Slaying an evil god—the first time was a learning experience, the second time was second nature.
Dalun Li did not hesitate, striking with all his might.
He activated the Collapsed Atmosphere, instantly locking down the surrounding space.
Withered Reincarnation’s eyes locked onto Dalun Li with a deathly stare.
“You seek to slay a god?”
Dalun Li’s only response was the downward swing of his greatsword.
There was no need to exchange words with an evil god—a mere rat that tucked its tail beneath the Goddess of Light’s holy skirt had no right to call itself a god.
Sharp Sword Qi collided with the white bones, and Withered Reincarnation seemed to be driven into a total rage.
A massive surge of death power accompanied its counterattack.
Simultaneously, its eyes frantically sprayed fire in every direction.
Dalun Li’s figure blurred into an afterimage. While maintaining his offensive, he transformed the entire area into a swamp, covering the ground in rotting poisonous mud.
He had already realized that the power of decay seemed to be a perfect counter for Withered Reincarnation.
The evil god’s power was death, while decay was the potent toxin fermented from a dead corpse.
Sensing the power of decay, Withered Reincarnation let out a furious roar.
Dalun Li swung the Collapsed Atmosphere, redirecting all incoming attacks. He then summoned acid rain, continuing to corrode the bones formed from the evil god’s death power.
“You have provoked a deity!”
Though Withered Reincarnation spoke with bravado, it had already begun attempting to tear through the spatial barrier established by the Collapsed Atmosphere, clearly looking for an escape route.
Dalun Li would never give it that chance.
As he raised the Wellmouth Greatsword, incandescent white fire Sword Qi coiled around the blade’s edge.
His entire body became a blur as he slashed toward Withered Reincarnation.
Withered Reincarnation’s massive frame rolled through the swamp, its body stained with rotting poisonous mud as it met Dalun Li’s strike.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The attacks collided, shaking the earth and mountains with an unending roar!
Sword Qi and sharp death power intertwined and clashed; fire and fire eroded and burned one another.
Soon, Withered Reincarnation’s arms were riddled with gashes and chips from the onslaught.
Seizing the opening, Dalun Li’s power erupted. Searing Sword Qi wrapped around the Wellmouth Greatsword, which carried the property of an absolute hit, as he hacked toward Withered Reincarnation’s head.
“You cannot kill me! Nothing can kill death!”
Despite Withered Reincarnation’s shouts, more and more gashes were carved into its body. However, as the damage accumulated, the death power within it grew denser and more potent, and its recovery speed accelerated.
It was as if it had activated a health-lock cheat.
Withered Reincarnation seized the opportunity, spraying death fire from its eyes.
Dalun Li activated the Collapsed Atmosphere, redirecting the flames entirely.
In that brief moment of distraction, Withered Reincarnation seemed to find a breath of relief. It stomped the ground, churning the death fire in an attempt to burn away all the rotting poisonous mud.
Death and life were inherently polar opposites.
This creature’s ability to cycle continuously between death and life was its core characteristic as an evil god. Thus, it truly could not die; death was merely a new beginning for it, and that new life would rapidly grow in strength.
But this growth was not without limits. Like any cycle, it would eventually wither, die, and then begin anew.
Attacks alone would not be enough to kill it.
Seeing Dalun Li halt his assault, Withered Reincarnation raised its massive head.
“It seems you finally realize that you cannot kill me.”
Dalun Li did not answer. He raised his hand and summoned a wisp of Forbidden Fire from a copper plate.
This was the strongest variant of Forbidden Fire—a stable flame fused with the power of the holy light.
Though it was only a wisp, its intensity and endurance were far beyond any other version. It could be said that this was currently the closest thing to a true Forbidden Fire within the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
If it couldn't be killed, that was fine.
Dalun Li felt that a living evil god was far more valuable than a dead one. Since it couldn't die, he could squeeze it for everything it was worth.
Boom!
As power was injected into it, the Forbidden Fire surged upward, instantly expanding into a fireball that floated above Dalun Li’s open palm.
As the Forbidden Fire was hurled forward, Withered Reincarnation sensed the terrifying, maddening power within the flames.
