The Chaos Light Pillar wrapped around Tongtian and the others as they hurtled through a bizarre, chaotic spatial passage with no discernible order. Time and space had lost all meaning there. Countless twisted colors and fragments of shattered worlds streaked past them, leaving them dizzy and disoriented.
Tongtian poured all his strength into the Chaos Bead, sending down streams of Misty Grey qi as he struggled to stabilize the Chaos Light Barrier protecting everyone and shield them from the wrenching force of the Spatial Turbulence. Wudang, Sanxiao, and Kui Niu held their breath and pressed close behind Tongtian, their faces pale. This completely uncontrolled teleportation, with no known destination, was more unsettling than facing a powerful enemy.
No one knew how long it lasted. Perhaps an instant, perhaps ten thousand years.
A tremendous repulsive force suddenly surged from ahead. The scenery racing backward around them abruptly froze!
Boom! The Chaos Light Barrier shook violently, as if it had struck an indestructible wall. At last, it exhausted all its strength and burst apart!
Tongtian grunted, forcing down the churning qi and blood. The Chaos Dao Fruit flashed, steadying him at once, while he swept his sleeve out and firmly caught Wudang, Sanxiao, and Kui Niu as they stumbled forward.
Still shaken, everyone looked up—and the sight before them left them speechless. This was nowhere in the Primordial World!
They seemed to be in an endless, silent void. There was no Sun, Moon, and Stars, no four corners of heaven and earth—only Misty Grey Chaos Mist flowing slowly as far as the eye could see, carrying an ancient, desolate air.
More unsettling still, deep within this Chaos Void floated several remains so enormous they defied imagination...
Broken mountain ranges drifted through the mist, their slopes bearing terrifying claw marks and charred patches, as if some colossal creature had smashed them to pieces. Dried-up star rivers hung in the void, their stars dim and lifeless like the eyes of dead fish. They could even make out enormous fragments of bones and metal, so shattered that their original forms were impossible to recognize. The smallest were still as large as a mountain, and all radiated a suffocating pressure!
This place seemed like the ruins of an ancient, forgotten battlefield! It was far grander in scale than the War of Investiture of the Gods. They could scarcely imagine how savage the battle that had taken place here must have been!
"Where are we?" Qiongxiao's voice trembled as she instinctively moved closer to Yun Xiao. The silent void and the colossal remains weighed heavily on them.
Tongtian furrowed his brows and cautiously extended his divine sense in every direction. The dense Chaos Mist severely restricted it, allowing him to probe only a thousand li around them.
"I don't know. But we're definitely not in the Primordial World." His gaze swept sharply over the enormous remains. "These traces... They weren't left by a Saint, yet they're even more overbearing and brutal."
He sensed a faint but terrifying aura left behind. It was full of destruction, devouring, and chaos, entirely unlike any cultivation system in the Primordial World. Even the Chaos Dao Fruit within him instinctively reacted with wariness and repulsion.
[Warning: High concentrations of unknown Chaos Energy detected. Energy properties lean toward: devouring, destruction, chaos. Preliminary assessment: aura of an Outer Realm Demon God.]
An Outer Realm Demon God? Tongtian's heart tightened. He had heard the term only when Dao Ancestor Hongjun had occasionally spoken at Zixiao Palace of the vastness of Chaos. The Primordial World was not the only realm; other Chaos Demon Gods had created worlds, and they often waged war and devoured one another. Could this be the site of an ancient battle against an Outer Realm Demon God?
As he pondered this, a sudden change occurred! Not far ahead, behind a huge mass of charred bones shaped like an island, an enormous claw covered in dark purple scales suddenly reached out without warning!
The claw was grotesque, its tips as sharp as divine weapons and wreathed in nauseating Devouring Power. It silently tore through the Chaos Mist and swiped down at Bixiao, who looked like the weakest of them all! It moved impossibly fast!
An ambush! A viciously underhanded one at that!
"Look out!" Tongtian reacted at once. The instant the claw appeared, he sensed it and threw a punch without hesitation!
His fist unleashed the Chaos! A massive surge of Primordial Unity Magic Power condensed into a grey fist seal. It struck the dark purple-scaled claw before it could land!
