Chapter 52: All Sides

  Demonic Qi roared, surging like a vast o.

  This raging tide of decay, however, carried a vigorous vitality, remi of the bck, foul-smelling slime oozing from rotten fruit—and the worms squirming within. The turbid waves of Demonic Qi spread and expanded, rising and falling in a single rhythm, as though eg the breath of some existence.

  Then, it twisted, trag and densing into a gigantic, grotesque humanoid form.

  He had three heads, five arms, seven mouths, nine eyes, and looked like a swollen corpse. All around Him flowed a bck, tar-like slime ced with tless pairs of eyes flickering with an eerie glow.

  In the ter of His chest, a massive mouth lined with sickle-like fangs opened and closed like a colossal abyssal maw.

  Deep within that maw y an untouchable darkness of primordial chaos.

  A presehat oppressed the heart of every living being revealed a portion of itself from the herworld. Everyohe sky grow dim for a moment, as if something had blocked out the sunlight.

  “Is that a Heavenly Demon made ma?!” The Red Armuards’ Captain nearly cried out at the sight. This massive Heavenly Demon ination, t like a mountain, was absolutely not an oppohey could handle.

  He immediately ordered another retreat. Evetle-hardened Red Armuards were forced into a sorry state at that moment.

  Fortunately, the Heavenly Demon had no i in the Red Armuards or humanity. His unfathomable gaze pierced an unknown distao focus here, and theepped forward, heading toward Hanging Fate Valley.

  【A thousand mountains and a hundred peaks, ten thousand rivers and streams... Yet humanity’s seal is always so uing.】

  He reached out and plunged a hand into Hanging Fate Valley, letting out a slight excmation:

  【The Subduing Evil fragment has been taken?! Who did this, and when?】

  He surveyed the surroundings. His Divine sciousness swept across the Red Armuards’ encampment, which was cloaked by a military formatio found no clues:

  【Could it have been taken earlier? The question is by whom…】

  Time was short. He could not spare the effort to search. With a sigh, He pressed one hand against the ever-flowing great river.

  In just an instant—

  The rushing river turned murky. Bckish discoloration oozed through the once-clear mountain waters. An oily sheen spread at once, polluting the eerway.

  The mountains quaked, and a violehquake shook the area around Hanging Fate Valley, rending the earth and scattering birds as in the hills.

  With the earth’s veins trembling and shifting, o of pitch-bck Demonic Qi after another erupted from the cracks in the ground, vaguely verging into a hazy shadow high in the air.

  That shadow possessed a pair of open, tattered wings and a pair of curious pale-golden pupils that ceaselessly observed the hearts of men. Its form was rapidly coalesg, taking on physical shape, faintly outlining a fwless human figure.

  It lowered its head slightly, looking over every person in the viity of Hanging Fate Valley, causing all hearts to tremble.

  Yet in that first moment, it failed to find that little fellow who had caught its i.

  At the same time, apanied by a sigh from the twisted Heavenly Demon, two beams of light suddenly fred in the far-off sky!

  One was a beam of Six Yang Mirrht, bzing and grand like a great sun; the other was a wave of Northern Profound True Baleful Qi, cold and still like a deep abyss.

  Sensing the Heavenly Demon’s maion, the distant Bright Mirror Sect True Person known as True Person Xuanjing and the Heavenly Will Northern Patrol Envoy, who had been locked in battle, abruptly set their flict aside and jointly attacked!

  【Let’s go】 ihe twisted Heavenly Demon.

  ‘Heavenly Demon Jiexin’ ined His head slightly:

  【Xiuming, help me find someone】

  【He... is quite iing. I suspect it was he who obtained Subduing Evil’s iance】

  【Fine, I’ll trust you】‘Heavenly Demon Xiuming’ replied. A small piece of His form split off, slipping into deep forest shadows:

  【But we must leave immediately】

  A hazy, chaotic rift suddenly appeared between Heaven ah—this passage led directly to the Veiled Dusk herworld. From the instant it arose, it was unstable and looked ready to vanish at any moment.

  Still, it was enough for Heavenly Demons to pass through.

  The oppressive feeling ebbed as the shadows receded, and the sun, which had dimmed before, returo its dazzling brilliance—as the rift and the Heavenly Demons disappeared together, everythied to how it had been.

  But just then, the attacks of the two Void-Pierg Divireasury True Persons struck Hanging Fate Valley, where Demonic Qi still seethed.

  Freezing light pierced the world, clouds of ice sealed the sky, mountains and rocks were reduced to ash, and grass and trees were all set afme—Heaven ah dimmed in a fsh, followed by an indescribably violent upheaval.

