Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 265
Shadow Threads & Spatial Severance Shattering Wicked Sorcery
A chilling wind roared through the fissures of the black stone vault, carrying with it the sickening, coppery stench of sacrificial blood that lingered in the depths of the Underworld Palace.
The atmosphere within the grand hall congealed into an invisible block of ice, so heavy that the heartbeats of the survivors huddled near the distant tunnel entrance drummed as fiercely as battle marches. At the foot of the altar’s steps, over a hundred gray-robed zealots and blue-robed acolytes lay strewn about in chaotic heaps. Dark, pitch-black blood seeped sluggishly through the stone crevices, curling upward into ghostly, drifting wisps of vapor.
Atop the towering dais, White-Clad Pontiff Ming Sha stood with his hands clasped behind his back. The pristine white grand robes trimmed with silver thread quivered slightly with every wave of sinister killing intent erupting from his chest. Beneath the low-hanging cowl, a pair of blood-red pupils burning like fiery coals locked onto the black-robed youth standing resolutely on the ninth step.
Ming Sha had never anticipated this turn of events.
A junior who had yet to reach his twentieth year, even while wearing the prestigious Shenzhou colonel’s uniform, was ultimately nothing more than a fledgling who had just stepped into the ranks of Advanced-level mages. Yet within a mere twenty breaths of time, his entire elite defensive garrison had been obliterated without a single survivor. Even more terrifying was that the half-step Super-level magic wave he had just unleashed to crush the youth’s will had been hurled right back, failing to ruffle even an inch of the boy’s hem.
“Good... Very good.”
Ming Sha’s pale lips parted beneath his white jade mask, curving into a ghastly, malevolent arc. His voice was hoarse and shrill, scraping against the granite floor like two rusted shovels: “For over twenty years, not a single soul has dared to utter such wild arrogance before Ming Sha here. Relying on your mutated Lightning-Fire Dual Elements, you truly believe you can overturn the heavens? Insolent brat, today this seat shall make you comprehend the true despair of the Nether Abyss!”
With those words, Ming Sha’s withered, firewood-like arms swept outward abruptly.
Beneath his wide, billowing sleeves, ten pitch-black fingers tipped with razor-sharp claws morphed incessantly, weaving bizarre and monstrous spell seals. A series of deep, muffled sounds carrying the archaic intonation of ancient wicked chants from a millennium ago hummed from his throat. Each syllable falling into the void felt like drops of scorching molten lead, causing the space surrounding the cactus-bone altar to immediately warp and violently churn.
“BOOM... BOOM... BOOM!”
The pool of dark blood at the base of the dais churned furiously, thousands of crimson bubbles bursting as they released thick waves of heavy resentment. Behind Ming Sha’s back, the bleeding black crescent moon—the Dark Moon Wheel—enlarged threefold, spinning madly in midair while radiating chilling, bone-piercing black-purple magic light.
“Dark Moon Soul Devouring, Myriad Bone Spirit Sealing! Activate the array!”
Ming Sha let out a sharp roar.
From the pitch-black void and deep within the blood pool, a chorus of ear-splitting, metallic clashing echoed simultaneously. Hundreds upon hundreds of heavy black iron chains, thick as an adult’s thigh and carved with swarming, gnashing, howling devil faces, burst forth and shrieked through the air!
These were not ordinary metal chains; they were the infamous wicked sorcery of the Underworld branch: the “Dark Moon Soul-Devouring Array”!
Tens of thousands of magical chains intertwined intricately in midair, weaving an immense heavenly net and earthly snare that sealed off the entire main hall from the towering arched ceiling down to the stone floor. Every single nook and cranny, every possible retreat for Lin Feng, was thoroughly locked down. Most terrifyingly of all, every single link radiated a horrifying soul-sucking pull, creating invisible vortexes that unceasingly clawed at the mental barriers of anyone caught inside, attempting to drain away their complete soul and leave behind an empty, desiccated husk!
“Go to hell!” Ming Sha roared, his hands clawing at the void.
Instantly, the colossal net of demonic chains shrieked downward from all directions, locking fiercely onto Lin Feng’s position and tightening! Their speed was so astonishing that they tore through the subterranean atmosphere, the friction spawning faint, eerie greenish sparks carrying a force of crushing weight capable of leveling every obstacle in their path.
Standing at the epicenter of this fatal ground, facing a lethal array technique capable of causing even tier-three Advanced mages to pale in despair, Lin Feng’s expression did not ripple with the slightest trace of panic.
