153: Chapter 153 The Shock of the Upper Realm!

That soft "Hm?" descended from the Nine Heavens; Words Become Law, and the myriad Daos shifted.

The ruins of the Secret Realm, which had been nearing their end and continuously collapsing, saw their process of destruction come to a sudden halt at this very instant. The rampaging Law turbulence was frozen in the Void Realm, turning into a series of bizarre, static tableaus. The hideous spatial rifts—those pitch-black scars that devoured light and matter—actually began to slowly heal under the soothing touch of an invisible, mighty power.

The passage of time was forcibly dragged, becoming viscous and sluggish; between one breath and the next, it felt as if a hundred years had passed.

Su Changge's opened [Great Dao Origin Dharma Eye] successfully drew in and locked onto the entire focus of that Upper Realm existence.

Above the heavens, behind that pitch-black rift spanning across eternity, the gaze cast down underwent a fundamental change.

It was no longer a deity looking down at dust, indifferent and heartless.

It was no longer a hunter toying with prey, playful and cruel.

It was a gaze of equality.

A gaze of equality filled with profound inquiry, even mixed with a trace of solemnity.

Like a chess player who had exhausted endless ages and believed he had exhausted all the variations of the Great Dao, suddenly seeing an insignificant discarded piece on a broken chessboard—one he had long ago judged as a dead end—make a world-shaking Tianyuan move that he had never deduced, one sufficient to overturn his lifelong principles of chess.

Shock, absurdity, and an uncontrollable desire to see through the true meaning behind it—all sorts of extremely complex emotions intertwined and collided violently within that gaze.

*Buzz—!*

The existence behind the rift wanted to see more clearly.

A pressure of will, even more condensed and terrifying than when it first arrived, once again pierced through the dimensions of time and space, descending upon this realm!

Only this time, the goal of that pressure was no longer to shine upon all things, but instead condensed into a single beam.

It transformed into an invisible needle of will, piercing through layers of space and stabbing straight toward Su Changge, attempting to gouge open the Chaos within his eyes and see through whether that "Great Dao Origin" was a truly supreme and profound truth or just an illusory reflection.

As this pressure focused, the invisible mountain that had been suppressing the Divine Souls of Mo Wentian, Xiao Fan, and the others vanished in an instant.

"Heh... heh..."

Xiao Fan, slumped on the scorched earth, gasped violently, every breath of air he inhaled carrying the searing heat of a narrow escape. He had long been soaked in cold sweat, his robes clinging to his trembling body. He looked up with difficulty at that towering figure; while the fear lingering in the depths of his Divine Soul had not yet dissipated, a new wave of shock had already submerged him.

The pressure... is gone?

Mo Wentian and Lin Gujian gained a moment to breathe almost at the same time. Ignoring their churning blood and Qi, their gazes immediately converged on the sole focus of the field—Su Changge.

They did not understand what had happened in that flash of lightning.

They only saw Senior Su Changge look up and exchange a gaze with that terrifying existence behind the rift.

With just a single glance, Senior's entire aura underwent an earth-shattering transformation.

Especially those eyes.

They simply did not dare to look directly at them.

They only dared to peek with the corners of their eyes; even that fleeting glimpse made them feel as if their Divine Soul and will were being completely sucked into the Chaos vortex within those eyes, their Foundation being ground away in an endless cycle of Reincarnation, sinking into eternal perdition.

Within those eyes were hidden the most fundamental mysteries of this world, and even the Major Thousand Worlds.

That was a forbidden Domain that mortal beings must never peer into!

"Senior... he blocked it?" Lin Gujian's voice was hoarse and dry, his fingers gripping his natal Flying Sword so hard they turned white.

Mo Wentian did not answer. He just stared fixedly at Su Changge's back—which was not particularly burly but was now enough to hold up the sky—as the awe, worship, and even a hint of fanaticism in his eyes climbed to an unprecedented peak in his life.

That wasn't just blocking it.

That was standing on equal footing!

Senior was engaging in a confrontation with a supreme existence from the Upper Realm who looked down upon the rise and fall of eras—a confrontation that transcended magical power and Divine Abilities, based purely on the "Dao"!

However, Su Changge, who appeared to the outsiders as having Divine Might as vast as a prison and being the very Incarnation of the Great Dao, was already experiencing a tempest of shock in the depths of his heart.

Holy crap!

He used all his mental strength to keep that shout from bursting out of his mouth.

