87: The Starburst Returns to its Source, Ultimately Leading to Backlash

"Burn it—!!!"

Chen Feng's tearing roar echoed at the top of the skeleton throne, mixed with the thunderous roar of the Prairie Fire and the furious screeching of "Shi" as it slammed against the barrier! He poured all his remaining will and all his unyielding conviction into the life-or-death tug-of-war within his body—the duel between the Nirvana Star Fire and the primordial ultimate end crystal!

Boom—!!!

Inside his Dantian, the star-blue Nirvana Star Fire, nourished by the star vault Origin gifted by the Skeleton King at the very end, erupted with unprecedented brilliance and intensity, like a Phoenix reborn from the flames! Carrying Su Wanzhao's awakening will and Chen Feng's desperate conviction, it transformed into a torrent of flames that incinerated all evil, slamming viciously into that grey primordial ultimate end crystal that radiated a cold, deathly stillness!

Sizzle—!!!

It was like scalding starlight magma poured over ancient ice! An annihilation screech that froze the Soul erupted within Chen Feng's body! The star-blue flames and the grey light of the end entangled and annihilated each other frantically! Every collision was like the destruction of a star, bringing a pain that swept through his entire body, exceeding his limits!

The grey crystalline light trembled violently! Under the frantic burning and purification of the Nirvana Star Fire, the cold, smooth crystalline layer on its surface actually developed tiny, spiderweb-like cracks! Wisps of pure End aura were forcibly stripped away and purified! It seemed to sense a threat, and that domineering devouring suction instantly transformed into a colder, absolute-defense style End force field, resisting the erosion of the Nirvana Star Fire with all its might!

"Roar—!!" What Chen Feng spat out was no longer blood, but a turbulent flow of energy mixed with starlight debris and a grey, decayed aura! His body felt as if it were being repeatedly hammered by an invisible, massive force; the cracks on his surface burst open again, and dark golden blood mixed with ice crystals flowed out in torrents! The newly born nirvana star vortex life wheel trembled frantically under the overloaded opposition, the light of the burning Star Vortex Universe phantom at its core dimmed rapidly, and its rotation nearly stalled! Su Wanzhao's newly awakened will once again transmitted a strong sense of weakness!

However, this tragic energy storm within his body became the best fuel to ignite the Prairie Fire!

Rumble—!!!

The skeleton throne beneath Chen Feng erupted with a deafening resonance! The phantom of the [star vault Ten Thousand Worlds Source Flow Map] covering the top of the throne, after absorbing the violent energy torrent—a mix of extinction, Nirvana, and the end—generated by the clash between the Nirvana Star Fire and the primordial ultimate end crystal, acted like a furnace fueled by nuclear material, instantly erupting with starlight that exceeded all limits!

Whoosh—!!!

On the star map, the light of the countless star points that had previously been lit surged tenfold, a hundredfold! It was like a collective supernova explosion! Those Star Domains that were originally dim and silent, under the impact of this violent energy, were like awakened volcanoes; the silent star wills within them were forcibly ignited and activated! One point, one area, one domain... the Prairie Fire spread at a terrifying speed! Over seventy percent of the entire star map was instantly lit up!

A grand, sacred, and majestic Law power, as if from the very beginning of the Universe and the return of all Dao to their source, erupted from the core of the fully illuminated star map! This power no longer merely resisted the pollution of the xingtian main body will, but carried an absolute will to purify everything and reshape order!

Hum!!!

In the center of the star map, that huge, pulsating dark red light point representing the [Seal Core of the xingtian main body will: Path of Slaughter Blood Prison], under the impact of this Origin Return power, seemed to be wrapped and pierced by chains of billions of stars! The 97% dark red pollution light flickered and twisted frantically, emitting a roar of extreme pain and fury from the xingtian main body will: "No—!! The power... of Origin Return... Damn it!!"

The dark red light point was forcibly suppressed and contracted! Its pulsation frequency dropped suddenly! The Path of Slaughter pollution aura that had been spreading was filtered and purified as if by an invisible giant net, becoming significantly thinner! The entire Seal was forcibly reinforced by this sudden power of Origin Return!

"Roar—!!!" Outside the throne, the impact of "Shi" also instantly stalled! That terrifying giant mouth composed of Lu Dao Source Power, at the moment it sensed the Origin Return power erupting from the star map and the xingtian main body will being severely damaged and suppressed, revealed for the first time... terror! Its greedy will was like it had been doused with a basin of ice water, and its frantic actions of slamming against the barrier showed a clear hesitation!

