The exit of the Divine Court Ancestral Land shimmered, the air warping under the strain of immense power. A streak of flowing light tore through the barrier, coalescing instantly into the formidable figure of Jiang Dao. He didn't pause to breathe in the air of the outside world. He scanned the horizon, his gaze piercing, before launching himself toward Qianyuan City with the velocity of a fired cannonball.
The wind screamed against his ears, but it couldn't drown out the voices. Jiang Dao's hearing was preternatural, a radar picking up the hum of conversation from miles away. The whispers of the world drifted into his consciousness, and what he heard made his brow furrow in irritation.
"Big news," a voice carried over the wind. "The Night Watchers aren't extinct. Another one has surfaced."
"Old news," another scoffed. "The Nether Organization tried to wipe Qianyuan City off the map, but they hit a wall. A mysterious Night Watcher blocked them. Now? Now that Watcher has drawn every Evil God and Deity in the region like moths to a flame."
"Grab a seat for the show. Do you think a single Watcher can hold back the tide of Deities?"
"Doubtful. The aura is all wrong. It's weak, flickering. That Watcher is fighting on fumes. They won't last another day."
"Agreed. And that Jiang Dao... the man has a death wish. He's offended everyone worth offending in the Divine Court. The Upper Realm, the Void Realm—he's pissed off every God King in existence. He's finished, and his city will burn with him."
Mockery. Derision. The voices were thick with the schadenfreude of the weak watching the strong fall.
Jiang Dao's eyes narrowed into slits of molten gold. Killing intent rolled off him in palpable waves. It was exactly as he had predicted: the moment he was gone, the vultures began to circle Qianyuan City. But a Night Watcher? That was unexpected.
Who could it be? he wondered, his mind racing. Could it be Yaoyao?
Boom!
Jiang Dao didn't just accelerate; he shattered the space around him. He moved with the sudden violence of a teleportation, traversing dozens of miles in a heartbeat. He materialized directly in front of an Evil God who had been mid-sentence, gossiping about the city's doom.
The entity's face contorted in shock, but his reaction time was pathetic compared to the monster standing before him. Jiang Dao's hand, massive and calloused, clamped over the Evil God's skull, covering his entire face.
Instantaneously, the Blazing Sun Field expanded.
It was a domain of absolute heat. A three-mile radius was instantly sealed off, the air turning into a scorching oven that incinerated the oxygen. The other Evil Gods in the vicinity froze, their instincts screaming at them to flee, but their bodies refused to obey. The pressure was physical, a heavy blanket of terror that pinned them in place.
"You... who are you?" one stammered.
"Jiang Dao," another whispered, the name choking him. "It's that Jiang Dao."
Panic set in. The stories of Jiang Dao's brutality in the Ancestral Land had become legends of horror. This was the man who had obliterated the physical body of a God King. There was no line he wouldn't cross.
Jiang Dao ignored their fear. "I'm asking you a question," he said, his voice cold enough to freeze the boiling air of his own domain. "A Night Watcher appeared in Qianyuan City. Male or female? Description. Now."
"Female! It's a woman!" one of the deities cried out, trembling. "We couldn't see her face clearly... her clothes looked ancient, worn out!"
"A woman?" Jiang Dao's frown deepened.
He didn't waste another second. The Blazing Sun Field pulsed violently. It was a single, sharp contraction of energy, like an invisible hand clenching shut. The group of Evil Gods didn't even have time to scream. They were twisted, crushed, and detonated into a fine mist of blood and bone.
Jiang Dao was already gone, a golden comet tearing through the sky toward his city. His heart was a cold engine of rage. Mr. Nether. The Seven Heroes of Luangu. General Feng. General Yuan. He etched every name onto the mental list of people who were going to die.
He would visit them all. Soon.
The Siege of Qianyuan
Inside the walls of Qianyuan City, hope was a dying ember.
Countless commoners knelt in the streets, their faces ashen, foreheads pressed to the cobblestones. They prayed with the desperation of the damned. They prayed to the mysterious figure in the sky, the lone Night Watcher standing between them and annihilation. If she fell, the massacre would be total.
"Gang Leader Jiang," the Corpse-Eating Pill Demon muttered, his eyes fixed on the sky, his body shaking. "Please. You have to come back."
Above the city, the sky was the color of blood.
The corpses of Deities and Evil Gods rained down periodically, thudding against the rooftops and streets. The battle had been raging for too long. Dozens of "gods" had already fallen, but the swarm was endless.
At the center of the storm was a New God. He was a specimen of physical perfection, a warrior of the Seventh Heaven of the Deity Realm. His golden hair flowed like liquid sunlight, and his body radiated a blinding, holy luminescence. Every punch he threw carried the weight of a mountain and the sanctity of a crusade.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
He hammered against the mysterious woman's defenses. She was failing. Her body swayed in the air, her movements sluggish. She had killed so many, but the cost had been her vitality. She was barely staying aloft.
