The dark red sky looked like a torn wound, and the scorched earth fell like quicksand into the endless void.
Zhang Mingyuan lay flat on his back in the pile of rubble, his chest heaving violently.
He spat out a mouthful of bloody froth mixed with fragments of his internal organs, his eyes locked onto the nine ancient bronze coffins hovering overhead.
“Emperor Burial Coffins...”
Zhang Mingyuan twitched the corner of his mouth, aggravating his wounds and making him gasp in pain.
“Is this Heavenly Dao insane? A trial is a trial, but what's the point of digging up the graves of ancient emperors?”
Su Jinxue sat slumped beside him, her fair, bare feet covered in mud and blood.
Her red gown was torn, revealing large patches of skin like cold jade.
She did not speak.
Her crimson eyes merely stared at the nine bronze coffins, which exuded a desolate, primordial aura of death, a rare look of gravity flashing deep within them.
“Scared?” Zhang Mingyuan turned his head to look at her.
Su Jinxue gave him a cold glare, her expression clearly saying, “Keep talking and I'll beat you.”
“Ouch.”
Zhang Mingyuan backhanded Zhanxue into the ground, gripping the hilt with both hands to prop up his body.
He wiped the blood from his face and shielded Su Jinxue.
“What are you doing?” Su Jinxue frowned slightly as she stared at his back.
“Don't ask stupid questions. There's no way I'm letting a woman stand in front of me.”
Zhang Mingyuan didn't look back.
“Even though you're usually fierce as hell, now that we've made it official, if anyone has to die, it's going to be me first.”
Su Jinxue froze.
The corners of her mouth curled up in an involuntary, satisfied smile.
Yet, her voice was full of disdain:
“Idiot. Our injuries are shared.”
Zhang Mingyuan scratched his head. “Haha, right!”
Right after, Su Jinxue raised her hand, and a wave of law power flowed from her palm into Zhang Mingyuan's body, temporarily suppressing his churning injuries.
But at this moment, Su Jinxue's own injuries were actually temporarily suppressed as well!
Seeing this, Zhang Mingyuan grinned immediately.
“Holy crap, Little Xuexue, it worked!”
Su Jinxue was taken aback, then quickly said, “You mean, one of us heals while the other goes up to fight?”
“Exactly!”
Just then.
The first ancient bronze coffin shook violently.
The thick iron chains wrapped around the coffin shattered inch by inch, emitting a deafening roar.
The coffin lid slowly slid open.
A terrifying Emperor's pressure that spanned across eternity poured down like the starry river of the nine heavens.
The void instantly froze.
Under this immense pressure, the remaining scorched earth beneath their feet disintegrated directly into dust.
Zhang Mingyuan and Su Jinxue groaned simultaneously, their knees buckling as they nearly fell to the ground.
The two grit their teeth, keeping their spines perfectly straight, forcibly enduring the overwhelming will that demanded their submission.
“Creak... Creak...”
A grating friction sound echoed from inside the coffin.
A withered, pale hand covered in dark-gold mysterious runes slowly gripped the edge of the bronze coffin.
Right after, a blurry shadow sat up from within the coffin.
His face was obscured, leaving only an ancient imperial robe visible.
He did not emit any spiritual energy fluctuations, but simply by sitting there, the surrounding laws began to wail and collapse.
This was a power that a Red Dust Immortal could not possibly compare to.
This was a supreme existence from the ancient era, far transcending the understanding of the Xuanling Realm.
The Emperor's shadow slowly lowered his head, his hollow gaze looking down at the two below.
He raised a withered finger and tapped lightly across the void.
There were no flashy lights or earth-shattering sounds.
Zhang Mingyuan felt a sharp pain in his forehead, and an irresistible crisis of death instantly enveloped his entire body.
It was an absolute crushing force of a higher dimension against a lower one, making it impossible to even conceive the thought of resisting.
“Holy crap! What the hell is this!”
Under such a massive gap, no amount of tactics would work!
Zhang Mingyuan roared.
He pushed his Half-Immortal Realm cultivation to its absolute limit at this moment.
His training was extremely eclectic; over the past five thousand years, he had dabbled in the Xuanling Realm's sword Dao, lightning techniques, annihilation, space, and various other laws.
At this life-or-death moment, the fragmented and jumbled laws inside his body were actually forced to merge under the pressure of the Heavenly Marriage Great Dao.
“Myriad Laws—Return to One!”
Holding Zhanxue in his right hand and Dog Slaughterer in his left, Zhang Mingyuan poured all the power in his body into the sword blades.
Divine light transformed into a pillar that pierced heaven and earth, rising to meet the descending finger.
Su Jinxue did not hold back either.
Gray flames burned in her crimson eyes, and her extreme cold frost Samsara Great Dao perfectly intertwined with Zhang Mingyuan's power,
transforming into a massive frost green lotus that shielded them overhead.
Bang!
The frost green lotus collided with the invisible finger.
There was no stalemate.
The green lotus was instantly covered in cracks and exploded.
The divine light slashed by Zhang Mingyuan was also crushed and extinguished effortlessly.
An absolute gap in strength could not be bridged by mere will and bonds.
The residual force of the finger strike swept over them.
Both spat out a mouthful of blood, their bodies flying backward like broken kites before crashing into a remaining stone pillar.
The stone pillar shattered.
The two rolled onto the ground.
Zhang Mingyuan's vision turned dark, and his internal organs felt as if they had been rearranged.
He didn't even have the strength to hold his sword anymore, only able to gasp heavily.
“Damn... I did my best...”
He let out a bitter laugh, looking at Su Jinxue, whose face was just as pale.
“Little Xuexue, looks like we get to be a pair of doomed lovers after all.”
Su Jinxue coughed up a mouthful of blood and looked at Zhang Mingyuan quietly.
She suddenly raised her hand and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
“It is fine. It is merely some damage to my soul. I will not let the Heavenly Dao hurt you...”
Though she said this, a flash of disappointment flickered in her crimson eyes.
It felt as though she was supposed to obtain something, only to suddenly lose the chance to get it.
Just then.
Above the sky, the Emperor's shadow slowly stood up.
He took a step forward, crossing the void to appear directly thirty feet above them.
The sheer pressure caused their breathing to stop.
The Emperor's shadow raised his hand once more.
This time, it was a certain-death situation.
Zhang Mingyuan closed his eyes, preparing to welcome death.
However, at the very instant that hand was about to descend, the Emperor's shadow suddenly froze.
A dead silence fell.
Zhang Mingyuan opened his eyes in confusion, only to find that the Emperor's shadow's hollow gaze
was not looking at the two of them, but was staring fixedly at the other sword that had slipped from his hand and fallen to the ground.
That rusty greatsword named Dog Slaughterer.
The Emperor's shadow's withered body actually began to tremble slightly, and the storm of laws surrounding him grew chaotic.
A hoarse, ancient voice, carrying endless vicissitudes and disbelief,
echoed slowly through this void, crossing countless eons.
“This aura... You... where did you obtain it?”
The Emperor's shadow snapped his head toward Zhang Mingyuan, his hollow gaze locking onto him as his voice boomed like thunder.
“Who... exactly are you?!”
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