Ten minutes of savage fighting, and Chiqiu had been knocked down dozens of times.

Blood spilled everywhere.

The three-on-one beating was led, in effect, by North Divine Sovereign Zhaoxi’s heavy palm attacks. Zhaoxi’s palm strikes looked yielding and soft on the surface, without a mote of disturbance — but their force pierced straight into the internal organs, worse than thunderbolts. Yue Yang watched, brow furrowed, unable to think of any good way to break the trap. And doing so while still not exposing himself made it harder still… If it had been Yue Yang himself in the fight, he might have found ways to handle the combined assault of Zhaoxi, Shuanghan, and Shafeng. But this was Southeast Divine Sovereign Chiqiu — whose bag of tricks the enemy had long since mapped out!

“Chiqiu, you fool — die!” Shafeng, like a hungry wolf, chased Chiqiu without a break.

“Get off!”

By this point in the battle, Chiqiu had accepted death.

He was not thinking about how to flee. Inside the divine domain that this ancient relic Shenmie had forged, no one escaped its will lightly — and there were three enemies of comparable power keeping him tied down.

What Chiqiu was thinking about was, of the three, how to drag one down with him, at all costs — a corpse to pile his own upon!

Shafeng closed the distance in a lightning surge, his fists like rain.

Pounding into Chiqiu’s back.

Blood sprayed from Chiqiu’s mouth, but he did not budge. As if the one badly wounded was not him at all. Under Shafeng’s storm of blows, Chiqiu slowly closed his eyes, and his right hand, gentle as caressing a lover, reached forward… Shafeng’s face changed at the gesture. He leapt back high and clear of Chiqiu’s attack range at once, and cautiously retreated to Zhaoxi and Shuanghan’s side.

Golden light burst forth.

A pillar of energy rose from a golden grimoire, spearing at the vault of heaven.

A life-guardian war beast that was part dragon, part flame — bringing thunder and lightning — emerged and fused into Chiqiu’s body, boosting his master’s energy tenfold in an instant. A domain rose with it: a golden flame-domain, faintly showing the head of a chi-dragon writhing within — perhaps this was the origin of Chiqiu’s divine name.

Chiqiu turned a page of the grimoire lightly with his left hand.

A divine weapon of considerable sentience appeared in that hand.

Something like a halberd yet not a halberd, like an axe-blade yet not an axe-blade — while it did not have a true divine artifact’s supreme might, it was distinctive in its own way, a divine weapon whose attributes were uniquely its own. Yue Yang at first suspected it was a low-tier divine artifact, but on repeated appraisal found it was in fact only a quasi-divine artifact. To radiate power comparable to a true divine artifact while only at the quasi-divine tier — this was Tunlong, the divine weapon Chiqiu had wielded in battle for tens of thousands of years.

Tunlong was not a war-halberd nor an ordinary axe-blade. It was a long spear with a chi-dragon-horn head, shaped like a dragon and not-like a dragon.

With it, Chiqiu had claimed the seat of Southeast Divine Sovereign.

And had held it, unshaken, for ten thousand years.

Today, Chiqiu had need of it again… Perhaps sensing this was to be its master’s last battle, the sentient Tunlong began to hum, resonating without pause.

“Old friend, let us meet these predestined enemies together. Ever since Taiyan and Bingli fell, I’ve had this acceptance in my heart. Only, back then I promised God-Slayer I would hold on, no matter what. Today my effort has come to its limit. Even if I die on this field, I can rest easy!” Chiqiu stroked Tunlong’s spear-shaft softly, as though speaking to a close friend, pouring out what was in his heart. Eastern Divine Sovereign God-Slayer was not here, and Chiqiu had to fight alone. His only companion who was always with him, always trustworthy, was Tunlong in his hand.

“My lord — no. Don’t leave me…”

Inside the Grimoire World, perhaps sensing the danger without, or perhaps guided by the war-beast —

A woman in white drifted out. Weeping, she threw herself into Chiqiu’s arms. Her face, like pear blossom in the rain, was of a peerless beauty. Were it not veiled in sorrow, she would easily have captivated every living thing.

