Chapter 2100 – Crushing The Star
When they reached the edge of the Endless Fog, Bai Yu and his squires came to a stop. They could feel a thickening amount of abyssal dust devouring their vitality and spiritual perception.
“You may begin,” Bai Yu ordered while looking straight ahead.
At this point, there was no turning back. Mo Xifeng grabbed the abyssal stone he had received from the Fog Monarch and, with a small gritting of his teeth, crushed it to pieces.
The crushed abyssal stone immediately started dissipating and emitting thin wafts of gray fog.
Bai Yu frowned. He was wearing a calm and stalwart expression, but he was secretly pushing his spiritual perception to the max. Despite this, he could not sense any soul aura whatsoever.
It was as if the abyssal stone was no more than an ordinary abyssal stone.
(And it was.)
Mo Xifeng was already kneeling on the ground and crying out in a deep, painful voice, “The Profound Desert Realm King, Mo Xifeng, requests a meeting with you, Fog Monarch.”
His voice spread far and wide before the endless layers of abyssal dust devoured it all.
He received no response.
Bai Yu glanced at the scattered bits of abyssal stone once before letting out a cold chuckle. “Hah! It looks like you were fooled, Profound Desert Realm King. The stone is just an ordinary abyssal stone, and it doesn’t contain any soul message whatsoever. It must have been a fa—”
Before he could finish, the sky abruptly turned dark, and countless cries of shock erupted all around him.
Bai Yu immediately spun around and looked ahead. His pupils slowly contracted into grayish points as the grayish fog in front of him slowly grew bigger and bigger until it encompassed the sky itself.
The grayish fog was spreading rapidly and rolling closer and closer to the abyssal knights. The world was dark in the first place, and the fog was rapidly devouring its remaining light.
“…”
A crack appeared on Bai Yu’s cold, stern expression. This was a stunning scene unlike anything he, a high-ranking abyssal knight, had ever seen.
What really stunned him, even terrified him…
… was the fact that the scene looked exactly the same as those ludicrous rumors had described!
Fog… Monarch?
The Endless Fog was immensely huge. No one in the history of the Abyss had ever managed to explore it entirely. So how did the Fog Monarch manage to detect the crushing of an abyssal stone that emitted zero soul presence whatsoever? And how did he appear in just a matter of breaths?
The encroaching fog was right in front of him in just the blink of an eye. At first glance, it must have devoured hundreds of kilometers of space at a minimum. The unique pressure he was feeling could only be caused by thick abyssal dust. It completely annihilated his firm belief that the unknown sinner was using some sort of gray fog to falsify his presence.
The tiny cracks in Bai Yu’s eyes were growing rapidly. Even before he saw the Fog Monarch, this rolling wall of abyssal dust alone was enough to crush all of his confidence, pride, and common sense that he had believed his whole life.
A pair of grayish eyes slowly opened above the abyssal fog as the voice of the Fog Monarch deafened it all. “For what reason have you requested an audience with me, Mo Xifeng?”
Mo Xifeng shook like a leaf as he stammered, “My apologies for disturbing your slumber, Fog Monarch. The… the knights of the Pure Land are requesting a meeting with you.”
Just the two short sentences had nearly consumed all of his willpower. On one side was the Pure Land, and the other the Fog Monarch. To say he was stuck between a rock and a hard place would be an understatement. He felt like whatever courage inside his soul was being crushed into itsy bitsy pieces.
“…” It was Bai Yu’s turn to speak, but he did not speak up immediately. The waves in his eyes needed time to pacify.
“Pure Land? Hehehe…” It was no exaggeration to say that those two words were the holiest, loftiest words in the entire Abyss, and yet the Fog Monarch was speaking them with clear scorn. “That is the dirtiest, most nauseating place in the entire world, and they dare to call themselves Pure Land? How lamentable! How laughable!”
His words stunned all profound practitioners in the vicinity and stabbed into the abyssal knights’ hearts and souls like swords. It also transformed his shock and doubt into boundless rage. After all, the Fog Monarch was blaspheming against the Pure Land and his faith!
“Silence!” Bai Yu erupted, a pale white sword appearing in his hand in a flash. As ice grew out of the blade, he pointed his sword straight at the grayish eyes and boomed, “No one may call themselves ‘Monarch’ under the Abyssal Monarch! To call yourself Fog Monarch is already a blasphemy, and to slander the Pure Land too?! That is a sin not even a million deaths can wash away!”
