Living in the deep palace

The vast and mysterious world, the ruins of Zhongzhou.

The once vibrant and prosperous world, teeming with life and overflowing with golden rice, is now in a state of utter despair and collapse.

The sky was no longer azure, but had turned into a murky gray-yellow, a "color of death" produced by the backflow of void turbulence and mixing with the local spiritual energy after the world's barrier shattered.

The earth is wailing.

Centered on Zhongzhou, countless massive fissures spread outwards like a spider web. Each fissure was bottomless, like a greedy maw, devouring everything on the surface—cities, mountains, rivers, and the cultivators who were still fleeing but had nowhere to go.

At the source of all this destruction, the colossal, chaotic giant was doing something that sent shivers down the spines of the entire world.

Su Chen carried the Xuanhuang Realm Master in one hand.

This once high and mighty Golden Immortal, who ruled over an entire realm, now had most of his bones crushed, limp in Su Chen's palm like a dead dog. The anger and majesty he once possessed were long gone from his eyes, replaced only by endless fear and pleading.

"No...please...don't..."

The voice of the Xuanhuang Realm Lord was so faint it was like the buzzing of a mosquito.

He could clearly feel that Su Chen's fingers were not simply grasping him, but rather like five thick pipes that pierced deep into his body, connecting him to his primordial sea, and even locking onto the "world heart" within him that represented the core of the world, following his causal connection with the Xuanhuang Realm.

"beg me?"

Su Chen looked down. On that huge, chaotic face, there was not a trace of pity, only those eyes that seemed to burn with the fire of hunger.

"You are the 'straw' for this feast."

"If the straw breaks, it will be a hassle to drink from it. So, be good and don't move around."

Su Chen's voice boomed, like thunder rolling across the sky.

"Longevity - Devouring Realms Technique!"

"Give it to me...suck it!!"

boom--! ! !
As Su Chen's thoughts stirred, the illusory image of the Longevity Tree behind him suddenly surged, instantly breaking through ten thousand feet and one hundred thousand feet, eventually transforming into a terrifying demonic tree that covered half of the Xuanhuang Realm!
Hundreds of millions of bronze-colored roots emerged from the void, followed Su Chen's arm, and all pierced into the body of the Xuanhuang Realm Lord!

“Ahhhh——!!!”

The Lord of Xuanhuang Realm let out a final, extremely shrill scream.

His body instantly became translucent, like a lit light bulb.

But this light wasn't emanating from him; rather, it was the energy of the entire Xuanhuang World surging wildly towards Su Chen through his body!

woohoo-

The wind picked up.

That wasn't an ordinary wind; it was a primordial energy storm caused by the depletion of spiritual energy.

Visibly, the ocean at the edge of the Xuanhuang Realm began to dry up, and the seawater was drawn away as pure water spirit energy; towering mountains began to collapse, and rocks were absorbed as earth spirit energy; forests withered, and all things perished.

The whole world is like a punctured balloon, deflating at an alarming rate.

"Such...such pure energy!"

Su Chen felt incredibly good at that moment.

The Xuanhuang Realm truly lives up to its reputation as the granary of the Heavenly Court; every inch of its land contains a top-tier energy known as "Xuanhuang Mother Qi." This energy is profound and vast. Although it is not as all-encompassing as Chaos Qi, it excels in its stability.

It's like the highest quality cement, capable of filling all the cracks left in Su Chen's body due to the forced breakthrough and the great battle.

"This is what I've been looking for!"

Su Chen's eyes flashed with a sharp light.

He looked inside his body.

Inside that Chaos Furnace, the stubborn fragment of the Haotian Mirror that had been relentlessly cutting into his internal organs finally met its match.

A massive amount of primordial energy, like viscous magma, continuously poured into the chaotic furnace.

Earth overcomes water? No, it's the principle of "great virtue carries all things"!
The Primordial Qi possesses the characteristics of both "bearing" and "suppressing." When the density of this energy reaches a certain level, even the "laws of order" on the fragments of the Haotian Mirror are forcibly suppressed!

"It's now!"

"Chaotic Fire, rise!"

"The divine weapon disintegrates, melting into the primordial chaos!"

Su Chen seized the opportunity and concentrated all the power in his body onto that fragment.

sizzle-

The incredibly hard fragment of the Primordial Bronze Mother finally began to soften.

It no longer flaunted its sharpness, but began to melt like a candle, dripping drops of turquoise liquid.

This liquid contains the core secrets of the Haotian Mirror—the Primordial Light and Absolute Order.

"Eat it... the Divine Weapon Branch, it's yours now!"

