The infighting between humans had finally stopped. Those from the former Nonahall, Quadform, Heptastar, and even Archaion Sects were now banded together and watched as Tianming faced off against Di Zang. With the Flameyellow Imperial Sect now gone, the sects that had made it up were also effectively dissolved. Now faced with the terrifying Tianming, many were thinking about their future path twice. No sensible person would allow the specters to return.
"Kill Di Zang!"
"Quick!"
"If Li Tianming can kill the ghoul king, those of the Yanbei Clan will join the Archaion Sect and support their rule over the entire continent!" said someone from a clan from the Nonahall Divine Realm. His words were echoed by many others as well.
Tianming's name now reverberated throughout Xuanyuan Lake. Yet, what many of them didn't notice was that Jiang Wuxin, who was trapped inside Dreamheart World and Nine Dragon Formation, also heard the name and started shaking with hate. The fact that the people were cheering Tianming on made something clear to Jiang Wuxin: the person he hated most was still rebelling against fate and had won over the masses. The more glory Tianming got, the more hateful he became, to the point that Jiang Wuxin had lost all reason. Ever since Xuanyuan Dao had lost his saint palace and was unable to personally wield the Kilostar Photondragon, he couldn't perfectly maintain the formation core even with the help of his two lifebound beasts, causing the ancestral dragon spirits to be slightly unstable. If it weren’t for Dreamheart World pulling Jiang Wuxin into countless hallucinatory worlds of pain, the Nine Dragon Formation would have failed to keep him at bay.
"If I lose here, there’s no longer any hope…." He thought about his two girls and the happy times they had. Now, it was all but a fleeting dream. All the bliss he’d experienced had turned into a curse on Tianming. He kept suicidally charging at the nine ancestral dragon spirits, causing them to begin losing ground. There was nothing Xuanyuan Dao could do about it, already being at the fringe of death. He was growing more and more pale.
Right then, loud shrieks came from within the formation. They were actually Di Zang's ability, Inhumate Cacophony. The sound shot toward Jiang Wuxin like a beam. "Wuxin, I'm about to lose. You’re our last hope! I will hold him back using what's left of my life, so you have to break out and help the Archaionfiend! Don't forget that if we lose today, you'll never be able to get your revenge and you’ll live in pain forever, Jiang Wuxin!"
Di Zang's tragic cries seemed rather solemn. His dedication to the point of death was moving indeed. Jiang Wuxin knew what he had to do. Di Zang had risked everything he had and used the ultimate forbidden art of Nonahall, Vortex Hell Mantra, and was just able to barely hold Tianming back, a testament to the hateful brat’s current strength. Vortex Hell Mantra continued burning away at Di Zang's lifeforce, allowing him to squeeze out every ounce of remaining power he had. He was as good as dead after using that move.
"Failure! Failure!" Those words were akin to a nightmare for Jiang Wuxin. He cried out madly, using everything he had to try to break out. No matter how heavily the dragon spirits were attacking him, he wanted nothing more than to escape. Injured though he may be, he would always get back up and charge toward Soulburn Hall in a suicidal manner. With the Archaionfiend having been intercepted, Di Zang wanted him to break the inner formation.
"Stop him!"
"Die!"
Now, everyone, regardless of sect, had their eyes on him and was launching countless attacks on him.
"Those who stop me shall die!" Jiang Wuxin hated his real form with passion. It was a vomit-inducing ugly pile of flesh that he rejected with every fiber of his being. However, he no longer cared. As he charged, he turned into a large ball of flesh five kilometers wide and swiped countless tentacles at the heads of his attackers, prompting many to fearfully avoid them.
Even more abilities blasted away at his fleshy body, but didn't seem to do much given his current sheer size. The dragon spirits were also having a hard time keeping up with the chase, given Xuanyuan Dao's current weakened state, allowing Jiang Wuxin the time to morph into the form he hated so much to charge out of the encirclement. Then he immediately returned to his human form and entered Xuanyuan Lake, the dragon spirits still on his tail. Li Caiwei and her cloudveil illusory fox also gave chase, but Jiang Wuxin was able to speedily zip through the surface of the lake with the sheer power of his physical body alone.
"Die, die, die!" His eyes were completely bloodshot. With his tough body, he didn't feel a thing even as his back was being blasted apart. The way he charged toward Tianming now was just like the time Tianming had charged toward Lin Xiaoting. By the time his sea of hatred boiled over and filled his mind, nobody was able to stop him.
When he finally got close to Soulburn Hall, he was taken aback when he saw a black, hellish vortex hanging above Xuanyuan Lake. It looked almost spherical and had drawn Tianming and his lifebound beasts within itself. The sound of the rampaging vortex shook the entirety of Xuanyuan Lake.
The moment that ability was used was the moment of Di Zang’s death. He had burned the last vestiges of his life just to hold Tianming back and give Jiang Wuxin one final chance to turn things around. While the ghoul king himself was already dead, the vortex kept spinning with great force. It was so large in the sky that it almost looked like a demonic sun that nobody dared approach. Many believed that Tianming might just die inside it, but Jiang Wuxin knew better than anyone that that was far from the truth.
Even though he had only taken a short glance, the dragon spirits and his pursuers were already catching up to him once more. At the same time, the Archaionfiend had Lin Xiaoxiao pinned to the ground and was blasting her with blood lightning bolts. The haggard beast looked at Jiang Wuxin and smirked. "Did you think I need your help?"
As it spoke, Jiang Wuxin ran even faster, charging straight into the shaky inner formation like a meteor. With one punch, the inner formation immediately collapsed; without delay, Jiang Wuxin locked on to Ouyang Jianwang, who was now completely undefended.
There was only one word to describe what happened: swift! The instant the formation collapsed, Jiang Wuxin appeared in front of Ouyang Jianwang, punched through his saint palace, and took the key within. The Archaionfiend tossed Xuanyuan Dao’s key to Jiang Wuxin at the same time. Those two keys were intended to be held by a descendant of the Xuanyuan house and the guardian of Heaven Cauldron. Great Emperor Xuanyuan had no way of knowing which of these would be stronger two hundred thousand years after his death, but it no longer mattered. Now, Jiang Wuxin already had both keys.
"Quick, let the specters return! Hahaha, damn the Flameyellow Continent! Damn humanity!" The Archaionfiend laughed wildly. With Lin Xiaoxiao pinned on the ground, it stamped and clawed at her a few more times. Had it not been for it not wanting to kill her outright, she wouldn't have lasted that long either. It turned out as Fatesteal had shown in Tianming’s vision: Jiang Wuxin and the Archaionfiend were being most troublesome to deal with.
