Chapter 601: Betrayal

The tip of the giant sword summoned by Maximilian struck the translucent barrier of the Baihu Stronghold. Shockwaves erupted outward in every direction, the ground trembling and the still air turning into wild storms.

"Khwak!" Maximilian threw up another splatter of blood, the dark cracks across his skin spreading even quicker.

From the other side, Vyomendra rose into the air, completely transformed into his white tiger form. Just a simple act such as flying surged a gnawing pain through his core. It was as if his insides were being aggressively torn apart.

"GRAWRR!!!" His deafening roar thundered across the battlefield, causing all the human cultivators who heard him to tremble on their feet. He ignored the pain caused by the Soul Gnawing Gu and bolted head-on towards the colossal sword trying to destroy the array.

He didn’t stop at the tip of the sword. It was never his goal to begin with. He moved out from the protective array and swung his claw at the blade of the sword.

"Don’t you dare!" Bai Chengsheng snapped, rushing forward.

Tang!!

The claws struck against the metallic fan of Bai Chengsheng as he appeared between Vyomendra and the sword.

The collision between the attacks of the Sacred Beast and the Demi-God bent the space itself, the shockwaves of their Soulforce sending dust, debris, and low-ranked cultivators flying in every direction.

"This is the battle between High-Ranked Cultivators!" Mo Feng declared, his old voice, laced in Soulforce, reaching the ears of all the human cultivators. "Every soldier below the Commander Rank, retreat!"

Heeding his order, all the battalions moved away from the battlefield, guided by their respective Vice-Commanders.

Only the five commanders, General, and War Marshal remained on the battlefield.

"How did you get rid of the Soul Gnawing Gu?" Bai Chengsheng demanded, his emerald eyes widened in shock as he was forced back by Vyomendra’s attack.

Vyomendra didn’t bother to reply to him, his predatory eyes fixed only on the sword, the weapon that he must destroy until not even a fiber of his muscle could move.

"Y-you didn’t get rid of it." Bai Chengsheng’s eyes widened in realization as he saw the blood leaking from the jaw of Vyomendra. "Madman! You are a madman! No living being can withstand the pain of the Soul Gnawing Gu."

"Your lowly mind can never understand the resolve of a protector," Vyomendra growled in a wet voice as he swung his massive claw again. Their tips tore through reality like paper, aimed once again at the sword.

Bai Chengsheng’s jaw tightened in frustration as he grabbed his fan with both hands and stopped the further descent of Vyomendra’s claw.

"Stop it, you mindless beast," he muttered, his arms trembling from the weight of Vyomendra’s claw. "Your Soulforce will be devoured by the Soul Gnawing Gu and your body will be eaten by it if you keep this up. Are you not afraid of death?"

"Death? As if I would be afraid of lowly death?" Vyomendra roared, his claw pressing even further, causing Bai Chengsheng to bend his knees under the weight. Sprays of blood flowed from his mouth, something alive and disturbing moving within his belly. "My spirit will live on with the Tiger Clan! My ideals! My beliefs! As long as they exist in Vyoman, death can never truly claim me!"

Maximilian’s eyes widened, the corner of his lips rising with a faint smile as he murmured inwardly, ’Saying that in the presence of Dragon of Death, Vyomendra, you really are a cultivator worthy of my respect. However...it is too early for you to die.’

The moment he said those words, six jade bottles emerged from the inner world of Vyomendra, the place where he kept his belongings during his transformation. They slowly hovered into the air, reaching the space between him and Bai Chengsheng.

Trails of Death Lightning danced around the smooth surfaces of the jade bottles.

"Th-the bottles given by that dragon," Vyomendra murmured, his eyes widening in shock.

Before either he or Bai Chengsheng could process what was happening, the bottles suddenly exploded, enveloping the sky in a blinding light.

Vyomendra was thrown back inside the array, his body slamming against the wall of the stronghold.

The focus hadn’t even returned to his eyes when Bai Chengsheng’s terrified voice entered his ears.

"You bastard! What kind of Demonic Art is this?"

