Netherworld Realm!
Nuwa's loss of composure instantly froze the joy that had just arisen on the bridge over the Chaos Engine.
Every word was like a block of ten-thousand-year black ice crashing into everyone's hearts.
Fear.
A primal fear beyond description, born from the deepest reaches of their bloodlines and true spirits, seized the heart of every Immortal and God.
Even the few Saints observing from afar through magical treasures felt violent ripples in their Dao Hearts, which had remained unshaken through countless tribulations.
"Netherworld... How did he get out?!"
Lord of the Heavens' furious roar was no longer a transmitted thought across the void. It directly shook the flagship's entire bridge.
His will descended, carrying a tremor that even he himself had not noticed.
"Amitabha."
The Buddhist invocation of the Two Saints of the West sounded incomparably heavy as well.
Even the Buddha light illuminating all directions from the Buddhist realms behind them dimmed somewhat.
Guang Chengzi, Zhao Gongming, Bai Ze... These great powers who usually commanded the Primordial World were pale and rigid at this moment, like ordinary beasts stared down by a natural predator.
They did not even dare look directly at the skeletal emperor stepping out of the blood-red vortex on the screen.
"What is that?"
Youchao Shi spoke with difficulty, voicing the thoughts of every Cultivator among the younger generation of humanity.
"Isn't that the underworld, the place of reincarnation?"
"The underworld?"
Zhao Gongming gave a bitter laugh, his voice filled with despair.
"That is different."
"The underworld was the order Empress Houtu established for our Primordial World when she transformed herself into reincarnation. It is where Living Beings return, a part of the cycle."
"But the Netherworld Realm..."
He drew a deep breath, as if it took all his strength to speak that forbidden truth.
"It is a locust that devours worlds!"
Nuwa took over, her face filled with unprecedented gravity and disgust.
As the Mother of Life, she could sense the true nature of the laws carried by that skeletal emperor better than anyone else.
"Reincarnation in the Primordial World is the conservation of energy, the rebirth of true spirits. There is life and death, entry and exit."
"But the Netherworld Realm only has entry, never exit."
"It does not govern death. It only creates death and devours death."
"It is a one-way black hole, a parasitic dimension that feeds on the vitality and deathly aura of other worlds!"
Parasitic dimension!
That term made Chen Ran understand at once.
If the Primordial World was a healthy living organism,
then the Netherworld Realm was a massive cancer cell attached to that organism.
Its sole purpose was to drain everything from its host until the host died completely, then seek out its next host.
That skeletal emperor, the so-called Emperor Withered Bone, did not attack.
He merely stood quietly behind that blood-red gate, looking down upon the entire Primordial World.
Yet his very existence was the most terrifying attack.
Streams of grayish-white laws, carrying the aura of decay and withering, seeped from the vortex like poison.
On the flagship's surveillance screen, the rune representing the Primordial World's overall life index was plummeting at a visible rate.
Far away on the Primordial World continent, the sky began to take on a layer of gray.
Countless plants that had only just sprouted withered instantly across the land.
Fish and shrimp in the streams floated to the surface, their pale bellies turned upward.
Countless mortals and low-cultivation Living Beings felt their life force being drained away by an invisible power.
This was erosion and plunder at the level of laws!
Panic spread through the entire United Fleet like a plague.
"It is over..."
Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea, an old dragon who had endured countless great calamities, completely lost all composure at this moment.
He slumped weakly upon his throne, his dragon whiskers hanging limp.
"The Primordial World is finished!"
"That is not an existence we can fight!"
"Quick! Return to the Dragon Palace! Activate every grand formation! No! We cannot return to the Primordial World!"
His voice grew shrill and crazed.
"Run! Flee into the depths of chaos! Get as far from the Primordial World as possible!"
"This world has already been cursed!"
His words ignited the flame called despair in everyone's hearts.
The alliance that had just been united against a common enemy collapsed in an instant.
Countless flying vessels began breaking formation, turning their prows as they sought to flee into the vast chaos.
They were not afraid of dying in battle. What they feared was this slow death: watching their world, their foundation, be gnawed away bit by bit while they were utterly powerless to stop it.
"Who dares flee?!"
Lord of the Heavens roared. The sword qi of the Immortal Slaying Sword swept out, forcibly blocking several flying vessels.
But even more vessels still tried to escape amid the chaos.
Before a true apocalypse, the alliance had once again become unbearably fragile.
Chen Ran watched the chaos without any expression on his face.
Once more, he walked to the main control console.
Yet he did not press the red button marked "Unified Command."
Forcibly controlling their ships could only control them for a time.
It could not control their hearts, which had already collapsed.
He merely activated the highest-authority broadcast for the entire fleet.
At that moment, Chen Ran's voice, calm to the point of coldness, rang out aboard every flying vessel, regardless of faction.
He did not offer comfort, nor did he rebuke them.
He simply displayed two images side by side on the main screens of every flying vessel.
On the left was Emperor Withered Bone, the skeletal emperor wearing a flat-topped imperial crown, who had emerged from the blood-red vortex.
On the right was the final-form simulation of the "Mechanical Immortality" plan, decoded from the Star Devourer probe.
It was a monster stitched together from countless mechanical parts and masses of flesh, attempting to transform itself into pure data in pursuit of immortality.
Chen Ran's voice echoed through the deathly silent fleet.
He asked only one question.
"Look at him."
His finger pointed toward Emperor Withered Bone on the left.
"Then look at it."
His finger pointed toward the mechanical monster on the right.
"Don't you think they look very alike?"
Before you continue