Chapter 1259: Eerie Dao Artifact!

Chapter 1259: The Sinister Divine Artifact!

"The Sovereign’s Artifact!"

The instant Jade-Faced True God beheld the crimson crescent blade embedded in Xu Qing’s brow, his divine spirit roared with thunderous shock!

The Sovereign’s oppressive aura erupted in full force, its crushing weight twisting his sacred breath into chaos.

An overwhelming sense of mortal peril blotted out sun and moon across his divine realm.

"He possesses a Sovereign’s divine artifact?!"

"This is impossible—such an artifact could never be wielded by a mere quasi-immortal… and my omniscience should have detected it!"

"Someone has shrouded this man’s essence in a secret impervious to all knowledge!"

Jade-Faced True God’s heart churned with tempestuous turmoil.

At that moment, only a sliver of the blood-red crescent blade had emerged from Xu Qing’s brow.

Yet even that fragment contorted Xu Qing’s features, shredding his flesh and warping his soul, as if defilement and utter annihilation loomed near.

The artifact’s power was too immense; only his status as a True Lord, blessed by the Fifth Stellar Ring’s fortune, allowed him to wield it at all.

But Xu Qing’s resolve burned unyielding.

Channeling fortune as his guide, he pressed on, summoning the Crescent Blade!

In the next breath, the blade advanced another inch from his brow.

Instantly, crimson radiance swelled outward, forcing combatants on both sides to recoil in terror.

Even the starry void emitted a strange, grating sound—

as if some entity scraped fingernails against a skull.

At that sound, every asteroid cluster within the battlefield trembled; countless corpses and carrion stardust quivered, their surfaces swiftly etching blood-red patterns like curved blades.

All who heard it, mortal or divine, paled in horror.

Jade-Faced True God, nearest of all, shrank back, pupils constricted to pinpricks, divine heart hammering with primal dread.

Yet as he retreated, Xu Qing’s eyes bled crimson threads, and a guttural, inhuman shriek tore from his throat:

"Crescent Blade—emerge!"

Xu Qing convulsed violently. His brow split wide, blood gushing to mask his face and stain his robes.

At this cost, the crimson blade surged another inch from the wound—

revealing half its length.

Upon its edge, grotesque fissures pulsed, formed by countless micro-black holes.

From within echoed the twisted cries of tormented souls:

"Armor shields the gods from doom’s decree—

When ruin ends, rebirth sets free."

The words rent the void. Across the starry expanse, innumerable claw marks tore open the cosmos.

Each fissure wept rain like congealed pus.

A sight to freeze the blood.

The sound and spectacle shattered minds, warped vision, and struck divine beings deepest of all.

A divine platform brushed a claw mark; its guardian shuddered, then shrieked with an owl’s mad cackle.

Fingers clawed frantically at his eyes until he gouged out his divine-source-encased orbs.

He hurled them away—

but the discarded eyes transformed into pulsing crescent phantoms, laughing as they slithered toward the void.

Mortal cultivators within the radius, seemingly shielded by the Fifth Stellar Ring’s fortune and the blade’s refinement by Zenith Sword Sovereign, suffered less.

Though shaken, they seized the moment to strike.

Jade-Faced True God, too close, bore the brunt.

Divine blood spewed; his golden armor cracked, then shattered with a deafening blast, fragments flying to shield him.

As he barely deflected the onslaught, he retreated faster still, pouring his Divine Spark’s power to near-exhaustion.

Golden threads sprouted around him, weaving a cocoon to resist the crimson tide.

But the next sweep of scarlet light struck the cocoon.

Rust bloomed—dark and sinister—bleeding into the golden weave.

Those rust stains were unnatural:

spiral patterns like cursed fingerprints covered their surface.

Within their dim glow, billions of distorted faces formed a devouring totem, gnawing to breach the cocoon and feast on flesh.

The sight made even Jade-Faced True God’s Divine Spark tremble.

In this mortal crisis, he abandoned his mission, instinctively seeking escape.

Yet the battlefield’s fractured space defied movement; his Divine Spark held no mastery over time or void.

Only by finding a spatial node could he flee—

but such a node would not yield easily.

As he strained to hold back the tide, retreating while his divine senses scoured for an escape route…

Xu Qing stood drenched in blood, face twisted in savage resolve.

His left hand clutched the goddess’s throat, draining her essence.

His right hand rose—

and seized the crescent blade protruding from his brow.

He wrenched it free!

A cataclysmic roar thundered through his mind.

The blade—

was fully drawn!

It blazed into the starry void, whole and terrible.

Crimson light flooded the cosmos.

Five inches of moon-shaped steel gleamed, its tip aimed squarely at Jade-Faced True God.

It tore from Xu Qing’s grasp, streaking toward its target.

In its wake, the stars seemed to peel like torn skin.

The blade struck the golden cocoon shielding Jade-Faced True God.

The cocoon shuddered—then shattered.

Rust and screaming faces surged with the blade toward the god.

Jade-Faced True God’s spirit screamed.

In desperation, he tore open his own chest, ripped out his still-beating heart, and swallowed it whole—

his divine realm, the wellspring of his Divine Spark.

