Chapter 243: Sacrifice and Breakthrough

Puff.

A light sound, like popping a water bubble.

The Shadow Guard captain who had burned away everything of himself, together with his life‑risking "Blade of Void", was completely and cleanly erased within that raging black‑gold light pillar.

Not even a scrap remains.

The world fell back into silence.

"Cough... cough cough!"

Wang Zhitao coughed up a massive mouthful of blood, collapsing onto the ground like a puddle of sludge, his face as pale as paper. He felt every iota of strength in his body drained, even moving a finger became a luxury.

"Brother... I... I can't go on..."

Wang Zhize's condition was no better. He knelt on one knee, supporting his body with the Black Jade Slip, preventing himself from falling. The light that had once flowed across the jade slip now dimmed, like a dying candle in the wind.

But his eyes stared fixedly ahead.

The terrifying black‑gold light pillar, after devouring the Shadow Guard captain, did not stop; it continued extending forward for a hundred meters before finally exhausting its power and slowly dissipating into the air.

Where the light pillar vanished, the massive beast Wang Shan's silhouette appeared.

However, the sight before them made the hearts the two brothers had just set down instantly rise to their throats again.

"Grandfather!"

Wang Zhize shouted hoarsely.

The massive, towering body of the beast, constructed of black‑gold crystals, was showing web‑like fissures.

These fissures did not stem from external attacks but from within. That recent strike, which fused the most refined power of three generations—grandfather, father, and grandson—was indeed world‑shattering, yet for the grandfather as a "container", the burden reached its limit.

"Tick-tock."

A drop of black‑gold liquid seeped from a fissure, falling to the ground.

It was not blood.

It lacked the scent of blood, instead emitting a pure, extreme energy vibration. The moment the liquid touched the ground, it made no sound, merely silently "assimilated" that warped crystal into a small pool of constantly twisting, pure energy light and shadow.

Then came the second drop, the third...

Soon, the black‑gold "blood" dripped like raindrops, seeping and falling from all over the beast's massive body. Its body was beginning to collapse and dissolve from within.

"No... don't..." Wang Zhitao struggled to rise, but could not muster any strength, only watching helplessly as tears mixed with blood at his mouth streamed down.

The beast slowly, as if having exhausted all its strength, lowered its chaotic head, looking at the two brothers.

Its eyes, once half as black as an abyss and half as golden as the sun, were now gradually turning dim and hollow.

Within, Wang Zhize's "Control" and Wang Zhitao's "Devour" were fading, and Wang Shan's own "humanity" receded like the tide.

Wang Zhize, holding the jade slip, felt the clearest.

He could feel that consciousness, linked to his bloodline, familiar and warm, rapidly dissipating.

It was not death.

But a kind of... transcendence? Or rather, dilution. Grandfather's "self" was merging into a grander, boundless existence.

At the final moment when that consciousness was about to vanish completely, a vague, wordless thought crossed the spatial distance, gently touching his soul.

That thought was pure with only one meaning.

Protection.

The next second, the beast Wang Shan's eyes completely lost their luster.

"Roo..."

A deep sound, unlike any creature could make, resonated from deep within his throat.

Crack—!!!

His massive body could no longer maintain its form and shattered with a thunderous crash!

But there was no explosion, no flesh and blood flying.

The massive body turned into billions of black‑gold light spots, like a breached river of stars, spewing out instantly.

These light spots did not scatter; instead, they formed a spectacular torrent of light in midair, moving proactively and without hesitation toward the ever‑splitting, spreading spatial rifts in this alien dimension.

The space, originally on the brink of collapse and trembling, miraculously stabilized after being infused with this light torrent.

All the spatial rifts were being repaired and sealed at a visible speed. The cave's laws seemed to be re‑ordered by an invisible giant hand, becoming unprecedentedly solid and stable.

But it also became unprecedentedly... strange.

"This... this is..." Wang Zhitao stared dumbfounded at what lay before him.

Wang Zhize, dazed, knelt on the ground, and the jade slip in his hand lit up again, emitting a warm glow. He felt that his connection to this space, rather than being severed by Grandfather's "disappearance", had become tighter and more... intimate.

It seemed the entire space had become an extension of Grandfather's body.

He muttered to himself, his voice tinged with sobs, yet carrying an indescribable shock.

"Grandfather... he... he didn't die..."

"He became this space."

In the distance, the three surviving Shadow Guards had long been terrified stiff.

They watched helplessly as their captain self‑detonated, then was counter‑killed by a fiercer "self‑detonation" from the opponent. Now, that terrifying monster had shattered itself again.

What kind of ghost‑story plot is this?

"Monster... monster's over! Quick! While we can, tear open the space, let's go!"

One of the Shadow Guards reacted first, suppressing his fear, his hands swiftly forming seals as a spatial spell's light glimmered in his palm.

However, after the light flickered twice, it went "Puff" and vanished.

"Hmm? What's happening?"

The Shadow Guard froze, unwilling to accept defeat, and cast the spell again.

The result was the same.

"No! The spatial laws here… have been completely locked! Like a solid iron plate, impossible to tear!" another Shadow Guard shouted in despair after trying.

At that moment, a cold voice came from behind them.

"Want to leave?"

The three Shadow Guard spun around, and saw Wang Zhize, who had always been in charge of the formation and seemed the weakest, somehow already standing.

Blood and tears mingled on his face, his expression mournful, yet in his eyes there was a chilling cold that made hearts race.

"The place my grandfather bought with his life is your grave."

Wang Zhize slowly raised the Black Jade Slip in his hand.

He no longer needed to laboriously construct any great formation as before.

He only needed a single thought.

"Plop!"

The Shadow Guard who had just been trying to tear the space saw the crystal floor beneath his feet suddenly turn without warning into a viscous swamp; his whole body instantly sank, leaving only his head above, trembling as bubbles "gurgle gurgle" rose.

"Help… help me!"

With a "Bang!" he was slammed against the ceiling like a poster, limbs flailing, yet he couldn't get down.

The last remaining Shadow Guard, terrified to the point his soul left his body, turned to run.

But as soon as he took a step, the Spiritual Power inside him surged wildly, like a drunk strongman rampaging through his own Meridians.

"Ah—! My… my Spiritual Power!"

He fell to the ground in pain, convulsing all over, spitting out flames of Spiritual Energy from his mouth and nose.

In just a few seconds, the three elite Shadow Guard of the Golden Core stage were utterly destroyed in an absurdly ridiculous manner.

Wang Zhitao stared at the scene, his mouth opening wide enough to fit an egg.

"Brother… this… this is…"

"It's Grandfather."

Wang Zhize replied softly, his voice still hoarse.

He could feel a gentle yet mighty force passing through the Slip, flowing slowly from the very space itself into his and his brother's bodies, repairing their damaged flesh and dried‑up Spiritual Power.

This is Grandfather's final protection.

And also… the horn of their counterattack.