Chapter 523: Panic Sets In, and That’s Great News

Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao had lost count of how many times he had erased the Flame Demon. Each time it vanished, the enemy would reappear, its strength having risen to match his own.

This forced him to accelerate his plans.

Fortunately, after scheming for so many years, he was well-prepared.

He naturally sped up the process. The Five Elements Spiritual Treasures on his body instantly dimmed, and at the same time, the five planets began to shatter.

He glanced at the Flame Demon Legion that was continuously assaulting his wooden avatars. As the slaughter and destruction continued, more and more Flame Demons were being spontaneously born.

His wooden avatars had gone from holding the upper hand to being evenly matched, and Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao’s heart sank deeper and deeper.

Fortunately, the Flame Demon Legion was useless against him, no matter its numbers. Erasing it was still simple.

But the truly difficult one to deal with was the Flame Demon that dogged his every step. That was the most vexing part.

’If I can’t kill you, then imprisoning you will have to do.’ Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao could only settle for the next best thing.

The great power of heaven and earth formed a cage, trapping the Flame Demon within.

He reinforced it with dense layers of rules, making the cage ever more solid.

The Flame Demon was completely unable to break it and could only watch as it was plunged into the depths of the cosmos.

Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao knew this was only treating the symptom, not the root cause.

He wanted to solve the root problem, but with his current strength, it was impossible. He could only delay, planning to kill it after he grew stronger.

It was a good idea, but soon, he sensed a terrifying heatwave roaring forth from the depths of the cosmos.

The Flame Demon had self-destructed.

And the force of its self-destruction was so immense that even the cage of rules meant to imprison it was shattered.

’Rules... should only be breakable by other rules. This is completely illogical.’ Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao felt a sense of helplessness.

His opponent had no flashy abilities. From start to finish, it was just brute force and high temperatures.

Yet the Flame Demon’s brute force could shatter rules, and its high temperatures could incinerate them.

In the eyes of Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao, these two advantages were simply unstoppable, far beyond any ordinary power.

But their manifestation was very mundane, nothing more than strength, speed, and fire.

’Who on earth created such a bizarre life form just to target me?’

’Dammit!’ Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao’s composure was crumbling.

For no other reason than the Flame Demon had appeared before him once again, greatsword in hand, charging at him like a persistent leech.

Its strength had grown further, and it had even developed a locking ability, breaking through the fabric of space to appear right in front of him.

Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao reached out and caught the greatsword as the Flame Demon swung it down, his expression filled with impatience.

"You truly are disgusting, you rock-and-fire man," he cursed aloud. Then, the greatsword in the demon’s hand disintegrated inch by inch into dissipating flecks of fire.

"Thank you for the compliment. I quite like your assessment of me," the Flame Demon said, opening its gaping maw and immediately biting down on its opponent’s neck.

This time, Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao didn’t defend himself. Instead, he allowed the creature to bite into his neck, tearing off a large chunk of his woody flesh.

The Flame Demon didn’t even chew, swallowing it in one gulp.

It was no ordinary life form, so it had no sense of taste; it couldn’t tell if it was good or bad.

It did this purely as a form of attack.

"How did it taste?" Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao asked.

"I ate it too fast, didn’t get a taste," the Flame Demon said, licking its lips. It opened its mouth to bite again. "Why don’t you let me have another... piece..."

The Flame Demon’s body had actually begun to partially transform into wood. The flames in the corresponding areas went out, their energy absorbed by the fire in other parts of its body.

This wood transformation continued to spread, with the end result being the complete assimilation of the Flame Demon.

Of course, Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao’s plan didn’t stop there. He would also use the great power of the Cosmic World to turn the Flame Demon into his avatar completely.

He was currently ascending to become a Celestial Dao. By the same token, the wooden parts of the Flame Demon, now a part of him, were also undergoing this process.

And as it happened, Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao could control this process.

This meant he was now in control of the Flame Demon.

But in the next moment, a savage and frenzied consciousness began to madly assault Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao’s mind, surging from the controlled parts of the Flame Demon.

For him, however, this wasn’t a major problem. Having lived for so long, his mind and consciousness were exceptionally strong and resilient. The savagery and madness born from the Flame Demon’s limited experience were nothing to be afraid of.

It couldn’t even cause a single ripple after entering his consciousness.

How could a tiny flame evaporate a boundless ocean?

If the Flame Demon were to fight and kill for another ten or twenty thousand years, perhaps then it might be qualified to affect Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao.

Otherwise, even adding Zuo Fan’s entire lifespan to its own wouldn’t amount to a fraction of the necessary experience.

So, the impact was essentially ignored.

And he dealt with it with extreme ease.

