“I said they are here, therefore they are,” Xu Zimo said calmly.

“Now open the door. I’ll make my own choice.”

“Infernal Lord, you shouldn’t have stopped me, nor should you have disrupted the rules of the Ghost God Heaven,” replied the voice from behind the great gate.

“What rules of the Ghost God Heaven?” Xu Zimo laughed softly. “I don’t give a damn. What I say becomes the rule.”

“In that case,” the voice behind the door replied, “come with me. The night has fallen. No one is permitted to appear.”

As the voice faded, an endless gray mist surged across the heavens.

The wind howled, sweeping over the sky with a shrill, cutting sound.

Then, in the void above, a colossal shadow emerged, half-hidden in the darkness.

It flickered between form and formlessness, as though one with the wind and fog. For a fleeting moment, its outline became clear. A creature with the head of a dragon, the tail of a tiger, and the twisted body of a demon.

It looked as though countless ferocious beasts had been fused into one.

A savage aura of bestial might rolled outward in waves. With a roar, a massive black claw reached toward Xu Zimo.

Xu Zimo’s eyes sharpened. He raised his blade, Shadow Tyrant, in a swift arc.

The slash burst forth with explosive power, but the black claw shattered it in an instant and kept descending toward him.

Xu Zimo met it head-on, his blade glowing with black light.

The light detonated as it collided with the great claw.

“If you wish to fight,” said Paimon from the side, “then show your true form. Hiding like a coward, what good is that?”

A surge of demonic energy erupted from him. His right hand transformed into a massive demonic claw that tore through the clouds and struck at the darkness.

A thunderous explosion followed, shaking the heavens.

“Bloody coward, hiding your head and tail! Who gave you the courage?!” bellowed the Red-Blade Bull Demon.

A deep, ancient bellow echoed through the sky as his body grew to colossal size.

He leapt upward into the storm clouds, the heavens trembling with the sound of his roar.

Moments later, a deafening boom shook the air, he came crashing down from the sky, dragging the enormous monster with him.

“No one looks down on me from above, no one except my Lord!” roared the Bull Demon as he wrestled the creature.

Seven-Face raised his demonic lotus, vines of black petals shooting forth.

The thorned tendrils coiled around the monster, sealing it in place as demonic energy seeped into its flesh.

Even as it struggled violently, the lotus vines only tightened.

At last, Xu Zimo saw its true form clearly, just as before. A dragon’s head, a tiger’s tail, a beastly body, shrouded in divine yet corrupted energy.

Its strength was immense, but facing three Saint Sovereigns, Paimon, Red-Blade, and Seven-Face, it was powerless to resist.

“My Lord, shall we cut it down?” the Bull Demon asked.

“Killing a Saint Sovereign isn’t easy,” said Paimon. “But to imprison it forever, that, we can do.”

The God World itself is like an enormous cage. Anyone who enters it becomes an enemy of its Heavenly Dao, and few can ever escape.

The Dragon Maiden’s plight was proof of that, she wasn’t chained, but she wasn’t free either.

“Cut its Life-Death Souls apart! I don’t believe we can’t kill it,” the Bull Demon growled impatiently.

“You dare?!” roared the beast, its voice shaking the air.

“If you kill me, you make the Ghost God Heaven your enemy!”

“I’ve never feared being the enemy of the world,” Xu Zimo said evenly. “Why would I fear you?”

He glanced once at the sealed gate.

“Kill it first. Then we’ll find its souls.”

The Bull Demon grinned wickedly, raising a massive mountain-splitting axe high above his head.

But before he could strike, a majestic voice echoed across the heavens.

“Abyssal-Chimera, return!”

The words carried divine power.

The Bull Demon’s axe froze in midair, and the massive creature dissolved into mist, vanishing into the gate.

“Abyssal-Chimera?” Xu Zimo murmured.

He recognized the name. The one behind the door had called it so.

Abyssal-Chimera, one of the Nine Ghost Gods, alongside Kui and Drought-Demon.

No wonder it had reached the Saint Sovereign realm.

…

“Who are you?” Xu Zimo asked, his gaze filled with demonic power, as if piercing through the sealed gate itself.

Paimon and the others stood ready at his sides.

“Infernal Lord, you are still too weak,” said the voice once again.

“Hiding while you yap, did no one teach you that’s rude?” Xu Zimo retorted.

“It’s not the right time for us to meet,” came the reply. “Grow stronger, otherwise... you’re not worth my attention.”

“You are…” Xu Zimo paused. Then, recalling something from long ago,

In Heaven’s End, Ocean’s Edge, an old man from Elder Lord Temple had once given him a list of names.

One name in particular stood out,

“The End of Calamities,” Xu Zimo said slowly.

A hint of surprise came from the darkness. “Oh? You still remember me?”

“Are you trying to block my path?” Xu Zimo asked directly.

“There is only one path,” the voice said. “It doesn’t matter who stands in whose way. The capable will walk ahead.”

“I didn’t come here to debate,” Xu Zimo replied coldly. “What about my old friend?”

“You mean the woman?” The voice chuckled.

“She now maintains order in the Demi-God Realm.”

“You really... shouldn’t have touched her,” Xu Zimo said quietly.

“You misunderstand me,” said the voice. “I fear no one, but I’ll tell you this, she’s not here. If you seek her, go to the Mirage Tides Heaven. Seek the Lord of Death. That is where the dead belong.”

“What do you mean?” Xu Zimo frowned.

“Like I said, she’s not with me. Go to the Mirage Tides Heaven, you’ll understand soon enough.”

Xu Zimo fell silent.

He had a terrible suspicion, but he didn’t want it to be true.

And the words of the End of Calamities, whether they could be trusted, remained uncertain.