The finger from beyond the heavens was like a giant pillar descending toward Tang Jie. Under this giant finger, Tang Jie was just a tiny ant.
Entirely by instinct, Tang Jie formed a spell with his hands, and lightning erupted beneath his feet as he grabbed the little tiger and Yiyi and hastily retreated.
A moment later, the massive finger slammed down where Tang Jie had been standing, unleashing a shockwave of spiritual energy.
The spiritual wave engulfed Tang Jie like a hurricane. The impact was so powerful that not even Tang Jie’s body could take it, and a large mouthful of blood shot out of his mouth.
How is this possible?
Tang Jie was stunned.
This was clearly an illusion, so how could the attack be so powerful? The aftershock of the finger attack alone had heavily injured him.
It had to be understood that even the Nine Palace Illusion Formation at full power might not be able to achieve such a powerful attack.
Tang Jie’s eyes opened wide as he stared at the illusion of the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk in the sky. The Nine Disaster Fiend Monk did not pursue after seeing that his attack had missed, drawing back his hand and looking around with his narrow eyes, muttering, “The Nine Palace Illusion recreates the old world…”
He suddenly thrust his palm straight up at the sky.
As he did so, there was a boom in the distance.
The golden fist reemerged, hurtling toward the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk, but it struck that giant black hand instead.
The giant black hand closed over the golden fist.
The Nine Disaster Fiend Monk chanted, “Through a dream, Primordial Fog ventures into the stars…”
The golden fist was rendered immobile, black fog beginning to creep toward it.
In the air, a giant man wearing golden armor and a crown appeared.
When this giant man appeared, Tang Jie trembled and blurted out, “Martial Lord!”
This giant man’s appearance was somewhat similar to that of the Martial Lord, but upon getting a second look, Tang Jie knew that this wasn’t the Martial Lord.
While he had only gotten a glimpse of the Martial Lord when peering into that illusion created by the Martial Mirror, he had been able to see that man’s domineering figure, his majesty that held up the heavens, the sheer power flowing through every one of his moves, and the aggressive and bloodthirsty nature imbued into all of his actions.
While this giant man was similar, he was not the Martial Lord, having the form but lacking the peerless demeanor.
But as this giant man resisted the giant hand of the infamous Nine Disaster Fiend Monk, he still displayed an astonishing divine might.
As the black fog approached, the giant man roared and punched at the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk.
It was a simple punch, but just like with the fiend monk’s eyes, it instantly dominated the world, making it seem like it was the only thing that existed.
Tang Jie was utterly shaken when he saw it.
For he knew this punch well.
In the Parting Classic, this was the starting form for when one was about to circulate energy.
Tang Jie had always taken this starting form to be a basic move to circulate energy, but in the hands of this giant man, it was a move that was packed to the brim with the might of the world.
Tang Jie was dumbfounded by the sight.
What… what’s going on here?
Why was there someone in the Gigantes Domain that knew the Parting Classic?
How had a cultivation form become an offensive technique?
Forgetting about the danger he was in, Tang Jie activated the Eye of Heaven and stared at the giant man, hoping to get a clearer understanding of this fist’s foundation.
Alas, he had discovered it too late, and the battle proceeded quickly.
As the fist flew out, atop the three-petaled lotus, the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk chanted, “The glories of the olden days are difficult to recreate…”
He raised his hand to protect his face, grabbing the steely fist.
Dark winds howled, and black energy exploded.
A black energy appeared on the bloody lotus, penetrating through the illusion’s barrier and piercing into the heavens.
If someone had been standing on the perimeter, they would have seen a dark pillar of energy shoot out of the illusion formation to soar into the skies above Wind Devil Island!
A voice resounded through the world: “I have finally returned!”
Bang!
In the Nine Palace complex, a lantern exploded.
The light from the formation patterns on the floor lit up the entire hall.
“Agh!” Ji Wujiu yelled, vomiting blood. He gripped his chest and shouted, “How could this be?”
“Brother Ji, what happened?” Nan Baicheng was scared out of his wits.
