The backlash from the Karma Tribulation Net had yet to fully subside. The Ancient Demon Star Altar was a scene of devastation; the exposed traitors had been subdued, while those who had been deceived stood lost and bewildered. The relief of having survived the tribulation intertwined with the chilling realization of betrayal within their ranks. Yet this brief chaos was utterly interrupted by a terrifying throb from unimaginably distant deep space, one that seemed capable of withering all things.
It was neither an impact of energy nor a tremor of space, but a deeper, more despairing kind of erosion. It was as if the very concept of "life" throughout the universe was being forcibly drained away by some power, while the inevitability of all things ending became tangible pressure, like an icy tide silently flooding every inch of the void and permeating every living being's soul.
"It's here..." Li Wuyang stood at the heart of the altar and abruptly looked up, his gaze piercing layer upon layer of space toward the source of that throb. His Chaos Reincarnation Dao Embryo pulsed at an unprecedented frequency, sending him an intense warning. It was not a single enemy, but... a starry sky that was "dying"!
At the edge of his perception, several remote starfields that had once held faint traces of life and the lingering sparks of civilization were having the "light" of their existence extinguished at an astonishing rate. This was no simple stellar explosion, but a more thorough Existence Negation. The radiance of stars dimmed, solidified, and ultimately became pale, cracked boulders. The energy tides between the stars froze into deathly stillness, turning into absolute nothingness. Even time flowed incomparably slowly and distortedly in those regions, as though it were sliding toward eternal stillness.
At the center of these "dead"