Residual Aura

In the void, three figures slowly emerged.

A pale flame, a black dragon that blotted out the sky, and a desiccated corpse wrapped in burial cloth.

The three wizards radiated dark energy, shrouding the entire town of the mountain territory.

The surviving half-transcendent knights began to undergo all manner of mutations. Some elementalized, turning into flames and burning into ash. Some grew black scales across their skin and let out beastlike howls. Corpses rapidly dehydrated and shriveled, becoming zombies that frantically tore into the living.

"So this is wizardry. Compared to the immortal path, its aggressiveness is simply too great!"

Yin Ming was likewise contaminated by the radiation, which affected both mind and body.

As a Corpse Liberation Immortal, his rank surpassed those of the three wizards, so mental contamination naturally had no effect on him. Physical contamination was blocked outside his body by the Golden Light Spell. Otherwise, he would not even have been qualified to look upon it.

"Golden Light Spell..."

Zhu Bajie's protective golden light was almost tangible, blocking the pale flames burning in from the void.

Several divine dragons coiled around the Nine-Toothed Rake as it gathered power and struck at the largest target—the black dragon. The two colossal entities collided, instantly tearing countless cracks through the void.

The rake ripped apart the dragon's wing. When the falling black dragon blood touched the protective golden light, it was like droplets falling onto red-hot iron, turning into billowing black smoke.

"Shadow Mist, restore!"

The black dragon turned into a mass of mist and vanished in an instant. When it reappeared the next moment, its injured wing had fully healed.

The Shuoye Dark Dragon possessed the greatest power. The other two knew that as well, so they had the black dragon take the frontal assault while the Pale Flame and the Eternal Silence Corpse cast spells from the side to harass their foe.

Yet even against three opponents, Zhu Bajie still held the upper hand, shattering the black dragon's form several times.

"So the immortal path was never weak. The weak one was... me."

Yin Ming felt sorrowful. He clutched a yellow talisman, waiting to flee the instant the barrier shattered.

The combat strength of the immortal path was determined by many factors, including cultivation realm, magical power, divine abilities, and physical body.

Having only the realm was like a foolish rich man's son who spent a fortune buying a Harvard diploma but never ascended to the immortal realm—a poor bastard who never got his graduation certificate.

"Evil god, you cannot replenish your magical power. How much longer can you last?"

The Pale Flame transformed into a canopy of fire, briefly freezing the divine dragons manifested by the Nine-Toothed Rake.

Taking advantage of the opening, the black dragon with its shattered body once again hid itself as shadow mist, drawing upon the power of darkness to restore its body.

They did not need to win. As long as they could hold out, victory would ultimately belong to them.

"If I unleash all my remaining magical power, killing one of you will not be a problem. Which one of you will stop me?"

The countless divine lights of the Nine-Toothed Rake withdrew inward. Its great teeth were forged like dragon claws, its fine gold adornments shaped like coiling pythons. The Six Ding Six Jia Divine Incantation bloomed, and yin and yang qi revolved like grinding wheels.

For a moment, the divine weapon seemed to become an ordinary farmer's rake for tilling the earth, utterly unremarkable.

Yet power was continuously accumulating within it, making the hairs of all three stand on end as they sensed a lethal crisis.

"I am seriously injured. I need time to recover!"

With that, the black dragon completely merged into the night.

Elemental dragons possessed extraordinarily tenacious vitality, but it absolutely did not wish to withstand an evil god's dying counterattack head-on.

Even if it survived, it would likely be seriously wounded. How would it compete with the other two for the divine spark afterward?

"Ding!"

The Pale Flame continuously reinforced its elemental shield.

It casually tossed out a coin. The coin spun ceaselessly, let out a crisp chime, and vanished into thin air.

This was a Goddess of Fortune's Coin. When it came to random chance events, it would steer them in a direction favorable to its owner.

"City of the Undead, condense."

The Eternal Silence Corpse crushed a black crystal and summoned a vast, ruined city of deathly silence.

Countless corpses revived, breaking down into bones and flesh that formed black-and-white cocoons, wrapping tightly around him.

