Chapter 643: Fight! Demigod! (Two-in-One)

Listening to the hoarse, piercing laughter opposite him, the man frowned.

Not because the laughter was unpleasant.

But because of what had just been said.

"Thor had an arm cut off?"

The man looked at Black Box.

"That's right, that's right, that's right!"

Black Box spun in the air, cackling madly:

"What, do you have a grudge against him? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you find him now, he's dead meat."

"Of course..."

"Before that, you have to get past me."

Its gentle tone took a sharp dive after that last sentence, turning as cold as solid ice in a freezing pool.

Before the man could even speak, one end of Black Box was already aimed at his head.

Within the pitch-black opening, dense Weird Energy flickered, chilling the heart.

The next second, without any warning, a pitch-black beam erupted from the hole, piercing directly through the man's body.

The dark beam wasn't very thick—only about the size of an arm—but it passed through the man's body as easily as it would a sheet of paper.

Except no blood dripped down.

Black Box had only pierced the time the man had left behind several minutes ago.

As for the man's true body, its location was unknown.

"I thought you two didn't get along."

The man's figure spoke from the side, his tone indifferent.

Black Box chuckled eerily.

"No matter how bad our relationship is, it's not your turn to lay a hand on him."

"If I find out who cut off his arm, I will definitely blow their head off."

"However..."

The Weird Energy within Black Box's pitch-black opening gradually dissipated. The madness faded, and its tone once again became as gentle as a soft breeze.

"That isn't what we should be considering right now."

"Let's go. Let's see what makes the little guys of this generation so interesting."

Saying this, Black Box floated above the man's head.

The next instant, the sound of a rushing river echoed, and the two of them appeared outside Old Sin City.

"You are too slow."

An aged voice rang out, leaving both Black Box and the man surprised.

Someone from Life Heavenly Kingdom would come—they both knew this.

But they hadn't expected it to be this person.

It was an Old Man...

Most likely.

White hair, cheeks covered in wrinkles, skin dry and dull with heavy age spots. From his pale nails to his thinning hair and beard, everything about him exuded a heavy aura of twilight.

But... his body was terrifyingly robust.

Judging by his height, he had to be around three meters tall. The muscles on his arms bulged against his clothes. His shoulders were like small peaks, broad enough to steadily balance several thick ancient logs. His hands were as large as palm-leaf fans; an adult's head would probably only take up half their surface area.

One could easily imagine that when those steel-rod-like fingers exerted force, whatever was in his palm would be crushed to dust.

The Old Man had no legs. Instead, he had a mermaid-like lower half resembling a thick loach that plunged directly into the ground, connecting him to the earth.

Demigod - Deep Sea Continent Envoy.

This was the Old Man's divine name.

Life Heavenly Kingdom had more than one demigod, and the Old Man wasn't the most famous among them.

Demigod - Life Fusion Entity was.

Over the last few centuries, whenever an external incident required a demigod to issue a decree or lend a hand, it was usually Demigod - Life Fusion Entity who acted.

The Old Man's prestige, however, traced back nearly a thousand years.

At that time, the Old Man had single-handedly defeated three demigods, making a name for himself in the Inner World.

The true guardian deity of Life Heavenly Kingdom—that was what outsiders called him.

Compared to Life Fusion Entity, although this Deep Sea Continent Envoy rarely appeared, any entity who knew that history understood that the figure before them was Life Heavenly Kingdom's true foundation.

It was just that he hadn't appeared for a very long time.

A truly long time.

History flowed slowly like a long river, and human memories were like fish swimming forward within it.

Fish had no way to keep up with the river.

Because unless the river dried up, it would never stop.

Therefore, once time stretched on and the river meandered, even the most powerful existences would slowly fade from people's memories.

Such a long disappearance had once made people wonder if something had happened to this demigod. After all, even a Deity wasn't immortal and indestructible, let alone a Demigod, an existence that hadn't yet undergone a complete qualitative change.

Yet neither Black Box nor the man expected this mysterious existence to appear at this time.

In such a completely inconspicuous small city.

To deal with a group of juniors who weren't even Demigods.

"It originally wasn't supposed to be me."

Seeming to see through their thoughts, the Old Man spoke in a deep voice.

