40: Xuanhuang was used as a sacrifice, and the seeds of the Dao took root.

Cold! Heavy! Like being buried alive under billions of tons of damp, cold mud!

Chen Feng hung his head low, his emaciated body trembling slightly, supported by Old Man Shi. Beneath his coarse cloth clothes, dark red crystalline cracks pulsed faintly like living blood vessels, each throb bringing bone-deep pain and a sense of exhaustion. The villagers' roars, their ignorant killing intent, the cold stones and clubs... all of it seemed to be behind a thick curtain of water, blurry and distant.

All his remaining mental energy, all his will to survive, was firmly locked onto the depths of his Dantian!

That rice-grain-sized Profound Yellow Dao Seed was currently pulsating with unprecedented frenzy! A faint earthy yellow glow stubbornly flickered in the dead Dantian ruins, like a newborn star in a dark Universe! The dense remaining Mother Qi in the ancestral hall's backyard, the thin Earth essence Qi lingering in the air, and even the pulsation of this ancient land beneath his feet... all existences containing a trace of Earth Origin were greedily torn and devoured by this Dao Seed, like a gluttonous beast! [Profound Yellow Dao Seed: Strongly stimulated by external environment (high concentration of residual Mother Qi + Earth essence Qi)! Devouring instinct activated! Energy accumulation accelerated (weak)... Form slowly growing...]

At the core of the Dao Seed, an extremely faint yet pure and resilient strand of Profound Yellow power, like a nascent vine, was desperately penetrating the Immortal Curse shackles entwined around the dao foundation cracks! Those cold golden chains of order, under the impact of this Origin power derived from Earth Mother Qi, emitted an extremely subtle 'sizzling' sound, like metal corroding, and the golden light flickered extremely faintly... once! [Immortal Curse Erosion: Weakly impacted by Profound Yellow Dao Seed Origin power! Shackles loosened (0.0001%)! Erosion speed fluctuation (0.5%→0.45%)...]

A chance! A chance so slim it was almost despairing! But it was the only hope for survival at this moment!

"Get lost!" The short, fat clan elder, seeing Chen Feng lower his head and remain silent, thought he was scared witless. He became even more arrogant, suddenly raising the crude wooden club in his hand. With a whoosh, he brought it down fiercely towards Chen Feng's bowed head! "First, cripple this demon!"

"Honorable Immortal Master, be careful!" Old Man Shi's eyes were splitting with rage, and he instinctively tried to block with his body!

Just as the wooden club was about to strike his head—

Buzz!

Chen Feng suddenly raised his head!

His lowered eyelids snapped open! His left eye was a cold, light-devouring ruins abyss darkness! His right eye, however, burned with an unprecedented, earthy yellow light, like magma from the Earth's core! That was the light of the Profound Yellow Dao Seed ignited by extreme crisis and the craving for Mother Qi!

"Get out!"

A roar, not human, mixed with intense pain, madness, and the weighty will of the Earth, exploded from the depths of Chen Feng's throat! Along with the roar, an invisible, weak force field, forcibly condensed from the Profound Yellow Dao Seed, burst forth centered on him!

Boom!

Like an invisible wave of Qi exploding! The falling wooden club, just an inch from Chen Feng's head, suddenly stopped as if it had hit an invisible wall of sighing! Immediately after, an irresistible force, carrying the heavy repulsive will of the Earth, violently rebounded!

"Ah—!" The short, fat clan elder let out a mournful scream. As if struck by a galloping wild ox, his plump body flew backward uncontrollably, slamming heavily against the cracked black stone wall of the ancestral hall! The wooden club flew from his hand, breaking into two in mid-air! He spat out blood, his chest bones made a clear cracking sound, and he slumped to the ground, his life unknown!

This sudden scene was like cold water poured into boiling oil!

Dead silence!

The ancestral hall's backyard instantly fell into absolute dead silence!

All the villagers, holding stones and clubs with fierce expressions, had their ferocity instantly frozen, turning into extreme shock and fear! They were like statues, frozen in place, disbelievingly looking at the short, fat clan elder slumped against the wall like a broken sack, then at the emaciated figure still supported by Old Man Shi, breathing heavily with head lowered, but with eyes erupting with terrifying light!

"De... Demonic art! It really is demonic art!"

"He... he sent the Third Clan Elder flying just by staring!"

"Run... run quickly!"

After a brief dead silence, a more frantic burst of fear erupted! The villagers, like chickens and ducks scattered, let out terrified screams, their stones and clubs clattering to the ground. They no longer cared about clan elders or ancestral heavenly punishment, only wishing their parents had given them two more legs, scrambling and crawling to flee out of the ancestral hall! Even the few clan elders who had been relatively calm were now pale with fright, their hands shaking like sieves as they leaned on their canes, swept away by the chaotic crowd, fleeing in disarray from this "demonic place"!

In the backyard, only Old Man Shi supporting Chen Feng remained, along with Zhang Shouzhuo's cold corpse under the straw mat in the corner.

