Divine Emperor of Death

Davis was half-embarrassed and half-angered, offended at his imitation for thinking this way as though claiming that his women were 'his'. It was complex, to say the least, and as much as it was frustrating, Davis tried to calm his heart and began to think of a way to beat this mad imitation of his, but before he could even think of something, he was quickly intercepted, black bolts of extinction lightning and dark crimson flaming kirins galloping down the air as they rained on him.

*Boom!~*

A massive plume of heavenly flames surged out from Davis as they struck the attack, engulfing everything within as the explosion sent him flying, blood splashing out as his flesh became burned, his blood simultaneously evaporating into thin air from the searing temperature of their clash.

'Fuck… a prowess higher at this stage is too much to handle...'

Davis instantly shot away, trying to gain as much distance as possible amidst the chaotic undulations as he mused that they were already at immortal level, and the gap in immortal levels was said to be even wider than the Ninth Stage, the higher level capable of instant killing, the lower level immortal at the difference of even just a single level.

It was already prominent in the Ninth Stage, but it was extremely clear that someone would be courting death just to challenge a person of a single level higher at the immortal level.

Davis quickly sensed his imitation at his tail, causing him to turn around and strike with his palm shaped like a snake. The extreme precision seared through the air as heavenly lightning covered his palm, a black-silver edge gleaming with a terrifying sharpness.

"Coming up with some random moves on the spot, you think you could beat me as Shirley did!?"

*Bzzz!~!~*

The imitation used his own palm, searing with the destructive immolation flames, to block Davis's strike. It struck. Heavenly lightning and immolation flames clashed, Davis's palm visibly shaking as it appeared unable to penetrate. However, the imitation's arm seemed to be pushed back ever so slightly, which Davis didn't think of much as their attacks kept clashing in mid-air, trying to gain supremacy over the other, but as he noticed the imitation's arm greatly shake to block his piercing palm strike, Davis's eyes widened.

'The imitation's body… it's only as strong as mine...'

He was shocked to find that the imitation's Body Tempering Cultivation wasn't eight levels higher, which meant that…

He abruptly changed his snake-like hand to a fist, dark crimson plumes of heavenly flames bursting out with an overwhelming might!

*Bang!~*

The moment it clashed with the other party's palm, Davis's remaining arm shattered, spurting into a fountain of blood, but at the same time, the imitation's defenses were overwhelmed as his hand became enveloped in heavenly flames.

However, with a mere wave of his hand surging with extinction lightning and immolation flames, the imitation extinguished the heavenly flames easily, grinning at Davis, who lost both his arms.

"Why don't you just give up and challenge me again and make it to the sixth time? I'll entertain killing you at that time."

"So you have calmed down. As expected of me." Davis seemed to be full of praise for himself as he nodded, but he suddenly stared at his imitation with scorn, "However, why not use your soul force to heal that lousy burn on your fist?"

The imitation smirked, "Why would I bother healing such a small injury when you're going to give up and leave?"

"I see. So you could only have one of your cultivations enhanced to the floor's difficulty; accurately, the cultivation with the highest prowess while the other two cultivations are limited to the original's prowess..."

*Whoosh!~*

Davis abruptly shot towards the exit, leaving without hesitation.

Realizing that his hand became scorched gave Davis a hint, the imitation's expression changed.

"Bastard! Come back here!"

The imitation also shot forwards, his matching Davis's escaping speed.

However, Davis didn't stop, using heavenly flames as the foundation to explode with power and rush with heavenly lightning, his speed going off the charts as though he had never flown so fast in life.

"Damn you!!! This isn't the end of it as I know you'll be back, you greedy basta-"

Before the imitation could even finish screaming off the top of his lungs for the mess up at the first round, Davis arrived outside, consequently causing the imitation to disappear.

He flew straight with an incredible speed as he hit the wall with his legs to cushion his speed, causing cracks to appear on his limbs from the force of the momentum. He fell down from being unable to fly in this location, falling to his butt as a bright smile appeared on his face while staring at the wall with ancient-looking indescribable patterns.

