Chapter 798: The Abyss’s Voracity

Chapter 798: Chapter 798: The Abyss’s Voracity

Ethan and Isabella reached the crest of the hill just in time to witness hell. At the center of the slaughter, the Chaotic Queen reared her massive obsidian body and unleashed an ultrasonic roar toward the sky. The shockwave tore through the atmosphere; dozens of nearby cultivators collapsed, exploding into blood and flesh before they could scream.

The blind monk of the Smiling Buddha Kingdom stepped forward, joining his palms with gravity.

"Great Sacred Mountain!" shouted the monk.

A colossal golden bell of divine aura formed around him, shielding the surviving soldiers. The sonic wave slammed against the spiritual metal, triggering a deafening peal that echoed across the plane. The barrier saved those behind the monk, but the brutal resonance of the bell shattered the internal organs of the nearest cultivators, dropping them dead onto the soil.

The prince of the Blazing Fire Dragon Kingdom seized the opening and leaped into the air, engulfed in crimson hellfire.

"Blazing Fire Dragon Flare!" roared the prince, driving a massive thrust with his spear directly into the monster’s nape.

The fiery explosion consumed the creature’s back, yet the queen did not flinch. Without turning toward the prince, the thousand eyes across her body locked directly onto the blind monk, as if she had discovered a divine feast.

The beast lunged in an unhinged charge toward the monk. Seeing the obsidian mass inches from his face, the monk threw his arms wide and channeled his spiritual energy.

"Thousand Palms of the Smiling Buddha!" shouted the monk.

The golden projection emerged once more, extending a thousand hands to arrest the charge. However, the Chaotic Queen opened her jaws and began devouring the sacred light, ripping it directly from the monk’s body.

The spiritual backlash was devastating. The blind monk let out a scream of agony as he spat a mouthful of blood, falling to his knees upon the cracked earth.

"The monk has fallen!" screamed the horrified soldiers from the rear ranks.

"Damn you! How dare you underestimate me?! Die! Descent of the Sacred Fire Dragon!" roared the prince of the Blazing Fire Dragon Kingdom, engulfed in a fiery meteor as he descended toward the beast’s back.

Seeing their queen in danger, hundreds of abyssal males threw themselves like a swarm directly into the prince’s path. The sacred flames incinerated the creatures in mid-air, but the mass of obsidian bodies managed to stall the strike, burying the prince beneath a mountain of flesh and claws.

Without losing a second, the Chaotic Queen ignored the explosion behind her and lunged toward the wounded monk. Desperate before impending death, the monk joined his bloodied palms and channeled the last drop of his spiritual essence.

"Protection of the Smiling Buddha!" shouted the monk.

A golden barrier bearing the effigy of a seated Buddha emerged around him. Yet the thousand-eyed beast did not halt; its jaws seemed to twist into a grotesque smirk as it emitted a dull shriek, opening its maw to devour the sacred light.

The monk felt his divine energy collapse and let out a sigh of resignation.

"By the Great Dao... what kind of monster is this?" murmured the monk bitterly. "May the Great Venerable of the Golden Lotus receive my soul and grant me reincarnation..."

Surrendering to fate, the blind monk closed his eyes and awaited the final blow. The beast devoured the Buddha projection completely and snapped its jaws toward his head.

Suddenly, a tremendous impact shattered the air. A sharp shriek of agony echoed across the plain as a transverse slash tore through the queen’s head, rending obsidian plates and corrupt flesh, nearly severing her head in two. The beast’s form reeled, spewing jets of miasma and black blood onto the dirt.

"Tch... I thought I could decapitate her in one strike," echoed a cold voice from above.

The blind monk snapped his eyes open and looked up. Floating above the battlefield, Ethan held his blade bathed in dark aura, gazing down at the beast with indifference.

The blind monk raised his bloodied face toward Ethan’s figure, joining his palms in deep reverence despite the pain in his meridians.

"Namo Amitabha," whispered the monk in a serene voice. "I thank this noble-hearted benefactor for intervening in the wheel of destiny and saving this humble sack of flesh. The grace of the Heavens guided your blade at the precise moment."

Ethan hovered lower, keeping his eyes locked onto the Chaotic Queen’s wound, which was beginning to ooze black miasma as its obsidian plates attempted to seal together.

"Withdraw, monk," said Ethan without looking at him. "Your sacred technique only empowers this beast. If you get involved, your own power will end up killing us all."

"This monk’s karma has been sealed today," replied the holy man with a bitter smile, his head drooping heavily. "I have lost a hundred years of cultivation in this instant. Even if my spirit desired to aid, this earthly shell no longer responds."

A short distance away, the mountain of male abyssal beasts shuddered. The prince of the Blazing Fire Dragon Kingdom struggled trapped beneath, suffocated by tons of flesh and biting jaws attempting to tear him apart. His sacred fire was nearly extinguished under the mass of creatures.

Ethan turned his gaze toward Isabella.

"Help him," commanded Ethan. "Don’t let him die. His bloodline will serve as our shield a little longer."

Isabella nodded silently and dove from above. She drew her jade blade, carving clean arcs that unleashed flashes of silver aura. Her movements lacked Ethan’s destructive force, but each thrust flowed with elegance and precision—the ancestral swordplay of the Soaring Dragon Kingdom.

The heads of a dozen beasts fell to the ground in a single stroke, clearing a gap among the monsters to pull out the wounded prince.

The prince of the Blazing Fire Dragon Kingdom dragged himself out from beneath the severed remains of the monsters, dropping one knee onto the cracked earth as he spat a mouthful of blood and dying embers. Looking up to see the princess standing before him, holding her jade blade bathed in silver light, he gritted his teeth with wounded pride and placed his right fist over his chest in a formal gesture of respect.

"I, Raze, prince of the Blazing Fire Dragon Kingdom... express my gratitude for your saving hand, princess of the Soaring Dragon Kingdom," said the prince, keeping a firm gaze against Isabella’s unrelenting elegance.

Isabella didn’t even bother to meet his eyes. She adjusted her grip on the hilt, keeping her guard raised against the swarm reforming around them.

"Save your words to stay alive," answered Isabella. "If you die now, you’ll have made me waste my strike."