Chapter 220: The Beast

Boom~!!

A deafening roar exploded along the shore.

It seemed as if two meteors had collided, and a furious, unstoppable shockwave spread outward in a perfect ring.

The sand along the shore, already soft, was violently plowed into a trench over a thousand meters long and four to five meters deep; nearby seawater was instantly drained, and waves were flung hundreds of meters into the air!

The sky was filled with steaming vapor, rampant energy, and boiling true qi, as if the end of the world had arrived.

The first collision was evenly matched—neither side gained the upper hand!

For the first time, Peng Qianjiao's face showed shock—he never imagined a cultivator of the Innate Realm could unleash such a terrifying slash, one that matched his own full-power strike as a Earth Altar Realm master with a perfected Divine Bridge!

Yet.

Before Peng Qianjiao could recover from his shock, Chen Mu's second slash had already descended!

This slash, the water giant blade, grew even more solid, nearly crystallizing into tangible form, its length exploding to eight hundred meters!

Vast quantities of seawater were violently sucked upward, forming a colossal water spout connecting heaven and earth.

At this moment, Chen Mu fully unleashed the torrential power of water through the Ninefold Wave Surge Art!

How is this possible!

Peng Qianjiao's heart pounded like a drum—he sensed this slash far surpassed the previous one in terrifying might, and for the first time, a strong sense of dread surged within him.

No longer daring to hold back, he roared as he shot skyward, pushing his cultivation to its absolute limit, both palms thrust forward—the water and fire dragon coiled again, larger and more solid than before, roaring as it charged forward.

Boom—

The second collision was even more powerful than the first!

Peng Qianjiao's body shuddered violently, a trickle of blood oozing from his lips; though he barely shattered the eight-hundred-meter water blade, he himself suffered severe backlash.

But Chen Mu's assault came like an ocean tide, wave after wave, giving Peng Qianjiao not a single moment to breathe.

The third slash followed instantly!

The thousand-meter water blade seemed to drag the entire sea toward it, carrying the will to annihilate all, descending like a crushing shadow over Peng Qianjiao, whose breath had not yet stabilized.

Peng Qianjiao's face turned ashen; his hastily formed defense crumbled like paper before the thousand-meter blade.

Crack!

His protective true qi shattered like glass.

Puff—

As if struck heavily, Peng Qianjiao spewed blood furiously, his entire body slammed downward by the immense force, crashing into the sand below and kicking up a storm of dust.

Before he could struggle to rise, Chen Mu controlled his qi release, rhythmically activating the Ninefold Wave Surge Art.

Fourth slash!

Fifth slash!

Sixth slash!

…

Ten slashes in a row!

Each slash condensed the power of water into a colossal blade a full kilometer long!

They surged like a celestial river breaking its dam, or as if the Sea God had erupted in rage, overwhelming the entire area where Peng Qianjiao had fallen.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

…

Continuous explosions deafened the air; the entire coastline trembled violently, as if a massive earthquake had struck.

Sand and seawater were blasted high into the sky, the entire region utterly drowned in annihilating energy.

When the final slash—solidified to near-tangible form, radiating bone-chilling cold—descended like a blade of judgment, a thunderous, earth-shaking roar shook the land.

Boom~~!!

The earth quaked, sand and soil swirling into tornadoes across the sky.

Long moments passed…

Hua~

Splash splash splash!

The sea churned, surging back and forth without cease.

Amid the howling wind, a massive crater over a hundred meters in diameter and more than ten meters deep emerged.

At the crater's bottom, Peng Qianjiao lay in tattered robes, over half his bones shattered, like a broken rag doll.

His face pale as gold paper, breath faint as a thread, blood gushing from his mouth mixed with fragments of internal organs, his eyes glazed with terror and disbelief.

Chen Mu hovered midair, breathing heavily; such a massive barrage of attacks had taken a heavy toll on him, but thanks to the eighth layer of the Duan Tianhe Scripture, his qi restored at an astonishing speed, already possessing the rudiments of endless vitality.

Only then could he continuously unleash the Ninefold Wave Surge Art to severely wound Peng Qianjiao.

At the bottom of the crater, Peng Qianjiao's breath grew weaker, on the verge of death.

Suddenly—a strange transformation!

From beneath his tattered robes, a strange crimson glow suddenly radiated from his abdomen!

A crimson-red bead, about the size of a dragon's eye, spun rapidly against his skin.

Hum—

A vast, pure torrent of vital energy surged from the crimson bead, like sweet rain rapidly mending his shattered bones and ruptured organs.

His ashen face visibly regained color, his horrific wounds healed and scabbed over at alarming speed, even his depleted aura began to surge back!

This sudden change caused Chen Mu's pupils to contract sharply as he hovered in midair.

Even stranger— as his injuries healed, Peng Qianjiao's eyes snapped open, his pupils no longer human, but transformed into crimson, vertical slits like those of a venomous serpent or wild beast!

His eyes brimmed with brutality, madness, and an extreme, ravenous hunger for the lifeblood of living beings.

"Roar~!!"

From Peng Qianjiao's throat erupted a guttural roar not of this world—a psychic shockwave, forged from concentrated mental force and the strange energy of the red bead, shot forth like an invisible poison arrow, piercing straight into Chen Mu's mind!

This psychic attack was not only brutal, but carried a mad, mind-corroding intent!

Chen Mu, caught off guard, felt his brain as if a red-hot iron rod had been violently twisted inside it; his vision darkened, he grunted, his body swayed midair, nearly falling.

Fortunately, Chen Mu's mental strength far surpassed that of his peers, and he was not crushed at once.

Fighting through the soul-rending agony and the creeping madness, his eyes hardened.

'I can't give Peng Qianjiao another chance!'

In a flash of thought, Chen Mu unhesitatingly summoned the five Yin Blades of the Two Yin Sword Qi stored within his dantian space!

Shhh! Shhh! Shhh! Shhh! Shhh!

Five invisible, intangible, colorless, traceless Yin Blades—purely sharp, icy, and lethal—instantly tore through space, like death-cries from the Nine Heavens, striking silently from all angles at Peng Qianjiao below, whose wounds were rapidly healing and who was about to leap into the air!

At this moment, Peng Qianjiao's injuries had healed seven or eight out of ten; his crimson vertical pupils blazed with ferocity, ready to leap and tear the upstart who had humiliated him into shreds.

Yet.

Just as Peng Qianjiao's body was about to move but had not yet done so, the lethal threat from the five dark blades made every hair on his body stand on end!

"What the hell?!"

Peng Qianjiao, stunned, his crimson vertical pupils flickering wildly, used his refined perception as a Earth Altar Realm's Spirit Bridge perfected, augmented by the bead's uncanny sensitivity, to twist and dodge at the last possible instant.

The first dark blade grazed Peng Qianjiao's neck, spraying a trail of blood droplets!

The second and third blades were narrowly dodged by his desperate sidestep!

The fourth dark blade pierced through Peng Qianjiao's shoulder blade, leaving a clean through-and-through hole; the icy chill spread instantly, stiffening half his body.

Yet he had avoided all four lethal strikes.

But the fifth—most cunning, most hidden of all—seemed to have foreseen every possible dodge, and struck the instant his focus slipped, after evading the first four—

Plop!