LWGP - Chapter 279
Chapter 279: The Flag
That door was suffused with a ghostly aura, a clear replica of the Red Copper Ghost Gate.
???
How could the Red Copper Ghost Gate open inside her body, and so easily at that?
Even the Founder at his peak couldn't have opened the Ghost Gate with ease. After all, that was the Ghost World, a realm independent of the myriad daos. The total number of vengeful ghosts and souls within was terrifyingly immense. In terms of its capacity, it was a small world combined with terrifying soul power; even the Founder couldn't open it casually.
And even Wang Jiu, despite being the Ghost Emperor, couldn't defy the rules so easily, unless… unless she had prepared for it, opening it in advance and merely hiding it within her body.
This also meant she had known all along that he was the Primordial Ring's Artifact Spirit!
Bai Chi was stunned. As if realizing what was happening, he tried to retreat from Wang Jiu's body and return to the ring, but it was too late.
Wang Jiu tossed the Primordial Ring directly into the Red Copper Ghost Gate.
The door opened and closed in the span of a single breath.
Once the Ghost Gate shut, all connections that wretched ring had to spirits were severed, and it slipped completely from Bai Chi's control.
In truth, if he hadn't completely detached his artifact spirit body from the ring to enter her body in his bid to fully seize Wang Jiu's soul, he would still have had the power to resist. He could have just controlled the ring to escape into space where Wang Jiu couldn't catch it. But he had miscalculated by one crucial step.
Without its artifact spirit, the Primordial Ring was a supreme treasure without a controller. And after this treasure was thrown into the Ghost World…
The countless vicious ghosts, who spent their days idly devouring their companions, suddenly had something to do.
Holy shit, a treasure, a treasure! By inhabiting it, we can become its artifact spirit and escape the Ghost World's restrictions on soul power!
Heavens, a gift from above! It must be that heartless Ghost Emperor, Her Majesty, having a crisis of conscience.
Myriad ghosts went into a frenzy, madly assaulting the Primordial Ring!
Even Wang Jiu herself couldn't withstand the consumption of so many ghosts, let alone Bai Chi.
If a soul body could vomit blood, Bai Chi would have already coughed up his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.
A devastating blow!
Bai Chi's soul was grievously wounded in an instant, with less than a tenth of its soul power remaining. The one who had been fiercely trying to devour Wang Jiu's soul now wanted to flee for his life, but Wang Jiu grabbed him and began to devour him instead.
Bai Chi was powerless to resist. Unreconciled, he asked, "How did you know I was the Artifact Spirit?"
Her previous statements had seemed like a spur-of-the-moment realization, so he hadn't been on guard against her having a plan.
Wang Jiu spoke one phrase as she devoured him.
Just two words.
"You idiot."
Back in the Nullification Wall space, Bai Chi wasn't the only corpse. All those people had been slain by Bai Chi. Wang Jiu didn't care what had happened in the past to cause their deaths—whether they had intruded seeking the inheritance, or if they were Bai Chi's own people whom he had used. Perhaps Bai Chi himself had been the intruder that day, and these dead were the ones who tried to stop him.
None of that mattered. Wang Jiu had no interest in right and wrong. But she did notice that all these slain individuals had died from Bai Chi's White Witch secret art—Scorching Sun.
The Scorching Sun secret art could damage a body with extremely high temperatures and brilliant light.
First, it would blind the eyes, then bake the blood and qi dry, and cook the flesh. With their bodies destroyed, those Primordial Spirit Race members could only have their souls leave their bodies. And once they did… lacking a body, with their souls in a weakened state just after separation, they were devoured by Bai Chi.
Observing the traces left by the Scorching Sun art on those bodies, and based on Yin Lao's understanding of this technique, Wang Jiu could roughly estimate the spirit power it required.
It was not a small amount. Among White Witch secret arts, it was one of the most consumptive and strenuous attacks. Logically, in an environment like the Nullification Wall, Bai Chi wouldn't have needed to use Scorching Sun to kill his enemies and still have the strength to escape and save himself.
By examining the bodies, Wang Jiu could judge the strength of these individuals when they were alive. Factoring in their numbers, if he had possessed the spirit power to use Scorching Sun at that time, he could have chosen another secret art from his repertoire. He could have killed them all with only half the spirit power, leaving the other half to escape the Nullification Wall.
