Staying in the sect, controlling beasts and cultivating immortals

"Hahaha! Brother Changsheng! Little Xueqing! Well done!" Wang Cheng grinned widely, ignoring the excruciating pain intensifying from the annihilating aura, and laughed loudly. His laughter echoed through the deathly silent sea cave, filled with the ecstatic joy and triumph of surviving a catastrophe. He knew that although hope was as faint as a firefly, they had finally ignited it!

However, the shock in Ling Wuying's eyes was quickly replaced by a deeper wariness. "Stupid ox... don't be too happy..." he gasped, maintaining the frozen space and resisting the backlash from his own icy grip, leaving him swaying precariously. "The lotus seeds are beginning to absorb on their own... the noise is small... but in this godforsaken place... it's like a firefly in the dark..."

Before he finished speaking, an even colder, thicker divine consciousness, filled with endless greed and malice, swept across the coast of the Burial Star Sea like a frigid tide!
This divine sense was filled with the resentment of decaying stars and a hunger to devour all life, far surpassing the current state of Wang Cheng and Ling Wuying! It instantly locked onto the lotus seed inside the sea cave that was emitting faint fluctuations of life and the Dao of Annihilation!
Boom!

Outside the cave, the dark green waters of the Burial Star Sea churned violently. A massive, rotting claw, forcibly pieced together from countless star fragments, rotting sea beast bones, and twisted metal shards, wrapped in thick, dark green malevolent energy, tore through the fog and waves and slammed down on the sea cave entrance with the force of destruction!

Before the giant claw even arrived, the terrifying pressure had already cracked the ice barrier that Ling Wuying was barely maintaining at the cave entrance!

"Damn it! You're haunting me!" Wang Cheng roared, struggling to stand up, but the erosion of the annihilation energy and the weakness caused by the stripping away of his origin made his vision go black, and he could barely stand.

A cold glint flashed in Ling Wuying's eyes. He looked sharply at Wang Cheng, then glanced at the lotus seed on the ground, which was gradually becoming brighter, and made a decision: "Stupid ox! Protect the lotus seed! I'll go lure it away!"

"Bullshit! Going out like this is suicide!" Wang Cheng roared.

"I won't die... I still have... half a shadow life left..." Ling Wuying's figure suddenly became blurry, almost merging into the deepest shadow in the cave, with only the half of his body covered in frost barely visible. He abruptly pulled out the half of the Shadow Dagger stuck in the ground, the remaining eerie blue light on the dagger flashing wildly.

"Shadow Escape - Thousand Calamities!" he shouted, his body transforming into a twisted, almost imperceptible dim stream of light, carrying a resolute aura of self-destruction and a deliberately amplified wave of icy coldness. Like an arrow released from a bow, it did not head-on towards the giant claw, but grazed the edge of the giant claw and sped wildly towards the depths of the Burial Star Sea!

The trajectory of that streak of light instantly erupted with intense spatial fluctuations and a chilling Daoist aura, deliberately leaked by Ling Wuying and carrying the residual aura of Yu Changsheng's Chaos Emperor blood! It was like lighting a dazzling torch in the deathly darkness!

boom!
The terrifying, rotting giant claw abruptly halted in mid-air, seemingly drawn by the sudden, violent fluctuations and "tempting" aura. Its locked "target" momentarily became distracted and shifted. That cold, greedy will hesitated for an extremely brief moment between the faint fluctuations of the lotus seed and the larger "target" deliberately created by Ling Wuying!

It was that moment of hesitation!

The rotting giant claw changed its trajectory, abandoning the nearby sea cave with a shrill shriek that tore through space, and instead pursued Ling Wuying relentlessly in the direction he had fled! The churning black-green malevolent energy cleaved a terrifying trench in the sea!

"Shadowless—!" Wang Cheng roared in fury, his eyes bloodshot. He knew that Ling Wuying was risking his life to buy time for the people in the lotus seed, and for him as well! Exposing himself in this state to draw away the powerful enemy meant that the chances of survival were extremely slim!
The pressure at the tunnel entrance decreased sharply.

Wang Cheng turned around abruptly and looked at the lotus seeds on the ground. After absorbing more strands of the remnant power of the extinct stars, the lotus seeds seemed to brighten and stabilize a little more, and the crack that was soaked in the source of the Emperor's blood seemed to be healing at a slightly faster pace.

Time! They need time!
Wang Cheng braced his massive, single arm against the ground, forcefully suppressing the urge to chase after him and his boundless grief and indignation. He couldn't waste the opportunity Ling Wuying had risked his life for! He struggled to move his crippled body, his scarred back acting like a dilapidated yet still tenacious wall, firmly blocking the entrance to the sea cave.

