Bonus Chapter 1380: Cut

Bonus Chapter 1380: Cut

This kid called “Mo Hua” is actually the Strange Daoist’s martial nephew?!

They, dignified Profound-Hollow-Void old ancestors, had carried the Strange Daoist’s martial nephew right by their side, walking all this way through the abyss, yet were completely unaware?

Every one of the Profound-Hollow-Void old ancestors felt a chill deep in their hearts, and found it increasingly hard to believe.

The Strange Daoist... where did he get a nephew from? And from which demonic lineage of master-disciple inheritance did this nephew come?

Even more incomprehensible was this: the Strange Daoist, that terrifying fiend who acknowledged no kin, had actually addressed this youth with his own mouth as “nephew”?

This kid… just what kind of divine figure was he, to earn the Strange Daoist’s recognition?

The pupils of the assembled old ancestors trembled…

At that moment, Mo Hua was pressed on the shoulder by Strange Daoist’s hand, which was formed of Strange Dao runic threads. For a time, he was completely unable to move.

The pitch-black Demonic Manifestation behind Strange Daoist, half-illusory and half-real, emanated a deep power of divine intent. He leaned close behind Mo Hua, looking at him with faint amusement.

The true body of Strange Daoist.

After a brief shock, several Dao Court ancestors suddenly felt killing intent erupt within them.

They knew clearly, now that Strange Daoist had descended in person, this was a battle of life and death. If they did not kill him here and eliminate the source of corruption, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Even if they escaped this Endless Abyss, they likely would not evade Strange Daoist’s shadow for long.

Old Ancestor Huá immediately struck. A sword light condensed and slashed toward Strange Daoist, without even sparing Mo Hua.

Before, ignorance might have excused mercy. But now that he knew Mo Hua was Strange Daoist’s martial nephew, reason and logic both dictated that he must not be allowed to live.

This sword strike was unleashed with full power, driven from its origin. Its brilliance flowed in shifting colors, shattering the void into fragments, containing a heaven-annihilating killing intent.

Strange Daoist merely pointed a finger.

Black Strange Dao runes filled the void and condensed into a dark heavenly blade that swallowed Ancestor Huá’s sword light whole.

It seemed that Strange Daoist not only understood this sword technique, but mastered it more profoundly than Old Ancestor Huá himself.

Old Ancestor Huá’s face darkened.

“Attack together! Kill this fiend!”

The Profound-Hollow-Void ancestors of the Yang, Xia, Jiang, and Yuwen clans each unleashed their supreme techniques. Spears, dragon blades, magnetic sabers, silver swords—forces that shattered space itself—converged upon Strange Daoist.

So many ancestors striking together caused the void to fracture like glass.

But as they attacked, their shadows behind them suddenly seemed to come alive, like writhing ghosts. They seeped into their Dao bodies, manipulating their thoughts.

All their killing moves collapsed instantly.

Strange Daoist’s body resembled a black hole, from which denser and denser Strange Dao runes crawled out.

These runes contained powerful laws of force, like living things, wriggling across space and sealing the seven Profound-Hollow-Void ancestors within.

Then the runes twisted, burrowing through their flesh little by little.

The outer Strange-Dao patterns were real, penetrating flesh.

The inner shadowy phantoms were illusory, invading the soul.

Reality and illusion worked together, infecting simultaneously.

The Profound-Hollow-Void ancestors were forced to mobilize their own origins—the power of the Great Dao they had comprehended—to resist the corruption.

Strange Daoist’s runes and their Dao origins began an invisible struggle, mutual penetration, grinding annihilation.

This was a battle of origins.

An unseen clash of Dao laws, invisible yet shattering space.

For Profound-Hollow-Void cultivators, such origin combat was far more dangerous than ordinary battles of Dharma Manifestations.

Flesh, spiritual power, even space itself could be restored.

But Dao origin could never be damaged.

Their Dao foundations, life’s comprehension, the laws refined through a lifetime... these were their true lives.

Ordinary Profound-Hollow-Void cultivators would never lightly engage in origin combat.

But Strange Daoist was different.

This madman had come from the beginning with the resolve to die together with them in a decisive origin battle.

One against seven.

He sought to extinguish the origins of all seven Profound-Hollow-Void ancestors alone.

And yet these seven, due to the karma of cursing the Divine Shaman earlier, already had Strange Dao Thoughts planted within them. Their shadows had long been under Strange Daoist’s control.

In other words, their Dao paths had already been seen through by him.

Now that they had entered his territory, once he forced them, they had no choice but to fight with their origins.

The entire Endless Abyss suddenly fell silent.

Strange-Dao runes filled the space.

The seven ancestors stood still, their shadows flickering behind them. Externally calm, but beneath, an even fiercer slaughter raged invisibly.