But he didn't. He insisted on using Scorching Sun, and ended up getting himself killed.
It was illogical, unless Bai Chi was an idiot at the time.
Or—he had an abundance of spirit power, and using Scorching Sun once was nothing to him. His death inside was also a strategy.
He faked his death.
So when the enlightened Wang Jiu saw a wisp of Bai Chi's soul float out the next second and say those words to her…
On the surface, she was all, "Thank you, senior, for your dying words of advice. Thanks for your awesome ring. You can die now, have a safe trip." But inwardly, she was completely unfazed, with only three words in her mind—stupid fucking idiot.
Both husband and wife were equally annoying.
But this idiot had a scheme. He was plotting against me, so he definitely wasn't completely dead. His body is right here, so where is his soul hiding?
There was only one possibility, an obvious one: inside the awesome ring.
So, how could a soul hiding in a ring evade her search and senses, and still allow her to bind with it?
By becoming its Artifact Spirit, of course. He could directly confirm her binding, since he could just undo it later.
Once she figured out Bai Chi's scheme, Wang Jiu knew this fellow must have a backup plan. So when that young man Yuan Wei came looking for her, Wang Jiu naturally became suspicious, suspecting he was arranged by Bai Chi.
But it was also possible that the Founder had truly left an inheritance, and Bai Chi was doing all this for that inheritance as well.
In any case, the inheritance definitely existed, right?
The Ant Queen was coming on strong. Fortune favors the bold.
Wang Jiu took the risk, and the situation developed into what it was now.
However, Wang Jiu never had a habit of explaining things to the dead in a funeral home, so she didn't say any of this.
Bai Chi had never been so humiliated. Enraged, and with most of his soul devoured by Wang Jiu, on the verge of annihilation, he shrieked with resentment.
"Wang Jiu, if I die, you won't live either…"
"We are both pawns…"
Swoosh. Wang Jiu devoured him completely, but her eyes flickered toward a certain spot.
The reason Bai Chi would utter such dying words was that he must have discovered something.
So…
Wang Jiu saw that the place where Yuan Wei had been was now empty, but a cold breath suddenly materialized behind her.
A hand silently clasped her throat.
On its five fingers were the secret arts of the Dao.
The most primitive and powerful secret arts of the Spirit Dao.
Control, connection, inheritance.
Wang Jiu was controlled, because everything she had absorbed in her body belonged to this person. From the beginning of the inheritance, she was the medium.
"Not a medium. You are my true future," the Founder's voice was delicate and gentle.
Wang Jiu: "Why?"
The inheritance had been halfway complete, stalled because Wang Jiu had hit a bottleneck. Absorbing Bai Chi's soul should have accelerated the expansion, but with the Founder's intervention, her potential was being wildly broadened.
He was being so kind, not for Wang Jiu's sake, of course, but because he wanted this body.
"My body is already damaged and cannot control the World Heart. And she is about to arrive. I had no other choice."
Wang Jiu didn't think so. "Not exactly no choice. You are not Yuan Wei. Because you were indeed in hibernation, I don't think the Eternal Night Empress would have allowed you the ability to survive in another person's body. But, you could have added your information into the Dao that you passed down and that Yuan Wei cultivated. Then, you could use the content of the Dao to hypnotize him, turning him into another you. Then you just had to wait for me to be halfway through the inheritance before making your move…"
The Founder, still wearing Yuan Wei's appearance, did not deny it. "You are a good child, but I have a fatal opponent. I'm sorry."
This person's tone matched his appearance—gentle, melancholic, and polite.
Wang Jiu uttered no resentful words, only watching with cold eyes as he expanded the limits of her constitution and soul.
But she finally asked, "Why me? It's not about strength, it's about essence, isn't it?"
This person could expand the limits of a soul, so it clearly wasn't about strength. Was her soul special? Because she could open the Ghost World?
Was she as rare to him as she was to the Eternal Night Empress?
She thought he wouldn't answer, but after a moment, just as he was about to finish, the Founder said, "Your disposition is the best choice. Better than mine."
Wang Jiu was amused. "I've seen souls being devoured, but I've never heard of a disposition being devoured. Are you saying you want to become me?"
The number one powerhouse in the world, a great master, suddenly aspiring to become her.
No wonder Wang Jiu was amused.
No one would believe it if she told them.
