I Don't Believe It!

In an instant, under Duke Wuyou's command, the bizarre, gigantic ship suspended in the deep sea shuddered faintly. Immediately after, amid a ceaseless chorus of shattering sounds, swath after swath of seawater abruptly turned crimson. An eerie melody rang out, spreading outward. Countless tendrils of crimson writhed and converged, seeping into the scorching flames and melding together until they were nearly indistinguishable. Like uncanny hands grasping the flame tide that was on the verge of erupting, forcibly goading it forth! And so, within the scorched earth of the Border Realm enveloped by the flame tide, pitch-black blood suddenly poured down in torrents. Wailing souls fell like hailstones into the boundless flames, instantly incinerated into charcoal. Struggling in vain. Burned to ashes again and again, the battered corpses crawled up from the ashes time and time again, only to endure the burning once more... endless and without cease. The realm of ceaseless torment. And amidst this conflagration, an uncanny figure cloaked in terrifying, boundless flames unleashed a slaughter at a horrifying speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye! With every shattered husk he slew, a wisp of sparks rose up and sank into Ji Jue's chest, making that seed-like ember burn ever brighter, as if taking root and sprouting... At the same time, it drove Ji Jue's destructive might and strength into an even wilder frenzy. Sweeping! Slashing! Piercing through! Every strike whipped up a torrent of destruction across the scorched earth of the flame tide. Every husk he put down felt like claiming a portion of what was theirs. Even though he was here merely as a soul paired with Chunjun, he discovered that the flame tide he could mobilize was steadily growing... As if he were wresting control over this very "body"! The entire process was completely devoid of friction or resistance, flowing like water, as though it were meant to be. Yet strikingly, Ji Jue's soul itself showed not the slightest sign of corruption! By naming the sword, object and self became one. Ji Jue was Chunjun, and Chunjun was Ji Jue; born from the same source, they naturally unified as one. It was equivalent to remaking another soul for himself. The spirit of Chunjun was the shadow of Ji Jue! Now, with a mere thought, all traces of corruption within his soul, all sparks drifting up from the husks, and even the Hole in his chest along with that seed-like, uncanny flame, were entirely transferred onto the "reflection" formed by Chunjun. And replenished by the sparks, beneath Chunjun's reflection, Ji Jue's shadow grew increasingly complete. The sentience within the blade was rapidly sprouting and transforming, gradually shaping a form and silhouette belonging solely to Ji Jue. The blessing chain within Chunjun known as "Reaching the Sublime" had also begun its phased activation... Driving his speed faster and faster, until at last it was barely visible to the naked eye! Under the acceleration of Transcendent Vision, when Ji Jue focused completely, even time seemed to grind to a complete halt. Freed from the shackles of a physical body, his soul darted at blinding speed across the scorched earth, strolling leisurely, slaughtering! All that could be seen was a surging, blood-red serpent extending at breakneck speed; as the trailing blade slashed, it shattered clusters of flame into oblivion. Plundering every flame seed, then utterly annihilating every soul in sight! *Boom!* At the very instant this infinitely accelerated dash came to a momentary pause, something stirred within Ji Jue's heart as he stood in place. His soul vanished without a trace, reappearing in the distance across the scorched earth. As if teleporting through shattered space! And right where he had stood, an uncanny, giant hand suddenly rose from the ashes, snapping shut—only to grasp empty air. It caught absolutely nothing! Only now did Ji Jue feel the belated chill running down his spine... The blessing of Sudden Premonition allowed him to react the instant before any ambush struck, making him acutely sensitive to all malice. Unless it was a blessing of the White Stag lineage capable of shielding all sensory perception and concealing murderous intent, nothing could escape Ji Jue's notice. At the same time, Transcendent Vision gave Ji Jue ample time to react, preventing situations where he perceived danger but was too slow to act. The blessing of Ascendance to Truth could convert his flesh into spiritus to evade harm; existing purely as a soul right now, Ji Jue could use it to draw infinitely close to nothingness, dodging with ease... Moreover, even Ji Jue's soul-shadow—this peerless spirit of Chunjun—could perceive their surroundings in his stead at any moment and react autonomously. Restless, sleepless, needing neither food nor slumber, never faltering! When necessary, it could even sacrifice itself, bearing curses and soul injuries on Ji Jue's behalf... Yet no matter how convenient it was... the sensation of Sudden Premonition was never pleasant! To put it plainly, it was like teetering precariously on the brink of a sheer cliff just as a sudden gale slammed in—a shuddering dread, a sickening turbulence! Ji Jue felt his heart skip a violent beat, then another. Across the scorched earth, Ji Jue flashed and ripped through space again and again, watching as giant skeletal hand after skeletal hand thrust rapidly from the ashes, grasping in vain without grazing him in the slightest. Upon missing their strike, vast quantities of mud-like substance erupted from the ashes, writhing and adhering to the skeletal hands, tangling together with massive amounts of charcoal and husks to form bloated, grotesque mud giants. In the snap of a finger, they sealed off every direction, everything as far as the eye could see. Immediately after, pairs of hollow eyes swept the surroundings, locking firmly onto Ji Jue. Surging forward wave upon wave, they converged to