With the 'Divine Melody' in hand, he could unleash his unique sonic offensive, bypassing spatial constraints to strike every enemy within sight simultaneously! Furthermore, he could focus his attack, not even needing to deliberately play; a mere wave of his hand or flick of a finger could launch an inescapable sonic blade!
Back when the Fourteenth Young Master of the Nine Nether Realm was besieged, if the Illusory Mansion hadn't mobilized all its fighting strength for a full encirclement and interception, the effort would likely have ended in failure! The terrifying nature of the Fourteenth Young Master far surpassed the rest of the Nine Nether Young Masters, save for the First.
More than a dozen Venerables and nearly a hundred Saint Emperors from the Illusory Mansion joined forces in a massive assault, even bolstered by several Saint Monarch powerhouses holding the line, in addition to securing over two hundred first-rate experts from the Three Great Sacred Lands! Even with such a colossal lineup, the Fourteenth Young Master still cut through them, causing chaos and slaughter! He dashed left and right, moving as if through uninhabited territory!
It was only when two Saint Monarchs from the Illusory Mansion, who had been deliberately held back in ambush, struck at the critical moment to seize the Divine Melody from the Fourteenth Young Master that the tide of battle was successfully turned!
With the Divine Melody in his possession, the Fourteenth Young Master of the Nine Nether Realm was truly invincible in the truest sense of the word!
With the blessing of the Divine Melody, the effect was definitely not as simple as one plus one equaling two! The Fourteenth Young Master channeled his unique Nine Nether True Qi into the unparalleled Nine Nether Divine Melody, and the resulting power was simply terrifying!
He was the ultimate powerhouse beneath the heavens!
There was no 'one of' here—Miao Qingcheng was irrelevant and could be disregarded. With the Divine Melody in hand, the Fourteenth Young Master was the strongest!
And even when deprived of the Divine Melody, the Fourteenth Young Master remained one of the ultimate powerhouses beneath the heavens!
That day, immediately following the unexpected loss of the Divine Melody, the Fourteenth Young Master still charged wildly, tearing through the encirclement, forcing his besiegers to pay a devastating price that was nearly unbearable.
The pursuit and slaughter spanned tens of thousands of li, involving no less than a thousand interceptions along the way and culminating in a hundred desperate, life-or-death battles. Only then was the Fourteenth Young Master, who had already sustained a hundred critical injuries, finally forced into the Heaven's Punishment Forest. Then, several experts already lying in wait within the Nine Nether Secret Realm took advantage of the instant the Fourteenth Young Master entered the realm to recover, employing profound and mysterious formations to successfully seal him away!
Afterward, they had to assign the Eight Great Venerables of Heaven's Punishment to guard him day and night. This task alone ultimately drained all Eight Great Venerables to the point of near ruin!
It must be remembered that at that time, all Eight Great Venerables had already achieved the peak cultivation of the Fourth Level of the Saint Emperor realm, just a single step away from the Venerable realm! Yet, they were tormented to such a state by the Fourteenth Young Master, even while restrained by the seal!
The most frightening part was that the Fourteenth Young Master at that time was still recovering from grievous injuries, his strength significantly curtailed!
If the Fourteenth Young Master possessed such power under so many negative factors, the terror he commanded when fully restored was easy to imagine!
The consumption over hundreds of years naturally didn't only deplete the Eight Great Venerables; the Fourteenth Young Master was also worn down to the brink. Most critically, due to this exhaustion and the seal, the lingering, chronic injuries of the Fourteenth Young Master recovered excruciatingly slowly!
When he finally broke free, his old wounds were still unhealed. Moreover, to successfully shatter the seal, he lost nearly ninety percent of his inherent strength. Yet, even with only ten percent remaining, he still managed to slay nearly half of the twenty-plus Saint Emperors who surrounded him before quietly slipping away!
This was the Fourteenth Young Master without the Divine Melody in hand!
Now, with the Divine Melody lending him wings—effectively adding fire to the tiger—and potentially operating in a state of full recovery, the Fourteenth Young Master was actually locked in an even match, fighting someone to the point where the heavens and earth seemed to turn upside down, battling all the way to this location!
Who was this other person? To possess such formidable strength!
Listening to the voices, it seemed these two had been fighting for a very, very long time.
A sinister, drawn-out roar suddenly sliced through the air. Although the source was still over a hundred li away from their current location, the chilling aura of ghostly energy and overwhelming gloom carried within the howl made everyone's hair stand on end.
"What kind of monster are you!" This was the Fourteenth Young Master shouting in fury. His voice was filled with an incomprehensible astonishment and an unspeakable frustration! It seemed something bizarre had occurred, something even he could not fathom!
The voice traveled from afar, and the onlookers were filled with wonder!
Who on the other side was powerful enough to elicit such a question from the universally renowned Fourteenth Young Master of the Nine Nether Realm?
As doubts filled the air, another strange cry ripped through the sky, and the location of the sound was noticeably closer to the allied camp—it had shrunk from a hundred li distance to just sixty or seventy li in the time it took to utter the previous remark.
What astonishing speed! In just a single breath, they had covered more than thirty li!
