The Husky and His White Cat Shizun

Chapter 307 - The Dusk of Bats at the Apex of Life and Death

"What's happening?"

The beauties in the back couldn't see what was transpiring ahead and anxiously craned their necks to get a better view.

Though Chu Wanning's defenses were high and solid, they were but a small hill before the vast ocean of the Nine Provinces. As they witnessed the Nine Songs barrier cracking, water seeping through the vines and leaves, the beauties grew flustered, calling out, "What's going on? Why won't you let us in?"

Someone turned to look behind them and their face paled in an instant. "The Path of Martyrdom has collapsed!"

"What?!"

Now, the clan of beauties found themselves trapped, with the demonic gate ahead closed and the demonic bridge behind collapsing. With an endless abyss beneath their feet, where could they possibly escape to?

Amidst the chaos, Shi Mo shouted sternly, "Everyone, come forward! Don't panic!"

"Grandmaster Hua..."

His voice, amplified by a spell, reached the end of the line, "I said I would take you home."

This was something he had sought for two lifetimes, and it was also his mother's dearest wish before she passed away. At this point, he would no longer yield in the slightest.

"But Grandmaster, how could we possibly have the power to resist the Demon Envoy?"

Shi Mo glanced aside, his light brown irises reflecting the apocalyptic scene.

"It was true before. But what about now?"

His words jolted the panicked group of beauties into remembering that since the Demonic Realm's opening, they had all regained some demonic spirit energy to varying degrees.

Shi Mo said, " Retreat behind me and gather together to slow down the annihilation of the Path of Martyrdom."

"What about you, Grandmaster?"

Shi Mo raised his gaze to look at the skeleton wielding an ax and shield, saying, "I'll defeat him."

The moment he finished speaking, the demonic skeleton roared and pounced forward.

—"Watch out, Grandmaster!"

Unfazed, Shi Mo had never experienced such a surging tide of spiritual energy. The demonic aura raced through his body, fueling his unyielding determination.

In truth, the Butterfly Bone Clan should have been a formidable tribe. Yet, due to one individual's betrayal, they had suffered an unjust fate for millions of years...

With hatred in his eyes and flames igniting in his palms, he hurled them without hesitation towards the skeleton.

The skeleton dodged, and the fireball collided with the demonic gate, leaving a charred mark.

"Traitor, how dare you!"

Shi Mo exclaimed in anger. "Is it my fault that I carry such blood within me? ! Banished from the human realm because of the bloodline of the Gouchen mother clan, unable to form a spirit nucleus. Rejected by my divine ancestor's lineage, forbidden from returning home—what have I done? What has the Butterfly Bone Clan done? Why are we traitors?"

The skeleton stubbornly repeated solemnly, "Traitor, how dare you..."

It was like the chanting of a monk's mantra, like the golden statue molded from yellow clay.

Something as intangible as it was, yet it seemed so reasonable and inevitable.

In the heavens, Chu Wanning was desperately resisting the overwhelming flood. In the distance, the cultivators of the world had mostly retreated to the intersection of two mortal realms, where they had constructed a Black Tortoise Barrier.

Before him, Shi Mo was engaged in a life-and-death battle with the demonic skeleton.

Each carried their own missions and made their own choices. They might have once clashed due to shared interests, but at this moment, they were powerless to fight each other to the death.

When the verdict of destiny finally descends, all faces seem so alike.

I may be humble, but I refuse to surrender without a fight.

"Grandmaster! The Path of Martyrdom is collapsing to its end!"

"We can't hold on any longer..."

Some of the younger, delicate beauties couldn't endure the despair of impending death and covered their faces in tears.

They were weeping, their sobs intertwining with the fierce winds, congesting and filling Shi Mo's ears...

It was as if, in that year, his diminutive figure had desperately slammed against the icy stone gates of the Heavenly Sound Pavilion.

The door creaked open, revealing his father with blood trickling from the corner of his mouth and his mother, dismembered and mangled. She screamed in agony, her bloodied body scraping against the ground as she desperately cried out to him,

"Run! —— Hurry and run!"

Run, leave this place.

Run, to a place where we'll finally be accepted.

Take all our bullied kin with us. That was Mother's lifelong aspiration, one she was willing to sacrifice her soul, her body, and ultimately, her life, to fulfill.

Run.

"So, where have I wronged the Demon Clan?"

It was his final question, and he had no intention of waiting for an answer.

But Shi Mo leaped into action, dodging the heavy ax swing of the Demon Skeleton. Light as a kite, he shifted his body, then in a blink, knelt on the creature's shoulder, clamping down on its swiveling skull.

