The Qin Spear!

"Must you relentlessly target our human race?" Xia Longwu's expression was freezing cold. Even now, the immortal race insisted on targeting humans. Time and again, they were the ones stirring up trouble. If that was the case... Then what was there to wait for? "Kill!" With a furious roar, a saber beam illuminated heaven and earth as Xia Longwu struck directly! At the same time, Qin Zhen lunged forward with his spear, laughing heartily. "I've said it all along—the immortal race is the real shit-stirrer! They've been meddling for years, striking down whoever grows strong. Absolute whores, through and through! They won't learn until they're beaten into submission! The humans, gods, and demons have warred for years, while these damned immortals have done nothing but rest and recover. Few of their Eternals have fallen, so they've probably forgotten the taste of pain!" The immortal race had always kept up this posture: suppressing whichever side was strongest. When the gods and demons were mighty, the immortals allied with the humans to oppose them—yet forced the humans to serve as the vanguard. The humans had no choice but to accept because the situation was perilous. Once the humans grew strong, the immortals decided suppression was needed once more, turning right around to deal with the humans! "Bitches are always pretentious!" Thunderous rumbles echoed across heaven and earth. Zhu Tianfang and Zhou Polong struck simultaneously! Zhu Tianfang chuckled in a low, eerie voice. "Let us fight the immortals to our hearts' content! If we wipe out the immortal race, our heavy losses will leave us powerless to compete any further. If the rest of you want to annihilate us, fighting a crippled foe is much easier than fighting one at full strength! And if we lose and are wiped out by the immortals, they'll have lost all their capital to compete as well—otherwise, their so-called withdrawal would be nothing but a joke. Could they truly refrain from snatching the prize? Gentlemen, I hope none of you interfere. This time, we will not stop until one of our sides is utterly wiped out!" With those words, a full twelve divine characters materialized in midair. The entire void froze solid in an instant. Four human Invincibles against four immortal Invincibles. At this moment, the human race's stance was unmistakable: an endless battle to the death with the immortal race! King Xuanhe bellowed, "Don't believe their words! He—" Boom! "You talk too much!" Xia Longwu slashed forward. He was at the fourth tier of Eternal while his opponent was at the fifth; there was scarcely any difference between them. This single strike cleaved the heavens and split the earth! "Whoever dares interfere... dies!" Eight Invincibles instantly clashed, their collisions shaking heaven and earth with deafening roars. Figure after figure of Invincibles manifested, watching the eight combatants in silence. Since the immortal race insisted on this... then let them and the humans butcher each other. The human race's stance was crystal clear: today, they would fight no one else, only locking horns with the immortals. Four on four, life or death in their own hands—whoever was weaker would die! Both sides tore the void apart in a flash, the eight figures tangling in ferocious combat. Spears struck, saber beams flashed, and divine characters surged. The entire void fractured under the onslaught of the eight Invincibles. Deafening roars echoed through the heavens as their crushing auras rippled outward. Wandering dead spirits were pulverized instantly, and within the prince's mansion, more and more dead spirits summoned by the rules emerged. Killing dead spirits outside the rules carried no consequences, but killing those governed by the rules only summoned more! The battle between humans and immortals was underway! Four on four: Zhu Tianfang suppressed his opponent; Xia Longwu fought on equal terms; Zhou Polong barely held his ground; and Qin Zhen... after three wildly aggressive moves, found himself pinned down and battered by an immortal at the fourth tier of Eternal. Yet after leading troops for hundreds of years, if Qin Zhen had learned anything, it was one principle: never back down, even in death! You strike me with a sword, I stab you with a spear. My injuries might be heavier than yours, but you won't necessarily endure more than me! In an instant, the eight Invincibles fought so violently that heaven and earth seemed to shatter. At this point, no other Invincible dared or wanted to intervene rashly; a single misstep could drag them into the conflict. Nearby, the Head of the Heaven Division sent a blunt divine sense transmission: "Whichever side is on the verge of death, let us join forces to throw them out. Don't let them die here and draw out more rule-bound dead spirit monarchs!" Let them fight! None of the surrounding Invincibles objected. Joining forces to displace the combatants was well within their power. Fight all they wanted, but it was best not to die here. Even if someone died here, it was best