Chapter 177: Settlement of Blood Debts, Fall of the Demon Lord
The information about Mo Shang that Venerable Erosion Bone revealed in a moment of desperation was like a huge rock dropped on Ye Li's heart, stirring up a thousand waves. The methods of the Demon Abyss were truly bizarre and unpredictable, far beyond common sense! Even the residual souls of those who had completely perished could be collected and reshaped. The implications of this were chilling.
But now, the arrow is on the string and must be released! First, settle the blood debt of this traitor in front of me!
"You're still talking just as much nonsense as you did back then. It's disgusting." Ye Li's voice was icy and emotionless, like the collision of aeons of black ice. She took a step forward, and the void beneath her feet seemed to solidify into a staircase, carrying her down from the sky, step by step, to the sky above the bloody altar, where she faced the maddened Bone-Erosion Venerable from afar.
The samsara sanctuary around her expanded silently. The chaotic light wasn't dazzling, but it carried a powerful will to suppress the ages and unify the universe. This light collided fiercely with the blood-red light and the pervasive resentment rising from the altar, emitting a subtle yet intense "sizzling" sound. It forcibly repelled and purified the mind-disturbing negative energy, forming an absolutely "clean" area around her.
"Yixuan, seal this place off and don't let any scumbags disturb us." Ye Li's cold voice reached Qin Yixuan's ears without even turning her head. This was a personal vendetta between her and the Bone-Eroding Venerable, a blood feud spanning two lifetimes. She would settle it personally, without interference from others.
Qin Yixuan nodded slightly, a solemn expression on her beautiful face. She knew Ye Li's current state of mind well. Her hands quickly formed a complex star seal, her red lips parted, and she uttered an ancient and profound syllable: "Stars are spread out, sealing the universe; the Mysterious Lady's decree, forbidding the void—the Great Forbidden Array of the Heavenly Stars, activate!"
Buzz——!
A starry light curtain, vaster and more condensed than before, suddenly expanded from her center. No longer a simple protection, it transformed into countless chains of laws shimmering with brilliant starlight. Like a dragnet, it instantly enveloped and sealed off the entire City Lord's Mansion, including the massive altar of flesh and blood! Above the curtain, phantoms of the sun, moon, and stars rapidly moved in a specific trajectory, emitting a terrifying aura that confined space, isolated the inside and outside, and suppressed all energy fluctuations. Not only did this completely block any possible escape route for the Bone Erosion Venerable, it also significantly weakened the altar's energy connection with the outside Demonic Abyss, preventing the fluctuations of the battle from escaping and causing unnecessary trouble.
"Want to kill me alone? Hahaha! Ye Li, do you think you're still the same high and mighty Li Zun from back then?!" Seeing that only Ye Li had stepped forward, while Qin Yixuan was merely setting up formations on the periphery, Zun Shi Gu's fear subsided slightly, replaced by a fury of being completely looked down upon, and a hint of insane self-confidence. "I have now reached the pinnacle of the Holy Domain! I have inherited the supreme secrets of the Demon Abyss, and am even more blessed by the power of the Ten Thousand Souls Blood Sacrifice! With your strength as a newcomer to the Holy Domain, you still think you can take me down on your own? Wishful thinking!"
He roared, trying to bolster his courage with words, while frantically mobilizing the power of the altar beneath his feet. The stagnant vortex of blood and energy slowly swirled again, more blood and the power of resentful souls pouring into his emaciated body, causing the demonic might emanating from him to rise steadily. The dark green soul fire burned even more fiercely, like two balls of ghostly infernal fire.
"Ten Thousand Bones Devouring Souls! Netherworld Curse!"
The Bone-Eroding Venerable plunged his hands into the flesh of the altar, his withered claws seemingly unleashing the most malevolent power buried deep within! Rumble! Rumble! The altar shook violently, and countless skeletons sprang to life, emitting a tooth-grinding grinding sound as they transformed into bone spears, swords, and beasts, gleaming with pale phosphorescence and entwined with pitch-black curse runes. These skeletal creatures uttered shrill soul-cries, like a surging white tide, charging towards Ye Li from all directions, attacking and killing him! The sound was so powerful it could instantly overwhelm an army!
This wasn't the end. The dark green soul fire in his eye sockets suddenly split into two thin, yet extremely condensed strands of green light. Like two venomous snakes, they silently merged into the void and, with speed beyond perception, struck directly at Ye Li's brow and heart! This was the most sinister move in his "Bone-Eroding Soul-Slaying Curse," the "Dual Soul Attraction," which targeted the very essence of the soul. The victim's soul would be like being gnawed by billions of poisonous insects, in excruciating pain until their intelligence was annihilated, reducing them to a puppet capable of only killing! This move was invisible and intangible, making it extremely difficult to defend against. Combined with the overwhelming attack of bones, it was a truly decisive blow!
