When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Hill Jones lowered his head to look at the Fey Bow, and at that moment, numerous eyes, dense and packed, opened on its body.
Blinking ceaselessly, their whites were almost entirely tinged with an eerie blood-red. As the brown pupils swiveled, viscous crimson fluid seemed to ooze from them.
Xu Mu and Qiongqi were stunned, and Hill Jones was equally bewildered. They had never imagined that the legendary Fey Bow could transform in such a manner.
He was, indeed, a fey!
Silwen was the fey's name!
"This, this is impossible!" Hill Jones was utterly shocked. He had never conceived that the relic weapon he had pursued his entire life was actually a fey.
To the elves, fey were like demons to humans; their elven history was replete with genocidal wars against fey, a struggle that barely succeeded in eradicating the species.
Yet now, he was seeing a fey again, and it was in his hands!
"Ha, haha." The Fey Bow continued to laugh eerily. The hundred-plus nauseating eyes blinked incessantly, as if possessing some peculiar magic that caused Hill Jones's own eyes to redden.
Xu Mu and Qiongqi stared blankly at the scene before them, utterly at a loss for what to do.
"Run, run as far as you can," the Demon God said, his voice grave. He could sense that the fey's power was immense, far exceeding what a weapon should possess.
It was as if he himself had been before forming a contract with Xu Mu.
"So what if you are a fey? You will still serve me!" Hill Jones bit his tongue, instantly snapping out of the strange illusion. He gripped the bow tightly with his right hand, his left hand's fingers extending like a spider's, probing towards the eyes with the power to tear through all.
He was Hill Jones of the Wind Elves, a half-step Human King at thirty-four. Though he had died a millennium ago, he remained powerful enough to contend with a fey!
"Screech!"
The Fey Bow, Silwen, let out a piercing shriek. It was merely an artifact now, unable to unleash its full might. Carelessly, Hill Jones could easily control it. Thus, it instantly twanged its string!
*Thrumm...*
Unlike the previous explosions, the sound that coalesced from the Great Dao, which he himself had used to draw the string, resembled the deep, resonant chime of a bell from a mountain temple—distant, serene, yet profoundly weighty.
The Great Dao of Space layered upon itself, incredibly dense. Before it even unleashed, it carved a massive pit into the ground beneath Hill Jones's feet. His arm shattered with a crack, unable to bear the immense weight of the bow in its current state.
"Kneel before me!" Facing the arrow imbued with the Great Dao, Hill Jones did not retreat. With a spirit of mutual destruction, he channeled all his strength, confronting the imminent arrow of the Great Dao with the pure Great Dao of Wind.
*Boom!*
Impact. Inches away, the terrifying Great Dao intertwined, tore, and then erupted like a bomb. Countless unseen threads of the Great Dao, like filaments, surged with the rushing wind, shredding everything in their path into dust.
Seeing this, Xu Mu had no choice but to grit his teeth and brandish his demonic blade, creating an impenetrable wall of steel before him in an attempt to ward off the scattered Great Dao. But this was a battle of near Human King-level powerhouses; even the residual force was beyond what a third-stage ability user like himself could withstand.
The instant the strands of the Great Dao touched him, Xu Mu's wrist shattered with a crack, and the blade in his hand flew from his grasp.
At that very moment, Qiongqi, who had been hiding behind him, roared and stepped forward. He shrunk his domain to a two-meter radius, shielding himself and Xu Mu, while simultaneously gripping the demonic blade in his mouth. Using his domain's sensory abilities, he began to contend with the Great Dao.
*Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!*
Accompanied by a series of sparks, numerous dull yet clear, resonant sounds erupted. The very bones in Qiongqi's skull vibrated violently from the immense impact, threatening to disintegrate. His teeth shattered, and blood streamed from his mouth, yet he stubbornly held onto the hilt of the blade, for their lives depended on it!
"Hold on!" Xu Mu braced himself against the wall with his legs, supporting Qiongqi's body with all his might. The colossal force of each impact was ultimately absorbed by the wall.
"Charles, hurry and help! I'm dying!" Xu Mu gritted his teeth and shouted, instinctively calling out to Charles, forgetting that the latter had long since disappeared!
