As the hand of the Cardinal Sins Goddess wrapped around the glimmering Time Seed, her metaphoric heart trembled with excitement.
However, before her hand could fully latch onto it, her head snapped to her right and her expression changed.
It was too late for her to dodge and an illusory orange chain knocked her away from the Time Seed.
An illusory figure then slowly materialized in the air above Li Shen’s Qi Sea.
Seeing this illusory figure, Li Shen's face was filled with joy as he yelled.
“Avarice!”
This version of Avarice was his eighteen-year-old self, with long curled hair and freckles.
He turned to Li Shen with a smile and said.
“Li Shen, you handle trying to regain control over the plum blossom and I’ll handle this cockroach demoness.”
Li Shen nodded before he moved towards his Seven Sins Plum Blossom in his Qi Sea projection.
Avarice turned to look at the Cardinal Sins Goddess with a cold expression.
They both face off in the air, and the Cardinal Sins Goddess's eyes were filled with loathing as she looked at Avarice.
“You’re nothing but a consciousness that was manifested from the Sin of Greed Petal. How dare you try to challenge me?!”
Avarice sneered and immediately clapped back.
“Are you not of the same existence?”
“You were foolish enough to think you could have tricked me by leaving a piece of your consciousness behind. I didn’t know where you were hiding so I thought I would have to wait patiently for the opportunity to kill you once and for all, but who knew it would come so soon?”
The Cardinal Sins Goddess upon hearing that, glanced towards Li Shen moving towards the plum blossom and her expression changed.
Her eyes radiated killing intent and without any hesitation, she moved in that direction, but was suddenly cut off by Avarice appearing in front of her.
“Bastard! You dare to scheme against me?!”
The Cardinal Goddess yelled as her killing intent burst forth in an intimidating manner.
Chuckling Avarice responded.
“I might not be the original reincarnation of Avarice like Li Shen, but I have his memories and emotions. For what you put me through, put us through, I not only dare to scheme against you but I intend on killing you.”
*Swoosh*
*Swoosh*
Without any prompting, four large orange chains with pikes at the end formed around Avarice and whipped towards the Cardinal Sins Goddess.
The Goddess snorted in contempt before her illusory figure turned blood-red and a wrathful aura radiated from her sending a shock wave into the surroundings.
The chains remain unaffected by this blast of energy and continued their trajectory towards her.
Several thin blood-red threads appeared around her to clash against Avarice’s illusory orange chains.
Despite the difference in size the blood-red threads collided with the chains with a loud bang.
*Swoosh*
*Swoosh*
Avarice immediately retrieved his chains before bombarding the Cardinal Sins Goddess with attacks. His chains increased from four to eight but she remain unperturbed in the attacks as they were equally matched in strength.
*Bang*
*Bang*
The sounds of their clash resounded out almost drowning out the tribulation up above.
Meanwhile, Li Shen reached his Qi Sea to examine his Seven Sins Plum Blossom.
It was being controlled by the Cardinal Sins Goddess to slow down the rotation of his Qi Sea.
As Li Shen floated to the middle of his fifty meter Qi Sea he frowned before placing his hand on the plum blossom.
This Qi Sea and Seven Sins Plum Blossom was a projection of the ones in his dantian. They weren’t bound to the physical world but could affect it.
Li Shen didn’t know their abilities or what purpose they served other than allowing him to absorb the Time Qi in the surroundings, but in the future, he’ll have plenty of time to slowly understand their existence.
For now, all he knew was that they were connected to the ones in his dantian.
Li Shen could feel this when his hand was placed on his Seven Sins Plum Blossom. His perception seeped inside and he began his search.
It didn’t take long before he found a sliver of the Cardinal Sins Goddess remnant life essence with his Divine Will.
It was like a small leech that had hidden deep inside the plum blossom slowly sucking away at its power to strengthen itself. Because it was so hidden Li Shen hadn’t realized its presence, in fact, if she hadn’t shown herself now he couldn’t fathom what could have happened in the future if he was going through a more dangerous life and death tribulation.
Just thinking about it gave Li Shen chills to his bones. Luckily, Avarice had planned for something like this and was here to help him.
Without hesitation, Li Shen began encapsulating the sliver of life essence with his Divine Will, intending to completely erase it.
Over at the battle area between Avarice and Cardinal Sins Goddess, the Cardinal Sins Goddess's illusory body suddenly shook and visibly became dimmer.
This caused fear to rise in her heart as she realized she might be erased from this world.
“Impossible!! How could I let some mere ants defeat me?!!”
Furious, the Cardinal Sins Goddess no longer held back and went all out. She no longer feared using up her power causing her death. Despite being as weak as she was, she was confident she could kill Avarice and Li Shen, but first, she needed to kill Li Shen before he erased her life essence.
She madly charged towards Li Shen’s direction.
“Do you think I’ll let you!”
