The deathly aura of the Forest of Ten Thousand Withered Bones was sucked dry in an instant as a pillar of dark-gold light shot upward like a divine blade, piercing through the murky firmament of the mortal realm.
Cang Yaochen stood atop the altar. The spinal column of the Asura War God, fallen ten thousand years ago, was burrowing into his back like a lethal serpent. Each vertebra that clicked into place was accompanied by a gut-wrenching sound of grinding bone. The veins on his forehead bulged, and within his double pupils, dark gold and deep crimson swirled in a frenzied rotation. Thick demonic blood erupted from his reopened wounds, only to be entirely absorbed by the altar the moment it touched the stone.
"Ignorant wretch! You dare pilfer the origin of the War God!"
The spiritual avatar of the Cloud-Ascension Throne let out a furious roar from mid-air. Though more than half of his form had been shattered by the earlier pillar of light, he was, after all, a manifestation of a Throne's will. The residual divine power rapidly coalesced into a cruciform greatsword wreathed in golden flames.
"Suppress and SLAY!"
The golden flame sword descended with the crushing weight of a universal judgment, churning up a hundred-foot wake of golden light as it cleaved down toward Cang Yaochen on the altar. This strike was intended to obliterate both him and the War God's remains entirely.
"You want to touch him? You'll have to ask ME first!"
Jiang Li struggled up from a heap of shattered white trees. Her face was smeared with blood, and her red robes were tattered beyond recognition. Her left hand gripped the Mirror of Profound Inquiry with a death-grip, while her right hand slammed against her own heart, forcibly coughing up a mouthful of life-essence blood onto the glass surface.
"Xuan-Ying Secret Forbidden Art—The Mirror's Myriad Reflections!"
As the mirror drank the essence-blood, its crimson surface turned as black as ink, and a spatial-warping suction erupted from within. When the golden flame sword—capable of splitting mountains and seas—slammed into the black light, it felt as though it had plunged into a swamp. Its entire momentum was forcibly refracted, booming back toward the Cloud-Ascension Throne's avatar in reverse.
BOOM—!
The golden light rolled back, exploding with enough force to cause the void to collapse in rhythmic waves.
In that single heartbeat of an opening, Cang Yaochen let out a roar like a trapped beast. The Asura Phantasm behind him underwent a total metamorphosis; the previously illusory figure became as solid as forged iron, and the bone greatsword in its hand became entwined with both Nirvana Karma-Fire and the War God's malevolence.
"Cloud-Ascension... I'll start collecting the interest on three thousand years of debt with this avatar!"
Cang Yaochen snapped his head up. All traces of humanity had vanished from his double pupils, replaced only by absolute destruction. The altar beneath his feet disintegrated, and he transformed into a streak of dark-gold lightning, appearing instantly before the Cloud-Ascension Throne.
"SEVER!"
The bone blade tore through the void, trailing a tragic arc of light.
The Throne's avatar discovered with horror that this single strike had locked down every possible escape route; even causality itself had been forcibly severed by that sliver of the War God's will.
CRACK!
The crisp sound of shattering echoed through the withered forest. The bone blade brutally cleaved through the avatar's golden armor, slicing from the left shoulder diagonally downward, hacking the arrogant divine manifestation clean in two.
"AAAGH—! Wretch! My True Body shall descend and slaughter every living soul in this wretched land!"
The Throne's shrill curse echoed through the woods before dissolving into a cloud of shimmering golden dust.
Cang Yaochen stood in mid-air, gripping his blade, his chest heaving. The War God's spine in his back glowed with a faint, ominous light as it fused completely with his flesh. He descended slowly toward Jiang Li, the long blade dissolving back into bone powder.
"Li'er." He reached out to help the fallen woman up, but his fingertips were trembling.
Jiang Li looked at his nearly god-demonic stature, her lips pulling into a weak but ruthless smile. "Priest... we've truly set this fire ablaze now."
In the distance, at the edge of the horizon, the heaven-piercing beam of gold began to vibrate violently. The True Body of the Cloud-Ascension Throne had sensed the fall of his avatar. A true divine wrath was crossing the planes, descending upon the mortal world.