The Investiture: Unlimited Blade Works Nezha
Chapter 196 - 195: The Sun Rises in Beiming

Chapter 196: Chapter 195: The Sun Rises in Beiming

The enormous half-moon-shaped axe blade’s Gang Qi instantly expanded outward with Bai Ya as the starting point, rushing toward the Eight-clawed Demon King. The axe blade Gang Qi diffused continuously in mid-air.

The Eight-clawed Demon King looked terrified as the Gang Qi reached him in an instant. Fully sensing its overwhelming power, he immediately reverted to his true form and desperately dodged to protect his head.

The Gang Qi swept past the gigantic octopus, measuring dozens of meters, cleaving away one-third of its brain and six tentacles. The axe energy then landed among the demon soldiers behind him.

The unfortunate ones directly struck by the axe energy turned to ash without feeling a shred of pain, while those farther away were crushed by the sweeping force of the Gang Qi. Their bodies seemed to be smashed by some inexplicable weight, resulting in deaths both agonizing and harrowing.

Seventy percent of the ten thousand demon soldiers brought by the Eight-clawed Demon King perished or were severely injured in an instant, prompting the remaining survivors to immediately flee.

As for the Eight-clawed Demon King, he no longer cared about his troops. Once the axe light swept past, he quickly escaped with his mangled body.

The members of the Tushan Fox Clan stood there, mouths agape, staring at Bai Ya who still maintained an axe-swinging stance. Bai Ya herself was utterly stupefied and stood up to inspect the small axe in her hand. She turned, "Husband, you..." She paused mid-sentence when she realized that Li Bai was nowhere to be found.

Nezha had already concealed himself and stealthily followed the fleeing Eight-clawed Demon King, wanting to uncover Kunpeng’s scheme.

Speaking of which, even without considering the matter of the Feathered Immortal, Nezha actually owed Kunpeng a large karmic debt.

Back in the day, Nuwa had personally gone to Kunpeng to "borrow" two Supreme Treasures, the River Map and Luo Book, in order for Human Emperor Fu Xi to achieve perfection in merit.

Saints do not bear karma, but since Nezha benefited from Nuwa’s protection and teachings, the karma tied to Nuwa was now his burden to bear. Supreme Treasures of the caliber of the River Map and Luo Book are exceedingly rare throughout the entire Primordial realm. Nezha himself wielded only a single weapon—the God Slaying Spear—to barely fit within this grade. There was no way he could produce two treasures of similar rank to repay Kunpeng.

Besides, Kunpeng harbored ill intentions toward him. Nezha could only adopt the debt-repayment strategy of the Western Sect’s two Saints: if there was no creditor, naturally, no debt would need repaying!

Following the blood-trailing Eight-clawed Demon King to a region of the Beihai sea, Nezha arrived at a dark trench. The Eight-clawed Demon King’s lair was protected by an array, but unfortunately, it was far too rudimentary for someone like Nezha. He silently infiltrated the core of the array and quickly began upgrading it by incorporating some spiritual materials.

In just a few incense sticks’ worth of time, the array’s exterior appearance remained unchanged, but everything else had been reshaped into something entirely under Nezha’s control.

Through the array, Nezha silently scanned the entire dark trench and eventually locked onto a blood pool at the lowest point.

Nezha found the aura somewhat familiar. After conducting thorough investigations, he realized it bore striking similarities to the Blood Sea.

Opening a spatial portal and donning the Mountain and River Map, Nezha silently arrived at the blood pool’s edge, where he was hit by a thick wave of blood-reeking odor.

Though Nezha was highly proficient in array formations, some things created by two Quasi-Saints collaborating were still beyond his comprehension. However, that did not matter—he had a teacher.

"Teacher, teacher, what exactly is Kunpeng up to?"

Nuwa scanned the scene through the Heavenly Observation Realm, frowning slightly as if recalling an unpleasant memory.

"This is the Blood Refining Method. Kunpeng is crafting some kind of Demon Artifact."

Without waiting for Nezha to ask further, Nuwa continued explaining.

"During the Ancient Witch Demon War, the Witch Clan was renowned for their powerful physiques, and this held particularly true for the Ancestor Witches. Back then, Di Jun found and utilized this method to forge a Demon Weapon: the Sorcerer Slaying Sword.

The creators of this method seem to have been Kunpeng and Nether River before Kunpeng later offered it to Di Jun."

