’This bald donkey knows Arrays?!’
Seeing this, Xu Yunfan dared not delay. With no time for a complex reaction, he quickly manipulated his clone Han Shi’s hands, continuously forming Hand Seals to shift the previously placed Array Banners, pulling them far away and concealing their traces.
The core of the Array was none other than the Dark Gold Buddha Dharma Aspect.
A terrifying pressure far beyond what had come before crashed down, as if empowered by the very will of the Sea of Suffering’s Reincarnation.
This was Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva’s true trump card.
He was leveraging the deep connection he had forged with the Sea of Suffering’s Reincarnation through his great vow. Using his own Bodhisattva Fruit Position as a catalyst, he temporarily borrowed a portion of the Reincarnation Law’s power, forcibly elevating his Realm to the Pseudo-Golden Core Mid-Stage.
Although he was not a true Mid-Stage Golden Core cultivator, within the current Bitter Sea Environment, this power was enough to crush everything.
Beneath the shroud of the Buddha Array,
Just as the Qiu Long struggled to rise from the ruins, it was bound tight by the invisible shackles of Reincarnation. Its massive skeletal body was slammed to the ground, unable to move. Even the blood-flames in its eye sockets dimmed as it let out a hiss of indignant despair.
It felt its own connection to the Taiyin Nether Dragon Fruit grow faint and indistinct.
The roiling, gray-white Life and Death Qi around the White-haired True Daoist was like snow cast into a Melting Furnace; it let out a loud SIZZLE as it rapidly dissolved.
The power he had just restored by devouring souls was rapidly siphoned away.
Under the crushing pressure of the Buddha Array, the massive illusion of the Life and Death Reincarnation millstone groaned as if overburdened, its surface riddled with cracks.
PTHOO!
The White-haired True Daoist could hold on no longer. He violently spat out a mouthful of black blood thick with Death Qi, and his aura deflated as rapidly as a punctured balloon.
The Grotto Heaven Illusion he had condensed flickered violently and distorted behind him, its edges even beginning to crumble and dissipate.
This was a sign of his Dao Foundation crumbling and his Grotto Heaven being on the verge of collapse.
"AAGH!"
The White-haired True Daoist was a wretched sight. His hair was disheveled, his Daoist robes were in tatters, and his body was bathed in blood. His once merely somber face was now ashen, his eyes filled with frantic despair and indignation.
He stared intently at the Dark Gold Buddha Dharma Aspect, which resembled a sovereign of Reincarnation. He watched the completely suppressed, barely breathing Qiu Long, and gazed at the Taiyin Qiu Dragon Dao Fruit—so close, yet as distant as the edge of the sky.
Thirty years of waiting. Millennia of plotting. Millennia of torment.
And now, just as victory was within his grasp, his final hope was about to be snatched away by this bald donkey who had popped up out of nowhere.
He refused to accept it!
He absolutely refused to accept it!
Just as his Grotto Heaven Illusion teetered on the brink of collapse and his consciousness began to fade, a name flashed through his chaotic mind like a final lifeline.
Xu Yunfan.
That Divine Sky True Monarch from the Primordial Sect. The one hiding in the shadows like a viper, the one who had drained the Qiu Long of its recovery power and laid an Array to watch the conflict from the sidelines.
That bastard, that animal!
’He must be here.’
’He’s definitely waiting for this exact moment!’
A wave of madness—a mixture of venomous resentment, bitter hatred, and a final sliver of hope—shattered the White-haired True Daoist’s last vestiges of sanity.
He summoned every last bit of his strength, jerked his head up, and let out a hysterical roar like that of a dying beast into the chaotic void above the Sea of Suffering.
"Xu Yunfan!!! You’re still not making your move?! What are you waiting for?!?"
His voice, hoarse and shrill, pierced through the raging storm of energy and the Buddhist Chanting of the Buddha Light, echoing across the entire Sea of Suffering.
"Are you just going to stand by and watch this bald donkey succeed? Watch him take the Dao Fruit?!?"
This roar was an accusation, condemning Xu Yunfan for waiting to reap the rewards. More than that, it was a final, desperate gambit to drag him into the fray.
He was betting that Xu Yunfan would never be content to let Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva take the Dao Fruit.
