Chapter 337 - 313: Profound Yellow Northwest, Wuji Holy Sect
The night was still long, and the fire burned fiercely.
A vast, ancient, and unfamiliar world, its Spiritual Mechanism so potent it was suffocating, was being revealed through the distorted, melting boundary. Like a heavy curtain being slowly drawn aside, it gradually unveiled its soul-shaking true face!
Beyond the gaping hole, the Celestial Vault was a deep, crystalline azure. It was boundlessly high and distant, with no sun or moon, yet countless brilliant points of light, like stars, hung eternally, shedding their clear radiance.
The land was vast and boundless, with mountain ranges rising and falling like slumbering primeval dragons.
On the vast plains grew strange flowers and exotic trees that breathed in and out rosy mists, their swaying movements stirring faint spiritual tides.
Rivers, lakes, and seas were veiled in mist, their shimmering waves refracting a seven-colored brilliance.
There were also countless towering structures, floating Immortal Islands, and palaces in the sky, scattered like stars between the mountains, rivers, and sea of clouds.
This was the hidden world—the Cangque True Realm!
The true Sacred Land of cultivation, the source of the Ten Thousand Laws!
At this moment, this hidden world manifested.
Every mortal creature felt a great stone weighing on their hearts. Their breathing grew ragged, and their Divine Souls throbbed with pain.
Qi Yun narrowed his eyes. Chaotic Divine Light flowed within them as he took in this corner of the True Realm, and the many speculations in his mind instantly connected.
However, before anyone could fully process the shock and horror of this "Immortal Realm’s" visage—
Beyond the gaping hole.
The sky and earth of that vast True Realm suddenly "boiled"!
Not with fire, not with currents of air, but with... a tide of "people"!
Countless figures stepped out from the cave abodes in the crystalline mountain ranges, flew up from the floating Immortal Islands and palaces, and emerged from the depths of the cloud sea and the ends of the earth.
At first, they were sparse points of light, but in an instant, they transformed into a torrent that swept across Heaven and Earth!
They were densely packed, blanketing everything, obscuring the crystalline azure sky and hiding the brilliant "starlight." Even the vast landscape of mountains and rivers below grew dim beneath the shadow of their endless numbers!
Countless powerful auras mingled, rose, and converged, finally forming a terrifying pressure capable of overturning the cosmos and making stars fall. Like an invisible tsunami, it passed through the hole and slammed violently down upon the Imperial City and the Fire of All Living Beings below!
BOOM—!!!
The void erupted with a tangible roar!
The golden-white Fire of All Living Beings swayed violently under the impact of this collective pressure, formed purely from the convergence of countless Cultivators. Its light dimmed several shades!
What was even more terrifying was not the sheer pressure of their numbers.
It was... their "uniformity."
Their absolute "uniformity"!
The movements of the countless Cultivator torrent pouring out of the True Realm were synchronized to an eerie degree.
Ascending, forming ranks, advancing... they were like the most precise puppets, without a single flaw in their coordination.
Their faces, whether male or female, old or young, regardless of the differing auras of their Sects, were all frozen in indifference.
No, they were vacant.
Deep within their eyes, the light of spiritual nature, emotion, and individual will that should have been there was completely extinguished.
In its place was a purely cold, inhuman focus.
In the very depths of their pupils, a faint yet unmistakable pale luster was reflected.
Those were not the eyes of a Cultivator.
They were... the Will of Heaven!
It was the Will of Heaven itself, borrowing the eyes of countless Cultivators to look down, to lock on, to pass judgment!
All the Cultivators of the Cangque True Realm, regardless of their cultivation level, whether they were of righteous or demonic paths, had all lost themselves at this moment.
There was only one will in their minds.
The heaven-defier, and all existence, traces, and karma related to the heaven-defier...
Erase them!
Completely, from their very source... erase them!
RUMBLE...
The torrent of Cultivators began to move, like a Star River that had burst its banks, slowly pouring down toward the exit of the hole.
The scene was as magnificent as it was terrifying.
The sky was completely obscured, and the light grew dim.
The Cultivators and mortals in the Imperial City below felt as if a boundless continent made of "Cultivators" was slowly descending upon them, carrying a cold, indifferent will to crush everything!