The corners of his mouth twitched upward, his gaze as deep and unfathomable as a midnight lake.
“Chaining me? Ming Sha, you overestimate your own tricks.”
The very instant hundreds of sharp demonic chain tips resembling steel javelins closed to within half a foot of Lin Feng’s head and chest, a surge of pure, profound, and mysterious dark radiance abruptly welled up from deep within his body.
This was not the evil, foul, resentment-filled darkness of the Underworld Sect. This was the absolute stillness of primordial night, the purest shadow rule reigning supreme across the cosmos!
Lin Feng’s Advanced Shadow Star Sea churned thunderously within his spiritual domain. Forty-nine dark stars blazed brilliantly, linking together into a magnificent Shadow Star Constellation wrapping tightly around his physique.
“Shadow Star Constellation — Phantom Void-Step!”
Lin Feng’s figure abruptly grew translucent, resembling a drop of ink dissolving into crystal-clear water. In the microscopic fraction of a millisecond, his entire physical entity dissolved into an illusory shadow mist, completely merging with the flickering shadows cast by the rocky walls and black stone pillars!
“CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!”
A chain of earth-shattering impacts exploded, tearing at eardrums!
Thousands of ferocious demonic chains lunged forward, piercing straight through the spot Lin Feng had just occupied with mountain-splitting force. Yet what they pierced through was merely a faint afterimage fading into the air. The terrifying kinetic force slammed directly into the bluestone steps below, pulverizing meter-thick stone slabs into fine dust and leaving behind a gaping pit venting plumes of black smoke.
“What?!”
Ming Sha stood atop the dais, his pupils contracting into two sharp golden points: “Shadow Escape? Impossible! Ordinary Shadow Escape can never evade the soul-locking force of the Soul-Devouring Array! Where is his physical body?!”
“Are you looking for me?”
An indifferent voice laced with a hint of mockery rang out from the space off Ming Sha’s left flank.
The White-Clad Pontiff jerked violently, whipping his head around.
There, less than thirty meters away, upon the shadow of a colossal black stone pillar, the black mist gently coiled and condensed into Lin Feng’s form. He stood with arms crossed leisurely, the toes of his leather boots resting lightly on the rocky ledge, his neat black military-trimmed cloak untouched by a single speck of stone dust.
Lin Feng had not only evaded the Soul-Devouring Array’s assault flawlessly, but he had also utilized the very shadow fissures generated by the magical chains to teleport right to the enemy’s flank!
“Cunning little bastard! Don’t try your petty tricks before this seat!”
Ming Sha roared with fury. Being taunted by a junior right inside the stronghold severely trampled upon the pride of a Capital branch leader. He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, spitting a mouthful of sinister vital blood onto the Dark Moon Wheel overhead!
Nourished by the heart’s blood of a half-step Super-level entity, the black moon erupted with dazzling magical light. The entire network of demonic chains within the hall went berserk, emitting roars akin to crying ghosts and howling gods. The eighteen largest demonic chains, embossed densest with bloody runes—the eighteen core array links—swirled their formation maps from all directions, locking down a radius of a hundred meters around the stone pillar where Lin Feng stood!
“Myriad Arrows Piercing the Heart, Soul Devouring and Bone Dissolving!”
“WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!”
This time, there were no monotonous straight-line lunges. The eighteen core demonic chains undulated like eighteen black giant serpents, locking down every shadow fissure in the vicinity and completely severing Lin Feng’s ability to execute Shadow Escape. They wove together into an octagonal skull-shaped prison, every link spewing countless pitch-black blades of light as they frantically constricted his living space!
A dead end! A fatal array leaving not even a crack wide enough for a speck of dust to pass through!
Yet, amidst the demonic prison contracting inch by inch, Lin Feng’s eyes burned with a piercing, transcendent brilliance.
He had no intention of continuing to flee.
In his eyes, Ming Sha’s fury and impatience constituted the greatest flaw. Through his formidable divine sense and the sharp discernment of a multi-element-proficient mage, Lin Feng had entirely pierced the operational trajectory of this wicked array. Any magic array, no matter how formidable its might, once it failed to reach the perfection of a Forbidden Curse, would inevitably possess elemental intersection points—where magical currents transitioned and where the most fatal weakness lay!
And as for this Dark Moon Soul-Devouring Array, the eighteen core demonic chains were precisely the eighteen pillars supporting the entire magical structure!
“Want to seal my space? Let’s see if you’re qualified!”
