Dead silence.
A dead silence enough to freeze time and space.
Yang Chen's declaration of "let's all return to chaos together" did not unleash a world-shaking storm of laws. Yet it was like an invisible needle steeped in deadly poison, precisely piercing the most fragile nerve center of this world.
Sound dissipated.
The wind stalled.
Even the inky tribulation clouds high above the nine heavens, which had been frantically gathering power, fell eerily still. The grating sound of laws grinding within them vanished in that instant.
Beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, Tushita Palace.
The ever-burning Eight Trigrams Furnace suddenly faltered. The golden Dao fire that had nurtured countless epochs gave an ominous flicker, its pure gold hue darkening.
Grand Supreme Elder Lord, seated cross-legged upon his cushion, abruptly stopped waving the palm-leaf fan that had gently swayed through endless ages.
Those eyes that reflected the birth and death of the cosmos and the cycle of all things—within that tranquil, detached sea of emptiness, a stubborn stone capable of raising monstrous waves had been cast for the first time.
The indifference in his eyes shattered.
A madman, an absolute madman. He had tied his own life and death to the survival of the entire Primordial World. Non-action? The prerequisite for non-action was existence. If heaven and earth returned to ruin and all things ceased to exist, what non-action could there be? This chess piece was no longer a chess piece. He had turned himself into the chessboard, intending to drag every player down with him into utter destruction.
In its place came an unprecedented, violent turmoil mixed with shock and absurdity.
Eastern Kunlun Mountain, Jade Void Palace.
"...The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal..."
Primal Celestial Venerable's lecture, filled with majesty and order, came to an abrupt halt on a single word.
Below him, Golden Immortal disciples such as Guang Chengzi and Chi Jingzi had been listening in rapt attention when they suddenly felt a tremor rise from their souls, as if the heavens were about to collapse.
They looked up in horror and saw an expression on their master's eternally solemn face that they had never seen before.
It was not anger.
It was not majesty.
Outrageous! This filthy anomaly should have been ground into dust by the order of the Heavenly Dao, yet he dared to threaten the Heavenly Dao in return! What gave him the right? The karma that did not belong to him? This was the most extreme trampling of order, the most vicious provocation against the dignity of Saints. Settling accounts with him would cause heaven and earth to return to chaos... But if he was not dealt with, were they supposed to tolerate this rebellious wretch toying with the rules of the Heavenly Dao?
It was pure disbelief.
Crack.
An extremely soft yet perfectly clear snapping sound echoed through the silent Jade Void Palace.
A hair-thin crack silently appeared on the Three Treasures Jade Ruyi in Primal Celestial Venerable's hand, a symbol of the Heavenly Dao's majesty and the order of the Chan teachings. It slowly spread.
East Sea, Golden Ao Island, Biyou Palace.
Bzzzz!
The four Immortal Slaying Sword Qi streams floating quietly around Sovereign of Heaven, which terrified all immortals, let out violent, uncontrollable wails at the same moment.
The sword qi shot into the sky, instantly tearing four bottomless rifts through the ceiling of Biyou Palace as chaotic currents poured wildly through them.
"Master!"
Holy Mother Wudang and Holy Mother Jinling, standing at his side, turned deathly pale and fell to their knees together.
Sovereign of Heaven suddenly rose from his cushion.
He ignored the rampaging sword qi and did not soothe his frightened disciples.
His eyes, usually full of defiance and battle intent, were fixed tightly upon a point in the void. Beyond the overwhelming shock in his gaze, there surged a trace of indescribable, almost crazed appreciation.
Bold!
Hahaha, good! What a splendid "let's all return to chaos together"! This was the true act of seizing a sliver of life! Before the Heavenly Dao and the Six Sages, he did not kneel and beg for mercy, nor stretch out his neck to be slaughtered. He dared to flip the whole table over! That ruthless spirit of preferring to shatter like jade rather than survive like tile surpassed those disciples of mine who only knew cultivation by far more than ten thousand times! Interesting, truly interesting! At last, this dead and stagnant Primordial World had produced someone remarkable enough to challenge the Heavenly Dao!
