Chapter 1263: The Eighth Sword Immortal, Strikes Again

"What? Have they all suddenly gone mad?"

The Duo Yuan Battle had captured the attention of everyone on Xu Kong Dao.

Those still alive on Xu Kong Dao were no ordinary individuals, so they could clearly understand the situation.

Yan Wuse's earlier impulsive close-combat assault had left most people baffled. Though puzzled, they convinced themselves with the thought, "He's a semi-saint; his grasp of the battlefield is beyond our speculation," and accepted it without further question.

In the blink of an eye, both great semi-saints were sent flying by Mo Di Hei Long's terrifying physical prowess.

This was shocking, yet it was also what most had anticipated. A Saint Emperor-level dragon body, even without using Saint Emperor power, shouldn't be underestimated. Just as people were starting to accept that "maybe Yan Wuse's earlier move was truly a misjudgment," another twist occurred.

Mo Di Hei Long's choice was insane too.

It soared into the sky, draining the energy from the high heavens' rules, appearing ready to destroy the entire Xu Kong Dao!

"Am I seeing things?"

"Mo Di Hei Long... it shouldn't be doing this, right?"

"It was clearly reluctant to exert itself before, so why has it suddenly gone all out like this?"

"Brother, I don't think that's what we should be worrying about right now..."

"Huh?"

"We might be about to die..."

"Uh?"

A tremendous boom echoed.

The dark clouds piled over the Sky City transformed into a massive surge of destructive demonic energy.

That swallowed black dragon pearl...

That suddenly erupting beam of destruction...

Its coverage seemed to encompass the whole Xu Kong Dao!

Mo Di Hei Long had gone mad!

"Run!"

Everyone snapped out of their daze, deploying their ultimate escape techniques—hiding, fleeing, scattering in panic like startled birds and beasts.

"You can't escape!"

Others stood frozen, despairingly gazing upward. "No one will survive... This is a catastrophe!"

Darkness enveloped the land, shadows swallowing everything.

As that destructive black energy poured down, even the heavenly gods showed clear signs of panic.

These battle angels, each possessing a fragment of Yan Wuse's spirituality, could sense the terror of "Mo Di's Judgment."

"Old Yan!"

Rao Yao Yao had just managed to prop herself up below when she looked up and saw the sky turn black, finally panicking.

With no experience facing a Saint Emperor, she realized just how fearsome a frenzied Mo Di Hei Long truly was.

She turned to Yan Wuse, hoping to get some signal from this elder among the Three Emperors that could resolve the crisis.

"Ah..."

Yan Wuse's own condition wasn't much better.

He clutched his two halves of a mangled body, the divine glow representing his God Spirit Dominator form dimmed by ninety percent.

Looking up, he saw the various sacred weapons and battle angels in the sky being obliterated like dust under Mo Di's Judgment.

He fell into a stupor.

"No way out?" Rao Yao Yao's eyes lost their focus.

"There is..."

Yan Wuse felt the world slowing down, a thought flashing in his mind.

He did have one way to withstand this attack.

—In God Spirit Dominator form, completely sacrifice himself and merge with Mo Di Hei Long's attack in "Harmony with All."

But after that, Mo Di Hei Long would at most reach the limit of its actions on the outer island and wouldn't die.

Yan Wuse, however, would certainly perish!

And after a full blood sacrifice, even revival through a semi-saint avatar would be impossible.

Unexpectedly, those words Xu Xiao Shou had said to him at the start of the battle resurfaced from the depths of his mind:

"It's better to play the fool..."

"What?" Rao Yao Yao grew anxious, unable to catch Yan Wuse's murmur.

Yan Wuse shook his head, watching the tens of thousands of battle angels in the sky futiley resisting, still unable to halt Mo Di Hei Long's strike.

He closed his eyes and muttered through clenched teeth, "No way out."

So, just sit back and wait for death?

