Chapter 517: Huizheng Attacks, Extinguishing Eyes Pursue

Patting the wearable puppet on her body, Wurei's small face slumped, and she only wanted to sigh.

"This is also a matter of no choice. Your combat value is quite good, so suitable external ports need to be reserved, and at the same time, existing various protective measures must be integrated and superimposed, so it can only be like this for now."

Du En did not lie about this; this was exactly what he thought.

Wurei: "..."

Amidst her speechlessness, she watched as the items suffering his ravages—from a wide variety of ingenious crafts—were rapidly transformed into standard dharma swords cast from the same mold. For a moment, she could only sigh endlessly, then stood silently to the side, looking somewhat depressed, waiting for him to empty the dharma treasure vault and refine a hundred third or fourth-tier dharma treasures.

Performing such feats in a short time was clearly very taxing; the soft light of his primordial spirit had dimmed significantly, but his expression remained rippleless. He only said calmly, "Alright, go find the Dharma Repository. Also, next, I will use weapon-piloting to snipe the resentment demons we encounter on the way; it can be considered acting as a decoy to lure that Huizheng."

After the recent pause and performance, ripples should have already been stirred, and they had been noticed.

He was not naive enough to think that the other party would fall into a deep slumber like the other resentment demons; even if they did, it was about time to wake up.

Wurei nodded, indicating she would stay alert.

Then they moved again.

*Whoosh! * A resentment demon had just sensed Wurei's presence and wanted to resume activity when it caught this faint sound, and then felt its head go empty.

Because it had been cleanly decapitated.

It was not to the point of being completely unable to move, but the limitations were very obvious; it could no longer pose an effective threat to Du En's side, and as the two began to sneak away, it would fall back into a deep slumber.

"Not good."

Du En suddenly spoke and took action. Before Wurei could fully react, the auxiliary puppet worn on her body had already moved, carrying her to shift rapidly, following closely in her master's footsteps as they leaped out of the building block they had just snuck into.

The next moment, a pillar of light crashed down, swallowing the resentment demon on the side along with it. Ultimately, half of the building block and the position where Du En and the others had just been were all turned into fly ash.

Sure enough, they came.

That Huizheng.

The two turned their heads.

They only saw that at the highest point of the lightless, deep gloom, it was as if turbid stars were rising. Even from far away, one could feel that powerful and terrifying presence. The fluctuations of dharma power swept through the surroundings, shaking the nearby buildings and resentment demons, forming the only highest point standing proudly alone.

It was a might close to the Nascent Soul stage.

Only close to?

Du En's heart stirred slightly. With a wave of his hand, a swarm of swords attacked, *whoosh, whoosh, whoosh*, dispersing and rushing forth. The third-tier dharma treasures within suddenly erupted with layers of spiritual light, transforming into gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, as well as all kinds of flood dragons, tigers, and leopards—in short, the movement, sound, and light were immense.

As for the fourth-tier dharma treasures, which were the true main output, they were silent, trailing behind and dispersing, secretly advancing under cover.

At the same time, he used a spatial shift to arrive at the highest point first, a long saber appearing in his hand, and he slashed out without hesitation.

A sharp and bright blade radiance burst forth, attacking the top of the building—which, looking closely, should be an observatory.

A person was standing there.

Her clothes had turned gray-purple, her long hair hung down dry and withered, as if she were wearing a skirt over a skirt. Two horns grew from the top of her head, looking like withered branches, entangled to form a circle, or rather, a gray, dim mirror. Her face still retained its beauty, but her eyes and mouth were a void of black, and the edges were cracked like parched fields.

"Who, are, you?"

Struggling to spit out the words from her mouth, she raised her hand, and turbid light flashed violently, instantly shooting out in a circle, submerging those third-tier dharma treasures with their loud movements and bright lights, directly reducing them to ashes.

Her other hand was covered with a layer of black metallic hard shell, then she caught the blade radiance and crushed it, but some damage marks appeared, making her show a hint of confusion when she was about to counterattack Du En's true body.

"This saber, it seems, I have seen it?"

The next moment, the real saber arrived.

"Oh, oh, oh!"

Wurei's speed was extremely fast at this moment under the transformation and puppet assistance, and she was stepping on the residual light of dharma power. She herself could not control it at all, so she couldn't help but shout to bolster her courage, then used the momentum to slash down with the saber.

*Swish! * The saber fell. Huizheng dodged to the side, then kicked out fiercely, hitting Wurei, who was rolling straight from overexerting her momentum, and kicked her flying. However, it was not a big problem, because she still had the puppet's help; in fact, she had actively rolled out just now.

"Ugh... so dizzy..."

"Is it, his saber? And you, Qinglan?"