“Show your true self! No matter who or what you are, there is no longer a place for you anywhere in this world as the punishment of the Pure Land is here! Surrender, and you may yet be pardoned by the ever merciful Abyssal Monarch! Resist, and today is the day you die!”
The pressure of an abyssal knight could force countless beings into bowing their heads, but before the wall of abyssal dust that stretched from one end of the horizon to another? It was so weak it was almost pitiful. The grayish eyes in the sky distorted a little before the Fog Monarch burst out laughing.
“Hahahaha! Without this monarch, there would be no Land of the Living! Without this monarch, there would not be a Pure Land!”
“And yet, you, the people I saved, are turning your blades against me? You dare to judge me?! Lamentable! Laughable! Hahahahaha!”
Every word he spoke was infused with infinite scorn.
Without this monarch, there would be no Land of the Living! Without this monarch, there would not be a Pure Land… Bai Yu was frowning so deeply it was a miracle his eyebrows hadn’t disappeared into the folds of his flesh. This was without a doubt the most preposterous statement he had ever heard in his life.
The spectators were exchanging confused glances with each other as well.
Mo Xifeng lifted his head a little as he recalled what the Fog Monarch had said a few days ago. “Indeed! I am the one who saved this Abyss, but who has ever repaid me for this favor? How could you hope to repay such a favor?”
Now, the Fog Monarch was saying it again, albeit with different words.
“What absolute nonsense!” Bai Yu was boiling with anger, but his honor as an abyssal knight forbade him from cursing in a manner too filthy. “If madness is all you have to say, then you shall speak no longer!”
“Wait there while I rip apart the mask you hide behind and judge you in the name of the Pure Land!”
The Fog Monarch voiced his sympathy. “Pathetic knight of the filthy land, do you really think you can act up before this monarch?”
Shiing!
The cold light of Bai Yu’s pale sword abruptly burst into white light and shrill ringing. The temperature suddenly plummeted to the point where even Mo Xigfeng had to retreat far, far away. Deciding not to waste his breath on the Fog Monarch any longer, Bai Yu surrounded himself in profound light and shot toward the thick abyssal fog in front of him like an icy sword beam.
It was at this moment Bai Yu’s momentum abruptly ceased. Even the icy light shining from his sword was nowhere to be found. The world suddenly fell dead silent, and all sounds ceased to exist.
Bai Yu’s heart shook violently. This aura… could it be…?
High up in the sky and watched by countless contracting pupils, a falling star froze all sound in the world with its terrifying pressure and stole everyone’s breath away.
The star was clearly humanoid in shape. He was wearing a set of silver armor and possessed eyes that shone like brilliant stars. His pale, jade-like hand surrounded by a beautiful, strange star formation pushed away the many layers of abyssal fog and grabbed toward the pair of gray eyes.
Co… mander!?
As soon as the familiar pressure pressed him from above, Bai Yu immediately withdrew his strength and shifted toward defense. While guarding himself as best he could, he shouted at his squires, “RETREAT!”
As soon as the hand surrounded by a star formation entered the abyssal fog, it transformed into a gigantic palm spanning thousands and thousands of meters. It boasted such explosive power that the space where the Fog Monarch was residing—all of it—was annihilated without mercy.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM————
Dozens of kilometers of land erupted into countless starry scars. At the same time, tens of thousands of star beams were shooting up into the sky.
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH—”
Countless blood curdling screams accompanied the vicious explosion of starlight. All nearby profound practitioners were blown away like they had been seized by a hurricane, and the weaker ones suffered serious injuries in an instant.
Even after they finally arrested themselves, the starlight burning their eyeballs was still too bright to look at directly.
“That star formation… could it be…”
“One of the Thirty Six Commanders of the abyssal knights, Yuchi Nanxing!”
Those who heard the name nearly fainted.
All abyssal knights were revered existences. It was because they were the Pure Land’s swords of order and punishment.
Even among the abyssal knights, there were thirty six special existences. They were called the Thirty Six Commanders. They rarely showed themselves before the public before as they never needed to maintain order and mete out punishments in person. They all commanded a group of abyssal knights and were above the ordinary abyssal knights. In the Pure Land, they were subordinate only to the Abyssal Monarch and the Four High Priests.
It was said that the Thirty Six Commanders were all in the Divine Limit Realm.
Forget that they were knight commanders, the fact that they were Divine Limit Realm profound practitioners alone put them on a pedestal second only to a True God.
Today, one such living legend had appeared in person to suppress the Fog Monarch causing anomalous waves in the Abyss.
