Chen Yong's expression changed, but the Primordial Mirror did not retreat. Just as the True Annihilation Singularity completely covered the bronze fragment, the four ancient meridians on the mirror surface simultaneously lit up to their Ultimate, and they began to trace back in reverse.
Beyond the Great Expansion Total Extinction, beyond the Nine Nether Dark Ruins Demon Dragon, beyond the True Annihilation Origin, all the way back to a primordial moment when "negation" had not yet truly possessed a name, a time when all things had just begun to unfold linearly from the beginning of non-existence.
There is no closed loop yet, no True Annihilation yet, and no freedom for "existence and Does Not Exist to coexist." There is only what unfolds for the first time from chaos—that is.
This ancient moment was directly reflected on the Fate Soul essence of the Nine Nether Dark Ruins Demon Dragon by the Primordial Mirror. The Strike of Tracing Origin – World Creation Confirmation – saw no one throw a punch, nor did any sword light strike. The Primordial Mirror simply re-reflected that ancient moment that "preceded negation."
The massive closed loop connecting the dragon's head and tail trembled violently, and for the first time, an unsustainable separation occurred between the dragon's head and tail tip. "Crack!!!" A crack was forcibly torn open along the top of the dark closed loop, and the dragon's head of the Nine Nether Dark Ruins Demon Dragon was forcibly lifted by a force from an even more ancient source.
The tail tip fell backward, the head and tail separated, the closed loop broke, and the dragon's massive body was forcibly stretched back into an elongated shape from its circular state.
This change is merely a change in posture for ordinary beings, but for the Nine Nether Dark Ruins Demon Dragon, it is equivalent to its very essence being directly penetrated. The Zero Ring, upon which the Great Expansion Total Extinction depends, loses its closure, and the threefold True Annihilation changes are instantly exposed in an ancient reality with a clear boundary between "yes" and "no".
The demonic dragon instinctively channeled its True Annihilation power, attempting to deny this linear unfolding. But with each denial, the Primordial Mirror was illuminated anew. It denied "its own form," leaving behind the primordial reflection of "this dragon having form" within the mirror; it denied "its own cause."
The mirror directly reflected that origin back to its source. It denied that it had been "injured." The dragon shadow that already existed in the mirror clearly reflected the expanding rift in the source.
Each denial was forcibly confirmed, and each confirmation, in turn, crashed into the dragon's own True Annihilation body. The first time, large pieces of the dragon's scales shattered; the second time, the True Annihilation vortex in its chest and abdomen trembled violently; the third time, the dragon's head suddenly rose, and the dark blue flames escaped uncontrollably from its mouth and nose.
A muffled, deafening roar echoed from the depths of the Demon Dragon's Reverse Scale, and for the first time, the perpetual motion True Annihilation vortex came to a halt.
Immediately afterwards, a rift hundreds of feet long spread from the chest and abdomen to both sides, and pieces of dark blue scales were torn off. There was no blood gushing out from the crack, only a large amount of True Annihilation essence intertwined with dark blue and gray-black dissipated outward.
"Roar--!!!" This dragon's roar no longer carried the previous composure that looked down upon all living beings; for the first time, it revealed true pain and rage. The massive body of the demonic dragon writhed violently above the Nine Nether Cold Pool, its hundreds-of-feet-long tail sweeping across, causing large sections of the icy crystal cliffs to collapse with a deafening roar.
The silent area formed by the Great Expansion Total Extinction finally began to recede on a large scale, colors gradually returned, and sounds re-entered the consciousness of the six people. The chill once again covered their skin, and the distance, direction, and front-back relationships that had disappeared began to stabilize again.
The last layer of light in the Six Lives Return to Annihilation - True Suchness Guardian Formation, which had almost completely dimmed, suddenly lit up again under the protection of the four meridians of the Primordial Mirror, and the six people reappeared in the same real world.
There were no twelve Chen Yong, no three groups of six, only themselves. The woman with the sword took a deep breath, and only when she felt the chill pierce her chest again did a look of relief and shock appear on her face. "We... cracked it..."
Chen Yong did not turn around. His gaze remained fixed on the Nine Nether Dark Ruins Demon Dragon. The three-inch Primordial Mirror hung in front of him. The bronze surface had regained its calm luster, but the massive figure of the demon dragon was still clearly reflected in the center of the mirror.
The Nine Nether Dark Ruins Demon Dragon finally stopped churning. It slowly raised its head, and the huge primal rift in its chest and abdomen continued to emit a cold, azure light. The True Annihilation Vortex beneath its Reverse Scale rotated much more slowly.
It was injured, and this was the first truly serious injury it had suffered since awakening. Chen Yong gripped the gray-black spear, his face still devoid of smugness. He knew very well that the true force that pierced through "Great Expansion Total Extinction" was not himself; he had simply retrieved the bronze fragment that the elder had given him.
What truly dragged the Nine Nether Dark Ruins Demon Dragon back to reality from the indistinguishable True Annihilation was this ancient treasure, the Primordial Mirror, which originated from the beginning of primordial chaos and embodies the principle that "those who prove themselves cannot be reduced to zero." Primordial Mirror the Nine Nether Cold Pool, the Demon Dragon's dark blue eyes were locked on the bronze fragment, and the six people also gripped their respective divine weapons tightly.
