Free Web NovelChapter 387: Chapter 379: One Sword for a Funeral
Shi Ming’s reaction speed was unbelievable!
The intelligence from the Eye of Destiny was lengthy, but with his current Spiritual Power, he absorbed it all in a mere instant. The moment the seabed stirred and the sixty-nine bones revealed their deathly malice, Shi Ming’s Chaotic Divine Country had already descended.
Other Shore Flowers bloomed upon the soil of death—a rather fitting scene.
BOOM!
The Skeleton Giant Beast, pieced together from bones, seemed as haphazardly assembled as building blocks. In truth, every part was exceptionally agile, as if dozens of Demon God Pillars had merged together—one forming the head, another the waist, and yet another the feet.
Their roles were distinct, their coordination flawless.
He couldn’t see it with his eyes, but within the range of his Spiritual Power, no detail could escape him.
’Seventy-two bones, two destroyed,’
’and another is sealed, having developed its own consciousness and become the Phoenix.’
’Excellent. I can take them all out in one fell swoop.’
His eyes locked onto a dark, faint light within the skeleton’s head.
This dim light was like a central hub, connecting to the other sixty-eight bones through the longest one, the spine. This was the origin of the Seventy-two Marquises, the physical manifestation of the Death Holy Hall Origin.
Under normal circumstances, it was indestructible.
The beast finished its assembly and opened its maw of bone!
A putrid, deathly aura filled the entire abyss. The water swirling around Shi Ming transformed into the arms of the dead, trying to drag him into their land of death. This was the signature ability of the Seventy-two Marquises: the Skeleton Sanctuary. Any creature pulled into this Death Empire would be terrifyingly suppressed, their strength drastically cut. As long as they remained inside, they could only unleash half of their true power at most.
It was a terrifying debuff!
Once inside, breaking the spell with brute force would be hopeless.
Shi Ming, however, transformed into his three-headed, six-armed state. The three-meter-long greatsword, One Sword Burns the Abyss, appeared in his hands. Molten, crimson lava flowed across its ancient, rock-like blade, illuminating the dead silence of the abyss.
One Sword Burns the Abyss!
He plunged the greatsword vertically into the abyss floor. It was like a bullet striking glass; spiderweb cracks spread out, accompanied by the sound of shattering rock, racing straight to the Earth Core deep below.
Magma, blazing at 6,000 degrees, erupted skyward,
making the dark abyss as bright as day.
The skeleton’s movements froze.
With the light, Shi Ming could finally see the Holy Hall Fierce Beast’s exterior with his own eyes. Every bone that formed its body was covered in strange, abstract inscriptions. Some resembled snakes, others mice or scorpions. The longest bone, which served as its spine, was carved in the abstract, winding shape of a demonic dragon.
He wrenched One Sword Burns the Abyss free!
Tenfold Power!
The Right Arm Red Pattern on Shi Ming’s arm flared to life. The tenfold power boost enveloped the fifth-ranked wondrous item in his hand—the most terrifying weapon in the Endless Ocean. With unstoppable force, he seized the precious opening and brought the sword down vertically upon the dim light in the Skeleton Giant Beast’s head.
The seawater vaporized. Countless bubbles sent the frigid abyss into a rolling boil.
Empowered by the Arm of Power, his Attack Power of over 600 points was amplified to its absolute limit. The force was so immense that even Shi Ming’s right arm, with its absurd physical strength and resilience, began to show fine cracks, from which true patterns of blood seeped out.
World-destroying power.
The Death Empire had not yet fully descended, but the Seventy-two Marquises already felt the terror of this strike.
It was a higher-dimensional power, one that faintly suppressed it on a conceptual level, leaving it with no will to even think of resisting...
’When did such a powerful force ever appear on this planet?’
’Flee!’
It subconsciously stopped concentrating the Skeleton Sanctuary, intending to split apart and scatter.
But it was too late.
Shi Ming had more than one trick up his sleeve.
Just as One Sword Burns the Abyss was about to strike the dim light, Shi Ming’s saturation attack, the Ten Thousand Forms Sanctuary, arrived. The Skeleton Giant Beast felt its Spiritual Power being usurped by a higher-dimensional, conceptually superior being. Attacked in both body and spirit simultaneously, it could no longer maintain its defenses and was overwhelmed.
When had the master of death ever been in such a pathetic state?
BANG!
The cry of a Kun echoed through the deep-sea abyss. As One Sword Burns the Abyss descended, countless blue butterflies silently entered the creature’s dream, giving the Seventy-two Marquises the most beautiful funeral procession.
The bones scattered.
CRACK!
The Death Holy Hall Origin, which had never sustained any damage since its birth, shattered in an abstract form. The scattered consciousness of the Seventy-two Marquises watched in disbelief. Just before death claimed it, it remembered it had one more avatar, one that was sealed away.
’No!’
’I still have an avatar!’
’Death won’t truly descend upon me!’
Amidst unwillingness and terror,
its consciousness was annihilated.
But it did not know that over a thousand years ago, the sealed Phoenix had long since transformed into an independent being through the cycle of life and death. That Phoenix was now also under Shi Ming’s control and could never serve as its foundation for revival. The fierce beast that commanded death, the sovereign of the Death Empire, would vanish completely along with its ethereal kingdom, deep within the abyss where no living thing could bear witness.
Shi Ming retracted One Sword Burns the Abyss and floated in the seawater.
He extended his right arm.
Pale blue, fluorescent butterflies drifted through the depths of the abyss. The red pattern on his arm and his Spiritual Power transformed into threads, latching onto the scattered bones and the shattered pieces of the Death Holy Hall Origin.
The Other Shore Flowers dissipated one by one.
The seabed returned to its eternal silence.
...
To absorb the Death Holy Hall Origin, Shi Ming did not put on the Golden Mask.
This time, he didn’t need the approval of the Death Origin. He only needed to forcibly absorb its power and suppress it with his own life force. The Death Holy Hall Origin was already shattered; being converted and absorbed was its only chance for continued existence.
Suppression, conquest.
Accepting it was, in a way, an act of mercy.
This Holy Hall awakening didn’t come with the fated favor and benefits he’d received when awakening the Ten Thousand Forms Kun. Even though the Right Arm Red Pattern could drastically increase the awakening speed, it would still take three to five days. This was slightly longer than the time it took to absorb the Abyss Lord and the Great Black Heaven Dragon, as the Death Origin, ranked 002, held an innate advantage.
This speed was already fast enough to be jaw-dropping to any other creature.
After all, the Active Wormhole needed at least thirty-five days just to absorb the physical power of the Candle Mirage.
...
...
...
「At the Extreme North, in the Ice Lake Shi Ming had once visited.」
The Air Lake.
What flowed here wasn’t water but liquid air—a marvel created by the combined effects of extreme cold and the unique geography of the Extreme North.
At this moment, more and more ribbons of blood were mingling with the clear, azure water. They looked like solid silk ribbons forming within the lake, their hazy patterns like those trapped in amber, beautiful in a peculiar way.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH.
From the depths of the lake, the sound of chewing was clearly audible.
The Active Wormhole was gleefully devouring the last of the Candle Mirage’s body. Only a quarter of the sea beast forged from Crystal Stone remained.
The shadow enveloping the Candle Mirage’s corpse also began to take a more solid form, resembling a collection of deep Wormholes. Every so often, a writhing shape would emerge, slithering across the shadow and the Crystal Stone body.
Quintetra.
’This feast is almost over. It should be enough.’
’The Nirvana Stage,’
’Heh heh.’
