Chapter 977 - 437: Ants! (2)
At the same time, Xu Ran’s eighth, utterly resolute sword shadow shattered completely the instant it made contact! It broke apart into the purest fragments of will, like a candle guttering in the wind, about to be snuffed out before one’s eyes!
And bearing all of this... was Xu Ran’s mortal body!
Pu chi! Pu chi! Pu chi!
As though some invisible force had detonated him from within!
Cracks deep enough to expose bone erupted across his whole body in an instant!
They were not blade wounds, not sword marks, but... traces of "existence" being erased!
Flesh and blood, meridians, bone... all forms of tangible matter followed the trajectory of that pitch-black sword edge and stepped into nihility!
Golden blood mingled with scarlet gore, surging out of those fissures like a fountain, only to, at the instant of touching the outside air, bizarrely turn to flying ash and vanish without a trace!
"Aaaahhhhh——!!!"
Two utterly different screams of agony erupted at the same time from that ravaged, broken body!
One was the ancient will’s howl of unwillingness and rage; it felt its own Source being savagely corroded and ground away by that terrifying Power of Destruction! The sensation was more painful than being sealed for endless ages!
The other was the shriek from the depths of Xu Ran’s soul; his soul brand felt as though cast into a furnace, suffering unimaginable rending and burning! The collapse of that eighth sword shadow made his will quake violently, on the verge of disintegration!
Yu Kong stared blankly at the scene before him.
He saw "Xu Ran’s" body "disappearing" at a speed visible to the naked eye!
It was not death, not disassembly, but a true and proper... erasure from this world!
Arms, legs, torso... all along the trail cut by that pitch-black sword edge, they were turning into nothingness!
In the blink of an eye, what had once been a complete person was reduced to a mangled chest cavity and a single heart that still beat stubbornly on, yet was riddled with cracks, as though it would cease entirely in the next instant!
And atop that heart, golden radiance and shards of resolute Sword Intent were entwined like two dying Poisonous Snakes, still frantically tearing and tangling with one another!
The phantom of the Annihilation Sword, having completed this blow, did not immediately disperse.
That contour of ultimate darkness still hung suspended in midair, sword tip drooping slightly, pointing toward the remains below as though in judgment, in verification... checking whether the "taboo" that had called it forth had truly been brought to an absolute end.
A shroud of Deathly Silence enveloped the entire Sword Tomb Space.
Time itself seemed to freeze in that instant.
Yu Kong even held his breath; he had no idea what would happen next.
Would that ancient will be completely extinguished? Or would Xu Ran’s soul brand be reduced to flying ash? Or... would the two perish together, leaving behind only this remnant that was stepping into utter nihility?
Yet at that very moment!
A sudden upheaval erupted!
Wmmm——!!!
A humming sound as if from primordial prehistory rang out, not from the Annihilation Sword, nor from the ancient will or Xu Ran’s will, but... from the entire Sword Tomb Space! From the depths of the earth! From boundless nothingness itself! It was transmitted forth!
With that hum, the entire Sword Tomb began to quiver violently!
The ground cracked, the heavens warped!
Countless giant swords, Broken Swords, and ruined blades that had originally stood all throughout the Sword Tomb, each bearing a different form and emanating ancient Sword Intent, seemed called by something and began to tremble in unison!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A dense, surging chorus of sword cries swept across the four directions like a tidal wave!
Floods of majestic, vast, desolate, ancient Sword Intent converged from all sides, like hundreds of rivers returning to the sea, all surging toward the point cleaved by the Annihilation Sword! Surging toward that single, crack-riddled heart!
"This... what is this?!" Yu Kong jerked his head up, his eyes filled with horror!
He saw it!
He saw that the Sword Intent flying in from all over the Sword Tomb was not in chaotic disarray!
They interwove and fused in midair, faintly forming a... colossal ancient Rune!