The annihilating energy gnawed wildly at his body, and the deathly laws of the Burial Star Sea relentlessly eroded his depleted essence. He felt his body gradually growing cold and stiff.

But he did not back down.

He glanced down at the crook of his arm (though it was empty, he could still feel the weight of Chen Xueqing on his back), then at the lotus seeds pulsating with a faint light on the ground. His bloodshot eyes were filled with only the most primal obsession with protecting her.

"Brother Changsheng... Xueqing girl..." he murmured to himself, his voice hoarse and low, yet like a vow, "Hurry...faster...I...bought the tickets..."

He summoned the last remaining heat within his domineering blood, burning even if it was like a dying ember! Not for attack, but to resist the erosion, to allow his "broken wall" to withstand the deathly storm of the Sea of ​​Buried Stars for just one more moment! Just one more moment!
Outside the pitch-black cave entrance, a thick, leaden-gray fog and a dark green Dead Sea stretched out. The ripples caused by Ling Wuying had vanished into the distance, leaving only the muffled rumble of the rotting beast's pursuit faintly audible. Inside the cave, only the faint glow of the pulsating lotus seeds and Wang Cheng's heavy yet resolute breathing, like that of a wounded, solitary beast, could be heard.

The embers of the sea, burning fiercely amidst the storm of despair, sway stubbornly.

Wang Cheng's massive body blocked the cave entrance, like a broken stone statue eroded by wind and sand for millennia. His only remaining right arm pressed desperately against the cold cave wall, his knotted muscles taut to the limit, resisting the pervasive, deathly erosion from the Burial Star Sea outside. Each crash of the dark green waves against the reefs felt like a cold, giant hammer striking the depths of his soul. The annihilation energy clinging to his severed arm sent agonizing pains through him, like a thousand ants gnawing at his bones. A gray-black aura, like a living thing, spread upwards along his meridians, bringing a bone-chilling cold and a dismembering hallucination.

He dared not look back. All his will turned into a stubborn rock, firmly blocking the only gap. In the cave behind him, that faint but tenacious pulsating light was his only remaining anchor—the lotus seed, and the two people inside it.

"Hold on... damn it... hold on for me..." His teeth clenched so hard they cracked, sweat mixed with blood trickling down his forehead, freezing into dark red ice beads before they could even drip. The flames of his Bloodthirsty Aura had long since extinguished, leaving only a last, burning, indomitable life force, like a charcoal core buried deep in frozen soil, weakly smoldering amidst the raging tide of annihilation and death. Time here was as thick as ink. Thick fog billowed outside the cave, and a chilling hiss could be faintly heard, as if countless eyes were greedily watching from behind a leaden veil. The flickering light of the lotus seed was the only beacon in this eternal darkness.

Inside the lotus seed is not a warm womb, but a chaotic and fragmented territory.

Yu Changsheng's consciousness was like a wisp of smoke that could dissipate at any moment, floating and struggling in the boundless crimson and darkness. It had no complete form, only countless broken and painful fragments of memory, like meteorites swirling in a raging star field, violently impacting his fading self.

White light! Pure, intense, and carrying the heat of burning the soul! That was the last moment Chen Xueqing burned the essence of the Pure Lotus. Her broken figure became transparent in the white light, and in her eyes looking at him, there was resolute protection and unfathomable sorrow. "Eternal life..." That silent call was like a red-hot iron, searing through the barrier of his consciousness.

Then came endless coldness! Two gazes, purely composed of "nothingness" and "end," pierced through time and space, carrying an absolute will to freeze the soul and obliterate existence, and stabbed fiercely into his brow! Patrolman of the Abyss! The embodiment of the rules of the Star Origin Ancestral Vein, the executor of the will of the universe to return to silence! That cold indifference, like an iceberg pressing down, instantly froze all his thoughts of resistance.

The image distorted and shattered. A mournful dust of light spread, revealing the majestic yet weary face of the Star Forger, his arm deeply embedded in the pulsating dark amethyst. "Those who come after...for the ashes...leave a flame..." That final instruction, like a resounding bell, carrying the weight of an entire civilization's collapse, slammed into the core of his consciousness!

Countless screams, shattered bone arms (Wang Cheng!), scattering ice shards (Ling Wuying!), grotesque writhing void tentacles (Gui Yinzi!), the agonizing wail of the Guixu Star Orbit Compass on the verge of collapse… These fragments churned wildly, tearing and ripping apart his remaining consciousness time and again. Excruciating pain, despair, profound powerlessness, and overwhelming rage intertwined into a destructive storm, threatening to completely assimilate him and drag him into an eternal, dark slumber.

