Staying in the sect, controlling beasts and cultivating immortals

The ocean of the fundamental laws surged and roared.

Dark gold, dark purple, and the gray energy symbolizing the end of annihilation, like three raging primordial pythons, coil, tear, annihilate, and regenerate in an ineffable dimension.

Yu Changsheng and Chen Xueqing's figures floated and sank in the vortex of the universe's creation and return to stillness, as insignificant as dust, yet as resilient as the first ray of light that broke through the chaos.

The blood seeping from Yu Changsheng's seven orifices was no longer bright red, but a golden liquid mixed with fine stardust—the traces of the Chaos Emperor's blood being washed away and violently evaporated by the source. With each heartbeat, the enormous chaotic vortex on his back was pulled apart—formed by the mutated terrifying wound left by the Annihilation Envoy's annihilation vision.

At the center of the vortex, the Guixu Star Orbit Compass floated, the two ancient runes "Silence" and "Life" spinning and colliding at an unprecedented speed. Each contact unleashed sparks of law powerful enough to tear apart the souls of ordinary great beings. Right at the heart of this storm, a tiny, perfectly round point of light, containing a certain immortal will—the embryonic form of the Guixu Dao Embryo—had already taken shape!

He struggled to maintain his balance, as if forging the universe within a divine furnace. The Star Forger's warning still echoed in his ears: "Void-devouring worms... embryonic claws... melting wounds and compasses... nurturing one's own Dao embryo..."

Just then, the raging "surface" of the Origin Sea suddenly collapsed downwards!
An indescribable will, filled with cold, mechanical greed and a destructive, annihilating desire, descended with a deafening roar!
Space shattered and peeled away like fragile glass.

The mechanical giant tree rooted in the Starry Sky Ark wreckage plaza, its core—that pulsating, dark purple crystal with black cracks—forcefully tore open the dimensional barrier, projecting its main body, or rather, a part of its main body, into this primordial land!
The hideous black patterns on the surface of the crystal came to life, transforming into countless waving void tentacles made of pure annihilation energy. They frantically took root in the flowing source of the laws, like a greedy whale sucking water, devouring the torrent of dark gold, dark purple, and gray.

The frequency of the pulsation inside the crystal suddenly increased, and each pulsation emitted a muffled roar like the explosion of an ancient star. A will of return to the void, far surpassing the embryonic form of Yu Changsheng's Dao, and seemingly capable of devouring the entire universe, surged forth and locked onto that tiny glimmer of light!
Following closely behind the crystals were endless, densely packed metal puppets!
They are no longer the silent, kneeling stone sculptures in the square; now each one has transformed into the most terrifying predator.

The cold metal joints gleamed with an ominous light as they were swept away by the torrent of laws. They plunged into the sea of ​​origin, opened their mouths covered with energy serrations, and frantically tore and devoured the fragments of life laws and annihilation laws that were enough to give birth to stars, transforming them into pure destructive energy. Through some invisible channel, the energy was continuously injected into the expanding dark purple crystal in the center!
The crystal projection rapidly solidified and grew stronger as it devoured the object, and the terrifying pressure, like a massive, tangible mountain, pressed down heavily on Yu Changsheng and the girl he was protecting who was pretending to be dead.

The mournful cry of the Guixu Star Orbit Compass instantly turned into a shrill scream on the verge of collapse. The rotation speed of the two runes began to become disordered, and the light of the newly solidified Dao Embryo bud swayed violently, as if it would be completely blown out by this boundless greed at any moment.

"Roar--!"

Yu Changsheng's eyes were bloodshot, and a beast-like roar burst from his throat. It was not pain, but the final outburst before he was driven to the brink of despair and his life was about to end.

The Chaos Emperor's blood seemed to be ignited, surging and roaring through his broken meridians, transforming into blazing golden flames that surged upwards, desperately resisting the will that oppressed his soul.

He struggled to raise his violently trembling right hand, the flames of the Chaos Emperor's Blood enveloping the last remaining trace of the Dao of Annihilation of Stars in his sea of ​​consciousness, forcibly condensing it at his fingertips.

A tiny black hole, deeper than ink and more deathly still than nothingness, painstakingly took shape at his fingertips—the Annihilation Abyss Finger!

This finger strike exhausted almost all of his remaining strength and spiritual essence, carrying a tragic sense of mutual destruction, as he fiercely pointed at the core of the crystal projection, the point where the pulse was most intense!

A silent collision!
The instant the black hole at the fingertip made contact with the crystal projection was not a deafening explosion, but annihilation! The power of annihilation gathered at the fingertip and the torrent of energy devoured by the crystal canceled each other out and annihilated each other, forming a rapidly expanding point of absolute nothingness.

