"Heh, a bunch of useless trash."
Jiang Yan sneered, as if muttering to himself.
"I really don't know what use there was in raising them."
Behind Jiang Yan, the Lord of the Abyss—whose head had just been blown apart by him—stood up again in an eerie fashion. Black mist continuously spread from the stump of its neck, and in the blink of an eye, a perfectly intact head grew back.
Jiang Yan knew full well that an ordinary strike like that could never truly kill the Lord of the Abyss.
If the Lord of the Abyss were really that weak, the Heavenly Principles would have descended long ago and killed it eight hundred times over.
Why would it need Jiang Yan to do the job?
"That was a truly ferocious blow. Even I didn't react in time."
The Lord of the Abyss spoke in a hoarse voice.
"I have studied you."
"A mysterious elf race, yet not a lifeform belonging to this continent."
"So powerful, yet you hide beneath the Rock God, harboring no ambition to contend for supremacy."
"Why not join my ranks? Together, we can overthrow Phanes' tyranny—what do you say?"
Listening to the Lord of the Abyss, Jiang Yan's gaze remained calm. His heart showed no ripples—he even felt like laughing.
LMAO.
Join the Abyss?
You really don't give up, do you?
"Then can you tell me how the Abyss was actually born?"
"Don't give me any nonsense about forbidden knowledge. I've dealt with that stuff before—just some ideas ahead of their time, with special forms of energy, that's all."
Jiang Yan looked at the Lord of the Abyss as he spoke.
"..."
"As long as you join the Abyss, I will naturally tell you what the Abyss truly is!"
After a brief silence, the Lord of the Abyss rasped.
"Tsk, so there's nothing to talk about, then?"
Jiang Yan smacked his lips.
As expected, an old monster that had lived for tens of thousands of years wasn't so easy to fool.
"Hmph, a self-important little brat!"
The Lord of the Abyss snorted coldly, its figure vanishing in an instant.
Jiang Yan didn't move.
At that very moment, the Lord of the Abyss appeared behind him, a claw tearing straight toward the back of Jiang Yan's head.
The Space Gem on the back of Jiang Yan's right hand lit up, instantly immobilizing the Lord of the Abyss.
Seriously—did it think Jiang Yan could be ambushed?
Did it think cosmic perception and Observation Haki were just for show?
Jiang Yan turned around. The Power Gem flared to life, and he threw a punch.
Amid a surge of purple energy, the Lord of the Abyss was smashed on the spot into a cloud of black mist.
Moments later, the black mist reassembled, and the Lord of the Abyss appeared in midair once again.
"Tsk. You're pretty hard to deal with."
Jiang Yan frowned slightly.
"Give it up. You can't kill me!"
The Lord of the Abyss laughed hoarsely, its grating laughter like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, raising goosebumps.
"Has anyone ever told you…"
Jiang Yan spoke as his figure abruptly vanished.
The Lord of the Abyss' pupils shrank, a powerful sense of danger surging up from its heart.
"…that your smile is really unpleasant to look at!"
With the words, Jiang Yan appeared above the Lord of the Abyss' head.
A seven-colored punch aura blasted out in an instant, and the Lord of the Abyss shattered once again.
As the light faded, the Lord of the Abyss reappeared from another spot. Before it could even launch an attack, Jiang Yan's fist was already in front of its face.
Bang!!
The Lord of the Abyss' head was pierced clean through by a single punch.
At the same time, the Soul Gem on Jiang Yan's right hand lit up.
Jiang Yan froze.
The Soul Gem… didn't work?!
No—was it that the Lord of the Abyss had no soul at all?!
"Hehehe… surprised?"
What was eerie was that this time, the Lord of the Abyss didn't disperse and reform. Only a head—reduced to just a mouth—remained, laughing.
Immediately after, the Lord of the Abyss' body moved in a bizarre manner, tightly grabbing hold of Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan's expression changed. Pitch-black light burst forth from the area where he was grabbed, and fine cracks accompanied by dark mist began spreading across his body.
Jiang Yan slapped away the Lord of the Abyss' body and leapt backward.
He bared his teeth, touching the cracks on his body.
I was careless!
In his mind, the Horse Talisman suddenly lit up. Specks of white light flickered over the cracks in Jiang Yan's body, accompanied by sizzling sounds.
Wisps of white smoke slowly rose from him.
Although his body had healed, Jiang Yan discovered that those pitch-black patterns had not disappeared.
"Hehehe… you've already been corrupted by the Abyss."
"Be a good boy and serve the Abyss!"
The Lord of the Abyss cackled strangely, as if mocking Jiang Yan's arrogance.
Jiang Yan, however, smiled faintly.
"That's it?"
"You're really underestimating me."
He looked calmly at the Lord of the Abyss as he spoke.
At the same time, he placed his right hand over the black patterns.
The Time Gem lit up.
A faint ripple of time spread out from Jiang Yan's palm, causing the Lord of the Abyss' expression to change drastically.
"Impossible!"
"Impossible!!!"
"How can you possess the power of time?!"
"Wasn't Istaroth already erased?!"
Jiang Yan said nothing.
A pale-green temporal compass appeared in his hand, and he began turning it continuously.
On his body, the black patterns were steadily receding.
Jiang Yan was reversing his own body to the moment before it had been corrupted by the Abyss.
"You're dreaming!"
Clearly, this move was effective against the Abyss' corruption. The Lord of the Abyss roared in fury and lunged toward Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan didn't even glance at it. The Space Gem lit up once more.
A light-blue cubic space instantly locked the Lord of the Abyss in place.
After the Abyss' corrosion on his body completely faded, Jiang Yan twisted his neck with a feral grin and looked toward the Lord of the Abyss.
"Can't be killed?"
"I'll make you beg for life—and beg for death!"
In the next instant, Jiang Yan vanished completely.
The Lord of the Abyss struggled violently. Almost immediately, it was engulfed by a storm of punch auras.
But as the light dispersed, accompanied by a surge of pitch-black mist, the Lord of the Abyss emerged yet again.
"Heh. Since you can't be used by me, then you don't need to exist in this world anymore!"
The Lord of the Abyss sneered hoarsely as it spread its arms. On the ground, pitch-black liquid suddenly began to boil.
Jiang Yan narrowed his eyes, a sense of dread welling up once more.
Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Yan appeared directly in front of the Lord of the Abyss, about to throw a punch—
But the motion of his fist suddenly stiffened.
A pitch-black blade abruptly pierced through his abdomen!
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