208: Escape! Got the item!

But very quickly, the astonishment and complex emotions in Hong Ning's ice-blue eyes receded, freezing once more into the profound depth of an ancient cold pond.

She said nothing more, an invisible Divine Thought instantly piercing into Xiao Zhuo's Sea of Consciousness; it wasn't an attack, but a transmission of information.

In an instant, Xiao Zhuo's vision changed.

The Void Realm around the altar, which had seemed empty, suddenly lit up with eight extremely faint points of light, like fragments of stars!

They slowly moved in an enigmatic trajectory around the altar, connected by invisible energy threads, finally converging on the altar itself, forming a vast and intricate energy cage.

Those eight points were precisely the key nodes maintaining the operation of the entire Seal array!

They were hidden deep within spatial folds; had Hong Ning not forcibly located them with her Divine Sense and projected them to him, Xiao Zhuo would have been completely unable to discover them.

"The first node, three inches in the Xun position, break!" Hong Ning's cold voice resonated directly in Xiao Zhuo's consciousness, utterly devoid of emotion.

Xiao Zhuo's eyes narrowed, without the slightest hesitation.

The Thunder Tribulation Saber Intent within him, having just achieved the Divine Sense level, erupted with a roar; the dark golden lightning no longer clung to a saber but condensed and compressed into a tangible form in his right hand!

The wild heavenly might and pure power of destruction highly concentrated, forming a dark golden lightning blade about a foot long!

"Break!"

He pointed his fingers like a saber, slashing fiercely towards the direction Hong Ning indicated!

The dark golden lightning blade silently pierced into the Void Realm, precisely hitting that faint speck of light!

"Chi—!"

Like a hot branding iron pressed onto ice, that speck of light flickered violently, twisted, and emitted a piercing sound of annihilation, instantly dimming, and one of the energy threads connecting it also snapped!

However, an unexpected change occurred!

The moment the node was destroyed, the surrounding Void Realm writhed as if alive, countless dense runes materialized out of thin air, like billions of fireflies, frantically surging towards the damaged node!

An overwhelming restorative force began to act, and the dimmed point of light actually brightened again at a visible speed!

"Quick! Next one, seven feet in the Kun position!" Hong Ning's voice held a hint of imperceptible urgency.

Xiao Zhuo's heart tensed; the automatic repair capability of this Seal Restriction far exceeded his imagination!

He dared not delay for a moment, his figure like lightning, rushing towards the second node according to Hong Ning's guidance!

"Slash!"

The dark golden lightning blade reappeared, precisely destroying it again!

The repair runes surged again, seemingly faster than the first time!

"Li position! Upper Nine!"

"Zhen position! Lower Three!"

"Kan position! Center!"

Xiao Zhuo's figure transformed into a blurry, pale golden stream of light around the altar; each flash was accompanied by a dark golden lightning blade tearing through the Void Realm and the annihilation of a node!

His physical strength and Concept power were being consumed frantically; the newly Breakthrough Divine Sense Saber Intent was powerful, but each time it tore through an immortal Restriction node, it brought immense backlash, shaking his Qi and blood, causing blood to spill from the corners of his mouth.

The speed of repair became faster and faster!

When Xiao Zhuo broke the fifth node with all his might, the first node had already been repaired by nearly seventy percent!

For the sixth node, Xiao Zhuo had barely slashed it open when the torrent of runes surged again, greatly increasing the repair speed!

"Pfft!" Forcibly urging the lightning blade to break the seventh node, the immense backlash caused Xiao Zhuo to suddenly spit out a mouthful of fresh blood, his face instantly turning pale.

He felt that the dark golden lightning blade in his hand had become somewhat ethereal and unstable.

And the repair speed of the seventh node was astonishingly fast, almost recovering at the same time it was destroyed!

"The last one! Qian position! Core!" Hong Ning's voice suddenly rose, carrying a decade-long suppressed determination and madness, "Pour in all your strength! The chance is only for an instant!"

A fierce light erupted in Xiao Zhuo's eyes!

Success or failure depended on this single action!

He no longer held back, disregarding the tearing pain in his Physical Body, pouring all his remaining power into the newborn Thunder Tribulation Divine Sense!

"Roar! Give me—break!!!"

