Twin blades slashed forward, unleashing gray and black streams of light.
That strike tore apart the illusion's veil—and with it, the so-called supreme god of the illusion was shattered into pieces.
In his Asura Demon Form, Feng Qi recognized no god in his heart.
As the illusion dispersed, he slowly raised his head. Under the bright full moon, the streets around him returned to ruins once more, with tattered yellow paper drifting through the sky.
He raised the Demon Blade, pointing straight toward the city center. That twisted grin on his face grew even wider.
"Hehe…hahahahaha!"
That mad laughter sounded like ruthless mockery, a blatant taunt aimed directly at the hidden lifeform at the city's core.
His body slowly crouched. Feng Qi's form tensed up like a tiger ready to pounce.
Behind him, the pitch-black demonic ghost, driven by his will, clawed and snarled, glaring toward the center of the city with a deafening roar.
Boom!
The ground sank sharply as Feng Qi shot forward, turning into a symmetrical stream of gray and black light, lunging directly at the oncoming death creatures.
"Kill!"
With that hysterical roar, the Ghost Blade in his hand was engulfed in gray flames. The blade's aura kept expanding as it moved forward, like a cloud of misty gray smoke that looked ready to blot out the moon.
The spiritual domain of negative emotion instantly swept over the area ahead.
Those mindless death creatures were immediately severed from their mental link to the hidden lifeform.
As for the intelligent ones—they were filled with terror.
When the Ghost Blade's power descended, they didn't even have time to resist. Their consciousness was instantly dragged into the domain of negativity.
Despair, fear, destruction… the domain tormented them endlessly, like the tortures of the Eighteen Hells. They sank into despair, losing all control over their physical bodies.
At that moment, Feng Qi raised the Demon Blade.
The ferocious blade aura, laced with its deep hatred for the Miracle artifact, swept outward in every direction.
The rapidly expanding Demon Blade was like a reaper's scythe. One sweeping slash instantly cleared a massive vacuum zone. All death creatures it touched were reduced to powder, and the aftershock of the strike quaked the earth and shredded the surroundings.
Right now, Feng Qi's consciousness was in a half-submerged state. Rationality was fading.
Driven by primal instinct and desire, he had only one goal—to kill the being that had challenged him.
Even if that being was a god!
Laughter filled with madness echoed as Feng Qi surged through swarms of death creatures. As the Ghost Blade and Demon Blade cut forward, they trailed ribbons of gray and black energy.
He didn't even need to look back. The energy particles released from shattered death creatures were pulled in by the Demon Blade, absorbed and converted into new power.
His fractured bones, overloaded to the brink, began to heal under the nourishment of that energy.
After a brief pause, Feng Qi once again charged toward the city center.
Along the way, his bones shattered and reformed repeatedly. His body constantly teetered on the edge of collapse.
But it was precisely this pressure that fueled his growth. Whenever he burned through all his stamina, new strength surged up within him, slowly grinding his power upward, just like a whetstone sharpening a blade. Bit by bit, his limit rose.
In the state of the God Ascension Challenge, Feng Qi's physical potential was being pushed further and further.
The Demon Blade had once given him a detailed explanation of the God Ascension Challenge.
It had said this challenge was a brutal method of unlocking potential.
This kind of cultivation could also be called adaptive evolution.
Through the Demon Blade's properties, the wielder could gain adaptive growth. The body's limit would constantly be elevated.
It was similar to how the Mist Lord adapted to the rules of the human world.
The difference was, the Mist Lord used sheer willpower to activate the will of miracles, breaking down its core body and reconstructing it.
But the Demon Blade's God Ascension Challenge had no such concept of destruction and rebirth. It was about raw, forced adaptation.
Like a land-dwelling creature falling into the deep sea—faced with suffocation, it had to evolve underwater breathing.
A collapsing body was just like that land creature falling into the ocean.
The Demon Blade's trait allowed its host to evolve the body to adapt to that stage's limit, then force a breakthrough by squeezing out every ounce of potential.
The God Ascension Challenge was all about pushing past your limits, again and again.
Each time the wielder adapted to a new extreme, their physical attributes would increase drastically.
Right now, Feng Qi stood at the edge of a new physical limit.
And only two paths lay before him.
Either adapt and break through this bottleneck to achieve a physical breakthrough—or die.
In the Asura Demon Form, Feng Qi had no fear. He kept squeezing every bit of strength out of himself, dancing along the edge of death.
By the time he reached the city center, his body was already in tatters. Blood and sweat mixed and flowed down his skin. He slowly raised his head and looked ahead.
There, a massive blue formation stood. At its center, a transparent blue bell hovered in the air, swaying soundlessly despite the stillness—and letting out a sound that was eerily alluring.
