Abruptly, amidst the billowing ashes, a beam of purplish-black lightning soared straight into the sky.
It looked like a chasm cleaving heaven and earth!
The spirit essence honed and metamorphosed within the Thunder Pool had finally broken free from all hesitation and suppression. With every restriction lifted, it plunged into battle with the sole purpose of pure annihilation.
At last, its true form was revealed—
In an instant, an infinitesimally tiny wisp of spirit essence climbed to the highest point of the firmament. Then, like a rushing cataract, like the seven seas bursting their dykes, iron-black clouds unfurled out of nothingness, shaking loose deafening claps of thunder.
Yin and yang clashed, heaven and earth ground together, and amid the cruel, rampant roars, ten thousand arcs of lightning suddenly collided and overlapped in the dark.
The Thunder Pool unfolded!
Beneath the vast, magnificent dark clouds, Ji Jue raised a single finger and pointed forward.
"The first."
Boom!
Heaven and earth plunged into utter darkness, then flared with blinding brightness.
A fierce radiance sharper than steel cut straight down from the clouds like a blade, gone in a flash. None could tell where it came from or where it went; all it left behind was an eye-searing flash of burst light.
Right in front of Ji Jue, the ferocious, raging figure froze in place.
His eyes bulged.
It was as though he hadn't even realized what had happened.
Silently, he cracked, collapsed, fell apart, and disintegrated into pale ash—the entire man had already been burned to cinders by the thunder falling from the sky.
Then came—
"The second."
Ji Jue raised a second finger, and the violent flare answered his call once more.
The earth cracked as if hewn by blades and axes. Plunging deep beneath the nine earths, the giant wailed, trying to raise an arm to block it, yet in that split second, he felt not the slightest heat.
Before he was utterly crushed, all he felt was an irresistible force.
All the heat had already been converted into pure kinetic shock, grinding him to death beneath the earth.
"Third, fourth, fifth—"
Ji Jue's fingers flicked, casually keeping count. Accompanied by his soft voice, beams of purplish-black lightning plummeted from the sky like blades.
Wherever they passed, bizarre electrical flashes lingered without dissipating, resembling sword scars left behind in the void.
The crisscrossing scars formed a cage locking down the empty air, bringing a flicker of fear and bewilderment into each pair of frenzied, bloodshot eyes consumed by hunger.
Too late.
Ji Jue had lost his patience.
His five fingers slowly curled into a fist.
In that instant, it felt as though an invisible hand had gripped the throats of all the beasts. Under the terrifying weight pressing down like the heavens collapsing, they could hardly breathe.
[Sir, a total of sixty-two targets. Locking on all corrupted souls within range complete,] Isis said. [Spiritus supply warm-up complete. Ready at any time.]
Ji Jue raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
The crisp click spread lightly, raising the curtain on destruction.
In a heartbeat of dead silence, the pitch-black clouds across the sky suddenly erupted with brilliant rays of light, illuminating the entire outpost until heaven and earth turned white.
Immediately after, as the dark clouds burned away, majestic thunder far surpassing that brilliant light fell from the heavens.
Spiritus reserves, fully released!
In an instant, all the motley spiritus, life, and souls accumulated along the way were burned away inside the Thunder Pool. Everything turned into pure destruction amid the metallic chime of Zhanlu.
No wails could be heard, nor was there any deafening roar; it was as if even sound itself had been murdered.
In the ear-ringing silence, only sixty-two beams of pure, dazzling lightning pierced heaven and earth. Every unsightly silhouette before him vanished.
Only ashes drifted across the sky, slowly falling.
Man and wolf could no longer be told apart.
"At last, things are a bit cleaner."
Sighing softly, Ji Jue turned around and looked behind him. From midair came dying wails and shrill screams.
Utterly despairing.
***
One minute earlier, Tong Shan had looked up at Jin Wuyan suspended in midair, staring at the face that was gradually mutating and growing hysterical amid wild laughter.
Gradually sinking into a wolf.
Perhaps he had killed too much, or showed too little restraint, or accepted too many boons from the Kingdom of the Woods, so that the subtle influence had driven him mad.
Or perhaps, long before revealing the beastly guise, he had already become a wolf.