The True Annihilation Ring, forcibly torn open by the Primordial Mirror, had not yet fully healed, and large swaths of eerie, cold light continued to emanate from the crack in the chest and abdomen of the Nine Nether Dark Ruins Demon Dragon. No blood flowed from the wound that pierced deep into the Reverse Scale; only a swirling mist of gray-black and eerie blue primordial energy surrounded the wound, each time the True Annihilation vortex attempted to close again.
The Primordial Mirror, suspended in front of Chen Yong, would emit a faint bronze glow, reflecting the truth of the demonic dragon, which had already been confirmed by heaven and earth, back into its origin. Once, twice, three times, the crack in the chest and abdomen of that enormous creature could not be truly closed.
It hung high above the icy pool, its dark Azure Dragon body slowly tensing, its thick claws digging into the void, pressing large gray-white folds into the sky and earth near its claws. Its dark blue vertical pupils, which had originally carried an ancient indifference, were now completely consumed by a furious rage.
It stared intently at the three-inch bronze mirror fragment, each breath of cold air emanating from its nostrils causing the causal patterns within a radius of hundreds of feet to freeze instantly, yet a second dragon roar did not immediately erupt from the depths of its chest. On the contrary, it suddenly fell silent.
Upon seeing this, Chen Yong's brows furrowed immediately; it was too quiet.
Just now, the Great Expansion Total Extinction was completely annihilated by the Primordial Mirror, and this True Annihilation Realm · Supreme Demonic Dragon had already suffered a severe backlash from its origin. If it had chosen to take advantage of its anger and attack, Chen Yong wouldn't be so wary. Now, its massive dragon body is motionless, but the anger in its dark Azure Dragon eyes is growing deeper, meaning that something truly dangerous is brewing within it.
"Don't break formation." Chen Yong's voice was extremely deep.
The five Annihilation God Clan cultivators behind them had already stabilized the Six Lives Return to Annihilation True Form Guardian Formation. The auras of the six Fate Soul reconnected, and the array barrier, which had been torn to shreds by True Annihilation Silence, slowly recovered under the protection of the Primordial Mirror. None of the five made a sound. They had also noticed the abnormality, and the six divine weapons simultaneously lowered their sharpness, guarding their Fate Soul even more tightly.
In the first breath, the Nine Nether Dark Ruins Demon Dragon closed its eyes. In the second breath, the primordial crack on its chest and abdomen stopped emitting a cold, azure light. In the third breath, the surface of the entire Nine Nether Cold Pool began to sink.
It wasn't the tide receding; the water level of the pool, spanning thousands of miles, dropped simultaneously. The ancient, unchanging gray-blue icy crystals on the pool's banks gradually revealed their deeper foundations, and ancient patterns that were originally hidden beneath the water surface appeared. However, the moment they appeared, they were drawn away by an invisible force emanating from the body of the demonic dragon.
In the fourth breath, the withered black ancient plants on a distant mountain wall suddenly lost their vitality. The leaves did not fall, and the branches did not break, but the life force that sustained them was gradually drawn away and flowed towards the sky above the Nine Nether Cold Pool along the invisible connection between heaven and earth.
In the fifth breath, the expressions of the five True Annihilation Realm · Initial Stage changed simultaneously. They were not injured, but they clearly felt that their Fate Soul essence was gently "hooked" by something. The touch was extremely light and did not break the array barrier, but invisible connections had already extended out from the depths of their Fate Soul.
Chen Yong glanced down at the Primordial Mirror. The warp and weft marks on the bronze mirror's surface remained stable, but this time, the Primordial Mirror did not actively expand its anchor marks. This was because the Demon Dragon had not yet truly made its move. In the sixth breath, the root of one of the Demon Dragon's reverse scales slowly cracked open. There was no blood in the crack, nor any flesh or bone inside. A gray hole the size of a fingernail appeared there.
Then came the second, the third, dozens, thousands.
As the seventh breath arrived, countless gray holes appeared simultaneously at the base of the reverse scales on the entire dragon's body. Ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine holes spread out along the dragon's head, neck, chest, abdomen, back, and tail. Each hole was bottomless and had no end inside, with only a gray vortex from the deeper depths of the Nine Nether Dark Ruins slowly rotating inside.
All the reverse scales therefore rose outwards, and for the first time, the entire dragon's form became extremely bizarre. Nearly 100,000 tiny gray holes filled the space between its dark blue scales. These holes did not swallow light, nor did they tear space apart; they simply opened silently.
Around the Nine Nether Cold Pool in the eighth breath, the first thread of life essence truly manifested, originating from an ancient cold plant growing tens of thousands of feet away. Then came the second, the third, and hundreds of thousands more.
More and more traces of life, as fine as hair, were extracted from different areas within a million miles. Some came from strange beasts slumbering deep in the valleys, some from ancient plants that had not yet completely withered outside the cold pools, and some from the life traces left by cultivators who happened to fly by in the distant sky.
Instead of converging on the surface of the demonic dragon's body, they directly sank into the 99,999 acupoints. Chen Yong's expression finally darkened completely. In the ninth breath, the Nine Nether Dark Ruins Demon Dragon opened its eyes. Its dark blue vertical pupils no longer held the rage from before, but only a chilling emptiness remained.