The stalemate tightened.

Strange Daoist, fighting seven of them alone, did not fall into disadvantage.

Just then—

A brilliant golden Divine-Sense sword light suddenly flashed.

It struck in an instant.

Three of Strange Daoist’s fingers were severed and fell to the ground.

At the same time, a slender build figure dissolved into water and vanished.

Some small thing had run off.

Silence fell.

The change was too sudden.

The seven ancestors were stunned.

Strange Daoist looked at his severed fingers in a daze.

After a moment, they turned into soft, worm-like runes, and three new fingers regrew on his hand.

The strike had not harmed him at all.

But Strange Daoist began laughing wildly, his shadow trembling.

“He cut me?”

“A mere Golden Core disciple… cut me?”

His laughter echoed darkly.

The entire Endless Abyss Marsh was filled with wailing spirits.

The seven ancestors’ expressions changed drastically.

“Quick! Kill him!” Old Ancestor Huá shouted.

They wanted to seize the moment while his hand was severed, unleash a desperate strike, and break free of this origin battle.

But Strange Daoist’s laughter stopped.

He turned his head.

His pitch-black face was like an abyss.

His aura changed instantly.

His body exploded, Strange-Dao runes spraying like blood across the sky.

He shifted from real to illusory.

A black human-faced mask appeared upon his face.

Terror flooded outward.

Strange Daoist was like a ghostly will connecting heaven and earth, an indescribable Profound-Hollow-Void evil god manifesting his true power.

Just looking at him, all sentient awareness seemed to be madly contaminated.

Bone-chilling cold enveloped the Dao Court ancestors.

Along with it came despair, something they had not felt for nearly a thousand years.

Only then did they realize:

They had misjudged from the start.

Strange Daoist had long transcended the category of “human.” He had shed his shell into something even more terrifying.

The Great Wilderness itself had always been a trap.

A trap for the Crown Prince.

A trap for all living beings.

And a trap for them—the Profound-Hollow-Void experts—inside this Endless Abyss.

...

Sensing that horrifying aura behind him, Mo Hua’s heart trembled.

He desperately pushed his movement technique, fleeing toward the depths of the Abyss.

At this point, he no longer cared whether he could escape.

If he fell into his martial uncle’s hands, there would be no good end.

Old grudges and new would be settled together.

As for the seven Dao Court ancestors...

From the moment he saw Strange Daoist within their shadows, he knew:

Martial Uncle had merely been “playing” with them.

This Great Wilderness chessboard... its process didn’t matter.

The ending had already been decided.

Mo Hua ran even more frantically.

The sword light left on him by Old Ancestor Huá still protected him.

It operated automatically. When Old Ancestor Huá turned hostile and fought Strange Daoist, he had no time to retract it.

Ironically, it became Mo Hua’s shield.

Taking advantage of Strange Daoist still being entangled with the seven Profound-Hollow-Void ancestors, Mo Hua quickly reached the depths of the abyss.

Before him stood towering cliffs, and upon them, the dazzling golden “Heaven-Ascending Vine.”

Mo Hua had no time to hesitate. Grabbing onto the Heaven-Ascending Vine, he desperately climbed upward.

Along the way, countless strange fiends—and other nameless creatures—snarled and circled around him, baring their fangs, trying to drag him back down into the abyss. Yet all of them were repelled by the Celestial Mechanism Sword Light protecting his body.

Step by step, he climbed.

He did not know how long he had been climbing. It felt as though a whole year had passed. After enduring an agonizing ascent, he finally reached the edge of the cliff.

He glanced back, almost wanting to take the Heaven-Ascending Vine with him.

But it was a Profound-Hollow-Void level treasure. He had no way to claim it.

Grinding his teeth, Mo Hua could only continue running outward. Along the way, Strange slave and fiends still rushed at him, intent on killing.

He relied as much as possible on the Flowing-Water Steps to evade them. When he truly could not avoid an attack, he used the Celestial Mechanism Sword Light to block it.

Ahead lay utter darkness. Mo Hua could not see the road clearly. He could only rely on memory and a rough sense of direction, charging outward with all his might.

Fortunately, this path had once been traversed by the seven Profound-Hollow-Void Ancestors. The fiends and abyssal creatures along the route had already been slaughtered clean.

That created an opening for Mo Hua.

Wherever there were fewer fiends, that was the way out.

In the darkness and chaos, Mo Hua ran forward with all his strength, fleeing for his life.

He did not know whether he could escape. Nor did he know whether martial uncle was chasing him, or if he was first dealing with the seven Profound-Hollow-Void Ancestors.

But at this moment, he could not care about any of that, nor had he time to think.

