66: Desperate Loans, Starry Sky Shadow

"burying netherworld! Lend me your power one more time! The interest... is the same as before!"

Liu Qingtian's consciousness carried a trace of urgency and determination as he communicated with the silent fierce halberd. The pursuers behind him were like maggots on a rotting bone, their attacks striking incessantly, preventing him from fully escaping into the Void Realm. Once he was completely entangled, and the Kāishān Realm Mid-stage Yunxia Sect Youth and the Black-Robed Priest recovered their breath to join forces, the consequences would be unimaginable!

However, this time, the reaction of the burying netherworld was unexpected.

The body of the halberd merely trembled slightly, transmitting a cold, indifferent, and even... disdainful? thought:

"Inferior... energy... impure... insufficient... to pay... the cost... this time..."

Liu Qingtian was stunned at first, then realized what was happening. The burying netherworld (or rather, the shadow of annihilation within it) looked down on the miscellaneous energy he had absorbed before, including the power of the star tear he had just taken in? It was only interested in pure, high-quality annihilation energy!

And his body was currently filled mainly with the Power of the Stars and the Qi of Life and Death; although vast, it did not suit the other party's "taste"!

"What do you need? Speak!" Liu Qingtian asked urgently while dodging a sharp Sword Intent beam and several Void Realm energy spheres shot from behind.

"...Golden Body Realm... or above... Origin of Annihilation... or... something equivalent..." the cold thought responded intermittently.

Origin of Annihilation above the Golden Body Realm? Where was he supposed to get that now?!

Liu Qingtian felt stifled; this ghost of a thing had too high demands!

Seeing the pursuers getting closer and closer, the Yunxia Sect Youth already starting to brew some powerful sword technique, his Sword Intent locked onto him, Liu Qingtian steeled himself!

"I'll mortgage my future earnings! This time, I owe you five strands... no! Ten strands of xuanxu realm origin! You set the interest rate!" He practically roared these words. With enough debt, one doesn't worry about the burden; he had to get through this crisis first!

Silence.

After a brief silence, the body of the burying netherworld trembled slightly again.

The cold thought seemed to "weigh" the options, finally responding:

"...Acceptable... mortgage... future... three times... same scale... output... earnings... priority... deduction... this time... interest... calculated... by... day..."

The conditions were outrageously harsh! Not only was the interest high, but he also had to mortgage all the earnings from three future uses of the same scale! This was practically binding his future to the path of debt repayment!

But Liu Qingtian had no choice!

"Agreed!" He replied through gritted teeth.

The moment the contract was reached—

Hum!

On the body of the burying netherworld, the purple-black shadow of annihilation did not emerge, but at the tip of the halberd, a point of extreme, gloomy light suddenly lit up!

In the next moment, that point of gloomy light detached from the halberd blade and silently sank into Liu Qingtian's massive tree body!

There was no massive infusion of energy, but rather... an ultimate insight into and control over space, which poured into Liu Qingtian's tree soul like a tidal wave! Simultaneously, a short, incomplete technique on how to burn the Power of the Stars to the extreme for ultra-long-distance spatial jumping also flooded in!

The burying netherworld did not provide power directly, but gave him the "method" and "temporary authorization"!

At the same time, the star key imprint deep within Liu Qingtian's tree soul seemed stimulated by that point of gloomy light, resonating with the not-yet-fully-refined power of the star tear like never before!

Boom!

Liu Qingtian felt his "vision" instantly heighten, as if he had transcended this Shattered Continent, transcended this Star Domain, and saw the infinitely complex "veins" crisscrossing the endless Void Realm—the manifestation of the Law of space!

And the surging Power of the Stars within his body, as if finding the best vent, began to burn in an arcane and violent way according to the guidance of that incomplete technique!

"This is it!"

Liu Qingtian had a flash of inspiration; his massive tree body suddenly stalled in mid-air, and countless willow branches raised upwards, as if holding something up!

