Chapter 161

Bestial howls.

But Jiang Xia seemed not to hear—he burned the last of himself, forcing the completion of this forbidden art that defied heaven!

The instant the final prodigy’s form solidified completely and his vitality fully returned—

Jiang Xia’s right Rinnegan dimmed utterly, becoming like an ordinary eye, even faintly tinged with gray-white. The last spark of life within his shattered body, like a burned-out wick, went out completely.

His body stiffened in midair, then fell helplessly toward the ground.

And that crucial mayfly spirit core finally drifted downward, caught in a flash by Zhao Tianji, who swiftly carried it to Wang Teng’s side.

“Jiang Xia—!!!”

A heart-wrenching cry echoed across the heavens. All stared at the falling figure, their hearts pierced as if by knives. He had won the arena, slain the mayfly, reclaimed the spirit core, and even resurrected every fallen teammate… at the cost of his own life.

The human race had won.

But this victory was unbearably heavy.

The three sages—Ye Ting, Lu Wujiu, and Ye Qing—closed their eyes, their bodies trembling slightly.

Qingyun let out a long, mournful sigh.

Cui Jue and the others who had been resurrected stared at the falling figure, their expressions layered with overwhelming complexity: the dazed relief of survival, and boundless grief and gratitude.

Qin Lie, hidden among the crowd, watched Jiang Xia’s “death” with grim satisfaction—yet seeing Qin Qianjue resurrected, he felt a strange emptiness and irritation.

“Match Thirteen… Human, Jiang Xia… wins.”

“The Fallen God Platform battle… is over. The human race… has won.”

The voice of the cosmic law echoed slowly, tinged with what seemed like sorrow, finally declaring the outcome.

The human camp offered no cheers of victory—only a heavy, suffocating silence. All stood motionless, preparing to retrieve Jiang Xia’s “remains.”

Yet at this very moment, no one noticed—

Jiang Xia’s body, utterly lifeless and falling.

Just before it struck the ground, his left eye—the ordinary Sharingan, now gray-white and seemingly ruined—deep within its pupil, that eerie pattern subtly, almost imperceptibly… turned once more.

A silent, invisible ripple—touching fate and causality—flashed and vanished.

Izanagi!

A ultimate illusion that transforms all harm suffered—including death—within a set timeframe into a dream, and all favorable conditions into reality!

The cost… is the loss of sight in the eye used to cast it, permanently sealed.

The next instant, Jiang Xia’s body—meant to lie broken among the ruins—vanished soundlessly before all eyes, like a dream dissolving into mist.

Not a trace remained.

As if he had never fallen there at all.

“What happened?!”

“Where’s Jiang Xia’s… body?!”

The humans rushing forward froze in shock, staring at the empty space.

“Did he… vanish without a trace?” someone whispered in grief.

“No… no! No residual energy at all—it’s as if he vanished into thin air!” The keen sages immediately sensed the anomaly.

Ye Ting and the others swept their spiritual senses across the entire arena and beyond—but found nothing. Jiang Xia, and all traces of him, had vanished completely.

“Could it be… even his corpse was erased…?” Ye Lingxi collapsed to the ground, hollow-eyed.

Wang Teng gripped the precious mayfly spirit core tightly, staring at the spot where Jiang Xia had vanished, tears blurring his vision, filled with endless sorrow and confusion.

No one knew that, at the moment everyone believed Jiang Xia had sacrificed himself for victory and his comrades—

In another isolated, dimension-sealed space—the Kamui Space—

A figure staggered out of a twisted spatial vortex and crashed heavily onto the cold, hard ground.

It was Jiang Xia!

His condition was dire beyond measure: his clothes torn, his body covered in dried blood and horrific wounds; his right Rinnegan utterly dark, stripped of all power; his left Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan tightly shut, a trail of blood weeping from the corner of his eye—he was blind.

His breath was faint as a thread; his meridians shattered, his senjutsu chakra exhausted; the aftereffects of the Eight Gates’ Death Gate had nearly destroyed the foundation of his body. He was, in every way but one, a cripple.

But he was still alive.

Using Izanagi, at the precise moment death was confirmed, he rewrote it as a dream—and with his last strength, activated Kamui to teleport himself into this absolute sanctuary.

He coughed violently, each spasm tearing through his body, bringing forth more blood.

He struggled to roll onto his back, gazing up at the gray, endless void of the Kamui Space. There was no joy in his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan—only bottomless exhaustion, coldness… and a hidden, razor-thin edge of resolve.

All outside: the cheers, the grief, the confusion, the conspiracies—were temporarily severed from him.

He needed time. Long, endless time—to mend this body on the brink of collapse, to absorb the insights from this death-forged battle, to adapt to his new state of blindness, and… to plan his next move.

The mayfly was gone, the spirit core secured, Wang Teng saved. The immediate threats were temporarily neutralized.

But what of the hidden enemies? The Qin family’s hatred? The demonic beasts’ schemes? And those lofty sages—or higher beings—who viewed all life as mere pawns?

“It’s… not over yet…” he whispered, voice rasping like a broken bellows.

Slowly, he closed his eyes, using his iron will to guide the faintest trickle of spiritual energy within him, and the slender threads of fortune-force emanating from the jade seal on his forehead—like ants moving grain—to painfully repair his ravaged body.

The Kamui Space fell into deathly silence. Only his faint breath remained.

Before the unbelieving eyes of all, the seven prodigies—whose bodies and souls had been utterly annihilated—reappeared, their forms rapidly solidifying within a green glow! Flesh and blood regenerated, souls returned!

Li Jiuyuan, Qin Qianjue, Ling Zhantian… they opened their eyes in confusion, staring at their flawless bodies, feeling vitality flow anew—as if waking from a long nightmare.

Rinne Tensei! A technique that resurrects the dead at the cost of the caster’s life!

“No! Jiang Xia! Stop!” Ye Lingxi wept uncontrollably, screaming.

“Damn it! Who asked Itachi to save me?! Stop!” Wang Teng cried out—

A gentle, life-giving green light surged across the arena like a tide.