Chapter 461: Divided Battlefield

Lei Kedun narrowed his eyes slightly; he was very familiar with that voice, which came from the mad follower of the Primordial Moon, Suolik, who was still alive and might even have used the recent incident to meet the conditions required for the ascension ceremony!

In Lei Kedun's eyes, a deep‑blue‑almost‑purple radiance swelled for an instant then quickly contracted; he restrained the urge to use the Secret‑Gazing Eye, since even a casual glance here could, through occult connections, reveal the pair of sister flowers on the Moon—far too dangerous.

His gaze cold, he scanned the surroundings, specks of starlight appearing around him, then he swiftly lifted his body into the heights.

The deep‑blue‑purple glow in his eyes contracted, reflecting a dazzling star river; brilliant stars emerged around him one after another, countless and blindingly bright.

Beneath a light veil invisible to ordinary people and even the extraordinary, a brilliant starry sky unfolded; the deep‑blue stars swiftly turned to radiant gold, pure, clear sunlight poured from the heavens, and night turned to day in an instant.

Lei Kedun's eyes glittered with pure light, giving an exceptionally holy, wise impression, yet they seemed rather cold and without warmth.

The Hidden Sage connected with Lei Kedun in some unknown way, somewhat like the War Bishop's mental communication; I easily draw upon the Hidden Sage's knowledge, power, and stature, but likewise its madness presses down on my own spirit and will.

Lei Kedun did not think further; in this state his mental pressure was considerable.

Stars bathed in clear sunlight fell from the sky one by one, and grand, pure, blazing light points descended, trailing long, pale‑gold streams in the air, even the air seemed tinted with gold.

These light points seemed conscious, landing precisely on every creature undergoing mutation.

The plants that had sprouted snarling, crimson gaping mouths and kept praying to the Primordial Moon let out wailing cries; as strands of bluish‑black smoke rose from them, their life traits returned to normal and the contamination was fully purified, though their forms did not completely revert, still appearing somewhat grotesquely twisted.

Those mutated monsters and the long‑dead corpses truly and completely perished; their appearances remained bizarre, but they were no longer polluted.

The pale‑gold light rain lasted nearly half a minute, until the final radiant golden star floating in the sky fell, and the overwhelming solar aura was gradually replaced by deep‑red moonlight.

Lei Kedun looked up in a daze; the veil that had blocked the sky had vanished, and with it disappeared the phantom of a bound god, projected from the spirit realm and hanging upside‑down on a tree.

Feeling the link with the Hidden Sage severed, Lei Kedun quietly exhaled; he sensed that if the time were any longer, his mental state would suffer irreversible effects.

Although he had, via the Hidden Sage, tasted the power and stature of a Tier‑One Archangel, this half‑minute experience card would require at least one or two months for him to fully readjust his mental condition.

He muttered under his breath, and Lei Kedun's deep gaze turned downward, attempting through prophecy to locate the Primordial Moon's ascendant follower, to stop him, preferably erasing this unstable factor outright.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A series of slicing sounds rang out, and several blood‑red long arrows flew at breakneck speed, piercing Lei Kedun's forehead, heart, and abdomen.

Amid a sizzling sound, Lei Kedun's figure transformed into a surge of dazzling star‑light specks, rushing at extreme speed toward the Primordial Moonlight cultist who had just attacked him.

A semi‑transparent figure abruptly detached from the spirit realm, appearing directly ahead of the swirling starlight.

He wore a black cleric's robe, a black glove on his left hand, which he slightly curled into a fist toward Lei Kedun, as if grasping something, repeating the motion twice.

The brilliant starlight seemed to contract as if unable to sustain, and amidst the drifting specks it re‑coalesced into Lei Kedun's form.

Thief? Must be a magical item. How unlucky, the ability to transmute into starlight was just stolen. Thoughts floated one after another; Lei Kedun's eyes glittered with pure, icy light, suppressing his emotional fluctuations to the minimum, and he indifferently surveyed the extraordinary being that had suddenly appeared ahead.

