470: Chapter 470 Sky Burial Beast

In the center of the darkness, "something" was rising.

It was not a mountain.

It was a mountain of flesh—piled high with death, rot, and immortal resentment.

It was too massive.

The mere act of rising obscured half the sky.

The moment its shadow swept over the heads of the five, even their breath was crushed within their chests.

This was a corpse.

The wreckage of a terrifying behemoth belonging to some primeval epoch.

Its scales were as large as hills, each one branded with crisscrossing slash marks—the fierce Sword Intent remaining unscattered after ten thousand years, burning runes having scorched through its carapace, and time and Death Qi having corroded honeycomb-like holes from which dark green pus and black smoke oozed.

These wounds were the medals of its past struggles against gods and demons, and also the epitaph of it being personally pressed into eternity by the Lord of Burials.

Its head... what might have once been a majestic Dragon head was mostly rotted away, exposing stark white, cracked bones.

Only that twisted, once-broken horn stood stubbornly erect, its tip dancing with eerie green phosphorus fire—a fire that was freezing cold yet scorched the Soul, like remnant flames scooped from the depths of the Underworld River.

Its eye sockets were empty.

No—two clumps of "fire" burned there. Grudge-fire, condensed from the purest resentment, unwillingness, and endless hatred toward the living.

The flames flickered silently, yet they reflected the deepest fears within everyone's pupils.

"Roar————————!!!"

The roar squeezed out of its rotted throat, squeezed out of its chest, squeezed out of every crack in its torso—it was not a sound.

It was killing intent itself vibrating.

There was no sanity, no purpose. Only the most primitive and tyrannical impulse for destruction toward all "living things" after being suppressed, buried, and forgotten for billions of years.

Zero of the Void Zerg, her transparent insect wings vibrating at high frequency behind her, was unable to move a single inch.

The force field emitted by the behemoth distorted the most fundamental Laws of space.

The "spatial leap" she relied on for survival had completely failed.

Her icy rationality was submerged inch by inch by a wave called "unknown horror."

"The Sky Burial Beast... it's the legendary... Sky Burial Beast!" A-Pan's voice was trembling. The fear in the ancient Bloodline memory of the Rock Demon Race had awakened—this was a shudder engraved deep within his genes, a nightmare passed down through generations of ancestors. "The primeval beast king that devours stars and moons, nesting in realms... It should have been obliterated long ago during the 'Lord of Burials' World Destruction' battle!"

"It isn't 'dead'." The Burial Son's voice was dry, like bones scraping together. The gray death intent guarding his body melted like snow meeting boiling oil when struck by the Grudge-fire.

"The Lord of Burials... used the supreme Burial Dao to 'bury' it here, but did not destroy its ferocious Soul... It 'lives' in another form. It is an eternal prisoner of this Burial Land. And also... a guard."

He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing, each word squeezed out from between his teeth: "Guarding the... first gate of this trial."

"Boom—!!!"

His final words were swallowed by the loud rumble.

The Sky Burial Beast's giant claw—a heavenly pillar barely holding its shape with bones, rotting flesh, scales, and solidified Evil Qi—descended upon the five with a momentum that could crush stars!

Space let out a wail, like fabric being wrung apart, before completely shattering and collapsing.

It was not a Divine Ability, but a collapse triggered merely by pure, overwhelming "mass" and "malice."

The scorched earth for a hundred miles around turned to powder like a crisp cracker under the residual shockwaves of the claw wind, swept up by the air currents to form a deathly dust storm that blotted out the sky.

"Pfft—!" "Ugh—!"

Five figures were swatted away like withered leaves, blood spraying wildly from their mouths as they drew tragic arcs in the air.

Body-protecting divine light and Saint Body Dao rhymes were as fragile as paper before this destructive claw—no, even worse than paper.

This was the despair of ants facing a natural disaster, the moment when all pride was ground to dust before absolute power.

"You Ying" of the Ghost Face Race suffered the most.

His movement technique of merging into shadows was completely meaningless before absolute power. Half his body was grazed by the edge of the claw's shadow and instantly exploded into a mist of blood.

That crying-laughing mask cracked with a "clack," revealing a pale face distorted by intense pain and disbelief beneath.

"Shadows... are useless..." His pupils dilated, his voice carrying a daze as if his beliefs had collapsed. "It can 'perceive'... all 'existence'..."

"There's no escaping."

The Burial Son crashed heavily to the ground, coughing up foul blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs.

He struggled to stand, watching the giant claw wrapped in destructive aura slowly rise again in the distance. The last trace of hope in his eyes went out, replaced by a near-self-destructive madness.

"The Lord of Burials' trial... has only one path... forge ahead through slaughter, contend amidst death... Either step over its corpse..."

He bared his blood-stained mouth, his smile grim and terrifying, like a cornered beast baring its final fangs.

"Or... become another eternal skeleton deep within this Burial Land!"

"Roar—!"

The Sky Burial Beast's rotted head turned slightly, its hollow, Grudge-fire-burning "gaze" seemingly locking onto them.

The green horn on its head flared with brilliant light, as if drawing in the boundless Death Qi and resentment of the entire Burial Land—this suction was greedy and thirsty, like an abyss dried up for billions of years finally receiving its offering.

It condensed into a single point of destructive brilliance that froze the Soul.

"Let's fight it to the death! Earth Divine Body, true form release! Unyielding Monolith Body!"

A-Pan let out a cornered beast's roar as his thirty-meter-tall body expanded once more. The rocks on his body's surface crumbled, revealing the true core flowing with golden-red magma beneath—this was the most primal Origin power of the Rock Demon Race, the final trump card bestowed upon her children by the Mother of the Earth.

