Chapter 384: Sword and Death

Beneath the towering Temple of Sacrifice, within the abyss, the darkness boiled.

The Temple of Sacrifice, whose sheer scale was already enough to leave one tongue-tied, now appeared minuscule against the backdrop of this massive silhouette.

That infinite darkness was almost entirely covered by a giant serpent, its scale even more exaggerated than when the Nether Sea Worm had manifested.

The sea of clouds trembled, kicking up waves of frenzy. Beneath the pale cloud layer, the eerie, massive serpent body continued to writhe and entwine within the darkness.

As if struggling, it hoarded its strength, attempting time and again to break through the Temple's shackles.

Bitter hatred and venom transformed into a viscous black tide, surging and churning within the abyss, nearly overflowing from it.

Yet no matter how violently it surged, it seemed to strike an invisible ceiling in the end, returning without success.

After struggle upon struggle, the thunderous roar temporarily ceased.

It seemed as if it were exhausted.

But immediately following, a hair-raising rustling sound erupted from the bottom of the abyss, and the massive serpent body writhing in the darkness suddenly expanded.

It swelled rapidly, as if rotting.

Amidst the sound of countless wings flapping, a torrent of moths hatched from the darkness, each drilling out of the flesh and blood, gathering in one place, spreading a sky-covering gray-black.

They erupted upward!

Moths the size of ordinary humans unfurled eerie scaled wings; the patterns on the wings writhed strangely, outlining totems resembling blood-eyes, which seemed to blink as they flapped, shedding blood-tears.

At this moment, as the infinite moths ascended to the firmament, dancing and spreading wantonly, they formed a tide that blotted out the sun.

Until the final bell toll from within the Temple of Sacrifice rang out.

The world suddenly solidified; heaven and earth fell silent.

A thread of distant and ferocious vibration rose from the very bottom of the abyss, filling the entire Rift Realm, spreading as if it had substance, permeating iron, stone, wreckage, flesh, and soul alike.

The sound of shattering was incessant.

Behind Lord Wuyou, the Tainted Wolves brought by Xie He suddenly shrieked; wounds appeared out of thin air upon their flesh, as if slashed by chaotic swords.

Xie He's body also convulsed; beneath the filthy, yellowed bandages, ink-green bloodstains spread silently.

The others fared no better; their minds were empty, their consciousnesses dim.

Yet, unexpectedly, Ji Jue could not help but feel a surge of excitement and agitation.

The Pure Jun within his soul trembled violently, responding to this clanging sound preserved from a distant time—resonance—suddenly, Ji Jue's consciousness and perception expanded along with the blade's vibration, feeling the terrifying spirit transmitted within that thread of sword-song.

Holding the cosmos, controlling all phenomena!

There was no killing intent or ferocity, merely a disdainful glance at the countless Tainted things, and then, a complete lack of interest as it withdrew its gaze.

Thus, the stagnant time seemed to resume its flow.

Yet the moths hatched from those countless resentments remained frozen in mid-air, solidified, with only drops of phosphorus fire burning out from their bodies, raging and spreading...

Finally, they were utterly reduced to ashes.

And in a momentary trance, that curtain of darkness seemed to be briefly peeled back before his eyes.

In a fleeting glimpse, the phantom of the serpent body filling the Rift Realm had vanished.

At the very bottom of the ten-thousand-foot abyss, only a withered, dead, and silent giant serpent skeleton remained coiled, long since devoid of any breath.

Even though it had been dead for so many years, the coiled serpent bone was still unimaginably massive, winding endlessly, coiled upon the mountain body. No, it was more like the metal-like mountain had been directly suppressed and cast into the giant serpent's skeleton, like a nail, shackled for eternity.

Right up to the moment of its death, the giant serpent had maintained a posture of mouth agape toward the sky, ready to devour.

But compared to that skull larger than the Temple City, what was even more conspicuous was the deep, straight sword-wound upon the giant serpent's skull!

To this day, the flame-red, straight sword mark remained imprinted in the void, piercing through the giant serpent's skull!

With this single strike, it had severed the giant serpent that once ravaged the present world; even after a thousand years, the remaining sword mark had not faded in the slightest, as if it had remained eternally in the present world.

With just this one look, Ji Jue's heart could no longer be restrained, beating wildly.

He widened his eyes, staring intently, branding this scene into his soul.

【Red Firmament】!

In the entire world, besides Ye Xian, who could understand this aura better than him? Could he really fail to distinguish the traces of the Nine Types when they were right before his eyes?

This was clearly the Heaven Origin Sword among the Nine Types!

But even if it were the Nine Types, even if it were the Heaven Origin Sword, how could it be exaggerated to this degree?

A single sword mark, after a thousand years, still possessed such terrifying divine might, even piercing and shackling the resentment of the giant serpent after its death within this darkness, unable to find release.

In the fleeting instant, the clear image had completely dissipated; the darkness returned, drowning everything, no longer clear.

Ji Jue stood dazed, unable to recover for a long time.

Before that scene returned to darkness, he had finally seen clearly...

Right beneath that magnificent sword mark, the crack on the serpent bone.

It was as if, after a great victory in the past, in a moment of exhilaration, the wielder had swung their sword casually. Thus, they had left a line of graffiti carved deep into the bone upon the giant serpent's skull.

—Ye Chen beheaded the serpent here!

Finally, it was over...