His voice was as coarse as freshly unearthed gravel.

"But I convinced that kid, Life, to stay back."

"Advent Day has arrived. If an old geezer like me doesn't burn away these last old bones, there will only be more incidents like this in the future."

The Old Man's words caused both Black Box and the man to fall into silence.

These words were clearly meant for the two of them.

The meaning was clear: the Old Man had come this time to establish his dominance.

To tell the Inner World that he, Deep Sea Continent Envoy, was still alive.

And also to warn all factions against harboring any designs on Life Heavenly Kingdom.

"Let's go."

Finally, the uniformed man spoke:

"With the three of us acting together, we probably won't need to pay too high a price."

Hearing this, the Old Man and Black Box tacitly agreed.

With three people attacking, the burden shared among them wouldn't require too much effort, and the resulting backlash would naturally be small.

The three moved together. A few instants later, they appeared before the entrance to Old Sin City.

Then, all three froze at the same time.

Because a person was blocking the entrance.

It was a human.

Wearing a black T-shirt and blue-and-white jeans, with scattered bangs hanging over his forehead.

Aside from his rather perfect face, there was nothing remarkable about him.

"Sizzle—"

A beam of Weird Energy blasted out from one end of Black Box, landing squarely on Yan Jing's chest.

"Boom—"

The imagined scene of piercing straight through the person in front of them did not occur. The pitch-black beam of light hit Yan Jing's body like a mud whale plunging into the ocean; it sank into him and instantly went silent.

Yan Jing began to laugh:

"You all seem to have quite the formidable backgrounds."

In Yan Jing's eyes, each of the three carried differently colored motes of Divinity.

Each type of mote represented a Deity of a different Pathway.

"..."

Yan Jing was looking at the three of them.

The three of them were also looking at Yan Jing.

And the trio's gazes were clearly much stranger than Yan Jing's.

Because the radiance of Divinity on Yan Jing's body was pitifully scarce.

It was like an ant marveling at the size of an elephant, while the elephant was marveling at—

what gave this ant the right to stand in its way.

"Something's wrong, there's something very wrong with you."

Black Box spun in the air, cackling madly:

"How did you take that strike of mine just now?"

If Yan Jing was at the Tenth Tier, he might have been able to block that strike just now, but it was absolutely impossible for him to take it so easily.

"Take a guess."

Yan Jing smiled.

The next second, his body flew backward.

And as his body flew backward through the air, the figure of the uniformed man appeared in the spot where Yan Jing had just been standing.

He had gone to the next time frame, attacked Yan Jing, and only then did his true body arrive in the next moment of time.

This was a profound application of the time Pathway.

Of course, this came with a price.

If Black Box's offense was a 10, the man's offense was at most a 2.

The offense of a Tenth Tier was a 1.

Thus, Yan Jing spun in the air and stabilized his footing, but before he could make a move, he was sent flying backward once more.

Although the offense was only a 2.

For the man, it was an endless stream of 2s.

"Interesting, truly interesting."

Watching Yan Jing's figure constantly tumbling through the air, Black Box happily did a spin.

It hadn't expected a gatekeeper to actually possess such high strength, avoiding being completely crushed by the man.

This gave it some anticipation for what was to come.

If even the gatekeeper was this durable, wouldn't the ensuing...

The thought alone made it chuckle mischievously.

But right at this moment, a sudden change occurred.

The man in the air had originally been following his usual pattern of striking Yan Jing away before revealing himself, but not this time.

Yan Jing's figure, which was flying through the air, bizarrely appeared right beside the man.

"Caught you."

Yan Jing curled the corners of his mouth into a smile.

The next second, the man's figure plummeted toward the ground.

Before Black Box and the Old Man could react, Yan Jing appeared beside the man once again.

Only this time, Yan Jing's appearance had completely changed.

There was no motion or visual of Yan Jing transforming at all; what appeared before the two was an existence entirely different from before.

A leaf insignia flickered brightly between his brows. The Weird Energy around him was as dense as ink, and most importantly, his strength had increased by an unfathomable amount.

To the point that the man was actually coughing up blood.

Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, and one of his eyes was swollen shut.

The next instant, Yan Jing struck once more, and the man was sent flying backward again.

"What is he doing?"

