A monstrous pressure swept down, like the arrival of a devastating, boundless gale.

The entire ruins of the Divine Silkworm Sect seemed to tremble violently.

The ethereal phantom of the Divine Silkworm Sect’s Daoist had remained calm and indifferent until now. But in the instant that gaze descended, the faint, pure light surrounding his body began to twist and warp frantically, like a candle flame caught in a gale.

For the first time, a look of utter shock and disbelief clearly appeared on his blurry face.

Qi Yun stood his ground, letting the immense pressure wash over him. He watched the panicked Daoist phantom and grinned, baring his stark white teeth.

"Now, the one who should be worried about not getting away... is probably you, senior."

The moment Qi Yun’s words fell, the crimson Blood Jade Fragments he had just crushed did not fall. Instead, as if pulled by an unseen force, they all floated up into the air.

Each piece glowed brilliantly, suffused with a mysterious, dark red luster.

The fragments spun rapidly in the air, fitting themselves together.

In a mere instant, they formed a corner of a broken, ancient, and profound Array Pattern.

The moment the Array Pattern formed, it burst with brilliant light!

A majestic power capable of piercing the Cosmic Jade and connecting two separate places erupted forth.

In the center of the Array Pattern, space rippled and twisted violently like water.

Then, a stable passage was forcibly torn open, as if building a bridge that spanned the endless Cosmic Jade!

The next moment, two figures, one after the other, stepped calmly out of the spatial passage, arriving in the core ruins of the Divine Silkworm Sect.

A terrifying pressure, like a physical tsunami, exploded outward from them.

The entire ruins shook even more violently.

The surrounding clouds and mist were instantly cleared, and even the staircase that reached to the sky emitted a faint hum.

The one in the lead was gaunt and withered, wearing a faded old Daoist Robe that had been washed white. His face was ancient, his eyes cloudy, as if he could pass away at any moment.

Elder Master Deng Yin.

The other man had a lean face and eyes as deep as if they contained the circulation of the stars. His aura was ethereal and unfathomable. It was none other than Qian Xin Master, who Qi Yun had met before in the Pot Valley Yin Ruins.

Two Foundation Establishment Middle Stage Masters had arrived together!

"Teacher." Upon seeing the Elder Master, Qi Yun immediately stepped aside, bowed slightly, and performed the courtesy with great respect.

Although he and the Elder Master had no formal master-disciple relationship, he had received his guidance and protection for many years.

Calling him "Teacher" was not an overstatement.

"Mm." Elder Master Deng Yin nodded slightly. His cloudy gaze slowly swept across the platform, finally landing on the violently fluctuating phantom of the Divine Silkworm Sect Daoist, which looked as if it were facing a great enemy.

The corner of his mouth curled into a faint, mocking sneer. His voice was hoarse, yet it carried the calm indifference of one who sees through everything.

"These filthy things really know how to hide."

"Back then, a True Monarch personally took action to erase the lineage and traces of the Divine Silkworm Sect."

"To think... a remnant soul has managed to eke out a miserable existence by relying on these ruins. Just like maggots in a gutter, unable to see the light."

Hearing this, Qian Xin Master, who was standing to the side, clapped his hands and chuckled lightly, his tone tinged with reminiscence.

"Senior Brother Deng speaks the truth."

"It is precisely because of this bizarre ’Life Force’ and their forbidden techniques that they displayed back then that proves how correct the decision was to completely eradicate them."

"The fact that a wisp of a remnant soul could escape from a True Monarch makes it even more imperative that they are not allowed to remain!"

The two Masters’ words were spoken calmly, yet they sounded like a final judgment.

They declared absolute power and an unquestionable outcome.

With two Foundation Establishment Masters backing him up, Qi Yun was suddenly full of confidence. He folded his arms, standing slightly behind the two Masters.

At this moment, he looked for all the world like a child whose parents had just shown up to a fight.

All his previous caution and life-or-death struggle vanished.

All that remained was the composure of one sitting back to watch the show, and a hint of eager anticipation.

The Daoist of the Divine Silkworm Sect, who had just been boasting about possessing a body to infiltrate and destroy the Holy Sect, was now locked down by the terrifying pressure of two Foundation Establishment Masters. His illusory figure flickered like a candle in the wind, finding it extremely difficult to even maintain a stable form.

All his schemes, all his hatred, all his trump cards.

Seemed so pale and laughable in the face of an absolute disparity in power.

The tables had completely turned!

Seeing the two Foundation Establishment Masters arrive, his plan utterly exposed, with no room left to maneuver,

the phantom of the Divine Silkworm Sect Daoist let out a shrill roar, filled with eons of venomous hatred and endless despair:

"Since Heaven will not tolerate my existence,"

"Then I will take you all down with me!!"

Amid his roars, his already illusory figure abruptly burst into flames, transforming into a ghastly white pillar of light that shot toward the sky.

The pillar of light was not an attack, but a fuse, brazenly igniting the full power that the Divine Silkworm Sect ruins had accumulated over countless ages, buried deep within the Earth Veins and the void.

"BZZZZZZ—!!!!"

The Heaven and Earth of the entire ruins let out an anguished cry, as if unable to bear the strain!

The ground cracked apart, and the Celestial Vault twisted!

In the next instant, a sight that made Qi Yun’s scalp tingle appeared.

