Ren Xiaoyao knelt on one knee, his knuckles bulging with veins from the excessive force, deeply embedded in the scorched earth.
A subtle tremor emanated from the ground, as if the pulse of the earth itself was disrupted by this catastrophe. Particles of dried soil fell in a flurry, seeping into the gaps in his tattered armor, mingling with the seeping blood to form dark red scabs.
Every breath tasted of rust, his lungs felt like they were being scorched by boiling lava, and even his right arm, which supported his body, trembled uncontrollably—a sign that his strength had been pushed to its limit. The taste of blood rising in his throat grew stronger, and he forced himself to bite his tongue to stay awake with the pain—on the distant horizon, a churning mass of dark clouds was rapidly approaching, Devouring Light Rays.
The runes on the surface of the Divine Dragon Armor flickered like dying fireflies, each dimming accompanied by the crisp sound of metal cooling.
Those patterns that once shone with Sacred Light are now cracking at a visible speed, as if they have been eroded by the years. Golden liquid seeps from the fine cracks, which is the leakage of the core power of the Divine Dragon Armor. When it drips onto the ground, it rises up in wisps of green smoke, outlining a distorted dragon-shaped afterimage in the air.
The fragments of Space-time Laws condensed on the Chaos Axe fell in a flurry, splashing tiny purple sparks on the ground and scorching out scattered scorch marks.
These scorch marks spread rapidly, like black blood vessels growing wildly on the earth's surface, devouring any remaining life wherever they went. The edges of the axe blade began to crumble, revealing a silver torrent of spacetime flowing within, echoing the distorted Milky Way that appeared before the Demon Venerable's arrival.
The fierce battle just now had exhausted seventy percent of his strength, and even the newly sprouting grass in the distance was silently telling of the lingering effects of this catastrophe.
The tender green tips of the grass, still edged with black from the corruption of demonic energy, trembled and shivered in the wind. Occasionally, an injured hare would dart out of the grass, but the moment it came into contact with the residual demonic energy, its fur would quickly carbonize, and it would fall to the ground and turn into a pool of foul-smelling black water.
Countless tiny bubbles rose to the surface of the black water, making a "pop" sound when they burst, like the sneer of some evil creature. Even more terrifying, the black water began to writhe in reverse, crawling out ancient Demonic Runes on the ground, mirroring the trajectory of the clouds in the sky.
However, as the first gust of foul-smelling wind swept across the back of his sweaty neck, Ren Xiaoyao suddenly looked up.
His hair stood on end; the malice carried in the wind was a thousand times stronger than any demonic energy he had encountered before. A nauseating, sweet-smelling stench filled his nostrils, like the smell of rotting flesh soaked in putrid blood, and even his throat felt a stinging pain.
His pupils contracted violently—the entire sky had turned a thick, inky black, with tens of thousands of dark red lightning bolts dancing in the clouds. Each bolt illuminated the interior of the clouds as a blood-red Purgatory, and countless pale figures, pinned to the lightning, could be vaguely seen, their empty eye sockets flowing with Black Blood Tears.
A deep rumble came from the depths of the clouds, a sound unlike any of the human world, but rather carrying an ancient and cold rhythm.
The sound waves vibrated as if they were tangible, each tremor causing Ren Xiaoyao's ears to ring incessantly, and he could even feel his temples throbbing. Images uncontrollably surfaced in his mind: in a blood-soaked village, the corpses of children hung from charred treetops; wailing women and children were entangled in demonic energy, their skin festering at a visible speed; beneath mountains of white bones, Black Blood slowly seeped and gathered into a river.
Even more terrifying, these images overlapped with an ancient prophecy in his memory, in which the demonic shadow that would bring about the destruction of the world was now slowly emerging from the clouds.
His pupils suddenly contracted, and he saw a jet-black beam of light tearing through the sky, swallowing up the faint light of the stars wherever it passed.
The Big Dipper twisted into a strange vortex at the edge of the pillar of light, as if forcibly pulled by an invisible force. The once bright Milky Way now looked as if it had been splashed with ink, gradually dimming and disappearing.