He burned a massive amount of the Power of the Stars, mixed with the spatial insight granted by the shadow of annihilation, and fully activated the star key!

"Star Dome... Shadow Escape!"

Hum—!!!

With him as the center, the space within a radius of several hundred zhang suddenly twisted and collapsed violently! Brilliant starlight intertwined with the gloomy light of annihilation, forming a huge, rotating star vortex!

The Yunxia Sect Youth's long-brewed, heaven-shaking sword technique, which had just been unleashed, and the Black-Robed Priest's Void Realm swallowing seal, which had just fallen, were both like mud oxen entering the sea, easily swallowed, deflected, and annihilated by the twisting and collapsing spatial star vortex!

"What?!"

"Great Spatial Escape Technique?! Impossible!"

The two men's faces changed drastically, filled with terror! This level of spatial jumping was simply not something a Kaishan Realm expert could perform!

In the next moment, the huge star vortex suddenly shrank inward, and together with Liu Qingtian at the center, disappeared without a trace!

No spatial ripples were left behind, no traces of energy remained, as if he had never existed!

Only the chaotic Law of space in the original spot proved everything that had just happened.

The attacks of the Yunxia Sect Youth and the Black-Robed Priest collided fiercely, erupting into a terrifying explosion, but they only blew up nothingness.

The two hovered in mid-air, their faces extremely livid, their Divine Sense scanning the surrounding Void Realm frantically, but they found nothing!

"Damn it! To think he actually got away!" The Black-Robed Priest was trembling with anger; the duck that had been in his mouth had flown away, and they had suffered heavy losses!

The Yunxia Sect Youth's eyes were terrifyingly gloomy. He put away his Magical Artifact sword and said coldly: "That Demon Willow has strange methods, definitely not ordinary. The escape technique he used at the end contained a very high level of power, and even... had a trace of an aura that made me feel palpitations."

He looked at the Black-Robed Priest, a flash of murderous intent in his eyes: "It seems that both you and I have been played by him. The top priority now is to report this immediately! A Demon Willow possessing a special spatial escape technique and possibly related to the 'Star Saint's Relics'—its value... is far beyond imagination!"

Upon hearing this, the Black-Robed Priest suppressed his anger and nodded gloomily: "That's right! We must report this to the higher-ups of the Holy Sect immediately! Mobilize forces to search for his tracks! He can't have escaped far!"

The two looked at each other and instantly reached a temporary tacit understanding, each taking out their communication Magical Artifacts to begin reporting upwards.

As for those indigenous pursuers, they could only watch their enemy disappear, letting out roars of impotent rage.

...

Unknown tens of thousands of miles away.

In a strange, dead, and silent Void Realm.

Without any warning, the space rippled like water, and a thousand-zhang Demon Willow stumbled out as if spat out by an invisible hand.

It was Liu Qingtian!

At this moment, his state was extremely terrible.

The radiance on his massive tree body was dim, countless willow branches were broken, and his aura was withered to the extreme. In order to activate the "Star Dome Shadow Escape", he had burned most of the Power of the Stars brought by the star tear and even overdrawn part of his Origin; he was now extremely weak.

But he had escaped after all!

He held onto his last trace of clarity, scanned the surroundings with his massive perception, and after confirming there was no immediate danger, he could no longer hold on. His tree body curled up like an injured giant beast, floating in the Void Realm, and he fell into a deep state of self-repair and slumber.

And before falling asleep, his last thought was:

"Ten strands of xuanxu realm origin... daily interest... future three times earnings... burying netherworld... Lin Feng... you guys... are truly black-hearted..."

Endless exhaustion and heavy debts, like the cold Void Realm, completely swallowed him.

This time, he was severely injured, but his gains were also huge. With the star tear in his body and his spatial insight improved, as long as he recovered, his strength would definitely rise to a higher level.

Only, he did not know what kind of storm he would face when he woke up next time.

In the Void Realm, there was only silence.