Chapter 0: Arrogant Pride
“You demons truly love giving me nicknames. And I imagine that after today, another new moniker for me will spread throughout the Demon Race Abyss.”
Qin Gou spoke with a chilling tone, enunciating each word: “Emperor Slayer, the one who severed the Demon Emperor’s dog head.”
“Such arrogant words!” Fury blazed in Mo Qingyang’s eyes, his savage aura locking onto Qin Gou. “Qin Gou, do you think Mo Qingyang is still the same as before, a Dharma Aspect Realm cultivator you can casually manipulate? You, Qin Gou, are arrogant and dismissive, hidden away in Arc-Moon Mountain for years. I wager you haven’t even passed the Mortal Transformation stage for your Human Race, remaining stagnant!”
“The only thing I fear is that you’ll be too scared to ever show your face before me again. And then to see your current cultivation… What? Li Jiu Realm?!”
While impersonating the Emperor’s Son-in-law, to differentiate himself from the previously disguised Ao Banwei and to be more convincing, Qin Gou had not worn the Desireless Bracelet.
After Mo Qingyang recovered from his initial shock and clearly saw Qin Gou’s actual cultivation level, he couldn’t help but laugh. “Ridiculous! Qin Gou, you are, after all, a cowardly wretch! As one of the only two at the peak of the Dharma Aspect Realm in this world, how could you possibly suppress your cultivation so low? So, you simply sent a mere clone here.”
Mo Qingyang’s eyes were filled with mockery. “The tables have turned. After achieving World Master status, even you, Qin Gou of Arc-Moon Mountain, no longer dare to be presumptuous before me. I truly overestimated you before!”
“So, you believe that my previous claim of wanting to kill you was all bluster? I, this Celestial Master, merely pitied you, so I showed great compassion and painstakingly dispatched a clone to let you, Mo Qingyang, vent your anger?” Qin Gou let out a wry smile, tightly clenching the ‘Demon Master’s Strike’ talisman in his sleeve.
“Enough nonsense, perish before me immediately!” Mo Qingyang sensed an unusual aura. Behind him, an extremely strange, pitch-black portal opened, and hundreds of bloody arms snaked out like monstrous pythons towards Qin Gou.
Qin Gou snorted coldly, simultaneously crushing the ‘Demon Master’s Strike’ talisman in his hand. A blinding sword of heavenly thunder shot from his pale fingertips, directly at Mo Qingyang.
“This power…” Mo Qingyang’s expression was one of shock. He dared not underestimate it, swiftly withdrawing his countless bloody hands to meet the attack head-on, roaring in disbelief, “How can you, at the Li Jiu Realm, unleash the peak strength of the Dharma Aspect Realm?!”
However, in the next second, Mo Qingyang’s astonishment instantly turned to bone-chilling dread.
The true target of that dazzling heavenly thunder was not him, but the massive Eternal Seal Ice located not far from Mo Qingyang.
“You mad dog, how could you not know what this is? This is Eternal Seal Ice! Once triggered, the consequences are unimaginable!”
As quick as lightning, Mo Qingyang moved like a phantom, his eyes wide with fury, using his own body to shield the Eternal Seal Ice.
Immediately after, that heavenly thunder, with a snap of Qin Gou’s fingers, split into six. Only a sliver remained to entangle Mo Qingyang, while the other five fiercely struck the five pieces of Eternal Seal Ice sent by Yi Chengying.
“Boom!”
For a moment, a deafening roar shook the heavens and earth. Like a chain reaction, the Eternal Seal Ice, large and small, was triggered, and the entire dungeon rumbled.
Mo Qingyang fled without hesitation in one direction, only to collide with a translucent blue barrier in mid-air. His hair and eyebrows instantly froze, and the barrier rapidly shrank, forcing him to hastily return to the ground.
“Qin Gou! No one in this world, not even a pig, would be foolish enough to intentionally trigger the Eternal Seal Ice!” Mo Qingyang’s eyes were bloodshot, as if they would bleed. The once Demon Emperor was disheveled, roaring with heartbreaking anguish.
