Zhou Hui instantly recoiled, but a chilling sensation followed by a burning pain erupted across his chest, and blood blossomed.
Zhou Hui roared in fury, “Fan Luo—”
The next second, a swift gust of wind swept behind him. Chu He’s figure appeared before him like lightning, blocking the Demon Lord with a resounding “Clang!”
Blades met, silver spear in Chu He’s hand sparking with fire, as the Demon Lord’s mask tore, revealing half a face that gazed at Chu He with a cold smile. The demonic aura erupting from him at that moment was terrifying, like a collapsing mountain. Chu He’s wrist trembled slightly, and the opponent’s blade immediately pressed forward!
—Anyone else might have had half their face sliced off on the spot, but the Peacock Wisdom King had, after all, countless experiences in battlefield combat. In a flash, he immediately tilted his head back, and the Demon Lord’s blade grazed his throat and jawline, almost horizontally.
“Why resort to weapons with me?” The Demon Lord’s voice was surprisingly gentle: “I’m here to take you away.”
Chu He’s pupils constricted slightly. The next second, the Demon Lord suddenly turned his head, swinging his wrist to strike horizontally with his blade, heavily blocking Zhou Hui, who was descending from above!
Chu He stumbled to the ground. Zhang Shun cried out, “Brother!”
Chu He’s slender back seemed to tremble slightly, then he turned, extending a hand to Zhang Shun, his expression in the dim light seeming unusually different: “Do you still remember…”
Zhang Shun was stunned, and then heard a thunderous boom in mid-air. An electric-charged shockwave, generated by Zhou Hui and the Demon Lord’s clash, rapidly expanded, shattering the twisted, half-wrecked train into pieces!
“You’ve found out, Zhou Hui?” Fan Luo’s voice carried unconcealed mockery: “The half-seal you placed back then is now completely undone. Do you know why?”
The clashing blades screeched, their surfaces reflecting intertwined cold light that cast a gloomy, chilling shadow upon Zhou Hui’s handsome face.
During the siege of the Hell Realm, Group Six paid an enormous price. Fighting until the very last moment, Zhou Hui had the opportunity to fully seal the Demon Lord’s divinity, but Phoenix betrayed them at the last minute, rushing out with Fan Luo when the sealing process was only halfway complete, and had been unheard from ever since.
The extremely weakened Demon Lord barely managed to survive by relying on Phoenix’s heart blood. When he clashed with Zhou Hui again in H City, although his condition had somewhat recovered, he was still at an absolute disadvantage; half of the seal on his divinity was still present then.
—Yet, after only a few months, the seal had completely vanished, and at this moment, the Demon Lord Fan Luo had actually returned to his peak state!
“Phoenix…” Zhou Hui muttered two words.
Fan Luo curled his lips: “Yes, I killed The Three Worlds Wisodm King.”
On the ground, Zhang Shun clearly saw Chu He close his eyes at that instant. His pale complexion was indescribable, as if struck in the chest by some immense force, yet the instant pain was immediately replaced by an expressionless resolve, as if frozen.
—It was a forced steadfastness, without foundation, fragile and easily shattered.
Zhang Shun said, “Brother…”
Chu He opened his eyes and calmly said, “Come to my side.”
“So?” Zhou Hui said coldly in mid-air, “Are you trying to say our little Phoenix plans to remarry?”
A sinister light flickered in Fan Luo’s eyes: “Whatever you say.”
Their blades suddenly retracted, and then the Demon Lord plummeted to the ground, rushing towards Chu He like an arrow released from a bow; the next second, Zhou Hui appeared beside him, sweeping with a heaven-cleaving slash that almost cut Fan Luo in half in mid-air!
The Demon Lord blocked with a loud “Clang!”, mocking, “Let go when you should, dragging your feet looks too ugly—”
Not far away, Chu He sharply retorted, “Shut up!”
Before the Demon Lord could reply, in that instant, Zhou Hui’s sword-wielding hand transformed into a demonic beast’s sharp claw. Its nails scraped against the blade, unleashing dazzling electric sparks, and carrying furious flames, it violently sent the Demon Lord flying!
With a colossal crash, the Demon Lord slammed into the mountain wall, causing countless rocks to fall like a downpour!
Amidst the tremor, Zhou Hui let out a furious roar, “Phoenix—!”
Zhang Shun, unsteady from the continuous vibrations, almost fell. He managed to steady himself, half-kneeling against the wall, and saw Zhou Hui looking at Chu He in mid-air, his face chilling with rage and gloom; Chu He, with his back to Zhou Hui, wearily closed his eyes, then opened them again and walked towards Zhang Shun.
