The sound of a bursting bubble rang out.
When everyone whipped their heads around in astonishment, all they saw was the fallen Sin-Bearer. As his heart gave its final beat, blood surged from the wound in his back, gushing and dancing.
It spattered across that shattered smiling face, winding down in silence.
Set against streaks of bleak crimson, the smile seemed bizarrely serene—like a breach.
And what blew through the fissure was a wind from hell.
Time seemed to freeze.
In that moment before thought could form, something far faster than shock, confusion, or fear took over: the instinct honed through countless slaughters and struggles.
Before thinking, blades were already drawn!
Yet even before instinct, Ji Jue had already raised a hand and pointed—
Issuing an imperial decree toward the altar!
And so, beneath intermittent fiery light, the colossal Tower of Audience shuddered with a deafening roar. Spiritus circuits instantly went into overload, gathering all power without hesitation, brewing and transforming it. As the defense modules ran in overload, what erupted were tens of thousands of scorching, blinding bolts of thunderous light.
Like countless blades suddenly thrusting outward, the torrent of lightning easily shredded the altar and the wreckage upon it. Gushing, spreading, and raging, it swallowed the entire tower top in an instant.
A scorching heat surpassing fire surged unchecked, breaking past the suppression of Tianyuan to engulf everyone present.
Including Ji Jue.
The necklace he had just extorted was ruthlessly activated in his palm, clashing head-on against the countless lightning bolts to forcibly pry open a gap.
At the same time, Ji Jue raised a second finger and pointed.
Pointed toward everyone trapped in the thunderous brilliance.
On his ring finger, the Poison Heart ring shone with a dreamlike glow. The phantom of the banshee rose once more, opened its maw, and let out an ear-splitting howl at everyone present!
Spiritus surged like a tide. Ripples of purplish-black waves shot forth, contained under Ji Jue's suppression to echo ceaselessly within this small space.
Caught beneath the sweeping thunder, everyone sensed the lethal crisis and instinctively tried to throw up their defenses, only for their vision to suddenly go dark as the indiscriminate spiritus shockwave engulfed them.
In an instant, their faces bloated to a livid purplish-blue, nearly bursting on the spot.
That fleeting instant of spiritus disruption left them completely exposed to the raging lightning. Shrieks and wails rose amidst the roars, ceaseless and harrowing.
"—Duo!"
A sharp shout suddenly erupted from the clash of lightning and spiritus, like a bedrock in a raging torrent, instantly steadying the situation.
For practitioners of the Ascension and Abyssal Depths pathways, there was no such thing as being unable to react. Under the blessing of Transcendent Vision, no matter how terrifying the sudden catastrophe or crisis, it could be frozen in consciousness the moment it occurred, allowing them to fully grasp the situation before responding!
Amidst time slowed without limit, the head monk of Wulou Temple stepped forward abruptly. As he shouted, brilliant light blazed from his eyes.
A single Vajra Chanting forcibly bolstered his spirit and channeled his spiritus; then, wisps of illusory white smoke wove out of thin air, rising from his physical shell.
A manifestation of the soul.
Wulou Temple's secret art: [Inner Fire Samadhi]!
The soul transcended and ascended from the flesh, manifesting as an aspect of smoke. As blessings circulated and converged, they formed a dazzling pearl atop his head, radiating pure brilliance.
Under the shining rays of that light, the spiritus onslaught of the lightning and Poison Heart came to an abrupt halt, as though slowed a thousandfold. No external evil could penetrate!
Except Ji Jue...
Because he was already right in front of him!
The moment the shout rang out, the spirit of Chunjun surged into motion. Blessing Chain: [Reaching the Sublime], activated!
Under the blessing of that very same Transcendent Vision, his fully Metamorphosed body was forcibly converted and propelled by Deus Ex Machina, tearing through the air!
"Hum!"
The monk's soul in its smoke aspect opened its mouth decisively. It was completely soundless, yet an auditory hallucination like a thunderclap exploded in the perception of every soul present.
