Ben Coates pondered—Quinn Shepherd’s proposal was indeed sincere, but also full of cunning. If Ben broke this oath, it would mean the Soul-Bowing Witch Rite was ruined for him.
If he ever tried to use the Soul-Bowing Witch Rite again, he’d die on the spot.
With this divine art crippled, Ben’s abilities would be far less frightening. The Soul-Bowing Witch Rite would become a lost art, never to appear in the world again.
Ben’s threat and presence would drop drastically.
In fact, the reason Quinn could fight Ben head-on—beating him up every time and leaving him scrambling for his teeth—was mainly because the Soul-Bowing Witch Rite didn’t work on Quinn.
If it were anyone else—even someone one or two realms above Quinn—they’d probably die from a single bow, no second chance.
Only Quinn, whose very name was fake, could resist Ben’s strongest technique—forcing Ben to fight him head-on.
“Fine!”
Ben replied heartily, "Let’s swear to the Ghost-Ear Witch God!"
He immediately performed the Soul-Bowing Witch Rite. An altar appeared behind him, and atop it, the shadow of the Ghost-Ear Witch God manifested.
Both men swore to the Ghost-Ear Witch God on the spot, each probing the other's oath for loopholes. But they quickly realized the wording was so clever, any gap was really a trap.
"That old (or young) fox!" Both thought at the same time, silently cursing.
Ben let out a heavy breath and said, "I hid the Ghost-Ear Witch God’s flesh at Southern Suncrest Mountain, the southernmost edge of the Great Ruins. His Primordial Spirit is suppressed at Northern Shadow Peak, the far north. Go to those two places—you’ll find him."
He looked up at Quinn outside the mirror and said, "Your turn, Cult Master Quinn. Time to keep your promise."
Quinn probed, "You must’ve set up some kind of seal, right? Why not tell me about that too?"
Ben smirked, "Cult Master, our oaths didn’t include that. Besides, even if I told you, would you believe me?"
Quinn chuckled, grinning, "Not a chance. Still, I said I wouldn’t kill you—but that doesn’t mean the Imperial Preceptor won’t."
Ben burst out laughing, suddenly turning into a black shadow and leaping from the mirror, landing in the flesh. He said, "The Imperial Preceptor is being held off by True Heaven Matron right now. They’re evenly matched—no telling who’ll win."
He circled Quinn twice, then suddenly struck, grinning wickedly: "Cult Master Quinn, our oath was that you’d let me go and not kill me—but there’s nothing in it saying I can’t take the chance to kill you!"
Quinn’s face changed; he retreated fast as Ben attacked with wild abandon, laughing uproariously. Each move was fierce and free, and all his old humiliation vanished in an instant.
Quinn was hard pressed, barely able to defend. Their strength was close—if the tables turned, Ben would seize the upper hand and keep gaining ground.
In the end, Quinn might really fall to him!
"Grand Venerable."
Suddenly, Quinn drew his sword and counterattacked, laughing: "My oath said I wouldn’t kill you, but nothing about chopping off your arm or a few legs! Don’t worry, my medical skills are divine—if I amputate you down to your neck, I can still keep you alive. Worst case, I’ll stick your head on a pig’s body!"
Ben nearly lost an arm to Quinn’s sword and retreated in a panic, furious: "You bastard!"
"You bastard!"
Quinn snapped back, "Didn’t you hide tricks in your oath, waiting to ambush me?"
Ben dodged frantically, desperate and disheveled. He slapped his Glutton Dragon Pouch at his waist—instantly, a sword case flew out, releasing a swarm of flying swords, forming the Dao Sword, Sixth Chapter.
Seven golden lotuses bloomed, radiating dazzling brilliance!
This was the sword art of the Dao Gate’s Seven Stars Realm—swords flying as seven stars, seven stars turning to lotuses, hiding the five elements, drawing in sun and moon, and unleashing immense power.
Quinn roared, unleashing his own Dao Sword, Sixth Chapter. Their sword arts collided—Ben was blasted backward, diving underground. Quinn charged after, shouting, "Dragon-Qilin, I’ll wound him, you finish him off!" With that, he dove underground too.
In the distance, Dragon-Qilin had been watching, never daring to come closer. Hearing this, he rushed over in a panic.
Just as he reached the spot where Quinn and Ben vanished, the desert exploded ten miles away—two figures shot skyward. Dragon-Qilin started toward them, but in midair, both flashed with transmission runes and vanished.
When they reappeared, they were already ten miles away, sword-lights clashing in the air.
"Both of them are escape artists—I’ll never catch up!"
Dragon-Qilin wailed, about to give chase again, but Quinn and Ben vanished and reappeared once more. Sword-lights filled the sky, clashing endlessly; blood sprayed down from above.
"Cult Master, don’t run ahead!"
