After clearing the level, the fairies were reborn!

"What a foolish choice."

Chapter 179 Borrowing a Light

King Xuanwu looked at the little spider perched on Xu Ze's shoulder with disdain.

“Back then, I offered you the position of my servant, but you refused.”

His voice was deep, as deep as the earth's crust moving.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was so loud it made people's eardrums hurt and caused ripples to spread across the water.

"You said you wanted to rely on yourself and didn't want to depend on anyone."

The giant python, as if granted a pardon, shrank back and quickly retreated behind the tortoise shell, only revealing half of its head, looking timidly in this direction.

"But what about now?"

The giant tortoise's gaze fell on Tao Yaoyao, and a complex emotion flashed in its turbid eyes.

There was anger, disappointment, and a hint of pity that was hard to define.

"Yet you chose to submit to a human, and a human at the Void Refinement stage at that..."

It shook its head, and in its cloudy eyes, pity outweighed anger.

"How pathetic."

Upon hearing this resounding voice, Tao Yaoyao's tears streamed down her face.

She wanted to argue, to say that wasn't the case, but the words stuck in her throat.

Because she knew that's how it was perceived by other demonic beasts.

She became a spider kept as a pet by humans, a demon who willingly fell into depravity.

Xu Ze stood there, looking at the tortoise-shaped mountain and those cloudy eyes.

"Are you finished speaking?"

He finally spoke.

King Xuanwu shifted his gaze from Tao Yaoyao to Xu Ze.

A hint of contempt crept into those cloudy eyes.

"When did it become your place, a human, to interrupt me when I am speaking?"

Xu Ze smiled.

"Oh."

He reached out and drew his sword, tip pointing downwards, and gently inserted it into the water.

The sword disappeared into the water silently, leaving only a ripple.

"You monsters are really interesting."

At the beginning, when I met Tao Yaoyao.

The opponent was clearly only the second-to-last ranked demon king, but just like the Xuanwu King at this moment, he was extremely arrogant.

Only after witnessing true power will they become honest.

"Human, you just said you were looking for me, the King?"

The Xuanwu King had no idea what the young man in front of it was saying. It still exuded its oppressive aura, the 'unrivaled' power of the Tribulation Transcending stage.

"That's right, I need to borrow your shell."

The giant tortoise in front of them froze.

"What did you say?"

Suddenly, it laughed.

The laughter was deep, as deep as thunder, causing huge waves to rise on the water.

"Borrow my shell?"

When he spoke again, the Xuanwu King's voice was full of sarcasm:

Do you know what my carapace is?

"That's the bloodline inheritance of the ancient Xuanwu, my life-bound treasure that I've cultivated for tens of thousands of years. You think you can just lend it to me like that?"

Xu Ze did not get angry and spoke again in a calm tone.

"In that case, I won't lend it to you..."

"I'll just come and get it."

Guishan's laughter stopped abruptly, and the trembling of the earth ceased.

A chill suddenly welled up in those cloudy eyes.

"Human, what right do you have?!"

Xu Ze did not answer this question.

He simply gripped the hilt and pulled the longsword from the water.

The moment the sword left the water, a sword intent soared into the sky.

That sword intent was exactly the same as the sword intent that had just cleaved open the belly of the Devouring Toad.

There was no sword light, no sword energy, and no earth-shattering phenomena.

Only an invisible, undeniable force surged from the tip of the sword, spreading in all directions.

"Shh-"

A sword strike was unleashed.

The water surface was cut open, revealing a bottomless ravine.

The mudflats were torn apart, revealing the black rocks underneath.

The fog dissipated, revealing a gray sky.

The earth trembled, the air groaned, and the entire Xuanwu Marsh shuddered under the oppressive force of this sword strike.

The python's body went limp, and it lay paralyzed on the water's surface, unable to even lift its head.

Its eyes were filled with terror, and the reflection of the figure in the green robe and the sword that was not yet fully drawn were mirrored in its pupils.

"It's him...it's him!!"

Its voice trembled, like a withered leaf in the wind:

"Your Majesty, please be careful!"

"The Devouring Toad... he might really have killed it!!"

The eyes of the Xuanwu King also changed.

Those eyes, which were like still water, were now surprisingly bright.

It wasn't excitement, it was shock, it was disbelief.

Looking at the sword intent, the young man in green robes, and the sword that was not yet fully drawn, it suddenly felt that its armor was not so hard anymore.

Xu Ze did not give it time to think.

His sword was fully drawn.

"Heaven and earth, I am the master of the sword!!"

The eight words came out of his mouth very softly and faintly, as if he were talking to himself.

But those eight words, when they reached the turtle's ears, were like thunderclaps, making its very soul tremble.

The sword rises, the sword falls.

That sword strike did not aim for the giant tortoise's head, nor for its limbs.

Instead, it cleaved straight down towards the mountain—

The back armor of the Black Tortoise King.

In an instant, the world lost its color.

This is not an exaggeration; it has truly lost its color.

The purple mist turned white, the gray sky turned white, and the black tortoise shell turned white.

The whole world turned white, so white it was blinding, so white it was impossible to open your eyes.

Then, a loud bang was heard.

"boom--!!"

It was the sound of a mountain splitting open.

The Turtle Mountain, covered with moss and shrubs, was divided in two from the very middle.

The cracks extend from the center of the carapace to both sides, like two rampaging pythons, through the moss, through the bushes, and through the trees that have struggled for countless years.

The cracks grew wider and deeper until finally the entire mountain collapsed.

The tortoise shell that the Xuanwu King was so proud of cracked.

That shell, which it had cultivated for tens of thousands of years and boasted was harder than the Nine Heavens Profound Iron, and which incorporated ancient bloodline defensive techniques, just cracked open like that.

"what--!"

The screams of the Xuanwu King echoed through the sky.

Its body slid out of the shell, revealing its flesh underneath, which was not protected by a carapace.

The flesh was grayish-white, like a giant worm, rolling and struggling on the ground.

Its blood was black, gushing from the cracks like a spring, staining the entire swamp black.

Xu Ze's sword pierced directly through its shell and struck its body.

"This...this is impossible..."