Chapter 436 - 411: A Gathering of Demons, a Dance of Chaos

The moment the black light slashed down, a sense of utter annihilation surged over her.

This was no ordinary attack. The opponent had obviously been lying in wait for a long time, fully prepared. Although Song Ciwan broke through a spatial barrier in an instant, the attack before her possessed a nearly ultimate speed.

What exactly was ultimate speed?

To describe it as a flash of lightning or a fleeting shadow would be an understatement.

Fast. So fast it surpassed the speed of thought!

If it could outpace even thought itself, what in this world could possibly evade such ultimate speed?

Song Ciwan couldn’t evade it. The black light struck her, splitting her vertically from head to toe!

The Big White Goose shrieked, wanting to charge over, but it was too late.

The black light had struck the ground, and in the next instant, a bottomless chasm split open on the mountainside.

BOOM!

With that one strike, the black light had not only split Song Ciwan, but had also cleaved the very mountain beneath her feet.

"HONK HONK HONK!" The Big White Goose bellowed in fury, its feathers flying. The next moment, its vision went dark as a warmth enveloped its body. It was back in a familiar place, feeling a familiar warmth.

This was the Spirit Beast Bag! Song Ciwan had recalled it.

The moment it lost consciousness inside the Spirit Beast Bag, the Big White Goose had only one joyous thought: ’Wanwan isn’t dead!’

’That’s right. If Wanwan had really been killed, who else could have put me in the Spirit Beast Bag?’

Of course Song Ciwan hadn’t died. All that remained in her place was a cracked Li Wood Puppet that had fallen to the ground.

Substitution!

Today, after her many years of cultivation, this Substitute Death Technique had finally proven its worth.

It was just that the current Song Ciwan was far more powerful than before; the Peach Wood Puppet’s teleportation ability was now ineffective for her, and only the Li Wood Puppet’s death substitution power remained.

When the black light had slashed down, it appeared to strike Song Ciwan’s true body, but it had actually hit the Li Wood Puppet, which had automatically taken her place in death.

Song Ciwan’s real body had remained in place, forming a momentary, void-like overlap with the Li Wood Puppet.

A moment later, Song Ciwan emerged from the void, wielding the Sun and Moon Wheel of Formless Life and Death.

The pure light of the Sun and Moon Dual Wheels completely enveloped her. She said nothing, only causing the light around her body to surge forward.

There was ultimate speed in the world, a speed so fast that not even a fleeting thought could keep up. What, then, could possibly catch it? Or even surpass it?

At this moment, for Song Ciwan, there was only one answer: time.

What in all of heaven and earth could possibly race against time and win?

No, she didn’t need to compete.

Time would cause speed to degrade imperceptibly. It would also cause speed to slow, all without notice.

Within the pure light, Song Ciwan clearly saw the figure behind the black slash.

It was a... a mantis!

It was an enormous Mantis Demon that had emerged from the void, possessing a humanoid upper body but completely pitch-black, its lower half a combination of an insectoid tail and legs!

The demon’s forearms were extended, a Black Saber protruding sleekly from below its elbow joints. The saber was so long it was equal in height to the Mantis Demon itself.

The Mantis Demon was in the process of striking with its sabers once more.

On the Mantis Demon’s pitch-black face, three pairs of compound eyes flickered with a strange light.

It was struggling, trying to break free from the shackles the Sun and Moon Wheel of Formless Life and Death had placed on its speed!

Song Ciwan, however, simply raised her hand and flicked a finger, saying, "Like the night-blooming cereus and the Morning Dew, gone in an instant."

The Sun and Moon Wheel of Formless Life and Death stirred. Enveloped in the pure light, the Mantis Demon only had time to part the lips beneath its compound eyes, revealing a mouth full of horrifyingly sharp teeth, and let out a terrified shriek—

—a shriek that was also enveloped by the pure light, never even managing to escape.