Tong Shan looked at him, sighing silently. "What sort of thing have you become now?"
"Yeah, what sort of thing? Does it even matter?"
Immersed in the gifts and sudden surge of power, Jin Wuyan sneered contemptuously. He understood what was happening to his body, but he no longer cared.
Perhaps it was the wolf's influence, or perhaps it was a natural transformation.
Mere hunger could not drive him mad. And now, he felt not the slightest regret or hesitation; instead, he felt unimaginably refreshed.
It was as though he had cast off his shackles.
Because of that, his gaze toward Tong Shan brimmed with undisguised hatred and jealousy. "On the other hand, you still wear that righteous, sanctimonious face—putting on an act. It's sickening."
"Before we fight, let me ask one last question."
Resting his hand on Huihao, Tong Shan asked, "Jin Wuyan, is it really worth it?"
"Worth it?"
Jin Wuyan froze for a moment, then burst out laughing. Doubling over, he was so amused he nearly shed tears. "Worth it or not, did I have a choice? Do you have a choice?!
"Tong Shan, I ought to be asking you—do you think I fucking wanted to put on an act? Do you think I didn't want to be an exemplar for others?! I did so much dirty work, wiped the Federation's ass so many times, held my nose watching so many idiots climb the ladder step by step while I stayed behind in the cesspool, where even taking a breath of fresh air was a luxury...
"And now someone standing dry on the shore asks me if it was worth it?
"Why don't you go ask the Mid-Continent, Tong Shan? Go ask the White Nation, go ask all those people who died for no reason at all whether it was worth it?!
"Or maybe you can shed a couple of hypocritical tears too, while you still have the chance."
Across that twisted face, the feral malice could no longer be restrained.
"—I've been sick of your self-righteous bullshit for a long time!"
Throughout the brief exchange, he had been silently gathering all his power. Now, he unleashed it completely, ignoring all dire consequences, without a single shred of hesitation.
Jin Wuyan erupted fully!
A blazing light tinged with the bloody radiance of the wolf manifested in the sky like a scorching sun, spitting forth blinding beams as plasma jets surged out, slicing through the earth and tearing the sky with ease.
Toward the ground, toward...
Tong Shan.
Tong Shan remained silent and drew his blade.
Huihao flashed.
*What happened...?*
In the dead silence, Jin Wuyan's vision blurred, and he froze entirely.
As if plunging into an ice cave.
The blazing sun that had erupted from his peak power vanished as if it had been an illusion. No, not vanished—had it been completely erased?
Not only that, his own matrix had been completely pierced, his soul torn apart and bound by ink.
In the span of a single blink, everything had changed entirely.
Only Huihao had swept past his neck.
Effortlessly.
Leaving behind a wisp of ink snaking down silently like blood.
"...Of all that nonsense, there was only one line I agree with."
Without anyone noticing, Tong Shan had appeared behind him, methodically sheathing his blade. "What a coincidence. I've been sick of your bullshit for a long time too."
*How...?*
Jin Wuyan's eyes widened. Darkness rushed over his vision, yet he could not fathom what had just occurred.
Until he saw a burning page drifting slowly from the air, fluttering like a butterfly.
The page was covered in countless tiny characters, recording every detail and event of Jin Wuyan's life—from birth to life experiences, from marriage to career history. In the end, the vast sea of characters converged into one simple sentence:
[Jin Wuyan died here.]
A funeral notice, an obituary?!
At last, realization dawned on him.
His face twitched, no longer able to hold back the rage, or the mockery.
What moral exemplar? What Federation model? What the hell was all of that?! This man had prepared to put a hit on him long ago!
Even before today, even before Jin Wuyan had made a move against him!
What kind of farce was this?!
Literally scheming to the very end, giving it his all in every sense—gathering every shred of information, hunting down every weakness, preparing for a single-strike kill, waiting for him to walk right into the trap until today...
"Agh..."
The shattered face opened its mouth to roar, but no sound came out—only a shrill hiss forced from his throat, like a dying wail.
Amid the ashes fluttering across the sky, Tong Shan cast one final glance back at the beast.
