Magic power surged within Gesi's body, and the scars on his palm vanished in an instant.
He surveyed his surroundings, his gaze slowly settling upon Little Nora and Little Huangquan, and the killing intent in his heart violently spiked once more.
So cute—he wanted to kill them!
Gesi raised his hand. In the next instant, a colossal magic orb formed in a flash, and he detonated it right in his palm.
The terrifying blast generated immense shockwaves while a tsunami of magic power swept outward. Yu Xian and the others pulled back one after another, unwilling to waste energy withstanding such an assault.
From the center of the explosion, Gesi locked onto Little Nora and flew straight at her, appearing before her in a flash as his right hand lunged toward her throat.
However, he had clearly underestimated Little Nora's strength.
Before his hand could even touch her, dozens of gold coins materialized in an instant, every single one striking his vital points. He was hurled backward, gold coins embedded in his heart, throat, glabella, dantian, chest, and various other spots.
Only after being blasted dozens of light-years away did he spit out a mouthful of blood, realizing he was injured.
He deftly plucked out the gold coins stuck in his body and crushed one in his hand, discovering that these coins were genuinely crafted from pure gold, devoid of any impurities.
The Law of Gold?
Or some other ability?
Before he could think further, a blade-light slashed from the distance, arriving in a flash.
Gesi immediately caught the blade-light in his fingers and shattered it with a slight exertion of force. He was somewhat surprised—so weak!
He had thought all the newcomers were around Zhougelasi's level, and Little Nora's attack had only confirmed his suspicion, but this blade-light made him realize not everyone in the group was that powerful.
Yet right then, a bullet came flying, shattering his assumption once more.
Before the bullet even arrived, he caught the scent of death. Instantly coating his hand in a massive amount of magic power, he grabbed at the bullet.
Yet the moment he touched it, two of his fingers fractured and shattered. The bullet kept flying forward, but fortunately his hand's deflection bought him just enough time. He jerked his neck slightly to the side, but a third of his neck was still shot through, cracks even splintering across his bone.
"Damn it!"
Gesi never expected such a tiny bullet to possess such horrifying power.
Gritting his teeth, he channeled magic power to mend his damaged body while rapidly retreating.
Suddenly, he sensed the surrounding space descending into chaos, its coordinates seemingly warped. He hurriedly anchored himself with magic power, but then his expression shifted—he found himself right back inside the encirclement of Yu Xian and the others.
He hadn't been teleported; rather, the space he occupied had swapped places with the space here. By anchoring himself to that space, he had only made it easier to be brought right back.
The moment he reappeared, he saw Yu Xian wielding the Golden-Hooped Rod, smashing it down as his voice trailed right behind the strike: "Eat Old Fish's staff!"
"Take a slash from Old Zhang!"
"Take... Little Nora's hit!"
"Take Little Huang—whatever, take this!"
Yu Xian's staff struck down, and Gesi's vision went black. Before he could raise a magical shield, a barrage of attacks rained down upon him, knocking him flying back and forth like a sandbag.
Suddenly, Niman took off her necklace, and the moment Gesi flew past, slipped it directly around his neck.
Gesi—previously feral and hideous, veins bulging across his body as though ready to devour anyone in sight—froze instantly on the spot. His eyes widened as he looked around, then glanced down at the necklace around his neck.
In his mind surfaced that little girl who feared him yet longed to be close to him, followed by the faces of others who had trusted him, and the faces of those who had died unable to believe what was happening.
"What have I... what have I done, AAAAARGHHHHH!!!!!"
In the next breath, Gesi erupted into an agonized roar, violently pounding his own head.
The onlookers stared in surprise at this scene, then turned toward Niman. Niman transmitted via voice: "His vitality and magic power are simply too immense. Our attacks barely scratch him. If we kept fighting like this, we might not even determine a victor by the next cosmic annihilation epoch.
"Since he fell to demons, I thought I'd restore his sanity. I just... didn't expect this."
In truth, Niman had already refined the necklace and possessed complete control over it. Her original plan was to let Gesi regain his reason and then use the threat of taking the necklace back at any moment as leverage to make him accept punishment.
Yet she hadn't anticipated such an extreme reaction. In mere moments, Gesi had pummeled himself bloody, even smashing one of his own eyeballs to pieces.
Squelch!
Suddenly, Gesi thrust his hand into his chest, ripping out his own heart while still alive.
Drenched in blood, tears of blood streaming from his eyes, he spoke to the crowd: "I am sorry... Having committed such monstrous sins, I, Gesi, have no face left to live on in this world. Forgive me for burdening you all!"
Then, terrifying magic power erupted from his heart. Lines of rules woven from magic rooted themselves in him, sprouting and growing in an instant into a colossal tree hundreds of millions of meters tall.
The tree's magical power was horrifying beyond measure; every single leaf contained enough magic to destroy countless worlds.
Everyone present was so stunned they dared not make a move, for if this colossal tree detonated, everyone here would perish—no rule could shield them.
"No matter who you are, no matter where you hide, I offer this body as a sacrifice to curse you for eternity!"
By the time the tree of magical rules finished forming, Gesi's body had shriveled into a skeletal husk of skin and bones. Embedded in the root, his eyes stared fixedly into the boundless void afar as he rasped: "I curse you never to be complete! I curse you never to unify! I curse you never to return to the source! I curse you never to attain transcendence!!!!"
Boom!
The entire tree burst into raging flames.
The curse Gesi formed by burning away everything he had spread swiftly across the Tree Universe.
When this curse touched the mastermind behind the demonic fall, it would cling like maggots on rotten bones, piercing through the perpetrator's past and future, cursing them to the very end of their life.
"To be so fiercely unyielding... truly a heroic figure, Gesi."
Watching Gesi turn completely to ashes, Zhougelasi sighed in grief and admiration.
The others were stunned into silence by the sight. Only when the final ember of Gesi's conflagration vanished did Yu Xian finally speak: "Zhougelasi, what... what was that?"
"The Self-Sacrifice Art. Within the sacrifice rules, it is the sole rule secret art capable of reaching directly to the root source of the Tree Universe. The sacrificer truly loses everything—not even a spiritual spark remains—resulting in absolute, utter death," Zhougelasi explained with mixed emotions. "The stronger the sacrificer and the higher their standing, the more terrifying the resulting effect. Given Gesi's status as a Mighty One, the power generated by his sacrifice is likely enough to pierce throughout time. The mastermind behind the demonic fall phenomenon will never, in all eternity, escape this curse."
Throughout the entire Tree Universe, almost no one was willing to use such a sacrifice, because using it meant true death—tantamount to one's soul shattering, leaving no chance to reincarnate or start anew.
Meanwhile, as Zhougelasi was explaining, within a drifting branch outside the Tree Universe, Quan Juehua sat cross-legged meditating in a ruined world when a sudden chill ran down his spine.
Frowning, he opened his eyes and pinched his fingers to deduce, yet could divine nothing.
"No good. You aren't fun at all."
Inexplicably, a voice that had caused him a lifetime of agony seemed to echo by his ear. His expression gradually contorted, only for him to throw his head back and unleash a series of bizarre chuckles.
Chapter 649