Chapter 410: Return to the Rightful Owner

"Hmph!" King Chi sneered. "Now that I have a real, powerful Saint Grade Physical Body, why would I ever care for this fake shell?"

She slowly removed Supreme Heaven from her hand, preparing to place it on the Primal Pope. After that, her soul only needed to return to its rightful place, and her success would be complete!

"Don't even think about it!" King Chi suddenly shouted. Her left hand viciously clamped down on the right hand holding Supreme Heaven, fighting Shangguan Chen for control of the body.

Shangguan Chen flared with anger. "Get back in there!"

Shangguan Chen proved stronger in the end. Forcibly suppressing King Chi, he finally slipped Supreme Heaven onto the Primal Pope's hand.

"Thank you."

"You're wel... Hmm?!" Shangguan Chen's head snapped up, his expression changing drastically in an instant.

The person in front of him wasn't the Primal Pope at all. It was... Su Mu!!

Su Mu rubbed the dark gold ring on his hand. Feeling a soul-deep familiarity, a smile curled the corners of his mouth.

"That's impossible!" Shangguan Chen roared in disbelief. Manipulating King Chi's body, he launched a vicious strike at Su Mu.

A blast of blisteringly hot golden flames howled forward.

Bang!

Su Mu was sent flying backward. He slammed into the ground like a kite with a snapped string, then transformed back into the appearance of the Primal Pope.

The pitiful Primal Pope was already severely injured; taking such an undefended hit left scorched marks all over his body.

"What?!" Shangguan Chen's eyes nearly split with rage.

"Surprised?" Su Mu's light chuckle rang out from the side. "I really should thank you for helping me lift the restrictions on Supreme Heaven and returning it to its rightful owner."

"An Illusion Technique! Damn it, that's impossible. When did I fall under an Illusion Technique?"

Su Mu looked slightly disappointed. "Have you still not realized? The one who fell under the Illusion Technique wasn't you. It was... King Chi."

Shangguan Chen froze, then quickly caught on. "That's impossible, too. There's no way I wouldn't have noticed you making a move!"

"Who said I used the Illusion Technique just now? You didn't honestly think that when Pride released the Saint Grade nightmare twice and severely injured King Chi, I was just standing around doing nothing, did you?"

Shangguan Chen's pupils suddenly contracted; he had clearly realized something.

Su Mu wasn't lying. It was common knowledge that he had a good habit of indiscriminately hypnotizing everyone he met, and King Chi was naturally no exception.

Because King Chi was so strong, the initial hypnosis had almost no effect. But King Chi had been severely injured by the Saint Grade nightmare twice. Back then, he hadn't merely been playing the avatar of Pride and watching idly.

The formless hypnosis had long since slipped in while her defenses were down. Furthermore, he had previously tampered with Su Qing. By the time King Chi and Su Qing later fused, the seed of hypnosis had already been planted. Even if he couldn't completely control King Chi as a person, simple visual manipulation to create optical deviations was entirely within his grasp.

Originally, this wouldn't have affected Shangguan Chen. But he just had to insist on invading King Chi's body. After the invasion, the two shared the same vision, so whatever King Chi saw, Shangguan Chen naturally saw as well.

This was especially true since Shangguan Chen's soul was busy suppressing King Chi, leaving his spiritual strength severely restricted.

"Damn it!" Shangguan Chen realized the situation was grim. If this continued, he might actually die. Thus, he decisively forced his soul out of the body.

Transforming into a wisp of white smoke, he shot straight toward the Primal Pope's body.

Shangguan Chen was extremely fast, but how could Su Mu not have anticipated this? Although he couldn't hit an ethereal soul, the Primal Pope's body was still lying motionless on the ground.

Suddenly, a slit tore open between Su Mu's brows, revealing the God's Eye.

Resplendent holy light blasted toward the Primal Pope's body, its terrifying might piercing straight through the void.

The God's Eye was no longer what it used to be. The Primal Divinity had recently absorbed a massive amount of faith, causing the power of the God's Eye to surge dramatically.

"No!!" Shangguan Chen screamed in panic. He had already entered the Primal Pope's body, but the attack from the God's Eye had also arrived.

Boom!!!

The terrifying holy light blasted cleanly through the Primal Pope's chest, leaving behind a hideous, bloody hole. Inside that gaping wound, the heart had completely vanished.

"Damn you!" Shangguan Chen crawled up from the ground with a savage expression, his eyes bloodshot. He covered the bloody hole in his chest with one hand and clenched the other into a fist. A vast, majestic holy light gathered around his knuckles as he punched out.

A fist seal of holy light hurtled toward Su Mu, threatening to crush him.

But right at that moment, a figure in a scarlet dress blocked the path in front of Su Mu. It was King Chi!

Radiant golden flames burned across King Chi's body, making her look like a phoenix reborn from the fire. She thrust both palms forward, taking the holy light fist seal head-on.

Bang!

The golden flames on her body were instantly snuffed out by the fist seal. Struck by the heavy blow, her delicate body was sent uncontrollably flying backward.

And directly behind her was Su Mu.

King Chi felt herself crash into a pair of strong, powerful arms—solid and warm...

A perfectly contoured jawline filled her vision, while a clean, warm breath lingered around the tip of her nose.

Before King Chi could truly register the feeling, she was hauled upright, her feet planted firmly back on the ground.

Her scarlet dress swayed silently, and the injuries on King Chi's body healed in the blink of an eye.

"Pfft..."

Shangguan Chen's face was as pale as paper as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. That last strike had clearly aggravated his injuries.

"Royal Father, what is going on? Why did you..."

"Get lost!" Shangguan Chen roared. Primal Divine Magic activated in an instant, and endless holy light surged out, transforming into several chains of light that immediately bound King Chi tight.

"Royal Father, you... Mmph..." King Chi tried to say more, but the chains gagged her.

Having done all this, Shangguan Chen's face paled a few degrees further, and his body swayed unsteadily.

He knew that King Chi, wearing the Scarlet Moon, couldn't be killed, so he opted to seal her away first.

He didn't even spare King Chi another glance. His bloodshot eyes were fixated entirely on Su Mu.

"Mad King!!" That heavily suppressed roar carried far too many complex emotions, sounding as if it had been forced out from the depths of his throat.

Su Mu responded with a smile.

Shangguan Chen grew even more furious. "That smile again! Damn you! Damn you!"

To him, Su Mu's smile was glaringly offensive—calm and unbothered. But precisely because of that, he could sense the deep contempt and mockery hiding behind it.

It gave him the feeling that even though he was fighting with everything he had, in Su Mu's eyes, he didn't even qualify as an enemy. He was being completely and utterly ignored.

"You could have just lingered on in the Nightmare World, surviving like a stray dog. Unfortunately, you recklessly hid inside the Primal Divine Statue and even came all the way here. I can see you really are in a rush to reincarnate," Su Mu said with a smile.

Shangguan Chen's pupils suddenly contracted. "You knew all along?! No... that's impossible. How could you know? Could it be... Hongye betrayed me?"