Chapter 662: Doing One's Best

This was the first time Tang Zhao had seen Destruction make a serious move.

In fact, it had been a very, very long time since Destruction had made a full-force move on its own; previously, when the three Sword Immortals were playing chess, Ruyi Sword and Wang Liang had expended Heart Power, but Destruction alone had been slacking off.

In the few times it had acted since, even when it rose up to besiege the Dazai, it had looked fierce, but it had actually always maintained its daily energy levels, never mobilizing its own potential. Even when it erupted, it had not used its own source.

Perhaps it felt it wasn't worth using. At that time, it was at its most bored and irritable; the days were long and hopeless, and even after unbinding from Wang Liang to regain its freedom, it did not know what to do.

But today, it moved.

With all its might!

A powerful, violent, and intense aura rose from its body.

At the same time, it was accompanied by bright light and super-intense energy!

"Hmm?"

Tang Zhao, who was in the distance, felt slightly surprised, even a little worried.

To others, such light was already dazzling enough, but to Tang Zhao, who was right beside it, this brightness was not enough.

This was still far from being on the magnitude of the sun.

It was not even as piercing as the light from the few times it had acted before.

Was it still not using its full strength?

But immediately after, Tang Zhao had an epiphany:

This is Destruction!

It is the Destruction Sword Intent, independent of Shine and Growth, centered on destroying all things!

It represents the violent side of the Golden Crow and the sun.

Its power is destruction; it is because of the powerful Destruction Power that light and fire were ignited, not because of the Destruction Power brought by light and fire!

That is the purest Destruction Power; even the light is merely a redundancy of the Destruction Power.

When the Destruction Power climbed to its peak, Destruction moved forward and exhaled a breath.

It could only be described as a breath; it was not a beam of light, nor a row of waves; it was a breath blown out from the mouth of Destruction.

Or rather, this was a gale!

This breath was originally formless, but it took shape the moment it was blown out.

Wherever that breath, that wind, passed, all things were reduced to dust; the tangible Shadow and intangible energy were lightly brushed by that breath, crushed at will, leaving no remains.

When what it passed over was crushed, the empty space left behind was the shape of the breath of destruction, and also its trace.

Crush through!

These words suddenly flashed through Tang Zhao's mind:

No matter what is in front, with infinite Destruction Power, crush through it!

It was truly like a gale sweeping away fallen leaves!

The Shadow before it was easily crushed, to the point that a broad road of sunlight was cleared in the endless darkness. And because the Destruction Power lingered on the trajectory, this path remained after being cleared, not being squeezed back by the surrounding Shadow.

And at this moment, the direction the wind was moving was toward that quagmire of Shadow.

Yes, just a moment ago, this had been a battlefield where silver ribbons and countless Shadow imps were entangled; after Destruction arrived, the silver threads slipped away without stopping. It was unclear whether the new Wang Liang did not want to entangle them or could not, but in any case, it did not keep Ruyi Sword behind.

With the silver threads pulled away, only a quagmire of Shadow remained in place.

Those were all the imps gathered together, shoulder to shoulder, head to head, rubbing against each other, and finally almost merging into one, forming a mire where one could not distinguish the other.

But in the mire, one could vaguely see individual heads.

Originally, they were just spheres shaped like heads, but from time to time a ghost face would flash across; in that instant, it seemed to be endowed with a Soul, truly a living ghost.

But as the breath of destruction approached, ghost faces emerged on every ghost head. The ghost faces were like some kind of plague, emerging more and more; at first three or five, then every now and then, and in the end, every head was topped with a face full of ghost energy. Countless ghost faces were like larvae in a honeycomb, dense and crowded, each grinning, welcoming the impending breath of destruction.

It's coming!

The gale has arrived!

Bite!

The moment the breath of destruction arrived, those ghost faces opened their mouths together and bit into the breath of destruction, just like hyenas pouncing on a buffalo. In an instant, they had filled the surface of the gale.

No sooner said than done!

The breath of destruction came extremely fast, sweeping across in the blink of an eye, and the imps pounced just as quickly as light and shadow. In an instant, they submerged the gale.

However, the breath did not stop; it was still rushing forward, blowing those imps away just like a bellows blowing on paper scraps. After being contaminated by the breath of destruction, most of those imps melted like ice and snow and were completely annihilated, but quite a few bit off a sliver before melting.

This sliver of power left the main force and instantly turned from white to black, undoubtedly becoming a part of the power of Yingyuan.

Even if it could not pierce through it, it would become its nourishment, making Wang Liang more powerful.

But Destruction was still outputting.

Its power was still increasing; the violent Destruction Power formed a tornado, almost forming a cutting edge. At the beginning, there were still imps that could pounce and tear, but gradually the periphery of Destruction had formed a Space Storm, forming a vacuum domain where even Shadow could not survive.

That breath pushed forward like a bulldozer, pushing away the weeds; it looked like it was about to flatten the plot, compact the mire, and even push to the opposite bank—

Suddenly, a ghost face stretched out from the Shadow on the side and bit down on the middle section of the breath of destruction!

Head-on collision!

With consumption proving ineffective, Wang Liang finally poked its head out from the Shadow. That was a "head" in the literal sense. With distinct facial features, it was an oversized ghost face.

So, so big!