if they were slain by the Guiyuan Saber—that was the power of the rules and would carry no repercussions. Otherwise, anyone else committing murder would summon dead spirits. The eleven dead spirits were already outside; those were somewhat easier to handle. Slaying them would not be a catastrophe. But if you killed a rule-bound dead spirit monarch, dead spirit monarchs would swarm in from the dead spirit realm like an endless plague of locusts. ... Inside the Illusion Sky Mirror. Su Yu watched in silence. Eight Invincibles were engaged in a bloody, cataclysmic struggle. Blood was already being shed. Qin Zhen was being suppressed, but Zhu Tianfang's opponent was equally battered, unable to lift his head under Zhu Tianfang's assault. Neither side intended to swap opponents; each focused solely on killing their foe first to secure victory! Once an Invincible fell, turning the fight into a four-on-three, victory was guaranteed! Just as the battle raged, the gods and demons suddenly began conferring. Rather than direct transmissions, they isolated their surroundings and commenced an open discussion among several Invincibles. "If the immortals lose, do we kill the humans?" "Without question!" "The question is when. Do we wait until several immortals fall, or strike as soon as they're at a disadvantage?" "It depends on how it plays out. At the very least, we should wait until the humans are completely exhausted before slaughtering them!" At this moment, neither the god race nor the demon race was hiding this from their own geniuses. Anyone who had not sealed their six senses could hear them clearly. It seemed both races assumed these geniuses had already sealed their senses, rendering private transmissions unnecessary. Inside the Illusion Sky Mirror. Su Yu kept his eyes closed, his expression contorted as though he was reeling from a mental shock. He knew! Yes, he knew these two races were doing this intentionally. They were speaking aloud to draw him out! Yes, that had to be it! They suspected he was hiding among their people, but were still hesitating over whether to slaughter them all. Thus, they resorted to testing him—or rather, an open conspiracy. They were waiting for Su Yu to step forward on his own! Sure enough, another Invincible sneered, "The human race is truly cursed, dragged down hard by Su Yu and Lan Tian. Those two killed to their hearts' content, but what came of it? It seems to me the humans are finished this time!" "They were already public enemies, yet they dared to act so brazenly!" "..." One Invincible after another chimed in, making it sound like an earnest debate, when in truth they were waiting—waiting for Su Yu to make a move. At the same time, a faint trace of willpower swept through the Illusion Sky Mirror, inspecting everyone. Su Yu turned a deaf ear to it all. Instead, he quietly stirred his death qi—an infinitesimal sliver of it. *Can you charge in? Charge in together! I need your help, Milady. At the critical moment, break in—I need you!* Xingyue did not reply for a long time. Charge in? It was simple enough for her, but the other dead spirits were running wild; none of them would listen to her. Into Su Yu's ears, another Invincible sneered, "The humans are doomed this time. I saw it—their people are inside Zhu Tianfang's secret realm, within a single divine character! Once the human Eternals die, every human who entered will be slaughtered! Now let's see if Su Yu and Lan Tian have the guts to show themselves and draw our attention!" "Would they be that foolish? Besides, I heard King Daming might have slipped in." "No matter. Bloodfire Demon King of my race is keeping a tight lock on him. He doesn't dare move, nor can he. The moment he stirs, Lord Bloodfire will capture him!" "..." They were telling Su Yu and Lan Tian that there was no other way out. Their only choice was to step forward. As for whether they would be struck dead the instant they emerged, that depended on their own capabilities. If you come out and we kill you, we might not even bother targeting the rest of the human race. *Do you take me for a fool?* Su Yu sneered inwardly. He was not that stupid. If these people truly died... the most he would do was avenge them later. Without certainty of survival, only an idiot would step out! Unless he was confident that emerging wouldn't get him killed. In that case, Su Yu might consider stepping out to draw attention and create an opening for the dead spirits to seize the Nine-Leaf Celestial Lotus. As for right now, nothing on earth would tempt him to show himself. Just then, a message arrived from Xingyue. "I can enter with that idiot, along with two other dead spirit monarchs. The rest... there's no way. They completely ignore me. Those morons have already forgotten who granted them their freedom!" Xingyue was furious! Ungrateful wretches! She had tried contacting the other dead spirits, only for some to ignore her entirely. A pack of ungrateful wretches—had they forgotten that it was she who gave them the chance to emerge? Naturally, she had