The Broken Horn in the Stone Coffin

Inside the cold, dark cyan and black stone coffin, there were no divine weapons or magical equipment as expected, nor any sealed demons.

There was only one item, lying quietly in a recess lined with dark red velvet that resembled dried blood.

It was a broken horn.

About a foot long, its entire body was a deep, ultimate black, as if it could devour all light.

The broken end was jagged, bearing traces of a fierce tearing.

Most bizarrely, winding around the black horn were several dark golden blood patterns that flowed slowly as if alive!

The blood patterns twisted and turned, emitting an aura that was ancient, wild, yet filled with ultimate evil and madness!

This aura was the same as the Grudge Pupil brand on Fang Gang's left arm! Even… purer! More primal!

Hummm—!!!

The brand on his left arm, the moment the stone coffin opened and he saw the broken horn, seemed to ignite completely!

The dark golden vertical pupil at its end expanded to its limit, opening and closing, trembling madly!

An unprecedented, extreme, black-hole-like desire to devour, mixed with a reverent trembling, surged into Fang Gang's sea of consciousness like a tsunami!

If not for the perfect Mind Mirror, which was as resolute as glass, suppressing it, this intent would have nearly controlled his body!

"Vessel… primal source…" Fang Gang's eyes were grave.

Was this broken horn the thing the Nightmare Holy Cult and the Faceless Cult Master were searching for at all costs? Was it the key to awakening the "Source"?

The aura it emitted made even his perfected, tranquil mind feel a trace of oppression!

The Faceless Cult Master's cold data stream continued to envelop the entire underground palace, scanning the broken horn and emitting a flat, electronic voice:

"Vessel core… confirmed… status… stable…"

"Key… in position… initiating… synchronization… guidance…"

The data stream, like invisible tentacles, attempted to entwine with the brand on Fang Gang's left arm, then connect through the brand to the broken horn, completing some kind of "guidance" ritual!

However!

The instant the data stream was about to touch the brand!

Fang Gang made a move that caused the Faceless Cult Master's "logic" to stall!

He ignored the cold data stream, ignored the brand's frantic desire to devour, and even ignored the potential danger!

His eyes burned with pure fighting spirit and a possessive dominance: "What's mine, how can I give it to you?!"

His right hand, covered in golden-red qi, with the absolute control of the Dragon Elephant's power, shot out like lightning and grabbed the ice-cold, black broken horn in the stone coffin!

The moment he grasped it, it felt like holding a piece of ten-thousand-year-old Xuanbing! A bone-chilling cold and rampant evil intent stabbed into his arm like steel needles, trying to corrupt him!

"Hmph!" Fang Gang's Nine Yang Qi and Blood surged within him, and the supreme Yang True Fire rushed along his arm!

The golden-red light flared, clashing fiercely with the black evil energy emanating from the broken horn, producing a sizzling, burning sound!

But the more intense reaction came from the Grudge Pupil brand on his left arm!

"Roar—!!!"

Fang Gang felt as if a silent roar of extreme greed and ecstasy emanated from deep within his left arm!

The dark golden vertical pupil at the end of the brand erupted with unprecedented light!

Countless dark golden energy threads, like living blood vessels, instantly pierced through his skin from the brand and madly spread towards his right hand!

Their target was the black broken horn being held!

These dark golden threads ignored Fang Gang's Nine Yang Qi and Blood resistance (as if they shared the same source), like leeches smelling blood, and fiercely pierced into the flowing dark golden blood patterns on the surface of the broken horn!

"Ssss—!!!"

The broken horn trembled violently!

The dark golden blood patterns wrapped around it seemed to be activated, bursting with a dazzling, eerie glow!

A primal evil force, far more refined and violent than before, as if from an ancient abyss, poured back into the brand on his left arm like a breached flood, through those dark golden threads!

"Urk!" Fang Gang grunted!

This backflowing power was too immense, too violent!

His left arm instantly felt as if magma were being poured into it, the burning pain and icy coldness intertwined!

The blood vessels under his skin bulged and protruded, showing a bizarre dark golden color!

The skin area where the brand was located experienced a rapid temperature increase, as if it were about to burn!

He felt his left arm was being forcibly transformed into a… vessel… to contain this terrifying evil power!

"Error! Error! Error!!"

The Faceless Cult Master's cold data stream instantly became chaotic! The synthesized electronic voice, for the first time, contained a sharp, alarm-like fluctuation!

"Key… is… forcibly merging… with the vessel's primal source!!"

"System... synchronization... interrupted!!"

"Energy flow... reversed!!"

"Logic conflict! Priority... chaotic!!"

The data torrent, like an enraged swarm of bees, madly assaulted and scanned Fang Gang's left arm and the Broken Horn that was devouring its origin. It attempted to sever the connection of those dark golden threads, but it was like hitting an invisible barrier. The chaotic and powerful evil energy that erupted during the fusion process repelled it forcefully!

"Stop him!!!" The Faceless Cult Master's icy voice, for the first time, carried a clear directive!

In the shadows of the underground palace's dome, the air suddenly distorted! Two shadowy figures, like phantoms, materialized silently!

They were entirely encased in tight-fitting, pitch-black leather armor, their faces covered by pale, expressionless ceramic masks.

