Logan Cross had already resigned himself, thinking, "As long as I can escape..."
But the Grand Void fiends quickly revived again, and the ruined Creator buildings shimmered with light and rapidly restored themselves. The road ahead was blocked once more, with even more fiends surging in—there was simply no chance to break through.
Quinn Shepherd gritted his teeth and laughed in exasperation: "This is the first time I've come across a city I can't tear down..."
Logan Cross's expression turned strange.
Suddenly, music rang out—a grotesque flesh-ship marched forward on countless legs, barreling straight toward them. On deck, a crowd of half-bodied musicians played and sang with abandon: trumpets, suonas, zithers, flutes, reed pipes, lutes—every kind of lively tune, all disturbingly cheerful.
The ship danced and stomped, its huge maw at the bow opening and closing, devouring countless fiends along the way. Each time it ate a Grand Void fiend, the bow chewed with exaggerated crunches—almost crisply.
Other fiends who couldn't dodge in time were either flung aside by the monstrous ship or crushed into pulp underfoot.
Toward the rear of the flesh-ship, a pipe made of what looked like a giant intestine angled up at the sky. Anything it couldn't digest was churned into thick smoke and blasted out the pipe, producing a long, honking blare.
The monstrous ship charged straight for Quinn Shepherd and Logan Cross. The two felt a wave of despair—this ship was likely a conglomerate of countless souls, which explained its bizarre nature.
With their current strength, they stood no chance of resisting; they'd only end up eaten by the ship and spat out as smoke from its massive gut.
Quinn Shepherd gritted his teeth, suddenly glimpsing the Flame‑Venerable Imprint not far away—and made up his mind in a flash.
Logan Cross was still hacking down nearby fiends with his vital energy saber when he caught Quinn’s look. Alarmed, he blurted, "Quinn Overlord, what are you planning?"
Quinn unleashed a stream of vital energy, shaping it into a sharp sword that shot straight for the wound on the Flame‑Venerable Imprint.
A chill ran down Logan Cross’s spine. He shouted, "Everyone in the city—get out of here, now!"
Quinn reached out and yanked the Origin‑Root Heartwood Staff from Logan’s brow, then slammed it into the ground—instantly, the staff thickened dramatically.
He pulled Logan down beside him, gesturing: "Lie flat and don’t move. Use all your vital energy to protect your body—watch out, or you’ll get crushed."
The two of them flattened themselves atop the Origin‑Root Heartwood Staff. The monstrous ship was nearly upon them—and at that instant, Quinn’s sword of vital energy stabbed into the wound on the Flame‑Venerable Imprint.
"Big, big, big!"
Quinn roared, "Grow, grow, grow!"
Logan poured all his vital energy into shielding his body, flooding every limb with qi. Peeking out, he saw the Flame‑Venerable Imprint suddenly blaze with dazzling light—his vision flashed white, then plunged into utter darkness.
In almost the same instant, the Origin‑Root Heartwood Staff shot upward, carrying them into the clouds. In a blink, the staff had grown hundreds of li tall!
The crushing inertia pinned them to the tip of the staff. Logan Cross felt all his divine blood forced into the skin pressed against the wood; his eyes were squeezed so hard they nearly receded into his skull, and his heart was flattened against his spine.
His muscles felt like paper, plastered flat against the staff. At the same time, he heard bones snapping beside him—and the faint sound of skin bursting.
"Quinn Overlord... it's over..."
A wave of sorrow washed over him. If even his own body—tough as it was—couldn’t withstand this force, how could Quinn Shepherd possibly survive?
The bone-snapping sound beside him was Quinn’s skeleton shattering in an instant, while the sound of skin bursting was Quinn’s blood flooding into the skin pressed against the staff. The force was too much; Quinn’s body must have exploded instantly, coating the Origin‑Root Heartwood in blood!
Not just that—every part of his body would be pulverized, even his brain!
"Quinn Overlord, you cut off my arm, and I’ve hated you for forty thousand years—yet you’ve saved my life three times."
Logan’s mind drifted hazily: "Too bad I’ll never get to repay you. I always wanted to spar with you, to show you my saber skills..."
The Origin‑Root Heartwood Staff kept surging upward, standing tall in the Creator city, shooting thousands of li into the sky—heading straight for that blood-red moon overhead.
In moments, the Origin‑Root Heartwood Staff stretched ten thousand li high, still growing taller and longer, piercing right through the Grand Void Land’s atmosphere.
The staff howled upward, shooting past the blood-red moon hanging in the sky.
That blood-red moon was actually a massive ball of flesh—a gigantic head, its grotesque eyes staring in shock as the pillar swept past.
It was the severed head of an unimaginably powerful Grand Void Creator—slain by some unknown hand, now floating above the Grand Void Land as this bizarre moon. Every night, it would play cheerful flute music across the world.
Now, it had forgotten its music, drowned by the endless flames rising from below.
Below, the Flame‑Venerable Imprint detonated—in a single instant, its stored power swept across the Creator city, annihilating everything!
At the same time, the drop of Flame‑Venerable’s divine blood and the sword qi sealed inside it were triggered. A colossal, blinding fireball enveloped the Creator city, spinning outward as it expanded—instantly covering over a thousand li, then swelling to ten thousand. Space shattered, mountains turned to ash, rivers boiled away, seas vanished into nothing.
At last, the divine art’s shockwaves subsided. The Origin‑Root Heartwood Staff stopped growing, and Logan Cross’s vision gradually cleared—his blood flowed back, his body battered but alive.
He sat up. The staff had carried him to the edge of the world, into emptiness—nothing but this colossal pillar.
Logan gazed bleakly at the land-like expanse of the Origin‑Root Heartwood Staff—then suddenly froze in shock.