That sound was like the will of a god, constantly invading his mind, trying to overwrite his perception.
But in his state of absolute evil, he ignored the mental damage caused by cognitive manipulation.
Beneath the blue bell stood a ferocious beast-like hound more than seven meters tall, its entire body shrouded in black death energy.
Its eyes glowed crimson, filled with killing intent. Its four limbs touched the formation on the ground, and every breath it took exhaled dark green death-flame. The oppressive aura from its body weighed down like a mountain, suppressing the space around it.
Just by meeting its gaze, Feng Qi felt an overwhelming pressure.
But he didn't flinch. Instead, a savage grin crept across his face.
Blood slid down his arm from his grip on the blade, dripping from the hilt to the tip. His aura began to rise steadily.
In the state of God Ascension Challenge cultivation, his body was like a drowning man struggling madly, trying to break through the shackles of his limit and complete his transformation.
The aura coming off the beast fully ignited Feng Qi's excitement.
His body trembled slightly, and gray and pitch-black flames intertwined and burned on the surface of his skin.
Faced with Feng Qi's provocation, the beast threw its head back and howled. Terrifying soundwaves burst out in waves, bombarding Feng Qi's body. The full moon above the beast's head grew even brighter, as if responding to its cry.
Then the beast took a single step forward, instantly activating the blue formation underfoot.
Countless eerie runes lifted from the formation and began orbiting and flickering, releasing terrifying waves of energy.
At that moment, Feng Qi raised the Demon Blade, pointing directly at the beast.
"Kill!"
He didn't retreat—instead, he charged straight into the formation.
As Feng Qi entered the formation, a brilliant light erupted from the core. The entire array was fully activated.
This time, the ringing of the bell in his ears became clear and crisp.
The floating runes within the formation assembled on their own, and the world before his eyes began to change.
Countless skeletal figures suddenly emerged out of nowhere, lunging at him. The Demon Blade in Feng Qi's hand transformed into a giant blade that swept across them. A mass of skeletons shattered instantly, turning into flickering blue runes, which reassembled in an instant.
More and more skeletal figures appeared.
Faced with death creatures formed by rune convergence, Feng Qi burst into hysterical laughter.
The slaughter began.
The skeletal beings surged in endless waves. One after another, they came at him as if they would never stop. Feng Qi was consumed by the killing frenzy inside the formation.
Just then, a wave of killing intent struck from behind.
Feng Qi's body reacted instinctively, turning as he slashed with the Demon Blade.
But he saw nothing behind him. The blade missed completely. The next moment, it felt like he'd been slammed by a high-speed train—an overwhelming force knocked him backward.
Thud!
His body smashed into the barrier of the formation, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
Before he could recover, another formless pressure closed in.
But in Feng Qi's vision, he still only saw the rune-formed skeletal beings. He couldn't see the hidden beast. Once again, he instinctively slashed with the Demon Blade.
It missed again.
The returning force smashed him into a coughing fit, blood spraying as he was swatted sideways by immense power.
Before he even hit the ground, Feng Qi stabbed both the Demon Blade and Ghost Blade into the earth, dragging two deep scars, using the momentum to twist his body mid-air and land on his feet.
Crack!
A sound of bones breaking echoed.
But Feng Qi didn't care. His eyes stared forward, searching for the beast.
The sound of the bell in his ears—now amplified by the formation—greatly enhanced its enchanting power. This time, it blinded his ability to perceive the beast visually, preventing him from locating it.
Just then, he suddenly turned his head.
He saw the beast's form appear behind him, pouncing savagely with its claws glinting under the moonlight.
At the same time, he sensed the pressure attacking from directly in front.
Faced with this split-second decision, he chose to trust his sense of the aura. He roared and swung the Demon Blade forward with all his might.
The massive slash landed without resistance, even shaking the ground—but it hit nothing.
At that moment, he felt a heavy impact strike his back. His body was flung forward and thrown through the air.
As he crashed down and rolled across the ground, he coughed out a mouthful of blood. Within it, pieces of shattered internal organs could be seen.
After suffering repeated blows, Feng Qi's body was on the brink of collapse.
"Heh… heh heh!"
That sinister grin still hadn't faded. He trembled as he forced himself to stand again.
But before he could steady himself, an invisible force launched him into the sky. While airborne, another sideways blow slammed into him.
Silver light flickered in the air as Feng Qi's body was battered from side to side, unable to land.
Under the relentless barrage, even with the Demon Blade's support, his damaged body couldn't regenerate fast enough.
Bones began to break on a large scale. His organs were failing.
"Not much energy left... time for one last gamble."
Hearing the voice of the Demon Blade, Feng Qi struggled to lift it up. Under the influence of his will, the Demon Blade flew from his right hand and expanded mid-air, like a Sea-Calming Divine Needle crashing down.
