Nanook

The illusion shattered like a mirror.

Upon the scorched earth of blood and fire, the crimson sky seemed to deepen.

The Ancient Dragon roared:

"Boy, it seems destruction is your answer as well. My trial is over, the contract is complete, let the fusion begin."

Bai Heng stood still, feeling the energy of Suiyang.

The colossal dragon, covered in black scales and resembling a mountain, transformed once more into a black sun radiating starlight.

The black sun hovered above Bai Heng, its energy of death and destruction gradually seeping out, bringing a suffocating pressure.

It was a foul aura, filled with blood, slaughter, and malice.

Like a scene from a dream.

The black sun began to burn, piercing the clouds, turning into golden death. Towers toppled, people fled, for the sun was about to fall...

[I see it, I see it, it is He.]

The black sun cheered in its ancient voice, longing for the King upon the tower to respond.

But it was still a little short, just a little.

Just as it was about to catch His gaze, the night fell again.

[No!]

"Is there a problem with the fusion?"

In the suffocating aura of death, Bai Heng was drenched in cold sweat, his voice weak:

[No, our fusion is going smoothly. However, we have yet to attract His attention.]

"The 'He' you speak of, is that the Calamity of the Finality?"

[Indeed. If we could gain His gaze, we might become something beyond. Alas, He does not seem to approve of our aesthetics of destruction.]

"You mean, we need to make Him notice us, acknowledge our worth?"

[What do you intend to do?]

"That's none of your concern. Just tell me, if I die in this illusion, will it have any effect on reality?"

[No.]

Bai Heng took a deep breath, cold sweat dripping from his forehead onto the scorched earth.

He pulled the Soul Severance Sword from the ground, and at that moment, the aura of death, like a maggot on bone, was surging up and down the dark blade.

Calamity of the Finality, you desire to see the aesthetics of destruction, I wonder if this is qualified?

Bai Heng raised his hand, gently twirling the hilt of the sword, pointing the death-wreathed blade towards himself.

"...Cough-"

The sharp blade sliced through his skin, black blood flowing from the corner of his mouth and the wound, flowing until it fell onto the scorched earth, burning together under the sun's rays.

Pulling out Lihun, Bai Heng repeated the previous action, stabbing the Soul Severance Sword into his body from another angle.

Where to move the sword without being fatal, where to move the sword to cause the most pain, how many inches deep to draw the most blood...

Bai Heng had not forgotten the teachings of these years.

One sword after another, Bai Heng's ink-black hair fell over his shoulders, almost every inch of his skin was bleeding outwards.

Second by second, he was covered in blood, unable to even let out a weak gasp, the aura of death burrowing into his body, exposing his stark white bones and crimson flesh and tendons.

The blood could run dry at any moment, but Bai Heng was like a machine with a program installed, numbly stabbing the sword into his body.

His flesh was infinitely close to destruction, and once the blood ran dry, all that would be left was a bloody, shriveled husk.

The ink-gold pupils under his long eyelashes trembled constantly, but faintly, a black flame burned within, a flame that seemed to devour everything, destroy everything.

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

Dark golden dragon horns extended from the top of Bai Heng's head, his ink-gold pupils seemed to be stained red with blood, burning with crimson-gold streamers.

Above the tower, He opened His arms, welcoming His child, reborn in destruction.

Xianzhou Luofu.

Within the Bloodstained Prison Realm, Dan Feng and Calamity-Bringer Shuhu had fought for days, unable to spare any energy to maintain his dragon transformation, falling into dragon madness.

The Dragon Masters and Cloud Knights trapped within the Bloodstained Prison Realm had their banners stained with blood, with less than one in ten surviving.

Luofu General Tengxiao, at the cost of his own flesh and blood, briefly restrained Calamity-Bringer Shuhu, causing the Arbiter-General's giant blade to plunge from the sky, piercing through his body and Shuhu together, temporarily depriving Shuhu of its ability to regenerate.

Jingliu's silver hair was scattered in disarray, and she used the Zhilí Sword to cut off a piece of her skirt, wrapping it around her scarred hands.

She plunged Zhilí into the scorched earth, and ice spread from her body, like a myriad of sharp blades, the sword intent wrapped in wind and snow, condensing into ice blades emitting a faint cold light, piercing through the bodies of the undying abominations.

But she knelt in the ice, her skirt spread out, like a snow lotus lying in the ice.

Blood flowed from the corner of her mouth, across her pale lips, she pursed her lips, as if she had applied rouge for the first time, though she had never worn makeup.

The blood that fell stained her skirt as well, painting the ice a particularly vivid color.

She reached out with her pale hand, wrapped in black silk, and lifted the blood-soaked hem of her skirt, making it seem as though she were wearing a blood-red wedding dress.

But for whom was this wedding dress worn...?

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

She suddenly felt cold, an icy chill spreading from her chest throughout her entire body.

"If I had known, I would have let him win on purpose..." Jingliu murmured, her red lips pressed tightly together:

The influence of the Bloodstained Prison Realm was intensifying. If things continued like this, her flesh would also become nourishment for Shuhuo, becoming a part of it.

But in a daze, she suddenly noticed a slight tremor in the Bloodstained Prison Realm.

The undying abominations, the Xianzhou Cloud Knights, the Minglong Guardians—everyone looked up at the sky, where it was impossible to distinguish between day and night, shrouded by a dark brown dome.

On the battlefield, even the sound of the wind seemed to turn into a sob. Fruits of Abundance continued to form on the branches, each grotesque head bearing the same uniform smile.

The damage Tengxiao's attack had inflicted on it was too difficult to recover from, so Shuhuo had no choice but to continuously devour the flesh and blood of the battlefield.

But suddenly, it sensed an unpleasant aura.

Golden branches began to curl inward and wither, the plump fruits became shriveled, and the Demon Stars in the dome still wailed, but tears of blood streamed from their eyes.

Droplets of blood tears flowed down, instantly transforming into a torrential blood rain.

Those blood-colored raindrops, swirling with a dense aura of death, fell from the sky, intentionally landing on the heads of the undying abominations.

That dense aura of death made Shuhuo feel particularly nauseous, because it was eroding the blessings of Abundance, eroding flesh and blood, and hindering the growth of flesh and blood.

"It's the aura of Destruction... Have Nanook's insects arrived?"

As its branches stretched towards the dome.

A black flame instantly tore through the entire sky, seething with frigid death energy above the dome.

And within that churning black sea of flames, a figure hidden within a black sun landed on Shuhuo's branches.

Shuhuo sensed the other party's aura and speculated in its heart.

An Emissary of Destruction?

No... Nanook only has seven Lords of Destruction. Before losing one of those seats, it would be impossible for it to add a new Emissary.

But the aura of Destruction that the other party emitted did indeed barely surpass the level of the weakest Lord of Destruction.

If it were any other day, Shuhuo would definitely not be afraid of a mere "false god." Even if one of the weakest Lords of Destruction really came, it would still have a good chance of winning.

But now, its body had been pierced by an Emissary of The Hunt, and it had been entangled with the Immortality Seekers for so long. To fight the other party again would undoubtedly put it at a disadvantage.

"May I ask, for what purpose has the Envoy of Destruction come?" Shuhuo intended to withdraw its branches to buy time.

At the very least, it had to wait for the Bloodstained Prison Realm to absorb enough life energy to give it a better chance of winning.

At that moment, the black sun continued to collapse, forming a small black hole.

A man with dark golden dragon horns, eyes gleaming with pale gold, and a handsome face that was almost ethereally beautiful stepped out of the void, smiling:

"To give you, the blessing of Destruction."