“We’re crashing through.”

Just as his voice fell, all of Xu Yangyi’s qi wildly swelled in agreement! The edge of his sword slightly trembled, as if sensing the soon-coming festival of blood.

A white tiger phantasm was slightly visible behind him. Rocjourney took a deep breath, and a streak of azure light charged straight up. An ancient farming hoe, the size of a palm, floated up and down in the azure light.

Swoosh… swoosh… swoosh… As the splendor all around his body glimmered, all the originally leaving Nightmares turned back. In the darkness, the horde of dark-green eyes were monstrous. Very soon, heart-shaking hissing sounds rang out like a tsunami! From the black cloud, the black cyclone spread and suddenly changed directions like the reaper’s scythe! The Nightmares fiercely rushed Xu Yangyi!

But what welcomed them wasn’t resplendent sword-light. Instead… a similar hissing noise rang out, the thunder of the nine firmaments. On the Animus Armament, the imprint of the deity Tai Sui suddenly flashed with an expanse of gold light, and the Heavenly Opening Six Erosions was sustained with the armament. This time, Xu Yangyi truly wanted to see how the Heavenly Opening Six Erosions should’ve been!

In his body, qi was wildly drawn out! Such speed… was in no way ordinary! Without any hesitation, he took out a bottle of medicinal pills and swallowed a few of them. The supreme spirit stone was also settled in his hand. Only with this support did he then sense his qi fluctuations return to normal. But at the same time above him… a black maelstrom, almost as large as the bat cyclone, slowly unfolded.

“Screech!!!” Not one bit smaller than the black whirlwind, a nine-headed bird descended with rocketing black qi. And underneath Xu Yangyi, a ring of talismans that sparkled like jade brightened, like a lonely lantern in the darkness. He was confronted with the endless black tide of bats.

“CHARGE!!!” Xu Yangyi’s eyes focused, and he roared. Without missing a beat, he and Rocjourney shot straight into the black surge like two piercing arrows released from their bows!

“Heavenly Opening… First Erosion!!!”

“Devour Blood!!!”

In the wake of Xu Yangyi’s snarl, the Demonchariot Pheasant took to the stargazer altar, and black mist exploded out from his body with a rumble and injured the swarm of bats without distinction. The Heavenly Opening Six Erosions was the best killing moving against grouped enemies!

“REEEEEE!!!” Countless shrieks erupted from the Nightmare colony. In merely the blink of an eye, Xu Yangyi and Rocjourney’s surroundings were swept clean, and thousands and thousands of Nightmares all shuddered underneath the Heavenly Opening First Erosion’s might. Soon, the Nightmares strangely turned from black to ash-gray, screeching miserably as they tumbled into the bottomless abyss below.

But just as the area was cleaned out, many more Nightmares instantly filed in! They screeched and hissed, and the thuttering sound of fleshy wings was enough to make one’s head turn numb. Teeth, shimmering with cold light like a dagger, were certain to rip a body apart once they latched into something.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh! In five minutes, a massive black cloud that was several hundred meters all around formed, and trapped Rocjourney and Xu Yangyi. Swarms of Nightmares flew all around them, and they swiftly migrated ahead, as if the black cloud they formed was shrouding a high-speed train.

Bang bang bang… In the black cloud, two protective covers of spiritual light incessantly flashed and gradually darkened. Around Xu Yangyi and Rocjourney, a great amount of dead Nightmares were shredded into bits by their compatriots before they even hit the ground. Foul-smelling blood splattered on their protective covers, the corrosion caused releasing streaks of black qi.

Xu Yangyi felt the qi inside him was rapidly spilling away. In these five minutes, he’d already used the first erosion two times in a row. The flowing qi in his meridians was already getting thinner and thinner.

Nonetheless, now wasn’t the time to stop!

With his fastest speed, he needed to fight his way out of the passage… He deeply eyed the black cloud ahead that was formed by the Nightmares, and breathed in heavily. In the next second, golden light erupted from his entire body, his seven apertures, and all his pores, like an ocean! The power of his spiritual force even caused the Nightmares to slightly pause.

