"What do you think, Locust Plague Sage from the spatial turbulence?"
Ruto’s voice came from all directions.
He had thrown the entire space into complete chaos.
Qi Suian didn’t answer. Instead, he switched the Floating Cannons to Ghost Energy Storm mode and began firing indiscriminately.
In an instant, all the surrounding space began to shatter.
If the space were normal and not being interfered with, the ghost energy naturally wouldn’t have any effect.
But the space was already in chaos, so every attack unleashed by the Ghost Energy Storm damaged the distorted dimension.
Qi Suian really had no way to counter his opponent’s flashy, varied abilities, but he could always brute-force his way through.
"I can fight you here for a whole year. Can you?" Qi Suian asked provocatively.
His opponent was indeed strong, but Qi Suian was different. Both he and the Tai Sui God had resurrection-type abilities as a safety net.
This meant they could make countless mistakes, whereas Ruto could not. If he made a single mistake, he would die.
With Qi Suian blanketing the area, his opponent’s spatial abilities were rendered almost useless.
If Ruto didn’t interfere with space, the Floating Cannons’ ghost energy couldn’t affect it.
However, his entire skillset was based on spatial abilities. Asking him not to use them was like asking him to cripple himself.
Right now, Qi Suian couldn’t even see his opponent’s locust form.
’As long as I play it safe and steady, he’s guaranteed to lose.’
Whether the enemy used a surprise attack or prepared for a head-on confrontation, Qi Suian had a way to deal with it.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH...
Suddenly, a strange sound reached his ears, as if some creature was gnawing on something solid.
Before he could investigate, he saw a locust head, roughly the size of a human’s, emerge and begin devouring space with huge bites.
And that was just the beginning. More and more locust heads poked through.
"Locust Plague... Sage..." Qi Suian instantly understood why his opponent used "Locust Plague" as a prefix.
It wasn’t for nothing. The "Sage" was never the point; the emphasis was always on "Locust Plague."
The true purpose of his transformation wasn’t to enhance his own strength, but to summon a plague of locusts.
Qi Suian didn’t recognize these giant locusts, but that didn’t stop him from killing them.
’The Floating Cannons might not be able to handle the likes of the Blood Moon or the Golden Light Man, but a swarm of locusts? That’s a different story.’
Swept up in the Ghost Energy Storm, all the giant locusts struggled briefly before being disintegrated.
Still, Qi Suian had a bad feeling about this.
The Locust Plague Sage, Ruto, knew the power of the Floating Cannons, yet he had done this anyway.
’The man is a cunning schemer. He wouldn’t just send these giant locusts here to die for nothing.’
"AI, break us out," Qi Suian commanded.
Following Qi Suian’s command, the firepower of all the Floating Cannons converged on a single point.
It instantly blasted open an escape path.
The Tai Sui God surged forward, beginning to retreat at top speed.
It was then that Qi Suian felt the Tai Sui God’s deficiency in mobility.
The Wind Master aviation system was essentially a flight module. Its speed had been sufficient in previous Doomsday Worlds.
But in the last two Doomsday Worlds, it was starting to fall behind.
It needed corresponding acceleration and propulsion modules to enhance its speed.
The Tai Sui God’s rate of improvement was normal, but the difficulty of the Doomsday Worlds had skyrocketed.
’Who knows if the Doomsday Game is doing this on purpose to kill me, or if the butterfly effect has just limited my choices to these worlds.’
As he pondered these things, the Tai Sui God burst out of the chaotic spatial region.
"Wait, where did he send me?" Qi Suian realized this area was not where he had been before.
’Good thing I got out early, or it would have been even more dangerous.’
He looked back and saw the Locust Plague Sage, Ruto, standing on a nearby spatial fragment.
With a single leap, without any warning, he flickered and appeared right in front of Qi Suian.
An attack imbued with a space-cutting effect came directly for Qi Suian.
That’s right—the attack wasn’t aimed at the Tai Sui God. His opponent had used spatial abilities to penetrate all of the Tai Sui God’s defenses and was striking at Qi Suian’s vitals.
Qi Suian was instantly shredded into a pile of flesh.
The good news was, he wasn’t dead. His SS-class Virus Talent Divine Ladder granted the Abyssal Virus incredible vitality.
These days, the only things that could really kill him were deactivation via a Divine Purification Force Field...
...or means related to death, fate, or disease-curing effects.
Spatial abilities couldn’t actually kill him.
The pile of flesh quickly reformed back into his human shape.
"Spatial abilities are indeed very suitable as a long-range tool."
"With deeper development, it’s not impossible to see effects like armor penetration or true damage."
"But... this is ultimately the power of a Sacred Artifact, not the user himself."
"Even if the Sacred Artifact grants you the ability to control and affiliate with space, it’s never as intuitive as one’s own power."
"More importantly, Sacred Artifacts don’t bond to a master. Whoever holds it can use it."
As Qi Suian spoke, the AI directly detonated a Floating Cannon.
Ghost energy erupted, sweeping across a hundred-meter radius.
The range could have been larger, but the AI kept it contained.
