The Heavens Shatter, Gathering on the Douluo Continent

Immortal World, Void Heaven Palace.

Han Li sat cross-legged, his spiritual power surging like a tide throughout his body.

The bottleneck of the Mahayana stage was loosening; he could clearly feel that the gate leading to a higher realm was right before his eyes.

Three thousand years of cultivation, from a mere mortal to a half-step Mahayana—he had walked too many paths, killed too many people, and hidden too many trump cards.

The Heavenly Bottle in his sleeve grew slightly warm; that drop of emerald-green spirit liquid of creation was slowly taking shape. This was the key to his breakthrough.

"Everything is under control."

Han Li whispered to himself. This was his favorite phrase, especially when things were truly under control.

Then, the Heavenly Bottle exploded.

To be precise, it didn't explode; it went insane.

That drop of spirit liquid of creation suddenly reversed, its emerald light turning into a vortex, frantically devouring the surrounding spiritual energy.

Han Li's pupils constricted. Three thousand years of caution made him instinctively retreat, but it was already too late.

Space shattered before him like a mirror struck by a heavy hammer.

Black cracks spread out, and a terrifying suction force surged from within them.

For the first time, Han Li's face lost its composure.

He tried to cast an escape technique, but his spiritual power had been drained clean by the Heavenly Bottle.

He tried to activate the defensive formation of the Void Heaven Palace, but the formation base was like paper before the spatial rift.

"No!"

Han Li's voice was swallowed by the black hole.

His body was dragged into the rift uncontrollably. At the very last moment, he remained expressionless—his habitual disguise—but deep within, a voice was screaming frantically:

Everything is under control... my ass!

Great Thousand World, Endless Fire Domain.

Xiao Yan stood at the highest point of the Endless Fire Domain, the phenomenon of ten thousand fires paying homage to their ancestor unfolding behind him.

Twenty-three types of Exotic Flame roared within his body, releasing a terrifying power capable of incinerating the heavens and earth.

He had already surpassed the Dou Di, and was currently charging toward that legendary realm where no one had ever set foot.

"After today, no one in this world will be able to stop me."

Xiao Yan's lips curled upward, and the Exotic Flame patterns on his right arm lit up with a brilliant radiance.

He took a deep breath, preparing to welcome the final transformation.

Then, the Exotic Flames went out of control.

All twenty-three types of Exotic Flame backlashed simultaneously, as if an invisible hand were disrupting his power.

Xiao Yan discovered with horror that his control over the Exotic Flames was rapidly slipping away.

"Impossible! I am the Flame Emperor! The Emperor of Ten Thousand Fires!"

He struggled desperately to suppress them, the veins on his forehead bulging.

But the Exotic Flames seemed to have been summoned by some higher-order existence, completely ignoring his commands.

A spatial rift tore open behind him.

Xiao Yan turned his head to see the black hole-like rift and the eerie suction force emanating from it.

He instinctively wanted to flee, but the backlash of the Exotic Flames left him unable to move.

"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river..."

Xiao Yan habitually roared this classic line; it was his instinctive reaction when facing any predicament.

But this time, he couldn't even finish the sentence.

"I haven't even finished shouting before getting sucked in!"

The voice came to an abrupt halt, and Xiao Yan's figure vanished into the rift.

The phenomenon of ten thousand fires paying homage in the Endless Fire Domain collapsed along with him, as if it had never existed.

Above the Heavens, Source of Darkness.

Shi Hao stood shirtless, his muscles coiled like dragons.

His fists were tightly clenched, and blood dripped from his knuckles—not his own blood, but the blood of the Source of Darkness.

"Arbitrating the ages alone!"

Shi Hao roared, his voice shaking the universe.

These four words were his Dao, his obsession, and the entire meaning of him becoming the Desolate Heaven Emperor.

With a single punch, the laws of time and space intertwined at his knuckles, coalescing into a power capable of destroying everything.

With this punch, he intended to bring a definitive end to the Source of Darkness.

