Chapter Twenty-Five: Tearing Through the Belly

“What kind of treasure have you got?” The King of Fighters restrained his excitement, for he knew Wu Yun always had a solution.

At that moment, his gaze returned to the three Snow-Feathered Azure Eagles, whose heads were shrouded in shadows—manifestations of their gluttony and the carnage they had wrought, haunting them like ghosts.

“Little eagle, do you still need me to save you?” Wu Yun asked softly of the Flood-Eagle. The latter whispered, “Let Buddha save them!” and then fell silent, speaking only in moments of urgency since he had learned to talk, much like a recluse reluctant to converse.

Wu Yun crooked his finger, and the seven-headed beastly bug crawled into his palm. A flash of Buddhist light, and the three giant eagles seemed to be injected with new life, flapping furiously and dashing toward him.

“Am I seeing things? Is that the seven-headed beast with only one head left?”

“Eat him, devour him, break through to the peak, ascend to the Immortal Realm!”

“He’s mine! Ha! With food in my belly, I can do anything calmly!”

As the bug, bathed in Buddhist light, scrambled to hide, it cried out in panic, “No, I can’t, I can’t make it!”

Contrary to expectations, the eldest eagle, Yu Shao, who should have been leading the charge, lagged behind, while the fourth, Yu Qiao, was in the middle, and the second, Yu Jun, rushed ahead.

“Your eldest brother is tricking you, sending you to your deaths while he hangs back to reap the rewards!” Wu Yun pointed, and Yu Shao, slowing more and more, halted under the suspicious stares of his brothers.

The more he hesitated, the more suspicious it seemed. He hurried to protest, but like a chick pecking at rice, he only nodded repeatedly. He tried to shake his head, but only managed to move his claws, waving his left and then his right.

“Yu Shao, after all we went through as brothers, who knows, maybe it was you who poisoned Third Brother behind our backs.” Yu Jun spoke, exchanging a glance with Yu Qiao.

Anyone who had reached the realm of breaking gods was no fool. Sensing their alliance fraying, Yu Shao panicked, knowing he could not withstand the two if they joined forces.

“Fourth Brother, do you still not believe me?” His words rang with authority and a hint of magical power, but as soon as he spoke, his eagle beak opened in a mocking sneer.

In desperation, Yu Shao jabbed his sword-like beak—dozens of meters long—into his own chest, aiming at the hardest white feathers.

“Big Brother’s gone mad—does he want to dig out the food he just ate and share it with us?” Yu Jun and Yu Qiao were momentarily moved, but quickly accelerated their actions. Familiar with the terrain and spellwork here, they believed they could catch the Buddhist bug off guard and swallow it whole.

For every creature, there exists another that overcomes it. Facing the eagles, the little bug could only flee.

“Look, your eldest brother really has lost his mind!” Old Bear Three, unwilling to expend any effort, roared in irritation, but the two charging eagles no longer believed him.

It wasn’t until Yu Shao’s cries for mercy rang out from behind that the two turned their heads, and the sight nearly made them collapse with fear.

Yu Shao, using his beak as sharp as the finest treasure, was gouging open his own invulnerable chest. Feathers, as hard as spiritual blades, flew everywhere.

Then, in a most incredible scene, he pried open his chest, exposing a massive heart and liver. These organs, existing beyond his lungs and stomach, were themselves treasures; his intestines formed eighteen grinding arrays, each looped into the next, so that even food more formidable than himself would face certain death inside.

Had he only exposed his heart and liver, or even dug them out, Yu Jun and Yu Qiao would not have been shocked—those who have reached the realm of breaking gods could survive even with only a head. But on the enormous heart and liver was the mark of a bite.

It was as if an apple had a chunk bitten out of it. The bite mark was clean and neat, a third of the organ gone in a single chomp.

And it didn’t end there—Yu Shao then pulled out his lungs, half rotted, and his stomach and intestines spilled to the ground.

Consider where this was: as soon as his organs—once hard as spiritual weapons—touched the ground, they lost their luster and were instantly absorbed by the surroundings.