"As expected. The ruthless me wanted to end me for real, at the very least, completely destroy my body or remove one or more limbs and humiliate me before letting me off..."

He couldn't help but chuckle, thinking that his imitations also had their own goals to do what they were doing, causing him to descend into silence.

'Now then…' But quickly, he began to think, 'Even though I figured out that the imitation could have only one of their cultivations enhanced, perhaps fixed in a battle or interchangeable, my chances of beating this floor is less than five percent through my own power. I could borrow Fallen Heaven's powers, but it is considerably still afraid of the world master, especially since this Nine-Treasured Palace is supposedly created by the world master since a treasure like a Chaos Essence Orb and even a manual is present.'

'What's more, it has even hidden its aura like it is hiding from the heavens, although not as much as it would as I could still feel its presence and able to use its powers, although not readily.'

'Nonetheless, even without Fallen Heaven, I still want to clear this using my own power. But still, that bastard of an imitation would know any kind of plan I come up with and come up with a countermeasure of his own, although he didn't seem to be willing to reveal anything about Fallen Heaven, perhaps because he wants to take over me and continue on with my, his legacy…? Ah, damn-'

"Husband! What are you waiting for!? Heal yourself!"

Abruptly, Evelynn came to his side and bellowed, causing him to come out of his reverie as he turned to look back at his beauties, which appeared with red eyes as though they couldn't see him in this way.

"Oh, right…"

Only then did the adrenaline of using an escape art of the Firestorm World Ode Manual fade as reality hit his body, stinging him with immense pain that made his lips twitch, causing him to quickly use his life energy and start healing his body as life energy surged.

However, it was quite slow that he had to switch to using Fallen Heaven's life energy, but it was still slow. After all, the injury he received was eight levels higher, which meant that it was a few more levels higher than the healing prowess. Especially, the injury received from heavenly lightning and heavenly flames was even slower in restoring back to health, practically moving at a snail's pace that Davis felt that it should take hours or even days for him to restore.

"I see. The way to conquering ourselves of a higher level is to wait for it and target the weaknesses of our comparatively weaker cultivation systems."

Abruptly, Myria appeared in front of him, looking all healed and revved up with bright eyes as though she could see the light at the end of the dark tunnel.

"You could say that..."

Davis lightly nodded as he smiled.

Normally, if his imitation's body was as high as eight levels higher, then forgot a scorched hand, even a burn mark wouldn't appear from the protection of the earthen might. But since the earthen skin didn't protect and it couldn't heal in front of him using soul force, which his previous battle with the imitation on the eighth floor also didn't use, then he could only arrive at the conclusion that their other cultivations weren't enhanced.

He thought that these imitations didn't bother to use Death Laws as he had a lesser comprehension of it compared to Lightning Laws and Fire Laws, but it seemed like they didn't dare to use it because they knew that it was useless to use and might even be taken advantage of.

Such intricacies could've been noticed earlier if he and others hadn't tried to one-shot their opponents or only tried to conquer their own fallacies, but since he noticed it now, Davis felt that it was time to make to increase his prowess in Essence Gathering Cultivation as much as he could and target the weaknesses of the soul and the body.

After all, since his imitation's body was a copy of him but was destroyed and changed to a lesser version by the formation itself, his imitation could possess comparatively lesser energy than him, not to mention that if his imitation is going to use attacks and defenses that's eight levels higher, then the energy consumption should also be extremely high!

'In other words, a battle of attrition, although I can't even seem to hold more than three attacks if barraged...'

Davis couldn't help but grin, the challenge awaiting him making his heartbeat in excitement. Moreover, the component of being unable to recreate his Tyrannical Heavenly Firestorm Physique is the deciding factor between him and Myria in being able to compete for the ninth floor's treasure, making it so that he held the advantage!