The sky Nine Heavens Gate had completely collapsed. The once majestic sect gate had been reduced to broken bones by the relentless bombardment. Palaces crumbled one after another, and flames and blood mist churned in the night, like ripped entrails exposed between heaven and earth. Xiao Lingtian in mid-air, his robes torn, his hair ornament shattered, and his temples stained with blood. He gazed at the sect territory below, which had been slaughtered to the point of near emptiness, and his eyes gradually shifted from initial anger to a near-mad calm.
Thousands upon thousands of demonic spirits and divine beasts swirled and roared in the air, their shadows covering the entire Nine Heavens Gate, as if the sky itself had transformed into the belly of the beast of judgment. Xiao Lingtian slowly raised his hands, his knuckles turning white from the force, and let out a laugh that was almost a growl. He knew he had no way out; if he retreated one more step, the Nine Heavens Gate would be wiped out, not even its name remaining. The taboo was torn open.
Xiao Lingtian's aura suddenly plunged into a strange emptiness. The Flow of Void Emanation within his body no longer followed the normal course of events, but was forcibly broken and reassembled, as if he were throwing his own existence into a fire as a sacrifice. He clasped his hands together and then suddenly separated them, and a dark, crack-like pattern appeared on his chest, spreading to his limbs. His entire being seemed to be swallowed up by some kind of "Unborn power".
At this moment, the world lost its sense of direction. Light and shadow reversed, and the remaining architectural outlines twisted and stretched in the field of vision before being dragged into a bottomless gray void. Xiao Lingtian uttered the Ultimate forbidden name, "The Evolution Soul Silence Dao," as if his voice was squeezed out from a crack in time—his Ultimate divine power was completely detonated. The power of the overlapping Void Evolution and the unjudged spread out from him, forming a death vortex that constantly collapsed and expanded. Wherever the vortex passed, the roars of demonic spirits were stretched into eerie echoes. Several demonic beasts were forcibly pulled in, their bodies torn into fragments of light and shadow in mid-air before completely dissipating, without even their flesh and blood falling to the ground.
However, such a price could not ultimately reverse the situation.
After the vortex dissipated, Xiao Lingtian's figure dimmed noticeably, his aura like a drained shell. In the ruins of the Nine Heavens Gate Sect, fewer than a few dozen disciples remained standing. Some had severed arms, others had collapsed chests, their protective divine light shattered. They supported each other as they retreated to the broken stone steps of the mountain gate, their eyes filled with terror and despair. The demonic tide, after a brief pause, pressed down again. A low, rhythmic tremor resounded in the sky as twenty of the largest demonic beasts simultaneously stepped forward. Their bodies formed a fan shape in mid-air, their scales and bone wings glowing with interwoven dark red and purplish patterns. Twenty streams of energy rapidly overlapped and resonated in the air, forcibly drawing away the spiritual light of heaven and earth, converging into a massive, spinning energy core.
The moment the supernatural power took shape, the world seemed to freeze in time.
The energy core suddenly disintegrated into countless beams of light. The beams did not fall in straight lines, but rather in a spiral trajectory, each trailing a shrill whistling sound as it tore through the air. The surviving disciples of the Nine Heavens Gate did not even have time to form hand seals before the beams of light fell.
The protective divine light pierced through the body as easily as paper, and the defensive artifacts shattered into countless fragments the moment they made contact. Some people had just raised their heads when their bodies were disintegrated into fine ashes in the light. Others let out a half-scream, but were swept into the sky by the beam of light and crushed into nothingness in the spinning motion.
The crimson mist exploded above the ruins, only to be quickly dispersed by the next wave of energy. Dozens of severely injured disciples were completely wiped out in a matter of breaths, leaving not even a trace of their bodies.
When the light faded, all that remained of the Nine Heavens Gate were charred broken stones and still-warm cracks. The demon spirits and divine beasts roared excitedly and cruelly again, as if celebrating a hunt with no suspense. Xiao Lingtian staggered back to the ground, staring at the Emptiness ruins of the sect, no longer able to utter a sound.
Xiao Lingtian stood atop the ruined main peak of the Nine Heavens Gate, his feet resting on shattered array patterns and the still-burning ruins of palaces. The air was thick with the lingering stench of blood and demonic flames. His shoulders and back were slightly hunched, his Flow of Void Emanation long since exhausted, and his Fate Soul emitted a low groan of imminent collapse within him. At that moment, he finally understood that whether he struggled or not, there was no way to retreat.
