Chapter 244: Despairing Shadow Guard

Gurgle... gurgle...

The Shadow Guard forced hard into the crystal ground, a string of murky bubbles rose from his mouth, his eyes stared wide like a dead fish, filled with endless fear.

That was not a swamp.

That was a crystal whose "form" concept had been tampered with; it had the viscosity and swallowing power of a swamp while retaining the essence of crystal, making all his divine abilities useless, so he could only watch himself continuously sink.

"Ah... let me down!"

The one slapped onto the cave ceiling was even more miserable; his whole body resembled a clumsy mural, limbs flailing uselessly. An invisible yet irresistible force pinned him tightly there—he couldn't struggle, not even move his neck.

And the last Shadow Guard twitching on the ground was the strangest of all. His inner power was no longer a docile sheep but a herd of frenzied bulls that had broken their reins, rampaging and tearing through his own meridians; each spasm was accompanied by uncontrolled outpouring of spiritual energy from his seven orifices.

Wang Zhitao's eyes twitched uncontrollably.

"Brother... this... this is..."

He leaned against the wall, feeling a warm, familiar force slowly flowing into his withered body, nourishing his near-collapsing meridians and flesh. This force came from the earth beneath his feet, from the surrounding air, from this entire space.

It was his grandfather's power.

Wang Zhize did not turn back; the blood-tears on his face had dried, leaving only a pair of eyes icy devoid of any emotion, fixed on the three Shadow Guards displaying all sorts of grotesque postures.

"It is my grandfather's... 'reception'." His voice was hoarse, like two stones rubbing together.

"'Reception?'" Wang Zhitao froze for a moment, then immediately understood its meaning; a complex emotion mixing sorrow and delight surged in his heart.

Yes, these people forced Grandfather to that point; now, using his final existence, Grandfather has prepared a grand "return gift" for them.

"What... what have you done?!" the Shadow Guard on the cave ceiling finally found his voice; he seemed to be the temporary leader remaining among the three, roaring with shock and anger.

Wang Zhize couldn't even be bothered to look at him; he simply lifted his hand slightly.

"Plop!"

The invisible pressure on that Shadow Guard vanished instantly, and his whole body fell straight down from the cave ceiling tens of meters high.

Despite being a Golden Core stage powerhouse, even in dire straits his reaction was extremely fast; seeing that he was about to hit the ground, he immediately tried to twist his body in midair and activate protective energy.

However, at the very moment his feet were about to touch the ground.

"Crack—!"

A bone‑cracking sound that made one's teeth ache rang out.

His whole body smashed into the ground at a terrifying speed, his legs instantly bending at a bizarre angle; it was as if the gravity acting on him had been magnified tenfold, a hundredfold!

"Ugh!" he let out a muffled groan, pain making cold sweat pour over his whole body, yet he didn't even have the strength to cry out.

"Now, can you speak properly?" Wang Zhize only then slowly walked up to him, looking down from above.

The situation of the other two Shadow Guards also changed.

The one trapped in the "marsh" saw the ground beneath his feet go "splash" and solidify again into crystal, sealing his lower half completely inside, turning him into an immobile "human statue".

And the one whose magical power had gone berserk saw the frenzied energy inside him suddenly become docile—but that very docility let him feel all the more clearly the excruciating pain of his meridians torn apart, riddled with a thousand wounds.

"Devil... you are devils!" the Shadow Guard sealed in the crystal, gazing at this bizarre sight before him, finally suffered a mental breakdown and screamed hysterically.

"'Devil?'" Wang Zhize gave a light laugh, though there was no warmth in it, "Compared to what you've done, our little tricks amount to nothing."

He crouched down, looking at the temporary captain whose legs were both broken.

"You hunted us, wanting to seize my younger brother's physique, wanting to refine my grandfather into a puppet."

"You set traps, using soul‑suppressing stakes, hoping to 'delete' us from this world."

"You even... killed my grandfather."

With each sentence Wang Zhize spoke, the Shadow Guard captain's face grew paler. He finally realized that he was not facing some lucky novice hoping for a fluke comeback.

This was a monster who had inherited some terrifying legacy, his heart burning with the fire of revenge.

"You... you can't kill us!" the Shadow Guard captain shouted, enduring the pain, fierce on the outside but weak within, "We are Shadow Guards! If you kill us, there will be no place for you under heaven or earth!"

"'Oh?'" Wang Zhize tilted his head, as if genuinely considering the question.

This gave the captain a glimmer of hope, and he hurriedly said, "Release us! We can pretend nothing happened! As long as you let us go, we..."

"'Do you think news can still get out from this place?'" Wang Zhize interrupted him, his tone tinged with amusement.

The color instantly drained from the captain's face.

He suddenly jerked awake.

Yes... the spatial laws here have been completely sealed and rewritten! Forget sending messages—they can't even tear open the simplest spatial rift now. This place has become a cage isolated from the world.

A... living cage.

"My grandfather," Wang Zhize rose to his feet, surveying the vast cavern shrouded in black‑gold radiance, his voice filled with endless sorrow yet also a heart‑pounding pride, "He couldn't kill you with his own hands, so he turned himself into this tomb."

"Welcome."

Wang Zhize slowly raised his hand.

A low hum—

The entire space emitted a deep resonance.

On the ground, walls, and ceiling… every mutated crystal began to exude threads of black‑gold energy. These threads, like living vines, quickly wove and spread, forming around the three Shadow Guards a massive energy prison that exuded an ominous aura.

Black‑gold energy bars rose from the ground, locking them firmly inside. Twisted runes flickered on the bars, emanating the auras of "Termination," "Isolation," "Withering"... the very law energies they had previously used to attack Wang Shan.

But now, these laws have become the jailers guarding them.

"No... no!!"

The three Shadow Guards were utterly desperate. They frenziedly attacked the energy prison, but their spells and treasures, upon touching the black‑gold bars, vanished like mud in the sea—being instantly devoured, assimilated, and even reinforcing the prison itself.

All of their attacks merely added bricks and tiles to their own tombs.

"Heh... heh heh..." the captain with broken legs, seeing this scene, suddenly stopped struggling, leaning against the icy crystal wall, and let out a low, meaningless laugh.

In that laugh there was no anger, no resentment, only a dead‑silken, utter despair.

So that's how it was.

Actually, from the moment the captain burned himself to unleash that ultimate strike, only to have it turned against him by the enemy, their fate had already been sealed.

They didn't lose to some powerful enemy.

They lost to their own attacks, lost to their own methods, lost to this … a desolate land irrigated by their own power.

Wang Zhitao walked to Wang Zhize's side, looked at the three figures in the cage that seemed like mad demons, and asked softly, "Brother, what now … what should we do?"

Wang Zhize did not answer immediately; he simply reached out, gently stroked the black‑gold energy fence beside him, feeling a faint yet exceedingly familiar pulse of consciousness emanating from within.

After a long while, he finally spoke slowly, his voice terrifyingly calm.

"No rush."

"The game has only just begun."