The End of a Legend

"Reversing the Mortal World!"

When those three cold words, brimming with endless defiance and chilling killing intent, slowly left Lin Xiao's mouth—already thoroughly stained an eerie blood-red—the battle of Gods and Devils that had long overturned everyone's understanding finally reached its most brilliant and bloodiest climax!

Boom—!

A destructive force completely opposite to Wu Tianxiong's supremely yang, supremely rigid, incomparably tyrannical "Imperial Dao" aura—yet even more terrifying—erupted from Lin Xiao's seemingly fair and slender right hand like a Nine Nether demon prison that had been utterly detonated!

It was no longer merely a palm seal, much less an ordinary hand blade!

It was Lin Xiao's ultimate killing move, forged by melting everything he had learned, comprehended, and experienced since embarking on the martial path into a single furnace!

It contained the ultimate piercing power of One Finger Annihilation, capable of penetrating all things and smashing through anything!

It contained the supreme dominance of the Heaven-Turning Seal, which overturned heaven and earth and reversed yin and yang!

And it contained the unique True Meaning of Martial Dao that belonged solely to him, which he had comprehended after absorbing the essence of several thousand martial arts manuals!

—All methods could be used by me!

—Heaven and earth could be slain by me!

This palm appeared utterly ordinary. Not even the faintest gleam of Spiritual Energy shone from it, yet it contained a terrifying Dao Charm capable of making ghosts and gods tremble! A supreme killing Dao born specifically to "break the Dao" and "slay gods"!

"Not good!"

At the instant Lin Xiao's seemingly ordinary right hand was about to strike his chest, Wu Tianxiong—who had been immersed in the invincible might of his "Imperial Dao," his spiritual senses long blinded by endless rage and arrogance—finally received, for the first time, a fatal warning ominous enough to freeze even his soul!

An unprecedented sense of crisis poured over him like a basin of bone-piercing spring water from the Nine Nether Ice Prison, dousing his head! In an instant, it extinguished every shred of arrogance and killing intent in his heart! In its place arose an instinctive terror from the deepest depths of his soul!

He felt it! He felt it with incomparable clarity!

Just what kind of terrifying, bizarre, utterly incomprehensible destructive power was contained within the seemingly ordinary right hand of this youth he had always regarded as an "ant"!

It was a higher "principle," one that completely transcended every kind of "martial art" he understood! An ominous heavenly law created specifically to restrain so-called "Imperial Dao geniuses" like him!

"No—!"

Wu Tianxiong's pupils instantly shrank to the most dangerous pinprick size! Without a second thought, he tried to abandon every superfluous attack and draw all the golden Spiritual Energy capable of burning mountains and boiling seas back before his chest, forming his strongest defense!

However, it was already too late!

This move of Lin Xiao's, Reversing the Mortal World, was a certain-kill technique he had created only after tens of thousands of mental simulations, after thoroughly dissecting and deconstructing Wu Tianxiong's seemingly flawless Great Sun Burning Heaven Art countless times! Its timing, angle, and force had all been calculated by Lin Xiao to a terrifying realm nearly approaching the Dao itself!

Fast! Precise! Ruthless!

At the very instant Wu Tianxiong revealed that fatal flaw lasting one ten-thousandth of a moment, when his old strength had been exhausted and his new strength had yet to arise, Lin Xiao's cold right hand, carrying endless killing intent, struck first despite moving later. Like a spear of judgment from the Nine Nether Hell, it silently pressed against Wu Tianxiong's chest, now incomparably vulnerable without the protection of Spiritual Energy!

Boom—!

There was no earthshaking blast, not even the slightest sound.

Only an extremely bizarre dark ripple, filled with destruction and annihilation, spread silently from the center of Lin Xiao's palm like a stone dropped into a tranquil lake!

Then, a scene that would make everyone present quake with terror and haunt them for the rest of their lives unfolded!

Wu Tianxiong's iron-tower-like body suddenly stiffened! The endless fury and killing intent still hanging on his face instantly froze! Then, the dazzling radiance within those eyes—like two miniature suns burning with blazing golden flames—rapidly dimmed at a horrifying speed visible to the naked eye! In its place was a vast emptiness filled with endless bewilderment and self-doubt!

It was as though the invincible faith in the "Imperial Dao" that had supported him in sweeping through the entire outer courtyard had been forcibly shattered beneath Lin Xiao's palm, which carried endless defiance!

Puh—!

A mouthful of dark-golden blood, mixed with fragments of his internal organs, sprayed wildly from Wu Tianxiong's mouth like a tragic blood arrow! The terrifying pressure of his Half-step Spirit Movement realm, which had been so overwhelming it could make heaven and earth change color, vanished in an instant like a punctured balloon! In its place came immense weakness from the depths of his soul!

His body, like a ruined statue that had lost all support, slowly fell from the air. Finally, with a thud, he crashed heavily onto the cold ground already carpeted in blood and corpses, splashing a desolate spray of blood mixed with dust and despair.

Silence.

The entire Valley of Death once again fell into deathly stillness. Whether it was the golden sea of fire still blazing fiercely or the mournful cold wind passing through the forest, everything seemed to have been forcibly paused by an invisible giant hand of a god named "shock"!

Everyone's movements had frozen. Like mortals who had personally witnessed a "god" crashing down from a towering altar in the clouds, they stared blankly with eyes filled with boundless horror and shattered beliefs at the tyrannical figure sprawled like a dead dog in a pool of blood, already unconscious, and at the lean figure still holding out his palm, robes fluttering as though he were an undefeated demon god who had stepped forth from the Nine Nether Hell.

