By all rights, Jian Chou’s Heaven-Flipping Seal had only been cultivated to the most elementary first level, unlike the koi which had reached the second level with its special qi mechanism lock effect.
Once the qi mechanism locked on, wherever the Heaven-Flipping Seal pointed, no one could escape.
That meant Wu E should have been able to flee.
But now he couldn’t move a single step, only able to stare up helplessly.
Even he couldn’t say clearly whether this was due to shock, surprise, or that hatred of failure so close to success!
Hum!
A buzzing sound arose in his ears.
That was the vibration brought by power refined to the extreme as it fell, as if the entire sky would be torn apart. Around that magnificent ten-zhang palm print, black cracks even appeared.
The current Hidden Realm was already extremely fragile. Under such a powerful strike, it could hardly bear it, seeming to hover on the edge of shattering.
Several cracks even fell directly onto Wu E’s body!
It was a catastrophic disaster!
In the blink of an eye, the Heaven-Flipping Seal was only three zhang from him!
Wu E found it difficult even to look up. The terrifying pressure squeezed the blood vessels in his body, bursting one after another, turning him into a bloodied figure!
The next instant, two zhang!
The terrifying pressure suddenly exploded!
“Crack!”
A crisp sound!
Wu E’s entire body shortened by a section. His upright legs actually shattered completely, red flesh and white bones instantly becoming countless fragments!
One zhang!
The massive shadow had completely covered Wu E, and finally a trace of fear appeared in his eyes.
The entire world seemed bathed in pure ink-black darkness, with no light able to escape the shroud of darkness.
Wu E could hear all the bones in his body shattering together, could hear the sound of his own brain matter splattering…
“Ahhh—”
That was a brief but terrifying scream!
“Boom!”
The terrifying black palm print completely fell to the ground, sinking deep.
Only a splash of blood was visible before being instantly hidden beneath that pure blackness…
Rumble…
The ground shook, and a massive pit ten zhang deep appeared where the palm print fell, dozens of zhang deep!
“…”
“…”
“…”
Complete silence everywhere.
Jian Chou, still in mid-air, was somewhat stunned.
The wind carried the scent of earth mixed with the metallic smell of blood…
Standing at her height, she could easily look down at the bottom of that palm-shaped deep pit below. Wu E’s arrogant figure was no longer there, only…
Scattered remains.
Crushing an opponent, even a demon beast with originally strong physique, was as easy as crushing an ant…
Even though the opponent was severely injured, his strength actually wasn’t weak.
But under this Heaven-Flipping Seal, he had no resistance whatsoever!
Pulverized…
No whole corpse, only scattered wing fragments everywhere, the rest all blood-red like minced meat!
How domineering!
How terrifying!
This…
Was this the true Heaven-Flipping Seal?
Jian Chou couldn’t describe what she felt inside. The wild, transcendent attack power, that momentum that crushed everything…
Though her cultivation seemed not deep, she could clearly feel it.
As if when pressing down this palm, she was the master of heaven and earth who controlled the universe!
But in the end, she still had that dreamlike feeling: Dead just like that? Dead under her unexpected finishing blow?
The Dijiang Thunder-Wind Wings, without continued spiritual power input, gradually retracted inward, disappearing behind Jian Chou.
The battle disc wider than ordinary cultivators’ also slowly vanished.
The pain in her right palm and entire arm finally emerged at this moment.
She stood quietly in the void, finally slowly lifting the palm she had just pressed down.
Even with her sixth-level “Human Vessel” cultivation body, she could hardly bear the terrifying pressure of the Heaven-Flipping Seal.
Blood flowed like a stream.
Flowing down from her arm, and from the cracked finger joints.
Her palm remained pale and slender. Under the sky’s light, one could seemingly see those winding blue veins…
But it was stained with blood.
It was such a hand that seemed to press down the entire universe, taking life in the turning of heaven and earth.
Since entering the Nineteen Provinces, she had cultivated at Yashan, gone to the Western Sea for training, entered the Killing Red Small Realm, the Black Wind Cave, climbed the Solitary Platform…
She had competed and battled with many people.
Exchanged seals, raised axes, swung blades…
But she had never killed anyone.
This was her first time truly killing someone…
Wind lifted her robes. Standing in the void, she looked upright yet lonely, seemingly ordinary, yet having just slain the culprit of all this in the blink of an eye.
