Staying in the sect, controlling beasts and cultivating immortals

The viscous, cold, dark green seawater, imbued with an ancient, deathly aura, silently lapped against the black coastline strewn with jagged rocks.

The sky was a perpetually thick, leaden-gray fog, oppressively suffocating. This was one of the most forbidden zones of the spirit world, a no-man's-land for life—the Sea of ​​Buried Stars.

Legend has it that this is the final resting place of the remains of ancient stars that fell and the laws of the Great Dao collapsed.

Deep within a sea cave partially obscured by a massive, twisted skeleton.

The air distorted slightly, and then a dull, egg-sized, emerald-gold lotus seed, its surface covered with spiderweb-like cracks, appeared out of thin air and gently landed on the cold, black stone ground.

The moment it landed, the lotus seed made a very slight "crack" sound, several new cracks spread out, and the last faint emerald-gold radiance was completely extinguished, turning it into a stubborn rock weathered by time.

A deathly silence enveloped the cave. Only the hollow sobbing of the waves outside and the mournful shrieks of an unknown entity faintly emanating from the thick fog.

Time loses its meaning here.

It might take a few days, or it might take a few months.

Finally, on the surface of that stubborn lotus seed, in the deepest crack, a faint glimmer appeared.

As faint as the last spark of a candle flickering in the wind.

Immediately afterwards, as if this spark had ignited some kind of indomitable will, a faint white-gold light struggled and stubbornly shone from inside the dim lotus seed.

The light pulsed as slowly as the faint heartbeat of a newborn baby.

With each throbbing, the cracks on the surface of the lotus seed seemed to heal slightly... a tiny bit? At the same time, a faint, almost imperceptible wisp of life, like the first sprout of grass emerging from the frozen earth after a cold winter, slowly spread from inside the lotus seed, carrying a purified, newborn sense of purity.

This glimmer of life, like a beacon in the darkness, was instantly captured by the powerful divine sense lingering outside the cave!
"Huh?!" A low, hoarse groan, filled with surprise and disbelief, rang out from outside the cave, carrying a harsh, metallic sound.

boom!
The massive skeleton that had been looming over the cave entrance was instantly shattered by a terrifying force! A tall, imposing figure blocked the entrance, casting a huge shadow.

The man who arrived was Wang Cheng! But his appearance at that moment was so miserable that it was almost ferocious!
His left arm was severed at the shoulder, the remaining stump showing atrophied and charred muscles, entwined with wisps of lingering, grayish-black aura of annihilation, like maggots clinging to his bone, slowly gnawing away at his remaining domineering blood energy.

The body, once as strong and powerful as a dragon, is now emaciated, covered with deep, bone-revealing wounds, old and new, some still oozing dark red blood.

His armor was already tattered and barely covered his body. Only his eyes, which had once burned with fierce fighting spirit, were now bloodshot, yet still sharp as a wounded lone wolf, staring intently at the lotus seed in the cave that was emitting a faint life force!
That pure life force, like the only lighthouse in the darkness, instantly rekindled his nearly exhausted flame of life. He recognized that aura! It was… Chen Xueqing!

"Xueqing girl?!" Wang Cheng's voice was hoarse and cracked, trembling violently. His huge body staggered forward a step, his one arm instinctively reaching out, but then freezing halfway, as if afraid that his heavy breath would extinguish that glimmer of light.

"The Changsheng Brothers... Where are the Changsheng Brothers?!"

His bloodshot eyes frantically searched the small cave, but found nothing but the lotus seed. A tremendous fear gripped him instantly. Could it be... that this lotus seed was all that was left? Could it be that Brother Changsheng... did he... protect Xueqing...?
"Cough cough... Stupid ox! What are you howling about!" A cold, weak, but clearly impatient voice came from the side of the cave entrance.

In the shadows, a figure that was almost blending into the darkness struggled to emerge.

Ling Wuying!
He looks worse than Wang Cheng.

Half of his body appeared in a strange semi-transparent state, as if it would melt into the air at any moment. That was the terrible consequence of the Shadow Escape talent being severely damaged and unable to be reconstituted after its origin was severed by the laws.

The other half of his body was covered with a thin layer of ice crystals that shimmered with stardust-like cold light, and every breath he took carried a bone-chilling cold. The Lonely Star Cold Iron Shadow Dagger in his hand was reduced to half, and was tucked diagonally into his waist.

His face was as pale as paper, his lips were frozen purple, and his breath was as weak as a candle flickering in the wind.

"Cough cough... that wisp of aura... there's still a trace... that damned Chaos Emperor's blood... though it's so faint you can barely smell it..." Ling Wuying coughed, blood frothing with icy shards spilling from the corner of his mouth, his cold eyes fixed on the lotus seed. "That Yu guy... his life is tougher than a void worm in the star field... he won't die so easily... he's definitely... inside..."

