Staying in the sect, controlling beasts and cultivating immortals

Yu Changsheng slowly raised his head.

All the pain, weakness, and struggle on his face melted away like ice and snow the moment he witnessed Wang Cheng's body burning and bones shattering, and Chen Xueqing's tearful protection.

All that remained was an absolute, chilling coldness that transcended all things, and... a murderous intent!
That was a killing intent that transcended the wounds of one's own body and the limits of life and death!
His gaze passed over the burning Wang Cheng, over the weeping Chen Xueqing, and over the overwhelming Netherworld Blood Palm. Like a sharp blade that had traversed time and space, it precisely nailed to Elder Xueming's blood-red eyes, which were filled with shock and rage.

There was no roaring, no howling.

Only a low shout, like the primordial chaos at its beginning and the resounding voice of the Great Dao, rang out:
"Return to the ruins."

It wasn't a sword technique, nor a supernatural power, but... an imperial edict!
A decree commands chaos, a decree commands return to nothingness!
Om-!
The Chaos Purple Spirit Emperor Sword, which was floating beside him, trembled violently! The Returning Void Sword Seal on it instantly expanded and rotated, transforming into a gray-black vortex core that devoured everything!
Rumble!
The entire land of Qingzhou changed color! It wasn't just a sudden upheaval, but a deeper kind of "annihilation"!
Centered on Yu Changsheng, a domain whose "color" could not be described in words suddenly unfolded—the Guixu Sword Domain!
Within this realm, space loses its meaning, and time comes to an end. There is no light, no darkness, only eternal, absolute nothingness! All things—laws, energy, matter, even thought—are being forcibly decomposed, assimilated, and reduced to ultimate nothingness by a force originating from the deepest source of chaos!

This was precisely what he had comprehended during the inner demon tribulation caused by the backlash of the Dao, when he slew the illusory image of the remnant pupa—the true prototype of the Returning Void Sword Domain! At this moment, with his body wounded by the Dao, boundless killing intent as his guide, and the Chaos Purple Spirit Emperor Sword as his weapon, he descended fiercely!

laugh--!
That colossal hand, condensed from the very essence of the Netherworld Blood Sea, with its overwhelming power, touched the edge of the Guixu Sword Domain like a red-hot iron piercing through millennia-old ice!
There was no explosion, no loud noise.

Only a chillingly intense ablation!
The filthy waves of blood, the solid white bones, and the wailing vengeful spirits vanished silently and without a trace, like snow splashed on a scorching hot iron! The giant eye in the palm, filled with evil and malice, emitted a silent, twisted shriek. The surface of the eyeball was instantly covered with gray cracks, and the viscous pus and blood were decomposed into nothingness before they could flow out!
The giant hand is collapsing! It is being forcibly erased from existence by the power of "Return to Nothingness" in an irreversible and unstoppable manner!

"No—!! This is impossible! What kind of power is this?!" Elder Xueming's smugness and cruelty froze completely, replaced by boundless fear and disbelief! He clearly felt his connection with the Blood Sea and the Styx River's origin being forcibly severed and annihilated by a supreme power! The aura emanating from the Returning Void Sword Domain made even this mid-stage Void Refinement expert feel a tremor from the depths of his soul!
He wanted to extricate himself and withdraw his supernatural powers, but it was too late!
The speed at which the Guixu Sword Domain expands has surpassed all comprehension!

The gray-black boundary of "nothingness," like the shadow of death, swept past Wang Cheng and Chen Xueqing, who were locked in a stalemate.

A miracle happened.

The raging, self-destructive flames on Wang Cheng's body were gently smoothed out the moment they touched the power of the Void, as if by an invisible hand.

The flames that burned his life were not extinguished, but their violent backlash was quietly dissolved and soothed by the Daoist charm of "encompassing" and "transforming" contained in the Guixu Sword Domain. It transformed into a relatively gentle yet more refined power, protecting his broken body and preventing the further loss of his life force.

Chen Xueqing's crumbling Azure Lotus Purification Barrier, under the influence of the power of the Returning Void, instantly healed the cracks at its edges, stabilized its dim light, and even faintly absorbed a trace of the profound Daoist essence of "new life emerging from the end of destruction" in the Returning Void Sword Domain, making the barrier even more solid and resilient.

The filthy, malevolent energy that had invaded her body was silently decomposed and dissipated, as if it had encountered its nemesis.

The Void Sword Domain targets only "enemies" and "evil," and for them, it is about protection!

The sword domain swept past them without stopping, carrying Yu Changsheng's icy killing intent that could freeze the ages, instantly engulfing Elder Xue Ming in mid-air and the blood river waves beneath his feet!

"Ah—!! Netherworld Blood Sea! Protect my true… uh!"

Elder Xue Ming's horrified screams came to an abrupt halt!

Within the Void Sword Domain, all things return to nothingness!
The protective blood aura boiling around him burst silently, like a soap bubble in the sunlight!

