Boom—!!!
There was no deafening explosion, only a muffled sound of annihilation so heavy it seemed to stop the heart! Within the demonic shadow's savage maw, it was as though a miniature black hole had been dropped inside! Ash-gold destructive energy spread out in an instant! Tough Dark Gold flesh, sharp fangs, surging demonic qi... under the erosion of the Chaos Earth Fiend Sword Qi, they melted away and were annihilated as swiftly as snow beneath a blazing sun!
"Awooo—!!!" The demonic shadow let out the most miserable, despairing howl of its life! Its entire head was swallowed and torn apart from within by ash-gold light! Its massive body convulsed violently as if every bone had been pulled from it, then crashed backward! Dark Gold demonic blood gushed wildly from its severed neck like a fountain!
The dust settled.
The demonic shadow's enormous headless body lay amid the ruins, Dark Gold blood gurgling from it and emitting a pungent sulfurous stench. The head that had been completely annihilated from within by the Chaos Earth Fiend Sword Qi had long since turned to ash.
Cheng Xi maintained his sword-finger gesture toward the heavens, his body rigid as the ash-gold light at his fingertips slowly faded. The madness and sharpness in his eyes swiftly receded, replaced by boundless exhaustion and lifeless gray defeat. The newly born Chaos Earth Fiend had nearly been used up in that strike, while the backlash power and the erosion of the Demonic Thought Chains erupted at once! His body went limp and he fell backward, only for Meng Tian to rush forward and catch him firmly.
"Cheng Xi!" Meng Tian looked at the figure in his arms, whose aura was as weak as a candle in the wind and whose dark-red Turbid Fiendish Meridians had appeared beneath his skin once more, rapidly spreading. His fierce eyes brimmed with tears.
Hou Yi looked at the demonic shadow's headless corpse, then at the unconscious Cheng Xi, his gaze grave as iron. "Chaos Earth Fiend... is incomparably domineering, but it also devours its wielder. This child's... meridians are utterly ruined, his Dao foundation is on the verge of collapse, and the Turbid Fiend backlash is even fiercer... I fear... he cannot be saved."
Before the cliff wall of Mount Li's main peak, Yan Lingji's resistance had reached its limit.
The orange-red heart-lamp at her chest, fueled by kindling flame, had become as faint as a bean under the ceaseless corrupting erosion of the Demonic Thought Chains. Pangu Hall's call had been completely cut off, while the Dark Gold Demonic Markings dormant in the depths of her bloodline stirred restlessly. Cold despair surged like a tide, about to drown the last trace of her consciousness.
"Is this... how it ends..." A reluctant thought flashed through her mind.
Just as the kindling flame was about to be extinguished completely!
The Qingping Sword Sheath before her knees, covered with cracks and silent for a long time, suddenly burst forth with its final wisp of faint yet incomparably pure Azure light! This light was not Lord Tongtian's sword intent, but a mournful cry and... a direction, born from the sheath's own spirituality, which had lain dormant since ancient times!
The light flowed without attacking the Demonic Thought Chains. Instead, it gently enveloped Yan Lingji's dying kindling heart-lamp, then... carried that faint flame and hurled it deep into the crack in the cliff—toward the source of that tiny branch vein not yet fully contaminated, toward the Earth Vein Spirit Eye that had just provided her with power!
"Returning to the source... awakening the spirit?" Enlightenment struck Yan Lingji. With the last trace of her will, she stopped resisting and instead actively guided the kindling flame wrapped in the sheath's Azure light. Following the Earth Vein Spirit Eye's resonance, she sent one final faint call toward the deepest reaches of the earth, toward the source of the Will of Pangu Hall from the netherworld!
Though the kindling flame was faint, its intent was sincere! Protection! Inheritance! Prayer!
This faint light spot, fused with the sword sheath's spiritual Azure radiance, the protecting intent of the kindling flame, and the origin of the Earth Vein Spirit Eye, became a beacon crossing the darkness. It instantly pierced through layer upon layer of corruption and demonic thought barriers, plunging into the deep earth veins and shooting toward that distant, unknowable place!
Golden Ao Island, Biyou Palace.
