Tao Zhibai hesitated no longer. He immediately triggered his final life-preserving measure, unilaterally activating the Heavenly Dao Pillar in his capacity as an elder of the Academy of the Sin God.

This was his last resort.

So long as he could return to the Academy of the Sin God, Xing Jun, however savage, would never be able to lay a finger on him again.

Yet to preserve his life by such means was, for an expert of elder rank, truly a rather sorry spectacle—the sort of thing that invited ridicule.

With the pride of Tao Zhibai, he would never have taken this step unless absolutely driven to it.

But now he had no other choice.

However important face might be, it was worth nothing if one could not keep one's life; otherwise the joke would be truly enormous.

Forcing down Xing Jun's demonic will, Tao Zhibai stepped toward the Heavenly Dao Pillar and prepared to initiate the teleportation.

The result: the instant he set one foot inside the pillar, it burst apart with a bang, without the slightest warning.

Tao Zhibai froze on the spot.

Once formed, a Heavenly Dao Pillar would not simply dissolve into nothing. There was only one possibility—someone had revoked this pillar of his salvation.

That someone was certainly not himself.

The only possibility was the people of the Academy of the Sin God on the other side.

And there was exactly one person with such authority.

The Academy of the Sin God's new Chief.

Sure enough, a cold, indifferent thought descended upon his head the very next moment. It was that new Chief.

"Elder Tao Zhibai is under grave suspicion of having been parasitized by the criminal Xing Jun. Until the truth is ascertained, he is not permitted to return to the Academy of the Sin God."

That single sentence dashed Tao Zhibai into the dust.

"You..."

Tao Zhibai's hopes turned utterly to ashes, and he spat out a mouthful of black blood.

He had indeed never thought much of this new Chief, but that was purely a matter of business. The so-called criminal rehabilitation program the other man was pushing with all his might was, in his eyes, nothing but a colossal pit.

But disagreement was disagreement. Apart from publicly opposing that criminal rehabilitation program, Tao Zhibai had never made any private moves of his own.

After all, they were both core higher-ups of the Academy of the Sin God. If only for the Academy's image, they had to preserve at least a modicum of decency between them—otherwise they would merely give outsiders a free spectacle.

Who could have imagined that at such a deadly critical juncture, the other party would pull a stunt like this?

Kicking a man when he was down!

What truly chilled Tao Zhibai's heart was this: even if the other man was the new Chief, had other core higher-ups voiced clear opposition, the Heavenly Dao Pillar would not have been recalled out of thin air.

The only explanation was that his colleagues in the Academy of the Sin God had all chosen to stand by and watch.

He had been abandoned by the entire Academy of the Sin God.

First abandoned by the Sin God, and now abandoned by the Academy of the Sin God—whoever stood in Tao Zhibai's place would have seen all hope turn to ashes.

"Hahaha! You see it for yourself now, don't you? No one will save you now. Everyone wants you dead. What's the point of a man like you staying alive?"

Xing Jun laughed wildly at the sight, his tone eerie as a devil's whisper: "Stop struggling. Better to smash the pot and let it all go—let me help you collect this debt!"

"Give me your body, and I'll let you see with your own eyes the day they choke on their regrets. Don't you want to see the looks on their faces then?"

Tao Zhibai's body went rigid.

Perhaps he was swayed, perhaps he had held out to his very limit—at last he could no longer withstand Xing Jun's corrosion.

The defenses of his entire sea of consciousness collapsed in an instant.

The black water that was Xing Jun's demonic will came surging in like a tide, and in the space of a mere breath it had already flooded the whole sea of consciousness.

At the same time, the telltale pitch-black veins surfaced on Tao Zhibai's face.

At a glance, the man was now nothing less than a monster, half human and half ghost!

Nor was that all. Following the black veins, Xing Jun's head had actually begun to merge with Tao Zhibai's.

At this rate, in less than three breaths Tao Zhibai would be completely replaced by him.

Things having come to this, everything was settled.

Never mind that Tao Zhibai's hopes were ashes and he had already lost the will to resist—even had he wished to fight with all his might, it would no longer have had the slightest effect.

From this day forth, he would no longer be Tao Zhibai, but Xing Jun!

Devouring Tao Zhibai's last lingering shreds of will, Xing Jun looked down at this body and said with disdain, "Way worse than my own flesh!"

Just then, Wei Zhao's voice suddenly sounded before him.

"If it's way worse, why do you want it?"

Xing Jun's expression changed, and he jerked his head up.

Only now did he discover that at some unknown point, Wei Zhao had appeared before him, both hands in his pockets.

The crucial thing was that Wei Zhao did not look like he had just arrived—he had clearly been watching the show for some time.

In that momentary distraction, Tao Zhibai—whom he had just been on the verge of completely subduing—seemed to rally and began struggling once more.

Unfortunately, Xing Jun had already occupied almost his entire sea of consciousness.

The outcome was decided.

No matter how Tao Zhibai struggled now, it was futile, devoid of any real significance.

Xing Jun fixed Wei Zhao with a hostile stare. "Where did you take my body?"

Wei Zhao regarded him with amusement. "You don't even know where your own body has gone. Seems that head of yours isn't working too well, is it?"

"..."

Xing Jun stared at him coldly. "With that little strength of yours, you could never have touched my body. There must be someone behind you. Who is it that's scheming in the shadows?"

Wei Zhao said oddly, "I didn't know you were so fond of speculating. Go on then—who do you think is behind me?"

Xing Jun sneered, "Whoever it is, once I recover my strength, I'll settle this debt with you sooner or later. You and everyone in Tianjun—wash your necks and wait for me!"

"Why wait for another day when today will do? After all, I'm a rather busy man."

Smiling, Wei Zhao drew the Ksitigarbha Blade.

Xing Jun's eyes flickered.

After these days in hiding, his strength had indeed recovered considerably, but he was now nothing but a single head and could not bring his full power to bear.

True, he had now seized control of Tao Zhibai's body, but for one thing, Tao Zhibai's flesh still fell somewhat short of his original body.

For another, Tao Zhibai's consciousness had not yet been completely extinguished.

That meant that even if Tao Zhibai could not wrest back control of the body, at some critical moment he might still leap out and ruin everything.

The corner of Wei Zhao's mouth curled. "Don't tell me you're thinking of running again? You ran once last time, and here you are again—you were born to be a fugitive, weren't you?"

"Fugitive?"

Xing Jun's face immediately darkened. He lunged forward of his own accord and threw a punch. "Since you're so eager to throw your life away, I'll oblige you today!"

Wei Zhao twisted aside to evade, then answered with a backhanded Earthquake Blade.

The blade's aura entered the body.

Xing Jun's whole body convulsed, and the head that had just fully merged into the flesh, under the sudden shock of the Earthquake Blade, was wrenched loose and fell away.

The head hit the ground like a watermelon.