At that moment, the Fourteenth Young Master seemed to realize something, suddenly cursing loudly and urgently shouting, "Is anyone up ahead? You fools! Get out of the way immediately! Do not, under any circumstances, let whatever I am chasing come into contact with a human body! Otherwise, the consequences are unthinkable!"
This voice was filled with urgency and saturated with extreme anger!
Everyone present froze, stunned. Why would the Fourteenth Young Master say such a thing? He didn't even know who was here or what their cultivation levels were, so why such an immediate, desperate cry?
Why?
Only Jun Mo Xie's brow furrowed. He roared sharply, "Everyone pay attention! If anyone approaches from the northeast, regardless of who it is, evade them with all your might! No one is to make contact! And absolutely no fighting! Merely flee with all your strength! No one is permitted to disobey!"
Jun Mo Xie made his decision instantly, issuing the command!
The Beast Kings immediately obeyed without hesitation, directing their respective armies with resounding cries, following the order without question.
Mo Wu Dao frowned slightly. "Lord Jun, relying solely on a distant shout from the Fourteenth Young Master, you issue such an order? Isn't that too rash? If the foreign races launch an attack precisely at this moment, our formation will be broken—how can we face the enemy?"
Jun Mo Xie let out a contemptuous smile, his voice turning icy. "Did you not hear the urgency and fear in the Fourteenth Young Master's voice? Do you not understand what that implies?"
Mo Wu Dao staggered.
"For even the Fourteenth Young Master to shout with such desperation, even resorting to threats against those nearby; do you think the Fourteenth Young Master is someone who shouts casually?" Jun Mo Xie continued to sneer.
Mo Wu Dao broke into a sweat. He instantly realized the gravity of the situation.
The Fourteenth Young Master... he was a high-level figure who wouldn't utter a sound even if subjected to a thousand sword strikes, yet now he was shouting with such urgency, even using intimidation to coerce those distant individuals. For what reason? The answer was obvious!
"The reason the Fourteenth Young Master shouts like this is very clear: a human body must be of great assistance to the entity he is currently pursuing with full force! So, Sect Master Mo, I ask you, what kind of entity would find a human body so significantly helpful?"
Jun Mo Xie scoffed, then questioned, "If a human body is beneficial to it, then it must be disastrous for the original owner of that body! You didn't even realize this simple fact and yet you dare question me? What is your intention in wasting time on this crucial matter?!"
"If even the being feared by the Fourteenth Young Master is something everyone here presumes to handle? Or perhaps Sect Master Mo, you are confident you can manage it?"
Jun Mo Xie sighed. "It is not a bad thing to focus on the bigger picture, but you must consider whether your 'good intentions' are actually leading to disaster! Why must you be so persistent? Are you so fragile that I cannot criticize you? Just moments ago, I thought your leadership as Palace Master showed some merit, but now it seems my judgment—Jun Mo Xie's judgment—was flawed!"
Mo Wu Dao's face flushed red, and for a moment, he had absolutely no reply!
Just then, a piercing shriek rushed toward them, growing ever closer!
Within the shriek, there seemed to be an extremely intense sense of excitement!
The music from the Divine Melody played by the Fourteenth Young Master grew faster and tighter, almost losing all semblance of melody, becoming a cacophony of sustained notes crossing paths, while his shouts became increasingly frantic. From a distance, the sound of wind breaking through the air could be heard, as if he were desperately trying to hold something back.
Jun Mo Xie exchanged a look with Gu Han, and the two sprang up, rushing toward the sound.
Mei Xueyan watched with worry in her eyes, taking over Jun Mo Xie's command position. She immediately gave orders, deploying personnel and directing troops to evade the potential unknown disaster.
Both Jun Mo Xie and Gu Han had reached the Saint Monarch level; their movement speed was incredible, covering twenty or thirty li in an instant, bringing them to the scene of the fierce battle!
Upon witnessing the combat firsthand, even these two couldn't help but draw a sharp, simultaneous breath of cold air!
Before seeing the true scene, although they knew the situation must be dire, they could not possibly imagine what they were about to witness; yet now, seeing it clearly, they still couldn't comprehend what they were seeing!
Because everything unfolding before them was simply too bizarre!
In the fray, the ground churned, and all the loose stones had been pulverized into dust, hanging in the air. Trailing behind this violent struggle was a long, continuous, dragon-like swath of earth and sand extending for almost several hundred li, which was slowly settling down!
Undoubtedly, this was the battlefield where the Fourteenth Young Master and the monster had fought their way here—the sight that greeted them was a stretch of utterly flattened land! A length of several hundred li, nearly ten zhang wide, where not a single stone the size of a human head could be seen!
It was as distinct as the sudden appearance of the Yellow River cutting through the vast ocean!
In the center, the Fourteenth Young Master wielded his Divine Melody, sending out millions of ear-piercing sonic assaults, using his hands and feet in unison, forming a black vortex in the air. The moment it formed here, he was already attacking there...
Before him was what appeared to be a humanoid object.
The reason it was referred to as a 'humanoid object' was because the thing opposite the Fourteenth Young Master possessed a complete human shape, complete with arms, legs, and a head; all four limbs and a torso were present.
However, this entity's head lacked eyes, ears, nose, or any of the five facial organs!
Its face was just a flat plane!
A monster with a complete head but no face!