Half Immortal

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Countless fragments scattered like glass, falling from the sky like shooting stars, swirling around Ye Shu before slowly merging into his body. In an instant, the cracks on him suddenly healed, becoming whole and seamless.

"Did... did it succeed?"

The six clan leaders present swallowed hard, staring intently at the figure standing in midair. Seeing that Ye Shu's body had fully recovered, their hearts were filled with doubt and unease.

If Ye Shu were to become an immortal today, things would not end well.

An enraged true immortal would wield terrifying power, and when that happened, not only they themselves, but also the forces behind them would face a bloody reckoning.

But then—

Crack!

A faint, crisp sound rang out, followed by a rapid, dense series of cracking noises from within Ye Shu's body. His jade-like, crystalline form was instantly covered in fissures, and began to disintegrate from the inside out. Fine, sand-like powder fell from his torso.

In his right hand.

The Azure Profound Sword, once gleaming like jade and radiating endless cyan light, now dimmed, its blade riddled with cracks, as if it might shatter into a heap of fragments at any moment.

Boom!

A thunderclap exploded in the void. Suddenly, a torrential rain poured down from the sky—crimson rain, red as blood, falling in large, heavy drops onto the ground.

At the same time, mounds of earth bulged up from the ground, then split open, and a liquid like blood gushed out continuously from within.

Every living being in the world felt an inexplicable sorrow at that moment, turning their gazes far into this direction.

"Heaven weeps; earth mourns."

The Lord of the Soul Locking Hall observed this celestial omen, delight flickering in his eyes. He had never seen immortals ascend, but he had heard of such signs. This phenomenon clearly indicated that the ascension had failed.

Yes.

The ascension had failed.

The end of the story was startlingly similar to the beginning.

Just as that day when the Iron Armor Pill's breakthrough failed, this attempt at immortality likewise ended in failure.

At this final moment, on the verge of stepping through, the spiritual energy of the Eastern Wastelands was still far too scarce—nowhere near enough to nurture an immortal or to support Ye Shu's transformation.

So when Ye Shu took that step.

The Immortal Gate shattered first.

Ye Shu stood in the void, his white robes fluttering.

He showed neither joy nor sorrow.

He accepted it calmly.

His cultivation realm had already reached the threshold.

But his power had not.

Now, he had gone further than the Great Vehicle stage, stepping into the domain of the immortal path, able to wield the methods of an immortal—yet he was not truly one.

Perhaps he could be called—a Demigod.

Ye Shu could clearly sense that he had at most thirty breaths of life left. The blood rain fell endlessly, soaking his disheveled hair and carrying away fragments of his body.

Thirty breaths was very short.

Too short even to take a nap.

Yet thirty breaths was also very long.

Long enough for a demigod to accomplish many, many things.

Ye Shu gripped his shattered Azure Profound Sword tightly, slowly turned around, and looked at Lin Heming, who was still burning his life force. He raised a hand slightly, forcibly halting Lin Heming's condition. Then a stream of pure spiritual energy filled Lin Heming's entire body, at least saving his life and preventing him from burning away further.

"Old sir, there's no need to fight anymore."

He spoke impassively, then cast a cold, indifferent gaze over everyone still alive.

"You all... have you decided how you want to die?"

"How arrogant!"

The Fire Clan Leader snorted disdainfully. "You're just a false immortal, daring to boast here. Our ancestors produced immortals too. A mere demigod—what's there to fear?"

"Don't be afraid, everyone. If we attack together, maybe we can—"

"AHHH!!!"

Before the Fire Clan Leader could finish his words, Ye Shu simply raised his eyelids slightly and glanced at him.

Bang!

The Fire Clan Leader's projection exploded instantly, leaving not even a trace behind.

The other five clan leaders present changed color.

One glance had killed a Great Vehicle projection.

Before witnessing the power of an immortal, one could still harbor illusions. But having seen it firsthand, they now understood the gap.

It was like a firefly compared to the blazing sun.

While the other leaders were completely gripped by fear, Mo Yuan’s eyes burned with deep fervor.

So this was the power of an immortal?