Qi Yun still stood at the core of the Fire of All Living Beings, his robes whipping wildly under the terrifying pressure that drew ever closer, a pressure that seemed capable of crushing the world.
He tilted his head back, facing the cold, vast sea of Cultivators "flowing" down from the hole.
The Chaotic Divine Light in his eyes flickered intensely. Far from showing fear, his gaze held an almost searing sharpness.
’So it’s true... the entire True Realm is a pasture, and all its Cultivators are puppets.’
He muttered to himself, but his voice strangely pierced through the rampaging pressure and the howling wind.
’Good. It saves me the trouble... of hunting them down one by one.’
The moment the words left his lips, his hands abruptly formed an ancient and complex Seal Technique before his chest. His aura and the Fire of All Living Beings burning beneath his feet—which was currently suppressed—resonated on a deeper level.
The instant Qi Yun’s ancient Seal Technique was formed.
In every corner of the Great Cang Dynasty’s territory, countless tiny Array Discs—some placed in ancestral halls, some buried under trees, some built into wall foundations, some hidden by wellsides—all trembled in unison!
The Array Patterns on the surface of the discs, which had been stably circulating to guide and gather the All Living Beings’ Qi, underwent an extremely subtle yet fundamental deflection and twist at this moment!
It was as if the final gear in an intricate mechanism had been shifted.
The operational logic of the entire vast machine instantly reversed!
In the next instant, a bizarre and terrifying change appeared on the countless Array Discs simultaneously!
Wisps and strands of scarlet light, thick as blood yet gleaming with a cold, metallic luster, seeped out from the deepest core of the Array Patterns, rapidly dyeing them.
In the blink of an eye, all the Array Discs turned a terrifying dark red, like billions of dried, congealed bloodstains densely branded across the map of Great Cang!
BZZZZ—!
A low, strange humming resonated from the location of every Array Disc, ignoring distance. It followed some invisible network and instantly spread throughout the entire Dynasty’s territory!
Immediately after.
The dark-red Array Discs suddenly erupted with an intense, sinister light!
It pierced down into the earth and spread up into the void, linking with terrifying precision to every living being within the Great Cang Territory who was connected to the land’s fortune!
Whether they were high officials and noble personages in the Imperial City, armored garrison guards, peddlers and porters in remote towns, old farmers tilling the fields, or even mountain hunters and river fishermen...
All the Great Cang People, regardless of their cultivation, gender, or age, trembled involuntarily at this moment!
They could not see the scarlet light connecting to them, but they could clearly feel something intangible and fundamental being forcibly "extracted" from the deepest parts of their bodies, from the very level of their origin, strand by strand, wisp by wisp!
Ugh...
Countless suppressed, bewildered groans sounded simultaneously in every corner of the Dynasty.
What followed was a visible phenomenon.
From the body of every one of the Great Cang People, whether from beneath their clothes or on their exposed skin, a strange light began to rise slowly.
The light was grayish, with a texture like the finest ash left after everything has been incinerated. It rose gracefully, yet carried a deathly stillness and sense of nihilism, as if heralding the end of all things.
Wisps and strands drifted out from the tops of their heads, from their shoulders and necks, from over their hearts.
It was sparse at first, but quickly grew denser, as if every person were silently burning, precipitating this gray "ash light."
Countless fine streams of gray light interwove above the land, forming a silent, flowing, vast, and desperate gray mist!
「Imperial City, on the high platform outside the Diligent Governance Hall.」
Zhao Xuanji’s body also shuddered. He looked down and was horrified to see that same ash-like glimmer dissipating from the back of his aged hand, from the cuffs of his bright yellow Dragon Robe, and even with every breath he took!
"This... What is this?!"
He snapped his head up, his murky yet still sharp eyes locking onto Qi Yun in the center of the storm nearby. Qi Yun’s Seal Technique was complete, his body wreathed in an intertwining glow of Chaotic Divine Light and the array’s blood-red light.
The unease and hidden worries that had long been in his heart erupted like a volcano, transforming into a sharp cry of shock and anger:
"What are you doing?! This gray light is..."
