"You Embers folks are such a pain."
A weary sigh drifted over Ji Jue's sensory communication channel. "Traveled all this way only to mop up a bunch of small fry. That wasn't even enough to warm up... Why not just let me go finish that guy off and be done with it?"
"No need."
Ji Jue shook his head decisively. "I went to all the trouble of preparing this dish just so I could serve it myself. If he died at someone else's hands before the show even finished, wouldn't it all be for nothing?"
"Heh, if you really wanted to test your limits, why worry so much about what's ahead and behind?" The voice sneered, egging him on. "Just go up, pull your blade, and have at it. Victory means life, defeat means death—it's that simple."
"I'm a craftsman. Why would I draw a blade on someone?" Ji Jue countered quizzically, instantly striking the other party silent.
"Speaking of which, do you know the safety regulations for laboratories and factories?"
Gazing down at the slaughter unfolding across the battlefield, Ji Jue replied in an unhurried voice, "Whenever you're handling hazardous chemicals or conducting high-risk experiments, every rule and manual will tell you over and over: you must make every preparation and take every precaution.
"Never be afraid of hassle. The hassle is what keeps you alive.
"Only by doing that can you minimize losses, risks, and accidents before unforeseen variables arise."
Ji Jue added, "When dealing with such a dangerous test subject, no amount of caution is excessive. Otherwise, how could I process it at my leisure and avoid any waste?"
"Heh. Embers."
The voice seemed to sigh and shake its head, only to elicit a cold snort from someone else.
Ji Jue paid it no mind.
He simply stood far beyond the edge of the battlefield, appreciating every development unfolding before him—including the sight of his opponent backed into a desperate corner.
*Come on, Pacquiao. No need to hold back anymore. Struggle to your heart's content!*
"Let me see your limit..."
With a soft sigh, Ji Jue flicked his fingers once more.
Instantly, amidst the torrential rain, a tremendous chorus of grinding metal erupted.
From within the ruins, beneath the mud, behind shattered doors, and even throughout the coastal warehouses, indicator lights sparked to life and spread like crimson pupils.
Tricycles, minivans, trucks, motorcycles, excess warehouse inventory, and even abandoned firearms and scrapped machinery...
Under the power of Deus Ex Machina, countless mechanical creations awakened and came alive, screeching as they charged out and converged into an endless metal tide.
Onto the battlefield, they hurled the final ton of straw that crushed the scales!
Then, even the pirate ships that were slowly sinking or running aground began to show signs of animation and transformation. Gun mounts and machine guns that had previously gone unresponsive swiveled around, opening fire with reckless abandon.
Watching the water ghosts crumble into utter rout and scatter in humiliating retreat, and realizing his plans had fallen short at the final hurdle, the furious look on Pacquiao's face gradually faded.
His wrinkled, scar-covered visage settled into calm.
As though he had reached some sort of resolve.
Swallowing the humiliation of having been played like a fiddle in the palm of another's hand!
"If that's how it is, then this shame shall be washed away with your blood!"
Pacquiao murmured softly in silent proclamation, "Swarm... no..."
"—Frenzied! Slaughter! Bear! Witness!"
In an instant, all light vanished from his eyes as they turned pitch-black, leaving only a hollow void of absolute nothingness.
The sound of something shattering rang out abruptly—crisp and faint, yet echoing across the entire battlefield.
Like the breaking of shackles!
The aura of corruption was hidden no longer, erupting from his body in a geyser that caused everyone's expression to twist in horror.
He raised the blood banner in his hand. The jade-green flames that had once blanketed sky and earth swiveled eerily, converging and wrapping around his body in dense, overlapping coils.
Wherever they swept, every water ghost was consumed and burned to ash in the jade flames, wailing and struggling in vain as they were drained of everything... fulfilling their final obligation as cannon fodder!
Curved horns emerged slowly from his brow, angling upward toward the sky.
Layer upon layer of black scales grew out from beneath his flesh, covering his entire body until not a single weak point remained. Grotesque bat wings extended from his back, rising and spreading wide.
They swallowed all light.
Regeneration form—revealed!
Boom!
In an instant, the Sin-Bearer tore through the air, plunging from the heavens!
The remaining walls outside Xinquan collapsed with a roar, and fissures cracked open across countless buildings in the shockwave.
The fiend, draped in jade flames, descended from the sky and landed right before the arrowhead formation of the Knights of Homecoming!
He raised the bone spear in his hand.
Leveling it forward.
"Come!"
Slan felt a tidal wave of cold dread swallow everything!
He could not hesitate; he could not retreat. Any hesitation at this moment would be suicide. The only thing he could do was accelerate. Once more, he raised the sacred relic banner and roared.
The bloody flames of the Mycelium surged, condensing onto the lance in his hand. The strength of several hundred Knights of Homecoming coalesced into a single point, thrusting forward with fierce resolve!
Blood met blood, fire met fire.
The clash lasted only an instant, like towering waves shattering upon a reef. At the very front, Slan went flying and crashed down, half his body crushed to pulp, while a horrific split cracked across his sacred relic banner.
The torrent of blood flames that had seemed indestructible now collapsed and scattered in this head-on collision, cleaved clean through and split in two!
Having absorbed the direct charge of over a hundred Knights of Homecoming, Pacquiao remained completely unscathed.
Indifferently, he flicked the mangled flesh and severed head from his bone spear and took another step forward.
"Begone!"
With a casual sweep of his spear, he shredded a tendril of smoke that was snaking toward him, forcing Uncle Lin out of his spiritus form. Uncle Lin staggered backward, unable to get close again.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the scythe in his hands before it snapped silently in two.
