In the sky, Murong Chen fought against dozens of cultivators. Many of them were already seriously wounded, with no strength left to continue entangling or pursuing him. Murong Chen summoned his divine martial xiao flute and blew into it with a mournful sound. More of the pursuers were unable to withstand this spiritual current and were forced onto the defensive.
He let out a cold laugh, his phoenix feathers spreading as he flew toward the Golden Terrace. Just as he was about to seize the soul box, a blazing crimson barrier of fire suddenly crashed down before him. Immediately afterward, a ring of raging flames ignited around the edge of the high platform, enclosing the entire Golden Terrace within it!
Murong Chen turned his head, his wings spreading and contracting as he narrowed his eyes. “Lord Xihe… you’ve come to stop me too?”
Through the drifting golden-red sparks, Mo Xi gazed sidelong at the Monarch’s face. This man had once possessed a thousand faces—sometimes kind, sometimes evil, sometimes angry, sometimes benevolent. Perhaps this was simply how he had lived his entire life, living out a thousand different faces while having long since lost the face that truly belonged to himself.
Even now, with Murong Chen glaring at him with such overt fury, he somehow did not seem entirely real.
Murong Chen had always been “the Monarch.” He could never return to being “himself.”
All the deceptions and schemes this man had carried out in the past flashed through Mo Xi’s mind like scenes from a lantern show. Mo Xi’s anger was silent, yet pressed down extremely deep. He did not even want to waste another half-sentence with the Monarch. He simply lunged forward, the Ranshe Snake Whip in his hand shooting out like a bolt of lightning and lashing fiercely toward Murong Chen’s heart.
Murong Chen could not dodge in time. He brought his phoenix wings together, only barely blocking Mo Xi’s snake whip. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Mengze really has done a wonderful thing—she actually removed your Puppet Pill…!”
Before he could finish, Ranshe flashed again, a streak of light striking directly toward Murong Chen’s abdomen and ribs.
Mo Xi said coldly, “There is nothing left for me to say to you.”
With that, he tapped the formation beneath his feet with his toes and swept into the high air. The snake whip, its red light raging violently, came crashing down over Murong Chen’s head!
This time, Murong Chen did not dare let himself be distracted again. He spread his wings and dodged, avoiding the storm-like barrage of attacks. But he knew very well that, just like Gu Mang’s “Lone Wolf Unsealing” in the past, when a cultivator released the spirit body of a demon beast or immortal beast within their body, although their combat power could surge dramatically for a short period of time, it was also a desperate move.
Within the time it took for a single incense stick to burn, he would no longer be able to control the immortal beast’s spirit. Instead, his meridians would rupture completely, leaving him without any spiritual power at all. He had to seize the soul box in this fleeting moment, then use his own soul and life to forcibly shatter the box and release the world-defying power of the Blood Demon Beast.
But Mo Xi’s strength was simply too formidable. As Murong Chen attacked, defended, advanced, and retreated, he actually felt himself increasingly stretched to the limit. Before his eyes, fires were breaking out throughout Chonghua City. Armored soldiers and cultivators coming to reinforce them surged in from all eight directions of the royal city. The silver gleam of their weapons as they flew on swords gathered together, like a winding dragon with savage claws, slowly approaching him, intending to swallow him within this upheaval.
Mo Xi transformed Ranshe into a blade and said coldly, “This ends here.”
As soon as the words fell, a flash of cold light appeared, and he thrust his sword directly toward Murong Chen.
And at precisely this moment, the wind and clouds in the sky suddenly surged violently. Immediately afterward, a streak of white light appeared deep within the dense clouds, like a sharp sword being drawn from its sheath. Before anyone could react, a bolt of lightning came crashing down from the high heavens.
“Boom—!”
The blinding radiance of the lightning slammed down upon the Golden Terrace. In an instant, it extinguished the protective barrier Mo Xi had erected around the high platform. The raging flames that had previously burned half the sky red were instantly reduced to a stretch of scorched earth, with only wisps of white smoke hissing upward.
At the same time, Mo Xi’s face suddenly went pale, and he dropped to one knee upon the cloud-like barrier.
Murong Chen had never expected such a reversal to occur. But after only a moment, he understood. His pupils narrowed as he murmured, “The Heavenly Tribulation Oath…”
Amidst the chaos of battle, they had all forgotten that Mo Xi had once sworn a Heavenly Tribulation Oath to him, vowing that he would definitely serve Chonghua and serve the Monarch. Mo Xi had not violated the first half. But the second half had already been violated the moment Mo Xi truly launched a killing blow against him.
Thus, the Nine Heavens descended with tribulation.
Not only did it shatter the barrier Mo Xi had established, the oath also rebounded upon Mo Xi, causing him to suffer severe injuries at once.