These were all mummified corpses that had been buried for over a thousand years without decaying. Empowered by dense deathly qi, they became harder than steel in an instant.

The gap in rank!

Unless one possessed a concealment talent like the dark dragon's.

Otherwise, hiding was impossible. One could only pray not to be targeted by the evil god.

"The target is me! The Goddess of Fortune's Coin did not work."

The Nine-Toothed Rake flew from Zhu Bajie's hand, like a meteor from beyond the heavens crashing into the earth. The energy it unleashed surpassed everyone's expectations, and the Pale Flame's expression changed drastically.

We were wrong! We had been wrong from the very beginning!

This evil god commanded a terrifyingly powerful force.

He had merely been restricted by his magical power and had never displayed his true strength.

It could not be stopped!

It absolutely could not be stopped.

The Pale Flame flickered dimly without cease, splitting into countless sparks that scattered in flight.

However, that only delayed the arrival of death for a moment.

How could the killing move unleashed by an evil god equivalent to a Seven-Circle Wizard in its dying moments lack a means of locking onto its target's aura?

"I dodged it!"

Yet the streak of light shot straight past its side.

At first, the Pale Flame found it unbelievable. Then, relief at surviving the disaster and bewilderment flooded its heart.

Why? How could a seven-circle spell make such a low-level mistake? Could it be the Goddess of Fortune's blessing?

"Crack, crack!"

The phantom rake struck the golden wheel in the sky without deviation.

The roar was like ten thousand tons of thunder pouring down. Divine light spanning ten thousand zhang burst forth, and the sky of Shuoye was like a sun rising.

The shockwave from the violent explosion overturned the entire town. Other than Yin Ming, protected by golden light, every living thing was utterly stripped of life and reduced to a dead zone.

Spiderweb-like cracks appeared across the golden wheel. The transparent crystal wall shattered into pieces at once, and the force sealing the void dissipated with it.

"Boom!"

Zhu Bajie's enormous body crashed to the ground, completely devoid of life.

Without magical power to sustain the Dharma Form of Heaven and Earth, his body rapidly shrank until it became a palm-sized bronze idol.

"Thank you, Envoy of the Purified Altar! This humble immortal shall remember your great kindness forever."

On the altar, Yin Ming gave a slight bow. From the strand of the "Purified" law he had received, he learned that this avatar had been differentiated from the Dao Fruit of the Envoy of the Purified Altar.

That strike had not missed at all.

From beginning to end, Zhu Bajie's target had not been any of the three wizards.

The supposed threat had actually been a reminder: it was time to use the Minor Teleportation Talisman!

"Minor Teleportation Talisman..."

Seizing the moment, Yin Ming tore apart the yellow talisman in his hand.

The scattered yellow paper burst into crimson flames without wind.

Energy patterns traced in cinnabar emerged, and ripples spread through the trembling space.

His body began to blur and fade. The energy patterns collapsed into hundreds of millions of firefly-like motes, and at that exact moment, his body vanished from where he stood.

"Eh! One little bug got away!"

The black dragon emerged from the darkness, its fleshy wings stirring up fierce winds that scattered the smoke.

Its crimson eyes were cold as it stared at the altar from which Yin Ming had vanished.

Space-time was regarded by gods as a forbidden power.

Other than sorcerers with a few special bloodlines, and wizards like the Pale Flame who specialized in researching the void.

To initially wield the power of space, one had to step into the domain of seven-circle gods.

"Spatial teleportation! The distance even exceeds this dragon's range of perception. It seems this little bug has secrets!"

However, compared with the evil god's divine spark lying before it, the secret of a mere little bug was hardly worth mentioning.

The black dragon silently memorized Yin Ming's life aura, its dragon eyes vigilantly scanning the surroundings.

God Hunters!

The moment an evil god fell, one's allies became the deadliest enemies. There had never been an exception throughout history.

This time, none of the three had suffered much damage. An incomparably brutal battle would inevitably erupt. At a time like this, none of them could spare attention for anything else.