Chapter 140: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, the Oriole Lurks Behind – Prey and Predator.

Chapter 140: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, the Oriole Lurks Behind – Prey and Predator.

In an instant, the winds and clouds shifted in an instant.

Yun Shan Luan’s assault came fierce and relentless, forcing Wu Lihen to hastily pull back and hurriedly form hand seals, smashing into the oncoming sinister, icy howl.

The two colossal entities collided, making space tremble violently, rippling out transparent “waves” like water ripples.

Vision warped as a surge of air exploded outward, crashing wave after wave into the surroundings. The towering, sky-scraping walls couldn’t last a single breath before being shredded to dust by the devastating impact.

One by one, the False God statues quaked and crumbled, large and small fragments crashing into each other, their broken faces etched with smiles or fury.

The briefly frozen scene was eerie yet strangely beautiful.

The two Dharma Forms were too close, leaving no time for divine arts in the blink of an eye; they resorted to the most primal form of hand-to-hand combat.

“Boom—boom—boom!”

Yun Shan Luan was relatively weaker, but his dark cyan power acted like poison, erupting and corroding within Wu Lihen’s body, causing him unbearable pain.

Wu Lihen fought while retching, full of regret.

“Enough! I said enough!”

Wu Lihen’s Dharma Form staggered back under the heavy blows, each step stomping violently into the void, sending trembling ripples.

Yun Shan Luan sneered coldly.

His skills were forged through countless battles, honed from mountains of corpses and seas of blood. It was one thing to be thwarted by Jun Bu Du, but what was Wu Lihen? A mere nothing?

Wu Lihen defended himself clumsily, suffering terribly.

His hands were wounded.

In the battle to destroy the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, he had torn open space to send the Saint Asuras from the Divine Mountain to the Southern Domain, only to have his hands wounded by an immensely powerful, icy demonic energy.

“Hiss—Yun Shan Luan, you idiot! We’ve been set up!”

Qiu Qianyue, playing the fisherman from the sidelines, put on a worried face, gasping lightly as she cut in, “Stop fighting, please! The big picture is at stake. Wu Lihen, today’s trouble is your fault to begin with; you shouldn’t have taken advantage of the situation… Why not apologize to Brother Yun, give back the spiritual energy, and let this go?”

Wu Lihen’s fury flared. “Qiu Qianyue, it’s clearly you colluding with that Pretty Boy to set us against each other—you want to take all the spoils yourself?! Yun Shan Luan! When the snipe and clam fight, the fisherman profits. Are you sure you want to hand the win to this venomous woman?”

At this point, Yun Shan Luan seemed to have lost his mind, refusing to listen to reason.

A cold, mocking glint flashed in Qiu Qianyue’s eyes, though her tone grew even more pitiful and hurt. “How can you slander me like this? When you were gobbling up someone else’s spiritual energy just now, you weren’t acting like this—you only remember we’re comrades when you’re on the losing end.”

In the end, Wu Lihen himself had shown no mercy when he was winning, so why should Yun Shan Luan, now on top, hold back from kicking a dog when it’s down?

Yun Shan Luan smiled coldly, his left hand gripping Wu Lihen’s Dharma Form while his right hand swept behind him, summoning something.

A massive, terrifying golden needle appeared in his palm. He clenched his fist, pinned Wu Lihen down, and ruthlessly stabbed it toward his eye!

“Whoosh—hum—”

Space trembled with a thousand tons of force.

Wu Lihen’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. With no other choice, he was forced to reveal his true skill.

“Space Rend—Pangu Slash!”

Enduring the bone-deep agony racking his body, he suddenly swung his hand, releasing a hand seal.

Space before him disintegrated and re-formed.

The golden needle, meant to pierce his eye, disappeared into the void—yet he was still right there.

A sinister laugh echoed behind Yun Shan Luan’s ear, followed by a rush of wind.

The fragment of space that had “carried” Wu Lihen’s left hand had somehow moved behind him.

With overwhelming force, a finger aimed at the back of his head!

This strike was devious and inescapable. Yun Shan Luan twisted his Dharma Form’s head backward, opened his mouth, and instead of dodging, let out a piercing shriek: “Yaaaaaah!”