Buzz. The Founder sealed the expanded limits. It was smooth, perfect; his methods were impossibly elegant.
His control over the Dao's secret arts was completely natural, a masterstroke. This level of professional skill was a kind of composure that no matter how talented, later generations could never achieve.
Then, he continued to help Wang Jiu transfer the remaining half of the inheritance. The speed was much faster than when Wang Jiu had been absorbing it herself. It was good manners to answer questions while working.
"If there's a need, there's nothing wrong with it. Don't you routinely copy your family's Old Lady?"
What he said wasn't wrong, actually.
Wang Jiu pondered for a moment. "So, what you need is my kind of disposition. Let me guess, the Eternal Night Empress is your mortal enemy. To defeat her, you need greater power, or rather, the power that once knocked her out of the universe—could it be that you need my disposition to control that World Heart?"
The inheritance progress was about to reach 100%. The Founder gave one last answer.
"There aren't many people like you who can stick to their principles while being so ruthless. Not to mention, your soul and body are top-tier. Choosing you was my best option in all four spacetimes."
It sounded a bit like being hired by the world's top company, and starting as CEO, but with a chairman controlling all the shares still above her.
She fell silent, because it was at 100%!
Boom!!
The calm space where they had been able to converse amicably instantly became like a sphere of boiling water. The viscous energy within frantically poured into Wang Jiu's body. The inheritance was complete. Ownership was the second priority; self-preservation was the first.
The two were mutually exclusive!
But Wang Jiu couldn't escape with her soul, because the Founder wouldn't give her the chance. Her soul was being devoured by the Dao.
Within the content of the Witch Dao, whether Black Witch or White Witch, the concept was soul devouring soul. But the Founder fully demonstrated what it meant to be the original master.
When it came to devouring souls, the Dao could do it too.
The Dao was the truly eternal and indestructible existence.
Wang Jiu had almost no ability to resist. Her soul, her body, and the inheritance she had just received were all gradually being consumed by the Founder, not through Yuan Wei's body, but through the Dao he controlled.
The Dao was streams of flowing light patterns, an omnipresent spirit, a set of rules that could roam the heavens and hell in the space of a breath.
With her throat still clasped, Wang Jiu felt immense pain, while the Founder, pressing close behind her without being invasive, seemed to gradually merge into her body.
The Dao was a chain, binding them together.
Wang Jiu was still struggling. Her struggle had force; her soul and Ghost Dao trembled, trying to break the seal.
The Founder frowned slightly and said softly, "Why bother? You know you can't succeed. Besides, you're wavering, aren't you?"
"Wang Jiu, you should have realized that the System has betrayed you."
She had asked the System to monitor Yuan Wei, but later, when Yuan Wei disappeared while she was dealing with Bai Chi, the System hadn't alerted her.
It was obvious.
Wang Jiu lowered her head, her hair hanging down slightly, the corners of her mouth forming a cold line. "The game… is your creation."
The Founder's fingers, still on her neck, continued to input the control art. Hearing her, he said faintly, "To find and create someone like you—that is its reason for existence."
"But you're right. Its master is indeed me."
"So, now you understand."
"The game is under my control. Therefore, the others… the others don't matter. But what about the Old Lady?"
This sentence was like a stone thrown into a calm pond, sending out ripples.
"She is still working hard in the laboratory. Outside, many people have died in battle. She is very sad, but she can't say anything."
"She is a good person, one you can't bear to hurt."
"But with a single thought, the System installed in her body and soul can turn her to dust."
It was clearly a threat, yet spoken like a fatal temptation, because the Founder continued, "You have no confidence in defeating the Eternal Night Empress. She is coming soon, and you are just as anxious, which is why you took such a risk. But I am confident. Submit to me, and I will protect her. You can feel it, on the edge of this space, there is a force capable of fighting the Eternal Night Race."
Wang Jiu could indeed feel it. As the Founder began to merge with her, she could see through his Dao that people were sealed within the walls of this spherical space.
Like sacrificial burial objects, they were actually "puppets" who had been led here by cultivating his Dao.
But they were indeed a military force.
The moment Wang Jiu saw them, she knew their identities—the powerful experts from the first, second, and third spacetimes who had appeared in history but were presumed dead or missing.
Among them were likely ancestors of Mo Ran and Xing Yao.