His face was gaunt, skin a tawny hue, eyes sunken like a desiccated corpse; the beard on his chin had black roots that extended white outward, spreading from the mouth corners to the ears, yet it was sparse and short, appearing speckled.

His eyes matched his light‑brown skin, giving him a clerical aura, yet he felt chillingly terrifying, as if he might become perverse in silence.

"Saint of the Rose School, Zhat Wen, I recall you should be in Luen now."

Lei Kedun spoke without much inflection, raising his right palm upward, swiftly forming a slowly rotating ball of Star Sand.

Zhat Wen remained silent, raising his right hand, thumb and forefinger forming a ninety‑degree angle, the other fingers loosely curled.

In the next instant, an illusory skull shrouded in black vapour materialized, exuding heavy death intent, like a messenger from the Underworld, charging straight at Lei Kedun.

Lei Kedun, unhurried, tossed the slowly rotating Star Sand from his hand, and one after another stars blossomed, countless and dazzling.

These stars shed beam after beam of radiance, weaving around them a grand Light Giant Pillar; the black‑veiled illusory skull sank into it without a single ripple.

Pure, brilliant radiance, carrying specks of flickering stars, expanded outward at an unavoidable speed, enveloping Lei Kedun and Zhat Wen together; as the star‑light twinkled, the ever‑expanding glow carried both figures out of sight to the naked eye.

A hazy crimson moonbeam swept by, coalescing in midair into a vague human silhouette; he reached forward as if to grasp something, but touched nothing.

"They have been temporarily concealed, so no one can interfere with their battlefield; likewise, no one can interfere with us."

Pu Lak's figure quickly outlined itself beside them; he sauntered leisurely through the air, his right‑hand ring tracing a dim glow.

The crimson moonlight suddenly dimmed, and a vague, dark mist had, at some point, spread around, making all scenery less distinct—though right before the eyes, it felt as if separated by another world.

"Hidden world you."

Wooo~~ Wooo~

The Primordial Moonlight cultist's words were directly cut off by the constantly echoing utterances of the dead, a sharp, grating sound layered upon layer, indescribable, as if countless lost souls whispered, roared, and shouted at his ears.

That sound acted directly on the spirit level; even sealing one's own spirit and all senses could not fully block it.

The Primordial Moonlight cultist, shrouded in crimson moonlight and thus hard to see clearly, frowned slightly, looking irritably at Pu Lak, who kept chanting the dead's words.

The dead's utterances lingered at his ears, a torment unbearable for the moon‑path extraordinary whose sense of smell and hearing were keen; the words gradually turned living beings into revenants, inching them toward death, and he could even smell the rotting flesh emanating from them.

He tried to create a full moon within this hidden world, but each time was interrupted; without the moonlight environment, he could not maneuver by rapid flashes to contend with the opponent.

The hidden world is cut off from the spirit realm; even the Summoner Master's greatest abilities cannot take effect here.

He attempted to project Pu Lak's figure into his own sight and curse him, but his own spiritual intuition kept warning him, suggesting that the greatest likelihood of such an act was mutual annihilation.

Damn, the hidden world suppresses the Summoner Master too much, and even a death‑god‑path extraordinary, if dead, can return from the Underworld with prior preparation; even if we both perish, in the end I'm the only one who truly dies.

Thought after thought floated in his mind, aggravating his irritation, while the desire to perish together with the opponent grew ever stronger.

If I stall a bit longer, once the hidden world's duration ends, I can return beneath the blood moon, back under the gaze of the Great Mother.

Opposite him, Pu Lak, maintaining a moderate distance, curled his lip slightly; his pupils were vertical and pale‑gold, as if reflecting the deepest soul, yet the Primordial Moonlight cultist, constantly disturbed by him, did not notice this oddity.

On the other side, Lei Kedun and Zhat Wen, engulfed by pure light, simultaneously arrived on an island—a dreamlike, fairy‑tale island, with a bright white moon hanging overhead, like an isolated utopia.

