Chapter 695: Lin Langtian's Useless Advice
"That's… the Demon Emperor's Hand?!"
High in the sky, Ying Huanhuan and the Master of Life and Death both froze at the sight of the colossal pale arm, their pupils contracting sharply.
The hand itself looked almost frail and bloodless, but that very weakness carried a chill that sank straight into the bones.
It was the Yimo Emperor's arm.
"It seems that in the final moment of his sealing, Teacher did more than just sever the Emperor's arm," Ying Huanhuan said quietly, her jade hand clenching. "He must have left it as one of the Emperor's hidden backhands."
The Flame Master and the others felt their own hearts lurch.
To think that even as the Symbol Ancestor burned his Reincarnation, the Yimo Emperor still found a way to plant a contingency for the distant future.
The Heavenly King Hall's eyes burned as he gazed at the Demon Emperor's Hand. His seals shifted, and the hand streaked through the air to connect with the Demon Emperor's Image.
Buzz…
As the two fused, a shrill vibration ripped through the sky.
Across the Western Xuan Region, countless living beings dropped to their knees.
Demonic qi roared outward.
Within it, something monstrous stirred.
The aura rising from the statue now reeked of the Yimo Emperor.
One by one, the remaining shut eyes on its many arms snapped open, each one overflowing with slaughter and madness.
"Hahahaha!"
The Heavenly King Hall threw back his head and laughed. "Once the Demon Emperor's Image is complete, without your Symbol Ancestor, you're nothing but ants!
"This continent was always going to belong to my clan!"
"Afraid you're celebrating a little early."
A shocking cold erupted as layer upon layer of ice surged out across the sky. The wave spread faster than thought, freezing even the rolling demonic qi.
Ying Huanhuan now looked every inch a god of ice. Her long spear gleamed in her hand, and her eyes blazed with lethal frost.
She vanished in a blur and reappeared before the Heavenly King Hall, driving the spear forward.
Its icy point seemed ready to freeze both time and space.
"Hahaha, Ice Master, this is pointless now," he laughed, yet he made no move to clash with her.
Instead, he let his body blur and plunge into the Demon Emperor's Image.
Man and statue merged.
Rumble…
The already monstrous figure swelled once more.
The clouds cowered beneath its gaze as countless arms lashed the air like the end of days.
"Hahaha! Now that this hall commands power close to the Emperor's, what hope do you have against me?"
His voice shook the heavens.
"Ninefold Frozen Prison!"
Ying Huanhuan's hands flashed.
Above, cold coalesced into nine titanic mountains of ice that plummeted toward the Demon Emperor's Image.
"Ant tricks."
The statue only laughed.
One huge arm slammed upward, its fist wreathed in demonic qi as it crashed into the descending mountains.
Bang!
The sky shuddered like an earthquake as the Ninefold Frozen Prison shattered under the blow.
The backlash drove Ying Huanhuan backward through the air. She steadied herself, frowning as she stared at the towering demon.
Its strength truly was nearly equal to the Yimo Emperor's.
"What do we do?" the Flame Master, the Master of Life and Death, the Thunder Master, and the others gathered around her, voices low.
Things had clearly gone far beyond what they had expected.
"This statue is powerful," she said at last, "but it's still not the Emperor himself. These shortcuts can't replace the real thing.
"While the Heavenly King Hall is still unfamiliar with its power, I'll hold him down. You all gather every ounce of strength and hit him with everything you have.
"If we're lucky, the statue will collapse on its own."
She paused, then added, "If we fail here, the Symbol Ancestor's sacrifice will have been for nothing."
The others nodded grimly.
Without another word, she stepped forward. Ice blossomed beneath her feet into a lotus, and she sat upon it.
The air dropped toward absolute zero. Even the flow of Yuan Power in the world began to seize.
"Lotus-Born Domain."
A drop of her blood flashed to life at her fingertip and fell toward the ground.
Ice swallowed the desert.
From it, countless giant lotus blossoms grew, their vines like dragons wrapping around the Demon Emperor's Image.
Roar!
The statue thrashed, snapping vines apart.
But more and more grew in their place, and the cold burrowed deep into its body, slowing its movements.
The other Ancient Masters did not waste the chance.
They readied their deadliest techniques.
Watching them, Lin Langtian finally spoke.
"Everyone, the statue is terrifying, but the Heavenly King Hall clearly has a deeper plan. Why don't we hold back and watch a little longer?"
He remembered the original timeline.
The Heavenly King Hall had used a similar trick to blast open the dimensional rift, letting the Yimo Emperor in.
