The Coast's Final Battle, the Opening of the Passage, and the Price of Truth

On the black coast of the Deep Sea Forbidden Land, the waves sounded like sobbing.

Tang San and his companions followed a path woven from Blue Silver Grass through the billowing fog. At last, they saw Li Mo standing on a reef. Above his hand, six fragments of dark ore floated in midair, revolving around a pale blue fragment that gave off the presence of the Sea God and forming a strange halo of energy.

At the center of the halo, space was twisting. A pitch-black rift slowly opened, and chaotic energy that was neither light nor darkness flowed within it, resonating intensely with the Chaos Azure Lotus inside Tang San.

"You've come just in time." Li Mo turned around. The coldness was gone from his face, replaced by an almost fanatical anticipation. "A moment later, and you would have missed the moment of 'ascension.'"

"Ascension?" Tang San tightened his grip on the Proof of Balance, the Chaos Azure Lotus circulating rapidly inside him. "Does this passage of yours lead to the Divine Realm?"

"The Divine Realm?" Li Mo sneered, as if he had heard something laughable. "How could a cage bound by rules be worthy of the word 'ascension'? What I'm opening is a passage to the Primordial Plane-the source of all power, the land of chaos where light and darkness have yet to separate."

The name sent a violent jolt through Tang San's heart. The inherited memories of the Chaos Azure Lotus did contain a record of the Primordial Plane. It was older than the Divine Realm, the womb of all laws, but its energy was so violent that it had long been cut off from all lower planes.

"You're insane!" Lin Ye's Golden Crow Fire blazed. "The energy of the Primordial Plane is enough to tear apart any law in existence. Opening the passage will only annihilate the entire continent!"

"Annihilation? No, rebirth." Li Mo's gaze was fanatical and obsessive. "The balance of this continent has long been a joke! Light and darkness fight without end, Soul Masters slaughter one another for power, and even the inheritor of the Chaos Azure Lotus can do nothing but run himself ragged patching holes! Only by returning to the primordial state and letting everything return to chaos can we achieve true, eternal balance!"

He pointed at the floating fragments. "This ore from the gaps between planes is the only medium that can withstand primordial energy. As long as the seven fragments resonate, the passage can be opened and stabilized. Then..."

"Then everyone will be devoured by Chaos Energy, and not even their souls will remain!" Tang San roared as Blue Silver Grass surged toward Li Mo like a tide. "Your so-called rebirth is nothing but an excuse for destruction!"

"Stubborn fool!" A trace of disappointment flashed in Li Mo's eyes. With a wave of his hand, the six fragments suddenly burst apart, turning into six black blades of light that slashed at the Blue Silver Grass. Space twisted wherever the blades passed, and the Blue Silver Grass was torn to powder in an instant.

"Tai Long, keep him occupied!" Tang San shouted, giving Lin Ye a look at the same time.

Tai Long transformed into a Great Strength Gorilla and charged at Li Mo with tremendous force, smashing both fists toward his face. Li Mo neither dodged nor retreated. He gently raised his left hand, and an invisible spatial force sent Tai Long flying. Tai Long slammed heavily into the reef and spat out a mouthful of blood.

"The gap is too great." Li Mo shook his head. "Your power can't withstand even a hundred-millionth of the primordial energy. What makes you think you can stop me?"

As he spoke, Lin Ye's Lotus Flame suddenly erupted. The golden-red flames swept around Li Mo's frontal defenses and headed straight for the spatial rift-he wanted to destroy the core of the passage!

"Wishful thinking!" Li Mo roared. Holding the fingers of his right hand together like a blade, he opened a pitch-black rift out of thin air in front of the Lotus Flame, swallowing the flames whole. Lin Ye gave a muffled groan and staggered back several steps from the spatial backlash.

"Xiao Wu, Oscar!" Tang San called in a low voice.

Xiao Wu instantly used Teleportation, appearing behind Li Mo and sending her ribbons winding toward his wrists. Oscar, meanwhile, threw out dozens of sausages. Some turned into shields of light to protect the group, while others became chains that tried to bind Li Mo's movements.

But Li Mo moved like a phantom, weaving freely through the sausage chains. A casual wave of his right hand shattered Xiao Wu's ribbons, and the barrier formed from spatial force rendered every attack futile.

"Give up." Li Mo looked at the battered group, a trace of pity in his voice. "The balance you protect was built on a false foundation from the very beginning. Only the chaos of the Primordial Plane can bring all this to an end."

"You don't understand balance at all!" Tang San's voice was cold as the power of the Chaos Azure Lotus, the Proof of Balance, and the Ice Plains Ancient Dragon's ice crystal erupted at once. "Balance isn't the deathly stillness of chaos, but the symbiosis of light and darkness! It is the checks and balances within conflict, coexistence amid differences!"

Seven-colored light, the power of balance, and the ancient dragon's ice intertwined, forming a pillar of three-colored light that slammed toward Li Mo. The strike concentrated all of Tang San's power, even drawing on part of his life potential. Wherever the pillar passed, the spatial rift trembled violently.

Li Mo's expression changed slightly, turning grave for the first time. He poured the power of all the fragments into a black spatial barrier in front of him.

"Boom-!"

The pillar of light collided with the barrier in a deafening roar. The black barrier shattered inch by inch, and Li Mo staggered backward, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. But Tang San's pillar of light also exhausted its power and dispersed into specks of light that filled the sky.

