The End

A suffocating silence, like a heavy shroud, draped over the shattered Heaven-Burial Mountain Range.

Once-towering peaks had been razed to the ground, and massive craters were visible everywhere, filled with churning dark-red magma that bubbled incessantly. The scorching heat distorted the air, only serving to highlight the desolation and sorrow of this land.

The air was thick with the pungent stench of burning, the smell of blood, and something even more acrid—a sensation that made the soul tremble, piercing the nerves of every survivor like invisible needles.

At the center of the battlefield, Hun Tiandi gasped violently, each breath rattling like a broken bellows as it tugged at his severe internal injuries.

Pitch-black energy, thick as viscous blood, continuously leaked from the fissures in his skin, only to be forcibly suppressed back into his body.

His face was pale as paper; the madness and fervor in his eyes had faded, replaced by an extreme coldness and a bone-deep, venomous resentment.

Hun Tiandi's gaze, sharp as a poisoned blade, slowly swept across the field.

On the side of the alliance, the casualties were catastrophic. The ground was littered with groaning figures, yet the top-tier combatants—Gu Yuan, Lin Hai, Yan Jin, and Lei Ying—remained standing, albeit stubbornly. Though their auras were withered and they were covered in wounds, some even needing support to stay upright, they refused to collapse.

Looking at his own side, Void Devouring Flame was sealed within that bizarre orb, his aura completely severed. The West Demon Saint of the Soul Clan and the remaining elders were all heavily wounded, their auras withered to the extreme. In the eyes of the surviving clansmen, there was only fear and despair; their morale had hit rock bottom.

If they continued to fight... even if they could secure a pyrrhic victory using their final trump cards, the Soul Clan would be severely crippled. Ten thousand years of planning and countless efforts might truly be washed away here.

"Cough..." He violently spat out a mouthful of black blood containing fragments of shattered organs, the weighing of options in his eyes finally replaced by cold, calculating reason.

The hatred of this day was etched into his bones, but it would not be settled today!

"Gu Yuan! Lin Hai!" Hun Tiandi's voice was abnormally hoarse, yet it carried a bone-chilling coldness that clearly echoed across the silent mountain range. "The hatred of this day, my Soul Clan... will remember it!"

He paused for a moment, his sinister gaze sweeping over the alliance members, especially those few powerhouses who still had the strength to fight.

"But if you wish to leave us all here, you... will have to pay a price you cannot afford!"

"Everyone, retreat!"

Before the words had even faded, Hun Tiandi stomped his foot, and the last remnants of surging spiritual energy within his body, mixed with that bizarre black energy, poured out without reservation!

Yet, this power was not used for attack; instead, it rapidly condensed and evolved before him!

"Nether Soul Domain, Ten Thousand Souls Escape to Void!"

In an instant, a towering black mist erupted from him as the center!

This black mist was thick and viscous, not only swallowing all light and obscuring all vision, but also emitting a strange power that corroded and interfered with soul perception.

Within the black mist, countless vengeful souls seemed to be shrieking and wailing, the sounds piercing straight into the depths of the soul and severely disrupting everyone's focus.

More troublesome still, within this massive domain of black mist, countless distorted and fluctuating spatial traces were hidden, making it impossible to lock onto the location of Hun Tiandi or any of the Soul Clan elites.

This was one of the Soul Clan's strongest escape techniques, which could only be performed by the Clan Leader. The cost was immense, but the effect was equally astonishing.

"You want to leave?! It won't be that easy!"

Yan Jin was the first to roar. Enduring the agonizing pain of his meridians threatening to tear, he forcibly channeled his remaining fire spiritual energy. A scorching streak of flame, like a roaring fire dragon, slammed into the churning black mist!

However, the Nine Nether Golden Ancestral Fire, capable of burning mountains and boiling seas, rushed into the black mist like a stone dropped into the ocean. It stirred up only a few ripples before being swallowed and dissolved by the endless darkness and the wailing of vengeful souls, failing to cause any significant disturbance.

Lei Ying's face was as gloomy as water. Lightning flickered wildly around his body as he attempted to charge into the black mist at extreme speed to intercept them.

But the moment he moved, he stumbled, and blood began to seep once more from the gruesome wound on his chest.

