Zhang Kui's Journey to the West in the Investiture of the Gods

Seeing Zhang Kui's aura weaken and his magic weapon taken away, Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao were overjoyed, their greed completely overriding their last shred of vigilance. In their eyes, Zhang Kui was now a fish on a chopping board, at their mercy.

"Senior brother, come on." Although Cao Bao's face was pale and his breath was weak from activating the Falling Treasure Coin, his eyes flashed with excitement and malice. He mustered his magic power and activated the damaged flying sword, thrusting it towards Zhang Kui.

Xiao Sheng was even more impatient. While he was trying his best to suppress the earth-elemental tail feather in his hand, which was constantly trembling and trying to break free, he summoned several attack talismans, which transformed into fire snake ice spears and rained down on Zhang Kui. He grinned maliciously and said, "It's your good fortune to die at the hands of my two brothers. Hand over all your treasures obediently, and we'll give you a quick death."

Faced with the two's rapid and fierce attacks, Zhang Kui's face remained pale, showing a mixture of shock and anger, as well as a lack of magical power. However, his footwork secretly followed the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams. He seemed to be dodging left and right in a disheveled manner, constantly in danger. He always narrowly avoided fatal attacks. Occasionally, he would use his Wolf Fang Wind-Breaking Blade to block a few attacks, but he seemed to be "powerless" and was forced to retreat repeatedly.

"His magic power is almost exhausted, give it your all." Seeing this, Xiao Sheng's confidence soared, and his attacks became even more ferocious. He even began to get distracted, trying to find an opportunity to make Cao Bao use the Treasure-Locking Coin again to take away the obviously extraordinary treasured sword in Zhang Kui's hand.

Cao Bao gritted his teeth and persevered, constantly urging his flying sword to harass the enemy. Although each collision with the Wolf Fang Wind-Breaking Blade shook his mind and caused more and more cracks to appear on his flying sword, he believed that as long as he persisted a little longer, victory would be just around the corner.

While Zhang Kui was "struggling" to defend himself, he was secretly observing. He noticed that Cao Bao's aura would noticeably weaken each time he activated the Treasure-Dropping Coin, indicating that the treasure was being used up in great quantities. Xiao Sheng, on the other hand, was focusing most of his attention on suppressing the Earth-elemental tail feather; his attacks appeared fierce, but in reality, he was already at his limit.

"It's time," Zhang Kui thought to himself.

He deliberately created an even bigger opening, his body "staggering" as if he had lost his balance due to insufficient magical power, leaving the opening wide open.

"What a great opportunity!" How could Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao let such a good opportunity slip by?

Xiao Sheng slammed the banner-shaped magic weapon down on Zhang Kui's head, while Cao Bao controlled the cracked flying sword, aiming straight for Zhang Kui's heart. The two seemed to already envision the beautiful scene of Zhang Kui being blasted to death on the spot, all the treasures belonging to them.

However, at this critical moment...

"Nine breaths to absorb the breath!"

Zhang Kuina's originally "weak" aura suddenly erupted like a volcano that had been dormant for thousands of years, and the "Nine Breaths of Qi Absorption" Dao pattern engraved on his fourth-stage golden core shone brightly!

With each breath, the world changed color. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a radius of dozens of miles, and even the deeper earth vein energy, converged wildly towards Zhang Kui's mouth and nose like rivers flowing into the sea, forming a massive, visible vortex of spiritual energy! In just one breath, the magical power he had previously "consumed" was instantly replenished, even surpassing its previous level. His aura surged, showing no trace of weakness.

"What?" The ecstasy on Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao's faces froze instantly, turning into extreme shock and disbelief. They felt as if Zhang Kui had instantly become a different person; the immense and overwhelming pressure of his magical power made them feel as if they were facing a prehistoric beast, making even breathing difficult.

"Subduing Dragons and Tigers!"

Zhang Kui took his second step, and the blood and qi within his body surged and roared like the Yangtze River. On his golden core, the Dragon-Subduing and Tiger-Taming Divine Dao patterns lit up, and a vast and supreme power and majesty originating from the ancient witch clan instantly filled his limbs and bones. His muscles swelled slightly, and the dragon-scale armor emitted a joyful hum, the terrifying power almost tearing space apart.

No longer dodging, Zhang Kui simply threw a punch at the oncoming banner-shaped magic weapon and the piercing flying sword.

Without using any magic, the purest physical strength compressed the air, creating a deafening sonic boom.

boom!!!

