Immortality Through Array Formations (The Quest for Immortality)

Chapter 971: God-Crushing

The sword light dispersed, and all waves of energy faded.

Inside the great hall of the divine temple, silence reigned. The only sound was Mo Hua's faint breathing—strained and shallow after exhausting every last ounce of divine thought.

After such a brutal battle, that God-Slaying Sword had nearly drained him entirely.

And in the center of the hall, the Evil Fetus had been cleaved in two.

One half was blood-red, covered in grotesque tumors, fused with demonic limbs—like some fleshy, horned embryonic monster.

The other half gleamed golden, donned in a radiant golden armor, emanating the pure aura of a deity—Huangshan-jun.

What lay before Mo Hua… was just as he had predicted.

The gap in cultivation between him and the Evil Fetus was far too wide. Even using the God-Slaying Sword, it might not have been enough to completely destroy it. Not to mention—it was a "dead fetus," making it hard to even define what counted as "dead."

If it couldn't be killed, then everything would have been in vain.

So Mo Hua had taken a different path.

He used the edge of the God-Slaying Sword, and the law of the Heaven Demon's emotionless sword Dao, to cleave through good and evil, through flesh and spirit, completely severing Huangshan-jun from the Evil Fetus.

That way, he could save Huangshan-jun.

And in doing so—he would greatly weaken the Evil Fetus as well.

Huangshan-jun, being his friend, would naturally side with him once freed—effectively turning half of the Evil Fetus's strength to his own side.

With that, Mo Hua would be unassailable, and the Evil Fetus would become prey on his cutting board.

Now, at last, Mo Hua had succeeded.

Huangshan-jun was finally saved.

But the divine beast's gaze trembled slightly, filled with disbelief.

"You actually… split us apart…"

A faint, emotionless sword intent still lingered on the wound—sealing all energy flow and completely cutting off his connection with the Evil Fetus.

Was this… because of the Heaven Demon Dao?

What is this kid, anyway? Human? God? Or Demon?

How could he possibly cultivate the Heaven Demon Dao? And how did he learn…

Huangshan-jun's thoughts were a whirlwind of astonishment and confusion.

Mo Hua let out a long breath and straightened himself, preparing to speak with a smile.

"Shan—"

But halfway through, Mo Hua's smile froze. His expression grew solemn.

Though the Evil Fetus and Huangshan-jun had been fully severed, though good and evil had clearly split—

Golden light now seeped with strands of blood, the blood slowly turning black, oozing pus, growing rotten flesh, and being corrupted once more.

Mo Hua's heart sank.

Huangshan-jun, however, didn't seem surprised. He lifted his head, looking at Mo Hua, and sighed lightly:

"I told you… you couldn't save me."

"I am the Evil Fetus. And the Evil Fetus… is me."

"Even if you split us apart, even if I return to being a god… the descent into evil… will still begin anew…"

Mo Hua's eyes dimmed.

Yet Huangshan-jun looked at him with a kind gaze—half regret, half gratitude:

"Still… you helped me."

"You gave me the chance to settle this ancient grievance… to defend the dignity of a god… and no longer suffer the humiliation of the Great Wilderness Evil God…"

"…to finally be free of this endless nightmare."

Mo Hua froze and slowly lifted his head.

"Shan-jun…"

But the corruption was spreading faster.

Huangshan-jun's aura suddenly shifted. Radiant golden light burst forth as he transformed into his true divine form—a massive Golden Fox Immortal.

His divine essence began to burn. Divine power surged to its peak—dangerously close to self-destruction.

Mo Hua's heart trembled.

He instantly realized what Huangshan-jun intended to do.

"Shan-jun!!"

Huangshan-jun turned back. His long eyes locked onto Mo Hua's.

In them—certainty of death, mixed with hesitation and inner turmoil.

Whatever he was struggling with… it seemed even more important than life or death.

Finally, he looked at Mo Hua deeply. His gaze was layered—helpless trust… and a flicker of final hope.

"What's your name?"

Mo Hua blinked.

"Mo Hua."

Huangshan-jun nodded solemnly.

"If we truly are friends… I ask you one thing."

"Take… mine…"

"…away from Lone Mountain."

Mo Hua was stunned. He didn't understand what Huangshan-jun meant.

"Shan-jun…?"

But Huangshan-jun said no more. He swept his massive claw, carrying divine might, and slapped Mo Hua away.

Revealed in his divine form, Huangshan-jun's power was overwhelming.

Mo Hua had no way to resist. He was flung outside the great hall and landed softly.

Then Huangshan-jun raised his head and let out a sky-shaking roar. The divine power of a peak third-grade god surged, manifesting as towering mountains of gold that sealed off the entire hall.

A divine power—Burial Mountain.

Then the mountains began to collapse.

A thunderous rumble like the world breaking apart echoed.

