395: force

Boundless darkness devoured all perception.

A dark-gold streak of light, like a falling star, tore through the eternal inkiness, plummeting downwards.

Behind Xiao Zhuo, Dilamon's tattered grey-robed Divine Body was dragged along, a black ring made of Taboo Power tightly cinched around the neck of this former deity, immobilizing him.

The temple had long been left far behind, a bottomless chasm lay below, seemingly connected to the Universe's most primordial Chaos.

Innumerable spaces folded, twisted, and came into being and perished here, forming a bizarre, boundless maze of light and shadow.

Even Xiao Zhuo's Divine Sense, which was vast enough to envelop a top Middle Thousand Worlds, when it probed into this darkness, was like a mud ox entering the sea, instantly swallowed and refracted by countless layers of twisted realm barriers, utterly unable to reach the boundaries.

"Outsider! Wishful thinking!" Dilamon's Divine Thought, filled with twisted resentment, echoed through the Void Realm, agitated by his faint Divine Power, "This place is a peculiar land formed by the ultimate collision of the ancient Light God Realm and the Primal Demon Realm! Space overlaps ten thousandfold, without end, even this god has never fully explored its entirety! Even if you stole the sacred crystal, you will never find the source radiance in this labyrinth of time and space!"

Xiao Zhuo didn't even bother to turn his head, his gaze, like cold lightning, swept across the constantly shifting Void Realm ahead, which flowed with strange halos.

His speed did not decrease at all; instead, it quickened slightly.

A thousand miles... ten thousand miles... a hundred thousand miles... a million miles... This space seemed to have no end, only an endless descent and bizarre dimensional distortions.

The two extremes crystal resonated within Xiao Zhuo's Main Body, clearly indicating the presence of the Origin, right in the depths of this endless space!

However, that point of sensation was like a cunning fish, frantically leaping and teleporting within the countless folded spatial rifts.

Relying on the spatial talent of his Universe Extreme Divine Body, he forcibly penetrated dozens of layers of spatial membranes, and for a fleeting moment, he even sensed the Origin was within ten thousand miles, almost within reach!

But just as his mind stirred, that sensation abruptly receded, becoming impossibly distant, as if separated by billions of star rivers.

"Space self-shifting, myriad realms rotating... Unless I get incredibly lucky and the space where the Origin resides happens to shift near me, it's like searching for a needle in a haystack." Xiao Zhuo's thoughts raced, his rapidly moving figure suddenly froze, hovering in this treacherous darkness, his dark-gold Divine Power flickering like breathing.

Seeing him stop, a trace of self-satisfied smugness flashed in Dilamon's eyes, thinking he was finally about to give up or yield to him, his tone became even more cutting: "What? Realize you're afraid? The location of the source radiance is known only to us Five Gods! Once your accomplice is captured, that will be your death sentence! Your bones will forever sink here, turning into the dust of this chasm!"

"Heh." Xiao Zhuo finally turned his face, a cold arc forming on his lips, but his eyes held no trace of a smile, "Old man, have you forgotten who is the butcher and who is the fish now? If anyone is going to die, you'll be the first to turn to ash."

"Ignorant! Arrogant!" Dilamon sounded as if he had heard the greatest joke, his fear completely receding from his face, replaced by an arrogance stemming from the depths of his Bloodline, "How can the majesty of the Saint race be fathomed by an outsider like you? As long as this god's Power Of Faith does not perish, even if my Divine Body collapses ten thousand times, I can still reform my divinity from the prayers of my believers and return again! You... cannot kill me!"

"Oh?" In the depths of Xiao Zhuo's eyes, a trace of unusual light subtly flickered.

The Dao was severed here, and the rules were chaotic; let alone a Golden Immortal, even a true Saint who perished here could not hope to Rebirth through the Dao.

But this old man spoke with such certainty and confidence... It seemed the power system of this Void Holy Realm indeed had some unique aspects.

The next moment, Dilamon's vision blurred, and he was pulled before Xiao Zhuo by an irresistible force.

He didn't even have time to react before a slender, fair hand, yet containing power capable of crushing stars, effortlessly pierced his glabella as if passing through an illusion!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a soft "squelch" that froze the Soul, as if piercing through some tough membrane.

The hand stirred slightly within Dilamon's skull, then abruptly pulled out!

Buzz—!

A fist-sized, translucent crystal, entirely cerulean, with countless swirling stars seemingly forming and perishing within, was held steadily in the palm of that hand.

Inside the crystal, countless tiny figures could vaguely be seen kneeling in prayer, and a grand sound of Power Of Faith echoed like a tide.

A terrifying void remained in Dilamon's glabella, its edges writhing with Divine Blood, repairing itself at a visible rate.

Xiao Zhuo did not stop this healing process—for such an existence, mere Physical Body damage was no different from a scratch.

However, Dilamon's eyes, filled with shock, fury, and disbelief, stared fixedly at the blue crystal in Xiao Zhuo's palm, letting out a distorted, shrill roar: "Impossible! You... how could you directly extract the core of my Divine Realm?!"

He was like a madman, trying to cover the overwhelming chill rising in his heart with his roar: "It's useless! Even if you destroy it, what then! In the Void Holy Realm, and even deep within the Dark Realm, billions of believers still chant my true name day and night! As long as faith endures, the divine flame will not be extinguished! You can never kill a True God!"

