The pontiff acted, using the techniques of moving heaven, shifting earth, harnessing the wind, and clutching at shadows! Majestic energy surged as the abilities of a Smoldering God were made manifest.

The Captain struck back with his past-life organs and body parts. He acted in a very gruish style, but his past-life might was enough to astonish ghosts and gods.

When it came to the forces of the Red Moon Cathedral, virtually everyone had seen some of those terrifying body parts and organs, as they flew around with the church temples, and could be used as weapons. Every single one of them contained dreadful power. One of them was the very same heart that Xu Qing had seen at the Heavenfire Sea. Over the countless years that had passed, there had been all sorts of speculations in the Moonrite Region about those organs and body parts. Therefore, it was literally impossible that anyone could have predicted that they were actually the past life body of someone who appeared to only be in the Nascent Soul level! After all, this particular past life of the Captain had occurred multiple epochs ago. A lot of time had passed since then, and people who were still alive now that had witnessed that time period were as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns.

As all of these developments unfolded, cultivators on both sides of the conflict looked on with shock and bewilderment.

That was especially the case as the Captain looked on with a crazy look as the huge mouth opened wide and closed in on the pontiff. Massive amounts of saliva poured out of the mouth, almost like rain that fell to the ground below. The saliva was thick and sticky, and stood straight up when it hit the ground. There, it exuded a will of rot and sealing that locked down the surroundings.

The pontiff’s expression flickered dramatically as a sense of profound unease rose in him. He was about to fight back when, all of a sudden, searing pain filled his eyes. The pain was so intense it interrupted his magic. His view of the world blurred, and he suddenly saw a host of blurry figures snapping at him.

Those blurry figures were all the Captain.

The pontiff’s expression turned grim. “These eyes might have belonged to someone else before. But as of now, they’re mine!”

The pontiff snorted coldly. Ignoring the pain in his eyes, he backed up and circulated his cultivation base, causing a field of golden light to spring up around him. As it spread, it turned into innumerable sealing marks that began to converge on each other.

As that process continued, blood oozed out of his eyes. Then, shockingly, faces appeared in each of his pupils. Those faces belonged to none other than the Captain. The faces were smiling gruishly. In the pupils of those face’s eyes were more faces, all the same, and that pattern continued. It was impossible to say how many faces there were, but all of them had that same gruish smile.

When the faces appeared, rumbling sounds filled the pontiff, and his divine ability was interrupted. In fact, his entire person locked in place. But he was the pontiff, after all. No one knew where he came from. What was more, his cultivation base and body were all patched together. At the moment, that wasn’t relevant, as he began to utter an enchantment.

“Activate the life talisman; punishment from the deepest caverns; demons, devils, and evil ghosts; bound and delivered to the impoverished spring!”

As the words left his mouth, his entire body erupted with blinding golden light. The sealing marks around him clumped together to form the projection of a gigantic, golden rhinoceros. It threw its head back and roared, causing everything to shake violently. Then the golden rhino charged toward the enormous mouth.

A boom rang out as the mouth chomped down onto the rhino. Crunching sounds rang out, but the rhino held strong, and the Captain’s past life mouth was unable to chew it up in a short time.

Taking advantage of the moment, the pontiff flared with golden light that converged on his eyes, causing the faces there to ripple and distort. The faces seemed no match for the golden light. As the light faded, the faces were slowly wiped away, and the pontiff’s aura grew stronger. It seemed that the situation with the eyes was about to be reversed.

The Captain laughed coldly.

“You measly patchwork Eye Thief!” Throwing his hands out, he shouted, “Past-life body, sealed by me, converge into a body, lock and seal the soul! Head. Facial features. Limbs. Torso. Organs…. Go!”

Blue light surged off of the captain, creating a sea the color of blue. At the same time, he performed a right-handed incantation gesture and pointed at the pontiff. All of his past-life body parts and organs vibrated and shot at high speed toward the pontiff, closing in with shocking speed and momentum.

The pontiff was currently fighting against his own eyes. When he realized what was happening, he reeled mentally. A sensation of deadly crisis again rose within him. At that critical moment, he suddenly exploded, turning into a beam of golden light that turned to flee.

However, that was when Li Xiaoshan somehow managed to extricate himself from the blood guardians. Striding forth, he lifted his huge saber and, eyes glimmering with killing intent, chopped down.

The saber shattered the air and hewed out a huge gully. Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth.

The blow landed on the golden light. Blood sprayed out of Li Xiaoshan’s mouth. He had put everything he had into that attack, and even sustained the resulting backlash attack. As a result, his body was instantly covered in bloody wounds, and he tumbled backward, gasping for breath.