also forgotten that it actually had little to do with her. Su Yu wasted no time arguing and quickly replied, "That works. You'd better not come in yourself; let that idiot fight his way inside. Place the drop of Invincible vital blood on a Sun Moon dead spirit and mark it with your death qi imprint. I'll search for it myself. Don't hand it to me directly—just have that dead spirit move close to God King Bingfeng!" "Also, if I reveal myself, have the Tianyuan race guy pursue me..." "Furthermore, I will most likely reveal myself when the Nine-Leaf Celestial Lotus blooms. Your primary target is the lotus. There is a time passage behind it, so be careful. Also, that thing blooms nine times—each bloom produces only a single petal!" Indeed, although the Nine-Leaf Celestial Lotus appeared mature, it was not yet complete. Each bloom yielded only one petal; nine successive blooms were needed for the full lotus. Of course, after the first bloom, the subsequent ones would occur much faster. At this moment, Su Yu was calculating. Was there a way for him to snatch one or two petals first, undergo a few cycles of yuanqi transformation, and then consume the Invincible vital blood? At that point, he would possess Invincible combat strength, and catching an Invincible off guard, he might just slay one! He paid no more attention to the god and demon Invincibles. If you have the guts, go up and kill them right now! Xia Longwu and the others were hardly pushovers. They had declared they would kill anyone who interfered—did the gods and demons not understand the human temperament? If anyone stepped in now, even if the humans fell to the immortals, they would drag the meddler down with them. Were the gods and demons willing to pay that price? ... Boom! Qin Zhen was blasted backward, his body trembling violently as his three embodiments showed signs of fracturing apart. Once an Invincible fell from the merged state of their three embodiments, their strength plummeted. If one or two of those embodiments were slain, they would be barely stronger than a Quasi-Invincible. At this moment, the power of time swirled around Qin Zhen as phantom afterimages flickered beside him—the telltale sign that the fusion was unraveling. Drenched in blood, Qin Zhen nevertheless laughed heartily. "Little bastard, not bad at all! You've lived for thousands, tens of thousands of years, and you can barely manage to suppress me! Tell me, did one of the little immortal fairies this general slaughtered happen to be your wife?" The immortal king facing him was none other than Immortal King Yueshi. Yueshi swept a cold glance over him, disdaining to exchange words. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced toward Zhu Tianfang, who was currently battering another immortal king so hard that the opponent's river of time rippled violently. Yet that immortal king was in slightly better shape than Qin Zhen! It was simply a matter of who could hold out longer: Qin Zhen, or that immortal king. As for the other two matchups, Xia Longwu and Zhou Polong were both barely holding their own. This outcome was not what the immortals had wanted. Yet they had never anticipated that the humans would be so decisive, launching straight into a battle to the death! Over the years, the immortal race had rarely engaged in major wars, preferring to pull strings from the shadows. The human race had only risen a few centuries ago, previously relying on the immortals and treating them with considerable respect. Yet now, the moment they turned hostile, the humans were even faster and more resolute than they were. In truth, Immortal King Yueshi had miscalculated. Had it been other human Invincibles—experienced old foxes—they would not have turned hostile so easily. The problem was that the humans present this time were bloodthirsty Xia Longwu, battle-hungry Qin Zhen, and two others who were relatively young; they were among the fiercest, most belligerent fighters of the new generation. Why would they bother playing games of hollow courtesy? ... "Sigh!" In a shadowy corner, a sigh sounded as a dark silhouette emerged. Not far away, a blood-red figure materialized as well, hands clasped behind his back, looking toward the shadow with a chuckle. "How about not interfering? That one from the Heaven Division is still present; if you and I step in, his victory will be assured! As for Xia Longwu and the others, the young will always have their own ideas." The shadow chuckled. "I'm not old either!" Bloodfire Demon King smiled, though he offered no reply to that. Looking up at the sky once more, he asked, "Who do you think will crumble first—Qin Zhen or Guangran?" Guangran was the one being suppressed by Zhu Tianfang. He was no weakling either—an Eternal at the fifth tier! None of the four immortal kings were weak: two at the fifth tier and two at the fourth, all powerful figures. The crux lay in which side could free up a combatant first. And even if the humans defeated the immortals, the aftermath would be hard to predict. The shadow remained