"I've already died once. What more do you want me to do to help you?" A familiar voice echoed from within Xu Mu's mind.
The latter was first stunned, then exclaimed with immense joy, "Holy crap, Charles, you're not dead, you're alive!"
"Nonsense, of course I'm alive." The familiar silvery-white data stream slowly floated into the air, transforming into the appearance of a distinguished old gentleman, his expression exceedingly solemn.
"After I blocked the spatial turbulence for you last time, I entered the Heavenly Palace to slumber. I can barely move about until today. Who knew you'd get into such a massive predicament? If I'd known, I wouldn't have come out!"
"Stop wasting time and help me, or we'll both die here!" Though Xu Mu was delighted and wanted to catch up with Charles, the struggle between Hill Jones and the Fey Bow had reached its most intense point.
"Submit to me!" With a roar from Hill Jones, his Great Dao of Wind and his Dharma Idol exploded with a thundering sound. At that instant, they unleashed their most potent power, aiming to annihilate the fey.
But similarly, the string of the Fey Bow vibrated relentlessly, firing arrows at speeds imperceptible to the eye. The terrifying power of the Great Dao shredded space itself, creating rifts of void, and one could even glimpse the turbulence within.
The residual energy from their clash consequently grew stronger and stronger, and he was on the verge of collapse!
"I don't have a physical body, so how can I help you? I'm going to sleep," Charles sighed, then instantly retreated into Xu Mu's mind. He was truly helpless in this situation, unless Grey-White Eyes could break through and take control of the body.
However, that fellow had suffered setbacks multiple times, and it would be difficult for him to emerge from the Heavenly Palace anytime soon. Thus, Charles had no solutions and chose to sleep.
"Charles, you bastard!" Xu Mu cursed in frustration, then continued to exert all his strength to block the impact of the residual Great Dao. Bone after bone in his body shattered, eventually being pulverized by the force of the impact.
Qiongqi was also under immense pressure. His jaws were cracking outwards from the repeated collisions, and blood from his skull sprayed outwards like a fountain.
Xu Mu pushed with all his might, and Qiongqi also exerted himself to the fullest. Together, they blocked the aftershocks of these attacks.
At some point, the terrifying residual force ceased, but Qiongqi, seemingly unaware, continued to swing his head, gripping the hilt of the blade like a machine.
Xu Mu, still conscious behind him, sensed that the power was no longer emanating. He immediately endured the searing pain, pulled his shattered legs out of the wall, and, using Qiongqi's body for support, managed to stand.
He looked up towards the distance.
There stood the elf, covered in blood, yet still proud and powerful. In his hand was the Fey Bow.
The eyes on the bow's body were almost entirely poked out, and grotesque blood pooled on the ground. If one listened closely, the weak whimpers could be heard.
"I... won. Even if you are a fey... you cannot defeat... me." Hill Jones's voice was intermittent, as if he were on the verge of death.
Then, his body began to sway, his fingers gradually loosened, and as the Fey Bow fell from his grasp, his body slumped to the ground with a thud.
Seeing this, Xu Mu gently laid Qiongqi's body down, retrieved the blade from his mouth, and gave Qiongqi a pill.
He then looked ahead with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty, seemingly contemplating his next move.
The Fey Bow lay carelessly on the ground, its eye fragments scattered everywhere. The body of Hill Jones, or rather, Silf, lay nearby, eyes wide open, seemingly lifeless.
"A mutual destruction?"
He suppressed his doubts, gripped his blade, and dragged his broken body, enduring the excruciating pain, towards the direction of the two.
Just as he was nearing them, Silf's finger twitched. Then, his eyes trembled, followed by his head and his body.
"Brother, even if I am at my last breath, do you think you could defeat me? You will never overcome me..." Hill Jones's voice was aged and weak. His body vibrated violently on the ground, as if Silf within his body were struggling for control.
Beside him, the Fey Bow, after a brief silence, seemed to awaken. Its string, no longer radiating starlight, trembled lightly, as if preparing to fire another arrow.
But at that moment, a blade loudly jammed into its bow, piercing the disgusting eyes.