“He’s going to use his kill move!” Rocjourney’s heart shivered coldly. When he’d fought before with Xu Yangyi, this powerful spiritual force hadn’t been fully unleashed!

“Defend me.” Xu Yangyi only left these words, and all the light radiating from his body surged into the Animus Armament like a tide. He swung out gently, and the sword brought forth a sky of azure flames, as if someone was waving a blazing flag!

The longsword was level with his chest, and azure flame curled upon it. Xu Yangyi gently waved the blade and uttered, “Smelting God Art.”

However, this was no simple Smelting God Art…

Any divine ability used with a magik artifact or magik treasure would have another effect. This… was the first time he used the Animus Armament with the Smelting God Art!

RUMBLE!!! A thunderous boom rang out, and the Nightmares stopped in unison. In this instant of crisis, behind Xu Yangyi… two phantasms actually appeared!

One was a leopard-headed man, and the other was shockingly a pale old man with a beard. In the old man’s hands, he clasped a fly-whisk, and his gaze seemed open yet not open.

Neither of them were tall, each of them only ten-plus meters in size. Both of them, though, exhibited a brilliant heavenly might from their bodies, sacred and inviolable. In their pause, the surrounding Nightmares surprisingly didn’t come rushing over again!

Xu Yangyi didn’t stop. Time was already extremely pressing! It was a mystery who had also entered this place, and it was a mystery when the Dream Walker would awaken, but if they were even a second late… everything would perhaps be lost!

“First Erosion… the Demonchariot Pheasant perches upon the stargazer altar, Second Erosion… the fluttering snow of June, a hundred li frozen…” In his body, qi was like an open water pump, madly gushing out. He firmly gritted his teeth as he cycled the divine ability. The two phantasms, as if they were absorbed by the armament, unexpectedly transformed into wisps of golden smoke and entered the blade.

HUM!!! Following the golden light’s entry, a violent hum came from the Animus Armament! In the next second… infinite rays of golden light shimmered on the blade. To Xu Yangyi’s surprise, the blackness on the originally pitch-black longsword… scraped off little by little and revealed a touch of sparkling snow-white!

Like a waning moon in the darkness, as the snow-white sword made an appearance… the surrounding air crackled and shook! Afterwards, tracts of web-like spatial cracks emerged!

Silence.

In this moment, the thuttering sound of the Nightmares stopped. Countless dark-green eyes looked at Xu Yangyi’s longsword with fear. Even if they weren’t enlightened, they could still sense the horrific tide-like qi.

Rocjourney was stunned… because he recognized the two phantasms!

“That’s… Star-Deity Sui! The God of Venus, Taibai Jinxing, the High White Gold Star!!!” [1]

“Even if it’s a phantasm… even if it’s just two phantasms! To be capable of drawing deific manifestation… that sword is unusual and so is that divine ability! And this person… is even more unusual!”

“The object he’s holding that looks like coal… actually has such a great origin?! Don’t tell me this thing was compiled by a Celestial Master for a Lord of the Nine Quiniums to use?”[2]

Xu Yangyi was also stunned.

He hadn’t expected at all that there would be such a huge change in using the Animus Armament with the Heavenly Opening Six Erosions! Perhaps it could be said that because both sides held the greatest responsibility… that this transformation had occurred?

“I’ve always thought… that this was the Animus Armament’s true form. But why does it feel now that the Heavenly Opening Six Erosions ‘unseals’ it?”

“Ming Guangzong left behind the Heavenly Opening Six Erosions at the bottom of Danxia Temple. Was it just to remind me of this?”

“Is this… the actual way to use the Animus Armament?”

His thoughts merely flashed by. In a twinkling, the phantasms of Star-Deity Sui and Star-Deity Tai were sucked completely into the armament. However… two-sixths of the sword fully lit up! Even after the passage of centuries, the dazzling sword could still reflect Xu Yangyi’s figure.

