The familiar yet bone-piercing words were like an ice pick sealed away for years, driving deep into Shen Nanxun's mind.
Eight years later, he heard once more the voice that had pronounced his fate.
Before him stood the Martial Soul Awakening Platform in North Sea City. The sunlight was dazzling, yet upon his small, tender body, all that remained was bone-deep chill.
At six years old, he was so thin that a gust of wind might have toppled him. He stood alone in the center of the high platform.
His still-clear eyes reflected the pitying, scornful, and mocking gazes of everyone around him.
Innate Soul Power, rank two. No Martial Soul.
Those seven short words were a label marking him as utterly worthless in a world where Martial Souls reigned supreme.
"What a pity. He was born into a top military family like the Shen Family, yet he turned out to be a good-for-nothing."
"No wonder we've never seen him cultivate. He has no Martial Soul to rely on; he was born with no chance of becoming a Soul Master."
"I heard the old master adopted him when he was an orphan, years ago. Sure enough, his bloodline is impure, and he can't live up to the Shen Family's legacy."
"Deputy Legion Commander Shen is a peerless genius who rose to high rank at such a young age. How could he have a little brother who drags him down?"
The clamorous discussion surged toward him in a dense wave, noisy and grating. It drilled into his ears and wound around his mind, turning into the sharpest illusory shackles.
The illusion perfectly recreated every scene from that day, every word, every contemptuous glance.
It was terrifyingly real.
Shen Nanxun looked down at his slender, childish hands.
No Angel Divine Power, no Dragon Prince bloodline, no divine-level Soul Spirit that had accompanied him for half his life. Nothing at all—weak and powerless.
"Sis, Sis..."
He called out instinctively again and again, but received no answer.
At that moment, he was exactly the born failure the world said he was.
His obsession surged wildly, binding his Dao Heart tight.
Resentment.
Overwhelming resentment!
He resented being born ordinary. He resented others' wanton scorn and judgment. He resented living his whole life in the shadow of the Shen Family's prodigies, with everyone branding him a good-for-nothing!
This obsession had been the strongest shackle deep in his mortal heart before he awakened his divine-level Soul Spirit. It was also the root of the delusions God of Destruction had spoken of.
The root of delusion.
The gods had no obsessions; only then could they be pure.
When the mortal heart refused to let go, it became a demonic obstacle.
In the illusion, time flowed slowly, and the scenes around him shifted again and again.
He saw his younger self hiding in a corner of North Sea Academy. Every student had a brilliant Martial Soul and surging Soul Power, while he sat alone in the shadows, ignored by all.
He saw the companions of his youth turn and mock him, the people once close to him gradually drift away. Everyone had already decided that his fate was to be ordinary and useless.
He saw his younger self grit his teeth and cultivate day and night. While others rested, he trained his body; while others played, he gathered his energy. He endured countless agonizing days and nights, all to break free from his resentful fate.
Scenes of what might have happened without a Soul Spirit unfolded one after another, each revealing another stubborn obsession.
Attachment to love, to fame, to honor and disgrace, to resentment... Countless delusions became threads of gray mist, burrowing through his limbs and bones into his mind, magnifying the fixations in his heart.
These scenes were all things Shen Nanxun had once imagined might happen if he had not awakened a divine-level Soul Spirit like that—everything that could have followed.
They were imagined, yet they were also obsessions.
If he could not break free, the obsessions of today would completely devour his divine nature.
From then on, he would no longer be a quasi-god who commanded annihilation. He would become a killing puppet controlled by resentment, venting his delusions through the Power of Annihilation, slaughtering all living things and sinking forever into darkness.
In his sea of consciousness, the indifferent divine voice sounded again, devoid of all emotion:
"Obsession is the root of mortal life, and the tribulation of the gods."
"Those who cannot let go are trapped in mortal flesh; only by severing delusion can one embark upon the divine path."
"Sever, or remain trapped. It all hinges on a single thought."
The sunlight in the illusion was still warm, but Shen Nanxun's mind had endured countless torments.
Outside, the Divine Domain of Annihilation remained motionless. He stood perfectly still, eyes closed, his aura fluctuating uncertainly.
Above the estate, Shen Yue's Rock Dragon Domain steadily covered the entire area. Its crimson-gold dragon-scale barrier remained utterly still.
