Chapter 3521: The Great Tree and the Vulture

Inside the small house with the door tightly shut, spatial fluctuations had long since completely vanished; Su Xiao did not leave immediately but waited there temporarily to avoid being tracked by the enemy following any clues.

After waiting a moment, even Bahamut could not sense any spatial fluctuations inside the room, Su Xiao finally relaxed completely; the Netherworld forces had not chosen to track the spatial rift here, and nine times out of ten they had triggered the chain formation diagram and pursued Cain instead.

Indeed, making Cain take the blame was a unanimous strategy of Su Xiao, the priest, and Caesar, because among the three, Cain was hostile to the other two, so if not framing him, who would be framed?

This matter required the priest's cooperation; judging from the current situation, the priest had completed the arrangements in that old manor, which also reflected the priest's attitude.

Su Xiao had long harbored a suspicion that the current situation was actually exactly what that old priest most wanted to see.

This was not Su Xiao's speculation; first, the priest's method of entering this world was also through 【Beginning of Nightmare】, just like the others.

As a hunter, Su Xiao, and the undead sister as a former hunter, it was normal for them to obtain 【Beginning of Nightmare】, but for the priest as a violator, acquiring this item was quite difficult.

The priest not only obtained it but also used it to enter this world; after that, what did the priest do?

The answer is that the priest did not explore this world's situation or seek benefits; instead, he seemed to have long known the layout of this world, and upon entering, his primary task was to find others who had entered this world using 【Beginning of Nightmare】.

The priest first found the undead sister, then together with her sought out Su Xiao; ultimately, the three who had used 【Beginning of Nightmare】 chose to cooperate.

One prior matter puzzled Su Xiao: the cautious priest, as steady as an old dog, actually volunteered to go to 【Aokai Star】 to investigate the Netherworld's intrusion—this was no longer merely suspicious but somewhat astonishing.

Thereafter, the priest directly joined the Netherworld faction, reached the underworld, and no matter how viewed, this old man's core purpose was simply to reach the underworld.

This feeling was very much like the priest, before entering this world, already knew there was something in the underworld he desired but could not directly enter, so he chose a compromise: first enter this world as a stepping stone to enter the underworld and ultimately obtain that desired object.

Thinking of this, Su Xiao felt somewhat relieved; he was not going to seize that thing, nor did he believe all secret treasures in the world belonged to him—he had never held such a thought.

What Su Xiao cared about was whether the priest's future actions would hinder him; that old man now appeared and disappeared mysteriously, which was quite troublesome.

It was not that Su Xiao could not kill the priest; first, the priest was hard to kill completely, and second, the cost of killing him was high, a blood loss.

Earlier in the Tree of Life World, the priest's scene before death was both terrifying and eerie.

Fighting up to the eighth stage, one could truly encounter any opponent; some opponents were like that—after killing them, the battle had only just begun, such as the gentle neighborly older sister who liked to bury people, Saint Shi.

In the previous world, Gulu killed his opponent and then experienced several of the most unforgettable days of his life; during those days, Gulu not only lost weight but also developed dark circles so heavy they resembled smoked makeup.

The good news now is that the priest's objective on his side seems to have been achieved, meaning henceforth 'each to their own,' non-interference; the priest is not the type who, after achieving his goal, would come out to show off or mock—he is very steady, and once his purpose is fulfilled, you cannot find him at all.

Su Xiao reviewed the prompt that had just appeared; this trip to the City of the Dead for supplies was indeed a bountiful harvest—he obtained two types of inheritance-class professional items alone, plus their matching inheritance skill stones and a set.

And the 【Inscription Base·Wrathful Image】 was absolutely the highest-value item in this acquisition, with attributes as follows:

【Inscription Base·Wrathful Image】

Origin: Netherworld·Ascetic Monastery.

Type: Four-inscription-slot base (base has 3~5 inscription slots).

Primary inscription slot: No inscription.

Secondary inscription slot: No inscription.

Secondary inscription slot: No inscription.

Secondary inscription slot: No inscription.

Inscription effect: None (requires inserting inscription fragments to possess this trait)

Rating: 0 points (before inserting inscription fragments, all inscription bases are rated 0 points).