Rao Yao Yao gripped the Xuan Cang Divine Sword tighter, her sacred thoughts flaring, hearing countless wails echoing from afar.

How could the war between Sheng Shen Hall, the sacred slaves, and Mo Di Hei Long involve the innocent? This went completely against the Hong Yi's principles!

"I'll do it!"

Rao Yao Yao offered her sacred blood, swallowed it, and soared into the sky with her sword, without a moment's hesitation.

The mortal world's myriad forms, the void mountains and seas as anchors—accompanied by the sword dao mysteries and array diagrams—suddenly swirled open, piercing the darkness with a ray of light.

"Come back!" Yan Wuse urged in panic.

"It's worth a try."

"You'll die!"

"If I don't save the mortal world, who will?"

"You..."

Yan Wuse was speechless.

He felt ashamed for his earlier moment of "playing the fool," and leaped up to follow. "This emperor will aid you!"

"Maybe this is the best outcome?"

Xu Xiao Shou couldn't stop Mo Di Hei Long's mad attack and could only watch as the energy bursting from the black dragon pearl slammed into the Shan Hai Ping barrier.

The entire Xu Kong Dao seemed dyed in ink, with demonic energy and liquid splashing back upon obstruction, spreading wildly and corroding everything.

"It's not the same..."

"This is different!"

Soon, Xu Xiao Shou regained his senses.

He still couldn't accept the idea of shattering Xu Kong Dao with a single strike.

This was utterly unlike his own actions in Dong Tian Wang City back then.

That time, he had been certain Rao Yao Yao could block the attack.

But now, Mo Di Hei Long was a Saint Emperor with the real potential to annihilate everything, and Xu Kong Dao still held far too many innocent lives.

When gods fight, mortals suffer—that's the saying.

But who would choose to sacrifice most lives just for their own freedom?

"Long Bao..."

Xu Xiao Shou couldn't overcome the knot in his heart and was about to speak, when he suddenly remembered something. Of course, this strike covered the whole Xu Kong Dao.

Ba Zun An was on the island too. If even he couldn't resist, he'd die in this attack.

Would Ba Zun An let himself be killed?

"But it couldn't be that this is all part of the plan, could it?" Xu Xiao Shou was baffled; he couldn't fathom Ba Zun An at all.

Naturally, he didn't know whether to try stopping it again or just let it continue. Mo Di Hei Long didn't care about any of that.

The swarm of flies—those battle angels summoned by Yan Wuse—were completely crushed by its strike.

This was incredibly satisfying for the dragon!

And Mo Di's Judgment smashing into the Shan Hai Ping barrier turned countless scenes near Duo Yuan into dust.

The mountains, stones, and rivers that Rao Yao Yao had anchored with her sword, meant to endure for eternity, exploded before even being hit by the demonic force.

With the basic "mountains and seas" of Shan Hai Ping gone, Rao Yao Yao naturally couldn't maintain her anchor.

"I'm still too weak..."

As her sword's defensive barrier shattered completely under Mo Di's Judgment, Rao Yao Yao's body cracked all over, sending her flying backward.

If only she had more time...

If she could use the entire Xu Kong Dao as her anchor, she wouldn't have been broken so instantly.

But there were no ifs.

"Maybe this is fate!"

As the nearly unconscious Rao Yao Yao fell past his face, Yan Wuse didn't reach out to catch her; he just stared fixedly at the overwhelming darkness pressing down from above.

In that moment, he suddenly understood Xu Xiao Shou's words anew.

What a fool he had been! Only by not emerging from the Three Symbols Imprisonment could he have avoided this.

Once out, once in the game, it was just as Xu Xiao Shou said—utterly beyond his control.

"Light..."

Yan Wuse murmured softly, and an absolute radiant glow burst from his body.

Like the first ray of dawn breaking through, in the midst of Xu Kong Dao's total darkness, Yan Wuse stepped forward, shouting aloud as if the sun rising in the east, turning the tide.

