Chapter 194 Detaching the Gold Hoop

　　Thin flakes of stone showered down from the giant statue’s shoulder.

　　A rustling sound.

　　Mu Wanqiu sensed something was wrong… She raised her head and met the gaze of the colossal statue towering over her.

　　The cold, brutal face seemed to reveal a faint smile.

　　A strong sense of crisis welled up in her heart.

　　But it was too late.

　　The moment their eyes met, a lacquer-like light flowed and gathered on the “Traveler’s” forehead, a jet-black gemstone unleashing a beam of incredibly straight, scorching light that instantly pierced the floor of the hall, engulfing Mu Wanqiu’s position—

　　"Whirr."

　　The sound of sharp, fluttering robes echoed in the wind.

　　A wisp of ghostly black shadow narrowly brushed past the area engulfed by the beam of light, narrowly escaping.

　　Mu Wanqiu looked up in a daze, watching the guy who had appeared at the crucial moment, "taking" her out of the danger zone.

　　At that moment, Gu Shen activated the Ruler of Truth once again, a pair of silver wings unfurling on his back, gliding through the hall at a low altitude, dodging the rebounding black gemstone aurora like a hawk.

　　The two soared and glided.

　　Gu Shen suddenly said in a low voice, "Sorry… Partly because I don’t have much strength left, and partly because you’re a bit heavy…"

　　Their posture at that moment was very awkward.

　　Not that it crossed the normal boundaries between men and women.

　　But it looked far too pathetic.

　　The moment he sensed the danger, Gu Shen had sprinted towards Mu Wanqiu’s position, and because he was exhausted, he could only grab the recovery buckle on the back of Mu Wanqiu’s source armor with both hands, ensuring he could lift her.

　　So Gu Shen’s posture now looked… like he was carrying a heavy bucket.

　　Mu Wanqiu’s pretty face flushed slightly.

　　She said coldly, "Let go of me!"

　　Without a word, Gu Shen immediately released his grip.

　　"Whoosh!"

　　A beam of aurora brushed past the point where the two had been connected. Before Mu Wanqiu hit the ground, she was caught by Pan Guan, who tossed her onto its back. The giant ghost shadow unfurled its banner, its sleeves fluttering in the wind, truly like a large bird, spiraling and darting through the air with its master—

　　Gu Shen saw the direction Mu Wanqiu was heading and his heart skipped a beat.

　　"Are you crazy? Do you want to fight that thing one-on-one?!"

　　"What else can we do? Do we have any other way out?"

　　Mu Wanqiu knelt on one knee on Pan Guan’s broad back, her expression as cold as ice. She pulled out a spare war blade from her arm and wiped it, "Besides… these big guys are more fun to fight, aren’t they?"

　　From beginning to end, her eyes were fixed on the hundred-meter-tall resurrected statue.

　　Clearly, she wanted to take down this big guy head-on.

　　At that moment, the Traveler was not truly resurrected.

　　It must be that the gate of the Calamity Realm had loosened, and the Traveler had sent a wisp of its will, crossing thousands of miles, to first establish a connection with its statue!

　　Mu Wanqiu seemed to make some sense.

　　This big thing just looks big… Gu Shen thought to himself.

　　The wind swept through.

　　Pan Guan advanced instead of retreating, directly launching an assault on the Traveler statue.

　　Mu Wanqiu steadied herself, flicking her blade to shake off two beams of aurora that shot straight for her face. The distance between the two continued to shorten, and Pan Guan’s speed soared to its peak.

　　The statue "slowly" broke free from the shackles of the rock wall, reaching out its palm to grab the "moth" that was rushing towards it!

　　"Crack!"

　　Stone fragments shattered at the moment the palms came together!

　　Mu Wanqiu and Pan Guan both roared as they flew out, her arms waving and slashing out hundreds of thousands of blade lights. These blade lights were as dazzling as a peacock spreading its tail, impossible to look at with the naked eye. The next moment, she rode Pan Guan, directly up to the top of the hall, seizing this excellent opportunity, and circled rapidly around the neck of the withered statue, the blade slicing all the way to the end, stabbing into the Traveler statue’s "skin." The blade tip, wrapped in the erasing will of mental power attached to the [Pan Guan] domain, poured all the majestic killing intent into the statue’s body!

　　In an instant, Mu Wanqiu delivered a nearly perfect arc!

　　And then…

　　She was blasted away by a massive force!

　　The Traveler statue completely broke free from the stone wall. It fixed its eyes on the human woman below, and slapped out a palm. This time, the slap was no longer slow, but the momentum was a bit heavy. The next moment, the huge shadow was submerged by the howling wind—

　　Pan Guan was tall, several meters high, like a small mountain!

　　But in front of the statue, it was just an ant!

　　This slap was like swatting a fly!

　　If hit, it would probably be directly turned into dust, right?

　　Mu Wanqiu’s expression suddenly turned pale. She gritted her teeth and prepared to block with her blade. Fortunately, [Pan Guan] was faster, and at the critical moment, it widened the distance, narrowly dodging!

　　"Buzz—"

　　The violent wind filled her brain at that moment.

　　The slap missed.

　　But the wind it stirred up slammed into the other end of the hall, hundreds of meters away, directly leaving a five-finger palm print several meters wide!

　　The scene was shocking.

　　Gu Shen completely dispelled his previous thoughts.

　　This guy… was definitely not just big!

　　Mu Wanqiu escaped death, riding Pan Guan quickly ascending to widen the distance from the dangerous statue.

　　Smoke and dust splashed everywhere.

　　The giant statue that broke free from the rock wall was covered in dirt. It slowly reached out its palm and covered its neck.

　　Mu Wanqiu held her breath, watching this scene with some anticipation.