Dragon-Qilin looked ahead and his face changed. He shouted, "Up ahead is the battlefield of the Imperial Preceptor and True Heaven Matron!"
Quinn chased Ben, who was now desperate to escape—he gritted his teeth and charged into the sandstorm.
Quinn followed into the sandstorm. The wind howled, whipping up sand into a terrifying storm. Lightning flashed; countless flying grains struck him like spirit weapons, nearly breaking his skin with pain.
"True Dragon Overlord Body!"
Quinn roared. These days, he’d fused the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art with the Overlord Three-Core Art—his yuanqi coiled like dragons, blood surged like dragons, muscles rippled with thunderous force.
Countless grains of sand struck him, but bounced off—he barely felt a thing.
Twin beams shot from his eyes, vaporizing the sand before it could reach him.
Quinn looked around—the storm limited his sight, but Ben was nearby. Quinn charged. Under Ben’s feet was a massive shield, covered in tortoise patterns glowing with light, projecting a gorgeous shell, layer upon layer, to guard him.
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Ben had more treasures than anyone could imagine.
Last time, when the Imperial Preceptor broke the Golden Palace, Ben surely took many of the spirit weapons he’d collected or forged over millennia—this tortoise-patterned shield was clearly a mighty artifact.
The two clashed in the sandstorm. The storm was so fierce, neither could keep their footing; even spirit weapons couldn’t fly far, or they’d be swept away.
Lightning crackled through the sandstorm, striking all around and even hitting them. Suddenly, a terrifying spatial wave surged—both were jolted violently, springing into the air. The spatial force stretched and shrank their bodies, sometimes to over sixteen feet tall, sometimes barely five, leaving them in agony.
Whoosh—
A massive black sun rolled past them, radiating waves of heat that ignited the swirling sand and storm into blazing fire-tornadoes, swift and ferocious.
Quinn and Ben were swept up by the fire tornado, the immense twister spinning them rapidly and hurling their bodies high into the sky.
Within the fire tornado, the two exchanged a hundred sword strikes. Suddenly, a horizontal sword-light sliced through the tornado, sending Quinn and Ben spinning. Before they could regain their footing, a colossal sand serpent erupted with a deafening roar, lunging at them with its massive jaws.
Quinn sprinted with all his might, while Ben tumbled through the air, narrowly dodging the enormous sand serpent. The serpent burrowed into the earth with a thunderous crash, shaking both men so violently they coughed blood.
The battle between True Heaven Matron and the Imperial Preceptor was so ferocious that even the aftershocks of their divine arts created storms neither Quinn nor Ben could withstand; at any moment, they might perish in the sandstorm.
Ben dodged the sand serpent and charged out of the storm, but at that moment, deafening footsteps echoed. Both Quinn and Ben froze as a moving continent appeared beside them, distorting space and sending ripples everywhere it passed.
Normally, space is invisible, but now, under the crushing force of the Solar Ark, even the fluctuations of space could be seen!
“Run!” Ben screamed, but his voice was swallowed by the raging sandstorm.
Quinn tried to run, but even with his Stealing-Heavens Leg Art, he couldn’t move fast—the wind here was simply too strong.
A surge of overwhelming divine power struck, forcing both men to spit blood. Not even Quinn’s True Dragon Overlord Body or Ben’s tortoise shield could withstand it.
Both were at the peak of the Seven Stars Realm, just a step from the Heaven-Man Realm, but the divine power from the sandstorm was simply too strong.
Boom, boom.
Quinn was plastered against one of the Solar Ark’s legs, unable to move. The wind carved folds into his face, and a spatial fluctuation suddenly stretched his body to over two yards long. His head felt thin and sharp, and his vision grew strange.
Beside him, Ben was stretched into a noodle, pressed tightly against the Solar Ark’s leg.
Finally, as the waves subsided, the wind eased and their bodies snapped back. Quinn spun with his sword, slashing along the Solar Ark’s leg toward Ben.
Ben braced himself on his tortoise shell, parrying with his sword, but suddenly grunted—Quinn chopped off half his leg.
Boom—
The Solar Ark’s shockwave erupted again, blasting both men away and compressing them into ball-like shapes.
At that moment, Quinn saw a sword-light cut through the sandstorm—the Imperial Preceptor strode atop the Solar Ark amid terrifying fluctuations, his sword slicing open True Heaven Matron’s head at the central pillars. Even as she died, she smiled cruelly, and the colossal black sun bore down on the Preceptor from behind.
The black sun crushed almost everything on the Solar Ark, then rolled off, sending the massive ship flipping, tumbling, and rolling for a long while before finally coming to rest.
Quinn was flung by the terrifying storm, which swept up more of the Flame Desert. Even Bruno was caught, struggling for a moment before giving up and letting the storm carry him away.