A World Worth Protecting

The death trap was inexplicable and mysterious. It appeared to bind Wang Baole’s spirit energy and consciousness together and weave the two with the natural energies of the planet. The result was an invisible and intense power permeating the air that threatened to slay everything within sight!

This power was invisible to one’s eyes but could be perceived through a sweep of one’s Divine Sense. No walls stood around Wang Baole, yet the winds stopped right outside the battlefield that he had set up. Without the winds blowing, no dust could drift in and settle on the ground either. The battlefield had somehow been sealed and cordoned off from the rest of the world.

It had transformed into a domain of its own!

Wang Baole couldn’t have done that alone. Even if luck happened to be on his side, even if he were to achieve resonance between his will to kill and the power in his spells, it would still be almost impossible for him to unleash enough power to make his own domain. But… the pig-headed mask he had on him was no ordinary mask. The death trap that had been laid and the violence-filled power in the air… were all mainly due to the mask!

Should the strange violence in the air unleash its full power, its force would send the heavens and earth quaking. Skies would be drained of their natural colors, and winds would howl while clouds rolled back. The stage would be set for someone’s inevitable death!

Just as the Flame Patriarch had said, he had just helped Wang Baole out. The favor that he had extended didn’t start then, it had begun since he had his eyes on Wang Baole. In fact… he had done the crucial deed of interfering with the Never-Ending Clan elder’s Divine Sense so that the elder remained oblivious to the death trap until he had stepped into it. He had also made the elder forget some things that he shouldn’t forget.

An enormous demonic eye appeared behind Wang Baole, its sight on the entire battlefield around him. Dark Fire rose around him and flooded the battlefield like a sea of black flames. Wang Baole looked strange and terrifying to behold, a harbinger of death. The flower that was sprawled across his mask appeared to come alive. It began to blossom!

As it reached full bloom, as Wang Baole stood ready and waiting, as every weapon in his arsenal was locked and loaded, every spell and mystic technique charged for an attack at full blast… a spatial distortion appeared above the empty field a hundred and forty feet ahead of him. Without any warning, the late-stage Spirit Immortal realm cultivator, the commander of the Never-Ending Clan army, emerged from the vortex.

His face emerged from the vortex first and was followed by his body. As his features and the outline of his form grew increasingly distinct, he took one step forward and prepared to charge!

Everything had happened in the blink of an eye, from the appearance of the spatial distortion to the Never-Ending Clan elder’s entrance.

As a late-stage Spirit Immortal realm cultivator, the Never-Ending Clan elder had his own bag of tricks. Just as his foot was about to land on the ground, his eyes suddenly widened. He realized how strange and different Wang Baole looked. The black eye looming at Wang Baole’s back, the black flames burning around them like hellfire, and the strange and terrifying flower shimmering on his face—everything the Never-Ending Clan elder saw made his heart skip a beat.

It was then that an unimaginably strong sense of danger erupted in his head. It felt as if the heavens were collapsing on him, and as if the earth had just risen under his feet. It felt as if the two were moving towards each other rapidly like two palms in a clap, heading towards him in a loud and terrifying smack.

His heart stuttered, and fear and shock flashed across his face. He was filled with disbelief. His Divine Sense was telling him that he should leave immediately. What unsettled him was the lack of any warning signs before this sudden explosion of danger assaulting his senses.

Someone’s interfering with my Divine Sense and playing with my mind. All this while, I’ve forgotten about… the curse that’s hiding inside the Descender’s mask!

An unprecedented sense of danger enveloped him. His heart raced as he retreated hastily, but it was too late. An icy glint had flashed in Wang Baole’s eyes as soon as the late-stage Spirit Immortal realm elder had appeared in the domain. In the next moment, the mysterious flower on Wang Baole’s mask exploded!