Even more terrifying, the space around the pillar of light began to collapse inward, forming Miniature Black Hole that greedily devoured all light and matter in their path. Rivers on the ground dried up instantly, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared in the riverbeds, from which Viscous Black Liquid seeped out, staining the entire land into an eerie mirror, reflecting countless distorted skies and the phantom image of the Demon Venerable.
The moment the beam of light hit the ground, the space within Fang Yuan hundred miles began to distort and deform, and the air emitted a sharp hiss, as if the whole world was resisting the arrival of this evil force.
The rocks on the ground cracked inch by inch, oozing a foul-smelling Black Slime. This viscous liquid spread rapidly, and wherever it touched, the hard rocks were corroded as if by strong acid, constantly bubbling and turning into dust in the blink of an eye.
The slime coalesced into a river, churning with countless pale human faces, their mouths agape, yet uttering no sound. As the slime flowed past Ren Xiaoyao, one of the faces suddenly opened its eyes and murmured in a familiar voice, "Run..." It was clearly the face of his senior brother, who had been missing for many years.
The true form of the Nine Li Demon Lord slowly stepped out of the pillar of light, its figure towering over a thousand feet tall. The demonic energy surrounding its body solidified, transforming into countless pained and distorted human faces.
These faces sometimes let out shrill screams, and sometimes burst into ear-piercing laughter; the sounds intertwined to form a chilling sonic wave.
For a fleeting moment, Ren Xiaoyao seemed to see one of the faces—his deceased master's face, covered in bloodstains, with two jet-black tentacles emerging from his empty eye sockets, emitting a sharp mockery. Black mist seeped from every pore of the Demon Venerable, transforming into Demon Soldiers and Demon General upon landing. Wielding rusted weapons, they formed an army that heavily surrounded Ren Xiaoyao.
His scales were no longer dark purple, but a deep, pure black, like the abyss of the universe, with an eerie glow flowing across the surface of each scale.
The Ancient Curse Runes writhed as if alive, shredding the surrounding light into fragments. With each step the Demon Venerable took, the space beneath his feet shattered like a mirror, only to heal instantly.
The Broken Space floated in the air, reflecting countless distorted Ren Xiaoyao and the Demon Venerable, as if they were in an endless nightmare corridor. When the Demon Venerable spoke, he spat out a multitude of human faces, these faces filled with the terror of their impending death, screaming as they flew towards Ren Xiaoyao, each one overlapping with the face of the demon he had slain.
The Demon Venerable looked down at Ren Xiaoyao as if he were surveying an insignificant ant, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile full of disdain and mockery, " Ren Xiaoyao, you think you can kill Demon Venerable like this? How naive! That clone was nothing more than a puppet I created at Demon Venerable. Today, Demon Venerable will show you what true despair is!"
His voice was like countless rusty saws pulling at the same time, scraping against Ren Xiaoyao's eardrums, and even the air rippled with visible sound waves.
Wherever the sound waves passed, the remaining ruins in the distance turned to dust. Even more terrifying, the sound waves contained some kind of evil curse, which burrowed into Ren Xiaoyao's sea of consciousness, attempting to tear his Primordial Spirit apart.
Countless shrill cries suddenly echoed in his mind, the last pleas for help from the innocent victims slaughtered by the Demon Venerable.
Before he could finish speaking, the Demon Venerable swung his withered hand violently, and a tearing sound that made one's teeth ache rang out in the void.
Tens of thousands of Black Chains shot out, each chain wrapped in a thick, asphalt-like demonic energy, its body covered with barbs.
Green venom dripped from these barbs, corroding the air and creating jagged holes in their wake. The chains intertwined in the air, each node shimmering with an eerie green light, like a gigantic maw ready to devour Ren Xiaoyao alive.
When the chains touched the Divine Dragon Armor, they emitted a shrill cry like that of a baby crying. Black Vines quickly grew from the corroded parts, winding their way along the gaps in the armor and reaching towards Ren Xiaoyao's skin.
Ren Xiaoyao roared, and the runes on the Divine Dragon Armor instantly burst forth with dazzling golden light, as nine Divine Dragon Phantoms roared and soared into the sky.
Dragon claws tore through the void, Dragon Breath burned away demonic energy, yet the chains flowed ceaselessly like a tide; for every one of the Divine Dragon Phantoms destroyed, three new chains would emerge from the darkness.
