185. Deep Sighs.
.
Luoyin moved in the thousandth split of a second, and his sea-blue trail breezed by Yu Wang.
Everything suddenly slowed...
At first Yu Wang felt nothing, and after several seconds, only a sudden wet sensation drew his attention.
It was almost as if water was trickling down his middle, wetting his robes, and he glanced downwards....
...but that slight movement ripped open the flesh of his middle, and there was a sudden spray of his black blood.
"What...?"
His entire body froze, suddenly unable to move the tiniest muscle.
In the next instant, an overwhelming wave of aura caused his knees to buckle, and he fell forward, falling from the skies and crashing onto the jagged ground below.
A bright golden fire erupted around him and he shrieked in agony as the flame burned him inside out, sending dark wraiths fleeing from within him till he was nothing but skin and bone.
The dark wraiths circled above him for only a few seconds before fading completely, and there wasn't the slightest bit of his aura left.
There were shocked gasps from the immortals who had followed the fight as best they could, but had long since given up on understanding every aspect.
From their humble viewpoints, a sea blue streak had clashed multiple times with a streak of black aura, and then both streaks had slowed to reveal Yin Xiaolong and the demon king...
And then the demon king had somehow collapsed and fallen from the skies all on his own, right before the massive golden flame had finished him!
Through sheer force of will, Yu Wang lifted his head to stare at his shining other half before him.
"You-... What did you do?!" He demanded, sending flecks of blood and saliva from his lips. "How are you so powerful?!!"
"Hmph." Luoyin appeared to stare down at him.
...much like he had done to all the many minions and footprints Yu Wang had sent his way through unending years...
"I told you, I only needed my memories as Yu Xuan to defeat you. Between his memories, my life as Yin Xiaolong, and even my life as Zhang Luoyin, who do you think you're facing?"
Yu Wang's eyes widened.
The person before him had lived once a demon, then an Immortal, then a mortal...
Knowledge of all three races!
And given his original strength and medical affinity, then,
"You've realized too late..." Luoyin continued. "The seconds after I reclaimed my Pearl were more than enough to Breakthrough several levels. And with that, I could easily predict the swiftest possible way to defeat you.
"But it's more than that..." Luoyin held up a hand and two orbs appeared, hovering over his palm.
One was a light blue orb of wind, which bore a dense amount of Old man Bao's aura.
The other was a fiery golden orb of Weiyan's pure Sunfire.
And behind him, a large golden gingko tree appeared, its leaves glinting sharply.
"Your selfish black-heart will never let you see true comradeship, or I should say... You can't even comprehend it.
"Unlike you, I have people behind me who are ready to give their all to ensure both your death and my safety, and I didn't even ask..."
In those same precious seconds after he reclaimed his orb, Weiyan had passed on a worrying amount of her qi to him, infusing it with as much sunfire as she could muster in her semi-mortal form.
~"You're going to need it to purge such an evil thing!"~ She spoke into his mind, giving her head a stubborn shake at his worried expression. ~"If you refuse, I'll end my own lifeline!"~
That had been that...
Old Man Bao had burned several years of cultivation to pour even more of his aura into Luoyin.
~"Endless years are what this old man has a lot of!"~
...and Kai Zhen insisted on giving Luoyin his precious gold Gingko tree.
~"It's not much, but in your hands, it would surely become the deadliest of weapons!"~
All these, combined with Luoyin's own powers were a bit like adding several hundreds to a hundred percent, taking Luoyin's already peerless power straight beyond the skies.
He had been confident after reclaiming him pearl...
...but with these 'gifts' from his friends, he had no doubt in his mind that Yu Wang would die before sunrise!
Luoyin's first step was to mask all three auras with his, letting them slip through Yu Wang's perception.
Old man Bao's aura had fueled his initial attacks, while he stacked up moves ahead.
Weiyan's Sunfire had been his most insidious move, as he infused tiny bits of it into almost everything, from his fists, to his sword, to Kai Zhen's endless gingko leaves...
And with every hit, he sent all that Sunfire info Yu Wang!
"You pride yourself on being a part of me... You didn't consider what that meant." Luoyin shrugged. "I have absolute knowledge of your body, every muscle. Every organ. Every meridian...
"And I learned the insidious technique from you... or rather, from your minion, Zhurong Fen. Someone on her level dared plant your aura in me all those years ago.
So imagine what I did with that knowledge...
Yu Wang miserably crawled forward. "You infused me with Sunfire and controlled it with every strike, destroying my defenses from within... You used it to find my black flame core, and with that last strike, you -?"
"I cut through the dark flame's final defence and let in the Sunfire." Luoyin confirmed with a nod. "The Sunfire finally reached you! And I made sure to sever your core, and every single one of your Meridians while I was at it."
Luoyin shook his head calmly. "None of these things ever belonged to you... You shouldn't even exist."
"Hmph. So I'm useless..." Yu Wang managed an empty smile, and then his head fell back with laughter. "So... I'm useless...?!!"
"Not just useless! You also won't last till sunrise." Luoyin spoke matter-of-factly, nodding toward the brightening horizon. "Over a millennia of bloodshed and misery... Thousands and thousands of dead souls have surely cried out for your destruction!"
Yu Wang's laughter vanished slowly as the cold reality settled in.
Blood rushed to his head, bursting out of his eyes, his nostrils, his ears, and his mouth, sending his black blood everywhere.
'How is this fair...?' He thought as he felt his essence waning, his expression now one of disbelief and hopelessness.
It was too cruel...
He had begun as a tiny black flame, born within some random demon.
He had spent years fulfilling his purpose... painstakingly blackening his host's heart.
He had taken over and risen as the demon king.
But then Yu Xuan had defeated him and sealed him away for half a millennia!
And now... Even after he had resurrected...
Yu Xuan's incarnate had defeated him yet again!
And this time there was no future for him...
No possibility of a rebirth, or even a reincarnation....
The Immortals looked on as Yu Wang's Aura faded, a few now boldly approaching and landing around Luoyin and the dying figure in the floor.
Each wore several varying shades of disgust as Yu Wang began to convulse, letting out a putrid smell as his body began to break down.
The demon king surely deserved such a gruesome death, but the sight before the Immortals was still pitiful and unimaginable!
This demon king... The greatest and most powerful demon of their time, would die here like this, worse than the lowliest life form.
A death far from home, and in such a shameful, bloody way... A destroyed corpse, no final resting place, and not one person who would remember him with anything but hatred and disdain!!
Still, all breathed deep sighs of relief as Yu Wang went still, finally breathing his last.
There was an utterly silent moment as his body dissipated black smoke, the particles fading away before they could even rise into the air.
It was as if the universe paid attention, because the skies brightened at that moment, almost as if to signify the end of Yu Wang's oppressive darkness.
Dawn was here!
After a long and gruelling night with their lives- and the very world, at stake...
Just a few hours ago Jinyu City still resembled a City... Old and desolate, but a City, nonetheless.
In fact, the city had been masked as the beautiful 'Yu Shui' City.
But between the Baishan Tournament, to the revelation of the Arena demons, to the Star Edicts which showed the past events, revealing Zhurong Fen's identity, and to every crazy thing that followed, reducing Jinyu City to this unrecognizable wasteland of rocks, debris, and lava...
It was hard to imagine that so much had happened in one short night.
But it had all happened!
And the events of this night would go down in history.
Spoken of for countless ages to come...!
.
(This an optional Acceptable ending, if you're not one for long endings...! (?▽? ?))