Chapter 156: Ten Suns

Before him lay a boundless ocean of deep, impenetrable black. Vast and desolate, Ye Qiu had no idea where to begin searching for anyone.

"Damn it! The visibility here is simply too low. If only I had brought Qingcheng in with me; perhaps his Heavenly Eyes could pierce through these thick mists..."

What was that?

Amidst his confusion, Ye Qiu spotted a blood-red undercurrent flowing from the deep recesses of the seabed. Unlike the dark seawater all around, it looked precisely like a pool of freshly spilled blood, surging upward from the abyss below.

Uncertain of what it portended, Ye Qiu continued to fly forward when, in an instant... a figure suddenly lunged out from the dark mists.

"It's you?"

Ye Qiu's gaze turned utterly glacial. The person before him was none other than the World-Destroying Elder, who had managed to escape from the Chaotic Firmament last time...

"Daring to trespass into the forbidden zone—are you not afraid of death?"

The World-Destroying Elder's freezing voice echoed through the void. His strength seemed vastly superior to their previous encounter, which explained why, upon seeing Ye Qiu, he did not show the slightest trace of fear.

"Afraid? Heh, the ones who should be afraid are you..."

Further words were futile. With a single casual sweep of his palm, Ye Qiu unleashed a cataclysmic force that instantly pierced right through the sea cliff, shattering it into ruins.

"Hiss..."

Taken aback and flustered, the World-Destroying Elder rushed to block the strike, only to have one entire side of his body blasted to pulp by Ye Qiu's blow.

Though his physical vessel was destroyed, he did not perish. Instead, he stared at Ye Qiu with a look of utter horror, his eyes filled with disbelief...

"This fellow has actually gained complete mastery over the power within his body! It seems the Master's anxieties have come true!"

Panic gripped the World-Destroying Elder. Ye Qiu had always been their greatest thorn in the side; his mere existence was the sole reason they had yet to thoroughly purge the Great Wilderness and reset the board...

The existence of such an unstable variable was an absolute disaster for their grand scheme.

"This brat must not be left alive! It seems I must lay a trap this time to suppress him within this forbidden zone...

Even if I cannot kill him, I can trap him here. By the time he manages to break free from his restraints, the entire Great Wilderness will have already been reduced to ruins..."

Decisive as ever, the World-Destroying Elder made up his mind instantly. His goal was to trap Ye Qiu and seal him away in this place.

Of course, relying on his own strength alone, that would be impossible, for the gap between their powers was as vast as heaven and earth.

To subdue Ye Qiu, he had to resort to trickery!

"I do not know why you were foolish enough to blunder in here, but I know this: you will soon taste absolute despair..."

The World-Destroying Elder offered an evil smile as his figure gradually faded, dissolving completely into the heavy mists before Ye Qiu's eyes.

When he reappeared a moment later, his physical form had fully regenerated.

Ye Qiu knitted his brows in profound incomprehension.

"Injuries of this magnitude, and he recovered in a split second? It appears this forbidden zone holds monumental secrets..."

Gazing coldly at the elder, Ye Qiu was keen to witness precisely what methods his opponent possessed to bring him down.

"Despair? Heh, how delightful! You are the very first person to dare speak such words to me. In return, I shall grant you a fair execution..."

Having said that, Ye Qiu made no move to attack. Instead, he stood by with cold detachment, eager to see what other tricks the old man had up his sleeve.

The whereabouts of Cao He and the monkey were currently unknown, but Ye Qiu was in no rush to track them down. Should a commotion large enough erupt here, they would undoubtedly sense it and perhaps make their way toward this region.

Faced with Ye Qiu's utter contempt, a surge of fiery rage ignited within the World-Destroying Elder's heart. "Very well! Since you insist on courting death, I shall grant your wish..."

No sooner had the words left his lips than a dazzling disc materialized behind the World-Destroying Elder. It was a colossal disc, blazing like the sun, illuminating the entire expanse of the sea.

"The sun?"

Ye Qiu frowned slightly, feeling a touch of genuine surprise. Under the searing glare of this artificial sun, a faint prickle of pain brushed against his skin.