The ground beneath their feet trembled more violently. The bridge, constructed from precious chess pieces, began collapsing rapidly, and the corpses tumbled into the endless abyss, their echoes swallowed by the void.

Shi Mo lifted his gaze to see his kin huddled together, expelling the demonic aura they had just absorbed, desperately trying to slow down the destruction of their homeward path.

They were the Pure Blooded Beauty Clan, a flock returning to their nest – but what about him?

There was the fluttering sound of bats in the abyss.

A chilling glow illuminated Shi Mo's palm as a thorn suddenly sprang forth, imbued with the sharp demonic essence. He raised it high, aiming straight at the heart of the demonic skull --

And plunged it down with force!

...

What were bats, really?

Were they birds soaring through the sky? Or beasts lurking in the darkness?

Perhaps neither would claim him. His blood was tainted, and wherever he went, he could only be a traitor.

A brief silence followed. The demonic skull crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom! In an instant, it disintegrated into countless specks of black ash, vanishing without a trace. However, at that moment, the closing of the demonic gate was becoming perilously imminent. Shi Mo leaped upward, soaring high to temporarily prop up the closing relief stone door with his mortal body.

He turned his head and, with an irritated tone, shouted at the bewildered and tear-stained beauties below, "What are you still standing there for? ... Run!!"

Run...

"Run!" Huagui's piercing scream echoed through the ages, piercing through the clouds from the moment of his death. Two decades had passed, yet it still tore at the heart, "Nan, run!!!"

With his eyes closed, he could vividly see her arm being ripped apart, her leg bones shattered, as she writhed in a pool of blood, fighting like a trapped beast. She lunged forward to grasp her husband's legs, all to create a path to survival for her child.

"Run!!! Hurry up! Don't look back! Don't come back!!! Ahhh——!!!"

The man's foot came down, shattering her face into an indistinct blur.

In the very last moment, she mustered all her strength to utter, "Run..."

A crisp, resonant sound echoed.

Throat severed...

With teeth gritted, Shi Mo infused his being with demonic energy, causing his bones to creak under the strain. Yet, he stubbornly held the door and barrier open, refusing to let the demonic realm close.

He gazed down, beads of sweat trickling from his forehead, his lips bitten through, blood seeping out. His entire body trembled, as if his bones were being crushed – though the closing of the Demon Gate had slowed, the pressure remained relentless, coldly and majestically pressing down on this mortal frame.

An inch, two inches... a foot... two feet...

Veins bulged on his forehead, his cheeks flushed red.

Yet he still stared at the panicked crowd below, his voice hoarse, "Run..."

Faster, even faster.

I promised to take us home. Even if my hands were stained with blood, if I was despised by thousands for betraying my master and forsaking my kin. I've done everything for this path, committed every wicked deed.

But I am not a traitor.

His bones seemed ready to dislocate, to be crushed, yet he still held up that colossal gate – how laughable, an ant attempting to hold up the sky, a mayfly striving to shake a tree.

Suddenly, a tremendous crash echoed nearby!

Shi Mo barely raised his damp face, peering through the wet gaps between his eyelashes. He saw Chu Wanning struck by the wave that engulfed the heavens. The wall formed by Tianwen and Jiuge was already in ruins, and after its master plummeted from the skies, this desperately maintained and supported dam instantly crumbled.

He witnessed Chu Wanning being swept into the water by a massive wave.

"Master..."

The walls crumbled, and the floodwaters, now unchecked, rushed with unstoppable force towards the intersection of the two realms, leveling mountains, buildings, and filling valleys. In an instant, everything sank beneath the tempestuous waves.

The world was no longer as it had been yesterday.

The vast ocean had transformed into fertile land.

In that fleeting moment, the pressure from the demonic sect increased dramatically, causing Shi Mo to feel his bones dislocate and his spiritual energy drain. He suddenly coughed up blood.

Looking down, he saw that there were still a dozen people who hadn't made it across.

With an unknown surge of strength, he roared in anger, veins bulging in his neck. Using all his limbs, he desperately tried to hold back the closing gateway.

"Grandmaster Hua!"

The beauty seats on the other side hadn't ventured far; they were gathered below, watching him. But Shi Mo could no longer discern their faces clearly; his vision was blurred, everything appeared hazy.

Finally... five... three...

Amidst the agony, a vindictive grin spread across his contorted face, his lips bleeding, his teeth stained crimson.

What of the heavens and fate, humans, demons, gods, and ghosts? What of the obstacles blocking my path, nullifying all progress?

In the end... they were no match...

For an iron-willed heart.

For an unyielding spirit.

And now... the last one...

"Run..."

Shi Mo laughed wildly. Forget about a mayfly not being able to move a tree; with an unwavering heart, even an ant's nest could cause a levee to break.

