The star-skiff carved a dazzling trail across the battlefield. Its gunfire couldn't injure Shuhu, but it did pull huge numbers of the activated abominations away.
"Baiheng! Don't get too close!" Jingliu barked. Her sword-light flashed repeatedly, seizing the chance to clear out a safe zone.
Dan Feng, meanwhile, flickered from point to point, hammering the Ambrosial Arbor's root system. Every burst of Cloud Hymn arts made the golden giant tree spasm like a nerve had been struck.
"How dare you!" Shuhu was clearly enraged—not with the anger of being wounded, but with the fury of seeing its "divine vessel" desecrated by mere insects. "You ants dare profane a god's body!"
The golden vertical eyes along its trunk narrowed shut. Dozens of enormous mouths split open—then golden sap erupted outward like a storm.
"Whoa!"
Baiheng yanked the control lever. The star-skiff climbed almost vertically; the sap skimmed past the underside, splashing into a tower behind her and corroding it into a riddled ruin.
She whistled. "That was close—almost turned into candied stove sugar~"
But the next second, the battlefield turned on her.
A few stray spores clung to the star-skiff's tail. The treated metal shell began to twist and bloat. One instrument panel after another burst into sparks—
The star-skiff was being "activated," too.
BANG!
The right thruster exploded. With one power source gone, the craft spun helplessly and fell toward the golden giant tree.
As the spinning star-skiff entered Huo Linfei's sight, Jing Yuan's warnings were thrown straight out of his mind.
"Armor up!"
The Huanlin Armament spread over his entire body, but this time the glow was clearly dimmer—parts of it even turned half-transparent.
Inside the falling star-skiff, Baiheng stared at the pitch-black jade in her hand. The stone radiated an ominous, ghostly light.
She tightened her grip with a bitter smile, and with her other hand slammed the emergency eject.
The hatch blew open—and in that instant, she saw a crimson figure tear through the golden spore fog and rocket straight toward her—
"That is…?"
Behind the half-transparent visor, a familiar face was faintly visible.
Little Huo?!
Before she could shout it, Huo Linfei wrapped an arm around her waist, twisted his body, and fired the long-prepared Fire Cloud Art forward in a single explosive burst.
The shockwave blasted them both away in the opposite direction.
"Hold on tight!"
Baiheng reflexively looped her arms around his neck. But the black jade in her hand caught Huo Linfei's eye.
Deep. Bottomless. Black.
Somehow… he felt like he'd looked up at something like that before.
Endless darkness and crushing pressure—enough to make him unable to breathe.
"Since I grew tired of seeking, I learned to hit the mark the moment I searched…"
Huh?
The instant the voice sounded, Huo Linfei snapped awake.
Who's talking?!
"Since a headwind once swept in…" the owner of the voice continued, completely ignoring Huo Linfei's reaction.
"I can now withstand winds from all directions, and sail my boat onward—"
A black vortex flared open in front of them. While still flying backward, Huo Linfei instantly lost all sense of direction.
"Little Huo!"
Deep within the whirlpool, what awaited him was not eternal silence—
…but a gray, humanoid statue.
Huo Linfei jerked his head hard. His awareness was yanked back to reality. His feet had already adjusted; he landed steadily, carving two long grooves into the ground. He set Baiheng down, yet her gaze remained fixed on him.
She'd already guessed it.
But now was not the time to acknowledge it.
In the distance, war drums thundered—
"Cloud Knights, ever-victorious!"
"Safeguard the Xianzhou!"
The main force under Teng Xiao had already sealed the Scalegorge Waterscape in a tight ring. The golden radiance of the Divine Foresight blazed like a sun, illuminating the battlefield. It reflected against the distant golden heresy, stealing the brilliance of the heavens.
The Cloud Knights' iron hooves shattered the rampaging abominations. The Artisanship Commission's colossal automatons—towering war-machines—arrived in formation, advancing like an iron wall toward Shuhu.
And the golden giant tree's vertical eye opened again—curving into a crescent shape as it let out a piercing laugh.
"Ignorant ants… squandering the grace bestowed upon you by the divine. Then I shall let you witness the true might of Abundance!"
Green radiance spread through the link between Shuhu and the Arbor. The light washed over what had once been a brown-gray, withered trunk, as if the Arbor had returned to its prime. Under that glow, the Cloud Knights felt their bodies and minds grow strangely comfortable—almost as if they might sink into it.
CLANG—!!!
"Lock your minds! Do not be blinded by the power of the Plagues Author!" Teng Xiao slammed his greatsword into the ground. The ringing metallic hum snapped everyone back. The war drums pounded again.
"KILL—!!!"
Tens of thousands of abominations collapsed under the Cloud Knights' charge. When one soldier fell, the next stepped in and hacked the creature into dust.
Spores could erode the automatons and convert them into abominations—but the Artisanship Commission wasn't helpless.
Yingxing wasn't at the Scalegorge, but he kept watching through the automatons' eyes. "Let these filthy things see what real brutality looks like!"
The giant machines transformed in unison. Flames roared at their arm joints; those golden spores never even got the chance to assimilate them.
Of course, a few abominations fought to the death, tearing off machine parts and converting them into new abominations—but Abundance's power wasn't infinite. In the endless cycle of severing and division, it quickly scattered into nothing.
"Huo Linfei—do you have a countermeasure?" After the green glow latched onto the Arbor, Dan Feng's attacks could barely affect it at all.
"Isn't that something you should ask me first?" Jing Yuan, holding the formation blade Shihuo Mengshen, cut a path through the swarm. "After all, I'm the chief planner of this encirclement."