Xiao Zhuo examined the crystal in his hand with interest.

Its essence was a world that barely reached the scale of a Middle Thousand Worlds.

But there were no Dao Laws within it, only a power he was unfamiliar with, which must be the Power Of Faith mentioned by the Source Master.

Inside the crystal was a pure cerulean ocean; upon probing with his Divine Sense, nearly ten billion demons of various forms, like marionettes, lived around countless divine temples within the crystal.

They required no food or sleep; their sole purpose in existence was to eternally and ceaselessly praise "Source Master Dilamon."

Each prayer provided a faint yet pure Mental Energy feedback to the crystal core, maintaining the operation of this deformed world and the immortality of its believers.

A peculiar space entirely constructed by faith, detached from conventional Dao Laws, yet possessing the strength of a Middle Thousand Worlds... Even with Xiao Zhuo's vast experience, he felt a touch of novelty at this moment.

"It must have cost you a lot of effort to condense this thing, right?" Xiao Zhuo's fingertip, with the casualness of examining a toy, lightly tapped the surface of the cerulean crystal core.

With each seemingly casual tap, the blue ocean within the crystal core churned with colossal waves, countless believers cried out in terror, and the entire Divine Realm world trembled violently!

Dilamon's eyes twitched frantically, the arrogance on his face long replaced by shock, fury, and a trace of imperceptible fear.

He gritted his teeth, his gaze darting between Xiao Zhuo's cold face and the constantly trembling Divine Realm crystal core, but he dared not utter another word.

"It seems I guessed correctly." Xiao Zhuo's voice was calm, yet it carried the chill of seeing through everything, "This so-called Divine Realm of yours should be closely related to your power, shouldn't it?"

His fingertip stopped moving, and a black Qi, full of ominous aura, began to silently entwine the cerulean crystal core.

"If I were to take this thing... 'bang'!" Xiao Zhuo made a crushing gesture, the curve of his lips carrying a demonic cruelty, "I wonder if you would still have the confidence you have now to speak to me?"

He ignored Dilamon's suddenly constricted pupils and his desperately concealed panic, continuing unhurriedly: "You, with your power plummeting... guess what, will your remaining four old friends remember old affections and help you? Or will they devour you without hesitation?"

Xiao Zhuo's Divine Sense, like the most precise probe, firmly locked onto every ripple of Dilamon's Divine Thought.

The immense fear and despair that Dilamon desperately suppressed, yet still leaked from his eyes, confirmed his deduction.

Dilamon's heart had long since sunk into the abyss.

Every word from Xiao Zhuo was like a cold, sharp knife, precisely carving into his vital points!

His Divine Realm destroyed... losing the vast Power Of Faith provided by those ten billion believers, and nearly a hundred million fanatical believers... his power would instantly plummet to rock bottom!

In this dog-eat-dog Void Holy Realm and even the entire Dark Realm, an old god who had lost his power would suffer a fate a hundred times more miserable than simply perishing!

He would be completely devoured by the remaining Four Gods, and even the last glimmer of hope for recovery would be utterly extinguished!

"The energy level of your Divine Realm world is not low." The black Qi on Xiao Zhuo's fingertip grew thicker, and the crystal core emitted faint, strained "crackling" sounds, the blue light within it flickering wildly, countless believers wailing in despair amidst a world-ending scene. "If it were to be detonated... in this peculiar space, that scene would surely be quite spectacular. Even if it couldn't destroy the ten thousand layers of space itself, instantly tearing apart dozens, or even hundreds, of adjacent spatial membranes should be no problem, right?"

Dilamon's face was ashen, his entire Divine Power fluctuating violently, Xiao Zhuo's words ringing like a death knell in his Divine Soul.

"Such a large-scale spatial tear would inevitably cause a momentary stutter in the spatial operation here..." Xiao Zhuo's voice was like a devil's whisper, carrying a fatal temptation, "This moment might just allow me to get what I want!"

He looked at Dilamon's utterly bloodless face and slowly said: "Had you not been so overconfident earlier, splitting off a Clone containing most of your Divine Power to chase us, which I then destroyed, leading to your Main Body's weakness... even if I could defeat you, I might not have been able to capture you alive, let alone search your Soul. But now, in my palm, you are just an ant that can be crushed at will."

Xiao Zhuo's voice suddenly took on a strange power of Gu: "So, old man, how about we make a deal?"

Dilamon's will struggled violently under the dual pressure of Xiao Zhuo's penetrating gaze and the destructive aura emanating from the Divine Realm crystal core in his palm.

He was an ancient being, having experienced the catastrophe of gods and demons falling, so he would not be easily swayed.

But he was acutely aware—he had completely fallen into the opponent's control, with no leverage, no retreat!

With the source radiance taken, the Void Holy Realm would eventually collapse.

But as long as his Divine Realm remained, he would have enough time to recover his strength before the collapse and escape to other sanctuaries in the Dark Realm, still able to dominate a region.

However, if his Divine Realm were destroyed... if Xiao Zhuo's plan succeeded, the source radiance taken, and he lost all his power, that would be true eternal damnation, with no hope of ever rising again!

A cold sense of despair, like the darkness of this chasm, little by little devoured his remaining sanity.

Dead silence spread through the boundless darkness.

Finally, Dilamon's despair-filled thought broke the silence, carrying a last trace of unwilling struggle: "How... can I trust you?"

Xiao Zhuo smiled.