A set of cold, indifferent, eyelash‑less eyes sprouted from everywhere, their icy, detached gazes collectively fixed on Zhat Wen, as if trying to see through every cell of his body.

Lei Kedun slightly threw his hand, but the motion halted abruptly; he forgot what he intended to do.

The next moment, several crystal‑thin ice arrows shot out, bearing heavy death intent, leaving a layer of white frost in the air that withered the surrounding flora.

Brilliant star‑rays appeared one after another before Lei Kedun, instantly condensing into a somewhat transparent starlight barrier that blocked all the ice arrows.

The ice arrows shattered the instant they struck the starlight barrier; the pale ice shards spread outward rapidly, and as a whimpering gale rose, the surrounding temperature dropped instantly, accelerating the spread of frost.

Bang!

The violent sound of ice cracking rang out, Zhat Wen's body surged like a relentless steam train, dragging a long after‑image; his fist shattered the heavy ice crystals, striking the starlight barrier.

Bang! Bang!

Two more punches struck the starlight barrier, and Lei Kedun's barrier, which he had not deliberately maintained, shattered in response.

In the starlight falling like shards of glass, Zhatewen's arm suddenly swelled, surrounded by illusory black vapors that slammed toward Rekton's face.

The moment his fist touched Rekton, his body suddenly became transparent, turned illusory, and turned into a mass of bubbles that scattered.

These bubbles froze rapidly in the cold wind, then shattered, vanishing in an instant.

Rekton's figure emerged from the other side; he held a milky‑white chess piece in his left hand and pressed it virtually in the air.

Zhatewen and the cold wind around him seemed to have been put on a slow‑motion button, moving sluggishly as if jumping frame by frame.

Without hesitation, Rekton dragged his right hand while condensing an ancient‑styled spear, its tip to hilt ablaze with clusters of dark‑red, blood‑tinged flames.

He thrust the spear forward, turning it into a dark‑red streak that pierced Zhatewen's left chest.

In the split second before it pierced his heart, Zhatewen's body suddenly turned transparent, like a statue formed of countless stars; as the dark‑red spear passed through his chest, the transparent statue shattered instantly, breaking into dazzling star‑like sparks that surged, and in the opposite direction his body re‑coalesced.

Damn! Thieves are really annoying!

Unable to hold back a curse, Rekton raised his hand and pointed forward; a beautifully dressed, illusory female figure floated in mid‑air.

A strong wave of drowsiness hit him at once; even as a Sequence‑Three Saint, Zhatewen still found it hard to resist the fatigue, his eyelids drooping as if he would fall asleep the next moment.

"Ah!"

A sharp, piercing scream that stabbed the soul erupted from his mouth, wounding spirits while bearing an extremely twisted, evil curse.

Rekton's figure thinned and became brittle in that instant, finally turning into a folded pale‑yellow paper doll.

The pale‑yellow paper doll, just formed, twisted; white, curled tufts sprouted from its body, which swelled, and as it was about to become a goat, the paper doll seemed unable to bear the curse and exploded into a flurry of flying paper scraps.

Only after the echoing scream ended did Rekton's figure reappear from the darkened night veil, intact and untouched by any curse.

While using the paper dummy as a proxy to dodge the scream's damage, he also employed a mysterious recreation "Night Country", shifting himself into a hidden state to evade the Silent Disciple's transformation curse.

Snap! Rekton lifted his right hand and snapped his fingers.

Brilliant stars floated up one by one in the air, simultaneously shedding pure radiance that interwove, dissolving the howling cold wind and the thick ice covering the ground, turning the surroundings into a pristine white world.

In this environment, Zhatewen's mirror‑jump and ability to possess inanimate objects could no longer take effect.

Even though the gloves on his hands can steal my thoughts and extraordinary abilities, pilfering the most crucial and practical ones among the many powers I wield is not easy. Likewise, as long as enough thoughts ripple, he can accurately snatch my next move's plan, after all he is not truly a thief.

(End of chapter)