On the ruins beside the Three Lives Stone, Lin Jingzhe knelt on one knee, blood dripping from his sleeve onto the shattered patterns of the magic array. His breathing was heavy and erratic, yet his eyes remained fixed on Luo Xinghe in mid-air.
Without the slightest hesitation, he suddenly raised his hand and took out a pill that was entirely gray-gold from his bosom. On the pill, there were extremely unstable Mystic Void patterns flowing, the patterns devouring and recombining with each other, as if even the existence of the "pill" itself was on the verge of collapse.
Without the slightest hesitation, he swallowed the pill directly. The next instant, his Fate Soul exploded.
The Mystic Void power in the meridians suddenly surged, becoming as violent as a torrent breaking free of its restraints. It forcefully pulled back the originally chaotic energy, dismantling and recombining it.
The blood no longer flows along its normal path, but instead surges against the current, rushing and roaring through the meridians; the bones throughout the body emit a dull hum, every joint trembling slightly under the impact of the force, bursting forth with a deep, primal sound.
The surrounding space was also stirred by this sudden surge of energy, rippled violently, the air distorted, and light and shadow shifted. He slowly propped himself up, rising from the ground, and layers of afterimages began to appear in the void around him.
Layer upon layer of space appeared and overlapped on his body, intertwining reality and illusion, as if countless versions of him stood at the same time, each phantom radiating immense power, stirring up the power of heaven and earth in the entire area.
That force didn't shatter his meridians; instead, it forcefully and Ultimate boosted his aura, power, and even physical condition, pushing him beyond his own limits every second.
The oppressive aura emanating from him piled up like a tidal wave, crushing the surrounding void and causing it to slightly collapse. Even the light was distorted by this power, forming strange streaks of light.
Luo Xinghe's gaze shifted slightly, then he sneered, his voice low and mocking. "The Void Transcendent Realm Pill... Don't you know the taboos of that thing?" He slowly shook his head, "You're using your own Fate Soul to exchange for this pitiful improvement, courting death."
Lin Jingzhe did not respond. His aura had already risen to the Mystic Void Realm · Middle Stage. Although it was extremely unstable, it carried a kind of resolute determination. He raised his hand and slowly spread his five fingers. At this moment, the entire world suddenly became quiet. All the flying pebbles, the surging air currents, and even the fluctuations of divine powers in the distant battle all experienced a brief pause at this moment.
"Since we're going to die anyway—" His voice was low and suppressed, yet carried a resolute determination that seemed to tear the heavens and earth apart, "Then I'll take you with me!!"
He clenched his hands together abruptly, and an invisible, Mystic Void rippled out from between his palms. "Spacetime Stasis —stop!!!"
In that instant, heaven and earth shattered.
Time ceased to flow, space ceased to expand, and the entire battlefield was abruptly brought to a standstill. Countless disciples and masked figures engaged in combat froze in place. A blade about to fall stopped in mid-air, and a divine power yet to explode was frozen in time, even the trajectory of splattering blood remaining suspended in the air.
Only Lin Jingzhe walked slowly through this stagnant world. He walked step by step toward Luo Xinghe. Wherever his foot landed, the frozen space was slightly disturbed, forming tiny ripples. His gaze was cold. He raised his palm, and the Mystic Void power in his palm was condensed to the Ultimate.
But at that very moment, Luo Xinghe's lips slowly curled into a smile.
"You think... you really control time and space?" His voice suddenly rang out in this area that should have been still.
Lin Jingzhe's pupils suddenly contracted.
The next instant, an invisible wave spread out from Luo Xinghe's body. It was not energy, nor law, but a strange power that "stripped away thoughts", directly bypassing the stagnation of time and space and invading the depths of Lin Jingzhe's consciousness.
"Thoughts Turn to Nothingness —scatter." At that moment, Lin Jingzhe's movements stopped.
He wasn't frozen in time, but rather "lost the reason to move forward."
His memories remained; he knew he had to kill Luo Xinghe, he knew the Boundless Realm Divine Sect was being destroyed, he even knew he was using supernatural powers, but all of that became meaningless—anger vanished, obsession vanished, responsibility vanished, and even the will to "fight" was stripped away in that instant.
