Chapter 411: Gold Immortal Emperor Su Mu

Su Mu shook his head. "Hongye didn't sell you out, but he was indeed the one who exposed you. After receiving orders from a divine envoy, a devout zealot's first priority should have been sparing no effort to track you down. Instead, he used the Primal Divine Cult to elevate himself to a Gold King first. When I arrived, he was even still lingering at the cult to preach."

"I imagine you orchestrated that. It protected you while you hid inside the Primal Divine Statue, and it bought you time to wait for me—to see what my next move would be."

Shangguan Chen's expression turned exceedingly grim. He hadn't expected Su Mu to see right through his schemes. He thought back to how clever he had felt—believing the most dangerous place was the safest—and how smugly he had hidden himself inside the Primal Divine Statue.

Yet all the while, Su Mu had simply stood by, pretending not to know. A profound sense of humiliation welled up within him.

"Every one of your moves has been under my control," Su Mu said. "I wanted to see what kind of surprise you could give me, so I let you act. And in the end, you truly did deliver a surprise."

"You were the one who personally set the restrictions on Supreme Heaven back then. Now you've personally removed them and handed it right to me. Truly a pleasant surprise."

"Enough!" Shangguan Chen snarled, his expression ferocious and his eyes heavily bloodshot.

"Do you think you've already won? So what if you saw through my schemes? So what if Supreme Heaven is in your hands?

"I am already a Saint Grade expert, while you are nothing but a lowly Silver! I can snatch Supreme Heaven back from you with ease.

"Go ahead and try it. Let's see who's faster—me taking it back, or you making a wish!"

"Silver?" Su Mu chuckled softly. "Then how do you think a Silver like me managed to walk out of King Chi's cage of fire?"

Before his words even faded, his aura skyrocketed. In the blink of an eye, he shattered the boundaries of Silver and broke through to the Gold Realm!

A terrifying black aura of malice erupted into the sky. The air itself seemed to freeze. Even the gentle ambient light appeared to shrink back in fear, avoiding him entirely and casting a murky, indistinct shadow around his form.

Wisps of that malicious aura coiled around him, forming utterly bizarre patterns across his skin. They looked like wicked brands that had crawled out of an endless Abyss, twisting and writhing as they slithered across his flesh.

This ominous malice flooded the entire great hall. Su Mu looked like an Asura who had just walked out of Hell—wicked and enigmatic.

Gold Law: Giant Demon!

While Shangguan Chen had been maneuvering in the shadows, Su Mu hadn't been idle either. Using the Dream Time Chamber for time acceleration, he pushed his Silver 3 Bloodshed Berserk to utter perfection. Afterward, he sought out Duanmu Qing and obtained the Gold Law potion, Giant Demon.

Given the immense influence and the vast wealth of resources the Seven Deadly Sins had accumulated, brewing a bottle of the commonplace Giant Demon potion was no challenge at all.

This was his first time displaying the Giant Demon form in public. He had kept it hidden all this time primarily because he was worried about scaring Shangguan Chen away.

But now, Shangguan Chen had clearly descended into a frenzied state of furious humiliation. He was ready to risk it all in a desperate gamble.

"Gold?" Shangguan Chen let out a low, savage laugh. "Is this what you're relying on? A mere Gold! Who gave you such confidence?

"I am at the Saint Grade! Even though I am heavily wounded and must use one hand to suppress the Gold King, I am still invincible in this fake world!

"Mad King! Victory will ultimately belong to me!"

Rumble!

Radiant holy light erupted from Shangguan Chen's body. A pair of holy light wings slowly sprouted from his back, cascading tendrils of silver brilliance that drove away the gloom of the world.

He pressed his palms together and slowly drew them apart. A longsword shimmering with divine radiance gradually took solid form, emitting a light as blinding as an eternal, blazing sun.

Swish!

The wings of holy light on Shangguan Chen's back flapped violently. He shot toward Su Mu like a falling meteor, raising the glowing sword high before bringing it down with a tidal wave of divine power.

