Location: The Sword-Barrow – Center of the Crater
Time: 02:05 Hours (Local Time)
The world did not explode. It simply ceased to be continuous.
When Baihu, the White Tiger, launched its strike, Aris didn't see a paw swipe or a claw. He saw a line of white absolute nothingness dissecting the universe.
It was a World-Severing Line.
It moved from the Tiger's position to Aris's position instantly. It didn't travel through the air; it deleted the distance between point A and point B.
[System Alert: Conceptual Attack Detected.]
[Name: The White Edge.]
[Effect: Divides Reality. Defense ignoring. Armor ignoring.]
[Survival Probability: 0%.]
Aris's mind processed the threat in nanoseconds. His Abyssal Sovereign Body—the strongest physique in the mortal world—was screaming. It knew that against this attack, flesh was no different from wet paper.
"Now!" Aris roared internally.
His hand, already clutching the Seal of the North, flooded the hexagonal rune with every drop of mana he possessed.
"XUANWU! WAKE UP!"
The Collision
The tiny blue rune in Aris's hand exploded.
It didn't form a shield wall. It didn't form a bubble.
It manifested the Concept of Stasis.
A phantom image of the Black Tortoise materialized around Aris. It was translucent, blue, and heavy as a collapsed star. The Tortoise didn't roar; it simply existed. It was the "Unmovable Object."
CRACK.
The White Line hit the Blue Phantom.
There was no sound. Sound requires vibration, and for a split second, all vibration in the crater was frozen.
Then, the shockwave hit.
BOOM.
The millions of swords stuck in the ground around them shattered instantly. The iron earth of the Sword-Barrow liquefied, rippling outward like water. The floating islands in the sky above were blasted away by the sheer pressure of the impact.
Aris felt his arm bones splinter.
The force wasn't physical; it was the weight of the Tiger's Will trying to crush the Tortoise's Will. Aris was just the conduit.
"Hold..." Aris gritted his teeth, blood spraying from his nose inside the mask. "Hold it..."
The White Line dug into the Blue Shell. Sparks of reality-shredding energy flew like fireworks. The Shell cracked.
[Shield Integrity: 10%... 5%... 1%.]
The cut was getting through. The Tiger's offense was slightly stronger than the Tortoise's passive defense.
But Aris wasn't relying solely on the Tortoise.
"Abyssal Glitch: Friction!"
Aris used his own Void Qi to gum up the works. He injected sticky, chaotic energy into the crack where the White Line was penetrating.
The White Line slowed. It flickered.
And then, inches from Aris's throat... it stopped.
The Aftermath
The energy dissipated.
The Blue Phantom of the Tortoise faded, its job done. The Seal of the North in Aris's hand was smoking, hot enough to burn skin.
Aris stood in the center of a new, smaller crater inside the main crater. A trench, fifty meters deep and razor-thin, stretched behind him for ten miles, cutting through mountains and clouds alike.
He was alive.
He dropped to one knee, coughing violently. His HP was flashing red, not from the hit, but from the backlash of channeling two Divine Beasts at once.
"INTERESTING."
The voice cut through the ringing in his ears.
The White Tiger hadn't moved from the pedestal. It was still in its crouch, but its golden eyes were wide. The slit pupils had dilated.
"YOU... SMELL... OF... THE... NORTH."
The Tiger stood up and walked toward Aris. It moved like liquid mercury—deadly grace.
"XUANWU GAVE YOU HIS SEAL?" the Tiger asked, circling Aris. "THE OLD TURTLE DOES NOT TRUST ANYONE. HE WOULD RATHER SLEEP FOR ETERNITY THAN OPEN HIS SHELL."
"He... trusted me," Aris wheezed, standing up. "Because I fixed his door."
"FIXED?" The Tiger paused. "YOU CLOSED THE VOID-SCAR?"
The Tiger looked at Aris with a new expression. It wasn't respect yet. It was curiosity. A predator looking at a strange new animal.
"YOU SURVIVED MY STRIKE. BARELY. BUT YOU SURVIVED."
The Tiger sat down on its haunches, towering over Aris.
"SPEAK, LITTLE MONSTER. WHY SHOULD I NOT FINISH THE JOB?"
The Negotiation of Blood
Aris wiped the blood from his mask. He knew he couldn't fight this thing. If the Tiger attacked again, the Tortoise Seal was on cooldown. He would die.
He had to win with words.
