt no pain, no fear—absolutely nothing even from such wounds. It followed up with a growl, and a spike completely condensed from sand emerged from its head, rushing at Jian Chen with lightning speed.

The spike was made of sand, yet it contained a powerful energy. Not only was it extremely fast, it was extremely tough as well.

Jian Chen shot backwards quickly. The Dragon Slaying Sword turned into a black streak of light, lashing out and colliding with the incoming spike.

With a metallic screech, the tough spike cracked immediately, but the powerful collision between the two was still enough to jolt Jian Chen violently. The completely-unremarkable spike was actually as powerful as a strike from a Fifth Heavenly Layer Saint Ruler.

Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish…

Ear-piercing swishes constantly rang out as spikes emerged from the earthwyrm’s body, one after another. It formed a net, encasing Jian Chen, and, at the same time, the earthwyrm raised its huge front leg and quickly stopped down on Jian Chen. It completely locked Jian Chen out of the choice to escape upwards.

Jian Chen became grim. The hundreds of incoming spikes were equivalent to strikes dealt by hundreds of Fifth Heavenly Layer Saint Rulers. He did not have the power to withstand like that with his current strength.

He moved his body slightly, leaving behind a blur where he originally stood. He had already traversed hundreds of meters with extremely great speed, appearing beyond the range of the hundreds of spikes and the giant leg. Here, his abilities as a Saint Ruler were suppressed and any type of spiritual sensing suffered a decrease in effect. He could not use Spatial Force, so all he could do in such a tight position was use the Illusionary Flash, the movement technique he had not used since very long ago.

The Illusionary Flash was an extremely profound battle skill, though, Jian Chen would always use Spatial Force to travel ever since he became a Saint Ruler. As a result, the Illusionary Flash was no longer as useful to him as before, which lead to him slowly forgetting it. Only after being forced into the situation today did Jian Chen use the Illusionary Flash once again.

He moved once again after dodging the attacks from the hundreds of spikes. He immediately appeared on the huge back of the earthwyrm with a trail of countless vague, blurry figures and thrust the Dragon Slaying Sword viciously into it with destructive Chaotic Force. He drew it out immediately afterwards, and with a slight movement of his body, he would reappear hundreds of meters away, stabbing the back of the earthwyrm once again like before.

Like this, Jian Chen managed to stab the earthwyrm’s huge body hundreds of times very soon. Every strike turned the sand of the earthwyrm’s body into dust, dealing great damage to it. After so many attacks, the earthwyrm had been reduced to several hundred meters in length, while the dust from the sand below had already formed mountainous piles.

As Jian Chen battled the earthwyrm, the temperature of the surroundings also shot up rapidly, becoming terrifyingly hot. The scorching sun in the sky grew bigger and bigger, falling towards the two of them.

The Heavenly Enchantress sat cross-legged in the air. Her slender hands slid across the Zither of the Demonic Cry with a rhythm as sound waves shot out from the zither. They collided with the descending sun in the sky, causing the sky to constantly rumble with a deep sound.

The unadorned yet unique Zither of the Demonic Cry had a total of thirty-six strings. The Heavenly Enchantress only played twenty of them, completely avoiding the other sixteen throughout the whole process.

Jian Chen raised his head and glanced at the huge sun. He became even grimmer; he knew that the huge sun was the real killing mechanism of the trap. Once the sun collided with the group, even this world would perhaps be destroyed. Even Saint Rulers would struggle to survive.

“I need to finish this off as fast as possible.” Jian Chen thought, before appearing before the shrunken earthwyrm. He raised the Dragon Slaying Sword high over his head, poured surging Chaotic Force into it, before striking downwards from the sky.

An enormous sword ray, completely condensed from Chaotic Force, disappeared into the earthwyrm’s head. It passed through its entire body, exiting at the tail. The earthwyrm was no longer as tough and powerful as before; Jian Chen’s strike had directly cut it in half. Its body was reduced a pile of dust, collapsing onto the ground and forming a heap of sand, akin to a small mountain.

Jian Chen did not stop after dealing with the earthwyrm. He immediately shot into the sky, resisting the unbelieveable temperature to fly towards the sun.

Jian Chen knew that this was not the time to be conserving his Chaotic Force. His chaotic neidan in his dantian began to pump out Chaotic Force unsparingly even though it had already shruken, all coalescing in the Dragon Slaying Sword. Afterwards, several strands of sword Qi were sent flying at the sun.

Boom, boom, boom...

Consecutive deep booms rang through the sky and the expanding sun began to tremble gently. However, its speed of descent did not decrease at all.

“Move back. Your energy might be strange, but with the Ruler Armament, it’s only the Fifth Heavenly Layer at most. Attacks with that much power is not enough to break through the killing formation at all. Let me do it.” The Heavenly Enchantress’s emotionless voice appeared in Jian Chen’s head.

With that, Jian Chen immediately felt pained. He knew that the Chaotic Force he controlled was an extremely powerful energy, but it still could not be considered as true Chaotic Force. He currently had only reached the first layer of the eighteen layers, possessing strength equivalent to a Third Heavenly Layer Saint Ruler. He could only display a strength of the Fifth Heavenly Layer when he wielded a Ruler Armament.

Only when he reached the eighteenth layer would the Chaotic Force he controlled be the true Chaotic Force.

Jian Chen put the Ruler Armament away and slowly descended from the sky. He had secretly made up his mind that after he left the Fantasy Star Ocean, he would definitely find a way to increase his overall strength.

“Just the first layer of the Chaotic Body is equivalent the strength of a Third Heavenly Layer Saint Ruler. I wonder just what level my strength will reach after I reach the second layer of the Chaotic Body?” Jian Chen anticipated it very much as he thought.

The Heavenly Enchantress continued to concentrate on playing the zither. Sound waves constantly shot towards the descending sun, producing booms after booms. The explosion of every sound wave would leave behind an odd energy in the surroundings, floating slowly around the huge sun and it lingered.

This was the power of sound waves from the zither!

Soon, more and more energy gathered around the sun, before virtually permeating the entire sky.

At that moment, the Heavenly Enchantress stopped playing. She slowly raised her head at the dazzling sun, and her elegant finger, as white as sheepskin, gently struck the twenty-first string.

Ding!

A clear, crisp sound rang out when the string was struck. The sound carried an extremely powerful ability for penetration, while the note constantly echoed about despite not being very loud.

The energy around the scorching sun immediately became violent. Shortly afterwards, it exploded and a deafening boom rang out. The entire world shook violently, as if the world was ending. The sun in the sky had cracked in half from the explosion, before immediately disintegrating into countless pieces, raining down everywhere.

With the destruction of the sun, the killing formation was also successfully broken. Everything before Jian Chen began to distorted and the sandy world slowly disappeared. He had returned to the Fantasy Star Ocean once again.