The spell's range covers the entire territory of China? Hand it over to the state.

Zhong Kui's phrase "I'll use you to fill the gaps" is by no means a bluff.

Before he could finish speaking, a giant hand, like an iron clamp, suddenly exerted force, ignoring Thanatos's frantic struggles and screams, and lifted the Western Grim Reaper in front of him like a chick.

Immediately afterwards, a gaping maw, large enough to swallow mountains and rivers, suddenly opened and bit down mercilessly on Thanatos's spirit-like shoulder!

"Click."

A crisp sound.

It's like dry walnuts being crushed.

Then came the screams of death and the chilling sounds of chewing.

……

"Pooh!"

Zhong Kui frowned, opened his mouth wide, and spat out a piece of black, gleaming bone fragment with disgust. His face was full of displeasure. "Crude! Absolutely fucking crude! Not only crude, but it also smells like it's been stale in a cellar for eight hundred years!"

He casually picked his teeth with his long-fingered little finger, dangling the half-destroyed body in his hand, and muttered, "This is your Western god? Even the quality of his flesh is so questionable. He must eat plenty of rotten meat and wax every day. Not a trace of incense smoke. And this dares to call himself the God of Death? In my opinion, he's not even as good as the guard dog at the gates of the underworld. At least that dog gets a hot meal!"

At this moment, Thanatos no longer possessed any of the imposing aura he displayed when he first appeared, reaping lives.

The rest of his body was held in Zhong Kui's hand, and the black robe that symbolized the authority of death had been torn to shreds, revealing the pale and disintegrating spirit beneath.

He couldn't even scream, because his throat had been crushed by Zhong Kui's large hand in the first round. He could only make a wheezing sound like a bellows. The deep blue soul fire in his eye sockets was now trembling violently with fear, almost going out.

Billions of viewers around the world watched this scene, and their minds were a little overwhelmed.

One second I was worried that the instant death rule would wipe out the entire audience, and the next second I saw this ugly man in red robes eating gods on the spot?

This stark contrast caused the previously tense atmosphere to collapse instantly, and the audience erupted in thunderous cheers.

"Holy crap! They actually ate it?!"

"This is the real god! What Western Grim Reaper? That's just our Judge's snack!"

"Listen to this! Listen to this review! Dry texture, musty taste—it's a complete slap in the face to Western mythology! It's hilarious! Our gods and spirits are not only good fighters, but they also have discerning palates!"

Grandpa Zhang Daoxuan sat in the command hall, finally loosening his grip on the peach wood sword. He leaned back in his chair, grinning from ear to ear: "That's right! That's right! Evil spirits need evil people to deal with them. Thanatos is only good for being rampant in the West. If he really came to our underworld, a ghost of this level wouldn't even be worthy of carrying the judge's shoes. At most, he'd be a lonely, wandering ghost that no one would take in."

On the arena.

Zhong Kui seemed to think that eating alone was too dry, so he reached out and grabbed a handful of yin energy from the void. He didn't know which unlucky person he had taken it from, but he kneaded it and used it as a dipping sauce, spreading it evenly on the still twitching remains of the Grim Reaper.

"It's just that this place hasn't opened for business yet today, and its stomach is empty. Otherwise, even if you threw this kind of scrap to Di Ting, it would find it too disgusting to eat."

Zhong Kui muttered to himself as he took another big bite.

"Sizzle—"

Thanatos's shoulder, along with the eerie blue soul fire, went straight into Zhong Kui's gaping maw.

In the West, the believers who had been kneeling on the ground praying for death's forgiveness were now ashen-faced, the sound of their faith collapsing seemingly echoing in their ears.

Their god is being eaten.

And it was food that was disliked.

This feeling is worse than killing them.

……

Above the clouds, in the projection of the Temple of Olympus.

The atmosphere was oppressive.

The gods who had just been clamoring about the crushing power of the rules were now deathly pale, and even Hermes's serpent staff was trembling slightly.

Why?

Ares's voice was hoarse as he stared intently at the red-robed figure below, feasting heartily. "Thanatos's scythe clearly struck. That was the harvest of causality; as long as there is a concept of life, there is no exemption. Why is that Eastern fellow unharmed?"

The gods were silent.

This is also what they cannot understand. A rule is called a rule precisely because of its absoluteness.

