Just as the black beam of light was about to pierce his chest, Ren Xiaoyao poured all his remaining Spiritual Qi into the Chaos Green Lotus. The green lotus in his dantian suddenly burst forth and trembled, the Heavenly Dao Runes flowing between its veins like ignited sparks, the bursting light faintly revealing the scene of the ancient Beginning of Chaos. His hair stood on end, and the blood vessels under his skin swelled into a bluish-purple due to the overload of Spiritual Qi, like countless earthworms crawling under his flesh. The subtle sounds of blood vessels bursting mixed with the crackling of bones, as if a million Lightning Tribulation were exploding within his body at the same time. Ren Xiaoyao let out a muffled groan, but forcibly swallowed the excruciating pain, the veins on his forehead bulging like coiled dragons.
In an instant, the Azure Lotus, like an ancient sun ignited, unleashed a blinding white light capable of tearing apart the Netherworld, transforming into a shield of light a hundred feet in diameter before it. Liquid Star Trails flowed across the shield's surface, each halo condensing the Sky-Opening and Earth-Splitting Power of Laws. The moment the beam of light touched it, thousands of Golden Chains rose from the shield's edges, attempting to bind this Power of Destruction. However, the corrosive Time-Space Power was like boiling sulfuric acid; the chains snapped with a piercing sound upon contact. Those chains, formed from the Heavenly Dao Laws, oozed dark purple tears of blood under the corrosive Time-Space Power, each drop burning a charred hole in the void, as if even the Principle themselves were mourning the clash of these forces.
The instant the Time-Space Power struck the light shield, the rock walls within a ten-mile Fang Yuan shattered as if struck by Giant Spirit God's hammer, with debris raining down like a storm. Wherever the sound waves reached, the air twisted into swirling ripples, like a massive boulder thrown into a calm lake, the layers of air waves Stalactite along the way. The cave's dome began to crack, countless fissures seeping out eerie blue Void Turbulence, obliterating the rocks in their path and forming Miniature Black Hole in the void. These Black Hole greedily devoured everything around them, even distorting light into bizarre spirals. From afar came the wailing of spacetime tearing apart, like the dying howl of Ancient Ferocious Beast, echoing for a long time within the cave.
His hands were torn apart by the aftershocks of the beam of light, flesh flying everywhere, his tiger's mouth completely ripped open, the stark white bones faintly visible in the lightning. Blood trickled down the hilt of his sword, dripping onto the rune-covered ground, where it strangely coalesced into Blood-colored Bats poised to take flight. These blood bats emitted shrill cries like infants wailing, swarming towards the surrounding rock walls, gnawing at the wounds of varying depths. From each wound seeped black threads of Curse, weaving in the air into a dense web of death. Where the blood web covered, the air began to condense into a viscous black mist, from which came faint sobs, as if imprisoned souls were lamenting their thousand-year-old grievances.
The spiderweb-like cracks on the surface of the light shield spread at a visible speed, each Dao Patterns radiating an aura of death as black as ink, like a death warrant carved by the Death God Reaper himself. Dark purple miasma continuously seeped from the cracks, distorting and deforming the space wherever it touched, blurring the boundary between Reality and Illusion. In a daze, Ren Xiaoyao saw countless distorted faces emerge from the cracks, all cultivators devoured by the Ancestor of Bats. Ghostly green flames flickered in their empty eye sockets, and their withered fingers reached out to grab his soul. One face was particularly clear; it was a boy with an immature appearance, a half-congealed Blood Bubbles still hanging from the corner of his mouth, his eyes filled with a desire for life and a fear of death. This scene struck Ren Xiaoyao's heart like a heavy hammer.
With a deafening roar that shattered space and time, the light shield shattered, and the shockwave, carrying Power of Destruction, sent Ren Xiaoyao flying. His body violently rubbed against the air during high-speed flight, his clothes instantly turning to ash, and countless deep, bone-revealing wounds slashed across his skin. At the moment of impact with the rock wall, he heard the crisp sound of his sternum breaking, as if a thousand steel needles were piercing his heart simultaneously. When his back slammed into sharp stalagmites, excruciating pain overwhelmed him like a tidal wave, his consciousness swaying violently in agony. Yet, in his semi-conscious state, he saw his own blood splattering on the rock wall, forming a bizarre prophetic image—a scene of him wielding a giant sword to slay the Ancestor of Bats, only to be swallowed by darkness in the next instant.
