Forge a path to success.

Chapter 247 Despair Overflows, Endless Shadows
At this moment, the last four messengers met their end. The unruly army of heretics wandered aimlessly across the desolate battlefield.

The desolate wilderness, ravaged by numerous battles, is unrecognizable. Beasts have perished, the landscape has crumbled, and even the Demon City of Corpses has been burned to ashes. Only the settlements protected by the holy pillars and the Demon King's castle in the deepest darkness remain.

In the forgotten desert, two bystanders still stand quietly.

The once-deep underwater valley was shattered in the aftermath of the great battle, and most of the people in the fog had received help from the monks before the final battle began. Only the dog-bodied man, Vofka, stubbornly remained, gazing at the battlefield alongside the monks.

“Eternal time bears witness that the four messengers have met their end, and only the Nightmare King remains in the city.” Bernfar closed the Book of Revelation. “Whether it is life or death, only God knows.”

“They will survive,” Wolfka murmured. “They will defeat the Demon King and come out alive.”

Why are you so certain?

"No reason..."

The man in the mist tilted his head back and smiled bitterly: "But I hope I can believe that."

I believe they can win.

I believe hope will eventually come...

"We have to win, and come back alive..."

Beneath the core of the sacred pillar, Silar clenched his claws in prayer. The settlement was almost silent; no one had the strength to speak. They were channeling their energy through the sacred pillar, conserving as much power as possible for the warriors.

Hopefully, that remaining strength will come in handy during the final battle.

I hope the heroes can hold on for just one more second...

"Lord Divine Tree, is there anything else we can do?" Gulibo asked anxiously.

“It’s all gone, child,” Finya sighed. “If sacrificing my life could make a difference, I would gladly burn my remaining body. But Vansalal is, after all, the ruler of this place, and neither Chongming nor I can interfere…”

"Hey, what are you worried about?" Jie An said. "We don't need to worry about those guys; they'll handle it!"

"That's right. They've long been capable of standing on their own."

Chongming stood at the edge of the settlement, gazing at the castle that trembled as if it were alive. His gaze pierced through all obstacles, reaching the deepest part of the battlefield.

"Trust them," he said. "Trust them, and they will surely win!"

·
I can't count how many distances I've traversed.

Countless doors were smashed down.

The castle's interior was like the stomach of a giant beast, a dead land devoid of fire and light, filled only with endless shadows.

Chu Hengkong moved forward in the darkness, guided by his intuition. It seemed like only a few seconds, yet also like an eternity, before he smashed through the decaying gate and stepped into the empty, cold audience hall.

The Demon King is there.

He sat on the cold throne, half asleep, supporting his head with one hand.

He seemed startled and slowly raised his head. His dim gaze pierced the hall, meeting the assassin's eyes.

"Oh...you've come..."

He shook his neck, a harsh grinding sound emanating from his body. The assassin gripped his knife tightly and strode forward.

"Welcome, young man. It's quite an achievement that you've come this far. However..."

"Aren't you going to do more preparation? Aren't you going to squeeze in some time to train? Are you really sure you want to challenge the Demon King at this time?"

The assassin stared at him coldly, and he smiled in response.

"So……"

He braced himself against the armrest and rose from the throne. The assassins began to run, their blades flashing with blood.

"Be prepared. Muster your courage."

"Do not be afraid. Do not back down."

He opened his eyes wide, like a beast opening its jaws. The assassin leaped up, his blade slicing through the air with a blood-red arc. He drew a staff from his robes, from which skeletal claws sprouted!

"Unleash your full power and confront the King of Nightmas!!"

The Shadow Claw lashed out at the Divine Slash, the first strike a full-force attack. Vansalar roared with laughter, his dejection vanishing completely. He was now invigorated, his eyes gleaming with divine light, more excited and exuberant than ever before. The dark Demon King's castle instantly lit up, six thousand six hundred blue lights flickering, illuminating the battlefield in a magnificent display!

The Demon King's terrifying nature was thus revealed; his shadow twisted, like a restless nightmare from the depths of the soul. Farnsalaar was now far more frenzied than when he first appeared on the battlefield, like a tyrant. Yet the assassin stood before him, showing no sign of yielding.

The divine slash grazed the gap in the shadow claw, its blade aimed at one of the fingers. Vansalal countered with his wand, deflecting the blade, and laughed at the assassin: "Final exams have begun, assassin!!"

"I originally thought it would be Xiao Qingxia who would see me off in my final moments. I had high hopes for Ji Huaisu when I was in Jinye City, but in the end, it was you who stood before the throne. An outsider with no connection, no karmic ties, and no entanglements, became the first hero to challenge the Nightmare King!"

