Chapter 581: Demonization, Dark Giant

That’s right.

Shouye tightly closed his eyes. Every time he listened to Xu Xiaoshou speak, his resolve wavered, but this time, he had made up his mind. He had heard everything he needed to hear, and everything he didn't. The rest would be handled by the Red Clothes’ prison!

“Xu Xiaoshou…”

“No need to say anything more!”

Xu Xiaoshou, however, suddenly smiled and raised his head, his eyes sparkling. “I know, you have your stance, and I have mine. With such a clear and distinct boundary separating us, like the Chu River and Han Border, artillery and cavalry may advance, but those with the true heart of a general can never journey together. In this world…”

“The fault lies neither with you nor with me, but rather…” Xu Xiaoshou gazed into the distance, seeing nothing but the vast, desolate world of White Cave. Devoid of all life. Filled with overwhelming death energy. Where could one find refuge?

He shook his head, saying nothing more.

Shouye was taken aback. “So, you’re willing to return with me?”

“No.” Xu Xiaoshou laughed aloud, his gaze sharpening as he raised the two swords in his hands, one black and one red. “Isn’t my meaning clear enough? Those with different principles cannot work together. Let’s fight!”

“Fight?” Shouye’s eyebrows nearly shot up to his forehead. “You and I… fight?”

“Yes.” Xu Xiaoshou nodded.

Shouye, however, was amused. “Xu Xiaoshou, do you still think you’re the ‘Saint Slave’s Second-in-Command,’ dominating the world, with everyone obeying your every whim?”

“No.” Xu Xiaoshou nodded. “I am just myself, merely Xu Xiaoshou, nothing more.”

“Then, fight?” Shouye confirmed again.

Xu Xiaoshou raised the two swords high in his hands. The Fierce Sword and the Renowned Sword seemed to simultaneously sense his intense battle intent, trembling slightly.

“Buzz—”

In an instant, a chilling sword intent surged forth, filling the heavens and earth. The void cracked, transforming into thousands of small spatial swords that floated behind Xu Xiaoshou.

“Void Sword Condensation Art…” Shouye took a deep breath. He knew Xu Xiaoshou was a genius, but to be able to control renowned swords simultaneously, gain the recognition of the Four Swords, and even comprehend sword intent to such a level… At his age, he was truly one in a million in this generation. But… what good was it? Innate realm against Sempiternity?

“Xu Xiaoshou, what credentials do you have to show me?” Shouye burst into laughter, looking up at the sky. He laughed at how foolish this young man was; having lost his identity as the Saint Slave’s Second-in-Command, how could he possibly contend with a Sempiternity cultivator? He laughed at his audacity; even if he pushed himself to the limit and was considered a Throne-level combatant, how could he possibly turn the tide in such a predetermined situation?

“Xu Xiaoshou, you are too arrogant! Your arrogance and conceit will ultimately lead you to a disastrous end!” Shouye’s smile faded, his expression turning grave as the void was instantly sealed. This time, he was determined not to let Xu Xiaoshou escape, no matter what it took!

“It’s not arrogance…” Xu Xiaoshou exhaled, his sword intent gathering and enveloping him. The spiritual energy barrier around the Four Swords’ hilt in his hand was, at this moment, removed without hesitation.

“In life, one must not be seen as having lost their pride, nor as lacking in backbone. If freedom benefits, one should embrace life and death; why cower from oppressive power? This time, I, Xu Xiaoshou, fight for myself, for freedom… I fight!”

Feeling the fierce demonic power violently crashing against his soul, Xu Xiaoshou no longer restrained his spiritual clarity; instead, he desperately unleashed the raging desires from the depths of his soul. He could avoid it for a while, but not indefinitely. Since it had come, then, let’s fight!

“Roar—”

Under a thunderous roar that shook the heavens, golden light erupted across the world, transforming into brilliant specks of light. The next second, a golden giant, several meters tall, suddenly replaced Xu Xiaoshou, appearing in the void.

“Boom!”

With just one stomp, the void suddenly exploded, turning into fragments of black holes. The Berserk Giant appeared! Its body radiated boundless golden light, and its eyes glowed with a boundless crimson. Yet, the Berserk Giant, seemingly in a state of qi deviation, let out a hoarse, deep roar at this very moment.

“Fight!!!”

It raised its head, its eyes snapping open.

“Boom!”

In an instant, an immense pressure descended upon the world, causing the void to twist and contort. Shouye merely glanced up, yet he felt as if the several-meter-tall golden giant, now reflected in his eyes, had transformed into an ancient titan capable of propping up the sky and holding down the earth.

“What kind of spiritual skill is this…?” He was shocked. Xu Xiaoshou hadn't even used his sword intent; he had merely activated this spiritual skill with his Innate cultivation. The aura it emitted was actually comparable to that of a Throne cultivator?

“No, wait. It’s not Innate!” Shouye felt the pressure bearing down on his shoulders and suddenly understood that this was the power Xu Xiaoshou had used in the ancient book space when he pretended to be the Saint Slave’s Second-in-Command. At this moment, he was merely using the giant’s massive body to amplify his aura severalfold!

