Chapter 1854: Great Feast

Miao Zhantian was knocked back two steps by the punch, almost kneeling, but he grabbed something from the ground and shoved it into his mouth.

No one watching in front of the mirror saw it clearly, but He Lingchuan knew: it was the Blood Fiend's severed wrist!

Before it could vanish after hitting the ground, Miao Zhantian swallowed it whole.

The Blood Fiend hissed in fury and lunged, its remaining claw seizing the hand holding the sword, and it lowered its head to gnaw at Miao Zhantian's throat.

With Miao Zhantian's right side wide open, He Lingchuan plunged his blade forward. Just then, the city wall violently shuddered, shaking like a magnitude ten earthquake.

Everyone in the narrow passage was jolted, involuntarily jumping and trembling.

He Lingchuan's strike veered off target.

What a golden opportunity! The Great Heavenly Fiend stabilized itself with its tail and turned to rush back the way it came. The bulky Blood Fiend clung to it like an ornament.

Its full-force burst was too fast for the phrase 'swift as a startled rabbit'; it moved almost as a blur.

The path ahead was unknown, but it remembered the way it had come, knowing there were a few sections that would favor its defense.

A sharp pain in its neck, the Blood Fiend biting viciously. Miao Zhantian then flung the Blood Fiend against the wall with such force that the entire structure shook.

Something seemed to shatter, followed by a clanking mechanical sound, and a steel gate suddenly dropped like lightning from above the stone wall!

No one had anticipated that Miao Zhantian's action of flinging the Blood Fiend would, by sheer ill fortune, activate a mechanism in the wall.

Then came a scream.

Xiao Wencheng was standing directly beneath the gate.

He had just been splashed in the eyes with divine blood and was covering them when disaster unexpectedly struck from above. His reaction was swift; he tried to dodge the moment he sensed something was wrong, yet he was still struck down!

The gate's bottom edge was lined with sharp teeth, which crushed him from his right collarbone, chest, and abdomen all the way down to the inner side of his right leg!

The sudden turn of events left He Lingchuan no time to react, and a curse escaped his lips.

Before its destruction, Dragon Coiling City's situation had steadily worsened, leading to repeated reinforcement and additional defensive structures on the South Gate tower. To prevent accidental activation and for concealment, there was a cover plate over the mechanism, which had to be removed to trigger it.

However, the recent earthquake had loosened the cover plate, and Miao Zhantian's immensely powerful throw of the Blood Fiend had directly shattered it.

With the gate down, He Lingchuan and half of Xiao Wencheng were on one side, while the Blood Fiend, Miao Zhantian, and the other half of Xiao Wencheng were on the other.

Between He Lingchuan and the Blood Fiend stood not only a steel gate but also the immobilized Xiao Wencheng on the ground!

He pushed the gate with all his might, but it didn't budge an inch.

Even Miao Zhantian was helpless against the defenses within the South City Wall, let alone He Lingchuan.

How could he get Xiao Wencheng out? Should he use the Floating Life Blade to cut him free? That would mean slicing him in half—how was that different from killing Xiao Wencheng outright?

With several vital points pierced, Xiao Wencheng was bleeding profusely.

This sudden turn of events, a reversal of fortune, delighted Miao Zhantian. The Blood Fiend, dazed from being slammed, extended a claw mid-roll and plunged it into Miao Zhantian's wound, intending to tear open his throat.

To its surprise, Miao Zhantian spat out his long blade, opened his enormous maw, and with a crunch, bit off the Blood Fiend's head!

It was swift and decisive.

He Lingchuan looked up to see Miao Zhantian's gaping, blood-soaked maw, which could open at an angle of at least 160 to 170 degrees, perfectly wide enough to fit a human head and swallow it with ease.

After all, it was a Heavenly Fiend; its physical structure differed from that of humans.

The rapid reversal of the situation was dizzying; the Blood Fiend barely put up any resistance before being successfully decapitated!

