Evil Venerable of the Sword Dao-Chapter 1317 - 60: The Cruelest Thing

The Fifty-Fourth Layer of the Sea of Suffering Realm is equivalent to the Six-Nine Realm, a tremendous leap!

Zhou Yan suppressed the mantis’s devouring of his Qi Blood with the Heavenly Pivot Ancient Town, allowing his Qi Blood to suffer nearly no loss, while unleashing an even more terrifying sword strike.

The combat power of a Half Soul is naturally different from that of a complete Soul Body.

Prior, Zhou Yan’s Combat Power, even at full burst, was only half of his strength, but now, his Combat Power has doubled from before.

Therefore, it wasn’t a tenfold increase but a twentyfold increase!

Under this twentyfold increase, the sword strike Zhou Yan unleashed this time almost pierced through the Void, unleashing a furious power that distorted the past Void.

Yet even under such a furious power strike, the mantis suddenly twisted the Void, managing not only to withstand it but unexpectedly struck back with a slash aimed at the center of Zhou Yan’s brow.

This was a deadly strike; unless Zhou Yan gave up the attack, this strike would inevitably lead to his immediate death and Tao’s extinguishment.

Even the two True Self guardians in the Soul Sea couldn’t withstand it.

At that moment, Zhou Yan vaguely sensed a familiar aura.

However, Zhou Yan did not risk everything against the enemy because his initial move was sure to arrive later, so Zhou Yan could only give up.

Using offensive kill as a form of counter-defense.

"Boom—"

The clash between the two raised a genuine tidal wave of Destruction Energy, surging into the sky, destroying heaven and earth, leaving the surrounding hundred-mile radius in ruins.

The charred land, already as barren as wasteland, once again revealed a scene of devastation.

At this moment, as Zhou Yan was sent flying backward by the backlash, he activated the killing intent of the Second Layer of the Xuanyuan Sword.

Simultaneously, Zhou Yan burst out with Qi Blood Power and activated the power of the two True Selves within the Soul Sea; the three combined, Zhou Yan aimed to unleash an Immortal Strike to directly slay this familiar-feeling mantis.

Such a fierce creature must not be left alone; otherwise, it poses a significant instability factor, as this was the strongest Demon Heart Zhou Yan ever encountered!

However, at the moment when Zhou Yan’s deadly strike appeared, that mantis suddenly escaped into the Void, vanishing completely.

This time, it wasn’t an assassination but a direct escape, or rather, realizing it wasn’t feasible, it immediately retreated, disappearing into the Void.

Zhou Yan locked onto strands of nodes moving far away, but he simply couldn’t catch up, even unleashing Endless Void Power couldn’t match that retreating speed.

Therefore, with heavy breaths, Zhou Yan could only helplessly watch as the mantis left, unable to take action.

This was a very tough battle, on the surface, it seemed Zhou Yan instantly killed four mantises and forced the last one to retreat, achieving a great victory, but in reality, it was because the enemy hadn’t accurately gauged his Combat Power, resulting in an early advantage at the beginning.

After all, Zhou Yan’s abilities are such that once he gains any leverage, Zhou Yan will erupt with endless fierce Combat Power, ensuring a fatal attack on the enemy!

And if the strongest strike still cannot deliver a fatal blow to the enemy, then avoiding the sharp edge becomes necessary, for if even that can’t kill, continuing to fight would definitely disadvantage Zhou Yan.

Based on this mentality, Zhou Yan’s multiple battles were nearly always one-hit kills.

Real combat, with evenly matched opponents, is rarely encountered by Zhou Yan. Against enemies of the same Realm, Zhou Yan possesses enough strength to crush them, and when facing enemies of much higher Realms, they often develop a sense of complacency, allowing Zhou Yan to take advantage of them in surprise.

This mantis, a brutal, slaughtering Demon Heart like none before, was indeed Zhou Yan’s first encounter.

But it was precisely because it was the first encounter that the familiarity led Zhou Yan to understand that there must be someone familiar with his personality, abilities, and Combat Power covertly acting against him, for no such calculation would explode at the moment of a deadly strike, nor would the burst power be so formidable!

Zhou Yan felt a chill in his heart; even though that mantis Demon Heart had been gone for quite some time, Zhou Yan still did not let down his guard.

Finally, after nearly half an hour, Zhou Yan relaxed his tightly wound heart, secretly doing breathing control to recover his state, while another half of his Soul Power re-entered the Soul Sea, rejoining life with Gu Xi.

Outside, Zhou Yan did breathing control and recovery beneath the Soul Suppressing Stele, contemplating the gains and losses of this battle.

This battle came quickly, went even faster, yet the combat outbreak was unimaginably intense, even after much time had passed, hardly a Heavenly Heart or Demon Heart dared to approach this area, only half an hour later did Heavenly and Demon Hearts gradually come near.

These Heavenly Hearts and Demon Hearts were by no means rubbish, but they were frightened by the overwhelming aura of the earlier battle.