"Does it have to be some deep-seated grudge to kill you?" Chu Hengkong said coldly. "Unfortunately, I have no interest in you. I have no desire to investigate where you came from or to understand your morbid thoughts."

I loathe your behavior, I'm going to smash the desolate wilderness, so I'm going to kill you!

"Excellent! That's how it should be!" Vansalal trembled with excitement. "Then unleash your full power and kill me, hero!!"

Shadow Claw and God's Slash collided at extremely close range, sparks flying from their combined intent and magic. The Nightmare King had surprisingly begun with close combat; his attacks lacked technique, yet possessed a cruel and bloodthirsty savagery, like a hunting dog tearing apart, a falcon swooping down. His magic-constructed claws precisely struck vital points, the most efficient attacks generated from countless killings.

He is the Lord of the Demon Slayers, possessing the memories of all the Demon Slayers, which also means thousands of years of endlessly accumulating "every second" of experience. Before this unprecedented ferocious beast, even the most exquisite swordsmanship is doomed to failure.

However, experience is not the only path; geniuses who transcend the ordinary also exist in this world. For a man who could fight ferocious beasts since childhood, the fighting methods of wild beasts were merely tricks he had long since surpassed. His blade intercepted the claw strikes, his slashes shattered the claws. Thrust, slash, downward chop—three strikes in an instant, blood splattering, Vansalal's shadow claws shattered. As the attack ended, the divine slash swept behind him, crimson flames spreading across the blade. Chu Hengkong gripped the blade in a backhand and slashed again, the surging flames tearing through the hall, the burning, ferocious blade slashing towards the Demon King.

Burn the night!

A swift and decisive slash cleaved Vansalar in two; his lower body turned to ash and dissipated, while his upper body floated in the air, clapping. The hall, which should have collapsed, was magnified many times over, transforming into a desolate plain shrouded in night. The Nightmare King's mind distorted reality, causing the battlefield to change according to his will.

He vanished with laughter, rising from the shadows. Demons swarmed from the shadows, devouring and piling up to form twenty Vansal. They simultaneously raised their staffs, and the shadows fell, severing the sky!

"Execution by fear."

One of the Void Shadow Techniques that Vaklo once used was to sharpen his blade by drawing upon the fear that had materialized into a slaughtering force. In that battle, Vaklo only summoned one slaughtering blade, but now Vansalal released twenty times that number. Twenty slaughtering blades slashed down in succession, nearly half of which blocked Chu Hengkong's path, and nearly half formed a ring-shaped prison.

Without a second thought, Chu Heng unleashed his Divine Slash, cleaving the nearest blade in two. He leaped from the broken blade, soaring like an eagle to cleave one of the Vansar. The shattered "corpse" vanished as shadows, and a new Demon King rose from the shadows, deflecting the ensuing attacks with his blade.

"Vande!" "I'm thinking about it!"

Vande blinked nervously in his pocket: "The Nightmare King is famous for his Demon-Slaying Divine Splitting Spell. He hates the method of splitting himself after becoming elemental. The effect of splitting into millions is actually achieved by entrusting his thoughts to shadow bodies..."

"Is there any difference between this and the Golden Leaf one?"

“The difference is that Vansalar is faster, stronger, and more powerful, and… it’s a continuously activated spell!” Vand’s eyes lit up. “He has a physical form! Let’s go!”

Chu Hengkong's eyes lit up. Vandal used hypnosis to mark the location of the real Vandal. The real Vandal was behind him, waving his wand and casting a new spell. The moment he realized this, the Demon King smiled slightly, and a tsunami of shadows rose from the ground. Nearly 90% of the matter was swallowed by the shadows, and the battlefield became a semi-circle barely wide enough for one person to stand in. He and the Demon King stood at opposite ends of the circular track, while numerous clones flew up laughing, unleashing countless killing blows.

Chu Hengkong ducked to avoid the attack; the enormous blade made him feel as if he were dodging the sky itself. He rolled on the spot, gliding along the circular track, unleashing ten fiery beams of divine slash that precisely severed the surrounding fragments. Just as he reached the middle, the fragments suddenly clapped their hands in unison. The six blades combined to form an insurmountable cross-section, severing the remaining half of the track.

The battlefield separated, and Chu Hengkong plummeted into the bottomless abyss, flinging his Calamity Wrist upwards. Even the maximum extension of his prosthetic body wasn't enough to cross the wall of blades, yet the Calamity Wrist's sword and shield transformed into a scythe, driving its intent deep into the wall of blades. The Calamity Wrist retracted, and Chu Hengkong rose using inertia. At his highest point, he stopped, spun around, and leaped up, stepping on the head of his clone.

