“You are actually a creation of Zhu Pan,” Qing Lu stated with certainty.
Chen Zhou was stunned for a moment, his expression turning strange.
Qing Lu took Chen Zhou’s silence as confirmation.
“No need to deny it. Excellent. That old man Zhu Pan... has he still not given up on Jianmu?”
“What is Jianmu?” Chen Zhou asked curiously.
Qing Lu sneered. “Still playing dumb? A supreme treasure of heaven and earth, an ancient god tree. Consuming it allows one to reshape their true body and transcend reincarnation.”
Chen Zhou’s expression grew even stranger.
Qing Lu’s voice grew colder and angrier. “Back then, we agreed that after the deed was done, we would split it half and half.”
“But now, he actually went behind my back, secretly cultivating a creation in the outer provinces and making a move before me.”
“Zhu Pan, you have quite the nerve.”
He grew more furious as he spoke, the green light within him surging violently.
He and Zhu Pan had both been stuck at the ninth stage for a very long time. Zhu Pan had been lucky; after the Battle of Qingtian, he had consumed the heavily wounded Primal Phoenix, obtaining her blood, bones, and soul. Now, he only needed to burn Jianmu to be reborn through fire and advance further.
But Qing Lu had not been so fortunate.
He had spent ten thousand years searching for the Ancestral Dragon to no avail, so he could only resort to other methods.
Thus, he had actively set up this scheme in the legendary birthplace of Jianmu. Using the naturally born monarchs of heaven and earth as sacrifices and their true dragon fortune as a catalyst, he only needed to obtain Jianmu as a body to temporarily transform into a dragon and advance.
Although this method was heavily flawed, it was his only choice.
Once he found the Ancestral Dragon in the future and devoured it, he could complete his true dragon body.
He never expected that just as success was within reach, Zhu Pan would turn on him and make a move first.
What did Zhu Pan want? Did he intend to keep Jianmu all for himself?
Qing Lu’s face was livid as he glared at Chen Zhou. “Even if you are Zhu Pan’s creation, so what? Do you think you can stop me with these meager tricks?”
Chen Zhou smiled. “Why don’t we find out?”
Qing Lu’s gaze was dark. He had already secured his sacrifices.
The three monarch corpses, countless refined divine souls, and the Tianchi Ley Line were all within him.
Although his vessel was on the verge of collapsing, as long as he returned to Central Province and extracted the contents to re refine them, his plan could continue.
The only problem was that he could not leave.
That damned creation of Zhu Pan had trapped him here.
His divine sense could not retreat, and his consciousness was locked within this space like an insect trapped in amber, unable to move.
This was not right.
This was very wrong.
What exactly had that old man Zhu Pan given him? How could a minor character from the outer provinces possess a sealing technique that even a true god could not escape?
Qing Lu thought back to the Battle of Qingtian.
Many people had died in that battle, and many gods had fallen as well.
The Primal Phoenix had died, the Ancestral Dragon had disappeared, the Oasis Goddess had died, and many other deities whose names he could not recall had perished.
After the war, Sky Monitoring sealed away all secret techniques and divine artifacts that posed a threat to the level of true gods. These were kept under the joint supervision of the Four Direction Envoys to ensure they never leaked out.
But now, such things had appeared in the hands of a minor character in the outer provinces.
What did this mean?
It meant there was a thief within Sky Monitoring. It meant that among the Four Direction Envoys, someone had betrayed them!
Qing Lu took a deep breath, suppressing his swirling thoughts.
Now was not the time for settling scores. The priority was to escape.
However, the skeleton ghost servants were still attacking in relentless waves, one after another.
As the withering toxins accumulated, the circulation of Qing Lu’s divine power became increasingly sluggish. Chen Zhou took this opportunity to communicate with the power of faith within him and initiate a Faith Conferment.
The Evil God Points in his system panel began to burn frantically, and his aura surged.
