Chapter 1961 Fate’s Foundation

Wu Hong calmly looked at Death Assassin's transformation and internally sighed. "Faith is a truly powerful substance. It can do so much for a soul. But, like anything taken to the extreme, it can lead even the wisest of men to ruin."

"I'm going to kill you!" Death Assassin roared, shaking the spatial integrity of his surroundings. The nine spikes on his back extended outward toward Wu Hong with unparalleled speed; they acted just like death itself; one moment everything was fine, and the next, it was there.

Wu Hong was surprised and could barely respond in time. However, her passive domain drastically sealed the spike's speed, allowing her to evade, which immediately elicited the spikes to chase her anywhere she went. "His strength has increased from 7 pillars to 9, and this might not be his limit," she thought.

While evading with the [Book of Infinite Knowledge] always floating in front of her, Wu Hong flipped to a new page and gently tapped on the surface. The rune for [Metal Dao] flew out of the page to condense into a golden sword.

Swish!

Using her power of [Harmony with all Phenomena], Wu Hong suddenly accelerated by forcing the universe to bless her with the ability to ignore distances. In other words, she no longer needs to travel from point A to point B; Point B can come to her, points A and B can change distance, or she can redefine what the distance between those two points is with a single thought.

As she sliced through Death Assassin's spike spine, the beast roared in agony, but only for a few seconds. Without wasting a moment, he regrew the spikes and fired them. Wu Hong casually blocked these spikes, but one of them suddenly turned into Death Assassin, who opened his mouth to spray a breath of decay.

Wu Hong wasn't fast enough to react — even with her passive domain sealing most of the attack. However, that didn't matter. Her current state of transformation meant she was one person with two minds. So, before the attack could damage her, Grand Dao's consciousness acted and condensed a Death Rune that rapidly absorbed all the decay breath.

Bang! A terrifying fist hit Death Assassin's jaw, instantly breaking it before sending him crashing to the ground. The spikes on his back suddenly turned into wings that flipped at an alarming speed to cancel out the momentum of his crash, preventing him from hitting the ground. Death Assassin glanced at Wu Hong, eyes still furious; he yanked out the lower side of his jaw before flying toward her.

"How odd. His first attack was stupid and indicated he's lost his mind and acting on instinct, but the second was calculated and well-thought-out," Wu Hong analyzed. "What's more, his body seemed to have its own instinct."

She didn't back down and rushed forward. Before she arrived, the [Book of Infinite Knowledge] was already above the target; it then released a terrifying pressure that could have collapsed 5% of an entire timeline filled with trillions upon trillions of Chaos Source Worlds.

Death Assassin grunted, but that was the full extent of his reaction. Still, he kept moving; however, his speed had drastically decreased, which was Wu Hong's objective all along. Using this advantage, Wu Hong turned into dozens of shadows that surrounded him, releasing millions of punches and kicks — all containing a hidden seal.

"I was right. His body contains the consciousness of all the people he's killed, which is why, despite losing his mind, he can still fight strategically; it also explains why his body has its own instinct and defensive mechanism."

Now that she knows the problem, it's easy to come up with a solution. However, before Wu Hong could act, Death Assassin had already made a crucial move. His stomach disappeared, replaced by a vortex like the one his face used to have. "Is he going to use the same tactic as before?" Wu Hong thought, immediately prepared to counterattack.

An army of sorrowful ghosts and wraiths flew out of the vortex, ringing Wu Hong's alarm bell. She immediately tried to distance herself from them, but it was too late. These creatures exploded, releasing a concentrated power of death that instantly stripped the world of all color except black.

"Damn it," Wu Hong cursed as she glanced at her left arm: most of it was ruined, turning into decayed flesh and bones. She immediately suppressed her agitation, then sensed something that made her complexion turn ugly. One of the reasons she forced the assassin to fight in the sky was to prevent him from accessing the death power from the Human and Demon Gate. But now that he had pushed her away, the bastard was madly absorbing the death energy around.

Wu Hong suddenly retrieved a bow from the [Book of Infinite Knowledge]. Pulling the strength, an intense power of light condensed into an arrow. Swish! Heaven and Earth were cleaved in two; everything in the arrow's path was purified, and it even brought color back to the world.

Death Assassin's spikes grew into bones that covered his entire body, trying to protect him from that deadly arrow. It was useless. The force behind the projectile sent him flying, dragging him into the void and teleporting him to the Source Qi Space.

An intense pain emanated from Wu Hong's left hand; the backlash from using such a powerful attack had aggravated her injury. However, now was not the time to slow down. With one step, she appeared in the Source Qi Space, less than ten meters away from Death Assassin. Wu Hong flicked her finger, and millions of different Qi in the surroundings turned into spears. Then, one by one, they dug themselves into Death Assassin's flesh.

The Beyonder's servant wanted to resist, but he couldn't. That light arrow was quite deceptive. On the surface, it appeared as the power of light and purification, but that was only the outer layer. The inner layer contained the power of Six Emotions and Seven Desires. Wu Hong's plan was simple: manipulate and force all the different consciousnesses inside Death Assassin's body to become irrational and turn on each other.

It was a great success. With all these wills and consciousnesses battling it out, Death Assassin shut down mentally and became useless, which provided enough time to set up an ultimate seal. Wu Hong raised her hand to put the final nail in the coffin, but stopped at the last moment.

"You…You think…You've won? Think again," Death Assassin uttered. Wu Hong ignored him and continued; his current state was just the final moment of clarity before death. In this state, Death Assassin couldn't even commit suicide, meaning his fate was only to become nourishment for this world's Six Paths Samsara.

"Wu Hong, child of Wu Lising and Ma Huilin, I curse you. I curse that you lose everything and everyone dear to you. I curse that your Dao is never fulfilled. I curse that doom and tragedy always accompany you. I curse that you never find happiness or fulfillment, and that you die with endless regret. I curse that —"

Wu Hong remained calm despite the strange marks appearing all over her body. Under her manipulation, Death Assassin slowly transformed into a black book with his name written on the cover. Finally, she glanced at her body.

"I shouldn't waste such a good opportunity." This curse was potent since Death Assassin used all his hatred for what Wu Hong did to him to cast it. Unfortunately for him, Wu Hong's was always in harmony with the universe, which meant that cursing her was the same as cursing the world itself. Of course, that wasn't enough. The fundamental reason for her confidence was Grand Dao.

With a thought, the heavenly court projected itself above her head, followed by Grand Dao fully manifesting. With her help, powerful suction rapidly yanked the curse out of Wu Hong's body, condensing it into a gray crystal. "The foundation of Curse Dao is Causality, which also served as the foundation of fate. I can use this crystal to rebuild this timeline's River of Fate."

A smile hung on Wu Hong's face as she thought about how two of the Grand Constructs could soon be repaired. With these two sources of the Dao as support, she'll feel more secure about the upcoming expedition against the Red Cloud.

"If I had more time, I would have tried to rebuild all of them before the expedition — especially the River of Time." The sense of foreboding she felt about the future was rapidly increasing. Death Assassin's presence is an indication that Gu Chang'an is running out of patience. Wu Hong has become a threat that he can no longer ignore.

"More importantly, I'm starting to worry about Wang Wei," Wu Hong thought. If a goon sent to deal with him is already at this level of strength, she can imagine how terrifying his Time Nexus is. He might need her help, so Wu Hong wanted to speed things up.

"Watch out!" A powerful voice rang in Wu Hong's ears, and immediately afterward, her danger senses activated.