Chapter 573: Think About What Domain Lord Yan Would Do (Two-in-One)

Nan Dong's massive figure sprinted across the plains, his every step stomping a massive crater into ground harder than metal.

Those at the Summit could move mountains, fill seas, and reshape the world. It was no mere boast.

The two of them only looked miserable compared to those above them; to ordinary people, they remained untouchable existences.

"Rumble... rumble..." The footsteps gradually faded.

As they went deeper into the Steel Plains, the ground grew even harder. Rumor had it that mighty experts skilled in forging had ventured deep into the plains multiple times just to take away a chunk of the "earth" to craft artifacts.

Yet very few had ever managed to pry any loose.

Nan Dong's footsteps gradually slowed when a pitch-black mountain appeared in his line of sight.

"Let's go."

Tian Fangfei jumped down from Nan Dong's arms.

In just this short time, she had already been stained with quite a bit of the pus and blood oozing from his body.

In the past, she would have loved nothing more than to kill him, but things were different now.

The person she wanted to kill was someone else entirely.

The two hiked up the mountain.

From afar, the mountain before them looked like a mass of solid black, but up close, it was actually silver-white.

Not a single blade of grass grew on its smooth surface. Without moonlight to illuminate it, it hid all its luster, concealing itself in the dark of night.

As they walked up, Tian Fangfei kept looking back over her shoulder.

"There's no need to be this cautious, right?" Nan Dong asked timidly.

"Shut up!" Tian Fangfei pinched Nan Dong's thigh hard. "What do you know? You've never even fought him!"

"Haven't you only fought him once too?" Nan Dong felt a little wronged.

"Once was enough." Tian Fangfei's eyes were ruthless. "You should be glad I even have the chance for a round two. Do you know the survival rate of everyone who went against him before?"

"What is it?" Nan Dong gulped.

"Less than ten percent survived, and of those, not a single one was left intact," Tian Fangfei said coldly. "And from my analysis, the ones he lets live fall into only two categories.

"Either he did it on purpose, wanting you to live crippled for the rest of your life, or...

"...he never even considered you a threat."

With that, Tian Fangfei stopped in her tracks.

Nan Dong was still lost in her words and foolishly kept walking forward, only to be grabbed by her.

"Where are you going, you idiot!"

Nan Dong finally snapped out of it. He looked to their front-left, where a house lay hidden behind a jutting cliff, emitting a faint glow.

The two stepped forward, but the door opened automatically before they could even get close.

"You're back."

The person walking out was a man as thin as a monkey, with a pinched, ape-like face.

Unlike his previous appearance as a wandering monk, he was now wearing a black suit, with his hands in his pockets and a pair of sunglasses on his face.

"How did it go?"

The man tilted his chin up, his lips curling into a cold sneer. He looked completely different from the figure in Tian Fangfei's memory.

"It went okay." Tian Fangfei pulled Nan Dong back, signaling him not to speak out of turn. Then, forcefully suppressing her anger, she said, "We got news about Yan Jing."

"Where is he?"

Tang Tian didn't spell it out, but his tone dripped with disdain.

"He's out of the Dungeon. We chatted a bit today."

Before she could even finish, a rod extended straight out of Tang Tian's eye, slamming into Tian Fangfei with a heavy thud.

Unable to dodge in time, Tian Fangfei was blasted dozens of meters away, crashing heavily to the ground.

"What are you doing?!" Seeing Tian Fangfei sent flying, Nan Dong grew frantic and roared at Tang Tian.

But a moment later, Tang Tian shot him a cold glare, terrifying him into silence.

"You're saying he just let you come back?" Tang Tian sneered. "Do you think I'd buy that? Don't I know you? You must have struck some sort of deal with him. You'd better spit out the truth right now, before I have to hit you again."

Tian Fangfei climbed off the ground, laughing coldly. "What deal would I strike with him?! I want nothing more than to kill him, but—" Another rod shot out from Tang Tian's pants pocket, fiercely blasting her several meters away once more.

"I told you to spit it out."

This level of humiliation brought the fallen Tian Fangfei to tears.

Even when Yan Jing had crippled all four of her limbs, she hadn't felt this wronged.

Two streams of tears slid down her cheeks. She dug her hands tightly into the earth, her palms slick with blood.

Even now, she couldn't suppress the urge to dig a hole.

Under the dual stimulation of this humiliation and her own affliction, Yan Jing's figure suddenly appeared in her mind.

Back then, she had considered herself lucky that Yan Jing hadn't killed her, but she finally understood now.

Being alive was just another kind of torture.

She stood up, staring at Tang Tian across from her, blazing fury burning in her eyes.

A second later, she roared and charged at Tang Tian, her weird energy erupting all around her.

But before she could even reach him, a flash of weird energy exploded from inside the house.