Lin Feng drew a deep breath, his slender hands lifting to chest level.
In an instant, the Shadow magic energy within his body did not gather for defense; instead, it erupted in an entirely different manner! Rather than condensing into blades, swords, or shields, his ten fingertips vibrated at an ultra-high frequency, continuously flicking forth jet-black specks of light sparkling like midnight stars.
“Shadow Magic — Shadow Threads!”
“SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!”
Thousands upon thousands of pitch-black shadow threads, so slender that the naked eye struggled to catch them—their diameters even smaller than spider silk yet harboring compressed hắc ám (dark) magic energy squeezed to the absolute limit—shot forth simultaneously from Lin Feng’s fingertips!
Far removed from the clamorous shockwaves of ordinary magic, “Shadow Threads” produced not the slightest sound. They resembled invisible tentacles of darkness, winding flexibly through the gaps of the dense demonic chain web and weaving through every venomous magic wave without encountering obstruction!
Every single Shadow Thread carried astonishing sharpness, capable of easily slicing through millenia-old rock. Yet Lin Feng did not use them to slash at Ming Sha, instead manipulating those myriad threads to shoot straight toward the eighteen oncoming core demonic chains!
“SCREECH... SCREECH... SCREECH...”
A series of faint friction sounds rang out. Thousands of shadow threads tightly bound the wicked magic links, piercing deep into the crevices of the bloody runes and locking the magic rotation joints rigid. In the span of just three breaths, Ming Sha’s ferocious network of demonic chains abruptly stalled in midair, their downward charging speed slowing visibly as though bogged down in an invisible swamp!
“What... What is this?!”
Ming Sha widened his eyes in horror, discovering that his own magic energy channeled into the array was being severely dispersed and disrupted by those bizarre black threads: “Shadow control refined to this extent... What kind of monster are you?!”
“Did you think the game ends here?”
Lin Feng stated coldly. The corners of his eyes flashed with a brilliant silver halo, as dazzling and majestic as a full moon dispelling the gloomy night!
Spatial Element!
The Spatial Star Sea within Lin Feng’s spiritual domain simultaneously resonated! The invisible sixth-tier Mind Power—a profound spiritual realm envied by the vast majority of early-stage Super-level mages—descended thunderously, enveloping the entire grand hall!
The air surrounding the eighteen core demonic chains suddenly warped. Three-dimensional space seemed twisted by an enormous invisible pair of hands, folding spatial layers one atop another to generate horrifying crushing pressure!
Using the Shadow Threads as a positioning guide precise to the millimeter, Lin Feng raised his right hand, his index and middle fingers closing into a sword-finger shape, casually slashing a horizontal line across the void!
“Advanced Spatial Element — Spatial Severance!”
“SCHLICE!!!”
No rumbling thunder accompanied it, no roaring crimson flames; only a hair-thin silver gash tearing through the subterranean space swept past!
Yet this was not a single standalone slash.
Under the guidance of the myriad Shadow Threads embedded deep within every vulnerability of the eighteen core array links, that spatial gash instantly split into eighteen transparent Spatial Severance blades, descending simultaneously upon the eighteen most crucial weak points of the array!
Every single Spatial Severance carried the rule of absolute spatial severing, treating all physical defenses and protective magic armor as nothingness!
“CRACK! CRACK! BOOM!!!”
A rapid sequence of crisp shattering sounds erupted like firecrackers!
The eighteen colossal demonic chains—the soul and backbone of the Dark Moon Soul-Devouring Array—were sheared through cleanly at the points struck by Spatial Severance, just like cutting through soft tofu! The cut surfaces were so smooth that not a single stray fissure remained, exposing the collapsing, disintegrating internal magic structure!
Deprived of its eighteen supporting pillars, the array’s evil magic current immediately spiraled into a state of chaotic rampage. The remaining thousands of demonic chains lost control, beginning to crash wildly into one another and emitting deafening explosions!
“WHAM! WHAM! BANG BANG BANG!”
A massive black-purple shockwave erupted from the center of the array, sweeping across the entire grand hall! Fragments of metal and wicked magic crystals scattered like a torrential downpour, chewing the surrounding stone walls to pieces and collapsing dozens of massive black stone pillars!
The entire Dark Moon Soul-Devouring Array—the pontiff’s ultimate镇教 (sect- trấn giáo / signature town-sect) lethal technique—had been utterly shattered by a single wondrously executed magic combination!
“PUFF!!!”
