Chapter 847: Fore‑Fate

But battles in the Great Vehicle Stage are still far too rare, causing Yan Buji to involuntarily watch from the sidelines.

Soon, he saw that sky‑blocking giant beast, which reminded Yan Buji of the time he stole something from its cavern...

"... Ming Shen Emperor..." Yan Buji's pupils contracted. The title automatically surfaced in his mind, as if it had long been etched deep in his memory, yet only today did Yan Buji truly see it.

What shocked him even more was the slashing sword soaring past, wildly trembling; its antler‑head emitted a silent whine, resonating strongly with the Ming Shen Emperor's horned crown!

A dazzling flash suddenly erupted at the battlefield's center!

Shenlong Sect Sect Master Wu Konghou's fist‑flow materialized, surging like a reversed Milky Way, hammering toward the Ming Shen Emperor's forehead!

True Flow Fist?

Yan Buji subconsciously recognized Wu Konghou's technique, which seemed quite similar to his own True Flow Fist.

At the same moment, the star‑pattern cloaks behind three Elders unfurled, transforming into a sky‑blocking star map, from which countless burning meteors rained down!

"You bunch of damn dogs!!"

The Ming Shen Emperor let out an earth‑shaking roar, slamming its forepaw onto the ground and generating a circular shockwave.

But Yan Buji clearly saw a Dao‑piercing wound across its abdomen, causing its movement to lag half a beat. Just as the devastating strike was about to land, the slashing sword traced a perfect lapis‑blue arc in the air, landing steadily before the Ming Shen Emperor's eyes.

A flicker of doubt, and perhaps a hint of familiarity, crossed the Ming Shen Emperor's gaze...

Time seemed to stretch infinitely!

"That is..." Wu Konghou furrowed his brows, suddenly sensing a thread of danger descending.

Hong Yuan also frowned, feeling the sword's sharpness prick his nerves with a lethal sting.

"The demon‑clan's Slashing Sword?!" an elder of the Asura clan shouted from behind.

At that moment, everyone saw all the demonic runes on the blade ignite, the third pattern bursting with a brilliance surpassing the sun. Those lapis flames coalesced mid‑flight into a phantom of a singing deer; its antlers perfectly blocked Wu Konghou's fist‑flow, while the space beneath its hooves rippled, causing all meteors to sink into a viscous temporal mire.

"... Instant Eternity!" Hong Yuan suddenly recalled it, shouting in a hoarse voice.

The emergence of this Singing Deer clan's innate divine art caused the battlefield to freeze in an instant.

The Ming Shen Emperor's eyes locked onto the slashing sword before him, revealing a surprisingly human‑like shock.

It suddenly rose upright, its forepaw forming complex seals, its forehead splitting open a vertical Dao fissure that emitted a bronze beam connecting with the slashing sword. The blade instantly melted, turning into liquid metal that enveloped the beast's body, forming a delicate lapis armor on its surface.

Most astonishing was the pair of broken horned crowns; after absorbing the sword's antler‑head, they regenerated, and their tips displayed a mutated Dao Mark identical to Yan Buji's left eye!

"... So that's it..." Yan Buji dropped to one knee, his left eye shedding blood‑tears that solidified into demonic runes on his cheek. Through resonance with the mutated Dao Mark, he glimpsed part of the truth: the Slashing Sword was forged from the Ming Shen Emperor's own horned crown; back when the emperor was the demon‑clan's ruler, he had already traversed the Dao Realm and obtained a mutated Dao Mark, just one step shy of sainthood… Yan Buji is unsure of the rest, but he knows that later the Ming Shen Emperor, to forge the Slashing Sword, sealed one‑third of its soul within the sword's antler‑head.

Empowered with its full strength, the Ming Shen Emperor let out a sky‑piercing howl. The soundwave materialized, parting the clouds to reveal the Youming Jie's characteristic blood‑red heavens. Its right paw formed a phantom grip, and all bronze fragments on the battlefield coalesced into a seven‑zhang great sword, its blade entwined with lapis flames mirroring Yan Buji's.