Did it succeed?! The power of Origin Return was successfully triggered, the star map was lit, and the Seal of Xingtian was reinforced!

However, this brief dawn of victory completely ignited the most violent... backlash of the primordial ultimate end crystal within Chen Feng!

Hum—!!!

The primordial ultimate end crystal shrank violently! The tiny cracks on its surface that had been scorched by the Nirvana Star Fire instantly healed! A cold, more domineering End aura, carrying a completely enraged instinct for destruction, erupted like a cold wave from the Universe's Ice Age!

This time, its target was no longer to devour the Nirvana Star Fire, but... a self-destructive outpouring of energy!

Inside the primordial ultimate end crystal, the End Origin that had been compressed to the extreme no longer pursued stability and evolution of form, but in a near-mad way, exploded indiscriminately in all directions!

Boom—!!!

An indescribable grey shockwave, like billions of cold spears of the End, instantly pierced through the defense of the nirvana star vortex life wheel, pierced through Chen Feng's Meridians and flesh, and pierced through his bones and Divine Soul! Wherever it passed, all vitality, all energy, all Laws... were all forcibly frozen, ended, and returned to the most primitive, silent nothingness!

"Pfft—!!!" Chen Feng spat out a mouthful of blood that had completely turned the color of ash! His body seemed to be instantly drained of all color and vitality, presenting a deathly grey decay! His skin cracked and turned to ash inch by inch! The purple light in his eyes was completely extinguished, leaving only hollow, deathly grey!

[Warning: primordial ultimate end crystal backlash! End Extinction Wave spreading! Vital signs failing rapidly! Nirvana Star Fire severely damaged! Star Vortex Life Wheel on the verge of collapse!] The System alert was sharp enough to pierce his eardrums!

"Chen... Feng..." Su Wanzhao's consciousness was filled with endless pain and despair! Her Nirvana Star Fire, under the impact of this End Extinction Wave, was like a candle in the wind, instantly suppressed to the deepest core of the Life Wheel, its light dimmed to the extreme, tottering! The bridge maintaining their two wills, under the erosion of the End power, became blurred, as if it would break at any moment!

What was even more terrifying was that this End Extinction Wave originating from within Chen Feng not only severely damaged him, but also, like a plague... followed the energy channel injected into the star vault Source Flow Map, violently surging back into the star map that had just been lit and was radiating a sacred Origin Return power!

Sss-sss-sss—!!!

It was like a pure galaxy being injected with deadly venom! On the star map, those star points that had just been violently ignited and were dazzlingly bright, the moment they made contact with the End Extinction Wave, their light suddenly dimmed! Countless fine grey patterns spread rapidly across the star map phantom like a spiderweb! The sacred Origin Return power was forcibly polluted and eroded! The operation of the star map instantly became sluggish and twisted!

The Xingtian Seal core that had just been reinforced, that suppressed dark red light point, like a shark that had smelled blood, suddenly began to pulsate again! The roar of the xingtian main body will, filled with resentment and glee, sounded again: "Hehehe... End... backlash... Heaven helps me! Break!!!"

Rumble!

The pollution light point of the Path of Slaughter Blood Prison expanded frantically! On the star map, in the area just eroded by the grey patterns, the dark red pollution, like a prairie fire, instantly counterattacked and spread! The Origin Return power retreated steadily!

"Roar—!!" Outside the cracks, "Shi" also sensed this sudden change, and that terror instantly turned into an even greedier madness! The star map "polluted" by the End Extinction Wave seemed to have become an even more tempting "food" for it! The Path of Slaughter giant mouth opened again, carrying a will of destruction at all costs, slamming fiercely into the star vault barrier that was already covered in cracks!

Bang! Crack-crack-crack—!!!

Under the attack from both inside and outside, the star vault barrier ignited by the Skeleton King's final will finally... could not bear the burden! Like shattered glass, it exploded with a roar! Countless deep blue star fragments scattered and flew!

Having lost the barrier's obstruction, the destructive giant mouth of "Shi" that devoured everything, carrying monstrous Lu Dao Source Power and greedy will, faced no more obstacles and bit down fiercely at Chen Feng, who was at the top of the throne, trapped in the End backlash and with his vitality nearly severed!

The shadow of death, carrying the coldness of the End and the tyranny of the Path of Slaughter, instantly shrouded Chen Feng completely! He could even smell the stench emanating from that giant mouth, mixed with space-time fragments and the decay of all things!

Is it over?