Qi Yun turned his head slightly. His gaze swept calmly over Zhao Xuanji’s shocked and furious face, over the gray glimmer dissipating from his body. His voice was still level, yet it carried a condescending indifference as it clearly reached Zhao Xuanji’s ears:
"Karma."
He paused, as if stating the simplest of facts:
"Or, in the parlance of your world, it is the fate that entwines all living beings and runs through life and death—destiny."
"What?!"
Zhao Xuanji’s heart jolted, and a terrible thought flashed through his mind like lightning.
"What do you want with this karma?!"
The corner of Qi Yun’s mouth lifted into a cold, precise arc.
"To truly defeat the existence that sits enthroned upon the celestial dome, replacing the Will of Heaven, simply burning through a single membrane is far from enough."
His gaze turned to the cold, vast torrent of Cultivators pouring down from the hole.
Then he looked down at the Fire of All Living Beings, which was being inundated by the countless gray "ash lights" and gradually taking on a strange, dark gray hue. His tone carried a hint of frank calculation:
"By using the Karma accumulated over generations by the billions of living beings of your Great Cang Dynasty, a force deeply entangled with this land, and mixing it into the Celestial-Defying Flame that you ignited with your heaven-defying will...
...one can refine a concoction that exclusively corrodes the Divine Souls of this realm, defiles its Spiritual Mechanism, shatters its principles, and causes the Ten Thousand Laws to wither..."
He slowly uttered three words that weighed like mountains:
"End of Dharma."
Zhao Xuanji was struck as if by lightning, the blood in his veins seeming to freeze solid in an instant!
He understood. He understood everything!
Qi Yun had helped him with Heaven’s Fall all along just for the sake of the Great Cang Dynasty’s billions of lives, for its vast National Fortune and Karma accumulated over countless generations!
He wanted to use the entire Dynasty as a sacrifice!
To refine his incomparably venomous End of Dharma Poison!
To use it to fight against the Will of Heaven!
"Borrowing our karma... what will be the consequences?!"
Zhao Xuanji’s voice was hoarse, the words practically squeezed from the depths of his throat. He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms, drawing blood.
Qi Yun glanced at him and said nonchalantly:
"A person without karma is like a rootless duckweed, their fate adrift.
After death, their Soul Spirit will have nothing to anchor it. It will be unable to enter this world’s cycle of reincarnation and can only dissipate between Heaven and Earth, turning into primordial dust."
Seeing Zhao Xuanji’s face instantly turn deathly pale, he paused briefly before adding:
"However, considering you helped me accomplish my goal, I am also a benevolent person. I have left you a sliver of karmic leeway.
In about... ten lifetimes, the remaining seeds of karma will be able to sprout anew, and you can resume reincarnation.
It’s just that your memories, cultivation, and everything from this life will all become smoke and clouds."
His tone was casual, as if he were discussing a trivial matter.
"It’s no big deal."
"No big deal?!"
Zhao Xuanji’s eyes turned crimson, and his body began to tremble violently and uncontrollably. An extreme grief for his own fate and that of his people nearly shattered his sanity.
He shakily raised his right arm, pointing a finger like a withered branch at Qi Yun. His lips trembled as he squeezed a few broken words from his hoarse throat:
"You... you... who in the hell are you?!"
Hearing this, the cold arc on Qi Yun’s lips slowly widened.
His Deep Blue Daoist Robe billowed and whipped about, though there was no wind.
He stood with his hands behind his back. His voice was not loud, but it rang out clearly under the Broken celestial vault—amidst the howling wind, drifting ash, and pervasive bloody light—carrying a declarative indifference and majesty:
"Profound Yellow Northwest, Wuji Holy Sect."
"Daluo Celestial Realm, Foundation Establishment Master."
His gaze fell back upon the dumbstruck, ashen-faced Zhao Xuanji, and he spoke each word slowly, as if carving them into stone:
"Qi Yun."
The moment his voice fell, the dark-red Array Discs spread across the territory flared with brilliant light. A torrent formed from billions of gray "karmic ash lights" slammed into the wavering Fire of All Living Beings!
The golden-white flame contracted violently, then erupted with a dark gray, deathly light—a light that seemed capable of ending all laws, all Daos, all existence!
The End of Dharma... was coming!
...