"No..." A faint, almost extinguished thought struggled. At its core was the lingering cold touch in her arms, the last weight Chen Xueqing leaned on. It was the hoarse roar of the one-armed man blocking the cave entrance, the unconcealed concern in the cold voice from the shadows. It was the cries of "Brother Changsheng!" "Xueqing, my girl!"...

"Can't...sleep..."

It was as if this stubbornness of protection had touched a crucial point. Within the invisible chaos inside the lotus seed, a tiny, yet immortal, point of light—the rough embryonic form of the Dao of Returning to Nothingness—pulsated extremely faintly.

hum…

An invisible force, originating from the instinct of the Great Dao, quietly arose.

Beyond the lotus seeds lies the seabed of the Burial Star Sea. There lies the true graveyard of myriad stars. The remains of countless ancient stars, extinguished and left to languish, have been deposited for billions of years under the weight of the dark green, stagnant water. Those shattered fragments of stellar cores, solidified stardust, and fragments of broken and distorted stellar principles… all contain the purest, most primal power of annihilation. They are death itself, yet also the other cornerstone that constitutes the universe.

At this moment, this invisible suction force, like a pebble thrown into stagnant water, created faint ripples. The hideous cracks on the surface of the lotus seed were no longer wounds, but rather transformed into greedy "mouthparts."

Threads and strands!

Streams of extremely fine, barely perceptible grayish-white and dark purple energy, like carrion worms that have smelled blood, pierced through the tough but cracked outer shell of the lotus seed, through the thin ice barrier left behind by Ling Wuying, and ignored the distance in space. They were forcibly drawn in by the pulsating light point inside the lotus seed—the embryonic form of the Dao!

These annihilating energies from the remains of stars were cold, violent, and filled with the decaying essence of the end times. They surged into the chaotic space inside the lotus seed, immediately causing violent turmoil, like boiling oil poured into ice water.

However, that speck of platinum light—the nascent Dao embryo—was insatiable! Its core singularity suddenly collapsed inward, then erupted with an even stronger pulling force. It was no longer passively enduring, but actively operating! Rough rune trails appeared and disappeared around the speck of light, carrying a primal and domineering Dao rhythm.

The surging, desolate, and malevolent energy of the stars was forcibly drawn into this invisible vortex. The violent energy was torn apart and decomposed. Those violent intentions containing decay, collapse, and end were forcibly ground and stripped away in the vortex! Like a gold prospector separating sand from gold.

Impurities were flung out, transforming into finer, ash-like dust that merged into the chaotic "soil" within the lotus seed. Meanwhile, the purest, most primordial particles, stripped of their violent will, were greedily devoured and absorbed by the core singularity!
With each wisp of pure annihilation essence it absorbed, the platinum light became more stable and brighter. The light spread out, like the warm sun of early spring, slowly but firmly soothing the shattered space within the lotus seed, and like the gentlest tentacle, brushing against Yu Changsheng's wisp of dissipating consciousness, bringing a touch of cold tranquility.

Meanwhile, on the outermost layer of the lotus seed, at the edge of the deepest crack that Wang Cheng had "irrigated" with a drop of pure Chaos Emperor's blood essence, subtle changes were taking place. The charred, curled "wound" at the crack, illuminated by the stabilized light within, seemed to be infused with new life. Tiny, extremely faint golden hues, like the finest vine buds, quietly emerged from both sides of the crack, slowly and tenaciously extending towards the center. Although the healing process was agonizingly slow, it was undeniably growing! It was repairing! Like the first wisp of moisture finally emerging from a parched riverbed.

Wang Cheng, standing at the cave entrance, suddenly shuddered!
It wasn't an attack from the outside, but rather a faint yet exceptionally clear pulse emanating from the lotus seed behind him! More steady and profound than before, like the heartbeat of a sleeping beast about to awaken, it was clearly transmitted to his nearly exhausted body through the broken stone walls and the cold air!
"Chang Sheng... Xue Qing..." A surge of wild joy suddenly erupted from Wang Cheng's blood-stained and frost-covered face, his dim eyes instantly blazing with fire. His body, which had been blocking the cave entrance, instinctively straightened slightly, as if the pulse he felt had given him new strength. "Good! Good! Suck it all in! Drain the bottom of this Dead Sea!" he roared hoarsely, his voice filled with the excitement of surviving a catastrophe and a fierce determination.

Just as his elation surged to his scalp—

Boom!!! (End of Chapter)