Yu Changsheng's entire arm's flesh and blood rapidly disintegrated from his fingertips, turning into the most basic particles and dust. Terrifying annihilation spread rapidly along his arm!
Just as the life-or-death stalemate was at its most critical moment, another unexpected event occurred!
Chen Xueqing, who was being held back by Yu Changsheng's Chaos Emperor Blood and was in the deepest state of suspended animation, suddenly shuddered!
The illusory image of the Pure Lotus above her head, which was already broken and almost extinguished, suddenly erupted under the dual stimulation of the crystal's pure will to devour the void and the tragic aura of Yu Changsheng burning away his imperial blood!

That was not an attack, but a final act of protection and sacrifice!
The broken lotus petals peeled off one by one, like burning blue flames, ignoring the distance in space, and instantly bloomed layer upon layer in front of Yu Changsheng, transforming into a seemingly fragile yet endlessly purifying and life-tragedy-filled lotus barrier!
The burning barrier represents the last remaining trace of Chen Xueqing's life and the core essence of her natal lotus!
laugh--!
A beam of annihilation light, almost solidified, shot from the core of the crystal projection. Originally locked onto Yu Changsheng's brow, it struck the last blooming blue lotus barrier with tremendous force at the last millimeter!

There was no earth-shattering roar, only the despairing sound of melting.

The incredibly resilient lotus barrier, imbued with the true meaning of cosmic purification, melted and collapsed rapidly under the annihilating light, like the first snow falling under the blazing sun! The disappearance of each petal took away a trace of Chen Xueqing's already extremely faint aura.

Her body suddenly became cold and transparent in Yu Changsheng's arms, as if it would completely turn into specks of light and disappear at any moment!
"Xueqing—!!!"

Witnessing this scene, all of Yu Changsheng's calculations, all his understanding of the Dao Embryo, and all his struggles for survival were completely crushed at this moment by an indescribable, soul-tearing pain!

It was a despair and madness that was billions of times deeper than the annihilation of the physical body and the collapse of the foundation of one's Dao!
He let out a scream that was not human, and something in the depths of his soul suddenly exploded!

But in that brief moment when the Azure Lotus Barrier was struck, Chen Xueqing sacrificed her essence, and the Annihilation Death Ray was blocked by a fraction of a billionth!
Just as the crystal projection paused slightly due to its greedy devouring of the pure life essence of the Azure Lotus, and a barely perceptible ripple of "satisfaction" appeared in the will of annihilation within it!
An ancient maxim from the Starry Sky Forgers, like a cold lightning bolt, cleaved through Yu Changsheng's sea of ​​consciousness, which was filled with despair and madness: "The Void... is not the end, but the origin!"

An opportunity! A once-in-a-lifetime, fleeting chance to turn things around!

Ignoring the terror of impending annihilation, Yu Changsheng's remaining half of his arm, burning with the blood of the Chaos Emperor, lunged forward!
Instead of attacking the crystal, he plunged it fiercely into the core of the enormous chaotic vortex on his back—the Guixu Star Orbit Compass that had given birth to the embryonic form of his own Dao!
"With my broken body as the catalyst! With the ruins as the fuel! The Dao Embryo—emerges!"

puff!
As if grasping his still-beating heart, he plunged his five fingers deep into the chaotic vortex and pulled them outward with a sudden jerk! Accompanied by unimaginable pain and a tremendous sense of emptiness as his life essence was forcibly torn apart, the tiny, newly conceived embryonic form of the Dao of Returning to Nothingness, which contained all his essence, energy, spirit, and understanding, was violently pulled out of the center of the compass by him, dripping with his "heart's blood"!
At this moment, time seemed to stand still. That faint nascent form of the Dao embryo, freed from the compass's restraints, did not dissipate.

Its core singularity suddenly collapsed and then burst outward!

It's not an attack, but rather—assimilation! Devouring!

Using the last of his divine soul power, Yu Changsheng transformed the bursting and collapsing Dao embryo into a miniature, reverse-rotating "Return to the Void Hole." With his endless pain, his obsession with protecting Chen Xueqing, and his complete understanding of the true meaning of annihilation and creation, he precisely and forcefully "pressed" it into the center of the energy ripple that was greedily devouring the origin of the Azure Lotus in the core of the crystal projection—the place of that instant "satisfaction"!
"Buzz—!!!"

An indescribable, terrifying shockwave, exceeding the limits of sound, instantly swept across the entire Sea of ​​the Origin of Laws!
The crystal projection froze abruptly! The vast, cold, and greedy will within emitted a silent, shrill scream filled with astonishment, chaos, and incomprehension!
Its act of devouring the life force of the green lotus came to an abrupt halt, replaced by a violent rejection and a frenzied internal conflict!

The miniature reversed Guixu hole formed from Yu Changsheng's Guixu Dao embryonic form was like a drop of cold water thrown into a boiling oil pan, or a highly poisonous seed falling into a fertile swamp!