Still holding his chest, Ji Wujiu looked up in shock at the crystal above him.
The crystal was still rotating in the air, but there was now a deep crack on its surface, like someone had shattered the surface of a mirror.
On the crystal, the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk knocked away that golden-crowned giant and then slightly raised his head, his eyes penetrating through space to meet Ji Wujiu’s gaze.
His eyes were as deep as the ocean, and Ji Wujiu was aghast. He bellowed, “No! Qian and Kun, flow in reverse! Reform the illusion zone!”
He formed a spell and threw it at the crystal, and the Gigantes Illusion Zone began to spin. All of the destroyed buildings came back, all of the slain giants were reborn, and all of the fiends and devils that had dropped out of the bloody cloud disappeared. Everything was as it had been before Tang Jie entered the zone.
But the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk was still there.
He floated in the sky of the illusion, smiling at empty space as if he was looking at Ji Wujiu.
A moment later, the blood cloud reappeared, as did the fiends and demons, and everything played out as it had before. But the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk ignored all of the slaughter, only thrusting out his finger at empty space.
As the finger flew out, the golden war gauntlet flew out of the distance, just as before.
The only difference was that it was destroyed by Nine Disaster’s finger rather than the giant hand emerging from the bloody cloud.
The fist disappeared, and the giant emerged.
That comet fist flew out again, but the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk blocked it even more casually this time, and with a slap, he killed the golden-crowned giant.
“No!” Ji Wujiu’s entire body went cold, and he muttered, “How is this possible? How?”
The Nine Disaster Fiend Monk seemed to be able to hear Ji Wujiu’s words, and he chuckled.
He looked down at the three-petaled lotus dais, shaking his head in dissatisfaction. “Three petals no longer. Five energies is the truth.”
He lightly pointed, and the three-petaled lotus began to spin in the air, growing two more petals and becoming a five-petaled lotus.
“The day of seven petals is the time of return,” the fiend monk’s voice rumbled.
At this moment, the golden fist reappeared, striking the lotus platform.
It was the same starting form as before.
But just when the fiend monk was about to casually block it, he paled.
A moment later, that steely fist blasted through the heavens and exploded against the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk’s body, obliterating the illusion and turning it into countless motes of spiritual light.
A furious howl could be heard amidst these motes of light: “Gigantes King…”
A resounding voice responded, “Never think about coming back, Nine Disaster, you damned baldie!”
Bang!
The illusion zone shattered.
Ji Wujiu sat on the ground, staring in a daze at the remaining scenes on the crystal as he muttered, “The realm of speak-not, think-not… breaking through the domain and manifesting will… This is a huge leak.”
Here was a dark and gloomy space.
Deathly energy hung over this world, and sunlight almost didn’t exist.
Black, red, and purple were this world’s primary colors, found wherever one looked.
Purple fog lingered over the black earth, and little red monsters dug away at the soil. When they managed to turn up wriggling little worms, they would immediately stuff them in their mouths, for if they were too slow, they would have to fight with other monsters.
A purple mountain floated above this black earth.
It floated high in the air, looking down at the world.
At the peak of the mountain was a palace the color of blood, with 3842 steps that extended all the way to the top.
At each step stood two bizarrely shaped devils.
At the very top, a giant furnace that burned with an undying flame stood on the palace square.
In front of the furnace, an old man fanned the flames.
He was like an old corpse that had crawled out of a coffin, his face covered in wrinkles, but countless devils were kneeling around him.
No one dared to make a sound around this old man.
Every devil knew who this old man represented.
As he was lightly fanning the flames, the old man suddenly looked behind him.
A five-petaled lotus platform floated out of the palace.
It slowly turned, five pitch-black figures turning with it.
A person was lying atop it, with a broad face and large ears. His feet and head were bare, and he held a string of prayer beads in his hand. It was none other than the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk who had appeared in the Gigantes Illusion Zone.
His hand holding up his head, the fiend monk had his eyes closed in slumber while the lotus dais floated to the furnace.
The flames increased in power, and the lotus dais began to radiate light.
The Nine Disaster Fiend Monk slowly opened his eyes.
