Chapter 178: Back-to-the-Water Battle

Boom!

The rock wall behind him closed, letting out a dull, heavy boom, and the final beam of light was utterly devoured.

Li Hu and Zhang Mei staggered a few steps, turned back, and saw only a dead, icy stone wall, as if the life-and-death passage just moments ago had never existed.

"Master..." Li Hu's voice went dry, his hands and feet turning cold.

The master didn't follow him inside.

He regarded himself as the final barrier, staying outside to face that indescribable terror alone.

"Big Brother Wang..." Zhang Mei clung to the increasingly faint Wang Zhitao, tears streaming uncontrollably.

It's over.

Everything is over.

Just then, Wang Zhitao in her arms shuddered violently, spitting out a mouthful of black blood that splashed onto Zhang Mei's collar, exuding a stench so foul it could corrode stone.

Zhitao!

"Brother!" Wang Zhize lunged over, his little face deathly pale.

The child's life was ebbing away at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Outside the passage.

Wang Shan had his back to the energy fissure rapidly healing, alone facing the oncoming tide of will capable of obliterating everything.

He was like a lone boat in a storm.

No, he wasn't even a lone boat; at most he was a reef that could be ground to powder at any moment.

"Heh..."

A mouthful of black blood mixed with chunks of viscera welled from the corner of his mouth, yet he let out a low laugh.

That laugh rang especially harsh in the dead silence, filled with unabashed madness.

Desperate situation?

He, Wang Shan, has spent his whole life rolling in desperate straits—when has he not?

His grandson's life hangs by a thread, the retreat is cut off, and death lies ahead.

Very good.

It's truly excellent.

If he weren't pushed to this point, he himself wouldn't have known he could still pull off such a stunt.

"Isn't it just a gamble with our lives?" Wang Shan muttered to himself, as if speaking to an invisible friend, "I'm betting with you!"

He slowly raised the black jade slip in his hand.

This thing is a key, a hope, and also his last chip.

But having a chip isn't enough; he also needs the wherewithal to overturn the table.

What is his capital?

It's the damned, tormenting power of the 《Ten Thousand Beasts Reversal》's backlash that makes him wish he were dead!

"Come!"

Wang Shan's eyes turned blood-red; instead of suppressing the savage beastly power within, he flung open the gates of his body, letting that destructive force scour his limbs, bones, and five viscera!

"Ugh—ahhh—!"

The agony surpassed human limits, splitting his skin into bloody gashes, while the muscles beneath twisted into grotesque braids.

This isn't cultivating a technique—it's suicide!

But he didn't stop.

He dumped that violent force, capable of tearing him apart, together with all his remaining cultivation, into the black jade slip in a wild, frenzied surge!

Hum—!

The jade slip let out a mournful wail, as if it couldn't bear this chaotic power, and spiderweb-like cracks spread across its surface.

But the next second, blood from Wang Shan's palm wound welled out, soaking the jade slip.

Instead of expanding, the cracks were stained with an eerie red glow by that fresh blood.

The jade slip, his bloodline, and the most primal, frenzied beastly power emanating from the 《Ten Thousand Beasts Reversal》 resonated together in an unprecedented way!

"Not enough... not enough!"

Wang Shan roared, lifting the jade slip high and aiming it at the ancient entity that had descended nearby, warping all light and perception.

"Aren't you the master of the Ten Thousand Beasts Origin?!"

"Don't you regard us as ants?!"

"Then let you taste... your own power!"

With his final roar, the jade slip's light flared inward, then an indescribable pulling force burst forth from it!

Boom—rumble—rumble!

The whole space trembled, not because of the ancient being's anger, but because deep within the earth, the slumbering earth vein energy was forcibly awakened, drawn, and plundered by the jade slip!

Visible streams of earth-yellow energy, like subterranean dragons turning, surged from all directions, wildly rushing toward Wang Shan—or rather, toward the jade slip in his hand!

That ancient being, the "Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts," produced a clear emotional fluctuation for the first time.

It was shock, then immediately fury!

What is this ant doing?

He is... stealing His authority!

The vast will coalesced into a tangible mental shock, like a tsunami crashing down, seeking to grind Wang Shan and the jade slip in his hand into nothing. At the same time, He mobilized the secret realm's beast-origin energy, trying to forcibly sever Wang Shan's link to the earth vein and shut down this forcibly opened "energy faucet".

Too late!

"Time to eat!" Wang Shan grinned, revealing a mouthful of bloody teeth, laughing like a demon.

He used himself as the furnace, the Counter-Devouring force of the Ten Thousand Beasts Reversal as the flame, the forcibly seized Earth Vein energy as firewood, fused everything together, then blasted it out fiercely through the jade slip acting as the muzzle!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no sky-destroying light effect.

Only a constantly spinning, twisting energy vortex flew out silently, heading straight for the mass of distorted light representing the Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts.

The core of that vortex was the Earth Vein power sharing the same origin as the Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts.

Yet the vortex's shell wrapped Wang Shan's beastly power, which had become extremely chaotic from the cultivation method's backlash, filled with destructive and rebellious aura.

Same origin, yet utterly opposite.

Like a specially forged key poisoned with deadly toxin, stabbed at a lock that seemed flawless!

The Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts felt what pain was for the first time.

It was not physical damage, but contamination and tearing at the source.

His energy core, stable for countless millions of years, was struck by this force of the same origin yet imbued with betrayal; a minuscule flaw, almost negligible, was instantly magnified countless times!

Zizz—

The twisted light mass constituting his form flickered, showing a moment of dispersion and instability.

Now!

Wang Shan seized that one-in-a-hundred-millionth-of-a-second opportunity.

He did not launch another attack, but slammed the jade slip hard against his own chest.

"Boom!"

What he detonated was not the enemy, but the energy field he had disturbed! It was the immense energy that the ancient existence briefly lost control of after its core was injured!

Boom—

An energy storm sweeping everything erupted, centered on that ancient existence, exploding in all directions!

Wang Shan, meanwhile, rode the terrifying thrust of that explosion like a kicked pebble, hurtling at beyond-limit speed straight into the space rift behind him that had narrowed to a thin line.

The moment he rushed in, the rift vanished completely.

All that remained in the space was the silent, furious roar of the Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts, briefly collapsing from severe damage.

……

Elsewhere.

Wang Shan felt as if he had been stuffed into a high-speed spinning iron barrel, then someone hammered him repeatedly with a siege hammer.

The world spun, his five viscera and six bowels feeling like they had turned into a puddle of mud.

When he was finally spat out from that chaos and hit the ground hard, all he saw were the anxious, distorted faces of Li Hu and Zhang Mei.

He wanted to say something, like "I'm not dead" or "Well done".

But as soon as he opened his mouth, only uncontrollable blood welled up.

Consciousness was swiftly sinking into the dark abyss.

Before losing consciousness entirely, he seemed to hear a cold, urgent alert from the system.

【Warning: Host's vital signs below three percent, Counter-Devouring force fully erupting, bodily functions collapsing……】

Damn, I screwed up this time……