“Big Brother’s lost his mind!”

“No, he hasn’t!” Yu Qiao said, but just as his words fell, a flicker of twilight colored his eyes, and a strand of innate true fire shot forth. This true fire, containing threefold spiritual flame, was about to fall into Yu Shao’s now-empty belly when something emerged—what looked like scaled armor from a devoured fish.

It was Dragon One. Wiping his mouth and washing up, he caught the flame, using it to dry the saliva on his hands and lips, and muttered with distaste, “It’s been a while since I’ve eaten raw food.”

He revealed his halo-crowned dragon horns, with a cloud drifting above, and at the sight, Yu Qiao and Yu Jun abandoned their brother’s remains and fled. Dragon One only snorted, ignoring them, but a spark flashed in his eyes, sending rays into the minds of all present—except Wu Yun. In the minds of Old Bear Three and the rest appeared a new spell: the Radiant Profound Array.

The King of Fighters closed his eyes, practiced as instructed, and felt his limbs and bones slowly grow lighter. This incantation would allow them to resist, albeit slightly, the powerful gravity of the planet.

One eagle head stretched before Dragon One, stared, then collapsed with a crash. In the end, Yu Shao never resisted—after being terrified by the dragon, he literally lost his heart.

“Heaven cherishes all living things,” recited the little bug. Old Bear Three said, “Exactly! Go dig him a grave.” But the ground was as hard as diamond, so the bug chanted in pity, “The sky for a roof, the earth for a bed…”

Now, with the incantation for protection and Wu Yun to lead the way, they followed Old Bear Three, bumping along in the bronze-arc golden ship. Every two hours, the King of Fighters and the others took turns at the helm, except for Dragon One, who sat across from Wu Yun.

“Do you know how powerful this immortal weapon is?”

“Do you know that there are holy artifacts above divine weapons?”

Wu Yun’s single sentence left Dragon One speechless, his face darkening, wordless from then on.

Step by step, they pressed on, following the ravine downward until they reached the valley floor, where a dark fissure, like a mountain torn open, appeared.

Though called a fissure, by proportion, it was really a great pit.

This was one of the forty-three spatial rifts, now blocked. Crawling along its depths, the party moved like geckos, each displaying their skills—even Wu Yun chanted, conjuring a cloud to float beneath his feet.

At this point, the bronze-arc golden ship was useless; the King of Fighters, with a heavy heart, cut it into seven pieces of varying size, which they donned as armor.

They struggled forward. Even Dragon One, who had previously held his head high, now shrank into a ball from exhaustion, rolling onward.

The deeper they went, the more fear clutched at their hearts. Even Wu Yun, on seeing ancient corpses of those once at the peak of breaking gods, was filled with emotion. Had he turned to evil back then, as the behind-the-scenes manipulator for the Multi-Space Chamber of Commerce at Sword Mountain Sect, and if his father were here, disaster would surely follow.

“We’ve reached the end.” The King of Fighters, standing on the petrified remains of a shattered treasure, wobbled his one remaining leg and fell to the ground.

“Strange—the gravity is weaker here, more over there, less here.” The little bug on Old Bear Three’s back muttered, squeezing out surplus bear fat with each movement, releasing wisps of oily vapor.

By watching the spread of this vapor, they could see where gravity held sway; wherever a broken treasure lay, the pull weakened from within outward.

The three eagles had survived here precisely because of this—wherever there is hope, there is life.

Staring at the dead-end tunnel, Wu Yun looked at Dragon One and said quietly, “Smash it open.”

“Don’t ask me. I can’t do it.”

“The Cat Demon has already reached the skies above this planet, searching for a way to counteract the magnetic pull. He’s brought three hundred thousand of his finest troops.”

Dragon One felt a pang of realization, but still shook his head stubbornly. “I must conserve my strength and make my move at the end.”

Was he planning to swoop in for the spoils or snatch victory at the last moment?

Wu Yun didn’t trust him, and since Dragon One would not swear an oath, he settled for second best—they would break through together.