Screech!
The Evolved Purple Mantis blurred into a streak of light, moving so fast that Bian couldn't see its figure clearly.
He summoned the Purple Mantis King beast soul to block the frontal attack, but the Evolved Mantis was already at his back.
"Too fast!"
Bian brandished the Edge of Ruin in his other hand, barely managing to stop its other attack.
Still, immediately he blocked its attack, the Evolved Mantis was above his head. Its sickle-like arms came for his head at blinding speed.
"I made you. I don't believe I can't kill you!"
[Firing on all cylinders]
The three inner pillars suddenly flared, and Bian could sense the Mantis accurately. Time seemed to dilute, allowing him to follow the movement of the creature, and his body crystallized, becoming a whole structure filled with dreadful power.
Sparks flew around, almost forming a blazing hurricane as he deflected the Evolved Mantis's attacks with both swords akimbo.
Sword lights flew around, desecrating the Purple Meadow. The air was filled with so many sword lights that not even a fly would be safe in that vicinity.
Bian could keep up with the Evolved Mantis, but his weapons could not. They were only at the mutant level, while the fiend could cut through his sacred-blood armor.
[Beast Soul has been destroyed.]
Just as he thought so, the blade beast soul of the Purple Mantis King was cut through, and the attack landed on his chest plate, almost reaching the skin below.
"Now I'm glad the Silver-Plated Armor is thicker in some places than others."
If not, that attack would have reached his heart.
SCREEEH!
The Mantis seemed to have seen an opening, flashing around Bian like a shadow.
"Left, right, up—no, behind!" Bian could trace the Mantis, but it really was too fast. It appeared behind him in an instant, giving him no time to dodge.
"God Killing Slash!"
Combining his strongest techniques and the critical attack of the Edge of Ruin, Bian unleashed one of his strongest moves.
A red vertical line appeared, separating the world into two halves. The bisected Evolved Mantis turned out to be an afterimage, but it had not dodged the attack completely.
One of its sickle-like claws fell to the ground, and the creature bled from the injury.
"You survived that?"
Bian asked intrigued, but the Mantis no longer looked at him like prey.
It stepped back and spread its translucent wings, turning into a purple streak that flew into the distance. Bian scoffed and summoned the draconic wings, giving chase to the fiend.
He unleashed the Emperical Aura and found the Evolved Mantis at the edge of its radius, moving fast away.
It was a bit faster than Bian's sacred-blood wings, which was a real surprise. After all, this creature had been an ordinary one before he fused it with its geno core.
"It's a good thing I tried it on an ordinary creature. If it was primitive, then I reckon things wouldn't be so dandy."
The creature had improved tremendously, but it could only be considered as strong as sacred-blood. Its speed was faster than an average one, but its strength was far below.
Normally, when a demigod evolved, they would be weaker for a while before forming their geno armor, but the Emperical Decree didn't exactly rebuild their body.
It just fused them with their geno cores, which did grant an exaggerated power boost, but the results would at most be considered half a step ascended.
Even without the Emperical Aura, Bian could still find the Evolved Mantis. The skies darkened above its head, and space constricted around it.
The phenomenon did not seem to hinder the creature, but rather it looked like the sanctuary was in the process of kicking it out.
It might take days, weeks, or even months, but Bian was sure that the Evolved Mantis would be kicked out without a shadow of a doubt.
As he kept chasing the creature, it passed overhead the other Purple Mantises. It was indifferent to its race and kept on fleeing.
The Purple Mantises generally had exceptional eyesight. Even if it ignored the weird indigo light around it, the Evolved Mantis had the ability to distinctly spot Bian giving pursuit, and it didn't seem keen on fighting him anymore.
Even Bian had to stop firing on all cylinders because he acknowledged the fact that he couldn't catch up to the creature easily. There was no rush, though, as he was using a beast soul to fly, which did not drain his energy, while the Evolved Mantis was not so lucky.
Soon, an hour passed by, and Bian saw a herd of sheep grazing in the Purple Meadow. He had not seen this species before, but he couldn't even get a good look before the dozen sheep were killed by the Evolved Mantis.
[Ordinary Creature Buckled Sheep killed. Beast Soul has been acquired. Geno Core destroyed. Eat the flesh of the Buckled Sheep to gain 0 to 10 Ordinary Geno Points randomly]
[Ordinary Creature...]
