Chapter 281: Book Seven: Return (Happy New Year)

A vast expanse of heaven and earth had twisted, giving birth within itself a new world.

Inside this new world, birds sang and flowers bloomed, yet a colossal creature forged entirely of ice gleamed brilliantly under the light. This immense ice-being exhaled endless mist, filling more than half of the Three Thousand Worlds, yet not a single cultivator could touch it.

It was the low-level Hunsou lifeform, “Frost Wraith Envoy.”

“Where are the cultivators? Where?” The Frost Wraith Envoy was deeply agitated; it excelled in ice-based and minor soul-based techniques, but this time the cultivators had fled far away, surrounding it with a terrifying array.

“Three Thousand Worlds, Heaven and Earth’s Killing Intent!”

A cold voice rang out.

Instantly, hundreds of millions of sword lights emerged within the world, countless blades turning like gears, perfectly synchronizing the array’s mystery and causing its power to surge violently—so violently that the low-level Hunsou lifeform, the Frost Wraith Envoy, was plunged into despair.

“No—” The Frost Wraith Envoy stared in despair as the torrent of sword light engulfed it, finally tearing apart its body and splitting open its core.

Before absolute power, it had no recourse whatsoever.

Its shattered corpse fell downward.

Only then did Di Qing appear, waving his hand to collect the massive corpse.

Though the sword lights had cut through the body, the corpse itself suffered negligible damage and could still fetch a high price.

“Impressive.” Luo Feng also appeared beside him, praising, “Di Qing brother, you’re far more decisive than I am! And this Three Thousand Killing Array… it’s vastly more mysterious than when we sparred before.”

During their earlier sparring on the Origin Continent, Di Qing had also used the Three Thousand Killing Array, but back then it lacked such profundity.

“I brought a secret treasure array diagram,” Di Qing smiled. “I spent five million Hunsou Crystals to acquire it—it’s a semi-Hunsou-level diagram. With this diagram, the Three Thousand Killing Array becomes stronger. I merely happened to have the right counter to this Frost Wraith Envoy.”

Luo Feng nodded.

After all, Di Qing was already half-step into the Mid-Stage Divine Emperor realm, his cultivation foundation deeper; with a suitable secret treasure array diagram, his explosive power indeed surpassed his own.

…

“Boom—”

Vast lightning flashed wildly, darting everywhere.

Luo Feng’s world avatar struggled to entangle it, but this terrifying, colossal lightning refused to fight, solely intent on fleeing—forcing its way through the edge of the Three Thousand Worlds and vanishing in a flash.

“My mistake,” Di Qing appeared beside him, shaking his head. “Luo Feng brother, even with your will-based secret technique, you forced that ‘Thunder Lynx’ to reveal its true form, yet I still failed to kill it in one strike—it instantly woke up and fled.”

“We both gave our all,” Luo Feng said, gaining new insight.

Only after combining the Cursed Forbidden Technique and Lieyuan Technique were they able to force the thunder hidden within the cloud mass to reveal its true form: a small beast-like creature resembling a “Thunder Lynx.” But the Thunder Lynx’s survival ability was clearly immense—even half-dazed and stunned, it absorbed ninety percent of Di Qing’s full-array assault and still forcibly escaped the Three Thousand Worlds array.

“Pity,” Di Qing sighed. “Though this Thunder Lynx is also a low-level Hunsou lifeform at the Divine Emperor Early Stage, its lightning mysteries are exceptionally rare, worth around three million Hunsou Crystals. But it’s just too hard to kill.”

Luo Feng nodded.

Low-level Hunsou lifeforms are born beyond the cage, possessing numerous special talents.

Some with extraordinarily rare talents can even slip silently into cities like Yulan City, protected by countless Elders and Hall Masters working together. Thus, even within Yulan City, cultivators are occasionally slain by low-level Hunsou lifeforms.

Yet these stealthy attacks are never carried out recklessly, for killing within the city risks drawing immediate retaliation from a group of Elders.

…

Luo Feng and Di Qing’s joint hunting grew increasingly seamless.

Luo Feng’s karmic avatar used the Heaven-Ending Curse Technique combined with Lieyuan Technique—its effect was excellent, usually stunning Divine Emperor Early Stage low-level Hunsou lifeforms, granting them a brief window to strike.

Luo Feng engaged in close combat, entangling them; Di Qing’s Three Thousand Killing Array surrounded and slaughtered.

