Outside the Shangguan Lineage's shrine, space suddenly tore open, revealing an unstable rift. The edges of the rift seemed to be repeatedly crushed and forcibly pieced together by some force, with layers of cracks collapsing inwards, as if they would close completely at any moment. Within that crumbling fissure, two figures were violently flung out.
Shangguan Shuheng's body trembled violently in mid-air, almost losing his balance. Hua Jingmeng was like an empty shell, drained of her essence, and he held her tightly to prevent her from falling apart.
The guards at the temple gate paled instantly, and several figures rushed out almost simultaneously. "Shu Deacon!! You--" Before they could finish speaking, their voices caught in their throats, because the scene before them was beyond their comprehension. Shangguan Shuheng's breath was intermittent, his Fate Soul fluctuations were almost broken, and his entire being seemed to be slipping out of existence at any moment.
Shangguan Shuheng made no unnecessary movements. He merely managed to stand firm, exhaling a breath of blood from his throat, his voice low and urgent. "Quickly, quickly take me... to see the clan leader."
At that moment, no one dared to hesitate any longer. The two disciples stepped forward almost instinctively, one supporting Shangguan Shuheng and the other supporting Hua Jingmeng's broken body. The three of them took off into the air and transformed into a streak of light, rushing into the depths of the main hall.
Inside the main hall, the space was vast, like an independent world. Star trails flowed above the dome, and all things returned to their order. However, within this extremely stable order, an aura suddenly pressed down.
Shangguan Lingxiao had already stood up; he did not wait for an announcement.
The moment those two almost shattered auras stepped into the hall, his gaze fell on Shangguan Shuheng. There was no surprise in that glance, only a deep solemnity, as if he had deduced some extremely ominous cause and effect in an instant.
"Shuheng." As soon as the voice fell, he took a step forward, and the space beneath his feet automatically made way for him. He appeared in front of the two of them, and without any hesitation, he took out two divine pills from his sleeve and fed them to Shangguan Shuheng and Hua Jingmeng.
The moment the pill entered their bodies, an extremely pure primordial power instantly spread out, barely stabilizing their physical outlines and preventing them from continuing to disintegrate.
"Quickly send them to the Logic Restoration Pool."
Before he could finish speaking, the disciples beside him reacted and were about to lead the two away when Shangguan Shuheng suddenly raised his hand, his fingertips trembling as he gripped the disciple's sleeve tightly.
"Chieftain... listen to me."
His voice was unusually clear at this moment, even carrying a hint of composure forced down after his breakdown, "Azure Wood Divine Forest... something happened."
The entire hall seemed to freeze for a moment, but Shangguan Lingxiao did not interrupt him.
A deep shadow crossed Shangguan Shuheng's eyes. He spoke slowly and deliberately, as if dragging that battle back from his memory, "Otherworldly beings... their numbers are incalculable... Mystic Void Realm · Supreme... forming an army..." His breathing became erratic, but he still forced himself to continue, "Jinyan... Xingci... all Annihilation... Hua Feiting... Hua Yanzhi... have also perished..."
He paused for a moment as he spoke, as if even uttering those names was tearing his Fate Soul apart.
"The Ju Lineage... the Chi Lineage... all the disciples who went there were Annihilation... four deacons also died... and hundreds of thousands of cultivators were also Annihilation!..."
"Now only... Hua Jingmeng and I remain... along with... Ju Anran, Chi Yueyin... and two disciples of the Chi Lineage..."
"That battlefield... also contained... more than ten otherworldly beings... and... a fused Divine Phoenix..."
He abruptly looked up, a flicker of barely suppressed emotion appearing in his eyes for the first time. "Clan leader... please immediately dispatch True Annihilation Realm elder... they must Annihilation immediately..."
Before he could finish speaking, his breath plummeted again, and he was on the verge of collapsing. At that moment, Shangguan Lingxiao's gaze darkened completely.
Without any hesitation, he waved his sleeve, and an extremely ancient command instantly spread along the original structure of the entire temple. It was a "mobilization" that did not require telepathy or summons; it was an instruction awakened directly at the level of the clan's rules.
"Ten True Annihilation Realm · Supreme Elders." His voice wasn't loud, but it resounded simultaneously in every corner of the entire temple. "Depart immediately."
"Head to the Azure Wood Divine Forest immediately." At the same time, space within the main hall of the Ju Lineage was also torn open.
Ju Anran's figure fell to the center of the hall. He couldn't even stand up straight, and he knelt on the ground, blood slowly spreading along the floor. Ju Jinyu had already stood up. He didn't ask "What happened?", but just glanced at Ju Anran's condition, and in that glance, he had already drawn a conclusion.
