367: The vest fell off

"Has it begun?" Xiao Zhuo murmured, his gaze piercing through the churning clouds, landing on the pillar of light that tore through the heavens.

Xue Qin's Divine Sense spread out, observing every minute detail of the cataclysmic changes. The fire in her eyes was no longer mere excitement, but a near-maniacal fervor!

If the world could successfully advance, it would mean immense good fortune!

Indigenous people ascending to the heavens in a single step, crossing two major Realms, was by no means a false claim!

The pillar of light reached the sky, as if igniting the fuse of the apocalypse.

In an instant—

Boom—Crack!—

The entire Blood Demon Realm let out a groan of unbearable strain!

The earth cracked like a fragile eggshell, terrifying, bottomless fissures spreading wildly, crisscrossing, greedily devouring mountains and rivers.

Tidal waves, like billions of enraged behemoths, roared with destruction, trampling madly inland from the shattered coastline!

The sky was torn apart, violent gales swept up mountain-sized boulders, carrying fine raindrops, smashing them onto the ravaged earth.

The Blood Palace headquarters slowly ascended, enveloped by a massive barrier/boundary.

The eighteen giant branch cities, scattered across the six major states of the Blood Demon Realm, now became isolated islands in the apocalypse.

Blood light shot into the sky!

A massive blood-colored barrier/boundary, like an inverted giant bowl, instantly enveloped each city.

These colossal structures, refined by Xue Tian with secret methods, using the Blood Palace's countless years of accumulated resources, now roared, breaking free from the earth's shackles, rising from the ground!

Each one covered thousands of square miles, like floating, pitch-black mountain ranges, carrying a majestic Aura, ascending into the apocalyptic sky.

They were the Noah's Arks meticulously arranged by Xue Tian.

The Blood Palace's direct subordinates and the Five Great Sects had already relocated over seventy percent of the Blood Demon Realm's population into them.

The eighteen giant cities were now overcrowded and congested.

Inside the cities, fear and relief intertwined on every face.

The Blood Palace was fully prepared; three years' worth of supplies for all creatures in the Realm had long been stockpiled in the eighteen giant cities.

As long as these apocalyptic fortresses did not fall, they would be the last places of refuge.

The small number of Yao Beasts and Demonic Beasts confined within the cities were merely a cold footnote left by Xue Tian for "ecology."

As for those Cultivators, Mortals, and beast herds who stubbornly remained outside, scattered in the wilderness?

The Blood Palace ignored them all.

To Xue Tian, protecting living beings was merely a tool to harvest the Luck of the world's advancement.

If the Luck remained intact, what did it matter to him if all living beings in this world perished?

"Ah—!!!" A piercing scream was instantly swallowed by the gaping maw of the cracking earth.

Countless beings struggled in vain on the edge of the abyss of despair, like dust swept away by a gale.

In a remote mountain range in Beilu Prefecture, at the Huanku Sect's Sect gate.

Lai Chen pushed open the creaking wooden door; heavy, lead-gray clouds hung low, and the air was suffocatingly thick.

He irritably rolled up his sleeves and walked to the old well in the courtyard, the wooden bucket with its rope plunging down with a dull thud.

Silence.

The expected sound of water did not come.

His heart tightened, and he abruptly pulled up the bucket—the dry wooden walls were icy cold.

He leaned in; the well was as black as ink.

As a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, the darkness of the well could not trouble him.

With a flick of his fingertip, a faint flicker of fire swayed as it fell into the abyss.

The halo illuminated the bottom of the well, revealing only slightly damp soil.

"The well... is dry?" An ominous feeling welled up in Lai Chen's heart.

Before his words finished—

Boom—!!!

As if the sky had collapsed! A majestic distant peak was actually torn and broken from its middle by an invisible colossal force!

Huge rock masses, enveloped in dust, crashed down, and the earth convulsed violently, terrifying cracks spreading like living things to the foot of the mountain in an instant!

This loud bang seemed to have pulled the switch of the apocalypse.

More mountains were torn apart, and giant fissures began to swallow everything.

