Chapter 646: The New and Old Sword Gods

Pang Jian's suspicion deepened.

When he declared himself a human from the Abyss earlier, he had faintly heard the sound of a sword hum.

The Abyssal Demon and the Abyssal Demon Sword were long gone. Ghostflare also contained no soul and was not a divine sword, so it could not have emitted the sound.

So, where did that sword hum come from?

It has to be from the Bronze-Masked God!

But why would an Outer God carry a divine sword crafted for a sword cultivator with them? More importantly, why would the sword respond to them with a hum?

"Tell me, are you from the Celestial Race, the Ghost Race, or part of the Demon Races?" Pang Jian questioned with a piercingly cold gaze. "I heard a sword hum earlier. Did you kill a Sword God from the Sword Pavilion and seize their divine sword?"

Many Sword Gods had escaped the Abyss into the starry skies, and some had undoubtedly fallen into the hands of the Outer Gods.

Pang Jian suspected the Bronze-Masked God had obtained a divine sword through such means.

The Bronze-Masked God chuckled lightly, ignoring the question to pose one of his own.

"Where are the Scripture Pavilion, the Pill Pavilion, and the Artifact Pavilion located?"

In the mysterious space where the Bronze-Masked God resided, six miniature replicas of the Heaven Departure Peak, the Breakthrough Peak, the Elusive Peak, the Enlightenment Peak, the Fate Severing Peak, and the Sword Honing Peak floated around him, each forged from black iron.

These replicas mirrored the Sword Pavilion's layout on the Heaven Awakening Continent, with the Bronze-Masked God where the Sword Pavilion typically stood at the center of the six towering peaks.

The Bronze-Masked God glanced at a small wooden sword, wordlessly signaling it to stay quiet.

The wooden sword had been circling the six mountains, but at his pointed glance, it ceased its whistling cry and obediently fell silent.

"The Sword Honing Peak," Pang Jian replied.

"What's the name of the place where the Sword Pavilion receives outsiders?"

"Trimcloud Town."

"Who is your master?"

"The Pavilion Master of the Sword Pavilion, Li Zhaotian."

The Bronze-Masked God fell silent. Then, he removed his mask to reveal a human face with black hair and eyes.

His handsome face exuded an air of unrestrained arrogance, and his eyes were incredibly fierce.

A smile of delight tugged at his lips. "You're the World God of this era, aren't you?"

Pang Jian was shaken to his core.

There was no need for further explanation. The mysterious Bronze-Masked God was a True God of the human race!

He was one of the survivors in the starry skies!

"I am!" Pang Jian's heart surged with emotion. Taking a deep breath, he asked, "May I ask who you are?"

"Like you, I also hail from the Sword Pavilion," the Bronze-Masked God replied, gaze softening.

Pang Jian's eyes lit up. "Which senior would you be?"

The Bronze-Masked God burst into laughter.

As he was about to reveal his name, an eerie force poured into the star like a creeping tide.

The overwhelming force swallowed his words, expressions, and movements, causing his projection to distort before vanishing completely.

A swamp of soul essence had distorted the laws of space, traversing the boundless starry skies to engulf the star in an instant!

It's Zi Mo!

Pang Jian's face darkened.

Han Yi once told him that Zi Mo did not have mastery over spatial manipulation. Great Demon God He Motian was also not proficient in this aspect. This was the main reason Pang Jian dared to hunt You Kui.

However, it seemed Han Yi was unaware Zi Mo could manifest her soul-related divine techniques directly where her subordinate perished.

The high-ranking God of the Ghost Race had a divine technique that allowed her to project her soul essence like a boundless quagmire, disregarding distance as it surged forth, warping the very fabric of space in its wake.

This divine technique had left a deep impression in You Kui's memories.

With the soul-binding quagmire restricting him, Pang Jian found his connection to his physical body severed, making it impossible to open up a spatial rift with the Gate of the Abyss.

The Thunder Pool emerged at his call, tearing through the suffocating quagmire in an explosive bout of lightning.

Pang Jian carved a path with the lightning from the Thunder Pool, hastily making his way out of the star's depths.

Even the quagmire-like soul essence Zi Mo had spread across the entire star struggled to withstand the sheer force of this fearsome divine artifact.

Pang Jian charged forward with unrelenting force in the crackling thunder and flashing lightning.

From You Kui's memories, he knew this divine technique could only project Zi Mo's soul essence across vast distances. It could not manifest her true body.

As long as her true body was not here, the destructive lightning within the Thunder Pool could easily carve an escape through the soul-binding quagmire.

Reality proved his judgment to be correct.

The lightning cleared away the quagmire-like soul essence without issue. Not long after, Pang Jian's Immortal Divine Soul escaped the nameless star, enshrouded in crackling lightning.

A gray-brown radiated outward from the star, stretching to cover a vast expanse of the starry skies.

The sheer might of a high-ranking God left Pang Jian shaken.

If not for the Thunder Pool and Five Thunder Annihilation, he would have been reduced to a wandering soul within the quagmire.

This divine technique of Zi Mo's could strip the souls of all living beings within the soul-binding quagmire's reach.

If cast upon a populated star, it would have undoubtedly transformed the billions of souls inhabiting that star into a boundless sea of the dead in mere moments.

Moreover, the quagmire would gain sentience when those souls merged into it, further amplifying its terrifying power.

Using the amassed souls of billions, Zi Mo could then manifest a body wielding thirty percent of her true body's strength, enabling her to enact slaughter across the stars.

Fortunately, You Kui chose a deserted star.

Pang Jian sighed in relief, his thoughts racing as he wielded the Thunder Pool.

A cascade of lightning surged downward like an inverted waterfall. Wrapped in its blazing radiance, he plunged down alongside the thunderous torrent.

His target was the vast bizarre mist below.

The soul-binding quagmire followed him relentlessly, stretching downward and spreading its influence ever further.

Even if he avoided direct contact, as long as he remained within its reach, he would remain severed from his physical body, unable to open up a spatial rift using the Gate of the Abyss.

A constellation of "stars" in the distance suddenly flickered to life.

They drew closer with each pulse, closing in on him with unsettling speed.

Pang Jian dared not unleash his divine sense to investigate with the quagmire surrounding him, and his eyes could not discern the true nature of those "stars."

Despite this, he instinctively knew these distant "stars" were, in fact, dozens of Outer Gods, each rushing toward him on their divine platforms.

Realizing the dire situation, Pang Jian recklessly depleted the power within the Thunder Pool. He spared no effort to escape.

At last, engulfed in a torrential cascade of lightning, he dove headfirst into the bizarre mist.

A dizzying sensation overwhelmed him when he entered the bizarre mist, and a mysterious force flung him to an unknown destination.

The one comfort that Pang Jian had was that his connection with his physical body was restored.

He was about to command his physical body to open up a spatial rift using the Gate of the Abyss when he abruptly realized he could not.

His second soul was still in the midst of merging with the Corruption in his physical body's sea of consciousness.

His physical body's awareness, consciousness, and divine sense were otherwise occupied with this process, making it impossible for his body to divide its attention or activate the Gate of the Abyss.

After a brief hesitation, Pang Jian chose to fly deeper into the bizarre mist and distance himself from his physical body.