"Enough," the golden-haired New God declared. His voice was imperious, echoing over the city. "I thought you were a worthy opponent. I was excited. But you are nothing but a remnant soul in a rotting shell. I will grant you release."
He raised a hand, and the sky warped.
Boom!
A golden universe manifested in his palm—a swirling galaxy of holy light and crushing gravity. He thrust it downward. The construct expanded rapidly, a majestic, terrifying meat grinder descending to swallow the woman whole.
She was trapped. Her ancient clothes whipped in the gravitational storm. She beat her copper gong desperately, the sound waves trying to push back the encroaching gold, but it was futile. The universe spun faster. The sound of her gong faded. She was sinking into the light like a stone in quicksand.
"Hehe," a nearby New God chuckled. "Senior Brother Dao Gu's Silent Extinction Star is unstoppable. Even a Night Watcher is just fuel for it."
"Senior Brother has secured his legacy," another agreed. "Killing a Night Watcher? The Palace Master will reward him generously."
Dao Gu, the golden-haired executioner, watched with cold eyes. "It's hardly a boast," he sneered. "She is crippled. Defeating a prime Night Watcher... now that would be glory. It is a pity Jiang Dao isn't here. I would have enjoyed snapping every bone in his body."
"He's dangerous, Senior Brother," a subordinate warned. "He consumed the Human King Pill. He holds the Heavenly Punishment Seal. We need to erase him."
"I know," Dao Gu snapped. "Why do you think I'm doing this? Jiang Dao is a rat. He won't come out unless we force him. We kill the Watcher, we butcher his city, and then the rat will show his teeth."
He looked down at the woman, now almost entirely consumed by the golden swirl. He clasped his hands together in a final seal.
"Die."
The golden universe shuddered, its power doubling. It roared like a living beast, ready to digest its prey.
Below, the people of Qianyuan screamed. The Corpse-Eating Pill Demon and the members of the Raging Flame Gang stared up in frozen horror. The end had arrived.
And then, the world shook.
ROAR—!
It wasn't a sound; it was a physical impact. A howl of primal, unadulterated rage tore through the atmosphere from the horizon. It hit the city like a shockwave. The clouds disintegrated. The space itself fractured.
The Silent Extinction Star, that perfect golden universe, trembled violently under the sonic assault. It couldn't hold its cohesion. With a deafening crack, the construct shattered.
Boom!
The backlash was cataclysmic. Energy swept out in a tidal wave, knocking the New Gods out of the sky like swatting flies. They tumbled through the air, regaining their balance miles away, their expressions shifting from arrogance to shock.
"Who?"
"Who dares interfere?"
They looked toward the source of the roar. And then, they stopped speaking.
A figure stood in the sky. He was a mountain carved from flesh and hate. Muscles coiled like steel cables under his skin. His hair was a wild mane, his eyes burning gold. He radiated an aura so heavy it felt like gravity had increased.
"Gang Leader!" Guo Dutian screamed from the ground, tears streaming down his face. "The Gang Leader is back!"
"Jiang Dao!"
The name rippled through the city, transforming despair into frantic hope.
Jiang Dao ignored the cheers. He ignored the New God, Dao Gu, who was staring at him with a mix of surprise and malice. His eyes were fixed on the mysterious woman.
Up close, he realized the truth. It wasn't Yaoyao.
Memory flashed back to an Old Buddha Temple, a blood coffin, and a female corpse he had submerged in Resurrection Divine Liquid. This was her. The ancient corpse had awakened.
"Senior?" Jiang Dao asked, his voice unexpectedly gentle.
The woman turned her head. Her eyes were empty, tragic voids.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I tried my best."
It was the first and last thing she said. Blood began to weep from her eyes. Her skin, which had looked revitalized, suddenly grayed and shriveled. In seconds, the magic holding her together evaporated. She turned into a husk of skin and bone, her aura vanishing into the wind.
She had woken up broken. A remnant soul. She had burned the last drops of her essence to protect a city she didn't know.
Jiang Dao stared at the drifting husk. His expression didn't change, but the temperature around him dropped to absolute zero. The killing intent that exploded from him was heavy enough to crush a man's lungs.
He looked up at the New Gods.
"None of you," he said, his voice a low rumble of thunder, "are leaving here alive."
Dao Gu laughed. It was a harsh, metallic sound. "Jiang Dao. Finally. You talk big for a mortal. Today, I'll take your head as a trophy."
Boom!
The dialogue ended. Jiang Dao didn't move; he arrived.
The space between them didn't just blur; it detonated. Before Dao Gu's brain could process the movement, Jiang Dao was inside his guard.