Lai Chen's hair stood on end; without the slightest hesitation, a Flying Sword from his Storage Pouch at his waist flew out with a clang, transforming into a stream of light to carry him aloft!

Almost simultaneously, hundreds of streaks of various colored escape lights shot out frantically from the various peaks of the Huanku Sect!

Hundreds of Cultivators floated in the air, looking at the scene below, which resembled an apocalyptic Hell; everyone's face was ashen, at a loss.

Boom—!!!

Crack—!!!

Under the horrified gazes of hundreds, the main peak of the Huanku Sect—that majestic giant mountain, which housed ten thousand-year-old palaces, countless hidden Immortal Caves, and was a symbol of the Sect's Luck—let out a deafening wail!

The mountain body was split open as if by a giant axe, accompanied by the teeth-grinding sound of tearing rock, and collapsed with a crash!

Dust shot into the sky, instantly engulfing half of the sky!

"I... damn it!" Lai Chen felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to his head; his mind was blank.

In the center of the crowd, a white-bearded old man in the Tribulation Crossing Realm—Immortal Master Muling—had an ashen face, his beard and hair fluttering without wind.

He had long sensed the violent disorder of the Heaven and Earth Laws.

An envoy from the Blood Palace had visited a month ago, asking him to relocate the Sect to a branch city, but he had adamantly refused, prioritizing the Sect's Foundation.

Now, ten thousand years of painstaking effort, the ancestral Foundation, all turned to dust!

Regret gnawed at his heart like a venomous snake.

"Xue Tian—!!!" Immortal Master Muling's beard and hair bristled, his eyes bloodshot, a roar filled with endless grief, indignation, and despair tore through the sky, "For your selfish desires! You have destroyed the Foundation of ten thousand Sects in my Blood Demon Realm! This hatred is immense!!!"

However, this tearful accusation, before the roar of the collapsing world, was as insignificant as a mosquito, fleeting in an instant.

The same desperate drama played out in every corner of the Blood Demon Realm not protected by a giant city.

Those who hid in the giant cities secretly rejoiced; those left outside could only wail and perish in the apocalyptic catastrophe.

On the first day, the earth disintegrated, riddled with holes, and magma spewed from the cracks like blood-tears, scorching everything that remained.

On the second day, world-destroying hurricanes roared in, sweeping up ten thousand feet of dust; ink-black thunderclouds gathered, and billions of blood-colored lightning bolts furiously lashed the shattered world, Spiritual Qi completely chaotic and violent, tearing apart fragile life.

On the third day, thousand-foot tidal waves, carrying the might to swallow stars, roared from the depths of the shattered ocean, crushing and submerging the remaining land inch by inch with an irresistible posture.

From the fourth to the seventh day, the ocean ruled the world. The deep blue seawater soaked the former mountains and plains, leaving only the Seven States of the Blood Palace and eighteen giant cities, like relics of deities, suspended alone above the violent sea of clouds.

After seven days, the seawater receded, leaving behind a world completely reshaped, dead silent, and unfamiliar.

Of the living beings left outside, less than one in ten survived.

Above the Endless Abyss.

Three figures stood suspended in the air.

The once bottomless, terrifying abyss had now become an endless waterfall, seawater roaring as it plunged into the unknown dark abyss.

Churning mist permeated the air, carrying a bone-chilling cold.

Xue Tian stood with his hands behind his back, his blood-red robe fluttering in the gale, his face devoid of joy or sorrow, only the cold indifference of one who looked down upon the world.

His deep gaze swept over the post-apocalyptic scene below, his voice like ten thousand years of ice, piercing through the roar of the waterfall: "The natural disaster is over. The true tribulation now begins."

He slightly turned his head and said to Xue Qin beside him, "Order the branch palaces to descend and hold their ground, conserving spiritual energy."

"As Old Ancestor commands!" Xue Qin bowed, her voice carrying a trace of imperceptible fanaticism, her figure transforming into a blood-red rainbow and disappearing instantly.

The gale raged, and water vapor permeated the air.

In the sky, only Xue Tian and Xiao Zhuo remained, an invisible Qi field silently colliding and condensing between them.

