Nanook

The illusion shattered like a mirror.

Above the scorched earth of blood and fire, the crimson sky seemed to grow ever deeper.

The Ancient Dragon let out a long roar:

"Boy, it seems destruction is also your answer. My trial is over, the contract is sealed. Begin the fusion."

Bai Heng stood where he was, sensing the energy aura of the Suiyang.

The massive dragon, covered head to toe in black scales and shaped like a mountain, transformed once more into a black sun radiating stellar light.

The black sun circled above Bai Heng's head. Energy carrying the deathly aura of destruction gradually seeped out, bringing him a suffocating pressure.

It was a filthy aura, filled with blood, slaughter, and violence.

Just like the scene in his dream.

The black sun began to burn, piercing through the clouds and turning into golden death. Towers collapsed, people fled, because the sun was about to fall...

I saw it, I saw it—it was Them.

The black sun cheered in its ancient, resonant voice, yearning for a response from the monarch atop the tower.

But it was still lacking something, just that little bit.

Just as it was about to gain Their notice, night descended once more.

No!

"Is there a problem with the fusion?"

Amid the suffocating deathly aura, Bai Heng was drenched in cold sweat. His voice was weak:

No, our fusion is proceeding smoothly. It's just that we still haven't drawn Their attention.

"The one you mean... is the Calamity of the Finality?"

That's right. If we could gain Their notice, perhaps we could become something beyond that. Unfortunately, They do not seem to acknowledge our aesthetic of destruction.

"So you mean we need to make Them notice us and acknowledge our worth?"

What are you planning to do?

"You don't need to worry about that. Just tell me—if I die in the illusion, will it affect reality?"

No.

Bai Heng took a deep breath. Cold sweat dripped from his temples onto the scorched earth.

He pulled the Soul Severance Sword from the scorched earth. At that moment, deathly aura, like maggots clinging to bone, churned up and down the pitch-black blade.

Calamity of the Finality, you long to witness the aesthetics of destruction. Is this worthy enough?

Bai Heng raised his hand and lightly spun the hilt, turning the deathly blade toward himself.

"...Cough—"

The sharp blade cut open his skin. Black blood flowed from the corner of his mouth and from the wound, streaming down until it fell upon the scorched earth and burned beneath the sun's radiance.

Pulling out the Soul Severance Sword, Bai Heng repeated his earlier motion and stabbed it into his body from another angle.

Where to strike without causing death, where to strike for the greatest pain, how many inches deep would draw the most blood...

Bai Heng had not forgotten the lessons of those years.

Sword strike after sword strike, Bai Heng's ink-black hair spilled over his shoulders, and blood seeped from nearly every inch of his skin.

Second by second, he became drenched in blood. He could no longer even let out a faint gasp as deathly aura burrowed into his body, exposing stark white bones and crimson flesh and sinew.

His blood could run dry at any moment, yet Bai Heng was like a loom driven by a program, numbly thrusting the sword into his own body.

His flesh was infinitely close to destruction. Once all his blood had drained away, all that would remain was a shriveled, blood-soaked shell.

Beneath his long lashes, his black-gold pupils trembled constantly. Yet vaguely, a cluster of black flames burned within them, as though it wished to devour everything and destroy everything.

Burning blood covered the earth beneath Bai Heng's feet, blood and flame weaving a totem.

Black-gold dragon horns extended from Bai Heng's head, while his black-gold eyes seemed dyed red with blood, blazing with scarlet-gold light.

Above the tower, They opened Their arms and welcomed Their child, granting rebirth amid destruction.

The Xianzhou Luofu.

Within the Bloodstained Prison Realm, Dan Feng had battled Calamity-Bringer Shuhu for days. Unable to spare his focus to maintain his dragon transformation, he had fallen into dragon madness.

The dragon masters and Cloud Knights trapped within the Bloodstained Prison Realm were stained in blood, fewer than one in ten remaining.