At first, Tang Zhao only felt that a giant's head had emerged, but immediately after, that head expanded infinitely, its features stretching in all directions, and within a short time, it was already out of the range of sight; the entire Shadow almost turned into a huge ghost face, and the crack between the shadows was the mouth.

The mouth opened and bit toward the breath of destruction.

It could not be called a bite; it was a swallow! It swallowed the entire quagmire along with the Destruction Power that was clearing the quagmire in one gulp.

That big mouth was still advancing, pushing toward the main body of Destruction!

In an instant, relying on its absolute volume advantage, it actually pushed back to the front of Destruction.

The Golden Crow watching the battle on this side was quite straightforward; it turned around and left. Since it was not on the front line anyway, it took Tang Zhao on its back and flew away together.

At this moment, Tang Zhao turned his head and saw Destruction remaining in place, its body swelling up, its feathers bristling like lightning!

Its rate of expansion was clearly no match for the speed at which Xin Wang Liang opened its massive maw; endless Destruction Power carved out empty trenches across that giant face, but it could not stop the mouth from opening in the slightest.

Finally, at the moment it had expanded to a certain point, Destruction was swallowed in one gulp by Xin Wang Liang!

"Ah!" Tang Zhao saw this scene and said anxiously, "Your Highness... His Highness Destruction has been swallowed!"

Jinwu said calmly, "It only looks like it has been swallowed. In essence, it is still surrounded by the opponent's power. It just depends on whether it can break out of the encirclement. That should be the densest mass of Xin Wang Liang; if it can break out, then there is a thirty percent chance of piercing through Xin Wang Liang. I can support it again, let it stake everything on one throw, pierce through Yingyuan, and fulfill its wish."

Even if it breaks out from the inside, is there only a thirty percent chance?

No... the problem is not here. Tang Zhao said anxiously, "But... what if it doesn't break out? If it gets trapped in the inescapable net and cannot get out, wouldn't it be separated from us? Isn't there no way..."

Jinwu was not in a hurry at all and said, "Then there is no need to waste effort. You prepare the Jinwu Sword; I will go in first, and then I can retrieve Xin Wang Liang from a distance. It doesn't matter even if it is blocked by the Shadow. Everything will be just as planned from the beginning."

Tang Zhao listened anxiously, feeling that although this advanced the plan, it was extremely uncomfortable. He just stared at that giant face in the middle of Xin Wang Liang. That giant face stretched and contracted, not calming down; he did not know if it did not want to calm down, or if it was being stirred by external forces and could not calm down!

Then he heard a crow's cry coming from the rift!

That crow's cry was nothing short of celestial music to Tang Zhao, and immediately after, he saw light!

That layer of light seemed to be covered by a black veil, permeating from the inside of Xin Wang Liang, but it was undoubtedly Destruction's signature dark gold.

Destruction, it is about to come out!

However...

"About to" is not "now."

It seemed to be the next instant, but it could also be an unknown day.

Those crow's cries were high-pitched and soared into the air, those streaks of dark golden light were right before his eyes, as if they would break through the body in the next moment. Yet, they never did.

Tang Zhao's heart was like fifteen buckets hanging in a well, bobbing up and down; he felt sweat falling from his forehead and only wanted Destruction to come out quickly, yet it could not be fulfilled, just like a father waiting for his child to be born, but the labor was prolonged. This anxiety made cold sweat pour down.

Can it actually do it? Your Highness Destruction?

Also watching like Tang Zhao was Jinwu; unlike Tang Zhao who could only worry in vain, Jinwu had the power to intervene, but it had made up its mind not to intervene, seemingly having reached a certain resolution.

Let the facts decide.

Just at this moment, a Yin He rolled back from beyond the sky, plunging straight into the hinterland of Xin Wang Liang!

The Yin He was soft, yet it cut open the center of Xin Wang Liang like the sharpest blade, turning into a hook to pull out the other behemoth.

It was the Ruyi Sword, which had exited the stage, taking action to receive and rescue Xin Wang Liang!

Tang Zhao breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately felt his heart tighten again: Destruction was on the verge of breaking out, and the Ruyi Sword was receiving it; does this count as breaking through Destruction?

Or is it to say...

Seeing the Ruyi silver threads combined with Destruction's extreme speed, after escaping, they converged toward Jinwu's side; the forces of several parties joined together, and Xin Wang Liang could not catch up, so it stopped chasing and biting, the rift stopped expanding and turned to shrinking, and instead, a sound came from deep within Yingyuan:

"Qi—"

This might just be the sound of wind or some other natural sound, but it could also be that new Xin Wang Liang mocking this kind of "wheel war" behavior for lacking martial virtue.

On this side, Destruction finally returned to Jinwu's side; it looked no different than before, and there was no such thing as being battered and exhausted from being swallowed once, or even becoming a drowned rat. It still looked spirited and high-spirited, its feathers standing straight, seemingly ready to turn back and fight another three hundred rounds at any time.

But Jinwu had already sensed the difference in its state and just asked calmly, "How is it, are you satisfied?"

Destruction said, "I didn't win, so I'm definitely not satisfied. But I did try my best. To try any further would require borrowing your power." After finishing with a hint of regret, it nodded at Tang Zhao and said frankly, "You have also seen that our old-era power can only stop here. The next part should be handed over to the new era."