Chapter 1937: Mask

“Hahahaha!”

“Ba Zun’an, die!”

Black light broke through the sky, three swords spinning around his body.

In just a few breaths, Hua Changdeng, without casting a single spell, held Hunting Ghost and directly stabbed from the Northern Domain to Gui Fo’s Spiritual Elm Mountain.

“This speed…”

The sword light swept past Gui Fo, and the three ancestors of the White Vein were all awestruck.

Too fast!

If this were a spatial-temporal leap with a sword, it would be slow.

If this were a blood sacrifice escape technique, it would also be slow.

Neither!

This was pure sword speed.

Without any spiritual energy or holy power augmentation, without any embellishment from the Eighteen Sword Styles of ancient sword arts, he broke through all laws with sheer force, pushing the “Stabbing Dao” to its extreme.

“Wuwu…”

Jinzhao Ancestor whimpered, as if startled into tears.

Qishu Great Emperor shed tears of old age, his heart similarly boiling with emotion, his thoughts turbulent, clearly greatly shocked.

The cyan Dao chains around them slapped irritably. The Divine Prison Green Stone was silent, but Gui Fo on the stone already had blood and tears flowing from his eyes.

“Incorrect!”

In an instant, the three ancestors of the White Vein came to their senses, looking towards the distance with extreme horror.

At the end of the spatial-temporal turbulent flow, a white-clad figure with bare feet had appeared at some unknown time.

He was expressionless. The Huai tree branch retracted, transforming back into his human-shaped right arm, which had just entered the spatial-temporal turbulent flow from the starry sky.

Bei Huai!

From the heartbroken Tai Xu of the Ten Revered Seats to the wailing Holy Emperor of the Sorrowful Emperor Realm, Bei Huai, who was born with the uncanny ability to make people “weep without sorrow”!

“Just standing there, relying solely on innate talent, he can affect the states of the three Holy Emperors…”

The three ancestors of the White Vein didn't even utter a sound, tacitly spreading out in a line, arrayed in front of Gui Fo, each releasing their true forms.

Boundless Sea of Fire!

Seven Trees of the Blood Realm!

Green Stone Prison!

“Three, step aside.”

With the three Great Holy Emperors in front of him, Bei Huai remained unperturbed.

He spoke softly, the madness in his eyes having long since withered with the drying up of the Wangchuan River that protected the realm. What he was currently staring at… was Gui Fo!

“Attack!”

Jinzhao Ancestor knew there was nothing to say to this madman.

With a shout, a phantom Qiongcang Divine Tree manifested on the boundless sea of fire, spitting out a white flame.

The fire seed had not yet fallen.

The Jinzhao White Flame, dispersed in the spatial-temporal turbulent flow, was suddenly extinguished as if drenched by heavy rain, and black smoke billowed.

“Hmm.”

Jinzhao Ancestor was instantly reverted to his human form.

His disheveled saintly appearance seemed as if he had just tried to cast a spell but was choked by tears and snot in his eyes and nose.

Coupled with the backlash from his own power, where old strength died and new strength had not yet emerged, he was caught at this most vulnerable and crucial point…

“Resentment!!!”

From afar, Bei Huai suddenly erupted.

He shot forward like an arrow from a bow, his face twisted, his eyes ecstatic, emitting a famished long howl.

In an instant!

He was upon them!

Black scales covered his hand, and he snatched the still-sobbing Jinzhao Ancestor by the neck, swinging him around like a sledgehammer and smashing him fiercely to the other side.

“The Blood Tree has one…”

Qishu Great Emperor’s true form was seven Blood Trees, cultivating guidance.

The power of Blood Tree guidance had seven aspects: thirst, obsession, slaughter, death, decay, asexuality, and nourishment.

He had just moved, barely sacrificing the first layer of Blood Tree guidance, when his mind suddenly reeled, his vision blurred by tears. When he regained his senses…

The spatial-temporal turbulent flow was silent.

Jinzhao Ancestor was already impaled on the Blood Tree branches, and both of them were being dragged backward by the insane force, having already traversed tens of thousands of li in the spatial-temporal turbulent flow!

Not only that, Jinzhao Ancestor’s impalement wound had caused life force to madly proliferate, and he had already grown together with the Blood Tree branches.

They looked like “tree people” coexisting as conjoined twins!

“What is this?!”

Qishu Great Emperor was going mad, unable to shake off the clingy Jinzhao Ancestor. Was this the Dao of “life”?

The Dao of Hybridization!

He looked at Bei Huai again, his heart filled with shock.

He didn't even need guidance. Bei Huai’s mere existence already surpassed “thirst,” “obsession,” “slaughter,” “death,” “decay”…

He was “asexual”!

He had no emotions or desires that could be guided.

