413: Chapter 413 Hundred-Foot Demonic Shadow

At the instant the lightning tore through the sky, Luo Xiaojiu's consciousness had not yet fully awakened from the refining process just now.

She only remembered that pair of arms.

Chu Zhanxiao's arms were wrapped around her waist, the strength not heavy, yet steady as a mountain—like a mountain that had stood there since time immemorial, never wavering.

She hung entirely on him, like a butterfly clinging to the thunder, tiny, fragile, yet inexplicably at ease.

As if as long as those arms remained, even if the sky fell, it would not crush her.

Then the world shattered.

It was not a metaphor.

It truly shattered.

At the moment the silver-gold lightning exploded, Luo Xiaojiu heard the sound of her own heartbeat stalling—not because of fear, but because it was too fast.

So fast that she had no time to blink, no time to breathe, no time to think, not even time to be afraid.

The wind was sharp as a knife, scraping against her ears, making her eardrums ache, making her Soul tremble.

She subconsciously buried her face in Chu Zhanxiao's chest, her nose brushing against his lapel.

There was a faint scent of lightning fire here, scorching yet crisp, like the air before a storm, like the silence before the Lightning Tribulation descends.

And a little bit... of blood?

Very faint.

So faint it was almost imperceptible.

So faint it was as if it didn't want her to notice.

She had no time to think carefully.

Because at the very moment she closed her eyes, a sound came from behind—

Tearing.

This was not a sound.

This was the world mourning.

It was the Void Realm weeping.

It was this world being forcibly torn open by something, leaving a wound.

Li Jiuyou forced his eyes open and looked back.

Just one glance.

Then his pupils were as if nailed by something, pinned within his eye sockets, unable to move a fraction.

There.

Right there, where they had sat cross-legged to refine for an hour, this valley covered by Chu Zhanxiao's lightning domain, quiet as a paradise—

The Void Realm cracked.

Not a crack, but a tearing open.

Like a thin sheet of paper being torn from both sides by two invisible hands, a huge, pitch-black gash was ripped right down the middle.

The edges of the gash flickered with an eerie, ghostly light, like flowing blood, like burning ghost fire.

Spatial turbulence surged out from within, and wherever it passed, rocks crumbled, vegetation turned to ash, even the air wailed as it fled, and even light was twisted and devoured.

That gash was like an eye slowly opening.

An eye from the abyss.

Then, something walked out from that opening.

The first thing to emerge was a foot.

No, this was not a foot.

This was a mass of pitch-black, constantly writhing mist, the mist condensed into the shape of a foot, stepping into the Void Realm.

Where it landed, the space caved in, leaving a pitch-black footprint that lingered for a long time—as if the Void Realm had been branded with a wound that would never heal.

Next was the body.

A hundred Zhang.

A full hundred-Zhang tall Devilish shadow.

It was pitch black all over, the Devilish Qi swirling around its body so thick it almost condensed into substance, like countless venomous snakes slithering, climbing, and hissing on its body, like countless resentful spirits wailing, struggling, and cursing around it.

When this Devilish Qi touched the air, the air corroded into tiny black holes; when it touched the ground, the ground instantly withered into ash—even stones were no exception, and even the soil screamed as it died.

And its eyes—

These were two blood moons.

Scarlet, cold, devoid of a shred of emotion, devoid of a degree of warmth.

These eyes swept over the empty valley below, the pupils reflecting the lingering purple-gold light traces of the lightning domain, reflecting that tiny, weak point of light that had already fled far away.

Then, it laughed.

No sound.

But Li Jiuyou's Soul was trembling.

Because with this laugh, the birds within a hundred miles fell from the sky in unison, bleeding from their seven orifices, dying silently.

Their corpses fell to the ground, piling up into a small hill, every pair of eyes wide open, the pupils still retaining the fear of the last moment before death.

"Demon Race... Deity Transformation Realm..."

Li Jiuyou's voice was squeezed through his teeth, dry as if he had a mouthful of sand, as if he had swallowed a piece of burning charcoal.

But this was not over.

In the Void Realm, another claw reached out.

Deep blue scales covered it, each scale the size of a millstone, glowing with a cold luster—like the cold in the deepest part of the deep sea where sunlight never reaches.

The claw reached out gently, hooking onto the edge of the spatial rift—

Then tore.

Rip—

This was a more violent tearing sound than before. The rift was forcibly torn to twice its width, and a figure, also a hundred Zhang tall, stepped out from within.

Sea Race.

It was clad in azure battle armor, with water-like light patterns flowing on the armor, every line seeming alive, slowly moving, breathing, staring.

It held a trident, the tip pointing at the firmament. A drop of water slid from the tip of the trident—

It fell to the ground.

Boom!

The ground was smashed into a bottomless giant pit, the edges of the giant pit cracked with countless fissures, spreading to the surroundings like a spider web, spreading to the end of one's line of sight.

A drop of water.

The weight of a drop of water had smashed through the earth.

"Sea Race... also Soul Transformation..."

Li Jiuyou's voice had already begun to tremble. He clenched his fists, his nails digging into his flesh, digging until blood flowed—using pain to force himself to stay awake, forcing himself not to close his eyes.

Not enough.

Not enough to see all the despair clearly.

The third aura descended.

That was a mass of twisted light and shadow.

It had no fixed form, sometimes turning into a human shape, sometimes scattering into countless tiny flying insects, sometimes gathering into a hazy mist of light.

