Chapter 470: Chapter 36: Death God’s Infernal Fire
"Clang-"
Instead of the anticipated sound of flesh being pierced, there was a muffled grunt.
The purple Dark Energy Sword in Zong Shaoqing’s hand had plunged into Yue Jinghua’s back.
Yue Jinghua’s eyes widened beneath her golden mask, filled with disbelief and panic, as her delicate figure shattered into pieces.
No blood splattered, nor were there screams of agony. Instead, as Zong Shaoqing’s Sword penetrated, the spot where Yue Jinghua had stood turned into a pile of fallen leaves.
The withered yellow leaves instantly turned red.
"Divine Son," exclamations surged from around like a tide.
Several figures immediately gathered around Zong Shaoqing, including Song Mu and Ximing, who had disguised themselves and followed Zong Shaoqing into the Sky Dragon Palace, and now they too had woken up from the Nightmare Realm.
Realizing the situation around them, Song Mu and the others turned pale with shock.
On the ground, several corpses of palace disciples from the Divine Court appeared at some unknown time.
Sha Xi let out a horrified scream. Her Maid’s waist was pierced with a sharp short gun, lying in a pool of blood—Sha Xi’s own handiwork.
"How could this be? I clearly saw someone trying to snatch from me..." Sha Xi stammered. Just now, she saw Zong Shaoqing approaching her, and out of nowhere, a woman appeared, snatched him away, and in a rush, Sha Xi wielded the short gun, stabbing that woman.
The same situation happened to other palace disciples and Judgement Envoys.
Just now, the Divine Court had three dead and four injured, all of them died from fratricide; if Zong Shaoqing hadn’t seen through it earlier, the losses would have been greater by now.
"Come out, you’ve been following us the whole way," Zong Shaoqing casually looked at a pile of inconspicuous leaves on Autumn Walnut Avenue.
The withered leaves gradually gathered together, forming an erratic shadow of leaves.
Beneath the leaves, an inexplicable creature flickered its pair of eerie, bewitching eyes.
"You saw through my Nightmare Illusion, impossible. My Nightmare Realm surely transformed into that person in your heart, why were you able to see through it," the Dark Beast on Autumn Path was the one with the human-shaped body made of leaves.
It was called a Nightmare Beast, which thrived on consuming human desires and hatred.
The Nightmare Beast had no physical form; it inhabited these autumn leaves, omnipresent, without a trace of breath, capable of conjuring the nightmares deep in one’s heart to attack passersby.
Along the way, the people from the Divine Court were cautious and meticulous until their spirits were exhausted, then the Beast seized the opportunity to strike.
It thought it could finish them off in one blow, taking the chance to kill this group of Divine Court members with profound cultivation. Little did it know it would be seen through by Zong Shaoqing.
The person in Zong Shaoqing’s heart?
Sha Xi shuddered at the thought.
She had grown up with Zong Shaoqing since she was eight.
Zong Shaoqing was modest and courteous to everyone; he seemed affectionate and yet indifferent to all. She had always thought that with his temperament, it was impossible for anyone to have a place in his heart. If there was, it could only be her.
Who could that person be?
"What kind of monster are you? You can’t possibly peer into our hearts. There’s no one in Junior Minister’s heart," Sha Xi brandished her sword, attempting to kill the strangely eerie Nightmare Beast.
With one slash, the body of the Nightmare Beast broke apart, only to quickly gather together again.
"Vile woman, the fear in the depths of your heart will one day surely come to pass. That man, he has no heart. A person who would even draw his sword against the one who moves his heart, does not deserve to be called human," the Nightmare Beast was best at prying into people’s minds. It was confident that it had imitated "Yue Jinghua" so flawlessly that it was impossible to be seen through.
"You are not her," Zong Shaoqing’s lips quirked slightly upward in a smile, softening his already enviable facial features. His purple eyes were like the sky before a storm, misted with purple: "She would never beg for mercy."
The Yue Jinghua that Zong Shaoqing had encountered was at times playful and cheeky, at times imposing without anger. Although it was only a brief acquaintance, Zong Shaoqing always remembered the vividness of her thrusting a spear by the river that day.
A person who can even be ruthless to themselves, how could they ever grovel for pity from others.
Just as Yue Jinghua said, she and Zong Shaoqing were of the same kind.
Born with innate pride, ringing continuously, they are people who do not know how to bend their spines.
Based on this alone, Zong Shaoqing could determine that "she" was not Yue Jinghua.
You chose Autumn Walnut Avenue, clearly seeking your own demise. I will devour your Spiritual Senses one by one," Mashou flickered by as its form multiplied into many, one into two, two into four.
In the blink of an eye, numerous phantom figures of Mashou appeared on the empty Autumn Walnut Avenue.
Since Mashou is incorporeal, it is difficult to attack.
What the people from Divine Court excel at, however, is attacking in formation.
Just as everyone was about to ask Zong Shaoqing if they should set up a formation to counter the enemy, they saw Zong Shaoqing’s pupils contract.
On the lane filled with plane tree leaves, a fierce purple fire ignited without any warning, as if within the heavens and earth, there was only this mass of fire left.
In the firelight, Zong Shaoqing, with his white robe and silver hair, his purple eyes like a Mandala on the opposite bank of the river.
The angry fire felt to the people of Divine Court merely warm, without the slightest discomfort.
However, the Mashou engulfed by the purple flames let out cries of fear, and from its throat came a terrifying sound: "Purple, undying..."
Accompanying the purple fire were streaks of lightning like Thunder Flash, cascading down from the edge of the sky.
Making what the Mashou was about to blurt out come to a sudden halt.
The fire quickly spread to the autumn leaves on the ground, and in an instant, reduced Mashou to a pile of ashes.
A gust of autumn wind blew, and the ashes dispersed with it.
The once boundless Autumn Walnut Avenue, with its fallen leaves and splendid plane trees, all disappeared, leaving only a desolate path.
Not far ahead, a light flickered; that was the exit of Autumn Walnut Avenue, and ahead lay the Dragon Court.
Seeing how Mashou disappeared without a trace in a mere moment.
Purple Prison Divine Fire, the people of Divine Court wore a look of shock. It was rumored that when Divine Son Zong Shaoqing descended, Purple Prison Divine Fire fell from the heavens.
The fire, containing the essence of heaven and earth, could melt all things in the world.
But that was only hearsay. The Divine Son was usually as kind as a clear sky, never using Purple Prison Divine Fire in public. Who would have thought that this fire would be so formidable, vanquishing Mashou in just an instant?
And that smile of the Divine Son just now...
Thinking of the Divine Son’s smile, faint within the reflection of the purple fire, like that of the grim reaper, the people of Divine Court involuntarily shivered in their souls, all of them falling silent.
Sha Xi secretly felt alarmed, and she couldn’t help but recall her mother’s evaluation of Zong Shaoqing; within Divine Court, it’s not the Divine Hall Elders who were the most feared, but Zong Shaoqing.
Zong Shaoqing strode forward, and a withered yellow bead rose from the ashes into his hand.
He said in a voice that only he could hear: "The mistake was, you should not have impersonated her."