Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 164 All Thoughts Collapse, Snow Fox's Lament

But the Monkey King's actions did not stop.

He slowly raised his massive bone fist, his wrist bones cracking as if a mountain were collapsing.

His back was slightly hunched, and his skeletal body writhed in the flames. Between every cracked joint, grayish-white soul fire shot out, like the breath of hell rising.

The next moment, Ape Lord flipped his palm over, and his Soul Wheel suddenly unfolded.

That was no ordinary wheel of the soul, but a "bone wheel hell" scorched through by a blood curse. The curse marks were densely covering it, ring after ring like a chain of sins, winding down his shoulders and arms to his fingertips, and finally quietly opening between his five fingers, covering the heavens and the earth.

The air vibrated slightly at his fingertips, then rippled like the surface of water.

Blurry phantoms appeared around Chu Ning.

The madness of the Soul Lion, the resentment of the Black Serpent, the fury of the Golden Crow...

Those fragments of will that had long since shattered on the battlefield were now forcibly "torn" out from the depths of Ape Marquis's consciousness.

"You think your Thunder Soul belongs only to you?" Ape Lord grinned maliciously, revealing his gleaming, bony teeth.

“You burn with soul when you kill, thunder when you have a thought, you have a soul for me with your obsession. Have you ever thought that every thought you have is brewing a soul for me?”

He suddenly clenched his fists and hissed:

"Return to the furnace."

The phantom of Thunder Soul struggled violently before his bone fist like a moth drawn to a flame.

They twisted, wailed, and shattered, like thunder soul butterflies being skinned alive. One by one, they exploded on the soul wheel, were devoured by the raging flames, and turned into strands of gray-black soul threads that swirled and surged into Ape Lord's soul sea.

"Crack!"

Chu Ning was startled.

His soul seemed to be pulled away from its very source, peeled away inch by inch.

His vision went black, a sharp pain shot through his brow like needles, a trickle of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth, and his chest heaved violently as if it were about to explode.

He gritted his teeth and didn't utter a sound, but the blood vessels in the corners of his eyes covered half of his face, as if his entire consciousness was being torn apart and devoured alive.

The Ape Lord licked the soul flame flowing between his teeth, like a demon tasting blood, and muttered:
"Good soul, good soul..."

"It is sweet and not bitter, unlike the bland and tasteless thoughts of cultivating the Tao, and unlike the filthy and scorching tongue of cultivating the demonic soul."

"Your Thunder Soul is the best, with its fighting spirit concealing its blade and its thoughts concealing its emotions."

"Especially this thought..."

His tone suddenly lowered, and his eyes turned cold and bloodthirsty, carrying a hint of uncontrollable greed and madness.

"This last thought... is gentle yet timid, steadfast yet resolute."

"There is... the remnant of the Fox God?"

He chuckled in a low voice.

Ape Lord slowly raised his other hand and made a grasping motion in the air. A snow-white phantom slowly emerged from between Chu Ning's eyebrows. It was the Snow Fox Wound, the last trace of thunder soul that had not yet been extinguished.

She trembled slightly, her tail wrapping around the soul thread, as if protecting his last ray of spiritual light.

His face was reflected in those blue eyes, and he smiled slightly.

The next moment, the soul light dissipated.

Chu Ning suddenly opened his eyes, his soul sea wracked with excruciating pain, as if a layer of his soul shell had been forcibly peeled away.

He wanted to stop him, but by this moment his thunder soul was completely depleted and his spirit was on the verge of dissipation; he didn't even have the strength to raise his hand.

He could only watch helplessly as the fox shadow slowly drifted toward the Ape Lord's hand, his soul threads being pulled out one by one, his lingering resentment feeling as if it were being torn apart from his skull by needles and thread, the pain of his consciousness being torn apart was heart-wrenching.

Ape Lord's lips twitched, and a strange, almost blissful look flashed deep in his eyes.

"Do you know how many years it has been since you've experienced such a 'thunderous soul'?"

The Monkey King licked the embers from his fingertips, his tone carrying a predator-like tremor.

He closed his eyes, inhaled the fox spirit aura enveloped by the thunder soul, and his voice was as deep as a nightmare:

"Not for a hundred years, a thousand years... it hasn't happened before."

He laughed wildly and took a deep breath.

The fox shadow struggled violently, its spiritual threads snapping like silk. Chu Ning spat out a mouthful of blood and convulsed violently for a moment.

"don't want……"

He screamed inwardly, but no sound came out of his mouth; his consciousness was struggling frantically on the verge of collapse.

At the last moment, the snow fox turned its head slightly.

That gaze was silent, yet as gentle as the first snow of early spring, as if saying:
"You've done your best."

Then, she gently closed her eyes, and her soul dissipated.

Like snow falling into dust, like a dream vanishing into nothingness.

The moment Ape Marquis opened his mouth and swallowed it, his bone flames surged violently, his soul wheel trembled, as if he had swallowed a divine thunder star core, and he twisted and roared wildly.

The Ape Lord roared to the sky, his soul wheel trembled violently like a drum, and his body seemed to be splitting apart.

"Hahahaha—What a fine soul! This is truly a candidate for godhood!"

Clad in the remnants of thunder and fire, he laughed wildly between heaven and earth like an evil god.

"You think I'm greedy for your soul? You're wrong."

"I just... enjoy seeing people in pain and helpless."

Chu Ning, lying on the ground, finally gave up.