"That bastard's finally playing for real..."
With no time to mourn his weapon, the White Stag follower retreated swiftly, narrowly evading the bizarre power creeping toward him.
A viscous, almost tangible darkness spread out from beneath Pacquiao's feet. The sludgelike gloom churned, jade flames bobbing within it.
Rotting bones and broken corpses surfaced faintly from the dark mire—rising, falling, twitching, writhing in what seemed almost like a dance. Corpses wept and sobbed; skeletons laughed and sang in manic abandon.
Phosphorescent flames and blood-red fire rose, drifted, and swirled.
—Domain: Eternal Dark Charnel Abyss, unleashed!
The moment he chose to go all out, the faint aura of Sovereign Virtue could no longer conceal the surging corruption taint. The true face of the Sin-Bearer, Pacquiao, was revealed before everyone!
This was the corrupted evil forged in the endless strife, pillaging, and slaughter among the Thousand Islands—a bona fide Chosen of Frenzied Slaughter!
When it came down to it, what difference was there between the Swarm and Frenzied Slaughter?
Pacquiao sneered in utter disdain. The same wars, the same killing, dying like a dog all the same—did one really think you could say which was better and which was worse?
It was just dog eat dog, men butchering men—devour, devour, devour; kill, kill, kill; burn, burn, burn; die, die, die!
The corpses of the fallen piled high like mountains, and the survivors ate their flesh, treading on flames and charred remains to climb higher step by step. Which corpse was nobler, and which was more wretched?!
The Swarm didn't care.
Even now, the blessings from the Sacrificial Lord had not diminished in the slightest!
Explosions cracked without pause.
The mere burn of the phosphorescent fire melted every mechanical creation closing in around him into molten slag.
Out on the Longjiang River, the colossal Prosperity let out a deafening roar, hurling the several-hundred-meter-long drive shaft in its grip directly toward him. Amid a sonic boom, jade fire and bloody radiance flashed, and the shaft snapped clean into two pieces.
Immediately after, a deep fracture tore across the hull's armor plating, biting deep into its interior.
Sparks flew as fuel seeped out like blood.
Finally, those pitch-black eyes turned toward Ji Jue atop the distant high-rise.
"Your turn!"
From the dark mire of the Domain, countless phosphorescent flames erupted and coalesced into a grotesque, colossal hand. Within the sludge, innumerable skeletons fused into the shape of a spear.
He hurled it with brutal force!
Even before that, the warning from Isis had already sounded.
Yet Ji Jue remained motionless.
Within the howling torrent of jade fire, countless silver threads materialized out of thin air, weaving together to block the blow, only to be shredded and pierced like sheets of paper.
Immediately after, the Dragon Mountain armor surged upward.
Pan Ying cleaved forward, colliding head-on with the strike!
In an instant, all of Xinquan shook violently. Explosions thundered across the ground, and vast numbers of shacks collapsed amid billowing dust.
The surface of the Dragon Mountain armor turned incandescent red, dragon blood boiling, while the spiritual radiance upon Pan Ying dimmed like a candle in the wind.
Yet the sheer value of Immovable as a Mountain was proven beyond doubt. After tanking such a horrifying blow, it actually remained intact!
Even Ji Jue was caught off guard for a split second.
But immediately afterward, a chill ran down his spine.
It wasn't just because Immovable as a Mountain's defenses were formidable... The opponent hadn't put much power into that strike at all!
It was practically a decoy to draw attention!
No—from the very beginning, the bizarre transformations Pacquiao had undergone had successfully drawn the eyes of everyone, himself included. Which meant...
Finally, realization dawned on him.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
An eerie, hoarse laugh suddenly echoed from the sky, like an illusion.
Silence.
A sudden, dead stillness fell. The pallid white mist drifting through the flames of war and the countless threads of light rain falling from the heavens abruptly froze in place, as if time had congealed.
Within the storm clouds overhead, a momentary flash of lightning faintly illuminated a shadowy silhouette suspended high in the heavens. It had appeared there without anyone noticing, silently gathering power far beyond everyone's sight, waiting until the perfect opportunity arrived to strike!
The aura of the Great Sin Youshuang revealed itself, melding into the vast expanse of storm clouds. Like an invisible maw opening wide, it swallowed every bolt of thunder above Xinquan whole.
Even the fires burning across the earth flickered in terror before freezing into bleak white.
The entirety of Xinquan felt plunged into a glacial abyss.
All heat was violently siphoned away, ravenously devoured, until finally, at the fingertips of that bizarre figure, it gathered into a single drop of jet-black, liquid flame—as though all destruction in the world had collapsed and condensed into a single point.
Amid raspy laughter, an annihilating flame capable of vaporizing more than half of Xinquan shot forth like light, like lightning.
Straight toward Ji Jue!
Yet an even greater pity was that while Ji Jue had realized it a little late, that person...
Well, he had started laughing a little too early.
"So there really was a camper lurking!"
Without warning, an emotional voice spoke from right behind the silhouette, laced with deep regret. "What a shame. If only it were a wolf..."
High in the heavens, within a narrow sliver of shadow untouched by the crisscrossing lightning, a figure abruptly crossed an immense distance, teleporting into existence out of thin air.
Right within arm's reach.
By the time the smug Sin-Bearer finally realized what was happening, he felt a single finger gently resting against the back of his head.
And what unfolded next was the pinnacle of perfection...
Hunting Finger: Flying Light!
Chapter 422