This terrifying energy… even contained the Law of Ruin, which made even Mo Hua's heart tremble.

It was like an array collapsing…

But this wasn't an array—not spiritual power.

It was divine thought.

Huangshan-jun was using his divine art to break apart his very soul—his third-grade divine will. The destructive power was so vast that even Mo Hua felt fear.

If this exploded outward, the entire dreamscape would be reduced to ash. Everyone would die.

But just like with collapsing formations—the stronger the power, the more contained it becomes.

To avoid harming Mo Hua, Huangshan-jun confined the collapse of divine thought entirely within the great hall.

That space was now filled with the force of total annihilation.

For just a moment, Mo Hua glimpsed the black laws that formed from collapsing will—a divine change in the very Dao.

In his eyes bloomed a terrifying, yet beautiful, "Divine Annihilation Flower."

But it was only a moment.

Soon, the raging surge of collapsing divine will consumed the entire hall—

—And then, all returned to nothing.

Everything vanished.

All auras were gone.

Mo Hua, still stunned, hesitated a moment, then stepped into the temple again.

What he saw… was ruins.

After so many battles, the divine hall, already on the verge of collapse, had been completely destroyed.

Walls of golden splendor had turned to dust.

The ground held a massive crater.

Besides that—nothing remained. All had been obliterated.

The Evil Fetus was gone.

Huangshan-jun was gone.

The Lone Mountain God, the peak third-grade Huangshan-jun, had perished alongside the Evil Fetus.

"Shan-jun… is dead…"

Mo Hua's heart ached faintly.

Suddenly, the threads of karma stirred.

Mo Hua paused, expanded his divine sense, and scanned the temple once more.

Only then did he spot a faint glimmer of golden light in the center of the ruined hall.

He stepped closer… and slowly widened his eyes.

Divine Marrow!

A wisp of pure golden, third-grade Divine Marrow!

"Shan-jun?"

Mo Hua extended his senses, then sighed softly, a trace of regret in his heart.

What remained was pure Divine Marrow—not the slightest trace of will or consciousness.

Shan-jun was truly gone.

This radiant golden Divine Marrow… was more like a "parting gift" Shan-jun had left for him.

It was a pure golden, third-grade Divine Marrow.

Far purer—and far more precious—than any he'd encountered before.

Mo Hua could even sense within it… the opportunity to break through twenty divine threads.

His heart filled with gratitude—but also confusion.

"Why was Shan-jun so good to me? Could it be… he wanted me to do something?"

He recalled Shan-jun's last words:

"If we really are friends… take mine… away from Lone Mountain."

Take what?

The Divine Marrow?

Possibly...

But something felt off.

Deep down, Mo Hua sensed that this Divine Marrow had been deliberately left to him.

If it had reached his hands—it wasn't meant to be chased. Shan-jun knew too well how irresistible Divine Marrow was to divine beings or quasi-divine cultivators.

What's more, judging by Shan-jun's conflicted expression back then, the thing he wanted Mo Hua to take away… had to be something far more important than just marrow.

So important… he hadn't dared say it out loud.

"What could it be…?"

Mo Hua furrowed his brow, lost in thought.

But then—suddenly—he felt a tremor above.

Stone fragments fell, crumbling into threads of divine will. Cracks began to spider across the floor.

"No…"

Mo Hua's eyes widened.

The Evil Fetus was dead—and the nightmare realm was collapsing.

"Elder Xun…!"

He leapt up, intending to check on Venerable Elder Xun and the others—to see if they were safe.

But just as he took a step—

A powerful repulsive force surged forward.

Space itself tore apart, forming a swirling vortex of reality and illusion that dragged Mo Hua in completely.

The Evil Fetus was the core of this nightmare.

With its death, the entire nightmare realm began collapsing—starting from the divine temple.

Mo Hua, standing closest to the source, was the first to be ejected.

After his figure vanished, the dreamscape continued to collapse, bit by bit.

In one corner of the ruined temple—somewhere no one had noticed, not even Mo Hua—there lay a half-buried dragon bone.

On that bone still lingered a wisp of divine-will collapse energy.

The force of that collapse was slowly dissolving the dragon bone.

At the same time, the dragon qi within the bone resisted fiercely.

Suddenly, the dragon bone trembled—a single eye opened from within. Cloudy and ancient—it was the eye of the Second Elder.

He gazed deeply at the place where Mo Hua had vanished, and murmured the name under his breath:

"Mo Hua…"

Then the dragon qi dispersed, and the dragon bone finally shattered completely.

But before the dragon bone could fully disintegrate, the nightmare realm collapsed first.

The residual will of the Second Elder, parasitizing that dragon bone, was cast free—drifting away from the dream, destination unknown…

Qianxue Province – Heavenly Dao Sect

At the very moment the Evil Fetus perished, a strange, evil fog of karma dissipated.

