The transition was almost imperceptible.
A slow blink… and the gentle silence of the sea of flowers dissolved like ink washed away by rain.
Ren Zu softly reappeared in the original darkness—that vast, formless expanse where silence was so profound it seemed to carry weight.
It was the same place as before, where he had sensed the Ancestral Diabolic Beasts…
He lifted his chin, staring into the infinite void as one contemplates a starless sky, and murmured under his breath:
"Let's see what kind of beasts you really are…"
Having said that, he agitated his profound energy and enveloped his entire body in the Golden Flames of the Golden Crow, deliberately drawing the attention of the creatures around him.
It took no more than a second for the beasts to react immediately.
"HSSS—"
"AOOUU!!"
"ROOAR!"
Roars shattered the absolute silence like blades slicing through the air. Everything trembled. A heavy wind whipped his robes and lashed his black hair backward, while a dense, suffocating aura poured over him like a mountain on the verge of collapse.
The beasts charged toward him at an absurd speed—far beyond anything a profound practitioner at the Monarch level could achieve.
They were coming.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!
The footsteps of the largest monster in front echoed ever closer. With each impact, Ren Zu felt the sound reverberate inside his chest, disrupting the rhythm of his own heart. Yet he felt neither fear nor discomfort. In truth, a faint excitement stirred at the thought of the powers he was about to test… and use to kill.
The presence of any foreign organism in that abyss was extraordinarily rare. Being an entity completely alien to that world, Ren Zu naturally attracted the dark, ferocious creatures that dwelled there and would be relentlessly hunted by them.
In just a few breaths, the Ancestral Diabolic Beasts reached his position.
The silent, shadowy world transformed in an instant: the air became tainted with a malignant aura capable of eclipsing the heavens, and a deep, savage roar arose—wild and devastating, strong enough to shake heaven and earth—as the creature charged straight at him.
No one in the Profound Sky Continent, the Azure Cloud Continent, or the Illusory Demon Realm had ever seen or heard of the gigantic beast before him. No record of it existed in any of the three continents. It was an existence completely unknown, one that surpassed all common knowledge.
It was a Glazed Perdition Bird!
This beast, feared in the era of gods and devils, inhabited the Valley of Diabolic Mist of Calamity. Its body, resembling tempered glass harder than steel, reflected a dark sheen. Its speed was terrifying; a single flap of its wings could generate a black hurricane, swallowing everything around it in an infernal catastrophe.
Yet everyone knew that not long after the era of devils and gods ended with their mutual annihilation, the energy of the Northern Primal Chaos Dimension was gradually assimilated by the energies of the Southern Primal Chaos Dimension. The element of darkness had grown slowly and more sparsely, leading the injured dark devils to extinction roughly fifty to sixty thousand years ago. These Diabolic Beasts had not appeared since.
Nevertheless, this strange dark world truly concealed Diabolic Beasts that should have been extinct long ago!
"Scree~~~"
The Glazed Perdition Bird folded its wings and suddenly plummeted from the sky like lightning. All around, the dark space twisted into whirlpools, distorting the darkness itself. Beneath the radiant golden light emanating from Ren Zu's body, the creature's glazed feathers reflected a prismatic glow… yet there was nothing beautiful about the sight. The light dancing across its surface resembled the cold gleam of serpent scales—a sheen that sent chills down the spine of anyone who dared to look.
The glazed feathers reflected the scorching gold radiating from Ren Zu's body…
What happened next took place in a single instant and nothing more.
The Glazed Perdition Bird dove, tearing through space like a glass spear thirsty for blood.
The wind screamed.
The entire abyss seemed to tilt to follow the attack.
Ren Zu merely lifted his chin.
The Golden Flames of the Golden Crow rippled around him, flowing like solar seas—dense, perfectly controlled, without a single wisp wasted. His silhouette, illuminated in that way, appeared almost cruel: the splendor of a sun… that had chosen to descend upon the world solely to destroy.
His body leaned slightly forward.
And then—
"Tenth Stage…"
Profound energy erupted.
"…Heavenly Fury of the Nine Suns."
The world trembled.
Behind Ren Zu, lights ignited one after another, each setting the abyss ablaze with a brilliance so pure and devastating that darkness fled like a living creature. One sun was born… then another… and another… until nine solar orbs blazed in the darkness, orbiting in destructive paths, each radiating heat capable of evaporating oceans and turning mountains to vapor in a single second.
The Glazed Perdition Bird flapped its wings to retreat, sensing immense danger—but it was too late.
The nine suns converged upon it almost instantly.
In a single white-golden flash, the world roared in gold. Space cracked with luminous fissures, lines snaking like shattered glass on the verge of collapse. Solar radiation devoured the monster head-on, wrenching forth an agonized shriek that was smothered before it could finish.