"You are bored, Baihu," Aris said, his voice gaining strength. "You sleep here, surrounded by broken swords and dead men. You cut things just to see if they bleed, but nothing in this world bleeds enough for you anymore."
The Tiger's tail twitched. Aris had struck a nerve.
"THIS REALM IS WEAK," the Tiger agreed. "THE WARRIORS CRUMBLE BEFORE I EVEN TOUCH THEM. IT IS... DISAPPOINTING."
"What if I told you," Aris pointed upward, "that there is a jungle filled with prey that can survive your cut?"
The Tiger looked up at the violet sky.
"THE MIDDLE REALM?"
"They are coming," Aris lied—or rather, twisted the truth. "The Myriad Beasts Mountain. They think you are a pet. They are bringing chains. They are bringing cages. They want to put a collar on the God of War and make him perform tricks for their Elders."
A low growl rumbled in the Tiger's chest. The floating islands above began to shake.
"CHAINS?"
"They don't respect you," Aris pressed. "To them, you are just a battery. But to me?"
Aris spread his hands.
"To me, you are the blade I need to kill them. I don't want to chain you, Baihu. I want to point you at the biggest, strongest monsters in the galaxy and say, 'Sick 'em'."
The Tiger stared at Aris. The golden eyes bored into his soul, searching for deception.
Aris didn't flinch. He let his own Villainous Intent leak out—his desire to consume, to conquer, to burn the system down.
The Tiger smelled it. It smelled the ambition. It smelled the chaos.
And it smiled.
It was a terrifying expression, a baring of fangs that could crush diamonds.
"A HUNT," the Tiger purred. "A HUNT ACROSS THE STARS. AGAINST PREY THAT FIGHTS BACK."
The Tiger stepped forward and lowered its massive head until its nose touched Aris's chest.
"I ACCEPT."
The Pact of the West
A white rune, sharp and jagged like a lightning bolt, floated from the Tiger's forehead.
[Item Acquired: The Seal of the West (2/4)]
[Effect: Grants authority over Metal and Wind.]
[Passive: 'Aura of Slaughter' – Allies deal 20% more damage.]
[Summon: Can summon the White Tiger to perform a 'World-Severing Strike' once per year.]
Aris grabbed the rune. It stung his hand, feeling like holding a handful of needles.
"BUT BE WARNED, ARIS THORNE," the Tiger whispered. "I AM NOT A SHIELD LIKE THE TURTLE. IF YOU POINT ME AT PREY, AND IT IS WEAK... I WILL EAT YOU INSTEAD."
"Deal," Aris said.
The Tiger turned around and leaped back onto its pedestal. It curled up, but this time, its eyes didn't close. It watched the sky, waiting.
"GO. THE SOUTH IS BURNING. AND THE BIRD IS... UNSTABLE."
Reunion
Aris walked back out of the Sword-Barrow.
The invisible pressure that had been crushing the area was gone. The "Killing Intent" had retracted, centered solely around the Tiger.
When Aris reached the perimeter, Lin Chen rushed forward.
"Master!" Lin Chen looked at Aris's battered state. "You're alive! The killing aura... it stopped."
"We have the West," Aris said, showing the white rune. "The Legion is safe."
Lin Chen slumped with relief. "Thank the Heavens."
"Don't thank the Heavens," Aris corrected, walking past him toward Nox. "Thank the Tortoise."
He mounted the Eclipse Hound. Nox sniffed Aris, smelling the terrifying scent of the Tiger on him, and pinned his ears back in fear.
"We have two," Aris counted. "North and West. Defense and Offense."
He looked South.
To the Volcano of Eternal Ash.
"General Thorne is down there," Aris mused. "The Vermilion Bird represents Rebirth and Fire. But the Tiger said it was 'unstable'."
He checked his map. The Southern signal wasn't a steady glow like the others. It was flickering violently.
"Let's go, Nox. Before my father gets incinerated."
[System Quest Update: The Four Keys]
[Progress: 2/4]
[Next Target: The Vermilion Bird.]
[Warning: Southern Region is experiencing 'Time-Loop' Anomalies.]
Aris paused.
"Time-Loop?"
He looked at the System notification again.
[Anomaly: The Volcano is resetting every 24 hours.]
Aris's eyes narrowed.
"A Phoenix that governs Rebirth... trapped in a loop of dying and reviving," Aris realized. "It's not sleeping. It's insane."