Chapter 413: Eclipse of the moon

If you have a bright moon hanging in the sky, then let the Celestial Dog devour the moon.

In the sky, the bright moon was suddenly covered by a shadow.

No wonder the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord was so confident; even after knowing Shen Shuibi's Mount Luofu background, he became even more determined to come.

This was the source of his 'title'.

He was the natural bane of the Sun-Moon Orbit Dao Orthodoxy; his true form was called the "Celestial Dog."

What is a Celestial Dog?

A star with fur, a short comet nearby, a dog-like shape below, meteors in the four directions, a front like a jar, a back like a fire, thunderous across the sky, a sound like thunder but not thunder during the vernal equinox, a sound from within the earth, where it resides, war breaks out for its master, thunder without clouds, named the "Celestial Dog."

Below it, famine, plague among the people, and ministers die.

The divination says: "Where the Celestial Dog falls, there are hidden corpses and flowing blood."

A poem says:

The Bianzhou city gate does not open in the morning, the Celestial Dog falls to the ground with a sound like thunder.

Brave men boast of killing the regent, houses and buildings are burnt to ashes.

Lords are powerless to save, how can a lone scholar stir sorrow?

The so-called Celestial Dog is not a type of dog, but a demonic evil that resembles a dog.

It is covered in fur, has a short comet tail beside it, often travels in the sky, surrounded by meteors, leaving fire and thunder in its wake; wherever it passes, there will be thunder even without clouds, and where it falls, famine, war, and plague will begin to spread.

Corresponding to such a demonic evil, there is also an Auspicious Beast Celestial Dog, but clearly, the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord is no Auspicious Beast.

He is a thorough and complete demonic evil.

With the appearance of that giant mouth, two points of light, like stars and fire, lit up in the endless Void Realm, flowing from the southeast, their tails like sweeping brooms, rumbling with sound, flames surging, shining brightly, shaped like a dog's head.

The rabbit in the distance, and Li Qi, who was observing from within the Holy Flame World, simultaneously frowned, then exchanged glances through the communication interface created by the Formation.

"With these characteristics, the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord's true form is... the Celestial Dog?" Li Qi recognized it.

At this moment, Li Qi was in his Immortal Cave in the Holy Flame World, where he used a water screen to stay by the rabbit's side through the Human Dao terminal.

If he went in person, it would only delay things; it was better to observe from here and offer some advice to the rabbit, as he still possessed knowledge.

The rabbit naturally recognized it as well, nodding and saying, "It is indeed the Celestial Dog; I am severely restrained."

Despite saying this, she did not stop, but instead formed hand seals again, and behind her, the bright moon split open, and a Dharma Aspect rose.

Beneath the Dharma Aspect, all lights dimmed, only the bright moon hung like a mirror, the frosty sky exceptionally clear, light moving with the wind's patterns, bright and perfectly round, without blemish or defect, as if Qi had just separated and the two instruments had just been divided.

Li Qi immediately said, "I'll start the sacrifice here right away, and the Child of Destiny is also ready; he has about a million people under him, all sacrificing together."

Yes, this was their plan.

Although Li Qi could not directly participate in the battle, as the Young Master of Shaman God Mountain, a Shaman, he was best at not direct combat, but at staying far away and performing sacrifices and curses.

Shen Shuibi would fight head-on, while Li Qi would restrain from afar.

As the rabbit's Dharma Aspect rose, the process of the Celestial Dog devouring the moon was forcibly interrupted, and the bright moon, which had already been half-obscured by darkness, brightened again.

"A trivial trick." Billions of miles away, the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord shook his head slightly and said to the Lu Mountain God, "Mountain God, please lead the army forward and first slaughter the Holy Flame World; I will restrain this person; she absolutely cannot leave by even half a step."

"Leave it to me." The Lu Mountain God nodded, then let out a long howl, and saw the million demon soldiers all climb onto the body of the fierce tiger Dharma Aspect, clinging to it like ants.

The fierce tiger Dharma Aspect was hundreds of miles tall, so it was more than enough to carry a million people.

Then a golden wind arose, and the Lu Mountain God directly left the place and rushed towards the Holy Flame World!

Anyway, the long road that the bright moon had transformed into earlier had already been broken by the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord; now, the path ahead was clear!

On the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord's side, he was calm and composed, his hands and feet still, but Dao Dao Resonance constantly flickered around him, revealing the true form of the giant mouth in the Void Realm that had appeared earlier.

This was his Dharma Aspect.

A strange one, similar to a star, yet resembling a vicious dog.

Baring its fangs, surrounded by constant calamities, streaks of crimson appeared in the boundless darkness, illuminating billions of miles, stars constantly falling in all directions, blood raining incessantly, countless meteors falling upon its body, with a sound like thunder!

