The life-guardian war beast Shafeng summoned was an elemental — Whirlwind.

Fused with it, a single point of his finger —

And dozens of terrifying tornado-storms were born on the ground.

Even inside a divine domain forged by the main body of the ancient relic, this elemental Whirlwind could still show terrifying power.

Shafeng’s treasure was more curious still. It looked like a flying wheel, spinning without pause, powered by divine force, cutting whatever it met. Compared to Chiqiu’s Tunlong, this quasi-divine artifact — “Xuanya,” the Whirling Fang — was not a shade weaker. In eeriness, it perhaps had the edge. On the other side of the field stood North Divine Sovereign Zhaoxi, holding a low-tier divine artifact that outranked Tunlong, Xuanya, and Suohun combined, in both grade and power.

It was a mirror.

The Zhenmiao Divine Mirror.

Not a quasi-divine artifact — a genuine divine artifact.

Zhaoxi’s life-guardian war beast, meanwhile, made Yue Yang wary too, as he watched from below.

Because this North Divine Sovereign’s life-guardian was a plant-type — the “Lantern Grass” — a war beast that on the surface had no offensive power at all.

Why would a North Divine Sovereign summon such a weak war beast to fight? He must have his reason. And this seemingly weak, apparently harmless Lantern Grass was probably the real reason Zhaoxi could overpower others and had become the mighty North Divine Sovereign.

“Chiqiu — die already!” Shafeng roared with laughter and pointed a finger. Beneath Chiqiu’s feet, a tornado-storm was born at once.

Even as a Divine Sovereign, Chiqiu could not resist the pull.

He was ripped from the ground in an instant.

In midair, Chiqiu wielded Tunlong, tearing space open and driving out of the tornado.

But Shafeng had been waiting. Xuanya in his hand chopped down heavily on Chiqiu’s midsection, meaning to cleave the half-emerged Chiqiu in two.

Shuanghan was faster still. His Suohun chain wound serpent-strike around Chiqiu’s left arm. As Chiqiu swung his spear to block, Suohun changed shape in an instant, becoming a great sky-wide net that swaddled Chiqiu whole, and dragged him back down.

On the ground, ice sealed a thousand miles.

Northwest Divine Sovereign Shuanghan’s life-guardian war beast, Glacier, was a super-massive elemental. It opened its mouth to the sky and exhaled, and heaven and earth became a world of ice and snow.

Hail poured from the sky, ball after ball raining down… The air’s temperature dropped to unimaginable lows; falling drops froze into ice. Even Yue Yang, watching from far off, felt a numb, wooden stiffness — nimbleness gone, mobility slashed. On the ground, the attack was worse still. Ten million ice-blades sprouted through the earth and thrust long into being, angrily piercing the vault of heaven.

Chiqiu bounded up off the ground, but his whole body was already frozen over, ice-caked into a snowman.

Except for Tunlong in his hand, everywhere else was frost-locked.

Even his eyes.

“Out of my way!” Chiqiu shattered the ice off him, exhaled a mouthful of freezing breath, and swung Tunlong furiously, knocking the parasite-like Suohun chain aside. Though he burned with hatred toward Shuanghan too, Chiqiu knew he could not fight two Divine Sovereigns to the death at once. His mutual-annihilation target thus stayed on the one he hated worse — the one he would never forgive: Shafeng.

“Come on then. I haven’t tormented you enough yet — do not die too quickly!” Shafeng saw the ice-water-drenched Chiqiu charge in and did not retreat a half-step. Confidence brimming, he charged to meet him. In one hand Xuanya the quasi-divine flywheel clashed with Tunlong; with the other he swung his fist, trading blows with Chiqiu across the space between them.

Boom, boom!

Two Divine Sovereigns of comparable strength fighting — a hundred days would not settle who was better.

For Chiqiu to hope to kill Shafeng at any cost now was truly not easy. He was too badly wounded already; neither his body nor his power carried an advantage. And more difficult still, with Zhaoxi and Shuanghan on the field, Chiqiu had no path to success. Killing Shafeng at the cost of his life would take a miracle — or an ancient god descending to help.

Shuanghan tilted his head back and let loose a long roar that shook the mountains and rivers.

At that shout, cold as an ultimate-northern wind, the snow began to fall in great goose-down flakes both inside and outside the ancient-relic-main-body-forged divine domain.

This —

Was one of Northwest Divine Sovereign Shuanghan’s signature techniques: Ten Thousand Miles of Falling Snow!

Every flake carried Shuanghan’s killing intent. Every flake linked to his will… The moment they touched any object, those flakes could, through Shuanghan’s own body, guide and unleash divine power — to freeze-kill the enemy alive!

Yue Yang exhaled a cold breath.

Hunched low, he slipped out quietly.

