Chapter 106: Beneath the Chinaberry Tree

“You deserve to die!” In Aaron’s pitch-black eyes, a sliver of anger flickered. He pulled out his paintbrush and, without hesitation, drew a cross.

Feng Zhe felt his heart abruptly stop, his body slipping from his control. Just as he was about to collapse, a blaze ignited within him, swiftly flooding his heart and, from there, blazing outward in all directions. The inferno raged with such intensity that even the icy silence of the underworld seemed to be scalded by its heat. The flames grew, surging skyward, setting everything around ablaze as if they would burn straight through the realm of the dead.

Pegasus, Lanye, and Yeren all shielded themselves with their arms, barely resisting the scorching onslaught.

“A paltry trick!” Aaron hurled the paintbrush aside—a divine artifact once wielded by Hades himself, endowed with unimaginable power. Yet even so, the brush ignited before the sacred fire and crumbled to ash upon the ground.

“Seal of the Gods!” Feng Zhe cried out. The sacred fire converged around Aaron, its ferocity reddening his face. Then, several blood talismans were thrown onto Aaron, and with the blessing of the sacred fire, he was wracked with excruciating pain.

Like a sonic wave, the entire world of the Seventh Prison trembled. In an instant, the blood seals shattered, the sacred fire extinguished. Feng Zhe was flung away by the shockwave, crashing heavily to the ground.

“Damn it! I’ll be back!” Aaron’s head throbbed violently, the pain so great he wasted not a second—he turned and vanished, teleporting away without hesitation.

No sooner had Aaron departed than Feng Zhe shouted, “Quick, we must seize the Mulun Fruit!” But his strength failed him and he fainted dead away, startling Lanye, who rushed to catch him.

Only Lanye knew how perilous the moment had just been. First, Aaron wielded divine power to curse Feng Zhe with death, but at the crucial moment, the sacred fire within Feng Zhe surged forth to protect its master, threatening to annihilate the entire Seventh Prison. Aaron sacrificed his paintbrush to disperse the sacred fire.

Once Feng Zhe regained consciousness, he invoked the Seal of the Gods, sacrificing all his cosmos and calling upon Athena’s blood seals in an attempt to imprison Hades. Nearly succeeding, he was thwarted at the final moment when Hades awoke within Aaron. The immense power of the Underworld King shattered both the blood seals and the binding force.

This awakening inflicted serious harm on Aaron, causing a discordance between his soul and Hades’, prompting his retreat.

Feng Zhe, too, collapsed from exhaustion. Lanye sighed, “We can’t delay. I’ll carry him.” Pegasus and Yeren nodded—the responsibility fell to Lanye, the strongest among them, for carrying Feng Zhe would not hinder her.

…

When Feng Zhe awoke again, he saw atop the Blood Waterfall a colossal Bodhi tree radiating vast life force.

“That’s the Mulun Fruit!” Never before had Feng Zhe seen such a miraculous tree, thriving so lushly in the underworld, brimming with vitality. The blood seemed to nourish it naturally, explaining its extraordinary strength.

At that moment, both Lanye and Yeren were frozen in place, while Pegasus stood tense, watching the newcomer intently.

The guardian of the Mulun Tree was none other than Asmita of Virgo.

Feng Zhe chuckled inwardly, thinking, “Even now, you want to test Pegasus? Such caution.” Pegasus might not realize it, but Feng Zhe did. Asmita had just defeated the true guardian, the Earth Star Ashura, whose power even surpassed the three great judges of the underworld.

A pair of flames appeared in Feng Zhe’s palm, which, at his will, formed a lotus blossom. He tossed it above Lanye and Yeren’s heads, instantly restoring their consciousness. They dropped to the ground.

The sudden shift in the battle distracted Pegasus, allowing Asmita to unleash the Demon Subjugation Technique.

Pegasus was struck, and in his vision unfolded a panorama like a collage of independent realms.

As Lanye and Yeren tried to rise and help, Feng Zhe stopped them. “We need only wait quietly here,” he said, sitting cross-legged in calm observation.

Yeren, anxious, cried, “Don’t you know? Asmita never follows orders. He spends all his time in the Virgo Temple, who knows what he’s up to. Some in Sanctuary even claim he’s betrayed Athena!”

After all, a heretic in Athena’s Sanctuary was a most peculiar existence. Were it not for his overwhelming strength—able to come and go in the Underworld at will and as the first to awaken the Eighth Sense—he’d have been expelled from the ranks of the Saints long ago.

Feng Zhe made no response, leaving Yeren to howl in frustration, until Lanye spoke: “My elder brother knows what he’s doing. Just watch.”

Pegasus refused to yield. No matter how many times he was struck down, he rose again and again, like an indomitable cockroach.

Feng Zhe shook his head, longing for a slipper to swat him flat.

“As the Underworld King said, rather than let the world be filled with the suffering of life, is it not better to escape such pain and be enveloped in the peace of death?” As if brainwashed, Asmita’s words provoked a surge of anger in Pegasus.

Another blast—Six Paths Reincarnation—felled Pegasus again, plunging him into a cycle of illusory rebirths.

Slamming his fist to the ground, Pegasus roared, “What nonsense! I can’t accept that! My truth is simple: I fight for Aaron and Sasha!”

“I fight only for those dear to me!” Pegasus bellowed, launching his Meteor Fist.

Yet, in the face of Asmita’s Immoveable Wisdom King, it was to no avail.

Asmita declared, “Then I shall use my ultimate technique to send you on your way.”

Heavenly Dance of the Treasure Wheel!

With his five senses stripped away, Pegasus’ soul grew terribly frail. He saw Asmita approach Sasha and drive a fist through her chest.

At that moment, Pegasus, as if his reverse scale had been struck, erupted with a mighty cosmos.

In a surge of fury, Pegasus struck out again.

Feng Zhe’s eyes lit up. “The Seventh Sense!” he murmured.

Indeed, Pegasus had awakened his Seventh Sense, shattering Asmita’s Immoveable Wisdom King with a single punch.

The illusion dissolved, and a cascade of Mulun Fruits fell from the tree.

This was the treasure Bai Li had so desperately sought, the key to shifting the tides of war.

As Pegasus collapsed, Lanye and Yeren rushed forward to catch him.

Asmita floated to Feng Zhe’s side and asked, “Alex, do you also think Aaron is wrong?”

It was, at its heart, a philosophical question. Feng Zhe answered him with a gentle smile.

“The meaning of life is to break free from the prison of our own understanding. Life itself is a process of shattering old perceptions. You are not the same as you were a year ago, and a year from now, will you be the same as you are today?”

Asmita fell silent for a moment, then murmured, “But how do you know the future isn’t just another cage?”

He laughed. “That’s for you to discover. How could everyone’s understanding possibly be the same?”

Hearing this, Asmita bowed deeply to him.

Only Feng Zhe himself knew that this man was simply idle and overfed!