"Honorable... Honorable Immortal Master..." Old Man Shi's teeth chattered, his arm supporting Chen Feng stiff, his gaze filled with unprecedented awe and fear. That scene just now had completely overturned his understanding! Injuring someone with a glare! If this wasn't a monster, what was it?!

"Go... wall... crack..." Chen Feng's voice was like a broken bellows, thick with the smell of blood, each word exhausting his strength. The magma-like earthy yellow light in his right eye flickered rapidly, dimming. The backlash from forcibly activating the Dao Seed's power surged like a tide. His Dantian was in excruciating pain, and the golden light of the Immortal Curse, after a brief fluctuation from the impact of that strand of Profound Yellow power, then, as if enraged, its erosion speed actually rebounded slightly! [Profound Yellow Dao Seed: Energy depleted after brief burst (backlash)... Form shrinks... Core oscillates...]

[Immortal Curse Erosion: Briefly fluctuated after impact... Erosion speed recovers (0.5%)...]

But he had no choice! Deterrence was only a temporary measure! The panicked villagers had fled, but a greater crisis—possible investigation by "Immortal Masters," or even the Gold-Robed Immortal Envoy's perception—could descend at any moment! He had to seize the last chance Zhang Shouzhuo had created for him with his life, before everything became irreversible!

Old Man Shi looked at the unquestionable madness and determination in Chen Feng's eyes, then at the old village chief's corpse in the corner. Finally, a mix of simple loyalty and fear of the unknown made him grit his teeth fiercely: "Alright! I'll... I'll help you over!"

He supported Chen Feng, step by step, moving with difficulty towards the huge, cracked black stone wall of the ancestral hall.

The closer they got, the more frantically the Profound Yellow Dao Seed in Chen Feng's Dantian pulsed! That rice-grain-sized speck of light was like a burning star, transmitting an extreme craving for the core sealed deep within the wall, beneath the Earth! At the same time, a mournful resonance originating from the depths of the Dao Seed, echoing the lingering will of Zhang Shouzhuo's Bloodline protection, acted like an invisible key, penetrating the thick black stone, faintly pointing to the deepest part of the wall crack, an inconspicuous, cracked black stone tablet embedded in the stone foundation!

"That... stone tablet..." Chen Feng guided hoarsely.

Old Man Shi obeyed, supporting Chen Feng to the half-human-tall black stone tablet. The tablet was ancient and weathered, its surface covered with traces of erosion by time and fine cracks, showing no special features, as if it were just an ordinary foundation stone of the ancestral hall. But at this moment, in the perception of the Profound Yellow Dao Seed, it was the core node of the entire Seal network! It was the... gateway to pure Mother Qi!

"Help... me... hand... press... on..." Chen Feng's voice was already extremely weak.

Trembling, Old Man Shi gently placed Chen Feng's emaciated, cold hand upon that cracked black stone tablet!

The moment his fingertips touched the cold stone tablet—

Rumble—!!!

The entire ancestral hall's backyard shook as if a magnitude 10 earthquake had struck! The Earth trembled violently! The black stone wall, already covered in cracks, groaned under the strain, and more rubble rattled down! And the black stone tablet under Chen Feng's hand suddenly erupted with dazzling earthy yellow light! The light penetrated the cracks in the tablet, flowing and converging like a living thing!

A surge of Profound Yellow Mother Qi, far grander and purer than last night, yet filled with endless sorrow and anger, erupted with a roar from deep within the stone tablet, from beneath the Earth, like a primordial beast imprisoned for billions of years! This time, there was no guidance from Zhang Shouzhuo's protective will! The violent torrent of Mother Qi, mixed with even denser turbid Evil Qi, like a world-ending flood breaching a dam, slammed into Chen Feng's exhausted body through his arm! [Warning! High-grade Profound Yellow Mother Qi (contaminated state) core node forcibly impacted!]

[Star Returning Ruins Dao Foundation: Cracks intensify (9.5%)! On the verge of complete collapse!]

[Immortal Curse Erosion: Suppressive force chaotic due to violent Mother Qi impact! Erosion speed fluctuations intensify!]

"Aargh—!" Chen Feng let out a non-human shriek! His body instantly arched as if thrown into a stellar furnace! The dark red crystalline cracks on his body spread wildly, like cracked porcelain, and golden-red blood mixed with turbid black Qi spurted out like a fountain! His consciousness was instantly torn and overwhelmed! Death had never been so close!

However, in that one-in-ten-thousandth of a second, just as his consciousness was about to completely vanish and his Physical Body and dao foundation were about to explode from the violent Mother Qi—

Buzz!!!

In his Dantian, the Profound Yellow Dao Seed, on the verge of extinction due to its forced eruption, upon contact with this most core, most Origin Mother Qi torrent (though contaminated), was like a dying ember doused with boiling oil!

Boom!

That speck of earthy yellow light at the core of the Dao Seed suddenly burst into flames! It transformed into a miniature, frantically rotating Profound Yellow vortex! A cold and domineering will to devour and assimilate, originating from the deepest part of the fate disk nirvana mark, mixed with the Profound Yellow Dao Seed's extreme craving for pure Origin, erupted with a roar!

