In the side hall of the Imperial Medical Office, time froze at the critical point of destruction.
Meng Tian's heavy sword flashed black as it swept upward, carrying the resolve to jade and stone shatter together as it fiercely slashed at the descending Dark Gold Demonic Claw! Its edge targeted the weak point where the claw's wrist scales overlapped! Hou Yi's Bone Bow was already drawn to its fullest, its arrowhead wreathed in Savage Blood Qi and firmly locked onto the demon shadow's head!
The shriek of the demonic claw tearing through the air mixed with Meng Tian's furious roar! The Dark Gold Demonic Qi around its talons had already touched Cheng Xi's collar!
Just at this critical moment—
Deep within Cheng Xi's brow, that speck of chaotic gray light frantically conducting deductions amid the deathly Turbid Fiend suddenly erupted with unprecedented brilliance! The deduction was complete! The sole energy fissure in the Turbid Fiend seal, buried beneath layer upon layer of filth, had been precisely locked onto! Beyond it lay the polluted golden torrent deep within the earth veins!
"Break—!!!"
A soundless roar rose from the depths of his soul! That speck of chaotic gray light, compressed to the extreme and carrying all the information gained from the deduction along with his final source power, turned into a condensed gray line nearly invisible to the eye. Disregarding the raging Turbid Fiend and chaos within his body, it pierced with absolute precision toward the fissure in the seal of his lower abdomen!
Sss!
A barely audible sound! Like the sharpest carving blade, the gray line instantly pierced the weakest point of the Turbid Fiend seal! There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a precise penetration at the law level!
The seal had been bored open with a hole finer than a strand of hair!
Beyond that hole was not freedom, but... the surging golden torrent deep within the earth veins, wildly polluted by Dark Gold filth!
Boom—!!!
It was like an ant hole boring through a dam! Violent, foul Dragon Vein Earth Energy, carrying endless Dark Gold filth and chaotic demonic intent, poured back through the tiny passage forcibly opened by the chaotic gray light like a volcano that had found an outlet!
"Uaaaah—!!!" Cheng Xi's body instantly arched like a drawn bow! Beneath his skin, veins of dark red and Dark Gold light surged violently! The backflowing foul dragon energy rampaged through his shattered meridians, bringing tearing agony a hundred times more terrifying than before! Yet within that agony lay a glimmer of hope—the backflowing power was fiercely attacking and ripping apart the heavy Turbid Fiend covering his Dao foundation in a destructive manner!
Under attack from within and without, the Turbid Fiend seal violently shook, groaning beneath the strain! The sealed Chaos Vortex, battered by the violent foul dragon energy, was like stubborn iron cast into a furnace as it began an intense and dangerous... tempering and fusion!
Deep in the earth veins, the Demon Eye's cold vertical pupil reflected that point of blazing white fire tearing through space and shooting straight toward it! The pure purifying source power at the fire's core made it feel a threat at the law level... and fear!
"Roar—!" The Demon Eye let out a soundless roar! Billions of resentment fragments spun madly as more Dark Gold filth surged from all directions like a boiling tsunami, attempting to extinguish the tiny white rainbow!
Too late!
The power of the Earth Vein Spirit Eye, invoked by Sacred Fire Returns to Origin, granted this wisp of flame unparalleled penetration and speed! It ignored the surging waves of filth, piercing through them like a red-hot steel needle through grease. Under the Demon Eye's horrified "gaze," it viciously stabbed into its enormous pupil condensed from pure chaotic demonic qi!
Sss—!!!
There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a piercing hiss that made one's teeth ache—the violent annihilation and dissolution at the law level! The blazing white Purifying Fire and viscous Dark Gold Demonic Qi clashed and tore at each other madly! The Demon Eye's enormous form violently twisted and trembled! The billions of resentment fragments composing its pupil let out soundless wails, melting like ice and snow beneath the Purifying Fire! Vast patches of demonic qi around the vertical pupil's edge were directly vaporized and purified!
"Roarrr—!!!" A wave of pain and fury swept through the entire earth vein! The Demon Eye contracted and expanded frantically, trying to summon more polluted power to extinguish the fire embedded within it! But the Purifying Fire clung to it like a disease in the bone, using its most fundamental demonic qi as fuel and burning ever brighter! Blazing white light swiftly spread through the Dark Gold pupil!
Yan Lingji sat cross-legged before the rock wall, her body violently trembling as fine blood threads seeped from all seven orifices. The orange-red flame of her heart lamp flickered weakly, yet stubbornly maintained its connection to that wisp of Purifying Fire deep within the earth veins. She clearly sensed the Demon Eye's pain and rage, as well as the Purifying Fire destroying its core! The call of Pangu Hall carried compassion and encouragement, supporting her will as it stood on the verge of collapse.
"Burn away... the filth!" she whispered hoarsely, pouring in every last trace of her mental strength!