"Interesting." Li Mo wiped the blood from his mouth, the fanaticism in his eyes burning brighter. "The power of the Chaos Azure Lotus really can just barely reach the primordial laws... All the more proof that my choice was right!"

He suddenly formed a seal with both hands. The floating pale blue fragment-the last one from the Deep Sea Forbidden Land-burst with blinding light and resonated with the remaining power of the other fragments. The spatial rift abruptly widened, and a suffocating torrent of Chaos Energy poured out, shrouding the entire coast.

"The passage... it's about to open completely!" Xiao Wu cried in terror.

Tang San felt the Chaos Azure Lotus inside him rejoicing and fearing at the same time. The primordial energy excited it, yet it instinctively resisted. He looked at Li Mo and suddenly understood something. "You can't control the primordial energy at all! You just want to drag everyone down with you!"

"Destruction? No, release." Li Mo spread his arms, letting Chaos Energy pour into him. His body began to turn transparent. "I've studied it for a thousand years. I've long known that the energy of the Primordial Plane can't be controlled... But only in chaos can all pain, all conflict, and all imbalance be eliminated! Isn't that the best possible ending?"

His body gradually dissolved in Chaos Energy, leaving only his voice echoing across the coast. "Tang San, you inherited the Chaos Azure Lotus. You should understand... Absolute balance is absolute nothingness..."

As Li Mo dissolved, the spatial rift went completely out of control. Violent Chaos Energy surged out like a tsunami, reducing reefs to dust and evaporating seawater into steam wherever it passed. Even the light was swallowed.

"Destroy the fragment, quickly!" Tang San roared hoarsely. Using the last of his strength, he hurled the Proof of Balance and the Ice Plains Ancient Dragon's ice crystal at the pale blue fragment in the center of the rift.

The Proof of Balance released its final light and resonated with the fragment, while the Ice Plains Ancient Dragon's power of ice froze the flow of energy within it. Lin Ye, Xiao Wu, Oscar, and Tai Long poured their Soul Power into it at the same time. Even as Chaos Energy tore at their bodies, none of them faltered.

"In the name of balance, seal!"

"With Golden Crow Fire, purify!"

"With the speed of Teleportation, imprison!"

"With the power of sausage, stabilize!"

"With the fury of the giant ape, shatter!"

The five powers fused with Tang San's Chaos Azure Lotus, the Proof of Balance, and the ancient dragon's ice crystal, forming a brilliant chain of light that drove deep into the core of the spatial rift. The pale blue fragment shattered inch by inch within the chain, and the remaining power of the other fragments dissipated along with it.

The spatial rift let out a shrill, mournful scream and slowly contracted in the light. At last, it closed completely, leaving only a ravaged coast behind.

Chaos Energy dissipated, and the sea breeze blew over the scorched reefs, carrying the salty scent of the sea.

Tang San slumped to the ground, looking at his unconscious companions. The agony in his body nearly robbed him of consciousness. He had won, but felt no joy. Li Mo's words echoed in his mind like a curse-was absolute balance absolute nothingness?

He looked at the Chaos Azure Lotus inside him. Its light was much dimmer than before, yet purer. He suddenly understood that Li Mo had been wrong. Balance was not nothingness, but acceptance-accepting the existence of light and darkness, accepting the inevitability of conflict and checks and balances. It was like the Chaos Azure Lotus, which contained the power of creation and embraced the power of destruction.

"Cough, cough..." Lin Ye was the first to wake. He struggled over to Tang San's side. "Did we... win?"

Tang San nodded, a weary smile touching his lips. "We won."

Xiao Wu, Oscar, and Tai Long woke one after another. Every one of them was covered in wounds, but their eyes were bright. They looked at one another without speaking, yet each saw in the others' eyes the relief of surviving a calamity and the determination to protect balance.

In the distance, the guardian of the Deep Sea Forbidden Land arrived in a fishing boat. At the sight of the coast, his eyes filled with awe.

"Do you need help?" the old man asked.

Tang San shook his head and helped his companions to their feet. "It's time for us to go home."

The road home was long and difficult. They chose no shortcut, walking step by step as they watched life slowly return to the continent after the war. The seal on the Far North Ice Plains grew stable again, new vines sprouted in the southern marshes, the wind in the Mist Forest grew gentle, and the bells of Heaven Dou City rang once more, full of hope.

Dai Mubai had recovered. Although a trace of spatial energy still remained within him, it had given his Hell Spirit Cat a slight spatial-attribute mutation, making him stronger than before.

The Balance Council continued to operate, with one new duty: to record the secret of the Primordial Plane and warn future generations that balance was not a destination, but a process that must be protected forever; power was not a goal, but the courage to shoulder responsibility.

Tang San stood atop the rebuilt bell tower, gazing at the lights of countless homes across the continent as he rubbed the remaining fragment of the Proof of Balance in his hand. He knew that Li Mo's shadow might not have completely faded, and that the temptation of the Primordial Plane might appear again, but he was no longer afraid.

For he understood that true balance lay not in the chaos of nothingness, but in the heart of every person who protected peace; true eternity lay not in a solution that settled everything once and for all, but in the conviction passed down from generation to generation.

The night breeze brushed past, carrying scents from afar. Tang San clenched his fist, a resolute light shining in his eyes.

Their vigil continued.

And the story of this continent would be told forever.