The Hidden Chess Pieces Completely Eliminated
The Heavenly Desert Ancient Forest was frozen in deathly silence.
Ju Zhongying stood frozen in the void, all color drained from his face. He stared at Chi Xiyue's all-too-familiar face, the figure standing before him becoming an insurmountable chasm, crushing the last shred of hope in his heart.
Chi Xiyue stood quietly in the sky, the Wuji Daoist aura flowing naturally and slowly. She did not deliberately release her pressure, yet all things within a radius of ten thousand miles involuntarily bowed their heads.
Ju Zhongying's lips twitched uncontrollably. After a long while, a bitter laugh escaped her lips. "So that's how it is... From the moment Chi Qianyuan was exposed, everything was a carefully laid trap."
He slowly turned to look at Chi Xiyue, a genuine sense of apprehension appearing in his eyes for the first time. "I have underestimated the Chi Lineage, and I have underestimated you even more."
Chi Xiyue's expression was calm, and her voice was steady. "The one you truly despise is never someone else, but yourself. From the moment you were certain that Chi Qianyuan could intercept and kill the Chi Lineage siblings, you had already stepped into this hunting net."
Ju Zhongying slowly closed her eyes, her chest heaving violently. After a few breaths, she suddenly burst into wild laughter, the sound carrying endless resentment and echoing through the mountains and forests.
"Hahaha! Decades of scheming and plotting, just one step away from our goal, why did we have to fail at this crucial moment!"
He suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze filled with madness. "I'm not reconciled! I was just one step away!" Chi Xiyue's eyes remained calm. "The cycle of cause and effect has come to an end. It's time to conclude."
She slowly raised her right hand, and in an instant, crisscrossing silver-white spatial patterns appeared in the six directions and eight wastelands, as if an invisible giant hand had reached out from the depths of nothingness and gently grasped this world.
Ju Zhongying's expression changed drastically. He raised his hand and slammed his palm into the void behind him. Boom! The space remained completely still, without even cracking open a crack.
He then desperately attacked to the left, but to no avail. He then soared into the sky, but after only a few hundred feet, he crashed heavily into a transparent, invisible spatial barrier, and the enormous recoil force sent him crashing back down.
A bone-chilling cold swept through his body, and he finally panicked. "Impossible! The entire space has been completely sealed off!" Chi Xiyue's voice was indifferent, echoing between heaven and earth. "Within the Limitless Domain, no one can escape."
Ju Zhongying gritted his teeth, his body trembling with overwhelming rage. "If you won't give me a way out, then you'll all die with me!" Boom!
In the next instant, crimson blood patterns surged through Ju Zhongying's meridians, and his Fate Soul, origin, and foundation burned fiercely in unison. An Ultimate violent aura of destruction soared into the sky, and even the Primordial Dao Supreme Treasure, the Mysterious Heaven Ancient Defense Shield, which he relied on for protection, began to show fine cracks spreading across its surface.
The three beast Myriad Beasts Origin Dao Lord beside him simultaneously let out a low roar. It clearly sensed that the cultivator in front of it had completely gone mad.
Ju Zhongying's hands moved rapidly, forming hand seals, and hot blood flowed continuously from his seven orifices. A phantom of a pitch-black altar slowly rose from behind him, with billions of scarlet chains intertwined on the altar. Within each chain, a wisp of broken soul was sealed, and boundless wails echoed through the eternal sky.
"Myriad Souls Sacrificial Annihilation!" Rumble!
The pitch-black altar shattered with a deafening roar, and countless remnant souls were incinerated. The endless source of destruction converged into a crimson torrent that swept across the heavens and earth. As the torrent passed, mountains melted away, and the Great Dao wailed.
Even the Myriad Beasts Origin Dao Lord roared in fury, sensing a destructive force that threatened its own life.
Ju Zhongying laughed maniacally, "Hahahaha! Since we can't live, then let's all die together! The Myriad Beasts Origin Dao Lord, Chi Xiyue, and the two of you, none of you will leave this place today!"
A crimson torrent swept across the land, turning towering ancient forests into nothingness in its path, and causing tens of thousands of miles of land to continuously collapse. Chi Xiyue calmly observed all of this, her heart unmoved. She slowly raised her right hand and gently pointed her fingertips forward.
The voice was calm, as if it originated from the very source of heaven and earth. "Stillness, Space Returns to Nothingness." There was no earth-shattering roar, no dazzling spectacle.
The moment the fingertip landed, the whole world fell silent.
The surging, crushing crimson torrent came to a standstill; the burning, wailing souls of billions were frozen in the void; the collapsing and crumbling mountains and rivers were still in the instant of destruction. Time, space, origin, cause and effect were all imprisoned within this realm.
Immediately afterwards, a wisp of pale silver Dao trace slowly spread outward from her fingertip. This Dao trace did not possess any impact force, nor any destructive edge; it simply swept quietly across all things in heaven and earth.
The torrent gradually dissipated, the remnant souls returned to silence one after another, the illusory altar melted into nothingness, Mysterious Heaven Ancient Defense Shield lost all its spiritual light, becoming ordinary iron. Finally, the pale silver Dao trace gently landed on Ju Zhongying's body.
Ju Zhongying's body trembled slightly. She looked down blankly at her hands. Her palms were the first to turn into countless silver-white light spots, followed by her arms, torso, and head. Her Fate Soul, Dao foundation, and origin dissolved in unison.
There was no blood splattering, no violent explosion, and no death struggle. It was as if he had never existed in this world from the beginning, slowly dissolving and fading away. Ju Zhongying barely raised his head, his eyes filled with Ultimate despair.
"Wuji... So this is it..." Before he could finish speaking, the remaining sound, along with his last trace of existence, faded into silence.
