Chapter 988 - 443: Victory!
In the distant depths of the cosmos, lies the broken Celestial Fall Battlefield.
Yu Kong still hovered in place, his Heart Spirit still immersed in the previous terrifying cosmic waves.
At this moment!
Buzz!
Another wave came!
This time, it was no longer vast and boundless, but like a sharp sword severing everything in its finality!
Immediately after, he sensed a familiarity in the aura of "Guixu senior" that had once evoked fear; it seemed to have stabilized?
No longer was it the kind of furious state that seemed to tear the entire cosmos apart.
Instead, had it become restrained?
Like the calm after a storm, yet containing an even more unfathomable power.
"Senior won?"
A gleam of wild joy flickered in Yu Kong's eyes!
Although he didn't know what the senior had encountered, the evil, filthy aura had disappeared! The senior's aura stabilized!
This was undoubtedly the best outcome!
"Wonderful! The senior truly is invincible!"
Yu Kong was so excited he could hardly contain himself!
He once again deeply bowed towards the direction from which the aura came!
His admiration for "Guixu senior" had reached its peak!
Simultaneously, an even stronger thought crazily grew in his heart!
To follow!
He must follow in the senior's footsteps!
Even if it means just trailing behind, to see the higher scenery!
He didn't know that the "Guixu senior" he admired was not overlooking the scenery from some high place at this moment.
He was merely back in a small place called "Kao Mountain Sect."
Standing before a dilapidated cave abode.
Quietly watching.
Letting the mountain wind blow on the hem of his garment tinged with a bit of dust and the scent of blood.
His path still stretched long into the future.
His adversaries were far from eradicated.
Returning was merely a new beginning.
A storm, sweeping across all realms, entangling countless eras and causations, had just begun!
The mountain wind, with a whimper, blew across the broken walls of Kao Mountain Sect, carrying the unique coldness of bloodstains.
Xu Ran's figure had not truly moved away.
Like a Ghost, a traveler across endless time and space, he silently appeared at the depths of Kao Mountain Sect, before the cave abode that was ever so familiar in his memory.
The years had left mottled marks on this cave abode.
The once tight restrictions were now faded and dull, the stone door at the entrance half-closed, covered in cobwebs, dust piled thickly.
It seemed as though it had been forgotten long, long ago.
Xu Ran stood there quietly, not rushing to enter.
His gaze, penetrating through the ancient times, landed on that dust-covered stone door.
Vaguely, he seemed to see the naive young boy of the past, stepping into this place for the first time with excitement and nervous anticipation for the path of cultivation.
Saw the figure who, in order to become stronger, practiced hard day and night without rest.
Saw the gentle senior sister who would occasionally bring elixirs and words of concern under the lamplight.
Memories surged like a tide, yet as they touched the cold rocks of reality, they quietly receded, leaving only a silent sigh.
He stretched out his hand, fingertips entwined with a barely discernible stream of gray air.
It was the last trace left from the battle against the residual will of the "Source of Filth."
It wasn't that he couldn't completely remove it, but this remnant contained something he needed to carefully analyze.
The "Source of Filth" was not a mere collective of evil Energy; its essence seemed to touch upon an aspect of some older, more forbidden Cosmic Origin's antithesis?
Xu Ran's brow furrowed ever so slightly.
That battle, seemingly crushingly strong, was perilous beyond compare in reality.
What he utilized was not just his accumulated Power but also invoked a forbidden Law closely aligned with his own path!
Otherwise, merely relying on the Returning Ruins Realm's Power, completely eradicating that which had remained unextinguished through countless ages of decay, was by no means an easy task.
The cost was the injuries in his body right now, like a persistent wound of the Tao that couldn't be wholly calmed!
It wasn't an injury of the flesh, but a collision and counterattack at the level of the greater Way!
The blood at the corner of his mouth wasn't a sign of weakness but a minor trace dispersed when his own Way was employed forcefully to obliterate a foreign Law.
His path was of desolation, of termination, of Returning Ruins!
And that "Source of Filth" seemed to signify a twisted, maddened "life?"
A manner of existence starkly different from the normal cosmic order?
"Hmph"
A low, cold snort issued from Xu Ran's nose, carrying endless frostiness.
No matter what it was, if it was an enemy, only complete obliteration awaited!
He hesitated no more, his fingers gently brushing over the stone door.
The remnants of the dim restrictions melted silently, like snow meeting a scorching sun.
The heavy stone door slowly opened inward, raising a cloud of dust.
The scene within the cave abode came into view.
Simple, plain, even one might say crude.
A stone bed, a mat, a smooth stone wall, still bearing the faint marks left from sword practice years ago.
Besides these, there was nothing else.
But this simple scene stirred a ripple in Xu Ran's heart lake, frozen for billions of years.
He walked in slowly.
His footsteps sounded particularly clear in the empty, silent cave abode.
He walked to the side of the stone bed, looking at the dust-covered bed surface, silent.
Back then, it was here he spent countless sleepless nights, contemplating the heavens and refining himself.
He then looked at the mat.
Back then, it was here he sat, breaking through bottlenecks again and again, persisting through failure and pain with clenched teeth.