However, that saber attack had no small effect. The golden light was cut in half, and an agonized scream rang out. The light stopped moving.

That was all the time it took for the Captain’s organs and body parts to arrive. First were his four limbs. The Captain’s past-life limbs blurred and entered the pontiff’s body. Next came the five yin organs and six yang organs, the neck, the torso, the head, the ears, and the nose…. Finally was the huge mouth, which crushed the golden rhino, then lunged forward and swallowed the pontiff.

All of this takes some time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. That was how long it took for the Captain’s past life body to completely vanish. All of the body parts… fused with the pontiff’s body.

As of this moment, every part of the pontiff, from the limbs, to the organs, to the head and facial features, were all from the Captain’s past life. It was the same with the eyes, which sent glittering blue light raging in all directions. Most shocking was that the facial features of the Captain’s past-life body shifted until they looked exactly like the current Captain.

As wild colors flashed in heaven and earth, the surrounding cathedral cultivators looked on in abject shock and disbelief. Countless eyes locked onto the pontiff, who had been taken over by the Captain’s past life body. His fluctuations were extremely unstable, and he seemed to be struggling as he stood there in place.

“You think my eyes are that easy to control? Let me tell you the truth, fool. Whenever I’m born again, I place warding spells all over myself on a daily basis. And when I have time, I refine my body. Over a long period of time, it makes my bodies so strong that even I fear them. Long story short, you ignoramus, my bodies are my biggest weapons! All I need to deal with you today is one of them. But if you fight, then trust me, I’ll call all of my past-life bodies here to crush you!”

Xu Qing was paying close attention to his Eldest Brother’s words. Truth be told, he wasn’t surprised that the Captain had succeeded. After all, the Captain had prepared for a very, very long time for this day.

But what did surprise Xu Qing was the information about the Captain placing warding spells on himself, and also his body refinement…. Xu Qing couldn’t help but look a bit closer at the Captain’s present-life body.

Seems like his present life is missing a lot of those warding spells. It makes sense considering that whenever he does a big job, he ends up losing most of his body except for his head.

When the Captain noticed Xu Qing looking at him, he could guess what he was thinking. He cleared his throat.

Xu Qing nodded, a strange expression on his face. Then he looked at the unmoving pontiff.

“Is he—”

“Don’t worry about it,” the Captain said, clasping his hands behind his back proudly. “The Eye Thief’s soul is complicated, but he’s dreaming if he thinks he can escape the restraints placed by my past-life body. Once my body finishes assimilating him, then I’ll be in complete control!”

The situation on the battlefield had been completely reversed. With the defeat of the pontiff, the cathedral cultivators’ morale collapsed. Many of them just turned around and ran. In contrast, the Moonrebel forces went on the offensive, going all-out to fight for their hope, their freedom, and their future. Everything seemed to be going well. But then, something dramatic unfolded.

A boom like heavenly thunder erupted from Crimson Mother’s mortal husk, sending a frantic sound wave rolling out in all directions. Wherever it passed, the Moonrebel cultivators coughed up blood. Some were ripped to shreds. The same thing happened to the cultivators of the Red Moon Cathedral, with many of them being destroyed in body and soul. Everyone on the field of battle backed away from the mortal husk.

Xu Qing’s expression flickered as he turned to look in that direction. The Captain did the same.

Cracks were spreading out on the surface of the mortal husk, from within which beams of blood-colored light emerged.

The mortal husk exploded with a boom, and five figures tumbled out of it. They were none other than the Heir Apparent and his siblings. They had serious expressions on their faces, and all of them were injured. That was especially true of Fifth Sister and Eighth Sib; their faces were splattered with blood, but their eyes shone with killing intent. The Heir Apparent’s chest had caved in, and in the spot where his heart should have been was a gaping hole. His heart… was missing.

A very unsightly expression could be seen on Princess Brightblossom’s face. She was also seriously injured. Only Ninth Sib seemed to be relatively unharmed. The battle spirit in his eyes burned brightly as he offered protective cover to his siblings.

“Back up, hē’s coming out!” Ninth Sib barked.

All of a sudden, massive amounts of blood shot out from the mortal husk. It was like a sea of blood had been tapped into, as it flowed down the statue of the Imperial Sovereign and spread out on the ground below.

A terrifying aura began to spread. It wasn’t the aura of a cultivator. Rather, it contained the fluctuations of a god. Once again, the canopy of heaven turned crimson, as did the lands below.

Next, countless gazes converged on a figure casually stepping out from Crimson Mother’s mortal husk. Mountain-toppling, sea-draining pressure crushed down on everything, and as mutagen flourished, the surroundings blurred.

This was the arrival of a god!

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