Chapter 176: with translation of chapter title

"Kneel?"

Wang Shan's throat rolled out a low, beast-like laugh, the laugh holding no trace of reverence, only naked mockery.

"What the hell are you, you think you deserve to make me kneel?"

That twisted ball of light, the so-called "Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts," transmitted no further information. The response to Wang Shan was action.

"Roar——!"

The beast roars, like mountains and seas, instantly merged into a substantive sound wave that made ears ache and souls feel like tearing. The outermost iron-skinned oxen, like heavy tanks, lifted their four hooves, lowered their heads, and with their gleaming metallic horns launched a ferocious charge. The earth groaned under their trampling, unable to bear the weight.

"Hold fast!" Li Hu roared, shielding Zhang Mei and the two children behind him, brandishing his sword.

Zhang Mei reacted instantly, flicking her wrist to throw several yellow talisman papers.

"Fire Talisman! Diamond Talisman!"

The talismans, upon leaving her hand, should have ignited raging flames and erected a solid light shield. Yet on this strange clearing, they merely went "poof," sputtering a weak spark before turning to ash. The light shield from the Diamond Talisman was thinner than a cicada's wing, and a single swipe from the first shadow demon wolf to charge shattered it to pieces.

"How could this be?" Zhang Mei's face instantly turned grim: "My spiritual power… is suppressed! I can't use the talismans!"

In this space, that ancient will is the absolute law. It does not allow these "external" powers to take effect here.

Li Hu's situation was just as dire. His sword qi, once extended three feet from his body, was ground to nothing by an invisible pressure; striking the demon beast left only a shallow white mark, not even breaking its hide.

"Master, no! My sword qi has been neutralized!" he shouted hoarsely, then a bull slammed into his sword, sending him flying backward as he spat a mouthful of blood.

It's over.

This thought arose simultaneously in Li Hu and Zhang Mei's hearts. This was not a battle one could resist; it was a crushing.

"Cough..." Wang Shan coughed up a mouthful of bloody sputum, his eyes growing ever fiercer. Conventional methods wouldn't work; he had anticipated that. So he could only resort to unconventional means.

"Ten Thousand Beasts Reversal, open… for me!"

He hesitated not at all, actively invoking the savage beastly nature that the Clear Heart Pill had been suppressing. In an instant, a heart-rending, lung-splitting pain exploded from his dantian, racing along his meridians throughout his body. Beneath his skin, veins of cyan-black writhed like awakening earthworms, and feral beast patterns began spreading from his neck, climbing onto his cheeks.

"Ugh—ahhh——!"

Amid his anguished howl, a force far more violent, chaotic, and primal than before surged from within him. This power bore a faint resemblance to the will that suppressed all things around him.

"All of you… get lost!"

Wang Shan threw a punch, devoid of technique or skill, pure power unleashed. A fist strike mixed with blood-colored and black qi shot forth like a cannonball, instantly blasting the three leading iron-skinned oxen into pieces, flesh and blood flying.

The might of a single punch reached this extent!

Yet the cost was also enormous. Wang Shan's body trembled violently, fine beads of blood seeping from his skin, making him seem like a blood-filled sphere ready to burst at any moment.

"Master!" Zhang Mei exclaimed.

Wang Shan had no time to spare. He knew he had only one strike's worth of power; if he tried to activate it again, he would likely explode before the enemy even reached him.

His brief outburst seemed to enrage the "Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts." The twisted light at the clearing's center flared violently, and the surrounding demon beasts grew even more ferocious, fearlessly charging again.

Worse still, the violent clash of this energy triggered a chain reaction.

"Cough… feels awful…"

In Zhang Mei's arms, the perpetually unconscious Wang Zhitao suddenly began a violent cough, his small face swelling purple-red, threads of black qi leaking from his seven orifices—clearly the strange poison within him had been provoked and flared up again.

"Brother!" Wang Zheze burst into tears, clutching the black jade slip tightly.

"Zhitao!" Wang Shan's heart clenched; he glanced back, his eyes nearly bursting.

Internal troubles and external threats—a true desperate situation!

