A lump of rotten flesh, its original shape no longer discernible, hung from the wing blade of the Phoenix-Wing Gilded Halberd.
Only that candle flame of life, extinguished yet rekindled, its brightness neither fully fading nor vanishing, still swayed as it proclaimed the unyielding spirit of a Demon Race Great Saint.
Every outward feature belonging to that peerlessly beautiful celestial demon had blurred beyond recognition; not a single intact demon form remained. Only a pair of clear hands still clung on, twining around the great tree like vines!
Shu Xiulang stubbornly gripped this "side branch" from which he hung.
"Black kites peck at men's entrails, carry them aloft, and hang them upon withered branches..."
His sorrowful voice churned amid blood and flesh, gradually sinking, gradually fading away.
Once enslaved by the Cat Race, he had learned to be a cat. Later, when his horizons broadened and he stood from the perspective of the Demon Race as a whole, he learned from the Human Race instead. He studied poetry and books, inquired into rites and music... His entire life had been a struggle against a certain fate.
Dark, murky blood seeped from eyes swollen shut save for a slit. Looking up at Ji Shouyu, who had taken command of the three armies in another's stead, his voice abruptly turned fierce again. "The Central Moon Gate was breached because of me! If you do not take my head, how will you answer to those Jing State soldiers who died in battle?"
It was precisely to utterly destroy a Demon Race Great Saint like Shu Xiulang that Ji Shouyu had been lured out, exposing the hidden contingency stationed at the Moon Gate.
Though already at death's door, Shu Xiulang still struggled with all his strength. It was not that he failed to recognize