At the center of Quinn's brow, the willow-leaf-shaped vertical eye slowly opens. From the slit of the eye, a dazzling light patterned like butterfly wings spills out from both sides of the eyelid.
"So beautiful!"
Granny Sue couldn't help but praise it, but soon noticed that although the butterfly-wing patterns were gorgeous, they seemed to conceal something extremely terrifying.
Butcher, Grandpa Blind, and the others crowded closer to examine it. As Quinn circulated his Overlord Three-Core Art, the eye gradually opened wider, and the butterfly wings grew larger, until it seemed his head had become a giant butterfly!
Of course, the butterfly grew from his forehead.
Suddenly, Butcher and the others felt a faint, terrifying tremor, as if some ancient monster was awakening in a bottomless abyss and slowly opening blood-red eyes!
"What is that?"
Butcher, Grandpa Blind, and the Mute Smith were the first to react, instinctively unleashing terrifying godly auras!
They sensed the threat and reacted involuntarily, some faster than others. Butcher was the quickest—his divine saber rang out with a clear tone, flew up, spun once in the air, and hovered overhead.
The Mute Smith was next; the forge on his back erupted in a pillar of fire that spun wildly in the sky, turning it crimson.
Grandpa Blind was a bit slower; his Dragon Reaver God-Spear rattled and transformed into a black dragon that coiled around him, ready to strike at any moment.
A moment later, Granny Sue also instinctively unleashed her own aura. Behind her, countless stars appeared, forming the Da Luo Starfield Force to resist the terrifying tremor!
Boom—
Crippled Joe turned and ran, and in the next instant he was already over a hundred miles away. Only then did he realize, "It seems the threat is coming from Quinn, not some terrifying monster..."
Clang—
Bashan drew his blade, looking around in alarm and shouting, "What kind of monster is this?"
He was a grandmaster himself. Though his blade skills weren't as refined as Butcher's, who had entered the Dao with the saber, he had founded a school that merged martial and battle arts, making him extremely sensitive to unknown dangers.
Deaf and Apothecary were both completely lost, especially Apothecary, who had no idea what was happening at all.
Deaf's cultivation hadn't yet reached the god realm; he was only at the mid-stage of the Divine Bridge, and hadn't started repairing the bridge yet. He was obsessed with painting, oblivious to worldly affairs, so his reaction was especially slow.
Apothecary had finally broken through the Life-and-Death Wall two years ago, but was still in the Life-and-Death realm now. He didn't care much about cultivation, so his progress was slow.
After Quinn passed on the Magpie Bridge Art, Mysterious Guidance Art, and Divine Crossing Art, he finally focused on his own cultivation. But with too many women around him, his progress was still slowed.
The two of them were the slowest to react, but soon sensed something was wrong. That sudden, terrifying tremor seemed like a monstrous being slowly awakening—and the source was Quinn's opening third eye!
Everyone looked toward Quinn's brow. The light from his third eye grew ever more dazzling, and within it, a faint black shadow approached.
It was a tiny black shadow, like a small infant, stepping along the light from deep within Quinn's third eye. With each step, the infant grew larger, until it was about to fill the entire eye!
"Quinn, stop circulating the Overlord Three-Core Art!"
Butcher, as if facing a deadly enemy, shouted, "There's something strange in your eye! Stop now!"
But it was already too late. The black shadow had filled Quinn's third eye and was about to step out.
"I feel full of power..."
A dreamy voice came from Quinn's mouth: "Power enough to destroy everything!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the Oldridge villagers felt a chill down their spines—they heard two voices!
Two overlapping voices came from Quinn's mouth.
Crack!
The sky shook violently. The light from Quinn's third eye twisted space itself; terrifying power spilled out, destabilizing the surroundings, and cracks tore open with thunderous detonations!
High-Emperor Heaven's space was already unstable due to the demons' arrival and could easily be torn apart—but not by ordinary divine-ability users; it usually required the power of gods and demons.
Yet now, the power leaking from Quinn's eye was fracturing the space all around, with dense cracks spreading outward!
Beneath the No-Regrets Watch-post, dozens of High-Emperor Heaven divine-ability users saw the cracks spreading and fled in panic. Bruno, diligently cultivating nearby, looked up to see a fissure racing toward him and leapt aside just in time.
The spatial fissure tore apart the ground where he'd just stood, instantly carving a rift more than ten li long, and it kept deepening!
Bruno shivered; Lina the Spirit Fox leapt nimbly onto his head, shouting, "Fat Dragon, run! Quinn's about to show his true form—"
Bruno bolted, and behind him came a deafening roar. Lina glanced back to see the Jadehide Ox also fleeing in panic; behind the ox was the towering Watch-post, over a hundred zhang tall and spanning more than ten acres.
The roar was coming from the Watch-post itself.
The Watch-post was twisted by spatial cracks, breaking apart into countless pieces, each one floating in a different fragment of space!
Then, thunderous booms kept echoing—the residual divine arts from the god-demon war in the No-Regrets City Ruins were triggered by the torn space, causing a chain reaction. Remnant spells exploded like fireworks in the shattered void, eerily beautiful and mesmerizing.
