281 Prayer of a Sinner

Prayer of a Sinner

[POV: Jue Bu]

Seething rage seeped into Jue Bu’s very bones, rattling inside the blue flames that made up his flesh. Yuen Fu screamed gutturally, his roar tearing from his throat as he swung his sword with reckless abandon. “Aaaagh—!” The steel shattered upon impact, fragments scattering like sparks against stone. Lei Jia caught him effortlessly by the neck, her massive hand closing around him like a vice. “I like the gumption on this one,” she mocked, her voice carrying the weight of disdain.

At the sight of Lu Gao’s crushed corpse, Jue Bu felt sorrow unlike anything he had expected. The boy’s body sprawled beneath the monstrous club was more than just another fallen comrade. Memories surged unbidden into him, memories that did not belong wholly to him but seeped from Da Wei’s existence. Flashes of laughter, arguments, camaraderie, and years spent together on the run tightened his chest until his blue fire dimmed. When the grief finally settled into a quiet ache, it left behind only rage. He raised his skull-like visage toward the towering demoness, lightning erupting across his limbs, his voice quiet and dangerous. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

He knew the truth. This was a losing battle. Even without the festering wound inflicted by the Supreme Void, Lei Jia outstripped him in cultivation. She knew his arts, knew his weaknesses, and possessed a monstrous body fueled by sacrifices. Alone, he had no chance. That left only one option. Jue Bu’s voice dropped to a whisper, his presence flickering as his body vanished. He had cast Divine Possession upon Yuen Fu. In the void between their spirits, his words carried like a calm breeze. “Lend me your strength.”

The reply was guttural, full of raw fury and grief. “Kill her.”

Jue Bu opened his hollow eyes once more, his frame suffused with Yuen Fu’s life force. With a sweep of his hands, he invoked his Immortal Art: Reversal of Heaven & Earth, a technique that overturned the natural limits of cultivation. Golden runes spiraled into Yuen Fu’s body, elevating him beyond his mortal boundary. In that moment, he stood on the threshold of true immortality, his potential unlocked. Through Da Wei’s lingering essence, he managed to wield the full arsenal of the sacred arts slumbering deep from within by leaning on Yuen Fu’s soul.

A brilliant sword of pure radiance formed in his grip.

“Holy Sword!”

The weapon hummed with thunder, every swing charged with divine judgment. He brought it down with a devastating Thunderous Smite, the arc of light severing Lei Jia’s massive arm at the shoulder. Her expression twisted in shock before dissolving into hysterical laughter. She swung her jagged club down in retaliation, but Jue Bu intercepted it with a blinding Flash Parry, the ringing impact scattering sparks across the dome. A second Thunderous Smite followed, cleaving away her other arm in a storm of light.

“Gya-ha-gya-ha-gya-ha-gya-ha!” Lei Jia’s laughter shook the forest as new limbs burst forth, her regeneration as grotesque as it was swift. She swung her club, intending to crush Jue Bu like an insect. But his form blurred, stepping through space itself with Flash Step, reappearing just beneath her towering frame.

“Stay still.”

Gathering Yuen Fu’s unleashed potential, he poured everything into one ultimate strike.

“Heavenly Thundering Flash!”

The holy light erupted, and his blade carved upward in a line that split heaven and earth. The Demon King’s colossal body split apart, chunks of steaming flesh erupting into vapor.

Yet death was not hers to claim. The scattered remains reformed in the distance, sulfurous steam and fire knitting her back into shape. She rose with cruel majesty, her voice booming across the field. “Jue Bu, you’ve lost your way. Once, you were feared as a King of the Underworld, master of curses and bone. Now, look at you… relying on the sacred arts of your counterpart. This is not strength. It is a betrayal of your principles!”

The undead that remained surged forward, roaring with hollow voices, but before they reached him, their bodies collapsed in unison, strings cut by unseen hands.

Jue Bu’s spirit intensified as he leveled his Holy Sword at her. His words came steady, deliberate, every syllable dripping with conviction. “Me? I lost my way? No. I am exactly where I should be. And right now, that means killing you where you stand.”

Lei Jia sneered, her voice rolling like boiling tar. “You’re only talk, Jue Bu. Words of an old ghost who lost his place.” The grotesque club she once held pulsed, dissolving into bloody vapor before suddenly erupting beneath Jue Bu’s feet as though it had been planted there all along.

Blue, purple, and golden lightning crackled across Yuen Fu’s possessed body as Jue Bu drew out every spark of Divine Speed he could muster. He tilted his body just enough for the monstrous weapon to surge past him harmlessly, the earth exploding into shards where it struck. With a single thought, he released Zealot’s Stride, his form blurring across the battlefield. He reappeared at Lei Jia’s flank, the Holy Sword blazing in his grasp as he invoked another Heavenly Thundering Flash.

