Chapter 214

It was already difficult enough for Qi Xing to fight the Giant Spirit one-on-one. This was a Giant Spirit embedded with a silver coin, and I'm afraid even that True Buddha Peacock Wisdom King from Japan back then wouldn't have been a match for it.

"Me, fight it one-on-one? For real?"

However, just as Qi Xing thought to pull back and retreat, he suddenly felt something strange.

It wasn't that there was no way out, nor was someone blocking his path.

It was just that suddenly, as the Giant Spirit "looked" at Qi Xing, he heard it—a heartbeat.

…Thump-thump, thump-thump.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

That was the sound of life.

It was the rhythm of blood flowing, sustaining life.

It was the origin of all living things—the rhythm of the heart, the pulse of life.

Thump, thump, thump, thump…

Suddenly, Qi Xing realized that his gaze had been locked, unable to move away.

His sight had been firmly captivated by the "nine eyes" on that mask.

He saw that the Giant Spirit's pure white body was so smooth, and inside, it was bright red like a sweet fruit.

At that moment, his chest felt as if it were being grabbed from within; his stomach tightened, and a restless impulse surged from the depths of his heart.

This feeling is, this feeling is—

Jealousy.

Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very

jealous.

Jealous of that snow-white skin, jealous of the life it nurtured, jealous of those "New Humans" that could be born from it, and even jealous of that beautiful red of fresh blood; he wanted to possess it, and if he couldn't, he had to destroy it. This—

"…What on earth is this thing?!"

He was, after all, a Martial Dao True Immortal. An ordinary expert might have gone permanently insane right there, but Qi Xing sobered up in just a second, forcibly breaking free from this strange envy.

But—just one second.

Being captured by the Giant Spirit's authority for just one second was enough to be fatal.

[Listen—]

The Giant Spirit had opened its mouth. The chilling divine incantation resonated like a song through the belly of the earth.

[I am the Mother of the Moon, the Womb of No Light, quietly observing the flow since the night before the stars were born.]

[Now I unfold my nine wings, casting light upon the waxing and waning of the Dark Moon.]

[The moon is full. Only where the light retreats will Truth be born once again.]

No sooner said than done.

The nine wings unfolded, blooming in the air like moon shadows.

Every feather grew an eye, and every eye reflected starlight, like mirrors in the sky, overlapping layer upon layer, converging into a vortex-like disc.

The world lost its color. It was as if something had quietly descended, obscuring the path of the sun.

It brought no wind, yet it was colder than the wind; it brought no sound, yet it made all things cease.

It was not just this underground maze Inner Realm.

The shadows, like flowing mercury, quietly covered the entire island.

It was clearly daytime, not even noon yet, yet the hills, streets, ports, airports… even up to the distant coastline, everything sank into the dark night of the moonless sky.

The tens of thousands of people on the island, including islanders and tourists, looked up at the sky and were all stared at by an "invisible eye" at the same moment.

Language lost its meaning, time ceased to flow, and the entire world was left with only the silence and darkness cast by the Giant Spirit's wings.

It was too late to run now.

Volume 5: Welcome to the █ █ █ Paradise!: 196: The Goddess Who Nurtures Heroes

"What do you mean—the whole island is gone?"

In Rome, in the suburbs, at Qi Xing and Elaine's home, after receiving an emergency report from the [Association], even though Elaine had always been full of confidence in Qi Xing, her expression sank at this moment, and her tone revealed undisguisable shock.

But the local person in charge of the [Association] in Greece was, of course, completely confused about this and couldn't explain the situation; they could only awkwardly spill out the general scene:

—The entire [Labyrinth Island], along with the sea area within a twelve-nautical-mile radius around it, had been swallowed by some kind of brief but total darkness in an instant, and then disappeared into thin air.

No traces were left behind; this was clearly the [Inner Realm].

