Chapter 413 - 412: The Dao of Absolute Zenith Stolen, A Demon King’s Sudden Ascension

"The Dao of Absolute Zenith," she whispered intuitively sensing the name and nature of the staggering law contained within the ethereal creature. It was a movement and spatial law of incomprehensible quality, one that could complement her archery by allowing her attacks to cross distances with extraordinary speed and precision.

The iridescent fish was mere inches from her fingertips.

Suddenly, a violent, putrid gust of wind ripped across the archway.

A shadow moved with terrifying speed, blurring past the lesser combatants. It was a Demon King, a horrific avian monstrosity with four wings of jagged, metallic feathers and a beak shaped like a scythe, whose cultivation had been suppressed to the Peak of Nascent Soul by the shattered world.

Although the broken laws had restricted its cultivation, the demon’s innate biological speed remained staggering. Its four wings beat in rapid succession, and its body cut through the air with a series of sharp movements that allowed it to slip between the surrounding combatants before they could react.

The avian Demon King did not aim to attack Bai Qingyue. Its attention was fixed entirely upon the prize.

With a screech of avaricious delight, the demon blurred past the Saintess. Its razor-sharp talons snapped shut, snatching the iridescent white Dao Fish out of the air a fraction of an instant before it could touch Bai Qingyue’s outstretched hand.

"Mine!" the avian Demon King shrieked, its voice filled with manic glee as it landed heavily on a nearby spire.

Bai Qingyue’s eyes widened in shock. Her hand closed around empty air, and the rare law she had nearly acquired vanished into the demon’s claws.

"You dare steal from Lady Bai?" Ku Ming roared from below, his newly acquired Dao of Shifting Sands swirling around his fists as he prepared to launch himself toward the spire. The monk’s expression was furious, but he understood that the world had changed, and the old rules of the battlefield no longer carried the same weight.

Bai Qingyue’s expression turned icy. She did not shout or curse, but smoothly raised her left hand, bringing the Sun Shooting Bow to bear. She pulled the plasma string back, intending to vaporize the thief and reclaim the essence, but the resistance was absolute.

The dark star-iron of the bow remained cold. The plasma string did not ignite with solar fire, and the Weapon Spirit, usually so eager and vibrant within her consciousness, sent a weak, muffled pulse of frustration.

Master, the laws of this world are completely shattered. The ambient capacity cannot support a Divine-grade artifact’s full output. I cannot ignite the sun in a world that has lost the foundation needed to sustain it.

The Sun Shooting Bow, a weapon that had casually eradicated Void Refinement Demon Kings only moments earlier, was now little more than a heavy piece of ancient metal in Bai Qingyue’s hands. The shattered Dao laws of the Nine Provinces forbade the manifestation of power above the Nascent Soul realm, and even the Weapon Spirit could not force the artifact to release its true strength without risking damage to its own structure.

Bai Qingyue lowered the bow, her lips pressing into a thin, frustrated line. Her cultivation had been suppressed, her greatest weapon had lost the ability to unleash its full power, and the prize that her fortune had drawn toward her had been stolen at the final moment.

Atop the spire, the avian Demon King did not hesitate to secure its stolen treasure. It knew that holding onto a raw Dao Fish would make it a target for every other demon in the vicinity, and it had no intention of allowing another combatant to steal the prize before it could absorb the essence.

The demon threw its head back and swallowed the iridescent white fish whole.

The reaction was instantaneous.

Its body violently convulsed, and the rotting, metallic feathers along its wings suddenly turned a brilliant, pristine white. Its dark, malicious aura was temporarily eclipsed by the sheer purity of the ancient Dao law it had absorbed, while the surrounding space shimmered as the new principle began integrating with its physical foundation.

The avian Demon King closed its eyes, its body vibrating as the comprehension flooded its suppressed spiritual sea. The process was not painless, because the Dao of Absolute Zenith carried an ancient spatial authority that resisted being forced into an unfamiliar foundation, but the demon’s innate speed and powerful body provided enough support for it to endure the transformation.

When it opened its eyes again, they glowed with blinding, iridescent light.

"By the blood of the abyss..." the Demon King whispered, looking at its own talons with a mixture of profound shock and uncontrollable ecstasy. It could feel the new law circulating through its body, transforming its understanding of movement and space, and the sensation was unlike anything it had experienced during its long cultivation.

It looked down at Bai Qingyue, recognizing the intense fortune that still radiated from her despite the theft. The demon realized why that particular fish had been drawn toward the Saintess, and its expression twisted into a mocking grin as it understood the magnitude of the prize it had stolen.

"Such fortune!" the avian Demon King gasped. "It wasn’t merely a movement law! It is the Dao of Spatial Severance and Absolute Velocity, an ancient law that bypasses ordinary physical resistance!"

It spread its newly transformed wings, and the space surrounding its body rippled. Even with its cultivation restricted to the Nascent Soul realm, the conceptual weight of the new Dao made it feel invincible, as though the broken world had granted it a means of overcoming the limitations imposed upon every other combatant.

"I can cut the very air!" the demon shrieked. "I can outrun the wind! I can cross any distance before my enemies even understand that I have moved!"

The avian Demon King threw its head back toward the ruined, purple sky and laughed.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Its laughter pierced the surrounding chaos, rising above the sounds of slaughter and the desperate scramble for the remaining Dao Fishes. The demon’s four white wings spread wide, each feather reflecting the iridescent light of its newly acquired law.

"The heavens are broken, but I have stolen the stars!" it cackled, pointing a mocking talon toward Bai Qingyue. "Your fortune is boundless, human, but your strength is gone! Thank you for the gift! With this Dao, even the Quasi Demon Emperor above will have to acknowledge my speed!"