Introduction: A portable pendant, shaped as a wrathful, majestic ghost deity; in the ancient era of the Lightless World, ascetics used themselves as vessels, souls becoming 'ghosts,' flesh as 'bait,' 'ghosts' eating 'bait,' nurturing 'fierce ghosts,' then with great perseverance, having the 'fierce ghost' awaken as a 'spirit deity'—this is the Way of Ghost and God.

Sale price: 4920 soul coins.

……

Su Xiao had long thought about a four-slot inscription base, but could never buy one; obtaining it this time from the Netherworld forces was no surprise—they were very wealthy.

Checking the time, it was already eight o'clock; given the recent events, the Netherworld forces should have launched an attack, but fortunately the hive had already cultivated 130,000 elite demon beasts, unafraid of enemy assault.

If the current 420,000 demon beasts could all be replaced with elite demon beasts, they could fully engage the Netherworld forces in open confrontation—not only not at a disadvantage, but actually gaining an edge.

Time passed second by second; the Netherworld Gate remained eerily quiet, with no sign of the imagined large army attacking.

This doubt did not trouble Su Xiao long; he soon received the answer—a roar came from outside the main camp's walls, then subsided; moments later, a blood descendant half-bound by translucent tentacles was dragged in.

The blood descendant's skin was deathly pale, his whole body trembling now—not from fear, but from anger; he was a messenger sent by the Tobacco Princess, whose purpose was to negotiate with the Sun Holy Nest, and being captured did not bother him; the key was binding him with these half-transparent tentacles, which were bound in some…… indescribable way.

No need to guess—this disgraceful act was surely Bahamut's bad idea.

「……」

Su Xiao raised his hand to signal unbinding; as the translucent tentacles just loosened, several tail blades pressed against the blood descendant messenger's neck area.

「Respected Sun Lord, I am…… of the Tobacco Princess's retinue……」

The blood descendant messenger's pleasantries had just reached halfway when Bahamut said: 「Get straight to the point; now both our sides' time is quite precious, we'll still have to keep fighting later. 」

「Eh~, okay. 」

The blood descendant messenger laughed somewhat awkwardly, having rehearsed his words in his stomach, then said: 「Then I'll make it brief: the matter is this—earlier you stole…… cough~, the noble party took away treasures, among which was a crown, beloved by my king in his early years; my side hopes to exchange hostages for this crown. 」

「Hostage? 」

Bahamut's eyes showed suspicion.

「It is Mr. Cain and his three companions; they did not have time to escape and were detained by my side. 」

After saying this, the blood descendant messenger straightened up a bit, after all, there were hostages.

Upon hearing that Cain and his three were detained, Su Xiao's face remained unchanged; his first thought was that there was still such a good opportunity; he looked thoughtful, his tone beginning to turn unpleasant as he said:

「Are you threatening me? 」

「It cannot be called a threat; this is more like a transaction; you say it's correct, Lord. 」

The blood descendant messenger smiled, lowering his head; this time he came, he had not prepared to return alive; naturally, he had no fear in his heart.

If Su Xiao remembered correctly, the crown was with the Undead Sister; she had a collecting habit in this regard, and according to her own words, her private room had a room filled entirely with such items.

If the Netherworld forces used resources to exchange, Su Xiao, the Undead Sister, and Caesar would all unanimously approve, and a deal with the Netherworld would be reached; but using Cain and his three's lives as exchange, that was not worth bothering with—the battle situation had reached this point, and there was no need to waste time here, lest this be a Netherworld trap.

「You came from afar, you have worked hard. 」

「Not at all, not at all. 」

The blood descendant messenger laughed while nodding repeatedly.

"Drag them out and slaughter them."

"!"

The Bloodline Envoy stared at Su Xiao in shock, his cheek twitching, his eyes flashing with ferocity as he shouted urgently: "Wait for your three comrades to collect your corpses, the Princess will avenge me, you all will..."

Pfft~

Outside the wooden tower, the tail blade swept through, a string of blood beads flying out in midair, the Bloodline Envoy's resentful head soared into the air, falling toward the ground.

Bang!

Smoke Princess slapped the conference table with one hand, she gazed at the fading image ahead, and snapped:

"How outrageous, bullying people too far!"

The Smoke Princess, who never liked reading, was so enraged her speech changed, in the council hall, after her initial anger passed, she ordered:

"Someone, go execute those three."

"Yes."

"Wait, hang them."

"Yes."

