Chapter 0: Iron Bone Unyielding
“What on earth are you talking about? I don’t understand a single bit!” Mo Qingyang felt like he was in a fog, even doubting if his Human Race language skills were insufficient.
“It’s fine. Old Mo, you just need to understand that you can’t fool me anymore.”
With that, Qin Gou instructed Li Yuanzhen to continue monitoring the Divine Bridge, and Yan Suoyun also didn’t need to intervene. He would have a one-on-one fight with Mo Qingyang, each displaying their own divine abilities. This offered Mo Qingyang, an old adversary, a graceful exit, while also ensuring the System could accurately calculate his Merit points.
Seeing this, Mo Qingyang realized that the other party truly wouldn’t leave him any room to breathe. He erupted again, his voice cold and venomous, “Fine. I see that all this back and forth is just another excuse for your heartlessness and disloyalty, Qin Gou! You don’t care about Lord Saint Monarch’s feelings at all and yet you act so falsely benevolent?!”
“Unbelievable! Anyone in this world can scold me now!”
At this moment, Old Qin was on the verge of swearing. Mo Qingyang, a figure who could be considered a grandmaster of ‘heartlessness and disloyalty,’ was actually pointing at his nose and yelling. Indeed, no matter where they were, only one of them could survive!
At the same moment, at the top of the grand hall, a cluster of pure white feathers suddenly materialized. Following Qin Gou’s sword-finger thrust, a circular beam of light enveloped Mo Qingyang entirely.
Mo Qingyang dodged rapidly, but the beam of light kept pace with him, maintaining an extremely consistent rhythm, always trapping him within. The sacred white feather at the very top, bathed in the white light of the beam, gradually descended, and would eventually land precisely above Mo Qingyang’s head, like a solemn and sacred coronation ceremony.
Everyone present had ample time to admire this overwhelmingly moving scene, yet no matter what, they could not avoid the absolutely fatal conclusion.
“This move is…”
Countless images flashed before Mo Qingyang’s eyes.
That year, at the foot of Arc-Moon Mountain, the day the Demon Emperor was defeated.
He knew clearly that the most effective way to break free from such an inescapable and entangled move was to stay as far away from Qin Gou as possible. However, at this very moment, within this Divine Bridge Sanctuary, he could no longer repeat his past tactics.
“Then I’ll give it my all!”
With no other retreat, Mo Qingyang’s eyes turned wild. His body moved like a demonic shadow, and he finally attacked Qin Gou head-on.
“Good, you’ve come.”
Qin Gou felt an inexplicable surge of relief in his heart, thinking that this brat had finally grown. He immediately stopped holding back, channeling all his spiritual power and concentrating it at a single point. Clearly, this move would decide their life and death on the spot.
“Boom!”
However, at the critical moment, just as it was about to happen, two entirely different forces struck Mo Qingyang’s Dao Body almost simultaneously.
Fortunately, Qin Gou was a moment faster. He shattered Mo Qingyang’s Dantian, delivering the fatal blow. Instantly, he transformed the Bud of Taihuang into the Heavenly-grade Spirit Plant, Nine Nether Uncrossable, and swiftly purified Mo Qingyang’s soul that had fled his body into the purest soul power, absorbing it into Xiao Chong’s Rouge Space.
As Mo Qingxin was immersed in this double surprise, Qin Gou also clearly heard the System prompt in his mind.
“Ding. Congratulations to the host for successfully defeating the ‘Old Abyss Lord’ Mo Qingyang with your own hands. However, given that his soul was incomplete and his cultivation had fallen, the reward is thirty thousand Merit points.”
Based on previous experience, Qin Gou usually received around ten thousand Merit points for defeating a Dharma Aspect Realm demonic cultivator, unless they were particularly powerful opponents. Mo Qingyang’s cultivation had indeed fallen at the last moment, and he was no longer at the early stage of Realm Lord. Thus, the System awarding thirty thousand points was within reason.
