261: Chapter 262 The Peerless Ruins, shattered by a single punch.

"Conditions?" Lin Qi looked at Sword Saint Ye Qingtian, his gaze indifferent.

A person who had just been miserably defeated by him, what right did he have to negotiate terms?

"I know, in your eyes, I might be a joke." Sword Saint Ye Qingtian seemed to see through his thoughts, straightening his back. Although his face was pale, that pride belonging to a Sword Saint had returned.

"I am guarding this place as my duty. Now that my sword is broken and I am injured, I cannot fulfill my duty."

"But as a Martial Artist, seeing a path that might lead to a higher Realm, I cannot remain indifferent."

He stared at Lin Qi, his gaze burning.

"The condition is very simple."

"Receive my final Move."

"This Move has nothing to do with victory or defeat, nothing to do with duty; it is only for the pursuit of the Dao."

"I am staking all the glory of being a Sword Saint and my life's insights on this. If you can receive it, the main control core is yours to take, and I will even help you block the academy's pursuers."

"If you cannot receive it—" Sword Saint Ye Qingtian grinned.

"Then it proves that your Dao ultimately has limits and ultimately cannot be walked."

Instructor Su Qing heard this from afar, her heart tightening instantly.

"Teacher! Don't!" she blurted out.

She knew her teacher too well.

The "final Move" Sword Saint Ye Qingtian spoke of was definitely not an ordinary Move; it was an ultimate attack that staked his life and Soul, burning everything away.

A suicidal fighting style.

Lin Qi did not answer immediately.

He could feel the Aura inside his opponent that was climbing crazily and even verging on being out of control.

Life force, Mental Energy, and Soul were all compressed to the extreme, waiting only for that final moment of blooming.

Troublesome. These two words popped up in Lin Qi's mind.

He could choose not to receive it, simply knock Sword Saint Ye Qingtian unconscious, take the item, and leave. That would be the simplest and most in line with his style.

But... looking at that desire for the Dao in Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's eyes, a desire so pure it bordered on paranoia, he thought of his past life.

In the "martial arts era", he had also been like this countless times, challenging stronger existences to verify his Dao, surviving by the skin of his teeth.

This was the dignity of a Martial Artist. It was the persistence of a seeker of the Dao.

"Fine." Lin Qi spat out one word.

Instructor Su Qing became anxious, quickly running to his side and lowering her voice: "Don't be impulsive, my teacher is risking his life, you don't need to gamble with him!"

"This is not a gamble." Lin Qi shook his head, his gaze remaining fixed on Sword Saint Ye Qingtian.

"It is the respect of one Martial Artist for another."

He looked at Instructor Su Qing, his tone indifferent. "Step back."

Instructor Su Qing still wanted to say something, but upon meeting Lin Qi's eyes, which were calm to the core, all her words were stuck in her throat. She could only grit her teeth and retreat to the corner of the secret room, clenching her hands tightly.

In the center of the secret room, the two stood facing each other from a distance.

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian raised the broken sword in his hand.

"This Move of mine is named 'Return to Ruin'."

His voice became ethereal.

"Ten thousand Laws return to one, ten thousand Daos return to silence, and in the end, all will return to nothingness."

"I exhausted my whole life, yet I only grasped the fur of this Move. Today, I use you to verify it."

As he finished speaking, the light in the secret room rapidly faded.

It was not that the lights had dimmed. It was that the very concept of "light" was being extracted by an invisible force.

The energy circuits on the surrounding walls extinguished one after another, and the main control core floating in mid-air also stopped running, turning into a dead object.

The entire secret room completely descended into absolute darkness and dead silence.

Instructor Su Qing discovered that not only could she see nothing, but even her heartbeat and breathing sounds had disappeared.

Her five senses were being deprived. No, it was deeper than deprivation. It was her very cognition of "perception" that was being forcibly erased.

This was "Return to Ruin". Turning all existence into nothingness.

The only light source in the darkness was Sword Saint Ye Qingtian himself. His entire being was burning.

His pale hair turned into Ashes, his skin cracked inch by inch, and his life force flowed away at a speed visible to the naked eye.

All his power gathered on the broken sword in his hand.

The tip of the broken sword turned into a mass of pure "nothingness". That color could not be described in words; it could swallow all light and existence.

"Come." Sword Saint Ye Qingtian's voice rang directly in Lin Qi's mind.

"Let me see if your 'Dao' can survive in this void."

Lin Qi stood there, his expression solemn. He knew that this was already an attack at the level of Law.

Sword Saint Ye Qingtian had burned everything he had, prying open the rules of "ending" and "nothingness" at the underlying level of the world.

Protective Aura could not block it. Taiji could not neutralize it. Any technique was useless in the face of this pure "conceptual" attack.

Either bring out a stronger concept to counter it, or be swallowed and return to nothingness together.

"My Body is the World..." This thought flashed through his mind.

Using his own independent personal world Law to resist the opponent's "Return to Ruin" Law was the safest way.

But he immediately rejected it. No.

"My Body is the World" was his only barrier against "System" rejection, the foundation of his survival.

He had consumed a huge amount at the auction earlier, and his willpower had far from recovered. If he exhausted it all here just to receive one Move, even if he obtained the main control core, he would be unable to do anything when facing the "System" rejection that could happen again at any moment after leaving.

Force himself into a dead end for the sake of a Martial Artist's "respect"? He was not that stupid.

Since his final trump card could not be used, there was only one path left. A hint of ruthlessness appeared in Lin Qi's eyes.

The most primitive, most savage, and most fitting path for the essence of his martial arts.

"Dao? Nothingness?" He whispered to himself, the corners of his mouth curling up.

"In the face of absolute power, everything is void."

He took a deep breath. The five viscera in his body—heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—suddenly lit up simultaneously.

The power of the Five Elements flowed crazily, forming a perfect cycle within his body. The power of the Organ Refining Realm was driven to the extreme by him.

His body began to change. The surface of his skin revealed a luster like jade, muscle fibers vibrated at a mysterious frequency, and the sound of Dragon roars and tiger howls came from deep within his bones.

At this moment, this Physical Body turned into a Dao Artifact polished to the extreme, a Dao Artifact capable of bearing a "world".

"Hah!" He gave a low roar.

No Moves, no techniques. He simply poured the Physical Body power of the Organ Refining Realm Perfection completely, without reservation, into his right fist.

Then, facing that mass of "nothingness" capable of swallowing all things, he threw a punch.

No Aura, no light effects. Just a punch.

A punch simple to the extreme—like a most basic apprentice practicing the simplest straight punch.

But this punch triggered a certain most fundamental Law of "existence".

In Instructor Su Qing's perception, which was about to be completely deprived, she "saw" the most outrageous scene of her life.

On one side, Sword Saint Ye Qingtian burned everything, becoming the Incarnation of the "nothingness" that swallowed all things.

On the other side, Lin Qi's seemingly small punch condensed "existence" itself.

"Nothing" and "Something". "Silence" and "Origin". The two most extreme and opposing concepts collided with a bang in this secret room.