In this cataclysmic struggle, they were like dragonflies beating their wings against a raging tempest and towering waves. Small, yet unyielding.
Mountains crumbled and the earth split open as colossal tsunamis surged across the surface. The planet's entire geography was being rewritten in the aftermath of their battle. High peaks were flattened into plains, and vast seas became rift valleys. Had this world been home to living beings, it would have become a purgatory. Fortunately, it was nothing more than a barren, dead star that Shuhu had chosen to conceal the true body of his root system.
An unknown span of time passed before the high-intensity war of attrition finally showed signs of exhaustion. The wounds on Kanzaki's body, which once healed instinctively in an instant, now required two or three seconds to regenerate fully. Shuhu's aura also appeared somewhat withered, yet that immense vitality remained as boundless as a vast ocean.
This was the insurmountable chasm between a mortal and an Emanator.
Even after mastering forbidden techniques to plunder countless powers, one remained powerless before a true Emanator of an Aeon.
"What? Exhausted already?"
Shuhu keenly sensed his opponent's decline and could not help but smile.
"I told you, the choices you make are all in vain. No matter how much of the Blessing of Abundance you plunder, it cannot change your inherently weak nature."
"Kanzaki, look at yourself. To kill me, you have reduced yourself to this state. Is it worth it?"
"Give up. Fall into my embrace, and I shall grant you true perfection. No more pain. No more fatigue…"
Kanzaki ignored the words.
The bloody hole pierced through his chest was healing at a visible rate, but the killing intent in his eyes remained undiminished.
"Lord Kanzaki!"
The voices of Mianxue and Hanya rang out in unison.
Kanzaki froze for a moment. Meeting their determined gazes, a fleeting struggle crossed his heart before he finally closed his eyes.
Their lack of refusal was silent consent. Seeing this, the two sisters smiled at each other, a smile both poignant and resolute.
Without hesitation, their hands formed seals and activated the final forbidden technique of the Self-Actualization Aspect.
By sacrificing their own flesh, soul, memory, and even their existence, they merged unreservedly into his body, pushing his power to its absolute limit.
"Lord Kanzaki, goodbye…"
Accompanied by their final, lingering call filled with affection, their bodies disintegrated in an instant.
Two blinding pillars of blood-red light tore through the dim sky. They crossed the spatial distance without hesitation and crashed directly into Kanzaki's battered form.
In that moment, a terrifying aura unlike anything before erupted with Kanzaki at its center. Ancient and vast, it carried an oppressive weight that loomed over all living beings.
The wounds on his skin that had been healing slowly restored instantly. His body began to undergo an astonishing transformation. The black cuticles peeled away layer by layer, revealing smooth, pale skin beneath. Countless lush green tender leaves sprouted from his pores, only to turn into emerald fluorescence and vanish, bringing about unknown changes. Only those crimson, tyrannical eyes remained unchanged in their madness.
Shuhu was filled with suspicion and uncertainty.
That aura… an aura that made even his soul tremble.
"…The Ambrosial Arbor?!"
Shuhu lost his voice in disbelief, followed immediately by a surge of wild ecstasy.
"Hahaha! You truly are mad! Activating the Self-Actualization Aspect was one thing, but you actually dared to touch the power of the Ambrosial Arbor? Do you believe you can use that to contend with me?"
It was no different from offering meat to a starving dog.
Kanzaki slowly raised his head, his eyes filled with indifference.
He gently clenched his fist, feeling the vast power coursing through his body.
This was the final trump card that Mianxue and Hanya had purchased for him with their lives. It was also one of the killing moves the three of them had planned over a thousand years.
"Shuhu."
Kanzaki's voice had become somewhat ethereal. On the surface, it carried neither joy nor sorrow, but beneath it lay a frigid killing intent.
"Today, this place shall be your grave."
As the words left his lips, an azure fist-wind had already pierced through Shuhu's massive trunk, moving too fast to react to.
Azure vines quickly crawled over the wound, frantically draining Shuhu's life force and suppressing his regeneration.
The situation reversed in an instant.
Mianxue and Hanya had willingly become vessels to carry the power of the Ambrosial Arbor, descending into the abyss alongside him.
He would never fail them.