His very existence could not be understood by common sense. He was but a step away from becoming nourishment for the Blood Tree…

But asexual beings should lose desires, joy, and sorrow, and be extremely weak. Yet Bei Huai still had obsessions, and his obsessions were too insane.

His “pursuit” and “life form” had clearly surpassed the Ancestral Tree.

—The Blood Tree couldn’t absorb this guy’s nourishment; in fact, it was more likely to become his nourishment!

“Boom boom boom…”

The spatial-temporal turbulent flow was instantly shattered.

The cyan Dao chains wrapped around the immobilized Gui Fo, flinging him back to the Holy Divine Continent.

At the same time, boundless “tentacles” attacked together, shooting like a sudden downpour, attempting to pierce through that mad dog.

Bei Huai didn't even turn his head.

Bei Huai’s target was only Gui Fo.

His speed was even faster than the Divine Prison Green Stone’s.

Approaching…

Getting closer…

“Boom!”

The Divine Prison Green Stone’s Dao chains were about to strike Bei Huai.

The clothes on Bei Huai’s back burst open, splitting into countless Huai tree branches, which, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, each precisely struck the Divine Prison Green Stone’s Dao chains.

Using this repelling force, he shattered the spatial barrier with a kick, forcefully landing on the Holy Divine Continent, and with a backhand, smashed the Dao chains that bound Gui Fo.

“Ah hahahaha!”

“Resentment! You are mine, you cannot escape!”

A maniacal long laugh echoed from the former site of Gui Zhe to the Five Domains, causing tears to flow.

At the same time Hua Changdeng’s sword light advanced to Spiritual Elm Mountain in the Northern Domain, a Half-Saint turned back in shock, and a sweep of his Holy Sense revealed…

At the former site of Gui Zhe, a white-clad dog-like shadow suddenly lunged out.

With one hand, he scooped up Gui Fo, who had been missing for half a year. In the rain of shattered cyan Dao chains that were struck by Huai branches, he opened his mouth, revealing fangs.

“What the hell is that?!”

No one even clearly saw what that figure was. The saliva on the human-faced dog-toothed creature had already dripped onto Gui Fo’s bald, withered head.

Crack.

Bei Huai opened his mouth and bit down.

He bit through the skull in one bite, slurping the marrow, which was crispy and sweetly bloody.

Black mixed with gold, and blood-colored fluid flowed down from Gui Fo’s dim kasaya scars on his head, over the cinnabar mark on his forehead, and into his eye sockets.

Immediately, tears and snot gushed out.

“Damn…”

Inside Gui Fo, Sang Lao’s despair, as if his heart had died, emanated.

Bei Huai’s bite not only contained the will of resentment but also primarily hit his head, which was already bald.

“Gurgle gurgle.”

Stream after stream of life energy poured into Gui Fo’s body.

Visibly, Gui Fo’s withered body “swelled up,” and tender shoots, mushrooms, and bluish-green moss grew from various wounds…

“Wow!”

The Half-Saints whose Holy Sense had swept this scene suddenly remembered something, crying and screaming, wishing they could directly withdraw from the Central Domain.

Bei Huai!

Bei Huai is here!

Even at Fusang City, many people saw the northern anomaly. After all, too many people in the Five Domains had “eyes” left at the former site of Gui Zhe, waiting for Gui Fo’s transformation.

The change they had waited for half a year had finally arrived.

There was no pleasant surprise, only terror. As soon as he appeared, Gui Fo’s head was gnawed by a dog.

“Sizzle!”

Purple electric light erupted from the time-space rift, flashing across the sea.

“Awoo!”

At the same time, a dragon roar resounded, and the Demonic Emperor Black Dragon quickly followed.

But…

Bei Huai’s eyes flickered, glancing to the side, his lips curling:

“So slow, Cao Yihan.”

With a tearing bite and a forceful yank, he tore off Gui Fo’s skullcap, making two crunching sounds as he swallowed it whole.

Then, he turned Gui Fo’s body, and in front of that tear-and-snot-streaked, terrified old face, Bei Huai’s right arm transformed into a rapidly rotating Huai drill, about to pierce into Gui Fo’s abdominal cavity through the shattered skullcap…

“Sizzle!”

Before he could act.

In Bei Huai’s eyes and directly before Gui Fo, a purple lightning bolt appeared simultaneously, indicating that Kui Leihan’s speed was still just a touch short…

“Evil dog, look here!”

Looking down, a small Kui Leihan below was swinging a silver Sky-Shattering Hammer in his hand, flying towards him.

For a moment, Bei Huai was in a trance. Cao Yihan’s Half-Saint clone?

He wasn’t a Spirit Refining Half-Saint yet, was he?

No.

He had a son…

But, Tai Xu?

“Boom!”

The Holy Emperor’s pressure descended, not even needing a move.

