Stretches of ancient trees towered hundreds of feet high, their translucent leaves casting dappled shadows, while thick vines as wide as water jars coiled around them, exuding an aura of primal wilderness.
Yet, it was eerily silent!
Shi Hao moved cautiously, gripping the Great Luo Immortal Sword, his senses sharp as he scoured the area.
Suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from afar—more cultivators from the Three Thousand Provinces had arrived.
“Be careful!” Shi Hao shouted in warning.
The creature that had crossed the border didn’t attack him. Instead, it unleashed a strange ripple toward the newcomers.
“Ah—!”
A scream tore through the air, so swift that there was no time to react. The man was dead in an instant, his demise so sudden that even Shi Hao was stunned.
He didn’t retreat. Instead, he charged forward, knowing there was no avoiding this battle.
There, coiled on an ancient vine like a dragon, lay the corpse of a being with a human body and an elephant’s head—just like the others before it. Its marrow, organs, and flesh had been drained, leaving only a hollowed-out husk.
Dangling from the vine, its pale skin fluttered in the wind, a ghastly sight.
Another cultivator had fallen. The area fell silent again, the terrifying presence refraining from attacking Shi Hao immediately.
Yet, he could feel something watching him from the shadows.
His skin prickled, every hair standing on end as if a primordial beast had locked onto him. The overwhelming sense of danger sent chills down his spine.
Despite his tension, a weight lifted slightly from his heart. If this creature were truly as powerful as he feared, it wouldn’t be observing him—it would have devoured him already.
What *was* this thing?
Shi Hao frowned. The creature could hide within the void itself, undetectable even with his Heavenly Eye.
Then—he found it!
His pupils sharpened as his Heavenly Eye pierced through illusions, revealing a dark, amorphous mass lurking in the void.
But the next instant, a searing pain shot through his eyes as a crimson light, sharp as a nail, stabbed into his vision.
The creature vanished in a flash of red.
“*Sssshhh!*”
Shi Hao swung his sword backward on instinct, sensing danger at his back.
“*Clang!*”
Sparks flew as a cluster of bone runes shattered, the creature’s attack barely deflected by his blade. A scorching heat surged toward his skin.
This was rare. The Great Luo Immortal Sword could cleave the heavens and shatter divine treasures, yet now it was being resisted—and Shi Hao himself was under assault.
He activated a movement technique, darting aside as the ancient trees before him turned to ash, and a nearby mountain melted into lava before exploding.
The dark mass flickered back into the void.
Shi Hao roared, golden patterns erupting across his body as 100,000 Kun Peng feathers—each a rune—flooded the sky, shredding the void like divine swords.
Finally, the creature emerged, revealing its true form—a spherical mass, roughly a meter in diameter, blackened and bloodstained.
It was an *eye*.
When closed, it vanished into the void.
When slightly open, crimson light—like fire or lightning—erupted, annihilating anything in its path.
Now, it *fully* opened.
Instantly, the world drowned in bloody radiance, as if plunged into a crimson hell.
“*Crack!*”
Shi Hao unleashed a bolt of lightning from his palm, a golden river surging forth.
“The Thunder Emperor’s secret art!” the eye hissed in an archaic tongue, its meaning conveyed through divine sense.
“You even know *that*?!”
“Little brat, I know far more than you think,” the eye sneered.
“*Boom!*”
Blood-red mist billowed from the eye, blocking the lightning. Then, inexplicably, blood seeped from the void itself, warping space around Shi Hao, twisting it into cracks that oozed corrosive liquid.
A drop splashed onto his finger, searing his flesh.
“Blood Pool Rebirth—*Annihilate!*”
The void contorted, birthing a pool of tainted blood, its power dragging Shi Hao toward it.
Now he understood—*this* was how the others had been reduced to mere husks.
“Thunder Judgment!”
Shi Hao roared, forming hand seals. Lightning rained from the sky as a thunder pool manifested before him, brimming with divine electricity—Yin Arcs, Five-Element Thunder, even Chaos Lightning.