Even with everything settled down, these Heavenly and Demon Hearts still bore uncertain and uneasy expressions.

Zhou Yan paid no attention to the emotional shifts of these Heavenly and Demon Hearts, only sensing a crisis aura before meditating silently, waiting for the seven days to end.

During the seven-day guardianship, no other problems arose, and the entire Domain area remained peaceful and serene.

Zhou Yan recovered from the severe injuries of before, stabilizing the Fifty-Fourth Layer of the Sea of Suffering Realm, then waited nearly another three hours for the end of the seven-day guardianship.

When the guardianship ended, a white light appeared within the Soul Suppressing Stele, projecting the white light onto Zhou Yan’s body, and at once, the sensation of space being torn appeared anew, and then a Singularity Gate in space-time opened between heaven and earth.

After the Singularity Gate opened, Zhou Yan felt his body compressed for a moment, then as the white light flickered, he once again appeared on the immense square.

Not only Zhou Yan, but after he appeared, white light flickered continuously on the immense square, accompanied by the emergence of numerous Heavenly and Demon Hearts.

After the seven-day guardianship, a series of information was conveyed from within the white light.

The number of the Summoned decreased from the initial one million to over nine hundred and thirty-seven thousand.

Clearly, some battles of life and death and devouring occurred between the Heavenly Heart and Demon Heart Summoned.

"In three days, the opening of the second layer of the Domain World will commence, and all the Summoned will head to the Netherworld Heavenly Road. At that time, only two hundred thousand out of nine hundred thirty-seven thousand nine hundred and thirty-six Summoned will survive, and the rest must die."

"Within three days, all Summoned can access the Alchemy Pavilion, Artifact Refining Pavilion, and Array Refining Pavilion in the Ancestor Dragon Main City, or venture into major Secret Realms for rigorous cultivation. After three days, the Ancestor Dragon Immortal Time will forcibly send all Summoned to the Domain World Strife Road."

...

A vast voice echoed in everyone’s heart.

This voice seemed devoid of any emotion, carrying a mechanized trace.

Zhou Yan felt a slight chill in his heart. Had he not known part of this world’s truth, he might have suspected it was the voice of the Mechanical Emperor.

However, precisely because of this, Zhou Yan had more thoughts in his mind.

While he stood there in a daze, the corner of his eye suddenly caught sight of a very familiar figure in the distance. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

At that moment, Zhou Yan’s gaze sharpened, immediately looking towards a certain location at the edge of the square.

When Zhou Yan looked over, his eyes displayed excitement, but that figure seemed unaware, suddenly stepping into the edge of the light pillar.

Zhou Yan’s heart stirred, instantly transforming into a shadow, rapidly rushing towards that place.

"Wannian Blood Pool, activate."

A cold voice said, then the white light pillar revolved, directly enveloping that graceful figure, disappearing into the white light pillar.

And at this moment, Zhou Yan happened to arrive within the range of this light pillar.

"Wannian Blood Pool, activate!"

Zhou Yan followed without hesitation.

A flash of white light, and Zhou Yan’s figure also disappeared instantly.

A moment later, a red-clothed girl suddenly appeared there, staring blankly at the already vanished figure, with a hint of disappointment in her eyes.

"Father King, we will soon be together."

The red-clothed girl said in her heart.

"Commandery Princess."

A purple-clothed girl followed beside the red-clothed girl, respectfully saying.

"Little Mei, this Domain World Strife might be very dangerous. If you and I get separated randomly, you must be very careful."

"Commandery Princess, don’t worry, I won’t be so easily eliminated!"

The purple-clothed girl Little Mei said confidently.

Then her eyes flickered, staring at the already disappeared white light pillar, and said: "Commandery Princess, was that once Emperor Lei Yan?"

"Yes, and no."

The red-clothed girl pondered, silently responding after a moment.

"This..."

The purple-clothed girl seemed perplexed, somewhat unsure how to interpret it.

But she always knew that if the Commandery Princess didn’t want to say more, it meant she wasn’t yet qualified to know the whole truth, so she wisely refrained from asking further.

"Commandery Princess, earlier, I saw a Summoned girl who looked much like Qing Luo. Do you think Qing Luo might have also reached this stage with us?"

After a moment of silence, the purple-clothed girl named Little Mei voiced another lingering doubt in her heart.

"I hope it’s not her. After all, since we are all Summoned now, who knows if we’ll end up slaughtering each other until the end. But the essence of Harmonization is indeed endless slaughter. When the last Summoned is your kin, lover, or friend, and only one can survive, this is truly the most cruel thing."

The red-clothed girl sighed softly.

"No, it won’t be. When the number reduces to about ten thousand, if the Summoned still kill each other, what’s the point of Nine Origin Reincarnation? Besides, wasn’t it originally said in the inheritance of Reincarnation that it’s only for a more complete evolution?"

Little Mei seemed incredulous, seemingly unable to accept this reality of slaughter competition.

But the red-clothed girl did not explain further.