Black Box looked at the Old Man.

It couldn't understand at all how, with the man's attainments, he was being chased and beaten by Yan Jing.

Moreover, it looked as if he completely couldn't keep up with Yan Jing's speed.

"The opponent is also of the time Pathway."

The Old Man spoke in a deep voice, pointing out the crux of the issue.

Yan Jing had constantly been preempted by the man earlier because the man had always been in a faster time than Yan Jing.

Thus, he could move ahead of Yan Jing and strike before him.

And by the time Yan Jing reacted, the attack had already landed.

If one wanted to break the man's combo, the most common method was actually to predict his attack.

Just like Old Master Liu from before.

But... Yan Jing was clearly not using this method.

When he was knocked flying, he also entered a faster time, causing his time to synchronize with the man's.

Then, relying on his monstrous strength, he dealt the man a blow. Afterward, taking advantage of the moment the man was stunned, he initiated an even faster time.

This completely reversed the situation, bringing him into a faster temporal dimension.

"Then why doesn't he also go into a faster time?"

Black Box understood, but not entirely.

In its eyes, since the opponent could adjust his time to be faster, there was no reason the man—a Demigod of the time Pathway—couldn't do the same.

"The opponent used an ability that nullifies abilities, throwing his time into chaos."

The Old Man was highly experienced. Speaking softly, he pinpointed the fatal flaw of the time Pathway.

Just like that most mysterious River of Time, no one in this world could truly fool time.

Time was absolute truth.

Eternal and unchanging truth.

Deities would die one day, but time would not.

If time disappeared here, there would always be time in some corner of the world.

Therefore, even the Deities of time had to maintain respect for time.

Once one fell into temporal chaos, it was highly likely they wouldn't be able to escape.

"It's unknown how many times the opponent caused his ability to fail. Right now, he should be trapped in chaos."

The Old Man spoke coldly.

Black Box was stunned:

"It can't be that bad, right?!"

It looked at the silver-white blood in the air. Every drop came from the corner of the man's mouth.

"Then if we don't intervene, won't he just get combo'ed to death?!!"

"Seriously, this is too damn humiliating! He can't even beat a gatekeeper?!"

Black Box couldn't hold back its frustration.

But the Old Man shook his head.

"No. The opponent's ability can't possibly be endless. As long as the opponent fails to kill him before this ability wears off, the outcome will reverse."

Realization dawned on Black Box; it found this very reasonable.

If the opponent could use this ability infinitely, wouldn't they be a Demigod of the time Pathway?

Why would they need to go to all this effort?

And then...

The two began to wait.

A long wait.

Until...

The aura around the man's figure began to weaken.

Black Box blinked.

"Is something not quite right here?"

"It is a bit off," the Old Man said in a deep voice.

"But it should end soon."

"Alright then."

Black Box stopped talking.

Since the Old Man had said so, it could only choose to believe him.

But...

Another period of time passed.

The man's movements weakened further. His body was flung wildly through the air, without even a muffled groan escaping him.

"Has his voice been erased?"

Black Box realized a problem.

It looked at the Old Man and saw a stunned expression on his face.

It knew immediately that things had gone south.

The Old Man hadn't figured it out either.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

Without any hesitation, several beams of pitch-black Weird Energy gushed from one of its ends, turning into a sky full of sparks descending from the heavens.

This was indiscriminate blanket bombardment.

Yan Jing had no choice but to defend against it; otherwise, Old Sin City behind him would suffer the disaster.

This was Black Box's targeted strategy against a disgusting Pathway like time.

It had worked every time in its past experiences.

"..."

Yan Jing's figure indeed stopped. Weird Energy morphed in the air, forming a semicircular light screen that blocked all of the beams.

"Heh, heh, heh."

Black Box cackled madly.

Looking at the man's figure slowly falling from the sky, and then at the Old Man beside it who looked fully confident.

A thought suddenly arose in Black Box's mind—

Was this wretched old geezer doing it on purpose just now?

It wasn't impossible...

Even though a time domain had already risen around the man, and his body was gradually recovering to its peak level.

The price paid was ultimately too massive.

This meant that Train had essentially taken a heavy hit right out of the gate.

Then what about itself...

Black Box became somewhat hesitant.