Projection of the Heavens: I prove my immortality through slaughter.

After passing through the perilous Shattered Star Corridor, Lin Xuan's vision suddenly opened up, but what followed was not peace, but a deathly stillness and sorrow that had been etched into the past millennia.

He has entered an ancient battlefield ruin known as the "Land of Fallen Gods".

Here, there are no shattered stars; instead, there are even larger and more shocking remains. There are the skeletons of true dragons, comparable to a vast world, stretching for tens of millions of miles. The dragon bones are a dull gold, and even after countless years of death, they still exude a chilling dragon's might, but that might is filled with resentment and bitterness.

At the dragon's head, a huge hole runs through it, as if it had been killed by some terrifying weapon.

There was an ancient god's corpse, its body larger than a star, its skin like cracked earth, floating silently in the void. Its heart had been hollowed out, leaving only a deep black hole, and faint dark red divine blood was congealed at the edge of the wound like magma.

He gripped a broken giant axe tightly in his hand, the remaining malevolent energy on the blade causing the surrounding void to distort continuously.

Countless bizarre and grotesque corpses of demons, monsters, and even enormous bodies of unidentifiable races were scattered everywhere. Some were intertwined, maintaining the final postures of their battles; others were severed in half by terrifying power, either burned to charcoal or frozen into ice sculptures.

Broken battle flags, shattered divine weapons, and faded fragments of magical artifacts... floated like dust in this sea of ​​stars composed of corpses.

Space here is fragmented, with massive spatial rifts like unhealable scars stretching across the battlefield, constantly spewing out chaotic forces of earth, water, fire, and wind. The flow of time also appears abnormally disordered; in some areas, time flies by like an arrow, while in others it seems frozen in time forever.

The dense, impenetrable aura of malevolence, death, resentment, and various chaotic and violent energies formed a colorful, highly corrosive, and hallucinatory mist that permeated the entire battlefield. An ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator here would likely not last even the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before their mind was eroded by the malevolent aura or torn apart by the chaotic energy.

Lin Xuan was surrounded by a clear, flowing light, completely isolating himself from the incoming negative energy. He hovered in a relatively open area, his gaze sweeping over the tragic and magnificent battlefield ruins, and a slight ripple inevitably appeared in his deep eyes.

"Such a large-scale war between gods and demons... What kind of devastating battle took place here in ancient times?" he murmured to himself. These gods and demons were probably at least at the Nascent Soul stage, the Void Refinement stage, or even higher in life, but now they have all turned into withered bones, drifting here.

He tried to circulate his cultivation technique to absorb the spiritual energy of this place, but found it extremely difficult. Although the energy here was abundant, it was filled with violent and lifeless attributes, which were incompatible with the path he cultivated. Forcibly absorbing it would do more harm than good.

However, just as he was preparing to leave this ominous place and continue his journey, something unexpected happened.

Within his dantian, the ancient nascent soul that had been sitting quietly, its eyes containing the scenes of the birth and death of the universe, began to tremble slightly on its own at this moment!

It wasn't a warning of a threat, but rather a... peculiar resonance and throbbing.

Immediately afterwards, Lin Xuan felt as if his soul had been plunged into an invisible ocean. Not an ocean of energy, but... an ocean of will and remnant soul!

"Kill! For the glory of my race!" "Hate! Hate the injustice of heaven! Hate the injustice of the world!" "I am not reconciled... My path is not yet complete..." "Protect... We must protect..." "Your Majesty... Your subject... I will go first..." "Demon! Let us perish together!" "Homeland... My homeland that I can never return to..."

Hundreds of millions of chaotic fragments of thought, filled with extreme emotions, surged out from the corpses of gods and demons that had been dormant for countless years, like a flood bursting its banks, and frantically assaulted Lin Xuan's senses!

These are not complete souls, but rather special beings formed from the lingering obsessions of fallen gods and demons, a mixture of fragmented divine souls and battlefield aura—undying remnant souls!

They have no reason, only the most intense emotional imprints from their lives: soaring fighting spirit, bone-deep resentment, endless unwillingness, unwavering protection, and utter desolation...

These lingering echoes intertwined, forming a tragic and chaotic eternal lament that reverberated endlessly across this desolate battlefield.

If an ordinary cultivator were to be struck by this massive remnant soul's will, at best, their soul would be damaged and their Dao heart would waver; at worst, they might be assimilated by negative emotions, fall into madness, or be possessed by an ancient obsession.