"Because in that realm of the red-robed demon, Thanatos does not possess the status of a 'god'."

A deep, indifferent voice broke the silence.

Zeus remained seated on the highest throne.

He was neither angry nor did he lose his composure like other gods. As the king of the gods, his eyes at this moment held only chilling rationality and ruthlessness.

"We made a mistake."

Zeus tapped his fingers rhythmically on the armrest. "We've always measured our opponents by strength and attributes. But the Eastern lands... they place more emphasis on divine affiliation and systems."

"In that realm of the red-robed ghosts, the authority over death is governed by a strict system."

"Thanatos lost because he had integrity."

Zeus slowly stood up, his lightning robes billowing, bringing with them a destructive aura. "Because you have a personality, you will be judged; because you have a form, you will be captured; because you consider yourself the god of death, you will be regarded by the judge as an evil spirit who arbitrarily enforces the law."

"Since that's the case..."

Zeus flipped his hand over.

In the palm of my hand, a pitch-black box appeared out of nowhere.

The moment the box appeared, the brilliant divine light surrounding it dimmed instantly, as if it had swallowed up all the light. Even Ares, the god of war, instinctively took a step back upon seeing the box, his eyes filled with deep apprehension.

The box had no patterns, only countless fine cracks, from which emanated a void deeper than the night.

That was a forbidden place that even the gods were unwilling to mention.

It is also the bottom of a cage that imprisons Titans, and even more ancient beings.

"Since the administrative system is suppressing you, then you shouldn't be a god."

Zeus's voice was devoid of any emotion, as if he were about to discard not a chief god, but a worn-out rag.

Let's go back to basics.

"Let death return to its true nature—without good or evil, without reason, only the end."

Zeus released his grip.

The black box fell.

……

On the ring, Zhong Kui was preparing to tear off Thanatos's remaining leg to use as a toothpick.

Although this thing doesn't taste very good, it is at least made of divine power. It warms him up when he eats it, which is somewhat beneficial for him to repair his golden body.

"belch--"

Zhong Kui let out a burp and was wondering if he should ask someone for a couple of bowls of wine to soothe his stomach.

Sudden.

The hairs on his body suddenly stood on end.

An extremely uncomfortable aura was rapidly descending from above his head.

That wasn't demonic energy, ghostly energy, or even malevolent energy.

That was a pure emptiness.

"What filth?"

Zhong Kui subconsciously looked up, but before he could see what it was, the pitch-black box had already smashed onto the mangled body of Thanatos that he was stepping on.

There was no explosion.

There was no roar.

There was only a slight buzzing sound.

"Buzz—"

Thanatos, who had been eaten to the point of near death by Zhong Kui and was unable to even struggle, suddenly let out a shriek that did not belong to any living being.

"Uh...ah..."

The voice was shrill and piercing, as if the soul had been forcibly torn apart and reassembled, sending chills down one's spine.

Then, under the gaze of billions of eyes, Thanatos's remains began to melt away mysteriously.

Yes, it melted.

His pale bones and ghostly blue soul flames disintegrated and collapsed the moment they came into contact with the substance flowing out of the black box.

"What happened? The Grim Reaper self-destructed?" The global audience was in an uproar.

But soon, the exclamations turned into terrified gasps.

Because that pool of melted matter didn't dissipate; instead, it resembled a nightmare ruminated from the deepest depths of hell.

It lost its fixed shape, transforming into a dark, viscous liquid that slowly writhed on the arena like a living swamp. Wherever it passed, not only was matter swallowed up, but light, air, and even the original spatial rules of the arena were silently erased, leaving only a pure, chilling void.

Zhong Kui's large foot, which had been treading on Thanatos's head, was now deeply embedded in the black mud.

"Sizzle sizzle—"

That wasn't the sound of flesh burning, but the lament of rules clashing violently.

"hiss--!"

Zhong Kui's crimson face twitched violently, as if his soul had been branded by a hot iron, and he abruptly pulled his right leg back.

Those official boots, once capable of shattering mountains and rivers and impervious to all evil, were now corroded with a shockingly large hole. Through the tear, one could clearly see the skin of the golden image on the soles of his feet, which was turning an eerie grayish-white, as if some domineering will of death was forcibly stripping away his life force.