Chapter 143: The battle is over!!!

This Mauser pistol was Aunt Qin’s gift.

When Lu Yuan took the gun back then, he never imagined its first bullet would be used on Shen Jizhou.

To be honest, that shot just now could have blown Shen Jizhou’s head off.

But, of course, he could not do that.

Lu Yuan only wanted to win this challenge, not to take Shen Jizhou’s life.

However, in a way, this challenge was already won by Lu Yuan.

If that shot had been raised by three inches, the blood hole in his arm right now would have been in Shen Jizhou’s skull.

Of course, this cannot be said as an absolute.

If not for the rules binding the “Questioning Heaven Challenge,” Lu Yuan would have died eight hundred times over already.

At this moment, Shen Jizhou’s body convulsed violently, as if struck by an invisible thunderbolt.

He slowly turned his head, his gaze piercing through the collapsed rubble, fixed tightly on Lu Yuan in the distance.

Lu Yuan still slumped there, seven orifices bleeding, his breath as faint as a candle in the wind.

A weak, triumphant smile twisted the corner of his mouth.

Almost at the same time, the Dao-fruit light sphere laboring above Shen Jizhou’s head trembled violently!

Its upward momentum revived and corrected itself!

Shen Jizhou lowered his head, looking at his right arm, which was bleeding heavily.

A gouged blood hole was spurting blood.

Under normal circumstances, for a practitioner like him, this would be manageable.

He would only need to circulate true energy, and in a moment the bleeding would stop and the wound would heal.

But now—

He was confronting the Human Emperor Seal!

His lifetime Dao-fruit, all his spirit, all his zhenran, were condensed within that light sphere,

engaged in the most primal struggle against the awakened Human Emperor will!

Every part of his body was a battlefield.

That bullet was tantamount to pulling the cauldron from under the stove!

The Dao-fruit sphere’s light began to flicker wildly, its formerly stable rotation thrown into chaos.

The upward push stalled.

Then—

It began to sink!

The Human Emperor Seal seemed to sense the opponent’s weakness, its seal-body humming!

A suppression force even more violent than before, like a celestial river rushing back, crashed down with a roar!

Puff!

The light sphere was instantly pressed down three inches!

Shen Jizhou’s arms trembled under the unbearable weight, and from the wound on his right arm, along with the spurting blood, his Dao-fruit power poured out uncontrollably!

He was like a balloon punctured.

Zhenran, spirit, will—flowed down that blood hole, irretrievable!

For the first time, the emotion called “despair” surfaced in Shen Jizhou’s eyes.

He suddenly bit his tongue, spraying a mouthful of essence-blood onto the light sphere!

The sphere’s brilliance surged!

But it only lasted a moment.

His right hand could no longer exert force like before.

The penetrating wound had disrupted the meridian flow in his right arm.

True energy circulating to this point would be blocked, disordered, and leak out.

Even with all his effort, he could only muster about fifty percent of his previous strength!

Fifty percent.

Against the Human Emperor Seal, fifty percent was nowhere near enough.

The light sphere began to fall, inch by inch!

Three inches!

Five inches!

Seven inches!

One foot!

Shen Jizhou’s legs buckled, his kneecaps emitting a sickening crunch.

His spine, like a drawn bow, wailed as if about to snap!

Blood poured from his seven orifices!

Yet he still gritted his teeth and clung on, using hands that had already begun to tremble to desperately support that light sphere!

He could not fall!

He was Shen Jizhou!

He was the highest mountain of the Dao sects beyond the Great Wall!

Shen Jizhou howled to the heavens, a voice like a trapped beast:

“Despicable tricks!!!”

Before the howl finished, his hands struck once more!

The wobbling light sphere was forced back up by three inches as if by sheer will!

Seeing this, Lu Yuan was utterly stunned.

This...

Shen Jizhou...is he a damn monster?!

Even like this!

He...can still push it back three inches?!!

Lu Yuan could hardly imagine how terrifying Shen Jizhou would be at the peak of his artifact-bearing strength...

This...

Is this the power of a Grand Celestial Master?!

No...

It must be more than just a Grand Celestial Master...

Of course, Shen Jizhou’s maneuver had a price!

At the penetrating wound on his right forearm, a spray of blood mist suddenly burst forth!

A meridian was severed!

Shen Jizhou groaned, his entire right arm shaking violently, unable to hold the hand seal any longer!

The light sphere instantly lost balance!

Its brilliance flickered wildly, its rotation utterly chaotic!

The Human Emperor Seal seized the opportunity.

That suppressive force struck like an apocalyptic collapse!

The light sphere shattered!

Not broken by impact, but crushed by the suppression force!

It dissolved into countless light fragments, scattering everywhere!

Shen Jizhou spat a mouthful of blood, his body thrown back several steps by the recoil!

His right hand drooped lifelessly.

