Chapter 801: The Shadow Hunt

Chapter 801: Chapter 801: The Shadow Hunt

Beneath the foul mass of monsters attempting to tear his flesh, Ethan’s breathing remained cold and steady. Within his hand, the Orb of Death throbbed in response to his will. A tide of shadows surged from the gem, recalling his army. Spectral claws tore open obsidian bellies from within, carving a path through rotting flesh as Ethan eradicated the beasts one by one.

"I hate this shit," muttered Ethan.

[Master, I know precisely what you are thinking], Crul intervened in his mind, maintaining a cautious tone. [However, revealing your true essence will draw the hatred of the universe. It is one thing for the world to witness you manipulating the power of the Void; it is quite another for them to realize you are part of it. Life and the Void cannot coexist.]

"I know," replied Ethan, wiping black blood from his face while dismembering three abyssal males in a single stroke. "But this is still garbage. If I could use my true strength, I would devour this entire plane in the blink of an eye."

[Keep in mind there are vision matrices deployed throughout space], Crul reminded him. [The Emperor and the vassal kings are watching every move from the colosseum.]

"If those matrices weren’t there...", murmured Ethan, his eyes locking onto the firmament. "Could I unleash my unrestricted force?"

[Of course, master. However, the runes powering those matrices are exceptionally strong. The nodes are arranged in the sky encircling this plane; there is no way to destroy them without immediately raising suspicion.]

"Tch... we’ll have to do this another way," grunted Ethan.

With a burst of momentum, Ethan shot out from the mountain of corpses like a dark meteor. His Amethyst Eyes sliced through the gloom, sweeping the terrain for the presence of the Silver Dragon Kingdom’s swordsman. Although the assassin’s voice had sounded arrogant moments prior, his energy betrayed a different reality: he was sprinting toward the periphery.

He was fleeing.

Ethan erased his figure mid-air, giving chase at a terrifying speed.

Kilometers away, the princess of the Frost Dragon Kingdom observed the dark trail putting distance between them. Her eyes widened in surprise.

The blind monk, sensing the air’s turbulence through his spiritual perception, tilted his head.

"Is that warrior... afraid?" asked the monk. "No... a fighter of his caliber should not harbor such cowardice."

"Well, it certainly seems so," spat the Frost Dragon princess bitterly. "It looks as though he is terrified of the beast."

A sharp metallic hum cut through the air. Isabella’s jade blade came to a halt millimeters from the princess’s throat, her silver aura turning frigid.

"Do not say anything unnecessary about my husband," warned Isabella, her eyes locked onto both the princess and the monk. "Or you will face my blade before the beasts ever reach you."

The princess of the Frost Dragon Kingdom did not step back. A white mist emerged from her frame, freezing the air and enveloping Isabella’s jade blade in a layer of frost.

"Princess... it would be wise not to be reckless," said the woman in white robes in a measured voice. "I can treat you with respect given your status, but..."

She did not finish her sentence, yet the cold calm in her eyes conveyed everything.

Without wasting another moment, the princess turned her gaze toward the center of the battle, where the Chaotic Queen continued slaughtering weaker cultivators while the males devoured the remains. With a fluid motion, the princess dashed forward and delivered a thrust. A sub-zero gale wrapped around the abomination’s back, freezing it solid inside a block of ice.

"She was not as impressive as she appeared," muttered the princess, lowering her blade.

A second later, the queen’s thousand eyes spun in their sockets within the ice. A swarm of cracks raced across the surface, and the block shattered into a thousand shards.

"Your Highness, you must not use elemental abilities!" warned the blind monk from behind. "That beast devours elemental powers and divine energy alike. Attacking her in that manner only empowers her."

The princess tilted her head, watching the creature ooze miasma with even greater intensity.

"Are you certain?" asked the princess. "Then how did that young man wound her?"

"He wielded his Sword Heart combined with the Void," explained the monk, pressing his palms together. "As an abyssal being, she cannot absorb the Void, and the pure Dao of the Sword possesses no elemental form for her to digest. That is why he could harm her so easily."

"I see," she replied coldly. "Let us finish off her males then. If she continues devouring everyone, there will be little left to do."

The princess launched herself at the tide of abyssal males, severing heads in her wake. However, the Chaotic Queen reared her entire mass toward the heavens. Several tendrils of black miasma drove into the earth as her jaws opened wide, generating a gravitational pull. Soldiers, beasts, and boulders were dragged violently toward her maw.

Feeling unable to resist the suction force, the princess held her breath and executed her technique.

"Thrust: Descent of the Ice Phoenix!" she proclaimed.

A bird of frozen energy emerged from her blade, roaring as it soared toward the obsidian mass. Yet before impacting the monster’s body, the suction force altered the phoenix’s trajectory, veering it mid-air straight into the queen’s open mouth, swallowing the attack whole.

The blind monk, catching his breath upon the cracked soil, stood firm.

"I shall attempt to buy time until master Ethan is able to return," said the monk.

"If he even returns...", replied the princess in an icy tone.

"He will return," the monk stated without hesitation.

The monk pulled out a bracelet of ancestral wooden beads, holding it between his bloodied hands. Closing his eyes, he began to chant in a resonant voice:

"The Great Dao has no form, yet it nurtures Heaven and Earth. By the purity of the Primeval Lotus, cleanse the illusion of Samsara..."

The beads of his bracelet glowed with divine gold, multiplying and projecting into the air until they formed monumental chains that encircled the creature’s body. The Karma Beads tightly bound the Chaotic Queen’s carapace, squeezing her flesh until she emitted a muffled shriek of agony. The beast thrashed frantically to break free, attempting to bite the golden links and absorb the light, yet the seal remained unbroken.

"Surrender, calamity," declared the blind monk, maintaining his unyielding stance. "My Supreme Dao Karma Beads are no ordinary relic bestowed by the abbot. No matter what you attempt, you will not escape this place."