Chapter One Hundred and Three: The Struggle of the Cornered Beast

“Ah? This kid is really that hard?” Willow Sworddust’s reaction stunned Autumn Leaf. He had not expected the boy to defend his glossy image so fiercely. Hmm, not bad. Not bad at all.
This was no ungrateful whelp—he actually understands.

No wonder the effort I spent teaching him was worthwhile. With that one display, the teacher is truly satisfied.

Autumn Leaf felt a flicker of amusement. He watched as everyone in the Great Wasteland was provoked by those words, and he could only shake his head.
He himself was bewildered, too—after tossing out a few flashy insults, had he unwittingly become the Great Wasteland’s image champion?
How could this be? I don’t care about my own image, and yet they care so much?

“Dare to offend a senior! Your day of death is today—attack together, wipe them out in one stroke...”
The World-Ender Elder had no idea that a single sentence sparked the whole crowd into rage. Swords flashed from every hand as they rose in anger.

For a moment, the scene lost control again. With Willow Sworddust at the lead, fierce fighting flared in Chaos Heaven once more.
Once more, as always, Willow Sworddust was taking on two enemies at a time; Withered-Wood Daoist held off seven alone, while the other ancient fiends, refusing to be outdone, threw themselves at their former opponents.

Still, the situation and the outcome seemed no different from before. The only change was that Autumn Leaf was present now, and those Dark Titans had to keep him in mind. They no longer moved as freely as before.

Again fierce battle erupted. Withered-Wood Daoist had already been in the wrong from the start; now, fighting again, his moves had been seen through entirely.

But when everyone expected him to lose once more, a blade of gold light flashed.

“Hmm? What is this…”
Within the blaze, Withered-Wood Daoist transformed his body. A gigantic form materialized and shook the void. In that radiant gold, a Buddha suddenly loomed above the sky.

“Rrgh… the Tathagata’s Divine Palm?”
“Good heavens—it's truly the Tathagata’s Divine Palm!”
For a moment, the field erupted. No one had imagined that the Tathagata’s Divine Palm they had seen in Autumn Leaf’s hands earlier had actually manifested in reality.
Withered-Wood Daoist had indeed truly comprehended the genuine Tathagata’s Divine Palm.

Under that divine majesty, all living beings submitted. Under the pressure, everyone was forced backward step by step. Even the seven Dark Titans could not even lift their heads.

“What in the world is this immortal art? Why is it so overpowering?”
“Damn it, stop dawdling and form a formation!”
The Dark Titans were thrown into confusion. They scrambled to arrange themselves, trying to block the strike, but they did not expect…

Under the Dharma-Image Heaven, Withered-Wood Daoist stepped as if into an empty world. One palm fell—crush and ruin in one motion—and the seven-person formation was shattered instantly.

A crushing blow...
A complete, total crushing.
The scene was spectacular, leaving everyone’s heart cold and unsettled.
Even Autumn Leaf was taken aback.

“Ugh… You mean the Tathagata’s Divine Palm is real? Seriously? Damn…”
Autumn Leaf was shocked. The Tathagata’s Divine Palm he had roughly sketched, pieced together from scraps, had this kind of power?
This isn’t a joke. I only wrote it off as nonsense; how did it become real?

The seven-person array was broken apart. The World-Ender Elder was badly injured; the others had only minor wounds.
Of them all, the Elder bore the worst damage and clearly could barely take it. He roared in anger, “Damn. If I hadn’t blundered earlier, as long as I had swallowed that primordial Dao embryo, that old bastard wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Now with such a divine art at his disposal, we cannot fight him at all with our strength, not to mention the terrifying presence standing beside him watching this whole time.
It seems if we want the plan to continue, we have to trigger the emergency protocol. Hurry—send a distress call!”

At the Elder’s order, one of the Dark Titans instantly let out a roar that was deafening, piercing the Nine Heavens and straight into the cloud sea.
At that sound, Withered-Wood Daoist sensed something wrong and tried to stop it, but before he could, the other Dark Titans had already closed in and blocked him.

“No—are they calling for reinforcements?”
Willow Sworddust too saw the same disturbance and tried to intervene, but it was already too late.
The instant the distress signal was sent, the Nine Heavens trembled. In the dark sea of clouds, several figures flashed through the void.
By appearance there were at least a dozen of them—peerless strong ones, also at the Earthbound Immortal realm.

“Hmm? So many have come? So there are still many Dark Titans hiding in the dark... If so, let’s just settle this wave today, and deal with the rest later.”
Autumn Leaf thought this and did not stop them, allowing them to enter the battlefield.

With these ten-plus Dark Titans joining, the battleline turned at once, the whole situation tipping sharply.

“Ha! Elder World-End! You’re in no shape either—you’ve been beaten to this state. Utterly humiliating.”
A leading newcomer mocked the World-Ender Elder as soon as he arrived.

The Elder, burning with fury, snapped back, “Cut the crap. The High Priest sent you to cooperate with us, not to talk down to us!
Hurry now. There is an unstable variable here—we can’t afford a drawn-out fight. Cover us and pull out!”

“What unstable variable?”
The man seemed confused, but the World-Ender Elder gave no answer; there was no room for such talk.

At that very moment, as these men appeared, a stalk of azure lotus swept from the void and spread across the sky, swallowing everyone inside it. Through the haze, a figure of peerless grace stood upon the Nine Heavens, descending as if to overlook everything.

“Damn it—when did she appear over our heads? Damn…”
The newcomer was no one else but Moon Grace. Of Moon Grace, the World-Ender Elder and his men clearly knew much; almost every strong master in the Great Wasteland knew her well, except for Autumn Leaf.
The elder knew all too clearly that if one were caught in that lotus binding, escape was impossible unless one ripped a gap through it by sheer force.
And even that was no easy matter. Only overwhelming power could do it.
Yet among them, none were of Grand Golden Immortal level. How could they tear through such bindings?

Remember: Moon Grace was first among those below the Grand Golden Immortal rank. After the purification of the Twin Immortal Lotuses, she was nearly a perfect divine form—far more terrifying than an ordinary Earthbound Immortal.

“Time to close the net!”
Seeing the azure-lotus snare fall from the sky, Autumn Leaf’s smile turned wickedly brazen.

Why had Moon Grace appeared there? It was one of Autumn Leaf’s plans. A moment earlier, the two had merely been watching from below; before Autumn Leaf moved in, he had quietly sent Moon Grace aloft, setting them up for a trapped-beast clash.
The plan had clearly succeeded. By this reckoning, not one person here could escape today.
To break free from Moon Grace’s bonds, you would need either a transcendent sword powerful enough to sever the lotus in one swing, or one of the gathered to be a Grand Golden Immortal. Otherwise, no one could break out of the Azure Lotus Net.

“Come on, then! Smash through with them! I won’t believe this thing is that strong.”
The World-Ender Elder cast caution aside and went all out.

At that same time, another figure drifted down from the sky. In the air, her white wings swept with an eerie grace, looking especially radiant in the holy light.
Soon more and more winged celestial maidens appeared, a dense flock of them descending in droves across the sky.

“Hmm? Angels?”
Autumn Leaf froze for a moment. So did everyone else.