"Wail..." The Fey Bow let out a pained cry, but Xu Mu ignored it. Using his right arm as a crutch with the blade, the hilt tucked under his armpit, he held the Fey Bow firmly to the ground.
In his left hand, he held a pistol.
He tried to aim, but his finger bones were all broken, as were his arms and shoulders. Thus, Xu Mu could only twist his body, shakily pointing the muzzle at Silf's body, and then using the tip of his only intact middle finger, he managed to pull the trigger.
*Bang!*
*Squelch!*
The first bullet pierced his back, eliciting a weak cry. Then followed the second, the third...
Until Xu Mu emptied the pistol, he tossed it to the ground with a *clack*.
By this time, Silf, or rather, Hill Jones on the ground, had completely breathed his last.
He could not have been more dead.
Xu Mu used his faint soul power to probe again, confirming there were no tricks, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. He then slumped onto the ground.
"Ah, it's finally over," he said, looking at the pool of blood and the disgusting eye fragments on the ground. The tension that had been coiled tightly within him slowly loosened.
"Come, sign the contract and become my weapon." Xu Mu said, pulling out a contract from his spatial ring. Its contents were similar to those signed by Grey-White Eyes and the Demon God.
Beneath him, the Fey Bow, emitting faint whimpers, tried to struggle further, but Xu Mu gave it no chance. He immediately plunged the tip of his blade into one of its eyes and roared impatiently, "Sign quickly, or I'll kill you!"
"Wuwuwu..."
The Fey Bow, Silwen, was forced to sign the contract. Upon its activation, Xu Mu felt a connection, however faint, form between himself and the bow.
Exhausted, he had no energy to marvel at the relic's mystique. He casually tossed it into his spatial ring, then limped towards Qiongqi.
"Are you alright? Are you really unconscious?" Xu Mu asked, looking at Qiongqi, who lay in a pool of blood, his tongue hanging out as if dead, with a worried expression. He had endured so much impact, surely he wasn't truly dead!
As Xu Mu worried, Qiongqi suddenly opened his eyes the next second.
"Is it all dealt with?" Qiongqi asked cautiously. Though his voice was weak, he was not dead.
"I knew you were faking it, you rascal," Xu Mu said with a smile. "It's all dealt with. Let's go."
"As expected of you, my good fellow. Let's go!" Qiongqi rose from the ground, and together, they staggered towards the exit mechanism marked on the map.
It was evident that the rest of the wall had been deeply scarred by the residual forces of their battle, leaving it in ruins. Only a square-shaped indentation remained intact.
Xu Mu reached out and gently pressed it.
*Rumble, rumble, rumble...*
With a shower of dust, a stone door automatically opened to the sides.
A few rays of light streamed out, stinging the eyes of Qiongqi and Xu Mu, who had not seen sunlight in so long.
"Teleportation array."
A moment later, Xu Mu opened his eyes, realizing that the so-called exit was merely a space the size of a well shaft. High above, where the sky with its sun resided.
And on the ground they stood, was an ancient teleportation array.
"Do you know where it leads?" Xu Mu hesitantly asked Qiongqi. He was unsure whether to use the teleportation array. What if it sent them to the Sea of Continents? Facing enemies in their current state would be immediate death!
"Don't know. Who cares?" Qiongqi extended a claw and activated the teleportation array imprinted on the ground. The patterns on the ground then glowed, slowly enveloping their bodies.
"Fu Xi pointed the way. Just trust it and go!"
"Makes sense." Xu Mu nodded. Just before teleporting, he suddenly remembered that a group of elves were still imprisoned at the other end of the tunnel.
"You guys remember, from the eighth section onwards, the steps to get out are... like this, like this, like this!"
Xu Mu shouted loudly, conveying the method to pass through the tunnel. His voice was so loud that it aggravated his injuries, causing blood to well up in his throat.
"Whether they can hear it depends on their fate," Xu Mu said, then smiled at Qiongqi, letting the blood soak through his clothes.
The next second, the teleportation array fully activated.
Light flashed, and space hummed incessantly.
Amidst a heart-pounding surge of energy, the figures of Xu Mu and Qiongqi instantly vanished!
...