His left arm was already broken, and blood dripped down the broken bone, staining a foot of snow red.

His kneecaps were shattered, having already broken when he withstood the "Soul-Splitting and God-Piercing" punch from the Ape Lord. Now, he could barely kneel, but had no strength left to support himself.

—The Thunder Soul has dissipated.

—The five thoughts are all shattered.

He was no longer able to fight.

The snow-covered plain was silent.

Blood slowly seeped from the corner of his mouth, flowing in a dark red arc on the ice, connecting with the crack behind him to form a battle scar too painful to recall.

His hand was still instinctively trying to grab the broken snow, but he couldn't even move his fingers.

Ape Lord stood before him, looking down at the figure devoid of lightning, as if looking at a sacrifice that had not been completely burned out, a cruel mockery flashing in his eyes.

In the distance, Dong'er's screams tore through the wind and snow.

"Chu Ning!!!"

She practically dragged herself there, her breath still ragged, bloodstains covering her hair and face, but her eyes were filled with panic and clarity.

The snow exploded in small whirlpools at her feet, and she stumbled and fell toward Chu Ning.

At that moment, she didn't care about anything else.

Qi Yu Chi Tong shifted his gaze slightly, glancing sideways at Chu Ning.

Just one glance was like looking at a scorched blade of grass.

His face was expressionless, and he didn't even flinch.

“Ants, interesting.” He murmured, his tone as flat as if he were commenting on a stone. “They burned everything up and left nothing behind.”

The Blazing Bone Ape Lord arrived, his bone flames still burning, shaking his shoulders and grinning wildly. He casually wiped away the remaining lightning patterns on his fists, as if erasing an outdated joke.

"Tsk, I thought he could still jump around a bit more." He kicked away the shattered pieces of lightning armor. "And that's it? I should have held back a bit with that punch. It wouldn't be fun if he were smashed into a pulp."

Weeping Rain Crimson Child did not reply, but simply raised his hand and summoned a blood talisman, redirecting the power of the Blood River back to the sky.

His voice echoed like the deep, resonant toll of an old bell.
"Don't kill him yet."

The Blazing Bone Ape Lord turned his head, raising a brow:
"Ok?"

"Leave him alive." Chi Tong turned around, his eyes flashing with bloodlust, his expression still indifferent. "The Thunder Extreme Body... this is not a soul-bearing body that you can just encounter. Once the sacrificial array is completely completed, I might be able to use his bones to nurture the prototype of a second divine seed."

Ape Lord licked his fangs and looked Chu Ning's battered body over.

"Tsk, I know you have a collecting habit, but having to leave survivors after fighting to this extent is a bit of a downer."

The weeping child's tone remained unchanged, still calm:
"A toy needs a complete skeleton. If you break too many parts, I'll have to fix them."

Ape Lord snorted and turned around with a half-smile:
"I really don't understand why you have such feelings for these dead people's bones."

Chi Tong didn't answer, but flicked his fingertip, and the drop of blood rained down into Chu Ning's brow, stopping his last breath from dissipating, but not severing the soul thread.

Ape Lord glanced at it and scoffed:

"They didn't even kill them all, that's really... tsk tsk, perverted."

“Come on,” Chi Tong suddenly said softly, “it’s time to suppress the soul of the Sleeping God with me.”

Ape Lord grinned, but a hint of disdain flashed in his eyes:
"I'll suppress consciousness, and you'll extract the soul? You've certainly divided the work perfectly."

“You’re too crude,” Chi Tong said calmly, his tone carrying an extremely cold sarcasm. “If He were fully awake, your little bone fist wouldn’t be able to shatter His obsession; instead, it would awaken His divine consciousness.”

"Hmph!" Ape Marquis laughed angrily. "If it weren't for that blood curse, would you really think I'm afraid of you?"

Chi Tong moved his feet slightly, without disturbing a speck of dust, his tone remaining calm:

"It's not that I'm afraid, it's that I'm not qualified."

The two streams of energy intersected slightly in mid-air, and the blood mist and bone flames quietly tensed up.

But in an instant, it was interrupted by a divine soul fluctuation from the depths of the sky.

Crying Rain Crimson Child was the first to set off, and the Blood Umbrella reappeared behind him.

"Let's go."

"At least let 'God' see who is truly controlling Him."

Ape Lord snorted coldly, twisted his shoulders, his bones cracking like thunder, and then left.

On the icy plains, Chu Ning's figure was gradually swallowed up by the blood rain and the cold snow.

No one looked at him again.

It was as if this "person" who had given his all had completely withdrawn from this game of chess between gods and evil spirits.

Only heaven and earth watched him go in silence, their voices low and mournful.

Dong'er crawled over and lay down beside Chu Ning. Her hand trembled as she reached for his chest. The moment her fingertips touched him, she was stung by the broken and chaotic thunderous energy, which made her eyes red.

"You... why did you push yourself like this again..." Her voice was choked with sobs, hurried and panicked. She pressed her palm against his back, trying to channel his inner energy into him, even if it was just a trace.

But Chu Ning slowly shook his head.

His eyes were still shining, but the light was no longer sharp.

All that's left is exhaustion.

He opened his mouth slightly, his voice as low as the last breath in the wind and snow:
"...I've tried it."

"I used all of my Thunder Soul... I even risked my Nen."

"But they still can't be hurt."

His gaze slowly drifted away, looking towards the distant Qingli divine soul, still entangled by the river of blood and about to sink into the divine body.