And stole back the corpse of the woman buried under the rubble — the one who had taken her own life and then been impaled through the heart with the golden trident by Shafeng.

“Fire!”

Chiqiu’s body burst into surging divine flame, like a dragon, like a torch. Any frost or freezing air was refused entry.

The instant Shuanghan’s attack was fizzled — North Divine Sovereign Zhaoxi acted at last. He aimed the levitating Zhenmiao Divine Mirror at Chiqiu, then lifted the softly-glowing Lantern Grass beside him and shone it into the mirror. A strange light, a thousand times brighter than the divine radiance around him, gushed out. It gathered on its own into a pillar and cut across time and space, as if, ten thousand years ago, it had been ordained to strike home, and now struck home — square into Chiqiu, who had no time whatsoever to respond, blasting him ten thousand meters away.

Chiqiu’s body was not visibly wounded, but he screamed in soul-deep agony.

Watching, Yue Yang was stunned.

A soul attack!

Zhaoxi’s Lantern Grass, paired with the Zhenmiao mirror, could achieve a soul attack close to A-Man’s Death Gaze! And this mirror-light attack was much better than the tiny-probability Death Gaze. So long as he caught the best moment, Zhaoxi could attack at any time. Whereas A-Man’s Death Gaze depended on sheer luck!

Chiqiu had one hand pressed to his head, and used Tunlong in the other to prop his body upright.

Shuanghan slammed a great ice-ball down on Chiqiu’s head. In the very instant it locked Chiqiu in ice, the Suohun chain coiled around it, tore it up, and flung the ice-encased Chiqiu into the air toward Shafeng.

Shafeng used Xuanya to slice the great ice-ball encasing Chiqiu clean in two. Blood sprayed from Chiqiu’s belly and back — Xuanya nearly sawed him in half at the waist… He hurt beyond words and cried out — but he did not defend. Instead, Tunlong in his hand thrust straight for Shafeng, running his mortal enemy clean through — in low at the belly, out through the ribs.

Even in death, drag Shafeng down to be his corpse-pillow.

That was Chiqiu’s greatest wish.

He was not going to walk away today — but even in death, he was not going to let Shafeng, his lifelong nemesis, go easy…

“Damn it!” Shafeng bashed Tunlong with Xuanya and, borrowing the impact, retreated ten thousand meters, roaring in pain. “Zhaoxi — enough of this! I’m about to be dragged down with that madman Chiqiu! Have you forgotten what you promised Hei Zhou? Are you going back on your word now? If you’d used your full strength from the start, we wouldn’t have been hurt at all. What are you waiting for? If God-Slayer and Tianchou arrive, the plan will fail. Are you going to watch a ten-thousand-year scheme go to waste?”

“You don’t need to remind me. I know what I have to do,” Zhaoxi’s expression was flat, no emotion at all.

“Useless. Shafeng, you can’t even beat a wounded Chiqiu?” Northwest Divine Sovereign Shuanghan wore a look of pure contempt.

Compared to Zhaoxi and Shuanghan, Shafeng was, in truth, a shade weaker.

But the reason he had been wounded —

Had nothing to do with his strength.

It was purely the result of Chiqiu fighting to the death, throwing his life away. Chiqiu was ready to die if it took Shafeng with him. If not for Zhaoxi and Shuanghan holding the line, how could Shafeng possibly still be standing here so casually? He would surely have died, or come out one skin the poorer.

Zhaoxi glanced at the blood-vomiting Chiqiu and slowly raised his palm. “Chiqiu — surrender. I can spare your life.”

Chiqiu laughed wildly. His mouth spurted blood as he laughed.

His attitude had made itself clear.

Death — over surrender!

The Zhenmiao Divine Mirror shifted, and its divine light shone onto Chiqiu. Chiqiu went utterly still, his consciousness seemingly sealed by time. Zhaoxi did not need any technique. He slowly extended his hand, and a palm — soft, yielding, exceedingly heavy — pressed onto the crown of Chiqiu’s head. In an instant, Chiqiu’s skull shattered, and blood-jets fountained from the seven orifices of his face… Chiqiu wielded Tunlong, but did not strike at Zhaoxi at his side. Instead he thrust straight at the vicious-faced Shafeng who was rushing in… Zhaoxi lifted his hand again, and a heavy palm slapped Chiqiu’s back. Chiqiu’s heart nearly burst apart, but he held back the mouthful of blood he was about to spit and, using the momentum, batted Shuanghan’s Suohun chain aside with Tunlong. His blood-drenched body charged Shafeng — utterly ignoring Xuanya as it sliced at his neck — putting his last strength into slamming his head into Shafeng’s face.

Zhaoxi and Shuanghan chased after Chiqiu, striking to kill. Chiqiu did not care.

His mind was set on Shafeng alone.