"No, shove them into the cesspool to drown, it infuriates me!"

The more the Smoke Princess thought, the angrier she became; the orderly kneeling on one knee ahead had sweat dripping down his face, not daring to breathe.

"Let them go."

The Raven·Solararo in the chief seat spoke; hearing this, the people in the council hall murmured.

Solararo offered no other explanation, merely waving his hand to dismiss everyone; he had felt something off earlier, and after reflection, he was basically certain that Cain's trio and the Solar Sanctum were not allies but enemies—just three unlucky souls.

"Solararo, give me a reason."

Smoke Princess spoke.

"From now on, sleep less in coffins, and in your free time, go out into the Surface world more; I and the great tree cannot forever stand before you—one day we too will fall. You and we are different; you can escape the Netherworld. If we lose this time, do not hate our opponents this time; we and they were once allies who could entrust our backs to each other."

After the Raven·Solararo finished speaking, he gestured for Smoke Princess not to ask further; she snorted and left the council hall, leaving only the Raven·Solararo and the Twisted War Armor inside.

"Great Tree, are we still friends?"

The Raven·Solararo spoke in a calm tone.

"Always...... have been."

The Twisted War Armor replied in a heavy, somewhat deafening tone; hearing this, the Raven·Solararo nodded.

"Good, then this time we will together overcome that annihilation."

"Mm."

The Twisted War Armor acknowledged, stepped forward to a tall sculpture half-embedded in the wall, and punched it into rubble, retrieving a black giant axe from within.

This was the weapon bestowed upon the Twisted War Armor by the former Netherworld Great Emperor; he had long been reluctant to use it, but in this battle he took up this massive battle-axe nearly twenty meters long once more.

Half an hour later, the five gates of the City of the Dead opened simultaneously, the Netherworld's main force, the Blighted Tree Legion, the Undead Legion, and the Dragon Blood Legion surged out, heading straight for the Netherworld Gate.

At the same time, our main base.

A mental pulse arrived; Su Xiao on the city wall immediately ordered the full army to engage; among our over 500,000 demon beasts, 160,000 are elite demon beasts.

The reason he has not launched an active assault is to wait for the enemy to charge through the Netherworld Gate, so that the battlefield will be about ten kilometers from our main base.

Though this entails greater risk, it allows the fungal carpet of our main base to spread directly forward, boosting troop production efficiency; when our demon beast legion is entirely composed of elite demon beasts, that will be the time for counterattack.

Su Xiao gazed toward the distant Netherworld Gate; as spatial ripples spread, a giant Nether Dragon Whale swam out from within the gate, its body drifting with black smoke; having just emerged from the Netherworld Gate, its massive maw opened, pouring forth countless clusters of dark ghostfire.

This is actually not ghostfire, but a self-destructing organism; though small in appearance, its explosion reaches a radius of a hundred meters, enveloping all enemies within, who will be scorched to white bone by the black smoke; previously, our demon flame dragons suffered over a thousand losses in this manner.

Tens of thousands of dark ghostfire clusters surged forward; behind them came the Netherworld Cavalry, forming a jet-black steel torrent, charging straight toward our frontline walls.

Like a tide, demon beasts surged forward, tail blades sweeping, lances thrusting with roaring sounds; battlefield scenes seemed unchanged compared to before.

Of course, the actual situation is not so; a demon beast with a metallic-feeling exoskeleton charged forward, its tail blade, slick with plasma, swept past; a Dragon Blood Warrior instantly froze in place, his helmet and skull cleaved together, his weapon slipping from his hand as he collapsed dead.

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This elite demon beast did not seek out the Netherworld Knights, even though its dueling capability now exceeds theirs; only its long tail rose, tail blade pointing forward, locking onto a Blighted Tree warrior wielding a metal staff, its plasma tail began charging, preparing to fire the tail blade.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The towering Blighted Tree warrior swung his 30-meter-long, 4-meter-thick metal staff, the earth trembled, many ordinary demon beasts were flattened; just as this Blighted Tree warrior raised the metal staff again to strike down, a breaking wind sound came from before him.

Bang!

The plasma-charged tail blade pierced through layer upon column of air waves, striking the Blighted Tree warrior in the face.

After a dull thud, the Blighted Tree warrior slumped backward, his head bursting into wood splinters, he sat heavily on the ground, emitting a low, deafening wail, his hands clawing wildly at his face; his skull had been pierced through.