"What's wrong with Anran??" Ju Anran looked up, her voice hoarse but extremely firm, recounting everything from that battlefield.
As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the entire hall completely changed. Ju Jinyu slowly closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, there was no longer any emotion in his eyes. "Ten True Annihilation Realm · Supreme Elders, set off immediately."
On the other side, in the main hall of the Chi Lineage, Chi Yueyin's figure seemed to "fall out" from space. As soon as she stepped down, the entire ground sank slightly. She did not kneel, but the weight was heavier than if she had knelt. Chi Boqian had already appeared in front of her. He did not ask any questions, but simply listened quietly to her report.
The moment the words "otherworldly being" and "fused Divine Phoenix" were uttered, his aura subsided slightly, and the laws governing the entire hall tightened instantly.
"Ten True Annihilation Realm · Supreme Elders." "Immediately, proceed to the Azure Wood Divine Forest."
Three Lineage, three orders, were issued almost simultaneously. And outside the Azure Wood Divine Forest, above that already shattered world, the space suddenly began to show extremely subtle fluctuations.
Above the Azure Wood Divine Forest, in the sky that had been torn apart to the point of almost losing the meaning of "space," the first crack silently unfolded. There was no explosion, no fluctuation, as if heaven and earth had spontaneously made way for it.
The next instant, a figure stepped out. His feet had no place to land, yet he stood steadily in the void, as if the act of "standing" itself no longer depended on anything. His appearance was silent, yet it caused the previously chaotic laws around him to instantly subside, as if they were making way for him.
Behind him, nine figures emerged one after another, each exuding an Ultimate aura, as if ten ancient, slumbering mountains were forcibly dragged out from the depths of time and space. It was not simply the pressure of cultivation, but a sense of "rules being compressed into a physical form." As they stood there, even the cracks in the void began to slowly close, as if they dared not continue to spread.
Immediately afterwards, the void on the other side trembled slightly. There was no sign of tearing, but a "gap" was directly replaced. The second group of figures descended. The leader made no extra movements, but simply took a step. In that instant, the flow of time in the entire area was slightly displaced, as if it had been corrected from the root.
Nine figures appeared behind him in succession, each with an extremely restrained yet Ultimate aura—a state in which the laws of heaven and earth were compressed into their own bodies, enough to rewrite an entire world on the spot once released.
The third space, however, was not torn apart, but rather "replaced." The original area was instantly covered by another spatial structure, and the third group of figures stepped directly into reality from a "level that did not belong here."
The leader slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the entire Azure Wood Divine Forest. He said nothing, but the ten figures behind him simultaneously took their positions, like a formation that had been practiced countless times. As soon as they appeared, they locked onto the stable point of the entire world.
The three forces converged at the same moment, with thirty True Annihilation Realm · Supreme Elders.
They didn't talk, exchange pleasantries, or even make eye contact, yet the three forces formed an extremely stable triangular structure, completely suppressing the entire sky above the Azure Wood Divine Forest.
At that moment, the space that was slowly collapsing stopped spreading, the remaining causal cracks were forcibly pushed back into place, and even the aftershocks of annihilation that had not yet completely dissipated gradually fell silent under their aura.
The world did not recover; it was merely forcibly suppressed, as if a calamity that should have continued to spread had been forcibly held back at this moment, not allowed to advance even an inch further.
At the same time, the gazes of the thirty elders also fell upon the depths of the Azure Wood Divine Forest, where, which should have been the center of the battlefield, it was illogically quiet.
Above the Azure Wood Divine Forest, the thirty figures stood silently in the void, their auras like mountains suppressing heaven and earth. But as their gazes slowly descended, the scene below silenced even beings as powerful as them for a moment.
The entire Azure Wood Divine Forest is no longer a "forest".
The earth seemed to have been repeatedly crushed by some incomprehensible force; the trees were no longer formed, and even the concept of "tree" itself seemed blurred. The leaves that once carried symbols of "life," "death," and "wood" now floated scattered in mid-air, some slowly decaying.
Some have completely lost their meaning, leaving only a gray and white empty shell. The Symbol Graveyard has completely collapsed, the tombstones no longer stand, but have merged into a messy cross-section, as if even the process of being "forgotten" has been cut off midway.
There was no blood, no screams, not even the scent of death in the air; only a deeper emptiness.
It's as if no battle ever took place here, yet an indelible "gap" remains.
An elder from the Shangguan Lineage, at the True Annihilation Realm, spoke slowly. His voice was extremely low, yet it sounded particularly jarring in the silence, "Damn it... How could this be... Nothing was left behind."