Faced with this terrifying attack that was enough to make Saints of the same level panic and even die on the spot, Ye Li's eyes remained indifferent, and even... had a hint of condescending mockery, as if he was watching an ant struggling.
She did not use any earth-shattering magical powers to attack, but slowly raised her right hand, put her index finger and middle finger together, and a barely perceptible chaotic airflow lingered on her fingertips, gently tapping her brow.
"The Samsara Mirror, tracing back to its origin, reflects the evil of eternity!"
The cold voice was like the prelude to judgment. The symbol of the Samsara Mirror between her brows suddenly lit up, no longer a restrained brilliance, but projecting a hazy light that seemed to illuminate the darkest corners of the human heart! This light was not directed at the Bone Erosion Venerable's body or attack, but strangely penetrated the boundary between reality and illusion, directly reflecting his past, his karma, and all the sins carried in his soul!
In an instant, in the void between Ye Li and the Bone-Eroding Venerable, scenes of extremely clear images flashed rapidly like a revolving lantern—
In the picture, how the young Bone-Eroding Venerable (then still Bone-Eroding True Man) flattered Ling Hao and Xuan Cong with a poisonous plan, and framed in detail how to take advantage of Ye Li's trust in them and set up a killing spree; the picture switched to how, in the final shocking battle, he hid in the twisted cracks of the void, with a sinister and smug smile on his face, pinching the incantation and activating the backup plan that had long been buried in Ye Li's life-saving magic weapon, and how that invisible and intangible but extremely vicious "Soul-Eroding Curse" pierced Ye Li's defenseless body like a poisonous needle. His soul was instantly and severely damaged, his combat power greatly reduced, and the fatal foreshadowing of his eventual fall. The scene then shifted to show how, after joining the Demon Abyss, in order to gain power and status, he coldly slaughtered his former fellow disciples, even his teachers who had once been kind to him, and sacrificed their souls and blood to the Demon Abyss leader. And more recently, how he had cruelly tortured and slaughtered captured cultivators and mortals in this Black Nightmare City, how he had driven monsters to massacre the city, just to collect enough blood and resentful souls for the blood sacrifice before him...
One by one, the ugly betrayal, the darkness of his heart, his greed for power, and the brutal crimes he committed after joining the Demon Abyss were exposed nakedly and unreservedly to the public! Even his deepest emotions—his dependence on and jealousy of Ling Hao, his fear of Xuan Cong's wisdom, and his almost pathological dependence on and supplication for the so-called "Master Mo Shang"—were mercilessly excavated and exposed by the mirror of samsara!
This is more cruel than physical torture! This is the most thorough trampling and lashing of his soul's dignity!
"No! Shut up! Stop it! Stop it!" The Bone-Eroding Venerable roared heartbreakingly, filled with utter shame and indignation. He felt as if all disguises had been stripped away, naked and exposed in broad daylight, before the eyes of all. All his dark, filthy, and unbearable thoughts and actions were laid bare for scrutiny! This public execution at the soul level was a million times more painful than being cut into pieces! He waved his arms wildly, trying to scatter the images, his mind trembling violently. The once overwhelming and menacing tide of bones and the invisible "Dual Soul Attraction" curse lost their precise control, revealing fatal chaos and flaws!
"It seems that ten thousand years have failed to inspire even a hint of repentance in you." Ye Li's voice remained calm, yet carried the coldness of a final verdict. "Since that is the case, I will allow your sinful existence to completely vanish, thus cleansing this world of its filth."
She uttered no more words, slowly clasping her hands together before her chest. The chaotic, serene sanctuary of samsara around her collapsed and condensed inward with unprecedented intensity! It was as if the entire universe's power of birth and death, the cycle of reincarnation, had been compressed within her seemingly slender palms. A terrifying aura of the end of all things, the return of all laws to the abyss, spread, causing even the outer forbidden star formation to tremble slightly.
"The six paths of reincarnation, the ultimate destination is nirvana!"
She slowly opened her clasped hands, and a beam of light, only as thick as a finger and extremely dark in color, as if it could swallow up all light, sound, and even the concept of existence, quietly shot out from her palms.
This beam of "annihilation" wasn't swift, but it carried a sense of inescapable, doomed fate. Wherever it passed, space ceased to shatter, but rather, like writing erased by an eraser, silently and imperceptibly transformed into a primordial nothingness. Even the very concept of time and space seemed to vanish. The surging tide of bones, from pale bone spears to hideous bone beasts, failed to stir up even a speck of dust the moment they struck the dim beam. As if they had never existed, they were utterly annihilated and vanished. The two formless, intangible, and incomparably vicious "Dual Soul Attraction" curses seemed to have met their nemesis, unable to even stir a ripple before being assimilated by the annihilation and reduced to nothingness.