"Harmony with All!!"

With the seal formed, the light cleaved through the darkness.

Yan Wuse smiled wistfully as his body faded bit by bit, while the darkness dissolved and fragmented.

"Old Yan!"

"It's Old Yan! He's made his move!"

"We might have a chance to survive?"

"But Old Yan—he's..."

All the spirit refiners in the midst of fleeing stopped and looked up. That beam of light piercing the darkness was too shocking, too memorable. And the one who emitted it...

Or rather, became that light himself—Yan Wuse—inspired infinite admiration!

"Buzz!"

Right then, as Yan Wuse's consciousness was on the verge of vanishing.

The red-hot black iron sword embedded in Duo Yuan trembled slightly, rippling with faint sword energy.

That chasm-like rift above Duo Yuan—the one that had summoned Mo Di Hei Long—suddenly erupted with a powerful suction force!

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh..."

Endless energy turned into specks of light, being torn in and devoured, flowing into an unknown place. Just as that sword strike from the east had once swallowed all the energy accumulated in Duo Yuan.

This time, even the energy from Mo Di Hei Long's black dragon pearl and Yan Wuse's "Harmony with All" were all sucked in and absorbed into the rift.

Both shared a common trait.

High latency!

"This is..."

In his final moment of awareness, Yan Wuse saw this scene, his pupils contracting, his resolve to die shattered by fear.

He immediately bit his tongue tip, using the pain to forcefully restore a thread of his mind, and chose to interrupt "Harmony with All."

"Thud!"

The terrifying backlash directly disrupted Yan Wuse's qi sea, making him spit a reverse mouthful of blood and convulse all over.

But with "Harmony with All" halted, he no longer had to sacrifice his life!

And looking up...

All of Mo Di's Judgment's demonic energy seemed to return to chaos, being consumed by the spatial rift.

That black veil suddenly draped over Xu Kong Dao was like it had been yanked away, gradually being withdrawn.

"This is... the sword! That sword!"

Everyone on Xu Kong Dao watched in thrilled amazement.

They had thought it was Yan Wuse's doing, but upon closer inspection, it wasn't.

"The Eighth Sword Immortal!"

"It's Ba Zun An who's acted, helping us withstand this strike!"

"Great! Swallow it all! That Mo Di... that dragon has gone mad; Ba Zun An should come out and deal with him!"

"Thank goodness, we're alive again."

"I told you, when the sky falls, either the tall ones hold it up, or we all die together." "Give him a reward; give that old man a thorough reward!"

The burly man, pinned down on the floor maintaining the Thousand-Mile Mirror Technique, struggled but couldn't lift his head.

He despaired, crying out, "Reward what? I'm not running; at least let me take a look! What the hell happened..."

Did Old Eight really make a move?

Riding on Mo Di Hei Long, watching Xu Kong Dao plunge into darkness and then return to light, Xu Xiao Shou found it utterly unbelievable.

This was a development he hadn't anticipated.

Old Eight acting to save himself made sense.

But saving the entire Xu Kong Dao? Was he that compassionate?

"No!"

Soon, Xu Xiao Shou realized something was off.

Mo Di Hei Long's attack energy was too fearsome—at least more than the initial Ancestral Source Emperor Tribulation.

In that case, if such energy wasn't absorbed by the one undergoing tribulation and then partially stored in Duo Yuan before being swallowed by the spatial rift...

But instead swallowed on the spot...

What did that mean?

Xu Xiao Shou suddenly recalled that forgotten primary goal of Ba Zun An:

Opening the inner island of Xu Kong Dao!

"Can it really work like this?"

Realizing this, Xu Xiao Shou was so excited that his whole body tensed, his toes gripping the dragon's head for stability, his hands clutching the dragon horn so tightly he nearly snapped it.

"Roar—"

Mo Di Hei Long didn't feel pain from its horn, but the stimulation made it let out another wail, as if its head had been split open.

What just happened?

