135: The soul explodes, a heaven-defying blow

A chance.

It was now.

In those eyes, which had always been calm and unmoving, a terrifying light suddenly blazed.

Lin Fan, hidden in the blind spot of the rock wall, felt every dormant cell in his body awaken in that instant, letting out excited screeches.

The entire battlefield, in his eyes, became a painting slowed down countless times.

The golden net, formed by Daoist Master Tianyi burning his essence blood, was tightly binding the Demon. The Law runes on the grid were collapsing at an alarming rate, emitting a mournful cry of being overwhelmed.

Old Ancestor Chiyang, Azure Mystery Sect Master, and the other Nascent Soul Old Monsters had just unleashed a full-power strike and were now in a temporary window of spiritual power circulation, with old power gone and new power yet to be born.

The Demon's massive body was temporarily fixed in place; all its fury and power were concentrated on resisting the Law cage above its head.

This was a perfect, absolute flaw, created by dozens of Nascent Soul Old Monsters with their lives and essence blood.

A stage lasting only three breaths, leading to death, and also to supreme glory.

In the suffocatingly narrow corner, Su Meier could clearly feel a startling change occurring in the man in front of her.

His steady heartbeat, in that instant, became like a drum.

A scorching Aura, almost melting her, emanated from his back.

She instinctively looked up.

Lin Fan turned around.

In this confined space, illuminated by the alternating light and dark of Spells and Devilish Qi, Su Meier saw his eyes.

In those eyes, there was not the slightest fear of the terrifying battle outside.

Nor was there any cold calculation.

There was only a burning, almost frenzied passion she had never seen before.

"Meier."

Lin Fan's voice was very soft, yet it clearly entered her ears, overriding all the roar outside.

Su Meier stared at him blankly, her heart feeling as if it were squeezed by an invisible hand.

"I'm going to do something very dangerous."

Lin Fan gazed into her eyes, speaking each word distinctly.

His gaze was terrifyingly focused, as if the entire world contained only her reflection.

"Just like last time, or even a thousand times more dangerous than last time."

"I might... die a very, very miserable death."

Su Meier's body trembled uncontrollably.

Her lips moved, and the words "Don't go" were almost out.

But when she saw the unquestionable resolve in Lin Fan's eyes, she swallowed those three words, tightly, back down.

She remembered what he had said before.

She remembered the cruel truth of this world.

She remembered their unchosen, desperate fate.

She suddenly understood.

This was his Dao.

A Dao unique to him, one that embraced death to find life, and seized power from desperation.

She could not become an obstacle to him.

She could not.

"But."

Lin Fan's voice sounded again, carrying a strange tenderness that cut through all the chaos and despair.

"I will definitely come back."

He reached out his hand, that warm and strong hand that had just been holding hers, and now gently caressed Su Meier's cold cheek, chilled by tension.

His fingertips were calloused, yet his movements were as gentle as if he feared breaking a rare treasure.

"After I return, perhaps we can have a long period of peace."

"So, until I 'return,' this place is entrusted to you."

Su Meier's eyes instantly reddened.

Large, hot tears, uncontrollable, streamed from the corners of her eyes, down her cheeks, and onto his gentle hand.

Her vision blurred.

But she held back, biting her lip tightly, not allowing herself to let out a single sob.

She knew he didn't need tears, didn't need dissuasion.

What he needed was a promise that would allow him to act without worries.

She took a deep breath, and with all her strength, nodded.

Her voice trembled uncontrollably, yet it contained an unprecedented firmness.

"I'll wait for you to come back."

She paused, then raised her peach blossom eyes, now red from tears, looked at him, and completed the second half of her sentence, word by word.

"For you, I will become a Protector during your Nascent Soul formation."

Lin Fan smiled.

That smile, against the backdrop of this apocalyptic battlefield, appeared incredibly radiant.

He said nothing more.

He simply leaned down and gently pressed a warm kiss on her forehead.

A fleeting touch.

Then, he turned around.

That tenderness, exclusive to Su Meier, instantly vanished.

In its place was the cold, focused, deadly gaze of a hunter spotting its prey.

Only one breath of time remained.

It was now.

Boom!

A figure, without warning, rushed out from the overlooked blind spot of the collapsed rock wall.

He didn't transform into a streak of light, nor did he possess an earth-shattering Aura.

He simply, at the speed a Golden Core Stage Cultivator should have, charged towards the center of the battlefield.

He charged towards the hundred-zhang Demon, bound by the golden Law net.

At this moment, time seemed to stretch.

Everyone's gaze was drawn to this suddenly appearing figure.

"What is that?"

A Nascent Soul Cultivator, struggling to recover his spiritual power, cried out in alarm.

"A Golden Core Stage kid?"

"Is he crazy!?!"

A hint of relief had just appeared on Old Ancestor Chiyang's face, but seeing this scene, it was instantly replaced by deep disdain and contempt.

"A puny ant who doesn't know his place!"

"Attempting to fish in troubled waters in a battle of this level is simply courting death!"

Azure Mystery Sect Master frowned, unable to comprehend.

This Golden Core cultivator's Aura was unremarkable; why would he dare to charge at the Demon?

Could he be some poor Soul whose mind was corrupted by Devilish Qi?

And the bound Demon also "saw" this tiny, negligible being charging towards it.

On its colossal face, made of billions of tormented countenances, a human-like, extreme contempt was revealed.