In their hands, they each held a peculiarly shaped weapon: one was a Water-Splitting Emei Dagger, curved like a snake, its blade shimmering with a faint blue toxic glow; the other was long and slender like a needle, its tip encircled by a distorted force field – the Bone-Piercing Heart Drill!

Elite assassins of the Nightmare Holy Cult!

Their auras were condensed; they were both peak Grade B! Shadow blades created solely to protect the "Vessel"!

The two appeared without warning, and their attack was ruthlessly precise and insidious!

The Water-Splitting Dagger aimed directly for Fang Gang's back, its toxic glow pulsing silently!

The Bone-Piercing Heart Drill transformed into an almost invisible streak of dark light, carrying a soul-piercing chill, and stabbed directly at the wrist of Fang Gang's right hand, which held the Broken Horn!

Their coordination was seamless, their timing perfect; it was precisely the moment Fang Gang was fully suppressing the anomaly in his left arm and couldn't spare attention elsewhere!

"You're courting death!"

Although Fang Gang was suppressing the anomaly in his left arm, his mind, as clear as glass, had already encompassed the entire area! The instant the assassins appeared, he had sensed them!

Facing this deadly sneak attack, a cold glint erupted in his eyes! His body twisted at an angle that defied the laws of physics!

"Screech!"

The poisoned Water-Splitting Dagger grazed his tracksuit near his ribcage, kicking up a shower of sparks!

The tough fabric was sliced open, but it didn't injure his skin in the slightest!

Simultaneously, the wrist of his right hand, gripping the Broken Horn, jerked violently! Power surged, causing the Broken Horn to block upwards like a heavy hammer!

"Clang—!!!"

The dark Broken Horn fiercely collided with the incoming streak of dark light from the Bone-Piercing Heart Drill!

The anticipated shattering of the fragile Broken Horn didn't happen! Instead, the slender, sinister Bone-Piercing Heart Drill met an immovable mountain, emitting a piercing metallic clang!

The drill body bent and vibrated violently! The assassin holding the drill grunted, his hand cracking, and he almost lost his weapon!

A brute force of recoil surged through the drill and into his body!

And Fang Gang, using the recoil from this impact, transformed his left hand from a palm into a fist! Golden-red lava flowed beneath his skin!

Without any specific technique, pure power, amplified by the domineering essence of the Supreme Yang True Fire, struck like a cannonball towards the face of the assassin wielding the Water-Splitting Dagger!

Fast! Ruthless! Utterly dominant!

A look of horror flashed in the assassin's eyes! He had never witnessed such a barbaric and unreasonable fighting style! In his haste, he could only cross the Water-Splitting Dagger to block!

"Boom!!!"

The golden-red iron fist smashed fiercely onto the crossed Emei Dagger!

An unstoppable, terrifying power erupted!

"Crack!!"

The Emei Dagger, crafted from fine steel, snapped in two!

The fist continued its trajectory, carrying the momentum to shatter everything, and slammed into the pale ceramic mask!

"Puff—!!!"

The mask, along with the head beneath it, shattered instantly like a watermelon hit by a sledgehammer! A mixture of red and white, along with fragments of broken ceramic, splattered backward!

The headless corpse, propelled by the violent fist, flew backward, slammed into the cold stone wall, and slid down!

Seeing this, the other assassin's soul scattered!

The sight of his companion's head exploding from a single punch made his liver and gall tremble! He let out a strange cry, his body suddenly exploding into a cloud of black mist as he attempted to merge with the shadows and escape!

"Stay!"

Fang Gang's left hand had just dispatched one foe, but his movements didn't halt!

His right hand held the Broken Horn, which was wildly devouring origins, as if gripping a ferocious evil dragon!

He suddenly hurled the Broken Horn towards the dissipating black mist!

"Roar—!"

The moment the Broken Horn left his hand, it seemed to let out a roar of defiance! The dark golden blood pattern wrapped around it flared intensely!

A terrifying suction force originating from its source erupted!

"Ah—!!!"

The black mist, on the verge of escaping into the shadows, was instantly pulled and twisted as if caught by an invisible giant hand!

The assassin's figure struggled desperately in the black mist before appearing! The energy, life force, and even soul within his body were being madly siphoned away by the suction force unleashed by the Broken Horn!

His body rapidly shriveled like a deflating balloon!

In just two seconds, all that remained on the ground was a shriveled set of leather armor and a pale mask. The Broken Horn floated in mid-air, its dark gold blood patterns seemingly glowing a touch brighter, before Fang Gang snatched it back into his hand.

The Devour imprint on his left arm had become even more ferocious with this additional "nourishment"!

Deep within the underground palace, a cold electronic voice pulsed with an almost "furious" fluctuation:

"Warning! Source flow accelerating!!"

"Key... Fusion degree... Uncontrollably increasing!!"

"Activating... Emergency protocols! Awakening... slumbering guardians!!"

"Coordinates... transmitting to... all priests!!"

The cold data stream receded like a tide, carrying intense unwillingness and a warning of the approaching storm.

Fang Gang tightly gripped the Broken Horn in his hand, which was still madly transmitting its source power. He felt the furnace-like transformation in his left arm and the surge of strength, his gaze as cold as ice as he swept over the two assassin remains on the ground, then looked towards the entrance of the underground palace.

A storm? He licked his slightly chapped lips, the fighting spirit in his eyes burning like tangible flames.

"The more that come, the better!"