In secluded meditation, the Shen Family's Ancestor suddenly snapped open his eyes, clutching his chest, seized by a formless dread.

"Something's happened…"

His brows furrowed, and he performed a quick divination. His expression instantly changed.

"Someone come quickly!"

A trusted Shen family elder hurried inside and bowed, "Ancestor."

"Quick!" the ancestor's voice trembled. "Go to Lone Mountain. Wipe out the karma—burn it all!"

The elder hesitated. "Ancestor, if we make too much noise, we may draw the attention of the other families—"

"We can't care about that anymore! Go!!" The ancestor snapped. "Gather everyone you can. Use fire techniques, fire talismans, fire arrays—burn all of it!"

It was the first time the elder had seen the Ancestor so agitated. His heart grew cold.

Clearly… the situation was worse than they'd imagined.

"Yes!" He bowed and left in haste.

The Shen Ancestor sat motionless, his brow furrowed, unease gripping him.

"How… could it have leaked?"

"And where did that ancient evil aura come from? Who… who could've hidden it from even me…?"

At that same moment…

Great Void Sect – Elder's Residence

Venerable Elder Xun was arranging a compass, calculating something as usual, when his heart skipped a beat.

He quickly restored the calculations on the current compass, then turned toward Lone Mountain and performed a quick deduction.

His expression changed drastically.

He drew a sword talisman and sent it out immediately.

Moments later, Xun Zixian walked over and bowed respectfully:

"Ancestor."

Venerable Elder Xun's tone was heavy. "There's no time to lose. Take some sect elders and head to Lone Mountain immediately."

Lone Mountain?

"That place… a great karmic disturbance has surfaced," Elder Xun said gravely. "And… Mo Hua is there too."

Xun Zixian's heart trembled. He immediately nodded.

"Understood!"

—

Not just the Heavenly Dao Sect and Great Void Sect—across several major clans and sects, various old ancestors also began to notice the anomaly.

"Something's off in the northwest…"

"Isn't that Shen family territory?"

"Send someone over…"

"Don't alarm them. Do not alert the Shen family…"

"Gather intel. Get as much as possible…"

"Even that old fox has slip-ups sometimes…"

"See if you can dig up some dirt…"

"He's been walking the edge too long—eventually, he'll get soaked…"

"…Find a way to bite off a piece of fat meat."

Messages were flying between sect leaders and clan elders.

Groups of cultivators—some openly, some secretly, some pretending to be passing by, others moving with clear intent—began gathering near Lone Mountain.

The winds were shifting. The undercurrents had begun to surge.

Lone Mountain, within the Divine Temple.

Mo Hua slowly stirred from unconsciousness. His eyes struggled to open, his ears were ringing. In the hazy blur of waking, he heard fragmented mutterings… and the sound of flesh being cut by blades.

"The royal family of the Great Wilderness…"

"So what if you're one of them? In the end, you're just a puppet of the God-Lord… a slightly nobler slave…"

"Your only value lies in that bloodline of yours…"

"The blood of the imperial clan—that's the root of the Great Wilderness's karmic dragon."

"Now the dragon markings are fully formed… and will greet their new master. As for you…"

"You're unworthy. Let your ambition be buried forever beneath Lone Mountain."

The voice was hoarse like a beast's growl—no longer human.

Mo Hua forced his eyes open. Through blurry vision, he could just make out a distorted figure. Gradually, things came into focus.

He saw a pale-skinned, twisted humanoid demon—peeling the skin off Shentu Ao.

It was a gruesome and bloody sight.

But what shocked Mo Hua even more was the thing atop the pale demon's head—at some point, another human face had appeared.

Not a real head—more like a blood-red phantom.

Refined in appearance, but tinged with madness. Cultured, but exuding cruelty.

Mo Hua had never seen that face before… but through the tug of karma, he instinctively understood the identity:

Mister Tu!

This pale demon was actually one of Mister Tu's flesh puppets!

And just as Mo Hua opened his eyes—"Mister Tu," parasitizing the demon, sensed the change.

Holding a ritual knife in one hand and a half-flayed skin in the other, he turned around slowly, locking eyes with Mo Hua.

His beast-like pupils filled with confusion and menace.

"You… aren't dead?"

"Impossible… You entered the God-Lord's nightmare. You can't still be alive. You can't have escaped…"

"The God-Lord, he…"

"Mister Tu" suddenly checked inwardly—and his face changed drastically, terror flooding his expression.

The God-Lord… where is he?!

"My… how is he GONE?!"

His eyes twisted with ferocity, glaring at Mo Hua. His voice rose into a manic, blood-curdling scream:

"What did you do?!"

"Speak! Tell me!!"

"Where is my lord's Divine Fetus?!"

"Why has it disappeared?!!"

(End of this Chapter)