However, this stream of savagery and madness wasn’t a one-time burst; it was a continuous flow.

But in the eyes of Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao, the rate and volume of the flow were meaningless.

This time, he had finally brought the Flame Demon under control.

He then glanced at the Flame Demon Legion, and in an instant, every single one of them turned transparent and vanished.

He couldn’t erase the Flame Demon, but did that mean he couldn’t erase this bunch of its derivatives?

After disappearing, the Flame Demon Legion did not resurrect as the Flame Demon had. After all, compared to the Flame Demon, the difference in their power was like that of the heavens and the earth.

With the Flame Demon Legion dealt with, his wooden avatars were freed and began a new round of slaughter.

The targets of the slaughter were, of course, humans.

This was part of a ritual sacrifice, and the object of worship was naturally Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao himself.

Except, humanity was not the officiant of the ritual, but the offering.

What kind of ritual would it be without an offering?

"Humanity should never have existed," Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao said softly. To him, his kind were the natives; humans were merely a group of invaders.

It was just that he hadn’t been able to clean them up properly back then, and later, they had become valuable. Otherwise, he would have annihilated all the humans on the five planets long ago. How could he have allowed them to continue living?

He didn’t need to worry about the blood sacrifice; his wooden avatars would handle it perfectly.

He then turned his gaze back to the Flame Demon. By now, more than half of its body had completed the wood transformation.

If nothing unexpected happened, in about three minutes at most, the Flame Demon would become his avatar, the Wood Demon.

This was excellent news for him.

After all, he had exploited a bug: as long as the Flame Demon wasn’t truly dead, it couldn’t resurrect, and if it couldn’t resurrect, it wouldn’t continue to grow stronger.

Not only had he eliminated a future threat, but he had also gained a powerful avatar. It was killing two birds with one stone.

As for the possibility that the mastermind behind all this had left some tricks on this avatar?

Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao hadn’t even considered it. Once the Wood Demon avatar was complete, he would immediately send it to fight that Cosmic Giant Bull.

He suspected this Cosmic Giant Bull, which was currently approaching him, was also one of the mastermind’s preparations.

It would be best if they could destroy each other.

Of course, just buying him some time would be ideal.

In any case, as long as he treated it as a disposable asset, he didn’t care what hidden moves the enemy had planned.

However, doing this might cause another problem: the Flame Demon, which he had assimilated into the Wood Demon avatar, could recover once again.

But... at this point, he had no other choice.

He certainly couldn’t keep a potentially compromised life form by his side. Getting rid of it was the best possible outcome.

At this moment, Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao could already feel a threat and a malevolence drawing ever closer. This was a sensation he had only gained after his ascension to a Celestial Dao was halfway complete.

This approaching threat was lurking somewhere in the cosmos, but he couldn’t find it, which made him exceptionally anxious.

’The remaining half will take at least another thirty minutes. I should have enough time,’ Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao thought anxiously.

He needed time, but his enemy wouldn’t necessarily give it to him.

Looking at the now fully assimilated Wood Demon avatar, he opened a spatial passage and threw it right next to the Cosmic Giant Bull.

* * *

"He’s certainly getting desperate. That’s good news," Qi Suian said, watching Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao’s actions without much concern.

Sending the Wood Demon to fight the Fei? Isn’t that just serving up a free meal?

"But there’s only half an hour left. Looks like the Fei needs to hurry up, or it’ll be late for dinner."

Since Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao was determined to complete his ascension, the solution was very simple.

Qi Suian would capture the Celestial Dao, while the Fei would devour its home planet, its entire ruined body, all the wooden avatars, and the five planets of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

This was what you called putting everything to good use.

"The more ferocious the apocalypse, the faster you recover, huh?" Qi Suian said, then BAM! BAM! he landed two more punches on the Apocalypse Game.

Before, he was just giving it a good hard slap, but now he’d switched to fists. It just went to show how much benefit the apocalypse brought to the Apocalypse Game.

After the two punches, the Apocalypse Game, which hadn’t even had a chance to recover, wilted once more.

"No wonder you needed that limited-time event for the World Pass at the end. Turns out, the more time you stall, the more you profit."

"It’s a good thing there are no survivors left, or your profits would probably be even greater."

"Every survivor is a node, a mouthpiece for the Apocalypse Game, constantly siphoning the very concept of the apocalypse."

"I have to say, you and I are a perfect match."

"We’re both menaces. No wonder you and I made it to the end together," Qi Suian teased.

"If we had just cooperated fairly from the start, we wouldn’t have had this whole toxic back-and-forth, would we?"

"We might have even been able to grow together."

After speaking, Qi Suian gave the Apocalypse Game another big slap, causing the shred of power it had just recovered to dissipate once again.