No longer blind acceptance! But rather... active devouring! Refining! Using himself as a furnace, the Profound Yellow Dao Seed as a guide, and the fate disk nirvana mark as a hammer, forcibly forging, stripping, and assimilating this violent, turbid Mother Qi torrent! To extract that trace of "truth" hidden deep within the core of endless filth!

"Ruins... Abyss... Draws... Profound... Yellow! Dao... Seed... as... Sacrifice!"

A cold, frantic thought, mixed with Chen Feng's last will and the life plate's instinct, exploded within his fragmented consciousness!

He no longer tried to resist the surging violent Mother Qi! Instead, with the last shred of his remaining will, he guided the nascent Profound Yellow vortex, like a bottomless black hole, frantically tearing and devouring the surging turbid energy! At the same time, his remaining life essence, fragmented Divine Soul shards, and even... the ruins abyss power contained within his cracked Star Returning Ruins Dao Foundation itself, were all thrown into the rotating Profound Yellow vortex like fuel, without regard for consequences!

Sacrifice! Offering everything he had as a sacrifice! Igniting the Dao Seed! Activating the Ruins Abyss! Only to seize that sliver of pure vitality within this turbid torrent! For himself! And even more so for... Su Wanzhao behind him, whose breath was about to completely cease!

Boom—!!!

After receiving this desperate sacrificial "fuel," the Profound Yellow vortex's rotation speed instantly soared to a terrifying degree! At the center of the vortex, an indescribable "Origin point" faintly appeared—that was the nascent form of the Ruins Abyss and Profound Yellow forcibly merging in extreme combustion! A terrifying suction force, transcending all filth, imbued with the meaning of Chaos opening and the Earth giving birth, suddenly generated!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—!

The violent, turbid Mother Qi surging into Chen Feng's body, the moment it touched the suction of this Origin point, was like being thrown into a cosmic furnace! The Evil Qi, resentment, and myriad thoughts of living beings that constituted the filth were forcibly stripped away, crushed, and turned into nothingness by that domineering guixu will! Only the purest, most Origin Profound Yellow Mother Qi essence remained, greedily devoured and absorbed by the rotating Profound Yellow vortex! [Profound Yellow Dao Seed: Devouring and assimilating... stripping away impurities... absorbing pure Mother Qi... form stabilizing and growing... core Origin point nascent form condensing...]

[Star Returning Ruins Dao Foundation: Energy and structure sacrificed... disintegration accelerates (10%)!]

[Physical Body: Severe injury worsens! Life essence flowing away! Cracks repair stalled...]

The cost was heavy! The Star Returning Ruins Dao Foundation accelerated its disintegration in the sacrifice! His Physical Body was like a burnt-out candle, the flame of life rapidly dimming! But the Profound Yellow Dao Seed was growing wildly! That earthy yellow speck of light was expanding and solidifying at a visible rate, and the nascent Chaos Origin point at its core emitted an increasingly strong, pure, and vast Earth Origin aura!

Even more exhilarating for Chen Feng's remaining consciousness was that a wisp of extremely pure, vibrant Profound Yellow Mother Qi, after the Dao Seed initially stabilized, actually flowed back out along the forcibly established devouring channel, thread by thread! This wisp of Mother Qi was no longer turbid, but pure and gentle, like the milk of the Earth Mother, instantly nourishing his withered Meridians, and even... penetrating the Immortal Curse's shackles, flowing towards the person behind him!

Its target was Su Wanzhao, whose life flame was about to extinguish on the brick bed!

"Last... Light..." In Chen Feng's shattered consciousness, only this thought remained.

However, just as this wisp of pure Mother Qi was about to touch Su Wanzhao's body—

Buzz!!!

Above the ancestral hall, the turbid earthy yellow sky curtain was forcibly torn open without warning by an invisible, terrifying will that transcended all heavens! A cold, majestic golden gaze, containing supreme Immortal Dao Law, as if traversing endless space, instantly pierced through the clouds, firmly locking onto the core of the violently conflicting energy in the ancestral hall's backyard below!

"Ant... indeed here!"

The Gold-Robed Immortal Envoy! That venomous and greedy voice, like the chilling wind of the Nine Nether, exploded at the Law level!

At the same time, the black stone tablet under Chen Feng's palm, its internal residual Seal power, guarded by Zhang Shouzhuo's lineage for generations, finally... completely shattered, due to the core Mother Qi being forcibly devoured and activated!

Rumble, rumble, rumble—!!!

The entire Black Stone Village ancestral hall, along with the Earth beneath it, suddenly arched upwards as if a subterranean volcano had erupted! A vaster, more violent, tsunami-like torrent of turbid Profound Yellow Mother Qi, mixed with the monstrous resentment and Earth's anger sealed for billions of years, surged skyward from the shattered Seal node!

The Immortal Envoy descended! The Seal shattered! Mother Qi ran wild! Su Wanzhao's life hung by a thread!

The true catastrophe, at the moment Chen Feng grasped that sliver of hope for survival, descended with a roar!

Twelve hours... the final deadline Zhang Shouzhuo spoke of... was counting down by the second!