Chapter 1122: The Root of Calamity, Guidance of Death

"Retreat!"

In the depths of the labyrinth shrouded in dim, murky mist, a cry of terror echoed.

Huangyang Zhenren gripped a blood bead in his left hand and a fly whisk in his right, channeling his spiritual essence fervently into the blood bead. His eyes, filled with bloodshot veins, darted frantically from side to side, trembling uncontrollably.

"Retreat! Retreat! Begone from me!"

The blood bead remained unresponsive, yet the thunderous footsteps ahead grew even louder.

Huangyang Zhenren was on the verge of madness, for now he could clearly see, reflected on the smooth, mirror-like surface of the blood bead, a mass of blackness.

It was all black!

He lifted his gaze in a daze, and what met his eyes was an unprecedented sight: a black giant towering over a hundred zhang tall!

"Roar—"

The giant bent down and roared, its sound waves crashing like tidal surges, nearly shattering Huangyang Zhenren's Dao heart.

"I'll suck for you, whatever you want, I'll suck it all for you!"

"But I beg you to drive it away! If it doesn't retreat, I'm done for!"

This former disciple of the Xuanmen Daotong could no longer suppress the fear in his heart and screamed hoarsely at the blood bead.

In this giant kingdom, there really are giants this tall!

A black giant over a hundred zhang could crush any so-called strong expert from the Refining Spirit Realm with a single foot!

What Tai Xu, what Xuanmen inheritance, what treasured blood bead...

If he could exchange even one of them—or all of them—for the giant's retreat, Huangyang Zhenren would do so without hesitation.

Yet, after shouting for so long, the black giant continued its slow advance, while the blood bead showed no reaction.

"Waste!"

Huangyang Zhenren truly wanted to smash this useless thing to pieces, but he couldn't bear to, so he stowed it away and shakily lifted his eyes to face the giant's... ankle!

"Huff~"

After taking a deep breath, Huangyang Zhenren feigned composure and said, "Big brother, give me some face. I'm a strong expert of the human race from the Xuanmen Daotong, a future Bansheng. I assume you can understand my general meaning. If you let me go today..."

"Roar!"

The Xukong Shi didn't wait for him to finish, stomping down heavily with one foot.

"Damned thing... San Shang Lei Jing!" Huangyang Zhenren swiftly dodged, flipping his hand to form seals. He drained his remaining spiritual essence to its limit, conjuring a mirror of spiritual light over two people high and a zhang wide.

The mirror's uneven surface refracted purple rays, which in the next second gathered the Jiu Xiao thunderbolts. Like surging serpents, they surged forward and struck the black giant's... toe.

"Huff"

This technique, which should have severely injured an undefended Tai Xu, seemed to only singe a single hair on the black giant, then vanished without a trace, as if swallowed whole.

At that moment, Huangyang Zhenren's face turned from green to white, and then his throat constricted as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Pah... Damn it!"

He was already depleted by the blood bead, his life force nearly exhausted. Who would have thought that after following some vague guidance to this place, he'd encounter such a terrifying giant?

Fear for the present and the future instantly flooded Huangyang Zhenren's mind.

"I can't... I can't fall here..."

"My path to rise has only just begun. This should be my place of opportunity, a surge of heartblood, a surge of heartblood...

"Why?!!!"

The black sole engulfed everything in his sight.

Huangyang Zhenren had no strength left to resist, staring wide-eyed with sheer unwillingness.

"Boom—"

The giant foot stamped down, shaking the earth. Sound waves mixed with air blasts surged outward, distorting space as if the sky were about to collapse.

"Uh?"

Huangyang Zhenren, sprawled on the ground, stared in stunned disbelief at the massive black foot hovering just above his head.

The foot hadn't come down? No!

Someone had blocked the attack for him!

Glancing around, Huangyang Zhenren's pupils contracted sharply as he turned in terror to look behind him.

Behind him should have been the labyrinth's wall, that indestructible thing that no attack, not even with a thousand hammers and spiritual essence, could break.

Now, it had been corroded into a large hole the height of a person! Beyond the hole stood a figure in orange robes, holding it up with one hand.

He appeared effortlessly casual, withstanding the absolute force that could crush a Tai Xu, showing no fluctuation in his dead-well-like eyes, as if it were child's play.

"Gulp~" Huangyang Zhenren swallowed hard.

Instinct told him that this person was more dangerous than the black giant!

"Dare I ask, this fellow Daoist... 'Yanwang, Tianren Wushuai.'"

With a thud, Huangyang Zhenren felt dizzy and light-headed.