And such a massive scale of spatial transfer, such a blatant and complete "disappearance," might not even be just the work of a [Silver Coin Messenger]…

"Although it doesn't compare to the [True Buddha Peacock Wisdom King] that wanted to format the entire Northeast Asia… could this also be the work of a [Giant Spirit]?"

Although she had yet to receive any contact from Qi Xing, with Elaine's intelligence, she still faintly sensed this possibility.

"Do you need me to help?"

Jingo Rin spoke, her voice as calm and steady as always, yet her tone faintly revealed a hint of eager fighting spirit.

Concentrating combat power was indeed an option.

But Elaine thought for a moment and still shook her head: "Moving all combat power away is not a good move."

"All combat power, all combat power." Old Wolf, sitting to the side, finally couldn't help but interject, "You little girl, you've completely stopped considering me as combat power, haven't you?"

There was no helping that.

The Wolf Lord dealing with a Demon King was like a Space Marine Chapter Master meeting a Primarch—you could say the former was an expert in the overall worldview, and they definitely were! But lasting even a minute under a Primarch would be considered a very good performance.

"Apologies, Wolf Lord."

Elaine spoke with some apology,

"But Qi Xing was lured there on purpose this time. If other Demon Kings took the opportunity to raid, relying on you alone to deal with it, I fear it would be difficult to retreat unscathed, and the situation would be dire."

This time, it was Vittorio Spina who actively lured Qi Xing to [Labyrinth Island]. If other Demon Kings came to raid the home base while Qi Xing was held up by matters on the island, wouldn't that be fatal?

Incidentally, Spina was still locked up in the small chapel of this villa with cold iron chains. Old Wolf was personally responsible for watching him. Even if a Demon King really came to raid, Old Wolf could at least shout out before he died.

…That said, Elaine didn't intend to just fall into a passive state.

How could she just stay in place and do nothing?

"Dividing forces is not the best strategy, but as they say—if the mountain doesn't move, the water flows."

She put down the phone, her expression calm, but she had already made up her mind.

"Since we're worried about being raided while we're left behind, why don't we start moving first."

———————— Back to the person involved, Qi Xing.

As soon as the Giant Spirit made its move, he immediately sensed something was wrong, yet he didn't know how to deal with it.

Because he had no idea who this Giant Spirit was!

In a Myth-level battle, the scariest thing is not understanding what tricks the opponent is playing. To understand, relying solely on cultivating one's own strength is far from enough.

Even if one cultivated their spiritual consciousness to the path of utmost sincerity, to the point of being able to know in advance, that was only a feeling, not knowledge or wisdom. No matter how sharp one was, the best intuition could still be deceived by a strong opponent.

…Alright, actually, knowledge and wisdom could also be wrong. So the ideal situation is, of course, to have both.

Qi Xing was not lacking in combat intuition.

But if you wanted him to go get a PhD in mythological folklore to fill in his gaps, he really didn't have the time.

The Giant Spirit before him now was a god that Qi Xing couldn't understand at all, completely baffling him. Why did it wear a triangular iron mask on its head? Why was the mask carved with nine eyes?

Why was its whole body covered in eyes? Why did it have a peacock tail? Why was its belly so big?

—Why, when a [Truth] silver coin was clearly embedded in its belly, was what it was releasing now the moon shadow that shrouded everything?

What kind of god was it? What kind of thing pulled out of what mythology was it?

When Heaven unleashes its murderous intent, even the spiritual consciousness of an immortal can be blinded, and all divination abilities will be lost. The Giant Spirit's silent, wordless gaze brought the same feeling to Qi Xing.

[Use [Illusion] to block!]

At the critical moment, Sasa gave a rather strange hint.

Huh? Use the [Illusion] silver coin to block the authority of a Giant Spirit embedded with a [Truth] silver coin?

Although he didn't understand, Qi Xing still followed the advice and tried it. A hundred billion tons of illusion sea surged in an instant, and the vast sea shrouded his whole body.

