Vessel

West of the city, an old City God Temple that had lain abandoned for years.

Its broken eaves spread through the night like the claws of monstrous birds. The vermilion doors, their paint peeling away, stood half-open, revealing a pitch-black entrance that seemed capable of swallowing light itself.

The air was thick with dust, rotting wood, and a... indescribable cold, stony reek.

Fang Gang pushed open the creaking broken door and stepped inside. Shadows shrouded his figure, while the Bronze Battle Halberd on his shoulder traced cold lines beneath the faint moonlight.

Heart Like Glazed Glass's spiritual perception swept over the entire temple like an invisible tide.

The decayed idol, the collapsed offering table, the beams draped in cobwebs... everything was deathly still.

Only from the deepest part of the temple—from the entrance to the underground palace, sealed beneath a heavy stone slab—came an extremely concealed yet mountain-heavy energy fluctuation.

Mixed within it was a familiar coldness and malice—the aura of the Nightmare Eye!

Old Smoker's intelligence had been correct. The "vessel" was down below.

He walked to the entrance of the underground palace. The stone slab sealing it was incomparably heavy, covered in cracks worn by time and slick moss.

At the center of the slab was a clear relief of a pupil-less eye composed of countless twisted vortices. It emitted a faint ghostly glow, slowly "watching" the intruder like a living thing.

Fang Gang extended a hand covered in a faint golden-red radiance and pressed it against the cold stone slab.

"Open!"

With a low shout, an unstoppable, terrifying force erupted!

"Creak—Rumble!!!"

Like it had been struck by a battering ram, the heavy slab let out an overwhelmed groan. Then, amid a teeth-grating screech of friction, it was forcibly pushed open, leaving a gap barely wide enough for one person to pass through!

Crushed stones and years of dust rained down!

An even denser cold aura, carrying decay and a metallic, sickly sweetness, mixed with thick yin energy and burst from the gap like the breath of a giant beast that had slept for a thousand years!

It was so cold that even Fang Gang's nonexistent bangs—his bald head—seemed to feel the chill.

He did not hesitate and slipped sideways through the gap.

Beneath his feet were steep stone stairs descending into darkness, covered in slippery moss.

The air was damp and frigid. One breath felt as if it could freeze his lungs.

Nine Yang Qi and Blood circulated faintly around Fang Gang, driving away the chill as he descended like a human-shaped furnace.

At the end of the stairs was a small circular underground palace. Several dim fluorite stones embedded in the dome had long lost their luster, barely illuminating the center.

There, something rested in silence.

It was not the ornate coffin adorned with dragons and phoenixes he had expected.

Instead, it was a square stone case forged entirely from some kind of blue-black metal!

The surface of the stone case bore no decorations. It was smooth as a mirror, yet it gave off an oppressive heaviness that seemed to reach the extreme.

Only at the center of its front was a huge, profound relief that seemed capable of sucking away all light—the Nightmare Eye!

The vortex-formed pupil was clearer and colder than the one at the entrance, radiating heart-pounding malice!

This was the "vessel"?

The instant Fang Gang's gaze locked onto the stone case!

Buzz—!

His left arm! The Resentful Eye imprint that had been dormant for so long suddenly erupted with an unprecedentedly intense, icy tremor!

The dark golden vertical eye at its end opened and closed madly, transmitting uncontrollable greed, longing, and a near-worshipful trembling!

Like a starving ghost finding the most fundamental nourishment after a long drought!

The tremor was so powerful that it even pierced through Heart Like Glazed Glass's spiritual barrier and reached Fang Gang's consciousness with perfect clarity!

The imprint resonated intensely with the Nightmare Eye on the stone case!

Fang Gang's gaze instantly sharpened like a blade! Whatever was inside this stone case was absolutely connected to the imprint and to the Nightmare Holy Cult's core secret!

He strode toward the stone case, his footsteps echoing through the deathly silent underground palace.

The closer he came, the more violently the imprint on his left arm pulsed, like war drums!

The ghostly glow from the Nightmare Eye relief on the stone case also seemed to intensify, its cold "gaze" seemingly piercing through the metal to settle on him.

Just as Fang Gang's hand was about to touch the cold surface of the stone case!

A sudden change occurred!

The smooth blue-black metal on the stone case's surface suddenly rippled violently like water!

Beneath the liquid metal surface, countless fine, twisted dark golden patterns, like living parasitic worms, wriggled and converged frantically!

"Hisss—!"

Accompanied by a scalp-numbing hiss, those dark golden patterns abruptly pierced through the metal surface and condensed into eight energy limbs made of pure dark golden energy. They gleamed with metallic cold light, their tips sharp as spears!