The cracked "Undying Nether Bone Armor" couldn't even last a moment before crumbling into dust!
His withered yet terrifyingly powerful body, like a weathered sand sculpture, rapidly spread gray cracks starting from his fingertips, then disintegrated and vanished!
He attempted to detonate his primordial spirit and use a secret technique to perish together with his opponent, but the power of his primordial spirit was ruthlessly decomposed and devoured by the omnipresent power of the Void!
At the mid-stage of the Void Refinement realm, the renowned Blood Nether Elder of the Xuanming Sect, before he could even utter a final lament, vanished completely into nothingness within this gray-black domain that symbolized the end! His body and soul were annihilated!

The blood-red river beneath his feet vanished without a trace!

The world suddenly fell silent.

All that remained was the silent, expanding gray-black boundary of the Guixu Sword Domain, and the absolute stillness within it that froze the soul.

Pfft!
Yu Changsheng could no longer hold on. His body swayed, and he collapsed heavily to one knee in the void. The Guixu Sword Domain instantly shrank back into his body like a tide. The Chaos Purple Spirit Emperor Sword let out a mournful cry, its light dimming as it flew back to his side. His face was ashen, like that of a dead man. He spat out another mouthful of foul blood mixed with withered roots, his breath extremely weak, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment. Forcibly activating this nascent form of the Guixu Sword Domain, which had exceeded its limits, had almost completely detonated his Dao injury, draining his last bit of power.

"Lao Yu!"

"Brother Changsheng!"

Wang Cheng's flames had already died down, his severed arm was charred black, and his breath was weak, yet he struggled to lunge towards Yu Changsheng. Ignoring her own injuries, Chen Xueqing transformed into a streak of emerald light and rushed over, pouring the power of the Life Gem into Yu Changsheng's body without reservation.

"We won...we won?" Below in the imperial city, Shi Poshan leaned on his Rift-Splitting Blade, staring at the sky in disbelief. Mo Heng collapsed beside the array plate, panting heavily.

However, this deathly victory did not last even a moment.

"Ho...ho ho..."

A chilling, low hissing sound, as if emanating from the deepest depths of the underworld, like countless sandpapers rubbing against bones, suddenly came from the depths of the earth. Boom! Boom! Boom!
The entire northern part of Qingzhou trembled violently! More violently than ever before!
Centered on the ruins of the Zhao family, the land within a radius of hundreds of miles throbbed and cracked wildly, like a boiling porridge pot! Countless thick, gray roots, as dark as dead iron and covered with ferocious suckers, burst forth from the earth like a swarm of giant pythons of death, dancing madly! Each root exuded an aura of withering and devouring that was a hundred times stronger than before!
The earth rapidly turned to sand and collapsed amidst mournful cries, and the desolate, deathly zone spread like a plague! The sky was shrouded in a pervasive, deathly gray haze, preventing even sunlight from penetrating!

An even more ancient, purer, and more greedy will, mixed with the ferocity stimulated by Elder Xue Ming's Blood Sea Origin and Yu Changsheng's Return to the Void, suddenly descended!
"Hiss...blood...chaos...return to nothingness...delicious..."

That howl carried a pure, soul-chilling hunger!
The ancient filthy pupa, which had been suppressed a thousand feet underground by the seal of the six beasts, actually began to break free of the seal ahead of schedule after absorbing part of the Blood Sea Origin that had been scattered after Elder Xue Ming's fall, as well as the Chaotic Returning Void Daoist Rhyme that had been scattered when Yu Changsheng unleashed the Returning Void Sword Domain!
Its core principles, which had been temporarily suppressed, began a frenzied transformation and counterattack as if nourished by the finest nutrients!

The sky above Qingzhou, where the flames of war had just been extinguished, was instantly shrouded in an even deeper, more despairing, and deathly silence. Yu Changsheng struggled to raise his head, looking at the countless death roots that burst forth from the earth, seemingly about to devour the heavens and earth, and at the rapidly spreading, deathly domain that turned all life into nothingness. In his dim eyes, a scene of apocalypse was reflected.

The real catastrophe has only just begun.

Dead silence.

A deathly stillness, deeper than the underworld and thicker than a sea of ​​blood, instantly seized the entire northern part of Qingzhou.

The ruins of the Zhao family are gone, replaced by a massive, ever-expanding, bottomless crater. At the crater's edge, the earth, like rotting leather, cracks and turns to sand, swallowed by a pure, decaying gray. Countless thick, ancient dragon-like gray roots surge wildly from the crater's depths, each covered with a dense network of constantly opening and closing serrated suckers, greedily drawing in everything remaining in the air—spiritual energy, dust, light, and even…sound.

"Hiss...blood...chaos...return to nothingness...delicious..."

That was not a sound, but a hungry shriek that directly affected the soul, carrying the desolation and greed accumulated over millennia, like billions of hungry maggots gnawing at the foundation of the world.