Yet it did not end there. The moment the primary disc radiated its dazzling light, nine more identical discs suddenly branched out from it. Combined with the original, there were now ten blinding discs in total.

"Ten suns?"

A wave of shock rippled through Ye Qiu's heart; he had not expected the World-Destroying Elder to possess such a formidable treasure.

"Ha, yes! Exactly that expression! Do you find yourself utterly astonished? Even a character of your mighty tier can actually feel threatened?"

The World-Destroying Elder laughed maniacally. The moment he unveiled this treasure, he had already envisioned Ye Qiu's impending doom.

His earlier banter had merely been a stalling tactic to buy time, designed to reveal the discs without arousing suspicion.

He had never imagined that Ye Qiu would be arrogant to such a ridiculous degree—even upon seeing the discs produced, he had remained entirely motionless, as if holding the artifact in absolute contempt.

That blunder on Ye Qiu's part had actually saved him a great deal of trouble!

"I truly never imagined that someone like you would be arrogant to such an extent. Do you not know that even a lion uses its full strength when hunting a rabbit?"

The World-Destroying Elder mocked with a cold sneer. Yet... to his utter bewilderment, facing these ten solar discs, Ye Qiu remained completely unfazed.

"Strange. Could this brat still have some hidden trump card up his sleeve?"

The longer he watched, the more alarmed he became. Ye Qiu was preternaturally calm—with a calmness that bordered on the terrifying!

When things are abnormal, demons are bound to be afoot. Convinced that Ye Qiu's composure masked a lethal countermeasure, a creeping sense of unease seized the World-Destroying Elder.

Amidst the scorching heat radiating from the blazing suns, Ye Qiu suddenly broke into an eerie smile. With a tone of playful mockery, he remarked, "Competing with me in artifacts? How amusing, truly amusing.

Since you harbor such immense confidence in your solar discs, very well. Let us see whose treasure is superior—yours, or mine..."

As he spoke, the smile on Ye Qiu's face grew increasingly uninhibited. He suddenly flipped his hand to produce a bow, drawing it back in a fluid motion. The boundless energy within his body coursed through his limbs and bones, and the righteous awe residing deep in his spirit erupted in an instant.

"What?!"

"He actually intends to use a battered old bow to shoot down my solar discs? How can that possibly..."

The World-Destroying Elder's heart skipped a beat, completely failing to comprehend Ye Qiu's actions. That solar disc was an ancient divine artifact! How could a mere, ordinary bow ever hope to shake it?

It was sheer, delusional folly.

Smiling coldly, the World-Destroying Elder waited to watch Ye Qiu make a fool of himself, only to be stunned speechless the very next moment.

Notching an arrow to the bowstring, Ye Qiu completed the sequence in a flash. An arrow imbued with the righteous and majestic energy of heaven and earth slowly manifested upon the bow.

In a split second, the feathered shaft was unleashed. With a deafening roar that rent the firmament asunder, the arrow streaked across the sky, slamming mercilessly into the glowing disc.

Boom...

That earth-shattering arrow split the subterranean ocean abyss directly in two. The entire sea began to churn and boil, and the blazing discs in the sky abruptly shattered...

"How is this possible?!"

At that moment, the World-Destroying Elder was rendered utterly dumbstruck. Filled with absolute confidence just moments before, he could never fathom how Ye Qiu's bow and arrow could possibly obliterate his ultimate treasure.

Yet the stark reality lay right before his eyes: of the ten suns in the sky, one was instantly extinguished.

Witnessing this spectacle, Ye Qiu chuckled, speaking with effortless nonchalance, "In ancient times there was Houyi shooting down the suns, and today there is Ye Qiu drawing his bow to shatter solar discs! Splendid, simply splendid..."

Ye Qiu truly had not expected that the ancient myth of Houyi shooting the suns would actually manifest in reality, and even more so... that he would be the one playing the role of the archer.

One had to admit, the World-Destroying Elder's mentality had completely collapsed right then and there.