"Good! A fine 'I only know'!"

  Chen Qingyun laughed from extreme rage. "For the sake of a man, you would defy your sect and betray your master? Is there no longer a Sect Master in your eyes? No longer a Maple Red Valley that raised you?"

  On the cliffside, Jiang Guixian—pinned to the earth by the crushing pressure—suddenly burst into laughter. He shook with it, tears and snot streaming down his face.

  "Hahaha! Chen Qingyun! Look at you!" Jiang mocked. "The precious Saintess you cultivated with such meticulous schemes... in the end, her heart is filled with my disciple! Is that old face of yours clean enough today?"

  He snapped his head up. The refined, scholarly mask was now completely torn away, revealing the venomous madness beneath.

  "Since I’m dying anyway, no one is getting out of this easily! All of you... come to the grave with me!"

  Without regard for his own life, he forcibly detonated the purple nebula of Sky-Pool Lightning Fleas swirling above his head!

  The nebula went critical, expanding into a massive web of lightning that blanketed the entire sky over Maple Red Valley. Thousands of purple electric serpents hissed and writhed, each carrying the aura of Heavenly Punishment as they rained down indiscriminately!

  "Wretch! How dare you!"

  Chen Qingyun no longer had the luxury of arguing with Lu Zhaozhao. He took a single step, vanishing from the Main Peak. In the next instant, a titanic Nascent Soul Avatar materialized above the arena. The Avatar’s face was the image of Chen Qingyun himself. With a face like cold stone, he raised his hands, and a colossal cyan light-shroud expanded to catch the terrifying lightning net in mid-air.

  The true power of a Nascent Soul!

  Yet, the Lightning Fleas tapped into the lightning of the Heavens. Even as mere remnants, it was not so easily stayed.

  Sizzle!

  The cyan shroud shuddered violently. A few stray purple arcs leaked through. Those tiny threads of electricity fell into the crowd, dealing devastating blows. Screams erupted everywhere. Any cultivator touched by the arcs—whether Qi Condensation or Foundation Establishment—was vaporized instantly. Body and soul were erased into nothingness. Massive gaps appeared in the crowded arena as the dead vanished into thin air.

  "Hahahaha! Satisfying! Satisfying!" Jiang Guixian’s laughter grew more manic. He knew he had reached his limit. Chen Qingyun’s Avatar had locked onto him.

  He turned to the equally paralyzed Chen Gensheng, a complex, unreadable emotion flickering in his eyes.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "There isn't much more I can teach you!"

  He vomited out every spirit insect stored in the Myriad Ghoul Casket—toxic spiders, Soul-Devouring Moths, Blood Leeches, Corpse Beetles... twelve species, millions of insects, all released at once! They formed a sky-blotting, stench-ridden torrent that surged toward Chen Qingyun’s Avatar to buy a final few seconds of time.

  "This Myriad Ghoul Casket... it's yours now!"

  Jiang wiped his spiritual imprint from the casket and tossed it to Gensheng without a backward glance. Having done this, his body deflated like a punctured lung, shriveling rapidly. But his eyes were terrifyingly bright.

  "It was my miscalculation to drag you into this. I will send you out!"

  He gave one last look at Maple Red Valley—eyes filled with indelible hate—and then his entire body exploded!

  He transformed into billions of microscopic blood-colored insects. With a roar, they swirled around Gensheng and the bronze casket, turning into a streak of gore that shot toward the valley’s exit at an impossible speed.

  The Blood-Insect Escape! Burning both soul and essence blood to become the swarm itself and flee a thousand miles!

  "Trying to run?" The Avatar snorted.

  To use such "petty insect tricks" before a Nascent Soul expert was an insult. The Avatar opened its mouth, and a gargantuan, emerald-green toad covered in pockmarked pustules leapt out. Crouched on the Avatar’s shoulder, its lantern-like eyes locked onto the escaping bloodline.

  Croak!

  It puffed its cheeks, and a beam of concentrated black light—reeking of universal corrosion—tore through the air, chasing after Gensheng! This black light was far more terrifying than the previous lightning; it was the Life-Bound Ability of a Nascent Soul Spirit Beast. To be touched by it was certain death.

  Gensheng, cocooned in blood-insects, felt his soul shudder under the threat of death. At the absolute precipice, a clear, resonant sword-hum rang out.

  From the gallery, Lu Zhaozhao pointed her finger like a blade and slashed at the black light. The thin line of her intent struck the side of the beam with precision. A crisp crack echoed as the trajectory of the black beam was knocked off by a mere inch.

  That inch was enough. The beam grazed the bloodline carrying Gensheng, soaring past to hit a distant mountain.

  BOOM!

  A thousand-meter-tall peak was silently reduced to dust.

  Gensheng had survived the direct hit, but the shockwave of the passing beam acted like a giant invisible hand, brutally "wiping" across his body and the surrounding swarm.

  Rip!

  Gensheng felt his body being torn apart like a piece of wet cloth. The pain was too fast for his brain to process. His "human skin"—the perfect disguise he had maintained—was shredded away across half of his body!

  From shoulder to waist, massive chunks of "flesh" peeled off. What was revealed was no longer human bone or organs. It was jet-black, hardened chitin with a metallic sheen. It was twisted, writhing, non-human viscera.

  A half-human, half-insect, primal and hideous monster form!

  The blood-streak did not falter. Carrying this mangled, monstrous body, it plunged into the clouds and vanished.

  In the arena, everyone had seen it.

  They had caught that fleeting glimpse of the monster’s true self. Thousands of disciples wore faces of pure shock and disgust. Lu Zhaozhao’s body swayed slightly, the ice-mask she had worn for ten thousand years finally showing a crack. The hand holding her sword-finger trembled.

  High upon the Main Peak, Chen Qingyun’s Avatar recalled the toad and slowly dissipated. His icy, murder-filled voice rang directly in Lu Zhaozhao’s ear:

  "Now... do you still wish to say that cockroach is your Dao companion?"

  "Yes."