Huizheng seemed to pause, as if her remaining reason was fighting against her corrupted body, or perhaps she was astonished by the strange-looking Wurei in front of her.

A shaman priestess like Qinglan would have this kind of getup?!

It was hard to say that Du En did not have this intention. In any case, he naturally would not waste this opportunity. He burned away the withered tree cage the opponent had been using to block him while simultaneously channeling it, switched the saber for a sword, and with divine fire raging, he thrust forward directly.

He would not hesitate because the opponent still had reason; in any case, he would first cripple her ability to act.

Wurei, who was shaking her head to clear it, faced the suffocating feeling and threat felt at this close range. Her dharma power transformation was very keen, and she thought the same. Without delay, she grabbed the saber and went up.

"Ah!!!"

Facing the simultaneous attacks, Huizheng immediately erupted with a shrill scream. A shockwave like a tsunami burst forth, directly stalling the two who were coming on aggressively. At the same time, she raised a finger toward the boundary of the void close at hand, about to take the opportunity to unleash her killing move.

But the next moment, her other hand suddenly reached out, grabbed her own hand, and forcibly interrupted the killing move, causing the dharma power to backfire, surging from all over her body, further tearing her own physique apart.

Wurei immediately understood how the cracks on her face came to be. Her offensive subconsciously slowed, and then she was carried by the puppet to continue hacking at her.

"..."

"You, you all..."

Huizheng seemed to stabilize her state and wanted to say something, but the next moment, her withered, skirt-like hair suddenly moved on its own, extending and exploding outward. One cluster reached out and grabbed the chain blade that was sneakily emerging; another cluster entangled the long saber that was being piloted to attack from the other side. The majority poured toward Du En, who was the most threatening with his raging divine fire, while a small portion precisely attacked Wurei, hiding deep murderous intent.

"No, it won't do..."

As Huizheng spoke again, Wurei had already been beaten to the point of exhaustion by that small portion of hair. Even though she could accurately judge the paths of various attacks by relying on her prodigy perspective, even if she steadied her spirit and had the puppet's help, she could only barely protect herself.

Because it was too fast and too powerful!

So even if she could barely react, she simply could not find a gap to advance.

On the other side, the chain blade was entangled, creaking as if it could not hold on, and Du En's long saber was also difficult to cut through this hair. As for his own side, the divine fire was like an explosion, but it was forcibly covered and trapped, forming a large ball that slowly compressed inward.

Even if Huizheng retained her reason and would interfere with and restrain her own actions, her highly incomplete individual strength could still suppress the two of them, showing the strength she previously held as the number one cultivator of the Qing Kingdom.

However, Du En naturally had long anticipated this and was well-prepared.

So at this very moment, the thirty-some fourth-tier dharma treasures that had been sneaking closer revealed their ferocity and suddenly erupted... but Huizheng had long been aware. She stepped forward fiercely, and the observatory under her feet immediately erupted with dots of gray starlight, converging to raise a layer of dim aurora, freezing the surrounding several hundred zhang.

"You all, run quickly..."

Huizheng looked at Wurei in her field of vision.

"What do we do now?" Wurei turned her head to look toward Du En.

"Detonate."

Artifact prohibition, self-detonation. These Tier 4 magical artifacts had one, and only one, purpose.

In an instant, the ten magical artifacts located at the weak points of the Dark Radiance Aurora self-detonated on the spot.

Boom—! The space itself was shattered; the Star Gazing Platform was instantly covered in cracks and teetering on the verge of collapse. The aurora was also torn to pieces in an instant, and then the other Tier 4 magical artifacts swarmed forward without a moment's hesitation, detonating in a chain reaction as soon as they drew near, right before Huizheng's somewhat dazed gaze.

Boom, boom, boom...

"Wah!"

Is this why you had to go to the artifact vault first?

Wurei, who was close by and naturally caught in the aftermath, went rolling away in a scream, harboring many silent complaints.

As for Du En, who had been surrounded and enclosed by the withered hair, he had stumbled into a stroke of luck; he let the main target take the full brunt of the damage, easily charging out amidst the waning explosions.

The firelight was like a drill, stirring up a vortex.

At this moment, before the aftershocks had settled, a terrifying, deformed blood-eye suddenly opened within them.

Space instantly solidified, the shockwaves of the explosion stalled, and at the center of the vortex-like spiral before them was that thrusting sword tip.

Organizing and uploading~~

A trace of mockery appeared in that deformed blood-eye, and as it widened further, it shattered the vortex of aftershocks, with an invisible force ravaging the area, intent on completely destroying the remnants of the Azure Sky Divine Tree's main body.

Then, it froze.

Where was Du En? Strikingly, beneath the vortex of aftershocks it had blasted open, there was no sign of the key figure.

