Chapter 258: with translation of chapter title

"Roar!"

Bai Ze revealed its true form, resembling both a qilin and a Lion Demon, with a single horn on its head and a goat's beard on its chin, its entire body snow‑white.

"The Classic of Mountains and Seas says: 'On the sunny side of Mount Huan, north of the Ming Sea, there is a divine beast named Bai Ze……All beasts that encounter it are terrified and trembling.'"

At the moment Bai Ze revealed its true form, Ao Mo instantly lost control of his body and reverted to the dragon race's original true form.

"Bang!"

Bai Ze slapped Ao Mo away with one palm.

In the human world, Bai Ze is generally worshipped as a divine beast that wards off evil and as an auspicious sign; take Ao Mo, a true dragon whose bloodline has not been fully activated—in plain terms, a sea creature turned spirit—facing Bai Ze he has absolutely no power to resist.

Conversely, the weaker Guan Linglong, wielding a crescent blade, later gained the upper hand and struck at Bai Ze's horn with a thunderous blow.

"You think my horn is a weakness?" Bai Ze chuckled lightly, not dodging or evading, but directly colliding with Guan Linglong's crescent blade.

"An advance‑only strike can face greater power, but it is merely self‑destruction!"

The thunderous blow halted abruptly, and Guan Linglong felt her tiger's mouths split, her arms going numb to the point she could barely lift them.

What made Guan Linglong even more incredulous was that Bai Ze's strike just now was clearly the technique of the Guan Dao.

And it was executed with greater skill than her own.

"I have seen Guan Yun Chang; as the sole incense‑fire emperor, he is worth studying. The so‑called weapon is an extension of the body—you have not yet achieved spiritual communion with your weapon, so how could you possibly defeat me!"

Bai Ze leisurely commented while sidestepping to avoid the flying arrow shot by Yi Yu Luo.

"Mm, this arrow is far inferior to Hou Yi's!"

Guan Linglong, unwilling to yield, burst forth with Inner Qi and, together with her comrades rushing up beside her, launched another attack on Bai Ze.

"Boring!"

Watching the officers surge forward to gang up on it, Bai Ze felt a bit bored, having seen such scenes countless times.

Those opponents whose weaknesses he had seen through would become angry and ashamed, intending to use numerical superiority to make up for their shortcomings.

But a flaw remains a flaw; it does not disappear just because there are more people.

Bai Ze began to teleport across the ground; its huge size posed no hindrance to speed, appearing graceful, each step seeming to cover considerable distance, and it moved with ease amidst the encircling officers.

It continually pointed out the problems of others.

"Pure defense is nothing but self‑destruction; what can a mere spiral accomplish?"

Power that cannot hit a person is meaningless!

"Reliance on a single layer of armor for defense—what use is that?"

In its incessant commentary, Bai Ze raised its claws, the gleaming talons tracing countless claw marks in midair, like a Heavenly Net Earth Net enveloping the officers.

In the blink of an eye, everyone suffered blows of varying severity and nearly all lost their combat ability.

"You've prepared for so long—what will you do next?"

Bai Ze casually stepped over the bodies of the fallen, curiously watching Mu Yi, who had been continuously exerting his power since just before.

It could interrupt Mu Yi, but that would mean nothing to it; it would rather waste time playing house with the officers and see what new tricks Mu Yi could come up with.

"What I'm going to show you isn't something new, but something you're probably quite familiar with!" Mu Yi grinned.

Fighting a ten‑thousand‑year‑old monster, the normal approach offers no hope; it's like carrying a bottomless bag, pulling out all sorts of strange things for any situation.

Up to now, Bai Ze has remained in a rather leisurely position.

Just like fighting a Dungeon boss, no matter what tricks the boss has, if you prepare in advance, all its mechanisms become meaningless.

Only now, the person being treated as the Dungeon boss is Mu Yi himself.

Therefore Mu Yi intends to pull the battle back from mechanic comparisons to the simplest, purest contest of numbers—a realm where, no matter how rich your theoretical knowledge, falling short of the required values means total defeat.

Bring the opponent onto the same level as yourself, then defeat them with your abundant experience!

Mu Yi simply didn't believe it—how long has Bai Ze been a big shot, and could it possibly be more versed in Transcendent combat than he?

But before that, we must first make Bai Ze lose this bug‑like observational analysis ability.

"Great Mist!"

The thick Great Mist, with Mu Yi as its origin, rapidly spread outward in all directions.