But Lin Xuan's Dao heart was unbreakable. His soul, having undergone the baptism of the origin, was now one with his nascent soul, making it extremely stable.

This immense mental impact, though it made him frown slightly, could not shake its foundation.

He did not resist; instead, he lowered his mental defenses and took the initiative to "listen" to the "echoes of the battlefield" from eternity ago.

He "saw" the fiery divine blood spilling across the starry sky, staining the Milky Way crimson; he heard the roar of the demon god before his fall, a roar that shattered the stars; he felt the ancient god's resolute self-destruction to protect his homeland; and he also experienced the helplessness towards the end of life and the bewilderment about "destiny" that permeated the deepest recesses of all the remaining souls...

They were so powerful that even as mere remnants of their souls, their essence remained extremely profound. So much so that the natural cycle of reincarnation seemed unable to fully accept or assimilate them. They were imprisoned here, unable to transcend, unable to find peace, forced to repeat their former obsessions and endure eternal torment throughout endless ages.

"A soul adrift, bound by unyielding obsessions... Is this the tragedy of a fallen power?" A sudden realization dawned on Lin Xuan. "Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs. Even gods and demons, if they cannot transcend, are no different from mortals after death, perhaps even more miserable."

At that moment, the nascent soul within his dantian, and the scenes of the universe's birth and death in its eyes, began to flow at an accelerated pace on its own. In particular, the scene in his right eye, representing "death" and "end," resonated strongly with the deathly silence and aura of annihilation permeating this battlefield.

Life and death, creation and destruction, are two sides of the same coin.

This battlefield is the ultimate embodiment of "death" and "end".

In this ultimate "death," Lin Xuan's nascent soul, his eternal nascent soul containing the foundation of the Great Dao of birth and death, captured a trace of the true meaning of reincarnation hidden after the end of all things, the mysterious force that maintains the balance of the universe!

It was as if a ray of light had pierced through the fog.

He suddenly "saw" that deep within the endless resentment of lingering souls, at the very bottom of the laws of the universe, there seemed to exist an invisible yet undeniably real "river." It traversed the past and the future, flowing across the boundary between reality and illusion, carrying the true spirits of all beings to an unknown shore.

The living come from the river, and the dead return to the river.

This "river" is a symbol of reincarnation! It is the opportunity given to all things by the universe to start over, and it is one of the fundamental laws for balancing life and death, eliminating resentment, and maintaining order!

"Reincarnation..." Lin Xuan murmured the two words, his eyes gleaming with an unprecedented light.

Before this, his understanding of reincarnation was limited to legends from his past lives and some ancient texts; he knew what it was, but not why it was. But now, on this ancient battlefield of gods and demons, through the resonance between his own nascent soul and countless immortal remnant souls, he truly and directly touched upon the essence of the concept of "reincarnation" for the first time!

He sensed its presence, its grandeur and inevitability, and also felt the tragic state of the remnant souls here who, due to various reasons (such as their own strong obsessions, interference from the battlefield's malevolent energy, or intervention from higher-level forces), were unable to integrate into the cycle of reincarnation.

"If there is a cycle of reincarnation, why are the lingering souls of this place not allowed to enter?" A question arose in his mind.

At the same time, a vague idea began to sprout in his mind.

If the cycle of heaven and earth is flawed, if the rules are not perfect, then... can I use my power to reshape the cycle? To create a true home for these helpless souls, and for all living beings in this universe?

Once the idea appeared, it was like a seed falling into fertile soil, quickly taking root and sprouting.

The nascent soul within him seemed to have become more agile after capturing this trace of the true meaning of reincarnation, and the flow of birth and death also subtly gained a sense of harmony. It was as if the absolute barrier between birth and death had become communicable and cyclical because of the infusion of the concept of "reincarnation".

Lin Xuan stood amidst thousands of corpses, his black robes fluttering in the turbulent energy currents. He closed his eyes, no longer "listening" to the chaotic aftershocks, but instead focusing all his efforts on comprehending that faint, elusive true meaning of reincarnation.

After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes and looked at this desperate battlefield. His gaze was less turbulent and more profound, with an indescribable sense of... responsibility.

"Reincarnation... I see."

He did not linger there. After keeping that trace of the true meaning of reincarnation in his heart, he turned and left this land where gods had fallen.