Chapter 218: Black Eyes

Boom—!!

Jian Changsheng felt a shadow envelop him. Without hesitation, he continuously flickered, dodging the attack. The next moment, the foot of a gigantic architectural beast crashed down, creating a crater dozens of meters wide where he had just stood.

Before he could even celebrate dodging the attack, hundreds of scarlet paper strips snaked out from all directions, coiling around him. These strips seemed to have deciphered the mechanism of his ability, perfectly predicting Jian Changsheng's every move and blocking his escape routes a step ahead.

Jian Changsheng's pupils suddenly constricted!

Scarlet paper strips swiftly climbed onto his body, binding him as if for an execution. Jian Changsheng gripped the short sword in his hand tightly, desperately trying to plunge its blade into his throat. Only by piercing a major artery and letting his blood splatter profusely did he have any hope of escape.

However, just as he tried to lift his arm, the strips easily locked his limbs in place. One strip wrapped around the short sword's surface, effortlessly reducing it to a mere painted brushstroke on paper. No matter how much Jian Changsheng struggled, he couldn't retrieve it.

As Jian Changsheng felt his body slowly lose control, despair welled up uncontrollably in his eyes.

From the moment he began his escape to now, caught, less than ten seconds had passed. Under the gaze of that Sixth-Tier eye, everything about him seemed to be seen through. He was like a turtle in a jar, utterly helpless to escape, no matter how hard he tried...

“Damn it… I’m truly unlucky.”

Jian Changsheng was completely numb. Ever since the Ancient Military Repository, his life had been a string of extreme misfortunes... He was on the verge of completing his trial and becoming a genius, only to be instantly killed by the suddenly appearing Chen Ling; he inexplicably came back to life, then collapsed from exhaustion while crossing the Frozen Sea, only to wake up and have his soul shattered for evidence; just when he thought things couldn't get any worse while living in a hovel, he was suddenly captured and dragged back to the Starlight Merchant Guild, once again plunged into despair...

It was as if fate was playing a cruel joke on him, offering him a glimmer of hope in his most desperate moments, only to plunge him back into the hell of despair just when he started to believe things might improve.

Just like now, Jian Changsheng racked his brain but couldn't understand why that god-like calamity would single out him, a mere second-tier ant?

Masses of red paper intertwined, forming a colossal scarlet hand that descended from the sky, seemingly capable of destroying everything. Compared to its size, Jian Changsheng was like a tiny ant. He watched with his own eyes as the writhing hand rapidly grew larger before him, the swirling winds it generated nearly suffocating him!

Boom—!!!

The scarlet hand slammed onto Jian Changsheng's body, batting him from mid-air into the ground. Amidst a thunderous roar, the hand embedded itself deep beneath the manor's surface, and ravine-like cracks spread wildly across the earth!

Visible shockwaves expanded in all directions, and as dust swirled, a hundred-meter-wide impact crater slowly emerged.

Above the swirling paper clouds, the eye, like a red sun, watched the dust-filled manor. As if sensing something, its pupil slightly constricted…

The next moment, a cold, deep voice echoed through the sky!

“—Calamity!!!”

Crack—!!

A dark red lightning bolt, like a long spear, pierced down from the heavens, instantly tearing a gap in the surging red clouds and precisely striking the impact crater left by the gigantic scarlet hand!

At that moment, the sky and the manor were both bathed in crimson, as if they had returned to an ancient battlefield brimming with killing intent.

Lightning coursed through the ruins, countless electric arcs like long snakes tearing at the scarlet paper strips. From the deepest part of the impact crater, a colossal pillar of solidified killing intent suddenly shot into the sky!

“Ancient killing intent from the Ancient Military Repository?” Chu Muyun, watching from afar, was once again filled with shock.

“How could it appear here…?”

If the red paper monster that escaped from Chen Ling's body was within Chu Muyun's expectations, then the sudden appearance of ancient killing intent now completely surpassed his comprehension… Could it be an ancient entity buried within the Path of the War God, reappearing in the world?

In the battlefield where lightning clashed with red paper, a blood-soaked figure slowly emerged from the swirling dust…

Jian Changsheng slowly raised his head, his eyes, consumed by darkness, were as cold as if they originated from an abyss of killing intent.

With his appearance, ancient killing intent swept forth like a tide. A projection of a divine path leading to the endless void slowly extended beneath his steps, and faint sounds of clashing weapons and battle roars emanated from it, as if from a period of history once etched into this world.

“‘Mock’ disaster, condemned by heaven and earth.”

A low, hoarse voice came from his mouth; it did not belong to Jian Changsheng. At that moment, he seemed like an entirely different person, every movement imbued with a heart-stopping sense of dread.

He slowly raised his hand, gripping the empty space above his head.

Crack!!

Another lightning bolt crashed down, transforming into a blood-red spear that landed precisely before him.

Amidst the swirling dust, his hand slowly pulled the spear shaft from the cracked earth… The moment the spear tip left the ground, electric arcs wildly danced across its body!

The next moment, his body shot up from the ground like a cannonball!

Ancient and sharp killing intent enveloped him, making him appear like a spear of slaughter from the Path of the War God. Its tip was aimed directly at the colossal eye that overlooked the world!

His actions enraged the eye above the red clouds. The surging clouds suddenly twisted, and thousands of tentacles woven from red paper descended from the sky, swarming towards him like countless red monsters!

Black-eyed Jian Changsheng gripped the spear shaft tightly and, like lightning, plunged headlong into the endless red sea!

Countless monstrous roars engulfed him. After a brief pause, dark red lightning, like a blooming crimson lotus, unfurled within the sea of paper. The arc of his sweeping spear created a vacuum, and all the paper fragments within it shattered into dust, vanishing into nothingness!

After this strike, a lightning-flashing gap appeared in the red clouds, only to be filled by endless red paper the next moment. But no matter how the red paper surged, the black-eyed figure, holding the long spear, remained standing firm.

“It seems that ancient entity is not in its complete state either.”

Chu Muyun stood on a nearby rooftop, gazing thoughtfully at the battle raging in the clouds.

“However, to be able to fight against a half-unleashed world-ender, that entity’s power in its prime must have been formidable… For two ancient entities of mysterious origin to appear simultaneously at a single Starlight Merchant Guild, is it mere coincidence, or…?”