Chapter 329: Acalanatha

"How much longer until they arrive?" Yu Xueqing asked, breath steady despite the relentless sprint."We’re heading straight toward Yu Zhen," Lin Fan replied, chest heaving slightly.

"But three more pursuers are closing in fast."

Running at full speed while carrying a living formation Yu Bo, was no small burden.

Lin Fan felt the lightning creeping into his limbs, but the worst state belonged to Yu Bo himself.

He was petrified.

His face was blank, eyes unfocused, every shred of consciousness devoted to sustaining the formation.

Thunderlight crawled across his skin like living veins.

If the formation collapsed.

They would face enemies.

"Shit—!" Lin Fan hissed.

"They’re closing in too fast!"

But then his expression shifted glancing at his medallion.

"Haha, they are arriving fast too."

Yu Xuan’s signal was approaching.

Lin Fan immediately transmitted his plan through spirit sense.

Yu Xueqing listened and nodded without hesitation.

They stopped.

Abruptly.

Dust kicked up as their momentum died.

"Haha!" A demon with elongated deer legs laughed as he landed ahead of the others.

"Out of stamina already? As expected Humans have a low innate stamina!"

He was the first to catch up.

The others now followed at a leisurely pace, confident, and unhurried.

Lin Fan slammed Yu Bo’s feet into the ground.

"Now!" he shouted.

Yu Xueqing moved instantly.

Both of them lunged at the deer-legged demon.

"Hmph," the demon scoffed, accelerating effortlessly.

"Even Tier Four experts struggle to catch me—"

He blurred forward, targeting Yu Bo.

CRACK—!!!

A pillar of lightning slammed down from above, blasting him sideways.

"Tsk." The demon clicked his tongue as Yu Xueqing struck.

Her twin swords moved as one.

One slash carried thick, oppressive killing intent.

The other howled like a raging tempest.

Predator’s Hunt.

Chasing Storm.

It was as if a beast lurked within the storm itself, striking precisely when his guard faltered.

The demon grinned.

His legs flashed with brown light as he stomped the red earth.

BOOM!

The ground exploded upward, chunks of earth spinning like artillery toward Yu Xueqing.

Before they reached her.

Lin Fan arrived.

A terrifying sword qi erupted.

The demon’s right arm vanished.

Cleanly severed.

It hit the ground with a wet thud.

Yet—

The demon didn’t scream.

"As expected," he said calmly, staring at the bleeding stump.

"You two are exceptional. My carelessness cost me an arm."

His gaze sharpened.

"But you’re forgetting something, I’m not alone right?"

"So you think only you have allies?" Lin Fan shot back.

The demon’s eyes widened.

Just then a massive phantom leg materialized and slammed into Lin Fan’s side.

BANG!

Lin Fan was sent flying, crashing through the ground.

’WHAT—?!’

Shock rattled his mind.

The demon turned, attention shifting to Yu Xueqing and the immobile Yu Bo.

"I guess I was wasting time for no reason," he muttered.

Then.

He froze.

Not just him.

All the demons felt it.

The air changed.

Pressure descended from above.

Something was falling from the sky.

And it was aimed.

Straight at them.

***

While Yu Xueqing and Lin Fan fought desperately to shield the utterly exhausted Yu Bo, something fell from the sky.

It did not descend.

It crashed.

With the unmistakable pose of "Yu Clan Forever", Yu Hao, whose body had expanded to more than twenty feet tall plummeted downward like a living meteor.

BOOOOM!!!

The impact shook the battlefield.

Earth exploded outward as a massive crater formed, the ground itself seeming to embrace Yu Hao as he landed, stone and soil fusing around his feet.

Shockwaves rippled across the terrain, sending weaker demonic beasts tumbling like leaves.

High above, Yu Xuan stood calmly on the spirit boat, observing the scene with indifferent golden eyes.

With a flick of his fingers.

[Telekinesis].

The lone Tier Four demon was violently torn from the rest as her body dragged screaming into the air and slammed onto the deck of the spirit boat.

Her pupils shrank in terror.

Before she could even form a thought.

Thin red lines traced across all her body.

A heartbeat later.

She burst into blood mist.

No scream.

No struggle.

Her soul was erased along with her flesh.

Yu Xuan didn’t even glance at the remains.

"That should be enough," he muttered, eyes already shifting back to the battlefield below.

"They can handle the rest."

Then his gaze paused on Yu Bo.

Frowning slightly, Yu Xuan waved his hand.

True Nirvana Flames descended like a gentle veil, wrapping around Yu Bo’s rigid form.

The moment the flames touched him, life surged back at an astonishing speed, his exhausted spirit recovered.

As they were arriving to this location, they had deliberately detoured slightly to pick up Yu Hao.

After all.

He too was a hidden powerhouse.

If Yu Xuan had to name who benefited most from joining the Heaven Immortal Sect, aside from himself.

It was Yu Hao.

Yu Hao hadn’t merely gained a powerful master.

He had inherited something terrifying.

Even Yu Xuan, despite his composure felt unease when facing that presence.

Not fear.

Something worse.

Something forbidden because of him being a Human.

Within Yu Xuan’s sea of Consciousness, the Rat, Ox, and Tiger spiritual entities trembled.

Not in submission.

In restraint.

As if they, too, wished to reveal their true forms, but were being suppressed by an invisible law.

Yu Xuan didn’t know the name of what Yu Hao carried.

But he felt it.

Ancient wisdom.

Unrestrained fury.

And judgment.

Below, Yu Hao slowly rose into the air.

The remaining demons stared at him in terror, unable to understand why their instincts were screaming.

Then.

Yu Hao’s eyes glowed.

Behind him, a colossal figure materialized.

It possessed dark blue skin, a face twisted in wrath, yet eyes that shone with profound wisdom and were red – eyes that understood the necessity of destruction.

Flames wreathed its form.

The air itself trembled.

The weaker demons and demonic beasts collapsed to their knees without realizing why.

This was not mere pressure.

This was judgment.

An Acalanatha had manifested.

And it had come to punish.

[A/N: If you are wondering what as Acalanatha is then search online, but in this ARC World it would be different than the original and The five Wisdom Kings though there may be some similarities in some aspect because I took inspiration from it. More will be explained, as always when the story progresses...]