Nezha had indeed heard a bit about the Sorcerer Slaying Sword. Despite its name, the Witch Clan did not suffer significant casualties from it. However, humans were practically massacred, leaving scarcely anyone alive.

This plunged the Demon Clan into monumental karmic debt owed to the Human Clan, ultimately providing humans the opportunity to take their place.

Humans did, for a time, truly manage to govern heaven and earth.

However, humans had a fatal flaw: their short lifespan. When the Daoist Ancestor saw how quickly Heavenly Emperors switched in and out, he realized this instability was unacceptable for maintaining the Three Realms.

As a result, after Emperor Zhuang Xu of the Human Clan, Hao Tian inherited the position of Heavenly Emperor and rebuilt the Heavenly Court.

"Teacher, is there a way to stop Kunpeng?"

If the enemy wants to do something, it must be stopped with all efforts!

Nuwa examined it again before saying, "Do this and that, act in such a way and such a manner..."

Though Nezha found her instructions a bit confusing, he at least grasped the overall approach.

With a flurry of activity, after sacrificing large amounts of spiritual materials, Nezha retrieved the Great Sun Golden Flame he had left behind in the Taiyi Dao Palace and threw it into the Blood Array.

Then, employing the Space Dao Seed, he swiftly escaped the scene. Nuwa, observing the situation remotely, also wiped away any traces of Nezha’s involvement.

As Nezha fled rapidly, the Great Sun Golden Flame entered the array and soon triggered an extraordinary reaction. The original blood pool was instantly converted into fuel for the Great Sun Golden Flame, transforming into a raging blaze within moments.

The flames surged along the array’s pathways like a virus, quickly igniting all subordinate Blood Refining Arrays across the entirety of Beihai.

Deep within the Northern Beiming Demon Master Palace, a shadowy Daoist sat cross-legged. Opposite him was an enormous Blood Refining Array, far larger than what Nezha had encountered. At the array’s center was a blood-colored bell surrounded by interwoven sun, moon, stars, earth, water, fire, and wind.

The array’s perimeter was wrapped in dense red threads leading inconclusively into the unknown.

As the external arrays burned under the Great Sun Golden Flame, they seemed to reach a certain limit, triggering an explosive reaction. A terrifying golden energy engulfed everything around, consuming nearby Demon Clan members entirely—with not even a trace of their Divine Souls left behind.

These occurrences simultaneously unfolded across countless locations in North State, Beihai, and Beiming.

At Kunpeng’s location, the array’s blood threads instantly turned gold. Kunpeng immediately realized something was amiss and let out a bizarre shriek. In desperation, he reversed immense volumes of compressed Beiming waters into the array, attempting to isolate the golden energy from his bell.

Unfortunately, with the countless subsidiary arrays now serving as fuel, boom!

A dazzling golden explosion erupted from the giant array, unleashing unparalleled energy. The entirety of Beiming seemed to be illuminated like a Great Sun rising into the skies!

As a result of this incident, the Demon Clan’s forces suffered a sharp decline, losing thirty percent of their power, and the Demon Master Sect was completely obliterated.

In his cave, Bai Ze clutched his head, drenched in cold sweat. "What’s happening? Could it be that the Heavenly Dao is beginning to settle its accounts with the Demon Clan?"

Deep within Beiming, the brilliant golden sun was soon replaced by endless swirling mist.

At the mist’s bottom, a surge of earthy yellow light rapidly fled toward the distant mainland.

Kunpeng cradled the damaged Fake Chaos Bell in his hands, his body battered and beaten. It was apparent that he had endured a direct hit to protect the Chaos Bell, leaving him in poor condition.

Even worse, his once-premium treasure, the Demon Master Palace, had been utterly destroyed. Repairing it wouldn’t be possible for years, even decades—and the astronomical quantity of spiritual materials required was staggering.

At this moment, he had no time to worry about the fleeing Zhen Yuanzi.

"Who? Who did this? I will make you pay with your life!"

Keenly venomous and sinister, Kunpeng’s eyes burned with rage as he started to calculate. As one of the Zixiao Palace guests, his divination skills were exceptionally strong.

The result pointed to East Emperor Taiyi.

Kunpeng: "???"

He calculated again, and it still pointed to East Emperor Taiyi.

His initial reaction was fear—could East Emperor Taiyi still be alive?

But he quickly dismissed the notion. East Emperor Taiyi was undoubtedly dead; otherwise, based on Taiyi’s temperament, given the things Kunpeng had done, Taiyi would have already returned to deal with him.