Bang! Bang! Bang......

One after another, the ruptured air waves appeared around this Blighted Tree warrior; the next second, the nearly 45-meter-tall figure was riddled by over a dozen tail blades, his body full of bucket-thick penetrating holes.

This Blighted Tree warrior, who had fought since a thousand years ago, collapsed with a boom; in the distance, standing on the back of a giant beast, having just emerged from the Netherworld Gate, Smoke Princess happened to witness this scene, filling her with an ominous premonition.

As the saying goes, enemies meet, eyes red with hatred; after the Undead Legion arrived, their fury was full; previously they had been worst-hit by the Solar Sanctum, now they took the initiative, of course seeking to regain face.

After the melee began in the wide plain before the Netherworld Gate, the Undead Legion discovered something amiss: the demon beasts they faced differed from other legions, these demon beasts actually had plasma in their bone tails, making their combat strength exceptionally strong.

The reason they primarily target the Undead Legion is mainly because this side has many ghost-type enemies; killing them allows the fungal carpet to absorb more soul energy, enabling the mother nest to convert more evolution points—naturally prioritizing them.

Moreover, we have always been hammering the Undead Legion; as the saying goes, see things through to the end; if we say we will crush the Undead Legion, we must follow through.

The battlefield was in chaos, roars and bellows unceasing, the clashes of tail blades and lances causing continuous metallic collisions.

But if viewed from above, one would see an interesting scene: the Netherworld's main force and our demon beasts fighting inseparably; shifting the view to the Undead Legion, the scene changed—tens of thousands of elite demon beasts were present there, the Undead Legion's situation was relatively dire, arcs of electricity surged across the field, tail blades repeatedly blew apart the heads of Bloodline Envoys one by one.

Behind the battlefield, with a bang, a tail blade flew past Smoke Princess's ear, embedding itself in the metal door behind her; already hundreds of tail blades were densely nailed into it.

"Your Highness, let's retreat."

A Bloodline Envoy, his clothes stained with large patches of insect blood, gripping a battle blade, spoke urgently.

"No matter what, we must hold the line."

The Princess of Smoke gritted her teeth and spoke, finally understanding why the Raven·Solarro had said those words to her just now—it was an appeal to emotion.

Currently, the Netherworld forces are arranged with the Netherworld main army and the Blighted Tree Legion in the center, these two legions mixed together forming the core advancing strength; the left wing is the Dragon Blood Legion, and the right wing is the Undead Legion.

If the Undead Legion were to withdraw now, the enemy's main force would deliver a heavy blow to the flank of the Netherworld main army, possibly even cleaving the formation in half.

Compared to the Princess of Smoke, the Raven·Solarro, who oversees the Netherworld army from the rear, has a clearer view of the situation; at some point, the soul shamans' firepower gradually ceased, and they stood silently behind the battle line.

Three hours into the battle, the Undead Legion on the right flank could no longer withstand the demon beasts' assault; even if they used cannon fodder tactics to hard-resist, they could not hold.

One by one, elite demon beasts charged from the flank of the Netherworld knights; at this critical moment, all Netherworld knights on the battlefield ignited with emerald-green energy flames—clearly a buff from the soul shamans.

The Netherworld knights suddenly shifted from scattered to unified, forming an astonishingly neat array as they charged toward our demon beast army.

The earth trembled from this charge; the Netherworld knights at the front surged forward, while behind them, the Gates of the Netherworld continuously spewed forth more Netherworld knights.

This caused the Netherworld knights to relentlessly press toward our main base; had it not been for the demon beast legion having over seventy percent elite demon beasts, this charge would have been utterly unstoppable.

In the previous engagement, this full-army charge slaughtered nearly 350,000 of our demon beasts in a short time; had it not been for dozens of brutal turrets blocking the gate, we would have lost then.

As the Netherworld knight legion charged, the brutal turrets connected to our side walls activated, spewing out vast volleys of living missiles.

A shocking sight unfolded: the Netherworld knights seemed endless—just as a few rows fell ahead, more large ranks poured from the Netherworld Gates; clearly, they aimed to breach the walls and trample our nest.

Before the city walls, the demon beasts formed a line, their tail spines piercing the skulls of Netherworld knights; the living missiles falling from above also met the knights' charge.

