Chapter 479 - 478-

The sky of the oil painting canvas was suddenly pierced by an enormous fang, one that looked as though it had been torn from the maw of some colossal snake or mutated beast. It cut through the air at a shocking speed and plunged straight into the fourth star.

There was almost no distance between the two events. In the outside world, a large portion of the Heavenly Vine was simultaneously pierced by an invisible object, as if struck by the same unseen force. The wound left behind was shaped like the sharp curve of a fang, a single deep gouge carved into the Vine’s ancient bark.

Suddenly, the strange six-eyed beast that had been advancing toward them paused. Its entire form trembled, and the divinity within it shuddered violently before beginning to dissipate back into its body, as though something had reached in and yanked the power out of it. As for the black crack in the sky, once it sensed the other entity’s divinity beginning to wane, its contorting and convulsing slowly ground to a halt, the jagged edges stilling like a wound that had finally stopped bleeding.

It was as if the being was growing tired of trying to force itself open. Seeing that her actions had visibly affected it, Violet’s eyes shone with a brilliant, calculating glint.

She turned her gaze to the huge, transparent sword lodged in the side of the Heavenly Vine. It vibrated and hummed steadily, as though straining to tear itself free and abandon this place entirely.

Violet’s voice echoed across to Grey, who was still trapped within the oil painting. "Try to destroy the other sections if you can. If you can’t, come out and help me." Her voice carried strangely through the silent void of the cosmos, and Grey was startled by the sound of it slicing through the emptiness. Still, he quickly regained his composure.

The moment Grey realized the restraining force was no longer holding him in place, he moved. With a single step, all the spirit power in his body compressed and compacted at once, coiling tight like a spring. His entire being seemed poised, ready to unleash a tremendous burst of speed and acceleration in an instant.

Steadying himself, Grey took that single step forward. With it, he closed the distance to the fourth star, already damaged by the elongated fang, and slashed downward with everything he had.

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*"Try to destroy the other sections if you can. If you can’t, come out and help me."*

After saying this, and without waiting for a response, Violet abandoned the floating wreckage behind her and shot toward the spot where the transparent sword remained lodged in the Heavenly Vine.

Her gaze was sharp and unwavering as she surged forward, a black blur cutting through the space around her. Countless black wisps poured from her body, trailing behind her like drifting clouds of dark fog. Wherever she passed, that fog lingered in her wake, curling and dissolving slowly.

In that same moment, her cracked face and heavily injured body began to knit themselves back together. Her pale skin gradually regained what color it could, though since she inhabited the body of a corpse, it could only ever return to the same ashen white it had always been.

The black fog swirling around the captain churned violently and reshaped itself into the form of a sleek black spear. The instant it fully materialized, she seized it in her grip and hurled it forward with all her strength.

"Pew!"

A loud, sharp sound tore through the air as the black spear sliced toward the top of the Heavenly Vine. Near its crown, several leaves had already withered away entirely, leaving the once-magnificent Vine looking more like a dying husk than the awe-inspiring entity it had once been.

Having already lost most of its divinity and four of its sections to Grey’s assault, the Vine no longer radiated the overwhelming grandeur it once commanded. It resembled an old willow tree long past its prime, slowly succumbing to decay. The transparent sword still lodged in its side struggled violently, thrashing as if it desperately wanted to break free and strike at the Vine itself.

It had clearly sensed the opportunity Grey and Violet had opened up and was determined to seize it. But the blade seemed to have driven itself too deep into the Vine’s flesh, and no matter how hard it fought, it could barely move at all.

After releasing the spear, Violet launched herself into the sky, chasing after it with everything she had. She paid no mind to the danger posed by the divine being nearby, focused only on reaching the top of the Heavenly Vine as quickly as possible.

Just then, another deafening bang echoed from a different part of the Heavenly Vine. A massive section of it was obliterated in an instant. The Vine grew weaker still, and the divinity radiating from the six-eyed being dropped to its lowest point yet.

Its many eyes drifted away from Violet, settling instead on Grey, who had already destroyed five sections and was now moving toward the sixth. Watching this unfold from a distance, Violet’s voice rang out in warning.

"Little Grey, get out of there now!"

The instant the words left her mouth, the six-eyed entity appeared directly before the canvas. Its entire body shuddered and dissolved into liquid blood, as though it were struggling just to hold its own form together.

Its face remained blank and expressionless, but beneath that mask of divinity simmered a quiet, boiling fury.

With a single swipe, the oil painting canvas was torn instantly into shreds, the fragments drifting down to the ground like scraps of ruined paper.

The moment the canvas was destroyed, its remains began to decay rapidly, hissing and crackling with corrosive sound. But an instant before it was torn apart, Grey’s figure flickered into existence just behind the six-eyed entity, having escaped in the nick of time.

His face had gone deathly pale as he fought to keep the divinity from fully seizing control of his body. Another foreign presence had slipped inside him as well, one he strongly suspected was corruption taking hold. Still, it was brutally suppressed on two fronts: from the outside by the shadow, and from within by the purple crystal.

With their combined aid, he managed to claw back his sense of self. As he did, the blood and flesh tendrils that had begun sprouting from him retracted back into his body, and the granulated flesh that had started to spread across his skin slowly returned to normal.

Having narrowly escaped the collapsing canvas, Grey was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the six-eyed entity and immediately turned to flee.

But sensing Grey’s presence behind it, the six-eyed entity twisted around without its body shifting in any visible way. It swiped toward Grey with a motion that looked almost lazy, almost harmless.

The distance between them was considerable, more than enough that the entity’s hand shouldn’t have been able to reach him unless it chose to give chase. And yet that seemingly harmless swipe made the hair on Grey’s scalp stand on end, a wave of primal dread crawling down his spine.

His heart hammered violently in his chest. ’If I don’t dodge this attack, I will die. There’s no question about it.’

That single, screaming thought consumed his mind entirely. If he failed to dodge in time, his life would end here and now.

However, Dodge had no way to react that quickly even if he had wanted to. Judging by the scraps of oil canvas scattered around, the previous attack had already torn it to shreds with ease. There was no doubt it would do the same to Grey.

Then, several lines of blood appeared in the air, slashing toward him. These crimson lines resembled claw marks slicing through empty space. They shot forward, and in the blink of an eye, they were about to tear Grey’s body apart when a cold snort suddenly rang out.

Immediately, a wall of brown cloth rose up and blocked the incoming claw marks. If one looked closely at the brown cloth, they would find that it resembled nothing more than a dirty, tattered rag. And yet, the divinity contained within it was overwhelming, radiating an aura far beyond what its shabby appearance suggested.

The Cloth Doll had blocked the attack from the six-eyed entity!

"It doesn’t even know how to attack properly. What a waste of time and divinity." A proud yet disdainful voice rang out from the small piece of cloth in his hands.

It had exerted itself a little, taking action to intervene, but once it realized the six-eyed entity wasn’t actually that strong, it let out a derisive harrumph, its tone dripping with contempt and disdain.

Seizing the opening that the Cloth Doll had bought him, Grey didn’t hesitate for even a moment. He activated the full power of his cultivation base. With a loud bang, three bright flames appeared beside him, beginning to revolve around his body like moons orbiting the earth.

His speed increased dangerously, and he immediately fled the area. But as he ran, he heard faint rumbling sounds echoing within his body. Grey’s eyes narrowed slightly a few spirit perforations had opened up on their own, without any conscious effort on his part.