She clasped both arms tight around his waist and sobbed uncontrollably.

Her voice like the cuckoo’s cry of blood.

Anyone who heard would have his heart and gut torn open.

Chiqiu was not iron and stone at heart, but the situation was pressing as a tiger at his throat. He could only sigh helplessly at his ill fortune, and slowly extend his right hand to stroke his beloved’s long hair with the gentlest, gentlest touch. In this moment he was no longer the Southeast Divine Sovereign fighting blood-soaked and unyielding, but a good husband bidding a heartfelt farewell to his wife on the eve of his departure. Had he not been backed to the very edge, how could he — a hero — have shortened his breath so?

“My lord, this concubine takes her leave… This concubine knows my lord fears loneliness most of all. So I shall go on ahead. The road is not long, and I shall wait for you. I shall not let my lord walk the road empty and cold… My lord, this concubine is going!”

The white-clad woman kissed her love in a deep farewell.

Then knelt.

She wrapped her arms around his knees. Face streaming with tears, she kissed the trembling large hand he had let fall. She knew he could not bear for her to go, but had no way to hold her back. It was precisely for this reason that she had to bid her farewell all the more resolutely, so as not to weigh him down.

She kissed his large hand. Again and again.

Never enough.

At the end, she performed the great respectful bow of farewell, and touched her forehead to the ground three times.

When she raised her small face to look up at him again, a chastity dagger had already sunk deep into her breast, all the way to the hilt.

“My lord — if you find a chance, do not hesitate. Go. This concubine will wait for you a thousand years, ten thousand years! Cough… cough… This concubine’s resolve will not change… This concubine goes now, my lord — take care of yourself…” Weakly, she took Chiqiu’s large hand in her small one. And then, as her body finally slipped down backward, unable to hold, she still tried to catch a corner of his robe. Even having chosen to leave first, she could not, in the end, bear to let go.

Chiqiu’s hand also went out toward her, as she softly sank down against the earth — but he did not clasp her small hand in insistence. He shut his eyes in pain and let her, so unwilling to leave, fall to the ground.

He could have saved her life just now. But he had not.

Because he too knew.

Her resolve to die was firm.

If he died here, she surely would not live alone… Rather than leave her sealed the rest of her life in a dark Grimoire World, or captured by the enemy to endure every kind of humiliation, better to let her go with peace of mind, so that she and he might walk together again later!

This too was the deepest wish in her heart. So no matter how it pained him, how it grieved him.

He had to honor her choice.

“Not tragic enough. That’s no fun — let me help.” At some point, a shining golden trident had appeared in Shafeng’s hand. Under Chiqiu’s eye-splitting glare, Shafeng, coldly merciless, drove the trident into the still-not-quite-dead white-clad woman’s chest, and lifted her limp body high on it, impaling her in midair.

“Shafeng!” Chiqiu, in a wild rage, hurled himself at Shafeng, but Shuanghan gave the ice chain a yank. Rage clouded Chiqiu’s mind, and instead of striking Shafeng flying, he was kicked into the distance by a sidelong stomp from Shafeng.

“There we go — some real misery now. But I don’t think it’s enough. It could still be more miserable!” Shafeng burst into laughter.

“Beloved!” Two lines of blood-red tears ran down Chiqiu’s cheeks.

“My… my lord… go… go…” The white-clad woman, hoisted on the golden trident — her white robe now dyed into a robe of blood — that just now tear-streaked face, with all the strength left in her, struggled out one wan and feeble smile.

That smile, like a hundred flowers all falling at once.

Heaven and earth —

Went dim.

The white-clad woman’s fingers trembled faintly. She still wanted to soothe him — Chiqiu, whose face was contorted with rage but who could not shake off the ice chain that pulled at him — but even that slight motion drained the last of her life. Her lovely head fell weakly, her eyes slowly closed, a hint of smile still at the corner of her lips. She could hold on no longer, not for a moment more. Her fragrant soul, her jade form, were gone…

“Aaaaaaargh!” Chiqiu was, at once, mad.

His body erupted with a hundredfold power.