In the blink of an eye, it enveloped the entire mountain forest.

"This is……"

Looking at the surrounding thick mist, Bai Ze seemed a little dazed.

If it's not mistaken, this isn't Chi You's Great Mist, is it?

Once a vicious art that left even the Yellow Emperor, Ying Long, and Jiutian Xuan Nu among countless ancient powerhouses helpless, had it not been for the south‑pointing chariot that dispelled the Great Mist, who knows—they might have been swept away in one wave by Chi You.

"No wonder those guys went crazy back then… it turns out you weren't given just the military commander!" Bai Ze's expression finally lit up with excitement; it loved this development that exceeded its expectations.

Although Mu Yi's Great Mist differs from Chi You's, it falls far short of the level that lets Chi You reduce even great gods to ordinary human perception.

But the essence of this is to restrict human perception; Bai Ze would normally not fear this degree of Great Mist in its prime, yet the problem is that it has suppressed its own attributes to below Legend.

Even if it now activates Bai Ze's power, in this thick mist it still sees nothing, able to sense only within a one‑zhang radius around itself; any farther and it truly sees nothing.

The south‑pointing chariot capable of dispelling the Great Mist by following stellar guidance is in the Yellow Emperor's hands; borrowing it now would surely be too late, so it must rely on its own wit to find a solution.

"Let me think—how was the south‑pointing chariot originally made?" Bai Ze fell into recollection.

The painful lessons of the past told them that, in such a Great Mist, it's best not to move about randomly, lest they encounter something unpredictable.

After staying on guard for a while, Bai Ze also caught a whiff of something unusual in the mist.

"This thing must be incomplete, meaning that for both of us it has turned us into blind and deaf people?"

A playful gleam appeared in Bai Ze's eyes; he grew more curious about what Mu Yi intended to do.

If he can't even see through this mist, what hope is there relying on Mu Yi's half‑baked Thousand‑Mile Eye Divine Ability?

"Interesting, truly too interesting—it was worth my specially shielding the heavenly secrets just to come see you!"

Yet at that very moment, having sensed a clue, Bai Ze suddenly leapt to the left, and a blade of light grazed its body.

"Did you see me? How could that be!" Bai Ze frowned, quickly scanning itself, but found no marking spell.

"No, it's not a mark; even if there were a mark in this dense fog it would be useless!" Bai Ze thought calmly.

"Is it just luck from a blind stumble?"

Before Bai Ze could finish thinking, two blades of light suddenly surged from the fog, and Bai Ze dodged by a hair's breadth.

"No, this kid really can locate me; he's now using this kind of obvious attack to lock onto my position? Does this fog have properties I don't know?"

Bai Ze felt a bit embarrassed; there are few things in this world that Bai Ze doesn't know, and one of them happens to be Chi You's great fog.

Not to mention now, even back then when he wielded his full omniscient power, he couldn't decipher Chi You's fog; he could only study the celestial mechanisms with the Wind Empress, and only after creating a south‑pointing chariot did they dispel the fog.

If anyone saw him, they would surely laugh loudly at Bai Ze.

Once unstoppable and domineering in antiquity, Bai Ze now finds itself somewhat helpless before a child, which is oddly delightful to watch.

"Mader, no wonder so many in antiquity wanted that Chi You bastard dead; this guy is terrifying!"

Without any origin, Bai Ze feels a deeper resonance with the myriad ancient races; the enemies are truly ferocious, this kind of monster is simply too frightening.

On the other side, Mu Yi's progress is not as smooth as Bai Ze imagined, but the fog indeed has properties Bai Ze does not know.

The full version of the fog is merely a one‑way seal; Chi You himself is unaffected by it, which was the most terrifying thing of the ancient era.

A super war god perched at the pinnacle of antiquity suddenly becomes an assassin and fights guerrilla warfare against you—who could endure that?

It's like you have to blindfold yourself and plug your ears to box with an unrestricted, peak‑level Tyson.

Not being killed, one can only say that back then the Yellow Emperor and his peers were truly formidable.

Although the fog's divine ability is incomplete, it remains fairly friendly to its core, at least reducing the restriction on perception somewhat.

Mu Yi actually cannot see Bai Ze, but he envelops the fog with a Reincarnation Barrier; relying on its rotating nature and the foresight of Know Destiny, he gradually probes Bai Ze's location, shrinking the barrier.

It's somewhat like a Bat Demon, using the feedback generated when blade light collides with the barrier to gather information.