Lost... he had lost?!

The undefeated legend—Wu Tianxiong—who had dominated the entire outer courtyard for three full years, who had been hailed as Cloud Creek Academy's most astonishing peerless genius in a century, who stood in every outer courtyard student's heart like an insurmountable divine mountain!

He had actually... actually lost just like that?!

And he had lost to an obscure "trash" freshman whose cultivation was merely at the Body Refinement Eighth Level?!

This... this could no longer be described as a "miracle"! It was plainly an absurd myth capable of stabbing a gigantic hole straight through the heavens!

"Gulp."

Only after an unknown amount of time did a difficult swallow, as though someone were muttering in a dream, finally sound from the crowd.

Then, like the first spark igniting a powder keg, that sound instantly detonated the fanatical emotions of every Yellow Class Nine member, emotions that had been suppressed to the limit!

"We... we won! We won!"

"Chief Instructor... Chief Instructor truly did it! With a mortal body, he marched against the heavens and slew immortals, forcibly dragging that lofty 'god' down from his altar!"

"Ahhhhh! Chief Instructor is incredible!!!"

After that brief deathly silence, earthshaking cheers filled with boundless ecstasy and worship erupted like the wildest tsunami from the twenty-nine tearful youths of Yellow Class Nine, enough to overturn the entire Black Wind Mountain Range!

None of them cared any longer about the horrific wounds covering their bodies, wounds painful enough to make ordinary people wish for death! Like fanatical believers witnessing the god they worship descend into the mortal world, they exhausted the last scraps of strength in their bodies, roaring madly and venting their excitement and worship, which had nowhere else to go!

On the other side, the dozen or so remaining remnants of the Heavenly Martial Society finally slowly recovered from the colossal shock, as though the sky had fallen and the earth had split, after a brief spell of mental paralysis.

They looked at the former "god," sprawled like a dead dog in a pool of blood and utterly silent, then at the youthful demon god slowly withdrawing his hand, his gaze so cold it held not a trace of emotion. An unprecedented terror, enough to freeze their very souls, instantly devoured their last shred of reason!

"The... the president... is dead?"

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! The president is undefeated!"

"Run! Run now! This guy isn't human at all! He's a devil! A life-reaping evil ghost that crawled out of hell!"

Thud!

No one knew whose psychological defenses were the first to collapse completely. With a shriek, that person threw aside the weapon already stained red with blood and scrambled away on hands and knees, fleeing madly toward the mouth of the valley without even looking back, like a terrified stray dog!

That action instantly triggered a chain reaction!

The final psychological line of defense of the Heavenly Martial Society, which existed in name only, completely crumbled at that moment!

The dozen or so Heaven Class geniuses who had ordinarily held themselves high above others could no longer care about dignity or face. Like a flock of chickens and dogs frightened out of their wits, they let out shrill cries of terror and scattered in all directions!

"Trying to leave?"

Watching those dozen or so fleeing figures in utter disarray, Lin Xiao narrowed his eyes, already thoroughly stained an eerie blood-red, and a cold killing intent devoid of all emotion flashed within them.

Though he had nearly exhausted all the Spiritual Energy in his body after using Reversing the Mortal World, that ultimate killing move beyond his own limits, and had fallen into an unprecedented state of weakness so severe that even standing was difficult, that did not mean he would so easily spare the culprits who had nearly driven his entire team into an abyss of eternal damnation!

He slowly raised his right hand, which was still trembling faintly, just as he was about to issue the final command that meant "leave none alive."

A weak voice full of endless exhaustion and a trace of reluctance sounded softly behind him.

"Chief Instructor... let it go."

It was Su Yue.

Supported by another female team member who was likewise severely injured, she walked to Lin Xiao's back with a deathly pale face and gazed pleadingly at his profile, cold and sharp as though carved by a blade.

"They have completely lost the courage to resist."

"We have already paid a painful enough price."

"There is no need to add to the slaughter, is there?"

Hearing Su Yue's words, Lin Xiao's slowly raised right hand paused slightly in midair. He turned his head and slowly directed those blood-red eyes, cold and devoid of emotion, toward the twenty-eight young faces gathered behind him, equally filled with exhaustion and pain.

He saw them.

He saw Shi Lei's arms, already mangled into a bloody mess, with stark white bone faintly visible beneath the flesh.

He saw Monkey's half-burned face, rendered utterly unrecognizable after being caught in the sea of fire.

He saw the steel shields of the five Sharp Shield squad members, completely warped and deformed after enduring too many terrifying impacts.

He saw the hideous wounds on nearly every one of them, each too dreadful to look at.

A wordless silence quietly spread across this asura battlefield filled with blood and flames.

At last, the killing intent in Lin Xiao's eerie blood-red eyes, cold enough to freeze souls, slowly receded. In its place came a faint gentleness filled with endless weariness.

He slowly lowered his right hand, then gently nodded at these companions. Though each of them was severely wounded and bedraggled, their eyes still brimmed with undisguised fanaticism and trust in him.

"Alright."

"I'll listen to you."

"I won't kill them."

Having said that, he could no longer withstand the immense weakness surging like a tide from every limb and bone. His vision went black, and his entire body began to slump softly backward.

But what received him was not the cold, hard earth, but a warm embrace carrying a faint fragrance, along with twenty-eight pairs of unwavering arms filled with boundless anxiety and concern.