Wherever the blade passed, it tore a ragged, gaping wound through the very void.

Su Mu's eyes narrowed slightly. He let his hand drop to his side and loosely curled his fingers. A pitch-black demonic sword materialized out of thin air into his grasp. It was one of the Twelve Swords of Royal Power—the Demonic Sword: Void Devourer.

A dreadful aura of malice surged up his arm, transforming into dark wisps that coiled tightly around Void Devourer.

Buzz...

Void Devourer let out a vibrating hum, sounding like a vengeful ghost demanding a life.

Meeting the incoming strike, Su Mu swung Void Devourer upward in a sweeping, crescent arc to intercept it head-on.

Clang!!

A terrifying shriek of clashing metal echoed across the heavens and the earth, ringing out like the chaotic rumble of the world's creation.

Holy light and the malicious aura exploded outward, carving deep fissures into the surrounding ground and even the entire palace itself.

The magnificent great hall collapsed with a deafening roar. Countless chunks of rubble rained down on the two of them, but before the debris could even touch them, it was utterly vaporized by the terrifying holy light and malice radiating from their bodies.

The two blades remained locked in a vicious struggle. Holy light and malice clashed violently, emitting a harsh, sizzling hiss.

Shangguan Chen stared at Su Mu in sheer disbelief. He couldn't fathom how the other man had blocked his strike. Even though he was heavily wounded and had to divert a portion of his strength to suppress King Chi, his remaining power was still on par with a Gold King! It was far beyond what a lowly Gold could withstand!

Yet Su Mu had undeniably blocked it.

"This malice... that's impossible!"

The malice pouring out of Su Mu was practically tangible. Within that sky-blotting darkness, countless densely packed Nightmare Creatures could faintly be seen roaring savagely, as if they had coalesced into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Shangguan Chen was horrified. Was this the kind of malice a Gold Giant Demon should possess?! Just how many Nightmare Creatures had he slaughtered?!

No... that wasn't right. With such an overwhelming amount of malice, how could his soul even contain it?

Shangguan Chen had never seen a Gold King of the Giant Demon pathway, but he figured that if one actually existed, they would probably possess this exact level of might.

Even Su Mu himself didn't know how many Nightmare Creatures he had killed. Over this recent period, he had basically been slaughtering them every single day. The moment he unleashed Severed Thoughts in Sealed Dust, countless Nightmare Creatures would fall. Then, once his mental power ran dry, he would simply enter the dream world to refill it. He functioned like a perpetual motion machine. After advancing to Gold, his efficiency had increased more than tenfold.

For someone like him with nearly infinite mental power, raising his strength was as simple as eating and drinking.

Severed Thoughts in Sealed Dust!

While the two remained locked in their struggle, crystal-blue light erupted from Su Mu's eyes. A vast, boundless wave of mental power surged outward, blasting directly toward Shangguan Chen.

Shangguan Chen's expression shifted, and he forcefully threw himself backward in retreat. But Severed Thoughts in Sealed Dust pursued him, like a shadow following its form.

He violently folded the twin wings on his back in front of himself. Endless holy light surged out, forming a holy light shield.

Divine Guardian!

Bang!

The materialized mental power shattered against the shield.

"Light of Purification!"

Shangguan Chen bellowed as he thrust one hand high into the air and then violently brought it down. He summoned a dazzling ray of purifying light from the heavens. It was like a blazing sun descending upon the mortal realm. Wherever its brilliance fell, all evil would be instantly purged.

Naturally, this included the malice clinging to Su Mu.

The monstrous, surging black aura reacted like a blazing bonfire that had suddenly been doused with a bucket of cold water. The flames were abruptly extinguished.

Giant Demon, known as the weakest Gold Law, finally exposed its fatal flaw at this moment. It possessed absolutely no skills, only raw stats—acting like nothing more than a super minion in a video game.