Boom!
The heavy-as-a-mountain Demon Blade landed, releasing a terrifying wave of killing intent. The skeletal creatures nearby were instantly ground to dust, and even the approaching beast was forced to retreat temporarily.
With a rare moment to catch his breath, Feng Qi collapsed hard onto the ground.
His drooping body managed to raise his right hand, and the Demon Blade embedded in the ground returned on its own, firmly landing in his grip.
The flesh and blood energy inside the Demon Blade surged wildly into his body, rapidly healing his shattered organs and battered flesh.
"Qi brat, do you remember the Heart Eye Domain?"
Nearly out of control, Feng Qi didn't answer the Demon Blade—only let out hysterical laughter before stabbing both the Ghost Blade and Demon Blade into the ground.
Then, he reached up and thrust his fingers into his own eyes, bursting both eyeballs. Blood sprayed from the sockets.
Gripping the blades once more, his consciousness spread forward.
Without sight to distract him, his perception became abnormally sharp. The fire of the God Ascension Challenge burned fiercer than ever in his chest.
Feng Qi instinctively began to use a battle technique the Demon Blade had once taught him—Heart Eye Domain.
This unique combat technique came from the Demon Blade's fifth wielder.
In the Demon Blade's eyes, he was one of the strongest among them all.
The fifth wielder was exceptionally gifted but had lost his sight during a God Ascension Challenge after his eyes were corroded by a rare toxin.
That toxin was so unique even the flesh and blood energy provided by the Demon Blade couldn't heal it.
After barely surviving, the fifth wielder fell into despair for a time.
But eventually, he clawed his way out of that pit, accepted his blindness, and began training to fight without relying on sight.
It was during this period that he created a technique for combat through pure perception—and named it the Heart Eye Domain.
Within the Heart Eye Domain, visual flaws and blind spots ceased to exist.
Relying on memory, Feng Qi activated the Heart Eye Domain.
Under this perception, the formation beneath his feet became crystal clear. He could see not just the array's operational patterns but also the constantly shifting core of the formation itself.
"All remaining energy, take it!"
With the Demon Blade's roar, all the leftover power flooded into Feng Qi's body.
His body inflated like a balloon, and his muscles hardened like stone.
Roar!
With a bestial howl, flames blazed in Feng Qi's now-depthless eyes. Under the bright moonlight, his scar-ridden body radiated shocking power.
At that moment, a faint blue silhouette appeared in Feng Qi's Heart Eye perception.
The sneak attack failed. Feng Qi's Ghost Blade slashed out like an illusion.
The beast clearly feared the Ghost Blade. It twisted mid-air, narrowly dodging the strike, and came at him from the side.
Seeing the opening, Feng Qi grinned wide.
The Ghost Blade slipped from his hand, changed direction mid-air, and flew back into his grip—then shot forward as a beam of light toward the beast.
It dodged again.
But just as it was about to land, the Demon Blade in Feng Qi's right hand expanded suddenly—like a pitch-black mountain crashing down.
With a pained wail, the beast was slammed deep into the ground.
The array trembled violently, teetering on the brink of collapse.
Feeling the surge of endless strength within, Feng Qi threw back his head and howled to the sky. His black hair danced wildly without wind.
Then he raised the Demon Blade again—and slammed it down.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground kept trembling with each strike. The beast's body sank deeper and deeper into the earth.
Even as his body approached its breaking point from the Demon Blade's overload, Feng Qi didn't stop—he kept swinging, again and again.
Crack!
His right arm snapped.
The hand gripping the Demon Blade trembled, barely holding on.
But his face twisted into an even crazier expression.
As the Demon Blade shrank back to normal, Feng Qi dragged it along, walking toward the beast that had been hiding in the shadows all this time, ready to end it for good.
Standing before the dying creature, the flames in Feng Qi's empty eye sockets flickered wildly as he stared at its broken form.
The Ghost Blade slowly rose.
Gray flames exploded, and under the beast's terrified gaze, the blade came down.
As the Ghost Blade pierced the beast's chest, its expression changed from fear to confusion.
This time, the tables had turned. The illusion was now Feng Qi's domain.
The world the beast saw shifted. The fluttering yellow papers turned into blazing fire, and molten lava flowed beneath its feet.
There was no life here—not even death.
This was a realm of pure chaos, formed from negative emotions.
Feng Qi's negative persona descended into this mental hell.
Here, his body burned with gray flames, his presence radiated destruction, and behind him stood a throne forged from bones—the throne of annihilation.
This time, Feng Qi was the god who ruled everything.
"Welcome to my hell."
With a raspy, maniacal laugh, the cycle of torment for the beast began.