He crashed into the barbed rock wall like a kite with a broken string. Sharp stalagmites pierced his black clothes and dug deep into his flesh, blooming into flowers of blood on his body. One stalagmite pierced his left shoulder, the excruciating pain almost making him lose consciousness, but his remaining willpower kept him from collapsing. Blood dripped from the stalagmite, gathering on the ground to form a strange Rune Array. Wisps of black smoke slowly rose from the array's core, condensing in the air into a grinning phantom of the Ancestor of Bats. The phantom opened its blood-red maw, spewing out miasma mixed with countless tiny bats. These bats, like black bullets, frantically tore at his wounds, each bite bringing excruciating pain, as if trying to devour his soul as well.
The violent impact caused him to cough up a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs. His vision was a crimson blur, and his internal organs felt as if they had been repeatedly scorched by the Nine Netherworlds Demonic Fire of the Netherworld, all displaced and deformed. His consciousness began to blur, and fragments of his past memories flashed through his mind: the peaceful times he spent gathering herbs at the Kunlun Mountain in his childhood, the scene of his master entrusting him with the Chaos Green Lotus before his death, and the desperate eyes of the innocent creatures who had been Curse and harmed. These memories were like heavy hammers, striking his crumbling will time and time again. In the scene, his master's withered hand tightly gripped his wrist, his cloudy eyes filled with trust and expectation. " Xiaoyao, as long as the Green Lotus is here, there is hope..." These words exploded like a thunderclap in his consciousness as he was about to fall into darkness.
But he endured the excruciating pain that threatened to make him faint, biting his tongue to stimulate his nerves with the sweet, metallic taste of blood—if he collapsed now, not only would his life be in danger, but he would also plunge countless wronged souls devoured by the Curse into eternal darkness. He mobilized his last bit of Spiritual Qi, forcibly circulating it within his body in Lesser Celestial Circuit, attempting to repair his shattered meridians. Each circulation felt like having flesh ripped from his heart, yet his clenched teeth bled, and the determination in his eyes grew ever stronger. Within his meridians, the places eroded by the Curse were like withered wood scorched by a raging fire; every flow of Spiritual Qi was accompanied by searing pain. Yet, amidst this agony, he saw the faint light of the Chaos Green Lotus, like a lighthouse in the dark night, guiding him to persevere.
In contrast, the Ancestor of Bats had its left wing stripped of all scales by the scorching Green Lotus Power of the Dragon Breath and the Azure Lotus, revealing stark white bones. Black smoke billowed from its wounds, and the stench of rotting flesh and rust permeated the cave. With each flap of its massive wings, countless Curse scales scattered, rapidly growing into small bat monsters that squeaked and lunged at Ren Xiaoyao. These little monsters had eerie green eyes, and venom dripping from their sharp fangs corroded the ground. Like manipulated puppets, they relentlessly charged at Ren Xiaoyao, attacking him with their fangs and claws as if determined to tear him to pieces.
Its deafening roar, like Nine Netherworlds Demonic Flute from the depths of hell, echoed through the cave, creating sonic booms that caused Ren Xiaoyao to bleed from all seven orifices, his eardrums nearly ruptured, and warm blood gushing from his nose, dripping down his chin and staining his chest with grotesque patterns. The roar was interspersed with the wails of countless wronged souls, these sounds like venomous snakes, burrowing into Ren Xiaoyao's consciousness through his ear canals, attempting to shatter his remaining will. Amidst these mournful sounds, he heard the cries of children, the sighs of the elderly, and the roars of cultivators; all the sounds intertwined, like an invisible net tightly binding his consciousness. Yet, within this chaotic cacophony, he caught a faint glimmer of hope—the prayer of those being saved.
However, just as it swung its right wing to deliver a fatal blow, its massive body suddenly trembled violently, staggering backward as if its spine had been ripped out, the resulting hurricane carving dozens of deep gashes into the rock wall. Its pupils contracted sharply, letting out a painful whimper, and its massive body convulsed uncontrollably. The white bones at the wounds began to twist and deform, and black Curse power, like a living thing, climbed along the bones, causing the flesh to rot rapidly wherever it touched. Scales on its wings fell off one by one, revealing the writhing flesh beneath, which, like rotting flesh gnawed by insects, constantly oozed black pus, emitting a nauseating stench that distorted even the surrounding air.
The temporal attack unleashed by draining a thousand years of Essence Blood caused the Ancestor of Bats to suffer a frenzied backlash from the power of the Curse. Dark green venom seeped from beneath its scales, dripping onto the ground and instantly corroding deep, bottomless pits. It attempted to mobilize the evil power within its body to suppress the backlash, but the power of the Curse, like a persistent leech, instead rampaged through its meridians, causing excruciating pain with every strike. Black Curse Patterns spread like a spiderweb around its heart, each beat accompanied by the sound of bones shattering, as if its body was being utterly destroyed from within by this power.
