Chu Zihang shakily got out of the car with his father.
He looked up at Odin, who seemed incomprehensibly huge. He felt so small by comparison.
Chu Zihang had no idea why such a terrifying being had set his sights on them. He knew nothing about what was going on.
Odin's mount, Sleipnir, snorted, thunder surging around him.
The shadows surged in again, closing in from all directions like a rising tide.
They stared at Chu Zihang and the others, howling restlessly like bloodthirsty beasts that had spotted fresh meat.
It seemed they would pounce at any moment and tear them to pieces.
Odin's booming voice rang out. "Human, bow before your god."
"That's fine, but only if you let us leave."
Chu Tianjiao replied with unprecedented seriousness.
"Become one of the Divine Kingdom's people."
Odin seemed to have no intention of punishing the insolent. He merely wished to grant Chu Tianjiao eternal life and make him one of the shadows.
Chu Tianjiao solemnly took a briefcase out of the trunk. His silence was his answer: he refused.
Staying in Odin's Divine Kingdom meant becoming a shadow. Of course, they couldn't agree to that.
Chu Tianjiao looked at Chu Zihang and gave a bitter smile. "Son, I really did want to spend more time with you and your mom, but... I seem to have brought a lot of trouble down on myself."
"Somehow, it even followed me all the way here."
"From here on, don't worry about me. Just get in the car and drive the Maybach as far away as you can, until you're out of here."
Chu Tianjiao spoke with the firm resolve of a man prepared to die.
He turned to look at Odin, then at the shadows, who seemed ravenous with hunger.
They were trapped.
They were already in a dead end.
Chu Zihang's eyes instantly filled with tears. He shook his head resolutely. "No!"
"These monsters will kill you."
It seemed he finally understood his father completely.
He understood the vast conspiracy his father had been caught up in, and the terrifying beings he had fought.
The years of distance between them had all been to keep him and his mother safe.
By now, they seemed to have finally opened their hearts to each other.
But just as Chu Tianjiao was about to say more and steel himself to protect his son, he realized the Murasama in his hand had vanished.
He looked up and saw that the friend his son had brought along had somehow taken his sword without him noticing—and was already walking toward Odin.
Chu Tianjiao shouted in alarm:
"Kid, are you trying to get yourself killed? That's Odin, the chief god of the Aesir!"
Chu Zihang hurriedly called out a warning too:
"Lu Mingfei, what are you doing?"
The giant before him filled Chu Zihang with a soul-shaking sense of oppression.
He had no doubt that the other man could skewer them all simply by hurling the faintly visible spear.
Why walk straight to his death against an enemy no one could possibly defeat?
"Tch."
The response to the father and son came from Dragon Clan Duyang, who clicked his tongue in clear annoyance.
Only then did Chu Zihang realize that, faced with such an unbelievable giant, Lu Mingfei showed no trace of fear. He merely spoke to him impatiently:
"Are you the one who sent people to block our way?"
"Your silence means you admit it."
"Looks like you're asking to die."
"What?"
Hearing those words, Chu Zihang's mind short-circuited again.
Lu Mingfei was actually provoking...
Provoking a being this terrifying...
For a moment, he held his breath.
The Maybach's engine idled low, its headlights fixed on the towering figure standing in the middle of the fork in the road.
Rain streamed over the ancient, grotesque armor, reflecting a dark, frigid sheen.
The armored warhorse stood motionless. Two golden points of light gleamed in its rider's eyes, like divine radiance piercing through the darkness.
His divine might was like a prison. In an instant, Chu Zihang felt his blood nearly freeze and his breathing grow labored.
Faced with Lu Mingfei's brazen provocation, Odin had no intention of wasting words. He thrust the spear forward, then hurled it.
Time seemed to stretch and warp. The instant the spear left Odin's hand, it carved a stark white trail through the air.
The spearpoint seemed to pierce through all things—a manifestation of some law of "sure-hit penetration."
And Lu Mingfei was its target.
Lu Mingfei didn't even look at the spear. He merely turned his wrist slightly and pushed open the sword guard with his thumb.
"Shing~"
The blade slid free with a clear, dragonlike ring.
The next moment, a terrifying wave of power burst out from Dragon Clan Duyang. A snowy white light welled forth, gathering over the Murasama's blade in layer upon layer, like flowing water.
Its sheen, rippling like autumn water, took on a touch of sacred, otherworldly brilliance.
The blade rose to meet the trail that seemed capable of piercing everything.
The next moment, something unbelievable happened.
Gungnir, the divine spear that could pierce the stars, stopped when it touched the seemingly slender, razor-sharp edge of the Murasama.
Lu Mingfei's movements didn't falter in the slightest.
As his blade cut across the spear's path, his wrist turned with effortless fluidity. The Murasama shifted from a vertical slash to a diagonal sweep. The blade's light carried the power of the level-five Omega Mutant Purification Power shared by Marvel Duyang, tracing a graceful arc toward the armored god on the overpass.
It was common knowledge that the Four Dragon Kings could wield Word Spirits powerful enough to bring about the end of the world. At their peak, they could destroy human civilization.
But how powerful would a Word Spirit be if it were infused with the Purification Power of a level-five Omega Mutant?
With the ability to use this power without restraint, Lu Mingfei could completely suppress Odin.
And that wasn't all. Lu Mingfei was an exceptionally unique being. If he fully unleashed his potential, he could wield the power of a Word Spirit beyond even the end-of-the-world level.
As it happened, sharing power with the other four Duyangs had greatly awakened that potential.
From where he stood, Chu Zihang saw Lu Mingfei in the raging downpour, Murasama in hand. His figure was slight, yet it seemed to cleave apart the entire world, brimming with divine might.
A vast white blade of light flared again.
This time, it was clearly visible.
The white arc, seemingly capable of refining the very void, flowed from the Murasama's edge.
It wasn't fast, but it passed calmly through the rainy night, through space, and toward the rider on horseback.
Odin seemed to finally sense the immense threat. He let out a furious roar, and the rain around him trembled violently.
He tried to move, tried to raise some unseen weapon to block the blow.
Even the space beneath him began to twist.
But all resistance was futile before that white arc.
Calmly, it sliced through the field of divine might, through warped space, through the ancient, grotesque armor, and into Odin beneath it.
Like a hot knife through ice, like an eraser wiping away pencil marks.
The arc swept past.
Then Odin and the armored warhorse beneath him silently split in two along the white cut.
The divided god remained frozen in the pose he had held an instant earlier. Then, like a weathered sand sculpture, he collapsed and crumbled, dissolving into countless specks of light finer than raindrops.
The torrential rain washed the specks away. In the blink of an eye, not a trace remained.
All that was left blocking the road was the downpour.
"Shame. It would've been even better if I could've turned the Murasama into a Black Blade."
Dragon Clan Duyang hefted the sword. It was finely crafted and sharp enough to slice through iron like mud.
But turning it into a Black Blade would take some time.
And so Odin, who had blocked their way, was slain.