Chapter Eighty-Eight: The First Encounter with the Box Garden

Why was there no sign? Did we fail?

"No. The Box Garden has judged that we did not obtain the flesh and blood of the Black Death Emperor. There is another will inside!"

The withered lotus of bones exploded into shards at once. Even the tiniest fragment of the Black Death Emperor's flesh possessed the power to devour any beast; it became a gaping maw, baring its teeth at everyone with a shrill, ravenous cry.

Upon seeing this, Su Jin shouted, "Qi Qiuchan, retreat!"

But Qi Qiuchan paid him no heed. The iron beads on the Dragon-Riding Staff trembled with a melodious dragon's roar, slamming hard into Zhang Liaoyuan's vacant body.

When the unstoppable met the indestructible, two opposing forces collided, yet for some reason there was little upheaval. Instead, time itself suddenly seemed to slow.

Zhang Liaoyuan's lifeless eyes turned toward Qi Qiuchan. The air seemed to contract all at once. Caught between Zhang Liaoyuan's martial manifestation and the real world, Qi Qiuchan felt as though he had been trapped between two millstones. His bones crackled across his body; even the mask on his face was crushed by that monstrous force, cutting his cheeks into bloody ruin. He could not move, frozen in midair like a mosquito sealed in amber.

Vast and boundless, as though riding the wind through empty space, unaware of where one might come to rest; drifting and detached, as though cast off from the world, shedding mortal form and ascending to immortality.

The aura around Zhang Liaoyuan rose layer by layer, towering like a mountain, vast like the sea, deep like an abyss, terrible like a prison. A mighty qi vein rose from the crown of his head, like a ladder reaching straight into the immortal realm.

If an ancient observer of vital signs had been here, he would likely have bowed to the ground in awe and worshiped at once.

Suddenly, the Dragon-Riding Staff clattered to the floor, and Qi Qiuchan, drained of all strength, fell with it. All that crushing pressure vanished without a trace. Yet the qi vein surrounding Zhang Liaoyuan grew weaker and weaker, until it was barely perceptible. The air fell into an eerie silence; not a single sound remained anywhere. Everything had utterly frozen.

No one would think Zhang Liaoyuan had failed in his breakthrough, because an uncanny melody suddenly began to play in every heart. It was the irresistible invasion of an immense delta wave, forcefully entering their minds and proclaiming the descent of a new god.

Qi Qiuchan, Su Jin, Samuel, Amano Dashi, and Vulture were not tense at all. On the contrary, they felt almost euphoric, as though they would not even mind dying at Zhang Liaoyuan's hands.

Zhang Liaoyuan's martial will was undergoing a tremendous transformation, a change even more complete than that of Weng Dongqi. The frequency and intensity of his delta wave were advancing toward a realm that none of them could understand, nor fully observe.

Just as humans cannot hear ultrasound, ordinary people could not sense Zhang Liaoyuan's threat at all; instead, they would be assimilated by his will.

Only Adongsa knew what was happening to Zhang Liaoyuan.

Unlike Weng Dongqi's qi piercing the heavenly gate, Zhang Liaoyuan did not possess the ability to perceive the gaps in all things. On the contrary, he showed no other exceptional trait at all, until he took a single step.

That step crushed the bones beneath his feet into dust, and his entire body sank down a good way before he belatedly stopped and steadied himself. Everything around him seemed as brittle as tofu; even ordinary walking had become difficult.

Adongsa said with a sigh, "Absolute rigidity... or something made of a substance nearly identical to absolute rigidity. That isn't quite accurate either. The power of a meridian bearer blurs the boundary between consciousness and reality through the will of the self, forcing the world to accept your thoughts. In other words, all matter in this world, the instant it comes into contact with you, will mistakenly believe it is colliding with absolute rigidity. Even you yourself will be frozen into a statue by such obsession... I think I may understand what you are trying to do."

Zhang Liaoyuan's movements were unnaturally stiff, but from the twisted mass of black scales came his muffled voice.

"I originally intended to let Leviathan carry out this plan, but perhaps you will not disappoint me either. Try to stay alive, Adongsa."

Adongsa accelerated its devouring of the Black Death Emperor, swallowing its complete genetic information in one gulp. It did not care whether there was a trap hidden within, nor whether it would lose itself by failing to master such a powerful genetic inheritance. It knew that if it could not grow stronger rapidly, it would not be able to face the crisis ahead.

For the enemy to come was the source of meridian bearers, the maker and ruler of qi veins, a demon that had been raising meridian bearers for a thousand years.

It disguised itself as the Heavenly Way, embedding itself deeply into the mind of every meridian bearer, waiting to seize their bodies and parasitize them the moment they pierced the heavenly gate and believed themselves closest to the will of heaven.

Yet all these years, it had never found a body capable of bearing that immense power. Until today, it discovered Zhang Liaoyuan, who possessed indestructible adamantine flesh.

When Zhang Liaoyuan's ascent reached its peak, that cold and malicious intent appeared exactly as expected. It surged abruptly from the deepest sea of Zhang Liaoyuan's subconscious, spreading through his every thought and qi vein like ink too dense to dilute.

Chaotic qi veins burst within the body, yet were still held fast by it, perfectly containing that mighty will.

Zhang Liaoyuan's rigid expression became vivid once more. Around him came the sound of glass shattering, but it still could not be fully restored.

He—no, "he"—let out a furious roar: "Zhang Liaoyuan, you are courting death!"

That roar echoed through the pit in the form of a delta wave. The violent delta wave took physical shape, surging through the air and whipping up squalls of hurricane force. Fragments of bone were lifted into the sky, only to be shredded apart by the roar.

By now the master of this body was no longer Zhang Liaoyuan. His will had been devoured at the root, leaving him with not the slightest power to resist.

"Now!"

The confrontation brought by the descent of the Heavenly Way finally gave Su Jin and the others their chance. With trembling hands, they drew a talisman seal from their bosom, tore it apart, and vanished in a flash of golden light. Even Qi Qiuchan and the Dragon-Riding Staff were taken with them.

But no one was paying attention to them anymore.

"At last I meet you, Poison Serpent!" the black-scaled giant barked out a venomous rebuke at the Heavenly Way.

This nightmare creature, hidden within the Heavenly Capital Kingdom for a thousand years, had been called Poison Serpent by Zhang Liaoyuan.

Zhang Liaoyuan had split his consciousness in two precisely to prevent the Poison Serpent from devouring him, using the Black Death Emperor as a catalyst to break and be reborn anew.

And by Zhang Liaoyuan alone, such a delicate maneuver would have been absolutely impossible. If nothing unforeseen had occurred, there must have been some being adept at manipulating hearts and minds helping him from behind the scenes.

Zhang Liaoyuan smiled with cold composure. "You have been harvesting the meridian bearers who pierce the heavenly gate all this time, all to replenish your own power while searching for a vessel for your incarnation. Since none of them were good enough, I'll give you a body of adamantine flesh. Satisfied?"

The Poison Serpent moved with extreme difficulty. Its body cracked continuously under the strain of its trembling, yet those fissures kept healing, and it could not completely shake free of Zhang Liaoyuan's seal of absolute rigidity.

Yet at the same time, strands of cold delta wave energy struggled to leak out through those cracks, as though trying to escape from something.

Seeing this, Zhang Liaoyuan said calmly, "Heart Sovereign, activate the Mountain and River Ley-Line Grand Array! Drag it down from the heavens for me!"