Like eight poisoned javelins, carrying a chilling aura that could pierce the soul, they stabbed viciously toward Fang Gang's vital points from eight incredibly tricky angles at a speed beyond what the eye could catch! Their speed rivaled Grade A agility!

The attack came without warning! It was sinister and vicious, aimed straight at his weak points!

This was the deadly trap protecting the "vessel"!

"Hmph!" Fang Gang's eyes turned fierce, and his reaction was swift to the extreme! The tendons and bones that had been perfectly tempered in the late Tendon Transformation Realm instantly tightened!

His speed exploded! Rather than retreat, he stepped forward sharply into the eight incoming dark golden limbs!

"Vajra! Indestructible!"

Golden-red light surged beneath his skin! The perfected Vajra Indestructible Body was pushed to its limit!

A dense golden-red aura, nearly tangible, instantly enveloped his entire body! He looked like a golden-bodied arhat descending into the world!

"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!..."

A rapid barrage of crisp impacts, like rain striking plantain leaves, exploded at once!

The eight dark golden energy limbs, capable of piercing steel plates, stabbed fiercely into the golden-red aura!

The expected penetration did not occur! Their tips scraped violently against the aura, throwing off blinding sparks!

The aura shook violently and caved inward, yet like incomparably tough rubber, it firmly blocked the treacherous ambush!

Fang Gang did not move an inch! The ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch!

"Break... for me!"

He threw both fists out! Fifty thousand jin of dragon-elephant strength surged forth without reservation!

Golden-red Nine Yang True Fire blazed around his fists, carrying the domineering will to burn away all evil!

"Eight Extremes! Prison-Shaking!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

His fists were like mountains! In an instant, they enveloped four of the dark golden limbs!

Pure overwhelming force! Layered with vibrating power and supreme yang true fire!

"Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!"

A dense series of teeth-grating fractures rang out!

The four incomparably tough dark golden limbs shattered inch by inch beneath his violent fists like fragile glazed glass!

They turned into dark golden motes of energy that scattered through the air, only to be burned and purified by the Nine Yang True Fire!

The remaining four limbs seemed to sense the deadly threat. They abruptly recoiled like startled venomous snakes, attempting to withdraw beneath the rippling liquid metal surface of the stone case!

"Trying to run?" Fang Gang's gaze was icy as his left palm shot out like lightning! Golden-red light compressed to the extreme in his palm, and the faint phantom of a great sun emerged!

"Great Sun! Demon Incineration!"

His palm struck the smooth surface of the stone case!

"Sizzle—!!!"

It was like pressing a red-hot branding iron against ice! Violent Nine Yang True Fire clashed fiercely with the strange metallic energy on the stone case's surface!

Pungent blue smoke mixed with a foul stench surged upward! The rippling liquid metal surface let out a soundless shriek as it churned and evaporated!

"Bang!"

With a muffled blast, the strange metallic energy layer covering the stone case was forcibly blown apart!

It revealed the cold, heavy, lifeless blue-black body beneath!

The four half-retracted dark golden limbs hung limply from the edge of the stone case like severed snake tails. They quickly dimmed and dissipated.

The underground palace returned to deathly silence. Only the sizzle of Nine Yang True Fire burning away residual energy and Fang Gang's steady breathing remained.

The Resentful Eye imprint on his left arm reached the peak of its tremors the moment the stone case's protective energy was destroyed!

The dark golden vertical eye at its end nearly burst out of his flesh!

An intense will urging him to open the stone case immediately battered his sea of consciousness!

Fang Gang drew a deep breath. The radiant mirror-light of his powerful Heart Like Glazed Glass circulated, forcibly suppressing the imprint's agitation.

He stared gravely at the cold blue-black stone case before him.

What... exactly was inside?

He hesitated no longer. Both hands covered in golden-red aura, he gripped the heavy lid at the edge of the stone case and unleashed his immense strength!

"Rise!"

Creak... rumble!

The heavy metal lid was slowly lifted!

An ancient, icy, sinister aura far stronger than before, as though it had settled through endless ages, mixed with a faint scent of blood and burst from within the stone case!

The instant the lid opened!

Buzz—!!!!

An unprecedented torrent of icy data, condensed until it was nearly tangible, descended instantly as if crossing space itself! It locked onto the underground palace with absolute precision!

It locked onto the opened stone case! It locked onto Fang Gang!

And... the Resentful Eye imprint on his left arm, trembling madly!

The Faceless Cult Master's emotionless synthesized electronic voice, carrying an almost "fanatical" cold fluctuation, rang directly through Fang Gang and the entire underground palace:

"Key... detected... Coordinates... locked..."

"Vessel... opened..."

"Data... synchronization... complete..."

"Fear... ultimate feast... initiated..."

"Descent... countdown... begins..."