Mo Xi knelt with his head bowed, suddenly choking out a mouthful of blood.
“Ha…” Murong Chen stared at Mo Xi. After a long moment, the corners of his lips twitched, and he began to laugh ominously.
“Haha… hahahahaha…”
He descended above the Golden Terrace and, before reinforcements could arrive from all directions, stood before the soul box glowing with flowing light.
The Monarch’s expression was twisted by hatred and madness until he looked almost like a ghost.
“Little Fireball, you should thank yourself. Back then, you were determined to protect the remnants of your Gu Mang-gege, so you swore the Heavenly Tribulation Oath.”
He raised his hand and held it above the soul box. His face, illuminated by the light of the box, was as pale as a ghost.
“You’d better remember that you originally had the ability to stop me—you were the one whose youthful pride helped me push this unwilling nation into the depths of hell!”
Mo Xi struggled to stand.
Even if he ultimately had to be reduced to ashes by the lightning tribulation, he could not allow Murong Chen to obtain that box.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
Being able to maintain his sanity under the torment of the ancient oath was already extraordinarily difficult, let alone trying to defy the heavens and withstand it by force.
The heavy clouds of the Nine Heavens seemed to have been enraged. Faint crackling thunder once again circled in the sky, ready at any moment to dive down and tear this ignorant mortal into dust.
At this moment, Murong Chen brought both hands together, one covering the other.
A dazzling golden light shot straight into the heavens, colliding violently with the wind and thunder surging through the sky. In an instant, tiger roars and dragon cries rang out, the mountains and rivers changed color, as though millions upon millions of vengeful ghosts were about to burst from beneath the earth. The ground trembled.
Choking and coughing, Mo Xi broke through the restraints of the Heavenly Tribulation Oath and charged toward Murong Chen, facing the great radiance that seemed almost capable of transforming into ten thousand sharp arrows and piercing a person through.
“You… absolutely cannot…”
But Murong Chen had already flown into the high sky.
Carrying the box that sealed the Blood Demon Beast’s power, he poured all of his soul and life force into it. The glazed box refined from Gu Mang’s soul emitted a creaking sound in his palm, slowly cracking open.
Murong Chen threw back his head and let out a terrifying laugh like a night owl.
This was the first time in his life that he had laughed so freely—without concealment or embellishment, without any scheming or calculation.
He laughed aloud amid the howling wind, looking down from the distant heights upon this imperial capital that had confined him his entire life. Then, with a furious shout, he slammed the soul box down violently in his palm!
In an instant, fragments scattered everywhere!
From the shattered soul box, terrifying black demonic spiritual power surged forth like a vast, raging sea, racing with the wind toward the eight wastelands and four seas, roaring and dancing through the boundless heavens.
In an instant, the galaxy disappeared from the sky, and the moon was obscured by dust.
By this time, Murong Chen had already been swallowed until he was almost nothing more than a translucent phantom. The light of curses filled his eyes as he looked around at everything, his voice ethereal and mad.
“Look! This is the choice you made! You refused to obediently bow your heads and obey orders. You made my days difficult, so I will also… make sure that your peaceful days… become something you can… never obtain!”
As his voice fell, the vortex of Blood Demon Beast spiritual currents tore his shadow into fragments. Only that spine-chilling laughter remained, crazily circling like a vortex within the blood-demonic spiritual currents.
“The Blood Demon Beast’s power has been unsealed—!”
“Not good!”
Cries of alarm and screams erupted throughout the royal city. The fires throughout the entire imperial capital flickered with panic at this moment.
Meanwhile, the power surging from within the soul box continued without end, becoming more and more violent. The place where Murong Chen had been swallowed erupted with an intense white light so powerful that it was almost blinding.
Mo Xi was the person closest to the formation. He could almost feel a tremendous weight pressing violently down upon his spine. That feeling of insignificance before a great calamity was almost enough to destroy him.
Losing consciousness happened in an instant.
But in that instant, Mo Xi seemed to see a strand of golden light drifting out from the place where the soul box had shattered, completely different from the violent black demonic power.
The golden light transformed into a blurred reflection.
It was Gu Mang from many years ago, wearing battle armor and a helmet, his brows and eyes carrying the arrogance of youth. He flew out from the shattered soul box and toward the sky where the winds and clouds were changing color.
Mo Xi reached out his hand and murmured, wanting to call his name, but his throat was filled with the salty taste of fresh blood.
Two words choked and lodged in his throat.
Gu… Mang…
Then he fell.
Falling from the high sky where the fierce battle raged, falling…
And finally, he crashed into a heavy darkness.
