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âSo, you came here to kill me?â Xu Zimo asked.
The Undying Sage Monarchâs words were not wrong.
The Demon Descent Era belonged to the primordial times, while the Sage Monarch had risen in the age that followed, the difference between the two was vast. Much had long since been buried under the dust of history.
The old man smiled and nodded.
He reached out his right hand and grabbed a handful of sand from the ground.
In this desert, everything was scarce, except sand.
The coarse grains flowed through his fingers until, at last, only a single grain remained in his palm.
âIf this were that ancient era when the Ancient Demons descended, perhaps before you I would have been as insignificant as a grain of sand. But your age has long since passed. The world has forgotten you. And now, in my eyes, you are no more than this grain.â
âYouâre wrong,â Xu Zimo replied evenly. âIn the endless river of time, who can say what is certain?â
âYou,â the old man said with a sigh, âwhy didnât you just stay quietly in your Endless Sea of Nothingness and live out your remaining years? Why stir up this chaos again?â
âAs the Burier of Bones, if I can bury the Infernal Lord of the past with my own hands, I will die with no regrets,â said the Undying Sage Monarch, shaking his head. âThat is my only purpose here. Not for hatred, only for fulfillment.â
âWhether or not youâll find peace, I canât say,â Xu Zimo replied, clapping his hands, âbut I can promise you this, you wonât leave here with your honor intact.â
As his words fell, the swirling sandstorm around them shifted, and several figures wreathed in infernal energy emerged from the haze.
Among them were Paimon, Seven-Face, Red-Blade Bull Demon, and Celestial Devourer.
âLet my unworthy Archons keep you pany for a while,â Xu Zimo said.
âSo the Holy Progenitor guessed correctly,â the Undying Sage Monarch said gravely. âNo wonder youâve survived so many of the Heavenly Courtâs hunts, youâve had guardians protecting your path.â
If it were a duel against one of these Infernal Archons, he would not have feared it.
But facing four at once was far worse than he had expected.
âThereâs much your Holy Progenitor doesnât know,â Xu Zimo said calmly. âHe shouldnât be so sure he holds the reins of heaven and earth. Whoâs truly playing the game, and whoâs just a piece on the board, thatâs far from clear.â
The Holy Progenitor didnât know that Xu Zimo had received the inheritance of the previous Infernal Lord in the Lost Lands.
If he did, he would never have dared to send the Undying Sage Monarch here.
Should Xu Zimo unleash that power, even this old man would be nothing before him, and even the Holy Progenitor himself might not prevail.
At his apex, the previous Infernal Lord had been an existence beyond pare, an invincible being who regarded even the Heavenly Court as nothing, one who could stand before the Great Dao itself and stand against High Heaven.
âŠ
Paimon and the others studied the Undying Sage Monarch.
Paimon finally sighed and said, âImpressive. I didnât expect you to have forged a new path.â
âWhat new path?â the Sage Monarch said with a faint, weary smile. âItâs just a dead end I was forced to take. My journey was too smooth,â he continued softly, âand thatâs why it ended like this.â
He had risen during the High Ancient Era, a peerless genius among billions.
In a short span of time, he had ascended to the realm of Saint Sovereign, shocking the entire age.
Calling himself the Burier of Bones, he sought ever stronger opponents, hoping to perfect his Dao.
By the end of the ancient age, he had already bee a Sage Monarch.
But his ambition didnât stop there. He longed to break through to the Infinite Dao Realm, to open the eleventh meridian gate.
Thus, through the entire Middle Ages, he remained in seclusion.
Even after that age faded into history, he still had not emerged.
Yet the difficulty of opening that eleventh meridian was beyond words.
At last, he gave up.
He stopped chasing after the impossible and turned instead to refining his own Sage Monarch Dao.
And so, his strength grew greater and greater, eventually surpassing that of many Sage Monarchs.
He had blazed a new trail beyond the Sage Monarch realm.
But this path had limits, and now he had reached its very end.
It meant that, for the rest of his life, he would never reach the Infinite Dao Realm.
No matter how much he evolved or struggled, he could not grow any stronger.
Even a single step further was as hard as ascending to heaven itself.
That was the price he paid, the price of walking a dead-end path for the sake of power.
âŠ
Yet Paimon and the others did not mock him.
Instead, they said with quiet respect, âThe road to Infinite Dao is indeed perilous. Weâve endured countless eons, yet still linger before the gate of the Sage Monarch.â
âAt least youâve never abandoned your Dao Heart,â the Undying Sage Monarch said with a sigh. âI was the one who gave up first. Now then... enough talk,â he said finally. âI came today to bury bones, not reminisce.â
âThen today,â Paimon said calmly, âwe shall fight in our lordâs stead.â
The infernal energy of the heavens poured forth.
In the lonely desert, perhaps for the first time in millions of years, such a cataclysmic battle was about to begin.
The Undying Sage Monarch lifted his head, his expression now solemn.
Behind him, tendrils of flame began to rise, coalescing into the form of a phoenix.
âYouâre not human,â the Violet Mist Saint Sovereign said in surprise.
âOne of the Lesser Eight Beast Races, the Undying Phoenix Race,â said Moonlight Fairy, frowning slightly.
They had all heard of the Sixteen Beast Races of the God Beast Race.
As the rulers of Azure Mystic Heaven, their numbers were few, and they rarely appeared in other realms.
So while the names of the sixteen races were known, few had actually seen one of their kind.
âI donât dare claim kinship with the beast races,â the Undying Sage Monarch said, shaking his head. âI am the Undying Sage Monarch. That is all.â
At that, the Violet Mist Saint Sovereign let the matter drop.
The God Beast Races were powerful beyond question, the pinnacle of the Nine Heavens.
But Xu Zimoâs expression grew strange.
Since obtaining the Beast pendium, he had paid special attention to the Sixteen Beast Races.
âSo itâs an Undying Phoenix,â he said. âThen reincarnation and rebirth are your innate gifts. No wonder.â
Paimon and the others surrounded the Sage Monarch.
A torrent of infernal energy erupted, engulfing the sky itself until the heavens became a realm of pure darkness, a domain of Ancient Demons.
Seven-Faceâs seven-petaled lotus bloomed, each petal emanating deathly miasma and killing intent.
The Undying Sage Monarch swung his right fist, flames of immortality burning upon it.
With a single punch, he shattered the seven-petaled lotus.
But the lotusâs miasma clung to his arm like a venom, its dark flames burning into his flesh.
Red-Blade Bull Demon reverted to his true form, a towering bull demon wielding a massive axe.
Each of his steps left deep craters in the desert floor.
With a roar, he brought his axe down in a devastating blow.
Behind the Undying Sage Monarch, the phoenix screamed, its shadow flickering as if about to vanish.
Paimon and Celestial Devourer attacked together, two surging torrents of infernal energy crashing toward the Sage Monarch like twin floods.
âGood!â the Undying Sage Monarch bellowed.
He rose into the sky, and behind him unfolded a pair of colossal wings, vast enough to blot out the heavens.
The crimson feathers burned, setting the entire sky ablaze.
The wings folded inward, encasing him pletely.
Then he shone like a rising sun, a sphere of immortal flame, eternal and undying.
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