In the silence following the end of the bell tolls and sword-songs, the entire team remained silent; even their breathing was suppressed within their lungs.

Everyone was drenched in sweat.

Under the shadow of the tower, the rioting Law of Heaven Origin ravaged and suppressed everything regardless of the target; merely the aftermath was enough to make everyone who had barged in struggle to breathe.

And the Tainted ones chasing the wolf blood found their souls swaying, unable to hold themselves together.

Tainted demons like Xie He and the Tainted Wolves were fine. The remaining White Deer Tainted ones who had not received the favor of the wolf blood now had hollow eyes, their minds beginning to dim.

It was not until long after, confirming there were no more abnormalities, that everyone could not help but heave a sigh of relief.

And then, they saw that at the very front of the team, beside Lord Wuyou... the thing that had been crushed to smithereens by the heavy pressure of the tower's shadow that day, wriggled.

It reassembled.

The yellowed bandages entwined with each other, binding the flesh, weaving and entangling, restoring the outline of a body beneath the robe; Xie He seemed to be reborn, restored to his original state.

Unscathed.

At most, he coughed twice, expelling the Law of Heaven Origin that had invaded his body.

And when he turned back, he discovered that everyone had instantly scattered, their eyes full of vigilance when they looked at him.

The name of Corroded Scale had spread throughout the world following the collapse of Bai Bang.

That seemingly complete body—once it lost the binding of the bandages, heaven knows what it would turn into; countless invisible pathogens and fierce poisons flowed like blood within the wolf's body, as insidious as could be; heaven knows when one might accidentally fall victim to it!

"Please rest assured, everyone; the shadow of the tower is everywhere within the Temple of Sacrifice, and the poison of the wolf blood has long been suppressed; it cannot spread at all."

Xie He explained with what seemed like a smile, which only made everyone's expressions even uglier.

It provided no comfort whatsoever, instead causing the pressure on the others to rise frantically.

"Alright, stop wasting time."

Lord Wuyou lowered his eyes, sensing the power within the Temple of Sacrifice for a moment, overjoyed.

Although he did not know what this wave of anomalies was about, after one eruption, the power of the Temple of Sacrifice had clearly fallen into a weakened state.

Even the residual shadows on the streets had become faint and indistinct.

A perfect opportunity; he had to seize the time!

At this critical juncture, he could no longer care about the pain of his accumulated treasures; he continuously took out various items from the opened box and led the team straight in.

In just a few short minutes, they were already close to climbing to the summit, where the main body of the Temple of Sacrifice was located.

The losses were merely a few cannon fodder used for scouting.

But the place ahead...

There was no way forward.

Amidst the countless buildings guarding it, the towering wall of the Temple of Sacrifice seemed to reach straight into the firmament; from afar, it looked like only a few meters in height, easily vaulted over with a light leap, but when standing before it, it seemed as if they had only just reached the very bottom of a sheer cliff.

There was no end or summit in sight.

Nor could they find a door.

To the left, to the right, upward, and downward, there was absolutely no path.

All that could be felt was a hair-raising aura; the closer they got, the more they could feel that groundless fear within their lungs and souls.

It was as if death were close at hand.

There was no escaping it.

More importantly, they could not feel a shred of the aura behind the wall.

But when looking from afar, they could see that the tower's shadow had completely shrouded everything behind the wall, sealing and freezing it, as if solidified in amber.

It had been completely sealed.

The Master of Wulou Temple lowered his eyes, suppressing the unease surging within his heart, returning to a state of dead, peaceful stillness, only asking: "Lord Wuyou, what is the solution here?"

Lord Wuyou reached out, stroking the wall, the excitement in his expression already becoming hard to suppress.

After withdrawing his hand, a trace of pitch-black suddenly appeared on his fingertips.

The pitch-black spread uncontrollably, instantly swallowing him, but the curse and imperial order that should have been fatal now lost their target.

"【Forbidden Realm】..."

Lord Wuyou returned to normal in an instant, his eyes burning with intensity:

"It really is the 【Forbidden Realm】!"

The absolute blockade hypothesized by the Eternal Empire of the past, after controlling all phenomena with the power of Heaven Origin, reversing life and death, and using countless deaths as a foundation, the wall of despair built.

Strictly speaking, this blockade was not a wall at all.

It was death itself.

Under the transformation of the Law of Heaven Origin, the nothingness of death was manifested into substance, integrated into the wall, turning this wall into a boundary of death that was absolutely impossible to cross.

Wanting to cross it was actually very simple.

One only needed to die.

But unfortunately, having experienced such a thorough death and annihilation, even the Heaven Humans of the Vortex system would likely not be able to come back to life, only to be swallowed by death and turned into foundation stones.

Lord Wuyou reached out, carefully taking out a bell covered in rust and cracks, which seemed as if it would collapse at any moment, from the brocade box in his bosom.

Calling it a bell was already a compliment.

After all, even the bell body was rusted and rotten, with only a pathetic small piece of connection remaining between two fragments, and the patterns on it were all blurred, covered in verdigris.

But the moment that bell stand, merely one person tall, was taken out, it actually resonated with the wall of the Forbidden Realm...

"Next, it is time to fulfill the contract, everyone."

Lord Wuyou turned back expressionlessly, looking behind him; mentioning the contract, everyone immediately became solemn. ===== CHAPTER 385 =====