After being chosen by the Ice Queen

Slay Calamity, Divide the Seas!

Huiming drew a swift, gray-white blade of light, parting the turbid waves like a stabilizing needle, and piercing straight into Wumian's heart.

Faceless was terrified. He pushed his movement technique to its limit, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow to his heart, but a blade grazed his left shoulder, leaving only a thin line. Faceless let out a piercing scream. A grayish hue rapidly spread from the thin line.

The sword light was continuous, combining the power of the Severing Calamity with the profound aura of the Candlelight Breath. The sword path was sometimes as swift as lightning, and sometimes unpredictable, firmly suppressing the injured Faceless.

A furious roar filled with resentment echoed from the center of the battlefield.

It's Gui Touhao.

Chiba Rin had somehow switched from defense to offense. She no longer met Kito Gou's heavy sword head-on, but moved around him with ghostly grace. Her karmic chrysanthemum patterns transformed into cunning and ruthless arcs of blood-red light, specifically targeting the gaps in Kito Gou's sword stances.

Kito Gou, despite his brute strength, couldn't keep up with Chiba Rin's sharp swordsmanship, and his body was constantly being wounded. Although not fatal, the wounds left him covered in blood, enraged him, and his movements began to become distorted.

"Die!!" Kito Gou raised his nodachi high with both hands, channeling all his strength into a powerful, unrestrained slash. The force of the blade sent dust billowing up from the ground.

This is the moment!

Chiba Rin's eyes shone brightly. Her dodging motion abruptly stopped. Instead of retreating, she advanced, facing the mountain-splitting blade. She gripped the Karmic Fire Chrysanthemum Pattern tightly with both hands, pouring all her strength, ten years of hatred, all her killing intent and karma into a single point on the blade.

Her consciousness seemed to transcend her body, seeing her mother's gentle smile, her father's resentment before his death, the countless bloody nights in the New York underground fighting arena, the blood on her own hands and the sins she carried... All these images ultimately coalesced into a single point of red lotus karmic fire that suddenly ignited in the center of the black chrysanthemum on the hilt, as if it could burn the soul!

It was not flame, yet it burned hotter than flame. It was not light, yet it shone brighter than light. It was the manifestation of her own karma, which, guided and amplified by the Karmic Fire Chrysanthemum Pattern, a blade that gathers karma, finally broke free from its cocoon.

【Chrysanthemum Pattern with Karmic Flame - A Crimson Lotus Cut】

The knife is drawn.

A thin, dark red line, composed purely of karmic fire and killing intent, swept upwards.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

The fierce downward slash of the nodachi by Kito Gou silently crossed with the thin, dark red line.

next second.

"bass……"

The nodachi broke in two, with the front half spinning and flying into the air.

Gui Touhao's burly body suddenly froze. A very thin red line started from his brow, went straight down, across his nose, lips, chin, throat, chest, abdomen... and down to his groin.

The rage, ferocity, and greed on his face froze instantly. He seemed to want to look down, but he couldn't.

"Why...why...why didn't that person come out..." He let out a hoarse sound, his eyes filled with disbelief and extreme resentment, as if he wanted to question some absent being.

Before he could finish speaking...

Gui Touhao's massive body split neatly to the left and right along the red line, crashing to the ground. His internal organs and blood splattered everywhere, but he did not die immediately; the two halves of his body were still twitching slightly, a scene of extreme bloodshed and horror.

With a single slash, the karmic fire of the Red Lotus burns away all sins, severing the bond between life and death!

Chiba Rin stood there, sword in hand, slightly out of breath, her body covered in blood, like a demon emerging from a pool of blood. She looked at the corpse of Oni-tou, split in two, on the ground, the surging hatred and karmic fire in her eyes slowly subsiding. Her revenge was complete; the pillar that had sustained her for ten years had crumbled in an instant. But her hand holding the sword remained as steady as a rock.

With their leader dead, the remaining gang members' morale collapsed instantly. They let out a shout, dropped their weapons, and scattered in all directions, leaving behind only a mess and the wailing of the wounded.

On the other side, seeing Gui Touhao's death, Wumian was shocked. Gu Yan seized the opportunity, and with a flash of light, the obscure blade pierced Wumian's heart. The power of the Severing Calamity invaded, cleansing the filthy power lurking within him. Wumian groaned, the light in his eyes quickly dimmed, and he collapsed, silent forever. Seeing this, the other Dark Raven assassins also quickly vanished into the darkness.

In the open space in front of the tavern, corpses lay strewn everywhere, and blood flowed like a stream.

Daodaosai, leaning on his forging hammer and panting heavily, had several wounds on his body, but his spirits were unusually high. Looking at Chiba Rin and Gu Yan, he laughed loudly, "Good! Well done! This wretched creature deserved to die like this long ago."

Gu Yan sheathed his sword, walked to Chiba Rin's side, and silently handed her a clean cloth. Chiba Rin silently accepted it, but stared at Kito Go's corpse, remaining silent for a long time.

His tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and the fatigue and injuries from the fierce battle began to flare up. Gu Yan took a deep breath, trying to calm the churning blood within him. However, in that instant when his mind relaxed and his control over his own power faltered—

A chilling, ethereal, and seemingly all-consuming power, like the most cunning venomous snake, silently seeped into his body along the still-unsettled energy ripples between him and the darkness, and between heaven and earth. Like mercury spilling onto the ground, it quietly merged into the deepest layer of his power cycle. It formed a barely perceptible…symbiotic relationship with the seed of authority that had fused with the concepts of Zhuyin and Tiankuangun?

Gu Yan felt a slight dizziness for a moment, as if he had shivered, or perhaps it was just normal exhaustion after a fierce battle. He shook his head, not noticing anything unusual. The flow of energy within his body seemed normal; having just experienced a bloody battle, and with his new sword, Huiming, having drunk its fill of the blood of a powerful enemy, its aura was actually even more harmonious and active.

Where his eyes could not reach, in the shadow of an ancient tree on the edge of the battlefield, a graceful figure in a beige trench coat stood quietly, blending into the night.

Her clear, deep-pool-like eyes were calmly fixed on Gu Yan, observing the energy field on his body that was invisible to ordinary people, interwoven with a deep gray-white and star-blue color, as well as the faint, ethereal paleness that had just quietly merged into it.

Her face remained expressionless; she offered no intervention, no warning, simply watching silently. She was observing the progress of a crucial experiment, awaiting a predetermined outcome.

The night breeze stirred her hair and the hem of her clothes; detached from the world, she witnessed the end of this gangster feud. She also witnessed the seeds of a deeper, more pervasive erosion being quietly sown in the unnoticed moment of victory.

The mountains and forests fell silent once more, with only the stench of blood and the lingering murderous intent bearing witness to the carnage that had just transpired. The seeds of destiny had quietly taken root.