Ren Tiange recognized immediately that this newcomer was the same young man who’d joined them partway through, the one who had inexplicably drawn the Silver-Eyed Great Sage’s attention twice.
At the time, his eagerness to press into the ancient treasury in search of treasure had kept him from seeking the young man out. Now, this same person had actually managed to escape with a newcomer’s level of strength?
Most astonishing of all was that he’d brought three companions with him.
“Heaven’s Sieve.”
Ghost King Phantom stared for a long moment, then seemed to understand something.
He reached into his robes and produced a seven-colored vial, scattering the radiant, shimmering powder inside it in a sweeping motion around himself… Light flashed, like a hidden killer having his disguise torn away — around Ghost King Phantom, countless grid-like and lattice-like spaces appeared. Wherever that priceless divine sand drifted, the golden dome the Golden Sword Giant had raised revealed an entirely different, concealed reality within itself.
Within that hidden reality, heaven and earth were no longer inverted. Nothing was strange or twisted.
The reason Ghost King Phantom and the other supreme powerhouses had felt as though mountains were crushing them into breathlessness was this: every one of them had been positioned at the very edge of this bounded space, on the verge of crossing out of the law’s domain into the endless void beyond — pressed against the absolute, unyielding law-force that sealed the space’s border. Any force pushing against that boundary would be flung right back.
Almost instantly, everyone turned themselves around and re-oriented to their natural state, no longer fighting against that law-force.
And Ren Tiange and the other leaders also realized, in that same moment, what the Golden Sword Giant’s earlier strike that had “killed ten thousand” truly was.
Not overwhelming power.
The ten thousand people had simply been standing in the lattice points of the Heaven’s Sieve — they’d fallen into the fissures of the spatial law, not been pulverized.
“The divine sand I’ve hoarded for thousands of years without daring to use — to think the day would come when it would actually matter.” Ghost King Phantom felt equal parts relief and fury — relief that they’d found a way back from the brink, fury that he, a Dark Alliance great leader, had been manipulated so completely. If that young man hadn’t managed to escape and reveal the truth, everyone here would have died.
“Decapitation!”
Flayer King Blood Shave was the first to charge forward and attack.
Without the restoration of natural order, counterattacking the Golden Sword Giant — who had set this entire trap — while under the law-force’s backlash would have been suicide. But now things were different. With the natural order restored, nobody was foolish enough to slam against that absolute, immovable law-force at the space’s boundary — they directed their attacks at the Golden Sword Giant itself. With the ability to fight at full capacity restored, Flayer King Blood Shave was eager to test himself against this “deity” who had deceived everyone.
A world-splitting, earth-shattering strike tore a space crack a hundred meters long from the air itself.
Three meters wide.
Everything within it shattered into spatial fragments.
Shattering space was effortless for Blood Shave at this level of power — he was only holding back out of caution toward that law-force sealing the entire space at its edges; without that concern, he could have released far more destructive force still.
Flayer King Blood Shave hadn’t built his reputation from nothing.
“Pitiful fool.” The Golden Sword Giant raised one finger with contemptuous ease — the left index finger — and casually deflected Blood Shave’s near-full-power blow.
“Hss…”
The sight drew a sharp collective intake of breath from everyone watching.
True, the Golden Sword Giant’s “one sword kills ten thousand” had been a deception — he hadn’t actually reduced ten thousand challengers to dust with a single strike. But his actual strength was still undeniably terrifying.
“Throat slash, dismember, body-split, heart-rip, skin-flay, tendon-cut, bone-scrape!” Blood Shave erupted in fury like a caged lion, both hands unleashing a storm of consecutive blows, his signature techniques spinning out like a windmill. The Golden Sword Giant continued deflecting every one of them with only the left hand, not even deigning to use the golden sword in the right. By now everyone understood — this Golden Sword Giant, even without the power to actually one-shot ten thousand people, wasn’t far off. No single great leader could face him alone. That said, he also wasn’t strong enough to wipe everyone out simultaneously.
“Together — we should be able to edge ahead.” Ghost King Phantom, perceptive as ever, had taken one look at Blood Shave’s exchange and formed an accurate assessment. The reason the Giant wasn’t using the sword — clearly he was wary of the others swarming him all at once.
“Your thoughts?” Ren Tiange, even now, reflexively sought the Silver-Eyed Great Sage’s opinion.
“Probability of defeating him: seventy percent. Minor injury to him: twenty percent. Serious injury: ten percent. Killing him: under one percent — essentially impossible. Even achieving serious injury will cost our side dearly.” The Silver-Eyed Great Sage’s estimate was even more precise than Ghost King Phantom’s. After his analysis, this fight was winnable — but it would be brutal, particularly given the condition that the Giant had no reinforcements.
“Let’s go!” The demon-haired Hauge heard seventy percent and didn’t need to hear anything else.
“Quite exciting.” The masked Blue Demon also recognized that failing to coordinate now would likely let the Golden Sword Giant pick them off one at a time and lose the tactical advantage entirely.
“Qian Chong — take people and leave. Return outside the secret gate, dispatch elites back to camp to request reinforcements, and if possible, lead the army back here yourself.” Ren Tiange understood as a great leader how critical reinforcements were. If the remaining leaders back at camp all came to assist, the tide of battle could shift considerably.