The fifth [Divine Weapon Branch] within Su Chen's body was already itching for more. It suddenly extended countless roots, like a pack of hungry wolves pouncing on their prey, instantly devouring all the cyan-gold liquid!
Om-! ! !
A strange buzzing sound emanated from Su Chen's body.

The sound was no longer the crisp clang of metal striking metal, but a kind of primordial, ancient sound that seemed to come from the beginning of the universe.

The originally silver-white "Divine Weapon Branch" was now undergoing a transformation.

The silvery-white color faded, replaced by an ancient bronze hue. And on the surface of the tree branches, dense cloud patterns emerged—the same innate Dao patterns found on the back of the Haotian Mirror!

An aura of "invulnerability to all laws" and "suppression of all heavens" emanated from this newly grown branch of the Dao.

[Fifth Branch of Immortality - Divine Weapon Branch] (Evolution) - [Primordial Divine Weapon Branch]!
Special Effect 1: Ancestor of All Weapons. It can forcibly control, suppress, and even devour all acquired spiritual treasures (including top-grade ones), and also has the effect of interfering with innate spiritual treasures.

Special Effect 2: Order Collapse. Attacks possess the "Spellbreaker" attribute, ignoring most defensive laws and directly attacking the target.

Special Effect Three: Primordial Body. Nourishes the physical body, making the host's bones as hard as a half-step innate spiritual treasure!

"It's done!!"

Su Chen was overjoyed.

As the divine weapon branch evolved, a warm current instantly flowed throughout his body.

Click, click, click!
His bones reassembled once more. The originally grayish-white chaotic bones had now turned completely blue-gold, with natural Dao patterns engraved on each bone.

This intensity...

Su Chen clenched his fist, feeling that even without activating any supernatural powers, he could withstand the Haotian Mirror Light with his bare body without being as disheveled as before!

"Late-stage Great Luo...Perfect!"

"Just a hair's breadth away from touching that threshold called 'Immortal Grand Luo'!"

Feeling the surging, ocean-like power within him, Su Chen couldn't help but roar to the sky.

This roar created a powerful shockwave that shattered the few remaining high mountains in the Xuanhuang Realm.

The Xuanhuang Realm Lord in his hand had already been completely annihilated in the previous devouring, leaving not even a trace.

"belch--"

Su Chen let out a burp, released his grip, and let the ashes of the calamity dissipate.

He looked around.

At this moment, the Xuanhuang Realm was completely silent.

Without spiritual energy or life, the earth cracked into sand and gravel, and the sky was as dark as eternal night. Apart from the giant spirit guards and ghost soldiers still frantically scavenging for scraps, there was not a single living creature left.

This vast world has been completely devoured.

Cruel?
maybe.

But in Su Chen's eyes, this was the essence of cultivation—plunder.

The Heavenly Court plunders all realms to sustain itself, while he plunders the Heavenly Court to sustain himself. Big fish eat little fish, little fish eat shrimp; whoever has the bigger fist is right.

"Dao Ancestor! We've struck it rich!!"

At this moment, Giant Spirit No. 1, carrying a mountain of gold even larger than himself (all refined Xuanhuang Mother Qi crystals), came running over with a big smile on his face.

"This place is so rich! I just dug this up under a sect's basement. This thing is incredibly hard; even my axe couldn't split it!"

Su Chen glanced at the mountain of gold and nodded slightly.

"This is Xuanhuang Refined Gold, a derivative of the world's core. Not bad. Take it back to Kugu and have her thicken the walls of the Longevity Imperial City." "Yes!" Giant Spirit No. 1 happily put away the mountain of gold, then asked, "Dao Ancestor, there's not much food left here. Where do we go next? Back to the city?"

"Back to the city?"

Su Chen glanced at the shattered sky above him, his gaze seemingly piercing through the Boundary Sea, looking towards an even deeper distance.

He is currently in a very delicate bottleneck period.

The energy is full.

The physical body has become stronger.

The law has also been perfected.

But he still felt that there was an invisible membrane in front of him, preventing him from stepping into that legendary realm - [Immortal of the Great Luo] (that is, the Great Luo Immortal, which is also a half-step Hunyuan realm, or the ultimate realm in preparation for breaking through to the fifth realm).

"Ordinary energy accumulation can no longer bring about a qualitative change in me."

"It's like a water tank that's already full; adding more water will only cause it to overflow, unless you turn the tank into a pond."

“I need… something more fundamental to ‘expand’.”

Su Chen closed his eyes, sensing the movement of the Longevity Tree within his body.

At this moment, the first eight branches of that majestic Dao tree were shining brightly, but the ninth node was still a blurry halo, and no new branches had grown out yet.

That is the [origin branch].

It is also the key to the Longevity Tree returning to oneness and attaining eternal enlightenment.