Each change had no warning, no transition, as if countless creatures were fighting for dominance within the same body.

Inside its body, countless tiny eyes were blinking, dense and layered, making one's scalp tingle.

Each eye reflected a different scene—some reflected Li Jiuyou's face, some reflected Chu Zhanxiao's back, some reflected Luo Xiaojiu's side profile buried in Chu Zhanxiao's chest, some reflected the Golden Lion running wildly.

In every eye, the same word was written—

Eat.

Insect Race Mother Empress.

Deity Transformation Realm.

Its mental fluctuations spread out, no sound, no warning, no trace.

Just—

Within a hundred miles, all birds and beasts fell to the ground at the same instant.

Bleeding from their seven orifices.

Dead with eyes wide open.

Their corpses would become nutrients for the Insect Race.

The fourth.

The fifth.

The sixth.

One figure after another stepped out from that torn Void Realm.

The wise elder of the Spirit Race, surrounded by brilliant stars.

Each star was a real, refined small celestial body, slowly rotating around him, casting starlight from time immemorial.

His eyes were like two deep pools, reflecting the birth and destruction of the Universe, reflecting the passage of time and Reincarnation.

The descendant of the Primordial Vicious Beast of the Yao Race, although not as large as the Devilish shadow, exerted a pressure from the depths of its Bloodline that made strong practitioners of the same Realm look sideways. It was covered in dark golden fur, each hair engraved with ancient Yao patterns—when those Yao patterns lit up, the surrounding Void Realm trembled, submitted, and bowed.

There were also a few existences with eerie auras—unable to tell their race, unable to see their form, only a mass of twisted shadow, a cold gaze, a suffocating sense of oppression.

They were like things that crawled out from a deeper abyss, like names that even the Demon Race would not want to mention.

But their existence itself was a declaration.

Thirteen.

A full thirteen auras.

Thirteen Soul Transformation existences.

Each one was the most top-tier peerless Prodigy of their race in this generation.

Judging from the terrifying pressure, the strange phenomena upon arrival, and the ease of tearing space like tearing thin paper—

Any one of them, placed in the outside world, was an existence that could make a force bow in submission, an existence that could make a city tremble in fear, an existence that could make Nascent Soul Cultivators flee at the sight of them.

And now.

Thirteen of them.

Chasing four people.

Three of whom were Golden Core.

Li Jiuyou's throat moved. He wanted to say something, wanted to curse, wanted to mock, wanted to ask what the hell was going on—

But he opened his mouth and said nothing.

Because his tongue had frozen.

His limbs had frozen.

His heartbeat felt as if it had been gripped by something invisible, beating slowly and arduously, each beat requiring all the strength in his body.

That was fear.

That was the lingering pressure released simultaneously by thirteen Deity Transformation Realm existences.

They did not even intentionally target him.

They were just standing there.

Just existing.

Was enough to make him, a Golden Core Realm Cultivator, find even breathing a luxury, and make his blood nearly freeze.

And just at this moment—

The Devilish shadow of the Demon Race that had descended first withdrew its gaze from scanning the ground.

Its blood-red eyes narrowed slightly, looking toward the silver-gold stream of light that was moving away in the distant sky.

The stream of light had already turned into a tiny dot, almost invisible at the end of the line of sight—as small as a speck of dust, like a moth.

But it saw it.

They all saw it.

"Escaped."

Its voice was like a devilish sound from beneath the Nine Netherworlds, low, hoarse, carrying a pressure that made the Soul tremble.

The voice was not loud, yet it seemed to ring in everyone's ears—as if a cold tongue were licking their ears, their backs, their hearts.

"The perception is not weak."

The existence of the Sea Race spoke slowly. Its voice was like waves crashing against rocks, low and booming, as if the deep sea were speaking.

The trident tapped gently, the tip pointing into the Void Realm—

Dong.

A ripple spread out.

Where the ripple passed, space rippled like the surface of water, revealing the twisted images inside, revealing the lightning light that was speeding away, revealing the back that was as cold as frost within the lightning.

"However—"

It paused, the corners of its mouth slowly splitting into a smile. The smile split all the way to the roots of its ears, revealing a mouthful of jagged, saw-like teeth, revealing that mouth like an abyss.

"Can you escape?"

The Insect Race Mother Empress's mental fluctuations spread out, no sound, yet more hair-raising than any sound.

The fluctuations carried an eerie smile, as if countless insects were crawling, gnawing, and whispering in their minds, as if whispering in everyone's dreams.

"I have already locked onto their auras."

The countless eyes in its body blinked simultaneously, the dense sound of blinking echoing in the Void Realm, like a silent carnival.

In every eye, Chu Zhanxiao's back was reflected, the lightning light that was flying away was reflected, the prey about to be caught was reflected.

"Thirteen Soul Transformation existences, chasing one Nascent Soul, three Golden Core..."

Its laughter rang in everyone's minds, sharp, piercing, carrying cruel pleasure, carrying impatient hunger.

"Heh."

"Truly interesting."

In the distance.

The lightning light was still speeding.

Still tearing through the sky.

Still escaping.

Chu Zhanxiao's brows moved slightly, but he did not look back, did not slow down, without a shred of panic.

His left hand was wrapped around Luo Xiaojiu's waist, his right hand loosely clenched, the power of thunder entwined around Li Jiuyou and the Golden Lion, taking them to fly away together—taking them through the gale, through the lightning, through this heaven and earth that was about to become a battlefield.

He did not speak.