That Rune was vast, age-old, steeped in an indescribable profundity and majesty, as though it bore some foundational "cornerstone" of this heaven and earth!
And at the core of that Rune lay none other than that heart which was stepping toward annihilation!
"The Sword Tomb grand array?! No... wrong! This is no simple sealing formation!" Yu Kong’s Heart Spirit shook violently. "This is... a conduit?! Or... a sacrifice?!"
He recalled another, even older legend about the Sword Tomb.
The legend said this place was not merely a grave where failures were buried, but... the "Dao Field" of some Supreme Existence! A place It used to evolve and deduce Its own Sword Dao!
And these swords buried here, these Sword Intents of the fallen, were all... Its "nourishment"!
Could it be... that the appearance of the Annihilation Sword was not solely to destroy that taboo existence?
But furthermore... that it had triggered some mechanism of this "Dao Field"?!
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!
Just as Yu Kong wavered in shocked confusion, the ancient Rune formed of endless Sword Intent suddenly contracted inward!
Like a colossal vortex!
It wildly dragged at everything around it!
First and foremost was that Annihilation Sword phantom hanging suspended in midair!
That ultimate darkness, that Power which signified "ending" and "nothingness", was forcefully seized and pulled by this ancient Rune!
The Annihilation Sword phantom shook violently, seemingly trying to break free!
An even more terrifying aura of obliteration surged from it, attempting to collapse the Rune that dared bind it!
Yet the Rune was incomparably tenacious!
It seemed connected to the entire Sword Tomb Space, and even to some deeper layer of existence!
No matter how the Annihilation Sword hurled itself against it, it could not be completely destroyed!
On the contrary, under the Rune’s pulling, the phantom of the Annihilation Sword was, bit by bit... dragged down toward that broken heart below!
"No!!!"
A weak yet terror-stricken scream burst out from deep within that heart, from the golden radiance belonging to the ancient will!
It sensed a lethal crisis!
The activation of this Sword Tomb grand array (or "Dao Field") had a target not only in the Annihilation Sword, but... in It as well!
Or rather, in It, Xu Ran, and the residual Power of Destruction left by the Annihilation Sword—this "hybrid" formed of the three entangled together!
This grand array seemed intent on taking all of that... and smelting it completely?!
"What... what are they trying to do?!" Xu Ran’s faint soul brand quivered as well.
He could feel an irresistible Power of "smelting" surging in from every direction, aiming to crush his will fragments, the remnants of the ancient will, and the Power of Destruction that had invaded his body... grind them down! Fuse them!
This was an experience more terrifying than death itself!
As though one were to be disassembled completely, then reshaped, according to some unknown will, into... a wholly new something!
"Begone! Get out of My sight!!!" The ancient will went mad! It spent its last strength trying to tear free from the Rune’s bonds, trying to burst out of that heart on the verge of being smelted!
Golden light flared explosively, yet like snow thrown into a furnace, it melted away with rapid speed!
"No... I can’t... just end like this..." Xu Ran’s will fluctuated wildly as well; the remaining shards of that eighth sword shadow burst forth with a final sharpness, cleaving toward that invisible smelting Power!
Yet it was all in vain!
Before the might of the Sword Tomb "Dao Field", both the ancient will’s struggle and Xu Ran’s defiance seemed so pitifully insignificant!
Chi——!
At last, the ancient Rune formed of boundless Sword Intent, bearing the dark phantom of the Annihilation Sword, descended like a colossal brand and stamped harshly onto that crack-riddled heart!
Wmmm!!!!
The heart jolted violently!
All of its fissures, instead of widening at that moment, actually... began to heal in a strange way!
Yet this healing was all the more horrifying!
For along those healing lines flowed no longer simple golden blood, nor scarlet gore!
But a... Chaos-colored essence, mixing ultimate darkness, primeval golden radiance, and a single strand of edge that could sever all things!
As though...
Some wholly new thing was, at the very terminus of destruction...