Ancient runes lit up one by one on his body, like primordial beacon fires.

He slammed his fists together and actually charged proactively toward the destructive beam of light!

"Void Divine Body, Phase Fold!"

The insect wings on Zero's back shrieked, and her body flickered illusionary and unstable as she attempted to force open a rift in the solidified space. The surrounding spatial barriers were harder than divine iron, and the backlash caused blood to spill from her mouth and nose. Every inch of her Meridians let out a cracking wail. "Space has been anchored... This world is its cage... and ours!"

"Illusion Sea Divine Body, Endless Abyssal Ocean!"

Cang Ming formed hand seals, and vast water elemental energy gathered into a deep, rotating azure vortex, attempting to swallow and dissolve the beam of light.

His robes whipped wildly in the energy storm, veins bulging on his temples and bloodshot lines creeping into his eyes—this was the strongest strike he had ever unleashed in his life.

"Devious Dao Divine Body, Myriad Shadows Death Substitute!"

You Ying shouted sharply and bit the tip of his tongue. The essence blood he spat out turned into dense shadows, landing to form dozens of figures that were hard to distinguish from the real one, fleeing in different directions.

Every figure carried his aura, his warmth, his fear—this was a fleeting chance of survival bought with his life.

The Burial Son did not defend, nor did he dodge.

He just stood frozen in place, allowing the destructive aura to submerge him.

The gray Qi around him swirled to the limit, so thick it could not be dispersed. Behind him, a blurry, heaven-supporting phantom slowly emerged.

The phantom was dressed in ancient burial robes, wearing a flat-topped crown, its features blurred—only the positions of its eyes were two swirling black holes that devoured all light.

An aura of endless death intent, ending, and final destination diffused from those two patches of darkness, as if connecting to the end of all things.

"Burial Dao Divine Body... Silent Annihilation Aspect..." He growled in a low voice, as if calling upon some sleeping, unspeakable horror. "With my broken body as a burial offering... I request the Burial Land... to open its eyes!"

"Boom————————!!!!!"

The destructive eerie green beam of light collided fiercely with the five erupted rays of light representing the Peak power of their respective races.

In this instant—

There was no sound.

Only the annihilation of light and darkness.

Heaven and earth lost their voice. All things fell silent.

Then came the destructive, raging waves that swept through everything.

Space was like a shattered mirror, covered in cracks, with the aura of nothingness gushing from every single crack.

Time became viscous and strange, as if even Karma had been tangled into a chaotic mess by this destructive collision.

The shockwave swept out in a ring, plowing, lifting, and melting the shattered earth once more—everything lost its form before this power, returning to the most primitive state of disorder.

Dust mixed with Death Qi, Evil Qi, and the scorched stench of flesh fell slowly like a heavy curtain, draping over the center of destruction.

A long time passed.

The dust had yet to settle.

The figure of the Sky Burial Beast, as massive as a mountain range, reappeared in the dust and mist.

The eerie green light on its horn was slightly dimmed, but its eyes, burning with Grudge-fire, still stared fixedly downward—there was no fatigue or wavering in that gaze, only eternal, untiring killing intent.

Ahead, on the scorched earth that had been completely reshaped into a glazed giant crater—

A-Pan was half-kneeling.

The Unyielding Monolith Body was covered in web-like cracks, with golden-red magma constantly gushing and dripping down, making sizzling burning sounds.

One of his rock arms had vanished without a trace, and hot blood was still flowing from the severed joint.

One of Zero's insect wings was broken, twisting weirdly. Her high-tech battle armor was severely damaged, her exposed skin was covered in scorch marks, the data streams in her eyes were as chaotic as static, and glowing blood kept seeping from the corners of her mouth.

The "Endless Abyssal Ocean" in front of Cang Ming was completely dried up. He collapsed to the ground, his luxurious robes tattered, his face a sickly gold, his aura as withered as a candle in the wind.

All of You Ying's dozens of death-substitute shadow Clones had been destroyed. His true body curled up at the edge of the giant crater, his shadow clothing tattered, exposing skin as pale as paper, his aura so weak it had nearly dissipated—like a crumpled piece of clothing about to be thrown away.

The terrifying phantom behind the Burial Son had already vanished.

He knelt on one knee, supporting himself with his hands on the ground, coughing up large mouthfuls of blood—the blood actually made sizzling corrosive sounds as it hit the ground, eating holes into the glazed earth.

The gray Qi around his body was so thin it was almost invisible, like a dying hearth fire.

Yet those crazed eyes still stared fixedly at the Sky Burial Beast ahead.

And...

Behind the Sky Burial Beast, the even vaster scorched earth was silently cracking open.

"Roar..."

The Sky Burial Beast let out a low growl like muffled thunder. Its other giant claw slowly rose—the movement was slow and heavy, carrying a near-ritualistic solemnity, like an executioner raising his blade.

The shadow of death loomed over them once more.

And behind it, deep within the Burial Land as far as the eye could see—

Dark rifts, one after another, were bursting open in succession like the opening eyes of Hell.

An even more ancient, bizarre, and despair-inducing aura diffused from the depths of those rifts like a waking tide.

Within those auras were the wails of gods and demons, the lamentations of fallen dynasties, and the lingering echoes of fallen stars—it was the accumulated death of countless epochs, awakened simultaneously at this very moment.

The trial of the Burial Land, this cruel filtering process, this furnace that used prodigies as firewood...

At this moment—

The furnace fire had only just truly ignited.