Lu Xueqi and Bi Yao (91)

The rings shattered soundlessly.

The second layer, the third, the fourth... The gray thread advanced at an unchanging pace. Everywhere it passed, the purification domains vanished like bubbles beneath sunlight.

They were not destroyed, but "assimilated."

Deep Chaos Power returned everything to its most primordial state.

The seventy-eighth layer, the seventy-ninth, the eightieth...

When the gray thread touched the final ring, sweat beaded on Ye Lingxiao's forehead. He felt the "Dustless" sword intent he had cultivated painstakingly for twenty years being dismantled and absorbed by a power of a higher order.

This was not a crushing difference in strength. It was a transcendence of realm.

"I... lost." Ye Lingxiao suddenly spoke, dispersing his final layer of defense at the same time.

The gray thread stopped three inches from his brow, then slowly dissipated.

The entire arena fell deathly silent.

Everyone stared wide-eyed, unable to believe what they had just witnessed.

Ye Lingxiao, the foremost member of the Eastern Region's younger generation, who had never known defeat, had actually conceded on his own?

"Why?" Su Han's body swayed unsteadily, his face pale as paper, yet his eyes were full of confusion.

"Your sword intent has already touched the edge of the 'Dao.'" Ye Lingxiao sheathed the Dustless Sword and looked at Su Han with a complicated expression. "That sword of Chaos Return to Origin shattered the foundation of my 'Dustless' path. If we kept fighting, cracks would form in my Sword Heart, and I would never achieve perfection in this life."

He paused before continuing, "Besides, that sword cost you your life force, didn't it? Do you still have the strength to strike a second time?"

Su Han fell silent. Ye Lingxiao was right. That strike had nearly drained all his spiritual power and vitality. Had the Demonic Seed in his