silent. Bloodfire Demon King chuckled softly. "Qin Zhen should crumble first. Sometimes, raw strength isn't something sheer stubbornness can sustain. Strength is strength, isn't it?" The shadow still did not speak. Bloodfire Demon King smiled. "I quite like Qin Zhen. When I was young, I was just like him, and just like Xia Longwu. But later I realized it was useless. My strength fell short of that fellow's, which is why he became the Demon Emperor while my clan could only serve as the vanguard! Being bold and bloodthirsty doesn't earn you respect—strength is what matters!" The shadow said calmly, "If he dies, so be it. It's not as though Eternals of the human race have never fallen before! Across generations, the fallen Eternals of the human race could pile up into a mountain! Through ten tide changes, which one didn't see dozens of human Eternals perish?" "True enough!" Bloodfire smiled. "Then tell me, will Lan Tian or Su Yu show themselves?" "Why would they?" Bloodfire chuckled. "If they show themselves, there's still a chance they can divert the attention of the other factions. If they don't, these human Invincibles are doomed; everyone will move to kill them!" "And what about you?" "Me? My only duty is to keep an eye on you." The shadow let out a sigh. "Your target is the Nine-Leaf Celestial Lotus. How about I withdraw? Once you achieve Dao Integration, you can compete for it. Why must the demon race involve itself in a feud between humans and immortals?" "I don't care about their feud. The key is... Su Yu and Lan Tian must still be killed." Bloodfire's voice turned cold. "Lan Tian is a monster, but I have the confidence to suppress him. Su Yu isn't as perverse, nor is he even as strong as Lan Tian. Yet Su Yu has tied himself to the holy cities and the Ancient God Devourer race. If we don't kill Su Yu today, who knows how many demon Eternals will die because of him in the future!" He spoke with utmost seriousness. "The fault lies in the human race's inability to protect him! If the humans possessed the power to crush the myriad races underfoot, Su Yu could live comfortably. But they don't. Even if Su Yu claims to have severed ties with the humans, blood is blood. If the human race were truly pushed to the brink of destruction, tell me, would the holy cities' forces join the fray on the humans' behalf?" The shadow said no more. Indeed—kill Su Yu. It was precisely to kill Su Yu that the gods and demons were preparing to strike. Otherwise, letting the humans and immortals fight to the bitter end would have been the ideal outcome; they couldn't care less how many Invincibles either race lost. "The celestial lotus is about to bloom!" the shadow murmured. Bloodfire laughed. "What's the rush? The nine blooms are only the beginning. There's no hurry right now; that fellow from the Heaven Hunting Pavilion knows what he's doing." Even as they spoke, a deafening blast rang out as Qin Zhen was sent flying once more, drenched in blood. The river of time winding around him shattered, and his three embodiments abruptly split apart, revealing three separate Qin Zhens! This was by no means a display of power! It meant he could no longer sustain the merged state of his three embodiments! All three Qin Zhens were covered in blood. One, clad in armor, roared in fury, "Useless! How is my future self so utterly useless that he can't even kill an old bastard?" Beside him, another Qin Zhen dressed in casual robes muttered in exasperation, "Bullshit! How long has he lived, and how long have I lived?" "Both of you shut up!" The middle Qin Zhen snapped furiously. "What time do you think it is to be spewing nonsense? Even if we die today, we're splattering this bastard with our blood!" Opposite them, Immortal King Yueshi looked on with cold indifference, faint light shimmering across his body as several spear wounds healed rapidly. Beyond that, five massive waves could faintly be seen surging across his river of time. Several onlookers' eyes flickered. Having fought to this point, everyone could tell: Immortal King Yueshi was already capable of stepping into the fifth tier. Meanwhile, Qin Zhen, though nominally at the third tier, had only achieved Dao manifestation in the heavens; his true foundation was perhaps even slightly short of the third tier. In a one-on-one fight where neither retreated nor evaded, battling strictly to determine life and death, Qin Zhen's defeat was inevitable. Under normal circumstances, Qin Zhen would have fled. Yet right now, he could not flee. Even for a fifth-tier Eternal, killing a third-tier Eternal was no simple task. But once a battle became a fight to the death, everything changed. If Qin Zhen ran now, the other three humans were finished. He could not run! Whoever ran would doom their entire side to defeat and death. Nor could he escape if he tried—eleven dead spirit monarchs were waiting on the perimeter. Fleeing heavily wounded would still mean death. ... On the perimeter. Hetu and the other dead spirits watched the battle above King Gong Mansion, Hetu's eyes