An enormous hand reached out, and a purple palm, more than a thousand meters long, appeared out of thin air. It came crashing down toward the Pharmacist.
The Pharmacist, however, was not afraid. She gripped Occisus and lunged forward.
There was a flash of white light, and a terrible explosion erupted.
There was a shrill shriek as the Pharmacist passed through the purple palm.
Lan Jue grabbed Zhou Qianlin's hand, and the two of them leapt into the air.
Two beams of sword light shot forth, one red and one blue. They were Captus and Demortus.
Drawn by Occisus' energy, the two swords began to exude a powerful aura.
Lan Jue and Zhou Qianlin became one with their swords and launched themselves at the Monarch doppelganger.
Monarch's doppelganger pulsed with terrifying power. It punched out, forcing the Pharmacist back. Then it spun around and reached out a hand to grab Lan Jue and Zhou Qianlin.
This was the first time Lan Jue had ever come face to face with Monarch's avatar. Suddenly he felt as though the very air around him had become his enemy. It pressed down on him like a tidal wave.
This was pure energy crushing.
It was the same method it had used to break through the Wine Master's Domain.
Lan Jue took a step forward and positioned himself in front of Zhou Qianlin.
Captus drew an arc through the air, and red light swirled around it. Space itself collapsed, and a strange ripple of energy appeared.
In the blink of an eye, both he and Qianlin seemed to have left the world. Their bodies vanished into thin air.
It was as if the oppressive force was crushing empty air, and did no harm to them.
This was the result of Captus and Taiji.
Qianlin leaped from behind Lan Jue. Thousands upon thousands of blue swords of light flew out. Their energy crisscrossed and flashed in the air. Demortus' Thousand Changes pierced through the air, riddling it with a thousand holes.
Lan Jue pointed forward with the Celestial Trapping Sword and stabbed out from the center of the arc that she had drawn. This sword was simple and unadorned, but it seemed to carry the force of a thousand catties.
Amidst the turbulent waves, it brazenly broke through all the obstructions in front of it, completely piercing through the pressure that was riddled with holes, and suddenly pierced through.
The white light of the Banishing Immortal's Blade flared to life. The Pharmacist had the Slaughter Domain to aid her, so she never ran out of energy to fight. The more she fought, the stronger she became.
Powered by her Sovereign level cultivation, the Banishing Immortal's power was truly terrifying.
Not even Monarch's avatar could withstand the deadly energy. Monarch's avatar was able to slice through one after the other as she closed in on the avatar.
Monarch's avatar suddenly shrank to the size of a human. It punched out with its right fist and met Occisus' attack head-on.
Colliding with the Immortal Slaughtering Sword with his body?
"Ding!" A crisp sound rang out.
The Pharmacist was sent flying. Her opponent's energy was too strong.
But the avatar didn't fare any better.
A crack appeared on his fist, and a purplish-red mist surged out of it.
What was Occisus? It was a divine weapon!
In front of the godly sword, it was clearly not a wise choice to clash head-on with his body.
Lan Jue and Zhou Qianlin rushed forward, hand in hand. Captus thrust forward. Ten Thousand Flows Towards the Sea!
A million rays of blue light bloomed behind him. It was the Sword of the Stars.
Although the two of them couldn't use the Harmonious Swords at will, the two techniques complemented each other. One was light, the other steady.
The light of the Banishing Swords swirled around Monarch's avatar.
"Careful!" The Wine Master's voice called.
Lan Jue felt the world spin around him. In the blink of an eye he and Zhou Qianlin were several kilometers away.
Where they had been a moment ago was swallowed up by a sea of purple.
If not for the Wine Master's timely intervention, they would have been trapped.
Lan Jue felt so powerless he almost couldn't resist the urge to break through.
He had the strength of a Paragon, but he wasn't a Paragon yet. He was at a disadvantage in a fight like this.
The energy wasn't strong enough!
If they were not on the same level, it would be very difficult to use other things to even things out.
Especially when the enemy was at least a Nirvana Paragon.
Compared to him, the Pharmacist was in a much better position. She wielded Occisus with her own sword.
As powerful as Monarch's avatar was, it was still wary of Occisus.
It didn't dare fight head-on with its own body.
The Pharmacist, in her Body and Sword Union, was able to counter Monarch's avatar. The avatar was much stronger, but it could do nothing to the Pharmacist.