"... Humans, stand down!" the Asura clan elder barked sharply, his star‑pattern cloak suddenly igniting: "... Let me!" He formed seals with both hands, and twelve Asura arms manifested behind him, each palm clutching a different weapon.

"... Watch his eyes!" the Raksha clan elder abruptly vaulted a hundred zhang back. But it was already too late; the wildly trembling mutated Dao Mark fully unfolded, sweeping the battlefield as a fan‑shaped light curtain.

Enshrouded in blue light, the Asura elder's movements suddenly slowed, as if a insect trapped in amber. This temporal stasis was even more terrifying than Instant Eternity, stemming from the Singing Deer clan's Dao‑path divine art embedded in the Slashing Sword, making it all the more bizarre and indefensible.

The Ming Shen Emperor, of course, would not waste the opportunity.

Its massive sword appeared to descend slowly, yet it had already transcended the notion of time. The moment the blade touched the Asura elder, his existence was partially erased from the timeline; everyone watched his left side turn into a bronze statue while his right side remained in a retreating pose, spurting blood.

"... Dao‑Path Law?!" Wu Konghou finally changed color, the sword aura weaving a dense net before him, "... Hong brother, form the Dual‑Instrument Formation!"

Hong Yuan's complexion shifted dramatically; as a peak Martial Cultivation practitioner, he astonishingly flung out eighty‑one golden talismans, arranging them in the air into a Taiji pattern. Yet the Ming Shen Emperor only sneered, its newly formed horned crown glowing with an eerie blue light.

Hidden in the shadows, Yan Buji suddenly felt a strong pull; the mutated Dao Mark automatically linked with the horned crown, a blue light rising above the battlefield's rear, intersecting with the Ming Shen Emperor's mutated Dao Mark power, forming a complex array spanning a thousand zhang in diameter.

"... What is this..." Yan Buji's head throbbed, fragmented memories resurfacing. The array was clearly an inverted version of the Starry Sky Sect's sacrificial rite, originally meant to channel the Starry Sky Lord's power, now running in reverse.

Under the array's shroud, the five fell as if trapped in quicksand. The most terrifying part was their divine martial techniques turning against them! Wu Konghou's fist force reversed direction, Hong Yuan's golden talismans re‑attached to his own body, and the Raksha elder's summoned Youming ghost fire burned within him.

"Wu Konghou, things are going badly, retreat!"

The two top Martial Dao masters instantly discarded everything on their bodies, bare‑chested, roaring wildly as they hammered fists into the ground, using sheer force to shatter the space‑time shackles.

"... Martial Dao reaches the heavens? Interesting." The Ming Shen Emperor's voice sounded like millennia‑old ice grinding together.

It raised its left paw; a blood droplet on Yan Buji's hand suddenly flew out, turning in the air into a drop of lapis‑colored deer heart blood.

"... Catch it!"

The Ming Shen Emperor instinctively leapt up and seized the blood drop.

At the moment of contact, a flood of images surged into his mind: he saw Jian Fan thrust the Slashing Sword into his chest not to kill himself but to activate the sword's seal with the Singing Deer clan king's blood; he saw the Heavenly Demon King kneeling before the ice‑bound throne, cradling that very drop of heart blood; finally he saw Xiao Lu barefoot standing on twelve bronze coffins, each coffin linked by a chain, the other end tied to a bell on her ankle...

"... Ah!!" The Ming Shen Emperor bled from its seven orifices, howling miserably, yet still firmly grasped the Slashing Sword. At this moment the blade was entirely transformed, lapis liquid revealing a starry sky pattern beneath, perfectly matching the mutated Dao Mark on the emperor's horned crown.

Yan Buji hid at the rear, terrified and unable to move.

Just kidding, I somehow got dragged into a Great Vehicle Stage battle; will they wait until they figure it out before causing me trouble?

"I mean, I'll run first." Yan Buji instantly teleported away.