flickering continuously. "The human race..." "The glory of the human race!" Fragments of memory surfaced one after another. The glory of the human race! That was what his father had taught him back then. After his death, he had long forgotten it. It was only upon seeing the star map Su Yu left behind earlier that certain memories had rekindled. Now, Hetu muttered to himself. The glory of the human race! I... don't seem to be human anymore. I am a dead spirit! I've forgotten all of that, forgotten everything. I've started anew; the Hetu of today is no longer the Hetu of the past. "Father..." Murmuring softly, Hetu's gaze wavered. He seemed to recall the past, remembering childhood events. He thought of his father, of his father's final words before falling... He felt he ought to weep. Yet he could not! He was a dead spirit! Dead spirits had no emotions other than rage. Dead spirits did not fear death; even if they seemed to, it was merely a facade. They were missing so much, devoid of so much. Like marionettes, they lived perpetually beneath the rules. From the moment of their birth, they were filled with resentment, killing intent, and fury! Only a single thought inhabited their minds: slaughter, and fight their way back into the living realm! Turn the myriad worlds into the domain of dead spirits. Feelings? Nonexistent! They had no emotions. Sometimes, surfacing memories merely prompted them to instinctively mimic those emotions. For instance, when he thought of his father, he wanted to weep—so he could only put on a show of crying, feeling no true sorrow in his heart. His core remained as calm and unrippled as still water. *I am a dead spirit now...* Hetu muttered inwardly. He felt that, based on his restored memories, he ought to help the human race. Yet he didn't, because another part of him felt that all these living beings deserved to die. At this moment, his emotional fluctuations grew slightly complicated. "No sorrow?" "No hatred?" "Only rage?" Hetu murmured. In the next instant, a grin spread across his face. Rage—yes, they only knew rage. If that was the case, shouldn't he direct some of that rage toward the immortal race? Something clicked in his mind. He looked toward the immortals, and fury ignited within him! Boundless fury! These bastards deserved to die! If he could no longer love, then let him hate! ... In the distance. Xingyue's heart was equally calm. There was no rage right now, only an indescribable bewilderment. She wanted to kill Su Yu, yet part of her didn't. That guy was constantly bossing her around—it was infuriating! Yet beneath the annoyance, Xingyue felt a faint flicker of anticipation. It had been so long since she had experienced other sensations, such as fulfillment, or the exhilaration following intense stimulation. *He still wants to help the humans... doesn't he?* Xingyue murmured inwardly. She looked toward Daidai beside her, a look of puzzlement surfacing. "What are you staring at? Were you human in life too?" She noticed Daidai gazing at the humans, a complicated look flickering in his eyes. Daidai remained somewhat wooden, nodding slowly. "Maybe... yes! I... feel like I want to help them... yet... don't want to strike..." "Dead spirits!" Xingyue sighed. "You haven't recovered many memories, so you can't comprehend such complexity. I wonder, if the day comes when I truly resurrect, will I still be like this? I think that if I truly resurrect and regain all my memories and feelings, I will definitely kill that bastard!" "I despise him so much. In my memories, no one ever dared bully me like this... Yet right now, aside from anger, I don't have many thoughts left. Wooden-head, what about you?" "Me?" Daidai replied woodenly, "I... don't know." "As expected, you're an idiot. Dead spirits are all idiots, terribly stupid. The clever ones are alive; only fools ended up dead." ... *Pfft!* Qin Zhen's past embodiment coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood, fissures even beginning to appear on his body. Splitting into three embodiments did not mean three people ganging up on one; rather, his overall strength had weakened significantly, leaving him thoroughly battered by Immortal King Yueshi. Zhu Tianfang grew anxious, as did Xia Longwu and Zhou Polong. Roaring in a frenzy, they struck with manic fury, causing the three immortal kings to bleed repeatedly. Yet those were only superficial wounds that healed quickly. The immortals' strategy now was simply to stall! Stall until Qin Zhen was slain! As long as Qin Zhen died, the immortals would win. And if the immortals won, the other races were unlikely to slaughter them. No wall was entirely windproof. Slaying humans was one thing; slaying immortals required considering the immense power of the immortal race. Once outside, could anyone withstand their retribution? Even now, the voices of the gods and demons continued echoing in Su Yu's ears, but he ignored them entirely. Just at that moment, seductive laughter resounded through heaven and earth. In the next instant, the god and demon