“Yuchi Nanxing! The legendary ‘Southern Abyss Emperor Star’! I can’t believe I got to witness the Fog Monarch and a Divine Limit Realm legend on the same day!” A profound practitioner exclaimed in shock and excitement.
“My god… look at the power. I can’t even believe it’s real. That Fog Monarch… He’s not ripped into pieces, is he?”
“So, is the Fog Monarch real or not? Is he a fake created using some sort of obscure art? Or… is he really a manifestation of abyssal dust like the rumors claim?”
Bai Yu wasn’t blown far away. He was hovering at the edge of the Endless Fog and staring ahead with a small smirk on his face. “I knew you would come.”
The power of a Divine Limit Realm profound practitioner was beyond terrifying, but not a single person had left the area; not even those who were seriously injured. They all wanted to see who the Fog Monarch was and what kind of existence it was.
Starlight was penetrating the abyssal fog. The grayish eyes belonging to the Fog Monarch were gone. Surely the battle was already over?
It wasn’t. Instead of Yuchi Nanxing emerging from the abyssal fog with the Fog Monarch between his fingers, what they saw, or rather heard… was a muffled groan of pain.
Bai Yu blanched immediately.
It was because the muffled groan of pain sounded familiar. It belonged to… Yuchi Nanxing?
Boom!
Boooom!!
BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!
A series of stomping noises came from the abyssal fog. It sounded like it would shatter the earth and break the sky.
The starlight was fading, but the abyssal fog was still rolling.
Then, a gigantic shadow slowly stepped out of the fog.
The instant the gigantic shadow emerged from the abyssal fog, a terrifying pressure that completely transcended countless people’s recognition or willpower descended from above. As if a million mountains were sitting on their backs, every limb, every organ, every drop of blood was frozen in place. The only things that were still trembling were their eyes, hearts, and souls.
The Ancestral Qilin God!
There was a man attached to its massive, swinging tail.
Bai Yu turned as pale as a ghost as he roared, “Commander!!”
There was a moment of silence as countless pairs of bloodshot eyes stared at the scene before them. Just a few breaths ago, the knight commander had descended from the sky like a god and unleashed an unbelievable amount of power at the Fog Monarch. But instead of him stepping out of the abyssal fog with the Fog Monarch, he was tied up by the Ancestral Qilin God itself. His previously dignified, imposing face was deathly pale with shock as well.
“The Ancestral… Qilin God!” Yuchi Nanxing moaned through gritted teeth.
One of the rumors stated that the Fog Monarch had emerged with the Ancestral Qilin God by his side. It was also rumored that the Ancestral Qilin God was controlled by the Fog Monarch.
At the time, he thought it was easily the most amusing joke he had heard in his life. Although each rumor that came after was even more ludicrous than the last, none came close to the sheer ridiculousness that was anyone controlling the Ancestral Qilin God.
Now, he, a knight commander of the abyss, was so shocked that he nearly lost the will to fight. Even worse than that was the uprooting of his common sense, no, the collapse of his faith.
For obvious reasons, the Ancestral Qilin God was one of the scariest abyssal beasts of the Endless Fog.
If a profound beast was corrupted by abyssal dust, no matter what they were in the past, they would devolve into abyssal beasts that only knew destruction. It was impossible for them to be controlled. Simply impossible!
Besides, the Ancestral Qilin God only ever appeared deep in the Endless Fog. It made absolutely no sense for it to appear so close to the edge…
On top of that, he had been sweeping the area with his perception this whole time. However, he never felt the Ancestral Qilin God even after he revealed himself and unleashed divine judgment upon the Fog Monarch.
It was the abyssal dust. It was so thick that even his Divine Limit Realm spirit perception could not pierce through it and perceive the Fog Monarch or the Ancestral Qilin God.
“Grr… ggk… hah!!”
Eyes bloodshot, he let out a throaty shout and detonated his world annihilating Divine Limit Realm power.
The eruption of power that seemed like it would collapse the heavens shook the earth so hard it turned on itself. Bai Yu was pushed back almost hard enough to spit blood, and the profound practitioners in the back were flung far, far away, dead or injured. However, he failed to push the Ancestral Qilin God’s giant tail away even a little. In fact, when his power clashed against its body, the noise that erupted was that of metal clashing against metal.
Rumble!
Boom—
He struggled with all his mind and detonated his power again and again. The Ancestral Qilin God’s scale armor was definitely cracking in places. However, the giant power that kept him bound never relented even a little. It was so terrifying that it slowly plunged him into despair.