It was simply burned until nothing but ashes remained!
Ren Zu let his hand fall to his side. The violent Golden Flames withdrew, tame and obedient, as though tamed by a god.
He frowned slightly.
"…How inconvenient…" he murmured, gazing at the emptiness where the beast had been.
Had he not possessed absolute control over his profound energy, the cost of that technique would have been absurd. After all, killing a Glazed Perdition Bird—a creature at the pinnacle of the Divine Profound Realm—while he himself was still in the Sovereign Profound Realm should have been impossible. Yet he succeeded because his mastery over profound energy was so perfect that he expended not even a hundredth of his reserves to execute a technique that would normally have drained a substantial portion of his entire energy.
Moreover, thanks to the [Ten Extreme Daos Technique] and his profound veins transformed by the [Prime World Liquid], his profound energy was vastly superior to that of any practitioner at the same level. And of course, the Golden Crow flames used in his attack were far from mere decoration… Because his compression of the Law of Fire had reached the highest possible level, an attack executed with the [Burning World Scripture of the Golden Crow] could surpass even the power of a true Golden Crow at the same cultivation level—all due to his absolute control over the Law of Fire.
Well, he had been a little reckless by not using the Vermilion Bird Flames, which were incomparably more suited for dealing with "devils." However, since he was merely testing things after finally reaching the First Level of the Sovereign Profound Realm, he simply had no intention of using them at that moment.
He was satisfied with his current profound strength.
Suddenly, new roars erupted from the darkness.
Ren Zu lifted his gaze, and a faint smile crossed his lips beneath the mask.
Boom!!
The explosion shook the heavens, and the surface of the pitch-black cracked wildly. Using the Golden Crow Flames enveloping his body for illumination, he could finally see the true appearance of that gigantic shadow.
It stood approximately one hundred and sixty-five meters tall, its head extremely broad and resembling a cross between a wolf and a bear. Its four limbs were thick and powerful, its head and body bristling with white fangs. The sharp tips of those fangs gleamed with an infernal light that would make fear seep into one's soul. An enormous, long black tail arched over its head, its tip shining with the same icy glow a blade would possess.
It was the Nine Desolation Fang Devil!
This was a creature that had coexisted with devils in the northern part of the Primal Chaos Dimension during the Ancient Era—a Primordial Diabolic Beast!
The roar of the Nine Desolation Fang Devil reverberated like ancestral thunder, so deep and ancient it seemed torn directly from the roots of the world. The creature raised its colossal head, its eyes fixed on Ren Zu with pure killing intent.
Ren Zu did not look away.
Unhurried, he raised both hands.
Clang—
With a single thought, without even stirring a ripple in the surrounding energy, twin swords materialized as if they had always been in his grasp.
They were twin swords!
One of the swords he had found most difficult to subdue within the [Boundless Sword Fist], they bore the name [Immortal Mystic Scarlet Blood Sword].
But they did not come alone.
Behind Ren Zu, the air shuddered… and then:
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A thousand sub-swords materialized simultaneously, filling the space like stars of metal. Each carried an incomparably sharp aura!
And that was only the beginning.
He activated the [Boundless Sword Art].
The abyss exploded with light.
Ten thousand swords appeared, all vibrating, aligning like a heavenly army answering the call of their sovereign. In the blink of an eye, they claimed the sky, the ground, the horizon—each blade suspending its own small storm of energy, as if protesting having been restrained for so long.
Ren Zu, enveloped in Golden Flames, the solar glow reflecting across the infinite sea of swords… resembled a Sword God descended to exterminate the world.
He bent his knees.
And leaped.
The leap itself made no sound, but the impact of his presence upon the air caused space to ripple. He landed upright on one of the floating swords as though standing on solid ground.
The other blades reacted instantly.
ZUUUUUM!!!
In a movement so perfectly synchronized it seemed choreographed by a sword immortal, the ten thousand swords surged forward. It was an inverted rain: instead of falling, they rose, advanced, tore, and pierced through space toward the gigantic monster.
The Nine Desolation Fang Devil roared, unleashing a wave of malignant energy that would make any Monarch fall to their knees and bleed from the eyes.
But the swords paid no heed.
They did not stop.
The sharp light of the blades advanced with lightning speed, and in that instant Ren Zu vanished among them, moving with cold, lethal grace, conducting the slaughter like the maestro of a divine massacre.
The full assault took… a single breath.
The colossal body of the Nine Desolation Fang Devil was simply… shredded.
The primordial monster was sliced into hundreds, thousands of tiny fragments, so perfectly severed they had no time even to fall.
Then, at last—
BOOM—
The body disintegrated into a black rain of diabolic flesh, dissolving like soot beneath the heat of the Golden Crow flames surrounding Ren Zu.