Invincibles struck in unison! Boom! The void shattered as avatar after avatar of Lan Tian burst into mist. In the distance, a figure of Lan Tian appeared—scholarly, ethereal and transcendent, draped in snow-white robes. His expression was conflicted as he said softly, "It seems I cannot save you... Humans... are truly complicated creatures at times. I already knew the outcome, so why bother!" Lan Tian stepped forward, laughing. Yet as he laughed, his voice turned shrill and mournful: "I want revenge!" Rumble! The void quaked! "I feel so wronged!" Boom! Boom! Boom! Once again, he struck a resonance with Old Zhou. Only through this could he unleash greater power. Lan Tian had stepped forward after all. He had failed to hold out to the end. Meanwhile, Qin Zhen coughed up blood while laughing, "Lan Tian, you complete pervert, why the hell did you come out?" Several Invincibles closed in around Lan Tian. Looking aggrieved, Lan Tian whined like a wronged child, "I didn't want to! But... I couldn't help it. My myriad dao avatars all told me, 'Don't go out!' Yet my human dao avatar was an idiot; he said, 'Go out, don't be afraid!'" Lan Tian grew slightly frenzied. "I am human! I never betrayed our race, did I? I only wanted to build a human race of my own, the human race of my dreams! But I am still human, aren't I?" "Why? Why did you call me a traitor? I am not, nor was Tiansheng! We are human, truly human! Qin Zhen, tell me, am I right?" Qin Zhen coughed up blood. "Right, you're human! Weren't we just scared? Scared that acknowledging you as human would give the myriad races an excuse to hound us without end? But now I fucking understand—denying it or admitting it makes no damn difference! The myriad races only care about strength! If you're weak, you're their grandson, plain and simple!" *BANG!* A colossal explosion rang out! One of Qin Zhen's embodiments was obliterated, a carrier drifting gently downward. "Qin Zhen!" Xia Longwu bellowed, eyes ablaze with fury. Qin Zhen's remaining two embodiments said helplessly, "Don't blame me, truly... I fucking... did my best. I'm no match for him, I had no choice. Sorry, truly sorry!" He looked at Immortal King Yueshi opposite him and grinned, baring bloody teeth. Immortal King Yueshi remained expressionless. "Thinking of self-destructing? Your self-destruction won't hurt me. If you self-destruct, you'll summon dead spirit monarchs, and these onlookers will be the first to kill you—they'll displace you and execute you! Qin Zhen, don't be foolish. You won't even get the chance to self-destruct. Even if you do, it will only happen outside, not here!" Qin Zhen glanced around. The manifestation of each Invincible was cold and indifferent. Yes, their presence proved Yueshi was right. "How humiliating!" Qin Zhen grinned bitterly. "So damn humiliating... I can't even choose how I fucking die?" With one embodiment destroyed, his strength had dropped drastically. He was no longer a match for this bastard. He could hold out no longer! ... Inside the Illusion Sky Mirror. Su Yu's body twitched almost imperceptibly. *Ignore it! Pay him no heed!* *Whether Qin Zhen lives or dies has nothing to do with me!* *I barely know him!* *I've only met him a handful of times. The first was in the Great Ming Prefecture, where that hearty fellow laughed and told me that killing little fairy girls was wonderful, but had to be done in secret!* *He told me to come to the Great Qin Prefecture, where we could kill to our hearts' content!* *He told me the Great Qin Prefecture was number one under heaven!* *The Great Qin Prefecture swept across the myriad realms!* In truth, they were barely acquaintances. Yet Su Yu remembered clearly how that fellow told him the Great Qin Prefecture had no corpses in stock and needed to hunt fresh ones. Sure enough, a few days later, Su Yu received several corpses—freshly killed! He was perhaps one of the few human powerhouses whom Su Yu barely knew, yet did not dislike and even found rather amusing. Qin Zhen! Prefect of the Great Qin Prefecture, who had campaigned across the heavens for hundreds of years, commanded the Great Qin Army, swept across the realms, guarded the northern frontier, and engaged in countless deadly clashes with the immortal race. Today, one of his three embodiments had fallen. Right before Su Yu's eyes! "In poverty, preserve your own integrity; in prosperity, aid the whole world!" That was what Wan Tiansheng had told him: *If you lack the ability, do not meddle; it is not your place to intervene.* Did Su Yu have that ability? Su Yu didn't know. He only knew that he had prepared many trump cards to seize the Nine-Leaf Celestial Lotus, not to save Qin Zhen. If Qin Zhen died, so be it—I should just take my lotus! Once I get it, I can grow stronger. Once I am strong, I can do whatever I please. Why expose my trump cards for a Qin Zhen I barely know? Su Yu thought and thought, yet even as he did, his death qi rippled faintly. *Milady, charge in and throw everything into chaos!