This Dharma Aspect opened its blood-red mouth, faintly emitting an endless devouring power, as if it could swallow the moon and crush the great sun!

The rabbit frowned slightly and quickly retreated.

The Celestial Dog devouring the moon was too restraining for her; rather than forcefully resist, it was better to retreat a bit and avoid its sharp edge.

What for, by avoiding its sharp edge?

Of course, to wait for Li Qi to act.

At this moment, Li Qi gave an order to Ga Ga, then in his Immortal Cave, he violently swung a hammer and struck a gong.

The sacrifice begins!

He was using the methods of Lingbao.

Lingbao, a Divine Shaman.

Able to guide ghost areas, enter divine fields, summon Fangxiang, drive away plagues, and banish misfortunes, it is a special type of Shaman capable of communicating with ghosts and gods, somewhere between a Invoker and a Diviner, though not a legitimate Shaman.

Ancient texts record:

"Nine Songs" says: "I miss Lingbao, who is virtuous and beautiful."

"Rites": "The Fangxiang clan is in charge of holding spears and raising shields, leading a hundred servants to drive away plagues," capable of "sweeping away evil spirits, brushing away wandering lights, shackling Celestial Dogs, and tethering grave sheep."

Shackling Celestial Dogs—this was the power Li Qi sought to obtain, to receive the power of the ancient deity 'Fangxiang' through the methods of Lingbao.

At this moment, within the Holy Flame World, in the area where Ga Ga was located.

Ga Ga commanded numerous soldiers to jointly perform this bizarre ritual.

The Immortal requested them to form teams of one, three, or five people, disguised as gods, ghosts, or judges, striking gongs and drums along the streets, beating drums along the way, calling it "Beating the Night Barbarians," and instructed them that "the gongs must be loud, the shouts high-pitched, and the drumming lively."

Looking at the Holy Flame World, the soldiers beat two drums and one gong, large gongs and small gongs, each holding a different one, beating them all the way, it was truly lively, and wherever the horses went, the gongs roared through the sky!

Li Qi also struck the gong in unison.

Striking gongs and drums to drive away the Celestial Dog with the sound has been a long-standing custom, and there is, of course, a reason behind it.

The reason is: it really works.

The power from Fangxiang, through the rituals of countless Mortals in Ga Ga's territory, was presented before Li Qi.

In the Holy Flame World—everyone saw it—a bright moon suddenly rose; although it was daytime, a strange phenomenon of the sun and moon coexisting in the sky appeared.

This was Li Qi's masterpiece; by utilizing Shen Shuibi's power, he used rituals to entrust the 'symbol' Shen Shuibi gave him to the local Heavenly Dao of the Holy Flame World.

In this way, Shen Shuibi could receive sacrifices from the Holy Flame World through this moon.

The Shaman's methods are unpredictable and extremely bizarre; this is a Dao Orthodoxy that can kill people by pricking straw figures, and this kind of symbolic transfer of certain powers is a hallmark ability of a Shaman.

A sacrifice involving a million people brought forth a trace of Fangxiang's power.

Li Qi unhesitatingly offered this trace of Fangxiang's power to Shen Shuibi through the sacrifice.

Shen Shuibi was parrying and dodging the opponent's Moves.

The battle between them, separated by billions of miles, focused on prediction and combat proficiency, not reaction time.

In this long-distance magical duel, for each attack to land, it would take a few seconds at the fastest, and even a few minutes at the slowest; therefore, close-range, rapid, intense, close-quarters combat would not occur on such a battlefield.

Both sides were like spiders, or like playing chess.

There was no intense, passionate, fierce struggle, no scenario of one-hit kills where both sides exploded the other.

But every attack was a Move, or a weaving of a net, slowly blocking all of the opponent's escape routes.

Every action was consuming the opponent's 'leeway', slowly sealing off all dodging space and all possible retreat paths through prior prediction and calculation.

It was just unknown who would be the prey.

Because eventually, the prey would have nowhere to escape, and one person would lose all room to maneuver, finding that no matter what they did, no matter how they reacted, it was a dead end.

At that point, the losing side would find that certain attacks from minutes or even more than ten minutes ago had slowly flown to their previously calculated escape routes, turning them into dead ends.

Or there was another choice, which was to simply escape before the net closed, fleeing far away and getting away.

This was why Shen Shuibi said it would be difficult to catch the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord if he wanted to escape.

In this kind of magical duel, before sealing off the opponent's retreat, if one side wants to withdraw, they cannot be stopped; they are already billions of miles apart, unless the power gap is too great, or one side has planned ahead and laid out external traps, otherwise, generally no lives are lost.

Both sides were busily setting up their 'nets'; a skilled chess player would gradually accumulate their advantage, ultimately cutting off all of the opponent's escape routes before shouting 'checkmate'.