“Demonic eye, draw out his pain!” Wang Baole yelled. The heavens and earth shuddered, the winds started howling, and the clouds boiled in the skies. The enormous black eye looming behind Wang Baole had barely been open a moment ago… Yet, upon hearing Wang Baole’s command, it snapped wide open!

A soundless roar reverberated in the skies as the elder’s reflection appeared inside the black eye. Instantly, the elder could feel hundreds of thousands of lightning bolts exploding in his head.

Shock vibrated through his violently shuddering body as he realized that his body… had become bound by an invisible force. He was immobilized, unable to budge a single inch!

That wasn’t the end of it.

He stood bound and reeling in shock as an agonizing pain shot through his right palm. It had been crushed to bits during his earlier fight with Wang Baole, but it had fully regenerated after the fight. At present… it felt as if the pain that the elder had suffered and forced aside was being drawn to the surface.

This wasn’t what the Demonic Eye Art was meant for. However, as a form of spell, the binding effect that the Demonic Eye Art had on the enemy affected the latter’s whole person. As the spell spread, injuries that had been suppressed or weren’t fully healed would be revealed under the all-seeing eye of the Demonic Eye Art!

“D*mn it!” Agony and fury flashed across the Never-Ending Clan elder’s face. He quickly unleashed his cultivation in an attempt to free himself. At the same time, the looming sense of danger that he had been feeling was getting increasingly stronger and fueling his unease.

Because of the difference in their levels of cultivation, the spell could only hold the elder frozen for a moment. But… Wang Baole was clearly ready to fight to the death. As he roared, blood veins appeared in the enormous demonic eye looming at his back. The demonic eye seemed to be unleashing its full power, giving all that it had to sustain the bind over the elder!

As the Never-Ending Clan elder fought to free himself, Wang Baole thrust his right hand into the air and pointed skywards without any hesitation.

“Dark Fire, draw the poison out!”

The sea of black fire around them rose to the skies, and fiery waves began circling the elder rapidly, transforming into a fiery tornado. It was like watching a dragon spiraling into the air, roaring as it spewed Dark Fire—a deadly fire that seemed capable of turning everything to ashes—into the sky!

Because of Wang Baole’s level of cultivation, his Dark Fire wasn’t yet powerful enough to kill the late-stage Spirit Immortal realm cultivator. However, the Dark Fire contained the power of death, and therein lay the key to this attack. While of a different source, this poison shared similarities with the poison Wang Baole had lined his black daggers with. In fact, Wang Baole had intentionally fused a little bit of Dark Fire with the black daggers that his avatars had injured the elder with.

The eruption of the Dark Fire instantly activated the poison that the Never-Ending Clan elder had been suppressing all along!

The rampant surge of poison in his body brought streaks of black to the surface of the Never-Ending Clan elder’s skin. These black streaks seemed alive. As they swam across his skin, his blood and flesh began to rot. The rotting flesh spread across his body, and the various places conjoined with one another to form a seal of poison!

“No!” Shock and terror flashed across the Never-Ending Clan elder’s face as an unimaginable sense of danger erupted in his head. Every cell in his body was screaming, shrieking mindlessly at him to run away immediately. If he didn’t… he was going to die!

The threat of death wasn’t coming from the fierce pain in his right hand or the corrosive poison burning in his veins. It was coming… from the cursed pig-head in front of him and the blood-colored flower shimmering on his mask!

“I’m not accepting defeat!” The late-stage Spirit Immortal realm Never-Ending Clan elder howled madly. As he struggled, his two other heads and remaining four arms burst out of his body. He had been driven to reveal his true form!

It was… of no use!

“Release the curse!” Wang Baole’s head snapped up suddenly. His eyes glowed with an intense ferocity as he roared and unleashed the divine power that was going to turn the tide of this battle!

The blood-colored flower on his mask shattered, morphing into countless blood-colored threads that streamed towards the late-stage Spirit Immortal realm elder at an impossible speed, appearing before him almost instantly. They transformed back into a flower that then landed on… the elder’s face!

The curse exploded!