Avarice realized her obvious intentions and his eight chains turned to twelve. Even though his body visibly dimmed, he ignored it and blocked the Cardinal Goddess's path once again.
They clashed again and again, with the Cardinal Goddess using everything she could to get past him to stop Li Shen.
Her expression was twisted, making her resemble a malevolent spirit. It wasn't any better after lightning struck over behind her giving her features a more horrid look.
In this desperate attempt to survive, her Desire Energy rivaled a Peak Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, bordering on the Soul Transformation Realm.
Avarice, in order to stand up against her onslaught, had to burn his Greed Desire Energy to increase his strength.
If anything he was willing to die if it meant he could take her down with him.
The Goddess herself was getting weaker and weaker as Li Shen continue to chip away at her life essence inside of the plum blossom.
But she was relentlessly attacking like she had gone mad, the twisted look on her face make it evident how desperate she was to get to Li Shen.
After continuously being pushed back by the Cardinal Sins Goddess and being overwhelmed. Avarice’s twelve chains were knocked away leaving him open and defenseless.
*Pitua!*
*Pitua!*
*Pitua!*
*Pitua!*
Several puncturing sounds echoed out as four of her red threads pierced his illusory body.
Those areas turn corrupted becoming red.
Avarice’s body shook and he looked down at his wounds. However, the Cardinal Sins Goddess waved her hand to the side and his body was flung aside.
Her blood-red specter-like figure then rush towards Li Shen who was busy focusing on getting rid of her life essence.
Avarice’s body took damage and with him burning his very essence, he began dissipating. However. upon seeing her getting close to Li Shen, he roared out.
“OVER MY DEAD BODY!!!”
His once dissipating body suddenly burst into illusory orange flames. The void trembled and an orange plum blossom petal materialized on his forehead which began burning as well.
Like a bolt of lightning streaking across the sky, he flew to appear behind the Cardinal Sins Goddess. With eyes filled with murderous intent, he sent out a deadly palm strike back with all of his accumulated power.
The Cardinal Sins Goddess was quick to turn around and send out a palm strike of her own, but her arm along with the entire right side of her body was instantly destroyed.
She and Avarice flew back in different directions, but Avarice wasn’t better off. That was his last attack to take her down with him and his body was now beginning to vanish.
With this, it should give Li Shen more time to completely eradicate her consciousness inside the plum blossom.
But contrary to expectations, Avarice's expression wasn’t one of relief at gaining victory, it was filled with dread.
He had used his attack to knock the Cardinal Sins Goddess off course from Li Shen, but at the last second, she had adjusted her body to head in a different direction.
Seeing her crumbling body heading for the Time Seed that had paused in mid-air, he realized all of her actions were intended to trick him into thinking she was trying to stop Li Shen.
Her true goal was always the Time Seed.
“Dammit!!”
Avarice tried to move to stop her, but he had used all of his strength in that attack. He realized this was also another part of her plan.
Avarice was furious he let himself be tricked like this.
The Cardinal Sins Goddess's eyes remained locked on the Time Seed and a sly smile appeared on her lips.
However, just as she was about to reach the Time Seed, she suddenly let out a scream of pain.
Li Shen slowly opened his eyes as he had completely wiped away her life essence.
“No!”
The Cardinal Sins Goddess cried out as she was so close to reaching the Time Seed.
Li Shen’s Qi Sea regained its rotation speed and it began attracting the Time Seed.
The Cardinal Sins Goddess could only watch as it got further and further away from her.
Li Shen sneered at her before his gaze turned to Avarice's dissipating body. He was about to quickly go to him hoping he could stop it, but his body suddenly froze and his head whipped back to where the Cardinal Sin Goddess was.
His eyes widen before both he and Avarice blurted out.
“How the fuck?!!”
For some inexplicable reason, the Cardinal Sins Goddess’s body that was doomed to dissipate after having her consciousness destroyed somehow found the strength to rush towards the moving Time Seed.
A last desperate attempt by her and one could see the determination in her eyes to obtain the Time Seed. She was unwilling to die like this, she was going to gain this Time Seed and obtain the power of Time Laws.
Li Shen flew up to intercept her, but her movement was unexpected and she was closer to the Time Seed.
As her half dissipating hand wrapped around the Time Seed, a blinding white light shone out that made Li Shen cover his eyes.
When he opened them he saw that the Cardinal Sins Goddess had transformed into a completely pure white being.
Li Shen’s heart shook when he felt the familiar power emanating from her.
It felt just like the one she had in the past, the power of a Domain Existence, a God.
This was the worst possible outcome as the threat she now posed was on a completely different level.
Li Shen's mind raced to come up with a way to get out of this situation.
He thought about using Little Snow's ability, but he couldn't just run away leaving everyone like a coward.
But he couldn't fight back against her with this heaven and earth power difference between.
Just how was he supposed to come out of this? Was he and everyone... going to die here?
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