Xie Buchen’s gaze gradually moved from the chaos in that great pit to her.
His limbs were ice-cold, even pain becoming a dispensable decoration.
He felt he shouldn’t know why she was stunned at this moment, but that thought surfaced in his mind with near certainty.
It was because of taking life.
Someone who had never been stained with blood suddenly raising the butcher’s knife—what kind of feeling would that be?
Xie Buchen inexplicably smiled, not even understanding why he was smiling.
Perhaps…
Because he had once had the same feeling?
The difference was—
The first time killing, Jian Chou killed the unfamiliar Wu E; but he had killed his wife who had known, accompanied, supported him, and promised to grow old together…
Thus, that smile at his lips slowly froze.
Drip, drip.
The blood drops falling from the arrow tips had nearly congealed.
Below the stone pillar was a pool of blood about to dry.
“Wu wu…”
Perhaps sensing Jian Chou’s slightly wrong state, Little Marten worriedly and anxiously rubbed against her, crying out twice.
Jian Chou’s hand trembled, finally snapping back to awareness.
Her face still showed traces of bewilderment, but she immediately suppressed all emotions: Wu E was evil, and though his circumstances were understandable, his crimes deserved death.
She was just…
A bit unaccustomed.
Killing.
It seemed somewhat different from what she had imagined.
Standing in the air, scanning in all directions, Jian Chou saw many Hidden Realm beings below, all looking up at her.
Whether curious, surprised, amazed, or joyful…
Those gazes all deeply hid a kind of fear.
Perhaps fear of the Heaven-Flipping Seal, or perhaps fear of power and killing.
Even the little squirrel in the distance stared dumbly at Jian Chou, seemingly wondering: How did the gentle big sister suddenly become a killing god?
The dao seal it used seemed exactly like Lijun’s…
At this moment, the atmosphere in the Hidden Realm was extremely strange.
Safe.
But also quiet.
Jian Chou moved to descend from the void, but unexpectedly, just as she was about to move, an extremely faint sound suddenly came from the sky above.
Like glazed glass shattering, or like a bubble bursting as it surfaced…
A “pop” sound.
From very, very, very far in the sky.
In that instant, Jian Chou’s entire body suddenly stiffened.
With the last thread of hope in her heart, she suddenly looked up at the sky, only to see the most terrifying scene—
Broken!
That golden seal embedded at the bottom of the heavenly palace on the vault had finally reached its limit of support after flickering dimly, its last trace of light finally extinguished.
It seemed tired of its lingering existence.
Thus, the ancient strokes finally fell apart.
A breeze, and like smoke, it became faint black ink traces, spreading into the sky and disappearing without trace.
The entire Hidden Realm had a moment of stillness.
The next moment was earth-shaking trembling!
The entire Hidden Realm’s trembling!
Having lost the protection of that heavenly palace seal, the mirror lake floating in the sky actually began collapsing from the center outward!
The rippling waves disappeared bit by bit, completely revealing the void behind on the sky.
Like tearing open the azure curtain, exposing the real darkness behind!
That was the Hidden Realm’s boundary, where the small world connected to the great world, just like the void they had seen when the painted wall shattered!
Jian Chou felt completely cold, her scalp about to explode!
She suddenly looked back. The moment her gaze reached, the entire Hidden Realm began its most complete collapse, neither fast nor slow, but with irreversible grandeur!
The ground cracked, similarly exposing that void leading to unknown places.
The marsh waters poured into those cracks, forming huge whirlpools on the surface, sucking all creatures still on the water toward the bottom.
The remaining ruins completely prostrated, and even the pillars that had survived Wu E’s terrible attacks thunderously collapsed!
Xie Buchen, nailed to the stone pillar by five feather arrows, almost instantly fell with it.
Due to the position change and body rotation, terrible pain immediately transmitted from the wounds pierced by the five arrows.
“Crack…”
Several light sounds seemed to be the noise of two arrows driven deeper into the pillar pulling from his body, and three shallower arrows pulling from the pillar.
Xie Buchen’s strength was completely drained. His consistently cold brow immediately furrowed, cold sweat breaking out.
The five arrow wounds were torn open, becoming even more bloody, though the blood flowing out was extremely scarce.