The Three Thousand Killing Array… was more than ten times stronger than Luo Feng’s world avatar combined with world projection.

One after another, low-level Hunsou lifeforms at the Divine Emperor Early Stage stage were hunted down by the two of them.

“Huh.”

The black airship glided silently; Luo Feng’s third eye of Simmie opened, carefully scanning the surroundings. Di Qing likewise activated his detection technique—their methods differed, each with unique strengths.

Not far from the black airship now lurked a colossal entity fused with the void.

This colossal entity was part of the void itself, possessing tens of thousands of long limbs that wove like a loom, knitting the void into an endless web spanning vast distances.

Their black airship had already flown into this web.

Yet Luo Feng and Di Qing remained utterly unaware, still carefully probing the surroundings.

“Hum.”

The void-woven net extended layer upon layer, enveloping them.

“Something’s wrong,” Di Qing suddenly frowned.

“What is it?” Luo Feng remained oblivious—he was far inferior to Di Qing in spatial perception.

“Leave. Now.”

Though uncertain, Di Qing sensed an immense terror lurking in the void!

Whoosh!

He immediately propelled the black airship to its maximum speed—just as it shot forward—

Layers upon layers of void-woven nets fully manifested, wrapping around the black airship.

“It’s the Void Weaver!” Both Di Qing and Luo Feng recognized it instantly, seeing the aura of the colossal entity—their size and terrifying presence revealed its approximate strength.

“A Divine Emperor Late Stage Void Weaver!”

“Run!”

Without hesitation, Luo Feng and Di Qing fled—before such a Void Weaver, even a Divine Emperor Mid Stage cultivator would flee without a second thought; they had zero desire to fight.

Di Qing retracted the black airship—it was useless now. Luo Feng’s time avatar then dragged Di Qing into the “Future Timeline.”

Huh.

In the Future Timeline, the time avatar carried Di Qing to escape.

Luo Feng and Di Qing had long planned multiple escape methods; since Luo Feng carried cheaper treasures and had thick skin with superior close combat, he naturally took the rear, ensuring Di Qing’s survival.

After all, Di Qing carried secret treasure array diagrams, the black airship, and survival items totaling over ten million Hunsou Crystals. Moreover, their current spoils—six low-level Hunsou lifeform corpses—were temporarily stored by Di Qing.

“Hm?”

As they fled through the Future Timeline, the time avatar and Di Qing sensed thin threads of void piercing into the Future Timeline, spreading toward them. “This Void Weaver doesn’t just control void—it also profoundly influences time?”

Luo Feng had no solution. His time avatar’s ability stemmed from the innate talent of an “Ultimate-Level Hunsou Bloodline Creature,” allowing him to traverse past, present, and future simultaneously. Those who reached Divine King Level Two on the Time Dao possessed similar abilities.

For those who didn’t understand the Time Dao, Luo Feng’s escape ability was formidable.

But low-level Hunsou lifeforms, having escaped the cage, naturally gained increasing control over time, karma, and other realms as their strength grew.

“Heaven-Ending Curse Technique! Lieyuan Technique!”

The Heaven-Ending Curse Technique was a forbidden technique of the Simmie Dao, cast by the karmic avatar, affecting the Void Weaver.

Before mastering the complete Dao, Luo Feng’s mental will had already reached the Divine Emperor level; after centuries of cultivation in the Dream Realm, his mental will surpassed the Origin Continent’s upper limit.

Later, he successively mastered the Life, Destruction, and Simmie Daos—his mental will rose repeatedly, unconsciously reaching the Divine Emperor Late Stage. This was the reward of Dao comprehension.

Of course, for Divine Emperors, as their cultivation foundation deepened, mental will gradually reached its limit. To break further? One must make mental will escape the cage—reaching a level comparable to high-level Hunsou lifeforms.

This mental breakthrough was harder than any previous bottleneck.

No one—no single one—has succeeded!

Thus, even among the myriad world’s strongest, gathered across billions of worlds, those whose mental will reached the high-level Hunsou lifeform tier remained exceedingly rare.

“Boom.”

The Heaven-Ending Curse Technique contributed thirty percent of the power; Lieyuan Technique contributed seventy percent.

It slightly slowed the Void Weaver’s pursuit.