"Finally, let me tell you one last thing, Jin Wuyan—"
"What I've had to endure with all my might is far more than just you. And among the things I'm forced to tolerate, you don't even qualify for a turn."
With a muffled thud, Jin Wuyan fell backward.
The ink spread, covering his body and soul, dissolving them into a foul blot of ink until nothing remained.
As though he had never existed at all.
In the silence, Tong Shan raised a hand to press against his throbbing temples.
Looking up at the sky, he sighed deeply.
In the end, he couldn't help a self-mocking smile.
***
"Tong Shan—"
Before he had departed for the Mid-Continent, when he had said his final farewell to Warden Lyu, he had heard a voice from behind the desk.
Surrounded by books, the genial warden had set down her pen and suddenly asked, "In your eyes, what is the difference between Tianyuan and the White Stag?"
Tong Shan had been taken aback.
He hadn't expected it.
Nor had he imagined Warden Lyu would ask him such an elementary question, to the point where he even began to doubt himself.
After pondering for a long time, he had replied solemnly, "Order and freedom."
"Then here comes the question—"
Lyu Yingyue's smile turned distinctly mocking. "Which side focuses on order, and which side holds the essence of freedom?"
Tong Shan was left speechless.
"Just take it as the idle rambling of an aging woman. Relax; it's nothing more than heterodox opinions and wild talk."
Lyu Yingyue took a sip from her teacup, set it down, and said slowly, "Tianyuan and White Stag appear opposed, yet in reality, their entanglement is boundless. They are like mirror images, impossible to tell who is whose reflection.
"Among the Twelve Supreme Goodness, their relationship is far closer, far tighter than any of the others. They are practically one body—to the point where when one suffers, both suffer.
"If they were truly diametrically opposed, how could it come to this? If they stemmed from the same source, why would they be irreconcilable?"
Lyu Yingyue asked gently, "If there truly is a connection between them, then where does their common ground lie?"
In the silence, Tong Shan pondered, yet found no answer.
Until he heard her soft sigh.
"—The answer is [Equality]."
Between Lyu Yingyue's open hands, ethereal lines extended, forming familiar shapes. In her left and right hands, the emblems of Tianyuan and White Stag rose and fell.
And between them—
"Look, like a balance scale, isn't it?"
Lyu Yingyue gave a mocking smile. "Two paths supposedly diametrically opposed, with vastly different expressions and completely distinct merits, yet their fatal flaws are identical...
"Choosing [White Stag] means dying equally, living equally, struggling equally in equal chaos, with life and death beyond one's control.
"Choosing [Tianyuan] means being bound equally, lacking freedom equally, existing inside a cage in equal coexistence.
"The true crux has never been what you gain, but what you lose."
"...I have learned much."
In the silence, Tong Shan bowed his head solemnly.
"Ha, I haven't even started teaching you, Tong Shan."
Lyu Yingyue chuckled, shaking her head slowly. "People in this world often harbor unrealistic fantasies, no matter how conservative and steady they are.
"People mistakenly believe that power will grant them more choices, when the truth is the opposite.
"With certain kinds of power, the more you grasp in your hands, the fewer choices you have left.
"Just like you—"
She looked at the assistant she had once admired most, her gaze full of pity.
However much she had once admired his jade-like restraint, conduct, morals, and principles was how much regret she felt now.
Emerging from the mud unstained was nothing more than an illusion; what was truly commonplace was white sand mixed with dark clay, turning black along with it.
Once one fell into that quagmire, what would they look like when they climbed back out?
"Tianyuan draws a circle to make a prison, but the first person it traps is usually oneself.
"You are already in the cage, Tong Shan."
Lyu Yingyue sighed softly. "If you cannot get used to coexisting with the prison, you must either shatter the cage with abandon and live for yourself, or do nothing and let the cage swallow you until you are unrecognizable. But before that, you have to figure out what it is you truly want to uphold."
Tong Shan looked up and asked bluntly, bordering on offensive, "Would doing so solve the problem?"
"Who knows? Maybe it won't. Struggling on the verge of death might still be useless."
Lyu Yingyue rested her chin on her hand, pondered for a moment, and then smiled from the bottom of her heart.
"At least you'll die satisfied."