“I thought saving her meant going home.”

"But little did they know that when the soul is lost, it does not return to 'her,' but to the god."

Dong'er's hand was tightly pressed against Chu Ning's blood-stained chest.

The heartbeat there was so faint it was almost imperceptible. It seemed as if it would vanish into thin air with the wind and snow in the next instant.

Her eyes were red, and tears fell one after another, onto his face, onto the snow, onto the broken thunder blade, as if striking a scroll of fate that could never be pieced back together.

She had never felt so powerless.

This man, whom she considered "perfect," the one who could always cleave the sky before any storm, now lay in her arms like a broken wick, about to be extinguished by the slightest breeze.

"You can't die..." she choked, her voice breaking, "You haven't saved her yet..."

Chu Ning remained silent.

He seemed to have heard it, or perhaps he was just too tired and wanted to sleep quietly for a while.

A near-silent curve appeared at the corner of her lips, but it was unclear whether it was a smile or regret.

He slowly closed his eyes, a gesture he had never made on the battlefield before.

When his eyelids drooped, his long eyelashes covered his peripheral vision, and even the snow in the sky seemed to pause gently, not daring to fall on him.

He murmured softly, almost inaudibly.

"I just... wanted to see her one last time."

The voice was as faint as morning mist, so light that it seemed a gust of wind would silence it. Yet Dong'er heard it.

She froze, as if that murmur had pierced her heart.

That was his entire obsession.

She held him even tighter, as if trying to piece him back together as a whole living person.

"Don't sleep... Chu Ning, listen to me. Didn't you say you would protect her soul and bring her home?"

Her voice trembled to the point of collapse, "You promised me you would protect me from harm, that you would take me back to Xuexia Village, that you would see the flower market, and that you would eat that 'very salty' dried fish again..."

"Don't fall asleep, Chu Ning..."

Wind blows.

I don't know if it's the movement of snow or a broken heart.

Heaven and earth seemed to hear her plea.

At that moment, Dong'er's cries suddenly rang out across the entire ice field, like the dirge before a funeral bell, echoing across the vast ice field, one cry after another, carrying an unending pain.

The cry traveled through the river of blood, across the abyss, and transformed into an ancient and resounding bell.

"clang--"

The ethereal image of Qingli within the soul trembled slightly.

She seemed to hear something, perhaps a cry, or... the promise he had made.

At that moment, Chu Ning's consciousness was also pulled back to the cold reality by this cry.

He still didn't open his eyes, but fragments were slowly emerging in his mind:

He remembered the first time she stumbled into his arms, still the image of that blue-eyed snow fox. The snow had just cleared in Qingyang County; he was sitting wounded by the fire when she rushed in as if fleeing a predator, covered in snow dust, her fox eyes wide with fear, cowering in his arms. That was the first time he felt, in this bone-chillingly cold world, that he had "companionship."

He recalled being trampled to the ground by Wang Lin in the Wang family dungeon, his face covered in blood, yet he stubbornly refused to utter a sound. And at that moment, it was she, the little snow fox, who rushed out to stand in front of him, her eyes blazing with anger, her teeth bared, her small body seemingly able to block out the entire prison.

He still remembered that when he was practicing his cultivation madly and went mad, she quietly squatted down beside him, her tail wrapped around his out-of-control palm, using her last bit of spiritual energy to take the backlash for him.

"...Chu Ning, wait for me...I'm not afraid..."

He seemed to hear the snow fox speaking softly, its tail wrapping around his broken palm.

That's how she... never left.

Dong'er had been crying her eyes out without anyone noticing.

Tears fell onto his cheeks, carrying a salty, bitter temperature.

Her trembling hand covered his nearly severed left arm, trying to stop the bleeding, but she was powerless to do so.

"Don't leave me... Didn't you always say you're 'indestructible' and 'I'm tough'?"

She almost bit off her tongue. "You're lying...you're deceiving me..."

The snow suddenly got heavier.

The wind swept in, but instead of dispelling her cries, it made them even clearer.

Just then, Chu Ning's lips twitched slightly.

He didn't open his eyes; only, in his shattered sea of ​​consciousness, the last wisp of fox thought gently swayed.

Like the last spark of a fire, it will be extinguished by a gust of wind.

But at that very moment, a tear fell onto the broken thunder blade, flowing along the bloodstains into the cracks in the blade.

"Ding--"

A very faint rumble of thunder seemed to emanate from deep within his body.

Like babbling in a dream.

High in the sky, the heavy soul shadow also trembled slightly.

Dong'er subconsciously looked up and saw that the green glass figure behind the divine soul seemed to twitch its brow, as if it had sensed something.

The snowstorm suddenly stopped.

The Blood River murmured softly.

Dong'er dared not move.

She held her breath, her gaze fixed on Chu Ning, as if unwilling to give up on any glimmer of hope.

Chu Ning's fingers suddenly twitched slightly.

It was just a fleeting moment, like an ant's movement.

But she immediately grasped his still-warm hand, as if it had become the anchor of her entire life, and burst into tears:

"Please, don't die."

"She's still waiting for you."

"me too."

Blood mingled with snow, souls intertwined with thoughts. At that moment, the entire world seemed to sink into a lament that belonged neither to the gods nor to the mortal realm, but only to "humanity."

That's called "obsession".

In the next instant, the world seemed to awaken from a long dream, and an invisible "shock pulse" swept across the entire ice field.