The blazing white fire erupted within the Demon Eye's core! It was like a tiny sun being ignited in endless darkness!
Within the Imperial Medical Office, frozen time shattered with a crash!
Clang—!!!!
A deafening metallic explosion rang out! The black-flashing heavy sword viciously struck the Dark Gold Demonic Claw's wrist! Sparks scattered like bursting fireworks!
The expected sight of shattered bones and torn sinews did not appear!
The Dark Gold scales covering the demonic claw's wrist were far tougher than Meng Tian had expected! The heavy sword's edge struck into a gap between the scales and only split several scales apart, leaving a wound deep enough to see bone as Dark Gold Demonic Blood sprayed out! Yet it failed to sever the wrist! Unable to withstand the immense rebound force, the sword instantly bent into a terrifying arc!
"Roar!" The demon shadow howled in rage from the pain! Its descending claw only stalled slightly before accelerating instead! Its five fingers hooked like talons, fiercely clutching toward Cheng Xi's chest with the savagery of being severely wounded! Demonic qi inhaled and exhaled at its talons, about to pierce flesh and seize that tempting Chaos Origin!
Whoosh—!
At the instant the demonic claw was about to strike his body, Hou Yi's bone arrow arrived!
This arrow contained all of his essence, qi, and spirit! The Savage Blood Qi wrapped around its shaft had condensed into substance, while the cold glint at its tip locked onto the demon shadow's enormous mouth, slightly open in rage! The timing was exquisite to the extreme!
Pfft!
The bone arrow shot with perfect precision deep into the demon shadow's open mouth! Savage Blood Qi erupted!
"Aaaaooo—!!!" The demon shadow let out an earth-shattering scream! Its entire head snapped back! The demonic claw reaching for Cheng Xi inevitably stalled once more!
These were the two fleeting delays of an electric flash and flint spark!
On the bed, the fusion between the foul dragon energy flowing backward through Cheng Xi's body and the Chaos Vortex was forcibly driven to its peak by the stimulus of death!
Boom—!!!
A completely new, violent and chaotic force erupted from the fissure bored into his dantian! This power was no longer pure Chaos Sword Essence. It was a new energy formed from polluted Dragon Vein Earth Energy, remaining Turbid Fiend, and Chaos Origin—Chaos Earth Fiend! It was filled with destructive savagery and chaos, yet also carried the wildness to break free from every restraint!
Cheng Xi's tightly shut eyes suddenly flew open! Chaotic gray light flowed through his left eye, deep as an abyss, as though it contained the weight and violence of the earth veins! Blue-white sword light burst from his right eye, possessing unparalleled sharpness and carrying the will to sever falsehood!
"Get lost—!!!"
A hoarse roar burst from his throat! His right hand, flooded with Chaos Earth Fiend, moved like lightning. His fingers came together like a sword, not stabbing at the demonic claw, but viciously thrusting toward his own chest—toward the spot locked onto by the claw's demonic qi! At his fingertips, a point of Chaos Earth Fiend sword light condensed to the extreme, mixed with gray, gold, and azure, suddenly lit up!
Pfft!
His sword fingers struck after the claw but arrived first, accurately touching the center of its palm!
Screech—!!!
There was no loud blast, only a horrifying sound of corrosive annihilation! The Dark Gold Demonic Qi condensed in the demonic claw's palm met its nemesis and was instantly eroded and dissolved by the Chaos Earth Fiend sword light! The hard scales covering its palm visibly turned gray and rotten before peeling away! Beneath them, Dark Gold flesh writhed!
"Argh!!" The demon shadow roared again in pain and shocked anger! It felt its demonic qi being reverse-eroded by that chaotic, violent power! The descending claw jerked back as if electrocuted!
After forcing back the demonic claw with one strike, Cheng Xi's body was slammed heavily back onto the bed by the enormous rebound force. Blood sprayed wildly from his mouth as the newborn Chaos Earth Fiend crashed violently through his body, his meridians feeling as though countless red-hot iron plows were repeatedly carving through them! Yet what burned in his eyes was the madness of surviving disaster and cold Killing Intent!
Meng Tian and Hou Yi seized this fleeting opportunity!
"Kill!" Meng Tian abandoned his bent heavy sword and threw himself forward, his iron fist carrying the remaining Ancestor Dragon Army Fiend Qi as it smashed viciously at the joint in the demon shadow's chest and abdominal scales exposed when it withdrew its claw!
Hou Yi had already nocked a second bone arrow, Blood Qi coiling around it as it locked onto the demon shadow's mouth, opened wide from intense pain!
Deep in the earth veins, the blazing white sun formed by the Purifying Fire burned fiercely within the Demon Eye's core! The chaotic demonic qi forming the Demon Eye was vaporized and purified in huge swaths! The edge of its vertical pupil completely collapsed, turning into rolling Dark Gold smoke! The Demon Eye twisted and contracted in agony, letting out soundless wails as its form visibly became illusory and transparent!