Although his voice was cold, a barely perceptible hint of concern flashed in the depths of his eyes when he mentioned Yu Changsheng.

"Inside the lotus seed?" Wang Cheng was stunned, his huge one-armed figure pointing at the egg-sized rock. "This... how is this possible? Both of them were able to get in?" Then, the astonishment on his face turned into wild joy. "It's good that they're not dead! It's good that they're not dead! I knew it! Brother Changsheng is so lucky! And so is Xueqing!" He waved his one-armed figure excitedly, aggravating his wound and making him wince in pain, but he didn't care at all.

"A stupid ox is a stupid ox!" Ling Wuying cursed without any politeness.

"Use your brain, corrupted by the annihilation energy! Their current condition... is not much better than ours... perhaps even worse! This lotus seed... is the last bulwark of life... but also a prison! Relying on it to repair itself... I'm afraid they won't wake up even when the Sea of ​​Burial Stars dries up..."

He took a breath, his sharp eyes scanning the cracks on the lotus seed's surface. "It must be... an external force!"

Wang Cheng's ecstatic joy froze instantly, replaced by anxiety: "External force? How can they help? My Overlord Blood Qi is almost completely depleted!"

"Shut up, you stupid cow."

Ling Wuying's voice grew even colder. He leaned against the icy cave wall, his half-transparent body appearing and disappearing in the shadows, while the half covered in ice crystals emanated a chilling aura.

He stretched out his hand, which was not yet completely frozen and covered with fine cracks, and with difficulty, a tiny, equally faint, yet chilling stardust-like glimmer of light condensed at his fingertips.

"By brute force, you will only break down their last shred of life force by injecting your nearly extinguished inner energy."

His gaze was as sharp as a wounded night owl, fixed on the deepest cracks on the lotus seed's surface: "See these? These cracks... are the gaps leading inside, their last passage for exchanging with the outside world. Annihilation energy, the deathly laws of the Burial Star Sea... and the damaged Dao aura on our two crippled bodies... can all seep into these gaps. Right now, this lotus seed is a leaky, dilapidated house!"

Wang Cheng's pupils contracted, and a huge fear gripped him: "Then...what should I do? I can't just watch it leak!" He paced around anxiously, his heavy footsteps making muffled sounds on the cold ground.

“So the external force isn’t about forcibly pouring it in,” Ling Wuying took a deep breath, the cold air stinging his lungs, “it’s about… plugging the leak… and… drawing in light.”

He paused, seemingly gathering his strength to speak, or perhaps rehearsing an extremely dangerous plan: "My Shadow Corruption Origin... has been torn apart... but my Frostbite Power is being nourished by the chill of this godforsaken place, barely clinging to life... cough cough..."

He coughed up blood froth mixed with icy crystals.

"What I can do is use the remaining Shadow Erosion talent to temporarily freeze the space around the lotus seed, slowing down the erosion speed of the Deathly Stillness Law of the Burial Star Sea, just like nailing a few ice plates to a dilapidated house to block the wind."

"Then... what about guiding the light?" Wang Chengxiang grasped at this straw.

"The light... is that little bit of your almost dried-up Tyrant Blood!" Ling Wuying's gaze shifted to the charred and rotting wound on Wang Cheng's severed arm. "The Chaos Emperor Blood... although it has been annihilated and contaminated... the core trace of the 'life' essence... is still there! That is the blood guide of the Changsheng brothers... and it shares the same origin as the Emperor Blood remnant in the lotus seed!"

Wang Cheng was suddenly jolted, looking down at his severed arm: "You mean..."

"Strip out that last bit of your... clean, pure core of domineering blood energy!" Ling Wuying's eyes were filled with an undeniable determination.

"Like...like lighting the last bit of lamp oil! Slowly guide the energy along the natural...energy 'patterns' on the lotus seed...don't rush...don't be forceful...like dewdrops...moistening the parched roots...awakening the lotus seed's own...repairing instinct...guiding it...to absorb the power of the star debris in this Sea of ​​Buried Stars!"

This plan is brutal and meticulous.

Stripping away the core of the Overlord Blood Qi is equivalent to Wang Cheng abandoning the last source that protects him, completely exposing himself to the erosion of the Deathly Silence Law and Annihilation Qi of the Burial Star Sea, facing a near-death experience.

Ling Wuying's maintenance of the frozen space was also depleting his already fragmented Shadow Escape talent and Ice Sealing Source.

Wang Cheng didn't hesitate at all. He grinned, revealing a mouthful of bloodied teeth, his smile more like a grimace: "Damn it... I thought it was something serious! It's just setting a fire!"

"Brother Changsheng and Xueqing are waiting inside!" He strode up to Lianzi, his burly but broken body kneeling down. His only remaining right arm clenched into a fist, and beneath the dull bronze skin on his arm, bluish-purple veins bulged out like resurrected dragons.