The sky seemed to shift, light and shadow folded, and the earth appeared as if someone had lifted it up and then suddenly let go, causing the whole world to tremble.

The waves on the Blood River suddenly froze, then exploded into thousands of waves in the next moment.

The starlight slanted, and time slowly folded like a shattered mirror. On the icy plain, afterimages of figures were dragged out, as if the past and present overlapped.

The divine rift between soul and bone is closing.

The soul shadow hanging in the sky had its divine halo reversed, golden and white like a star wheel, cracking and reforming. With each rotation, it shook the void as if it were shattering into porcelain shards, emitting a silent lament.

This is not a simple reunion.

This is God's process of self-calibration, a process of retrospection and correction after "He" was torn apart, with Heaven and Earth forcibly piecing together God's will and bones.

All mortals are merely remnants of light and shadow in this process of correction.

She remained motionless and silent, her divine silence causing the entire world to tilt.

Deep underground, atop the Cangque Mountains, the remnants of the Sleeping God's bones, lying beneath the earth's veins, are awakened by golden light, like a spine that has slumbered for millennia.

The ice layer cracked, and sections of white bones rose up, as white as jade, with bone patterns like chains, pulling each other together slowly in the invisible divine threads.

In the far north, on the icy plains, space is distorted and rhythms are disordered.

Mountains and rivers floated in the air, and time appeared as a "repeated image": Chu Ning saw his own figure swaying and blurring a step in front of him, as if another version of him was walking alongside him.

As the wind and snow ceased, the "layers" of heaven and earth were being reorganized.

“He is restoring his own wholeness,” Dong’er murmured, gazing at the high sky with a chill in her eyes.

This restoration is being forcefully blocked by two forces.

The weeping red child closed his eyes and lowered his head, while the blood river beneath his feet suddenly boiled.

He raised his hands, his flesh tearing apart inch by inch, his ten fingers transforming into cursed nails that embedded themselves deep into the heart of the river.

"With my blood, I will restore your soul to its original form."

Three curse seals encircled his body, and a blood umbrella hung atop him, resembling the lid of a bell of divine punishment falling from the sky, transforming into the source of the sacrifice.

The next instant, the entire river of blood was pulled up.

It surged upwards against the current, like a blood-red waterfall pouring back up, swirling and winding around the soul, forming the magnificent array of the "Blood Abyss Lock Tower".

That scene was earth-shattering.

The entire river of blood formed a thousand-foot-tall sacrificial tower in the void. Hundreds of thousands of alien souls were awakened from the blood, howling and wailing like demons and ghosts, swirling around the tower, trying to hold back the souls and prevent them from returning to their places.

The spirit remained still, yet it was slowly rising.

What she was promoted to was not "rank".

It is the "essence".

Her existence is shaking the very structure of this world, just as a god should be: not belonging to this world, yet ruling it.

The weeping child's voice was deep:

"If God knew himself, the Way would be closed."

“I became Lord in His place, and I forgot myself in His place.”

"Blood Curse - Suppressing the Gods!"

The Blood Tower contracted rapidly, and the Blood Soul condensed into chains, which, like star rings, bound every inch of divine consciousness's radiance.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the Blazing Bone Ape Lord roared and shook the earth.

"I will ascend by cutting off my own body!"

He stood on the icy plain, his entire skeletal body burning with divine flames as bright as day. The second form of his Bone Prison Body was fully unleashed, as if he were turning the world into an altar. The icy ground beneath his feet cracked and collapsed, turning into layers of bone rock.

He extended both fists, one punch slamming into the earth vein node beneath the Cangque Divine Bone, completely disrupting the upward path, while the other fist tore apart the bone bead in his chest and embedded it into the gap of the divine bone.

"Use the bones of the dead to appease the souls of the living, sever the threads of the Heavenly Dao, and break the union of the gods!"

"boom--"

The entire Cangque Mountain shook violently once again, as if its spine had snapped.

The ice plains trembled for miles, the floating snow swirled like dragons, the wind was chaotic and disorderly, and the space trembled constantly, as if the whole world was resisting the fusion of the divine soul and divine bones.

The Crimson Child, weeping in the rain, slowly raised his head. The three rings of cursed energy above his head suddenly opened, and the blood umbrella in the sky obscured the starry firmament.

His hands split open again, blood misting into threads that dripped into the heart of the river.

"Ring of Gods, activate."

The blood river surged and rose into the sky like a waterfall, flowing backwards through the heavens, transforming into a pillar reaching to the heavens, pointing directly to the soul's brow.

In the center of that pillar, hundreds of thousands of alien soul shadows roared and struggled, like a beast tide breaking free of its cage, frantically entwining around the divine soul.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the Blazing Bone Ape Lord has also entered his second form.

His entire skeletal body was engulfed in flames, with inextinguishable bone flames erupting from his bones. The ice field beneath his feet crumbled inch by inch, turning into rift valleys and abysses.

He roared and slammed his fist into the deepest "soul-guiding point" of the earth's veins.

"Break the Soul-Guiding Thread!"

"boom."

The divine veins that had surfaced on the Cangque divine bone trembled instantly, breaking by three inches, and the entire divine skeleton paused abruptly.

He roared again, tearing apart the bone beads strung on his body and sacrificing them into the gaps between his divine bones:

"Offer the bones of the dead to the living, and let my remains solidify His body!"

