The clash began with jarring suddenness.
In a world stripped to monochrome, even sound seemed severed by that heaven-cleaving force.
Within this grayscale realm, Jing Yuan saw the foxian girl clawing her way from the rubble, body battered and bruised.
And he saw the black sun cradled in Baiheng's hands.
"…!?"
His pupils contracted. For a heartbeat, he thought it was the great dark star hanging in the sky—but he quickly dismissed it. Nothing like that could exist on the Xianzhou.
This black sun was something else entirely.
And Baiheng, holding it… she probably intended to load it into a starskiff, ram it down Shuhu's throat, and detonate it. All to save Dan Feng and Jingliu.
"…"
Jing Yuan's lips parted, but no words came out, as if his voice had been strangled in his throat.
What could he even say?
If not for that world-splitting blade, Baiheng would already be piloting the starskiff on her final, desperate charge toward the colossal tree below.
If not for this bleached reality, he might never have noticed her resolve, her motion.
While Jing Yuan's mind reeled, caught in a storm of thoughts—color began seeping back into the faded world.
Silence gave way once more to noise.
And the agonized wails and mad laughter of the colossal tree named Shuhu finally pierced the skies again.
"Waaaah!! It hurts!! Why didn't the Aeon's power work?! Who are you?! Waaaaah—!! Come out!! Show yourself!!!"
Shuhu, split clean in two by that single slash, crumbled thunderously.
It wasn't dead—but unlike before, it didn't instantly heal and rise again.
Sky-blotting golden branches, whipping up a storm of golden leaves, lashed outward toward the heavens.
Yet in the next instant—
A cool, detached voice drifted from the depths of space, carried upon the resurgence of gleaming steel:
"I weep… for the departed."
Another flash of the blade soundlessly devoured the golden storm. Only the fruits nestled among the branches were sent flying, spared from annihilation.
By some incomprehensible means, the sword-light erased nearly all of Shuhu's lush branches.
And in their place, where the boughs had been, a creeping darkness remained, steadily devouring the golden light.
A moment of absolute silence—
Then Shuhu's shrieks of agony!
And a fear it had never shown before—the terror of pain, of true death.
"Aaaaah—!! It hurts! It hurts!! This is a hundred times worse than being killed, you bastard!! Who ARE you?!"
By now, Dan Feng—who had been trapped in a drowning hallucination—was jolted free as the aftershocks of two consecutive slashes shattered the beautiful illusion, devoured by the black sun.
He broke free from the endless dragon-haunted dream.
Seizing the chance, Jingliu pulled the weakened Dan Feng away from the frenzied Shuhu.
Yet even from a distance, everyone—even Shuhu's own followers—halted their battles as one.
All eyes turned toward Shuhu, now openly displaying fear.
Whether Cloud Knight or follower, all fell silent.
Even Teng Xiao.
Manipulating the Lightning Lord, he stared fixedly at a certain point beyond the sky.
Soon—
A figure descended from the heavens, trailing streams of light.
White hair, crimson eyes, a faded coat, a long blade.
She looked like a wandering swordswoman passing through.
Her face held a plain, unconcealed calm.
"And you might be?"
Teng Xiao's sharp instincts screamed warnings.
A primal, survivalist urge shrieked at him to flee from this woman.
As if she were hundreds of times more dangerous than Shuhu!
Even the Lightning Lord spontaneously shifted into a defensive stance.
This… was a miracle bestowed by the Reignbow Arbiter himself!
"…"
Acheron merely glanced silently at Teng Xiao.
Hm. An unfamiliar Luofu general.
Hovering high above, she surveyed the battlefield below.
She saw Jing Yuan, Jingliu without her eyepatch, Dan Feng on the verge of death.
So early in the timeline?
Acheron mused inwardly.
Then, she spoke: "Acheron. A Galaxy Ranger."
"..."
You've got to be kidding me!
Teng Xiao internally cursed in disbelief.
A Galaxy Ranger? I'd sooner believe you're an Emanator of Destruction!
Our Xianzhou Alliance is the Hunt's most orthodox faction—you think I don't know what the Hunt's path feels like?
There wasn't a trace of the Hunt in those two slashes you just threw.
Seeing Teng Xiao fall silent, Acheron took it as acquiescence.
She turned her attention to Shuhu, who was struggling desperately against the erosion of Nihility.
It was working—but not well enough.
Those two strikes against Shuhu had been thrown with zero restraint.
It was precisely that full-powered release that had plunged the entire ship into the ashen illusion.
And it made Acheron realize just how much she had held back in the original timeline, during that clash with Aventurine on Penacony.
"Shuhu. Emanator of Abundance, correct?"
"Who are you, really?! This is Nihility's power! What garbage about being a Galaxy Ranger!"
After the initial panic, Shuhu too had recognized the source of this terrifying force.
Hearing her claim to be a Galaxy Ranger almost made him laugh in furious disbelief.
Acheron shook her head, done with words.
She raised her long blade and struck again!
Compared to the blade-light that seemed capable of shearing the sun, Acheron's chant was serene, almost poetic.
The arc of light was slender, swift, and none could doubt—were this slash to land fully on the Xianzhou, it would cleave the Luofu in two.
Yet, just as the encroaching darkness spread and the once-lush tree grew barer—
The entire Luofu suffered only a severed sky, with not a single life lost to the blade's residual force.
Now, true fear began to grip Shuhu.
This was different from all previous deaths.
In the past, dying and returning again and again had convinced him he was an immortal, undying entity.
But now—
He saw that black sun, felt Nihility's corrosion.
He suddenly realized:
If this woman kept slashing, if she kept forcing him toward that dark abyss—
He would truly be swallowed by the void!
Never to escape!
No! Impossible!!
He was a messenger of the Aeon of Abundance! He was meant to live forever!
He couldn't let this woman annihilate him here!
Absolutely n—
"Aaaaah—!! Scram!! Get away from me!!"
Another slash descended.
Too sudden, too swift to evade.
Shuhu couldn't even perceive how she drew the blade.
He could only feel that all-consuming power of Nihility crashing down upon him.
And then, one slash after another.
Merciless, like the scythe of death from hell itself.
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.