"Roar—!" A roar suppressing endless pain burst forth from the depths of his throat. The gray-black annihilation energy entangled at the severed arm seemed to be stimulated, and it retaliated wildly, instantly spreading upwards along his meridians, bringing excruciating pain and the cold illusion of his body being torn apart.

Wang Cheng's face was contorted, and sweat instantly soaked through his tattered clothes, but his clenched fist burst forth with the last and purest dark golden light!

That wasn't burning, it was tempering! It was stripping away! It was forcibly "squeezing" out the last bit of life force from the polluted and corroded domineering blood energy! A single drop... just a single drop, like melted dark gold amber, yet radiating the purest, most intense, and unyielding vitality of the chaotic emperor's blood essence!

The instant that drop of primordial blood appeared, Wang Cheng felt as if his spine had been ripped out. His aura visibly weakened, his skin turned ashen, and his eyes dimmed considerably. The annihilation energy that had been binding his severed arm lost most of its resistance and, like a shark smelling blood, ferociously pounced on his entire body!
"Shadowless...Quick!" Wang Cheng squeezed out a hoarse voice through gritted teeth. His hand, imbued with the essence of golden blood, carefully and almost reverently approached the deepest crack on the surface of the lotus seed.

"Shadow Erosion - Condensed Abyss!" Ling Wuying shouted in a low voice, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes.

His remaining half of the Lonely Star Cold Iron Shadow Dagger hummed and transformed into a dark blue cold star, disappearing into the void surrounding the lotus seed.

At the same time, he slammed his cracked hand onto the ground, and an extremely cold aura, containing the meaning of freezing time and space and annihilation, burst out from his frozen body.

Click!Click!
The light in the space about a foot around the lotus seed suddenly became thick and dim, as if it were covered by a very thin glass dome that was constantly condensing dark blue ice crystals.

The pervasive, deathly erosion of the Burial Star Sea was instantly slowed down several times over! The price was that Ling Wuying's already transparent half of his body became even more illusory, while the half covered in frost had its cracks deepened, and the cold air almost froze his life force.

It's now!

The drop of pure golden Chaos Emperor Blood essence at Wang Cheng's fingertip seemed to possess a life of its own, slowly dripping down and precisely touching the crack in the lotus seed.

Om-!
The lotus seed shuddered violently! The crack seemed to come alive, greedily sucking up the precious drop of golden liquid. In an instant, the faint white-gold light inside the lotus seed suddenly shone brightly!
Although the light was still faint, it was no longer just pulsating; it was as if a fresh, vibrant energy had been injected into it, and it suddenly became several times brighter!
It's done?!
Just as a flash of wild joy appeared in Wang Cheng's eyes, a sudden change occurred!

The moment the lotus seed absorbed the essence of the Emperor's blood, it was as if an extremely weak yet exceptionally resilient "fuse" had been ignited! An invisible suction force originating from within the lotus seed was suddenly generated!

This suction force was extremely weak, yet it carried an indescribable rhythm of "Tao".

It wasn't aimed at Wang Cheng and Ling Wuying, but rather... it precisely captured the purest fragments of the Dao of Extinction of Stars, which were ubiquitous in the Burial Star Sea and remained after the stars had decayed and died!

Outside the cave, the viscous, ink-like waters of the Sea of ​​Burial Stars, containing endless desolation and the remnants of stars, seemed to be stirred by an invisible force.

Strands of extremely faint grayish-white and dark purple energy, barely perceptible to the naked eye and only detectable by divine sense, began to penetrate the ice barrier set up by Ling Wuying, like dust drawn by a magnet, and gradually converged towards the lotus seed!

The other cracks and fissures on the surface of the lotus seed were no longer just "holes," but had become "entrances" for autonomously absorbing energy! The edge of the crack that had initially absorbed the essence of the Emperor's blood was now, at a speed visible to the naked eye, extremely slowly... healing itself! Although it was only a trace, it was like tearing open a sliver of light called "hope" in the endless darkness of despair!

"It...it's absorbing itself?!" Wang Cheng stared in disbelief, his immense exhaustion and the pain of annihilation and erosion seemingly lessened.

For the first time, Ling Wuying's cold, pale face revealed an expression of extreme shock: "...The embryonic form of the Dao...operating autonomously...birth from oblivion...it is actually...evolving?!"

He saw it more clearly than Wang Cheng. It wasn't just absorption. Within the faint light inside the lotus seed, there seemed to be an invisible vortex slowly rotating, fusioning the residual power of the absorbed star's destruction with the life force of that drop of imperial blood in some mysterious and profound way!
This is clearly the embryonic form of the Dao of Returning to Nothingness, which Yu Changsheng conceived at the final moment in the Sea of ​​the Origin of Laws. After obtaining its first external "fuel," it began its instinctive revival and growth! (End of Chapter)