Gradually, fine cracks began to appear on the dragon scales, and dragon blood fell like a golden rain, corroding the ground and creating deep pits that emitted blue smoke.
Black mist continuously billowed from those deep pits, condensing into the shape of skulls and emitting eerie cacophony. Suddenly, one of the skulls opened its mouth and spewed out a ball of Black Flames, igniting the tail of a Divine Dragon Phantoms.
The dragon's tail, now ablaze, lashed wildly through the air, sending Mars flying and igniting the demonic energy in its wake. Countless vengeful spirits emerged from the burning demonic energy, grasping at the Divine Dragon Phantoms and attempting to drag it into the abyss.
At the same time, the Demon Venerable Lord launched an even more terrifying offensive.
He muttered incantations, the Ancient Incantations he recited causing the space to tremble, and even the distant mountains began to resonate, emitting a rumbling echo.
The rocks on the mountain's surface crumbled away, revealing dark red rocks inside, as if bleeding. As the incantation grew more urgent, the mountain began to slowly undulate, and countless enormous stone claws emerged from its body, reaching towards the sky.
The surface of the stone claws was covered with distorted human faces, their features contorted in agony, and each fingernail dripping Black Venom. Further away, a volcano suddenly erupted, but instead of lava, it spewed out swarms of black feathers, each feather transforming into a bloodthirsty demonic crow that blotted out the sky and swooped down on Ren Xiaoyao.
As he formed hand seals, the dark clouds in the sky transformed into a massive Black Vortex, resembling a gaping maw that would devour everything.
Deep within the vortex, jet-black lightning swam like Ancient Giant Python. Each strike carved Bottomless Ravines into the earth, instantly melting the rocks on either side into molten iron, the rising heat carrying a pungent sulfurous smell.
Even more chilling was that the lightning also carried fragments of the Demon Venerable's Divine Sense; each strike would give birth to a demonic wolf engulfed in black flames.
These demonic wolves have eyes that are distorted Space-time Vortex. When they pounce and bite, they can even bite open the surrounding space, from which more Devil Creature crawl out.
Ren Xiaoyao dared not be negligent. He raised the Chaos Axe high above his head, and the light of the Space-time Laws on the axe blade surged, condensing into a light shield above his head that shimmered with mysterious patterns.
Lightning struck the light shield, unleashing a deafening roar. The patterns on the shield's surface twisted and deformed continuously, as if it were about to be torn apart at any moment.
Each strike of lightning numbed Ren Xiaoyao's arm, splitting his hand and causing blood to drip down the axe handle. The blood dripped onto the light shield, transforming into golden lotus flowers that clashed violently with the black lightning.
But as the attack continued, the lotus began to wither, and the Demon Venerable's Curse Runes appeared on the petals, which in turn eroded the light shield's defense.
The Demon Venerable's eyes flashed with a sinister glint when he saw his attack thwarted.
His figure vanished from the spot like a ghost, and the remaining demonic energy in the air began to swirl eerily, forming a black vortex.
A series of cold laughs came from the center of the vortex, the sound appearing and disappearing, as if coming from all directions at the same time. Ren Xiaoyao suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck as a dark sword light grazed his ear and slashed a bottomless crack in the ground. Countless withered hands reached out from the crack and gripped his ankle tightly.
The next moment, the air behind Ren Xiaoyao suddenly distorted, and a gigantic hand that blotted out the sky slammed down with destructive pressure.
At the critical moment, the runes on the Divine Dragon Armor shone brightly, and a Divine Dragon Phantoms appeared like an arrow behind Ren Xiaoyao.
The immense impact caused the Divine Dragon Phantoms to let out a painful wail, its body flying backward like a kite with a broken string, carving a deep trench a hundred miles long into the ground.
The soil on both sides of the deep ravine was compressed into black crystals, shimmering with an eerie, ghostly light. These crystals continued to grow, forming sharp, bony spikes that pointed straight to the sky.
The surface of the bone spurs was covered with countless human faces, their expressions twisted and grotesque, as if they were enduring endless pain. Even more terrifying, the expressions of these faces began to synchronize with Ren Xiaoyao's pain; when his wounds bled, the faces on the bone spurs would also shed tears of blood.
