Chapter 953: Chapter 117: Third-Realm Transcendent

Fine stone chips fell from the shoulders of the giant divine statue.

They rustled down.

Mu Wanqiu sensed something was wrong… She looked up and faced the giant divine statue gazing down on her.

That indifferent and ruthless face seemed to reveal a faint smile.

A strong sense of crisis surged in her heart.

But it was already too late.

At the moment their eyes met, a pitch-black glow flowed and gathered at the “Traveler’s” forehead, where a straight blazing light shot out like an arrow, piercing through the floor of the great hall and completely engulfing the spot where Mu Wanqiu stood—

“Swoosh.”

The biting wind caused her clothes to flutter.

A streak of ghostly black shadow narrowly brushed past the area of the light beam.

Mu Wanqiu looked up in a daze at the figure that appeared at the critical moment, “carrying” her out of the danger zone.

At this moment, Gu Shen used the Truth Ruler again, unfurling a pair of silver wings behind him as he skimmed through the hall like a hawk, dodging the rebound of the black gem’s extreme light.

The two of them soared and glided like this.

Gu Shen suddenly whispered, “Sorry… on one hand, I don’t have any more strength left, and on the other hand, you are indeed a bit heavy…”

Their current posture was not very graceful.

It wasn’t that they crossed any normal boundaries between a man and a woman.

It just looked extremely awkward.

The moment he sensed the crisis, Gu Shen rushed towards Mu Wanqiu’s position, and because he was exhausted, he could only grasp the retrieval buckle at the back of Mu Wanqiu’s Source Armor with both hands to ensure he could lift her.

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

Mu Wanqiu’s pretty face blushed slightly.

She coldly said, “Let go of me!”

Gu Shen immediately released his grip without a word.

“Whoosh!”

A beam of extreme light swept past where they had been connected moments before, and before Mu Wanqiu fell to the ground, the Judge caught her and flipped her onto its back. That gigantic ghostly shadow spread out its large banner, and its robes flapped in the wind, truly like a great bird, circling in the air with its master before retreating—

Seeing the direction in which Mu Wanqiu was moving, Gu Shen’s heart skipped a beat.

“Are you crazy? You want to duel this thing?!”

“Otherwise? Do we even have a way to retreat?”

Mu Wanqiu knelt with one knee on the Judge’s broad back, her expression as frigid as ice. She drew her spare battle blade with her reverse hand, wiping it at her elbow: “Moreover… fighting such a big creature is most satisfying, isn’t it?”

Throughout, her gaze was fixed intently on that resurrected statue standing hundreds of meters tall.

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

The Traveler was not yet truly resurrected at this moment.

It was just that the portal to the Disaster Realm loosened, and the Traveler sent out a wisp of its thought, spanning a Million Miles, first establishing a connection with its divine statue!

Mu Wanqiu’s words seemed somewhat reasonable.

This big thing seemed just big in appearance… Gu Shen thought to himself.

The fierce wind howled.

The Judge did not retreat but advanced, launching a charge towards the Traveler’s Statue.

Mu Wanqiu steadied herself against the wind pressure, slashing out with her blade to repel two beams of extreme light shooting towards her face. The distance between them continuously closed, getting closer and closer, as the Judge’s speed peaked.

The divine statue “slowly” shook off the constraints of the rock wall, extending its palm to grasp at the “moth” hurling towards it!

“Crack!”

At the moment the palms clashed, stone chips shattered!

Mu Wanqiu and the Judge cried out in anger as they flew out together, her arms swinging to unleash hundreds of blade lights, each as brilliant as a peacock’s tail display, too dazzling to be viewed directly with the naked eye. In the next moment, she rode the Judge up to the Skytop of the great hall. Seizing this perfect opportunity, she quickly circled the neck of the dilapidated statue, slicing all the way down with the long blade, embedding it under the “skin” of the Traveler Stone Statue. The tip of the blade enveloped with the obliterating will imbued with spiritual power from the Judge’s domain, flooding the statue’s body with boundless murderous intent!

In a single instant, Mu Wanqiu delivered an almost perfect large arc slash!

And then…

She was propelled backwards by a massive shock force!

The Traveler’s Statue completely broke free from the rock wall, fixing its gaze on the human woman below it. It swung its hand with a slap, this time no longer slow, only starting somewhat heavily, and the next moment, the great shadow was drowned out by the roaring wind—

The Judge stood tall, several meters in height, resembling a small mountain!

But before the divine statue, it was merely an ant!

This slap was like swatting a fly!

If hit, it should be directly reduced to fine dust, right?

Mu Wanqiu’s expression turned pale instantly. She clenched her teeth, preparing to block with her blade. Fortunately, the Judge’s speed was quicker, pulling back at the last critical moment, narrowly evading!

“Buzz—”

The violent wind occupied her mind in that moment.

This slap missed.

But the winds stirred up by it struck the far end of the hall, several hundred meters away, leaving a palm imprint several meters wide!

This scene was shocking to the eyes.

Gu Shen completely dismissed his previous thoughts.

This creature… it’s definitely not just about its size, simple as that!

Mu Wanqiu narrowly escaped death, riding the Judge as it rapidly ascended, putting distance between her and the dangerous statue.

Dust splattered everywhere.

The giant statue that had broken free from the rock wall shed dirt from its body, slowly extending a hand to cover its neck area.

Mu Wanqiu held her breath as she watched, her heart filled with anticipation.

“Crack-crack…”

Broken stone shards rolled off in large amounts.