This is the true sacrifice of the Soul-Suppressing Array—they themselves. Blood River, divine incantations, soul chains, bone arrays… all transformed into a massive “Blood Abyss Locking Tower,” attempting to trap “He” in his unfinished form, sever his master’s consciousness, and steal his divine authority.

At the center of the tower, that divine soul finally stirred.

It's not a struggle, but rather—a critical examination.

He is watching.

It was not a mere casting of a gaze, but a complete "judgment".

In that instant, the consciousness of all things in the universe seemed to be simultaneously uprooted, as if an invisible giant hand had torn apart the existence of all “me”.

At that moment, the mountains and rivers stopped, the sun and moon froze, and even the threads of cause and effect lost their direction.

Time stands still, and thought ceases.

There is no longer a self, no longer you and me.

In the vast expanse of heaven and earth, only that one gaze remained.

It was silent, yet it struck like thunder, cleaving through lifeline;

It is invisible, yet more decisive than death.

Even the word "existence" was slowly stripped away and completely devoured under this judgmental gaze.

His spirit remained silent, but finally he broke his silence.

A ring of divine light suddenly reversed in the deathly silence.

"boom--"

The divine ring ignited like stars in reverse, its golden-white radiance shattering the void. The reverse current pierced the core of the Blood Abyss Lock Tower, causing the entire "Blood Abyss Lock Tower" to tremble. The three thousand-foot chains snapped in an instant, as if billions of souls had broken free of their shackles and roared angrily to the heavens.

With a muffled groan, the Crimson Rain Child spat out a mouthful of dark red blood from his throat, and the triple curse rings cracked open with a terrifying gap.

His face was pale, but he still gritted his teeth and took a step forward, forcibly opening his fingers to once again insert the Blood Curse Seal into the Blood River Core.

“He is breaking free…” His voice was low and almost choked, but his eyes held a madness born of fear. “Quick…quick! Add more magic power!”

"We can't let her wake up!"

The Blazing Bone Ape roared, causing the ice field to shatter layer by layer.

"She's about to awaken her consciousness!"

The voice carried an almost fearful anger.

"Any later and we wouldn't even have left our bones behind!!"

Having said that, the Blazing Bone Ape Lord once again blazed with bone flames, his body like the gates of a black prison opening, his skeletal form burning with dazzling nether flames, as if offering his own divine soul as a sacrifice.

He roared, his fists crossed, and his entire "Bone Prison Body" exploded to its limit.

The soul fire soared straight to the heavens, and dozens of forbidden spell marks appeared between the bones, roaring out like a blazing inferno.

"The bones of the dead are returned as sacrifices, the main veins of the gods are shattered!"

That was a performance that almost destroyed one's own mind.

He inscribed all the soul imprints into the curse seal and suddenly inserted it into the soul-guiding node that had been dormant for ten thousand years beneath the Cangque Divine Bone.

"Rumble--"

The earth trembled, and the ice field collapsed.

The soul-guiding thread snapped three-thirds instantly under the impact of the curse, causing the entire Cangque Divine Bone to tremble violently.

The spiritual light of the runes on the divine bone went out like a sea of ​​lamps in an instant, and in that moment of darkness, heaven and earth seemed to stop breathing.

The Blood River also transformed, like a fierce dragon coiling in the sky, suddenly rising three hundred feet.

It coils and dances in mid-air, forming a "Blood Abyss Lock Tower" that reflects the heavens and the earth, its phantoms turning into reflections that enter the spiritual realm of the soul.

The tower's shadow is like a prison, both real and illusory.

In that instant, the space around the divine soul began to distort and tear apart, and hundreds of thousands of alien soul shadows roared out from the blood river, howling like ghosts and wolves as they rushed towards the light domain where the divine soul was located, like a raging sea trying to swallow the moon.

Standing atop the Blood Tower, Qi Yu Chi Tong's five fingers were already mangled and torn apart, yet he still refused to let go.

The cursed power surged like a sharp blade, his face expressionless, yet a madness flickered within his eyes, burning within the dark flames. He bit his broken tongue, and in a blood-stained whisper, he uttered the command:
"Lord's recognition! Sever your ties!"

His tone was low, yet each word was like a curse. Circles of blood arrays emerged from beneath his feet, winding their way up the blood tower and heading straight for his soul's brow.

The spirit remained still and motionless.

She hangs in the sky like an eternal, unmoving judge.

But behind her, something unexpected was about to happen.

The first phantom appeared, its fox crown reaching the sky, its nine tails burning with flames. It was the lingering resentment of the ancient god Sleeping Fox, so ancient as to be almost indescribable, representing the bestiality and divinity of its "true self".

The second illusory figure was solitary, with white hair reaching the ground, and a silent, sorrowful silhouette. It was Qing Li—that lingering affection, obsession, and memory in the mortal world, still undiminished amidst the tearing of blood and soul, like a tear frozen on the edge of divinity.

The third phantom was the most terrifying—it was formless and shapeless, with a chaotic halo replacing its face. It had no facial features, no emotions, yet possessed an indescribable "authority." That was—the archetype of divine authority, the true "source of rules" for the Sleeping God.

The three shadows stand side by side atop the sky, like a harbinger of the rebirth of all things.

They slowly moved toward the center, their movements extremely slow, yet unstoppable.

Golden and white halos converged between the three shadows, constructing a brand new container of consciousness—He was "uniting consciousness".