When Mo Xi woke, he discovered that he was lying on a bed. Around him, several blurry figures dressed in pale blue-green robes moved back and forth.
His long eyelashes fluttered, and gradually, he could make out the scene around him.
It was the Healing Pavilion of Shennong Terrace. Those moving figures were the medicinal cultivators of Shennong Terrace. They moved between the sickbeds, treating the injured cultivators.
Mo Xi slowly steadied himself. Into his buzzing ears poured a tide of human voices: the cries of patients on the neighboring beds, the voices of relatives comforting one another, and the incantations of medicinal cultivators casting spells.
Amidst these sounds, he slowly pieced himself back together, and the events before he lost consciousness flashed back into his mind.
The upheaval at the Golden Hall, Jingchen’s emergence, the soul box, the scattered flowing light…
“Gu Mang!”
He suddenly sat upright.
The injured muscles were pulled, causing a sharp burst of pain. He abruptly furrowed his brows, his tightly closed eyes beneath his dark brows framed by neat, long lashes.
His sudden awakening drew someone’s attention. Someone hurried over to his sickbed.
“Brother Mo.”
Mo Xi supported his forehead with one hand, rubbing his aching temple as though it were about to split apart. When he raised his eyes, they were bloodshot.
He met Murong Mengze’s face.
Mengze looked as though she had not properly taken care of herself for many days. Her hair was tied into the simplest of buns, and she wore a black garment with golden edging. There was some soot and ash from unknown sources smeared across her cheeks.
Mo Xi opened his mouth. His throat was terribly dry. He swallowed with difficulty twice before he could control his voice enough for it not to sound so unfamiliar.
“What… happened? Where is Gu Mang? What happened to the Blood Demon Beast? Liao—”
Mengze’s eyes grew moist as she glanced around.
She did not need to say much. Mo Xi could already guess what Chonghua’s current situation was.
The largest Healing Pavilion of Shennong Terrace was already filled with severely wounded cultivators. Some had magical injuries, some sword and blade wounds, while others had been invaded by black demonic power and were being suppressed on cold stone beds with spirit-locking chains.
At a glance, he saw many familiar former comrades.
In the distance, Yue Chenqing was speaking with a medicinal cultivator. In fact, only half a month had passed, yet Yue Chenqing no longer looked like a youth at all. His brows were deeply furrowed, and there was little trace of a smile when he spoke.
He was teaching the medicinal cultivator how to control his bamboo warriors so that they could help amid the chaos and casualties.
“The Blood Demon Beast’s power was broken open. After Jingchen absorbed that power, he followed Murong Chen’s dying wish and defected to Liao.”
Mengze’s expression was extremely grim.
“Liao obtained the Blood Demon Beast’s power, and there is no one who can stop their momentum now. They have already attacked to the outskirts of the imperial capital. Brother Lian barely managed to lead the army in holding them off for seven days, but I’m afraid we won’t be able to hold them back tomorrow. Liao’s State Preceptor is about to emerge from seclusion—he is currently completely refining Jingchen. It should be tomorrow. The Blood Demon Beast will be reborn.”
Mo Xi: “…I’ve been unconscious for seven days?”
Mengze nodded, but seeing his expression, she hurriedly said, “Don’t panic. Even though things have reached this point, it may not necessarily be a dead end. Didn’t Palace Master Chentang stop the Blood Demon Beast from swallowing the world back then as well? Brother Lian has already reorganized all the armored soldiers in the royal capital and is preparing to command the three armies tomorrow in battle against Liao.”
Mo Xi closed his eyes.
“Even if Murong Lian is capable, there’s no way he can command all three armies at once. He simply has no way to suppress three military formations.”
“But you’re awake now, aren’t you?”
After a pause, she continued, “You can command the Red Feather Battalion. Brother Lian will lead the cultivators he is familiar with. As for the Northern Frontier Army…”
She pressed her lips together, a difficult-to-read emotion flickering in her eyes.
Mo Xi froze.
Then, as though he had sensed something, his heartbeat suddenly accelerated. He stared into Mengze’s eyes.
“What about the Northern Frontier Army?”
“I—I have some good news.”
Mengze seemed afraid that it would make his emotions tremble even more, so she made her voice very soft.
But what use was that?
The thing she was about to say was already like a drop of water falling into boiling oil, destined to cause an explosive splash.
“Gu Mang, he…”
Mo Xi’s lips parted slightly. He stared at her fixedly, his voice almost inaudible.
“What about him?”
“He has completely recovered, and after enduring this calamity, he has also been cleared of all charges—three days ago, he resumed his position as commander of the Northern Frontier Army. He is currently training his soldiers on the drill grounds, preparing to face the battle tomorrow.”
Mo Xi: “!!!”