The Traveler Statue covered its neck, appearing as though it felt pain, but in truth, it was not the case. It only wanted to move its body. Accompanied by the sound of scattered stone chips, the Traveler twisted its neck human-like… After a series of crackling sounds, the severed stone neck turned into falling “stone snow,” which fluttered down like a snowfall. Then it released its fingers, revealing new black rock “skin.” The recent slash didn’t even leave a “wound.”

Mu Wanqiu sank into complete silence.

Her earlier slash, she had exerted all her strength, and the timing was perfect… yet, it didn’t cause any harm.

The killing intent of the “Judge” simply couldn’t affect such a non-living entity.

As for the slash, it was nothing more than a joke.

She had no doubt that even if she chopped off this traveler’s head, as long as it picked it up from the ground and reattached it, it would be able to move again.

“Satisfied yet?”

Gu Shen’s voice transmitted over: “If you want to fight it for another three hundred rounds, I’d leave first from the ‘door’ on the other side.”

“Have you found the ‘door’ to leave?”

Mu Wanqiu was slightly taken aback.

The reason she was fighting to the death with this giant was because there was no ‘door’ here!

She wanted to leave but couldn’t escape at all!

“I have an idea where it might be…”

Gu Shen stared at the rock wall that the Divine Statue had broken free from, currently, that rock wall still had an extremely small rotating arc, revealing a crack… if this statue was left by the traveler as a backup plan to destroy the Netherworld Palace’s entrance and the dead souls, then the only place in the entire hall unaffected by the black gemstone would be the back of the rock wall!

The place where I was just reading the ancient scripts of the translator!

That place, is the ‘door’ to leave!

This explains how the translator left.

With the erudition of that mysterious mover, it’s likely he also decoded those ancient scripts on the doors at first, so he knew the entire architecture of the Netherworld Palace, including the positions of all doors.

Thus, after decoding the rock wall left by the traveler, he directly left through the correct passage.

“The back of the rock wall?”

Mu Wanqiu suddenly realized.

However… a despairing event occurred.

The gigantic Divine Statue that broke free from the rock wall ignored the two “ants” floating in mid-air, turned around directly, and extended two thick arms to embrace that black rock wall with immense force.

“Rumble!”

The sound of thunder reverberated throughout the Netherworld Palace!

The rock wall rotated and completely sealed shut!

The correct ‘door’ leading to the exit outside was directly blocked by the statue!

Both were silent.

The statue’s turning of the rock wall almost confirmed Gu Shen’s earlier suspicion.

The ‘door’ was right behind the statue!

But… to go through, no way!

“Does this mean… we can only open the ‘door’ by taking it down?”

“Taking down this kind of guy won’t be that easy,” Mu Wanqiu gripped her long blade again, “Hey, Gu Shen, let’s discuss…”

Before she could finish her sentence.

That snow-white figure suspended in mid-air had already shot out.

Mu Wanqiu was stunned.

She never expected that the true madman wasn’t herself, but Gu Shen!

Only at this moment did she remember… she had never truly seen Gu Shen’s real strength, the previous battle in the training ground was a clash of spiritual simulation Source Armor.

And this time when they met at the Nether River, Gu Shen was already heavily injured, his strength could only be speculated from a few incidents.

In Mu Wanqiu’s mind, she speculated somewhat: she felt Gu Shen’s strength might be slightly weaker than hers, not reaching the Super Second Realm, but being both “S-level”, he surely would be stronger than most geniuses of the Super First Realm.

It wasn’t that Mu Wanqiu was arrogant.

But Gu Shen’s “Chi Huo” doesn’t seem like a powerful one-on-one ability, based on its performance from their interaction, “Chi Huo” seems more like some kind of auxiliary spiritual ability, which is truly incomparable to the fierce and peerless “Judge”.

Besides, when it comes to fighting, Mu Wanqiu has always been confident.

But at this moment…

Her estimation of Gu Shen and her confidence in herself were severely shaken.

The sky was resonating.

The figure engulfed in a blazing silver light directly stepped onto the face of the Traveler’s Statue!

Gu Shen wore the Ghost Veil and unleashed his spiritual power.

After the battle with Meng Xiao… his confrontation with the Battle Golden Hoop had reached the final stage.

The powerful spiritual power encircled by the Golden Hoop, once fully released, had evidently exceeded the limits of a Transcendent “Second Realm”!

He clenched his fist aimed at the black gemstone brewing with immense auroras.

“Boom!”

Gu Shen struck down expressionlessly with his fist.

At the same time, a brilliant dark light shot from the traveler’s brow!

This wasn’t a clash of flesh, but a head-on collision between wills, the Netherworld King’s spirit burned fiercely within the pale flames, and Gu Shen was enveloped in firelight, bathed in fountain-like pitch-black Holy Light!

He resisted the overwhelming force with difficulty, then extended five fingers, decisively and fiercely gripping the giant statue’s brow.

“Tear——”

Just like that, with a pull!

A piece of “flesh” was uprooted from the traveler’s statue’s brow.

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

He silently felt the Golden Hoop that had constrained him for so long falling off, and the immediate fullness as his barren Spirit Sea was filled with “tenth-level” spiritual power.

The hundred-meter tall statue collapsed with a thud.

Galloping atop the Judge’s back, Mu Wanqiu appeared pale, unable to believe what she had seen and felt.

She murmured, “Is this a Transcendent… a Three Realms Transcender?”

…

…

(PS: That’s all for tonight.)