A larger area would have meant a decrease in concentration.
As long as the enemy was within the blast radius, higher concentration was naturally better.
The Locust Plague Sage, Ruto, was immediately forced out into the open.
The surrounding space was being eroded by ghost energy. If he had stayed inside and not left in time, Ruto would have been completely disintegrated.
He looked rather disheveled this time, his clothes tattered and torn.
But before he could make his next move, another Floating Cannon was detonated.
Not just one, but ten were detonated at once.
They completely enveloped Ruto.
Ruto resisted immediately. Using the spatial ability from his Jigsaw Sacred Artifact, he continuously guided and manipulated space, forming numerous Spatial Barriers around himself.
He wanted to use this method to wear down the ghost energy.
As for abilities like blinking or teleporting, he didn’t dare use them in such a high concentration of ghost energy.
If he tried to dodge or escape using such methods, it would backfire. The ghost-energy-affected space would crush, churn, and slice him to pieces.
He’d be whole before using it, but there was no guarantee afterward.
So, he could only resort to this clumsy method.
The idea was good, and effective too.
But it couldn’t keep up with Qi Suian, who stopped detonating the Floating Cannons and instead fired a Ghost Energy Storm from them.
Under the influence of the Ghost Energy Storm, the dense ghost energy from the explosions coalesced into an even larger storm.
The Floating Cannons weren’t detonated randomly; it was all to prepare the battlefield.
’If the damage isn’t enough, then I’ll create a terrain advantage.’
Luckily, Ruto didn’t stop him, merely assuming Qi Suian was using some kind of destructive attack.
By the time Ruto realized what was happening, it was too late.
After all, the Tai Sui God was not a product of the Sacred Artifact World. An information gap was only to be expected.
Beneath the massive Ghost Energy Storm, the Spatial Barriers Ruto controlled were swallowed and shattered, leaving him to face the enhanced storm head-on.
The moment it touched him, his body began to disintegrate.
"I thought it would be painful. I never expected death to be this easy." A human-like expression of resignation appeared on the Locust Plague Sage’s locust head.
After Ruto said this, his entire body was completely disintegrated.
And his Sacred Artifact, unable to resist the Ghost Energy Storm, disintegrated along with him.
This made Qi Suian’s heart ache, but faced with such a terrifying Ghost Energy Storm, he could only watch as it was disintegrated.
Even now, the Tai Sui God had no way to resist ghost energy.
It was a classic case of "the vassal of my vassal is not my vassal." Because the energy came from its tools, not itself, the Tai Sui God had no immunity to its damage.
Therefore, the Tai Sui God couldn’t be immune to ghost energy damage.
If the AI hadn’t used other Floating Cannons to counteract the ghost energy environment created by the detonations, the Tai Sui God would have suffered as well.
Fortunately, the plan succeeded.
’Looks like I can’t go directly to the capital.’
’Their foundation is truly deep.’ Qi Suian decided not to continue toward the capital.
He refused to believe the Eternal United States had only one Sacred Artifact master.
The fact that his opponent could intercept him so precisely meant he had backing.
Now that Ruto was dead, they would definitely send another... Hell, they might send a dozen.
After so many years of war, the one thing they wouldn’t be short on was powerful individuals. Otherwise, they would have been wiped out by the Xuan Empire long ago.
"But the problem is, if I don’t go, who’s going to know I was the one who did it?" Qi Suian wasn’t trying to show off; he wanted to build his fearsome reputation for self-preservation.
"Wait, I just need people to watch me do it, and then they can spread the word for me."
"It’s just... I probably can’t hit the capital."
"I’ll likely be intercepted on the way, so I need to change targets."
Qi Suian mused that a nation’s capital was sure to be full of hidden experts, and they could very well intercept an intercontinental missile he launched.
So, he had to choose a city that the Eternal United States could not ignore.
[Before you consider this matter further, I advise you to evacuate.]
[According to intelligence from the reconnaissance network, the First Imperial Guard of the Eternal United States is approaching your position.]
The AI reminded Qi Suian.
Hearing this, Qi Suian immediately understood where the Locust Plague Sage, Ruto, had been trying to send him.
It was nowhere other than right in front of the First Imperial Guard.
At that point, with the Locust Plague Sage, the Imperial Guard Commander, and all the Imperial Guards, Qi Suian truly wouldn’t have had the means to escape.
"Perfect. I’ll use them as witnesses."
"The target will be Haisi County."
Qi Suian designated the target immediately.
Haisi County was a vital region of the Eternal United States. Within the nation, it was considered a top-tier city, providing a massive amount of tax revenue for the United States.
It was also a major transportation hub and a critical supply zone.
If not their left and right arm, it was at least their public face.
Qi Suian’s goal, naturally, was to slap the Eternal United States across the face.
If not for the possibility of even stronger old monsters hiding in the capital, whose Sacred Artifacts could cause his mission to fail at the last minute...
...the best target would have been the capital. Ideally, he would have blown the King of the Eternal United States to bits.
But that was just a fleeting thought; it was definitely not something he could actually achieve.