“Myriad Souls Devouring the Heavens!”
Soul-Devouring Venerable roared. Behind him emerged a terrifying demonic apparition formed from billions of resentful souls. It opened its enormous maw, actually attempting to swallow the entire river of swords whole.
“Boom!!!”
The sword river collided once more with the demonic apparition. Light and darkness eroded and annihilated each other. The explosive energy blasted both combatants backwards, blood spilling from the corners of their mouths.
“Your Heavenly Gate technique has not been neglected, it seems!” Soul-Devouring Venerable wiped away the blood, his expression ferocious.
“It is enough to kill you!” Shen Zhiyan’s gaze was ice-cold. He charged forward again, hands forming seals, drawing upon the power of the surrounding stars. “Starfall!”
In an instant, stars appeared in broad daylight! Countless brilliant rays of starlight pierced through the demonic clouds, transforming into pillars of destructive light that crashed down towards Soul-Devouring Venerable like a meteor shower.
“Demonic Devouring of All Under Heaven!” Soul-Devouring Venerable bellowed. The demonic qi around him turned into a bottomless vortex, frantically swallowing the descending starlight.
The two fought from the sky down to the earth, then battled their way back up to the firmament! Wherever they passed, all things crumbled, laws ceased to exist!
Under the fury of this clash, the mountain gate of Yama Heaven Sect visibly turned into utter ruins at a pace the naked eye could follow. Even the entire continental plate shifted and cracked!
This battle lasted a full day and night!
They fought until the sun and moon lost their light, heaven and earth paled, rivers flowed backwards, as though they intended to smash through all nine layers of the heavens!
Chen Ping, Liu Xue, and all the survivors were like a lone leaf in a storm amidst this heaven-shattering might. They could only cling on desperately, hearts filled with utter helplessness.
Only now did they understand what a true peak powerhouse truly was!
Finally, at dawn on the second day, that sphere of annihilating light swelled violently once more, then exploded with terrifying force!
“Pfft!”
“Pfft!”
Two figures plummeted from high in the sky like meteors, crashing heavily at opposite ends of the earth. Each carved a massive furrow several li long into the ground.
When the light faded, their appearances were revealed.
Shen Zhiyan was half-kneeling at the end of one furrow. His clothes hung in tatters, his body covered in wounds that revealed bone. A claw mark across his chest had nearly pierced straight through him.
Black demonic qi coiled within the wound, preventing it from healing.
His face was pale as paper, his aura weakened to the extreme. Even the vermilion gourd at his waist was covered in cracks.
At the other end, Soul-Devouring Venerable was in an equally wretched state. Most of his demonic armour had shattered. One arm hung at an unnatural angle, clearly broken.
His body was covered in cuts from sword qi and burns from starlight. A deep sword scar ran across his forehead, nearly splitting his skull. Wisps of divine soul power were leaking from it.
He coughed up mouthfuls of black blood. The madness and brutality remained in his eyes, but now they were joined by deep wariness and… the intent to retreat.
He stared fixedly at the distant Shen Zhiyan and hissed, “Shen Zhiyan… I never imagined that I, this Venerable, would be forced to such a state by a discarded waste expelled from the sect… Today’s grudge is etched into my memory!
When this Venerable recovers, I will extract your soul and refine it, ensuring you can never reincarnate for all eternity!”
With those words, he violently tore open the already unstable space beside him, transformed into a streak of black light, and fled into the void, vanishing completely!
Only his venomous threat lingered in the air above the ruins.
Soul-Devouring Venerable… had fled!
Shen Zhiyan stared in the direction he had disappeared, trying to rise and pursue, but another mouthful of blood sprayed out. His body swayed, and he finally collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
His injuries were simply too severe.
Between heaven and earth, the residual waves of destructive energy slowly subsided, leaving only a devastated landscape and the survivors who had narrowly escaped death, still gripped by lingering fear.
Sunlight pierced through the gradually dispersing demonic clouds and fell once more upon the ruins, yet it brought no warmth, only the cold emptiness and bewilderment of those who had survived the calamity.
This battle ended with both sides grievously wounded…