  As the billowing dust dispersed, everyone looked up at the former site of Hanging Fate Valley and was stuo discover a vast crater in the ter of the ravine.

  It was as if an Immortal God had touched a finger down from the clouds, leaving a deep depression in the nd, half of it yered in frost, the other half swirling with white smoke and scorched air.

  Two figures stood fag each other from opposite sides of the valley, both frowning as they looked toward where the Heavenly Demons had torhe passage to the herworld. Then their gazes met.

  The first figure—a cultivator with eyes firmly shut, six radiant mirror wheels h behind his back, and hair of aic blend of bd white—spoke in a low voice: “We have yet to determine victory.”

  The ure—a woman with long hair as smooth and gleaming as ivory, bearing a delicate plum blossom mark between her brows—narrowed her eyes slightly, her tone icy: “Enough. Let’s end it here.”

  With those words, she flew off toward the forest. Several times she raised a hand, and streams of bck-green light carried off a few survivors. In no time, all survivors of the Heavenly Will Demonic Secluding Bai Qinghan—had been scooped up in her Baleful Qi-infused grasp for prote and whisked away at high speed.

  “Leave quickly. This pce is dangerous.” The bd-white-haired True Person, eyes still closed, turned his head as well and sternly anded, “An a Heavenly Demon has broken free of its seal; the ‘Great Demon-Overseeing Ptform’ must supervise this matter.”

  “Per the 【True Martial Pact】, until they arrive, I will stand guard here.”

  “As you and, True Person!”

  The Red Armuards gave a respectful salute, theed the area as fast as possible with their people in tow.

  There were two perspectives:

  “How curious. It seemed those Heavenly Demons were searg for something just now?”

  Up in the air, the Northern Patrol Envoy sed the surrounding ndscape, muttering in puzzlement, “And why was there only otle darling? Weren’t there supposed to be twe Fates?”

  “As expected.”

  Held gently in the Northern Patrol Envoy’s power, Bai Qinghan gazed toward the dire An Jing had vahoughtful: “So Senior Brother may have acquired somethied to the Heavenly Demons—or perhaps some Divine Power—thus enabling him to dispy such extraordinary strength?”

  Gu Yeqi, uhe prote of the Red Armuards, likewise gnced back at the mountaihs before leaving the Hanging Fate Manion: “As I thought, Brother Jing was able to foresee the Heavenly Demons… He clearly saved us, yet he ’t leave with us.”

  “But it probably isn’t a Heavenly Demon… Could it be reted to the owner of those Sword Qi attacks?”

  “Mm…”

  Above, True Person Xuanjing opened his eyes slightly. He had no actual eyeballs—within his sockets y a pitch-bck emptiness, and in that darkness faintly glimmered two crimson-gold points of light, f pupils that reflected all things. This was his Divine Ability:【Radiant Sun Dharma Eye】.

  He gave a small “huh” of surprise: “The Immortal Sword fragment is gone… Did the Demonic Qi cover it up, or did the Heavenly Demons seize it?”

  “Moreover, there were supposed to be two Heaven-Ordained Fates around here earlier. Why is only the one on the Demonic Sect’s side left now?”

  He searched several more times, his gaze sweeping across over a hundred mountain peaks but finding no trace. He could not help feeling perplexed: “It shouldn’t be like this…”

  Still, now was not the time for a manhunt. He turned and looked at Hanging Fate Valley, where thick Demonic Qi still ed, shaking his head slightly and thinking, “The Heavenly Demons grow ever bolder. Not only here on this mountain—matters in the ‘Farthest Heavens’ must also be reported and piled…”

  Deep in the forest:

  Pitch-bck shadows writhed, bubbled, and swelled. Innumerable ghostly eyes gleamed across the tar-like darkness, making it roil and , until it finally re-formed into the shape of a Red Armuard.

  Yet atop that Red Armuard’s neck, where the face should have been, there was only a massive hollow.

  That hollow was both a mouth and a deep abyss, through which murky darkness coursed. It sed the forest, searg for a st, but fell into a sort of bnk pause.

  It did not find its target.

  Whether they cared or not, whether they searched ily or casually, at this moment, everyone was hunting for An Jing.

  All eyes would verge upon An Jing.

  But all of them would ultimately e up empty.

  Within another world, in an a underground ruin.

  “Barely survived…”

  Climbing unsteadily out of the dust and wiping cold sweat from his brow, An Jing g the rift that had closed behind him. Heart pounding, he let out a small breath of relief: “The otion outside is just too big. Better to hide out in this alternate world for a while.”

  (End of Chapter)