This was his ultimate thunder art, forged through countless tribulations.
“*Crash!*”
The two pools collided, erupting in cataclysmic brilliance.
When the storm cleared, Shi Hao was battered, his armor shattered, his body bloodied as he crashed through several mountains. The forest around him was obliterated.
And this was just the *aftershock*—the true battle had raged in the void.
The thunder pool was gone. The blood pool had vanished.
Only the eye remained, hovering in the sky, darker now, its bloodstains deeper. It rotated slowly, radiating icy killing intent.
“Pity. Only one of me crossed over. Otherwise, even ten thousand of your kind wouldn’t be enough.”
Its archaic speech was cryptic, but its meaning was clear—it was *furious* at failing to kill even a mere Heavenly Deity.
Shi Hao’s heart pounded. *How strong was its true form?* If a single eye was this terrifying, its full power defied imagination. Even sect masters would pale in comparison.
Then—he noticed something worse.
As the eye turned, a gruesome wound came into view—a *rusted bronze spear* embedded deep within it.
“This…”
Shi Hao froze. *That spear* had crippled the eye’s vitality. Without it, he’d have stood no chance.
“Were I unharmed, you’d never dare face me,” the eye spat.
“The Seven Kings of the Borderlands are invincible. If they’d struck, you’d never have crossed. Was it their subordinates who wounded you? A lucky escape?” Shi Hao probed.
“The Seven Kings… How long has it been since anyone spoke of them?” The eye laughed, cold and mocking.
Shi Hao’s heart sank. *Were the Seven Kings truly gone?*
His ancestors—the Sinful Blood’s lineage—had guarded the borderlands in obscurity, their sacrifices unknown to the Three Thousand Provinces. Had they fallen without even a whisper?
Grief and fury surged within him.
“The so-called borderlands will soon crumble. We *will* cross. This world will be ours,” the eye hissed.
“Empty boasts. Even a being as mighty as you fled as a mere eye, skewered by a spear. You think your kind can breach the gates?” Shi Hao taunted, hungry for answers.
“The borderlands are doomed to rot.” The eye scoffed, then turned its gaze deeper into the forbidden zone. “This wound wasn’t from the borderlands. This place… is *unnatural*. That unbreakable spear… it *hurt* me.”
Shi Hao’s eyes widened. *A rusted spear in this forbidden land had crippled it?*
Abruptly, the eye fell silent, as if lost in thought. Then—
It *snapped* open, flooding the world with bloody light.
“A mere nap, I thought… but *ten thousand years* have passed.”
*Ten thousand years?!*
This creature had slumbered through millennia, healing its wounds.
Shi Hao exhaled. Such beings were beyond reason. Only its injury had spared him.
“Your claim about the borderlands collapsing seems false. Your side *lost*,” Shi Hao goaded.
The eye—though damaged—was no fool. Yet it didn’t rise to the bait.
“They must have enacted the *second plan*. No direct assault.”
Shi Hao laughed.
“Fool. You should *despair*,” the eye sneered. “The second plan means annihilation. When they come, the Three Thousand Provinces will *cease to exist*.”
“What do you mean?” Shi Hao pressed.
“I’ll tell your corpse.”
The eye lunged.
Shi Hao roared, unleashing every art in his arsenal.
For years, he’d surged forward, unstoppable. Yet now, he fought for his life against a *single wounded eye*.
“I *will* kill you!” Shi Hao bellowed.
The eye burned crimson, distorting space with its fury.
It was *enraged*. To be reduced to this—unable to crush a mere junior.
Then—
*Clang!*
The rusted spear in its pupil *trembled*, shedding corrosion as ancient glyphs ignited along its length.
“*Ahhh!*” The eye shrieked, blackened flesh splitting as blood gushed. “I *knew* it! This broken weapon carries an immortal’s will!”
That was why it could never dislodge the spear—it was a fragment of a *true immortal’s weapon*.
“*DIE!*” Shi Hao roared.
The bronze spear quaked, tearing the eye apart—
*Crack!*
The creature split in two, its reign of terror ending at last.
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