The chilling night wind swept in, and the figure of Dizangchuan slowly began to sink into the hard earth, like a ghostly apparition starting from beneath his soles, as if submerging into a mire or swamp.

Deep within the pitch-black, frigid soil, Dizangchuan’s body moved like a fish slipping into water. A viscous, thin membrane seemed to envelope him, yet he kept his eyes open, swimming toward the depths of the earth. All the rocks and Di Bingjing (a type of metal found in the soil) appeared before him like transparent soap bubbles, easily pierced as he passed through.

Soon, he arrived before a massive, deep blue crystal. In the dark, cold earth, this crystal shone like a brilliant orb, featuring numerous fine, diamond-shaped facets on its exterior, emitting a faint, soft azure glow. Nothing within was visible.

Though immensely powerful, Dizangchuan remained cautious. He twisted his body, moving like a small, dark serpent, circling the enormous deep blue crystal once. Discovering its immense size—nearly a kilometer in diameter—he paused, gazing intently at the colossal structure before him.

“Cangxue, oh Cangxue, even in death you cause such a ruckus, leaving me with such a conundrum. If I’m not mistaken, this crystal is the Ancient God-Sealing Crystal (Shanggu Fengshen Jing). Its hardness rivals that of a Void Heaven Artifact (Xu Tian Qi). This move of yours is truly decisive.” Dizangchuan stared at the giant crystal slumbering miles beneath the Rock God Mountain, his dagger-sharp black eyebrows slightly furrowed. “Sealed upon this must be the Demon-Binding System and the God-Forbidding System. Those two systems are quite tedious to construct. It seems you are determined to defend this at all costs…”

He lightly licked his lips, his eyes flashing with a strange light. “If I hadn't obtained this, breaking through your setup would indeed be rather difficult…” He smiled faintly, slowly raising his hand as if lifting a feather. As he opened his palm, a thread of black light bloomed from his center, rising like an aurora before ascending as black mist. When it reached about two feet high, it slowly halted. The black mist then rapidly contracted, like a receding tide absorbing light, revealing what was held within: a dagger. The black blade and hilt looked as if they were forged from the darkest black iron; the surface wasn't shiny but seemed to devour all light, like a massive beast. There were no carvings or markings, only pure blackness!

“You probably never imagined that the Heaven-Slaying Dagger (Shi Tian Bi) would fall into my hands.” Dizangchuan’s smile deepened. He gripped the dagger in reverse, then held a finger to his lips, rapidly and quietly chanting a long string of strange characters. With a sudden roar, his figure shot forward like a streak of black light, impacting the massive deep blue crystal.

“Hiss—”

With a brittle sound like water piercing glass, the hard, immense deep blue crystal emitted a strained noise. The dagger in Dizangchuan’s hand stabbed fiercely into the crystal, the sharp tip puncturing it as easily as piercing a balloon. The entire vast, deep blue crystal appeared to shatter; radiating out from the dagger, dense, fragmented wounds rapidly crawled across the entire mass.

“Boom!”

The hard, giant crystal violently exploded. Just as a faint curve of a smile touched Dizangchuan’s lips, a beam of soaring golden light suddenly flashed from within, roaring like an enraged dragon as it slammed toward him.

Dizangchuan’s pupils contracted violently. Unable to dodge in time, he was struck by the golden light, his body flung backward heavily, like an angel with broken wings.

Strangely, both the golden light and his body seemed to possess no substance, able to pass freely through the underground earth and rock as if they were moving through open air.

The golden light struck Dizangchuan’s chest, propelling him back tens of thousands of meters. As the golden radiance dissipated, before Dizangchuan could even catch his breath, a black light, sharp as an icy blade, was reflected in his pupils as it rushed head-on, enveloping his entire body, seemingly intent on tearing his form into countless fragments!

“God-Forbidding System, Demon-Binding Sys—” Dizangchuan’s furious roar gradually faded as he was submerged and swallowed by the black light. 6. Mingtian Jun Divine Continent, Underworld.

Shallow, ragged gasps, like those of a trapped beast, filled the air. Ye Chen stood drenched in sweat, his clothes completely saturated. His muscles subtly strained from overexertion, and the situation was identical for Nuwa beside him. This exquisitely beautiful woman leaned against a large rock, her charming red lips slightly parted, exhaling fragrant breaths. Her misty, spiritual eyes held an undeniable exhaustion, yet beneath that fatigue shone a smile of relief and joy, like the clear sky after rain.

The two stared at the Pangu Great God before them. He sat unmoving, resembling a small hill, his chest muscles parted like sluice gates. Within them, several bloodline-like metal conduits writhed, twisting around a small figure—a child in a red hood.

