Dao Shadow Commander · Golden Flames Weighed Down the World

Just as Yuan Xuanzi vanished into the light of annihilation, a wisp of almost imperceptible profound light quietly seeped into Qin Yu's sleeve. The light thread was like an invisible Dao pattern, with the symbols "Yuan" and "Xuan" appearing on its surface, slowly flickering in the void, as if trying to imprint itself into Qin Yu's sea of consciousness.

Azure Ring's voice suddenly rang in Qin Yu's mind, icy and urgent. "Be careful! This is a detection mark he left behind! Once it takes root, your every move, even the fluctuations of your Fate Soul, will be spied on by him!"

Qin Yu's eyes suddenly turned cold, but he did not stop walking and continued to stroll slowly down the bustling street as if he were an Azure Evolution Core person. However, deep within his body, an Annihilation azure light quietly ignited, transforming into billions of fine logical light threads, which instantly wrapped around the mark of Yuan Xuanzi.

"Silent Realm Judgment."

Azure Ring whispered, and the azure light spread like a silent tide, swallowing the ray of probing light into nothingness. The echo that should have resounded in the void was abruptly cut off, as if Yuan Xuanzi had never left any trace.

Qin Yu felt a chill run down his spine, but he didn't show the slightest change in expression. He understood that even if it was just a "test mark," it was enough to show that Yuan Xuanzi didn't completely believe in his so-called identity as "the Rogue Cultivator Mo Chen."

"Azure Ring, you're right... the more someone is valued, the more dangerous it is," Qin Yu thought coldly to himself.

Azure Ring sighed softly, yet with a resolute playfulness. "So you can only be faster and stronger, Qin Yu. Otherwise, next time it won't be a test of the mark, but a comprehensive surveillance and capture."

Qin Yu gripped his sleeves tightly, gazing intently into the distance. He was now fully aware that from this moment forward, every step he took had to be far more cautious, for even the slightest mistake could unleash a storm from the entire Source of Epochless · Middle Layer upon him.

In the middle layer of the Source of Epochless, there lies a region known as the "Annihilation Abyss Valley." Here, there are no conventional mountains or rivers; the entire world seems stripped of color, leaving only a desolate expanse of ink and gray. Mountains hang upside down in the sky, like shattered pieces of glass, with countless fragments of logical light spilling from the cracks; the earth is like torn cloth, with black causal lava flowing deep within the rifts, emanating an aura of both scorching heat and icy cold. Every breath in the air feels as if it is being sliced apart by particles of cause and effect, causing excruciating pain to the very marrow.

In the center of this deathly silent world, a dozen women stood suspended in Supreme- air. They were all at the pinnacle of the Severed Observation Realm, displaying the supreme suppression of "Nonexistence Form." Their figures appeared and disappeared, sometimes ethereal, sometimes solid, like a disturbance of concepts.

Opposite them stood eight Dao Shadow Soldiers, each over two meters tall, with semi-transparent bodies and runes (Dao, Gui, Yuan) flowing across their surfaces. Their heads were adorned with a ball of golden-blue Dao Flame. They were silent, yet their aura was like Endless Abyss, causing spacetime to crumble inch by inch.

The next moment, the battle suddenly broke out.

The women were the first to make their move, their Innate Martial Soul manifesting in their minds.

Behind a woman, an Annihilation Star Brahma Lotus appeared. The entire lotus platform reversed the starry sea, and with each petal blooming, a star-like sphere of light fell from the void, crashing down on the Dao Shadow Soldier. The lotus light tore through the void, carrying the dual aura of destruction and rebirth, accompanied by deafening sound waves.

The other woman's Innate Martial Soul was the Soul-Severing Flute. She raised her jade hand, and the flute music flowed, but no sound waves were emitted. Instead, the "silence" was the killing intent, and the void instantly transformed into a Soul-Severing Domain. Countless transparent sound blades fell from the sky, each carrying the sharpness of distorting space, cutting through the energy body of the Dao Shadow Soldier, making a thunderous sound, as if the entire world was swallowed up by the flute music.

The third woman summoned the Silent Abyss Shattered Mirror, its surface floating in the air, cracking into countless fragments, reflecting all energy and cause and effect. The eight Dao Shadow Soldier simultaneously wielded the Origin-Returning Blade, golden and blue ripples cleaving the sky, but the strikes were completely absorbed by the mirror, then rebounded in the opposite direction, transforming into a destructive backlash ten times greater, blasting towards the Dao Shadow Soldier themselves.

But Dao Shadow Soldier would not be easily suppressed.

They raised their "Origin-Returning Blade" almost simultaneously. Each strike was no longer a simple attack, but a destructive wave woven from a chain of cause and effect. Eight golden-blue light blades slashed down in unison, causing space to twist violently and cracks to appear, as if peeling the entire world apart from its narrative.

