“What am I?”

The Supervisor sighed, his tone carrying a hint of bitterness:

“I’m merely a Destiny Master—forgotten by others, usurped by disciples, and looked down upon by the crude warrior I painstakingly supported!”

“Don’t make such boring jokes with me!” Huang howled, His face contorted.

The Supervisor’s personality is quite malicious; it’s no wonder he produced disciples with such peculiar temperaments… the Nine-Tailed Fox thought to herself.

Honestly, if she were in Huang’s position and heard the Supervisor’s answer, she too would have wanted to beat him.

Meanwhile, Xu Qi An’s keen ears caught everything—the Supervisor and Huang’s conversation hadn’t been particularly quiet, and he heard it all.

For some reason, he wasn’t particularly surprised; he even felt relieved, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Certain suspicions in his heart were confirmed the moment the Supervisor said “Help him become the Guardian.”

He turned his attention to the light pillar instead. “The thing that caused Divine Beasts to fall was a blade? A blade purely formed of light…”

Xu Qi An both believed and doubted this.

He believed it because this blade gave him the feeling it could cut through anything—it must be an extremely rare treasure.

But it didn’t seem to match the importance and status of the legendary “cause of the Catastrophe.”

“The Supervisor said this was the cause of the First Catastrophe, not the Second—was this why?”

As he pondered this, he lowered his gaze to survey below.

Skeletons were piled across the plain. Some had rotted, becoming incomplete, weathered to dust, their living forms long indiscernible.

The closer to the light pillar, the more bones were piled, until at the center they formed a high platform, like a king’s throne.

Were these all Divine Beasts?

Suddenly, Xu Qi An collided with an invisible wall. The wall, formed of light screens, rippled like water when struck by the Grade One Warrior’s hard face.

He couldn’t approach the light pillar.

Huang seemed to have been waiting for this moment, His golden pupils suddenly sharpening.

Splat… Crack… The Nine-Tailed Fox, who had been completely focused on Xu Qi An, heard the sound of flesh tearing and bones breaking.

She whirled around to see Huang’s opened maw, like a dark red abyss.

Huang had severed His own body, splitting Himself in half at the lower back—everything below remained in the time-slow domain, while everything above gained freedom.

As a Divine Beast who had survived since ancient times, He never lacked methods to deal with difficulties.

Earlier, holding the Supervisor as a trump card, He had been confident and thus hadn’t chosen this bloody self-mutilation to escape.

Now, since the Supervisor had spoken those words, intending to support Xu Qi An as the Guardian, whether true or false, He had to respond and couldn’t let things develop freely.

Indeed, even now, Huang hadn’t completely believed the Supervisor’s words.

Compared to Huang’s enormous form, the Nine-Tailed Fox was like a speck, truly not even enough to fill a tooth gap.

The silver-haired beauty instinctively wanted to dodge. Although she had successfully reached Grade One, being swallowed by a Divine Beast who could devour all things was no joke.

But she quickly realized Huang’s true target wasn’t her, but Xu Qi An.

This was a feigned attack. He did this to force her to retreat in caution because even though she had reached Grade One, while she couldn’t defeat the “Half-Step Transcendent” Huang, she could still engage Him.

And time was exactly what Huang lacked most.

Understanding this, the silver-haired beauty’s beautiful eyes widened. Abandoning thoughts of evasion, her nine tails suddenly rose behind her like giant pillars reaching into the clouds.

The fox tails expanded infinitely, bristling and writhing, some meeting the upper palate of the abyssal maw, others sinking to brace against the lower jaw.

The nine tails, thick as heavenly pillars, held Huang’s blood-filled mouth open like tentacles, preventing it from closing.

Simultaneously, the Nine-Tailed Fox dropped to the ground, her snow-white arms becoming forelegs, thick long white fur emerging beneath her fair skin.

Her face elongated, also growing snow-white fur, her eyes transforming into jade-green beast eyes.

A clear, long howl echoed between heaven and earth.

A white fox as large as a mountain appeared, noble and elegant, bewitching and enchanting, like the world’s most beautiful spirit beast.

“ROAR!”

Huang released an earth-shaking roar, spittle spraying like rain, His huge head suddenly plunging to slam into the white fox’s face, making her head tilt and body stagger.

Splat… The curved single horn sealing the Supervisor viciously pierced the white fox’s chest, crimson blood raining down.

The white fox’s facial muscles wrinkled, baring her fangs to viciously bite into Huang’s nape, tearing away a chunk of flesh.

At the same time, her nine tails wrapped around Huang’s body, suddenly tightening like a python constricting its prey.

The two massive monsters fought in the most primitive way, biting and tearing, each movement causing earthquake-like effects, each collision raising terrifying storms.

Their battle seemed to push time back to the ancient era, that age of violence and chaos.

“She can’t hold on much longer.”

Xu Qi An’s left palm pressed against the light screen, suddenly exerting force. The screen violently shuddered but somehow withstood the terrifying brute force of a Grade One Warrior.

To break this barrier would require at least a Half-Step Martial God… As these thoughts turned in Xu Qi An’s mind, he looked at the Peace Blade in his hand.

Without hesitation, he raised the Peace Blade in his right hand and thrust it fiercely at the light screen.

The screen split silently but didn’t completely collapse, like the fabric cut by a blade.

Indeed… He wasn’t surprised; he even felt this was how it should be.

The Peace Blade was forged by the Supervisor, with materials also provided by him.

When the Supervisor told him to bring the Peace Blade, Xu Qi An had already had a premonition.

Flicking his wrist, he slashed the Peace Blade upward, cutting open a gap, and stepped through into the light screen.