BOOM!

The terrifying force slammed into the Source of Darkness, causing the entire Above the Heavens to tremble.

Dark matter surged frantically, attempting to withstand the might of that strike.

Then, something bizarre occurred.

Shi Hao's fist did not merely shatter the Source of Darkness; it shattered time and space themselves.

The force of the punch was too great, exceeding the structural limits of this realm; space began to collapse, and time began to flow in reverse.

"Cutting off the ages... how can the ages flow backward?"

Shi Hao widened his eyes, watching his own body begin to regress—or rather, watching time reverse.

The punch he had just thrown was being retracted by the temporal backflow, his cultivation realm plummeting, his power dissipating.

Spatial rifts tore open around him, like a giant maw ready to swallow him whole.

Shi Hao tried to struggle, but the dual crushing weight of time and space left him unable to move even a finger.

The only thing he could do was let out one final roar amidst that terrifying backflow.

"Cutting off the ages—ahhhhh!"

The sound vanished into the depths of the void, and Shi Hao's figure disappeared completely.

Within the cycle of reincarnation.

Wang Lin stood at the end of the cycle, and before him was the figure he had pursued for countless years: Li Muwan.

"Wan'er."

Wang Lin called out softly, a rare gentleness appearing on his pale face.

He reached out his hand, wishing to touch the woman he would trade ten thousand lifetimes of reincarnation to bring back.

The Heavenly Inverse Bead rotated slowly between his brows, gray light shrouding his body.

This was his trump card, the capital he possessed to reverse causality and break through the cycle of reincarnation.

"In this life, This Seat will surely be able to bring you back."

Wang Lin's hand was about to touch Li Muwan's cheek.

The Heavenly Inverse Bead suddenly began to spin frantically.

Wang Lin discovered with horror that the Heavenly Inverse Bead was devouring his power of causality, and at a speed far beyond his control.

"Impossible!"

Wang Lin's expression changed drastically as he attempted to sever his connection with the Heavenly Inverse Bead.

But the bead seemed to have been activated by some external force, ignoring his commands entirely.

The power of causality backfired.

Wang Lin's past, present, and future—all causality shattered, reorganized, and shattered again.

That pain was something even Wang Lin, who had experienced countless reincarnations, had never felt before.

A spatial rift opened behind him.

Wang Lin looked back and saw the eerie light surging within that rift.

He knew that if he were sucked in, he would lose all connection to Li Muwan.

"This Seat's reincarnation is not something you can interfere with!"

Wang Lin sneered, attempting to resist with his final strength, but his body remained motionless.

The smug smile on Wang Lin's lips had not yet fully bloomed.

The next second, the suction of the rift surged violently; Wang Lin's expression froze, the smugness still hanging on his face as he was dragged inside.

His silhouette was dashing, white robes fluttering, long hair flying.

But his voice was panicked:

"Wait! This Seat isn't ready yet!"

The voice dissipated.

Four rays of light converged in the depths of the universe.

One emerald green, from the madness of the Heavenly Bottle; one crimson gold, from the loss of control of the Exotic Flame; one chaotic, from the shattering of time and space; and one grayish-white, from the backlash of causality.

The four-colored light collided, rotated, and merged in the void, ultimately transforming into a stream of light that tore through the endless void and plummeted toward a bizarre and kaleidoscopic world.

That world, some called it Douluo Continent.

Four figures descended from the sky, streaking across the firmament and crashing toward that unknown land.

In that world, a blue-haired youth stood at the gates of Shrek Academy, gazing at a shooting star streaking across the sky as he murmured to himself:

"What a beautiful shooting star..."

The girl with the scorpion braid beside him asked curiously, "Third Brother, are you making a wish?"

The youth nodded with a smile, "Mn, I am. I'm wishing that one day, I might meet someone worth protecting with my life, and then..."

"Revive, my beloved."

The girl rolled her eyes, "Third Brother, you're doing it again."