Di Jun's heart tightened, and he cursed inwardly. This is bad.
If this stalemate continued, Donghua might not find a flaw in the formation before Di Jun's own magic power was exhausted. The Primordial Chaos Luo River Great Formation probably would not hold much longer.
But if he withdrew the formation now, how could he, with both his magic power and spiritual sense nearly drained, stand against Donghua in perfect condition? His chances of victory were slim.
Though he had the Golden Crow Transforming into Rainbow Technique and could leave at any time, for a proud being like Di Jun, the words "flee" and "retreat" already meant defeat.
Just as Di Jun found himself caught between advancing and retreating, he keenly captured a faint, almost imperceptible fluctuation.
His taut mind relaxed slightly, and a trace of imperceptible relief and sharp radiance flashed deep within his eyes.
The heaviness and conflict from before vanished in an instant, and one thought became crystal clear:
This settles it.
At the same time, an even bolder and more ruthless plan rapidly took shape in his mind.
Donghua remained completely unaware of Di Jun's change. He was concentrating fully on analyzing the Primordial Chaos Luo River Great Formation before him.
After all, formations that could reach such a level were exceedingly rare. Although this one was inferior to the Zhou Tian Star Dou, Zhuxian, and Dutian God Fiend Great Formations, it was still an excellent opportunity to comprehend the Dao.
However, just as he was deducing the formation's structure as usual, the surrounding aura suddenly changed! The formation's circulation abruptly accelerated, and its might rose layer by layer.
"Hmm?" Donghua's mind stirred, and he immediately understood. It seemed Di Jun had been forced to his limit and had no choice but to use his trump card.
Just as he had expected, at the core of the formation, Di Jun was recklessly pouring his dwindling magic power into the River Diagram and Luo Shu before him, heedless of the consequences.
The spiritual treasure's radiance surged, yet it still seemed to lack the power to continue.
"Not enough! Still far from enough!"
A vicious glint flashed through Di Jun's eyes. He stopped hesitating and directly forced out a drop of vital essence blood.
A drop of pure Golden Crow essence blood hung in the air, radiating overwhelming might.
Simply floating there, it caused the surrounding space to warp and blur under the scorching Solar True Fire.
With the essence blood leaving his body, Di Jun's figure swayed, and his aura weakened further.
Di Jun raised his hand and beckoned. As radiance flashed, the drop of essence blood landed on the River Diagram and Luo Shu! The spiritual treasure's radiance instantly turned a glaring crimson.
Di Jun's complexion likewise lost its final trace of color, becoming pale as paper.
Yet on Di Jun's face, pale as paper from the loss of his essence blood, a smile slowly emerged.
The smile bloomed on his bloodless face, mixed with pain, resolve, and... the cold confidence of victory.
He felt the violent power within the formation, enough to kill a Great Luo Golden Immortal. He felt Donghua's aura instantly suppressed and the shock waves surging through the formation.
It was worth it!
This drop of essence blood was worth it!
As Di Jun's source essence blood, still dripping with Solar True Fire, completely fused into the River Diagram and Luo Shu, the entire Primordial Chaos Luo River Great Formation seemed to have been injected with a violent soul and let out a muffled roar!
Space folded, and all things fell into chaos.
The Zhou Tian Star Dou, orderly just moments ago, suddenly ran wild. Star paths collided and annihilated one another, erupting with destructive radiance.
The boundless mountains and earth beneath their feet were no longer stable. They writhed and pieced themselves together like living creatures. Mountain peaks tens of thousands of zhang high rose from the ground, only to collapse thunderously into bottomless abysses the next moment.
Rivers surged backward and flowed into the sky, transforming into hundreds of millions of water dragons dancing wildly through the void.
Space lost all meaning here. Up, down, and every direction changed in the blink of an eye.
The flow of time became disordered and unpredictable.
Time within the formation passed in a strange and unfathomable manner. At times, the spacetime around Donghua made time feel stagnant and sluggish, as though he were trapped in a mire. At other times, time flashed like lightning, as if a thousand years were madly slipping away from his fingertips, intent on grinding away all his cultivation.
Just as the Primordial Chaos Luo River Great Formation, driven by Di Jun's essence blood, reached its most violent, chaotic peak, the destructive waves swept around Donghua. Yet in the chaotic center where all things collapsed, he suddenly opened his eyes.
His gaze no longer held the solemn concentration of deducing the formation. Instead, it contained a cold sharpness that pierced through endless illusions and locked onto its true prey.
"I found it."
He muttered softly, his voice calm and utterly without fluctuation.
Di Jun had made a fatal mistake.
Di Jun thought Donghua was a trapped beast whose only path to survival was to find a gap and escape.
He had poured everything into unleashing the formation at full power, intending to kill Donghua. Yet he did not know that this ultimate madness was precisely like a beacon lit in the darkness, showing Donghua the way.
When Di Jun recklessly overloaded the Primordial Chaos Luo River Great Formation and pushed its might to the limit—
Just as this destructive power surged forward like a tidal wave, the restriction that had always concealed Di Jun's true location as perfectly as mist and illusion finally revealed an almost imperceptible ripple amid the extreme fluctuations of power.
A radiant gleam of insight flashed through Donghua's pupils.
Now!
What Donghua had been waiting for was precisely this moment. When the power of the entire formation was frantically mobilized by Di Jun, the core sustaining everything instead became like an isolated island surfacing amid raging waves, no longer able to hide.
Donghua gazed at the figure burning with golden flames deep within the formation eye, his expression as calm as the sun that had remained unchanged since time immemorial.
There was no earth-shaking opening move, nor any vast fluctuation of magic power. He merely slowly raised his right hand, extended one finger toward Di Jun, and lightly tapped.
"Yang Yuan Dao Jie."
The four words were like true words, their sound no more than a whisper.
The formless became an edict, and the laws revealed their source.
The first thing Donghua's attack encountered was the Star Torrent, powerful enough to annihilate a Great Luo Golden Immortal.
This destructive energy, gathered from the power of countless destroyed stars, began to melt like thin ice beneath a blazing sun when it approached within three feet of Donghua.
It was not shattered by a stronger force. Rather, the magic power composing this destructive force was instantly dissected. The violent energy gently dissolved, returning to the most fundamental Innate Spiritual Qi before quietly dispersing.
The attack then flew toward Di Jun. It appeared incomparably slow, yet in reality, it had already surpassed the restrictions of spacetime.
"Impossible!"
Looking at the Innate Spiritual Treasure before him, its physical form completely destroyed and only its Innate Undying Spiritual Light remaining, Di Jun roared inwardly, his eyes nearly splitting apart.
"I'm going to die! I'm going to die! Move, damn it!"
Di Jun clearly sensed that if the attack struck him, even his true spirit would be obliterated.
At the instant the attack, powerful enough to erase Di Jun, was about to touch his brow—
"Boom!"
The attack exploded with a thunderous force!
There was no earth-shaking boom. Instead, an invisible ripple rapidly spread outward with Di Jun at its center.
Wherever the ripple passed, the remaining foundations of the Primordial Chaos Luo River Great Formation completely disintegrated, while the void shattered inch by inch like a mirror.
"Pfft—"
Di Jun seemed to have suffered a heavy blow. His entire body was sent flying backward, spraying a dazzling line of blood.
"I survived! Was that mercy, or disdain?"
"Was it an accident, or...?" Donghua watched Di Jun survive and fell into thoughtful contemplation.
Without the slightest hesitation, Donghua attacked Di Jun once more.
"Clang—"
A bell rang out, as if coming from the ancient Primordial Wilderness. It pierced through layer upon layer of space and shook the entire battlefield.
Before you continue