Facing the “shattered” Wu Lihen, Yun Shan Luan opted for an indiscriminate sonic assault.

The chilling, vast howl struck every fragment of Wu Lihen hidden in the spaces, while Wu Lihen’s space-rending finger pierced through Yun Shan Luan’s Dharma Form’s mouth and through his head!

In an instant, both were gravely wounded. Vast torrents of spiritual energy and blood spilled from their Dharma Forms, cascading like waterfalls into the slowly spinning, radiant vortex.

Stream after stream.

Pure, icy, powerful, ominous.

The Divine Demon Burial.

“Found it! Found it!”

The warriors of the Divine Dragon Clan worked in perfect sync, digging relentlessly based on the Foxtail Grass Spirit’s memories, and indeed unearthed the jade pendant it had torn from Yun You’er back then.

“Is this it?”

“Yes, that’s it!” The Foxtail Grass Spirit trembled with excitement, its grass hairs swaying. “This time, I’ll definitely help the master! This is karma! When the master kills Yun Shan Luan, I’ll be the top contributor! Hahaha!”

Wu He didn’t want to dampen its spirits, but had to state the obvious: “Take a look at the sky.”

The Foxtail Grass Spirit, buried in searching for the pendant, looked up and froze. “…Huh? It’s over?”

The epic, tide-turning battle it had imagined—where it would swoop in to save the day—hadn’t even begun, and it was already, already, over?

In the sky, the final scene slowly faded.

Under the merciless gaze of the Heavenly Eye, Yun You’er’s figure, unable to resist, exploded into a mist of blood.

One glance, and heaven and earth were annihilated.

The world fell silent, save for the thunderous pounding of hearts.

A long while passed.

“Wah!” The Foxtail Grass Spirit clutched the jade pendant and laughed. “The master and that person have regained their full strength—they’re already invincible! Crushing them was easy!”

Though there was a tiny bit of disappointment at not being able to help, it was truly just a little.

Victory was what mattered!

“You fool!” The monkey laughed. “What exploded was just Old Man Yun’s divine soul and will; his true body might not die off so quickly. You’ll still have your chance! Keep that thing safe!”

The Foxtail Grass Spirit nodded. “Mm, okay.”

All this time wasted over a useless jade pendant.

Its head drooped lower and lower, heavy with shame.

"Fool? Fool!"

The monkey called out, "It's no big deal, why you moping?"

The Foxtail Grass Spirit opened its mouth, then hung its head: "It's nothing..."

It also felt it was being way too dramatic.

So what if it was wrong or couldn't help?

It was clearly nothing... it knew its buddies wouldn't blame it, and the master said not to badmouth yourself... but...

The awful thought of "being so useless" weighed on it like a stone, pressing on its chest, making it feel all tight and heavy—so miserable.

It knew how dumb this was.

It forced a grin, lifted its head, and let out a hollow laugh: "I'm happy—ah!"

Its face froze, and it sucked in a sharp, cold breath, staring into the depths of the Divine Demon Burial, its eyes growing wider and wider.

Everyone turned as one.

The nightmare from thousands of years ago was back.

He was here.

From that ghostly, hazy portal between two worlds, a world-shattering monster squeezed out.

Its cold will slammed into the first line of defense, and the Black-Gold Dragon Bone Formation rang out with violent metallic clangs.

"They're breaking through! Breaking through!"

"The Evil Demon God is breaking through!"

"Ong... ong... ong..."

Low war horns boomed across the sky. Long Ao Tian and Long Yuanyuan bared their teeth, about to spin around and race back to the front, when the ground suddenly lurched.

One by one, the Black-Gold Dragon Bone Formations got knocked over.

The massive formations crashing down made the ground shake, and the "fireworks" blooming beside them were the bloody bursts of Divine Dragon Clan warriors blowing themselves up.

Wu He's eyes trembled as he muttered, "Is this the thing you've been fighting?"

Long Ao Tian turned, his eyes a little red.

Lately, the Evil Demon God's attacks had been getting fiercer every time. This time, it might really be unstoppable.