"Xiao Zhuo." Xue Tian's voice was not loud, yet it carried a Soul-piercing pressure, clearly entering Xiao Zhuo's ears.

"Old Ancestor." Xiao Zhuo slightly lowered his head, his posture respectful, but his eyes were calm.

Xue Tian slowly turned around, his blood-red pupils, as if containing two rotating, light-devouring cosmic abysses, precisely locked onto Xiao Zhuo's sharply defined face.

A faint, yet heart-palpitating smile spread across his lips: "Xiao Zhuo, your cultivation is far beyond the Profound Immortal Realm, isn't it?"

Xiao Zhuo's heart slightly tensed, but his face only showed a perfectly measured hint of surprise: "Old Ancestor... what do you mean?"

His tone was calm, with a hint of inquiry.

"Heh." Xue Tian chuckled, like metal grating, "The mark this Venerable One left on you... it moved. And there are residual fluctuations of the Great Dao of Illusory Dreams on it."

Xiao Zhuo was silent for a moment, then also revealed a knowing smile, his respect fading slightly: "Old Ancestor sees everything clearly; this junior was reckless. It seems... Old Ancestor's Foundation is far more unfathomable than this junior surmised."

"To plot such a Heaven-Defying act, how could I not be fully prepared?" Xue Tian's tone was calm, as if stating an obvious truth, that air of disdain and self-confidence permeated like a tangible presence.

Xiao Zhuo nodded: "Old Ancestor is wise. Since it has been revealed, what are Old Ancestor's instructions?"

His gaze was like lightning, directly meeting Xue Tian's blood-red eyes.

Xue Tian's abyssal blood-red eyes stared at Xiao Zhuo, as if to completely penetrate him from the inside out.

An invisible, terrifying pressure, enough to suffocate a True Immortal, permeated the air; the surrounding space seemed to freeze and distort:

"Although this Venerable One does not know what Realm you have currently reached," his voice was low, every word carrying the weight of a mountain, "but this Venerable One can promise you: if you exert all your strength to help me achieve my wish, I will pave the way for you to become a Quasi-Saint! The two little ones you brought, this Venerable One can also ensure that they, amidst this world-altering cataclysm, absorb good fortune and reach the True Immortal Realm!"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhuo shook his head and laughed, his composure still firm under Xue Tian's pressure: "Old Ancestor worries too much. This junior's return this time was precisely to help Old Ancestor succeed, and I will naturally do my best. As for Quasi-Saint..." He paused slightly, a sharp glint hidden in his eyes, "With this junior's meager Dao cultivation, talking about such a Realm, isn't that just a fool's dream?"

"Oh? Is that so?" Xue Tian suddenly took a step forward!

Boom!

It was as if the entire space suddenly sank with his movement!

His blood-red pupils abruptly contracted; within them, billions of stars seemed to be born and die, and a sea of corpses and blood seemed to churn!

An indescribable, terrifying will, stemming from an absolute suppression at the life-level, like an invisible, billion-ton giant peak, crashed down upon Xiao Zhuo!

Profoundly unfathomable! Absolutely terrifying!

Even though the Soul Power in Xiao Zhuo's Clone at this moment was only one percent of his main body's, it was still comparable to Taiyi Peak, yet before this will, he felt his Divine Soul violently tremble!

It was as if all his secrets, all his disguises, were exposed before these blood-red eyes, an illusion that he was about to be completely stripped bare!

However, how tenacious was Xiao Zhuo's will! An illusion was, after all, an illusion!

The last trace of feigned respect deep in his eyes completely receded, like a frozen lake, without the slightest ripple.

He straightened his back, an invisible barrier seemingly propping up the terrifying will's pressure around him, his voice becoming cold and flat, clearly echoing amidst the churning mist and gale: "Old Ancestor, what... exactly do you mean by this?"

The curve of Xue Tian's lips suddenly became sharp as a blade, the light in his blood-red eyes like tangible sharp swords, firmly pinning Xiao Zhuo's face, word by word, with an unshakeable certainty, like a clap of thunder: "You, are—Wang Xuan, aren't you?"