Fear and resentment flashed in its crimson vertical pupils. Its massive body curled into a ball in excruciating pain, its sharp claws digging deep into the ground, carving sparks and furrows into the Mars. A series of broken roars escaped its throat, filled with despair and rage. As the backlash intensified, cracks began to appear on its body, from which black miasma seeped, staining the surrounding space pitch black. Within those cracks, countless contorted faces of agony could be faintly seen—the creatures devoured by the Ancestor of Bats, now struggling to break free of its body, their eyes burning with the flames of vengeance.
It could only stare with bloodshot eyes as it slowly retreated deeper into the cave. The viscous Black Blood it left behind sizzled and corroded the rocks, instantly carving Bottomless Ravines. From the rising poisonous mist, countless distorted human faces faintly appeared, emitting mournful howls. These faces were those of the cultivators it had devoured in the past, now struggling within the poisonous mist, reaching out to grab the Ancestor of Bats, only to be swallowed up again by the mist. Within the mist, a woman's face was particularly clear; her long hair flowed freely, her eyes filled with resentment. Her hands gripped the Ancestor of Bats' tail tightly, but at the last moment, she was engulfed by the poisonous mist, leaving only a scream of despair echoing through the cave.
Ren Xiaoyao watched as the Ancestor of Bats disappeared into the darkness. His taut will snapped like a broken string, and he lost consciousness in a blackout. In the instant before he lost consciousness, he saw the Chaos Green Lotus emit a faint light, protecting his sea of consciousness and preventing the Evil Thoughts that tried to invade from succeeding. His body slowly sank into the pool of blood, and the surrounding air began to thin, as if even this space was mourning this tragic battle. On the verge of losing consciousness, he seemed to see the rising sun on the Kunlun Mountain, its warm light shining on him, and his master's figure appearing and disappearing, smiling and nodding at him.
He awoke slowly to excruciating pain, finding himself lying in a pool of blood, his body suffocating from the agony of his wounds. His clothes were torn to shreds, revealing his battered body, the flesh torn and emitting a putrid stench. But when he circulated his spiritual energy to examine his meridians, he was surprised to find that the long-raging Curse had weakened due to the impact of the battle. He forced himself to sit up, circulating the < Chaos True Dragon Art > to absorb the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi to heal his wounds. As the Cultivation Method circulated, his body began to heat up, and the Chaos Green Lotus in his dantian slowly began to rotate. With each rotation, a gentle light flowed into his meridians, repairing the damaged areas and burning away the remaining Curse energy. He could feel his strength gradually returning, a slow and painful process, but a glimmer of hope had appeared.
The Chaos Green Lotus slowly rotated within his dantian, each burst of light burning away a trace of the Curse's power. Ancient runes began to emerge from the lotus's light, floating around his body and forming a protective barrier against the lingering Evil Aura. His wounds began to scab over, and his severed meridians gradually healed under the nourishment of Spiritual Qi. Although each healing was accompanied by excruciating pain, he gritted his teeth and persevered, his unwavering determination never wavering. During the healing process, he often fell into a trance, seeing the Curse beings finding release in the Green Lotus Light. Their figures gradually became transparent, eventually transforming into starlight that merged into the lotus, infusing him with new power.
Deep within the cave, the Ancestor of Bats was enduring a torment far more devastating than any Heavenly Tribulation. Its massive body writhed and rolled on the ground, shaking the entire mountainside. Black Venom seeped from its wounds, corroding the surrounding rock walls. New growth from the wounds inflicted by Dragon Breath breath was instantly torn apart by the rampant Curse power within its body, producing a sickeningly painful "pop" sound. Its wings thrashed weakly at the ground, each flap raising clouds of dust and gravel. Black miasma continuously spewed from its mouth, condensing in the air into countless bat shapes. These bats, however, were instantly devoured by the Curse power, turning to ashes, as if mocking its utter powerlessness.
Its massive body writhed wildly on the ground, shaking the earth, its sharp teeth gnawing at the ground and crushing hard rocks into dust. It tried to regain its strength by absorbing the surrounding Evil Aura, but the backlash from the Curse made it impossible to concentrate. Broken roars escaped its throat, filled with pain and despair. As time passed, large areas of its body began to rot, the stench attracting countless venomous insects that crawled all over it, feeding on its flesh. The insects burrowed into its wounds, moving through the decaying flesh with a chilling rustling sound, and it had no strength to drive them away, only able to await its death in agony.
Each breath was accompanied by a agonizing roar from deep within its chest, a sound mingled with the cries of countless devoured cultivators, echoing through the cave and sending chills down one's spine. Its consciousness gradually blurred, and it began to hallucinate, as if seeing countless vengeful spirits surrounding it, reaching out their claws to seize its body. It tried to resist, but found itself too weak even to flap its wings, forced to endure the torment of these hallucinations. In its hallucinations, it saw all the beings it had devoured, hand in hand, surrounding it, their eyes gleaming with vengeance, before they pounced on it, tearing at its body and devouring its soul. It let out desperate screams, but no one answered.