Chu Hengkong traversed the wall of blades, arriving above the latter half of the track. His clones wove a new spell, and he thrust his wrist forward mid-air. The Heavenly Spear, empowered by the Scythe of Calamity, pierced through layers of magic and struck Vansalal's main body!

“Very good…” Vansalar clutched his chest. “Not being blinded by appearances, a brilliant decision!”

The Disruption of Order effect of the Scythe of Calamity activated, causing the Demon Slayer's Divine Intervention spell to collapse in an instant. Vansalal's clone vanished, and Chu Heng fell back onto the lower half of the circular track. In just a moment, he could be beside the Demon King, but the terrain changed once again. The curved track was distorted into a straight line by the shadows, and the distance that was once so close was stretched to nearly a thousand miles.

He possessed combat power far exceeding his current level, yet lacked the essence of a 4th-order particle. Those who haven't crossed the First Abyss are ultimately bound by the constraints of terrain and environment. Meanwhile, the Demon King manipulates the world, chanting leisurely in the shadows.

"A colossal, screeching, disintegrating entity, a turbid malice rising against the heavens, a gathering of tearing, frenzy, self-destructive despair—"

Group fear.

"Illusory Sky Shadow Technique - Nightfall Mass".

Vansarar raises his arms out, like a keeper summoning birds.

A corner of the night sky transformed into a bat and landed on the back of his hand.

The beast was only the size of a palm, with smooth fur and jet-black eyes, devoid of any other color, only pure black. No other color could exist, for it was a beast born of the night, a concept brought to life by magic.

Bats rub their wings, making sounds as they face the night.

So the night sky disintegrated, turning into billions of bats that flew down.

It was an indescribable feat, a frenzy that shook even the soul. The night trembled at the cries, darkness falling like an avalanche. They came alive by magic; the second and third bats landed on the Demon King's hand, and all the bats flew towards the same spot, as if the Demon King were pulling up a corner of the night sky.

He waved his arm, pointing at the assassin. A swarm of billions of bats flapped their wings at his command, and the living night swooped down upon Chu Heng!

Chu Hengkong severed a bat, and was then engulfed by an countless horde of beasts. He was utterly unable to "react," the overwhelming swarm completely drowning out his thoughts. He only saw the Demon King laughing maniacally, the beasts swirling in the air, and his fragile self swallowed by the night. The boundary between self and others blurred in that moment, and his soul sank into an endless ocean of thoughts.

He needs to wield a sword, he needs to flap his wings. He is human, he is a bat. How to define oneself, how to drive one's actions? In that murky, unsettling night, only endless screams and cries can be heard. The despair that the archmage Vansalal once experienced has become one of the supreme arts in the hands of the demon king Vansalal.

That was a despair that no one could overcome alone; even a former grand mage was powerless against it. Yet Chu Hengkong gripped his sword tightly, assuming a fighting stance amidst the endless swarm of bats.

"—Keep an eye on the direction for me, Vande."

He was never alone; the contract he signed upon arriving in the Realm of Submersion allowed him to hear the voices of others.

"—Forward, just keep going forward!"

With the perception of others, a different self emerges. Definitions are established through contracts, and the assassin stands in the depths of the night. He holds his sword high above his head, assuming the simplest high stance. One-slash, the foundation of the One-Sword Style, a powerful downward strike after raising the sword—a strike that even a layman without martial arts knowledge can replicate.

Simple, fast, and straightforward.

Therefore, it is powerful!
The flames on the Divine Slash faded, leaving only a thin, condensed crimson light. Chu Hengkong roared, swinging his blade. A vast line of light slashed into the night, the fierce clang of the blade drowning out the flapping of bat wings. The pure strike pierced the darkness, magnified before his eyes, forming a path of light that pierced through despair!

Shadow Appears in the Sky: Yang Yi. A fusion of skillful hands and subtle light, a blade of intense, blazing sunlight!

At the end of that path of light, the Nightmare King roared with ecstasy. He stretched out his arms to meet the blade aimed at him. In unparalleled joy, the Demon King's emotions reached a new peak.

"Great! Fantastic!!"

"As expected of the man who drew the murderous blade! As expected of the brave one who dared to challenge me! You can still surpass your limits, you will definitely be able to kill me!"

"Here we go, brave warrior!"
Come on, don't lose!!!

The world crumbled amidst maniacal laughter, and the wilderness sank into oblivion under the moonlight. The toy box flipped over once more, and the Demon King unleashed his full power at this moment.

"Divine Reversal—"

"Ode to the Prison Realm: The Land of Despair!"

(End of this chapter)