Tens of thousands of spells had already flown out, landing who knows where; in the boundless Void Realm, apart from the initial two exchanges, there was no more direct confrontation.

The Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord was not impatient; only Fifth Rank cultivators who had just entered Boundless Outer Domain would be eager to determine victory in battle; this was inherently a protracted war, and fighting for three to five days was normal.

The Lu Mountain God had already set off; the opponent either wouldn't care, which would mean giving up the Holy Flame World, or they would have to rescue it.

When rescuing, there would inevitably be actions, and as long as there were actions, there would definitely be flaws.

So he leisurely continued to cast different spells, calculating their landing points through observation, allowing these spells to slowly fly through Boundless Outer Domain.

As long as one percent of these spells could be effective, the opponent would suffer actual damage.

At the same time, he also continuously observed Shen Shuibi's movements, judging her intentions, constantly adjusting his position, or using spells to intercept the opponent's attacks, so as not to fall into the net himself.

Every minute, every second, both sides were performing an enormous amount of calculations, analyzing the opponent's path, predicting the opponent's predictions; as long as one calculated one more layer than the other, the win rate would be higher.

However... when it came to calculation, the rabbit was never afraid of anyone.

While the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord's deductions were ongoing, he saw a dozen Bagua plates arranged around the rabbit.

These were her usual items; in Mount Luofu's Immortal Cave, Li Qi had even touched many of her private collections, which contained many recordings from the Mount Luofu period, and it was precisely because of this that Li Qi was pulled into similar illusions by the Heavenly Demon.

These Bagua plates were arranged around her, and massive amounts of data passed through them, calculating results; after Shen Shuibi reviewed them, she immediately applied them to the battle.

Both sides were setting up their strategies.

But at this moment, Shen Shuibi suddenly felt a very small but high-quality power.

"Fangxiang Divine Qi... it's here." She took it in stride, then leaned forward, instantly rushing towards the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord.

She had already set up tens of thousands of mirrors in front of her through spells, and now, using the 'Mirror Flower Water Moon' technique, she suddenly accelerated to an unbelievable degree!

Through the pre-arranged methods, countless mirrors allowed her to warp, and her forward speed burst to over five hundred times the Heavenly Dao limit!

This was one part of the strategy.

This kind of battle in Boundless Outer Domain was all about such arrangements.

On the other side, the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord's expression changed.

So fast, but... it will still take a few seconds to get here.

A few seconds, that's enough.

Indeed, those seemingly non-aggressive spells he had noticed earlier were channels she had set up to facilitate her acceleration later.

Although he didn't know why a Dao Orthodoxy practitioner would get close, all of this had already been factored into the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord's calculations.

The Celestial Dog let out a loud roar, then spat out a foul, fishy breath, from which a buzzing sound could be heard.

With the Celestial Dog's call, an endless swarm of locusts appeared!

The locusts, as a scourge, are born of evil Qi, and are foul and fishy.

Then the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord chanted: "Great locusts throughout the land, for years unceasing. When they Move, they cover the earth; when they rise, they cover the sky. Crops and vegetation, the land is barren, nothing remains."

Where the Celestial Dog falls, famine and plague will appear, and manipulating locusts is also one of his Divine Ability.

These locusts, each like iron, reflected light, the smallest the size of a human head, flapping their wings and flying towards Shen Shuibi's inevitable path.

Within these few seconds, the locusts had already crashed into Shen Shuibi.

Locusts, when they Move, cover the earth; when they rise, they cover the sky, possessing the ability to block light, which could obstruct Shen Shuibi's path, as the Mirror Flower Water Moon technique actually requires 'light' as a medium.

This was the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord's plan.

But at this moment, the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord's Dharma Aspect tilted, stumbling, its ears disintegrating, and his true form's ears also began to bleed!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Others felt nothing, but the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord only felt a deafening roar in his ears! It tore large holes in his eardrums, and blood flowed freely.

Sacrifice! This was the sacrificial ritual of the gong-beating Celestial Dog-driving method! And it truly borrowed Fangxiang Divine Qi, otherwise, it couldn't have such power.

He was careless; this is a Shaman Dao technique!? She has a helper?

But he immediately reacted, promptly reorganizing his Dharma Aspect.

This sacrifice could only cause him minor injuries and discomfort; he hadn't lost the power to resist yet.

However, with that moment of distraction, Shen Shuibi had already bypassed the locusts and arrived before the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord.

She formed hand seals and pressed them onto his true form.

Blazing flames ignited!

Five Revolutions of Yang Gathering, Five Qi and Three Flowers Converging at the Crown, blowing natural True Fire.

This was the alchemical fire Shen Shuibi used for refining medicine!

With a rumble, the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord was completely engulfed in flames!