He was betting that Xu Yunfan was nearby, patiently waiting to strike.
In the Divine Sky Palace, Xu Yunfan, who had been observing the battlefield through Han Shi’s perspective, suddenly sat up straight on his Cloud Platform the moment he heard the roar.
A cold flash of Purple Gold Thunder Light flickered in the depths of his eyes and was gone.
’Things rarely go as planned.’
He let out a soft sigh.
The White-haired True Daoist’s desperate cry was like the crack of a starting pistol. It had stripped away any chance of remaining hidden and would undoubtedly alert Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.
At this moment, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was unleashing his full power to suppress the True Daoist and the Qiu Long, his aura locked at its absolute peak. This was the precise, subtle instant when his energy would have to transition, when his power would shift from its zenith into decline. It was also the moment his defenses would be focused on his primary targets, his guard against a third party ever so slightly lowered!
Xu Yunfan hesitated no longer. Through an invisible link, his consciousness instantly descended into Han Shi’s Sea of Consciousness, eight hundred li away within the Yin Nether Cloud Qi.
Deep within the Yin Nether Cloud Qi, Xu Yunfan’s will descended. Han Shi was like a reef locked in ice; even the tremors of his Divine Soul were forcibly suppressed.
He could only watch, helpless, and feel it happen. His Fury Killing Sword Intent—vast and abyssal, tempered over decades of bitter cultivation and forged in his bone-deep hatred for Xu Yunfan—was being siphoned away and seized by an absolute power, like a torrent of destruction unleashed from an open floodgate.
"No!"
Han Shi’s remaining consciousness let out a desperate shriek in the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.
He felt like a vessel that had been completely hollowed out. His entire life’s Sword Dao Cultivation, the Fury Killing Sword Intent that was his pride—the one that grew stronger with his rage—had now become the sharpest of butcher’s knives in another’s hand. And he... he didn’t even have the right to struggle as he watched.
Just as Han Shi’s terror and despair peaked, Xu Yunfan spoke through his mouth. The cold voice echoed clearly within Han Shi’s own Sea of Consciousness.
"Han Shi, watch closely. Allow me to teach you how the Fury Killing Sword Intent is *truly* used."
Before his words had even faded, Xu Yunfan, controlling Han Shi’s body, thrust his right hand into the void.
An ancient, simple Longsword appeared from the void, its surface weathered by eons and covered in a spiderweb of fine cracks. The blade hummed. It was the very same True Martial Sword that had once accompanied Xu Yunfan in battle, now refined by him to the pinnacle of the Magical Treasure Level.
The sword’s residual True Intent to Exorcize Demons and Evil clashed violently with the Fury Killing Sword Intent now being forcibly channeled into it from Han Shi. The blade let out a mournful wail that set one’s teeth on edge, and the cracks seemed to spread even further.
There was no flashy opening stance. Using Han Shi’s body, Xu Yunfan took the Fury Killing Sword Intent—an intent that had been refined to utter purity by the Attribute Panel. He fused it with decades of Han Shi’s own monstrous, pent-up rage and his own will of Destruction. Then, he poured all of it into the nearly-shattered True Martial Sword.
The supreme principles of the Thousand Chariots Geng Sea Fury Wave Sword Technique flowed through Xu Yunfan’s mind. The Law of Wanshengs’ Fury was activated to its absolute peak.
A Sword Dao Divine Technique.
Thousand Chariots Annihilation—Returning Ruins Tribulation.
"Strike!"
A sharp cry, as if echoing from the depths of the Nine Nether Purgatory, erupted from the mouth of Han Shi—or perhaps, Xu Yunfan.
The True Martial Sword transformed into an indescribable beam of sword light, tearing its way out from the Yin Nether Cloud Qi eight hundred li away.
This strike was no mere flash of blood-red or purple-gold. It was a gleam of pure destruction, a convergence of Han Shi’s lifelong hatred, Xu Yunfan’s will of Destruction, and the Returning Ruins True Intent of the Thousand Chariots’ Furious Wave.
Wherever the sword light passed, the surging blood waves of the Sea of Suffering were silently annihilated. Space itself was plowed open, leaving a deep, black chasm, as if to drag this land of the dead completely into the Abyss of the Ruins.