Ren Xiaoyao staggered forward dozens of steps, a metallic taste rising in his throat. He spat a mouthful of blood onto the Chaos Axe, but this only made the light of the Space-time Laws on the axe blade burn even more intensely.
The moment the blood seeped into the axe blade, the ancient Totems High Antiquity the axe seemed to come alive, emitting bursts of dragon roars. The Divine Dragon's eyes in the Totems lit up with red light, as if it were gathering strength for the upcoming decisive battle.
The space around the axe blade began to distort, forming miniature Space-time Vortex that devoured all the approaching demonic energy. However, the devoured demonic energy transformed into even more powerful Dark Power within the vortexes, which then rebounded along the axe handle onto Ren Xiaoyao's arm, causing black veins to appear on his skin, as if it had been infused with flowing shadows.
" Space-time Dance!" Ren Xiaoyao roared, the Chaos Axe spinning rapidly in his hand, the surrounding space began to distort and deform, forming Miniature Black Hole.
These Black Hole continuously devoured the surrounding demonic energy, emitting sharp whistling sounds. As the axe was swung, countless spatial rifts spread out like a spider web, shattering space inch by inch in their path, revealing the pitch-black void behind.
These cracks intertwined, forming a massive spacetime cage that enveloped the Demon Venerable. Silver light shimmered within the spacetime cage, a manifestation of the Law of Space, each ray containing World-Destroying Power.
However, the Demon Venerable merely smiled contemptuously. His demonic energy suddenly surged, forming countless Black Vortex corresponding to the cage, which devoured all the spacetime rifts and unleashed a demonic energy shockwave. Wherever it passed, the spacetime cage crumbled inch by inch.
The Demon Venerable snorted coldly, and his demonic energy surged wildly, condensing into a pitch-black protective shield.
The spacetime rift struck the shield, producing a teeth-grinding scraping sound. Ripples spread across the shield's surface, with countless tiny Purple Lightning leaping across it.
Each collision caused the entire space to tremble violently, and in the distance, the sky even showed a scene of overlapping time and space, with the battlefields of the past intertwined with the chaos of the present.
Ren Xiaoyao vaguely saw countless figures similar to him fighting the Demon Venerable in different time and space within the gaps where time and space overlapped. Some of those figures fell, while others persisted, their blood staining the skies of different time and space.
One of the figures was actually himself in his youth, using the same moves to fight the Demon Venerable, but in the end, he was pierced through the chest by the Demon Venerable's claws.
The battle intensified, and the entire world became their battlefield.
The Demon Venerable continuously unleashed various terrifying spells, sometimes summoning sky-covering Demonic Clouds that rained down Black Rain carrying deadly poison.
Wherever the Black Rain fell, the land instantly turned into a boiling swamp of poison, constantly bubbling and making gurgling sounds.
Giant tentacles occasionally emerge from the poisonous swamp, grabbing any unfortunate birds that happen to approach and dragging them into its depths. These tentacles are covered in suckers, each concealing a distorted human face, silently pleading for help towards the sky.
When the poisonous swamp gathered into a sea, a Devil Palace suddenly rose from the sea surface. Countless imprisoned souls were carved on the palace gates, and their wails pierced through time and space, penetrating Ren Xiaoyao's sea of consciousness.
Sometimes, it would swing its giant claws, unleashing a tsunami of demonic energy tens of miles high, carrying countless remnants of demons, crushing everything in its path into dust.
The demonic energy at the forefront of the tsunami condensed into a gigantic demonic face, its gaping maw devouring everything in its path. Undigested pieces of corpses clung to the demonic face's teeth, and its eyes gleamed with a mad light, each blink unleashing a beam of black light.
When the beam of light struck the mountain, the mountain began to twist and grow, transforming into a gigantic statue of the Demon Venerable. The statue's mouth opened and closed repeatedly, spitting out hordes of Demon Soldiers.
Ren Xiaoyao, with his profound understanding of the Space-time Laws, constantly breaks through the barriers between life and death.
With each swing of his axe, he Duan Kong, leaving a shimmering silver crack; with each dragon roar, he shattered demonic energy, creating ripples of golden sound waves.
As the sonic ripples spread, they blasted any approaching demons, causing them to bleed from their seven orifices and their bodies to explode. But as the battle continued, his movements gradually slowed, each attack requiring immense effort, and even his breathing became heavy and difficult.