The redness in its eyes faded, and Mo Di Hei Long was stunned, puzzled by its own earlier choice to destroy Xu Kong Dao.

Why had this emperor made such a mad decision?

"Buzz!"

Before it could think more, Xu Kong Dao shook violently, then trembled intensely.

It was as if some invisible ancient behemoth, after devouring enough energy, had opened its slumbering eyes.

"What's... happening again..."

At the same time, everyone on Xu Kong Dao felt a heart-pounding fear—an uncontrollable, source-unknown panic!

On Duo Yuan, Yu Ling stared blankly at that spatial rift, then looked down at the secondary gate in his hand.

He seemed to grasp something, suddenly grabbing the thumb-sized door-shaped artifact, nearly dropping it in his panic.

"Ba Zun An..."

"So, this is what you truly wanted!"

Above, Yan Wuse also instantly understood everything, his pupils shaking.

Once, he had drawn circles and lines on Duo Yuan, analyzing the situation on Xu Kong Dao.

His first guess for Ba Zun An's goal was to unravel the "Si Wu Array" and release all the ghost beasts from the inner island.

But he had stopped that!

He had disrupted the energy in Duo Yuan.

He had reset the nine core points and the 365 Zhen Xu Bei.

After that, the Si Wu Array was completely stable and couldn't be unraveled.

Naturally, that first idea was dismissed.

For Ba Zun An's purpose, Yan Wuse's second guess was that the guy wanted to draw out and kill him and Number Two, the two high-end forces of Sheng Shen Hall.

This idea had seemed absurd at first.

But in the battle so far, Number Two was gone, and he, Yan Wuse, had nearly been destroyed.

So, in his heart, he had always been on guard against this, fearing he might fall for what he thought was an impossible scheme from Ba Zun An.

Yet he never imagined...

By the end of the battle, when he was about to sacrifice everything...

Ba Zun An had changed his approach!

"Maybe, in his world, a single me isn't as important as unraveling the Si Wu Array and freeing the inner island of Xu Kong Dao?"

Yan Wuse realized this immediately.

But he still had doubts—after all, he had fully stabilized the Si Wu Array! Ba Zun An's "One Sword from the East" had opened a spatial rift right next to Duo Yuan, near the passage to the inner island and Sheng Shen Continent.

But with the Si Wu Array intact, that rift shouldn't break the seal no matter how much energy it swallowed...

"Huh?"

As his memory searched, Yan Wuse's thoughts halted, his mind going blank.

He remembered...

On the ruins of Sin One Hall, he was blasted away by Xu Xiao Shou's punch, which seemed inherited from Shen Yi, piercing through Sin One Hall and smashing toward the outskirts.

That blow had shattered mountains, rivers, and forests...

But none of that had slowed him down.

Yet, vaguely, in the moment before he lost consciousness, what had caused his body to completely shatter and Xu Xiao Shou's punch energy to fully erupt...

It seemed to be because he had hit something extremely hard?

Yan Wuse retraced the scenes after that punch and identified it:

A Zhen Xu Bei!

After Xu Xiao Shou's punch, he had knocked a Zhen Xu Bei out of its proper position.

Naturally, the Si Wu Array had been unknowingly unraveled!

Naturally, that laid the foundation for the inner island's seal to be broken.

But...

Yan Wuse felt an inexplicable panic, looking around but not finding what he sought.

Why?

Why did Ba Zun An know all this? Even he had forgotten such a minor detail!

Had Ba Zun An been watching the whole time?

Had he been observing everything?

If so, why hadn't he detected any spying?

Where were his eyes?

Yan Wuse suddenly looked up at the sky.

He felt the world spinning, everything evolving.

Xu Kong Dao had become a cage, or rather, a massive chessboard.

He had placed himself in it, intending to force Ba Zun An to appear and engage in a game.

Little did he know, the opponent had always been the player, always watching from beyond, toying with him in the palm of his hand.