The weeping child's eyelids twitched, and his voice twisted into a sharp twitch.
"No...she wants to get married!"

He suddenly leaped from the Blood Tower, his shattered hand brushing aside the Blood Ring Array, and forcefully unleashed the last Blood Bone Lock Seal. The chains were like dragons, and the incantations were like waterfalls, rushing straight to the core of his soul.

"Once she completes her mastery of consciousness, the Heavenly Dao will be readjusted!"

“Theocracy will be taken over by ‘Hisself,’ and we will have no control whatsoever!”

The Blazing Bone Ape Lord responded angrily, his bone flames raging, turning the bone beads to ash.

"Stop her! Stop her!"

A massive illusory image of bone spirits rose up behind him, and the howling of ten thousand bone spirits bombarded the ice field once again, channeling all the remaining chains of the main vein into the divine bones, attempting to reverse the process of the fusion of the divine soul returning to the body.

At the center where the three shadows converged, a strange core of light suddenly appeared, like a drop of divine dew that had been condensed for ten thousand years, slowly forming the "Eye of Divine Consciousness" on the heart of the soul.

He saw "himself".

At this moment, the whole world fell silent.

The sky cracked like a mirror, the earth's veins broke into rift valleys, and the boundaries of rules, like pieces of paper, were pushed open inch by inch by this process of constructing consciousness.

The world is giving way to Him.

He will no longer be a suppressed divine soul, nor an old god in oblivion, nor a remnant of Qing Li.

He is the Lord, the recognized God.

At this moment, the two evil spirits were on the verge of madness.

Blood gushed from the head of the Crimson Rain Child, his face ashen, yet he grinned maliciously through gritted teeth:

"She's not fully acquainted yet; she's still missing one seal. As long as I infuse her with the 'Sealing Ring,' I can hold her off!"

He took out the ancient cursed ring from his bosom, which looked like it was made from fragments of divine bone.

It was an extremely powerful artifact engraved with the "Seven Luminaries Divine Restriction," which, once implanted into the soul, could delay the "Construction of Self-Consciousness."

"With my blood as the seal, this world as the paper, and the death of the old gods as the ink—Seal of Consciousness!"

The cursed ring flew out of his hand, drawing together the cursed power of the entire Blood Tower, like a divine judgment sword, pointing directly at the soul.

In that very instant, all the spirits of the world vanished into silence.

The air could not move, sound could not travel, and even "time" seemed to freeze for a moment.

He moved.

The divine soul slowly raised its eyes, and the power of the three shadows reflected three layers of light patterns in its eyes.

It was a divine rune of order never known to the world, belonging neither to heaven and earth nor to the gods, but—it belonged to Himself.

With that single glance, the cursed ring shattered in mid-air, the foundation of the Blood Tower shook, and even the bottom of the icy plains resounded with a deafening roar.

The sea of ​​blood surged backward, the chains shattered, and the Crimson Rain Child coughed up blood and flew backward, crashing heavily into the bottom of the blood river.

He stared at the spirits in the air, and fear finally began to fill his eyes.

"...No, it couldn't be..."

The Blazing Bone Ape Marquis was also startled, and his fists trembled.

He is about to awaken.

No, He is no longer the one who is asleep.

Rather, it is a "sleeping god" that truly belongs to oneself.

Just as they were exhausting their last bit of magical power...

Suddenly, a ray of golden light appeared on the horizon.

The light was extremely far away, yet it pierced through the end of the ice field, like a golden streak piercing from beyond the boundary, pointing directly to the location of the soul.

In that instant, his soul suddenly turned its head.

That was an illogical reaction.

She seemed to hear something.

His soul trembled slightly, and a wisp of remnant consciousness whispered from the void, as if responding to someone's call:
"...Someone is calling me."

These words shocked the weeping child so much that his heart trembled violently and his expression changed drastically.

"...Not good." He whispered, "It's that person...Master Hunyuan is here..."

"What?!" roared the Blazing Bone Ape Lord, his bone fire trembling.

"Quickly! Hurry! Seal her, completely sever her soul consciousness!"

The golden light trail that pierced the sky from the edge of the icy plain was like a divine ray that tore through the air, and like a long bridge that broke through boundaries, stretching across from the farthest realm, connecting the untouchable boundary between heaven and earth, life and death, and worlds.

At this moment, heaven and earth no longer moved for the sake of the divine soul.

Instead, they trembled at the sight of that glimmer of hope.

“…Hun Yuan, Master.” Qi Yu Chi Tong practically squeezed out these four words through clenched teeth, his voice low and deep, yet filled with a chilling fear that seemed to emanate from the very marrow of his bones.

The Soul Flame of the Blazing Bone Ape Lord also receded by half an inch. His divine sense seemed to be struck by something, and he suddenly looked up at the golden light source.

"It's him?!" He grinned, revealing a mouthful of broken ape teeth. "That old bastard is still alive?!"

The weeping red child's face turned ashen.

“You don’t understand. If he were to descend to earth, all of this would be for naught. God would no longer belong to us, and the path to godhood would surely crumble.”

The Blood River suddenly became unstable at this moment.

Before the golden light even touched it, the blood river had already begun to flow backward, as if some supreme power was instinctively counteracting its "rebellious" course.

On the icy plain, Chu Ning lay in Dong'er's arms with his eyes closed, his body covered in blood and his breath as weak as a wisp of wind.

The wind and snow were still fierce, but the world was quietly silent. At that moment, Chu Ning's chest suddenly trembled slightly.