The three women took the attack head-on, their bodies instantly turning into nothingness as they forcibly resisted in a "Nonexistence Form." However, the golden-blue ripples still stirred within their souls, almost causing their martial spirit phantoms to collapse.

The remaining women immediately joined forces to unleash a combined attack formation.

The four of them shouted in unison, and a vast sea of dreams appeared in their minds. Countless spiritual texts surged like rivers, and the rules of characters floated in the air, forming a huge barrier. The spiritual texts and the ripples unleashed by the Dao Shadow Soldier collided head-on, like two galaxies colliding, bursting out trillions of points of light that illuminated the entire Annihilation Abyss Valley.

The heavens and earth trembled, and time stood still for a brief moment.

The eight Dao Shadow Soldier took a step forward in unison, their figures splitting into afterimages. Each afterimage seemed to originate from another causal line, launching an attack simultaneously and forming a "collective resonance." In an instant, the entire sky was covered by countless overlapping light blades, like a death declaration woven from billions of golden symbols.

The women coughed up blood, but they still gritted their teeth and maintained their Innate Martial Soul, fighting with an unwavering determination to Annihilation.

The scene was so magnificent, it was as if the ends of countless civilizations overlapped in the same instant:

The starry sea collapsed, the flames exploded, the text broke, the mirror shattered... the entire Annihilation Abyss Valley became an Asura among the Supreme beings.

Amidst the endless explosions of light and flame, the "collective resonance" of the eight Dao Shadow Soldiers had completely dyed the void a golden-blue color, and the causal chain poured out like a tidal wave, completely engulfing the dozen or so women.

Caught off guard, one of the women at the Severed Observation Realm had her chest pierced by golden-blue runes, her soul instantly collapsing and her figure becoming ethereal, almost completely Annihilation. In that instant, a resolute determination, as if facing certain death, flashed in her eyes, and an ancient scroll phantom emerged from the depths of her consciousness.

That is the legacy of the Only Book Realm— "Forbidden Severance Silent Page"!

The scroll floated out from her sea of consciousness, its surface shimmering with a deep blue starlight. With each page turned, a voice seemed to whisper from countless book spirits. As the pages slowly unfurled, a vast river of characters appeared in the void, countless ancient characters coalescing around her body, each carrying an absolute, forbidden power.

"The book is sealed by order, the words mark the boundary—forbidden!"

The woman uttered her last words. Instantly, the ancient characters transformed into countless runes, forcefully suppressing the causal chains of the three Dao Shadow Soldiers. Time seemed to freeze, and the figures of the three Dao Shadow Soldier showed a slight hesitation; even their burning golden-blue Dao Flame dimmed slightly.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the other women unleashed their Innate Martial Soul and launched a counterattack.

The Annihilation Star Brahma Lotus bloomed wildly in the void, and thousands of starlight transformed into sharp swords that pierced straight into the enemy formation; the Soul-Severing Flute once again played the silent melody of annihilation, and transparent sound blades poured down like the Milky Way; the Silent Abyss Shattered Mirror released billions of fragments of light, reflecting the enemy's shadows and reflecting their attacks back tenfold.

The void roared, light and shadow intertwined, and in an instant, it was as if a sea of stars had shattered and reformed here!

However, the cost was also devastating.

The woman who used the Sole Book Legacy technique bled from the corner of her mouth, her body cracking inch by inch. Her soul consciousness was completely burned by the "Forbidden Severance Silent Page" that she had forcibly activated. Her Soul Book turned one last time, then turned into endless light dust and completely dissipated into the world.

"I... have no regrets." Her eyes held a mixture of relief and sorrow. Before she could finish speaking, she vanished into nothingness, completely swallowed by the aftershocks of the forbidden technique.

The other women were pale-faced, but their eyes were filled with tears. They knew that their sacrifice in this moment had brought them a chance to win the battle.

However, the eight Dao Shadow Soldiers did not collapse.

They roared in unison, their voices not mere sounds, but rather a kind of "Dao chant," as if the universe itself were emitting a cold tremor. The moment their suppression was released, they ignited their Dao Flame once more, their Origin-Returning Blade dazzling golden-blue ripples, their afterimages spreading out again as they pounced directly upon the enemy!

The void shattered completely at this moment, and heaven and earth seemed to have lost their foundation of existence, with the Annihilation Abyss Valley falling into an unprecedented torrent of destruction.

The eight Dao Shadow Soldier simultaneously swung their Origin-Returning Blade, and the golden-blue Dao Flame, like countless torrents of destiny converging into a "River of Annihilation," crashed down upon the dozen or so women. That power contained the denial of cause and effect, the severing of existence, and even the air itself was stripped of its meaning.

