A will seething with towering fury surged from the deepest reaches of the graveyard. It became a black torrent, shattering every stretch of space in its path before crashing down a hundred zhang in front of Zhou Xuan.
Black Qi roiled, swiftly taking the shape of that enormous ghost face.
The False Heavenly Dao.
But this time, the ghost face was twisted beyond recognition. Its features were displaced, and black Resentful Qi spewed madly from its eye sockets and mouth. The surrounding space collapsed at the slightest touch of that resentment.
"You dared destroy my Guide?!"
The False Heavenly Dao's voice rang throughout the Ten Thousand Dao Graveyard, its fury threatening to tear souls apart. The sound whipped the surrounding Death Qi into a storm.
"Zhou Xuan! You're courting death!"
Death Qi pressed against Zhou Xuan's left shoulder, where bare bone lay exposed. Dull cracks sounded between the bones.
Zhou Xuan did not even lift his eyelids.
His left hand held his long saber, its tip resting against the shattered ground beneath him. His right hand lay open, the brass key stained with black blood resting in his palm. The terminal Death Qi on his right arm crept down his wrist and coiled around the key's edges. It tangled with the Formation Patterns on the key, sending out a burst of gray light.
Zhou Xuan closed his fingers around the key, turned his wrist, and tucked it inside his robe.
His movements were neither hurried nor slow.
Only then did Zhou Xuan raise his head. His gray-gold eyes met the ghost face overhead.
"Guide?" Zhou Xuan's lips crooked. "You made a fake that didn't even have a soul and laid out a dead formation full of mysterious pretenses. Did you really think this pathetic illusion could trap me?"
Zhou Xuan