The ice chains wound around every joint of him, wrapping his whole body, snapped apart in his fury, splintering inch by inch.

Shuanghan, who had been pulling at him, was jolted so hard blood ran from the tiger’s-mouth of his hand. Even the always-expressionless North Divine Sovereign Zhaoxi let a flash of vigilance show in his eyes.

Shafeng did not have time to crush the blood-robed woman’s body impaled on the golden trident before Chiqiu’s rageful fist met his face… Along with that hate-laden heavy blow, two teeth shattered and flew away into the air, weaving with the spray of blood.

Chiqiu’s Tunlong drove in a straight thrust. Shafeng dodged it by the narrowest of margins, barely blocking the heart-piercing strike with the golden trident.

But he could not block Chiqiu’s headbutt on the other side.

His breastbone shattered.

He was launched like a cannonball into a distant cliff face…

“Beloved — the netherworld is dark. Do not go far. Wait just a little way ahead of me. Wait for me. When I have wiped out Shafeng, I shall come find you. I know you fear the dark most of all. I won’t leave you waiting long!” The Chiqiu who a moment ago had been a madman — was suddenly no longer mad. His senses returned. He planted Tunlong beside him and stretched out both hands to catch his beloved as her body drifted down through the air. His tiger-eyes brimmed with tears. With utmost tenderness he laid her down on the ground and, with equal gentleness, wiped the blood-spatters from her face.

Shafeng shot back like lightning, the golden trident hammering furiously down onto Chiqiu’s forehead.

Chiqiu did not so much as blink.

Blood ran down his brow like a spring.

Shafeng, seeing the first strike hadn’t finished him, immediately thrust with the trident. Chiqiu, holding his beloved in his left arm, extended his right. As the trident’s middle blade pierced his right palm, Chiqiu closed his hand and twisted with all his strength. Divine power exploded through him, and the quasi-Sacred-tier golden trident bent into a twist of hemp, then snapped clean with a ping… Chiqiu withdrew his blood-streaming right hand, gathered his beloved in both arms, and walked toward the cliff-face where Yue Yang was hidden.

He laid her softly in a small hollow in the rock — less than a hundred meters from Yue Yang — bent down, and kissed his beloved one last time in farewell.

Enraged, Shafeng heaved a huge boulder.

And smashed it down on Chiqiu’s head.

Chiqiu ignored it too.

Only when the boulder was about to bury them both did Chiqiu bring out his force, break the boulder through, and slam a heavy fist that hurled the clinging-on Shafeng a thousand meters away.

“You are all going down with me!” Blood-soaked, Chiqiu returned to where he had planted Tunlong. He drew the divine weapon that had been with him a lifetime, lifted his head, faced heaven, his face set with iron resolve. “I don’t want to live. And none of you shall live on either…”

“Ridiculous. On your strength?” Northwest Divine Sovereign Shuanghan strode forward proudly. Wound about his right hand was a divine weapon — a quasi-divine treasure whose might and grade were in no way inferior to Tunlong the chi-dragon-horn long spear — “Suohun,” the Heart-of-Heaven Treasure Chain. He advanced fearlessly against Chiqiu, whose despair and grief had raised his power a hundredfold. Chin raised, striding, he sneered on: “Don’t think you’re the only one with a quasi-divine artifact. And don’t think you’re the only one with a grimoire. You can’t even beat Shafeng — you have no place challenging me, let alone Zhaoxi. Chiqiu, you were, in fact, the weakest of the eight Divine Sovereigns. If not for God-Slayer, we would have finished you long ago. You’d never have lived another ten thousand years.”

Boom, boom!

On the other side, Shafeng and Zhaoxi no longer held their strength back. In unison they summoned their grimoires and divine weapons, escalating their power, ready to deal Chiqiu the fatal final blow!

Yue Yang paid no attention to the three of them, or to their fight. Most of his thoughts had turned to the woman buried beneath the shattered stone…

Why had Chiqiu buried her there?

Did that hold a secret?

Was it a hint?

Or was it a meaningless act, made at random by Chiqiu in his grief?

(End of Chapter 1167)