As he finished speaking, on the other side, an elder of the Ju Lineage looked extremely grim. He slowly raised his hand, seemingly sensing something, and the next moment, his fingers trembled slightly. "Hundreds of thousands of cultivators... their Fate Soul traces... are all severed."
As he said this, his voice showed a hint of barely suppressed emotion for the first time, "It wasn't death... it was complete erasure... even the Causal Retracing can't find the source."
An elder of the Chi Lineage let out a soft breath, which dissipated into the air without spreading. "What kind of otherworldly being... could achieve this level of power..."
No one answered. The gazes of the three elders slowly met in the void, and at that moment, the atmosphere suddenly became oppressive.
An elder from the Shangguan Lineage suddenly snorted coldly, his gaze falling directly on the Chi Lineage and Ju Lineage. His voice carried a distinct chill. "Such a major incident has occurred, how do you two families... intend to explain this to the Nalan Lineage and Xuanyuan Lineage of the Supreme Transformation Primordial Domain?"
As soon as those words were spoken, the air seemed to tense up instantly. An elder of the Ju Lineage looked up immediately, his gaze sharp as a knife. "Shut up."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an almost barely suppressed rage. "If your Shangguan Lineage hadn't spread the word that a supreme treasure had appeared in the Azure Wood Divine Forest, would hundreds of thousands of cultivators have flooded in at the same time? Would we have ended up like this?"
The elder of the Chi Lineage also spoke coldly, his tone revealing no dissatisfaction, "That's right, your Shangguan Lineage still has the nerve to stand here and question things? If you hadn't stirred up this storm, this place wouldn't have turned out like this."
The elder of the Shangguan Lineage's gaze darkened slightly, and his aura fluctuated for a moment, but he ultimately did not speak again.
He merely glanced coldly at the two houses, flicked his sleeves, and turned to leave.
As he left, the ten elders of the Shangguan Lineage turned around almost simultaneously, their figures fading into the void without leaving even a trace of spatial fluctuation, as if they had never been there at all.
Above the Azure Wood Divine Forest, only twenty True Annihilation Realm · Supreme elders from the Chi Lineage and Ju Lineage remained, and silence descended once more.
After a moment, an elder of the Chi Lineage spoke slowly, his voice even lower than before, "Elder Ju... something is very wrong with this."
He slightly raised his hand, pointing to the Emptiness battlefield below, "Hundreds of thousands of cultivators, not even a trace of their karma remains. This is no longer a simple massacre... There's definitely something we didn't expect..."
The Ju Lineage elder nodded slowly, his gaze equally solemn. "Moreover... even those so-called otherworldly beings didn't leave any stable traces."
He paused for a moment, as if deducing something, then gently shook his head. "Untraceable."
The elder of the Chi Lineage took a deep breath, "If this matter gets out, the entire Eternal Nonexistence Limitless Domain will be thrown into turmoil."
His gaze sharpened slightly. "I suggest that upon returning... we immediately seal off all news about the Azure Wood Divine Forest."
"To the outside world, we can only say... this area contains a forbidden zone with disordered rules, and you must not approach it."
The Ju Lineage elder was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Agreed. This is the only way for now; otherwise, other cultivators who intrude will surely suffer the same fate."
He raised his head and looked at the other elders, "Fellow Daoists... first seal off this place." The next moment, the twenty True Annihilation Realm · Supreme Elders made their move at the same time.
Without dazzling supernatural powers or earth-shattering phenomena, their movements were precise and restrained, yet more terrifying than any act of destruction.
Invisible lines extended from their fingertips; these lines were neither energy nor laws, but rather a more fundamental "limitation."
These lines slowly unfold around the perimeter of the Azure Wood Divine Forest, intertwining and overlapping to eventually form a massive blockade structure covering the entire area.
The first layer is a closed space—anyone attempting to enter will be "guided" away before even stepping inside.
The second layer is the obscuring of cause and effect—the outside world cannot perceive what happened here, and any deduction will point to a blur.
The third layer is the distortion of cognition—even if someone accidentally wanders in, they will instinctively choose to leave, and even after leaving, they will be unable to accurately describe the place.
As the last barrier was lowered, the entire Azure Wood Divine Forest seemed to be gently "plucked" from the world.
It was still there, yet it no longer belonged to this place. The twenty elders stopped, no longer lingering, their figures fading away one after another, as if merging into the laws of heaven and earth.
Soon, the area returned to deathly silence, and no one knew what had happened there.
Only the sealed-off Azure Wood Divine Forest exists silently, like a crack forgotten by the world.