Long Ao Tian said, dead serious, word by word: "Let Him invade your lands, and my Divine Dragon Clan warriors will fight till the last one falls."

Long Yuanyuan nodded quietly: "We'll give it everything we've got..."

The bunch of freaks cackled, laughing so hard they bent over: "We ain't dead yet, don't need you to protect us!"

They looked at each other, blood boiling.

"Together!"

One by one, weird hands clasped tight together.

The Foxtail Grass Spirit was about to reach out a branch when its body suddenly jerked hard!

"Wait—wait!"

It saw!

It suddenly saw!

Everyone turned to see the fluffy foxtail behind its head shrink to a skinny tuft, shaking all over, its look terrified.

"Fool, what's wrong?"

The monkey poked it with a finger.

The Foxtail Grass Spirit's pupils went wild, shrinking and widening.

Its mouth quivered, its grass fur stood on end.

It saw!

It was a disaster-predicting demon, originally, and it hadn't seen death so clearly in ages.

"No... no... don't die!"

It stumbled a step, its branchy hands reaching out helplessly.

The bunch of freaks went quiet for a second.

The monkey jumped: "Pfft! Talk about a jinx! Pfft pfft!"

The Paper Effigy Boy blinked its eyeless eyes: "No bad luck! No bad luck!"

Wu He said flatly: "We're all gonna die? Fine, death is death, at least I can finally get some sleep."

Li Xueke sighed: "Everyone's gotta die. In other words, death is the point of life."

The monkey had to add: "A grave? No one to bury us, what grave?"

"No."

The Foxtail Grass Spirit slowly lifted its reddened eyes. "Not us. The dead aren't us!"

Its voice came out hoarse and strained: "...It's the master."

Hearing this, the bunch of freaks burst out laughing: "Pfft! That's even more impossible! No way! The Divine Shaman and the Sword Master, fighting those guys—like slicing through veggies."

Long Ao Tian and Long Yuanyuan were completely unconcerned: "The Great Shaman is here, don't be afraid."

"What are the Divine Lords? Just a bunch of cannon fodder! Why don't you take a look at that Yun Shan Luan!" the monkey laughed heartily. "I was lying to you earlier—that broken jade pendant of yours is completely useless! And this broken prophecy of yours is even more useless!"

The Foxtail Grass Spirit bit its lip, tears falling in streams.

But it had seen it.

It saw the master, drenched in blood, his clothes all dyed a deep red.

The blood, flowing down the endless jade steps of the Divine Court...

Dripping down... ever downward...

Like a waterfall...

Yun Shan Luan and Wu Lihen both fought until their eyes were bloodshot.

After taking damage in battle, their hand-to-hand combat became utterly reckless, willing to sacrifice heavily just to hurt the enemy.

This great clash between the two Dharma Forms nearly wrecked everything in sight.

All around, a sea of blood stretched out.

The divine blood poured from their bodies like waterfalls, streaming into the vortex.

The two Dharma Forms grew weaker and dimmer.

After an unknown time, Yun Shan Luan and Wu Lihen, locked in a brutal struggle, were suddenly blinded by a dazzling divine light.

Their movements froze.

Turning their heads, they saw that the purest blood and spiritual energy, passing through the vortex, were all being absorbed by Qiu Qianyue.

What was more terrifying was that during their brutal fight, a terrifying surge of immense vow-power had come from nowhere, which she devoured entirely.

Now her Dharma Form blazed like a god.

And the other two had become like knee-high weeds beneath her feet.

Yun Shan Luan snapped back to reality: "...The snipe and the clam contend."

Wu Lihen sneered through gritted teeth: "The fisherman profits—didn't I tell you all along!"

Qiu Qianyue looked down, and the two stiffened simultaneously, a chill running through them.

"Wrong," she said, now invincibly powerful, yet she still smiled sweetly. "Today's situation is clearly the mantis stalking the cicada, with the oriole behind."

Yun Shan Luan and Wu Lihen clenched their jaws, their eyes flickering wildly.

Qiu Qianyue suddenly smiled: "But who's the hunter and who's the prey—who can really tell until the end?"

She turned her head, "Don't you think so, ... Divine Shaman?"