Knocked down nearly a hundred times, wounded near to death, he would not change his aim.

Five minutes later, Chiqiu could hold on no more. He toppled to the ground like a golden mountain, like a jade pillar collapsing… Shafeng stamped his foot heavily on Chiqiu’s face and roared with pride. “Chiqiu, for all your pride, aren’t you now just mud beneath the sole of my foot? Ha ha ha — a fool like you, ranked the very last among the eight Divine Sovereigns — what right had you to look down on me?”

“Peh!“

The weakened Chiqiu spat a mouthful of blood.

Shafeng flew into a rage and stamped again and again on Chiqiu’s face, as if venting ten thousand years of accumulated frustration!

Zhaoxi frowned slightly, but said nothing in the end. Shuanghan too did not approve of such humiliation of an enemy. He could kill an enemy by any means, but after victory he would not go mad and heap indignity on the fallen the way this fellow was doing.

While Shafeng, half-mad, was trampling Chiqiu’s face, the fallen Tunlong far away suddenly took on a strange light — like a dragon and unlike a dragon, like a chi and unlike a chi.

Whoosh!

Faster than sound by a factor no one could name… It pierced Shafeng’s stomping knee, pinning it.

“You are begging to die!” Shafeng, in agony, decided to end the play. He would smash Chiqiu into ten thousand pieces. He yanked the blood-soaked Tunlong out and, in anger, hurled it ten thousand meters away, and hoisted Xuanya the flywheel high to bring it down onto Chiqiu’s neck.

“Who dares touch my brother?”

A blade-qi flashed from the far horizon.

In the next instant it was in front of them.

Time and sound trailed far behind… The blade-qi, subtle and unrivaled, did not scrape Chiqiu by a hair — it cut Shafeng down in a single stroke, nearly killing him on the spot. A middle-aged man with an air of unforced authority, imposing and handsome, walked forward on his blade-intent. He appeared at Chiqiu’s side, ignoring Shafeng and the hurriedly-retreating Northwest Divine Sovereign Shuanghan, concerned only with the dying man before him — Chiqiu!

Chiqiu forced out a thin smile with an effort. “Tianchou. You came at last. Only I can no longer fight beside you.”

Sorrow filled the newcomer’s proud face. “It’s my fault. If I hadn’t been late, you wouldn’t be like this. Chiqiu, my brother — whatever wish you have, I, your second brother, shall carry it out for you!”

“…” Using the special consciousness-linking technique, Chiqiu entrusted his unfinished wishes and personal secrets to the newcomer. This was the sovereign of the South Divine Nation — the South Divine Sovereign whom even Western Divine Sovereign Hei Zhou did not dare take lightly — Tianchou. Beyond hope of survival though he was, Chiqiu was comforted. He had never expected to see his brother at his life’s end, or to hand off his greatest secret in time. With those secrets, Tianchou and God-Slayer could turn the tide… Tianchou and God-Slayer far outstripped him in strength. They, surely, could avenge him.

“My brother, I have it. These wishes and secrets — I shall…” The newcomer drew a divine blade and slashed it into Chiqiu’s neck. Then, driving the blade a second time, plunged it into Chiqiu’s heart.

Chiqiu, ambushed, showed no reaction.

He looked, dumbfounded, at this once-familiar, now-alien brother. Even dying, he did not dare — did not want — to believe that a brother would turn a blade on him. Truly he could not die with his eyes closed.

But the newcomer only threw his head back and laughed to the sky. “So he did — God-Slayer handed all the secrets to you! Have no fear, my brother — your secrets I shall be sure to convey to Hei Zhou! Now that I’ve sent you on, I don’t mind letting you in on who I am. If you can, as a dead man, still send God-Slayer word — I’ll have nothing to say for it. Do you want to ask who I am? Ha ha ha — Hei Zhou calls me brother — who does that make me? In all the world, only a fool like you and an idiot like God-Slayer could believe I was your ally! Who dares touch my brother? I said that. But — you are not my brothers. Hei Zhou is!”

Chiqiu’s mouth opened and closed, as if he wished to say something, but he could not get one word out. His mouth was already flooded with blood.

His pupils slowly dilated.

Focus slipping…

“Chiqiu’s Tunlong is a quasi-divine artifact. Not so easy to imitate. Let us hope it fools God-Slayer!” What most shocked Yue Yang was not this divine-blade-wielding man’s traitorous ambush — it was the appearance of another person. Ji Wuri.

At that moment, Ji Wuri had already transformed his form into an exact copy of Chiqiu.

Speech, bearing — perfect, down to the smallest detail. Had the true Chiqiu’s corpse not been lying there next to him for comparison, Yue Yang would not have believed the “Chiqiu”-appearing man was Ji Wuri!

Having seen this scene —

Even a fool would have understood.

(End of Chapter 1168)