His hand froze in mid-air, the Mystic Void power still gathering, but he could no longer bring it down. His gaze changed from cold to calm, and from calm to blank.
He stood there, like a being that was still functioning but had lost its "purpose".
Luo Xinghe slowly emerged from his slumber, a greyish-white light swirling around his body. He stepped towards Lin Jingzhe, his voice low and cold. "Do you still remember why you protected this sect?" He stood before Lin Jingzhe, smiling slightly, "You remember... but you no longer care."
Lin Jingzhe did not respond; his world had lost its "meaning." Just as the two were locked in a standoff, the entire battlefield of the Boundless Realm Divine Sect completely collapsed.
The battle, which had been briefly suspended, resumed its flow. The masked men, like pre-prepared killing machines, attacked simultaneously the instant the battle resumed. Thousands upon thousands of attacks rained down at once. Before the disciples could react, they were instantly blasted apart, their flesh and blood exploding, their Fate Soul disintegrating. Screams echoed through the heavens and earth, only to be quickly drowned out by the new explosions.
The deacons fought desperately, forming formations, counterattacking, and protecting the array's core. However, each line of defense crumbled rapidly in the face of forces several times their own strength. An elder had just condensed his domain when he was simultaneously pierced by more than a dozen attacks, exploding in mid-air, his Fate Soul fragments falling like meteors.
The protective array deep within the sect collapsed completely, large areas of buildings were razed to the ground, flames soared into the sky, rubble and blood mist intertwined, the ancient aura beside the Three Lives Stone was completely torn apart, and the entire world turned into an Asura inferno.
Su Qianxue struggled to her feet, but just as she regained a breath, she was blasted away again by the shockwave. She fell into the ruins, and looking up, all she saw was carnage and destruction. Her voice trembled, but she still cried out, "Don't retreat—defend the sect—!"
But what answered her was the sight of a disciple being severed in two before her eyes; the Boundless Realm Divine Sect was on the verge of complete collapse.
Beside the Three Lives Stone, amidst the churning ruins, the flames of war lingered, and blood mist still drifted slowly in the air. Luo Xinghe stood atop the shattered void, looking down at Lin Jingzhe, whose aura was disordered yet who still stubbornly stood. His gaze was as cold as a blade, but his tone carried a hint of cruel mockery, "Lin Jingzhe, stop struggling in vain. Today's situation was already destined the moment your Boundless Realm Divine Sect took this step."
He slowly raised his right hand, and in his palm, a divine pill floated silently. The pill's body exhibited an unclassifiable color, neither light nor dark, and its patterns resembled flowing, ethereal fissures, constantly opening and closing on its surface.
A dense, suffocating aura emanated from it, causing the entire space to slightly collapse. Even the cultivators fighting in the distance were momentarily stunned by the pressure of this aura.
Ye Wuhen and Su Qianxue looked up almost simultaneously, their gazes fixed on the divine pill. Their pupils contracted sharply, and their voices boomed across the chaotic battlefield. "That's... the Stillness Condensation Pill!!!" Su Qianxue's face was pale, her voice trembling with barely suppressed emotion, "Activating the Mystic Void Micro-Rhythm... stabilizing the foundation of the divine soul... how could such a thing appear in his hands..." Ye Wuhen gritted his teeth, his gaze growing increasingly sinister, "Not just the Stillness Condensation Pill, that aura... it's already approaching the level of the Mystic Void Returns to Nothingness Pill..."
Luo Xinghe smiled lightly, as if enjoying the despair of the crowd. He slowly put the divine pill into his mouth. The moment the pill touched the tip of his tongue, it instantly transformed into invisible profound energy and dissipated into his soul. There was no swallowing process, no burst of energy.
Only an extremely deep "emptiness" slowly spread within his body. At this moment, his aura underwent a qualitative change. His originally sharp power became Kong Ling and elusive. His figure seemed to drift back and forth between reality and nothingness, sometimes clear and sometimes blurry, as if he had already stepped halfway into an untouchable realm.
