"Cough cough..."

Mr. Duan coughed.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of black runes.

He slowly raised his aged face, his eyes showing no fear, but rather pity.

"Mingze is still too stupid."

Mr. Duan's voice was hoarse and weak, but his tone remained arrogant.

"I can't believe I'd choose to cooperate with a bug like you."

Upon hearing the word "bedbug," Anubis's smug expression froze instantly, turning into fury.

"You're about to die, and you still dare to be stubborn!" Anubis roared, pointing his scepter sharply at Mr. Duan.

Mr. Duan ignored him and just stared at him coldly.

Even if you could kill me, what would that change?

Mr. Duan's lips curled slightly.

"They are nothing more than laborers of the Heavenly Dao, destined to be wiped out by it."

"Do you think you can replace me by severing my connection with the Origin Tree? Do you think the Heavenly Dao System will let go of a remnant of the old era like you?"

Mr. Duan shook his head.

"Pathetic ants can only ever see the mud in front of them."

Anubis was taken aback when he heard this, then shook his head with a smile.

"No, no, no, as long as you die."

Anubis could no longer conceal the greed and ambition in his eyes.

"Then the Origin Tree is mine for the taking!"

"What you can do, I can do too! And I'll do it even better than you!"

"I will devour the power of the Origin Tree, and I will become a new transcendent being! At that time, even the Heavenly Dao System will tremble at my feet!"

Anubis became more and more excited as he spoke.

However, Mr. Duan looked at him as if he were a fool.

There was no anger, nor resentment.

Then, Mr. Duan laughed.

"hehe......"

At first it was just a low chuckle, but then the laughter grew louder and louder.

"Hahahaha..."

Mr. Duan laughed so hard his whole body trembled.

Anubis asked with a stern face, "What are you laughing at?"

He gripped the scepter tightly, a sense of unease rising within him.

“I don’t think you have any right to laugh now,” Anubis shouted, trying to hide his panic.

Mr. Duan stopped laughing, and his eyes turned cold.

"Of course I'm laughing at your stupidity."

As he spoke, Mr. Duan slowly stood up.

His originally hunched body straightened up at this moment.

"Snap!"

Accompanied by a cracking sound.

The runes binding him began to dissipate.

The underworld curses branded on the skin are rapidly dissolving.

The black rune fragments turned into specks of light and scattered into the air.

Anubis's pupils contracted sharply.

He stared at the disappearing runes on Mr. Duan's body, his lips trembling.

The smugness on his face vanished, replaced only by shock.

"What?!"

Anubis cried out in alarm and uncontrollably took two steps back.

This is the ultimate seal he devised over thousands of years, combining the curse of the underworld's origin, specifically targeting higher-dimensional deities.

How could it possibly dissipate on its own?!

Under Anubis's gaze, Mr. Duan's aged appearance gradually faded.

The wrinkles on her face were smoothed out, and her gray, dry hair instantly returned to its jet-black color.

The shriveled muscles regained their fullness.

In just a few seconds.

Mr. Duan looks young again.

He was still wearing that tattered yet impeccably tailored black suit, radiating a terrifying aura.

Mr. Duan moved his wrist, and his bones made a "crackling" sound.

He tilted his head slightly, looking at the stunned Anubis, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

Surprised?

Mr. Duan's voice regained its usual composure and elegance.

Anubis shook his head in disbelief.

"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible!"

He brandished his scepter, trying to re-form the curse, but to no avail.

"I clearly severed your connection with the Tree of Origin!"

"You should have been sealed away by me!"

Anubis roared, his eyes filled with terror.

"Why?!"

Faced with Anubis's collapse, Mr. Duan smiled at him.

"Surprised?"

"You don't really think that I, who have lived under the nose of Heaven for countless years, can be fooled by such a low trick as yours, do you?"

Mr. Duan stood on the ruins, his tone calm.

He raised his right hand, which was covered in a snow-white glove, and straightened his slightly disheveled collar.

The surrounding spatial turbulence was still raging, but as long as someone got within three feet of him, all the violent energy instantly vanished.

Anubis stared intently at the man before him, who had regained his vitality, his gaunt face contorted with fear.

His hand holding the scepter was trembling violently.

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"

He suddenly raised his scepter and pointed it directly at Mr. Duan.

"I clearly severed your connection with the Origin Tree using the source of the Styx! I've deduced it for thousands of years, and that seal is absolutely perfect! How can you possibly regain your power? How can you possibly still be standing here?!"

Anubis was panting heavily.

He had been lying low for countless epochs, evading the cleansing of the Heavenly Dao, and had finally waited for this opportunity today.

Mingze and those idiots paid the price of complete annihilation to deliver this fatal blow.

The man simply stood up, and the seal on his body disappeared on its own.

Mr. Duan looked at Anubis, who was on the verge of collapse, but did not act immediately. Instead, he walked slowly towards him, stepping on the gravel.

The leather shoes crunched over the gravel, making a soft, rustling sound.

Anubis involuntarily retreated.

Want to know why?

Mr. Duan stopped and looked down at the former ruler of the underworld.

Anubis remained silent, his teeth clenched tightly, his entire body tense.

Mr. Duan chuckled softly and shook his head.

"Where do you think the true Tree of Origin is?"

"In the Free Federation? Outside?"

Mr. Duan asked two questions in a row, then raised his index finger and shook it gently twice.

No, no, no.

"That was just bait I laid out."

Anubis's brain buzzed.

bait?

The Origin Tree, which was considered a top secret by the entire Free Federation, guarded by countless troops and high-dimensional formations, and which he had been wary of for thousands of years and dared not approach easily, was actually just a bait?!

"The purpose is to confuse you, you dark crawler."

Mr. Duan's voice suddenly turned cold.

"You're too slippery, you rat. Ever since the destruction of the Eighth World, you've been hiding in the deepest part of the River Styx, so much so that even the Heavenly Dao System can't find your coordinates. If I don't throw out a sufficiently weighty bait, making you think you've grasped my fatal weakness, how could you possibly be willing to crawl out of that stinking ditch?"

Anubis remained frozen in place.

He thought he had seen through Mr. Duan's source of power, and that he would use Mingze and others' hatred to wear down the other party, so that he could reap the benefits later.

Only now did he realize that his self-righteous, fatal blow was entirely within the other party's calculations.

"Then...where exactly is the true Tree of Origin?!"

Mr. Duan looked at him.

"The true Tree of Origin has always been within me."

As soon as he finished speaking, Mr. Duan suddenly opened his arms wide.

A holy light suddenly burst forth from the location of his heart.

This light carried a higher-dimensional aura that transcended the laws of the mortal world. Wherever the light passed, the turbulent spatial currents within the ruins instantly subsided, and miraculously, tender green shoots sprouted from the broken obsidian ruins.

Anubis was forced to retreat by the light, raising his withered arm to shield his eyes, but still staring intently at Mr. Duan's chest through his fingers.

At the center of that radiance, the phantom of a tree slowly emerged.