104: Chapter 96 The Six Kings Are Gone, the World Is One

Lin Sa bit her lip, her knuckles white from gripping the dagger. She wanted to charge forward.

Xu Mo grabbed her wrist, shaking his head, his voice almost inaudible: "Don't waste the time they bought."

The third wave of the demon army's charge broke through the left flank of the human wall. Dozens of High-Rank Shikigami rushed straight for Pei Duo.

The Old Ghost in Zhongshan Suit walked out from the human wall, standing at the very front.

His soul body had been mostly burned away by the previous impacts, leaving only half a silhouette. The collar of his Zhongshan suit was still neatly buttoned to the top, and the half-burnt fountain pen was still in his chest pocket.

He turned his head and, with his almost transparent hand, made an extremely ordinary gesture towards Pei Duo.

He placed his hand over his chest, bent at the waist, and performed a solemn bow.

Then he straightened up, turned towards the demon army, and ignited.

That pillar of ethereal blue fire was taller and brighter than any before, burning a huge, clear silhouette in the blood-red sky, like a flag.

Pei Duo knelt down.

Not because her legs were weak, but because her knees uncontrollably buckled at that moment.

She didn't cry out, but the bloodshot veins in her eyes had spread across the entire whites, and tears mixed with blood dripped down her jaw onto the land of Yomi Hirasaka.

The sacrifice of the heroic spirits bought time for the three, but the barrier remained sealed, and subsequent waves of the demon army were still surging forth.

Pei Duo knelt before the barrier wall, no longer calling for her brother, no longer waiting for any external aid.

She lowered her head, looking at the dusty black jade pendant in her palm.

No divine power, no response, just a stone.

But it was left by her brother, nurtured by him for two years, it was her brother's flesh and blood.

She pressed the edge of the jade pendant against the deepest wound in her palm, pressing down hard.

Blood seeped into every crack, into every bit of grime, thoroughly soaking the black stone.

Divine power could be drawn away, but the breath carved into this stone two thousand years ago could not.

She pressed it against the barrier wall, saying nothing, just holding it there.

Telling everything on the other side of the seal: she was here, she hadn't left.

The dark light within the jade pendant erupted.

It wasn't the faint electric current sound from before, but a deep rumble, like something that had been dormant for an extremely long time, awakened by the scent of blood.

On the barrier wall, at the point where the jade pendant made contact, the first hair-thin crack appeared.

The crack didn't widen, it just hung there silently.

But the light emanating from the crack was not ethereal blue, nor purple, but an ancient, heavy black-gold.

Then, Pei Duo heard a sound.

Extremely faint, extremely distant, as if from somewhere a thousand years away, seeping through countless layers of seals and void, little by little towards this side.

It wasn't human voices, nor instrumental music, but something far more ancient—like war drums, like horns, like the trembling of the earth when thousands of people marched simultaneously, all mixed together, compressed into a low, mighty current of air, leaking out bit by bit from that hair-thin crack.

Xu Mo froze.

He tilted his head, frowning. The sound was too blurry for him to distinguish, he only felt the oppressive aura that made it hard to breathe, as if some immensely vast entity was slowly turning around in the distance.

Pei Duo pressed the jade pendant against the barrier wall another increment.

The blood seeped deeper.

The crack widened.

Only slightly, but the black-gold light brightened with it, and the sound emanating from the crack became clearer with it.

This time, Xu Mo made out a word.

It was the sound of Qin.

It wasn't any accent passed down through later generations, but an older, rougher sound, directly carved from the deep yellow earth, carrying a raw force that swept across the land, bursting forth word by word.

Lin Sa's hand trembled.

She didn't understand what it was, but her intuition—the intuition that had saved her life in countless dungeons—frantically told her at this moment:

Shut up, don't move, just listen.

The demon army's advance slowed.

Not because someone gave an order, but because the red devils and Shikigami in the front row instinctively stopped the moment the light from that crack touched them.

Tamamo-no-Mae's nine fox tails paused slightly.

Pei Duo didn't look up, pressing the jade pendant firmly against the barrier wall, using her last bit of strength.

The crack widened again.

This time, the sound became completely clear.

It was a Rhapsody.

It was the Rhapsody of Great Qin.

It was the sound of that era that swept across the six states—resounding, majestic.

Every word carried the weight of metal, pressing from the other side of the seal, stomping on the ground beneath Yomi Hirasaka, causing the earth to tremble in waves.

"...The six kings perished, the four seas unified. West of the Black Water, I alone rule. Having achieved my ambition, my might shakes the four seas..."

Every word clear, every word like a bell.

It was the pronunciation of Qin seal script, the intonation from two thousand years ago, the last breath of the one who carved the word 'I' (zhen - Imperial We) into history, preserved within this jade.

Xu Mo's glasses reflected the widening black-gold crack.

His lips moved, but no sound came out.

The one who unified the six states, standardized writing and chariots, and carved his name into every piece of land, had arrived.

The crack continued to expand.

The sound of the Great Qin Rhapsody grew louder and clearer, the airflow seeping from a narrow crack turning into a mighty torrent.

Carrying the aura of war from two thousand years ago, carrying the unique, overbearing dominance of that era, it pressed inch by inch from the other side of the seal.

The Japanese God System runes on the barrier wall began to tremble.

Those seal patterns, carved for thousands of years, under the crushing force of this aura, bent downwards little by little, as if someone had gripped their spines.

Tamamo-no-Mae took a step back.

Just one step, but it was the first time she had voluntarily retreated today.

All nine of her fox tails stood erect, every hair bristling, her captivating fox eyes fixed intently on the crack, the color in her eyes changing.

Not anger, not calculation.

It was genuine, undisguised terror.

The runes on the barrier wall shattered.

Not an explosion, not a roar, but simply shattered, quietly, turning into black powder that scattered into the blood-red mist with the sea breeze of Yomi Hirasaka.

Pei Duo knelt before the Yomi barrier wall, Japanese God System runes flaking off all around her feet, drifting like paper ash at the bottom of a stove after autumn, quiet, thin, weightless.

The wound in her palm had long coagulated, dark brown scabs filling every crack of the jade pendant, embedding it firmly.

The Qin Rhapsody leaking from the crack grew louder, each word heavier than the last, smashing into her ear bones, pressing down along her blood vessels.

She bit down hard on her back molars, tasting the metallic tang of blood seeping from beneath her gums.

The muscles in her legs had long gone numb from soreness, her knees pressed against the rough gravel, her body instinctively wanting to collapse, but she drew her last breath into her chest, straightening her spine inch by inch.

She raised her right arm.

The hand wrapped around the black jade pendant slowly clenched into a fist, her knuckles popping under the pressure.

"Shatter."

Her voice was utterly hoarse, but the word came out clean, without a trace of tremor.

Without any hesitation, she pushed off the ground with the last of her leg strength, leaping up, and at the apex, using her weight and momentum, she slammed both fists squarely into the center of the crack glowing with black-gold light.

At the point of impact, a crisp, teeth-grinding sound exploded in the air.