[Ordinary Creature...]
...
[Ordinary Creature...]
"This Mantis is racist. It didn't do anything to its kind, but it killed all those sheep on sight." Bian had not even finished his complaint when the Evolved Mantis went for another herd.
The beast soul of the Buckled Sheep was a mount, which wasn't very useful for Bian. He summoned the Solum Mirror, allowing the Soul Counter to rise steadily.
Ordinary creatures only filled the soul counter by one point, but with the number of sheep being killed, the counter soon passed two hundred, and Bian calculated it would be filled at three hundred in less than an hour.
Every kill slowed down the Evolved Mantis; nonetheless, the gap between the two was too large to be bridged by those minor pauses.
Bian assumed the Mantis was at odds with the sheep in the meadow. The woolly bodies of the sheep would make it an unforgiving task for the Mantis to cut through, especially with their serrated blade arms.
[Silver Solum Mirror]
[Retaliation: 300/300]
[Soul Capacity: 300/300]
[Advance / Transfer]
[Maximum Soul Capacity Achieved. Advance the Solum Mirror?]
He didn't have to wait long before the Solum Mirror was filled up and could no longer accept souls.
"Transfer."
Bian chose to transfer all the energy to his silver geno core, the Altering Brush. Once its own counter was full, he raised it up to gold class immediately.
As the brush leveled up, significant changes also occurred to the Dongxuan Sutra. Bian could espy substances in the air that showed the traces of birds which had passed by days ago.
More importantly, the Altering Brush now had a new and very needed function. He could string together sentences instead of only relying on one-word modifications.
"This ends now!"
Bian wouldn't have used his silver geno core on sacred-blood wings; however, now it had become a gold geno core just like the Edge of Ruin. He knew it wouldn't be worse off than the sword and would probably even be better.
"Fast, swift, nimble, sleek, speedy, rapid."
Bian had found out he could stack multiple layers of alteration on one body as long as it wasn't the same word and where he wrote them did not overlap. He didn't hold back with his vast vocabulary, and soon his speed skyrocketed.
The Evolved Mantis, which was engaging in a slaughter, was given a sudden fright when Bian suddenly sped up.
The creature no longer paid attention to the sheep and only focused on running away.
"It's too late!"
Bian was now faster than the Mantis; he caught up to it in a matter of seconds, and the two crossed blades.
The second arm of the Evolved Mantis flew into the air as a bright red sword light cleaved apart a mountain behind the creature.
Bian was no longer holding back, so even without firing on all cylinders, he could still kill the Mantis by using the God Killing Slash.
Screeh!
The creature's time was up, and it knew it too, but refused to accept death. Without both arms, it couldn't fight back, so it did the only reasonable move left.
It flew away with all its might, and even when Bian caught up, it would swerve in any direction to avoid his attacks.
This was the exact weakness of a flight beast soul, which was that it wasn't convenient to use against actual flying creatures.
Even if Bian was directly faster, he wasn't as agile, and this wasn't an issue that could be fixed with a simple word modification on the wings.
Another thirty minutes passed by in a blur. The ink in the Altering Brush had drained by one-tenth. Although the words were only active on one object, it still had the drain of using one word on six targets each.
The only reason the ink went down so slowly was because it was a beast soul Bian wrote on and not a living creature.
Aside from the drain of the brush, Bian found a way to keep up with the rapid maneuvers of the Evolved Mantis using the phoenix techniques he had seen Han Yan use against Executioner White.
He became like a bird, shadowing every move of the Mantis. If the creature wasn't smaller and lighter than him, Bian would have taken its head.
"That's it!" Bian suddenly had a eureka moment and wrote 'featherlight' on his person.
As the Mantis blurred in every direction, Bian did the same, and he cut off the antenna of the Evolved Mantis.
"I feel like an ant stretched to the size of a human body." Using the alteration on himself distorted his balance and would still take some time to adjust to.
He had to fight against air resistance and depend solely on the sharp attack of the Edge of Ruin, as his own body could no longer produce powerful force with his little weight. He was also just getting accustomed to the pheonix techniques but was improving at an unbelievable pace.
The Mantis was at the end of its rope. It flew into an open valley amidst countless mountains, and Bian continued his pursuit.
"We're back in Golem Valley."