While it seemed like playing with fire to fill the dungeon with Eternal Seal Ice, there were very few people in the world capable of triggering it under Mo Qingyang’s watchful eye.
Mo Qingyang’s side was never short of loyal bodyguards and assassins from various races, but their methods were too clumsy and slow in Mo Qingyang’s eyes; he could block them with a mere raise of his hand. Only this man before him possessed both the ability and the extreme madness.
“No one can say for sure how long this Eternal Seal Ice will seal us! Do you intend to die with me?” Mo Qingyang frantically formed hand seals, and thousands of giant bloody hands continuously bombarded the blue barrier, deafeningly loud. Yet, he found Qin Gou utterly unfazed, standing straight with an indifferent expression.
“Qin Gou, cooperate with me immediately, and there’s still a slim chance of survival! You scoundrel, why did you commit such a rebellious act? Whether it’s you, Qin Gou, or me, Mo Qingyang, we both know how long it took to gain our current strength and status in this perilous Cultivation World! Don’t you care about your life at all?!”
“I, Qin Gou, have always been fearless, except for one thing: if anyone makes my disciple cry, I will fight them to the death.” Qin Gou’s eyes were sharp as ice, his tone devoid of any panic, instead revealing an irrepressible ferocity. “You beast worse than an animal, how much suffering did you inflict on my Xiao Ling’er? Every time I recall it, I wish I could devour your flesh alive.”
“For this, you would risk your life?” Mo Qingyang let out a bitter, disbelieving laugh. “The world calls Mo Qingyang a madman who acts without consequence, but it seems you, Qin Gou, are the true one!”
With that, Mo Qingyang, seeing the constantly shrinking blue barrier, stopped his futile resistance. He looked at Qin Gou with a savage grin and said, “It’s a pity you probably don’t know that the Nine Saint Monarch is likely to be resurrected in five years. When she returns, she will undoubtedly rescue me, and you, Qin Gou, will surely die!”
“Just wait, Qin Gou. When we are unsealed in five years, you will become a soul slain by the Saint Monarch!”
However, after Mo Qingyang finished speaking, Qin Gou didn’t respond at all. He remained standing straight, his expressionless.
“You…”
Suddenly, a wisp of blood seeped from Qin Gou’s mouth, turning to ice upon hitting the ground.
Mo Qingyang probed with his spiritual power and felt as if he had witnessed the most terrifying sight in the world. He trembled all over and shrieked in a state of soul scattered and spirit vanished, “This scoundrel has already severed his own meridians and pulverized his heart and lungs?! A monster, a complete monster!”
“Are you so unwilling to be associated with me? Even unwilling to be sealed together in the Eternal Seal Ice? Back then, you treated me like an ant, and when you saw me fleeing in panic, you refused to step out of your mountain gate. Now, I am the Realm Lord, what right do you still have to look down on me!”
Mo Qingyang furiously struck out with a palm, intending to shatter Qin Gou’s corpse. But before he could strike, Qin Gou had already transformed into specks of starlight, dissipating in the cold air, seemingly vanishing from heaven and earth forever.
“Hahahaha… The Master of Arc-Moon Mountain is indeed as proud and aloof as the soul of the bright moon. I have lost to you this time, and it’s not unfair! But I hate it, I truly hate it!”
For a moment, Mo Qingyang descended into complete madness and despair, tearing at his hair and falling to his knees with a thud. He was utterly shaken, unable to comprehend how such a person with such unbending integrity could exist in this world!
At the same time.
Qin Gou, who had been transferred by the Celestial Master’s Soul, suddenly stood up from the bathtub floating with Charm Bug petals.
“Ah!”
The Charm Bug, clutching its plump, snow-white body, stopped its scream midway. Its tone was extremely strange. “Saint Qin? You… how long have you been hiding in there?”
