Ch. 1440 - Cloak of Flame, Truth of Mist

In an instant, the blue people surged forward, swarming over Blade Tyrant. They tore him apart limb by limb, biting into his flesh as if feasting on meat. Blood sprayed everywhere. No matter how he screamed, the frenzy didn’t stop until his body was shredded into pieces, nothing left, not even bones. The scene was grotesque and horrifying.

These blue people seemed to have no awareness, only the mindless instincts of beasts.

Xu Zimo frowned slightly. He wanted to know whether these blue people had always been so savage, or if they had been driven mad by torture. Because the Blue Man he had met back in the God World had shown consciousness, even memories of friendship with the elder who had once abused him. That distinction mattered. But now was not the time to dwell on it.

The violent blue people broke free of the cage in moments, the iron bars snapping like twigs. With furious roars, they charged at Xu Zimo.

Xu Zimo gripped Shadow Tyrant Blade, endless killing intent rippling through his gaze. He swung once, sending a powerful arc of blade energy tearing forward.

It was only a test strike, yet it sliced one of the blue people clean in half. But in the next second, its body flowed like water and reformed, completely healed.

Water has no fixed form, it takes the shape of anything that holds it.

These creatures were the same. They seemed unkillable. No matter how many times Xu Zimo struck, they recovered completely.

Now, they were upon him. Xu Zimo leapt backward, retreating swiftly.

The power of the Ancient God Fire Dao surged in his hands as he summoned the Flame of Zhurong.

Fire and water, opposed yet intertwined. They reject each other but also coexist.

A vast sea of fire burst forth, spreading from Xu Zimo’s body and sweeping toward the blue people. The air sizzled with unbearable heat, scorching the entire Inner World.

The blue people hesitated for the first time, their pace slowing. Still, their eyes burned with feral intent as they pressed closer.

When the flames reached them, they writhed briefly, but soon, astonishingly, they adapted. The Myriad Streams walked through the fire untouched.

Xu Zimo’s frown deepened. The Flame of Zhurong was among the mightiest flames in existence, strong enough to burn or evaporate anything made of water. Yet these beings were unaffected.

It was unnatural.

They continued their relentless assault. Xu Zimo had no choice but to keep retreating. He couldn’t kill them. Fire didn’t work. Even he felt momentarily at a loss.

Still, he sensed that these blue people were not the same as the ones from the God World, they were of a different kind.

After chasing him for a while, the blue people abruptly stopped.

They gathered together, and then, something strange happened.

Their bodies began to merge, fusing into a single mass of blue liquid. The pool of liquid spread outward, expanding faster and faster until, within moments, it covered half the Inner World.

Xu Zimo realized what they were trying to do. Consume the entire Inner World, leaving him nowhere to run.

He thought quickly. The power of the Primal Dao surged within him, this time, it was the Primal Dao of Space and Time.

He formed the Flower of Time in his palm, and when it bloomed, time itself froze. The entire Inner World was sealed.

Xu Zimo let out a quiet breath of relief.

He withdrew his consciousness back to the God World, returning to the blue person there. That one had grown more stable, more self-aware. When Xu Zimo faced him, he could feel peace within the creature, calm like a gentle stream beneath a bridge.

But the blue people outside, their energy was wild, violent, and explosive, as if their very existence wanted to shatter the world.

“The blue people outside call themselves the Myriad Streams,” Xu Zimo said. “Do you know them?”

He was hoping for a clue, a solution.

The blue person hesitated, then spoke weakly, words barely audible: “Fire… the sin of fire… They are not… not…”

“Not what?” Xu Zimo pressed. “Not the Myriad Streams?”

The blue person nodded faintly. “Use water… they… fear water.”

Xu Zimo’s eyes lit up.

Of course, water.

He had never considered using water against them because they claimed to be the Myriad Streams, the very origin of water itself. It made no sense to fight water with water.

But now, he understood.

If these blue people were truly of the Myriad Streams, how had Blade Tyrant managed to capture them and offer them to the Sacred Flame Trinity? There had to be a weakness.

He returned swiftly to the Inner World.

The time freeze dissolved, and the world resumed its flow. The blue liquid continued spreading.

Xu Zimo summoned the Water Primal Dao.

As the power manifested, the expanding blue liquid reacted violently, as if meeting its nemesis. It began to contract, shrinking inward.

“It’s working,” Xu Zimo said, eyes gleaming.

He intensified the flow of the Water Primal Dao, the torrent surging like a vast sea. The blue liquid recoiled, shrinking further, as if terrified.

With the rising flood, Xu Zimo sought to drown the entire Inner World. The blue mass retreated, cornered, until finally, when the water touched it, smoke began to rise, white and curling, like a flame being extinguished.

“So that’s what you are,” Xu Zimo murmured with a faint smile. “Not the Myriad Streams at all, just a raging fire disguised in the shape of water.”

No wonder the Flame of Zhurong couldn’t burn them, because their true essence was fire. Fire cannot burn fire.

As the floodwaters spread, the blue entity shrank more and more, until at last it condensed into something the size of a jade pendant.

Only then did Xu Zimo dispel the water and stoop to pick it up.

It was a small jade ornament, engraved only with the symbol of a sun, nothing else.

“The Radiant Court?” Xu Zimo murmured.

In the Inferno Crucible Heaven, anything tied to the sun could only point to one place, the Radiant Court.

But it was too early to draw conclusions. The path ahead was still unclear.

He slipped the pendant away, glanced around the Inner World, now barren and quiet, and turned to leave.

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