Rain Curtain Pursuit

Chapter 26: Rain Curtain Pursuit

Inside the cave, frost was inching its way to devour the last glimmer of earth fire.

Taiyi lay on the ground, clearly hearing the grinding of his fractured bones, like grit stuck in a bellows. His left arm was no longer his, just a frozen mass of rotten flesh hanging from his shoulder. His right leg could still move, but every attempt to exert force felt like his dantian was being churned by a blunt knife.

The warm current of the Witch Blood Powder slowly spread through his internal organs, like tepid water that couldn't quench his thirst. The jade slip of the Breath Concealment Art felt cool against his palm.

A dead end.

His blood-smeared eyes turned towards the center of the cave—the dried-up earth fire spring. The ice was closing in from the edges towards the center, dark red crystals stubbornly showing their last bit of light beneath the ice shell, like the final breaths of a dying beast.

Ice and fire…

The insane thought he'd had while escaping in here was now crystal clear in his dying mind.

Don't resist head-on. Make them fight each other.

But how? He could barely lift a finger now, where would he find the strength to provoke two heavenly laws?

Deep within his consciousness, the imprint of the Heaven-Opening Axe was faintly warming.

Not the burning of power, but something more primal—like a spark in the wilderness about to ignite a prairie fire, carrying a violent desire to cleave chaos and tear apart all established order.

Taiyi closed his eyes, no longer looking at the faint earth fire, nor sensing the suffocating pressure of the laws closing in from above.

He gathered all his remaining consciousness, like a drowning man clinging to the last straw, and desperately wrapped it around the scorching imprint.

This time, he wasn't seeking "resonance," nor learning "trajectories."

What he wanted was the core, the most savage "intent" deep within the imprint—not how the axe swung, but why the axe swung!

It was the decisiveness when facing three thousand demon gods blocking the path, the dominance of cleaving chaos when it stood in the way, the principle that all "existing" orders must yield to the "coming" new life… the Creation Will!

This will inherently contained the ultimate "confrontation" and "conflict."

Because creation itself was the ultimate negation and tearing apart of the original state!

"Found it…"

Taiyi's cracked lips moved silently.

Not power, not technique. This "will" itself could become the catalyst to ignite "confrontation"!

He suddenly opened his eyes, the bloodshot veins in them ferocious, yet a fierce glint of a dying beast's counterattack shone through.

With great difficulty, his right hand fumbled inside his clothes and pulled out the blazing, golden Sun Crystal Shard—the one he'd used to carve characters in Pangu Hall. The shard's edge was still stained with his blood, and it was now slightly warm in his palm. The residual True Sun Fire Origin within it resonated faintly with him, as they shared the same source.

Then, he did something that seemed utterly meaningless—

Using all his remaining strength, he pressed the Sun Crystal Shard fiercely against his own brow!

Not to absorb it, but to use it as an "anchor point"!

The moment the shard touched his brow, the remnant True Sun Fire essence surged into his Ancestral Aperture! This should have been a self-destructive act, but with his meridians shattered and dantian depleted, this faint stream of warmth acted like a drop of water into boiling oil, stirring violent turbulence in his chaotic sea of consciousness!

And at the peak of this turbulence—

Taiyi condensed all his dying thoughts and, like wielding an invisible giant axe, "slashed" the scorching Heaven-Opening Axe imprint in his sea of consciousness towards the space within the cave where the ice and fire were clashing most fiercely!

Not slashing out power, but slashing out pure "will"!

A domineering Creation Will that declared, "Conflict shall exist here, confrontation shall occur, the old order shall crumble"!

This will was formless and intangible, yet like a red-hot brand, it seared the fragile balance point of the laws!

"Buzz—!!!"

Deep within the earth fire spring, the dormant dark red crystals, as if utterly enraged by the savage "Creation Will," ignited all their remaining essence and transformed into a scorching, dying counterattack of a heat current that shot towards the sky!

Simultaneously, the Xuan Ming ice law seeping down from above was also provoked by this sudden, defiant, and negating "alien will." It instinctively gathered even more chilling power to suppress the heat current!