The old master stood in the night, his aura as a nine-ring Titled Douluo completely restrained. His brows were tightly furrowed, his gaze fixed on the cultivation room, his eyes filled with solemnity.
He could not understand the origin of that purple-black energy, nor could he discern the opportunity and danger his grandson was facing.
But he knew very well that this was undoubtedly a transformation.
Inside the illusion, time flew by.
The child's body remained frail, but the agitation and resentment of youth had long since faded from Shen Nanxun's eyes.
He stood quietly on the Martial Soul Awakening Platform, facing all the scorn and contempt around him. He no longer felt angry or stifled, nor did he want to prove himself at all costs.
By now, he understood.
The strong never needed to prove themselves to anyone.
Mediocre people were trapped by rumors and fixated on honor and disgrace. They were prisoners of others' opinions, bound by the worldly definitions of success, failure, superiority, and inferiority.
But the Way of Destruction was about breaking free of shackles, shattering rules, ending delusions, and opening the way to new life.
His resentment was a mortal's desperate will to survive, a weakling's obsession with turning the tables, an illusion born of relying on worldly judgment.
That obsession had made him stronger, but it would eventually trap his future.
If he remained fixated on escaping the humiliation of his past and erasing the disgrace he had once suffered, he would never break free of the shackles of his mortal heart. He would forever remain a mortal controlled by the past, unworthy of wielding the Power of Annihilation.
Destruction was not for taking revenge on those who had once looked down on him, nor for venting the resentment of old.
To annihilate all things was to sweep away shackles; to end delusions was to make way for new life.
Shen Nanxun slowly raised his childish face. A deep purple-black glimmer suddenly lit within his once-clear eyes.
Within the child's skin rested a transparent Dao Heart, tempered by life and death and having touched the divine path.
The mockery around him gradually blurred in his ears.
The prejudices over honor and disgrace, the judgments of worth, that trapped ordinary people for their entire lives were all dust and delusion before the absolute Great Way of the gods.
"I clung to honor and disgrace, and so I knew sorrow and joy. I was trapped by the past, and so I was bound."
The youth spoke softly. His voice was childish, yet his words were utterly resolute, cool and clear as they pierced through the clamor:
"Today, I, Shen Nanxun, sever the resentment in my heart, sever my attachment to honor and disgrace, sever the world's deluded judgments, and sever every shackle of mortal flesh!"
The instant his words fell—
The entire illusion shuddered violently. The bright sunlight around him dimmed in an instant, and the mocking figures filling the sky shattered like broken glass.
The resentment, grievance, fixation, and hatred entwined around his mind—all the delusions rooted in his heart—were severed at once by a nascent Power of Annihilation.
He no longer clung to the humiliation of the past, fretted over others' opinions, or remained trapped by worldly judgments of talent, strength, status, and worth.
Old thoughts perished; his mortal heart fell away!
The next moment, the light in the sky abruptly drew inward.
The dazzling sunlight and the familiar old residence—
The scene from when he was six shattered completely.
The dark, desolate Divine Domain of Annihilation reappeared before his eyes.
Floating shattered stars, severed ancient mountains and rivers, a lifeless and barren world—all returned.
The restraints on his Dao Heart that had suppressed his entire body shattered with a crash!
The source of Destruction sealed deep in his meridians surged forth in an instant. A pure Divine Nature of Annihilation swept through his limbs, bones, soul, and sea of consciousness.
The youth stood in the center of the divine domain, his figure still ramrod straight.
In his sea of consciousness, the voice of God of Destruction sounded once more.
"Trial of Severing Delusions: passed."
"The shackles of the mortal heart are broken; all deluded obsessions have vanished."
"Your Dao Heart is beginning to settle. You may now bear annihilation."
"Now commencing the second trial—Annihilate the Void."
Before the voice had faded, a gale sprang up across the lifeless Divine Domain of Annihilation!
The shattered stars in the sky began to spin wildly. The broken mountains and rivers reassembled in layer upon layer, while countless indistinguishable phantoms of illusion quietly arose from the void and circled Shen Nanxun.
Greed, rage, delusion, fear, desire... Every worldly demon of the heart and delusion took shape, waiting for him to break through!
The second trial: shatter all delusions, hold fast to his true heart, and avoid being devoured by the Power of Annihilation.
Before you continue