Click!

The banner-shaped magical artifact was the first to be struck, shattered into pieces by the fist imbued with the divine power to subdue dragons and tigers, its spiritual light completely extinguished. The flying sword that followed was even more devastated, as if it had crashed into a mountain, breaking into pieces and turning into dust.

With their magical artifact destroyed, Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao both screamed in agony, as if struck by a heavy blow. Blood gushed from their mouths as they flew backward, their eyes filled with boundless terror.

"You...you tricked us!" Only now did Xiao Sheng realize that the other party had been acting from the very beginning. All the "inability" and "weakness" were illusions, the purpose of which was to lure out their Treasure-Dropping Coins and deplete their magic power and essence.

"You only realize it now? Too late!" Zhang Kui's voice was icy cold, devoid of any emotion. He took a step forward, as if shrinking the distance between them, instantly catching up with Cao Bao, who was flying backward in mid-air.

The Wolf Fang Wind-Breaking Blade emitted a bloodthirsty hum, and its dark blade energy surged more than ten feet.

"No, spare me..." Cao Bao was terrified and only managed to utter half a plea for mercy.

A flash of light!

A head, its face contorted in shock and terror, shot into the sky, blood gushing from its headless neck like a fountain.

Just as Cao Bao's primordial spirit tried to escape, it was instantly shredded by the fierce baleful energy attached to the blade and the will of the Dragon-Subduing Tiger Divine Power, resulting in the destruction of both his body and soul.

"Junior brother!" Xiao Sheng was terrified when he saw Cao Bao die a horrible death. He dared not have any greed left. He forced himself to steady himself and burned his life essence blood at all costs. He turned into a streak of blood light and fled madly into the depths of Wuyi Mountain. He didn't even care about the earth element tail feather that he had managed to snatch, letting it fall to the ground.

"Do you think you can escape?" Zhang Kui sneered, not giving chase immediately. He reached out and summoned the earth-elemental tail feather, the treasure-dropping coin that had fallen from Cao Bao's corpse, and the storage bag into his hand.

He glanced at the winged copper coin, a look of understanding flashing in his eyes—it was indeed this thing. He then put it away.

Then, he looked in the direction Xiao Sheng had fled, a murderous glint in his eyes. He didn't use any escape techniques, but instead took a deep breath, allowing his magical power and blood energy to merge once more.

"The Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light!"

He let out a low shout, and five illusory divine lights reappeared behind him. The five-colored divine lights, representing metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, suddenly condensed into a slightly mottled but still terrifying composite divine light, which swept sharply in the direction Xiao Sheng was fleeing.

There was no sound, no explosion.

Before the streak of blood-red light fled, the space within a hundred feet seemed to be wiped away by some invisible force in an instant. All the trees, rocks, spiritual energy, and even light disintegrated and dissipated in a flash, turning into the most primordial five elements particles, returning to nothingness, forming an absolutely desolate vacuum zone.

Xiao Sheng, who was frantically fleeing, had no time to react and crashed headfirst into the death zone swept by the "Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light".

"Ugh—"

Xiao Sheng let out a piercing, desperate scream. His protective magic treasure instantly lost its spiritual light, followed by his Taoist robe, his skin, his flesh, his bones... all disintegrating and dissipating at an alarming rate. He could even clearly feel his existence being completely erased.

In the blink of an eye, the blood-red light, along with Xiao Sheng within it, vanished completely, as if it had never existed in this world. Not even a trace of ash remained; true annihilation of both body and soul.

Zhang Kui slowly withdrew his divine light, his face slightly pale. Simultaneously activating the still-immature "Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light" from his five tail feathers had taken a heavy toll on him. However, his eyes were filled with satisfaction.

The power of this divine light far exceeded expectations.

The valley returned to silence, with only the faint smell of blood and the fluctuations of magic in the air testifying to the brief but intense battle that had just taken place.

Zhang Kui waved his hand, turning Cao Bao's corpse into ashes. He then carefully cleaned up the traces of the battle before turning his gaze to the spoils of war in his hand—the Falling Treasure Coin and Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao's storage bags.

"Wuyi Mountain... the Treasure-Dropping Coin... is quite an unexpected delight." He muttered to himself, then his figure flashed and disappeared into the valley. He found a secluded place to recover his magical power and carefully studied this famous innate spiritual treasure.

As for people like Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao, who brought this upon themselves, he had long since forgotten about them.