Now, seeing this statue, he knew it wasn't meant to empower the king, but to break that seal.
The Flame Master frowned. "You know what he's planning?"
Lin Langtian's words dried up.
He could hardly confess that he was a man from another world.
Before he could answer, the Master of Life and Death cut in.
"Speculation or not, that statue must fall," she said coldly. "If it still stands, we haven't won. We can't betray Teacher's will."
The others nodded.
To wipe out the Yimo was the lifelong vow of the Symbol Ancestor's line.
With victory so close at hand, none of them were willing to let go.
Lin Langtian sighed inwardly.
He could not sway them.
Their hatred ran too deep. It had blinded them.
"Heavenly Flame God Fist!"
"Heavenly Firmament Lightning Extinction!"
"Mandala of Life and Death!"
…
One after another, they unleashed their greatest powers.
Blazing flame, world-splitting lightning, black and white currents of life and death—all of it crashed down upon the Demon Emperor's Image in unison.
Rumble…
The sky and land disintegrated.
Shockwaves rolled out across tens of thousands of meters.
Sand dunes rose and fell as the Western Xuan Grand Desert itself shifted under the onslaught.
No one cared.
Every gaze was locked on the storm at the desert's heart.
The space there was so twisted that no one could see what lay within.
A full fifteen minutes passed before the distortion slowly eased.
Shattered space mended.
A vast demonic silhouette emerged.
Then, in the dead silence, a thin crack sounded.
Crack.
Lines of stress appeared across the statue's massive frame.
Crack, crack…
They multiplied, racing across its surface until half its body was webbed in fractures.
Darkness boiled out of the cracks in waves.
Everyone could feel the unimaginable power raging within.
And that the statue could no longer contain it.
"Did… we win?" someone whispered.
All along the allied ranks, people stared, dazed.
If the statue was about to blow itself apart, that had to count as victory… right?
"Heavenly King Hall, is this your last card?" Ying Huanhuan asked, voice cold. "If so, then you've lost."
"Hehe…"
A low, fervent chuckle echoed from within the crumbling statue.
Light glimmered at its brow, and the Heavenly King Hall's form slowly bled out of the stone.
"Do you really think this is victory, Ice Master?" he asked, smiling.
"In your state, you move and you'll explode," she replied evenly. "What more can you do?"
"Hehe, you're right. I can't do anything more."
"But this power can."
He looked up toward the heavens, eyes blazing. "I can use it to smash open the dimensional seal and usher my people into this world."
"Ridiculous," the Master of Life and Death snapped. "That seal was forged from our Teacher's burning Reincarnation. Not even your Emperor could destroy it. You're delusional."
"Then let's all witness the moment of my clan's ascension together," he said softly.
His seals changed.
A new surge of annihilating power rolled out from the statue's core.
It groaned as the cracks widened.
The truth hit everyone at once.
He meant to use the statue's self-destruction to blast open the seal.
Within it lay the combined power of the entire Demonic Prison and the Ancient Masters' own ultimate attacks.
Even the Symbol Ancestor's seal might not withstand that.
The Ancient Masters all turned to Lin Langtian.
Guilt and regret flickered in their eyes.
They finally understood his warning.
And how badly they had ignored it.
Their hatred and the nearness of victory had blinded them to cooler judgment.
"Hahaha!"
The Heavenly King Hall's laughter rolled through the air.
The statue's body shone brighter and brighter as the energy within reached its limit.
Then it blew apart.
Boom!
Light filled the sky.
Beams of destruction pierced the heavens, bright enough to be seen from every corner of the Western Xuan Region and far beyond.
The energy gathered into a colossal pillar that punched straight through the sky and shot toward the distant dimensional seal.
"Hahaha! I nearly forgot to tell you one last thing," the Heavenly King Hall's voice roared through the blast.
"Our Emperor has already slipped free of the Symbol Ancestor's shackles.
"All that remains is to crack the dimensional seal wide open, and he will walk this world again!
"Every living thing in this land will be a slave to my clan!"
His laughter rumbled like thunder across the Four Xuan Regions, the Chaotic Demon Sea, and the Monster Domain.
People everywhere lifted their eyes in horror, watching the pillar of ruin tear across the sky.
From the depths of their hearts, a despair unlike any other began to rise.
Would the Yimo Emperor truly return?
In the distant age of myth, at least the Symbol Ancestor had stood against him and saved the world.
Now, with the Symbol Ancestor gone…
Who was left to face that horror?
(END CHAPTER)
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