encircle him! Ji Jue's heart sank. He had gone too far, finally provoking the retaliation of the Flame Tide Calamity... Yet in the very next instant, that assumption was overturned. No, that wasn't right! Within the accelerated realm of Transcendent Vision, Ji Jue looked at those hissing mud giants with curious bewilderment: Why did these things before him look far more like intruders than he did—he who was empowered by the Flame Tide Calamity?! The blade of Chunjun reappeared, entwined with Pan Ying's bloody radiance. In frozen time, the brilliant crimson and pure white lights intertwined, stretching abruptly into an elongated straight line as his soul sped along. Then, as time resumed its flow, ceaseless shattering and explosive roars erupted. One mud giant after another, riddled with sword wounds, disintegrated into pieces. Right after, pervasive, uncanny flames swept forth amid wailing cries, coiling around every single fragment and incinerating them all to ash. Intruders or not! It made no difference. Ji Jue didn't care. All he wanted to do was yield to the disgust and rage inside his heart—to hack into pieces and burn to ash the source of all wailing, every lamenting corpse, and everything within his sight! "—Die, all of you!!!" And so, under the furious influx of spiritus, Chunjun's blessing chain—Reaching the Sublime—unleashed at full throttle! Ji Jue's presence was no longer visible. What abruptly surged above that restless, scorched earth where the flame tide rippled was a terrifying tornado that seemed to connect heaven and earth, sweeping across the landscape with rampant fury. Wherever it passed, everything was pierced, cleaved, and annihilated like brittle deadwood! At a certain moment, Ji Jue almost hallucinated. He had become a natural disaster. No, this feeling of returning to the primeval source felt more as though the calamity had become Ji Jue! It was not merely the power steadily rising with corruption; with the assistance of the soul-shadow formed by Chunjun's spirit, the speed granted by Transcendent Vision, the output efficiency of spiritus, the control, and the precision all skyrocketed at a horrifying rate, multiplying! He effortlessly wielded the power poured in by the Flame Tide Calamity, accepting the corruption penetrating deep into his soul and venting it without restraint! It was as though another self had appeared out of thin air—another Ji Jue sharing the same body, heart, will, and thought. Soul and shadow overlapped completely. Under the close coordination of his two selves, precision, control, and raw output soared exponentially, reaching heights Ji Jue could scarcely fathom. At some point, sounds resembling the shattering of heaven and earth began echoing time and again from the boundless flame tide and scorched ground. With Ji Jue's plunder and destruction, the world seemed to be rapidly collapsing and disintegrating. Yet the countless wails and laments gradually died down, turning into hysterical laughter and joyous singing, impatient to embrace destruction and welcome the end! Until a furious roar echoed from beyond the heavens! In the deep sea, the once exceedingly ferocious, rampaging flame tide was already shrinking rapidly under the suppression of crimson gore and living sacrifices. At this moment, through living sacrifices and secret rituals, Duke Wuyou's power channeled along lines of the Law of Tianyuan, locking tightly onto that surging, shifting, ceaselessly struggling tide of flame. The entire seabed was a scene of earth-shattering cataclysm. Amid this tug-of-war entanglement, Duke Wuyou exerted all his might to suppress the flame tide's resistance. He sensed that the resistance on the other end was growing weaker and weaker, no longer able to break free from his bonds. It was clearly fantastic news, yet the entire control room was dead silent. Let alone the usual flattery, not even the sound of breathing could be heard. Even the habitually haughty Shehri unconsciously held his breath in disbelief. "Damn it!!!" Instead of rejoicing, Duke Wuyou was enraged, his eyes bloodshot: How could such a surging flame tide be starting to extinguish?! What the hell was going on? That fellow Sower had clearly handed him a fake! What else could it be?! Was the Flame Tide Calamity, which had been boiling fiercely and reigniting from dead ashes until just now, suddenly having an epiphany, deciding it had lived long enough, and hanging itself by the neck to commit suicide?! "That is utterly impossible!" Shehri hurriedly swore to the heavens and earth. "My Lord's sincerity is clear as the sun and moon! Since he chose to cooperate with you, why would he ever undermine an ally?" "Shut up!" Duke Wuyou roared. The power of a Celestial-Human erupted abruptly, and the entire deep sea seemed to freeze, solidifying completely. Under the shadow of the corrupted Tower, all things kowtowed, suffocating. Regrettably, this Great Sin of Tianyuan had yet to be born; in the end, it lacked purity, plagued by too many flaws and points of lost control... Yet there was no more time for him to hesitate. A flash of heartache flickered in Duke Wuyou's eyes, but in the end, he gritted his teeth, reached toward his chest, and gripped tightly. Soon, an uncanny creation resembling a tiger tally was drawn from the Hole in his chest. The moment the Abyss Seed—which had absorbed endless evil sins and been cultivated over so much time—appeared, it seemed to occupy the very center of all darkness, suffocating all who beheld it. In exchange, Duke Wuyou's aura plummeted rapidly, regressing from the realm of a Celestial-Human down into the rank of Exaltation. A fierce look surfaced in those pitch-black eyes. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. To burn one's boats—this was the moment! He refused to believe it: With the Abyss Seed he had nurtured for so many years, could he truly fail to control this Flame Tide Calamity that had already failed long ago?! Two minutes later, he believed it.