Lin Jingzhe stared intently at him, his face suddenly turning extremely ugly, his voice filled with barely suppressed anger and fear, "How could you have Stillness Condensation Pill... such a thing couldn't possibly be circulating outside..." His gaze suddenly swept over the masked men around him, a guess instantly forming in his mind, his voice abruptly turning cold, "So that's how it is... the Hua Lineage..."
He stepped forward, his voice booming, "If it weren't for the Hua Lineage's machinations, you, Luo Xinghe, would never have been able to obtain pills of this caliber! Among these people... there must be Hua Lineage disciples infiltrated!!"
Upon hearing this, Luo Xinghe burst into undisguised laughter, the sound echoing through the shattered world, laced with unbridled contempt. "Not bad, you're not senile after all."
He slowly raised his hand, his fingertips lightly touching the air. "Unfortunately, you realize it too late." His gaze suddenly turned icy. "You think you're protecting a sect? What you're protecting is nothing more than a pile of old things that should have been wiped out long ago."
As soon as he finished speaking, his fingertips slowly traced a dark golden line in the air.
That wasn't an ordinary trajectory, but rather the writing of a "name".
The three characters, "Dao Perishes, Spirit Dissipates," were formed stroke by stroke in the void.
The moment the word "Dao" was uttered, the Dao foundation within Lin Jingzhe's body trembled violently, a tearing low rumble came from the depths of the Dao foundation, and the aura around him instantly became chaotic, the stability of the Dao foundation was completely shattered.
Immediately afterwards, the phantom of the word "Death" slowly emerged, with irresistible pressure, locking the aura of law around him; and then the word "annihilation" fell, like an invisible sharp blade, directly cutting off his connection with the laws of heaven and earth, and the originally clear boundaries of existence began to blur.
Lin Jingzhe's body trembled violently, his muscles beneath his robes taut, every inch of his skin enduring the pain of the laws being torn apart. The primal power within him was like a kite with a broken string, drifting uncontrollably in all directions. He tried to gather power to resist, but found that he had already lost control of his body. The aura of laws around him was swept away by a whirlwind, falling into complete chaos.
The light in the world began to distort, the once clear outlines became blurred, and the causal threads connected to him, drawn by the three words "Dao, Fall, Disappearance," broke and dissipated. He could clearly feel it.
My existence is being stripped away by an invisible force, as if I had never left any trace in this world. There is no violent explosion, no dazzling light, only a sense of emptiness, as if my existence has been erased, slowly enveloping me.
This stripping away wasn't a simple disappearance; it erased all traces of his existence from its very foundation, as if he had never existed, leaving not even a trace of his former existence. The laws of heaven and earth began to stagnate, the original order was completely shattered, leaving only an indescribable sense of emptiness.
The whole world fell into a brief silence with his "disappearance," with only the three dark gold characters still retaining a faint warmth in the void, but no trace of him could be detected anymore.
He tried to circulate his Mystic Void power, but his meridians ruptured before he could even raise his hand; he tried to stabilize his soul, but his thoughts vanished as soon as they arose; he tried to steady himself, but before he could even take a step, he staggered forward and fell.
"How... is this possible..." His voice was hoarse and broken, his eyes filled with disbelief. "My Dao... my Dao..." He looked down at his hands, the hands that once controlled the fate of a sect, but now they couldn't even gather a trace of Spiritual Qi.
In the void, the severed character "Dao" began to burn, turning into grayish-white embers that slowly drifted down. Upon landing on the ground, a withered black grass sprouted, standing alone amidst the ruins, without leaves, without life, only deathly silence.
Those were the remains of the Dao. Lin Jingzhe finally couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed heavily to his knees. His whole body seemed to have been drained of all support, and his aura plummeted to the mortal level. His eyes were empty, and his lips moved slightly, but he could no longer utter a complete sentence.
Luo Xinghe stood with his hands behind his back, high in the sky, looking down at everything, his expression calm to the point of indifference. "This is the difference," he said in a low voice. "What you risked everything to protect is nothing more than a path that can be canceled at any time."
In the distance, disciples of the Boundless Realm Divine Sect continued to fall amidst the blood and flames. The cries of agony, the cracking of flesh, and the plea for help intertwined into a torrent of despair. The entire sect's fortune collapsed completely at this moment, and only an irreversible decay and end was spreading between heaven and earth.