“Grandmaster realm physique. That’s right, Xu Xiaoshou is not only Innate but also possesses a Grandmaster physique. Could it be that with this spiritual skill, which transforms him into a golden giant… he has already touched the threshold of a Throne realm body?”

Shouye was astonished beyond belief. He had never seen a spiritual skill that could elevate one’s realm like this. Even the most powerful blood sacrifice techniques couldn’t allow someone to cross an entire major realm and achieve such a leap. Between Xu Xiaoshou and the Throne realm lay an entire vast Grandmaster realm!

“Roar!”

As he pondered, the void's seal seemed to have no effect whatsoever on the Berserk Giant. The spatial rules of White Cave were inherently inferior to those of the Sacred God Continent. Thus, it was more fragile and less able to withstand Throne-level power. This was also why the Red Clothes prohibited Throne cultivators from entering. And now, Xu Xiaoshou, in his Berserk Giant form, had his passive abilities amplified by several times over. With just a single “reverberation” from his body, the void's confinement immediately fractured.

“Fight!”

A hoarse voice, low like a muffled cannon blast, rang out. The Berserk Giant bent its calves, launching itself forward. In a flash, it soared dozens of meters into the sky.

“So fast!” Shouye had never imagined that the Berserk Giant, despite lacking the eight-winged blessing of the Holy War Black Angel, could unleash such speed. He instinctively looked up, following the giant’s soaring figure. But as he tilted his head back completely, the golden giant’s figure had vanished from his sight.

“Gone?” Shouye’s heart tightened, and he immediately realized something was wrong. At that moment, a whistling wind suddenly erupted not far behind him.

“Fight!”

After a roar, the Berserk Giant's violently swung fist directly slammed into Shouye’s barely turned body.

“Boom, boom, boom…”

In merely a blink of an eye in the void, along the same straight line, more than a dozen sections of space exploded simultaneously. Then, Shouye’s disheveled figure, hunched like a shrimp, was sent flying out of a black hole several hundred meters away, subsequently smashing against the spatial walls and continuing to blast through them.

It must be said, that punch truly stunned Shouye. Only now did he realize that he had been completely deceived by the golden giant’s crimson eyes. Xu Xiaoshou still had his consciousness! Moreover, he had a strategy! While he launched himself, and Shouye's attention was drawn, Xu Xiaoshou instantly used his unknown teleportation skill to appear right beside him. At that distance, caught off guard, who could possibly defend against it? Even if he had immediately deployed his spiritual energy shield, Shouye still felt the golden giant’s strength, which utterly surpassed that of a Grandmaster physique, the moment he was pulled into the spatial fragments.

“Berserk Giant?” At this, he suddenly recalled the names of the major powers Xu Xiaoshou had once mentioned in the City Lord’s Estate’s sea of flowers, powers that were enough to contend with a Throne cultivator. “This kid, isn’t he too terrifying? How long has it been, for him to grow to such a degree?”

He was blasted back several miles by the terrifying force. Only in the next breath did Shouye barely regain control of his body. He knew he had been careless. If he approached Xu Xiaoshou with the mindset of dealing with a mere junior, he wouldn't completely capsize in a ditch, but suffering a loss was inevitable!

“Well, I’ll be.” He rotated his body, intending to turn around. Shouye, however, suddenly grunted, his movement interrupted by a delayed explosive force within his body. “Hidden force?” At this, his face instantly turned from dark to purple. Sure enough, in that brief moment of lost control, dozens of black fierce demonic sword auras surged towards him from the front. Sword auras from the Four Swords—anyone who wasn’t an ancient sword cultivator, who dared to receive them?

“Shadow Stealth!” In that critical moment, Shouye didn’t even need to chant a spiritual incantation; he simply detonated the dark attribute within his body. In the blink of an eye, darkness enveloped his entire body. He merged into the world, seemingly transforming into an omnipresent dark element, existing as long as heaven itself.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…” The sword auras sliced fiercely past his previous position, tearing through the wind and leaving behind an unyielding residue of fierce demonic energy along their path.

“Fight!” A muffled sound once again exploded from the previous location. The golden giant… Shouye’s newly solidified body suddenly trembled, and his pupils abruptly constricted. This wasn’t a golden giant at all! In just the time it took for that single exchange, how had the gold already been completely covered by darkness? As far as the eye could see, a several-meter-tall dark giant, entirely enveloped by the Four Swords’ fierce demonic aura, seemed to have transformed into the most sinister and evil monster in all creation. Its aura was simply worlds apart from before!

“Bursting Form!” Xu Xiaoshou, however, felt power coursing through his entire body; without even needing to deliberately channel it, as he took another step, boundless golden light specks exploded around him. The light specks floated and flickered indistinctly. Before they even began to gather power, the void started to crackle and shatter.