At the center of the spirit pool, the enormous World Purifying Green Lotus glowed dimly. The crack on the edge of its Lotus Platform, cleaved open by Zixiao Divine Lightning, was savage and glaring, with strands of Chaos Aura Seeping Out from it. Lord Tongtian sat cross-legged atop the Lotus Platform, his face pale as paper and golden Sage blood still at the corner of the mouth. One hand pressed against the green lotus's crack as Azure Dao Rhyme flowed with difficulty, Attempting to mend the wound and suppress the escaping Chaos Aura.
"Master!" Daoist Duobao, Holy Mother Jin Ling, and the other core disciples standing below the Lotus Platform all wore worried expressions. Holy Mother Jin Ling could not help but speak.
Lord Tongtian waved a hand, signaling that he was unharmed. He closed his eyes to sense the situation, frowned deeply. He had clearly felt the tremors of the Heaven-Rending event, and he also knew of the instant Cheng Xi had invoked Chaos Earth Fiend and slain the demonic shadow. This child truly acted with the resolve to Seize a Thread of Life... and a reckless madness that spared no consequences!
"His Dao foundation is ruined... Turbid Fiend clings to his body... What a pity for that wisp of Chaos root nature..." Tongtian sighed inwardly, just as he was about to forcibly split off a strand of divine sense to investigate the disturbance in Mount Li's earth veins—
Buzz!
A faint yet incomparably familiar resonance, carrying the prayerful intent of protection and inheritance and mingled with the vitality of the earth veins and the sword sheath's mournful cry, crossed endless space, pierced through Biyou Palace's restrictions, and instantly rushed into his sea of consciousness!
"Yan Lingji... Qingping Sword Sheath... Earth Vein Spirit Eye... kindling flame..." Lord Tongtian's eyes flew open! A strange expression flashed across his pale face! In an instant, he understood the perilous scene before Mount Li's cliff wall!
This call was faint, yet it Directly Pointed At the source! In particular, the kindling flame's intent of protection within it faintly stirred a chord in his heart that had been shackled by the Heavenly Dao Shackles! More importantly, the call had traveled through an Earth Vein Spirit Eye not yet completely polluted, following the mournful guidance of the Qingping Sword Sheath, a sacred artifact of the Jie Sect... This was... one glimmer of hope calling out to another!
"So be it!" Determination flashed in Lord Tongtian's eyes! He formed sword fingers and fiercely jabbed them into the savage crack on the World Purifying Green Lotus beneath him!
Pfft!
He spit out a mouthful of brilliant golden Sage blood, which splashed entirely across the green lotus's crack! The Sage blood Contained the vast source power of his Primordial Chaos Limitless realm and the supreme sharpness of the Sky-Severing Sword Dao!
"Let my Sage blood serve as the guide! Let the green lotus's origin serve as the bridge! Let the remnant spirit of the sword sheath serve as proof! Open—!"
With Lord Tongtian's low shout, the green lotus crack stained by Sage blood abruptly erupted with unprecedented Azure light! An incomparably condensed Azure Light Pillar, fused from Sage blood, the green lotus's origin, and Sky-Severing Sword Intent, rose from the crack into the heavens! Ignoring space, it followed the trail of that faint call, crossing endless distance in an instant, piercing through layers of rock, and descending before the cliff wall of Mount Li's main peak, precisely Enveloping Yan Lingji and the Qingping Sword Sheath!
The Azure light poured down like a waterfall. Carrying the supreme great power of a Primordial Sage and the resolute will to Seize a Thread of Life, it instantly swept away all the Demonic Thought Chains around Yan Lingji! Warm and vast power flooded her parched meridians. Her kindling heart-lamp, on the verge of going out, was like a lamp filled with endless oil. Its orange-red radiance swelled explosively, not only stabilizing itself but also burning in reverse against the demonic markings stirring in the depths of her bloodline!
A trace of color instantly returned to Yan Lingji's paper-white face, and her fading aura swiftly recovered! She raised her head in shock, feeling the boundless Sage power Enveloping her all over and that familiar Sky-Severing Sword Intent. Unbelievable light burst from her eyes. "Lord Tongtian?!"
At the Same Time, the Azure Light Pillar did not stop. Part of its power followed the connection between Yan Lingji and the earth veins like a rushing torrent, violently plunging into their depths and Surging Towards the wisp of Purifying Fire she maintained!