After entering the screen, Xu Qi An’s perception of the “blade” changed again. It still radiated magnificent divine might, as if it could cut through anything.

But behind its peerless sharpness, there was now a sense of weightiness.

This weightiness came from protection.

In Xu Qi An’s heart, inexplicably arose a desire to protect.

Though he hadn’t figured out what he wanted to protect.

Hum hum… The Peace Blade vibrated violently, its spirit’s thoughts entering Xu Qi An’s mind:

“It is me, and I am it!”

It is me, and I am it… Xu Qi An repeated this in his mind several times. His gaze flickered slightly, he fell silent for a moment, then released the Peace Blade.

This broken blade that had been practically useless since he reached Grade One swooshed toward the light pillar, toward that “blade” formed of condensed light.

The two gradually merged.

“AWOOO!”

In the distance, Huang’s throat erupted with a trapped beast’s roar. He seemed to realize the gravity of the situation.

Thus His roar carried not just anger but also anxiety.

His hooves stamped down, pinning the Nine-Tailed Fox firmly to the ground, followed by frenzied biting, each bite tearing away a huge chunk of flesh.

The scene was incredibly bloody.

Tearing through flesh, snapping bones, the Nine-Tailed Fox released a piercing wail, her limbs thrashing wildly, her nine tails like dying beasts making their final struggles.

The force she exerted on Huang’s body was devoured and neutralized by an invisible power upon contact, greatly reducing its effectiveness—another manifestation of Huang’s innate divine ability.

Combined with her original power being inferior to this ancient Divine Beast’s, she finally couldn’t hold on.

She had managed to last this long only thanks to the essence blood in her fox tails continuously energizing her.

“Crack!”

The Nine-Tailed Fox’s neck was brutally bitten through, and her head was caught in Huang’s mouth.

At the same time, He lowered His head, lifting the white fox’s body as strange, profound patterns covered His entire body, His horn glowing.

He would devour the Nine-Tailed Fox’s spiritual essence, even though this would force Him into slumber.

At this point, Huang too had no way to retreat.

The Nine-Tailed Fox released another piercing wail, the demonic sound assaulting the mind.

Huang’s fierce golden pupils showed a moment’s daze, and then the fox head in His mouth dispersed into blue smoke, her limbs hanging limp, the body suspended from His horn becoming just a tail.

The silver-haired beauty appeared in the distance, having returned to human form. Her flawlessly beautiful face was paper-white, her aura weak, her fox tails dragging powerlessly on the ground—now only eight remained.

She couldn’t hold on anymore.

Without any hesitation, the Nine-Tailed Fox ran toward the edge on her long legs.

Retreating from the main battlefield.

“Xu Ning Yan!”

She screamed.

With her scream, Huang’s hooves suddenly leaped, pouncing through the air toward Xu Qi An like a mountain in flight.

In the process, Huang’s single horn burst with light that was white at the edges and pitched black inside.

This light suddenly expanded, devouring Huang’s body, and transforming Him into a pure black hole.

The light couldn’t illuminate the black hole because even light was devoured.

Air currents carrying dust and bones rushed into the black hole, disappearing without a trace.

Xu Qi An raised his left hand, making the glass bead on his wrist light up, then aimed his palm at Huang, trying to cut the space He occupied and throw Him far away.

But he failed. The glass bead seemed to lose its power, unable to complete the spatial cut.

Before the black hole, all techniques were ineffective, all spiritual essence power would be completely devoured.

Huang’s purpose was obvious—He would make a final gambit, pushing His innate divine ability to its peak regardless of consequences, devouring everything, including Xu Qi An, the Nine-Tailed Fox, and that blade that had merged with the “gate.”

The price would be entering a period of slumber.

Once asleep, subsequent events would be beyond His control. Until this final moment, He hadn’t planned to use this move.

By then, the Peace Blade and the light pillar’s “blade” had completely merged—it was impossible to tell whether the former had contained the latter or vice versa.

Hum!

The Peace Blade rippled with a wave of energy, and where it passed, the barrier collapsed into strong winds sweeping in all directions.

With the core finding its destination, the restriction lost its meaning.

After the barrier collapsed, the light pillar gradually extinguished.

The Peace Blade landed with a clang, piercing into the bone “throne.”

Xu Qi An felt relieved. He immediately pulled out the Peace Blade, not taking time to check its condition, and spatial-jumped to the Nine-Tailed Fox’s side. Pressing her delicate shoulder, he jumped with her to the edge of the area.

Behind them was the domain of slow-flowing time.

“Quickly go…”

The Nine-Tailed Fox urged in a trembling voice.

Xu Qi An grunted in agreement without looking back, because he could feel the black hole pursuing them, its all-devouring pull seemingly right behind them.

The glass bead on his wrist flashed.

Xu Qi An and the Nine-Tailed Fox appeared dozens of meters away. They once again experienced the “slowness” restriction—even blinking took over five seconds, raising an arm took over ten seconds, and everything slowed tenfold.

As Xu Qi An raised his hand to perform a second spatial jump, they felt this space suddenly shake.

Then, the time flow in this space began returning to normal at an extremely rapid rate.

The Nine-Tailed Fox turned to look and screamed:

“He’s coming…”

The black hole was less than thirty zhang away. A few more zhang forward and they would be drawn into the core devouring domain—at that point, they would have only death awaiting them.

Xu Qi An’s expression changed slightly, but he didn’t look back, slowly performing the second spatial jump.

He completed the spatial jump, but the Nine-Tailed Fox’s sharp voice, now tinged with fear, rang out again:

“Run quickly, it’s over…”

The next moment, the all-devouring pull enveloped them.