“Huh.” With this pause, Luo Feng’s time avatar carried Di Qing swiftly away through the Future Timeline, beyond the Void Weaver’s pursuit range.

After all, the Void Weaver’s influence over time was not that strong.

“Now I must find a way to escape.”

Di Qing escaped.

Luo Feng stared at the towering, colossal Void Weaver and roared—his world avatar split into three, each with a hundredfold energy reserve, powerful enough to charge in different directions!

“World Projection! Heaven and Earth United!”

“Heaven and Earth Escape Technique.”

“Kill!”

Three towering world avatars charged forward with fearless ferocity, attacking the Void Weaver.

…

Inside the black airship.

“How did it go?” Di Qing asked Luo Feng.

“The Void Weaver was too powerful,” Luo Feng shook his head lightly. “Only my world avatar escaped amid the chaos.”

Only with his karmic avatar, world avatar, and Tian Guang avatar fighting desperately could his world avatar have had a chance to flee.

His world avatar’s range was vast; once it fled, it moved swiftly. The world avatar carried Luo Feng’s only secret treasure glove.

“I lost a lot of energy reserves,” Luo Feng felt pained—such reserves would take hundreds of eons to absorb on the Origin Continent! In Yulan City, though energy was more abundant, without a small universe to assist, his current energy absorption rate was even slower.

Perhaps only when his realm advanced further would his absorption speed increase.

“You held the rear so I could escape,” Di Qing smiled. “I didn’t even need to use my survival items.”

In the Nine River Sacred Realm, the powerful greatly valued survival items.

Especially among the myriad world’s strongest—those without avatars—spending any price on survival items was common. Some survival items could even help escape from semi-Hunsou-level beings.

Of course, even the cheapest survival items cost over a million Hunsou Crystals; the more expensive ones had no upper limit. Some innate secret treasures or survival items exchanged in the Infinite Space Treasury were worth extraordinarily high prices.

“Your losses—so many avatars, so much energy reserve—count as fifty thousand Hunsou Crystals,” Di Qing said.

“The six Hunsou lifeform corpses we collected are worth about 6.5 million Hunsou Crystals. You take 3.5 million, I take 3 million.”

“Agreed,” Luo Feng nodded.

Before forming the team, they had already established these rules.

Divide the spoils equally.

Should a crisis arise, to preserve the spoils and escape, the party suffering greater losses may use the shared spoils first to compensate.

Luo Feng’s loss of hundreds of times his perfect divine body’s energy reserves was trivial—he could recover after centuries of cultivation; but if Di Qing used his life-saving item, it would cost two million Hunyuan Crystals.

Of course, Di Qing possessed only this one life-saving item; after all, he was a being from the Source World, with a body-splitting technique, and he was unwilling to expend excessive cost on such an item.

“Our haul has been good—we should return,” Di Qing said. “The more prey we kill, the greater the chance of accidents.”

Although low-level Hunyuan beings from the early Divine Emperor stage dominate, the more hunts we conduct, the more likely we are to encounter powerful ones. This time we only faced a late-stage Divine Emperor Void Weaver—what if we encountered a full-stage Divine Emperor?

With Di Qing’s life-saving item, worth merely two million Hunyuan Crystals, whether he could escape remains uncertain.

“We should return,” Luo Feng nodded.

His clones had drained heavily, his strength greatly diminished—he ought to return to Yulan City. Still, his energy reserves within the clones in Yulan City remained ample.

“With over three million Hunyuan Crystals, this return trip, I must thoroughly study the Infinite Space Vault’s exchange system,” Luo Feng thought. He mastered the Dao of Creation and Destruction; the Infinite Space would naturally grant him higher rewards.

“Huh.”

The black airship returned cautiously.

On the way back, the closer they neared Yulan City, the more likely they were to encounter cultivators launching raids! Di Qing, experienced in such matters, piloted the black airship on a wide detour, coordinating with Luo Feng’s Bionic Eye of Annihilation to narrowly avoid the raids and successfully return to Yulan City.

“We’re back.”

As the black airship flew through the city gate, Luo Feng and Di Qing finally exhaled in relief.

——

Tomato wishes everyone a happy Year of the Snake—may you all be joyful and achieve all your wishes in the new year!

During the holiday, Tomato will be visiting relatives and taking a break.

From tomorrow, New Year’s Eve through the fifth day of the first lunar month, Tomato will rest. On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Tomato resumes updates!

(End of Chapter)