The crushing force born from the wills of the Annihilation Dao Venerable and the Lord of Reincarnation was like two grinding stones, seeking to pulverize Li Wuyang's flesh, soul, and even Dao heart into dust. He sat cross-legged on the ground, his body trembling violently, cracks covering his skin as gray and milky-white radiance clashed fiercely around him. Like a candle flame in the wind, he could be extinguished at any moment. Qingwei and the other two lay fallen nearby, their breaths faint. They could not even move a finger and could only watch him with despairing concern.
Yet Li Wuyang's consciousness had entered a strange state of clarity. Nirvana Induction became a warm stream, protecting the final spark of his spiritual platform from extinction. Though the crushing force of the two supreme Dao laws brought a crisis of destruction, it also allowed him to sense the Origin True Intent of annihilation and reincarnation at an unprecedented closeness.
"What is annihilation?" A cold will echoed within his heart, unfolding scenes of the universe's heat death, stars collapsing, and All Things Return to the Void. A notion constantly battered his Dao heart: "Existence is but illusion; only ending is eternal."
"What is reincarnation?" The distorted will displayed countless beings drifting through endless karma—love and hatred, life and death, aging and illness—with no escape in sight. A temptation seeped into his soul: "All struggle is futile; sinking is one's destination."
In the past, Li Wuyang might have firmly chosen annihilation, as it aligned with his own Dao path. But now, having fused with Nirvana Induction and personally witnessed Xuan Nü's "shell" resolutely self-destruct in Nirvana to sever their connection, he had gained a deeper understanding of "ending" and "cycle."
"Annihilation is not an endpoint, but... the extreme of a state. Like winter,