It wasn't pain, but a profound feeling—ancient and vast, like stars falling and the Great Dao awakening.

He suddenly opened his eyes, and a golden light, not his own, shone deep within his pupils, serene and profound, like a half-closed heavenly gate that had just begun to open.

“What is this…” His throat was hoarse, the voice seemingly squeezed out from his throat, “Something… is watching me.”

“It’s looking at me…no, it’s recognizing me.”

He whispered, his voice almost drowning out the wind and snow, but at that moment, he suddenly understood.

This decree was not a magical artifact given to him for use, but rather it was waiting for him to return to his rightful place.

Dong'er suddenly noticed something was wrong, looked up at Chu Ning, and her originally pale face suddenly lost all color.

His breathing became rapid and slow, his chest heaved violently, and a golden light appeared between his brows, as if it were about to tear him apart.

"Chu Ning! Don't scare me!" She lunged at him, pinning him down tightly, her voice trembling. "What's wrong with you? Don't die... You haven't saved her yet..."

Chu Ning slowly turned her head. "I...it seems like it's been watching me all along."

His voice was low and hoarse as he coughed up blood.

Dong'er's eyes were filled with tears, but she was completely stunned.

The moment the Primordial Divine Decree trembled, Qingli's soul was violently shaken.

The three illusory figures that were originally slowly merging—the "Sleeping God Self" of the Fox Tail Heavenly Crown, the "Qingli" as silent as snow, and the "Divine Design" of chaos and formlessness—all trembled at the same time.

It was an indescribable phenomenon, as if the threads of fate had been suddenly plucked, and the logical structure of the entire world seemed to momentarily lose focus under this golden light.

The space surrounding the soul collapsed and reconstructed layer by layer.

The fox's tail swayed gently in the air, causing the wind and snow to churn and surge.
Qing Li's brows furrowed slightly, as if she had remembered some name that was difficult to say.

Deep within the chaotic realm, an invisible light pattern emerged, a trace of the divine design's "passive reorganization."

"Is she... responding?"

The weeping red child's expression changed drastically, and he cried out in horror:
"That's not 'co-consciousness'! It's... she's reconstructing the divine consciousness model!"

"If we don't act now, everything will—"

Before he finished speaking, the Primordial Divine Decree had already broken free from Chu Ning's control, ascended on its own, and hovered above his chest, like a token of divine will returning to its rightful place.

Chu Ning seemed to be enveloped in that golden light. Despite being severely injured, he suddenly seemed to have become part of the laws of heaven and earth.

The wind and snow cannot bypass him, and heaven and earth dare not oppress him.

Dong'er suddenly realized that perhaps she never knew the full picture of this man from the very beginning.

He is not a "warrior who went to the wrong battlefield".

He is the crack in destiny.

And she simply accompanied him to the end of this collapsing world.

"Can't wait any longer!"

The fingertips of the Weeping Rain Child were already a bloody mess, and his ten fingers trembled as if broken branches.

Without the slightest hesitation, he grinned, his smile almost distorted.

His third Soul-Locking Ring, the cursed ring that combines the ancient god's bone imprint, the death curse inscription, and the origin of the Blood River, has already taken shape.

It emitted a slight buzzing vibration in his palm, like a thirsty venomous insect, waiting for the moment to devour the soul of "Qing Li".

"Finally... it's done." He murmured, his voice hoarse like a tattered cloth, his face pale, but his eyes held an almost manic obsession.

His back was slightly hunched, his spine bent to the point of almost breaking, and dense, incantations throbbed beneath his skin like soul-eating worms crawling through his flesh. Each wriggling movement caused the muscles on his face to twitch uncontrollably.

He looked up, and in his eyes was reflected the phantom of a divine soul hanging high in the sky.

"With my blood as the seal." He used his severed finger to carve a curse mark on his brow, blood flowing backward and incantations rolling.

"Use this world as paper." He pointed to the heavens and earth with his left hand, and the ice plains trembled violently, the blood river roared angrily, and the entire space was as if it had been forcibly compressed into a scroll of divine incantations for him to paint.

"Use the death of the old gods as ink..." He suddenly bit his tongue, and a stream of crimson blood shot straight to the center of the Soul-Locking Ring. The final incantation was almost a roar:

"—Seal of Knowledge!!"

The spell ring burst forth from the sky, causing the heavens and earth to tremble.

The river of blood suddenly stopped churning, as if its entire bloodline had been drained.

Thousands of fox spirits cried out in unison, and the cursed ring split into nine layers of blood blades in mid-air, each ring encircling the soul's brow and gradually closing in.

The Soul-Locking Ring was near, and the halo between his brows began to slightly collapse.

The weeping red child threw his head back and laughed wildly, his cheeks contorted with ecstasy to the point of being almost inhuman.
"Almost there...almost there! Once this link is completed, my divine soul will be my soul, and my divine bones will be my body! Hahahaha—"

His voice cracked and trembled, like a twisted child who had finally gotten his beloved toy.

"—You think you're a god? No, you're my door, you're the ladder I climb to the upper realm—" he roared, "—Open!!"

Just as the cursed ring was about to adhere to the soul.

"boom!"

At the end of the icy plain, the abyss shattered, and the three-thousand-foot-deep icy river crumbled into dust.

A beam of golden light descended from the heavens, covering the sky and earth like a divine brush that pierced through the heavens and earth, crashing heavily into the distorted theater.