In Mo Hua’s mind, there was only one word:

Run.

After running for an unknown length of time, he seemed to have left the Endless Abyss Marsh and entered the Ancestral Court that had been swallowed by the Endless Abyss Marsh. The sword light around his body suddenly dimmed... then gradually dispersed.

No matter how fast he ran, he could not outrun the sword light’s extinction.

With the sound of space shattering, Mo Hua’s heart jolted. He quickly realized that his protective barrier was gone.

The Celestial Mechanism Sword Light had failed.

Mo Hua’s heart turned cold.

He did not know whether the sword light had lost its power due to distance, or whether martial uncle had already slain Ancestor Huá.

But regardless of the reason, it was not good news.

Without the sword light’s protection, the road ahead would be even more dangerous. Yet he had no choice. He gritted his teeth and pushed his movement technique faster.

Inwardly, he cursed the old fellow of the Huá Clan as useless.

With the sword light shattered and no protective shield, within the Endless Abyss Marsh, boundless blood qi, baleful qi, killing qi, corpse qi, decay qi, and demonic qi—accumulated over countless years—surged together, forming the power of the abyss.

Like seawater, it instantly swallowed him whole.

The power of the abyss invaded his flesh and bones.

Mo Hua’s face turned pale. His mouth and nose filled was with the stench of evil qi, even breathing became difficult.

His flesh had been contaminated by the abyss.

Yet his instinct to survive remained. Even as his body was corroded, he still ran outward.

Without the sword light shielding him, the living aura of his body was fully exposed within the Endless Abyss Marsh.

It was like a strand of fresh blood appearing within a demon’s lair in the Great Black Mountain.

In that instant, countless terrifying creatures within the Endless Abyss Marsh stirred violently.

They could not deal with the Profound-Hollow-Void Ancestors—those elders were too much for them—but could they not devour a mere Golden Core like Mo Hua?

The “natives” of the abyss gathered into masses of black shadows, surging through the darkness. They lunged at Mo Hua’s flesh, baring fangs, drooling dark blood.

But at the moment they were about to attack and devour him... their devouring desire instead triggered Mo Hua’s Hunger.

As if stimulated, his pupils darkened. Within them slowly surfaced a black Taotie pattern.

At the same time, after corroding his flesh, the abyssal power penetrated deeper—into his sea of consciousness, into the Taotie Twelve-Meridian Spiritual-Skeleton Absolute Formation within his body.

In that instant, as the abyssal power eroded it, the formation—originally a pure spirit-power construct—underwent a certain corruption and mutation.

Some of the golden formation patterns upon the spiritual skeleton were tainted by abyssal power, gradually turning black, carrying a sinister and chaotic aura.

This Taotie Spiritual-Skeleton Formation, forged by human hands, showed signs of partial transformation, shifting from pure spiritual power into abyssal chaos, blue-black interwoven, neither wholly righteous nor wholly evil.

And this was Mo Hua’s Life-Bound formation.

As the abyss corroded him, the Taotie aura fused even more deeply with him.

The Taotie patterns upon Mo Hua’s body lit up one after another... but this time they were black, more like ferocious beast markings.

Mo Hua himself exuded an even denser Taotie aura, like a young Taotie rampaging through the abyss.

In response, deep within the Endless Abyss Marsh, something suddenly trembled.

It was as if some ancient origin, sensing its child, was releasing a powerful intent.

This ancient pressure made countless abyssal creatures shudder. Those who had been eyeing Mo Hua hungrily fled in terror.

The entire Endless Abyss Marsh descended into chaos.

Yet Mo Hua, wholly focused on escape, knew nothing of this.

Driven by fear of martial uncle, while being corroded by the abyss, he continued charging forward like a young ferocious taotie beast overturning the entire Endless Abyss Marsh.

After an unknown time, he finally saw light ahead.

It was a white brilliance completely different from the abyss.

Mo Hua’s heart trembled. He realized he might truly be reaching the edge of the abyssal tide.

He did not dare relax in the slightest. Using both hands and feet, like a Taotie, he clawed desperately forward.

Nightmarish fiends, vengeful spirits, baleful souls, demons, all were left behind.

Then suddenly, he leapt...

Bursting out from the Endless Abyss Marsh, he jumped into the Great Wilderness Ancestral court and crashed heavily onto the ground.

Not far away, the disturbance in the Endless Abyss Marsh naturally alerted True-Person Zhuge and the other True-Persons.

They stared toward the entrance of the Endless Abyss Marsh.

Then they saw it... A dark, terrifying “monster” suddenly leaping out from within.

True-Person Zhuge was just about to strike and kill the creature, but the moment his divine sense brushed against its aura, his expression changed abruptly.

“Mo Hua?!”

(End of Chapter)