Family after family presented their full-month gifts, and soon it was the turn of the scholar seated beside Lu Junye.
Instead of handing his gift to the nearby servants, the scholar rose from his seat, wove through the guests, and approached Niu Kaitian.
"Bull God, I, Yuan Zhengwei, have long admired you from afar, and at last I am blessed to behold your presence," the scholar said, bringing out a gift with visible excitement as he looked at Niu Kaitian.
Beaming with a smile while cradling his grandson, Niu Kaitian replied, "No need to be formal. Anyone who comes is a friend."
"The gift I present is..." Yuan Zhengwei slowly opened the box. Suddenly, purple light erupted from within, and his voice rang out at the very last second: "...the Bai Ze Diagram of Ten Thousand Names!"
In an instant, countless characters spewed from the box, weaving into incantations that coiled around Niu Kaitian.
The Bai Ze Diagram of Ten Thousand Names possessed an immensely powerful sealing effect against all strange beasts and divine beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Once afflicted by it, a beast would suffer a drastic drop in power at best, or find itself utterly immobilized at worst.
"Bastard!"
In the next second, Niu Kaitian flew into a rage. An axe materialized in his hand, and he swung it straight at Yuan Zhengwei.
Yet Yuan Zhengwei gave a smug smile. His body liquefied like ink as he retreated rapidly, leaving a long trail of black streaks behind him before ducking into the crowd. He yelled, "Niu Kaitian, your doom is at hand! The You family hired me to seal your power. From now on, the southern islands of the Death Calamity Sea will be ruled entirely by the Ghost Dragon clan!"
"Nonsense! Courting death!" the woman who had been standing behind Niu Kaitian snapped in fury.
She was Youquan, the eldest young lady of the Ghost Dragon clan. She immediately summoned her Star Divine Artifact, the Ghost Spring Sword, and directed it toward Yuan Zhengwei in the crowd.
Just then, Cai Du materialized in the air above Youquan and threw a downward punch at her. Though she parried the blow with a mirror, Cai Du did not panic in the slightest. He chuckled and said, "Eldest Miss Youquan, your opponent is me!"
Across the hall, Niu Gandang faced off against Lu Junye. As the two sides confronted each other, an eerie tension descended over the great hall; after all, no one knew how many more traitors might be lurking among the guests.
"It seems someone can't stand to see my Niu family prosper. What cowardly rats hide their faces? Come on out, all of you," Niu Kaitian said coolly, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.
The incantations around his body continued to revolve, suppressing ninety percent of his strength, yet his presence still struck dread into everyone's hearts.
"Niu Kaitian, stop bluffing! Are you still waiting for the You family to send reinforcements? You're bound to be disappointed—the You family is on our side," Yuan Zhengwei sneered from among the crowd.
The bystanders scattered, isolating Yuan Zhengwei. But Yuan Zhengwei promptly dissolved into ink and darted back into the crowd, only for the people to disperse wherever he went, refusing to give him any chance to hide in the commotion.
*Damn it.*
*Why are these NPCs so smart? Couldn't they just stand obediently and act as background props?*
Yuan Zhengwei cursed under his breath, but eventually had no choice but to give up. He stood awkwardly in place, looking toward Niu Kaitian on the main dais—his attempt to blend into the crowd had completely failed.
"Are you finished?" Niu Kaitian looked calmly at Yuan Zhengwei and asked indifferently.
Every hair on Yuan Zhengwei's neck suddenly stood on end. He liquefied into a pool of ink, desperate to flee, but behind him, Niu Kaitian—still cradling his grandson—grew unimaginably colossal in stature.
"Force Calamity—Axe Correction!"
Niu Kaitian's muscles bulged as his axe cleaved down toward Yuan Zhengwei.
*I'm dead! I'm so dead!*
Faced with this chop, Yuan Zhengwei was struck by an overpowering premonition of imminent doom. Regret gnawed fiercely at him for ever taking this quest.
Even though Niu Kaitian's strength was severely suppressed, he remained a terrifying entity to any Star-rank powerhouse. Most importantly, the Sky-Opening Axe had not been sealed.
He had been too overconfident.