Between heaven and earth, Ju Zhongying was nowhere to be seen. Even all the causal fluctuations that belonged to him were completely erased, as if he had never existed since time immemorial.
The Myriad Beasts Origin Dao Lord silently watched the entire scene vanish, and the three enormous beast heads fell into a long silence.
It had traversed countless ages and slain numerous powerful enemies, yet this was the first time it had witnessed an Eternal Silence Realm · Supreme being erased from the world in such a quiet and thorough manner.
It slowly lowered its massive head, gazing at Chi Xiyue in the void above. In its three pairs of beast eyes burning with primal flames, all hostility vanished, leaving only a deep-seated solemnity and awe.
Qin Yu slowly walked to Chi Xiyue's side, his gaze sweeping over the devastated Heavenly Desert Ancient Forest. The traitor who had been lurking within the Ju Lineage for decades had been brought to justice, and a secret thread spanning the Chi, Ju, and Hua families had been completely severed.
Within the Heavenly Desert Ancient Forest, the aura of destruction that had been lingering everywhere slowly dissipated. The cracks in the mountains and ravines shattered by the previous battle began to heal under the spontaneous nourishment of the heavens and earth, and a faint green hue began to sprout anew from the scorched earth.
The colossal Myriad Beasts Origin Dao Lord stood amidst the desolate wasteland, his three beast heads bowed, silently gazing at the void where Ju Zhongying had completely vanished, remaining silent for a long time.
After a long while, it slowly spun around its massive body, its six crimson-gold beastly eyes falling upon Qin Yu and Chi Xiyue. The next instant, its mountain-like, majestic body slightly lowered. "You two, I will remember this kindness you have shown me today."
A deep, resonant sound echoed throughout the ancient forest. The Myriad Beasts Origin Dao Lord raised his giant claw, cradling a dazzling ball of primordial light in his palm. Within the light, a small, illusory Fate Soul slept peacefully—the very primordial essence of the young beast that Ju Zhongying had seized at the opportune moment. It carefully retrieved the essence back into its body, and the heavy, violent aura surrounding it finally subsided.
"This fiend, in order to temper its own Fate Soul, has been secretly assassinating our clan's descendants and plundering the bloodline essence of all beasts for many years. Today, it dies and its life is extinguished, which can be considered as eliminating a scourge from the world. Thank you both for your help."
Chi Xiyue gazed silently at the giant beast, her usually icy gaze softening slightly. "The commotion here is too great; lingering any longer will easily attract the attention of cultivators from all sides. You should retreat into the depths of the ancient forest as soon as possible and not stay here any longer."
The Myriad Beasts Origin Dao Lord pondered for a moment, then solemnly nodded. "I understand. The Myriad Beasts Clan will never forget your kindness today."
As soon as he finished speaking, his massive body slowly turned around, each step causing the earth to tremble slightly. In an instant, a streak of crimson-gold light shot towards the heart of the ancient forest, its aura traveling far away until it completely dissipated.
Once he could no longer sense any trace of the giant beast, Qin Yu withdrew his gaze and moved to the spot where Ju Zhongying had vanished.
Scattered fragments of broken magical artifacts lay on the ground, and a few faint traces of Fate Soul drifted in the void. Qin Yu's divine sense spread outward, and the Daoist Rhyme of Crossing the World flowed within his sea of consciousness. The Boundless Realm Source Wheel of the Source Realm Ring Lord slowly rotated, and layers of causal trajectories hidden deep in the void emerged one after another.
After a moment, he frowned slightly and raised his hand to reach into the void.
A tiny, jet-black Fate Soul mark slowly emerged from the remnants. The mark's origin did not belong to Ju Zhongying; it carried a chilling, causal aura—it belonged to Hua Yin.
Qin Yu's gaze turned serious. "Senior, this is the Fate Soul token that Ju Zhongying and Hua Yin used to communicate. The two have relied on this to secretly send messages for a long time."
Chi Xiyue reached out and took the mark, scanning it with her divine sense. A chill flashed in her eyes. "Indeed, the mark retains a strong trace of the Hua Lineage's karma. It seems that Hua Yin and Ju Zhongying's alliance was not temporary; their scheme has been going on for a long time."
She returned the Fate Soul imprint to Qin Yu. "Take it back to the Chi Lineage and hand it over to the patriarch Chi Boqian. Although Ju Zhongying has been executed, Hua Yin's scheme is far from over."
Qin Yu nodded, carefully storing the dark mark into his storage crystal core. Chi Xiyue then looked up towards the direction of the Ju Lineage's territory.
"I will head to the Ju Lineage immediately. Ju Zhongying holds a high position as an elder of the Ju Lineage. Given this sudden incident, I must truthfully inform the Ju Lineage patriarch of the entire story to prevent suspicion from festering within the Ju Lineage and causing further unnecessary turmoil."
Qin Yu cupped his hands slightly and said, "Senior, rest assured. I will immediately return to the Chi Lineage and report everything to the patriarch." The two exchanged a nod, needing no further words.
The next instant, the Wuji Daoist aura emanated from Chi Xiyue, and her figure dissolved into the void. Qin Yu also soared into the air, speeding towards the Chi Lineage's main city.
The vast Heavenly Desert Ancient Forest has returned to peace once more. Unbeknownst to outsiders, the long-planned purge of traitors, which spanned the Chi and Ju tribes, has come to an end.
Even without the hidden cards Chi Qianyuan and Ju Zhongying, the undercurrents in the Eternal Nonexistence Limitless Domain remain turbulent. The Eternal Nonexistence Limitless Domain is just around the corner, Hua Yin is eyeing it covetously, and behind him lies an unknown force from the Supreme Transformation Primordial Domain, casting a shadow. The real storm is approaching little by little.