Just at this last moment when his consciousness was about to be completely swallowed by the darkness—

Hum!!!

Deep in Chen Feng's grey and dead Dantian, at the core of the nirvana star vortex life wheel that was on the verge of collapse, in the center of the burning Star Vortex Universe phantom, the spiritual light point belonging to Su Wanzhao, which had been almost completely frozen by the End Extinction Wave... suddenly erupted with a point of... star-blue light that was indescribable in its purity and resilience!

That was not an eruption of energy, but a... swan song of will!

"The Star Fire... does not... extinguish..."

Su Wanzhao's thought, like a spring breeze passing through endless ice, brushed weakly yet incredibly clearly over Chen Feng's consciousness, which was about to sink.

At the same time, the inheritance seal that Chen Feng had been clutching tightly, which had become cold as his vitality ebbed away, its core purple star light, the moment it sensed Su Wanzhao's final swan song of will... also suddenly... went out!

No! It was not extinguished! It was... introverted! It was an extreme compression and condensation!

An indescribable, transcendent power of traction, beyond space-time and beyond Laws, erupted without warning from within the completely extinguished inheritance seal! This power was neither an attack nor a defense, but a... coordinate lock... pointing to the end of the Universe!

The target—was precisely the primordial ultimate end crystal within Chen Feng's Dantian that was erupting with the End backlash!

"Origin... Return... Guide... End... Seed... Space-Time... Graveyard..."

A fragmented thought, as if composed of countless overlapping broken space-times, was branded directly into the deepest part of Chen Feng's Soul the moment the inheritance seal went out!

And at the very same instant this thought was branded—

Rumble!!!!

The destructive giant mouth of "Shi" bit down fiercely! It completely swallowed the entire top of the skeleton throne... along with the dying Chen Feng, the erupting primordial ultimate end crystal, and the extinguished inheritance seal upon it!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a sense of absolute nothingness where all things returned to silence and space-time annihilated, instantly spreading out!

However, just within this absolute darkness of consumption, at the moment when "Shi's" greedy roar was about to turn into a satisfied screech—

Hum!!!

A singularity, indescribable in its color, suddenly lit up at the core of the giant mouth's consumption!

Immediately after—

Boom—!!!!!!

A terrifying energy storm, indescribable in scale and nature, erupted violently from the center of that singularity!

This storm, fusing the final swan song of the Nirvana Star Fire, the End Extinction Wave from the primordial ultimate end crystal backlash, the residual Origin Return power of the polluted star vault Source Flow Map, the counter-energy of the Xingtian Path of Slaughter Seal, the final guardian fragments of the skeleton throne, and the Lu Dao Source Power devoured by "Shi" itself... all these vastly different and conflicting terrifying energies, under the effect of the inheritance seal's ultimate traction power pointing towards the Space-Time Graveyard, were forcibly compressed, mixed, and then... completely detonated!

This was not a simple explosion, but... an annihilation storm on the space-time level!

Crack—!!!

With the consumption point as the center, the entire frozen space, along with the huge star wreckage outside it, was instantly torn and shattered like fragile glass! A massive space-time rift with a diameter of over a thousand meters, with chaotic space-time turbulence and destructive energy storms flowing at its edges, was violently formed!

"No—!!!" "Shi's" roar, filled with greed, instantly turned into a scream of extreme terror! Its giant mouth composed of Lu Dao Source Power, along with part of its will core, bore the brunt of it, being instantly torn apart and annihilated like a sandcastle in this space-time annihilation storm! The terrifying shockwave sent its massive body flying, slamming it into the depths of the Path of Slaughter void behind it, emitting a shrill wail!

The shockwave continued unabated, sweeping across the entire Silent Star Waterfall! Countless frozen star wrecks were shaken into powder! Space-time fragments flew about like violent blades!

And at the core of the storm, the massive space-time rift, like the hideous throat of a giant beast, emitted a terrifying suction, frantically swallowing all matter, energy, and even broken spatial Laws!

Chen Feng's figure, like a ragdoll, along with the completely extinguished inheritance seal, and the primordial ultimate end crystal within his Dantian—dimmed in light and shrunk several times in volume due to the erupting backlash, yet still radiating a cold, deathly stillness—were, in this heaven-destroying space-time annihilation storm, like insignificant dust, instantly... completely swallowed by that massive space-time rift!

Vanished without a trace!

Only a single, extremely weak thought, filled with endless pain and a trace of faint connection, like a candle in the wind, flashed and vanished in the space-time turbulence:

"Chen Feng... live on..."