Xiao Lingtian slowly raised his head, gazing at the sky obscured by the demonic shadows. The last glimmer of light in his eyes was swallowed by despair, yet a bitter, almost self-mocking smile appeared on his lips. He made no more hand seals, nor did he activate any more supernatural powers. He simply closed his eyes slowly, letting his consciousness sink into a blankness, quietly awaiting death.
The air suddenly collapsed.
A colossal demonic spirit emerged from the depths of the demonic tide, its body resembling a black mountain, covered in layers of scales and bony spikes, its surrounding demonic energy churning and roaring like a living creature. It made no announcement, but simply raised its forelimbs, and the instant its sharp claws fell into the void, the heavens and earth seemed to be smoothed out by an invisible hand.
There was no roar, no explosion, not even a splatter of blood—the small space where Xiao Lingtian was located was directly "deleted." The light and shadow disappeared, the aura ceased, the dust vanished, and even the traces of "death" were erased, as if this person and this cause and effect had never existed in the world.
After a brief period of deathly silence, the demonic tide surged once more.
Tens of thousands of demons, monsters, and divine beasts continued their southward advance. With each step, the earth cracked and mountains collapsed like pieces of paper. The sky was cleaved into a shattered curtain of darkness by countless enormous shadows, and the gales whipped up by the flapping wings of flying monsters uprooted towns that had not yet crumbled. Flames, frost, and corrosive demonic energy intertwined as they marched, rivers dried up, forests turned to ashes, leaving only scorched, cracked earth and echoing screams in their wake.
The roars of the demons merged into a continuous rumble, as if the heavens and earth themselves were wailing, proclaiming that this was a merciless massacre in the south.
The demonic tide did not stop.
They swept across the vast Southern Region, their shadows leaving no place for creatures to retreat, their terrifying aura like the night sky about to blanket the entire Void Obliteration Domain.
The southward advance of the demonic tide suddenly slowed after passing the ruins of the Nine Heavens Gate. The demonic shadows that had previously blotted out the sky began to shift eerily, as if the charging beasts had stepped into an unseen void, their forms solid one moment and then silently "withdrawn" the next.
Without explosions, without the horns of retreat, without even a hint of spatial fluctuation, the demonic spirits and beasts that were still roaring and tearing the earth apart faded, disappeared one after another, as if erased from reality by an invisible hand. In just a few breaths, the demonic beast tide that had been sweeping across the Southern Region vanished completely from the world like an illusion that left no trace, leaving only shattered mountains and rivers, still-warm scorched earth, and the lingering warmth of demonic energy in the air as proof that they "had been here."
Meanwhile, in another distant territory of the Void Obliteration Domain, deep within the Heavenly Sha Alliance's main hall, Li Tiansha suddenly opened his eyes. In that instant, his heart felt as if it had been gripped tightly by something cold and sharp, and a wisp of the Annihilation Dawn Realm primordial energy surged chaotically within his body. His face turned deathly pale, cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and he uttered a barely audible utterance. "It's over... Lingtian's Fate Soul has been completely erased." It was not a deduction, nor a guess, but a direct sense of rupture from the depths of his Fate Soul —the causal link between the nine leaders of the Nine Alliances Gang 'Causally Linked Fate Soul was missing a link at this moment, and not just broken, but "disappeared," without even a trace of the break remaining.
Almost simultaneously, strange phenomena appeared in the halls of other core forces of the Nine Alliances Gang.
Deep within the imperial city of the Black Flame Empire, Yan Wuji stood up, his black flames surging silently Annihilation Dawn Realm · High Stage expert leaked out uncontrollably, causing the jade floor inside the hall to crack inch by inch. His gaze was Ultimate gloomy, as if he had seen some future that should not have appeared.
On the battle platform of the Army-Breaking Pavilion, Zhan Litian's originally rock-solid figure trembled slightly. The battle intent of the Annihilation Dawn Realm · Supreme surged within his body, but it was mixed with a trace of undisguised fear. He slowly tightened his five fingers, and his palms trembled slightly for the first time.
Beneath the thundercloud dome of Thunder Hegemony, Lei Baxiao groaned as the power of thunder surged wildly through his meridians, nearly losing control of his Void Emanation Realm · Initial Stage. He looked up at the surging sea of thunder, his eyes filled with disbelief.
Deep within the Yin Abyss of the Devouring Soul Hall, Long Miesheng's divine soul flames dimmed for a moment. His face was as cold as iron, and his fingertips slowly dug into his palm, as if confirming that the disappearing cause and effect was not an illusion.