“Boar King — same for you.” Skeleton King Golden Bones instructed one of the Dark Alliance’s leaders to return to their side and bring reinforcements.
Challenging a deity.
Was absolutely not something achievable in a single push.
Both Ren Tiange and the Dark Alliance’s leadership had already prepared themselves for a drawn-out campaign.
The spectacular-looking Qian Chong was one of Ren Tiange’s more trusted allies — no weakling, and possessed of real strategic intelligence, without the recklessness of Hauge or the inscrutability of Blue Demon. Sending Hauge or Blue Demon back made Ren Tiange uneasy. The Silver-Eyed Great Sage was indispensable and had to remain. So he dispatched Qian Chong, the one he had the highest expectations of.
The Dark Alliance likewise sent the Boar King — coarse on the surface but possessed of a mind as sharp as any needle.
Qian Chong and the Boar King both swore oaths to return as quickly as possible with reinforcements, then gathered the remaining several dozen elite fighters who hadn’t been caught in the trap and slowly withdrew through the third secret gate.
“I believe our two factions should suspend hostilities for now. What do you think?” The Boar King, right before departing, suddenly made a conciliatory gesture.
“Agreed.” The handsome swordsman Qian Chong nodded his acceptance.
The elite fighters on both sides all felt a wave of relief — if the two factions also broke into a death-battle at the very moment of challenging the deity, the results would be unthinkable. The great leaders — Ren Tiange, the Silver-Eyed Great Sage, Ghost King Phantom, Skeleton King Golden Bones, Flayer King Blood Shave, and the others — would likely be wiped out by the deity, and with both factions having already taken terrible losses, the death-match that followed without any leadership to restrain it might escalate into an annihilating final war from which no challenger in either faction emerged alive.
It was precisely because peace benefited everyone and war annihilated both sides
that the normally domineering Dark Alliance and the Boar King — whose strength exceeded the handsome swordsman’s — had offered such favorable terms.
“Farewell, then.” The Boar King saw Qian Chong’s acceptance and felt a private surge of relief, bowing with uncharacteristic courtesy — the first time in his life, perhaps, he’d made such a gesture toward an Angel Alliance challenger. This alone showed how genuinely committed the Boar King was to the joint effort against the deity.
“Safe travels — sorry we can’t see you off properly.” Qian Chong returned the bow with a smile.
All around them, Angel Alliance and Dark Alliance fighters alike exchanged respectful gestures with each other, each group genuinely wishing the other success in challenging the deity, every heart sincerely hoping for the rescue of the comrades still trapped beyond.
Just as both sides prepared to go their separate ways.
The spectacular-looking handsome swordsman Qian Chong suddenly reached out and drew his sword.
One strike through the open air.
Its power surpassed even the Golden Sword Giant’s earlier blow that had supposedly killed ten thousand — and under the Boar King’s despairing gaze, the handsome swordsman Qian Chong, whose apparent strength was only Supreme tier five, killed every single person in that retreating group in a single move. The nearly hundred elite fighters, the Supreme tier six Boar King included, were all cleaved in two by that sword qi, heads separated from bodies, dead before they hit the ground.
There had been an element of ambush, certainly. But the power of that sword stroke — there was no question it could have killed them all regardless.
The spectacular-looking swordsman slowly sheathed his sword, then raised one hand beckoning toward an apparently empty spot in the air. “Come out, little friend. I genuinely want to know how you spotted the ‘Heaven’s Sieve Space.’ And I still don’t understand — someone like you, you could have quietly slipped away on your own. Why did you bother saving a few ants? If not for that, I wouldn’t have focused on you at all. My original targets were Ren Tiange and the others. Now, you’re the one I find most interesting.”
Slowly, from the empty space, Yue Yang and the others materialized — the bull-headed North, shaking from head to toe, the four-armed Four-Limbs, face drained of color, the pudgy Fortune who had simply fainted outright, and Ben the one-eyed powerhouse, seriously wounded and unconscious.
Among them, only one person could manage a smile.
Looking at the handsome swordsman Qian Chong, Yue Yang wore the sunniest expression imaginable. “Didn’t expect the legendary Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord to be such a pretty boy.”
“When you’re born looking like this, there’s really nothing to be done about it…” The handsome swordsman Qian Chong didn’t bother denying it, instead bursting out laughing. Then he beckoned at Yue Yang like an old friend at a reunion. “You’re not bad-looking yourself, little friend. I rarely see a man whose smile is more beautiful than a woman’s. It would be a tremendous waste to kill someone like you. How about this — come work under me?”
“If you were a woman, I might consider it. I’m not interested in men.” Yue Yang declined without a moment’s hesitation.
“Pity. I can’t very well let a young man who looks better than me and has more potential than me keep growing until he becomes a threat to my life.” The handsome swordsman Qian Chong gave it one final attempt. “Are you truly not going to reconsider? Because I should point out — with your current strength, you’re simply no match for me.”
“Fighting, sure, that’d be rough. But if I can’t beat you, what’s stopping me from running?” Yue Yang’s smile didn’t waver.
“You think you can run?” The handsome swordsman Qian Chong expressed his doubts.
“Only one way to find out.” Yue Yang had complete confidence in his ability to flee when it counted.
(End of Chapter)