When the white rainbow cuts jade, the purple-clouded night dries the stars. The hibiscus on the blade’s edge moves, and the frosty snow within the box shines! [3]

All of his qi rushed into the armament uncontrollably. He wanted to stop out of reflex, but he gritted his teeth and allowed all his qi to surged into the blade!

“Reeee!” The surrounding Nightmares finally moved, and dark-green eyes glimmered with fear, doubt, and cruelty. Soon, with a savage cry, they all swarmed towards the middle!

They threw themselves forward, one after another, unafraid of death!

But at the same time, Xu Yangyi’s right hand waved with all his strength!

Swoosh!

From large to small, all the screeching faded away in a span of five minutes.

All the Nightmares stopped in their surroundings. Rocjourney’s eyes ran through the passage in amazement. He could see a ring of black sword-qi disappearing in the surrounding air with lightning speed.

And at the same time this ring of sword-qi vanished, all the Nightmares lost color, soon becoming withered husks! In this moment, the originally half-a-man-tall bats swiftly shrunk down to the size of a fist! As if they had practiced a bone-shrinking technique! In the next moment, a crash rang out, and the hordes of Nightmares circling them fell into the black hole-esque space, like raindrops.

One sword exterminated the Nightmare horde!

“Huff…” Rocjourney watched the surrounding black dots vanish very quickly. Long since not met, black space was revealed. His lips were somewhat trembling.

Terrible… too terrible!

This sword’s might… he couldn’t withstand it!

If said that while Xu Yangyi’s previous Heavenly Opening One Erosion would still only seriously harm him, he’d still be able to quickly heal with the protection of the twin sal-trees. However, this sword… a middle-stage Foundation Establishment use of the Smelting God Art, made him feel his hair stand on edge!

“It’s not a question of serious damage… but if it can kill me permanently…” He glanced deeply at Xu Yangyi. The other’s qi spillage was clearly extremely serious. Xu Yangyi’s complexion was like a metal sheet, and his chest heaved up and down like a bellows. Regardless, he stood tall and unfalteringly in the rain of withered Nightmares.

“I’m handing over the next round to you.” Xu Yangyi closed his eyes and inhaled heavily. A feeling of exhaustion suddenly arose in his spiritual sense. He solemnly eyed the receding seal that appeared on two-sixths of the Animus Armament. He opened his mouth, and the longsword turned into a stream of light and went back inside him to be nourished.

The sound pulled Rocjourney out of his thoughts, and he stole an incredibly complex glance at Xu Yangyi. This time, he didn’t say “fool” or “trash”. He bit down on his finger, and a drop of golden blood dripped onto his farming hoe. In a flash, the hoe radiated azure light and carried the two of them outside where the Nightmares could rush straight at them.

Hundreds of meters of Nightmares merely fell down. It was unknown how long they would be down for, but after a full ten minutes they finally rushed out of the region. The scene before them, however, caused their nerves to strain again!

In front of them, a massive object was blocking the entire passage. On this object… countless Nightmares, layer after layer, were attached to it.

There was not just a thousand… or a ten thousand… but rather almost a hundred thousand! Firmly obstructing the path forward!

This… was the true Nightmare nest!

1. Taibai Jinxing is featured in Journey to the West as the envoy of the Jade Emperor. In Chinese folk religion, he is featured as a messenger god. His name literally translates to High White Gold Star.

2. Two terms that haven’t appeared in a long time. Celestial Master; reason why this is capitalized because it is a title received to one member of the Zhang Clan. This person is then known as Celestial Master Zhang. The name Zhang Daoling, the first Celestial Master, may be familiar. Lord of the Nine Quiniums, just another fancy way to say emperor. The “Nine Quiniums” is a reference to nine sets of five, nine groups of concepts that were bundled in fives that were supposed to encompass different abstract concepts. Because this was really cool, the emperors used it.

3. This a poem from Tang-era poet Li Jiao. It is a poem about being a manly man.