The beast tide surged again; Li Hu and Zhang Mei fought desperately, but like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, they quickly gained new wounds and seemed about to be utterly overwhelmed.

At this critical moment, Wang Shan's mind became unprecedentedly clear. Under the violent perception granted by the Ten Thousand Beasts Reversal technique, he caught a faint, discordant detail.

The "Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts," when controlling the beast tide and earth vein energy, is not flawless. Each time it mobilizes a massive force, its grip on the whole space flickers with a fleeting, minuscule disturbance—like how a person throwing a full-force punch inevitably leaves a tiny opening in their guard.

This opening is imperceptible to ordinary people, but in Wang Shan's present state it is as clear as a lighthouse in the night.

At the same time, the black jade slip in Wang Zheze's hand suddenly grew hot, emitting a faint yet tenacious glow. A strange sense of resonance, following that fluctuation, pointed far away in a direction.

There… is a path to life!

"Now!"

Wang Shan hesitated not at all in his mind; once this opportunity passed, it would never return.

He spun around violently, pulling from his storage bag the last cherished 【Fourth Tier Earth Escape Talisman】, pouring spiritual power into it as if money were no object.

"Li Hu, Zhang Mei, take the children and come over!"

He bellowed, his voice distorted by pain and power, yet carrying an unquestionable command.

Li Hu and Zhang Mei instinctively obeyed, expending their last ounce of strength to rush to Wang Shan's side. He grabbed everyone, then slammed the already blazing Earth Escape Talisman hard onto the ground.

"Go!"

A yellow-brown light instantly enveloped the five. However, the light did not carry them underground; instead, under the pressure of the "Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts'" will, it was forcibly twisted and shot toward a strange direction.

There, it appeared to be an ordinary cliff face.

"Boom!"

The five figures slammed straight into the cliff face and vanished.

On the clearing, the beast tide's charge halted abruptly. The twisted light flickered violently, emitting a silent fury capable of freezing souls. It seemed not to have expected that this ant could catch its sole weakness.

It did not pursue. Beyond that "cliff face" lay the secret realm's most unstable spatial rift, a law‑twisted wasteland; even this plane's will would not readily venture there.

But it would not let this rest.

A silent command issued, and countless demon beasts turned, surrounding the cliff face in an airtight ring, forming an encirclement even tighter than before.

……

On the other side, Wang Shan's group felt as if they had passed through a layer of viscous water curtain; after the world spun, they crashed hard onto a sheet of cold rock.

"Pfft——"

Wang Shan could no longer suppress it; a mouthful of black blood mixed with chunks of viscera spurted out. The beast markings on his skin did not fade but grew deeper, making him resemble a cracked porcelain vessel ready to shatter completely. The backlash of the technique was fiercer than ever before.

"Master!"

"Brother Wang!"

Li Hu and Zhang Mei couldn't attend to their own wounds, struggling to climb up.

"Don't worry about me… hurry, look at Zhitao!" Wang Shan's voice was hoarse like a broken gong.

Zhang Mei hastily felt for Wang Zhitao's breath; her already pallid face now lacked any trace of blood.

"His breath is very weak… the poison gas has attacked his heart…"

The atmosphere of despair spread in this narrow, dark fissure.

Although they had temporarily escaped the pursuit, their situation seemed even worse than outside. Wang Shan was severely injured and near death, Wang Zhitao's life hung by a thread, and Li Hu and Zhang Mei were both wounded.

Wang Shan leaned against the cold rock wall, panting violently, each breath tugging at the pain throughout his body. He painfully lifted his head, looking at his little grandson Wang Zhize.

In the child's hand, that black jade slip was now emitting an unprecedented light, bright and dim, as if breathing. Strands of strange energy flowed from the jade slip, slowly infusing into the unconscious Wang Zhitao's body, barely sustaining his last breath.

A glimmer of light reignited in Wang Shan's eyes.

He knew he had guessed correctly.

This fissure, concealed by the warped space, is a temporary refuge. But to truly survive, to find a way to break the situation, and even the key to turning defeat into victory…

His gaze fixed firmly on the constantly flashing jade slip.