***
Now, Tong Shan finally understood what Warden Lyu had meant.
He also understood the third choice she had pointed out between 'shattering the cage in self-abandon' and 'stagnating until unrecognizable'—to twist the cage into the shape he desired, prune away all the unsightly branches, and eliminate those unbearable 'fellow inmates' one by one!
And so, naturally, he turned his blade against his colleague, in a fight to the death.
No more need to put on an act.
More than just Jin Wuyan—long before this, he had already marked countless others as enemies and rivals that had to be eradicated one day!
Was it truly worth it to abandon all those years of wandering within moral baselines, to stoop and adopt ruthless rules?
Having taken this step, what would he become in the future?
None of it mattered anymore.
At this moment, gazing down at the flying ash in the wind, he felt neither sorrow nor joy. All he felt was an unprecedented relief.
"Indeed satisfying."
***
Boom!
The silence was shattered by a deeper, distant roar.
Across the gloomy sky, two crisscrossing rifts tore open. Immediately after, searing light beamed straight down from the cosmic heavens, piercing the Kingdom of the Woods. Each strike incinerated several li around it, shaking the earth and making the heavens tremble.
Passarella of the Empire seized the opportunity, going all out.
Tianyuan had gained total superiority!
Pursuing ruthlessly without holding back, continuous shockwaves rippled outward until, in the deepest part of the Kingdom of the Woods, within the writhing gloom, a hazy silhouette finally appeared for a fleeting instant—
And in that very split second, the White Stag hunters who had been lurking since the battle began struck with immense force!
Celestial-Humans!
They were the family heads of Hunting Finger's Flying Light and Dongjiao's Sun Reflecting!
The Sun-Reflecting Arrow and Bitter Day Phantom Light, honed and primed to the limit, shot forth together, striking straight toward the core. Erupting after an agonizingly long ambush, they seized this crucial opening for a sure-kill strike!
Yet within the torn darkness, the bizarre silhouette seemed to smile mockingly.
It merely took a slow step back.
As if dissolving, it vanished.
Bitter Day and Sun Reflecting shot past, missing their target—no, from the very beginning, the aura locked onto by Flying Light and Dongjiao had been wrong!
The misdirection of the Wolf of the Heart!
In that momentary error, Bitter Day and Sun Reflecting struck their "target"!
[?]
Corpse Mountain froze.
Looking down blankly at the two deep gashes across his colossal body of flesh, he opened his mouth for an instant, as if wanting to say something.
Too late.
Boom!
The White Pavilion's vile fiend, who had been slacking off in the rear since the battle started, detonated with a roar.
He didn't even have time to scream.
No one could have imagined that in a clash between Tianyuan, the White Stag, and the wolves, the first to die would be Corpse Mountain, who had only come to scavenge!
That colossal body plummeted from midair, expanding as it fell.
In the end, it literally became a mountain of flesh.
With a deafening crash, it slammed into the earth and ruptured. Torrential blood erupted from within, shooting into the sky alongside countless corpses, dyeing half the heavens crimson.
Across the Kingdom of the Woods, countless bodies and blood poured down like rain, wails rising and falling. Within the scattered soul of the vile fiend, a genuine calamity was slowly germinating, coming to life.
Across the wilderness, countless newly dead corpses twitched and spasmed, crawling back up amid decay. If not properly handled, the mortal world would soon have yet another natural disaster to reckon with.
Yet right now, no one cared about the calamity.
Everyone looked toward the second figure falling from the sky—
Passarella!
The instant Sun Reflecting and Bitter Day had been unleashed, a grotesque silhouette had emerged from empty air right behind Passarella. Seizing that critical opening, it opened its jaws wide.
The Wolf of the Mountain!
Tianyuan's suppression and repelling, Passarella's counterattack, the ferocious assault of the Wilderness Market's Celestial-Humans—in that brief moment, countless attacks focused on it.
Yet all of them were taken head-on.
Endured entirely!
Leaving behind nothing more than trivial scratches upon its fur.
Immediately after, a sharp crack sounded.
Beneath the gaping maw of the wolf sin incarnation, Passarella was snapped in two at the waist——
Dead!
Chapter 634