There was no technique. No elegant martial art. Jiang Dao's hand, stiffened into a spear-hand, thrust forward. It was a strike of absolute violence.
It punched through Dao Gu's open mouth.
There was a wet, sickening crunch as the hand sheared through teeth, tongue, and palate, exiting out the back of the god's skull in a spray of brain matter and golden blood.
Splurt!
Jiang Dao stood there, suspended in the air, the limp body of the "New God" impaled on his forearm like a rag doll. He looked at the other deities, his golden eyes devoid of mercy.
"Next."
The slaughter didn't end in the sky.
Some time later, in a secluded courtyard occupied by the conspirators against Qianyuan City, the air grew thick with the smell of sulfur and impending death.
Boom! Boom!
Explosions rocked the compound. Xie Lingtong, a leader of the hostile faction, shattered the incoming spears with a wave of energy. "Form up! Face the enemy!" he bellowed.
The elites of the Three Major Forces—the Xie family, the Tuoba clan, and the Corpse faction—surged forward. But their charge halted before it began.
At the arched gate of the courtyard, a shadow fell over them.
A monstrosity walked in. He was human-shaped, but the scale was all wrong. He was too big, too wide. His feet cracked the stone pavers with every step. In his massive hand, he gripped a man by the neck.
"Fourth Elder!" a Tuoba disciple screamed.
It was Tuoba Guang, a Nightmare Rank expert. He was being held like a disobedient kitten, utterly paralyzed.
"Who are you?" Shi Wuliang screeched, his voice cracking.
"Oh," the giant rumbled. "Is everyone here?"
Jiang Dao looked at the arched gate. It was too small. With a casual backhand, he swiped at the masonry. Boom. The stone exploded into dust. A wave of fire poison washed into the courtyard, making the air taste of copper and ash.
"That's... that's the Raging Flame Gang Leader!" someone wailed.
Panic. Pure, unadulterated panic.
"Hehehe." Jiang Dao grinned. It was a nightmare of a smile. "I heard you all wanted to kill me?"
"You... what are you doing?" Xie Lingtong stammered, trying to summon bravado. "Do you want to start a war with the Three Major Forces?"
"Hahahaha!" Jiang Dao threw his head back and laughed. The sound vibrated in their chest cavities. "Old man, you monsters killed my people. And you ask if I'm afraid of a war? You're all dead anyway. Unless... are you stronger than the Master of the Spirit Child Palace?"
The three leaders froze. "You... you killed the Spirit Child Palace Master?"
"Who else?"
Splurt!
Jiang Dao's hand squeezed. Tuoba Guang, the powerful elder in his grip, simply burst. He didn't die; he liquefied.
"Run!" Xie Lingtong screamed.
Too late.
Jiang Dao moved. He was a blurred line of destruction. He appeared in front of Xie Lingtong instantly. The slap was casual, dismissive. It hit Xie Lingtong's head like a sledgehammer hitting a melon.
Bang!
Headless, Xie Lingtong's body collapsed. A Destruction Rank Evil Spirit tried to escape the corpse, screeching. Jiang Dao grabbed it out of the air, ripped its head off, and tossed it aside.
"Run?" Jiang Dao roared, the Blazing Sun Field turning the courtyard into a slaughterhouse. "Today, you all die!"
Shi Wuliang, the Corpse faction leader, roared in desperation. "Man-Corpse Unity!"
His body swelled, muscles tearing his clothes as silver fur erupted from his skin. He merged with his Silver Corpse, becoming a towering, emerald-eyed beast. He charged Jiang Dao with a silver lightning bolt of kinetic energy.
Thud.
Jiang Dao caught him.
One hand on the face. That was all it took. The charge stopped instantly. Jiang Dao held the monster aloft, his arm rock steady.
"You want to struggle?" Jiang Dao sneered. He grabbed Shi Wuliang's ankle with his free hand.
He pulled.
RIIIP!
A wet, tearing sound echoed through the courtyard. The silver corpse-man was torn in half down the middle. Silver blood sprayed the walls.
A sword struck Jiang Dao's back. Sparks flew. It didn't even cut the skin. Jiang Dao turned, grabbed the attacker's sword, and punched him through the chest. The force of the blow traveled through the man's body and killed the three disciples standing behind him.
It wasn't a battle. It was an extermination.
"Supplements," Jiang Dao muttered, his eyes locking onto the fleeing spirits and monsters. "You are all just food."
A woman in a red wedding dress—a powerful spirit—tried to fade into the ether. Jiang Dao slapped the empty air. The shockwave, imbued with the Heavenly Demon Heart-Breaking Claw, connected. She detonated in a cloud of crimson mist.
Jiang Dao stood amidst the carnage, bathed in blood that wasn't his, a king of ruin in a world of fragile gods. And he was just getting started.