Severely wounded, Yu Bei transformed into a Roc, using his own body to shield the barrier. But the divine power of the Vermilion Bird was overwhelmingly strong, piercing straight through him and nearly shattering the barrier.
Little Thirteen didn’t dare lift his head. He could only stare in terror at the cracks spreading across the barrier before him, praying desperately in his heart.
The great cultivators of YCG were struck one after another, yet they couldn’t spare any power to fight back. They could only endure their severe injuries and struggle to maintain the barrier.
“Pff—”
“Cough, cough…”
Two Sword Sect elders suffered backlash one after the other, vomiting large amounts of vital blood before losing consciousness and collapsing limply. The pressure on the others intensified instantly. The two fox clan elders, Su Huaiyu and Bai Jun, had no choice but to revert to their true forms. They exchanged a glance and took a deep breath in unison.
The next moment, two fluffy severed tails fell to the ground, dissipating into pure spiritual energy that reinforced the barrier.
They had sacrificed five hundred years of cultivation just to protect strangers they had never even met.
Bai Jun’s face was as pale as a sheet. He gave a bitter smile. “Grand Elder, it looks like we’re really going to die here today.”
For once, Su Huaiyu didn’t scold him. At this life-or-death moment, she surprisingly cracked a joke. “I’ve calculated everything, but I never calculated that I’d be buried in the same place as you.”
…
Outside the barrier, the Roc had crashed to the ground from the previous shock, his fate unknown. The Vermilion Bird advanced steadily, step by step, approaching Shen Ming and the barrier behind him.
Shen Ming hurled one divine power after another at her, but he couldn’t slow her down in the slightest.
The situation was even worse than the worst-case scenario they had imagined.
The resurrected Vermilion Bird was clearly not the same as before. Although her appearance and voice were identical to the original, her divine power had changed dramatically.
The divine fire that was once the most righteous, radiant, and bright in all the heavens now carried a trace of darkness. It had lost its ability to purify origins and cleanse souls, and instead, it devoured all other life-rich powers to strengthen itself.
Once Shen Ming’s divine power touched this treacherous flame, he couldn’t shake it off. His power was slowly consumed, gradually depleting. The restraints inside his body began to loosen. A thousand miles away, the sealed Serpent sensed something, suddenly raising its body and opening its eyes.
…
Inside the barrier, Little Thirteen cradled Ye Yang, so numb with despair that he was almost expressionless.
Everything had turned bad so suddenly—as bad as it could possibly get.
Outside the barrier, the mightiest god had been easily struck down. Inside, the great cultivators were struggling desperately to hold on. Ji Qing was no longer by Little Thirteen’s side; he had organized the remaining spirit beasts and yao race members who still had some spiritual power, rallying them to protect the elders and repair the cracks in the barrier.
Apart from Ji Qing, the contributions of the lower-level spiritual powers were negligible. But thanks to Ji Qing’s frequent, rousing encouragements, everyone still gave their utmost effort.
Effort might not guarantee survival, but giving up meant certain doom!
The array cultivators working on the teleportation formation were mediocre in strength at best. The successive disruptions had thrown them into chaos, making their already difficult task even more impossible. This secret realm was like nothing they had ever encountered before!
Two of the array cultivators hadn’t even known what they were facing before they arrived. They had thought it was just a slightly challenging mission. The relentless attacks had nearly scared them witless—they couldn’t recover in just a few minutes, and their hands were still trembling.
Little Thirteen looked down again. Oh no! At some point, Little Ye Ye had even closed his eyes!
His aura was already so faint it was nearly undetectable. If it weren’t for the faint glow on his antennae—a sign that he was still trying to heal himself—Little Thirteen would have thought he was holding a corpse.
He trembled all over. Even if he and Little Ye Ye couldn’t accomplish anything great together, at least they could die here side by side.
With that thought, he tucked the little sea hare closer to his chest and turned his gaze back to Shen Ming, who had just struggled to his feet—the last hope for all of them.
…
The Vermilion Bird was savoring the process of absorbing divine power. Watching Shen Ming be utterly helpless under her control, she even deliberately slowed her pace, advancing languidly.
This felt incredible. Especially after losing her physical body and enduring millennia of wandering, living in constant fear and insecurity. The Vermilion Bird’s original soul had completely lost its way. Under the control of her inner demons, her craving for power had been magnified without limit. The sensation of divine power ceaselessly soaking into her body was too comfortable. This evil-god version of the Vermilion Bird now had a dazed, entranced look in her eyes.
Shen Ming lowered his head, appearing nearly drained. But when the Vermilion Bird was just three steps away, he suddenly leaped up and launched a surprise attack!
Pale blue, shimmering ripples of water light instantly illuminated the entire secret realm. Everyone except Ye Yang couldn’t help but look—even the two Sword Sect elders, who were recuperating with their eyes closed after the backlash.
The beautiful, shimmering light concealed deadly intent. The ice spikes that shot from Shen Ming’s fingertips were hidden within the wave of spiritual energy. The Vermilion Bird was too close. Even though she twisted her body as much as she could after detecting the threat, she could only dodge most of them. Four or five ice spikes still pierced through her flame barrier, embedding themselves in her waist, side, and arm.
These ice spikes looked ordinary, but they were actually condensed from water spirits. Between heaven and earth, only water spirits can break through the Vermilion Bird’s divine power—and only the Black Tortoise can command the water spirits.
This was a strike that only the Black Tortoise could deliver!
Of course, Shen Ming hadn’t simply been allowing the Vermilion Bird to absorb his divine power. His earlier collisions and defeats weren’t just him silently taking damage—he had been conserving and gathering power for this very strike!
