Chapter 1350: Sacrifice!

Chapter 1350: Sacrifice!

I fight!

My guards fight too!

But they are exhausted beyond endurance—utterly spent.

Lao Luo’s blade barely grazed the edge of Rift-Sky Sovereign’s vambrace before, in the next heartbeat, a colossal claw sheathed in obsidian carapace and wreathed in spatial rending force pierced through his chest as if by teleportation, plucked out his heart, and devoured it whole.

Among my defenders, a female archer let out a cry like the blood-curdling lament of a dying cuckoo. Her arrow had pierced one molten eye of the lava giant—but another alien warlord’s shadowy blade severed both her arms in an instant.

Staggering, spitting blood, she lifted her head toward me, eyes blazing with final resolve.

Then she bit down hard on her tongue, spraying a jet of essence-blood onto her shattered bow. The broken weapon hummed, transforming into a burning arrow of crimson flame that shot forth at impossible speed, striking another alien warlord assailing me squarely in the back—and detonating with cataclysmic force!

She herself was instantly engulfed by countless beams of light, reduced to drifting ash…

Every fallen figure branded my soul like red-hot iron.

I fought like a madman!

Gave everything!

Slew one alien warlord after another!

Violet flames crisscrossed the sky; sword qi tore open the heavens.

Corpses piled higher across this Peerless Plain—as my last loyal guards perished one by one.

Yet my own wounds multiplied just as fast.

Scorching magma nearly burned through bone; spatial-rending blades from the Rift-Sky Swarm carved deep gashes into my back, exposing raw flesh; insidious alien magics clung to me like parasitic leeches, gnawing away my vitality.

Blood soaked my tattered robes; my vision blurred with flowing crimson.

My cultivation drained like water without roots, vanishing rapidly.

Each breath seared my lungs with the agony of ruptured organs.

I killed many—but their numbers only grew.

Endless… boundless…

Slowly, my consciousness began sinking into infinite darkness.

But just as the world plunged into utter blackness—

A vast, chaotic torrent of will surged from every direction—an invisible tidal wave crashing into my mind!

Not an attack—but resonance!

The final cry of countless dying souls across the entire Zi-Qing Upper Kingdom!

In that moment, my vision soared infinitely upward, stretching beyond limits!

As if my spirit had torn free from its dying shell, gazing down upon this shattered land.

I saw cities once glorious across the Zi-Qing Domain now reduced to towering infernos and billowing black smoke!

Countless tiny figures writhed and collapsed in flames—their desperate wails ringing in my ears.

Above Fenghai Commandery floated a colossal alien totem, radiating pure annihilation.

Its walls had long crumbled; chaos reigned within. At the heart of the ruins stood my disciple, Bai Xiao-Zhuo.

Drenched in blood, his left arm severed cleanly at the shoulder, he raised high in his remaining hand the fractured seal of the commandery governor!

Around him huddled the last survivors—men, women, children, elders—all ragged, emaciated, their eyes dry of tears but filled with a numb yet absolute resolve!

I saw the western frontier towns, where the last few soldiers closed their eyes forever.

I saw the northern ice wastes, where frozen scout squads lay dead.

Each scene struck my soul like billions of steel needles—pain and sorrow beyond words!

More devastating than any strike from alien warlords!

My kingdom… my people!

Boundless grief coalesced into a resolve transcending life and death!

Like unbreakable black ice, freezing all pain, all despair!

I lifted my head sharply!

Through blood-streaked eyes, I pierced past the grotesque faces of alien warlords before me, past the desolate silhouette of Peerless Plain, past the layered mountains of Nanhuang Continent—straight toward that cold, indifferent visage hanging eternally in the ninth heaven—the Great Fractured Face!

It remained incomplete, icy, silent.

Like a mask torn in half and pasted indifferently onto the endless sky.

Its very existence mocked all human joy and sorrow, struggle and sacrifice.

Yet now, this eternal observer—this embodiment of indifferent cosmic law—might be the only force capable of shifting this hopeless deadlock!

The last citizens of Zi-Qing Upper Kingdom were dying.

And I—Zi-Qing, the exiled, useless so-called Crown Prince—what could I do?

“I… am Zi-Qing!”

My voice cracked and hoarse, yet carried power enough to drown out every clash and roar across the Zi-Qing realm.

“By the name of Crown Prince of Zi-Qing Upper Kingdom!”

I spread wide my arms. Tattered robes whipped violently in the gale. All my wounds burst open simultaneously—blood gushed like fountains, yet strangely did not fall. Instead, it transformed into blazing crimson flames that coiled around my body!

“I sacrifice this broken body! Burn my life-soul! Ignite my Dao-foundation! Consume all I am! All I was! All I shall be! Every thread of karmic fate!”

With each uttered word, my very life-essence burned away completely!

Flesh melted; bones groaned under unbearable strain; my soul felt cast into an eternal furnace. My recently restored cultivation—and every foundation of my existence—now became pure, incandescent primal energy!

“Draw forth your power! Purify this corruption! Incinerate this age of chaos! Preserve the last ember of Zi-Qing… that it may never die!”

“If reborn in another life…”

“When I awaken anew—I shall offer up everything I have witnessed!”

BOOM!!

An indescribable pillar of violet-golden light erupted from my burning form—purer, denser, more suffused with the Mandate of Human Sovereignty and oceanic wrath than even the blazing river of national fortune!

