Chapter 421 - 397: Song, Show Mercy

The Word Spirit Talisman was unleashed—a curse to counter cause and effect!

In the plaza on Cyan Feather Mountain, under the vast sky, an indescribable, strange fluctuation spread out from the void. A wisp of smoke drifted from the end of the Word Spirit Talisman, imperceptibly enveloping the entire backlash from the cause and effect that Gu Peng had invoked—

This envelopment was truly miraculous. Normally, the power of a causal backlash is formless, invisible to the naked eye, and unbound by the constraints of distance. As long as the threads of cause and effect existed, this power would descend abruptly and illogically.

Its incredible speed and bizarre form left no time for anyone to react.

But when Song Ciwan unleashed the Word Spirit Talisman, she not only captured this power, but the moment of contact was a cataclysm—a flash of lightning, the sun and moon eclipsed, the heavenly river overturned, and a shower of falling stars.

Just like that, the Power of Cause and Effect that Gu Peng had borrowed from some unknown source was forced back by Song Ciwan’s Word Spirit Talisman!

This time, Gu Peng failed to use any Divine Technique to counter the Curse Power of the Word Spirit Talisman. It wasn’t that Gu Peng had run out of Divine Techniques, nor was it that curses ranked higher than cause and effect—

It was simply that Song Ciwan’s curse was stronger than the Divine Technique of cause and effect that Gu Peng had obtained by invoking the name of the "Ancient Gods"!

Fast. It was too fast.

Faster than a fleeting ray of light, faster than the blink of an eye.

In less than an instant, Gu Peng suddenly cried out, "AH!"

At almost the same moment, a distant, ancient voice echoed from the faraway sky, "Song, stay your ha—"

Someone... no, perhaps a demon, had come to save Gu Peng!

Or perhaps Gu Peng had always been accompanied by a Guardian, hidden in the shadows.

Under normal circumstances, whenever Gu Peng fought against humans, no matter how perilous the battle seemed, his Guardian would never intervene. But now, at the true precipice of life and death, the so-called rule of non-intervention was naturally cast aside.

As the voice rang out, a flurry of white catkins, like drifting snowflakes, filled the sky and descended upon Song Ciwan.

A sensation of space itself freezing accompanied their descent.

Song Ciwan raised her hand. A strand of golden light shot from her palm, flying into the midst of the scattering white catkins.

This was the Pseudo-Gold Divine Light she had obtained by selling nine Golden Hawthorns. This item possessed the ability to nullify any Magical Treasure in the world.

However, if the Magical Treasure’s Level was too high, the chance of success would be reduced.

As Song Ciwan threw out the Pseudo-Gold Divine Light, she sacrificed a hundred years of her Lifespan into it. Given the quality of her life force, the power generated from burning these hundred years of Lifespan could rival more than a millennium for an ordinary Cultivator.

BOOM—

The Pseudo-Gold Divine Light, originally just a thin line, instantly expanded to meet the descending catkins, enveloping them completely.

Then, in an instant, the fluttering catkins coalesced into a single willow branch, still bearing tender buds.

Carried by the Pseudo-Gold Divine Light, the willow branch landed in Song Ciwan’s hand.

With a flip of her palm, Song Ciwan stored it in the Heaven and Earth Scale, and the Pseudo-Gold Divine Light dissipated.

Only then did the ancient, distant voice manage to complete its sentence, the one meant to stop Song Ciwan from killing Gu Peng: "Song, show mercy!"

Show mercy—

Show mercy—

The echo hadn’t yet faded, but the willow branch had already been stored in Song Ciwan’s Heaven and Earth Scale. As for Gu Peng, after his agonized cry, his hundred-foot-tall body began to shrink rapidly.

From a hundred feet, to fifty, to thirty, to ten...

Finally, the mountain-sized Gu Peng had become a great lion, roughly ten feet tall!

He had reverted to his true form in a scream of agony. Before the sound died, his seemingly majestic lion’s body suddenly tipped over.