He climbed from the seventh stage third contract all the way to the seventh stage fourth contract.
He poured the last of the death qi within him into the Judgment Whisk in his hand.
The whisk suddenly became incredibly heavy, as if he were holding a mountain.
Chen Zhou gritted his teeth, gripped the handle of the whisk with both hands, and swung it with all his might.
The Judgment Whisk rose into the air, its threads spreading out to transform into a giant brush.
The brush hovered in mid air with its tip pointing downward. Simultaneously, a massive phantom of a judgment platform appeared before Chen Zhou.
Chen Zhou’s eyes turned a golden color of merit. Golden light spilled from his sockets, slightly overpowering Qing Lu’s green radiance and bathing the entire underground space in gold.
He lifted the giant brush formed by the whisk and began to write in the air.
Each stroke was vigorous and powerful.
“The people of Tianchi were born here, grew here, toiled here, and died here.”
“The false god of Central Province bullies the weak.”
“The lackey Wan Xiu slaughters cities and nations, refining souls into soldiers and corpses into tools.”
“Such acts incite the wrath of heaven and man, and the enmity of gods and ghosts.”
“Today, I act on behalf of heaven to punish, on behalf of the people to voice their grievances, to judge your sins and determine your sentence.”
Chen Zhou paused his brush there.
Then, he wrote the final word.
Sin.
The blood red word Sin condensed in the air, emitting a blinding light like a miniature sun, forcing everyone to shield their eyes.
Qing Lu felt an aura of destruction.
“Judgment?” he spat through gritted teeth. “Excellent. You truly are a creation of Zhu Pan.”
“A judge, is it?”
“Do you think that with these tricks and a cultivation level not even at the eighth stage, you can judge my sins?”
He pushed all his divine power. Green light erupted from the cracks in his vessel, transforming into a massive green dragon that let out a thunderous roar, shaking the surroundings.
The green dragon opened its maw and unleashed a pillar of green light, striking directly at the blood red word Sin.
The pillar and the word collided with a deafening explosion, making the entire underground space tremble.
The rock ceiling above collapsed in large sections, and rubble rained down like a storm.
Countless fissures opened in the ground, and scalding lava surged forth, warping the very air with its heat.
But the word Sin remained motionless.
It hung in mid air, radiating a blood red light like a cold, indifferent eye looking down upon everything.
Chen Zhou smiled as he watched Qing Lu struggle.
“Of course I cannot judge you yet.”
“Don’t worry, Lord Qing Lu. The target of this judgment is not you.”
With that, Chen Zhou swung the giant brush down.
The blood red word Sin fell from the sky, trailing a long plume of flame as it slammed into Wan Xiu, whom Qing Lu was possessing.
With a boom, pitch black flames erupted from within Wan Xiu, burning through his skin, flesh, and bones.
Qing Lu felt a wave of agony, as if his blood were boiling and his soul were on fire.
Countless souls he had refined, the sacrifices sealed within his body, and the spirits Qing Lu had marked for ten thousand years all surged out at this moment.
They poured out of Wan Xiu’s body like a flock of imprisoned birds finally escaping their cage.
But they did not fly away.
They lunged at Wan Xiu, baring their teeth and biting his arms, his legs, and his torso.
Wan Xiu’s body rapidly disintegrated under the flames and the tearing teeth.
Arms were severed, legs were broken, his torso collapsed, and his head rolled away.
Every piece of flesh torn away burned and wailed.
Finally, Wan Xiu was reduced to a pile of ash that drifted down from the air, covering the ground in a thin, gray white layer like a dusting of fine snow.
Two orbs of light floated out from the ashes, rotating slowly like two newborn stars.
【You have obtained a complete divinity — Decay】
【You have obtained an inner godhead of the God of Fortune and Land】
Chen Zhou gripped the godhead and the complete divinity, then looked toward Qing Lu. “Alright, now it is your turn.”
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