* ... Outside King Gong Mansion, Xingyue's brows arched slightly. The Nine-Leaf Celestial Lotus had not yet bloomed! Charging in the moment it bloomed would offer a chance to seize a petal. Su Yu... wanted her to charge in now? Was he abandoning the lotus? Doing this carried a heavy risk of exposing something. Xingyue pondered briefly, then cast the thought aside. She hated analyzing things; it was too exhausting. In the next instant, she sneered and charged directly into King Gong Mansion! Simultaneously, Daidai and two other dead spirit monarchs burst inside alongside her! Four dead spirit monarchs invaded at once. Within the mansion, several Invincibles were startled. Just as the battle between humans and immortals was nearing its conclusion, why had these dead spirits suddenly stormed in? Xingyue shrieked furiously, "Kill the immortals! Slaughter the immortals! How dare you provoke this monarch!" Boom! A thunderous blast erupted as Xingyue sent a crushing palm strike toward Immortal King Yueshi in the distance. Yueshi, who was just about to execute Qin Zhen's second embodiment, had his face drain of color before roaring in outrage, "The humans must be colluding with the dead spirits!" It had to be! A sudden realization dawned upon him, and he bellowed, "Everyone, do you not see? The human race is undoubtedly in league with the dead spirit race! They definitely are!" It was too coincidental! When a coincidence was this precise, it was no longer a coincidence! The moment he moved to execute Qin Zhen, she intervened. You dare call this a coincidence? Absurd! At this moment, not only Yueshi, but the other Invincibles wore strange expressions as well. The humans and the dead spirits truly were colluding! Right then, Xingyue's voice echoed in the mind of the Tianyuan race Invincible: *"We are feigning ties with the humans to kill the immortals first, then exterminate the humans! Tie the humans and dead spirits together into a single entity, and find a way to restrain the other races!"* The Tianyuan Invincible felt a twinge of suspicion, but Xingyue's voice rang out again: *"Do not forget our covenant! The covenant is paramount!"* At those words, the Tianyuan Invincible's expression shifted slightly. He quickly shouted, "The Nine-Leaf Celestial Lotus is about to bloom! Join forces and displace them into the distance!" Many Invincibles glanced at him. The Tianyuan Invincible barked, "Who cares who is colluding with whom? Don't let the dead spirits ruin the Nine-Leaf Celestial Lotus—they have no need for it!" Boom! More than a dozen Invincibles unleashed their power into the void. Powerful displacement forces enveloped the eight combatants, instantly teleporting all eight a considerable distance away. Qin Zhen, who had been bracing for a final desperate struggle, was momentarily stunned before sprinting toward Xingyue nearby! *Fuck it!* *Who cares? These dead spirits want to kill immortals, so I'm heading over to get their help! Even if there's a higher chance this dead spirit will slaughter me instead, I don't give a damn!* *Death is coming sooner or later. Better to die at the hands of a dead spirit than be finished off by an immortal!* ... Inside the Illusion Sky Mirror. Su Yu let out a quiet breath of relief. Exposed! Even if they hadn't pinpointed him, Xingyue and the others were now exposed. At the very least, some Invincibles would hesitate and suspect whether she was linked to him. One of his trump cards was exposed—and the biggest one at that. Did he regret it? A little. He had cursed Qin Zhen thousands of times in his mind: *Idiot, fool, weakling, trash! You couldn't even beat a single Immortal King Yueshi, yet you dare fight!* *If you hadn't taught me that line—that dead fairy girls look best—I wouldn't have bothered with you!* *I remembered those words.* *Consider this repayment for that single piece of advice. From now on, we owe each other nothing!* *If you get yourself killed next time, I won't lift a finger!* ... At the same time. Several onlookers wore peculiar expressions. Bloodfire Demon King remarked calmly, "Were these dead spirits summoned by your human race, or by Su Yu? Su Yu turned into a half-dead spirit; perhaps he can communicate with them and strike deals. Does this mean he has acted?" Bloodfire sighed with feeling. "A born monster! City guardians, the Ancient God Devourer race, dead spirit monarchs... is there anyone in this world Su Yu cannot collude with?" He smiled faintly. "You see, wasn't I right? Living beings ultimately consider their own race! Even Su Yu, even Lan Tian, even Wan Tiansheng... they might feel disappointed or despairing toward you, but at the final moment, they will still consider the human race. All that talk of no longer being human is merely a joke!" The shadow's expression was conflicted. Was he relieved? Melancholy? Or resigned? Perhaps a bit of all three. Humans, in the end, were still human. At the final juncture, all these madmen had stepped forward and taken action—Lan Tian had, and so had Su Yu. The shadow knew this dead spirit was likely the one with whom Su