Atop the cactus-bone altar, White-Clad Pontiff Ming Sha was struck as if slammed in the chest by an invisible war chariot. The wicked array linked directly to his core meridians was forcibly severed, causing all the magic energy within his channels to violently reverse. He staggered backward seven steps in succession, each footstep crushing a white bone, his mouth parting wide to spew a mouthful of foul, dark-black fresh blood!
“CRACK... CLANG!”
The top-tier white jade mask on Ming Sha’s face could not withstand the shockwave’s impact, fracturing into countless spiderweb lines before shattering into tiny fragments that fluttered down to the ground.
The true face of the Underworld Sect demon was revealed for the first time under the eerie phosphorescent glow of the magic light.
It was a terrifyingly deformed face; his grayish skin was covered in writhing black-purple veins, one cheek deeply sunken as though scorched long ago by fire. Yet most terrifying was not that battered, unsightly appearance, but the expression reigning within his bloodshot eyes right now.
Terrified! Shocked! Utterly bewildered!
Ming Sha’s entire body trembled violently, his withered, bony hand shaking as he pointed forward, his lips stained with black blood stammering incoherently:
“You... You not only possess the Lightning-Fire Dual Elements... You also possess Shadow... and Space?!”
A brat under twenty years of age!
How could such a monster possibly exist in this world?!
Not only did he simultaneously awaken four Advanced-level magic elements—the most powerful and rarest elements in the mages’ world—but what made Ming Sha’s soul tremble to its core was the opponent’s absolute proficiency in magic!
Manipulating hair-thin Shadow Threads to infiltrate array crevices required microscopic precision control that even lifelong cultivating Shadow masters might struggle to achieve. Not to mention the precise millisecond coordination between Shadow guidance and Spatial Severance array-breaking! That seamless, flawless coordination without a single flaw could only ever manifest in supreme grandmasters of magic who had survived tens of thousands of life-or-death bloody battles!
Before him was not an ordinary talented student.
This was a once-in-a-millennium magical monster! A terrifying threat capable of leveling the entire Underworld Sect if allowed to continue maturing!
Amidst the rubble choked with dust and debris of demonic chains, slow, steady footsteps sounded once more.
“Tap... Tap... Tap...”
Lin Feng stepped slowly out of the shadowy mist. His gold-trimmed black cloak fluttered in the rushing wind, his entire person impeccably clean, his demeanor as casual as if he had just strolled through an overgrown garden rather than shattering a heaven-defying wicked forbidden array.
Around his fingertips, slender shadow threads gently hovered like mysterious black silk ribbons, gradually dissolving into the void.
Lin Feng raised his eyes toward the altar’s summit, the corners of his lips curving into a cold, chilling smile as his voice echoed across the gloomy space:
“White-Clad Pontiff Ming Sha... Is that truly the extent of your wicked sorcery?”
“You...” Ming Sha was so enraged that his qi and blood surged, his chest heaving violently. He gritted his teeth, smearing the blood from his lips, his eyes flashing with a desperate, reckless madness: “Insolent brat, don’t celebrate too early! This seat is a half-step Super-level entity, my magic energy reservoir is ten times yours! You broke the array, but with what will you kill me?!”
“With what, you ask?”
Lin Feng chuckled lightly, his smile carrying bone-chilling contempt.
He slowly raised his right hand toward the heavens, his palm aimed squarely at the arched vault of the Underworld Palace.
The moment that hand lifted, the entire subterranean space at the bottom of the ancient tomb plunged into a dead silence. The foul wind ceased blowing. The greenish phosphorescent ghost-fires flickering along the stone walls all blinked out simultaneously.
An absolute, destructive pressure—ancient, overbearing, and ten times more ferocious than the previous Dragon Flame—suddenly awakened from deep within Lin Feng’s chest!
“TICK-TOCK... SCHLICE...”
A bolt of deep blackish-purple lightning, as thick as Chinese ink yet radiating a brilliance bright enough to cause stinging pain in human eyes, suddenly tore through the void, dancing around every fingertip of the youth.
Rumbling thunder began to echo from the distant void, growing increasingly rapid and resolute, resembling the thousands of war drums of the Lightning God descending!
The presence of the 2nd-Rank Nirvana Lightning Seed... officially awakened!
Lin Feng’s eyes burned with indigo-purple lightning fire, locking straight onto Ming Sha’s rapidly graying face as he spat out each word coldly:
“Prepare to receive divine retribution, Underworld vermin!”