Even after being headless, the Blood Fiend's body continued to struggle.

Miao Zhantian grabbed the body, tore it into several pieces, and directly shoved them into his mouth.

There was a crunching sound and a burst of fluid as he chewed.

While the taste might not have been pleasant, at least it was filling.

With his mouth occupied, Miao Zhantian spat out the Jumang Sword and retrieved his own long blade.

Everyone watching in front of the Haoyuan Golden Mirror felt a chill run down their spines at this sight.

Dong Rui clutched his head and shouted, "This is bad! Is there still any fight left in him?"

That good-for-nothing Blood Fiend suddenly died!

To die at such an inopportune moment—wasn't that just feeding the enemy?

Without a word, Granny Zhu lifted a leg and tried to leap into the Haoyuan Golden Mirror. She couldn't stand by; this was precisely when He Lingchuan needed help the most!

With a 'Duang,' the mirror's surface rippled, but the Dungeon Spider Queen was bounced back.

Passage denied!

Granny Zhu, disbelieving, tried to jump twice more, but was repelled both times.

Wan Houfeng and the others also tried to enter, attempting it twice, but were similarly denied.

Granny Zhu, furious, raised a claw to scratch the mirror frame. "Why won't you let me in!"

How come Xiao Wencheng and the Blood Fiend could enter, but they couldn't?

"Don't break the mirror, or we won't be able to watch!" Dong Rui hastily stopped her, alarmed.

Once the mirror's surface returned to normal, he pointed to the temple in the isolated city. "Could it be because the Fortune Pool is destroyed, and the entry passage no longer exists?"

They all looked, and indeed it was so.

Dragon Coiling Solitary City continued to collapse; the ground within was already fragmented, the temple had fallen, and half of the Fortune Pool had been swallowed by a deep chasm, its water long since drained.

The only passage into Dragon Coiling Solitary City no longer existed.

"What do we do?" Granny Zhu paced frantically on her eight legs, as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. "Before Dragon Coiling City collapses entirely, they won't be able to get out either!"

Dragon Coiling Solitary City had its own rules; even a powerful entity like the Grand Square Pot could only secretly connect to external passages, but it couldn't create something out of nothing.

Wan Houliang, however, declared confidently, "Our lord will surely win!"

At his words, everyone turned to look at him.

What could young Wanqi discern from a battle of this caliber? Yet Granny Zhu, holding onto hope, asked, "How so? How will he win?"

The others also held their breath.

Wan Houliang stated firmly, "I don't know."

"In countless battles before, our lord has always led us to survive desperate situations and ultimately triumph." Wan Houliang had no other thoughts. "This time will be no exception."

He didn't know how He Lingchuan would win. He only needed to know that his lord would win, and that was enough.

"You—"

Dong Rui glared at him, but didn't know what to say. Was he supposed to say, 'You're wrong, your lord will lose this time'?

Wan Houfeng also whispered, "Actually, Ah Liang is right. We have no other choice!"

Granny Zhu sighed deeply. "I should have insisted on going in earlier!"

While they fretted uselessly in front of the mirror, Xiao Wencheng also forced his head to turn, watching Miao Zhantian devour the Blood Fiend alive.

Even with thousands of years of cultivation and an unshakeable dao heart, his own heart was now pounding erratically.

With the gate unmoving, he was about to follow in the Blood Fiend's footsteps. He didn't want to die, especially not so ignominiously!

Meanwhile, in Dragon Coiling Solitary City, a small ball of flesh, just slightly larger than a palm, suddenly dropped from the Fiend's shattered corpse. It transformed into a four-legged lizard upon landing and, taking advantage of Miao Zhantian's feasting, quickly slipped through the gaps in the steel gate, reaching He Lingchuan's side.

This was still the Blood Fiend. It was inherently an aggregate of multiple divine souls; even with its main body devoured, it could still open a small escape route.