The Black Book: Seven Deadly Sins

Boom!

In the grand column of light several meters in diameter, the black-clad youth floated uncontrollably, visible energy ripples spread like tides, creating continuous spacetime ripples that distorted the space within a few kilometers, causing it to undulate.

After a long time, the divine glow retracted, and Zhu Haomiao slowly fell, supporting himself with one hand on the ground, as wisps of blue smoke rose from his entire body.

Hiss hiss hiss hiss~

Like cold water falling on a hot iron, steam wafted around the black-clad youth, and from his mouth and nose, he exhaled a scorching breath of energy, as the blinding red glow of high temperature on his body gradually dimmed and calmed.

"Whew~"

The bright red blood vessels crawling and writhing across his face gradually retracted, and Zhu Haomiao struggled to stand up, carefully examining his nearly collapsed body.

He harvested nearly a million people's Essence and sins in one go; such a massive force poured into his body. If not for his Body attribute being over two hundred points, he would have exploded by now!

Even so, the brutal and unreasonable infusion of power still caused him frightening injuries; his muscles and bones almost completely fractured, with every cell suffering severe damage.

Soon after, as the power of Anger receded, the morbid pleasure faded, and waves of unshielded pain assaulted his nerves, causing Zhu Haomiao's pupils to tremble.

Intense signals warned his body was on the brink of death, so Zhu Haomiao willed himself to release the power of Lust, rapidly digesting and absorbing the material nutrition within the void stomach, converting it into a constant cool sensation circulating throughout his body.

A massive life force nourished the damaged cells, the piercing pain quickly subsided, and the torn skin on the surface started to scab and heal at a visibly fast rate.

Having stabilized his injuries, Zhu Haomiao breathed a slight sigh of relief, raised his hand in a virtual grasping motion, and a thick black book materialized in his hand, automatically opening.

Looking at the information in the Book of Black, Zhu Haomiao's pupils shook, and his mouth involuntarily curled upwards into a maniacal grin.

God: +100

Dexterity: +100

Strength: +100

Essence: +100

Qi: +100

Body: +200 (100×200%)

As his gaze continued downward, aside from the tremendous boost in the six-dimensional attributes, what delighted Zhu Haomiao even more was the rise in his Original Sin Level.

Anger: LV.7→LV.9

In game terms, the former is a value boost, while the latter is a change in mechanism!

Many times, when facing beings like Emperor Shitian, it's difficult for both sides to create a gap in terms of value; the key to victory lies in higher-level competitions such as mechanisms, laws, authority, and position.

Feeling the LV.9 power of Anger for a moment, a force as violent and frenzied as a volcano gathered in his heart, frightening Zhu Haomiao into quickly calming his emotions.

Focusing his thoughts, holding his heart in unity, the black-clad youth took slow, deep breaths, taking a long time to appease the anger in his heart, breathing a long sigh of relief with lingering fear.

With just a brief attempt, Zhu Haomiao realized that with his body on the verge of collapse, releasing LV.9 level Anger wouldn't require any enemy attacks; he would explode on the spot.

Absolutely dead!

Clicking his tongue, Zhu Haomiao suppressed the palpitations in his chest, with a grasp of his five fingers, the flung open Book of Black snapped shut with a clap, instantly disappearing in his palm.

The next second, agile figures appeared around him, gazing at the black-clad youth's back with awe and reverence.

In the boundless sea of corpses and blood spread over dozens of miles, he alone stood towering.

From the void, a cold and ruthless dignity overwhelmed him, his not so tall body appearing as mighty as a mountain to others, inspiring awe and making people look up as if gazing at a majestic peak.

Gulp~

Swallowing nervously, Huai Xu finally worked up the courage to report despite his fears.

"Commander, the Jinyi Vanguard Army has completed their netting task, and the first batch of fifty thousand new troops has arrived in the Yong State..."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Haomiao turned around and nodded with a smile.

"Thank you for your hard work."

On the other side, upon seeing the still not fully healed wounds on the youth's face, Huai Xu glimpsed the magma-like brightness of the flesh under the wounds, causing a violent tremor in his heart.

Through those openings, he seemed to glimpse the indescribable terrifying monster hidden beneath the young man's skin.

But before he could think further, the exposed wounds on Zhu Haomiao's skin slowly closed, restoring to a gentle, jade-like handsome appearance, with no trace of the terrifying being previously revealed through the wounds.

It was as if he saw the Demon God donning the skin of a human, and Huai Xu's eyes widened, seemingly realizing something as his scalp tingled.

Ignoring Huai Xu's trembling expression, Zhu Haomiao swept his gaze around, finally focusing towards the north.

"The main force of the Golden Court is on a western expedition, and most of the forces left at home have been annihilated by us. Now, their lair must be quite empty."

Upon hearing this, Bai Linglong immediately understood his intentions and couldn't help but speak.

"But the Golden Court is deep in the Northern Desert; if the army marches, supplies will surely be insufficient."

"No, not a whole army, select two thousand elite from the Jinyi Guards, forage on the enemy along the way, and follow me to strike directly at the Yellow Dragon."

Clenching his fist, Zhu Haomiao gazed distantly towards the north, letting out a sinister smile.

"Emperor Shitian... it's your turn!"

......

"What exactly is going on?"

On the summit of the towering snow peak, in a luxurious temple, a dozen monks sat together, their faces ashen.

"Forget about the peasants, how could tens of thousands of Centaur elites suddenly get wiped out? They were led by the Child of Destiny!"

"I don't get it. Mop and the others died inexplicably, somehow just started fighting."

"I heard it was because the psychological pressure from the enemy was too great, which ultimately led to a camp riot."

...

Listening to his colleagues' discussions, the leading monk couldn't help but speak up.

"Should we inform the Heavenly Lord?"

Upon hearing this, everyone else uniformly glared at him.

"No!"

"The Heavenly Lord has just returned to reality to rest, entrusting the local affairs entirely to us when departing. How can we betray the Heavenly Lord's trust?"

Of course, all of them knew well that this was just a ceremonious rhetoric.

What they truly worried about was, that as soon as the leader left, you'd call him back, wouldn't that make you seem incompetent?

How would you make progress in the future?

"The news of the front line's defeat will take at least half a month to reach us. We can take advantage of this time difference to discuss it with the Eldest Prince and the Third Prince..."

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up.

"Exactly, Hong Jila acted rashly, leading to the complete destruction of the army, which has nothing to do with us."

As long as they collaborated with the remaining Child of Destiny to have a unified narrative and put all the blame on Hong Jila, they could extricate themselves.

By then, even if the Heavenly Lord returned, they wouldn't bear the blame.

......