The barrier of the Primordial World loomed in the distance.
Lu Chen found his bearings and flew swiftly toward the Primordial World.
His newly acquired Axe Blade Sharpness ability let the Chaos Brick cleave through the Chaos Qi Flow, making him more than ten times faster than before.
In just three days, he reached the barrier of the Primordial World.
He was about to enter when he suddenly sensed the fluctuations of a battle ahead.
He crept closer and saw two figures locked in combat amid a stretch of Chaos ruins.
One was Kunpeng, his wings stained with blood. He had clearly been injured.
The other... was actually a Blood God Son clone of Minghe! And the clone wielded the Yuantu Sword and stood atop a third-grade lotus, a child of the Karma Red Lotus. His fighting strength was no weaker than Kunpeng's true form!
"Kunpeng, hand over the second God-Slaying Spear Fragment, or today will be your last!" Minghe's clone shouted.
"Minghe, you're nothing but a clone. You dare threaten me?" Kunpeng roared in fury, summoning the Demon Master's Palace and hurling it at the lotus.
Lu Chen's eyes lit up.
The second God-Slaying Spear Fragment was in Kunpeng's hands? And Minghe's clone seemed to have been nurtured from a Karma Red Lotus Seed, sharing the same origin as his battle avatar, Yan Chen!
When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman profits...
He concealed his aura and quietly crept closer.
At the heart of the battlefield, Kunpeng and Minghe's clone had reached a fever pitch.
Kunpeng was powerful, but Lu Chen had injured him earlier, and then Jieyin and Zhunti had ganged up on him. His wounds still hadn't healed. Protected by the lotus's peerless defense and armed with the Yuantu Sword's unmatched sharpness, Minghe's clone was gradually gaining the upper hand.
"Now!"
Lu Chen seized his chance and sent the Chaos Brick flying.
He wasn't aiming at either of them, but at the space between them!
"Gravity Brick—Absolute Distortion!"
The brick's gravitational field erupted at full force. The space collapsed into a miniature black hole, trapping both Kunpeng and Minghe's clone in its pull!
"Who?!" they both cried in alarm.
Lu Chen appeared, grinning. "Well, well. Fancy meeting you two again."
"Lu Chen?!" Kunpeng's eyes nearly bulged out. "You... you've already reached Grand Unity Peak?!"
Minghe's clone's expression changed too. "Your aura... why does it share the same origin as my lotus?"
"That's a long story." Lu Chen raised a hand, and his battle avatar, Yan Chen, stepped out from behind him. Yan Chen, too, stood atop a third-grade lotus, a child of the Karma Red Lotus, and bore the bloodlines of the Three Clans.
"That's... transformed from one of my seeds?!" Sensing their shared origin, Minghe's clone was both shocked and furious.
"It's mine now." Lu Chen smiled brightly. "Now, hand over the God-Slaying Spear Fragment. I might even consider leaving your bodies intact."
"Arrogant!" Kunpeng roared, burning his blood essence to break free of the gravitational pull. The Demon Master's Palace came crashing down.
Minghe's clone fought desperately too, sending the Yuantu Sword slashing toward him like a blood-red river.
"Good! Come at me!"
Lu Chen didn't dodge. Gripping the Chaos Sky-Opening Brick, he swung.
"Strength Pierces the Primordial Era—Lightning Empowerment!"
Lightning coiled around the brick as its Axe Blade Sharpness tore through everything.
"BOOM!!!"
The Demon Master's Palace went flying, and the Yuantu Sword snapped. Kunpeng and Minghe's clone both spat blood and were sent hurtling backward.
The power of a single brick was terrifying!
"Run!" Both of them were horrified and fled at once.
"Do you think you can get away?"
Lu Chen willed it, and his battle avatar Yan Chen became a streak of flame, cutting off Minghe's clone. Meanwhile, Lu Chen himself used Brick Escape to catch up with Kunpeng.
"Hand over the God-Slaying Spear Fragment."
"I'll give it to you! I'll give it to you!" Kunpeng was so terrified he nearly lost his wits. He hurriedly pulled a black fragment from his robes and tossed it over.
Lu Chen caught it. It was indeed the second God-Slaying Spear Fragment, and it resonated powerfully with the first one he had.
"Get lost." He kicked Kunpeng away. "Next time we meet, I'll kill you."