Even so, Old Qin couldn’t help but feel annoyed, his gaze suddenly turning towards the Abyssal Divine Bridge, “What did your Excellency mean just now?”
That sudden, sneak attack towards Mo Qingyang at the critical moment was the work of the Divine Bridge Consciousness.
It had absorbed some of Mo Qingyang’s soul power, causing his cultivation to drop. That was one thing, as Mo Qingyang had volunteered for it, and no one could stop him. But Qin Gou had specifically asked everyone not to intervene in this final battle. Yet, this entity had still acted without hesitation, nearly ruining his good deed.
“Fellow Daoist Qin, please look.”
As it spoke, the Divine Bridge Consciousness swept a ripple of spiritual power towards the crowd behind them.
Qin Gou turned his head and saw that the black mist-like restriction formation at the entrance of the grand hall was no longer there.
“That black mist barrier was created by Mo Qingyang. But just now, he quietly dispersed it himself. I suspect he was harboring intentions of escape. Since I have already decided to abandon the darkness and embrace the light, how could I allow his trickery to succeed? I had to act in time to help Fellow Daoist.”
The Divine Bridge Consciousness spoke logically, but Qin Gou’s face was filled with helplessness. He was the one who had truly fought Mo Qingyang at that moment and had the clearest understanding of Mo Qingyang’s spiritual power fluctuations. Dispelling the formation was not his attempt to escape. Within the sanctuary, where could he possibly escape to?
It was simply because Mo Qingyang at that time could no longer afford to worry about anything else and had to concentrate all his spiritual power on that life-or-death strike. That was why it happened.
This kind of superfluous action, coupled with the fact that the Divine Bridge Consciousness had no idea about Qin Gou’s relationship with his “old pal,” the System, the consequences of stealing his kill were quite severe. This attempt to curry favor had gone completely wrong.
Qin Gou immediately waved his hand. “Forget it. After all, you are not my friend at this moment, so there’s no need to take my request particularly seriously.”
The Divine Bridge Consciousness quickly replied, “Fellow Daoist Qin, what are you saying? With Mo Qingyang dead, isn’t it time for us to establish a contract?”
“Did I agree to that?”
Qin Gou retorted, “Furthermore, how can a contract with the dignified Abyssal Divine Bridge be easily signed? Besides, I’ve always had an ominous premonition. Now, I can easily communicate with the Demon Lord’s Tower, control the sanctuary’s killing array, and I have several Demon Lords as friends. If the Abyssal Divine Bridge also becomes one of my magic tools, what will I become?!”
“I, Qin, am startled to realize that I seem to be developing down a rather strange path.”
The Divine Bridge Consciousness blurted out, “As long as you sign a contract with me, you will naturally become the true Lord of the Abyss, completely replacing the former one, cleverly becoming a brand new Abyss Demon God in the hearts of the endless Abyss Citizens! My Lord Qin Gou? Abyss Demon God Qin Gou! I realize today that these two sentences are so catchy!”
Without any self-reflection, believing it was skillfully guiding him and would surely captivate him, the second attempt to flatter him followed. If one didn’t know, they might think the Divine Bridge Consciousness had no intention of surviving today.
“You… what did you call me?!”
Old Qin’s smile became stiff. “From calling me no different from a Demon God at the beginning, to actively interfering with my fight against Mo Qingyang, and now you’re speaking so strangely, saying that as long as I sign a contract with you, I’ll be some brand new Demon God?”
“Fellow Daoist, isn’t it all done on purpose? Is all of this just to insult me, to prove that even in this moment of life and death, you remain steadfastly loyal to that Abyss Demon God? You are truly an admirable, iron-boned, unyielding, and loyal servant of a generation!”
Sensing Qin Gou’s increasingly displeased expression, the Divine Bridge Consciousness panicked and cried out repeatedly, “What? I didn’t, I wasn’t, I didn’t!”
“No!”
But Old Qin’s teeth were grinding, his hand was sharpening his blade, and his voice was filled with a deep meaning, “You can be!”