That needle-like pressure of will acted entirely on him without missing a beat. He felt as if his Divine Soul was no longer a small boat, but a grain of dust about to be crushed by a giant wave, liable to be completely overturned and have his spirit and form destroyed at any moment.

[Warning! emotion points are being consumed rapidly in a critical state!]

[Consumption per second: -100,000 points!]

[Warning! Detected that the opponent is increasing the Rank of their will probe! Pressure intensity continues to climb!]

Before his eyes, on the System panel that only he could see, rows of bright red warning text flashed frantically like a death-dealing Talismanic Incantation. His balance of emotion points was dropping at a speed that made his heart and gall turn cold.

At this rate, in less than thirty breaths, all the wealth he had accumulated would be squeezed dry!

Once the emotion points were exhausted, all special effects would disappear. He would instantly be knocked back from being the "Incarnation of the Great Dao" to that ordinary Qi-refining Cultivator.

When that time came, there would be only one ending—death! Not even a speck of dust would remain!

What should I do?

Retreat?

If he showed even the slightest hint of shrinking back now, the opponent's driving pressure of will would immediately pierce through his disguise, and the result would still be death!

Retreating means death; moving forward might offer a slim chance of survival!

Su Changge steeled his heart, a surge of ruthlessness rising from within.

Since things had come to this, the only way was to keep up this massive lie! Keep it up until the heavens fall and the earth rends, until the seas dry up and the rocks rot!

Instead of retreating, he gritted his teeth and activated all his remaining emotion points, putting everything on the line to push the special effects of the [Great Dao Origin Dharma Eye] to an unprecedented extreme!

*Boom!*

The Chaos phenomena in his eyes became even more real at this moment, so real they almost overflowed from his sockets and turned into substance!

Within his left eye, Chaos opened and the Grandmist was first divided! There were Innate Divine Beasts like the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin who held primordial authority; with star rivers as scales and the Universe as their bodies, they roared and galloped within, evolving the ultimate Dao of life and creation!

Within his right eye, the myriad Daos withered and the Universe fell into final silence! There were Major Thousand Worlds heading toward heat death, stars being extinguished, Laws collapsing, and all things—tangible and intangible—returning to eternal cold and silence, displaying the final scene of destruction and ending!

Life and death, beginning and end—these two diametrically opposed and even contradictory supreme Dao Rhymes reflected each other in his eyes, colliding to produce an even more brilliant and baffling supreme mystery!

This move of crazy "doubling down" clearly far exceeded the expectations of that Upper Realm existence.

That probing needle of will experienced violent fluctuations and stagnation upon contact with this newborn, self-contradictory yet perfectly unified Dao Rhyme.

It seemed to be completely stunned by the sight Su Changge displayed—a sight unheard of, which even violated the supreme principles of the Great Dao as it knew them.

Next, a scene occurred that almost made the eyes of Mo Wentian, Lin Gujian, and even Xiao Fan pop out of their sockets.

That terrifying pressure of will from the Upper Realm, which should have been unstoppable and indestructible, under the pressure of the Dao Rhyme flowing from Su Changge's eyes...

Was actually forced back by half a point!

Only half a point! An insignificant distance, not even the width of a single hair!

But whose pressure was that?

That was the will of a supreme existence from the Upper Realm who viewed a world as a plaything in their palm!

It actually retreated?!

Liu Ruyan sat slumped on the pile of rubble nearby, completely numb. She stared blankly with her mouth open, her beautiful face a mask of void, yet she could not make a sound.

Is this... still a human?

Is this still the Su Changge who lived on her Danxia Peak for several years and would occasionally show a gentle smile?

Xiao Fan's brain had completely stopped functioning. All his perceptions and common sense were ground into powder at this moment. He only knew that today he had personally witnessed a confrontation worthy of being engraved into the history of cultivation in this realm, even passed down for eternity.

A Lower Realm Cultivator, using his gaze as a weapon, forced back the will of an Upper Realm existence!

If such a feat were to spread, the entire cultivation world—no, all lower-plane worlds—would be swept by a monstrous wave!

Lin Gujian's hand holding his sword trembled violently. This time, it was no longer fear, but excitement and trembling from the deepest part of a Sword Cultivator's Soul.

He finally understood.

He finally understood why Senior could face all death traps and crises with such indifference.

Because Senior's vision and Senior's Dao had long ago surpassed the constraints of this world, reaching a vast heaven that they could not even touch by looking up!