Time passed agonizingly, Ren Xiaoyao's injuries rapidly healed under the dual tempering of the Chaos Green Lotus and his Cultivation Method. His skin began to smooth, his broken meridians reconnected, and his strength steadily increased. Whenever he circulated his Spiritual Qi, the Green Lotus would emit a soft light, purifying the Curse's power into starlight. This starlight merged into his body, enhancing his strength and simultaneously forming a defensive barrier within his meridians to prevent the Curse's power from invading again. During his recovery, he constantly reflected on the gains and losses in the battle, and his understanding of the Heavenly Dao Laws deepened. The light of the Chaos Green Lotus thus became even more dazzling, as if foreshadowing a new transformation he was about to undergo.
The Ancestor of Bats, however, sank deeper into agony. Its massive body, riddled with unhealed wounds, festered relentlessly, the stench attracting countless venomous insects that swarmed over its wounds, gnawing at the decaying flesh. Its eyes, once fierce, had become cloudy and empty, and its enormous body shrank, as if drained of life. Its wings were tattered and broken, rendering it unable to fly. It could only lie on the ground, awaiting death. The wounds on its body had merged, the rotting flesh teeming with maggots. Its breathing grew weaker and weaker, each gasp accompanied by violent tremors. The once invincible beast now resembled a dying ant, awaiting its fate in agony.
On the morning of the seventh day, the first rays of sunlight pierced through the cave's cracks, bathing Ren Xiaoyao in their light. He slowly opened his eyes, their gleam blazing as he felt the surging power within him like a raging sea—he had returned to his peak! His skin was as smooth as jade, his hair jet black and lustrous, and he exuded a powerful aura. The Chaos Greatsword in his hand hummed, the Golden Dragon Markings coiled around its blade crackling with lightning, as if it couldn't wait to drink the blood of its foes. He stood up, stretched his limbs, and heard the crisp cracking of his joints. Every cell was brimming with power. He knew it was time to end this feud.
He rose and strode forward, each step carrying the Boundary-Breaking Power shatter the rocks beneath his feet, heading deeper into the cave. His aura was like a peerless Peerless Divine Weapon unsheathed, its sharpness fully revealed. His figure appeared exceptionally tall in the sunlight, and with each step, his aura intensified. The lingering Evil Aura along his path quickly dissipated under his pressure, and the small monsters hiding in the shadows trembled in fear, daring not to utter a sound. Where he passed, a string of golden footprints was left on the ground, shimmering with the light of Heavenly Dao Runes, as if announcing his return and warning all evil forces that justice would ultimately triumph over darkness.
As the Ancestor of Bats, still healing its wounds, sensed the approaching aura, Ren Xiaoyao appeared before it like Golden Lightning. Thousands of Golden Runes flowed across the Chaos Greatsword, converging into a dazzling Star River, piercing towards its heart with World-Ending Aura. The Ancestor of Bats was no longer the mighty creature it once was; its massive body was covered in wounds and signs of decay, its eyes filled with fear and despair. It tried to struggle to its feet and fight back, but found its wings completely powerless, its massive body heavy with decay. It could only watch helplessly as the dazzling sword light drew ever closer, its heart filled with resentment and regret.
The Ancestor of Bats tried to flap its wings to block, but found its strength had not yet recovered; its massive body was as if bound by Immobilization Curse. It let out a desperate roar, its voice filled with resentment and fear. The futile flapping of its wings created a gale, which was like a child pushing a mountain before the protective spiritual Spiritual Qi surrounding Ren Xiaoyao —utterly useless. As the dazzling sword light drew ever closer, it finally realized that its end had come. At that moment, countless images flashed through its mind: scenes of it devouring living beings in the darkness, scenes of it fighting with other powerful beings, and its former glory as a dominant force. But all of this was about to become the past. Tears of regret streamed down its face, but it could not change its impending fate.
"Die!" Ren Xiaoyao roared, his Chaos Greatsword piercing the heart of the Ancestor of Bats. Foul-smelling Black Blood gushed out like a fountain, splattering onto his body and causing his black robes to sizzle. The Ancestor of Bats's massive body trembled violently, the light in its eyes dimming. With a final, unwilling roar, it collapsed to the ground, shaking the entire cave and kicking up clouds of dust. With its death, the Evil Aura in the cave began to dissipate rapidly. In the instant it fell, its body transformed into a cloud of black smoke, from which came the cheers of countless wronged souls. Those beings it had devoured were finally freed, while it would forever be nailed to the pillar of evil shame.
Ren Xiaoyao looked at his fallen enemy, and his tense nerves finally relaxed. A long-lost smile appeared on his face; this long battle against the Curse was over.