Yu had forged a pact. Su Yu was truly capable. To even seduce dead spirits! Unfortunately... revealing so much had only solidified the resolve of others to kill him. The shadow let out a soft sigh and stepped forward through the void, heading toward the battlefield between humans and immortals. Bloodfire Demon King instantly barred his path, saying calmly, "Are you going over as well?" "As you said, at the final moment, those who claim not to be human are just telling jokes..." The shadow smiled. "Bloodfire, it seems you are determined to fight me!" Bloodfire Demon King studied him for a long moment before saying, "You are the one determined to fight me. Do you have the confidence, King Daming?" "King Daming?" The shadow chuckled. "King Daming... Old Zhu didn't come! If Old Zhu had truly come, he wouldn't just stand by watching Qin Zhen fall into peril. Only I could be cold-blooded enough to watch my own son about to die without making a move, unwilling to disrupt my plan..." "What?" Boom! A world-shattering explosion shook heaven and earth. Bloodfire Demon King was blasted backward, coughing up blood that rained down upon the earth. The shadow straightened his posture, speaking calmly: "That foolish son of mine has always been an idiot. I thought, since everyone else could sacrifice themselves for my sake, then sacrificing my own son... would that count as righteousness? Or heartlessness? Or cold-bloodedness? I cannot die here. I could only reveal myself at the final moment to seize the Nine-Leaf Celestial Lotus, or I would find myself in immense trouble. But... the more I thought about it... perhaps I am truly not qualified to be this Half-Emperor of the human race. I am still selfish; I feared my son might truly die. I apologize to Old Zhou and the others—I couldn't hold back!" Boom! A long spear manifested between heaven and earth. At that moment, everyone was dumbfounded! The pillar and protector of the human race, King Daqin... had come in person! In an instant, the gods and demons went mad! In the next breath, Thunder God King roared at the top of his lungs, "Kill! Kill him! If he falls, the human race will collapse!" "Kill!" Invincible after Invincible roared frantically! King Daqin! It was King Daqin! If they killed King Daqin, the human race was finished! There would never be another King Daqin capable of barely uniting all the human powerhouses as he did now. King Daqin could not afford to be exposed! Yes, just as he said, he could not expose himself—otherwise, everyone would move to kill him. King Daming would have been fine; he was not the pillar of the human race. But King Daqin carried an entirely different significance! "Father!" In the distance, Qin Zhen was utterly stunned. *That's my father? Not Zhu Tianfang's father?* King Daqin glanced over and smiled, though his smile soon stiffened. "Stupid. How could I, Qin Guang, have such an idiotic son? Utterly humiliating! I thought if you died, so be it. But then... someone showed me that an outsider, someone who claims he's no longer human, was willing to act for your sake... Would I, your father, be far too cold-blooded if I did nothing?" In the distance, the expressions of Zhu Tianfang and the others changed drastically. Zhu Tianfang shouted in near-hysteria, "You... I... If you die, what will become of our human race?" At that moment, more than a dozen Invincibles from the god and demon races charged straight at him without another word! Su Yu was a threat to the future. King Daqin was the threat of the present! If they killed King Daqin, the humans would have no present, let alone a future! He was the true bedrock of the human race! "Without me, if the human race falls, then let it fall. If losing me means losing the human race, then... the human race was destined for this calamity!" King Daqin smiled faintly. "There will always be another who can hold up the sky. This time, I've troubled Brother Zhou and the rest to fret over me!" His long spear swept across, shattering the void with a thunderous roar. With a squelch, a single thrust sent Bloodfire flying. Swinging the spear again, it materialized instantly before another figure—Immortal King Yueshi! Immortal King Yueshi's face drained of color as the spear pierced through his heart in a flash, the sweeping shaft severing his river of time! With another squelch, the spear pierced through Yueshi's revived embodiment! Boom! The spear swept across heaven and earth—*BANG!* An explosion! Blood clouds billowed! Dead! Yes, dead. King Daqin had appeared, unleashed his spear, and in the instant the others charged forward, three spear strikes had swept heaven and earth to slay Immortal King Yueshi! At that moment, more than a dozen Invincibles surrounded him. King Daqin revealed a chilling smile. "One kill to sharpen the blade. It's been a long time since I slaughtered beasts. How many of you... wish to die today?" *How many wish to die!* In an instant, terror gripped the surroundings! The Qin Spear, King Daqin! If they tried to kill him, how many would die with him?