Just because his abilities were entirely geared toward escaping, he had dared to flaunt himself in front of a System-rank powerhouse. Now he was going to die.
Just as Yuan Zhengwei was about to be instantly obliterated by Niu Kaitian's axe, the hall doors burst open, and a staff swept in to parry Niu Kaitian's blow in the nick of time.
Staff and axe collided. The resulting shockwave sent Yuan Zhengwei coughing up a mouthful of blood on the spot, spurring him to flee even faster.
"Niu Kaitian, it isn't nice to bully the weak."
At the other end of the staff stood a monkey, staring directly at Niu Kaitian.
Seeing the monkey, Niu Kaitian frowned. "Sun Shenhou. So it's you lot. Have Bai Chonghu and Zhou Eyang come as well?"
A few months ago, a new faction had arisen in the Death Calamity Sea, led by three System-rank powerhouses: Sun Shenhou, Bai Chonghu, and Zhou Eyang. They had swept through the factions on several islands, becoming a volatile destabilizing factor throughout the Death Calamity Sea.
Over the past few weeks, the neighboring alliance had already been discussing whether to absorb these three System-rank powerhouses into their ranks or drive them away.
No one had anticipated that these three bastards would be audacious enough to set their sights on him and the You family. If both the Niu and You families fell, the trio might truly manage to establish a foothold here.
"To deal with an old fossil like you, why would Old Bai and Old Zhou need to come?" Sun Shenhou scoffed.
Niu Kaitian said coldly, "If not for your underhanded schemes, a creature like you would take no more than a single strike of my axe."
"Hah! Then I'd love to see how you manage that single strike!" Sun Shenhou sneered. He pressed down hard, levering the opposite end of the staff upward before slamming it down at Niu Kaitian.
Niu Kaitian struck back with his axe. Staff and axe clashed, causing the ground to rupture instantly. The colossal force jarred Niu Kaitian, forcing him to stumble backward.
Too much of his power was sealed, and he had to shield the grandson in his arms. It was only natural that he was at a disadvantage.
"So weak! What the fuck were you bragging about just now?"
Pressing his advantage relentlessly, Sun Shenhou landed as the staff flew swiftly into his grip. Gripping it with both hands, he brought it crashing down toward Niu Kaitian, the weapon expanding and lengthening at terrifying speed.
In truth, the staff in his hands really was the Sea-Calming Divine Needle. Moreover, it was a transcendent divine artifact fused from the Sea-Calming Divine Needles of hundreds of worlds; to achieve this, he had slaughtered hundreds of Sun Wukongs across Journey to the West worlds and bludgeoned several Tathagatas to death when they attempted to intervene.
"Thunder Calamity—Blades and Axes Descend!"
Looking up at the descending staff, Niu Kaitian unleashed thunder and lightning, swinging his lightning-clad axe to meet it.
The moment they collided, Niu Kaitian was driven back once more, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
"Good stuff! Can't let it go to waste!"
Seeing this, Yuan Zhengwei dissolved into ink and tapped across the floor several times, blinking right beside the blood Niu Kaitian had coughed up. He quickly gathered every drop, then scurried away as fast as he could.
The shockwave from the clash between Sun Shenhou's staff and Niu Kaitian's axe had already left him severely injured. If not for his peculiar life-saving abilities, he would probably be groaning on the floor by now—hardly in any shape to take such absurd risks.
At this point, despair began to creep into Niu Kaitian's heart.
He knew full well that Bai Chonghu and Zhou Eyang had most likely launched an attack against the You family.
Both families were probably in dire peril this time. If he hadn't been afflicted by the incantations of the Bai Ze Diagram of Ten Thousand Names, even if he couldn't take Sun Shenhou down quickly, he could have kept him suppressed and firmly held the upper hand.
Yet Sun Shenhou had somehow obtained a rare treasure like the Bai Ze Diagram of Ten Thousand Names and joined forces with several other factions. The situation was looking exceedingly grim.
The opportunistic fence-sitters all around were already stirring restlessly, clearly realizing that the Niu family might be finished.
If he remained on the back foot, these people would likely take action. Even if they didn't dare attack him directly, they would ransack the entirety of Bull Dragon Island.
When that happened, the Niu family would truly be doomed.
Chapter 392