A member of Yanwang... Huangyang Zhenren knew of Yanwang and had learned about it, but he never imagined that a random member could block the giant's attack with one hand. Was he a body cultivator?

At that thought, Huangyang Zhenren suddenly realized something even more terrifying!

Where the Tianren Wushuai's hand touched the giant's foot, it was changing color rapidly, turning gray and emanating an aura of decay.

Soon, the giant's foot was festering with rotting flesh, chunks falling to the ground with loud thuds.

"Hiss-roar—"

In pain, the black giant quickly retracted its foot and retreated.

As soon as they separated, the rapidly spreading gray color halted, then, like the earlier thunder attack, was absorbed by the giant.

"I... Huangyang... " Huangyang Zhenren stammered out the words, finding everything before him utterly unbelievable.

A giant that could crush him with one foot had its foot destroyed by this Tianren Wushuai with a single hand?

And yet, Tianren Wushuai seemed not to have exerted his full strength!

"Thank you... "

"You're afraid of the Xukong Shi?"

Before Huangyang Zhenren could fully express his thanks, Tianren Wushuai leaned in, his dead-water eyes now tinged with mockery. The question was impossible to answer.

"Don't be afraid of the Xukong Shi. They're just some lingering dregs that should have died long ago." Tianren Wushuai's words seemed to carry a comforting magic, but Huangyang Zhenren only felt more terrified.

Those three fluttering gray flowers, the dizzying rotation of his pupils, that whisper like a demon's murmur... everything made his spine chill!

Fortunately, Tianren Wushuai seemed to be a good person, not attacking him.

Huangyang Zhenren watched as this emissary of Yanwang shifted his gaze upward, fixing his mysterious eyes on the sky.

"Kneel."

The words, calm as casual conversation, echoed through the vast labyrinth.

In the next second, the hundred-zhang-tall dark giant slammed its knees down, bowing its head to the ground with such force that it twisted its neck backward with a bang, staring upward.

A chill shot from Huangyang Zhenren's soles straight to his scalp, his body erupting in goosebumps as if scalded by boiling water. He stammered, "This... this... "

"Life should be like a meteor streaking across the sky. Even if it must eventually decay, at least it has shone brightly and been remembered." Tianren Wushuai turned his masked face, his eyes now back to normal black and white, and said slowly, "What do you think?"

Huangyang Zhenren sucked in a cold breath and nodded hesitantly. "Senior speaks truly."

In his eyes, this person was likely beyond Tai Xu, perhaps a legendary Bansheng.

Only a Bansheng could command with words and make the giant obey instantly. That single word "kneel" would be etched in Huangyang Zhenren's memory forever.

"Sizzle..."

Specks of dark starlight appeared in the void ahead, and the dark giant's body completely rotted away, turning into decay energy that swept past Huangyang Zhenren and surged into Tianren Wushuai's robes.

"The abilities of the Decay Body astonish me every time I see them." A sigh came from behind.

Huangyang Zhenren felt as if his skull had been struck hard again. He desperately wanted to turn and look, but a frantic will in his mind screamed, "Lower your head! Bow down!"

Bansheng! The newcomer called himself "Bansheng"!

What would happen if he faced a Bansheng...

Yet, human curiosity is insatiable. Huangyang Zhenren couldn't hold back and stole a glance in disbelief.

Even Tianren Wushuai, who had been so friendly, seemed... "Ahhh!"

Screams instantly filled the Zui Yi Dian labyrinth walls.

Blood gushed from Huangyang Zhenren's seven orifices, his breath fading fast. He collapsed with a thud, nearly losing consciousness, but the blood bead's glow gave him one last gasp of life.

"What's this?" The self-proclaimed Bansheng's voice continued. Huangyang Zhenren tried to move but couldn't.

He could only watch helplessly as the blood bead in his arms was picked up by a hand covered in orange robes.

"Xue Shi Zhu?" The Bansheng's footsteps approached his ear. "The root of calamity, the guide to death, one of the Ten Great Anomalous Weapons—the Xue Shi Zhu. How did it end up with someone like you?"

Xue Shi Zhu?

So that's what it's called?

It's actually one of the renowned Ten Great Anomalous Weapons!

"Give it back..." Huangyang Zhenren felt a surge of strength, his eyes wild with madness, but he was too weak to even hear his own voice clearly. "It's mine..."

"Don't kill him yet. Ask about the situation first." The Bansheng's voice suddenly plunged his body into a Nine Nether cold realm, freezing him in place.

"From your words, old man, I sense a 'desire'?" In his blurred vision, Tianren Wushuai seemed to turn back.

"..." The voice from behind fell silent.

The orange figure drew closer, enlarging in his hazy world.