"We cannot retreat any further! If we retreat now, the entire clan will be slaughtered!"

The leading woman, a woman at the Severed Observation Realm, suddenly stepped forward, her soul consciousness burning wildly, and her martial spirit abruptly manifested behind her—a Soul-Annihilating Heavenly Drum.

The drumhead was entirely black, engraved with countless ancient characters, each stroke carrying a sense of bloodshed. As she slammed her hands down, the Soul-Annihilating Heavenly Drum erupted with a destructive drumbeat.

Boom--!

As soon as the drum sounded, the entire void seemed to be torn apart. It wasn't just a sound, but a tremor at the conceptual level. As the drum waves spread out, they forcefully shattered the Golden-Azure River into hundreds of fragments. The chains of cause and effect twisted and broke in the drum sound, and even the bodies of two Dao Shadow Soldier became blurred and almost completely disappeared!

However, the price was that the woman's body instantly cracked, blood spurted out, her soul collapsed, and her Martial Soul Heavenly Drum only sounded three times before shattering with a "boom," after which her figure was completely annihilated in the light debris.

"Senior sister!!!"

The remaining women cried out in unison, tears welling in their eyes, but they did not stop.

Following closely behind, another woman at the Severed Observation Realm gritted her teeth and burned her soul consciousness to the point that a Soul-Annihilating Mirror Platform appeared behind her. The mirror was entirely obsidian black, yet it reflected countless afterimages of light and shadow—every scene of their battles against their enemies!

She suddenly raised the mirror platform high, and the mirror surface burst forth with billions of beams of light, completely "mirroring" the killing intent and actions of the eight Dao Shadow Soldiers, and then instantly reflecting them back!

Boom boom boom--!

The attack of the eight Dao Shadow Soldier was forcefully reversed by the mirror platform, tearing itself apart in an instant! Two Dao Shadow Soldier had huge holes exploded in their chests, and their golden and blue Dao Flame dissipated. The remaining six staggered temporarily, their figures swaying.

"Now's the time!!"

The women bit their tongues, each urging their last bit of soul power to transform into countless sword lights, Annihilation Starflame, and a long river of soul power, which crashed down with a deafening roar!

The void was blasted into a deathly black domain, where light crisscrossed, and no remains of corpses were found; only the churning waves of annihilation remained between heaven and earth.

However, just as these people were fighting desperately, an immense and indescribable aura suddenly swept in from afar.

That aura had no form, yet it chilled their hearts to the bone, freezing their souls almost instantly.

"It exists... and it's getting closer!"

One of them whispered in despair.

A bluish-gold radiance emerged from the distant sky, tearing open a vortex in the void, and a strange yet powerful figure was gradually approaching!

A massive aura gradually approached, and the once booming world suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

It was merely a figure that stepped out from the depths of the void.

Unlike the previous eight Dao Shadow Soldiers, it was much taller, standing at a towering three zhang (approximately 10 meters). Its entire body remained a semi-transparent flow of energy, but it was now more solid, as if countless galaxies had converged into a "humanoid" form. The golden-blue Dao Flame at its head burned as fiercely as a star, distorting even the void itself, and deep within the Dao Flame, a faint, indistinct symbol appeared. "Command."

This is Dao Shadow Commander!

Its arrival instantly disrupted the causal chain of the world, even slowing down the spiritual power released by the women, as if the entire world was under its control.

"This... this is impossible... it's actually a commander-level officer..."

The leading woman's voice trembled, her eyes flashing with fear and despair. They had already fought desperately to barely suppress eight Dao Shadow Soldiers, and now, with just the appearance of a commander, their Soul Sea were beginning to collapse.

The Dao Shadow Commander uttered no words, only a deep Dao chant echoed from its chest:

"Returning to the Source--"

As the two words resonated, the heavens and earth suddenly exploded, and countless golden-blue runes spread out from its body. In an instant, the sky was dyed into a blazing golden-blue sea of light.

Each rune was like an iron chain of fate, pressing down hard on the women's consciousness, causing them to cough up blood repeatedly.

"Everyone! Fight back with all your might! Even if... even if it means death, we cannot let it devour us!"

The women gritted their teeth and roared, their souls burning to the Ultimate. The lingering echoes of the shattered war drums and the remnants of light from the Soul-Annihilating Mirror Platform formed the final protective barrier, barely keeping the golden-blue sea of light several feet away.

However, this resistance is like sand and gravel blocking a flood; it only delays the inevitable and cannot ultimately prevent the collapse.

"It's just one... and it's only suppressed to this extent... If more appear, our entire team..."

Another woman whispered through her tears, her eyes filled with helplessness and despair.

The Dao Shadow Commander showed no emotion; it simply approached step by step, each step causing the very logic of the world to tremble.