Baal

"A shift in offense and defense?" An Changqing held his sword horizontally in front of him. Golden spiritual energy flowed along the blade, protecting the four people on his side. With a sharp gaze, he stared directly at Guan Jinyue. "Guan Jinyue, what exactly are you trying to do?"

"Why bother?" She sighed, flipping her wrist to put away the moonlit longsword in her hand. "Please allow me to reintroduce myself. I am the contractor of the head of the seventy-two pillar demon gods, Baal. I am Guan Jinyue."

Guan Jinyue stepped half a pace aside and looked at the phantom above the dome. "Baal is about to descend here. And the four of you, as peerless geniuses, really have no need to be buried alongside those mediocres."

She reached out her hand. "You still have a chance. Join us."

Guan Jinyue's words were like a sharp sword, piercing through their last shred of wishful thinking.

The head of the seventy-two pillar demon gods, Baal!

That existence which symbolized destruction in both myth and reality—His contractor was actually standing right in front of them, calmly announcing the imminent descent of a demon god.

The expressions of An Changqing, Long Ao, and Su Yuehe instantly turned incredibly grim. Even the most obtuse person would understand the severity of the situation at this moment.

This had far exceeded the scope of what the Four-Academy Tournament could handle. It might even be a disaster that would engulf the entire secret realm, and perhaps even the outside world.

Even if what descended here was merely a projection, it would be enough to set off a catastrophe.

"Contractor..." An Changqing gripped his sword a bit tighter. He did not fear the strong, nor did he fear death. This was simply an instinctive sense of powerlessness when facing an existence of this level.

"Guan Jinyue, do you know what you are doing? Summoning a demon god—do you know what consequences this will bring?"

He attempted a final, futile persuasion.

"Consequences?" Guan Jinyue chuckled lightly, her silver hair brushing across her shoulders and fluttering in the wind. "You will die, and those outside... will probably die in droves too. Although Baal will ultimately lose, Baal is just a projection and can make a comeback countless times. But you are living flesh and blood; you won't get another chance."

She certainly knew what she was doing, but Guan Jinyue was doing it willingly. Even knowing that she herself might not escape unscathed, she still went through with it.

Guan Jinyue's gaze swept over the four of them, pausing on Chen Guan for a moment before looking away. "I admire you all, especially you, An Changqing, and... that classmate carrying the coffin. Your potential shouldn't be wasted here."

"Bullshit!" Long Ao finally couldn't hold back and cursed loudly. A crimson aura erupted uncontrollably, scorching the surrounding rubble until it cracked. "I was born a man, standing tall between heaven and earth. You want me to be a dog for a demon? Keep dreaming!"

Chen Guan didn't speak. He just silently adjusted his breathing, his spiritual power quietly circulating as the passive perception of his Reverberation fully opened.

He could feel that the continuously condensing phantom above the dome was radiating a terrifying aura that grew exponentially. Like a massive vortex, it was frantically draining the spiritual energy of this secret realm space.

In the vision of his Reverberation, a gray dot emitting faint fluctuations became increasingly clear.

As expected... Baal could be recorded by the Reverberation...

An Changqing suppressed the stormy waves in his heart. "We walk different paths and cannot work together. Today, even if we are but a mantis trying to stop a chariot, we will absolutely not bow to you, nor to the demon god behind you."

As An Changqing's words fell, his sword intent soared into the sky. The golden sword light condensed into something almost tangible, actually severing the permeating dark red mist around them and carving out a small, relatively stable space for the teammates behind him.

"Well said!" Long Ao laughed heartily. His crimson aura rose higher and higher, the ground beneath his feet cracking inch by inch. A magma-like luster gathered on his iron fists, a sign that he was pushing his boundless combat ability to its current limit.

"Who cares what kind of demon god he is? Eat my punch first!"

Su Yuehe's gaze quietly locked onto Guan Jinyue as she whispered, "Shatter."

The supposedly unbreakable barrier shattered with a bang. Long Ao charged out at the forefront like a burning meteor, his furious strike aimed directly at Guan Jinyue's face.

Chen Guan closed his eyes. His spiritual power no longer released outward to resist, but was entirely drawn inward, frantically driving his Reverberation ability.

His target was shockingly locked onto Baal, who was becoming increasingly clear above the dome and radiating a terrifying aura.

To deal with an existence of this level, conventional methods were meaningless. He had to use rules to fight rules, and myth to fight myth.

This was undoubtedly an extremely dangerous action, like trying to hold boiling magma in a fragile clay pot. The slightest carelessness would result in total destruction.

But for him...

He could try countless times.

Moreover, before, he could afford to lose. He could lose to ordinary students countless times. But now, he could not lose. Behind him was his own true body, as well as the protagonists of these worlds.

Chen Guan had already made up his mind. He then expanded his exchange range, increasing the range of himself and the coffin to a hundred meters.

"Stubborn fools." The last trace of pity vanished from Guan Jinyue's eyes. "Then... see you in the next life."

She no longer held back, spitting out an obscure incantation.

Above the dome, the massive phantom suddenly let out an earth-shattering roar. The entire Charred Rift Valley, and even the broader secret realm space, began to tremble violently.

Dark red lightning cascaded down like a waterfall, tearing apart space. Evil spiritual energy turned into a tangible storm, sweeping away everything.

A gigantic demonic claw that blotted out the sky tore through the not-yet-fully-stable spatial channel and slammed down fiercely toward the four people below.

Before the demonic claw even arrived, that terrifying pressure—as if it wanted to crush souls and destroy all things—had already made An Changqing's sword light totter, caused Long Ao's aura to flicker erratically, and shattered Su Yuehe's guardian halo layer by layer.

Just as An Changqing took a large stride forward, preparing for a desperate, life-and-death struggle, a pair of hands pushed him aside.

A heavy coffin instantly pressed onto him. Completely defenseless, he and the coffin were sent flying together. Fortunately, relying on his excellent physical qualities, he quickly steadied himself, looking in astonishment at the back of the figure rushing straight toward death.

In the moment their gazes crossed, his eyes were no longer their usual dark green, but instead reflected a burning world.

That was a trace of the mythical reverberation from Baal that Chen Guan had just forcibly recorded.

Chen Guan loosely gripped his hands, as if grabbing onto some invisible object, and then swung fiercely toward the descending massive demonic claw.

"Burn the world, raging flames."

In an instant, the blood-red color on the horizon burned even brighter. The wind howled, the fire blazed, the thunder roared endlessly, and the water flowed ceaselessly. Even space itself seemed to let out a groaning sound as it fractured.

Baal's demonic claw, capable of crushing mountains, suddenly froze when it was only a few dozen feet above Chen Guan's head.

The dark purple scales densely covering the palm of the claw first emitted a blazing white light from within. Then, the edges of every single scale began to char black and turn into flying ash.

The originally solid claw phantom abruptly began to disintegrate. Large swathes of dark red flames explosively scattered out of control, instead washing away the surrounding blood-red hue and revealing the original color of the sky.

A furious hurricane swept toward the four people below, whipping their clothes and sending the hair at their temples dancing wildly across their faces. An Changqing shielded the coffin behind him and looked at Chen Guan, who stood at the very forefront. He never would have imagined in a million years that it would be Chen Guan who stepped up to block such an earth-shattering blow.

The most astonished among them was Guan Jinyue. For the first time, a look of sheer disbelief broke through her composure. Her connection to Baal allowed her to clearly sense that in that fleeting moment, the descending projection of Baal had actually been disrupted by a force of the exact same origin, yet far more fundamental in nature.