Even so, they could not hold; half an hour later, a Nether Dragon Whale slammed head-on into the front city wall, blasting a hundred-meter-wide breach, and the Netherworld knights surged through.

Boom!

A plasma cannon fired; wherever it passed, Netherworld knights turned into molten liquid, raining down—one shot, an entire rank.

If just moments ago this was a 'war game,' in the blink of an eye it had become a bloody and brutal 'tower defense game.'

The brutal turrets' fire never ceased; the Netherworld knights excelled at charging, but if our defensive forces were not strong enough, they would already be overwhelmed.

Su Xiao stood atop the nest, watching the Netherworld knights already charged a kilometer away; a spine-lance flew past his ear, wind pressure ruffling his hair and the black feather cloak on his back.

Though the situation is dangerous now, the enemy's Netherworld knights have suffered heavy casualties, which also means our bio-energy acquisition rate will reach an astonishing level.

In the melee a kilometer outside the nest, the last ordinary demon beast was pierced by a spine-lance and exploded; our current 270,000 demon beasts are now all elite demon beasts.

Since ten or so minutes ago, the Netherworld knights' charge has gradually ceased, as the demon beasts have slowly withstood the pressure and continued to push back the enemy army.

The melee continued for another hour; our demon beast army rose again to 450,000, the battle situation completely reversed, the Netherworld army driven back to the plains outside the walls, where plains warfare began.

At the nest's summit, Su Xiao checked nest data; the bio-energy value fluctuated as it was just absorbed by the fungal carpet, then rapidly consumed in nurturing demon beasts.

Compared to bio-energy reserves, Su Xiao cared more about evolution points—he now had 7, and decided to enhance the Demon Flame Dragon, using air power to end this brutal slaughter.

At this moment, evolution points rose from 7 to 8; Su Xiao immediately changed strategy, certain that enhancing the Titan Beast was the right choice.

Su Xiao allocated all 8 evolution points to enhancing the Titan Beast; after his decision, the Titan Beast's origin gene sequence in the nest core began to be upgraded.

The Titan Beast's enhancement was swift, completed in just over an hour; upon completion, Su Xiao issued a mental command: the nest and hatching nest began cultivating Titan Beasts, achieving a rate of 25 per hour.

The plains battle ahead continued, and as Su Xiao anticipated, the Netherworld forces' troop numbers remained as mysterious as ever—seemingly impossible to exhaust no matter how many were slain.

The brutal, stalemated plains battle continued; the Solar Holy Nest and the Netherworld fought fiercely, while New Star City hurriedly relocated, the Empire unwilling to linger even a second.

The slaughter raged until 3 p. m.; the plains were littered with residue after absorption; a Netherworld knight who had lost his warhorse stepped on the head of a dying demon beast, exerted force, and crushed it—but in the next second, a plasma-charged tail blade swept past, decapitating him.

Not far off, the Dragon Blood Leader·Lu En gripped his twin blades, his body drenched in blood, breathing like a bull; his Dragon Blood Legion had been wiped out—if he fell, the legion would cease to exist.

"Come forward, and die."

The Dragon Blood Leader·Lu En surveyed the demon beasts around him; he knew these foes well—they were not mere slaughter-minded beasts, but disciplined, coordinated war organisms, more purebred war clans than the Netherworld cavalry.

The death struggle raged; the Dragon Blood Leader·Lu En flung worm blood from his blade, when suddenly he heard a tremendous roar from behind the enemy lines.

Boom~

A plasma ball a hundred meters in diameter arced toward them; as it flew, its volume rapidly expanded; when its diameter reached several hundred meters, it burst open, raining down arrow- and spear-like plasma—too numerous to count.

Gazing up at the falling plasma barrage, the Dragon Blood Leader·Lu En felt a flicker of astonishment; even at this distance, his body hair stood on end—one could imagine the barrage's lethality.

If the Dragon Blood Leader·Lu En knew this plasma barrage was merely the salvo of a single Titan Beast, and that the Solar Holy Nest now had over a hundred such war beasts, what would his mood be?

Boom, boom, boom, boom……

A dull, deep thudding echoed continuously from behind our lines; one after another, plasma balls several hundred meters in diameter flew in, then burst into plasma rain in midair.