Then, one could only watch as the pitch-black mantis’s jointed limbs detached, its head tilted back, and its joints all shifted with a series of cracks—

CRACK! SNAP! Fragments of its insectoid limbs broke off and fell away.

Its insect body shriveled. The pitch-black mantis lowered its head once more, and it fell off.

THUD!

Its entire body shattered, collapsing to the ground in a clattering heap.

All that remained was a pile of mangled remains and the pitch-black Mantis Saber.

This was the power of time!

No matter the expert, no matter their great power or ultimate speed, nothing could ultimately withstand the passage of time and the erosion of ages.

At the same time, the Heaven and Earth Scale received the Death Qi from the Mantis Demon: [Death Qi. From the death of a Demon Venerable Level Great Demon, the Void Mantis. Three pounds, nine ounces. Barterable.]

It was a Demon Venerable!

The mantis was actually a Demon Venerable!

Clearly, the Demon Race deeply understood the principle of "not sending successively stronger opponents just to feed kills to a Celestial Pride." Instead, they had directly dispatched a Demon Venerable Level Void Mantis to assassinate Song Ciwan.

A Demon Venerable was the equivalent of a Returning Void Celestial Immortal from the Human Race.

Even if this Void Mantis was perhaps the weakest among Demon Venerables, it still spoke to the grand scale of the Demon Race’s plot and the strength of their determination.

They had sent a foe two cultivation levels higher, all for the sake of an overwhelming, flawless kill against Song Ciwan.

After all, this was a Demon Venerable taking action. Who could have possibly imagined that even a Demon Venerable would be unable to kill Song Ciwan?

And the truth of the matter was, the Demon Venerable’s attack *should* have killed Song Ciwan.

If not for her possession of a Strange Technique like Substitution, Song Ciwan would have faced a true catastrophe today.

’Then again, it wasn’t just Substitution. I also have the Golden Cicada Jade Exoskeleton, and the Sword Talisman from the Beichen Sword Immortal.’

’But the Beichen Sword Immortal’s Sword Talisman requires activation, and the Void Mantis was simply too fast. Faster than the mind can even form a thought. That’s the power of a Demon Venerable!’

’I didn’t even have time to activate the Sword Talisman. In the end, it was Substitution that saved my life.’

At the same time, Song Ciwan felt three hundred years of her own lifespan being mysteriously shaved away!

When she had first refined the Peach and Plum Puppets, each one had cost her thirty years of life. Now, using the Li Wood Puppet to substitute for her death had invisibly consumed ten times that amount—three hundred years.

An ordinary Cultivator could never have afforded such a cost.

Though it takes many words to describe, everything happened in an instant.

Song Ciwan swept all the insect remains from the ground into her newly acquired Magical Treasure, the Poison King Cauldron. As for the Mantis Saber, she stored it within the Heaven and Earth Scale.

A moment later, a series of multicolored Escape Lights flared up in the mountain forest ahead.

It wasn’t just Escape Lights. There were also black clouds, demonic winds, and all kinds of strange Magical Treasures.

Amid the chaotic retreat, all sorts of demonic howls and cries rang out: "Brother Cyan Eagle, I’ve got little ones at home to feed! I’m skipping this party, see you never!"

"Huang Family Sister, I’m getting old! My arm keeps dislocating recently. Gotta go home and get it patched up. I’ll make a move first..."

"I’ve got a three-hundred-year-old mother at home! Big Brother! Brother Hua Bao, wait for me! Please, wait for me!"

...

Along with their cries, the shattered fighting spirit of the various demons coalesced into an aura, all of which was collected by Song Ciwan’s Heaven and Earth Scale.

The so-called grand gathering of demons had, in fact, happened.

Everyone had long been prepared to swarm Song Ciwan. But who could have imagined that the Void Mantis would be so fast? Before any of them even had a chance to act, they had personally witnessed the death of the Demon Venerable Level Void Mantis!

After that, who would still be willing to risk their own head to cause trouble for Song Ciwan?

The demons weren’t all fools!