The Wine Master assisted from the side. For a time it was hard to tell who would win.
In terms of overall strength, all of them combined were no match for Monarch's avatar.
In a situation like this, the word 'restraint' played an important role.
It was because of the natural restraints of life energy, and the power of Occisus, that the two sides were evenly matched.
"We'll handle this. You go ahead and scout.
Then we'll leave. "The Wine Master's voice sounded in Lan Jue's ear.
"Alright."
Lan Jue was decisive. She agreed without hesitation. They wouldn't be of much help here.
They weren't on the same level, and they would only get in the way.
Unless they used the Harmonious Swords, they would be drained of energy. Lan Jue wouldn't do that unless it was absolutely necessary.
The two of them returned to Thor. Thor dissolved into a beam of blue light and vanished.
Monarch's avatar tried to stop them, but the Pharmacist's thousands of swords overwhelmed it.
The Pharmacist's courage grew as the battle progressed. Occisus shone like never before under her control. Every thrust was without hesitation. She didn't give herself any leeway.
As Occisus' murderous aura grew stronger, Monarch's avatar didn't dare be careless.
If it was struck in the vitals, especially a vital crystal, it would die.
Furthermore, it could feel the Wine Master and Pharmacist's energy dwindling. They were fighting with all their might to keep up, but they couldn't last long.
It wouldn't be long before they couldn't hold on.
Now that they were out of the fray, Thor was like a fish back in the ocean. He sped up to his maximum speed.
Before Monarch's avatar had joined the fray, it had sent the rest of the aliens far away.
A clash of Paragons was earth-shattering, and Monarch didn't want to incur too many casualties.
Now, however, was Thor's chance. Lan Jue steered Thor around the planet's flank. Soon they were on the far side of the planet.
The closer they got, the more shocked he felt.
The ground wasn't just a dark purple. The buildings were corroded, and there was no sign of human life.
What was even more terrifying was that thick purplish-black tubes kept emerging from the ground. They looked like huge blood vessels with blue veins popping out of them.
They were all moving in a single direction, wriggling from time to time.
If you looked closely you'd have the illusion that these veins were part of the planet itself, like the planet's meridians.
But it was obvious that a planet didn't have meridians. It was obvious who these veins belonged to.
They continued to fly, until they were on the far side of the planet.
Lan Jue suddenly realized that the far side of the planet was dark and gloomy.
After flying for so long, a strange feeling crept into his mind.
Something was wrong. Something was wrong.
He must have seen it before, but he hadn't paid attention.
The sky was gloomy and had an abnormal purplish black tinge to it. The clouds were very low, and even the atmosphere seemed to have become heavy when it came to this side.
Ah!
Lan Jue suddenly understood.
Ever since he came to this star sector, he'd felt something was wrong. But only now did he figure out what it was.
The planet wasn't rotating. Yes, the administrative planet wasn't rotating.
It should be known that all planets had their own laws of motion. Even stars had their own rotation.
A planet that didn't rotate was wrong in itself.
But because the speed of the planet's rotation varied, it was difficult to judge with the naked eye.
"Thor, gather the data and see if the administrative planets we passed are not rotating." Lan Jue immediately ordered Thor to do the calculation.
"Yes!" Thor quickly gave the answer.
Just as Lan Jue had guessed, all the administrative planets they passed were not rotating.
It was as if they had stopped in space.
Stopping a planet's rotation could cause it to deviate from its own orbit, gradually turning it into a meteorite in space.
Whether it was the planet itself or the celestial bodies in its vicinity, it was a disaster.
The aliens could not only detonate planets, but they could also stop them from rotating. But what was their goal?
Thor continued onward, until it reached the far side of the planet. Lan Jue's jaw dropped when he saw what lay beyond the dark purple world.
He would remember this scene for the rest of his life.
What was that?
At the center of the thick blood vessels, a huge purplish-black blood vessel soared into the sky.
They'd seen something like this before on Monteux, but this vein was at least a hundred times larger than the one they'd seen on Monteux.
It was like a huge passageway that extended from the surface of the planet outwards, and it was even squirming slightly from time to time.
"Thor, lift off!" Lan Jue ordered. Thor shot up into the sky.
Through the clouds, Lan Jue couldn't care less about concealing himself. He couldn't care less about how many aliens were out in space.
To his surprise, Thor didn't encounter any aliens as they ascended. Before long Thor was out of the clouds and out into space.