THUD!

The Golden Lion hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Within the dust cloud, the Golden Lion’s fur began to fall out in clumps, its flesh withered and cracked, and its eyes plopped out of their sockets.

Whether it was Devouring or chaos, not even the Cause and Effect Skill could withstand the endless march of time, the ceaseless flow of its river...

The Golden Lion Demon Gu Peng, who had shocked the world in three days, defeating twelve Celestial Prides in a row to become famous overnight, was dead. Just like that!

He had risen like a brilliant star from the horizon, only to fall as swiftly as a meteor.

He left but a fleeting glimmer in the sky, dazzling for an instant before vanishing forever.

...

All around, the onlookers were silent.

Even the wind seemed to pass without a sound.

No one could be blamed for the silence. Though the events were complex to describe, in reality, everything had happened in a flash.

From the moment Song Ciwan’s Word Spirit Talisman landed, to the distant voice of intervention, to Song Ciwan seizing the willow branch, and finally to Gu Peng’s death—it all happened in the blink of an eye.

With a flick of her sleeve, Song Ciwan personally collected Gu Peng’s corpse.

She grabbed Gu Peng’s body and, while she was at it, absorbed the Malice of death from the Giant Demon before tossing the corpse into the Heaven and Earth Scale.

When she had finished, the distant, ancient voice let out a sigh, three parts melancholy and five parts fury. "Song Celestial Pride, to strike so viciously is not the proper Dao. You should know that most calamities in this world are born from those who refuse to show any quarter!"

Song Ciwan, standing upon the Void, turned in the wind to face the source of the voice.

In the distant sky appeared a white-haired figure leaning on a staff, his back slightly hunched and his face a web of wrinkles. He, too, looked up at Song Ciwan. Then, his staff moved, and in an instant, it transformed into a long bridge that spanned the heavens.

Just as the figure was about to step onto the bridge, a beam of sword light shot up from within Guangling City.

Accompanying the sword light was a wild, unrestrained laugh. "Old Demon Liu, you can’t even get being a demon right, yet you have the gall to lecture a Celestial Pride of our Human Race! Do you really think the Human Race is defenseless?"

Amidst the laughter, the sword light transformed into a rainbow, meeting the sky-spanning staff-bridge head-on in mid-air.

Their meeting was like the scorching sun on ice and snow, like starlight transforming into a celestial river.

The sword was like a Daytime Star Appearance, chilling and deadly.

In an instant, the staff-bridge emitted a series of cracking sounds. K-K-KRAK.

The distant white-haired elder cried out in shock and alarm, "Beichen Sword Immortal! It’s you!"

So, the one who had attacked with the Sword of Command was the Beichen Sword Immortal—the very same Beichen Sword Immortal Song Ciwan had glimpsed from afar in Su Yang City ten years ago!

Within the sword light, the Beichen Sword Immortal, his long hair bound high, laughed freely. "It is I, Old Demon Liu. Today, I’ll take one of your branches to teach you members of the Demon Race a lesson: my Mortal World, the Nine Provinces, is not a place you Little Demons can come and go as you please!"

KRAK!

KRAK KRAK KRAK!

The sword light descended, and the long bridge shattered completely, turning into fragments that scattered in mid-air.

The Beichen Sword Immortal was faster than starlight. His figure flickered within his Sword Qi, piercing through the distant web of white hair that blotted out the sky.

His Sword Qi weaved through the endless canopy of white hair. As fast as the strands regenerated, his Sword Qi was there to cut them down.

The sword moved like a dragon-snake, a bolt of furious lightning across the sky.

As he fought, the Beichen Sword Immortal spoke, "The competitions between Celestial Prides are fought fairly. Your Demon Race’s little lion came to the Mortal World and challenged numerous Celestial Prides of our Human Race, defeating every single one. Did we say anything? No!"

"But now, your little lion loses just once, and you come rushing in all frantic. Don’t be such a shameless sore loser!"

"Hehehe!"

"Hehehe!"