Zhang Shun didn’t even have time to think, instinctively reaching out to Chu He.
Zhou Hui, however, seemed to suddenly realize something, and cried out, “Don’t go over there!”
Zhou Hui suddenly charged towards Chu He amidst the flying rocks, but at the exact same time, the Demon Lord let out an earth-shattering roar, manifested his Dharma appearance, and descended from the sky, sending Zhou Hui flying with a single blow!
At the same time, Chu He came before Zhang Shun, extended his hand to him: “Do you still remember what I said that day?”
“When the dark journey begins, will you trust me unconditionally and entrust your life to me?”
Zhang Shun’s eyes widened in surprise. Before he could answer, he felt a bone-chilling heat in his palm. Looking down, he saw a dazzling, shifting golden light emerge from his palm, visibly transforming into a swastika symbol. It was, astonishingly, the Buddha’s seal he had cut off earlier!
“This, this is…”
Then his hand was grasped by Chu He, who bent down. Zhang Shun remained in a half-kneeling position, looking up blankly. Chu He stared down at him, his gaze seeming to bore deep into Zhang Shun’s eye sockets, and said word by word, “I will protect you at all costs, until the moment you return to heaven in your rightful place…”
Behind Chu He, brilliant flames erupted in the darkness, countless giant rocks crashed down, and the ground extensively cracked, emitting a dull, distant roar as if an ancient beast had awakened.
“I…” Zhang Shun said, stunned, “…I trust you, brother.”
The moment the words fell, an unimaginable heat swept through his entire body from their clasped palms. Zhang Shun let out a sudden scream in this bone-burning pain!
“Aaaaaah—”
A shockwave expanded from Zhang Shun’s rapidly melting body, grinding the falling rocks into dust and instantly scattering them with a hurricane-like force!
On the other side, Zhou Hui finally lost his composure and roared, “Phoenix! No!”
He violently shook off the Demon Lord with his blade and charged towards Chu He. However, a furious roar came from behind him: “Zhou Hui! One more step and I’ll kill him!”
Zhou Hui suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, and saw Fan Luo pulling a blood-soaked figure from thin air—it was Wu Bei! Wu Bei was covered in blood, but he was still breathing, and even somewhat conscious. His neck, held by the Demon Lord, suddenly choked him, and he coughed violently, splattering blackish blood—he was poisoned.
This was not something spatial torsion could cause. He must have directly confronted the Demon Lord before being captured, but the highly toxic air of the Hell Realm could kill an elephant in just a few breaths, so being defeated and captured was entirely foreseeable.
Zhou Hui forcibly stopped, his face ashen: “Fan Luo…”
He was about to curse, but at that moment, Zhang Shun’s scream from behind suddenly intensified, almost rupturing eardrums, then abruptly ceased like a snapping bowstring. Zhou Hui turned his head to see Zhang Shun’s body, in the bright light, transforming into a section of golden bone, which then extended and lengthened, becoming a short knife about half a meter long, entirely bone-white, in Chu He’s hand!
—The Buddha Bone Blade.
It was, astonishingly, a unique Buddha Bone Blade forged by Phoenix’s fire, capable of slaying demons and breaking evil.
Zhou Hui opened his mouth, barely managing to produce an incredulous sound from his blood-tinged throat: “You… do you want to leave me that much?”
Even Zhou Hui, who had cultivated to a degree that made all gods and Buddhas wary, and the Demon Lord Asura King, the master of the Four Evil Paths, were fundamentally great demons. Even representing the strongest force in the confrontation between the divine and demonic paths, they were difficult to resist in the face of true Buddha bones. And now, this weapon, the only one in the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths that could be fatal to him, was held in Phoenix’s hand.
—The only person in this world who could truly kill him, utterly destroy him.
Chu He slowly turned his head, gazing deeply at Zhou Hui. Despite the wrong time and the wrong place, at the moment their gazes met, countless images suddenly flooded Zhou Hui’s mind like a rapid flashback.
He recalled Phoenix’s hateful gaze when Maha suffered divine retribution, Phoenix’s shocked and bewildered expression when he was imprisoned by chains, and Phoenix’s soft “it’s alright” the day after he forced himself on him in a fit of rage.
He also recalled those warm afternoons when he recited Turandot in an emotional tone on the sofa, and the ice-cold princess on the city wall announcing that the prince’s name was Love—that slight, soft, and hidden smile on Phoenix’s lips at that moment. All the images transformed into a swirling kaleidoscope of colors, finally settling on the present, Chu He standing not far away, gazing back at him.
