Chapter 240: King Chi, Nothing Special

A swarm of ghosts instantly swirled around him in a horrifying display. The sickening sound of grinding teeth and agonizing wails rang in Su Mu's ears.

Before long, the resentful spirits fully plunged into his body. His phantom projection showed no reaction, but within the dreamscape, Su Mu suddenly realized these spirits were following his spiritual connection to tunnel right into the dream.

This bizarre sight made his eyes flash with excitement.

To think there was a method in the Real World capable of invading a dreamscape through a spiritual connection. Interesting!

He had always assumed that hiding within the dreamscape was like turning on an invincibility cheat, rendering him immune to any attack from the Real World. Today, that ingrained assumption was shattered.

It gave him a long-lost sense of pleasant surprise.

Watching Pride being overrun by the resentful spirits, King Chi curled her lips into a cold sneer. "No matter where you hide, these cursed souls will track you down and devour your soul until nothing remains! Pride, enjoy the measure I prepared for the Undead King. Dying to the Dark Nightmare Talisman means you get to experience the treatment reserved for a King.

"You can consider this a worthy death."

"Are you done talking?" Su Mu's disdainful voice rang out.

"What?" King Chi faltered. She stared at the completely unharmed Pride in shock, but quickly recovered her composure and sneered. "It seems your soul is truly robust, to actually endure the corruption of the Dark Nightmare Talisman for this long."

"Endure? Heh, why don't you check that toy in your hand first?"

King Chi's beautiful eyes instantly widened. She looked down at the wooden talisman in her hand in disbelief, only to see a crack forming right at its center.

Crack!

Dense, spiderweb-like cracks rapidly spread across the surface, until finally... the wooden talisman shattered!

Meanwhile, the corresponding scene inside the dreamscape played out like this: countless resentful spirits burrowed into Su Mu's soul, but they didn't last even a single second. Three distinct streams of radiant Divinity erupted from within him, instantly obliterating the spirits.

"That's impossible!" Absolute shock appeared on King Chi's stunning face for the very first time. It wasn't just her; even Gongsun Quan, who had been holding the bead of wisdom in his grasp until now, stood dumbfounded.

As a countermeasure against the Undead King, the Dark Nightmare Talisman might not be able to kill him, but it could still injure his already chaotic soul. In other words, this was a power capable of harming a Gold King!

Logically speaking, anyone in the world struck by this level of power—other than the Seven Kings themselves—would be guaranteed to die. Yet not only had Pride survived, he had caused the Dark Nightmare Talisman to shatter completely. This...

Could it be that Pride was also a Gold King? Or perhaps he carried a treasure on par with a Royal Power Artifact?

Looking at the shocked crowd, Su Mu shook his head slightly, an unavoidable trace of disappointment creeping into his tone. "Is this the extent of it? King Chi... is nothing special."

He turned and walked away. Dead silence descended over the square, so quiet one could hear a pin drop. Wherever he passed, the terrified royal guards scrambled backward. Even though they knew he was only a phantom, not a single person dared to step closer.

King Chi... is nothing special?!

Those words fell upon the crowd's ears like a booming clap of thunder. How dare he?! How could he dare?! This was King Chi, one of the Seven Kings, one of the supreme rulers governing the Seven Great Empires of the modern world.

She possessed peerless strength and overwhelming authority, a paramount figure standing at the very pinnacle of the world. A mere stomp of her foot would send tremors across the globe. Yet here, from Pride's mouth, she received an evaluation of being "nothing special."

Oppressive! The atmosphere was suffocatingly oppressive!

Dark clouds had already gathered across King Chi's stunning face, and the fury boiling within her body was like a roaring volcano. It wasn't hard to imagine that if it erupted, the resulting devastation would be apocalyptic.

Yet King Chi did not erupt. She knew that any venting she did now would just be impotent rage, completely beneath her station. She couldn't stop Pride from leaving, just as she hadn't been able to stop him from rescuing Specter earlier.

"Pride! I will remember today's slight. One day, I will find your true body and grind your bones to dust!"

Her icy words echoed across the plaza like an oath.

A light chuckle came from behind the Silver-White Mask. "Oh? So you're just a woman who likes to boast."

Boom!

Golden flames smashed down toward Su Mu like a falling sun. The sheer heat instantly melted the area where he stood, leaving behind a massive, scorched crater.

And that Silver-White Mask vanished completely from everyone's sight.

"Pride!!"

...

...

"Your Excellency Pride, thank you for saving my life. I will certainly repay today's debt in the future."

Within a void-like expanse of the dreamscape, the heavily injured Specter cupped his fists.

"Naturally, you must repay what you owe me. I have no use for you right now, but I will inform you when the time comes," Su Mu said indifferently.

Specter gave a heavy nod, harboring no ulterior motives. The simple fact that Pride had snatched him from King Chi's grasp and retreated unscathed proved everything.

Facing such an unfathomable powerhouse, he wouldn't dare break his promise. Doing so would bring down a price that the entire Revolutionary Army couldn't afford to pay.

"Your Excellency Pride, forgive me for speaking out of turn, but I must warn you about one thing. You have thoroughly enraged King Chi this time. I worry that in her fury, she might deploy Supreme Heaven again."

"It matters not. Supreme Heaven cannot touch me." Pride's voice was as arrogant as ever, only this time, Specter felt no doubt at all—only shock.

He wasn't even afraid of Supreme Heaven? Who exactly was Pride?

A few outrageous guesses even began to surface in his mind. Could Pride actually be one of the Seven Kings? If so, which King was he?

Envy of the Seven Deadly Sins was a member of the Blood Clan, and everything Pride had done thus far was strictly hostile to the Chiyan Empire. Could Pride actually be the Undead King of the Blood Moon Empire?!

As wild as the theory was, Specter couldn't think of a better explanation. Only the Seven Kings possessed the sheer strength and confidence to openly claim they didn't fear Supreme Heaven.

Although Supreme Heaven was incomparably powerful, it operated strictly on the principle of equivalent exchange. Even if King Chi wanted to use Supreme Heaven to kill another Gold King, the required price would be completely unimaginable. She might even have to sacrifice her own life to pay it.

Perhaps it was for exactly that reason that Pride was so certain Supreme Heaven couldn't touch him?

As they conversed, Specter was startled to realize that the surrounding void had vanished at some point, replaced by a barren mountain.

He extended his spiritual sense to scout their surroundings, and his entire body gave a violent jolt. They were actually thousands of miles away from the Imperial Capital!

To cross thousands of miles in a single instant!

He forcibly suppressed his rising terror, his awe for Pride's unfathomable methods only growing deeper. Back when he first met Pride, he had simply thought Pride's techniques were bizarre. At the time, he figured that in a direct clash of true strength, Pride wouldn't necessarily be his match.

After all, Specter considered himself to be among those at the very peak. Even if he couldn't defeat a Gold King, he assumed he could at least hold his own for a few exchanges.

But after witnessing King Chi's true peak-level combat power today, he finally understood that he was nothing but a frog at the bottom of a well looking up at the moon—and to make matters worse, he was looking up at two moons at the exact same time.