The Cao Erzhu, who had flown halfway up, fell straight down, his snot even getting into his eye sockets.

Having incapacitated the weak son of the Cao family with one blow, Bei Huai did not stop his actions.

The Huai branch in his hand stabbed down, but just as it was about to pierce Gui Fo’s skullcap, his spine tingled.

In his ears, a deafening roar echoed:

“Kings, nobles, generals, and prime ministers, are they born to be so?!”

The hundred-zhang-tall Shenxiao Leader rose from the waist, the Sky-Shattering Hammer sweeping towards him. Before it even touched his face, the terrifying sound of an explosion had already reverberated at the former site of Gui Zhe.

Similar to Bei Huai’s innate ability, but this time the powerful control directly caused one’s mind to go blank for an instant.

“Boom!”

Heaven and earth collapsed.

When Bei Huai regained consciousness, his body had been smashed and sent flying, turning into dozens of pieces, connected like lotus roots, rapidly reassembling.

He wasn't dead.

But the Gui Fo in his hand had been stolen by Cao Erzhu, woven into threads by the control-type Punishment God Xingjie.

“Uncle! Are you alright?”

“Ah! Half his head is gone, how can someone actually bite a head, how do we save him, Xiao Shou Ge, come quickly…”

Cao Erzhu clutched Gui Fo in his arms, crying and running, unsure how to stop the bleeding.

He had lived for over twenty years and had never seen such a terrifying creature, directly gnawing on someone’s head?!

What his father said about the horrors of the Spirit Refining Realm was too understated.

This was more than just terrifying!

This was utterly inhuman!

And, why am I crying anyway?

Turning around.

A white-clad figure appeared before him.

Cao Erzhu just paused for a moment.

The whistling wind in his ears vanished; the world became incredibly silent.

“Chichi chichi chichi…”

Countless Huai branches rapidly pierced, inserted, and pulled out, bringing forth bloom after bloom of blood, splattering on the falling snow.

The Huai branches grew from Bei Huai’s back, pushing open the Divine Prison Green Stone’s Dao chains, striking away the Blood Tree’s re-extending branches from front and back.

The excess bent back in front of him, carrying the Jinzhao White Flame that burned everything, piercing into Cao Erzhu’s close body again and again.

From head, to chest, to abdomen, to limbs…

riddled with holes.

Pervasive wounds.

In just the blink of an eye, Cao Erzhu’s Throne Body, without even a single groan, directly shattered into mincemeat.

“Rage!”

Bei Huai cried out, still holding Gui Fo without turning, but his head rotated 180 degrees backward.

What he saw was Kui Leihan’s face, close by, with his hair standing on end in fury.

Bei Huai grinned, chuckling:

“It will cloud your mind.”

Screech—

High in the sky, the Demonic Emperor Black Dragon’s scales tingled all over, bringing it to a forceful halt, its dragon claws even sparking with electricity in the void.

Upon arriving at the former site of Gui Zhe, it crashed through the spatial barrier without hesitation, rushing into the spatial-temporal turbulent flow for refuge.

“Rumble!”

A boundless sea of thunder erupted.

Kui Leihan put his hand behind him, and the Sky-Shattering Hammer spun high, arcing.

The sea of thunder vanished, transforming into the symbiotic Punishment God Xingjie, flowing crystalline across his skin, as if plated with a layer of purple electric light.

Then, in an instant, it all gathered on his face, solidifying into a hard, gray-purple mask.

“What is this?”

Bei Huai’s pupils suddenly dilated; he sensed a dangerous aura.

Within that mask, he actually felt a violent power completely beyond the scope of a Thorough God-Sense.

A Thorough God-Sense was already comparable to A Yao’s life force…

“I’m sorry.”

Bei Huai retreated explosively, his face turning pale.

From where he came, to where he was going, his body also turned around, daring not to give his back to Kui Leihan, and fled into the spatial-temporal turbulent flow.

En route, he even used Gui Fo as a shield in front of him, while using the Huai branches on his back as spider legs to grasp space and accelerate his escape.

This was not enough!

The moment he fled into the spatial turbulent flow, the Huai branches on his body gathered Cao Erzhu’s flesh and blood, piecing it into a mass, and then blocked it in front of Gui Fo.

“Don’t hit me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I promise to fix your son…”

The Sky-Shattering Hammer fell into his hand.

Kui Leihan settled into a horse stance.

The ground of the former site of Gui Zhe sank by a zhang, as if compressed by ten thousand jun of force, yet large chunks of rock, broken wood, and wall tiles floated up…

Separated by several realms.

Even observers far away at Spiritual Elm Mountain and Fusang City felt as if they had been struck by a blunt weapon.

With a slap, countless people simultaneously knelt, their bodies cracked and bones broken, in a more miserable state than enduring the Holy Emperor’s pressure.