Vyomendra’s eyes narrowed as he looked into the sky outside the array, from where the reverberations of clashes echoed like war drums. A loud gasp escaped his lips as his vision became clearer.

A black Lóng, formed purely of Death Lightning and barely the size of an arm, was attacking Bai Chengsheng like a wild beast.

It moved like a blur, its movements barely visible. Although Bai Chengsheng was blocking its terrifying fangs at the last moment with his fan, he was barely holding on. Each strike was spreading cracks across his fan, which was an artifact of Legendary Grade.

"Wh-what in the world is exactly going on?" Vyomendra murmured, utterly confused. He didn’t waste much time spacing out.

Now that the Lóng was keeping Bai Chengsheng occupied and Mo Feng and the other commanders were distracted, it was his chance to destroy the sword artifact.

He was about to rise into the air with nothing but sheer will; however, he was already too late.

Being too focused on destroying the sword, he hadn’t noticed that the barrier had been on the verge of collapse for a while now, its translucent surface covered with countless spreading cracks.

And when he finally noticed it...

Shatter!

The protective barrier was destroyed like a mirror. Along with it, the ancestral head statue of the Tiger at the center of the outer wall of Baihu Stronghold crumbled to the earth in countless pieces.

"Hah...hah...I have done as you said, War Marshal Bai," Maximilian murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. Beads of crimson blood were leaking from every dark crack that had spread across his skin. Even a low-tier cultivator could tell that he had almost used eighty percent of his lifespan. "W-will this step of mine...be helpful for the future of humans?"

Too weak to even keep himself floating on his sword, he began falling to the ground.

"Commander Arthur!" Jiang called out in worry. He, Bai Qingxian, Gu Chen, and Lin Feng rushed towards him on their respective chariots.

Jiang caught him mid-air and supported him by the shoulder as the duo stood on the roof of his floating chariot, the sword falling beside his feet. The others also reached him, their faces laced with concern.

"Why would you do this, Commander Arthur?" Bai Qingxian demanded, almost on the verge of tears.

"You used your life essence to unleash that attack," Gu Chen muttered, tightening his fists by his sides. "I told you to depend on your seniors."

Maximilian shook his head weakly. "Th-this is a small sacrifice for the survival of humans," he whispered. "War Marshal Bai...told me that if I broke this wall with my artifact using my life essence, he would be able to pressure the Tiger Clan Leader into a peaceful talk. If my life could become the beacon of hope for peace between humans and beasts, th-this sacrifice is nothing."

Although Maximilian’s voice was weak, it was laced in Soulforce, making sure all the key figures present on the battlefield could hear him.

"Commander Arthur..." Jiang murmured, his jaw tightening in suppressed fury. He was well aware of Bai Chengsheng’s character. He must have manipulated Arthur into sacrificing his life force to break the array. However, all of this was for naught. Bai Chengsheng would never have peace talks with the beasts. Arthur had been completely used by him.

"How dare you lie while I’m right here!?" Bai Chengsheng shouted from the high air, still struggling against the Lóng.

"But War Marshal Bai...you said that my sacrifice would bring a revolutionary change to the Western Continent," Maximilian argued, his voice desperate. "Are you perhaps going back on your words?"

"Y-you!" Bai Chengsheng muttered, but no words left his mouth. Maximilian’s words were so convincing that he couldn’t come up with anything to counter him.

"Hah...this poor soul has been manipulated by that wicked demon," Vyomendra sighed, shaking his head as he returned to his demi-human form, one hand resting on his abdomen where he felt that more than half of his organs had already been eaten by the Soul Gnawing Gu.

"W-were your words just for naught, War Marshal Bai?" Maximilian demanded, raising his trembling hand into the sky towards Bai Chengsheng. "W-was my sacrifice...for nothi—"

Stab!

Before he could finish his sentence, a blade pierced through his back and bulged out from his belly. The roof of the chariot turned crimson as blood flowed out from the wound.

Maximilian slowly looked back over his shoulder with widened eyes, finding Lin Feng standing there with a wicked smirk on his face. In his hand, he held the dark sword, Vajra.