Huangyang Zhenren strained to make out that it was Tianren Wushuai squatting down, pressing his faceless, chilling orange mask near.

"Have you shone brightly?" His voice remained lifeless and cold, like that of the undead.

"I... am... " Huangyang Zhenren's toes twitched, but he couldn't finish.

"No matter what, you've reached the end of your starry night and are about to fall into eternal darkness." Tianren Wushuai stood up after speaking.

Huangyang Zhenren suddenly saw faint lights.

How could there be scattered starlight in the sky of Zui Yi Dian?

No, Zui Yi Dian—seemed like you could never see the sky here from the start!

"How... did I... get in... here... "

The decay energy flowed into Tianren Wushuai's robes, leaving only two people in this spot in the labyrinth.

Jiang Buyi watched everything unfold silently, not intervening. Truth be told, he didn't want to waste his moves stopping this person now.

Following him into Zui Yi Dian, he had witnessed just how terrifying the "Decay Body" of the Five Great Absolute Bodies truly was!

When Tianren Wushuai first encountered the Xukong Shi, he was so weak that he was sent rolling and crawling under its attacks, with none of his strikes taking effect—all absorbed.

He survived only by using decay energy and curse power to wear it down.

But things changed afterward!

After the Xukong Shi died, it turned into decay energy, all absorbed by Tianren Wushuai.

After devouring that wave, his physical strength seemed to evolve qualitatively. Facing the next Xukong Shi, he was no longer so disheveled and could occasionally withstand a heavy punch with his body, spiritual essence, and decay power.

One, two, three...

These giant Xukong Shi were like tonics in front of Tianren Wushuai, all to be devoured.

By the time he devoured the seventh, when he reached five, he could already trade blows with the giants using his physical body.

With the Decay Body and San Yan Tong, this guy could even instantly kill a Xukong Shi!

In Zui Yi Dian, Jiang Buyi hadn't found the "Free Exile Order" right away, but he had witnessed Tianren Wushuai's transformation.

He knew that this monster's physical body was now on par with the giants.

Tianren Wushuai could no longer be considered just a "Tai Xu"; he was a Bansheng in Tai Xu's skin, and now he had obtained the Xue Shi Zhu...

"If I recover, can I definitely win against him?" Jiang Buyi couldn't help but think.

He realized he might have fallen into a trap.

Tianren Wushuai's goal was clear; previously, he didn't know the risks of Zui Yi Dian and had brought Jiang Buyi along, likely as a bodyguard.

That was evident from how battered he was against the first Xukong Shi.

But once he no longer needed help, this guy handled everything himself, not sharing a drop of benefit... though Jiang Buyi didn't want the decay energy from the Xukong Shi corpses anyway.

"What a pity..." Jiang Buyi sighed, knowing the ploy was useless. It was an open scheme, perhaps a tribulation he had to face in this life.

"If you want to say it outright, old man will give it to you." Ahead, Tianren Wushuai, holding the Xue Shi Zhu high, said calmly, as if offering not one of the Ten Great Anomalous Weapons, but an orange.

"No need. Whatever you solve and obtain is yours." Jiang Buyi replied without hesitation. "My only purpose is the 'Free Exile Order'. As long as you don't secretly trip me up, we're forever friends."

"Friends..." Tianren Wushuai murmured softly, then chuckled after a long pause. "'Forever' is a word you shouldn't use lightly, Jiang Bansheng. In this world, there's no absolute, only relative."

Buzz buzz buzz!

During their conversation, a flurry of sword chimes flew from the end of the wall to the right.

Both turned to look, seeing dozens of void small swords emerging, not intending to harm, but turning at bends and slipping through gaps.

One sword accidentally passed over them and entered the hole corroded by Tianren Wushuai, brushing past another void small sword flying out from inside.

The two swords paused for a breath, as if startled by each other's sudden appearance.

In the next second, they continued flying, continuing their path.

"The ancient sword cultivation, a simple use of the Ten Thousand Swords Technique..." Jiang Buyi remarked. "This is indeed convenient in a labyrinth; even I don't have a scouting technique to match."

"Sword intent..." Tianren Wushuai's eyes under the mask narrowed. "Jiang Bansheng, I know where Xu Xiaoshou is now. Do you want to go take a look?"

"Xu Xiaoshou?" Jiang Buyi turned abruptly. Honestly, until now, he didn't believe Xu Xiaoshou was still alive—that guy was clearly doomed.

Tianren Wushuai chuckled coldly.

"How many ancient sword cultivators are there on Shengshen Continent? How many on Void Island? If they're all here for Xu Xiaoshou, how could they not be together?"

"After all, Zui Yi Dian is a place they must visit."