Bolstered by the Vajra Chanting, he whipped up his power once more. The true marrow of the Abyssal Depths shifted, manifesting from within the spiritus onslaught and thrusting outward!
Arriving the instant thought was conceived!
A spiritus strike that forcibly disbanded all spiritus techniques into nothingness—famed as 'all dharmas extinguished into silence'—acted upon Ji Jue's soul the very moment it locked onto him.
No process, no charging up, and no buffer!
And no effect.
The instant it collided with Chunjun within his soul, it vanished without a trace, utterly useless, unable to buy even the slightest sliver of time.
And then, the monk saw that blood-stained smiling face abruptly look up, gazing directly at where his soul resided.
Ji Jue's other hand emerged from the long sleeve, revealing a wisp of bronze light that looked so terribly familiar.
That was his... vajra!
No, now it belonged to Ji Jue.
Shock? Fear? Despair?
At the moment his state of mind—once still as stagnant water and withered wood—was shattered, how many ripples did it stir? Even he could no longer count.
Before darkness fell, only one final thought surfaced...
*It's over.*
BOOM!
Free of any resistance or hesitation, Wulou Temple's heirloom vajra didn't even have the chance to fail under the brutal cracking of the Dissociation Art.
Spiritus was forcibly pumped in and triggered, ruthlessly driving this heirloom artifact into total overload.
A black radiance burst from the Wrathful Mother Three-Pronged Vidyaraja Vajra.
Smashed right down on his skull!
Dodging, defending, spiritus strikes, reality revision... none of it was of any use. That weapon was forged precisely to counter all spiritual variations.
It possessed only a single effect: a 'blow to the head' that dispelled delusions and drove off inner demons!
The iron staff smashed down upon his head!
The soul manifested in the smoke aspect shattered like thin vapor; the jewel atop his head wailed and disintegrated; and amid a resounding crash, the monk's head burst on the spot under the vajra's skull-crushing strike!
A mist of blood sprayed and rose.
Immediately after, the spiritus shockwave and thunder, stalled for only a heartbeat, swept over in full force, wreaking havoc and erosion.
Sounds of rupturing bodies and screams followed in endless succession.
Yet Ji Jue's figure had already vanished from the spot, slipping past the claws that the White Stag beside him thrust out in agony by sheer instinct. Flickering through the void under the conversion of Ascendance to Truth, his body forcibly etherealized into spiritus, darting across space in a flash.
Normally, such a spiritus jump could never carry other foreign objects, but now, every item was forcibly linked by the blessing of the [Sovereign Axis], treated as an extension of Ji Jue's own body.
All that was left behind to be torn apart and incinerated in the thunder was half of the discarded mask and a filthy robe.
In an instant, Ji Jue had breached the very core. The Youshuang Sin-Bearer, instinctively positioned under the others' protection, had barely raised a hand when he caught sight of that hollow, smiling face.
Subconsciously, he screamed.
But in the next breath, the scream was cut short.
The poison blade in Ji Jue's other hand shot out, plunging into the throat before sweeping across. Crimson blood vaporized in the lightning as a head flew high into the air.
His silhouette flickered like a specter.
Amid the terrifying drain of his own spiritus, the Mirror of Contained Forms' insight opened fully, illuminating everything and surveying every shift in spiritus and operation of blessings.
He effortlessly registered the charge-ups and wind-ups of every ability, then, amidst Chunjun's acceleration and flickers, calmly struck at the gaps and crushed them one by one.
The moment the head was severed, he hurled the vajra behind him without even looking back, intercepting the dart hurled by the White Stag Sin-Bearer.
The poison blade in his other hand flew out, piercing through the air and burying itself into the leader's heart. The shattering blade released its final energy; virulent poison spread through flesh and soul alike, bringing swift rot and decaying ruin.
The artifact the leader had just pulled out slipped limply from his grasp to the floor; stripped of guidance, its activation was broken.
Under Duke Wuyou's control from afar, it attempted to trigger and react on its own, only for a silver thread shooting from Ji Jue's sleeve to yank it straight into his outstretched fingers.
In an instant, it was reduced to ashes.
