Chapter 443 - 394: Instant Kill

High in the Celestial Vault, astral winds howled fiercely.

Four figures stood with hands clasped behind their backs, the vast, lingering aura of countless Foundation Establishment Masters who had just taken to the sky trailing behind them.

In the void opposite them, seven immense auras were slowly closing in.

San Si Master stood, sword in hand, Sword Intent swirling around him.

Lady Jiu Li’s phoenix-like eyes narrowed as the Simurgh behind her let out a long cry.

Gray mist churned around Master Revolving Wheel, and his Glowing Green Ghost Fire flickered.

The Crown Prince of the East Sea Dragon Palace was coiled in the sky, his colossal dragon form’s eyes blazing like suns.

The Crown Prince of the North Sea Dragon Palace was wreathed in chilling, deep blue currents, his expression stern and cold.

The Crown Prince of the South Sea Dragon Palace was wreathed in roiling crimson flames, a smile playing on his lips.

Four versus seven.

Visibly, the forces of the Righteous Dao were already at a disadvantage.

Yet in the eyes of those four figures, there was not a hint of fear.

Huangfu Qianqiu, the Confucian King of the Vast Sacred Land, slowly shook his head and let out the faintest of sighs.

His sigh held no fear, no hesitation, only a sense of acceptance and lament that came from having weathered the world’s countless changes.

"The machinations of fate... Even with all our painstaking efforts to delay it, the day has finally come."

He lifted his gaze slightly, looking out at the overwhelming torrent of the Demon Dao and the three intertwining draconic auras. It was as if the endless flow of karma since time immemorial was reflected in his eyes.

Beside him, the Deputy Sect Leader Great Master of the Sword Pavilion—the man known to the world as the Dragon Slayer Sword Master—began to speak slowly.

His voice was not loud, yet it possessed the clear, resonant quality of a blade scraping across glass:

"This is fate. Forget us—not even a True Monarch could have stopped it."

He paused. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes, which were as clear as an infant’s yet as deep as an abyss of swords:

"Since it has begun, then let us ride the tide."

Celestial Master Chen, the Yan Ji Great Master and Acting Sect Leader of the Celestial Secret Sect, nodded slightly at these words.

He maintained his usual calm and unruffled demeanor, holding a Star Disc as starlight swirled around him, as if all things in the universe were unfolding within his calculations.

"Indeed. The workings of destiny are boundless, and fate is ever-changing."

He spoke lightly, his voice as ethereal as if it were drifting in from beyond the heavens:

"What is happening today was always fated to be.

Forcibly trying to stop it will only make the eruption more violent."

With that, he inclined his head slightly, his gaze falling upon the imposing figure beside him who had remained as silent as a mountain.

He was a middle-aged man, his physique so immense as to be almost terrifying.

He was bare from the waist up, wearing only a beast-hide loincloth. His bronze skin was covered in a series of profound Dao Patterns.

These Dao Patterns were not Acquired markings but were Innate. They were the "Dao Traces" that had naturally manifested after he cultivated the Tyrant Sect’s Path of Body Refining, tempering his physical body to its absolute limit.

He stood there like a statue of a Demon Deity from primordial times.

When his slightly downcast eyes occasionally blinked open, they revealed a glimmer of shattered gold.

The Acting Sect Leader of the Tyrant Sect, Guan Si Hai.

Celestial Master Chen gazed at him, the corners of his mouth lifting into a faint smile.

"Master Guan, the Tyrant Sect is riding the momentum of the Righteous Dao today to extend the life of your old Sect Leader. Is it not time to—"

He paused for a moment, then gave the Duster in his hand a gentle flick.

"—claim the honor of the first strike?"

Guan Si Hai’s shattered-gold eyes slowly turned.

As his gaze fell upon Celestial Master Chen, the starlight swirling around the diviner froze for a brief instant.

It was not from fear. The intangible pressure contained within that gaze was simply too heavy, too tyrannical.

"Speak."

Guan Si Hai said.

His voice was not loud, yet it seemed to be forced from the depths of his chest, carrying the grating texture of Golden Stone.

Though it was just a single word, the very void for a thousand zhang around him trembled slightly.

"Who do I kill?"

The smile on Celestial Master Chen’s face slowly widened.

He lifted the Duster in his hand and pointed it across the expanse at one of the seven figures opposite.

The man was clad in a Deep Blue Daoist Robe, standing at the very forefront with his hands clasped behind his back. His aura was as still as an abyss.

Behind him billowed the roiling demonic clouds, carrying the overwhelming killing intent of a million Demon Cultivators.

And yet he just stood there, perfectly still, like an emperor Commanding All Skills.

"The great fortune of the Demon Dao is bound to this man."

Celestial Master Chen spoke slowly, each word seeming to have been precisely calculated and imbued with a hint of Spiritual Light.

"If you were to kill him, Sect Leader, the momentum of the Demon Dao would surely collapse."

Guan Si Hai’s shattered-gold eyes fell upon the figure in deep blue.

He stared.

For a single breath.

"Alright."

One word.

Not a single wasted word, not a moment’s hesitation.

The next instant—

BOOM—!!!

A sound that was both profoundly deep and terrifying to the extreme echoed between Heaven and Earth!

It was not thunder, nor a landslide, but the mournful cry of the void itself being squeezed, torn apart, and crushed by a force of absolute purity!

Guan Si Hai took a single step!

He stepped out into the empty void.

Yet, the instant his foot landed, Heaven and Earth for thousands of miles around his position sank violently!

It was an indescribable sensation—not an oppressive aura or a powerful presence, but as if a true Divine Mountain, forged from infinite weight, had descended from the sky and slammed down upon this part of the world!

The Celestial Vault buckled!

The earth fissured!

The countless Righteous and Demon Cultivators fighting below all felt an irresistible force press down on their shoulders, and their bodies plunged downward against their will!

Those with weaker Cultivation were forced to their knees by the pressure, coughing up blood!

And all of this was merely the aftershock of his single step!

Guan Si Hai himself had already vanished from his spot.

In the next instant—

A hundred zhang in front of Qi Yun, the void violently erupted!

An imposing, demon-deity-like figure stepped brazenly out from the ruptured void!

Guan Si Hai!

There were no flashy Divine Techniques, no complex Magic, only a physical body—

a terrifying physical body, tempered to its absolute limit, capable of tearing apart the void and shattering all of existence!