Didn't he achieve it all in the end?

With a resounding crash!

The gates of the Demon Realm slammed shut, and before his eyes, a blend of red and black filled his vision—red for blood, and black for the sky. The last sound that the bat in the crevice heard in the human world was a sharp snap.

It sent shivers down one's spine.

Was it the cracking of a skull?

Or the echo of his mother's neck being snapped when he was young...

"Grandmaster Hua! Grandmaster!" The mournful cries of the Butterfly Bone Clan were cut off by the slamming shut of the demonic gate, trapped in another world.

The Demon Realm's gate was drenched in blood, and amidst the crevice, fragments of Hua Binan's limbs fell... But then, a colossal wave swept in, erasing all traces of the sacrificial path paved with countless bones.

When the wave subsided, the demonic gate was nowhere to be seen.

Only the summit of life and death remained, submerged in the vast ocean, with the Tower of Heaven collapsing, the Red Lotus Water Pavilion destroyed, and the tiles of the Heart Pillar Hall devoured in an instant.

Chu Wanning choked on several gulps of water, attempting several times to summon Huai Sha to ride the sword out, but each time, he failed due to his temporary depletion of spiritual energy.

Another colossal wave crashed down, its immense water pressure slamming into Chu Wanning's chest and dragging along a fragment of broken driftwood. He was violently submerged beneath the ocean's depths, his brows furrowing in agony as he struggled to catch his breath—unable to grasp even a single lifeline.

His white robes billowed, and his black hair scattered wildly around him as he continuously sank lower and lower. The glow before his eyes gradually faded, and he found it increasingly difficult to breathe, gradually experiencing an out-of-body sensation.

Xue Meng and the others... they should have already retreated to the Black Tortoise Barrier by now.

But what about after that? Would they make any mistakes?

And Mo Ran...

Mo Ran...

He slowly opened his eyes, and in the icy water, the distant sky was dimly lit. A few scattered bubbles rose from the corners of his lips. Lying there blankly, he felt as if he was about to drown; yet, he hallucinated.

He saw a dark figure swimming towards him like an aquatic creature. As it drew near, he could discern familiar features: deep purple eyes, and even the delicate, fragmented scars on the face.

Those were remnants from when he had failed to dismember the body.

Chu Wanning abruptly shut his eyes. Perhaps he had been too ruthless. So much so that even his hallucination before death tormented him.

He croaked, "I'm sorry..."

His lips moved, but only a trail of faint bubbles escaped.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed him forcefully. Before he could react, he found himself enfolded in a strong and broad embrace. The chest against him was chilling, devoid of any warmth, yet it seemed to evaporate the seawater with the potent and untamed aura emanating from this man.

"Chu Wanning."

Through the haze, he vaguely heard someone calling his name.

"Wanning!"

Amidst the disarray of consciousness, someone gently pressed their lips against his. The slightly cool lips parted, imparting a delicate thread of spiritual energy.

"Unravel, be summoned!"

In an instant, a ghostly green radiance swept close from the depths of the sea. The man seized it, and with the strange blade carrying them at lightning speed, they shot towards the surface. In the blink of an eye, there was a splash as they burst through the water. Chu Wanning was drenched from head to toe. Naturally sensitive to the cold, he trembled slightly in the icy water, his lips turning pale, devoid of any blood color. He gasped for air in great, ragged breaths.

After a long moment of catching his breath, he suddenly realized what had just transpired.

He abruptly lifted his head, meeting a pair of profound and moist eyes—no longer filled with confusion, but now clear and sharp.

Mo Ran was also slightly breathless, his lips sensuously parted and slightly damp. His black clothes clung to his muscular chest, drenched through. He gazed down at Chu Wanning without a word.

Who is this?

A puppet or a living person?

Heaven-Stepping Lord, or Grandmaster Mo?

Chu Wanning felt a lump in his throat, momentarily unable to speak. His Adam's apple bobbed for a while as he tried to utter a sound. But just then, a bitter-salty droplet of seawater trickled down his forehead and into his eye.

He instantly closed his eyes, the corners reddening.

In that very moment, the man embraced him underwater, his slightly cool lips pressing against Chu Wanning's forehead.

"It was this seat who arrived too late."

"..."

Hua Binan's shackles had been severed, and no one could control him anymore. He kissed his forehead and eyelashes, still slightly breathless from the rapid swimming to save the man.

Heaven-Stepping Lord gazed into Chu Wanning's eyes as they slowly opened again. He gently stroked Chu Wanning's hair before lifting his gaze to survey the world drowning in floods.

His voice was deep and smoldering, as he spoke after a moment:

"Let's go. I'll take you back to your world."