Ice and fire, cold and heat, two heavenly laws, under the forceful instigation and catalysis of this "Creation Will," clashed violently like enraged beasts!

"Boom—Hiss!!!"

Not a simple cancellation, but a fierce conflict and annihilation at the law level!

The air in that area instantly warped and exploded! Blinding white light and deep blue cold light intertwined and burst forth, fine ice crystals and steaming heat waves tearing at each other madly, forming an energy maelstrom only a few feet in diameter, yet outrageously violent!

This turbulence was as insignificant as dust compared to Xuan Ming's thousand-mile rain curtain.

But its timing and location were precisely at the weakest point of the cave structure, and a critical node where Xuan Ming's law torrent was seeping downwards!

It was like a single red-hot iron filing jammed into a precisely operating gear set!

The violent impact and law disturbance generated by the turbulence caused the stable downward-pressing ice torrent from above to experience an extremely brief moment of disorder and deflection!

Now!

As Taiyi "slashed" out the axe imprint will, his only movable right leg had already tensed, poised in a strange posture, as if churning through thick magma!

It wasn't a push-off from the ground, but using the muscles and fascia of his leg to mimic the rhythm of the "force" transmission in the Heaven-Opening Axe imprint—though it was just a superficial imitation, at this moment, it imbued his movement with an indescribable precision that targeted the flaw!

He "slashed" towards the side and below the rock layer, which had become temporarily fragile due to the energy turbulence!

This slash, seemingly weak, precisely "slashed" along a subtle stress crack in the rock layer caused by the energy impact!

"Crack—Bang!!"

The already unstable rock layer shattered and collapsed at the sound, revealing a dark, narrow fissure below emanating a stronger sulfurous scent!

Above, the torrent of laws, due to this sudden collapse and the continuous interference from the turbulent currents below, experienced greater delays and dispersion!

Escape!

Taiyi's body, relying on his last instincts, lunged and rolled towards the entrance of the fissure! As he rolled, he forcefully flung his useless left arm towards a sharp rock at the edge of the fissure—

"Crack!"

The useless arm struck the sharp rock, its already shattered bones completely deforming. However, this generated a slight backward thrust, increasing his rolling speed by a sliver!

"Whoosh!"

The moment his body rolled into the fissure, the torrent of laws, which had been briefly disturbed, crashed down!

"Rumble—!!!"

The cave behind him, along with a large section of the rock layer, was utterly pulverized in a deafening roar! The extremely cold law energy froze everything, compressing it into eternal permafrost.

Taiyi squeezed himself into the narrow, winding new passage filled with a pungent sulfur smell. His body spasmed uncontrollably from exhaustion and intense pain. His left arm was twisted at a grotesque angle, completely ruined. A charred mark was seared onto his brow by the Sun Crystal Shard, and his sea of consciousness felt as if it had been cleaved by an axe from forcibly activating the Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint, leaving his mind in chaos.

But he had made it in.

It wasn't thanks to the System or any external aid, but from the "Creation Will" he had grasped from the Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint at the brink of death. He had used himself as fuel, the Sun Crystal Shard as a catalyst, and his broken body as a fulcrum to pry open that sliver of hope!

The price was the complete ruin of his left arm, damage to his sea of consciousness, a hidden danger left on his brow, and the complete exhaustion of the Origin remaining within the Sun Crystal Shard.

But he had survived.

The medicinal effects of the Witch Blood Powder were still active, barely concealing his faint aura. He could feel that the terrifying rain curtain outside, after a brief pause, had become more ferocious and was scanning with greater detail. Clearly, Xuan Ming had noticed the abnormal law conflict and the disturbance of will just now.

Xuan Ming... was enraged. Or rather, alarmed.

She could sense the unnatural law disturbance. Although she hadn't caught him, she was definitely suspicious.

He couldn't escape far... but at least, he was alive for now.

Taiyi collapsed in the passage, his face pressed against the warm, rough ground, almost out of strength to breathe. His right hand still tightly clutched the Breath Concealment Art jade slip.

His consciousness finally sank into darkness.

Before he lost consciousness, a final, fragmented thought flashed through his mind:

"Axe Imprint... Creation... So that's how it's used..."

Darkness consumed everything.