Having taken the brunt of the Emperor Soul Banner's attack earlier, his injuries were simply too severe. At this moment, his spiritual energy circulation was sluggish, and he could not easily penetrate this bizarre escape domain, which Hun Tiandi had unleashed with his final strength.

Gu Yuan and Lin Hai exchanged a glance, both seeing deep helplessness and gravity in the other's eyes.

Their own conditions were equally dire.

Gu Yuan's aura was fluctuating, his face the color of gold paper; clearly, both his soul and physical body had suffered tremendous shock.

Lin Hai appeared calm, but his hands were trembling slightly, and blood was faintly seeping out from beneath his green robes.

They knew in their hearts that in their current state, they were indeed powerless to stop Hun Tiandi and the remaining Soul Clan elites who were determined to flee.

If they forced a confrontation and drove the enemy to a desperate, suicidal struggle, the price might be one the alliance could not afford to pay.

The black mist came quickly and departed just as fast.

After only a few breaths, the massive black mist that had blotted out the sky and blocked all perception retracted rapidly like a receding tide, finally dissipating into nothingness as if it had never appeared.

As the black mist vanished completely, the area where the Soul Clan army had been was now empty, leaving behind only a scene of devastation and a few shattered weapons to prove they had ever existed.

"Damn it!"

Lei Ying was consumed by rage. His unvented fury transformed into violent lightning, and he punched the void beside him, causing the space to distort and thunder to roar.

Gu Yuan took a deep breath of the acrid, burnt air, forcibly suppressing his churning blood and the waves of weakness washing over him. His voice, though hoarse, carried an unquestionable steadiness as it spread across the field: "Do not pursue."

He swept his gaze over the tragic battlefield below, looking at the alliance powerhouses who were supporting one another, their faces filled with the relief of surviving a catastrophe and deep exhaustion. He said in a low voice: "Hun Tiandi has suffered heavy losses as well. The origin of the Emperor Soul Banner is damaged, Void Devouring Flame is sealed, and the Soul Clan's top combatants are all severely wounded. They will not be able to recover their vitality for years."

His voice paused, carrying a hint of heaviness: "We... also desperately need to recuperate."

Lin Hai nodded slowly, and with a flip of his hand, the orb sealing Void Devouring Flame appeared once more, its surface shimmering with light as if invisible flames were colliding within.

"The origin of this fiend has been sealed, but to refine it completely will not be a one-day task. The Soul Clan's foundation is deeper than imagined; their retreat today will surely become a future calamity. We must indeed plan for the long term and recover our strength so that we can completely end this scourge in the next confrontation."

Soon, Gu Dao, Gu Lie, and other Ancient Clan powerhouses began to muster their remaining strength, quickly directing their men to count the casualties and treat the wounded.

Yan Jin and Lei Ying also dragged their injured bodies to command their own clansmen and stabilize the situation.

A solemn and tragic atmosphere permeated the sky above the Heaven-Burial Mountain Range; the price of victory was truly too heavy.

Gu Yuan looked at this mountain range, now turned into scorched earth and the burial ground of countless powerhouses. He finally gave the order decisively, his voice weak yet carrying the resolve of a clan leader: "Return to the Ancient Realm! Activate the highest level of defense! All survivors, from this moment on, enter seclusion to heal!"

He gazed toward the distant horizon, as if seeing the turbulence of the future: "After this battle, the Spirit Continent will welcome a brief period of calm. But the next storm... will surely be even more violent."

The allied army, burdened by the weight of a pyrrhic victory and the grief of losing comrades, began an orderly withdrawal from this land of death.

Just as Gu Yuan and Lin Hai had anticipated, this earth-shattering decisive battle, which exhausted the strength of both sides, left almost all of the continent's top powerhouses severely wounded, their foundations shaken.

Without three to five years of dedicated recovery, it would be impossible for them to return to their peak.

The Heaven-Burial Mountain Range returned to a deathly silence; only the shattered earth, the solidified dark red magma, and the terrifying energy fluctuations lingering in the air silently recounted the tragic, fate-deciding peak battle that had once erupted here.

And the entire landscape of the Spirit Continent, because of this battle, entered a special period that appeared calm on the surface but was actually surging with undercurrents, a time when a storm was brewing.

Both sides were licking their wounds, accumulating strength, and waiting for the next, inevitably more brutal, final confrontation.