Lina the Spirit Fox had no time to admire the spectacle. Her gaze fell on the butterfly-wing light, and she felt a pang of disappointment: "So Quinn isn't a fox spirit—he's a butterfly spirit..."
The ground beneath Quinn also kept collapsing and sinking. Butcher, Grandpa Blind, and the others felt the earth drop away under their feet, exposing a sea of blazing magma!
The ruins of No-Regrets City plummeted into the depths, massive rocks and broken walls crashing into the rolling magma, sending up sheets of flame.
Everyone struggled to keep their footing. Butcher, Mute Smith, Grandpa Blind, Granny Sue, and Bashan fought desperately against the rending space to protect Apothecary and Deaf, while Crippled Joe darted through the broken fragments, trying to get closer.
The group was horrified. Grandpa Blind grabbed the Black Dragon Spear, which moved with him, unleashing countless spear shadows to block the dangerous forces in the surrounding space. He shouted, "Butcher, give me a hand! Help me get close enough to seal the eye in his brow!"
Butcher seized his Heaven Saber and rushed to Grandpa Blind's side. "Granny Sue, Mute Smith, you two protect the others!" he commanded.
The two joined forces, advancing step by step through the air toward Quinn. But the space kept splitting open, widening the gap between them and Quinn—it was no easy task to get close.
They pushed forward with all their might, breaking through the strange forces in the space. Butcher glanced down and saw that the entire No-Regrets City had sunk into magma; below was a sea of fire.
Suddenly, a strange demonic qi surged up from the sea of fire. This qi was different from the kind found in the High-Emperor Heaven demon clan lands—theirs was merely spirit energy tainted by demonic nature, but the qi spilling from these spatial cracks was far more ancient and primal.
It was Netherworld demonic qi!
Clearly, the demon within Quinn had awakened, tearing the barrier between the living world and the Netherworld, connecting reality to Youdu itself!
At last, they reached Quinn, just a few feet away, but even that short distance felt impossibly far. Their steps were heavy; Butcher's saber and Grandpa Blind's spear were pinned by overwhelming force, unable to move!
Their bodies creaked as the pressure squeezed them from all sides. Grandpa Blind shrank smaller and smaller, and Butcher was suddenly much shorter.
They were nearly round as balls. Butcher summoned all his strength to clear a path for Grandpa Blind, blood trickling from his mouth. Grandpa Blind shakily thrust the Black Dragon Spear toward Quinn's third eye.
He was a master of formation arts and sealing techniques, but this time, the spear couldn't reach Quinn's brow.
"Quinn, wake up!"
Grandpa Blind gritted his teeth, pushing the Black Dragon Spear forward with all his might. His hands began to tear, beads of blood vaporizing and flying away behind him.
"Butcher, I can't hold on..." Grandpa Blind choked out blood, struggling to speak.
Even the dragon head of the Black Dragon Spear let out a mournful cry: "Master, I can't hold on either..."
The spear tip was already crumbling, and Grandpa Blind's hands trembled as the flesh began to fall apart.
At that moment, Quinn raised his hand, grabbed the jade pendant at his chest, and tore it off.
"Don't throw it away..." Grandpa Blind managed to gasp out.
Quinn's face was expressionless. He opened his fingers, letting the jade pendant fall toward the fiery magma below.
Despair filled everyone's hearts. Crippled Joe darted through the fragments of space, trying to catch the pendant, but it was too late.
Just then, the magma churned and two nine-curved horns slowly rose from the lava, revealing a majestic god-demon with a bull's head and tiger's eyes, formed entirely of molten rock.
Crippled Joe quickly dodged aside, shrieking, "Tu Bo—!"
"Tu Bo, you're ruining my plans again!" Quinn's voice was furious.
The molten Tu Bo snatched up the jade pendant, pointed a finger, and pressed the pendant to Quinn's brow, sealing the demon eye.
As soon as the pendant touched Quinn's third eye, it vanished, sinking into the eye itself.
All the terrifying disturbances stopped. The torn space healed, and Tu Bo's molten body collapsed, flowing back into the fiery depths below.
Quinn also fell from the air. Grandpa Blind threw out the Black Dragon Spear, which turned into a skeletal black dragon and caught Quinn, carrying him out of the ruins.
Grandpa Blind spat out blood and, with Butcher, Granny Sue, and the others, dragged themselves out of the ruins.
Quinn was unconscious, his third eye closed. Crippled Joe rushed over, looking at Quinn's sleeping face, and nervously suggested, "Is that thing in his eye still there? Maybe we should lift his eyelid and check..."
Everyone glared at him, and Crippled Joe quickly shut his mouth.
Granny Sue hesitated. "Even if Tu Bo sealed the thing in his eye, we should still check to be sure..." she said.
Her hand trembled as she reached out to open the vertical eyelid in Quinn's brow. Suddenly, the eye snapped open and stared at her hand.
Granny Sue was startled, and Quinn sat up with a start, confused. "Granny, why are you all gathered around me?" he asked.