Kunpeng fled toward the Primordial World, burning his source energy, as if granted a pardon.
Meanwhile, Yan Chen had also defeated Minghe's clone and taken the broken Yuantu Sword. Though snapped, its material remained intact and could be reforged.
"Master, what should we do with this clone?" Yan Chen asked.
Lu Chen looked at Minghe's clone, whose face was twisted with hatred. "Lu Chen, my true self will make you wish you were dead..."
"Enough." Lu Chen smashed the clone with a brick, then extracted its remaining blood essence and the lotus's source energy and fused them into Yan Chen.
Yan Chen's aura surged again, and his lotus advanced from the third grade to the fourth!
"Not a bad haul." Lu Chen nodded in satisfaction.
He looked at the two God-Slaying Spear Fragments in his hand, then at the star chart.
"One last fragment remains, deep in the Sea of Blood... Once I've dealt with the Witch-Demon affair, I'll make a trip there."
He stowed the fragments away and flew toward the Primordial World with Yan Chen.
The moment they passed through the barrier, a familiar figure came straight toward them—
His Good Corpse, Huang Chen!
"Master, you're finally back!" Huang Chen looked anxious. "Something terrible has happened!"
"What is it?"
"The Witch Clan and the Demon Clan... have gone to war! It's beneath Buzhou Mountain. The First Witch-Demon War broke out three days ago! The Twelve Ancestral Witches formed the Great Heavenly God-Demon Array and summoned the Pangu True Body. The Demon Clan's Great Formation of the Stars has also taken shape, with Di Jun and Taiyi leading it in person. The two sides are fighting so fiercely that heaven and earth are shattering, and the Primordial World is trembling!"
Lu Chen's heart sank.
So soon?!
"There's worse," Huang Chen said in a lowered voice. "Jieyin and Zhunti took advantage of the chaos to sneak into the battlefield and steal... a drop of Houtu's Ancestral Witch blood essence! They seem to be planning to use it to refine some kind of evil object to counter the Witch Clan!"
Houtu's blood essence? The key to her future transformation into the Reincarnation Cycle!
If Jieyin and Zhunti succeeded, the Witch Clan's destiny would suffer a devastating blow!
"Which way did they go?" Lu Chen asked urgently.
"West! From the direction they were heading, they're going to... Mount Sumeru!" Huang Chen said. "They seem to be meeting someone there."
Mount Sumeru? The entrance to Luohu's Demon Abyss!
Lu Chen understood at once.
Jieyin and Zhunti planned to trade Houtu's blood essence with Luohu! They would exchange it for the Devil Dao's support, or perhaps... for the half of the Primordial Violet Qi they thought was still there!
"I can't let them succeed!"
A cold gleam flashed in Lu Chen's eyes.
"Yan Chen, go to the battlefield and secretly help the Witch Clan. Don't reveal your identity."
"Huang Chen, keep operating out in the open and gather intelligence."
"As for me... I'm going to Mount Sumeru to cut them off!"
The three figures went their separate ways.
Lu Chen unleashed Brick Escape at full speed and raced toward Mount Sumeru.
He considered the situation as he went: Jieyin and Zhunti were still recovering from their injuries, sustained when they had broken the Immortal-Slaying Formation. This was their weakest moment. If he intercepted them on the way, he could not only reclaim Houtu's blood essence but also finally deal with these two scourges!
"This time, I'll settle old and new scores alike!"
The Chaos Sky-Opening Brick hummed in his hand, as if it too sensed its master's murderous intent.
At that moment, at the foot of Mount Sumeru,
Jieyin and Zhunti fled in a sorry state. Inside the jade bottle in their arms, a drop of ochre blood essence radiated an aura as weighty as the earth.
"Senior Brother, we're almost there! Once our deal with the Demon Ancestor succeeds and we get that half of the violet qi, nothing will stand in the way of our path to sainthood!" Zhunti said, excitement written all over his face.
But Jieyin's brow furrowed. "I can't shake the feeling... that something is wrong."
"What's there to worry about? Luohu needs Houtu's blood essence to perfect the World-Destroying Black Lotus, and we need the violet qi. We each get what we want..."
Before he could finish,
a brick-shaped shadow came crashing down from the sky!
"Jieyin, Zhunti—leave the blood essence behind!"
Lu Chen had arrived, ready to kill!
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