It rapidly flapped its wings, trying to take flight from the mire.
However, the power of the Collapsed Atmosphere activated again, locking it firmly in place.
The fireball of Forbidden Fire exploded in front of it, and the splashing flames instantly engulfed the creature.
The Forbidden Fire acted like growing moss, spreading rapidly along its skeleton and consuming the bones as fuel to keep burning.
Withered Reincarnation crashed to the ground, rolling desperately in the mud to extinguish the flames.
But how could the Forbidden Fire be put out by mud and water?
The Forbidden Fire possessed plant-like characteristics, and this particular flame—the one closest to the true original—also possessed a container property.
Upon contact with the mud, the Forbidden Fire began to use the wet earth as nourishment, growing at an even faster rate.
At the same time, the decay power within the mud was absorbed and stored by the Forbidden Fire, merging into the released flames and adding the attribute of decay to the burning heat.
This was a new ability generated by the container property of the current Forbidden Fire: absorbing external powers during the combustion process and integrating them into the fire.
In other words, if it burned in a glacial region, the Forbidden Fire could absorb the properties of ice, adding freezing power to the flames.
In a toxic mist, it could absorb the surrounding poison, adding toxic properties to the fire.
Now, the decay power was countering death.
The Forbidden Fire, tainted with the power of decay and layered with madness, began to torment Withered Reincarnation’s mind.
The withered evil god struggled frantically, its body repeatedly approaching death only to be reborn, only to then be burned by an even more maddening heat.
“Stop! Stop it now!”
Withered Reincarnation never imagined that the Forbidden Fire could be this powerful and insane. It was an evil god, yet even its mind was being subjected to a mental attack.
It had always been the evil gods who mentally assaulted others...
“I cannot kill you, but I will not set you free either.”
Dalun Li raised his hand and activated the Collapsed Atmosphere, peeling the entire space away from the subordinate floor and transferring it to the void between the subordinate floor and the Well of Eternal Imprisonment, establishing it as a hidden floor.
Withered Reincarnation felt the spatial shift, but the frantically burning Forbidden Fire gave it no chance to resist.
It could only roll madly in the mire, relying on its godhood to resist the madness of the Forbidden Fire.
“What are you doing? What do you intend to do to a god!”
Withered Reincarnation frantically attacked the surrounding spatial barriers, but no matter how much it damaged them, they recovered instantly.
The entire spatial barrier was linked to the power of the floor itself. No matter what damage it sustained, it would quickly restore itself.
However, for Dalun Li, this was still not secure enough.
He reached out and produced a pitch-black stone chalice inlaid with rubies—the Lava Cup.
The cup was filled with a searing, glowing red liquid.
“Withered Reincarnation, since I cannot kill you, then please remain imprisoned here forever.”
As the Lava Cup tilted, the liquid flowed out. Withered Reincarnation tried to struggle, but it was impossible.
Its form was violently compressed by the spatial power of the Collapsed Atmosphere, and its massive, burning body was forced to shrink.
Once it had been reduced to a gaunt, humanoid shape, the scalding liquid formed a ring around Withered Reincarnation’s neck. It solidified and cooled, forming a circular binding shackle.
It tried desperately to break the shackle, only to find that no matter how it attacked, it could not leave a single mark on it. Even the searing heat of its death fire could not cause any damage.
This was a shackle forged from melted Stratum Core, the hardest and most resistant substance known to Dalun Li.
Only the day-and-night smelting by the Forbidden Fire could melt the Stratum Core at a snail's pace.
Dalun Li had used the Forbidden Fire to smelt it for so long, yet he had only managed to produce a fist-sized amount of melted Stratum Core. This set of evil god shackles had consumed more than half of the liquid within the Lava Cup.
“Arrogant fool! Arrogant fool! You are committing blasphemy against the divine!”
“How dare you!”
Withered Reincarnation roared in fury.
It was actually being imprisoned like a common criminal, shackled and sealed within this dungeon!
It was a god, the symbol of death, Withered Reincarnation itself! Yet here it was, confined and treated as mere kindling for the Forbidden Fire!
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