Empowered by the Ambrosial Arbor, every one of Kanzaki's attacks plundered Shuhu's life force and converted it for his own use. The regeneration ability that Shuhu had prided himself on was no match for this power. His body began to disintegrate, and his roots withered.
For the first time, true fear descended upon the heart of this immortal Emanator of Abundance.
If this continued, he would die… He would truly die. Sucked dry by a mortal he had viewed as an ant, using the very power of Abundance he had cherished most.
The reason he had coveted the Xianzhou Alliance for thousands of years and never forgotten the Ambrosial Arbor was precisely because the rank of the Arbor's blessing surpassed the one he had received.
His only advantage over the Ambrosial Arbor had been his sentience and ability to split his form. As long as the root system remained intact, his other selves could return time and again, even after dying countless times, growing stronger with each resurrection.
But now, a mortal had actually mastered this kind of power.
"No… NO!!!"
Shuhu let out a roar of unwilling frustration.
His great work was not yet finished. He had not yet devoured the Ambrosial Arbor. He had not yet become truly immortal.
He could not die here.
At last, Shuhu stopped caring about the cost. He frantically burned his remaining essence to send a single, one-time-use signal into the distant sea of stars.
The entire universe seemed to freeze for a split second.
An ineffable will, vast enough to soothe all turmoil within one's heart, crossed the sea of stars and cast its gaze.
That gaze carried a pure, indiscriminate mercy.
Crack—
The Imaginary Isolation Barrier that Kanzaki had spent a thousand years strengthening with Siluo's power and the cooperation of Mianxue and Hanya shattered instantly, as fragile as a bubble under that gaze.
===
At the same moment, on the Xianzhou Luofu.
The Cloud Knights fighting abominations amidst the ruins, the pilots covering the civilians' retreat, and even the elderly, the weak, women, and children trembling in the delve shelters…
Every Xianzhou native bearing the blessing of longevity, no matter where they were or what they were doing, felt something stir in their hearts at that moment.
As one, they turned their heads toward a certain direction deep within the sea of stars.
It was a tremor originating from the very depths of their souls.
On the battlefield, the Luofu's defense line was already on the verge of total collapse. Had it not been for Jingliu and the others arriving just in time to hold the line with everything they had, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Even so, the battle had grown increasingly difficult.
But after that gaze descended, a shocking scene unfolded.
Shuhu, who had been locked in a life-and-death struggle with Teng Xiao, abandoned all advantages without hesitation and vanished instantly, as if fleeing in panic.
"Where do you think you are going?!"
Teng Xiao's eyes widened in shock as he let out a sharp, thunderous shout.
His shock did not stem from Yaoshi's gaze itself, but from the violent Imaginary fluctuations emanating from that direction.
The level… Emanator rank!
And that familiar fluctuation was something he would never mistake, even in death. It originated from Shuhu.
The contents of a certain casual conversation with Kanzaki from a thousand years ago had actually come true.
Shuhu really did possess roots. No wonder they had never been able to kill him completely.
Moreover, the aura of the Shuhu who had vanished was rapidly overlapping and merging with the coordinates of Yaoshi's gaze.
Although heavily injured, his duty as General would not permit him to let Shuhu escape.
"Defend the Luofu! Until the mopping up of the remaining enemies is complete, no one is to leave their post!"
Teng Xiao forced out a final breath to issue his military order, then vanished in a flash of golden light as he pursued alone.
The forces of the Denizens of Abundance, which had been frantically attacking the Luofu, also seemed to receive some kind of summons. Except for the abominations trapped deep within the battle lines who could not escape, most of them surged toward the direction where Yaoshi's gaze had descended.
The tragic battlefield of the Luofu's defense was shifting outward rapidly in this eerie manner.
===
On the ground.
Jingliu stood frozen in place, as if bound by an invisible spell.
The longsword in her hand dripped blood continuously, and her entire heart trembled violently.
Just now, at the moment Yaoshi's gaze descended, she had captured the existence of another Shuhu in that direction, along with an aura engraved deep in her heart.
It was Master!
Though it was mixed with a thick, foul stench of Abundance, and though it had become violent and strange, she would never mistake the one she had loved and pursued for a thousand years.
Even if he had already severed their master-disciple relationship, he was still her Master.
He must be, for all lifetimes to come!