Tengxiao, General of the Luofu, paid with his own flesh and blood to bind Calamity-Bringer Shuhu briefly, allowing the Divine General's massive blade to thrust down from the sky and pierce both his body and Shuhu together, temporarily depriving Shuhu of the ability to regenerate.

Jingliu's silver hair hung loose in disarray. She used the Zhilí Sword to cut off a strip of her skirt and wrap it around her scarred hands.

She drove Zhilí into the scorched earth. Frost spread from around her, and sword intent like countless sharp blades swept along wind and snow, condensing into icy blades that glimmered with dim cold light as they pierced through the bodies of the undying abominations.

Yet she fell to her knees amid the ice, her skirts spreading around her like a snow lotus resting beneath a frozen layer.

Blood flowed from the corner of her mouth and crossed her pale lips. She pressed her lips together; never having worn makeup, she seemed to be applying rouge for the first time.

The falling blood also dyed her skirts red, staining the ice with a particularly vivid color.

She extended her delicate hands, wrapped in black silk, and lifted her bloodstained skirts, as though she were dressed in a crimson bridal gown.

But who was this bridal gown meant for...

Her vision gradually blurred, and the hand gripping her sword began to tremble.

She suddenly felt so cold. Bone-deep chill spread from her chest through her entire body.

"If I'd known, I would've deliberately gone easy on him..." Jingliu pressed her red lips tightly together and murmured:

The effects of the Bloodstained Prison Realm were still intensifying. If this continued, her flesh and blood would likewise become nourishment for Shuhu, becoming part of Them.

Yet in her daze, she suddenly sensed a slight tremor within the Bloodstained Prison Realm.

The undying abominations, the Xianzhou Cloud Knights, the Vidyadhara dragon masters—everyone looked toward the sky, where day and night could not be distinguished beneath a dark-brown dome.

On the battlefield, even the wind seemed to be sobbing. Abundance's fruits continuously grew upon the branches and vines, each grotesque head wearing the same smile.

The wound Tengxiao's strike had inflicted upon Them was truly difficult to recover from, so Shuhu could only continue devouring the flesh and blood of the battlefield.

But suddenly, They sensed a loathsome aura.

Golden branches began to curl inward and wither. Plump fruits shriveled, and while the demonic stars within the dome still wailed, bloody tears flowed from their eyes.

Drop after drop of bloody tears fell, transforming in an instant into a torrential rain of blood.

The crimson raindrops carried dense deathly aura as they fell from the sky, deliberately landing atop the undying abominations' heads.

That dense deathly aura made Shuhu feel especially disgusted, because it eroded Abundance's blessing, eroded flesh and blood, and hindered the growth of flesh.

"The aura of destruction... Have Nanook's insects come?"

As Their branches reached toward the dome—

Black flames instantly tore through the entire sky, carrying chilling deathly aura as they churned above the dome.

Within those roiling black waves of fire, a figure hidden within a black sun descended onto Shuhu's branches.

Shuhu sensed the other party's aura and speculated inwardly.

An Emanator of Destruction?

No... Nanook had only seven Lords of Destruction. Before one of their seats was lost, They could not possibly add a new Emanator.

Yet the aura of destruction descending from him did indeed barely surpass the level of the lowest-ranked Lord of Destruction.

Under normal circumstances, Shuhu would never fear such a petty "false god." Even if the lowest-ranked Lord of Destruction had truly arrived, They would still have had a great chance of victory.

But now, Their body had been pierced through by an Emanator of The Hunt, and They had battled the descendant of the Impermanence for so long. Fighting him now would undoubtedly put Them at a disadvantage.

"May I ask why the envoy of Destruction has come?" Shuhu intended to withdraw Their branches and stall for time.

At the very least, They needed to wait until the Bloodstained Prison Realm had absorbed enough life energy to give Them another edge.

At that moment, the black sun continuously collapsed inward, forming a miniature black hole.

A handsome man whose beauty was almost bewitching stepped from the void, black-gold dragon horns upon his head and scarlet-gold light glowing in his eyes. He smiled and said:

"I grant you the blessing of destruction."