Tian Fangfei looked down blankly at the sharp blade piercing her abdomen.

Her entire body went limp and collapsed to the ground. Blood pooled out.

A woman wearing a black cheongsam slowly stepped out next to Tang Tian.

The woman wore purple lipstick and heavy eyeshadow. She threw a disdainful glance at Tian Fangfei on the ground.

The sharp blade from just now was her handiwork.

Immediately after, she completely ignored the bleeding Tian Fangfei on the ground and looked to Tang Tian. "I told you, they're no longer of any use. We'd be better off doing it ourselves."

"Let's deal with that man quickly so we can head back to the Central Region."

"Honestly, after staying in the Central Region for a while, I'm finding it hard to stomach the air here."

As she spoke, she waved a hand in front of her nose.

Tang Tian's face remained calm. "Rooster, Dog, and Ox are all almost at the Ninth Tier. If we fail this mission, we'll fall far behind them, so we must be cautious with everything."

"You've never met that man. You don't understand how terrifying he is."

"No matter how terrifying, he still isn't at the Ninth Tier." The woman stuck out her tongue and licked her lips. "Damn it, I get jealous just thinking about those three hitting the Ninth Tier. I really want to taste what the Ninth Tier is like."

"The boss said that as long as we get this done, he'll let us reach the Ninth Tier. As for now..." Tang Tian walked over to the dying Tian Fangfei and viciously kicked her. As he watched her fly into the air, he added, "Just bear with it a little longer."

"Damn it, I can't bear it anymore!"

Tang Tian paused. He turned his head, only to see the woman staring back at him in equal bewilderment.

"I didn't say that." The woman's face darkened, but before she could react, a figure appeared right in front of her.

Wang Yu's face materialized, her fist already driving into the woman's stomach on a gust of wind.

"I've been sick of you, you slut!"

Bang!!!

The moment the fist connected, the woman's eyes bulged. Blood sprayed from her mouth as she was sent hurtling backward.

Tang Tian's expression changed instantly. The hand in his pocket twitched, and several pitch-black iron rods shot out from around his body, bearing down on Wang Yu at an unimaginable speed.

Each of those iron rods was as thick as an arm. The moment they emerged, they expanded in the wind like sponges. They were blisteringly fast, far surpassing the strength Wang Yu remembered Tang Tian having.

This was the path Tang Tian had formed after consuming the Crystal.

Boom— The onslaught of rods slammed down, making even the mountain beneath their feet tremble for a moment.

Tang Tian's lips curled up. He hadn't expected Wang Yu to follow them, but it saved him a lot of trouble.

But a split second later, his face drastically changed.

He saw a fist covered in fine fur bypass his thousands of rods, arriving right in front of his face.

Bang! Tang Tian's face contorted violently. His sunglasses shattered into dust, and he crashed heavily into the dirt.

His vision was spinning, but he leaped to his feet almost the instant he hit the ground, staring at Wang Yu in disbelief.

Wearing a large red robe, Wang Yu stood in place virtually unharmed, shooting him a cold sneer.

"Is that it?! Domain Lord Tang, it's been a while, but it looks like you've regressed quite a bit."

Regressed?

Tang Tian watched her warily. He knew perfectly well that he hadn't regressed; rather, his opponent's strength had skyrocketed just the same.

He hadn't expected that his newly comprehended path wouldn't be able to inflict any substantial damage on her.

"Domain Lord Wang, I trust you've been well. We only told Domain Lord Tian to go check on you all, but I didn't expect you to miss us so much that you'd follow her right over," Tang Tian said calmly, speaking without batting an eye as he watched the black-cheongsam-clad woman rapidly dashing up from behind Wang Yu.

Wang Yu seemed entirely oblivious to this, sneering, "I told you a long time ago that eating that stone was a bad idea. Look at yourselves now—neither human nor ghost."

"Neither human nor ghost? You must be talking about Domain Lord Tian, Domain Lord Ma, and the rest," Tang Tian said slowly. "Not us. We're..."

"...reborn and remade!"

The instant those last words left his mouth, Tang Tian split into tens of thousands of phantom copies. He and the woman behind Wang Yu attacked at the exact same time. Endless rods thrust out from the air, like tens of thousands of heavenly soldiers from a storybook striking all at once.

The assault blotted out the sky and covered the earth.

And amid those rods, countless Dark Blades flickered, exuding an overwhelming killing intent.

Tang Tian's true body hid among his thousands of clones. He looked down at Wang Yu in the center of the storm, his lips curling up.

He was going to show her what it truly meant to be reborn and remade.

But a split second later, as if sensing something, his expression completely changed. He looked down in terror.