The Dragon Blood Leader·Lu En looked up at the falling plasma rain, he smiled, blade in both hands, raising his arms in an embrace of the sky.

Boom!!

The first wave of plasma rain struck; the earth split apart, plasma lances slammed into the ground, triggering chain explosions.

Boom!!

The second wave fell, followed by dozens more across the battlefield; this quieted the melee in short order, leaving only the sound of arcing energy.

After a brief silence, the Netherworld knights collectively retreated—this could not be fought; the plasma rain was a scorched-earth tactic, and the Netherworld's sea-of-men strategy feared nothing more.

The enemy army retreated in full force; Su Xiao would not let them go, he leapt onto Barbatos' back and ordered the demon beast army to pursue.

The battlefield began to shift; on the dragon's back, Su Xiao felt the spatial fluctuation fade, then passed through the Netherworld Gates and arrived in the Netherworld.

【Prompt: You have repelled the Netherworld forces' current offensive.】

【You obtained Proof of the Guardian ×23 (Special Item).】

【You obtained Precipitated Glazeware ×7 (this is a rare product accumulated from the nest's massive filtration of Netherworld energy; extremely precious, most abyssal entities require it).】

……

Repelling the Netherworld forces is not Su Xiao's ultimate goal—he seeks their total annihilation.

The plasma barrage is formidable, but its cooldown is long—one round per hour; that earlier volley utterly stunned the Netherworld forces, causing a total collapse.

Wind howled past his ears; Su Xiao looked down at the battlefield; the two armies clashed again, this time composed simply of demon beasts, Demon Flame Dragons, Netherworld knights, soul shamans, and Nether Dragon Whales—everything else was dead.

The Undead race this time was truly eradicated; the Dragon Blood clan was wiped out, and the Dragon Blood Leader·Lu En died beneath the plasma barrage.

As for the Blighted Tree clan, on the vast battlefield before the City of the Dead, only one Blighted Tree warrior remained, locked in blood combat—wielding a massive war axe, twisted battle armor studded with tail spines and plasma scars, yet unfallen; each swing of his axe sent demon beasts flying, slain in midair.

Su Xiao had Barbatos climb to higher altitude; he inhaled the cool high-altitude air, raised one hand.

Hiss~

Su Xiao's hand flashed with an arc of electricity, and in the next instant, world thunder cracked down from the heavens, striking him and finally gathering in his hand into a lightning spear.

Normally, Su Xiao would never do this, even though his lightning resistance is high, but doing so is still courting death; however, in dragon rider state, it is different: first, Babtamos shares the world thunder with him; second, not touching the ground prevents the world thunder's power from fully erupting.

Once world thunder touches the earth's pulse, its power surges geometrically—this is also the main reason dragon rider state can harness world thunder; put simply, feet off the ground makes world thunder control very stable.

Su Xiao released the lightning spear, his ten fingers interlocked, and over half of his qi and blood erupted within him, forming a vague humanoid-beast apparition around him.

The qi and blood apparition was about ten meters tall, resembling the fierce beast Fei: upper body humanoid, left hand a ferocious beast claw with scales on the arm, right arm human but with only thumb, index, and middle finger—no ring or little finger.

After the qi and blood apparition was successfully formed, it enclosed Su Xiao, who was on Babtamos's back, and a soul energy drifted out from within Su Xiao.

The soul energy gathered in the apparition's hand, forming a great bow that had the translucent quality of soul energy and the bloody hue unique to qi and blood, appearing fully solid.

The attack power of this great bow was enhanced by both Su Xiao's soul strength and his qi and blood; Su Xiao controlled the lightning spear, which flew up and was single-handedly gripped by the qi and blood apparition.

The scaled hand of the qi and blood apparition gripped the great bow, while the other hand held the lightning spear.

Crack crack crack~

The qi and blood apparition nocked an arrow, drew the bowstring, aimed the lightning spear at the twisted war armor diagonally below, and as Babtamos flew, it slightly adjusted the aim.

On the battlefield, the twisted war armor suddenly felt a piercing pain in its skull; it grabbed a demon beast climbing its upper arm, crushed it casually, then looked up to see Su Xiao in dragon rider state and the bloody apparition on the dragon's back reflected in its eyes.

The twisted war armor wielded a giant axe with one hand, assuming a throwing stance; due to its force, the ground beneath its feet cracked extensively.