“What in the world is this spiritual skill now?” Shouye was dumbfounded. Such a terrifying aura of destruction—this was practically no less than the explosion of an ancient book space at a single point! He instinctively wanted to escape and avoid this attack. But suddenly, the dark giant fixed its gaze, its lowered eyelids flaring open in fury.

“Boom!” Shouye’s body suddenly sank. An inexplicable, magnificent pressure, like the enraged heavens, surged into every part of his body like a tidal wave. It didn’t hurt, but it was a sickening skill, enough to restrict one’s movements!

“Blast!” In the short time he was slightly restrained, the infinite light specks gathered by the Bursting Form had already become full. The next second, as the dark giant, shooting up into the air, clenched its fist.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom…”

Air currents surged backward. Space layers collapsed. Gray-black destructive energy, mixed with the Four Swords’ fierce demonic power and the golden rebound energy from the Bursting Form, directly turned this entire area upside down. An area of several miles in radius was completely chaotic. A large expanse of dark void directly replaced the fragile and easily shattered space of White Cave, like a gaping dark maw opened by heaven and earth, swallowing everything.

“Ugh.” Shouye, enveloped by the dark prison, was dressed in rags, his red robe reduced to tattered strips barely enough to cover his modesty. With this explosion, he felt a sweet sensation in his throat, as if his stomach acid had been blasted out. His cheeks puffed out, then retracted. As his Adam’s apple bobbed, Shouye didn’t want to see his stomach acid.

“Fishy and bitter…” But feeling the taste on his tongue, Shouye was stunned. He had swallowed this before. It seemed… it wasn’t stomach acid? Xu Xiaoshou, could he actually wound me?

“Is this the limit?” Xu Xiaoshou, transformed into the dark giant, held the Four Swords in one hand and the Renowned Sword Blazing Python in the other. He soared high in the sky, his “perception” revealing that Shouye had merely swallowed a mouthful of blood, with no other abnormalities? “This, then, is Sempiternity?” An boundless despair rose in Xu Xiaoshou’s heart. Berserk Giant plus Bursting Form, plus the Four Swords’ demonic transformation state. He himself was almost unable to hold on. For Shouye, it truly was as that saying went… “Is that all?”

“Fight!” However, at this moment, there was no other retreat. If he couldn’t defeat Shouye, if he couldn’t restrict his movements, he would undoubtedly be unable to escape this calamity, no matter where he ran. He, Xu Xiaoshou, didn’t want to join the Red Clothes, and certainly didn’t want to be imprisoned in their so-called Red Clothes Prison. His battle intent surged once more.

“Sword!” Xu Xiaoshou suddenly gripped the two swords in his hands tightly. Problems that couldn’t be solved by extended passive skills would be left to mastered passive skills, left to the one in his hand… the Four Swords!

Taking advantage of the brief moment Shouye was injured by the explosion, Xu Xiaoshou directly raised the Fierce Sword in his hand and gazed at it intently. The former personal sword of the Eighth Sword Immortal. The ‘Sword Contemplation Art’ from the Eighth Sword Immortal.

“Let me, Xu Xiaoshou, see what sparks you two can create!”

“Sword Contemplation Art!”

With a flicker and a lift of his eyelids, the surging and immense aura between heaven and earth, not a single bit of it, was directly pressed onto the Four Swords in his hand. Yet, the mountain-swallowing power that even made Shouye shrink, when it fell upon the blade of the Fierce Sword, could not move it in the slightest.

“Buzz…”

Intense pain directly assaulted him from his palm. At this moment, Xu Xiaoshou simply didn’t have any spare time to slowly transfer the sword intent he had contemplated from the Four Swords into his own body. In a flash, his dark arm was directly dyed crimson with blood. The next second, Xu Xiaoshou already realized he couldn’t withstand it. This black sword intent from the Four Swords, so tiny it couldn’t even be called a “trace,” contained power that was actually several times greater than the accumulated sword intent he had painstakingly contemplated from the Hidden Misery in the past! And the pain it brought was geometrically greater than all his past suffering combined!

“Go!” Unable to wait to transfer it to his Dantian, Xu Xiaoshou had to force the black sword intent out of his body after only drawing it to his arm.

“Whoosh.”

A black line across the sky, separating heaven and earth.

“Boom!”

Like a mountain cleaved by a razor-thin, cicada-wing-like blade, only when the wind shrieked did the void suddenly split into upper and lower halves. And the dark sword intent, imperceptible to the naked eye, shot forth to Shouye’s front in the blink of an eye.

“Darkness…” Shouye’s eyes widened in alarm, and before he could speak, he suddenly felt his shoulder sink and a sharp pain in his chest. High in the sky, the dark giant’s fleeting glance was like the gaze of death. Not only did it bring immense pressure from heaven and earth, but it also…

“Treating me as a sword?”

A black sword aura pierced straight through Shouye’s body, from top to bottom, firmly pinning him in place. And then, the black line cut, and blood splattered. Shouye’s thoughts instantly froze. He stood like a stone. As the wind rose, his body and head were separated.