326: Backlash! Sect Master, our sect is in turmoil!

Deep within the Universe, atop the Heavens Evolution Sect's altar, time seemed to freeze.

The three Grand Elders who had sacrificed their Lifespans still maintained a rigid expression of ruthlessness and determination on their withered faces.

Deep within the Forbidden Ground, the Sect Master's ancient and majestic will remained locked onto the subtle threads of Karma.

Everything was within their control.

The target was about to be completely... Hmm?

The expressions on the three Grand Elders' faces froze at the exact same moment.

It was a shift from extreme confidence to extreme bewilderment.

Deep within the Forbidden Ground, that will, as constant as the Heavenly Dao, also suddenly rippled, revealing an undisguised... confusion.

In their collective perception, the Heavens Mandate God-Slaying Thorn, which had already reached the target's Karma line and was about to complete its final eradication mission, had lost its target.

It wasn't blocked.

It wasn't dodged.

It wasn't even deciphered.

Instead, its "target," the point serving as the Karma coordinate, had completely vanished into thin air!

It was as if a bullet, precisely aimed at the center of the forehead, saw its target actively smash its head against a nearby wall a thousandth of a second before impact.

The bullet was still there.

The target was gone.

The Heavens Mandate God-Slaying Thorn, this ultimate weapon that embodied the Heavens Evolution Sect's heritage and understanding of Karmic laws, was left suspended in that void of a Karma coordinate point.

It had lost its direction.

It had lost its reason for existence.

"What's going on?!"

A Grand Elder's hoarse, sharp voice broke the deathly silence.

His voice was filled with unprecedented panic and confusion.

However, no one could answer him.

Because, in the distant Void Realm outside the Ten Thousand Swords Burial, that transparent thorn, that ultimate killing weapon carrying the three Grand Elders' three hundred years of Lifespan and vast Origin of life, began to tremble slightly, yet fatally.

Buzz... buzz buzz... The immense, chaotic, and unvented "absolute killing" power it contained, enough to conceptually erase an Immortal Venerable, began to turn violent and extremely unstable after losing its sole target!

It needed an outlet!

A... coordinate of existence!

The next moment, it found one.

Following the path it came from, the Karma line jointly constructed by the three Grand Elders, by the White-Haired Grand Elder, and by the Sect Master's will!

Returning the way it came!

...Heavens Evolution Sect Altar.

"No!"

"It's coming back!"

The White-Haired Grand Elder was the first to react, his golden-blooded eyes erupting with unprecedented fear!

He wanted to flee, to tear open space, to escape from this space-time.

But it was too late!

In the face of Karma's speed, any Divine Ability was futile.

Buzz—!

The transparent Heavens Mandate God-Slaying Thorn ignored the distance of space and the passage of time, instantly appearing directly above the ancient altar!

It had returned to the place of its birth!

The horror on the faces of the three Grand Elders who had sacrificed their Lifespans was forever frozen.

They were the most direct creators of this Karmic law weapon, and also the most fundamental "cause."

The backlash found them first!

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

No heart-wrenching screams.

The transparent thorn merely trembled slightly.

Poof.

Poof.

Poof.

The three Grand Elders, revered figures within the Sect who had lived for countless tens of thousands of years, disintegrated like sand sculptures blown away by the wind.

Their bodies, their Divine Souls, the traces of their existence, along with the Karma connecting them to the Sect's Luck, all simultaneously transformed into the purest... Void Realm in that instant.

Not even a speck of dust remained.

As if they had never existed in this Universe.

This scene plunged the minds of all the surrounding Elders into a complete shutdown.

However, this was only the beginning.

After erasing the three Grand Elders, less than a tenth of the violent power carried by the Heavens Mandate God-Slaying Thorn had been vented.

The remaining power was completely out of control!

Boom—!

A destructive storm, indescribable by any language, formed purely from the entanglement of concepts like "Karma," "absolute killing," and "Heaven's Mandate," exploded with the altar as its center!

This was not an explosion of energy, but the collapse of "existence" itself!

The ancient altar, as old as the Universe, was the first to be erased.

Next was the entire mountain peak where the altar was located!

The "concept" of the mountain peak was torn apart; it didn't collapse, but directly vanished from everyone's perception, transforming into a chaotic Void Realm!

"Ah—!"

"Save me! My Dao foundation... my Karma lines are breaking!"

"No! What kind of attack is this?!"

Piercing screams rose and fell.

Those Elders who were close by, without even being touched by any force, began to decompose on their own; some had their arms disappear into thin air, others had half their bodies turn into light and shadow.

Their "existence" was being forcibly disturbed and erased by this chaotic Karma storm!

And deep within the Forbidden Ground, the high and mighty Sect Master let out an uncontrollable muffled groan!

He was the ultimate issuer of the command for this operation, the endpoint of that Karma line!

Puff!

A backlash force, as if containing the weight of an entire Star Domain, fiercely struck his Dao foundation.

His ancient and unmoving body, as if merged with the Heavenly Dao, trembled violently, and a mouthful of golden Divine Blood spurted out!

Crack... Within him, a clear, unhealable crack appeared on his indestructible Dao foundation, which had operated for billions of years!

That chaotic information torrent, not belonging to this Universe and mixed with billions of deaths, once again fiercely washed over his Divine Soul through the backlash!

In just an instant, his aura plummeted from the unfathomable clouds!

...The storm lasted for a full ten breaths.

When all the dust settled, the Heavens Evolution Sect's main gate, originally ethereal with Immortal Qi and suspended in the center of the Chaos Star Domain, had transformed into a shocking ruin.

A full third of the palaces and pavilions, along with the divine mountain beneath them, had vanished, leaving only a massive empty void from which Chaos Qi continuously emanated.

Countless Disciples, in their sleep, were "erased" from this Universe along with the Sect.

Fewer than seventy percent survived.

And those who did survive were all injured, their expressions blank, as if their worldviews had been completely overturned.

The altar was a mess.

The White-Haired Grand Elder lay collapsed at the edge of the ruins, covered in blood, his aura extremely weak. He stared blankly at the tragic scene before him, at his fellow Sect members annihilated in the Karma storm, at the massive empty void of the Sect... His mind was blank.

It was over.

The Heavens Evolution Sect was finished.

They, who prided themselves as observers of the Heavenly Dao and maintainers of destiny, were cast into an abyss of eternal damnation by a thorough backlash in the very Domain they were most proud of.

All of this was simply because... they tried to erase an "anomaly" they couldn't comprehend.

He trembled, looking around aimlessly, and finally, in a voice almost like a dream, asked a question that made the Souls of all survivors shiver.

"What kind of monster... did we provoke?"

As soon as his voice fell, an extremely weak will, yet filled with endless resentment and fear, was transmitted with difficulty from deep within the shattered Forbidden Ground.

It was their Sect Master's voice.

The voice was hoarse and broken, devoid of any previous majesty or coldness, leaving only the collapse of someone whose spine had been broken in the most absurd and bizarre way.

"It's poisonous...!"