And this person was not even a true immortal—only a demigod—yet already possessed earth-shattering abilities. This only strengthened his resolve to pursue immortality.

"Ants."

Ye Shu's gaze swept across them.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The five clan leaders' projections burst apart like fireworks, following the Fire Clan Leader into oblivion.

"Th-this..."

Mo Yu watched helplessly as the elders who had been so arrogant moments before were killed by Ye Shu with a single glance. His legs went weak with fear.

Wait—why hadn’t anyone told him?

Even when the final boss blocked the door, the protagonist could still pull a sudden power-up and counter-kill?

"System! System, come out!"

Seeing Ye Shu’s gaze turn toward him, Mo Yu screamed frantically in his mind, but there was no response.

The system would be a fool to respond.

If its host died, so be it. The child of destiny seemed short-lived anyway. Once he was dead, the system could just seize his fortune.

From the very beginning, it had said that the lives and deaths of everyone here didn’t matter.

The child of destiny was what mattered most.

Bang!

No surprises happened.

Ye Shu’s gaze swept over Mo Yu, and his body instantly exploded into a cloud of blood mist, not even a single remnant left.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

All the members of the Soul Locking Hall present exploded one after another under Ye Shu’s gaze, turning into blood mist that mingled with the crimson rain.

By now, barely three breaths had passed.

The only living beings left were... three.

"Gulp..."

Looking at the blood mist swirling around him, the Lord of the Soul Locking Hall swallowed hard. The other clan leaders had been mere projections, so their deaths didn’t matter—but he was standing there in the flesh. If he died, he was truly dead.

And the fact that the other man was keeping him alive couldn’t mean he planned to spare him, could it?

"H-hey... c-can we negotiate?"

The Lord of the Soul Locking Hall forced a stiff smile. "I really didn’t mean to kill them. Who could have guessed they’d just self-destruct? This really isn’t my fault. I didn’t kill them."

"They committed suicide! It had nothing to do with me!"

He rambled on, trying to justify himself, his expression more tragic than tears.

"I could kill you too. That also has nothing to do with anything."

Ye Shu stared at him coldly, raising his right hand slightly.

Crack, crack, crack...

A terrifying, excruciating pain spread through the Lord of the Soul Locking Hall’s entire body. In horror, he realized that his limbs were being torn off by an unseen force. The searing agony was amplified countless times by Ye Shu, yet he remained fully conscious, feeling every bit of it.

Death by dismemberment?

The thought crossed his mind, and he even felt a flicker of relief. Figures—the righteous path. Their torture was so straightforward.

But the next moment, he regretted that thought.

Ye Shu spread his fingers, and—Swoosh!

The Lord of the Soul Locking Hall’s limbs vanished into the void, scattered to different corners of the Eastern Wastelands, buried in bottomless abysses. As for his head, Ye Shu casually slapped it into the peak of Demon Suppression Summit, embedding it there solidly.

"What are you doing?"

The Lock Soul Hall Master’s eyes were filled with terror.

“Live out your natural lifespan, and bear the pain,” Ye Shu said indifferently. As he spoke, countless crows swarmed around the Lock Soul Hall Master’s head, feasting voraciously.

After finishing this, Ye Shu gazed into the distance and spoke again: “Do you think that by staying far away, I can do nothing to you?”

He raised his sword with his right hand and slashed fiercely forward.

Boom—

A dazzling sword light, towering for tens of thousands of miles, shot out vertically. The space along its path, fragile like paper, was torn apart by the sword light, leaving a bottomless rift that took a long time to heal.

The sword light spanned the Eastern Wasteland, striking straight toward the Central Continent.

Central Continent.

The ancestral estate of the Mo family.

Mo Yu had just wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth when he suddenly felt a pang of dread. He looked up sharply and saw a sword light descending from the heavens. At the same time, the six clan leaders all beheld this sword light, coming from afar and arriving in an instant.

“Hurry, activate the Immortal-Repelling Array left by our ancestors!!!”

They screamed hysterically.

The six sword lights cleaved through the entire Central Continent, carving out deep, bottomless trenches that split the land of the Central Continent into seven pieces...