His vision began to blur, and images of his family and sect flashed before his eyes, those warm scenes forming a painful contrast with the Purgatory before him.
However, the Demon Venerable's power seemed inexhaustible, while Ren Xiaoyao's stamina was rapidly depleting. His wounds continued to multiply, and blood soaked through the Divine Dragon Armor, congealing into hideous scabs on its surface.
The blood dripping from the wound onto the ground transformed into Blood Lotus, which were instantly corroded away by the demonic energy.
From the corroded lotus remains, countless tiny Demonic Insects crawled out, climbing up Ren Xiaoyao's ankles and gnawing at his flesh.
When the Demonic Insects burrowed into his wound, black flesh sprouted from it, attempting to assimilate him into the Demon Venerable's puppet.
Finally, the Demon Venerable was completely enraged.
He roared to the sky, and the sound shook the space within Fang Yuan miles, causing spiderweb-like cracks to appear, and even the distant stars began to flicker.
The starlight gradually dimmed, as if in fear of the Demon Venerable's wrath. His roar contained a powerful demonic sonic attack, and Ren Xiaoyao felt a splitting headache. He even hallucinated—he saw the sect he protected being engulfed by demonic energy, and his former fellow disciples struggling painfully in the Demonic Palm.
Even more terrifying, the scenes in his hallucinations began to overlap with reality. He seemed to truly hear his junior sister's dying cries and see his master vanish into thin air to protect him.
His body began to expand wildly, and Black Demonic Qi spread outwards like a surging tide, causing the earth to collapse and mountains to crumble wherever it went.
The collapsed mountain peaks rapidly decayed in the demonic energy, turning into black bone spikes that pierced the sky. Black Liquid dripped continuously from the tips of the spikes, forming new pools of poison on the ground.
The surface of the poison pools was covered with the corpses of various creatures, their skin a strange bluish-purple, their eyes still retaining the terror of their dying moments. When the poison pools connected, the entire land transformed into a giant demonic array, the core of which was the ever-expanding Black Hole beneath the Demon Venerable's feet.
His eyes turned bloodshot, and countless demonic shadows spewed from his mouth in Black Flames, their claws and fangs baring. Wherever they passed, space was burned and distorted, and the air was filled with a pungent, burnt smell.
The faint wails of countless wronged souls echoed from within the flames, as they struggled in agony, unable to find release. The power of these souls was absorbed by the Demon Venerable, making his aura increasingly terrifying, to the point that even the surrounding space could not withstand it, causing large-scale collapses.
When the flames touched the clouds, blood rained down from the sky. The raindrops transformed into Demon Soldiers as they fell, endlessly attacking Ren Xiaoyao.
Ren Xiaoyao took a deep breath and mobilized the last bit of power in his body.
The power of the Divine Dragon Armor and the Phoenix Creation Feathers completely merged, forming a layer of dazzling Nine-Colored Light around him. Within the light, the phantoms of the Divine Dragon and Phoenix appeared and disappeared, emitting a deafening roar.
Wherever the light reached, the demonic energy melted away like ice and snow, revealing the blue sky and white clouds before the pollution. But with each step the light spread, Ren Xiaoyao felt his life force drain away; his hair began to turn white, and his skin became withered.
Ren Xiaoyao roared, his feet stomping on the Broken Space, each step shattering a patch of demonic energy, leaving a long trail of golden light behind him. The Demon Venerable also let out a deafening roar, his Black Flames surging several times over, his burning giant fist carrying an aura of destruction as it smashed towards Ren Xiaoyao. Wherever the fist passed, space shattered inch by inch, and countless demonic shadows emerged from the cracks, roaring as they pounced towards Ren Xiaoyao.
The Light Sword and the giant fist collided with a deafening roar, and in an instant, spacetime seemed to be completely torn apart. Centered on the point of impact, countless Black Hole and White Hole appeared alternately, and the Energy Storm that erupted swept everything within a radius of Fang Yuan thousands of miles into them. Ren Xiaoyao's Nine-Colored Light and the Demon Venerable's Black Demonic Qi were fiercely clashing, and at the point where the two forces clashed, countless distorted Space-time Vortex were born, pulling nearby stars into them and crushing them into dust.