It ripped apart the blood-soaked night shrouding Peerless Plain, shattered the blockade forged by allied alien warlords!

Carrying the absolute will of mutual destruction and rebirth through death, it surged upward like a reversed violet galaxy, piercing infinite voids—and slammed straight into the Fractured Face above the heavens!

At the same moment, in Fenghai Commandery—

Bai Xiao-Zhuo sensed something. Gazing toward Nanhuang Continent, tears streamed down his face. Then he laughed wildly, slashed his own face until only half remained—mirroring the Fractured Face itself.

He cried out:

“Born upon this soil! Die upon this soil! My soul shall guard this soil! I follow my Crown Prince into death—and shall awaken a thousand years before him, to safeguard his path!”

“Sacrifice!”

With his sacrifice, the people of Fenghai County gathered around their governor, supporting one another, forming a vast human ring.

The elderly, women, children… all lifted their faces toward the sky, gazing upon that ancient, ever-hanging visage—the Mutilated Face—coldly watching over humanity’s tragedies!

Then, one by one, their expressions twisted into frenzy, and every mouth opened as one:

“Sacrifice!”

Countless voices merged into a torrent tearing through heaven and earth!

Elders, women, children… every surviving soul of Fenghai County—young or old, strong or weak—performed the same act in unison: self-mutilation, becoming the Mutilated Face!

No hesitation. No retreat. Only an unwavering, world-shaking resolve—to embrace death so life might be reborn!

In an instant, countless faint yet utterly pure sparks of life peeled away from each self-mutilated form, like stars flowing upstream!

Speck by speck, they gathered into rivers, then surged into oceans!

A tide of living light—forged from the final wills of countless souls across Zi Qing Upper Kingdom—rose without sound, yet carried within it a lament burning everything to ash, soaring skyward alongside their Crown Prince!

Straight through the heavens!

At that very moment, on the western frontier of Zi Qing Upper Kingdom, the last few battered soldiers lit the beacon fires. Amid towering flames, weeping blood, they mutilated themselves before the Mutilated Face above, their bodies twisting in fire until dissolving into luminous motes…

On the frozen northern plains of Zi Qing, a squad of frostbitten scouts drove their bloodstained battle standard deep into the permafrost with their final strength. Facing homeward, facing the Mutilated Face in the sky, they collectively mutilated themselves—their crimson glimmers merging into the surging tide of souls sweeping across heaven and earth…

Throughout Zi Qing Upper Kingdom—in countless places, hidden corners, scattered yet desperate battles filled with tragic valor—countless feeble wills

all chose, at this exact moment, the same path without prior agreement!

Offering themselves as sacrifice! Using their shattered souls as kindling! Presenting to that eternally aloft, indifferent Mutilated Face everything Zi Qing had left!

Rising into the sky!

Like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, transcending infinite spatial barriers, instantly converging and entwining around the violet-gold pillar radiating from their Crown Prince!

To join him… in sacrifice!

Only praying… that Zi Qing’s future may once more walk among the ages!

Time seemed to freeze completely in this instant.

The slaughter on Wushuang Plain stood still.

Cruelty froze on the faces of the myriad races’ strongest warriors, replaced by shock—and primal terror born of instinct!

All that remained in heaven and earth was that violet-gold flame surging upward against the current, accompanied by boundless sacrificial souls from every direction… and above, in the firmament, that agelessly indifferent Mutilated Face.

Then…

That eternal, icy Mutilated Face slowly opened its eyes.

Within them swirled crimson vortices blazing with endless cold and chaotic fire!

As if the Day of Annihilation had come!

An indescribable pressure—surpassing all mortal comprehension—descended suddenly, as though the laws of the entire star-ringed cosmos had condensed into a single gaze!

This gaze was cold. Indifferent. Bearing absolute will capable of judging ten thousand eons and piercing all illusions.

And then—it focused.

Fixing upon… the origin of the violet-gold pillar.

Fixing upon… me, rapidly fading within that radiant column.

The moment that crimson gaze fell upon me, my body began dissolving like snow cast into the sun—starting from my fingertips, crumbling into drifting violet dust.

Flesh, bone, spirit… everything constituting “Zi Qing” unraveled under the Mutilated Face’s stare, reduced to primal essence.

I felt no pain.

Only a chilling void.

As if even consciousness were scattering away.

In the final instant before total dissolution, beneath the icy scrutiny of that crimson vortex, I heard a low voice:

“Granted.”

The moment those words echoed, an unspeakable terror—akin to the birth of the universe itself—erupted like a silent tsunami of annihilation across the entirety of Wushuang Plain!

Shattering all!

Time stretched into eternity.

My awareness, caught in this final storm of chaos, flickered like the last ember of a dying candle—and utterly… vanished.

Only that river of light, forged from the final wills of billions of shattered souls and piercing heaven and earth, continued burning, surging, and vanishing within the crimson vortex of the opened Mutilated Face…

Like a silent requiem… a song of death embracing rebirth.

…

In the autumn of the 9315th year of the Zi Qing calendar, the Crown Prince fell in Nanzhou.

Bai Xiaozhuo, the last Governor of Fenghai County and disciple of the Crown Prince, let out a heartrending, bitter laugh. Weeping blood, he mutilated himself until only half his face remained—mirroring the divine Mutilated Face.

Before death, he spoke:

“I shall follow my prince into oblivion. I will awaken a thousand years before him, to guard his path.”