Time rewound to the moment the Netherworld White Tiger was sent flying.
On the ground, the White Tiger’s flying body smashed straight through three hills in an instant.
It was about to crash into a fourth.
Suddenly, a gigantic shadow dropped from the sky.
A pair of black wings beat fiercely toward the ground.
A tremendously powerful gust of air surged into being, stopping the White Tiger’s backward momentum cold.
The impact faded, replaced by a gentle breeze that slowly lifted the White Tiger and set it safely on the ground.
The shadow was none other than the Nine-Star Sacred Beast, the Black Sacred Dragon Emperor.
The moment it sensed eight powerful auras coming from afar, it had hurried straight in this direction. It arrived just in time to see the Netherworld White Tiger flying backward across the ground.
It looked down at the Netherworld White Tiger, already unconscious and battered from head to toe. A huge sword wound looked horrifying.
The Black Sacred Dragon Emperor was furious.
Someone had dared to hurt one of its subordinates on its own turf. That was unforgivable.
If the White Tiger had been injured this badly, then the other side must be a Nine-Star Saint Rank powerhouse too.
But not all Nine-Stars were equal.
Their combat strength could differ, too.
It was the only Nine-Star Sacred Beast, and had lived for tens of thousands of years.
In an age when a Level Ten powerhouse could never appear,
it had yet to meet anyone in this world who could threaten it alone.
Even in the final battle of the last war between humans and magical beasts,
all the human side’s Nine-Star Saint Rank powerhouses had attacked at once, and they could only fight it to a draw.
Now, it was just one human Nine-Star Saint Rank powerhouse. Before its furious might, this human would die here.
After setting the Netherworld White Tiger down,
the Black Sacred Dragon Emperor took off at once and looked toward the direction the White Tiger had come from.
At a glance, it spotted Xiaobai beneath a tree, about to eat an apple.
“Human brat, you’ve been hiding your strength well. I misjudged you earlier. Even if you’re a Nine-Star Sword Saint, you’re still going to die here.”
Looking at that familiar human figure and remembering the White Tiger’s grievous injuries, a venomous voice rose in its heart.
It opened its mouth and began gathering energy. Its magic power flowed toward its mouth, gradually forming a magic circle visible to the naked eye.
Before long, a thick, dazzling beam of light formed within the magic circle and shot straight down at Xiaobai beneath the apple tree.
“Nine-Star Ultimate Technique—Annihilating Dragon Flame!”
◇
Compared to humans, this was a magical beast’s advantage.
A Saint Rank magical beast could cast its exclusive magic—a massive-area spell on the level of a forbidden spell—without any incantation. It only needed magic power to form a magic circle.
It could even release the spell directly, without a magic circle.
Just like the Purple Thunder Lightning Leopard earlier: say it was going to unleash lightning, and lightning would appear on cue.
Its destructive power was no weaker for it.
Once the spell was cast, the Black Sacred Dragon Emperor turned to leave without even looking at what had happened.
It believed no one could withstand the power of its Nine-Star Ultimate Technique without defending themselves.
That was the confidence it carried in its heart.
Even the strongest Nine-Star Saint Rank human couldn’t withstand Annihilating Dragon Flame alone.
This human brat wasn’t the strongest human it remembered from the other side.
Even if he was now—
he’d still be dead or crippled.
But what it didn’t expect was—
the instant it turned around,
an overwhelming pressure unlike anything it had felt in its tens of thousands of years came from behind it.
It was the pressure of a higher being, piercing straight into the depths of its soul.
It felt familiar. In its memories, it seemed to have experienced this once before.
That had been when it ventured deep into the Dragon God senior’s tomb.
Back then, it had been young and foolish, convinced it was invincible and that the Dragon God’s legacy was there for the taking.
But a pressure that suddenly came from deep within the tomb had filled it with fear from the bottom of its heart.
Now—this was exactly the same. Exactly the same as back then.
The pressure before it was even stronger than the one in the tomb.
Its head hung low, its whole body locked in place.
Its limbs were stiff and wouldn’t obey. They trembled uncontrollably.
If it weren’t a Nine-Star Sacred Beast, with control far beyond that of ordinary beasts, it would’ve already fallen from the sky.
It wasn’t that it couldn’t win.
It simply didn’t have the courage to look up.
It couldn’t even muster the strength to raise its head.
This pressure had completely transcended all rules.
This was a power that Saint Rank beings had no right to touch.
“Fuck, this human brat is a God Rank powerhouse...”
A thought it didn’t want to believe—but had no choice but to accept—rose in the Black Sacred Dragon Emperor’s mind.
But even if it regretted what it had done, it was too late.
The Black Sacred Dragon Emperor wasn’t the only one.
On the other side of the battlefield, the Infernal Demon Phoenix was also frozen with cold, unable to move.
Even the Purple Thunder Lightning Leopard, covered in sword wounds, forgot its pain under that pressure.
The Netherworld White Tiger, already unconscious, was jolted awake by the pressure.
At that moment, the black aura born of the pressure enveloped the Mountain of Heaven—and parts of the surrounding area as well.
Every beast on the ground lay prostrate, trembling.
Apart from the Black Sacred Dragon Emperor, every beast in the sky fell.
The Mountain of Heaven’s Golden Spirit Tree had long since lost its vitality. Its branches curled in on themselves, its trunk shook nonstop, and leaves littered the ground.
“Give me back my apple...”
“Give me back my apple...”
A faint murmur came from the very center of that overwhelming pressure.
The voice sounded like the Grim Reaper himself had arrived, echoing again and again in every beast’s ears.
“There isn’t any?”
“So there really isn’t any left.”
“Yeah... there isn’t any left. There’ll never be any again.”
“If there isn’t any, then disappear. All of you, disappear! Hahahahaha! Disappear, disappear, disappear, disappear, disappear, disappear, disappear... Aaaaaaah!”
As the laughter grew more and more deranged,
the black aura around someone thickened. They raised the already-drawn black sword in both hands. Its Night-colored glow shone brighter and brighter as they swung diagonally upward at the space ahead.
The power was so terrifying that the space around them split apart without pause.
The cracks were like little black snakes, devouring space one after another.
The earth shook. The sky split apart.
Everything touched by the line traced out by the sword was cut into nothingness.
This wasn’t a joke.
The Night-colored Sword Qi Wave unleashed by the sword traveled along that line, and everything in its path ceased to exist.
It was as if it had been erased from the world—as though it had never existed at all.
Even the Mountain of Heaven, known as “the world’s tallest mountain,” was no exception.
The Sword Qi Wave struck the Mountain of Heaven.
Everything above the point of impact vanished without a trace. Everything up there was annihilated.
Nearly a quarter of the Mountain of Heaven was gone.
That’s right. It was gone.
From a distance, the cut surface looked as smooth as a mirror.
◇
For a long while, a deathly silence hung over everything.
“Grr?”
“Mm, I’m hungry again.”
Someone patted their stomach. The madness faded, their eyes returned to normal, and they looked at everything ahead that had been reduced to nothingness.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Not a bad sight. As expected of the perfect me.”
“Looks like I’m nothing like the weakling I used to be. When I get angry, even I scare myself.”
“But this isn’t my fault. You made me do it. You could’ve just let me have one bite of an apple.”
Someone talked about being scared, but stayed perfectly calm, as if they hadn’t done any of it. They were utterly unfazed.
