The stone platform shattered, and the suspension cables snapped with several deafening cracks.
In the instant the rubble plummeted, Cang Yaochen clawed into a protruding rock at the edge of the vertical shaft with one hand. A-Mu screamed, clutching Cang Yaochen's ankle as he dangled in mid-air. Below them, the abyssal depths groaned with a muffled roar—the Guixu Mound was undergoing a total collapse.
"Don't scream. Hold on tight."
Cang Yaochen's voice was low, raspy from the depletion of his divine power. Jiang Li, cradled in his arms, had fallen into a deep unconsciousness, yet her hand gripped the freshly acquired pitch-black fragment with death-like rigidity. The chilling aura radiating from the fragment seeped through Jiang Li's fingers and into Cang Yaochen's chest, freezing his very blood and qi.
Taking a deep breath, he exerted a violent burst of strength in his right arm. Carrying the weight of two people like a vengeful ghost climbing out of hell, he vaulted up the slanted shaft walls in several leaps and rolled back onto the floor of the apothecary.
However, the world above was even more hellish than the one below.
The once-silent ancient town was now encased in a thick, translucent golden light—the "Heaven-Sealing Array" of the Yaoguang Holy Land. Every inch of air within the formation became as heavy as mercury.
In the sky, eighteen golden law-enforcement war-vessels loomed overhead. The heavy God-Shattering Crossbows at the prows were fully drawn, their tips shimmering with the light of thunder—executioner weapons specifically designed for high-level cultivators.
"Cang Yaochen, you have delivered yourself into a dead end after all."
From the lead ship, Elder Qi Zhen's voice descended like a divine judgment. He looked down at the blood-stained, half-naked Cang Yaochen.
"The things buried beneath this earth for ten thousand years were never meant to see the light. By bringing it out, you have made yourself an enemy of the world's righteous path."
Cang Yaochen stood up and tossed A-Mu into the shadows behind a broken wall. He cracked his neck, his vertebrae popping audibly. Ignoring the warships in the sky, he looked down, tore a strip of fabric from his inner lining, and meticulously bound Jiang Li and the fragment together against his chest.
"The world's righteous path?" A corner of Cang Yaochen's mouth curled into a mocking sneer. He looked up, the violet patterns of his Love God persona spreading to the corners of his eyes, making him look both holy and demonic. "Nailing thousands of living souls to stakes to suck their blood just to nourish your pathetic Dao foundations... is this your Path?"
"Those were sacrifices for the greater good." Qi Zhen remained expressionless as his right hand swept down. "Fire!"
Swish—!!!
Hundreds of God-Shattering bolts rained down like falling stars.
Cang Yaochen took a step forward, pushing his arms out. The Buddha nature and the Love God power within him collided violently, condensing into a dark purple circular shield three feet in diameter.
The bolts slammed into the shield, triggering a series of terrifying explosions.
The resulting shockwave instantly leveled the surrounding derelict houses. Cang Yaochen's body trembled violently, his feet sinking half a foot into the ground.
[System Notification] Warning: Host's physical damage at 30%. Due to 'Pain-Sharing Resonance,' the Destined Foe will suffer an equivalent mental shock. Current Love God Synchronization: 85%.
"Nngh..." Jiang Li let out a muffled groan of agony in his arms, her body curling tighter.
Hearing her cry, Cang Yaochen let out a low growl. The dark-gold divine sigils on his back exploded, transforming into thousands of thin purple threads that surged upward against the trajectory of the incoming bolts.
The threads were incredibly fine yet incomparably sharp. They instantly pierced the defensive barriers of the first war-vessel, sinking into the foreheads of hundreds of disciples on deck.
"Karma Bind, Pain-Sharing Resonance—TRANSFUSE!"
Grinning savagely, Cang Yaochen grabbed a residual crossbow bolt still stuck in his shield and plunged it ruthlessly into his own thigh.
Pfft!
Blood sprayed.
Simultaneously, the hundreds of disciples on the war-vessel in the sky let out a collective shriek of agony. Their left thighs exploded at the exact same moment. A mist of blood instantly dyed the deck red, and the war-vessel lost its balance, tilting as it plummeted toward the earth.
"Madman! You absolute madman!" Qi Zhen's eyes were nearly bursting out of their sockets. He had never heard of such a tactic—injuring oneself to slaughter a thousand.
"It's not over yet."
Cang Yaochen ignored the wound on his leg. Weaving a hand seal with one hand, he telekinetically seized the blood mist from the falling ship. The mist spun rapidly in the air, condensing into a thirty-foot-long spear of blood.
He locked onto the lead ship where Qi Zhen stood and, with veins bulging in his right arm, hurled it.
BOOM—!!!
The blood spear pierced the air with a shrill sonic boom. The defensive array of the lead ship was as fragile as paper under this strike; the spear nailed through the mast and exploded a massive hole into the deck.
"Li'er, wake up."
As Cang Yaochen continued his frenzied self-mutilation to slaughter the disciples in the sky, he used his gentlest voice to call Jiang Li back to consciousness.
Jiang Li finally opened her eyes.
When she saw Cang Yaochen covered in arrow wounds and bloody gashes, the last sliver of sanity in her black eyes was swallowed by a crimson tide. She felt it—the fragments fused within her were cheering, craving the souls of these "so-called righteous" beings before her.
"Let me take over."
Jiang Li reached out, her hand gently pressing against Cang Yaochen's wound. Her palm emitted a dark magnetic field, and half of the karmic agony that had been racking Cang Yaochen was suddenly absorbed by her.
She stood tall, her silver hair dancing wildly in the blood-scented wind. She looked at the remaining warships in the sky and parted her lips slightly.
"Strip."
It wasn't a skill; it was an instinct born from the ten-thousand-year-old Demon Seed.
The golden light array that had frozen the sky began to flow backward at her command. The disciples on the warships found their spiritual power—the result of decades of bitter cultivation—leaking through their pores and surging frantically toward the girl on the ground.
They screamed as they fell from the heights, turning into white-haired husks the moment they hit the ground.
Cang Yaochen watched Jiang Li as she unleashed her slaughter, his eyes filled with nothing but pure admiration.