Then, an incredible thing happened.

The endless moon shadows poured down like a tidal wave, but they gently grazed the surface of the illusion sea. They all swept across the sea surface, as if the water and sky were meeting, and there was no conflict.

Only the surrounding world was still shrouded by the moon shadows. In just an instant, the moon shadows engulfed the entire [Labyrinth Island].

And just as these moon shadows unfolded, the Giant Spirit dragged a long umbilical cord down from the blood pool, and two curved blades appeared in its hands, one black and one white, shaped like new moons.

Dragging its stumbling steps, it walked toward Qi Xing. Qi Xing also reached out to pull the Spear of Longinus from his storage gourd—but no sooner said than done, the black curved blade in the Giant Spirit's hand had already slashed down as quickly as moonlight, carrying an unspeakable tranquility and majesty.

Was it faster than Qi Xing? —No, it wasn't. But its eyes looked at Qi Xing, and immediately made Qi Xing slow down!

[silver coin], Qi Xing could only use one at a time. Switching to the [Illusion] coin for defense meant he couldn't use [Dominance] to amplify his lightning techniques.

Lightning techniques without the amplification of a [silver coin] were fine for sparring with Demon Kings, but using them to deal with a Giant Spirit was too arrogant.

But in this critical moment, Qi Xing was exceptionally calm. Realizing the problem lay with those nine fake eyes on the mask—at this moment of slowing down, Qi Xing instead urged his intent further.

Above the vast illusion sea, one hundred and eight blue water swords suddenly rose, intertwining and surging between reality and illusion, circling into a formation to block the curved blades!

The black and white blades had arrived.

The first strike, the black blade fell, like a moon of no light descending from the sky, silent, yet it split the sea.

More than a dozen illusion swords shattered on the spot, and a deep gap was torn open in the front of the sword formation.

The second strike, the white blade slashed horizontally, the cold light like a crescent moon cutting through the sky; the blade edge was invisible, only the vast sea sword screen was seen cracking like ice, with layers of cracks appearing. A full thirty-six water swords, along with the mapped illusions, were pulverized!

Strangely enough, in an instant, Qi Xing felt that emotion that made him almost lose control surge into his heart again—jealousy, jealousy, jealousy, jealousy…!

It was as if a restlessness, like an addiction, was about to stain his thinking, making his heart tighten—fortunately, under the protection of the infinite illusion sea, Qi Xing was ultimately able to steady his mind.

…So that was it.

Half a year ago, Sasa had said that the concept of the Silver Coin of [Illusion] included illusion, madness, and change.

If the [Silver Coin Messenger] could not control the inner anxiety regarding change, they would be deluded by the [Illusion] coin and fall into madness. But if one could control the silver coin, [Illusion] would, in turn, protect the [Messenger] amidst the waves of madness.

Although the Island Master embedded the [Truth] silver coin into the Giant Spirit's belly, this Giant Spirit's attribute was not [Truth] at all. Instead, it was more like… something very close to the Silver Coin of [Illusion]!

—But what exactly was it? What was the use of just knowing it was "something"?!

The third strike! The Giant Spirit crossed the two blades and slashed down simultaneously!

It was like black and white twin moons falling into the illusion world; the power of this one slash seemed as if even the dream itself could not bear it.

More than half of the one hundred and eight illusion swords were instantly shattered, and the rest collapsed like a tide. Blue waves exploded, and the water curtain churned—and even more horrifying was that, as the saying goes, slashing water only makes it flow more, yet the illusion sea surrounding Qi Xing was cleaved with a deep sword mark that could not close!

That's too unreasonable!

But Qi Xing himself had not suffered any substantial damage. That was the miraculous effect of the Silver Coin of [Illusion]. All attacks fell into the illusion sea around Qi Xing, seeming real yet unreal, seeming to slash yet not slashing. Although it had shattered his defense, it could not reach the core.