Dan Feng: "..."
"Alright, alright—no more jokes." Jing Yuan waved a hand. "Our plan is to use the Arbor as Shuhu's coffin—seal it together with the Arbor into an eternal slumber."
"But the problem is…" Huo Linfei dismissed the broken remnants of his Huanlin Armament and began gathering Ability Energy again, "the power after their fusion is far beyond what we expected."
BOOM—!!!
Teng Xiao launched into the air, driving the Divine Foresight into a collision with the golden giant tree. The shockwave swept across the field, blasting the abominations' remains off the ground.
"Teng Xiao… in the past, I would not have intervened…"
The golden giant tree grew arms and ripped itself up by the roots—yet the Ambrosial Arbor it was linked to didn't move an inch.
The uprooted tree stood, shoulder-to-shoulder with the Divine Foresight.
"Shuhu—our grudge ends today…"
Teng Xiao drew in a slow breath, eyes lowering.
"Majestic, mighty spirit—"
"By my command—!"
The Divine Foresight pressed forward, smashing into the trunk. The giant tree toppled backward as the Divine Foresight raised its formation blade.
"ROAR—!!!"
Golden lightning wrapped the blade, coalescing into a vivid, living dragon. Even the stray arcs of electricity scorched black patterns into the golden bark.
"CUT—!"
The formation blade swept horizontally into the trunk. Shuhu's golden eye turned increasingly feral. The lightning-wreathed edge continued to bite deeper into its body.
"But today is not like the past!" Shuhu shrieked hysterically. "A god is watching me! You ungrateful wretches will be swallowed by Abundance's great might!"
HISS—
The blade stopped dead at the trunk's center. The hands Shuhu formed had clamped onto it, locking it in place. Golden branches snaked up the Divine Foresight, binding it so it could no longer move.
Teng Xiao didn't slow. He stepped onto Shuhu's fallen body. His greatsword sank deep into its flesh as he powered forward, sprinting toward the canopy.
Even with immense resistance, the binding branches Shuhu split off to restrain him never caught up—always just a hair too late.
He knew Shuhu too well. In countless battles, Shuhu had never truly shown "fighting spirit," letting itself be killed and revived again and again—yet Teng Xiao had learned its habits all the same.
"This strike is for the souls of every living thing you slaughtered!"
The blade drove straight for Shuhu's golden eye.
"Teng Xiao… have you forgotten what I'm best at?"
The wound writhed. The blade embedded in Shuhu's body began to "activate"—spikes sprouted near the hilt, stabbing for Teng Xiao's palm.
Teng Xiao released it instantly—abandoning the sword. He backflipped, borrowing the Divine Foresight's stabilizing recoil to hurl himself forward again like a cannonball.
This time—bare-handed!
Shuhu froze for a heartbeat, then burst into wild laughter.
"Foolish! Mere flesh—"
Before the words even finished, Teng Xiao's fist slammed into its face.
BOOM!!!
With a crack that made teeth ache, Shuhu's golden eye was smashed inward—shattering into a crushed pit.
Wood splinters flew. Shuhu stumbled back in disbelief.
The Divine Foresight mirrored Teng Xiao's movements: it let go of the blade lodged in Shuhu's body, then—
Right hook to the "belly."
Left elbow to the "neck."
Knee up into the "heart."
Every strike was brutally plain. Lightning seeped into Shuhu's body, and the shattered divine flesh… could not regenerate after being hit.
"You… how is this possible…?" Panic crept back into Shuhu's voice. That bizarre red armor, Teng Xiao himself—why did they both possess the ability to suppress the source of Abundance's blessing?
Teng Xiao sneered. The Divine Foresight performed a suplex, slamming Shuhu into the ground.
"Three hundred years. Seventeen times I've killed you. What right do you have to posture in front of me?!"
In the cloud of dust, the Divine Foresight tore the formation blade free and raised it high—
"No pardon—"
RUMBLE—RUMBLE—RUMBLE—
The earth collapsed. Seawater from beyond the Scalegorge rushed in. When it calmed, everyone saw it—
Shuhu's colossal idol-body was pinned to the ground by the formation blade. The eye in its chest was shredded to pieces. The Divine Foresight's blade had been driven deep into the trunk's center.
"This time…" Shuhu's voice warped and distorted. "Doesn't… count…"
Its trunk, blackened by the Divine Foresight's lightning, crumbled under everyone's gaze—breaking apart into a sky of drifting golden ash.
A few scattered cheers burst out among the Cloud Knights, only to be immediately suppressed—
At the battlefield's center, Teng Xiao still hadn't relaxed his stance. Beside Huo Linfei, Jing Yuan's expression grew darker by the second.
"The Arbor… hasn't gone quiet…"
As if answering their fear, a faint crack sounded from the ground—right beside Huo Linfei's feet. Dan Feng caught it first.
"Back!"
Before anyone else could react, a tender sprout punched through the scorched soil. It grew at visible speed—branching, leafing, swelling into a sapling that three men could barely embrace—
And then—
A towering giant tree rose again. On its trunk, the familiar thousand faces surfaced slowly, wearing a calm smile.
"Surprised? Under my god's gaze, death is merely the start of another cycle."
Jingliu's sword slid from its sheath with a metallic zzing, drawn a third of the way. "You really are a persistent ghost."
Dan Feng and Jing Yuan both raised their weapons again—Shihuo Mengshen and Jiyun poised before them.
"Wait!" Baiheng called out urgently. "Where's Little Huo?!"
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 90)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter70)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter70)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter60)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 20
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 20
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