Blood dripped from his fingertips, drop by drop, onto the rubble below.

But he still stood.

With his intact left hand, he barely maintained the last thread of defense.

The Human Emperor Seal hovered three feet above his head.

That suppressive force continued unrelentingly.

Now it could be said the outcome was decided!!!

Shen Jizhou had no strength left to reverse it!!

Just as Lu Yuan was about to exhale in relief,

he saw Shen Jizhou’s eyes suddenly fly open, bloodshot, flashing one final sliver of madness.

The bloody hole in his right forearm gushed, but he still had his left hand!

That left hand plunged out!

Grasping at fragments of the disintegrating sphere!

They were slipping through his fingers, being ground, erased, returned to nothing by that suppression force!

Shen Jizhou roared, his left fingers clamping shut, somehow reassembling those collapsing shards!

Flesh touching Dao-fruit fragments burst open instantly!

Blood gushed from his left palm, deep down to bone!

Yet the light sphere was truly reconstituted by him!

Though now one third its former size, its light dimmed by half, its surface veined with spiderweb cracks,

it still existed!

“Get! Up!”

Shen Jizhou shouted to the heavens, his voice shaking the plains!

Using that mangled left hand, he supported the damaged Dao-fruit and thrust it skyward again!

The sphere, trembling, pushed upward!

Lu Yuan, slumped in the distance, pupils constricted sharply.

That old bastard...

Even in this state, he can still fight back!

He is still holding on.

With that bloodied left hand, with that shattered sphere, with his body utterly exhausted, he fights with everything he has.

But...

It was ultimately futile.

Lu Yuan’s shot, with no sign beforehand, had been simply too lethal.

After all, who could have predicted that a Daoist duel would include someone pulling out a Mauser pistol?

It was shameless, to say the least.

Shen Jizhou’s right hand hung slack at his side.

The penetrating wound continued to bleed.

Blood dripped down his arm, blossoming into crimson pools on the rubble.

With each spurt of blood, his breath grew weaker.

With each spurt, the light sphere dimmed a bit more.

With each spurt, the Human Emperor Seal pressed down a bit more.

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths.

Shen Jizhou’s sphere began to descend.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to push it back, it was his right arm dragging him into the abyss.

That penetrating wound was like a bottomless pit, ravenously swallowing his zhenran, his qi and blood, his life.

Each time he tried to exert force, more of his power leaked from that wound.

No matter how strong his left hand, it could not plug the right hand’s hole.

The Human Emperor Seal pressed again.

This time, it was no longer a gentle push, but...

a breach!

That suppressive force, like a celestial river breaking its banks, thundered down!

The sphere shattered!

This time it truly shattered!

The fragments had no time to scatter; the suppression force ground them into powder!

Shen Jizhou’s last expression was wiped from existence along with them.

The seal-body slammed down!

The suppression force fell like a hundred thousand mountains at once!

Boom!!!

A tremendous sound shook heaven and earth!

Centered on Shen Jizhou, the ground within dozens of yards collapsed in an instant!

The arena utterly caved in!

The foundation that housed the Sect-Converging Grand Array crumbled.

The formation-map that once held countless ritual tools’ spiritual mechanisms was torn apart.

The rubble, scorched by thunderfire, sliced by golden light, pummeled by Dao-fruit impacts countless times—

after enduring that final suppressive force, finally met complete annihilation.

A thunderous collapse!

Boulders cascaded like waterfalls, dust soared like dragons, bursting into the sky!

The central region of the Celestial Master Grand Ceremony turned into a silent wasteland.

A hundred yards away, the ground under the spectators’ feet trembled as if a subterranean dragon had turned!

Countless people lost their footing and tumbled, exclaiming in shock.

They looked back in horror.

Where the arena once stood, there was nothing left—

in its place yawned a vast pit.

The pit’s diameter exceeded thirty yards, its depths unfathomable, like a rift into the netherworld.

The bottom was pitch black, nothing discernible.

Only the Human Emperor Seal hung motionless above the pit, radiating a chilling afterglow.

Shen Jizhou...was gone.

Life or death unknown.

But everyone knew clearly: Shen Jizhou had been defeated!

Far from the pit, Lu Yuan, slumped amid the rubble, watched everything and the Human Emperor Seal gradually lose its luster.

The smile at the corner of his mouth finally became one of utter relief.

No matter the process.

No matter the methods used.

He had...won.

Dust slowly settled.

The solemn, grand Celestial Master Grand Ceremony grounds now looked like an abandoned graveyard.

Clack.

A crisp sound.

The Human Emperor Seal exhausted its last bit of spiritual mechanism and fell from the air, tumbling among the broken stones.

It returned to its original white, jade-like luster, but bore no trace of the divine anymore.

Lu Yuan relaxed inwardly.

Good, it wasn’t destroyed.

He could take it back and use his own qi and blood to nurture it for a while until it recovered.