But the Demon King was cunning. Before the radiant blade could pierce her, Lei Jia dissolved into thick vapor, her massive form scattering into clouds of sulfur and steam. The vapor grazed against Jue Bu’s skin, and at once his host’s flesh erupted in boils that spread like wildfire. A guttural growl escaped his throat, but he forced the Immortal Art of Reversal to act, reversing cause and effect, suppressing the sickness in a single stroke of will.

Lei Jia’s laughter echoed from all directions. Her body reformed piece by piece, and in her hand once more solidified the grotesque club lined with jagged human teeth. She swung it lazily as if to mock him. “You burn your host’s life to imitate the powers of virtue, and for what? To flail at mist?”

Jue Bu’s reply was a low growl that carried centuries of bitterness. “For the chance to erase you.” He raised the Holy Sword high, though he felt the weight pressing heavily on his essence. Casting Ultimate Skills took too much, even with Yuen Fu’s potential unlocked. Yet Jue Bu had no choice but to gamble. He clenched tighter, letting Yuen Fu’s will rise within him.

Yuen Fu’s whisper brushed through his mind like steel sliding from its sheath. “Your swordsmanship is clumsy. Let me guide it.”

Jue Bu surrendered control of the blade. “Then show me.”

He summoned Judgment Severance, the divine art that called forth a rift shaped like a colossal golden cross, a tear in reality that devoured all unnatural powers. Normally, it was a wide, indiscriminate banishment. But under Yuen Fu’s mastery, the immense energy did not spread into the air. Instead, it coursed directly into the Holy Sword, reshaping it into a burning edge of annihilation. It was no longer one technique. Instead, it was two Ultimate Skills fused into one.

The Holy Sword roared like a star splitting apart. Golden light bled into every line, and the air screamed as if rejecting the weapon’s existence. Jue Bu and Yuen Fu together struck forward, each swing tearing through vapor, flesh, and essence alike. Lei Jia shrieked, her form reassembling desperately, but every attempt to reform was met with another slash of divine judgment.

Chunks of sulfuric flesh splattered across the ground. Arms were hewn off before they could regenerate. Her corpulent body was torn into ribbons by a storm of radiance. Steam turned red, and the grotesque laughter warped into a wail that split the night.

By the time Jue Bu stopped, Lei Jia was nothing more than minced meat and blood scattered across the dirt, her monstrous body reduced to a twitching, formless heap. His Holy Sword dimmed, and Judgment Severance folded back into silence, leaving only the sound of boiling vapor hissing in retreat.

Jue Bu exhaled, his grip tightening around the fading Holy Sword as he steadied Yuen Fu’s trembling body. He knew better than to assume victory, since monsters like Lei Jia did not fall so easily.

His suspicion was confirmed when the scattered meat began to bubble, every fragment dissolving into sulfuric vapor. The blood itself hissed as though alive, threads of steam weaving upward and pulling the pieces back together. Within breaths, the night sky was thick with a crimson mist, and then from it stepped Lei Jia once more, whole, towering, and smiling.

“Gya-ha-gya-ha-gya-ha-gya-ha-gya-ha-gya-ha-gya-ha!”

A slow, deliberate clap resounded. Clap. Clap. Clap. Each sound was louder than the last until it echoed like thunder through the ruined forest.

“Well done, Jue Bu,” she said with mocking sweetness. “I have to admit, you surprised me. Not many could cut me apart like that… much less force me to shed a layer of my immortality.” Her eyes gleamed with white fire, and she flexed her hands as if testing her restored limbs. “Do you know how rare that is? A demon like me stripped of one veil of eternal flesh? You should be proud.”

Jue Bu’s jaw clenched, though his voice remained steady. “Pride is for the living. I only care about your end.”

An Ascended Soul was not measured by simple numbers. Strength between them was fickle, their duels often decided by insight, skill, and luck rather than raw cultivation. A [Level 1] Ascended Soul could, in theory, defeat a [Level 100] Ascended Soul, even if the latter held a hundred layers of immortality while the former possessed only one. Yet the bitter truth lingered: victory over one layer did not mean victory over the ninety-nine that remained. That was the reality of their world. One layer could be stripped, ten layers could be burned away, but if ninety still lingered, the battle dragged into futility. In truth, only an Ascended Soul could slay another.

Jue Bu knew this all too well. Yuen Fu was no Ascended Soul, and his body could only endure so much of Jue Bu’s essence before it tore apart. The fight dragged on regardless, with Lei Jia treating it like a sport. She swatted aside blows, regenerated with mocking ease, and forced them deeper and deeper into the wilderness. Trees split and toppled, mountains cracked, lakes boiled under the clash of sacred and infernal power. Every step forward was another step into desperation.

By the time they reached the lake’s edge, Jue Bu had nothing left to retreat into. His borrowed immortality was faltering, his host’s flesh threatening to give way. Yuen Fu’s left arm hung charred and useless, lightning crawling across blackened veins as the boy tried and failed to staunch the bleeding. Jue Bu could feel his host’s spirit waning, the strain unbearable.