This was…

Oppressive Thorough God-Sense?

The range, was it that vast?

Amidst their terror, some saw Holy Emperor Bei Huai, who had already stepped half a foot into the spatial-temporal turbulent flow at the former site of Gui Zhe, suddenly seem to be controlled.

His body convulsed uncontrollably, every muscle trembling, dissolving, and rapidly repairing itself.

In the same location, different beings seemed to bear different “pressures.”

The Gui Fo in his hand smashed to the ground with a boom.

The ball of flesh that was Cao Erzhu, strung together by tree branches, also fell.

With a cracking sound, the “spider legs” that had grown from Bei Huai’s back also quickly snapped, and finally, his entire body was forcibly pulled down from high altitude by the “pressure.”

“Get out of the continent!”

Kui Leihan, wearing the gray-purple mask, was completely unaffected by the “sorrowful” ability. He shot up and swung his hammer.

The descending Bei Huai…

The ascending Sky-Shattering Hammer…

Two straight lines intersected at a point, emitting a shrill scream high in the sky:

“A Yao, save me—”

The battlefield lost all sound.

Ten thousand li of vacuum. The Sky-Shattering Hammer blasted a massive black hole in the sky above the former site of Gui Zhe, forcibly shattering even the spatial-temporal turbulent flow.

Bei Huai failed to get out of the continent.

That mass of shattered flesh only flew a li in mid-air. The surging life force couldn’t keep up with the speed of destruction, so it exploded into a cluster of purple electricity, completely turning into nothingness.

“This hammer…”

The Five Domains were dumbfounded.

This was not a hammer that any Spirit Refining Tai Xu could strike, and it completely surpassed the power level that Half-Saints and Holy Emperors should possess.

That mask!

That gray-purple mask, molded from Punishment God Xingjie!

What in the world was that thing, to amplify Kui Leihan’s power to such a terrifying degree?

“Spirit, will…”

After one hammer blew up Bei Huai’s physical body, the mask had already turned to ashes and fallen off.

Kui Leihan swayed, a bit exhausted, but unwilling to give up. Punishment God Xingjie gathered again, and with a focused gaze, he shot out two purple lightning bolts.

The purple lightning seemed to be trying to capture something, extending outward into the starry sky, approaching step by step, step by step…

“No, no—”

A shrill soul cry came from the distant void.

The Demonic Emperor Black Dragon was terrified by this sound, shrinking into a ball and trembling in the spatial turbulent flow.

What do you mean Tai Xu can’t defeat a Holy Emperor?

It’s all rubbish!

These monsters are all inhuman.

Their combat power cannot be measured by Spirit Refining realms at all. They have long since been far ahead on their respective “self-created” paths!

The purple lightning retracted.

Kui Leihan almost captured Bei Huai’s spirit and will, but at the crucial moment, the traces disappeared.

Or rather, the traces were drowned by a stronger aura.

After the full-force hammer just now, the realm that had been cut off by the Wangchuan River began to fluctuate again.

“Spit!”

Kui Leihan spat out a mouthful of blood foam, carrying the hammer and walking towards Gui Fo, “So annoying.”

Behind him, outside the realm in the starry sky.

The Ancestral God’s Annihilation Tribulation was gathering again.

The time-space rift.

Just as Kui Leihan and the Demonic Emperor Black Dragon simultaneously left their defensive positions.

No one saw a Dao chain containing a faint sword intent pierce through the void and embed itself into the ground of the time-space rift.

At the same time.

Above the Western Domain’s great desert, a sword shadow sliced through the sky, finally landing in a deep mountain forest.

Shaking.

The word “Lu” (戮) was carved on the sword body.

A dozing young monk was startled awake. He approached, circled the black sword, and then ran back to the temple with a clatter.

“Big-bellied Abbot, Big-bellied Abbot!”

“A propitious omen from the heavens, a divine sword has descended, come and see!”

Four Tombs Mountain, Holy Palace.

Holy Emperor Zichong and Holy Emperor Bailong each stood on a mountaintop, observing the battles across the Five Domains.

Inside the unguarded Holy Xuan Gate, a crystal as tall as a person slowly circulated an incredibly sacred power.

The void shattered.

Another long sword landed directly inside the forbidden Holy Xuan Gate, with the character “Sha” (煞) carved on its hilt.

Bailong, who was observing the battle, felt his mind shake, and his Holy Sense linked with Zichong: “Not good, the Source of the Holy Ancestor…”

Black smoke rose from the gray sword, merging into the massive crystal, without causing any change in color, power, or form.

The Holy Xuan Gate was broken open.

Zichong and Bailong rushed to the front, looking at the gray “Sha” and the crystal, which showed no abnormalities, exchanging glances and falling into thought.