Eight thousand in number, an ultimate battle team.
"This is my promise, in the name of the Dao. You know I will not break my word."
"Wang Jiu, you really have no choice."
Wang Jiu tilted her head back slightly, her hair brushing past her face, revealing a faint crimson glow in the depths of her eyes.
No choice.
Either struggle and fight for a sliver of hope for herself, or give up and create a more certain battle outcome for the Old Lady.
She had no choice.
In that instant, her violent struggle ceased, and she became calm. Beneath that calm, the devouring and merging continued. The power of the Dao surged majestically, constantly battering the inside of the sealed spherical space. Wang Jiu and Yuan Wei were swallowed by light, their forms vaguely merging into one. The useless body was melted into gas, while the useful parts were preserved, transformed into a more terrifying and perfect existence.
And the massive World Heart beneath their feet…
It emitted a faint glow, and then, the Yaori world patterns on its surface activated.
It connected to the last remaining figure.
And this figure, which had been struggling and curled up, slowly stood up, stretching out its hands, preparing to take control of the World Heart below.
But at the same time, boom! A beam of light came from beyond the cosmos. A ray of Eternal Night mechanical metal light pierced through the universe and Earth, reaching deep into the planet's core, penetrating to the location of the World Heart, and struck this figure directly.
At this moment, high in her tower in the Eternal Night Empire, the Eternal Night Empress opened her eyes, the light between her brows as brilliant as a cosmic aurora.
Below in the grand hall, countless kneeling Mecha Warriors kept their heads down, unable to look directly at her majestic light.
But she turned slightly, tilting her head to glance at them. With a raise of her hand, metal climbed over her body, transforming into a long, flowing dress with a metallic texture.
A metal scepter, slightly taller than herself, materialized in her palm. Pointing it toward the vast cosmos, one end aimed at the spatial coordinates of Earth.
Light blasted open the protective shield of rules, creating an opening. She descended!
Bai Qiushui hadn't been wrong. The Eternal Night Empress was indeed willing to pay a price for a forced descent, as long as she deemed it necessary.
Now, all the forces of the Eternal Night Empire had descended, including herself.
Because the opponent she had spent her life trying to exterminate had returned.
Ten minutes before the Eternal Night Empress's descent, the battlefield before the Gobi was nothing but blood and corpses.
The infected creatures from underground had advanced from the three-thousand-meter line of attack to eight hundred meters.
And in this eight-hundred-meter zone, the pile of corpses was far higher than anywhere else.
All the cities, the two empires, were united in their offense and defense, and their deaths were nearly united as well.
Beneath the city walls, corpses and bones were piled high.
Of the Gobi's vanguard of sword-riding groups, not a single person remained.
Why?
All had died in battle, leaving only one person.
Due to severe exhaustion, she could no longer ride her sword. She stood alone at the forefront of the 800-meter defense line, a single person holding an entire line.
And before her, shield-armored creatures charged forward in a dense mass.
Their line of attack was three thousand meters long.
As they stampeded, the ground churned with dust, rolling like a sandstorm.
She saw them. Her face was wounded and haggard, her green silk hair, stained with blood and dust, flew in the wind.
At this moment, she was a far cry from the sword wielder who had once arrived by merging with spacetime.
Such a pure, beautiful, and peerless female sword cultivator.
She looked at the boundless army of shield-armored creatures, not glancing back at the many comrades who had died behind her.
No looking back, only forward.
Don't ask about the future, just seize the day.
Because only by seizing the present day can there be a peaceful future.
Therefore…
She would pay any price.
She raised her sword, gripping the hilt with both hands, the blade pointing upward.
I offer my soul to this sword, to serve the heart of the Sword Dao.
"One… final sword strike."
She murmured to herself, and then her soul dissolved, leaving her body and entering the sword.
A soul leaving its body enters a period of weakness, but a peerless sword cultivator is different. The sword is her Dao.
Her soul entered a new vessel, and with it, she unleashed her final strike.
The sword split into thirty thousand beams of light.
A massacre across the desolate fields.
The others attacking from a distance below the city wall witnessed this scene, feeling as if that one person and one sword were like a hundred thousand arrows splitting the air and wood.
A clean sweep!
Thump, thump, thump. The vanguard of shield-armored creatures on the front line had their shells pierced in an instant. The longswords continued through their bodies, then went on to kill the swarms of creatures for four or five meters behind them.