"Reborn and remade?!" Wang Yu's hearty laughter echoed out. "It's a little embarrassing to admit, but sorry, Domain Lord Tang—my cheat seems to be stronger than yours!"

With an earth-shattering boom, a tiger beast so colossal it occupied half the sky materialized in the air. Every single strand of its fur trailed lightning and storms. Its swirling eyes seemed to harbor rising suns, and the "King" character on its forehead looked as if it were formed by three rivers and a mountain range.

Just by appearing, Tang Tian's countless clones involuntarily began to disintegrate, crumbling into dust and scattering away.

Before Tang Tian could even react, the tiger beast swung its paw.

Its palm alone covered nearly half the mountain range as it smashed down toward Tang Tian.

Spurt!

Taking the hit head-on, Tang Tian's body tumbled through the air like a kite with a snapped string. Blood rushed out from his ruptured internal organs, his eyes went instantly bloodshot, and his skin tore open all over as he slammed heavily into the ground.

Seeing this, the woman in the black cheongsam paled drastically. Without a moment's hesitation, she fled into the distance.

But the tiger beast had already noticed her presence. It opened its bloody maw, and inside that bright red mouth churned a muddy, yellow river. Surging floods and monstrous waves crashed, creating an earth-shaking roar.

The woman in the black cheongsam screamed. Her eardrums completely ruptured, leaking blood.

That wasn't all. Just as she stabilized her footing, the floodwaters arrived, thrashing her ruthlessly against the ground.

Her clothes, along with chunks of flesh and blood, were cleanly stripped away.

Only then did the phantom of the tiger beast slowly dissipate into the air.

Wang Yu walked up to the screaming Tang Tian on the ground and delivered a brutal flying kick.

It was the exact same move Tang Tian had just used on Tian Fangfei.

"Do you submit now?" Wang Yu looked at Tang Tian after he fell back to the dirt.

"I don't submit!!!" Tang Tian's eyes were bloodshot and he couldn't even open them, but his face was contorted. "You and Long Quezhou definitely swallowed a Crystal too, and you've advanced to the Ninth Tier! The boss just gave you a different mission!"

"Bah!!!" Hearing Tang Tian's words, Wang Yu couldn't hold back a spit of disgust. "I never ate that garbage."

"I don't believe it! I absolutely don't believe it!!!"

Tang Tian roared.

Even when Wang Yu subjected him to inhuman torture right after, he continued to resist.

It wasn't just him being stubborn—he was waiting for his final nearby companion to make a move.

Sheep's compatibility with the Crystal Stone was higher than theirs. Against Wang Yu, who had just exhausted her ultimate trump card, there was a real chance of victory.

But Long Quezhou's voice suddenly rang out from above him.

"If you're waiting for the Domain Lord of Weiyang, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed, Domain Lord Tang."

Hearing his inner thoughts laid bare, Tang Tian's heart gave a violent shudder.

He shakily sat up and looked toward the voice with blurred vision. He saw Long Quezhou standing there, carrying one person on each shoulder: Ma Jiangyao and Zhong Xu, both unconscious.

"How is this possible!!!"

He was having a mental breakdown.

He refused to believe it. They had gone through unimaginable hardships to pass the assessment and enter the Central Region.

And in the end... they were being utterly crushed by these two "country bumpkins."

This was something he simply couldn't accept. With red eyes, panting heavily, he glared at the two across from him. "You—you definitely ate the Crystal Stones—"

"Damn it, I already told you I didn't eat them! Are you asking for a beating?" Wang Yu's fiery temper flared up, and she rolled up her sleeves as she prepared to strike again.

But Long Quezhou pulled her back.

"Stop hitting him, stop hitting him. You'll just make yourself sick with anger." Long Quezhou comforted her while looking over at Tang Tian. After a moment of thought, he asked, "Are you simply going to refuse to believe whatever we say?"

"Yes! You definitely ate the Crystal Stones!!!" Tang Tian's ape-like face looked even more contorted as he screamed.

He wasn't roaring out of anger.

But because he was unwilling to accept the truth.

Unwilling to accept the fact that he had lost, and unwilling to accept this feeling of plunging from heaven straight into hell.

"See? What did I tell you? This kind of guy just needs to be beaten a few more times—" Wang Yu was about to step forward again, but Long Quezhou pulled her back once more.

"Calm down, don't rush. Look at you, getting impatient again—"

Long Quezhou hurriedly said, "Violence can't solve every problem!"

"We need to think about what Domain Lord Yan would do—"

The moment those words came out, Wang Yu quieted down beside him.

And Tang Tian, who was sitting on the ground, couldn't help but shudder.

An ominous premonition swelled in his heart.

"I've got it."

Long Quezhou nodded and walked toward Tang Tian. "If they don't believe it, we just need to make them watch until they do, right?"

"Just cripple him."