At this point, Bai Xiaochun heard the Eternal Mother speaking to him. “You have ten breaths of time!”
In response, his hands blurred in an incantation gesture, and then he flung them out in front of him. In response, the starry sky began to sink down, surrounding the Mortal Renegade like a pill furnace.
“Time is the fire!” As he waved his sleeve, boundless time seemed to flow toward the starry sky pill furnace.
Inside the furnace, the Mortal Renegade's face flickered, and he quickly performed an incantation gesture with his right hand. Then he shoved his hand out in front of him, causing masses of black smoke to roil out and batter against the pill furnace.
Moments ago, he had assumed he would be able to escape from the furnace easily. But the Eternal Mother was powering it with energy from all of the living beings of the Eternal Immortal Domains, making it impossible for him to escape from it for ten breaths of time.
As the moments ticked by, Bai Xiaochun's voice again rang out.
“Live forever medicinal ingredients! Concoct this sovereign into a pill!”
His hand flashed with incantation gestures as the concocting process proceeded. At that point, ten breaths of time passed, and the living beings in the Eternal Immortal Domains all coughed up blood, and the sphere of light that was the Eternal Immortal Domains turned so dark that it seemed like it might be destroyed.
However, their entire goal had been to buy time for Bai Xiaochun. And now, even as their energy faded away, the vortexes around the starry sky pill furnace transformed into medicinal plants, and the pill furnace itself snapped shut. Then, the fire of time made it complete!
This was not an ordinary session of pill concocting; Bai Xiaochun was using his sovereign cultivation base to unleash a powerful divine ability, causing a sense of peril to rise up in the Mortal Renegade the likes of which he hadn't experienced for many years!!
Another opponent might have been capable of sealing him for a moment or two. But the Mortal Renegade knew that Bai Xiaochun wanted to do much more than that with this starry sky pill furnace of his. At that point, his eyes flickered, and he suddenly inhaled sharply.
As he did, the hundreds of thousands of Dao clones out in the starry suddenly collapsed into black smoke, then vanished.
When they reappeared, they were blasting through the starry sky pill furnace to return to the Mortal Renegade.
Bai Xiaochun's face fell, and he attempted to stop it from happening, but could not. In the blink of an eye, a massive, destructive power had built up inside of the pill furnace, which seemed to be just on the verge of exploding!
The hundreds of thousands of Dao clones caused a deafening boom to ring out as the pill furnace, unable to withstand the force, exploded!
As the pill furnace exploded, the fire of time couldn't withstand the force, and was wiped away. And then, a boundless black smoke of death and nirvanic extermination swept out in all directions.
From within the black smoke, the Mortal Renegade emerged, his eyes blazing with killing intent.
“It seems I underestimated y--” he said, his voice as cold as ice. However, before he could finish, the ashen-faced Bai Xiaochun looked at him with a strange gleam in his eyes. Obviously, Bai Xiaochun had hoped to seal him for longer, but had been aware that it probably wasn't possible.
Therefore, without hesitation, he took advantage of the sudden absence of the Mortal Renegade's Dao clones to cause his own Dao clones to suddenly explode!
Far away, hundreds of thousands of Dao clones transformed into a host of dandelion seeds, which then began to speed out through the starry sky.
Earlier, the Mortal Renegade's host of Dao clones would have been able to stop them. But now, a hole had appeared in his battle strategy, and Bai Xiaochun was very quick to react to it. Before the Mortal Renegade could do anything to stop him, the dandelion seeds spread out like a white ocean… filling the entire starry sky and descending upon all 1,080,000 sets of ruins!
As they did, the dandelions formed back into Dao clones, and began to shine with radiant light that fought back against the darkness.
Bai Xiaochun knew that the Mortal Renegade would resist him, although he would probably not go all out in his efforts to do so. He would likely threaten the Eternal Immortal Domains in an attempt to distract Bai Xiaochun. After all, even though he wasn't a match for the Mortal Renegade, he couldn't be defeated in a short time, not unless the Mortal Renegade went completely all out. Therefore, if the Mortal Renegade didn't do something to try to stop his Dao clones, then the end result would be a foregone conclusion.
And of course, if the Mortal Renegade consumed the Eternal Flower, then Bai Xiaochun would be the powerless one. So how could he let that happen?
Both Bai Xiaochun and the Mortal Renegade understood all of the various implications. Bai Xiaochun was almost like a cockroach; short of completely exterminating him, few methods would be effective in dealing with him.
Although the Mortal Renegade was now somewhat behind, he was still incredibly powerful. Despite having been weakened a bit by Bai Xiaochun, his expression remained the same as he exploded, sending 1,080,000 streams of black smoke back out into the starry sky. Within moments, he had 1,080,000 Dao clones!
Within every set of ruins that existed out in the starry sky, the Mortal Renegade's Dao clones began to fight Bai Xiaochun's!!
Instead of one full-scale battle, there were now 1,080,000 fights going on throughout the starry sky, causing booms and rumbles to echo out without cease.
Looking grimly at Bai Xiaochun, the Mortal Renegade said, “You are the first person to ever fight me in such a manner, and the first person to push me into a corner like this.”
He had not been as badly injured as Bai Xiaochun had, and yet, was still not sure which of them had the greater powers of regeneration.
But in the end, Bai Xiaochun could not inflict fatal blows on the Mortal Renegade, whereas the Mortal Renegade's attacks forced Bai Xiaochun to go all out in defense, and still get wounded.
“But that doesn't matter. It's time to end things!” Narrowing his eyes, he shot toward Bai Xiaochun and extended his right hand. As he did, his thumb turned pitch black, becoming like a black hole filled with the power of nirvanic extermination, a power that instantly resonated with the surrounding starry sky.
“Finger of Extermination!” he said coolly. As he did, all 1,080,000 of his Dao clones similarly extended their right hands, their thumbs turning pitch black as they unleashed the same attack… Finger of Extermination!!
The might of so many Fingers of Extermination caused Bai Xiaochun's face to fall. He, as well as all of his Dao clones, immediately fell back.
Unfortunately, the Fingers of Extermination had already locked onto their targets, so no matter how he backed up, he couldn't escape. The Mortal Renegade's hand swept down, and the starry sky trembled. 1,080,000 hands swept down, and explosive power was unleashed!
In that moment of crisis, Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath. Howling as the Undying Codex operated at full power, he used the Mountain Shaking Bash, his Undying Hex, and finally his Throat Crushing Grasp, all to fight back against the Finger of Extermination!
All of his 1,080,000 Dao clones did the same thing, causing intense rumbling sounds to fill the surrounding ruins.
No louder sound had ever filled this starry sky! Moments later, Bai Xiaochun's Dao clones all staggered backward, blood spraying out of their mouths, their bodies listing feebly, their life force teetering on the verge of collapse. Bai Xiaochun could sense that the shocking nature of the Finger of Extermination was something his Undying Codex couldn't quite deal with. It shook him all the way down to his soul!
As the Finger of Extermination stabbed deep into Bai Xiaochun and all of his Dao clones, the Mortal Renegade looked over coldly and prepared a shocking follow-up attack!
“If things keep going like this,” Bai Xiaochun thought, “I'm dead beyond the shadow of a doubt!!”