It had lost! It had lost to that Purifying Fire, which had drawn upon the source of the Earth Vein Spirit Eye and condensed the protective will of the Inheritance of the Sacred Fire!
At the instant the Demon Eye's form was about to completely disperse—
Its last remaining core, an extremely condensed Dark Gold light spot, suddenly erupted with its final unwillingness and venomous hatred! Rather than attacking Yan Lingji, it followed its connection to the entire polluted earth-vein network, frantically transmitting a polluted data stream containing its final will, the pain of being purified, and its endless greed for the "Chaos Origin" to every node of the polluted network!
Especially... to the Demonic Ancient Locust Tree on the northern foothills of Mount Li, rooted in demonic blood and madly drawing in polluted power! And... to the Dark Gold Embryo quietly sprouting deep within the ancient locust's roots!
Buzz—!
This final polluted data stream was like a spark thrown into a barrel of oil! The entire polluted earth-vein network instantly erupted! Countless Dark Gold patterns twisted wildly, exuding the madness before destruction! Deep underground beneath Mount Li's main vein came an even more pained, muffled dragon roar!
This violent upheaval from the earth-vein core and the Demon Eye's venomous death throes mixed with the chaotic fluctuations of Chaos Earth Fiend erupting within Cheng Xi, as well as the pure chaotic demonic qi of the demon shadow Lu Buwei...
Several powerful forces of completely different natures, each containing the factors of "breaking order" and "chaos," collided, layered, and resonated with a crash within the narrow space of Xianyang Palace, at the fissure node forcibly torn open in Mount Li's earth-vein seal!
Rumble rumble rumble—!!!
An invisible ripple, a hundred times clearer and a thousand times greater than before, swept across the entire Primordial Era Heaven and Earth from the Imperial Medical Office within Xianyang Palace! This time, it was no longer a subtle sense of loosening, but a distinct cracking sound like shattering glass!
Above the Nine Heavens, within Zixiao Palace.
Crack!
A crisp sound of breaking rang out clearly!
The tiny crack at the edge of the cushion beneath Dao Ancestor Hongjun, condensed from pure Heavenly Dao Rules, abruptly expanded and spread! In an instant, it became a hideous fissure running through a third of the cushion! Strands of Chaos Color mist drifted out from it!
The Dao silhouette upon the cloud bed jolted! For the first time, the cold, emotionless voice carried a trace of metallic, scraping fury:
"Evil obstruction!!!"
At the bottom of the Netherworld Blood Sea, that giant eye of tainted blood suddenly lit up, greedily "licking" the enormous crack that ran through the Three Realms as it gave a soundless, wild laugh!
Within Fire Cloud Cave, the confinement barrier violently fluctuated. The remaining strings of the Fuxi Qin atop the zither table snapped one after another with ringing twangs! Fuxi's hand froze above the qin, his deep eyes piercing through the void and reflecting the enormous Heavenly Dao Crack as he murmured like thunder:
"Heaven has cracked... The great tribulation... has begun!"
On the northern foothills of Mount Li, the desolate forest lay dead silent.
That thousand-year-old Demonic Ancient Locust Tree was now undergoing a terrifying transformation. Dark Gold patches covered most of its trunk, making it resemble a giant pillar thick with verdigris. All its withered leaves had fallen, and its bare branches twisted like ghostly claws, pointing toward the sky.
Deep within its roots, the Dark Gold Embryo that had absorbed the Demon Eye's final transmitted polluted data stream and vast amounts of polluted energy was expanding and differentiating at an unprecedented speed!
Crack... crack...
Fine cracking sounds came from deep within the ancient locust's thickest root. The hard Dark Gold Cuticle split apart, and a viscous, gelatinous substance gleaming with pure Dark Gold light slowly squeezed out. The gelatin rapidly stretched and took shape... finally turning into a fist-sized, half-open... Dark Gold vertical pupil!
Although this newborn vertical pupil was far smaller than the one destroyed deep within the earth veins, it was purer and more condensed! There were no billions of resentment fragments within its pupil—only the most primal chaos and desire to devour! It greedily absorbed the nourishment drawn by the ancient locust's roots from the polluted earth veins, its cold gaze piercing through soil and stone to instantly lock onto two directions:
The first was Cheng Xi within the Imperial Medical Office at Xianyang Palace. Having just driven back the demonic claw, his aura was chaotic and weak! The newborn Chaos Earth Fiend in his body was an excellent tonic!
The second was Yan Lingji, sitting cross-legged before the rock wall on Mount Li's main peak. Blood flowed from all seven of her orifices, and her mind had reached its limit through its connection to the Purifying Fire! The pure Zhurong Bloodline and orange-red sacred fire in her body were the "light of order" it hated most and most desired to destroy!
The newborn Demon Eye slowly, completely... opened!
A cold, greedy intent that had locked onto its prey crossed space in an instant like invisible venomous thorns, viciously stabbing toward its two targets!
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