By the time Bai Ze begins evading the blade light, Mu Yi is actually less than a hundred steps away, yet Bai Ze remains completely unaware.

"There's only one chance!"

Mu Yi is certain of this; these ancient monsters that surpass ten thousand years cannot suffer the same move twice.

He must use absolute force to force a head‑on clash; if the opponent escapes or notices, who knows what cursed treasure they might pull out to disgust him.

In fact, once Mu Yi began to scheme, Bai Ze had already been stirred and sensed something.

But it's like a Dungeon boss's targeted finisher in a game—you know exactly what the opponent will do, yet you can't escape and can only watch helplessly as they land the targeted attack.

That's exactly how Bai Ze is; it pulled out several artifacts in succession, none of which affected the fog.

Strictly speaking, the fog now spreading is a projection Mu Yi casts using Chi You's authority; even if weakened, it remains Chi You's fog, something Bai Ze cannot dispel without a south‑pointing chariot.

Whether it's the five senses, divine thought, even true spirit, or artifacts—any entity that enters the fog is instantly severed from its core, unless it personally delves deep inside.

Only the master of the fog can escape unharmed.

The dense fog spreads, and the surrounding boundaries begin to blur at a visibly rapid pace; the snow‑white mist obscures the horizon and also hazes Bai Ze's sight.

It feels the world around it is stranger than before, turned into a bleak white expanse, utterly silent.

The fog thickens further—that's Bai Ze's assessment.

Sometimes, quiet does not mean safety.

On the contrary, a tranquil setting can more easily break one's mind.

It's like playing a horror game; beyond the narrow field of view lurk terrifying monsters ready to trigger a hunting mode at any moment.

"It's coming!"

Bai Ze squinted and began pulling out artifacts; although using artifacts is somewhat cheating, that's its combat style, and after the Trial it can at most grant Mu Yi a bit more reward.

Just as Bai Ze was thinking that, an anomaly suddenly erupted.

In an instant, the surrounding time seemed to freeze!

"Divine Foot Technique? No, it's not the Military Strategist's Elite Talent!"

"Damn!"

A fragment of information flashed through Bai Ze's mind, but the next second a massive blade grew larger within Bai Ze's sight.

As the Reincarnation Barrier retracted, the power of Reincarnation condensed within Mu Yi, and with Inner Qi burning fully, Mu Yi activated his state to its peak.

His blood boiled, body temperature rose, veins bulged on his arms, and blood and Qi surged together, fully pouring into the massive blade Mu Yi wielded under the focus of his will.

—Six Paths Reincarnation Slash

The massive blade, swung with no reserve, emitted a rotating glow within the fog.

Bai Ze could clearly see that at the instant the massive blade struck, the defensive shield it had prepared in advance was crushed under the weight and erased by the true intent of Reincarnation carried by the blade.

Boom!

Time returned to normal.

Under the massive blade's slash, the direction the edge pointed was brutally severed, and the true intent of Reincarnation violently spun the blade marks into fine particles.

Bai Ze's expression grew solemn as it hovered in midair, raised a claw, and tossed a bead into the sky; the bead instantly burst with boundless light and heat like a sun, casting scorching rays down that could boil rivers and seas.

The fog began to dissipate under the influence of the light and heat.

After all, this is not Chi You's fog; a fully powered Bai Ze has ten thousand ways to disperse the fog.

"It didn't hit any of them!"

Mu Yi frowned as he watched Bai Ze floating above the sky, feeling a bit unwilling.

He thought he could slay a Legend; facing such a proactively overpowering ancient heavyweight, he expected at least a fight, but even after giving his all, he still gained no harvest.

"No, you hit!"

"What a powerful strike; if I weren't the core, I might truly have died!"

When the fog cleared, Bai Ze opened its mouth, swallowed the bead, then landed on the ground and transformed into a white noble youth.

Bai Ze involuntarily glanced at its palm, where a trace left by the true intent of Reincarnation still appeared.

It must admit that if it truly were on the same level as Mu Yi, even if it were a white marsh beast and possessed countless magical artifacts, that single strike just now would be enough to send it to reincarnation.

The essence of that thing is not destruction at all, but reincarnation; any creature lacking the ability to freely traverse the cycle, once struck by this move, has absolutely no reason to remain uninjured.

Because it is reincarnation, one of the underlying principles governing Heaven and Earth, Mu Yi's ability to wield this authority is so rare—by a white marsh beast's experience it ranks among the top ten.

"You have won; you have passed this Trial!"