Chen Qingyun’s fury was enough to scorch the heavens. To him, the Saintess—in whom he had invested countless resources and his greatest hopes—was now ruined. But the immediate priority was cleaning up the catastrophic mess Jiang Guixian had left behind.

  High above, the purple lightning net of Sky-Pool Lightning Fleas continued to pour down its destructive power. Chen Qingyun’s Nascent Soul Avatar held the cyan shield aloft, his face turning a shade paler. Even as a Nascent Soul expert, the simulated power of Heavenly Tribulation from these exotic insects placed him under immense pressure.

  "Vermin!"

  On the Avatar’s shoulder, the gargantuan emerald toad puffed its cheeks once more.

  CROAK!

  It opened a maw wide enough to swallow a small mountain and let out a violent, localized vacuum! A terrifying suction force instantly blanketed the sky. The millions of toxic spiders, Soul-Devouring Moths, and Blood Leeches—all twelve species of rare insects—had no time to react. They were torn from the air in multi-colored torrents and sucked directly into the toad's gullet.

  The toad’s belly visibly distended, and it let out a thunderous belch, the pustules on its skin glowing with satisfied light.

  However, the root problem remained. The purple lightning net still loomed.

  "Form the Array!"

  On the viewing gallery, the three remaining Golden Core Elders shouted, their eyes bloodshot. Seeing the arena littered with the charred remains of their disciples, their hearts bled. They braved the celestial pressure to sacrifice their life-bound artifacts. Three beams of light shot up, interlocking to form a small, flickering defensive barrier over the few surviving disciples nearby.

  "Elders, save me!" "Quick! Get inside!"

  More disciples scrambled like madmen toward that final patch of sanctuary.

  CRACK!

  A bolt of purple lightning, thicker than a man’s arm, leaked through a gap in Chen Qingyun’s shield. It struck the Elders' array with pinpoint accuracy. The barrier shattered like glass. The lead Elder didn't even have time to groan before he and his artifact were vaporized into a wisp of green smoke. The other two Elders were hammered by the shockwave, falling from the sky with blood leaking from their seven orifices. They were as good as dead.

  It’s over. That thought echoed in the hearts of every survivor. Even the Golden Core Elders were falling. How could they hope to live?

  But then, the sky began to dim.

  The power of the Lightning Fleas was fueled by Jiang Guixian’s burning soul. With the master gone, the energy became "water without a source," dissipating rapidly. Finally, the last arc vanished, and the sky returned to a clear, mocking blue.

  The sunlight hitting Maple Red Valley was an insult. The arena was a sea of blood and broken limbs. Of the thousands of Outer disciples, fewer than a hundred remained. The Foundation Establishment ranks were decimated. A century of foundation had been razed in a single day.

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  Chen Qingyun’s Avatar slowly lowered its hands. He looked down at the terrestrial hell, his majestic face devoid of expression. But everyone knew the Sect Master’s rage had surpassed its limit.

  Just as he prepared to speak, a speck of blood-red dust—nearly invisible—drifted down into the center of the wreckage.

  The dust began to writhe. It expanded. Countless microscopic blood-insects materialized, weaving together and restructuring. A middle-aged scholar in a cyan robe appeared once more before the crowd.

  Jiang Guixian.

  He had returned. He had actually come back! Had he not used a blood-escape to flee? How did he dare return?

  "You!" The Avatar’s pupils shrank.

  Jiang Guixian looked up at the titanic figure in the sky and grinned. His face was paper-white, his aura withered to the extreme, but his eyes were terrifyingly bright.

  "What? Surprised? Shocked?"

  "My disciple has been safely settled. As for me, a master whose blood-debt remains unpaid... how could I possibly leave with him?" Jiang spat a mouthful of blood. "Besides, I haven't seen your Maple Red Valley turned into a literal graveyard yet. How could I bear to die?"

  "You seek death!" Chen Qingyun’s roar shook the entire valley. The Nascent Soul pressure descended like a physical mountain, crushing down on the scholar.

  Jiang staggered, more blood leaking from his lips, but he remained upright. He looked at the corpses, then at the trembling survivors on the gallery, and finally back to the Avatar.

  "I may not be the Nascent Soul expert of old," Jiang whispered. "But I still have plenty of ways to kill you."

  He took a deep breath and let out a long, piercing howl! In that howl, his withered body began to change once more. He shed his human form entirely. His body stretched and twisted. Hundreds of segmented legs burst from his ribs in a spray of slime and gore. His skin hardened into jet-black chitin. His head transformed into a hideous, insectile mask with two massive, venomous mandibles.

  BOOM!

  A towering, malevolent aura—no weaker than the Nascent Soul Avatar—erupted from him.

  A Thousand-Foot Black Centipede Avatar, nearly a thousand meters tall and covered in hateful runes, rose from the ruins. Its thousands of compound eyes locked onto Chen Qingyun and the green toad.

  "Chen Qingyun. Come. Today, one of us ends."

  One Year Later.

  On the eastern border of the Yunwu Continent, in a desolate wilderness of jagged peaks.

  On the branch of a century-old locust tree hung a grotesque figure. Half-man, half-insect. Flesh was mangled, chitin shattered, and of his six arms, three hung limp and broken. The grazing hit from the black beam had nearly torn him in two. His left side, from shoulder to waist, was a mess of curled flesh revealing black plates and writhing internal organs.

  Chen Gensheng turned his neck with agonizing slowness to survey his surroundings. He saw endless, barren mountains—steep, airless, and devoid of life. There wasn't a trace of spiritual energy in the air. This was a "Barren Land" that even low-level cultivators avoided.

  "Cough... cough..."

  He hacked up black blood mixed with bits of organ tissue. Just then, a strange sound vibrated within him.

  Gurgle...

  Something was rolling inside his chest. Gensheng looked down and nearly felt his soul fly away in terror.

  The bronze Myriad Ghoul Casket was slowly melting into his chest cavity!

  "What is this?!"

  He tried to grab it, but his broken arms wouldn't obey. He could only watch as the insect patterns from the box began to swim through his veins and weave through his meridians. Every time a pattern sank in, he felt a jolt of agony, followed immediately by an unprecedented wave of relief.

  Wherever the patterns passed, the ruined flesh began to knit. Broken bones realigned. Most miraculously, his chaotic Five-Element Qi began to flow in an orderly fashion under the guidance of these insect runes.

  Snap. His broken right arm popped back into place. Snap, snap. Feeling returned to his other limbs.

  "The Myriad Ghoul Casket... is merging with my body?"

  Shock and joy warred in his heart. Jiang Guixian had said this was a treasure of an Ancient Insect Immortal. He never imagined it would actively integrate with his biology.

  As the last rune vanished into his marrow, the physical bronze box disappeared. In its place, a brand-new space existed within Gensheng’s body. It wasn't large—about the size of a fist—but it was a world unto itself, brimming with dense spiritual energy.