What a splendid "let's all return to chaos together"!
Beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, Wa Huang Palace.
The music stopped.
Saint Nuwa's slender jade fingers, about to pluck the strings, froze in midair.
The color drained instantly from her holy, compassionate face.
She felt it.
She felt the very origin of the Primordial World crying out in its most shrill, overwhelmed wail. The human race she had created, the countless living beings she cherished as treasures, the beauty and order that formed the entire world—all of it had been pushed to the brink of annihilation by that single declaration.
No... this cannot happen. The beings I created, the myriad lives I protect—how can they all be destroyed because of this old case? He is also a pitiful living being, innocently swept into this whirlpool of karma. Yet now, he wants to drag the whole world down to the grave with him. My children... they are innocent. No, I must stop him. No matter what method I use, I must let him live. I must let this world live.
It was the deepest terror born from a creator's instinct.
Far in the west, Mount Sumeru.
Within the sacred realm of Spiritual Mountain, bathed in Buddhist light, the grand chants that had echoed for countless years became fragmented and utterly discordant at that moment.
Daoist Jieyin and Daoist Zhunti, who had been expounding their great vows to their disciples and depicting the blueprint of the Land of Ultimate Bliss, had their expressions completely freeze at the same instant.
Daoist Jieyin's ever-sorrowful face no longer bore compassion. Only blankness remained.
The faint smile that always rested upon Daoist Zhunti's face seemed to be violently wiped away by an invisible hand, leaving behind only stiffness.
They looked at each other.
No words were needed. Within each other's pupils, abruptly constricted by extreme horror, they saw the same thing.
Fear!
It's over, it's all over! The endless schemes of our Western Teachings, our forty-eight great vows, the meager merit and fortune we accumulated with such difficulty—all of it will be burned away by this madman in one fire? We treated him as a Karma Vessel we could use, but who could have imagined that this vessel held not poison, but chaotic divine lightning capable of blowing up the entire world! We miscalculated, Senior Brother. We miscalculated completely! We cannot afford this price! The west cannot afford it either!
It was the fear of doomsday descending.
They had schemed for endless ages and plotted for countless epochs. They had not hesitated to establish forty-eight great vows and exhaust the fortune of the entire west, only barely building up what little foundation they possessed today.
All of it—the sacred Spiritual Mountain, the boundless pools of merit, the hundreds of millions of devout believers...
Was it all going to vanish because of one mad sentence from an ant they could once have crushed with a casual hand?
No!
This was not the ravings of a madman!
At the same moment, the Six Saints refocused their supreme wills from their respective sacred grounds onto Yang Chen with unprecedented speed and intensity.
At last, they understood.
This was not the clamor of an ant before death.
This was not the hysterical threat of a madman.
This was a man holding an ignition switch, calmly stating a fact that was about to occur.
He was not joking.
He really dared!
He really would do it!
Boom!
Almost the instant that the Six Saints' thoughts turned, countless ancient existences who had long remained hidden throughout the Primordial World were jolted from their caves.
At Wuzhuang Temple, the Earth Book in Zhenyuanzi's hand shook violently. The Ginseng Fruit Tree above his head swayed wildly, as though it would be uprooted at any moment.
In the Northern Darkness Sea, within Demon Master Palace, Kunpeng abruptly revealed his true form. His enormous wings, vast enough to blot out heaven and earth, beat uneasily, stirring the entire Northern Darkness Sea into towering waves.
In the Netherworld Blood Sea, the Twelve-Grade Karma Fire Red Lotus beneath Ancestor Minghe flashed madly. He stared at the horizon in horror, feeling the Blood Sea he depended upon for survival begin to evaporate from its very origin!
At this moment, throughout the entire Primordial World, whether lofty Saints, mighty Quasi-Saint Great Powers, or ignorant living beings...
Every existence had its throat tightly clutched by an invisible terror known as "the end."
The pot had completely exploded!
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