　　"Crack crack…"

　　A large amount of broken stone fragments rolled down.

　　The Traveler statue covered its neck, as if it felt pain, but that was not the case at all. It just wanted to move its body. With the sound of cracking, the Traveler made an extremely human-like neck twisting motion… After a burst of crackling, the layer of stone neck that had been cut to pieces turned into a "stone snow," falling one after another. Then it released its fingers, revealing new black rock "skin." The previous blade strike had not even made a "wound."

　　Mu Wanqiu fell into complete silence.

　　Her previous blade strike had been her best, and the timing was perfect… but it had done no damage at all.

　　[Pan Guan’s] killing intent simply could not work on this non-living thing.

　　As for the blade strike, it was a joke.

　　She had no doubt that even if she cut off the Traveler’s head, it could simply pick it up from the ground, reattach it to the broken location, and resume its movements.

　　"Is it fun?"

　　Gu Shen transmitted his voice, "If you still want to fight it for three hundred rounds, I’ll leave from the [Door] over there first."

　　"You found the [Door] to leave?"

　　Mu Wanqiu was slightly stunned.

　　The reason she was desperately fighting this big guy was because there was no [Door] here!

　　If you want to leave, you can’t!

　　"I roughly know where it is…"

　　Gu Shen stared at the rock wall from which the statue had broken free. At that moment, the rock wall still had a very small degree of rotation, revealing a line of gaps… If this statue was a contingency left by the Traveler to destroy the gates of the Nether Palace and the dead, then the only place in the entire hall that would not be affected by the black gemstone was the back of the rock wall!

　　The place where he had just read the ancient text of the Translator!

　　That place was the [Door] to leave!

　　This would also explain how the Translator left.

　　With the mysterious mover’s erudition, he was likely able to interpret the ancient texts on the earliest doors, so he clearly knew the entire architectural structure of the Nether Palace, as well as the positions of all the doors.

　　So after interpreting the rock wall left by the Traveler, he left directly from the correct passage.

　　"The back of the rock wall?"

　　Mu Wanqiu suddenly understood.

　　However… a despairing thing happened.

　　The giant statue that broke free from the stone wall ignored the two "ants" suspended in the air. It turned around directly, then reached out its two thick arms, hugged the black rock wall, and burst out with great force.

　　"Rumble!"

　　The sound of thunder resounded through the Nether Palace!

　　The rock wall rotated, completely sealing off!

　　The correct [Door] leading to the outside world was directly blocked by the statue!

　　Both of them fell silent.

　　The statue turning back to rotate the rock wall was almost like verifying Gu Shen’s previous guess.

　　The [Door] was behind the statue!

　　But… if you want to pass, no way!

　　"Is this… does it mean that we can only open the [Door] by taking it down?"

　　"It won’t be easy to take down this kind of guy," Mu Wanqiu tightened her grip on the long blade again, "Hey, Gu Shen, let’s discuss this…"

　　Before she could finish speaking.

　　The snow-white figure floating in the air had already shot out.

　　Mu Wanqiu was stunned.

　　She never expected that the real madman was not herself, but Gu Shen!

　　At that moment, she remembered one thing… All along, she had not seen Gu Shen’s true strength. The previous battle in the training field was a spiritual simulation of source armor duels.

　　And this time, when they met in the Nether River, Gu Shen had already been seriously injured. His strength could only be inferred from some things.

　　Mu Wanqiu had roughly speculated. She thought that Gu Shen’s strength should be slightly weaker than her, not as good as a Second Realm Transcendents, but after all, he was also an "S-class," so he must be stronger than most First Realm Transcendent geniuses.

　　This was not Mu Wanqiu being arrogant.

　　But Gu Shen’s "Blazing Flame" did not seem like a strong one-on-one ability. From what she had seen so far, "Blazing Flame" seemed more like a kind of auxiliary mental ability. This was completely incomparable to the fierce and unparalleled "Pan Guan."

　　Moreover, Mu Wanqiu had always been very confident in fighting.

　　But at this moment…

　　Her estimation of Gu Shen, and her confidence in herself, were strongly impacted.

　　The sky shook.

　　The figure burning with silver light directly stepped on the face of the Traveler statue!

　　Gu Shen put on the Ghost Mask and released his mental power.

　　After the battle with Meng Xiao… his confrontation with the Fighting Gold Hoop had reached the final stage.

　　The aura after all the powerful mental power trapped by the Gold Hoop was released had obviously surpassed the upper limit of a Transcendent’s Second Realm!

　　He clenched his fist and aimed at the black gemstone that was brewing with majestic aurora.

　　"Boom!"

　　Gu Shen expressionlessly punched down.

　　At the same moment, the Traveler’s brow shot out a dazzling lacquer light!

　　This was not a collision between bodies, but a confrontation between wills. The spirit of the Underworld King burned fiercely in the pale flames. Gu Shen was wrapped in flames, bathing in the fountain-like jet-black holy light!

　　He struggled to resist the majestic scouring force, then stretched out five fingers and decisively and fiercely grabbed the brow of the giant statue.

　　"Tear—"

　　Just like that, he pulled!

　　A piece of "flesh and blood" was uprooted from the statue’s brow.

　　The black gemstone that carried the spiritual weight of the entire Nether River was clenched in Gu Shen’s palm.

　　He silently felt the "Fighting Gold Hoop" that had bound him for so long fall off, and the fullness of his barren mental sea being instantly filled with Tenth Layer mental power.

　　The hundred-meter stone statue crashed to the ground.

　　Mu Wanqiu, riding on Pan Guan’s back, looked pale and could not believe what she had seen and felt.

　　She murmured, "This is a Transcendent… a Transcendent who has surpassed three realms?"

　　……

　　……

　　(ps: Too sleepy, that’s all for tonight.)