Nor was that all. With a flick of Ji Jue's fingers, the iron scrap tucked close to the chests of every person present—living and dead alike, kept like a life-saving talisman—suddenly flared with silver light: EXPLOSION!
This was the final straw that broke the camel's back.
In less than a single second, having weathered the ravaging thunder, the venomous spiritus shockwave, Ji Jue's calculated strikes, and ferocious blows to their vitals, all it took was the blink of an eye for blood and severed limbs to fly into the air amid dissipating lightning—and crash down.
Silence returned.
Only one remained.
Just behind Ji Jue, the Huangxu who had endured the brunt of all the damage roared, staggering to his feet for one last desperate stand—only to freeze stiff on the spot.
He saw a finger that had, unbeknownst to him, already come to rest before his forehead.
Light as a dragonfly skimming water.
Touching and parting in an instant.
Crack!
Where the fingertip had touched, a tiny hairline crack quietly bloomed.
Immediately followed by a continuous cascade of collapsing, peeling, rupturing, and gushing sounds. Amid muffled thuds, vast fissures spread across his back, and from beneath the cracks, a torrent of blood surged forth!
In that gentle tap, directed by Chunjun's manipulation and control of spiritus, a wisp of spiritus had dispersed into thousands of gossamer threads, quietly permeating into the Huangxu's body before reconverging within his fragile interior.
As if manifesting out of thin air.
And then, the crimson brutality and ferocity of Pan Ying revealed itself within—and detonated!
The loftiness of Chunjun and the ferocity of Pan Ying fused into one. Through gathering and dispersing, they accomplished infiltration and transformation, detonating outward like a bomb!
Two swords of the Nine Forms integrated and transformed within a single finger. Applied through the Dissociation Art, it seeped insidiously into the core, unleashing catastrophic damage tens of times over.
—Dissociation Art: Jingzhen!
With a muffled groan, the Huangxu spasmed and collapsed.
He struggled to lift his head to see that face clearly, but could make out nothing.
He saw only those completely unreadable, emotionless eyes.
Pitch-black from start to finish.
***
The gigantic face roared.
Crimson eyes opened on the face one by one, glaring at Duke Wuyou. Duke Wuyou's body trembled violently, flickering like network lag.
One instant he was clearly torn to pieces, his bones and flesh pulverized into paste, yet the very next instant his body reverted to its original state, intact and unharmed.
Decapitation, dismemberment by chariots, waist-cleaving, death by a thousand cuts...
Every manner of execution poured down ceaselessly from the gigantic face's glaring gaze, yet he remained unharmed, his complexion only growing progressively darker. Meanwhile, outside the Border Realm, in some remote corner of the Endless Sea, calamity fell from the sky without warning.
In a small town under the cover of night, agonizing screams echoed without end.
Drowsy children were torn apart; fishermen night-fishing on small boats were severed at the waist; kitchen pots bubbled merrily away, boiling the severed head of a woman that had suddenly tumbled from her neck.
A freshly poured mug of beer fell back to the floor, foaming as it mingled into puddles of blood.
The nightmarish tragedy spread swiftly without warning, turning the entire island into a living hell in a heartbeat. Then came the next island, and the next... seemingly without end.
Duke Wuyou's face was livid. Above his head, the darkness radiating from the hovering tiger tally swelled wildly. From the mire, figure after figure rose like the walking dead, writhing as they unleashed blessings and abilities, acting like puppets to withstand the power of the gigantic face—and even the shadow of the Wall of Death—in his stead.
And the moment he sensed his subordinates on the other end of his tally abruptly lose response, with even the artifact and tally he had bestowed vanishing without a trace, he could no longer contain his fury. He roared, "Shehri, what are you stalling for?!"
"Calm yourself, Duke Wuyou! We're almost there!"
Leading his team, Shehri hurried from the other end toward the out-of-contact Tower of Audience. Black threads coiled around his bandages, only to snap rapidly.
Their speed was blistering.
Yet the distance was still far too great.
Slow as a turtle's crawl.
Chapter 448