The Bone-Eroding Venerable felt an unprecedented, soul-bending tremor and despair! He roared madly, unreservedly burning the remaining power of the blood sacrifice on the altar beneath his feet, his own painstakingly cultivated demonic essence, and even the essence of the dark green soul fire. He laid before him one cursed barrier after another, emitting a foul smell and ominousness, a wall of bones, and a demonic soul shield as thick as a substance! This was the ultimate display of his lifelong cultivation, a defense powerful enough to withstand the full force of a Saint of the same level!
However, in the face of "Nirvana", which represents the ultimate destination of the universe, all these struggles seem so ridiculous and futile.
The gray beam of light passed through layers of defense with ease, as if piercing nothing. The cursed barrier crumbled, the bone shield wall annihilated, and the demon soul shield evaporated like dewdrops in the sun. The beam's speed seemed constant, ignoring the Bone Erosion Master's desperate roar and distorted face. Finally, gently, yet irresistibly, it touched the center of his brow, where fear was streaked.
Time seems to freeze at this moment.
All of the Bone-Eroding Venerable's movements, roars, and breaths abruptly ceased in that instant. The two clusters of intensely pulsing green soul fire in his eye sockets seemed to be snuffed out by an invisible force. Their light rapidly dimmed, and finally, with a "puff," they were completely extinguished, leaving only two empty, deadly black holes. His formidable demonic body, forcibly elevated to the peak of the early Saint Realm through the mystical techniques of the Demonic Abyss, began to crumble and disintegrate silently and swiftly from the point between his eyebrows, like a sand sculpture weathered for eons. It dissipated, transforming into the tiniest nothingness, not even a particle, leaving behind no trace, as if he had never existed in this world.
Along with his soul full of curses and betrayal, and the true spirit that carried the mark of his existence, they were all completely wiped out under the absolute "annihilation" of the Tao, returning to eternal nothingness with no possibility of reincarnation.
The seventh Demon Lord of the Demonic Abyss, the Bone-Eroding Lord, who had committed heinous crimes such as killing his master, betraying his sect, plotting against the Supreme, and slaughtering all living beings, was annihilated here, his body and soul were destroyed, and all cause and effect were eliminated, and he completely became history!
Ye Li slowly withdrew her hands, the palpitating sense of desolation gradually dissipating. She hovered silently in place, her dark robes fluttering gently in the breeze. Her eyes remained cold and calm, as if she had only done something insignificant. Having ended a blood feud that had lasted for ten thousand years, she felt no gratification of revenge, only a chilling sense of resolution and... an indescribable loneliness. Former enemies were falling one by one, but the fog of the road ahead seemed to grow thicker.
Qin Yixuan removed the Zhoutian Star Forbidden Array, flew to Ye Li, gently held her hand, silently conveying warmth and support.
At the moment the last trace of the Bone-Eroding Venerable's existence was completely erased, due to the final entanglement between his soul and the power of the Samsara Mirror, some extremely fragmented and chaotic memory fragments were instinctively captured and absorbed by Ye Li's highly sensitive Samsara Sanctuary. These fragments were mostly filled with scenes of slaughter, betrayal, and chaos in the Demon Abyss, and were of little value.
However, in this chaotic torrent of fragments, several extremely blurry and brief images, which contained shocking information, flashed through Ye Li's mind like lightning, causing her pupils to shrink suddenly and her breathing to stagnate!
It seemed to be a mysterious space where light and darkness intertwined, its specific dimensions and locations difficult to discern. The background was a distorted, flowing chaotic hue. Several figures engaged in extremely brief contact. One of them was shrouded in a deep, viscous, all-consuming demonic aura. Its form shifted constantly, emanating a frightening sense of chaos and tyranny. It was clearly a being of extremely high status within the Demonic Abyss.
As for the other party in contact with it… although their figures were more blurred, as if their appearance and breath were deliberately concealed by some powerful force, but in that fleeting moment, Ye Li, with the insight into the essence of energy through the Samsara Mirror, clearly captured that trace… the unique order fluctuations and light texture belonging to the Eternal Temple, which could not be completely erased despite trying hard to conceal it!
Although the picture is blurry and the contact process seems extremely brief and secretive, the facts revealed by this scene are earth-shattering!
The top leaders of the Temple and the Demon Abyss actually had private contact!
The Star God's warning, "Beware of the darkness within the light, order can also become a yoke," is still fresh in my mind! The "fellow believers" within the temple mentioned in the whispers of the Demon Abyss are not groundless rumors!
These two extreme forces, wreaking blood and gore in the spirit world, seemingly at war with each other, actually possess such a sinister and hidden connection at their highest levels? What is the purpose of their contact? Is it a temporary collusion of interests? Or is there a deeper, more terrifying common plot? And how does this connect to the hidden agenda of the "Lord of Annihilation," the corrupted God of Light?
For a moment, numerous doubts, like a surging undercurrent, swept over Ye Li like an overwhelming force. She had just resolved a cause and effect and her mood had relaxed a little, but in an instant, her heartstrings tightened again and her mood became extremely heavy.
This chess game and this pool of water in the spiritual world are far more unfathomable and dangerous than she had ever imagined!
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