A heavy silence fell for less than half a second.
And then the abyss plunged into pure despair.
"Scree——!!!"
"ROOOOAR!!!"
Four glazed shadows emerged simultaneously in the sky, like black stars born from darkness itself. Their translucent bodies reflected fragments of golden light from Ren Zu's flames, creating a distorted mosaic of light—they were more Glazed Perdition Birds!
At the same time, two new Nine Desolation Fang Devils emerged from fissures in the pitch-black.
They attacked together.
But Ren Zu did not retreat a single step.
The ten thousand swords surrounding him vibrated with fierce anticipation, like starving wolves awaiting only the order to devour.
And he gave it—not with words, but with a faint smile.
FWOOM!!!
The swords erupted in flames.
Yet they were not merely the golden flames of the Golden Crow.
They were also the Crimson Flames of the Vermilion Bird—wild, pure, absolute, burning everything related to darkness. They were not the flames most feared by the diabolic race for no reason. Every sword blazed with a terrifying crimson, a light that seemed to tear small pieces of reality as it advanced.
In an instant, each blade became a solar meteor.
The golden flames roared like living suns.
The crimson flames writhed like an infernal storm.
United… they transformed into a force capable of incinerating the world!
ZUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMM!!!
A thousand swords surged, then two thousand… three thousand… until all ten thousand plunged like a divine storm, each leaving a trail of luminous destruction that rent space like shattered glass.
The Glazed Perdition Birds dove in counterattack.
The flames around the swords instantly doubled, as soldiers kneeling before their king.
FWOOSH!
The golden flames enveloped the crimson.
The crimson intensified the golden.
He had essentially fused the Golden Crow Flames with the Vermilion Bird Flames as if it were nothing! Thanks to his profound comprehension of the Law of Fire, performing something so absurd was, to him, as simple as eating or drinking.
The first Glazed Perdition Bird was pierced by a hundred blades at once.
The sound was crisp, like glass shattering.
CRACK———!!!
The creature broke into dozens of glittering fragments, each burning in crimson and golden flames until it vanished completely.
The second tried to dodge, flapping its wings and creating a black hurricane.
The swords did not care.
They tore through the tornado and pierced its body like a rain of heavenly fire.
BOOM!
Ashes.
The third attempted to flee—an instantly fatal mistake.
Ren Zu pointed one of his twin swords and murmured:
"Stellar Sword Prison…"
The swords around him instantly rearranged, forming a perfect circle, then a sphere, then a three-dimensional cage forged with the aid of Spatial Laws.
The glazed bird slammed into the transparent, burning interior and melted.
The fourth opened its beak to unleash a wave of destructive energy…
But Ren Zu was already behind it.
He appeared in absolute silence, as though he had leaped between heartbeats.
The twin sword in his hand traced a crimson line through the air.
"…Rootless Slash."
The bird exploded without even making a sound.
Yet the roars continued.
The two Nine Desolation Fang Devils charged together, striking with force enough to crush mountains.
Ren Zu spun in mid-air.
The ten thousand flaming swords followed his motion like an infernal vortex, forming a maelstrom of solar light and blood fire.
The monsters charged.
The swords advanced.
The impact was a cataract of light.
KRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAACK——!!!
The first monster had its legs severed before it understood what hit it; its fangs shattered like ice, and its tail fell severed from its body before touching the ground. The swords pierced, shredded, and exploded parts of the giant until it became a cloud of black flesh that was instantly incinerated.
The second monster tried to turn around.
Tried to flee.
But Ren Zu did not allow it.
He pointed two fingers.
"Stellar Sword: Fourth Form…"
All ten thousand swords aligned behind him.
"…Horizon Rend."
FLASH.
Light pierced everything.
The Nine Desolation Fang Devil was cleaved in half.
Then into four.
Then into eight.
Then into fragments as fine as dust, and every particle burned until nothing remained.
Absolute silence fell once more.
The swords floated around Ren Zu like a living sea, crimson and golden flames advancing and receding in waves, reflected in the fragments of darkness still dissolving.
Ren Zu took a deep breath and exhaled calmly.
New roars tore through the abyss.
This time, dozens.
Perhaps hundreds.
Ren Zu tilted his head slightly.
And smiled beneath the mask.
This was going to be fun.
__________________
(A/N: Did you enjoy the chapter? Then you should know that over on my Patreon you can read up to 20 chapters ahead for just 5USD! And yes—for that price, you also get full access to all of my content. That's right: cheaper than a snack… and with way more drama, action, and guaranteed emotional damage.
The link is right below. See you there!
My Patreon: patreon.com/Adam_Kadmon
Thank you so much for your support — you make all of this worthwhile.)