The child in the red hood was covered in dense, small wounds. Blood had stained his entire body. These cuts looked as if they were inflicted by sharp daggers; not fatal individually, but continuously bleeding and slow to heal. Even the child’s cute face was crisscrossed with hundreds of gashes, bloody and mangled.

These bloodline-like tubes pulsed like a heart, tightening and loosening rhythmically. Strands of bloody energy flowed from the child’s body into the conduits, then drifted toward Pangu’s form.

Supplemented by these fine blood threads, Pangu’s complexion gradually regained a touch of color. Two beams of sharp light burst from his eyes. He let out a low, sharp command, and the bloodline-like tubes tightened their grip, clamping down on the child. At this point, the child seemed to have fainted, his body twitching slightly under the immense pressure, eliciting a faint moan of pain.

Slowly, under Pangu’s consumption, the child’s body withered at a visible rate. His warm, tender skin became like withered weeds, wrinkling in layer upon layer, resembling a desiccated corpse that had lost all moisture. Soon, only a thin skin sac remained clinging to the skeleton, looking grim and terrifying.

His hair and pupils lost their luster. His hair turned snow-white and, in the gentle breeze, drifted away, instantly leaving him bald. His eyes were deeply sunken, his eyeballs shriveled like two longan pits, covered in wrinkles. The retinas and neural system lines behind the eyes lost their elasticity and tension, snapping apart. The two eyeballs rolled out of their sockets, falling onto the hard ground, where they flattened upon impact.

The bloodline-like tubes increased their constricting force, squeezing the corpse of the red-hooded child tightly until the last vestige of energy was drained. Only then did they release the body, allowing it to drop from the air. The vein-like conduits retracted into Pangu’s chest, and the gate-like metal sternum slowly closed.

The falling corpse struck the ground with a brittle sound of cracking bones, dissolving into a pile of grayish-white bone dust, upon which a few pieces of fragmented, withered skin lay like thin, soiled rags covering the ashes.

In the pitch-black space, Ye Chen and Nuwa stood silently aside. Pangu’s eyes flashed with a faint emerald light, his pupils rotating like digital sensors. He slowly stood up, looking down at the tiny Ye Chen and Nuwa at his feet, his voice relaxed and somewhat pleased. “Energy restored. Congratulations, thanks to you two this time.”

Nuwa, having mostly recovered, allowed an elegant smile to curve her lips as she straightened up, gazing up at Pangu. “It was nothing but a trifle. Ye Chen contributed the most this time; he unleashed his Self-Detonation Secret Art (Zibao Mimi), expending quite a bit of his life force.”

Ye Chen still felt a weakness in his limbs but was no longer quite so drained. He smiled and shook his head. “That’s not true. It is my honor to contribute to the clan; this bit of life force means nothing.”

Pangu looked at them quietly for a moment, then suddenly sensed something, looking up sharply. Brilliant divine light, sharp as swords, erupted from his pupils. “Enemies are attacking!”

“What?” Nuwa started in surprise.

“There is a massive energy fluctuation above, suspended over the entire Divine Continent… This, this energy…” Pangu’s pupils shrank to pinpricks, and a look of terror crossed his usually resolute and strong face. “This is, this is a monster!”

A shock ran across Ye Chen’s face as he too sensed an overwhelming energy outside, vast and boundless like an ocean, possessing an all-consuming aura… 6. Rock God Mountain, Underground.

“Cough, cough…” Dizangchuan clutched his chest, coughing violently. His body trembled with each spasm. He violently coughed up a mouthful of thick, viscous blood. A red light flashed in his eyes, and the clotted blood instantly ignited, evaporating away.

“Damn you, bear’s grandmother!” Dizangchuan wiped the blood from his lips and cursed loudly like a shrew. “Cangxue, I curse you… You actually added Void Heaven Patterns (Xu Tian Wen Lu) within those two systems! You’re trying to kill me!” In his passionate anger, he cursed forgetfully, ignoring the fact that his opponent hadn’t just aimed to kill him, but to tear him into ten thousand pieces.

Dizangchuan grumbled as he tended to the injuries within his body. He walked to the edge of the shattered crystal fragments and saw a snow-white structure resembling a palace inside. The ice-crystal floor shone like a snow mirror, reflecting cold light and his own image.

At the far end of his sight, there was an altar-like circular platform, surrounded by twelve ice-like crystal pillars, each etched with minute patterns. Upon the archway at the center of these crystal pillars rested an ice-sculpted, jade-carved, snow-white crystal coffin!