Countless densely packed, semi-transparent phantoms of Divine Silkworms, reeking of an ancient, savage aura, emerged from nothingness as if awakened from the long river of slumbering time, filling every inch of Heaven and Earth within sight!

From the clouds above to the abyss below, from the void to the left to the barriers on the right.

Everywhere the eye could see, there were only the shadows of Divine Silkworms, writhing slightly, their mouthparts opening and closing.

They all tilted their heads back in unison and let out a cicada-like cry that pierced the Divine Soul and shook the very rules of existence!

"CHIRP—!!!"

"CHIRP—!!!"

"CHIRP—!!!"

This chirping was not chaotic, but converged into a single, unified, and immense sound.

It was like a grand melody representing some fundamental principle from the dawn of Heaven and Earth, the return of all things to silence!

The sound waves were like a physical tsunami, sweeping over everything!

Space trembled violently under the endless chirping, making a sound like shattering glass. The very rules of existence seemed to twist and disintegrate.

An immense, terrifying pressure, as if capable of incinerating stars and resetting the elements of Earth Fire, water, and wind, bore down on the four people on the platform like the collapse of the Celestial Vault itself!

The pressure had not even truly reached him yet, but the mere aftershocks washing over him were enough to make Qi Yun’s expression turn grim.

His Protective True Essence flickered violently like it was made of paper, and his robes whipped about noisily.

He was like a leaf in a storm, on the verge of being blown away and crushed!

At this moment, Elder Master Deng Yin, who had been standing silently in front, gently lifted his seemingly withered sleeve and casually swept it in front of Qi Yun.

A gentle yet incredibly firm power silently spread out, creating a sanctuary of absolute safety amidst the raging tempest.

The suffocating, monstrous pressure that had been bearing down on Qi Yun instantly vanished like melting ice and snow the moment it touched the area swept by the sleeve.

The pressure on Qi Yun lifted, and he took a deep breath. He looked with lingering fear at the apocalyptic scene outside and couldn’t help but ask curiously:

"Teacher, can... can you block this?"

The Elder Master stared at the destructive Heaven and Earth, filled with endless chirping and phantoms of Divine Silkworms. A rare glimmer of gravity and a strange light appeared in his cloudy eyes. He slowly shook his head, his voice still hoarse and flat:

"This creature knew I had seen through all of the Divine Silkworm Sect’s remaining tricks, that there was no hope left. So it sacrificed this entire plane of the ruins to forcibly activate the final trump card left behind by the Divine Silkworm Sect back then."

"This is... a desperate, life-risking method of incinerating an entire world to gather the power of all things into a single strike."

"It has already touched the fringes of a True Monarch’s power."

"Such immense power... this old man... cannot block it."

"Huh?!" Qi Yun was stunned, his expression changing slightly.

’Even the Elder Master can’t block it?’

’Are we all really going to get our accounts deleted?’

Seeing this, Qian Xin Master, who was standing to the side, chuckled lightly, his tone confident and composed:

"Heh heh, Senior Brother Deng, don’t frighten the junior."

"Don’t be afraid, kid."

He looked up at the core of destruction that seemed about to erupt and reduce everything to nothingness, his eyes sharp.

"A True Monarch Level technique."

"Should naturally... be dealt with by a True Monarch."

As Qian Xin Master’s words fell.

Just at the final moment, when the golden light formed by the countless Divine Silkworm phantoms and the entire Heaven and Earth of the ruins converged to its peak—like a billion suns exploding at once, about to release an annihilating light and heat that would turn all things to nothing—

"Omm..."

An indescribable ripple—grander, more majestic, and more absolute, as if from the very depths of the source of Heaven and Earth—descended from nothingness!

Immediately after, before Qi Yun’s utterly shocked eyes,

a boundless hand shattered the void and descended.

The hand was not made of flesh and blood, but was condensed from endless Dao Principles and Talismans. It appeared simple, unadorned, even somewhat blurry.

But the moment it appeared, it seemed to become the sole center of all Heaven and Earth!

Wherever it passed, the roiling space was forcibly smoothed, the piercing chirping was instantly suppressed, and the destructive golden light flickered and retreated violently as if it had met its nemesis!

The great hand moved unhurriedly toward the core of destruction that was about to erupt, a core that had gathered the Power of Heaven and Earth from an entire world.

And gently pressed down.

"PFFT—"

Like a punctured balloon.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no world-destroying impact.

That terrifying, ultimate power of destruction—which had made two Foundation Establishment Masters turn grave and made Qi Yun feel like it was the end of the world—was snuffed out with that casual press, like a tiny, flickering ember being pinched out by hand.

The sky full of Divine Silkworm phantoms dissipated like bubbles, the ear-piercing chirping came to an abrupt halt, and the destructive golden light receded like a tide, revealing the broken ruins once more.

That suffocating pressure of Heaven and Earth also vanished without a trace, as if it had never been there at all.

Everything was calm and peaceful.

It was as if the world-destroying scene from moments before...

had been nothing but a realistic illusion.

At the same time, a calm, indifferent voice, yet one that contained Supreme authority, echoed faintly in the void, clearly entering the depths of everyone’s Heart and Spirit:

"A centipede dies, but never falls."

"Behave yourselves... for this True Monarch."

The voice faded, and there was no further sound.

Everything returned to dust.

...