He himself seemed to transform into a dark golden lightning bolt tearing through the sky, using his body as a blade, with an Aura of mutual destruction, fiercely crashing into the core point directly above the altar, where the energy threads of the eight nodes finally converged!

That was the keyhole of the entire Seal cage!

Rumble—!!!

An unprecedented roar erupted!

The dazzling dark golden lightning and the cyan-black immortal light bursting from the Seal core collided fiercely!

Space shattered inch by inch like fragile glass! A huge shockwave swept across the entire center of the vine forest! It even spread out, causing countless already dilapidated buildings in the ancient city to collapse on a large scale!

Just as Xiao Zhuo's lightning blade and the Seal core were in a stalemate, on the verge of being completely swallowed by the terrifying restorative and backlash forces.

In the center of the altar, the white-haired woman, sealed for ten thousand years, finally moved!

An indescribably terrifying Divine Sense soared into the sky! It was hundreds of times more powerful than when she crushed the Tree God's Divine Thought and pressured Xiao Zhuo before!

That was the Divine Sense of absolute ruthlessness, accumulated over endless years of loneliness, resentment, and despair, finally condensed and sublimated to the extreme!

This Concept was not directed at Xiao Zhuo, but directly at the cage that had bound her for tens of thousands of years!

"Seal—Absolute—All—Ages—? Give—Me—Shatter!!!"

Hong Ning's cold voice resounded through heaven and earth; every word contained the terrifying power to freeze time and sever Karma.

She did not cast any Spell; it was merely her ruthless Divine Sense, accumulated over ten thousand years, which now found a crack due to Xiao Zhuo breaking the nodes, like a world-destroying flood breaking a dam, pouring fiercely into the Seal core through the crack Xiao Zhuo's lightning blade had opened!

Crack crack crack—!!!

A sound like heaven and earth collapsing rang out!

The light of the eight nodes, which had been frantically repairing, suddenly extinguished, and the connecting energy threads snapped inch by inch!

The deep green chains wrapped around Hong Ning groaned under the strain, instantly covered in cracks!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!..."

Several dull explosions rang out consecutively, and the thick chains broke in response, turning into specks of green light that dissipated into the Void Realm!

The altar vibrated violently, and the gnarled black profound iron roots of Hong Ning's lower body, which seemed to be integrated with the altar, began to writhe and contract violently, forcibly pulling out from within the altar!

Boom!

An indescribably terrifying pressure, like an ancient primordial beast awakening from eons of sleep, instantly enveloped the entire center of the vine forest, even causing the entire ancient city ruins to tremble!

Space solidified, and time seemed to stand still.

Above the altar, all restraints were gone.

The white-haired woman, clad in a tattered dark red long dress, slowly ascended into the air.

Her figure was still pale and fragile, but the "Concept" emanating from her—cold, desolate, yet with an unfathomable depth capable of making heaven and earth lose their color—made Xiao Zhuo, kneeling on one knee and almost exhausted, feel a sense of insignificance and suffocation from the deepest part of his Soul.

This woman named Hong Ning was probably no weaker than the Tree God! Perhaps even stronger!

At this moment, with the Seal Restriction broken, Xiao Zhuo's magical power immediately recovered.

Under the impetus of his magical power, Xiao Zhuo's Physical Body self-healing speed surged; by the time he slowly stood up, all his external injuries had healed, except for his tattered Saint robe.

Hong Ning glanced at Xiao Zhuo and threw an object.

Xiao Zhuo instantly caught it, and when he opened his palm to look, it was a pitch-black seed; probing it with his Divine Sense, he couldn't detect any abnormalities.

"This is what Chai Tou (Wood Head/Stubborn Head) wants! This time, consider it a favor I owe you. I can act for you once in the future!"

Hong Ning's cold voice carried a hint of complexity.

No sooner had she spoken than her figure vanished.

Xiao Zhuo was stunned at the sight!

"Big sister! You said you'd act for me once, but how do I find you?!" Just as he was grumbling in his heart, he suddenly noticed a silver-white petal mark appearing on the back of the hand that had just caught the seed.

The mark flickered a few times, then disappeared.

Xiao Zhuo was startled, but when he probed with his Divine Sense and found it was just a mark for contacting Hong Ning, he finally relaxed.

If something happened in the future, he only needed to activate the mark with his Divine Sense, and Hong Ning would be able to sense it.