By shattering his realm to fuel divine might, and sacrificing his Spark to ignite True Name’s fire,

he unleashed his ultimate power in a final, desperate blast.

Halt the curved blade!

Amidst the roar, the curved blade hesitated.

The Jade-Faced True God, heartless now, seized the chance to retreat. Though He barely held it back, the suspended blade’s edge, in that instant, saw every vein upon its surface rupture violently.

Not blood gushed forth, but compressed echoes of cosmic silence.

This sound unleashed, the divine power He gained by devouring His realm began to crumble.

Then, the countless mouths along the blade’s edge opened wide, sucking fiercely.

Instantly, the True God’s divine might, as terror flooded His features, streamed in wisps, drawn toward the blade.

They plunged into the mouths on the edge, consumed utterly!

Next, the blade writhed unnaturally. Its surface swelled with dense, ghastly buds.

These buds appeared horrifying, and as their tips swayed, crimson crescent-shaped eyes snapped open—laughing!

This sight stunned the Jade-Faced True God.

Then, in the next breath, the curved edge carved a perfect arc, rushing straight for Him.

From afar, it resembled a crimson river surging upward from the abyss!

It swept across the True God’s neck.

Divine blood erupted!

The True God shuddered violently, staggering back. Feeling the mortal wound at His throat, sensing His life ebbing, instinctively He raised a hand to cover it.

But as He lifted His arm, He saw His own fingers—jade-green nails, countless and dense, had sprouted between them. In a daze, these grotesque nails spread over His entire body.

His form became that of a scaled demon.

Then… the nails curled inward, drilling into His flesh and soul.

Excruciating torment, indescribable, surged from every point of His body, bloomed in every corner of His spirit, erupting everywhere.

Thus, from His mouth burst uncontrollable, grating shrieks.

The sound of life being severed.

Divine blood seeped through every wound, spreading everywhere.

Soon it ran dry; what flowed next was not blood, but nails gleaming with cold light!

Meanwhile, the curved blade piercing His neck, behind Him, finally revealed its full form.

The vascular patterns within it had bled beyond the edge, hovering around it, forming a wheel of fate spanning all directions.

Each tooth of the wheel imprisoned lives devoured by the blade. Deep within, blood-red inscriptions, as if carved by nails, were visible.

"When you gaze upon this blade, its reflection has grown nine cycles within your nails—cycles not your own—making the one who returns, no longer you."

Signed, Zhanlu.

Staring at these words, the True God’s eyes reflected the curved blade. Then His eyeballs, unable to bear the strain, burst open—only the crescent-shaped blood blade remained.

It merged into the remnant moon, becoming part of this Dao artifact’s power!

His entire face now collapsed, peeling away like lifted fingernails, revealing pallid bone and flesh devoid of blood.

The next instant, the wound at His neck tore wider. His head fell.

With lingering agony in His eyes…

It turned to ash.

Form and spirit utterly annihilated.

In the distance, the curved blade transformed into crimson moonlight, streaking toward Xu Qing, vanishing into his brow.

For a moment, all around fell silent. But soon, the battlefield’s carnage and roar reclaimed everything.

Here, Xu Qing now spat great gouts of blood.

His body felt weak, his heart churning.

This was his first use of a Dao artifact, and he keenly felt its eerie nature!

He even fancied a strange illusion: his own nail beds itched, as if nails were sprouting within.

This sensation made Xu Qing’s scalp prickle. He swayed, shooting away swiftly toward a chosen location.

A spatial point.

Possessing the Space-Time Edict, Xu Qing was far more adept than the Jade-Faced True God at locating such points within this collapsing space-time.

This was precisely why he had chosen this spot to strike.

He needed to flee the battlefield, using the spatial point to shift.

Direction was uncertain, but escape itself was the best choice for his current weakened state.

So Xu Qing charged forward without hesitation.

En route, he never ceased absorbing the Goddess’s primal essence. The Goddess, besides trembling, remained strangely quiet, offering no curses as before.

Xu Qing glanced over.

The Goddess instantly closed her eyes, lashes quivering, refusing to meet his gaze.

She was afraid.

Before, she hadn’t feared Xu Qing—only hated Him.

That hatred ran deep, thick as night.

But witnessing what had just transpired—the artifact’s grotesque power—filled her with profound terror.

That horrifying death, the inscription declaring no return… her hatred for Xu Qing had twisted into fear.

After the Ling Ke incident, she believed the Fifth Star Ring had mastered the secret of return!

Xu Qing pondered this, withdrew his gaze, and stepped toward the hidden spatial point.

He had no time now to consider the Goddess’s state. Reaching the point, he unleashed his Edict fully, pouring it within.

Simultaneously, a golden light flashed in the distance. A three-headed, six-armed True God broke free from its domain, roaring toward Xu Qing.

Clearly, calculating the curved blade could not strike again, it aimed to kill Xu Qing while He was weak.

Xu Qing lowered his eyes, unmoved. He focused all power into his Edict, tearing the spatial point open, compressing its existence into a single instant.

Then… detonation!

Amidst the roar, space collapsed, extinguishing all.

On the battlefield, Xu Qing’s form vanished!