Jiang Li's fingertip tightened on the trigger, the faint mechanical click sounding like a funeral knell in the Commander's ear.
The Golden Commander's Adam's apple bobbed convulsively. "You... you dare slay a True God of the Sacred Ground? The Heavenly Sequence will never—"
"Too much talk."
Jiang Li twisted her right hand violently, slamming the edge of the crossbow into the Commander's jaw. The sound of shattering bone was sharp and grating. With a shrill cry, the Commander was flipped onto the scorched earth by the sheer force. Jiang Li planted her boot firmly on his chest, the Mirror of Profound Inquiry hovering above, its refracted red light locking his divine soul in place.
"Tell me: who did the Sacred Ground send as reinforcement? A mere Commander like you has no right to wield the 'Purifying Water Divine Talisman'."
His mouth overflowing with blood, the Commander's eyes flashed with a fanatic's madness. "Cough... Seed of Evil, your end is nigh. That was bestowed by the 'Cloud-Ascension Throne' himself... He has sensed the disturbance in the Purgatory. Soon... you will know the meaning of true Divine Wrath!"
Jiang Li's expression darkened. The Cloud-Ascension Throne—one of the thirty-six Divine Thrones of the Sacred Ground, and a primary force in the slaughter of the Black Hero Sect three millennia ago.
"Is that so? Then go pave the way for him."
She didn't hesitate. Her finger squeezed the trigger.
Puff!
The short bolt pierced the Commander's throat at point-blank range. The malice attached to the arrowhead detonated, grinding his soul and his golden Divine Core into fine powder. Golden divine blood splattered across half of Jiang Li's face; she wiped it away with a cold, indifferent swipe.
On the other side, the slaughter was nearing its end.
The pitch-black demonic blade in Cang Yaochen's hand pulsed with an eerie crimson light, satiated by divine blood. He stood amidst a field of mangled golden-armored corpses, his long hair wild in the wind. The last guard tried to crush a teleportation talisman, but Cang Yaochen's backhand stroke cleaved both the talisman and the man's arm in two.
"Is it over?"
Cang Yaochen turned. His aura was now heavy enough to crush the spirit. Though his Asura origin was not yet fully restored, the demonic body reforged in the Karma-Fire was far more destructive than before.
"It's only the beginning."
Jiang Li withdrew the mirror and looked toward the horizon. The sky, once hidden by the Styx mist, was now pale with a ghostly light. Clouds surged violently as the outline of a massive array began to manifest in the void. It was the omen of a Divine Throne's descent.
"That old dog Cloud-Ascension is coming." Jiang Li walked to Cang Yaochen, eyeing the shimmering red lotus mark on his bare chest. "In your state, how long can you last?"
Cang Yaochen looked down at his palm. The demonic blade dissolved into black mist and vanished into his grip. He clenched his fist, feeling the roaring power within. His voice was raspy: "As long as I don't let go, slaughtering our way to the Nine Heavens won't be a problem."
"Good." A ruthless smile touched Jiang Li's lips. "But this place is exposed. I know a hidden path behind these mountains leading to a 'Void Fissure'."
She grabbed Cang Yaochen's wrist, their palms pressing together. "Move. We need to enter the Void before that old dog locks down the perimeter."
They vanished into the depths of the lotus ponds. Behind them, the stone entrance of the Purgatory collapsed amidst the roar of Karma-Fire, burying all traces.
Less than half a mark of time later, a gargantuan golden hand tore through the firmament above the Red Lotus Purgatory. A murderous, ancient roar thundered from the clouds:
"Rebels! Where do you think you're going!"
The roar of the Cloud-Ascension Throne shattered the lotus ponds like a thousand thunderclaps. The golden hand crushed the mountain ridges, sending boulders flying and magma spraying.
Jiang Li and Cang Yaochen had already plunged into the depths of the twisted fissure. Around them flowed ribbons of shimmering silver void-sand.
"Jump!"
Dragging Cang Yaochen, Jiang Li leaped into the bottomless, pitch-black abyss.
Weightlessness hit them, followed immediately by a void storm capable of shredding flesh to atoms. Cang Yaochen pulled Jiang Li into a crushing embrace, his red lotus mark erupting in a blinding, dark light as he used his reforged body to tank the first wave of the storm.
"Hold on!" Jiang Li shouted in his arms, the Mirror of Profound Inquiry flaring with light to carve out a narrow vacuum.
Just as they entered the depths, a terrifying beam of golden light pierced the void. The Cloud-Ascension Throne had forcibly wedged himself into the unstable fissure.
"Before me, no world shall harbor life!"
His white hair flying, his eyes erupting with literal golden flames, he grasped the void with his right hand. Countless void fragments were refined into roaring golden dragons that pursued the two red shadows.
"The old dog is insane—he's using his Throne Origin inside a void fissure!" Jiang Li felt the destructive aura behind them.
"Give me the mirror." Cang Yaochen's voice remained steady despite the rasp.
Jiang Li didn't hesitate, slamming the mirror into his palm.
The moment he gripped it, his Asura qi and the mirror's Evil God origin fused in a violent explosion of power. He spun around, treading on the void turbulence, and forced his left hand into a grotesque mudra, slamming it against the approaching dragons.
"All things to the Void—Seal!"
The mirror's surface turned as black as a hole, seemingly swallowing light itself. The golden dragons, capable of shattering stars, hit the black light and let out shrill wails before being dragged into the mirror world like fallen leaves in a whirlpool.
"What?!" Cloud-Ascension's face paled as he felt his origin power draining away.
"I'm not done." Cang Yaochen's pupils contracted. Blood seeped from his lips, but he wore a cruel smile. "Returning it to you!"
He flipped the mirror. The swallowed dragons were converted into a single black arrow of annihilation, carrying the aura of fractured causality, and shot straight for the Throne's brow.
BOOM—!
The void fissure couldn't withstand a collision of this magnitude and began a massive collapse. Cloud-Ascension groaned as his protective light was pierced; though not fatally wounded, his pursuit was halted. He watched helplessly as the two red shadows vanished into a deeper void vortex—a death zone where even a Divine Throne feared to tread.
"Damn it... Asura's bone, Evil God's soul... these two must not be allowed to live!"
Deep within the vortex, the two drifted until the storms finally subsided. They crashed heavily onto a wasteland that emitted a faint, phosphorescent glow.
Jiang Li struggled to rise, finding themselves in a surreal space. The sky was deep purple, hung with countless colossal, broken statues of gods—some missing heads, others limbs—exuding a suffocating aura of desolation.
This was the God-Graves, the burial ground of deities fallen since the war three thousand years ago.
Cang Yaochen lay nearby, his red lotus mark dimmed, his body covered in fine cracks—the price of his counterattack.
"Priest! Wake up!"
Jiang Li stumbled toward him, realizing his breath was nearly gone. His right hand still gripped the Mirror of Profound Inquiry with a white-knuckled intensity.
In the silence of the God-Graves, a long, ghostly sigh echoed from behind a shattered statue.
"Three thousand years... finally, someone has returned with It..."