The entire world instantly collapsed in his sight!
And in his falling direction, a crack was forming, slowly opening its bloody maw toward him.
The entire Hidden Realm was in chaos.
Jian Chou only saw the nearby ground completely break apart as if cut by a sword, with a strange suction force from the crack, as if trying to pull her down.
Xie Buchen’s falling figure almost simultaneously entered her sight.
Her eyes showed almost no fluctuation. Though she couldn’t kill him personally, which was somewhat regrettable, she couldn’t possibly risk her life to give him a finishing blow now.
So Jian Chou decisively and resolutely showed a cold smile, her wide sleeves facing the howling wind as she unhesitatingly rose toward higher ground!
The huge crack was like the Hidden Realm’s open mouth when trying to devour people.
Xie Buchen fell straight down, but just as he was about to be swallowed by that crack, he looked toward her—
He saw her indifferent gaze.
She looked at him like observing a tiny ant, without a trace of compassion.
He was clear about this.
So…
He hadn’t expected her to show mercy and save him.
Xie Buchen’s gaze met hers.
She was still rising higher and higher, while he was about to be swallowed by this crack…
But in that final instant, Xie Buchen showed a faint smile. When he raised his arm, it pulled at his wounds all over his body, painfully piercing his heart, but making him extremely clear-headed and rational!
He raised his right hand, the pale palm, slender finger bones, still so beautiful.
Only stained with blood, with that slight trembling from pain that was hard to control.
Before Jian Chou could withdraw her gaze, Xie Buchen turned his right palm toward her, showing her the palm…
Though they were far apart, Jian Chou felt Xie Buchen’s smile was so clear.
So clear…
It made her heart sink.
The next moment, she saw his palm opened toward her!
A pale golden seal!
Each stroke like iron painting and silver hooks!
Ancient and simple, carrying an aged, vicissitudinous aura, seemingly containing magnificent power, yet also seeming on the verge of death, about to scatter…
In that instant, Jian Chou felt all the blood flowing in her body stop.
Her pupils suddenly contracted!
Like exploding stars and countless waterfalls colliding, countless images flashed madly through her mind, finally leaving just three—
Outside Qingfeng Nunnery Hidden Realm, the seal Xie Buchen used to open the door; on the maze array, the unchanging seal at the center; at the bottom of the high heavenly palace, that seal protecting the Hidden Realm!
Each seal overlapped with the pale golden seal in Xie Buchen’s palm in an instant!
What a lightning-fast moment?
Before Jian Chou could completely sort out these relationships, before she could think about the meaning hidden in Xie Buchen’s smile, her body had already surpassed her consciousness and reacted.
An unexpected turn!
All spiritual power resisting the crack’s attractive force instantly withdrew, replaced by frantic descent!
The crack was pulling her down, and she was also desperately falling with all her might!
Swift as wind, quick as lightning!
The entire crack that had originally gone far away began rapidly enlarging in her vision again!
Xie Buchen’s pale face also grew closer and clearer!
But Jian Chou couldn’t see anything. Everything around became blurred like a water-stained painting. She could only see Xie Buchen’s extended palm.
Almost at the instant Xie Buchen was about to fall into the crack’s abyss—
“Slap!”
A crisp sound.
One hand finally grasped another!
The ground’s surface layer was mud that had crumbled during the cracking process, leaving only sharp rocks.
While grabbing Xie Buchen, Jian Chou reached desperately to the side, her nails breaking in that instant, her fingertips bloody and mangled.
She pulled Xie Buchen while having to instantly resolve this impact force—how difficult was that?
Her arm, already injured from using the Heaven-Flipping Seal, felt like tearing, hot blood immediately flowing down.
The previous moment, she had wanted to give him a finishing blow, sending him to his death;
This moment, she had to fly forward, risking her life to rescue him.
Her palm was hot from violent breathing; his palm was ice-cold from excessive blood loss.
Two bloodied palms clasped together.
Palm against palm.
The blood flowing from her arm and fingers soaked into his palm and between his fingers, like a burning brand…
Xie Buchen raised his eyes, looking at her.
What hateful, disgusted eyes? Mixed with shock and anger.
At least at this moment—
Neither could kill the other, neither could let the other die.
He was like this, and so was she.