It hurriedly withdrew its power to defend, but in the next moment, accompanied by a *squelch*, it felt itself being gripped and squeezed, with golden divine fire flames burning within, and a power brewing to erupt surging forth.

A very familiar feeling.

"Ah..."

It wanted to shriek something, but the sound was cut short just as it began.

Because it was crushed by the eruption.

Profound Sacrifice, Sun Divine Fire! The brilliant radiance condensed within the palm; in this lightless place, a tiny sun appeared, reducing that deformed evil eye to nothingness.

"It is... sunlight, the sun..."

"It is... the stars... in the universe..."

In Huizheng's other pitch-black eye, a trace of dazed longing appeared. Her left hand couldn't help but rise to touch it, but the radiance was merely a fleeting flash; having just scooped it back, she decisively let it go again. As a Golden Crow who had become human, she had once again lost the radiance that should have been hers.

Then, her hand was abruptly pulled back.

Du En had just used spatial movement to flank her; finding no obstruction in Huizheng's awareness, he reached out a hand, pierced through her head, emerged from her right eye socket, and grabbed the evil eye that had manifested.

Now, as he withdrew his hand, she began to sway unsteadily.

The next moment, her spine and middle-lower dantian were both pierced straight through, and chain blades snaked over to bind her tightly.

"Truly... merciless, ah..."

Although her reason approved, her emotions were clearly fluctuating.

After all, I hadn't completely lost control, especially after the evil eye was cleared.

She broke free from her previous dazed reflection and looked up slightly; Du En had already returned to her front, grabbing the somewhat damaged Azure Sky Burning Sword and beginning repairs, not wasting a single moment.

"Sorry."

He said, appearing calm.

"No need, it needs repair and reinforcement; over there, there is also the mask she left behind."

"Many thanks."

Following the other's instructions, Du En reached out and grabbed, taking a mask from a hidden compartment in the Star Gazing Platform. It looked like the one Witch Priest Qinglan had used at the beginning, with the complete patterns of the Divine Tree on the outside.

However, compared to the one left in the Divine Tree Temple, it had no extra special properties; it was merely carved from the bark of the Azure Sky Divine Tree while it was still normal, and it even looked somewhat crude, like the work of a young child.

So he simply melted it down to repair and reinforce the Azure Sky Burning Sword.

At this time, Wurei finally ran back.

She could finally fly, though it was relying on the puppet's brief burst—a type of sprinting gliding flight—since Du En's mana was currently insufficient to supply the puppet.

Clearly, Wurei had adapted to this thrilling operation; she no longer screamed, and her landing was quite stable.

Her growth and adaptation speed were extraordinary.

"As expected, it still came to this moment..."

Huizheng stared intently at Wurei, seemingly wanting to see the true face of Witch Priest Qinglan through her, but in the end, she only sighed and shook her head, then looked up at the lightless dome with a dazed expression.

"If you want to know the specifics, you need to go into my reflection of obsession. What I know now may have been distorted or modified, and it is not worth believing..."

The faint words sounded desolate, and her life was rapidly counting down.

This was clearly different from other Grudge Demons, obviously because she still retained clear reason and had not completely fallen into corruption.

And if the corruption on her body was not purified in time, after dying like this, she would likely be devoured completely, or even undergo additional mutations.

So, without needing Du En to say or look at anything, Wurei had already hurried over, and the light of the Azure Sky shone once more.

"Seen it again, as always, the fake blue sky..."

Accompanied by the sigh with slightly fluctuating emotions, Huizheng's obsessive memories began to manifest.

Qing Shen.

The Divine Tree grew, and the Azure Sky appeared.

The Qing Kingdom followed the trend of the times and the hearts of the people, changing the era name to Qing Shen.

The fifth year of Qing Shen.

"The things I want, you must give to me! If you don't, I will let you die first, and then I will come and take them myself!"

Above the vast imperial court hall, the uninvited guest who had broken in—that young and beautiful woman—spoke these domineering words, accompanied by the rising aura of a Golden Core, directly suppressing the civil and military officials, as well as the Emperor of the Qing Kingdom, who sat on the throne deep within and had only been wearing his azure-bottomed dragon robe for a few years.

Huizheng, in such a posture, burst into the old framework of the Qing Kingdom, and also into the eyes of the two people peeking at this memory of obsession.

Wurei's gaze could not help but brighten instantly.

Because at this moment, Huizheng was young and vigorous, high-spirited, with eyes so piercing and captivating that he was practically turning into a bright star or the scorching sun, and the Golden Core cultivation he had just cultivated was unmatched in the Qing Kingdom, leaving people speechless and dazed.

(End of this chapter)