The ashen fog spread like a living thing, instantly turning vegetation to dust, crumbling rocks into sand, and even freezing and drying up flowing streams, leaving behind grayish-white salt stains. The sky was shrouded in thick, deathly gray clouds, cutting off the sun, moon, and stars, leaving only a suffocating darkness.

Above the imperial city, the chaotic light barrier, which had just caught its breath after the fall of Elder Xueming, groaned under the immense pressure of this pure Dao of "withering" and "devouring." The phantom of the Xuan Turtle trembled violently, and large swaths of the runes representing the earth's veins on its shell extinguished and turned to ashes!
Mo Heng coughed up blood again at the core of the main array, and the array plate emitted a piercing cracking sound, with cracks spreading like a spider web.

"Hold on! Earth ley line node! Full power!"

Mo Heng roared, blood streaming from his seven orifices, his hands pressed tightly against the array plate, frantically pouring his own blood essence and spiritual power into it, trying to maintain the crumbling barrier. The artisans of the Hundred Crafts Workshop were pale, but none of them retreated, desperately reinforcing the core array base.

"Old Yu! Xueqing!" Wang Cheng, dragging his broken body, tightly embraced Yu Changsheng, who was barely breathing and almost unconscious, with his only remaining left arm.

Chen Xueqing's face was deathly pale, blood still clinging to the corner of her mouth, but she forced herself to stand firm, her hands tightly gripping the Pure Lotus, transforming her remaining life essence into a faint emerald halo that enveloped Yu Changsheng and herself. However, that pure life light, amidst the pervasive gray mist, was like a candle flickering in the wind, relentlessly eroded and weakened.

Yu Changsheng's condition was the most dangerous. Forcibly activating the nascent form of the Returning Void Sword Domain was like detonating a star inside a cracked glass bottle.

Deep within his Dao Foundation, the withered Dao imprint from the ancient, decaying pupa, stimulated by the Blood Sea Origin and his own erupting power, spread wildly like a poisonous vine, eroding his chaotic origin. His meridians withered and broke inch by inch, and the ashen, decaying pupa phantom within his sea of ​​consciousness swelled and roared, almost completely devouring his will.

His face was a deathly gray-gold, his body was cold, and only a faint chaotic divine mark between his brows flickered stubbornly like a star about to be extinguished.

"No... Brother Changsheng's life force is rapidly fading away! That thing's Dao principles... are devouring him!" Chen Xueqing's voice was choked with sobs. Her life purification power had a negligible effect on the near-fundamental withering and erosion within Yu Changsheng's body.

"Roar--!"

Just as despair was spreading, six roars filled with anger and the will to protect resounded through the sky!
The Six Chaos Beasts! As extensions of Yu Changsheng's will and guardian spirits connected to the destiny of Qingzhou's earth veins, they sensed their master's impending death and the ultimate catastrophe facing this land!

The Xuan Turtle roared to the sky, its massive body bursting with an unprecedented earthy yellow divine light. Its four legs, like pillars stabilizing the sea, stomped heavily on the core earth vein of the imperial city!

The remaining runes on the tortoise shell lit up wildly, forcibly drawing upon the deeper earth vein dragon energy, transforming into countless condensed Xuanhuang chains. These chains did not attack the main body of the roots that broke through the soil, but rather, like the roots of a giant tree, they deeply penetrated into the unpolluted earth of Qingzhou, stabilizing the earth veins, slowing down the expansion of the gray and desolate area, and buying time for the imperial city's grand formation!

The Golden Roc transformed into a golden lightning bolt that tore through the gray mist, moving at extreme speed. Wherever it passed, space was cleaved with fine cracks. Its incomparably sharp golden aura slashed wildly at the ends of the dancing roots, attempting to sever their tentacles that drew life from the outside world.

Although each strike only leaves shallow scorch marks on the roots and cannot truly damage the main body, it successfully attracts the attention of some roots and disrupts its devouring rhythm.

The dragon coiled up, its mouth wide open, and the chaotic flames no longer burned away, but transformed into a sea of ​​fire covering half of the imperial city!

The flames, carrying the will of purification and isolation, burned fiercely, temporarily blocking the surging, ash-like mist and buying a sliver of breathing space for those below. The flames sizzled and melted upon contact with the ash mist, and the massive body of the fire dragon trembled violently, clearly indicating a great drain on its energy.

The colorful star deer stood in mid-air, its crystal antlers bursting forth with dazzling starlight.

This time, it wasn't confinement, but "Starry Sky Protection"! Countless gentle beams of starlight descended from the sky, landing precisely on Yu Changsheng, Wang Cheng, and Chen Xueqing, as well as on core members like Mo Heng and Shi Poshan. The power of the stars, with its miraculous effects of calming the mind, stabilizing the soul, and replenishing vital energy, temporarily alleviated their near-collapse state, especially exerting a slight suppressive effect on the impact of the remnant will within Yu Changsheng's sea of ​​consciousness. (End of Chapter)