An ant, daring to challenge a god?

Lin Fan ignored all the gazes around him.

In his world, there was only the colossal, infinitely evil demonic shadow ahead.

He did not summon any Magic Treasure.

He did not circulate any Cultivation Technique.

He only performed one action the moment he approached within a hundred zhang of the Demon.

He released all restraints on his Divine Soul.

Then, he used that wisp of precious "Immortal Dao Qi," which had completely fused with his Origin, as the ultimate fuse to ignite everything.

He raised his head, met the Demon's contemptuous gaze, and revealed an incredibly brilliant smile.

Goodbye.

And then.

Detonation.

No sound.

No light.

Not even any energy fluctuations.

A silent explosion, far more terrifying than any Divine Ability or Spell, occurred with a roar within Lin Fan's Soul.

His entire Divine Soul, along with the "Dao Seed" that had already begun to evolve its Domain, transformed in that instant into the purest, most primordial Divine Soul storm.

And that wisp of "Immortal Dao Qi" was the core of this storm.

It was the drop of water in boiling oil.

It was the snowflake falling before an avalanche.

Hiss—

An indescribable power, centered on the vanished location of Lin Fan, suddenly spread out.

That was not destruction.

But rather... purification.

The Divine Soul storm, mixed with Immortal Dao Qi, had no effect on the material world, but it dealt a devastating blow to the Demon, a pure aggregation of demonic thoughts.

The Demon's massive body suddenly stiffened.

On its face, composed of billions of countenances, that contempt instantly froze.

Immediately after, it was replaced by an unprecedented fear, originating from the essence of life itself.

"Ah—!"

A shriek, so piercing it seemed no living creature could emit it, for the first time truly echoed throughout the entire Secret Realm from the Demon's mouth.

In that sound, there was no longer ecstasy and malevolence.

But pure, incomprehensible, pain.

One could see that at the chest of its hundred-zhang-tall, indestructible demonic body.

A massive, transparent void was rapidly expanding at a visible rate.

At the edge of the void, countless pitch-black Devilish Qi were being forcibly erased, annihilated, and turned into primordial nothingness by a higher-level power.

That wisp of "Immortal Dao Qi," like the sacred fire in myths and legends specifically used to slay evil demons, caused an absolute suppression of this Source of the Heavenly Demon at the Law level.

Boom!

The golden Law net binding the Demon, in this shriek, could no longer hold, and shattered with a crash.

The Demon's massive body seemed to lose all its power, its Aura rapidly dwindling at an avalanche-like speed.

It shrank from a hundred zhang to fifty zhang, thirty zhang, ten zhang... eventually, it transformed into a core Origin, only the size of a human head, constantly tumbling and twisting, black as ink.

The Origin was covered in spiderweb-like cracks, as if it could completely shatter at any moment.

The entire battlefield fell into a deadly silence.

All the surviving Nascent Soul Old Monsters stared blankly at this scene.

Their mouths hung open, their faces filled with incomprehensible, extreme shock.

What happened?

Just now... what happened?

That Golden Core Stage kid rushed over, and then... he self-destructed?

A Golden Core cultivator's self-destruction, let alone harming the Demon, wouldn't even be enough to scratch it.

But why... why would this extraterrestrial Demon, which had left them helpless and even despairing, suffer such terrifying heavy damage instantly after that kid's self-destruction?

What exactly was that power that instantly erupted and annihilated the Devilish Qi?

They couldn't even comprehend the essence of that power.

In their perception, that Golden Core cultivator's Divine Soul was completely destroyed, his body and spirit vanished, utterly, completely, erased from this world.

Not a single trace remained.

No one could figure out the logic behind it.

This completely exceeded their thousands of years of cultivation knowledge.

At the edge of the battlefield.

Su Meier saw that figure rush out without hesitation.

She saw his last smile.

She saw him turn into nothingness in front of the Demon.

Tears, finally, uncontrollably, broke free and streamed down.

But her eyes, amidst the endless sorrow, became incredibly firm.

He said it.

He would come back.

She believed him.

She immediately turned around, without the slightest hesitation, not even glancing at the stunned Nascent Soul Old Monsters, nor at the heavily injured, dying Demon Origin.

None of that concerned her.

Her mission was to go to the absolutely safe resurrection point he had told her about.

To protect him.

And at the very moment Lin Fan's Divine Soul was completely annihilated.

His consciousness plunged into an endless darkness and void.

Immediately after.

A cold, mechanical, yet heavenly voice, boomed deep within his consciousness.

"[Host detected to have caused decisive fatal damage to the high-risk forbidden target 'Extraterrestrial Demon (Clone)' at Nascent Soul level and above, through self-destruction of Divine Soul with Golden Core Stage cultivation!]

[Damage contribution rate being determined...]

[Determination result: 99.9%!]

[Overall assessment: Transcendent Kill (Pseudo)!]

[Triggering Super Mythic-grade Death Condition!]

[Epic-grade reward being generated...]

[Reconstructing Host's Divine Soul... Divine Soul strength permanently increased!]

[Infusing Host with massive cultivation...]

[Congratulations, Host, cultivation has advanced to: Golden Core Great Perfection!]

[Detecting Host's Fusion with 'Ancient Immortal Remnant Thought,' triggering special Physique evolution...]

[Special Physique 'Immortal-Demon Dao Embryo (Pseudo)' being generated...]"