Deep within the earth veins, the incandescent Purifying Fire that was about to be snuffed out by the dying counterattack of the demonic eye received the reinforcement of this Primordial Sage power. As if infused with world-creating power, its radiance surged ten thousandfold in an instant! It turned into an Azure Flame Sacred Sword stretching across the earth veins, carrying a purifying will to burn away the eight wastelands as it slashed fiercely through the demonic eye's final remnant of a phantom!
"No—!!!" The demonic eye released one final wave of desperate, unwilling intent before being completely annihilated beneath the Azure Flame Sacred Sword!
The northern foothills of Mount Li, deep within the roots of the Demonic Ancient Locust Tree.
The newly born Dark Gold vertical eye was greedily "watching" the two battlefields at Xianyang Palace and Mount Li's cliff wall, waiting for the moment when its prey was weakest. Suddenly!
It shuddered violently! Its pupil contracted sharply! A terrifying aura, one that made its soul tremble with fear and was filled with supreme majesty and annihilating sharpness, descended thunderously from the direction of Mount Li's main peak! The Azure Light Pillar pierced heaven and earth, cleansing demonic thoughts, while an Azure Flame torrent that made it feel a lethal threat traveled through the earth veins and fiercely extinguished the last remnant soul of its "mother body"!
"Hiss—!" Clear terror appeared in the vertical eye for the first time! It instinctively wanted to close, wanted to hide!
Too late!
While cleansing the demonic thoughts around Yan Lingji and reinforcing the Purifying Fire, the Azure Light Pillar drawn forth by Lord Tongtian's Sage blood unleashed its supreme Sage's Might like an invisible searchlight. It instantly pierced through the soil, locked onto the Demonic Ancient Locust Tree polluting the earth veins! It also locked onto the newly born, threatening demonic eye deep within its roots!
"Filthy evil! How dare you usurp the earth veins!" Lord Tongtian's cold, majestic voice exploded directly within the Demonic Locust Tree's roots like thunder from the nine heavens!
The next moment!
A thread split off from the Azure Light Pillar. Though thin as a hair, it condensed the ultimate sharpness of Primordial Sage power and Sky-Severing Sword Intent! Ignoring the ancient locust's tough demonized wood and Dark Gold Cuticle, it pierced deep into the roots like a red-hot steel needle through rotten wood, striking the Dark Gold vertical eye with absolute precision just as it had opened!
Squelch!
There was no earth-shattering explosion. Like the most precise surgical blade, that thread of Azure light gave a gentle twist at the vertical eye's core!
The Dark Gold vertical eye froze! The pure chaos and devouring desire deep within its pupil instantly solidified and shattered! Like a burst bubble, the entire vertical eye silently Turned into a wisp of viscous Dark Gold mist, swiftly dissipating into the soil around the roots.
The Demonic Locust Tree's enormous body underwent a violent tremor. The Dark Gold patches on its trunk swiftly dimmed and peeled away, while its branches and leaves withered completely. Without the demonic eye as its core, it was merely a dying tree consumed by corruption and pollution.
Yet just as the thread of Azure light annihilated the demonic eye and was about to dissipate—
A sudden change occurred!
At the spot where the demonic eye had vanished, an extremely tiny Dark Gold light spot formed purely from condensed chaotic demonic intent had not been completely annihilated! As though alive, at the instant the Azure light began to fade, it fiercely latched onto the tail end of that disappearing thread! Following the retreating path of the Azure light, it flowed upstream like a maggot clinging to a bone! Its speed exceeded all imagination!
Disregarding the distance of space, this dark-gold light spot followed the channel of Sage power Lord Tongtian had opened, instantly piercing endless void. In the instant before Lord Tongtian noticed anything unusual, it shot into the spirit pool of Biyou Palace—into the depths of the crack in the World Purifying Green Lotus beneath Lord Tongtian's seat!
Buzz—!
The World Purifying Green Lotus shuddered fiercely! At the edge of the crack, where the wound had just been temporarily sealed by Sage blood, an extremely fine yet incomparably glaring Dark Gold marking quietly appeared like a venomous serpent!
Before you continue