It is yearning.

It is guiding.

That guiding feeling didn't point to the Heavenly Court, nor to any other great world, but rather to... the deepest part of the Ruins Domain.

Deeper than the underworld, darker than eternal night.

That is the end of all realms, the place where all matter and energy return to nothingness—

【Return to the Ruins】.

"Return to the Void..."

An ancient memory surfaced in Su Chen's mind. It was a legend he had come across while browsing through forbidden books in the library.

Legend has it that within the Ruins of Return lies the slumber of "losers" from the previous era, or even the era before that. Those supreme beings who once attempted to reach the sixth realm, or even higher, after their failures, had their bodies immortalized and fell into the Ruins of Return, transforming into indescribable terrors.

"The corpses of the losers?"

A dangerous smile slowly crept onto Su Chen's lips.

"Losers... often mean they're a treasure trove from head to toe."

"Those laws that failed to transform into the Dao, those remnants of the original essence..."

"If only I could have a bite..."

Gulu.

Su Chen swallowed hard.

He felt he had found a breakthrough opportunity.

"I'm not going back to the city."

Su Chen waved his hand, interrupting Giant Spirit One's fantasy.

"Order the entire army to assemble!"

"Digest everything you've eaten and get yourself into peak condition."

"Let's go...grave raiding!"

……

[Deepest reaches of the Ruins, at the edge of the Ruins]

If the Forbidden Zone of Eternal Night is the end of light, then the Ruins of Return is the end of existence.

There is no concept of space here; up, down, left, and right are all illusions. There is also no concept of time here; a moment is eternity, and eternity is a moment.

There is only one color here—gray.

That is the color after all things have collapsed, the dust after the Great Dao has decayed.

In this deathly gray mist, even the divine sense of a Great Luo Golden Immortal would be instantly swallowed up, like a mud ox sinking into the sea.

At this moment, a bronze warship emitting a faint glow (evolved from Su Chen's divine weapon branch, enveloping the entire army) was slowly sailing into this sea area, which was regarded as an absolute forbidden zone by all the heavens and myriad worlds.

At the bow of the ship, Su Chen stood with his hands behind his back, his green robe fluttering in the gray mist. His eyes, one black and one gray, were like two bright lamps, forcefully illuminating the path ahead.

"Dao Ancestor... something feels very wrong here."

Giant Spirit One stood behind Su Chen. This usually fearless and reckless man was now hunched over, his muscles tense.

"I feel like there's something watching me... not just one, but countless things."

"Moreover, the gravity here is so erratic, sometimes as light as a feather, sometimes as heavy as carrying a mountain on your back."

Su Chen nodded slightly, his expression solemn.

"This is the garbage dump of the universe, and the graveyard of its laws."

“The fragments of those dead laws intertwine and mutate here, forming an extremely chaotic force field. Anyone below the Great Luo level who enters is doomed.”

Su Chen reached out and gently grabbed it.

A wisp of gray mist twisted in his palm, transforming into a weeping face before vanishing instantly.

"Even this fog is made up of the resentment of the dead."

"It seems the legends are true. There are far more things buried here than I imagined."

at this time.

Boom!
A muffled, loud bang suddenly came from the depths of the gray fog.

The warship rocked violently, as if it had crashed into an invisible wall.

"What happened? Did we hit a reef?" Giant Spirit One exclaimed.

"Do not."

Su Chen narrowed his eyes, staring intently ahead.

"Someone...is not letting us in."

slam-la-

As Su Chen finished speaking, the gray fog in front of him suddenly churned violently.

A massive, pillar-like black object slowly emerged from the mist.

That's a finger.

A severed finger covered in green hairs, with nails as black as ink, and emitting a nauseating stench of decay!

But this severed finger was enormous, stretching for thousands of miles, lying across the void like a mountain blocking the way. And on that fingertip, several rusty star chains were wrapped, as if they had once imprisoned something terrifying.

"Whose finger is this?! It's so big?!"

The giant guards behind them were dumbfounded.

Although they are also giants, and their manifested forms can be tens of thousands of feet tall, if the owner of this finger were still alive, his true form would probably be hundreds of millions of miles long! Comparable to a star!
"Those who trespass upon...the Land of Rest...will die..."

A fragmented wave of thought emanated from the severed finger.

That was not language, but a rule-based deterrent that directly impacted the soul.

As soon as this thought was sent out, the severed finger suddenly moved!

boom!
It was like a pillar supporting the sky collapsing, carrying a terrifying force that could crush the void, and slammed down on the bronze warship!

This press produced no magical fluctuations, only the purest, most extreme physical power, and a mutated, "annihilated" corpse aura. (End of Chapter)