A cold wind wailed through the ruin.

It stirred fine dust, shredded banners, and a few floating ash flakes from who-knows-where.

Those ash flakes spun in the wind, drifting toward the huge pit,

and finally disappeared into the dim, yellowish afternoon sky.

Dead silence.

True dead silence.

A hundred yards away, the onlookers still stood like stone statues.

No one spoke.

No one moved.

He Xun, the Celestial Master who once matched Shen Jizhou in renown, had also lost his usual composure.

He stood at the front of the crowd, his hands trembling slightly, staring at the wreckage, lips moving but unable to form words.

Shen Jizhou had truly been defeated.

Defeated by Lu Yuan, a one-star Celestial Master.

It felt unreal to He Xun...

like a dream.

But when He Xun recalled the earlier scenes...

he felt that if Shen Jizhou had not fallen under those circumstances, then something truly supernatural must have been at play...

He Xun’s throat moved; he swallowed hard.

His gaze turned with difficulty toward the young man slumped by the rubble in the distance.

Lu Yuan.

Right now, Lu Yuan was soaked in blood, his breath so faint it could go out any moment.

He leaned against a boulder, his head hanging weakly, blood from his seven orifices already congealed.

But he slowly raised his head.

His movement was slow and agonizing; every inch seemed to consume all his strength.

His eyes were unfocused, his face as pale as paper.

Yet a smile hung at the corner of his mouth.

A smile so weak it was nearly gone, yet dazzlingly bright.

He had won.

Truly won.

Far away, the Dao sect people finally recovered from their shock and began tentatively to edge toward the rim of the wreckage.

He Xun was the first to move, his figure a blur as he raced straight to Lu Yuan!

At the same time, Shen Shulan did the same.

Of course, Shen Shulan was going to find her father, Shen Jizhou.

That final domineering strike of the seal...that terrifying last blow had seemed to swallow her father whole; she dared not imagine a worst-case...

Lu Yuan slowly closed his eyes.

There was no ecstatic victory, only endless exhaustion, as if every last drop of his soul had been sucked dry.

He did not want to think about tomorrow.

He did not want to think whether Shen Jizhou lived or died.

He did not want to imagine how he would face Shen Shulan if Shen Jizhou truly died.

For now, he just wanted to sleep.

A shaft of afternoon sunlight pierced the dust and fell on his face, offering not one iota of warmth.

A cold wind brushed by, stirring the bloodstained hem of his clothes.

Everything returned to calm.

Then—

.

A faint sound.

So light it might have been masked by the wind.

Lu Yuan, who had already shut his eyes and was about to sink into unconsciousness, suddenly froze.

He strained his last strength to pry open his heavy lids, his pupils reflecting something unbelievable.

No...impossible...

What a...joke!!!

Clatter—

The sound of tumbling stones came clearly.

A hand.

A bloodied hand suddenly thrust up from the stones at the edge of the pit!

Right after—

Another hand reached out from between the cracks!

Stones cascaded, dust rose again.

A silhouette slowly lifted out of the darkness.

First a head.

Then shoulders.

Under a tattered Dao robe was a body scorched and torn.

The chest heaved violently; every breath rasped like a broken bellows.

Waist and abdomen.

Legs.

Finally—

That person rose from the rubble, from the pit, and stood up!

Shen Jizhou.

He stood at the rim of the huge pit, amid the ruins that symbolized his defeat.

Blood-soaked, battered from head to toe.

His breath was so faint it was almost imperceptible.

But he remained standing.

He slowly lifted his head.

Those eyes had lost all spark, leaving only endless fatigue and hollowness.

Yet his gaze still pierced space, falling on the young man slumped against the boulder in the distance.

Falling on the completely frozen Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan’s mind went blank.

His body felt utterly drained, powerless as he leaned on the boulder.

His eyes locked on that silhouette that had risen from the ruin.

That bloodied, near-dead figure that still stood.

Far away, the Dao sect onlookers stared at the figure risen from the rubble, each one frozen like a statue.

Afternoon sunlight broke through the clouds and poured onto that blood-drenched silhouette.

It shone into his hollow but still burning eyes.

It washed over his trembling yet still straightened spine.

He, Shen Jizhou, was and always would be the highest mountain of the Dao sects beyond the Great Wall!

Always.

The cold wind howled past.

It swept dust through the rubble, shredded Dao banners, and scattered residual ritual debris.

Two silhouettes faced each other across the distance.

One slumped by the boulder, expression frozen.

One stood atop the ruin, proud and unmoving.

The Human Emperor Seal lay quietly among the broken stones.

Shen Jizhou’s chin lifted slightly; his cracked lips moved a little.

A hoarse, weary, yet infinitely contemptuous voice reached Lu Yuan’s ears clearly.

“What little tricks do you still have?”

“Continue.”

The outcome is decided!!

Lu Yuan...

is defeated!!