“You’ve done well,” Lei Jia said, her voice dripping with glee. “Three layers. That’s what you managed to sever in your current state. Admirable. Costly, too… I’ll need countless sacrifices to restore them. But worth it.” She squeezed her grotesque club, lowering it toward his body. “With you in my grasp, I’ll gain clout enough with those pompous bastards of the Heavenly Temple to finally leave this cursed world.”

Jue Bu raised his head, his gaze blazing with fury even as his breath grew ragged. A laugh, harsh and bitter, exploded out of his mouth. “Cursed world? You don’t know what a cursed world is. You’ve never stared a Supreme Being in the eye, never felt your existence reduced to that of an insect, and your immortality stripped of meaning. You think this place is cursed?” He spat blood and flame together, his voice rising in defiance. “You know nothing. And most importantly… I am not Da Wei.”

Lei Jia’s laughter bellowed across the forest, shaking the water of the lake. “Yeah, yeah, say what you will. The Heavenly Temple wants you. There has to be a reason. So I’ll foist you in their direction and watch. If you’re truly not Da Wei, they’ll tear you apart for me. And if you are…” She grinned, her fangs steaming. “Then I’ll be owed more than I ever dreamed.”

Jue Bu burst with another laugh, each breath harsher than the last. “You are an idiot.”

In the deepest recesses of Jue Bu’s being, a place where even his rage could not fully smother his despair, he prayed. The thought alone felt foreign, almost laughable. He was not the kind to bend his knee so easily or whisper pleas into the air. Yet as Lei Jia’s monstrous laughter reverberated through his bones, he found himself doing something he swore he would never do again. Worship.

“Great Guard… heed my call.” His thoughts quivered with every syllable. “I am filth. I have sinned, and I have sullied your name and flesh more times than I can count. Yet I pray to you now in my time of need… in your friend’s time of need. Come to me. Show me your ways.”

The words burned, not from hypocrisy, but from the weight of sincerity. He couldn’t believe himself. Jue Bu, who mocked heaven, who spat at gods, now sought their hand. But the plea was not for himself. That realization startled him more than Lei Jia’s claws around his ribs. It was for another.

And then it happened as he evoked his Immortal Art: Reversal of Heaven and Earth.

In the blink of an eye, memories flooded him. They came not in fragments but as torrents, crashing into him with unbearable force. The laughter of companions, the warmth of shared meals, the sting of betrayal, the thrill of victories, the burden of promises carried across lifetimes. Da Wei’s memories. From this world and the last. They surged through him like lightning, too vast and too intimate.

Jue Bu dared not confess it aloud, but somewhere in that maelstrom, he grew fond of them. Of Da Wei’s righteousness, his absurd sense of belonging, his foolish insistence on protecting even the undeserving. It was everything Jue Bu lacked… and yet desired, if only for a heartbeat.

Lei Jia’s clawed hand lifted him higher, ready to crush him. Jue Bu spat blood and defiance at her face. “Since you won’t believe me… how about we invite the big guy here?”

And in that instant, something gave way. His mind lost itself to reason, his vision burned white, his perception rose. The thread of ‘he’ unraveled, and from it, ‘I’ emerged.

I opened my eyes.

Da Wei.

Control surged into me, heavy, immense, and undeniable. No matter how temporary, I had seized the reins. The first thought that popped into my head was mundane, ridiculous even. “What should I eat once I get back to New Willow? Braised pork? Maybe noodles?” But then reality hit harder than Lei Jia’s club. Now wasn’t the time.

I pressed my palm against Yuen Fu’s charred shoulder, divine light coursing through me. “Blessed Regeneration.” The torn flesh sang with renewal, bone and sinew knitting together. His left arm regrew in radiant brilliance, whole again.

The look on Lei Jia’s face was that of shock, fury, and disbelief. I could almost hear Jue Bu’s roar of triumph echoing within me, his spirit rejoicing even as he surrendered control to me.

But I didn’t linger. I turned, drawing lightning to my legs, and bolted, running as fast as Divine Speed would carry me.

Behind my skull, Jue Bu screamed like a man betrayed. “Wait! Wait! This isn’t what I was expecting you’d do! Get back there! Beat her ass, damn it!”

I shouted back over my shoulder, though it was only inside my own head. “Stop being darn suicidal, okay?! That’s supposed to be my thing!”

And so I ran, dragging Yuen Fu’s body along while Jue Bu screamed curses in my head. But Lei Jia didn’t chase. She just stood there, her massive club dragging against the ground as her jaw went slack. Her sulfurous flames flickered out, steam hissing from her skin as she blurted, “...What the hell just happened?”

For a Demon King, that look of sheer bewilderment was priceless.