Thump! The muffled impact sounded like a battered war drum. The Chaos fist seal and the claw shook violently together!
The claw recoiled in pain, snapping back behind the bones as a low, savage hiss rang out. It clearly hadn't expected such a formidable opponent among these "meals."
Tongtian swayed slightly, surprise flashing in his eyes. He hadn't used his full strength, but that punch should have been enough to badly injure an ordinary Grand Unity Golden Immortal. Yet it had only driven the claw back without causing any obvious damage. Its scales were terrifyingly tough!
"What was that?!" Wudang and Sanxiao only now reacted. Breaking into a cold sweat, they immediately summoned their treasures, formed a battle formation, and warily watched the bones.
Kui Niu let out an angry roar, partially revealing his true form as his body grew enormous. He shielded everyone from the front.
"Stay alert! Something's wrong here!" Tongtian barked. Qingping Sword was already in his hand, Chaos radiance flowing along its blade.
The low hiss behind the bones grew furious. Amid a grating scrape, a huge figure slowly rounded them.
What kind of monster was it?! It had a humanoid shape and stood a hundred zhang tall, its entire body covered in thick, dark purple scales, with vicious bone spurs jutting from its joints. Its head resembled a lizard's, but it had only one enormous, upright, blood-red eye, filled with greed, hunger, and pure destructive lust. It had no nose, only a slit-like mouth that opened to reveal rows upon rows of sharp teeth dripping with corrosive saliva. It radiated the same kind of Devouring Power as its surroundings, only far more vivid and terrifying!
"Grr... fresh world energy... delicious!" A broken, distorted, hoarse mental pulse came from the One-Eyed Demon God, fixing on Tongtian and the others as if they were a long-awaited feast.
"An Outer Realm Demon God!" Tongtian instantly recognized what it was, his gaze turning completely cold. So it really was one of them—the predators beyond the Primordial World, driven by the instinct to devour other worlds!
"Roar!" The One-Eyed Demon God seemed to lose patience. A dark red Destruction Beam burst from its eye, annihilating even the Chaos Mist in its path! At the same time, its massive body lunged forward, claws raking and jaws snapping. Its attacks were crude and direct, yet brimmed with overwhelming force and the Law of Destruction!
"Form a formation! Hold it back!" Tongtian ordered, then charged forward with Qingping Sword in hand!
Wudang and Yun Xiao immediately deployed their formation, weaving Water Curtain and Sky and Chaos Cloud Light together in an attempt to slow the Demon God down. Qiongxiao and Bixiao unleashed their magic power to attack the beam fired by its eye.
But the Demon God was far stronger than they had expected—its strength rivaled the Early Stage Quasi-Saint! Its power was also bizarre, carrying potent Devouring Characteristic and corrosive properties. It tore apart and devoured the formation Wudang and Yun Xiao had set up! Qiongxiao and Bixiao's attacks merely sparked against its scales, doing little to harm it!
"Master, be careful! Its power can corrode the spiritual essence of magical treasures!" Yun Xiao cried. She had realized that the devouring field around their opponent was slowly wearing away her Chaos Cloud Light.
Tongtian clashed head-on with the Demon God. Sword met claw with a metallic clang, and Chaos Sword Qi collided fiercely with Destructive Demonic Light. Neither side could gain the upper hand!
"Hmph! You wretch! You think I can't deal with you?" A fierce glint flashed in Tongtian's eyes as the Chaos Bead appeared above his head once more!
"Chaos Forbidden! Devour the Heavens!" He unleashed his newly comprehended divine ability, driving the Chaos Bead. Rather than attack directly, he formed a vast Chaos Vortex that generated a terrifying pull, madly devouring and siphoning away the devouring demonic qi radiating from the One-Eyed Demon God!
The One-Eyed Demon God froze, clearly unaccustomed to this kind of attack. Devouring was the core of its power, yet now it had met something even better at devouring! The demonic qi around it began flowing uncontrollably toward the Chaos Vortex, throwing off its attacks for an instant!
Now! Tongtian and his sword became one, transforming into a dazzling streak of Chaos Sword Light, like the first ray of light at the beginning of World Creation. In an instant, it pierced the tiny opening left by the Demon God's disrupted power—a relatively weak patch of scales three inches below its eye!