At the summit of the high cliff of the Raging Waves Sect, Lan Juechen stood quietly in the wind, his aura at the Void Emanation Realm · Ultimate rising and falling like the tide. He remained silent for a long time, but his gaze became more solemn than ever before.
No one needs to confirm via voice.
The Nine Alliances Gang's Causally Linked Fate Soul has already given them the cruelest answer— Xiao Lingtian has been completely erased from existence itself. This is not death in battle, nor is it the destruction of his soul; even the qualification to "once exist" has been taken away.
At this moment, all the leaders of the Nine Alliances Gang realized one thing: they probably couldn't escape this calamity in the Void Obliteration Domain.
In the far west of the Void Obliteration Domain Realm, in a place beyond any map or temple's record, the mountains lie like deliberately forgotten remains beneath the eternal night. At the center of the mountains, a sect without plaques or gates stands silently, its ancient appearance bordering on dilapidated, as if it had existed since the beginning of time, yet also as if it might vanish into nothingness at any moment. There is no radiance of protective arrays, no surging Spiritual Qi; only a profound stillness that sinks the soul, as if fate itself has held its breath here.
Deep within the sect, a dimly lit stone chamber slowly glowed with a faint, greyish-white light. The chamber was small, yet it gave the illusion of immeasurable size. The walls were not smooth rock, but rather composed of layers upon layers of constantly shifting symbols and fragmented characters. These symbols were not fixed in form; some resembled ancient laws, others unfinished sentences, and still others were simply strokes repeatedly erased and negated. The floor had no patterns, yet it faintly reflected countless scenes—the rise and fall of dynasties, the rise of sects, the fall of powerful figures, and the lives of ordinary people—all like the moon's reflection in water, gently swaying.
In the center of the stone chamber, an old man sat cross-legged.
He was emaciated and thin, as if he had been gnawed away countless times by the years and his thoughts. His long, gray hair was not tied up, but hung down naturally, with a few almost transparent "blank" strands among the hair, like parts cut off from time. The old man's skin was almost paper-white, and upon closer inspection, one could see faintly flowing symbolic veins beneath his skin, as if destiny itself was slowly breathing within him.
What is most unsettling are his eyes—not cloudy, nor clear, but empty after "overseeing," as if all possible futures have passed through those eyes, leaving only an unspeakable weariness.
He did not perform any hand seals or chant any incantations.
The old man simply raised a withered hand and lightly touched the air with his fingertips.
As soon as this point was reached, the symbols inside the stone chamber suddenly came to life.
The laws—like invisible laws—unfold in the air, transforming into inviolable lines of constraint, marking "what must happen and what can never happen."
Logic—following it in a calm and cruel way—trimmes all chance into reason and classifies all anomalies as deviations.
Narrative unfolds silently, like an invisible page, arranging the strong, the weak, the victors, and the vanquished in their respective positions, giving them the meaning of "how it should be."
Symbols and language—flickering on the walls, the disappearance of a name often signifies the complete severing of a thread of fate; the change of a title foreshadows the transfer of power.
Power and ideology—like invisible shadows—slowly accumulate in the corners of the stone chamber. They do not kill directly, but they can determine who is seen and who is ignored, whose death will be remembered, and whose disappearance will leave no trace.
Time and history no longer flow linearly, but form layers upon layers of cross-sections around the old man, with the past being repeatedly examined and the future being constantly overturned and rewritten.
Subject and self are stripped away time and again in the process of deduction, and the individual's will seems insignificant, leaving only the "role" moving on the chessboard of fate.
Space and location then become anchor points, marking which places will become battlefields, which places will become graveyards, and which places are destined to be chosen as the convergence point of all causes and effects.
All of this did not happen simultaneously, but rather like a silent and grand ritual, completed with each breath of the old man.
His brow twitched slightly, and several life-related lines collapsed and went out rapidly before his eyes. Those lines had once been intertwined, forming a massive structure, but now, one of them had been completely erased, with Does Not Exist possibility of reversing it.
The old man slowly withdrew his finger, and the stone chamber returned to darkness. The symbols on the walls fell silent one by one, as if they had never been awakened.
He remained silent for a long time, so long that even time itself seemed to lose its meaning in that moment.
Finally, a very soft, low sigh echoed in the stone chamber. "... The fate of the Nine Alliances Gang has come to an end."
The voice held neither pity nor schadenfreude, but merely a confirmation of what was already set in stone. It was as if, in his deductions, this outcome had already been predetermined, only...
Only now did I truly put pen to paper. Outside the stone chamber, the mountains remained silent.
But the undercurrents of fate have quietly changed course, unnoticed by anyone.