On the dragon's back, Su Xiao's gaze remained locked on the twisted war armor diagonally below; at the moment the opponent assumed the throwing stance, he controlled the qi and blood apparition to release the bowstring.

Boom!!

The explosion of air rang out on the dragon's back; the lightning spear broke through a series of sonic booms and violently struck the twisted war armor's skull, half-embedded, the impact causing it to jerk its head back, with wood chips flying from the back of its skull.

The twisted war armor's throwing stance froze; its giant axe slipped from its hand and crashed with a clatter into the muddy ground; already riddled with wounds, after such a heavy blow to the skull, its death was inevitable.

The twisted war armor's remaining single eye gazed at the man on the dragon's back in the sky; the opponent's pupils hid a faint blue gleam at their centers—it had seen this before, in the past, when it was a symbol of allies.

With a roar, the twisted war armor collapsed; it saw in the dim sky of the underworld a glimmer of light, which gave the dying creature slight comfort, as the underworld had long lacked daylight.

But the twisted war armor soon realized the light in the sky was not daylight, but a fissure hidden behind black clouds; the underworld's sky had silently cracked open at some unknown time, indicating the underworld had reached the brink of collapse.

Vision gradually darkened; the twisted war armor, which had waged war all its life, recalled the days it followed the emperor—those were its most glorious and fulfilling times; with these thoughts, it suddenly remembered something.

The underworld flourished with the arrival of the Law's End, but now, facing the same arrival, it is about to perish—perhaps this is a cycle.

Where there is cause, there is effect; flowers bloom and fall; trees wither and flourish.

The twisted war armor's massive body turned to residual ash; at the end of its life, it suddenly understood something.

The melee quickly reached the City of the Dead; facts proved the Netherworld Knights were not endless; after the second round of plasma cannon rain ended, aside from the central palace, few intact buildings remained in the city.

The end came for the Netherworld Knight legion; they had been scattered, and with the current momentum, it would not be long before the scattered Netherworld Knights within the city were exterminated one by one.

At the center of the City of the Dead stood a towering palace piercing the clouds; looking up, its height could not be seen, as it extended into the dark, gloomy clouds in the sky.

Before the palace's main gate lay a large platform, below which stretched a long flight of steps.

On the platform above the steps lay a burly man with wings on his back, clad in layered golden armor, wielding a near-five-meter-long heavy lance, already lying in a pool of blood; within a hundred meters around him lay demon beast corpses, including several shattered demon flame dragons, revealing his strength—this was Golden Lion Mou, one of the Four Knights Under the King, guardian of the palace.

Babtamos dove down from above, descending into the midst of the demon beasts, lowered its body, and Su Xiao stepped onto its head.

On the platform before the palace's main gate, the demon beasts dead here had nearly covered the ground.

Before the gate, Wu Ying·Suolaluo stood, gripping a long-handled battle blade with one hand, his whole body drenched in blood; his original greatsword had broken, his war bow had snapped, yet he still had not fallen.

Wu Ying·Suolaluo's left arm hung limp, clearly broken, yet even one-handed with the long-handled battle blade, he retained a mighty aura—though ten thousand foes, I would still advance.

"Do not even think of approaching… I, the king, half a step."

Wu Ying·Suolaluo's battle blade, nearly 1.5 meters long, had its tip pressed against the ground.

"..."

Su Xiao, standing on the dragon's head, said nothing.

Seeing this, Wu Ying·Suolaluo spoke no more, straightened his body, and charged toward Su Xiao on the dragon's head; surrounding demon beasts lunged forward, completely enveloping Suolaluo, the scene seeming to freeze at this moment.

Half an hour later, drizzle fell; Wu Ying·Suolaluo lay face up on the ground, his lifeless eyes seemingly gazing at the sky, the 'Vulture' that had sustained the underworld until now, today died here in battle.

Su Xiao leapt from the dragon's head, walked past Suolaluo's corpse, and finally stopped before the main gate of the Heaven-Reaching Palace; the emperor resided in the highest level of the palace, and only by defeating the emperor could one utterly vanquish the Netherworld forces.

Though he had not pushed open the towering metal doors before him, but through the door, Su Xiao already sensed the inside's dense, chilling abyssal power; it was time to summon those few, come here, and fight the emperor to the death.