As he opened his eyes, this dark world seemed to light up.
On the 3842 steps, all of the devils sensed this and prostrated toward the palace, none of them daring to make too much noise.
The old man fanning the furnace looked up at the lotus. “Venerable One, you have awakened.”
The Nine Disaster Fiend Monk sat up.
He looked up confusedly at the sky. “Darkshade, how long have I been sleeping?”
“932 years, Venerable One.”
“Is that so… not even one thousand years. I woke up early,” the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk muttered.
After some thought, he said, “I had a dream.”
“What did Venerable One dream about?”
“I dreamed about the Battle of Gigantes, one thousand years ago.” Nine Disaster mumbled, “I saw a being…”
“A being? What sort of being?”
“A very familiar being… A being that we have been anticipating all this time…”
The old man’s eyes brightened, and the wrinkles on his face relaxed, throbbing with a frightening demonic might.
He looked at the Nine Disaster Fiend Monk and said, “Could it be…”
The Nine Disaster Fiend Monk did not answer, lost in his musings. “But… why did the Gigantes King appear… and who summoned him… Suspicious… very suspicious…”
He closed his eyes and began to think.
After a long while, he spoke again.
“Our return will eventually come, and what will be lost will eventually be lost. There is no rush, no rush. There is still 1200 years until the 3000-year great calamity… Let me sleep a little longer.”
He lay back down.
The five-petaled lotus dais floated back into the palace.
With the appearance of that black pillar of energy, several people sleeping in various parts of the Rosecloud Domain began to wake.
The Zephyr Mountains, the 19 Star Mountains.
This was a foundational area of the Basking Moon Sect.
Behind the 19 Star Mountains was an unremarkable little mountain.
It was very short, and there was only a little thatched hut built on it.
Within the hut, a white-browed elder sat in meditation. The room was devoid of anything else.
“Hmm?” The elder opened his eyes and gasped. Looking southward, he muttered, “It is not time for the 3000-year great calamity. Have some of the Archdevils already grown restless?”
In the depths of the Endless Sea Zone, a resplendent pavilion floated above the ocean’s surface.
This was the famous Oceansky Palace of Horizon Ocean Pavilion.
In the deepest depths of the Oceansky Palace, a middle-aged beauty was sleeping upon a jade bed.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes and looked southward, a hint of confusion in her eyes. “A momentary flash of Primordial Fog fiend energy from the distance… Did something happen at the Nine Palace Illusion Formation?”
The Tetrapole Kingdom, Thousand Passions City.
This was an important area for the Thousand Passions Sect. A tall tower stood in the center of the city.
The tower had nine floors, and it served as the residence for important figures of the Thousand Passions Sect. The higher the floor, the greater one’s status was.
It was said that the ninth floor was the residence of the sect master, Fairy Nichang.
But only a few people knew that Fairy Nichang lived on only the eighth floor.
On the ninth floor, an old granny was in meditation, a red sash floating in front of her.
Suddenly, the red sash descended and drifted onto the granny’s body.
The granny didn’t open her eyes, only sighing, “Alas, my heart is still restless.”
With a wave of her hand, the sash flew back into the air and was fixed in place.
At the same time.
In Godhead Palace of Nadir Hill, a golden-armored, middle-aged man appeared shocked.
On Ethereal Summit of the Seven Absolutions Sect, a blue-robed scholar suddenly appeared, looking toward the Endless Sea Zone.
And far to the west, in the depths of the untamed jungle, a bonfire burned brightly, with countless people dancing and singing around it.
But upon closer inspection, one would realize that these weren’t humans, but rather animals that had taken human form. Yet the way they talked and moved was no different from humans.
A giant throne was placed behind the bonfire, standing thirty feet tall.
A rough and powerful man lay across the throne, feasting and drinking while two snakes-turned-women attended upon him.
Suddenly, the man frowned.
His frown caused all the dancing fiend beasts to pause and look at him.
The man waved his hand. “It’s fine. Continue amusing yourselves.”
A moment later, the jungle once more resounded with laughter and music…