His piercing gaze swept the cavern, searching for Qilin’s presence. When he saw no sign of him, his tone turned colder. “Hand over Qilin, and I will grant you a swift death.”
Zhang Hai Xing let out a derisive chuckle. “You think you can decide who lives and who dies? I’m afraid you’ve got it all wrong.”
As he spoke, his body erupted into its monstrous form—twelve writhing centipede limbs extending outward, a grotesque abomination. The surrounding silver-armored soldiers, however, showed no sign of fear. Without hesitation, they charged into battle.
Wang Cang Hai clasped his hands together and began weaving complex hand seals across his chest. His voice rang out in solemn incantation:
“The Dao of Heaven births Yin and Yang, the cycle of Cosmos turns Heaven and Earth. With the boundless force of the divine, I smite demons and vanquish evil. Wind and Thunder, heed my command—Obliterate the Ten Directions! Heaven’s Net Formation!”
A lotus-shaped halo of light burst forth from Wang Cang Hai’s hands, instantly dispersing the surrounding miasma. The radiant lotus ascended above the giant centipede’s head, unleashing blades of white light that rained down in rapid, piercing strikes.
The giant centipede let out a human voice, its tone laced with disdain. “Hmph. A ‘Taiyi Borrowed Power Curse’? So, you really are the ‘Star-Decreed Genius’ Wang Cang Hai. No wonder I originally planned to capture you as my next body.”
Wang Cang Hai smirked inwardly. Star-Decreed Genius?
When I was fifteen, I climbed Immortal Palace Mountain and apprenticed under the Wudang Sect’s Grandmaster Chongxu. I trained rigorously for over ten years before I even mastered these spells. What does that have to do with destiny?
Mortals foolishly believe that fate outweighs effort—and apparently, even demons are just as ignorant.
The Taiyi Borrowed Power Curse depletes one’s fortune in exchange for celestial energy. This single spell alone will likely cost me five, maybe even ten years of my lifespan. My time with Qilin is already short—this old monster is truly a nuisance._
Wang Cang Hai’s voice was devoid of emotion. “I’m going to kill you now. After your death, I will erect a stone stele to suppress your vengeful soul. Would you like to leave a name? I’ll have it carved onto the tablet, so you have a chance at reincarnation.”
The giant centipede erupted into uproarious laughter, as if it had just heard the most absurd joke in the world. “Then carve these words: ‘The place where the King of Ten Thousand Slaves slew Wang Cang Hai’!”
At that moment, the giant centipede splintered into countless smaller centipedes, swarming toward the silver-armored soldiers, biting into their flesh. The largest horde of centipedes, however, surged directly toward Wang Cang Hai.
Wang Cang Hai chanted the final words of his spell:
“May all sacred spirits transform into divine law—Earthly Fire, Profound Frost!”
From the ground, a multitude of ice-blue crystalline formations erupted, encasing every single centipede in solid ice. Frozen, they could no longer harm anyone.
Once again, Wang Cang Hai asked, “Where is Qilin?”
“If you won’t tell me, I will still find him. But if you do, I’ll inscribe your name on the stele. ‘King of Ten Thousand Slaves’—not a bad name.”
The centipedes remained silent.
Wang Cang Hai had lost his patience. He exhaled a single word:
“Break.”
In an instant, all the ice crystals shattered simultaneously, igniting with blue-white flames. The flames consumed the centipedes, reducing them to nothing more than mist and frost, once again merging with the earth.
At that moment, not far from the ruins of the false ‘Bronze Gate’, the corpse of the Ren Mian Niao suddenly twitched, crushing the swarming rats and bats that had been gnawing at its flesh. Then, without warning—it vanished into thin air.
Elsewhere, a detachment of silver-armored soldiers remained stationed near Qingze Lake. By the water’s edge, Wan Bao pointed at a black waterbird emerging from the lake and remarked to Xia Xia,
“Miss Xia Xia, look—this waterbird is really strange. Its feathers look as if they’ve been burned.”
Xia Xia also noticed the bird and nodded. “It does look unusual.”
The bird let out a series of eerie cries—“Xiao, Xiao… Xiao, Xiao…”—as it flapped its wings and flew northward, disappearing into the sky.
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