A sword cultivator with a combat power of one million units erupted, producing a result equivalent to three million units, scaring several of the million-unit creature BOSSes in the back into taking several steps back.
The enemy's battle line was slightly intimidated and momentarily froze.
But the peace lasted only three seconds. Before the people inside and outside the Gobi city wall could cheer…
Buzz… A long spear shot through the air, instantly piercing Qing He's body.
She felt nothing, for her soul had already fragmented along with the Sword Dao.
When she said it was the final strike, it was the final strike.
Unlike that unreliable, lie-spewing Demon King, she never deceived anyone.
The Mantis Bone BOSS that had thrown the spear roared, leading the other BOSSes and creatures in another charge. They ran across the battlefield, about to engulf Qing He.
Suddenly, they automatically parted, moving around Qing He's body, which stood there silently.
They did not devour or damage it.
Even though none of them knew she was once the king of the second spacetime, named Qing He.
"09?" High in the sky, the Eternal Night warrior 07 was somewhat puzzled. But 09 didn't look at him, only saying, "She deserves respect."
07 tilted his head, not quite understanding. They only had programming, not emotions. But perhaps this was the main reason 09 was different from them and valued by the Empress.
But this didn't affect 09's judgment of the battle. Advance, slaughter, approach the Gobi.
The distance was only seven hundred meters.
Ranged attacks were already bombarding the protective shield, and the starships in the sky had broken through the enemy's aerial defenses.
Boom! The protective shield trembled, its 100% HP dropping directly to 80%.
But the Old Lady immediately used resources to replenish it back to 100%.
It was useless. The bombardment continued!!
All wars burn through lives and resources.
However, the tide of battle was still infinitely skewed in favor of the Eternal Night Race.
Qing He's solitary corpse stood amidst the swarm of creatures, like an independent flag. Yet it did not represent victory, but rather a kind of boundary.
A line in the sand.
Crossing it meant the line of attack had shifted.
The defenders were about to be breached.
Beneath the city wall, there were still brave warriors. One raised a sword, and ten thousand followed.
Without a cry, they charged out.
They chose to die as close to Qing He as possible.
Boom!!
As the two sides clashed, 07 raised his hand. Just as a light cannon was about to sweep away these fragile beings, suddenly… a scepter severed his arm.
Xing Yao, who had torn through space, rushed out, a shuttle in his hand.
Behind him were more figures.
That scene was like a divine army descending from heaven.
"It's them! They've finally returned!"
Xing Yao's gaze swept over and met 09's. Boom!! The other two, 06 and 08, had already formed a triangular pincer attack. As a coiling dragon roared, Long Aotian revealed his true form, intercepting the blow for Xing Yao. The scattered cannon fire bombarded the battlefield, and one beam shot straight toward Qing He's body.
Crimson flames danced across the sky. As the firelight, like a butterfly, shuttled through the air to blast 07, Mo Ran, holding a scepter, tore open a long river in the void to block the Mecha Warriors from crossing over to slaughter her people. With her other hand, she touched the center of Qing He's brow.
She left a point of light, then withdrew her hand and said to Lin Guiwan, who had rushed over to support the body, "Her soul has scattered, but it's all in the swords. Collect the sword bodies when you have time. If that Lao Wang of yours isn't dead yet, have her handle it."
Mo Ran was extremely cold. To show concern for someone's life was already a rarity. Leaving a secret art was to ensure the body's attraction to the soul, so that the fragmented soul pieces wouldn't dissipate too quickly.
Lin Guiwan acknowledged with a grave expression, because they had already lost someone.
Thinking back to what happened 50 seconds ago, scenes flashed through Lin Guiwan's mind.
Corpses were everywhere. She and Wang Shu had, in fact, already died in battle. The bodies on the ground were theirs.
At that time, only Xie Lu and a few others were still fighting fiercely, but several of the million-unit combatants had also died, including Suo Nu and others.
It was a brutal slaughter, a battle where they were surrounded and annihilated.
Yet they had managed to kill three top-tier experts, 03, 04, and 05, but at the cost of most of their own side. The remaining forces were no match for the formidable 01 and 02 and the other half of the Mecha Warriors.
The tide of battle had been turned by one person.
It was a monk.
Comments
Post a Comment