Zhou Hui’s hand moved, as if to lift, but then a cold sensation spread across his chest.
—He looked down. A knife tip was protruding from his chest, carrying a string of blood drops that splattered onto the ground.
As if the furious volcanic eruption was frozen by this icy blade, the raging fire rapidly compressed, transforming into blood-red pupils that appeared in Zhou Hui’s eyes. He reached out and grasped the tip of the blade, surprisingly not pushing it out of his body, but instead, a brilliant blue current suddenly erupted from his palm, passing through his chest along the blade tip, climbing straight up the blade.
Behind him, the Demon Lord’s face drastically changed, but he had no time to withdraw his hand and was immediately sent flying backward by the electric shock! Zhou Hui turned in the fierce wind, letting out a furious roar that shook heaven and earth. He appeared before the Demon Lord like a meteor, then slammed him into the mountain wall with a punch!
Amidst the surging roar, the mountain shook violently, rocks disintegrated and fell. The Demon Lord threw away his shattered blade and fought Zhou Hui bare-handed. Each strike caused massive mountain rock collapses, completely burying the twisted train; the underground river system overflowed and was overwhelmed by successive falling boulders, creating monstrous waves.
Fan Luo let out a deafening roar, “—It’s over, Zhou Hui!”
Behind the Demon Lord, the Dharma body of the Asura King materialized. The gates of hell slowly opened amidst long chants, countless skeletons emerged, letting out shrill screams in the rolling toxic smoke, scrambling to extend their greenish, venomous bone claws. Zhou Hui was entangled by countless vines extending from the gates of hell. In the dense smoke, countless heads of ancient giant dragons seemed to appear, all opening their grotesque mouths filled with fangs at him!
“Die,” the Demon Lord said coldly.
However, at that moment, Chu He appeared behind him, his face expressionless in the fierce wind: “—It’s you who should be ending.”
The next moment, the Peacock Wisdom King manifested his Dharma form. Pure cyan glazed Buddhist beads danced in the wind, his white robe spreading open like a giant lotus; Chu He raised his hand, gripped the Buddha Bone Blade, and with a heaven-cleaving strike, he cut down towards the dragon vines entangled around Zhou Hui.
—Amidst the silent roar, the gates of hell shattered into pieces, collapsing into the void in flames.
Boom—!!
The mountain collapsed from within, the mountain walls detached and slid, crashing to the ground and turning to dust; the underground dark river was rerouted and blocked, its channel washed away and covered, and the earth rumbled as if a thousand armies were galloping across it.
In the hurricane, Zhou Hui held Chu He tightly. They fell to the base of a rocky overhang, large chunks of mountain rock crashing and breaking above their heads, scattering gravel like rain just a few steps away from them. Zhou Hui’s back was against the rock, and Phoenix looked down at him, his long, water-like hair falling on his face and body.
Phoenix was trembling. The frequency was so difficult to conceal that even through his clothes, Zhou Hui could clearly feel this slender body pressed against him trembling violently.
“Zhou Hui…” he gasped, gently caressing the knife wound on Zhou Hui’s chest with trembling fingers. The blood had coagulated, the wound grotesquely revealing flesh and blood, and his touch brought a distinct coldness.
Zhou Hui didn’t move. He just lay there, staring at Chu He without blinking. How strange, he thought.
—The wound was clearly on himself, yet Phoenix looked so sad, so pained.
“…Will you wait for me to come back?” Phoenix asked very softly, tears welling up in his beautiful eyes and sliding down his cheeks. “Will you… will you abandon me, Zhou Hui?…”
Shimmering tears fell onto Zhou Hui’s chest, then soaked into his flesh and blood, seeping into his veins and heart. Those were rare and precious Phoenix tears, capable of bringing the dead back to life.
Zhou Hui didn’t know why. He felt no pain when pierced by the blade, no fear when entangled by hell, and even with the shadow of death looming, he felt absolutely nothing. However, at this moment, Phoenix’s tears caused him excruciating pain, as if his very heart had tightly curled into a ball.
Zhou Hui couldn’t breathe, his chest aching as if suffocating, but that wasn’t enough. He wanted more pain, more despair. The resentment he felt towards himself was so violent that he urgently wished to die from the pain right now.
“…No,” he said, each word bringing a twisted, masochistic pleasure: “If you leave, then I’ll… I won’t want you anymore.”