But as soon as they landed, a "Daoist sound" resounded from the four corners of heaven and earth:

"A false ruler, arrogant and reckless, defies destiny and bestows divine titles. Who will face this calamity?"

The sound was not loud, but it was like a resounding bell.

The true arrival of the Primordial Master.

His clothes were like linen, and his appearance was like that of an ordinary person.

His steps were unhurried, as if drifting through a snowstorm. But with each step he took, the wounds of the icy plains healed automatically, the blood river flowed backward three inches, and the world seemed to make way for him.

That wasn't intimidation.

The Way, one should yield to.

Suddenly, the Blazing Bone Ape Lord stopped, and the bone flames burning in mid-air seemed to lose their anchor and extinguished after a few breaths.

He narrowed his crimson eyes, a rare solemnity appearing in them, and growled in a low voice:
"It's him."

The weeping child turned around, his eyes bloodshot, and his usual composure finally crumbled.

His lips twitched, and his voice was almost forced out through clenched teeth:

"Hun Yuan... how is he still alive?"

Ape Lord did not make a move immediately, but instead approached Hunyuan Master step by step, his bone fists clenched tightly, each step like a heavy boulder pressing down on the heavens and earth.

“You should have died long ago. You failed to transcend the tribulation, your soul was scattered, the Heavenly Gate was shattered because of you, and the World Lock fell into the mortal world.”

"I, Chi Tong, and those you sealed in the Three Abysses—the Wind-Sacrificing Marquis, the Thousand-Eyed Monk, the Cold Abyss Sleeping Deer, the Broken Flute Corpse King… all entered the Saint Realm, exhausted their lifespans, yet had no way to ascend, ultimately transforming into evil spirits, relying on devouring souls to exchange for life…"

His tone was low, and every word conveyed anger and sorrow.

"And you? You're still alive."

Master Hunyuan remained silent, only looking down at him.

There was no pity, no sorrow or joy in that gaze, only a faint response:
"I have not ascended to heaven."

"Therefore, the heavens were not yet opened."

"You... you've shattered hope!" Ape Lord roared, his bone flames exploding, the heavens and earth rumbling.

"You are the culprit!"

"You have destroyed the path to ascension for the entire era!"

With a single punch, the heavens and earth seemed to be torn apart. All the bone beads and incantations exploded, and the space within three zhang collapsed, creating a desolate domain.

That was the Soul Grave Hell, his strongest final punch.

Master Hunyuan remained motionless, only raising his eyes to look over.

That one glance silenced heaven and earth.

Before Yuan Hou's fist even arrived, it exploded into dust in mid-air, and his entire arm bone shattered from the shoulder.

"Do not!!"

He roared, frantically activating his second arm, pouring all his soul flames into it, and slammed it down again with a backhand.

"If you obstruct me again, I will sacrifice my body and bones, and use my soul as a seal, to swear to destroy you!"

Master Hunyuan remained unmoved.

I just sighed softly.

"You're not here to defy the heavens."

"You have been deceived by Heaven..."

The curse seal of the Weeping Rain Crimson Child could no longer seal the soul.

His eyes were bleeding, and he was gritting his teeth.

"If he descends, all will cease! The path to godhood will crumble."

"You don't understand, this is the only path we have left."

He raised his hand and forcibly detonated the final ring of the Soul-Suppressing Curse.

The River of Blood trembled violently, and hundreds of thousands of soul shadows howled, transforming into countless chains that suddenly coiled around the illusory soul shadows.

Master Hunyuan finally spoke, his tone serene, like the cold moon reflecting on the heart:
"You think that by seizing the body of a god, you can gain eternal life."

"But little did they know, the Heavenly Gate was never truly closed."

The Crimson Rain Child's pupils constricted, and he roared in fury:
"Then tell me! Why has no one reached the other shore in the past thousand years?"

Master Hunyuan said, "Because you... don't believe."

With a flick of his sleeve, the blood chains pressing down on his soul shattered in the air.

“You use souls as locks and blood as bridges, but you have never asked the gods if they would be used by you.”

The Monkey King, his body engulfed in flames and spitting blood, roared furiously with his head raised.

"If Heaven does not save us, we will sacrifice ourselves."

Hunyuan responded in a low voice:

"Heaven may not help you... but it fears that your journey will be too shallow."

The Crimson Rain Child lost control; his face began to twist and deform, cursed blood flowed back, and he suffered excruciating pain in his five senses.

He had staked everything on the final ritual.

"I want to become a god!"

He shouted himself hoarse, and the entire river of blood seemed to boil.

But at that very moment, a barely perceptible sound exploded in everyone's hearts:

"hiss……"

That was the first breath of the soul awakening.

A golden and white halo quietly reversed.

Her soul was no longer "Qingli," but that of the ancient god who had been sleeping for ten thousand years—the Sleeping God.

She woke up.

Master Hunyuan's brow twitched, and he suddenly reached out.

Just a little bit.

The entire River of Blood froze from its source.

Blood, drawn from "His death," is returned to "non-existence."

The Monkey King's eyes widened, but he could no longer utter a single word.

The Crimson Rain Child was like a punctured paper doll, its curse seals collapsing, a drop of blood sliding from its mouth, hitting the ground and exploding into a shattered curse ring.

Master Hunyuan glanced at them one last time.

"You have chosen to seize the god with blood."

"Then die before the gods."

(End of this chapter)