It greedily devoured the vast and complex energy of the void within the crystal, and at the same time, it frantically injected and polluted the core of the crystal with Yu Changsheng's unique "Destruction and Rebirth" imprint, which was a fusion of the Chaos Emperor's Blood, the Dao of Star Extinction, the life force of star core crystal fragments, and the primordial breath of the Star Origin Ancestral Vein!
The writhing black veins on the surface of the crystal suddenly twitched and twisted violently, and the dark purple light of the crystal itself expanded and contracted out of control amidst the crazy flickering!
A destructive surge of energy erupted uncontrollably from within, tearing the surrounding void and fragments of laws into chaos!
"No!!! I am... the perfect vessel for the Dao... You... thief... defilement!!!"

A fragment of thought, a mixture of cold mechanics, endless greed, and hysterical madness, exploded in a violent energy storm.

Just as the crystal projection was on the verge of exploding out of control, a blurry, illusory yet supremely majestic and sorrowful light and shadow of will suddenly condensed and emerged from the violently conflicting core energy storm of the crystal! The outline of that light and shadow was vaguely the Starry Sky Forger!
His ethereal gaze seemed to pierce through the turbulent energy currents, landing on Yu Changsheng, who was exhausted, half of his body was annihilating, yet he still clung tightly to Chen Xueqing's cold body.

That gaze held a hint of relief, a hint of contentment, and a trace of indescribable weariness, which finally coalesced into a torrent of information that pierced the soul:

"The Dao embryo returns to oneness? No... it's the flame... that has been ignited!"

"Pollution...is also...the beginning of new life..."

"Patrolling the Abyss... Eye of Calamity... Devouring Void Mother Nest... Coordinates... Spirit Realm... Burial Star Sea... Origin Monument..."

"Walk……!"

The last piece of information was a distorted soul imprint made of pure coordinate information, which, along with the burning of the final will of the Starry Sky Forger, crashed violently into the wailing and shattering Guixu Star Orbit Compass in Yu Changsheng's sea of ​​consciousness!

Boom—!
The crystal projection, which carried the final will of the creator, could no longer be maintained and exploded completely!
Like the primordial singularity at the beginning of the universe, an unimaginably terrifying torrent of annihilation and creation energy swept wildly in all directions!

A devastating shockwave swept in!

Yu Changsheng's remaining consciousness only had time to follow the instinct of the final imprint of the forger, and poured the broken Guixu Star Orbit Compass in his sea of ​​consciousness, along with the power of the Dao Embryo nascent form that had just been reverse-contaminated and devoured part of the crystal's origin and thus become slightly more stable, together with his remaining Chaos Emperor Blood, into the core of the Purifying Green Lotus in Chen Xueqing's body that was about to be completely extinguished—that was the anchor point that the forger's faint light had stabilized for the last time!
“Life… Rune… Fix…!” His shattered soul let out a silent roar.

hum!
The last remaining core of the Pure World Green Lotus, after receiving the infusion of the power from the same Dao Embryo, the Chaos Emperor's blood, and the compass "Life" rune, suddenly burst forth with an unprecedented emerald-gold light!

The light was no longer an illusion, but transformed into a solid, egg-sized, emerald-gold lotus seed. The surface of the lotus seed was naturally engraved with countless fine runes containing the laws of life! This lotus seed was like the embryo of the most solid cosmic barrier, instantly enveloping him and Chen Xueqing completely!

The instant the lotus seed was formed, a torrent of energy powerful enough to completely flatten a star field crashed into it!

puff!
The lotus seed trembled violently, the runes on its surface flickered wildly, emitting a shattering cry, and its volume was instantly compressed by nearly half! But in the end, it was not destroyed immediately!

Like the most tenacious reef in a raging sea, the lotus seed was violently thrown out by this irresistible shockwave. In the chaotic and violent turbulent currents of the Sea of ​​Law Origin, along the distorted coordinate channel leading to the "Sea of ​​Burial Stars" in the Spirit Realm, indicated by the Forger's mark, it transformed into a dim emerald-gold stream of light and shot away at a speed that transcended space!

In the silent, lightless dimensional rift, only the desolate storm of destruction, like a cosmic scar, remained after the crystal explosion, raging and roaring.

However, on the edge of the storm, a tiny, cold fragment of will, filled with greed and malice, clung to the last trace of energy that the lotus seed had dissipated as it fled, like a maggot clinging to a bone, and silently disappeared into the depths of the dimensional turbulence.

In another direction, the pure annihilation gaze that had once descended upon the Star Ember Corridor and the Star Origin Ancestral Vein flickered faintly in the distant depths of space, coldly locking onto the direction in which the lotus seed had vanished—the Spirit Realm. (End of Chapter)