Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 694: Oppressive Might

Ruthlessly ripping apart the group of opportunists had given Zac a breather. But it would take over four hours to return, even when using the Twilight River for a speed boost and spatial manipulation. There were also multiple plateaus he needed to pass, and each one might have cultivators lying in wait.

Nothing happened for fifteen minutes after the initial attack, but a sudden and massive explosion in the distance drew everyone’s attention. It was far into the void between the platforms, and it looked like a tremendous eruption of a mix of death and fire. Judging by the force contained in the explosion, it definitely wasnʼt a struggle between E-grade cultivators, but rather proper Hegemons. Even if it was just an array or talisman going off, something of that magnitude would have to have been powered by a D-grade cultivatorʼs core.

A sudden scream of danger made Zac’s hair stand on end, and he barely had a chance to send an activation to a defensive talisman and turn [Love’s Bond] into a shield. A thick barrier sprung up around him, but it immediately dimmed as some sort of black haze glommed onto it. Zac realized that someone had used an array breaker to counter his talisman, but the slight delay had allowed him to maneuver his shield just enough to block out an extremely penetrative spear stab that crashed through the weakened shield.

Zac was thrown off from his vessel by the condensed force, and he soared almost a hundred meters into the void. He was completely fine from the strike, but others weren’t quite as lucky. The enormous explosion had grabbed everyone’s attention to some degree, and over twenty parties had taken the chance to launch attacks on neighboring vessels at that moment.

Battles were raging for a stretch of thousands of meters on the Twilight River, with all kinds of powerful energy outbursts. However, apart from the enormous battle that raged in the void, it looked like all the combats were between E-grade cultivators. He hadn’t heard anything, but it was possible that Hegemons were hesitant to fight close to the rivers?

A battle between D-grade cultivators might damage the rivers themselves, which could have huge implications since they essentially were the lifeblood of the whole Twilight Harbor. But if that was the case, then Zac definitely didn’t want to stay too far away from the river. He quickly started to expel some miasma to counteract the slight gravitational pull from the closest plateau as his eyes swept back and forth in every direction, trying to any hints of his attacker.

However, the man was simply gone.

Had he realized that Zac was too hard a nut to crack and targeted someone else? Or was he still lying in wait? Zac couldn’t tell for sure, but he activated another defensive talisman as he made his way back to his boat before it was dragged away by the Twilight River.

Zac’s nerves were taut as he stepped back the vessel, but he somewhat relaxed when he sensed the familiar aura of the spearman a few boats over, locked in battle with what looked to be a poison master. He briefly considered joining the fray to get some revenge, but he didn’t want to bring any trouble down on his head.

Instead, he threw out a couple of Peak E-grade Talismans, turning his flying treasure into a small fortress. He had avoided doing so until now out of fear that it would cause more harm than good by drawing attention to himself, but a number of vessels had already done the same after seeing how chaotic the river had become.

Another enormous explosion erupted in the distance, and Zac vaguely saw an obscured figure fly toward the closest plateau with a speed that far surpassed anything that was possible in the E-grade. As expected, the chaos had caused another wave of carnage, but Zac and his layers of defenses weren’t one of the targets this time. Hopefully, that meant his identity was safe.

Things calmed down over the next two hours, though Zac did have to fend off two more attacks before he was left alone, though none of them managed to push Zac to the point he had to display any of his hidden cards. The battle left the flying vessel somewhat in tatters though, but Zac didn’t really care.