Little Thirteen’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head. He had truly thought they’d reached the end of the road, but unexpectedly, the tide had turned… ah… except it seemed it hadn’t turned after all—
Despite such a severe wound, the Vermilion Bird halted for less than two seconds. The places where the ice spikes had pierced her body roiled with clumps of dark red flame, quickly healing completely—even her spiritually manifested garments became more intricate.
Their enemy was unimaginably powerful.
“How are we supposed to win this…” Little Thirteen glanced again at Ye Yang, who still showed no signs of stirring, and couldn’t help murmuring.
Only Shen Ming, facing such despair, showed not a trace of fear. He couldn’t launch another attack like the one before, but even if he had to drain every last bit of his strength, retreat was not an option.
The Vermilion Bird scoffed at his resistance. “You’d be better off saving your energy. Maybe then you could still escape.”
Shen Ming ignored her completely, unleashing his divine power as if it cost nothing. The Vermilion Bird was forced to halt her advance, growing somewhat irritated by his relentless assault. “You know better than I do that you can’t possibly win. Why waste both your energy and my time?”
It was true that Shen Ming’s current strength couldn’t match the Vermilion Bird’s. But he was still a god, and the newly resurrected Vermilion Bird would find it very difficult to kill him quickly, inevitably expending considerable time and effort.
Seeing that Shen Ming remained utterly unshaken, determined to block her path, she rolled her eyes and suddenly broke into an extraordinarily radiant smile. “How about we make a deal? I’ll tell you something you’re interested in, and you stop hindering me from having a proper meal.” As she spoke, her gaze swept over the spirit beasts and yao race members inside the barrier—those little creatures still engaged in their laughable, utterly useless attempts at self-rescue.
Shen Ming naturally wouldn’t dignify her with a response, but the Vermilion Bird continued on her own. “There’s a question that must have been troubling you all this time. Surely you’re very curious: back during the great calamity in the upper realm, why did the Vermilion Bird suddenly turn her coat?”
“!”
Shen Ming’s eyes sharpened like blades, cutting fiercely toward the Vermilion Bird. Her words were essentially an admission that she was not the original Vermilion Bird—that what now controlled this resurrected body was a demon!
“I won’t keep you in suspense. I’ll tell you straight.”
The Vermilion Bird’s neck suddenly transformed into that of the divine Vermilion Bird. With her human-shaped head, she whooshed past Shen Ming’s attack and pressed close to his face. “The Vermilion Bird never told you, did she? She absolutely despised you.”
Shen Ming’s first instinct was disbelief, but his motion—slicing toward the Vermilion Bird’s neck—honestly slowed by half a beat. No one but the Vermilion Bird and Shen Ming himself noticed.
The smile on the Vermilion Bird’s face deepened. Maintaining that bizarre, almost unbearable posture, she continued, “The Four Directional Gods were never supposed to have a hierarchy. But you, Black Tortoise, consumed a divine herb in secret without sharing with the other three, vastly increasing your power—and that’s how you earned the title of leader of the Four Gods. The Vermilion Bird, through her own efforts—even resorting to methods that nurtured inner demons—finally surpassed you in strength. Yet you never yielded that position. You continued to enjoy everything that never belonged to you.”
“No…”
Shen Ming instinctively wanted to refute her. Although he caught himself in time, that momentary distraction gave the Vermilion Bird an opening. Her suddenly enlarged tail feathers finally bypassed Shen Ming’s impenetrable line of attack and plunged straight into the barrier!
The barrier, which had been barely holding on, shattered abruptly. The two fox clan elders, Su Huaiyu and Bai Jun, bore the brunt of it, violently spewing large mouthfuls of blood. The others fared little better—each face as pale as parchment. The human cultivators among them instantly turned from black-haired to white-haired, their skin wrinkling and features collapsing, aging several decades in an instant.
With the barrier gone, the distinct spiritual energy signatures of the different races became even more pronounced. The Vermilion Bird inhaled deeply with an expression of ecstasy. “Divine power is fine, but it’s too monotonous. This—this is a real feast!” Meat and vegetables, delicacies of every kind!
As her gaze, laden with greedy appetite, swept over everyone, they huddled together in panic, each trying to make themselves as small as possible, desperate to hide.
Shen Ming mustered his strength and grabbed hold of those tail feathers, yanking hard—but failed to budge them. The Vermilion Bird let out a cold laugh and gave a light flick, nearly sending Shen Ming flying instead. He stumbled several times before regaining his footing.
Little Thirteen had completely given up hope. “We’re really going to die here. Little Ye Ye, you’d better open your eyes and take a look at me right now. If you don’t wake up, we won’t even get a chance to say goodbye.”
Bai Jun, suffering severe internal injuries from the barrier’s backlash and vomiting blood incessantly, knew full well he wouldn’t survive the day. Paradoxically, this made him more at ease. He thought optimistically, If we all die together, maybe we’ll see each other again on the other side.
Shen Ming had always been resolute, but at this point, he had run out of options. A hint of wavering crept into his heart. Am I really such an unworthy guardian god? But there are still so many things I haven’t done. I still haven’t said what I needed to say to Ye Yang…
As Shen Ming’s power waned, the Vermilion Bird grew increasingly at ease. She even began fending off Shen Ming with one hand while reaching through the air with the other to snatch a young Hoof Tribe child.
She had her eye on this little lamb long ago—pure spiritual power, a clean aura, and the most tender, delicious flesh.
“Baaa—!!!” The tiny Hoof Tribe member, terrified back into his original form, could no longer speak. Suspended in midair, large, fearful tears splashed down onto his mother’s despairing face.
Leave a Reply