Pfft! Chaos Sword Qi pierced straight through its body!
"Argh—!" The One-Eyed Demon God let out a shriek of agony. Its massive body convulsed violently as dark purple Demon Blood gushed out like a waterfall. Its aura immediately weakened!
Disbelief and fear filled its eye. It whirled around and tore through the void, trying to flee!
"Trying to run? You'll leave something behind!" Tongtian wasn't about to let it escape so easily. His sword flashed again, cleaving one of its arms clean off!
Even after being severed, the arm thrashed wildly, still trying to attack. Tongtian snorted and swept it up in a curl of Chaos Qi, completely suppressing and sealing it before stowing it in his sleeve.
The One-Eyed Demon God took the opportunity to turn into a streak of dark purple light and flee in a sorry state, vanishing deep into the Chaos Mist.
The battle was over. The void fell silent once more, leaving only the chaotic remnants of energy and scattered Demon Blood behind.
Tongtian relaxed slightly, but his expression grew even more solemn. The Demon God was powerful and its methods bizarre. If he hadn't happened to possess the Chaos Bead, which countered its Devouring Characteristic, he would have had a much harder fight—and they might even have suffered casualties.
"Master, are you all right?" Sanxiao hurried over, still shaken.
"I'm fine." Tongtian shook his head, took out the sealed Demon God Severed Arm, and examined it closely. The toughness of its scales, the corrosive nature of its demonic qi, the Law of Chaos it contained... All of it was entirely unlike any cultivation system in the Primordial World that he knew.
"System, analyze the source and energy properties of this object."
[Analyzing target: Outer Realm Demon God (One-Eyed Devourer) remains. Energy properties: high concentrations of Chaos Demonic Qi, leaning toward the laws of devouring, destruction, and chaos. Source assessment: from another realm, filled with destructive intent, that is moving toward the Primordial World. Based on the energy activity and residual pheromones, estimated time until contact between this realm and the Primordial World: no less than three thousand years, and no more than ten thousand. Warning: this realm is extremely powerful and harbors intense hostility toward the Primordial World. Objective: devour.]
The system's analysis made Tongtian's heart sink!
A powerful, hostile world from another realm was approaching the Primordial World—and was expected to make contact within ten thousand years?! Could a war between worlds break out?!
The news was too shocking! It was far more terrifying than the pressure brought by the Saints! This was a calamity that threatened the survival of the entire Primordial World!
Wudang and Sanxiao had also heard the system's warning—Tongtian had chosen to tell them only some of it—and they turned pale with shock. A war between worlds? They could scarcely imagine how brutal it would be.
Tongtian remained silent for a long while. Then he slowly looked up toward the boundless Misty Grey Chaos Void, his gaze seeming to reach toward the Primordial World.
His expression grew impossibly complex.
Within, the Saints pressed him at every turn. Beyond, another realm watched hungrily. Had the Primordial World really fallen into such dire straits, beset by troubles within and without?
Did Dao Ancestor Hongjun know? Did the Saints know?
If they did, why were they still busy fighting among themselves and suppressing him?
For a moment, Tongtian felt a mix of absurdity and sorrow.
But in the next instant, a firmer resolve swept those feelings away!
Whatever the Saints did, whatever Dao Ancestor did, the Primordial World was Tongtian's root! It was the homeland of the myriad immortals of the Interception Sect! He would never allow the Outer Realm Demon Gods to devour and destroy it!
His original plans had to change!
He needed to save his disciples and resist the Saints—but he also had to prepare for the coming calamity from another realm!
Perhaps the Primordial Dao was not only a path to transcendence, but also a way to face the calamity!
He put away the Demon God Severed Arm and looked over his disciples, who were still in shock. His voice was steady, but more solemn than ever:
"We can't stay here. The commotion may have attracted more Demon Gods. We must find a way back to the Primordial World as soon as possible."
"Once we return, we'll carry on with the original plan—but we'll have to move faster! We may not have much time left."
His gaze seemed to pierce the endless void and glimpse the destructive shadow drawing near.
The calamity was coming. He had to gain the strength to protect everything as quickly as possible!
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