221: The sword slays the demon prince, and the demon lord appears.

Inside the White Bone Demonic Palace, there was no time, no sound, only a dead silence that could freeze one's Divine Soul.

This was the core of the Nine Nether Demon Abyss, and also the resting place of ancient demonic thoughts.

In the center of the main hall, two figures sat opposite each other on prayer mats carved from entire ten-thousand-year-old Netherwood.

A silent Dao dispute had already stirred up invisible waves the moment their gazes met.

When the Nine Nether Demonic Son extended his hand, the dead silence of the entire Demonic Palace was completely torn apart.

That was not a hand of flesh and blood at all!

The moment it extended, it drew upon the Origin power of the entire Nine Nether Demon Abyss!

Boom—!

Outside the Demonic Palace, the boundless dark earth let out an unbearable groan, and bottomless Rift Valley were forcibly torn open.

The pure Devilish Qi that had flowed for ten thousand years, as viscous as petroleum, was forcefully extracted by an irresistible will!

Billions of ferocious black Dragons let out silent roars, rushing against the sky, pouring into the continuously enlarging demonic hand in an unprecedented manner!

At this moment, that hand was the personification of this demonic land's will, the ultimate aggregation of the resentment, despair, and unwillingness of all living beings devoured here throughout the ages.

In its palm, billions of twisted demonic patterns lit up, intertwining to form a slowly rotating Devouring Millstone.

Laws were born and extinguished within it, as if it could completely obliterate any living being that fell into it, along with their Divine Soul, Dao Fruit, and even traces of their existence, turning them into the purest Demonic Path resources!

The power of this strike had already surpassed the scope of a Half-step Nascent Soul, steadily reaching the threshold of the Late Nascent Soul Stage!

"Fellow Daoist, words are ultimately illusory; the Great Dao still needs personal verification!"

A sickly flush appeared on the Nine Nether Demonic Son's exquisitely demonic face, his voice filled with extreme temptation and madness, echoing throughout the Demonic Palace.

"Why don't you and I merge? You can be my resource, helping me witness that ultimate scenery!"

He seemed to have already seen Shen Yuanmo's Divine Soul crushed under this Heaven-Devouring Demonic Hand, his pure Qi, blood, and Dao Fruit completely devoured by himself, helping him take that long-awaited final step!

However, facing this world-destroying strike, which almost overturned the entire Demon Abyss, Shen Yuanmo's expression remained unchanged from beginning to end.

He didn't even stand up.

Shen Yuanmo's eyes were still calm, like an ancient well without ripples, as if everything before him was merely a reflection in water, a bubble in the wind.

He simply slowly raised his right hand, joined his index and middle fingers, forming a sword-finger.

Then.

Against the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Hand that obscured the entire dome of the Demonic Palace and carried the power of the entire Demon Abyss, he simply, unremarkably, lightly swiped forward.

There was no world-shaking might.

No light that tore through space.

This swipe was plain and unadorned, not even stirring a breath of wind, nor a wisp of Devilish Qi.

It was just that simple, that casual.

But in the eyes of the Nine Nether Demonic Son, this swipe caused his Divine Soul to violently leap, and an indescribable, fatal sense of crisis, originating from life's instinct, exploded!

He saw it.

A hazy, hair-thin line.

That line extended from Shen Yuanmo's fingertip, ignoring the surging Devilish Qi, ignoring the intertwining of Laws, and even ignoring the distance of space and time.

It just appeared abruptly in the very center of the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Hand.

The next instant.

That demonic hand, comparable to the full-force strike of an ordinary Late Nascent Soul Cultivator, was silently cut open from where the gray line was, as smooth as a mirror.

The cut was impossibly smooth, with no energy leakage, no Law shattering, only a pure void.

It was as if it was originally made of two halves, and that gray line merely separated them.

Immediately after, the billions of demonic Dragons forming the demonic hand let out a silent wail, and the intertwined Devouring Laws, before that gray line, were as fragile as paper.

They disintegrated inch by inch!

The Laws supporting the Divine Ability were severed!

The Heaven-Devouring Demonic Hand, capable of destroying everything, thus transformed into primal Devilish Qi in the Nine Nether Demonic Son's horrified gaze, dissipating into the air and returning to this world.

"Pfft!"

With his Divine Ability broken, the Nine Nether Demonic Son was struck by an invisible heavy hammer, his body violently trembled, and the incredibly hard white bone ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch. He retreated three large steps, each step leaving a bottomless footprint on the ground.

A trickle of crimson blood slowly slid down his pale lips.

His face no longer held any fanaticism or confidence, only an overwhelming horror and incomprehension.

"You... what kind of sword is this?!"

He stared intently at Shen Yuanmo's joined sword-fingers, his voice dry and hoarse.

It wasn't spiritual power, it wasn't a Divine Ability, it wasn't even any kind of power he could understand!

Shen Yuanmo slowly lowered his right hand, his eyes calm as an ancient well without ripples, and spoke four words calmly.

"Sword of Severing Dao."

Sword of Severing Dao!

These four words were like four burning hot irons, fiercely branded onto the Nine Nether Demonic Son's Divine Soul!

He first froze, then, the horror and incomprehension in his dark eyes quickly receded, replaced by a more hysterical, more frenzied fervor!

"Good! Good! What a Sword of Severing Dao!"

Instead of being alarmed, he was delighted, even throwing his head back and laughing wildly, his laughter filled with the supreme joy of finding a lifelong nemesis!

"So that's it! So that's it! There is actually such a Great Dao in the world!"

"Devouring all things is the Demonic Path! Severing all things can also be a Dao!"

"Hahahahaha! Interesting! Truly interesting!"

He abruptly stopped laughing, his exquisitely demonic face twisted with extreme excitement.

"Then let me see if your sword can sever my Dao!"

"Or if my Dao can devour your sword!"

"Demon God Descends, True Self Formless!"

The Nine Nether Demonic Son let out a soul-shaking roar; he actually began to burn his Origin blood essence and nascent Nascent Soul without hesitation!

Boom!

A demonic might ten times more terrifying than before erupted from within him!

His body rapidly expanded, twisted, and restructured amidst the Devilish Qi!

A head squeezed out from each side of his neck, forming three heads!

Four arms emerged from beneath his ribs, forming six arms!

In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a terrifying Demonic God Dharma Idol, a hundred zhang tall, entirely composed of the purest destructive Devilish Qi, with three heads and six arms!

Each head represented an extreme negative emotion: rage, greed, destruction!

Each arm held a terrifying demonic weapon condensed from the Laws of the Demon Abyss: Soul-Severing Blade, Soul-Devouring Spear, Prison-Suppressing Pagoda... "Again!"

The Demonic God Dharma Idol, formed by the Nine Nether Demonic Son, unleashed all six demonic weapons, striking down fiercely at Shen Yuanmo once more with supreme demonic might that could tear the heavens apart and return them to Chaos!

This time, he gambled everything!

However, facing this ultimate strike, on which everything was gambled, Shen Yuanmo merely shook his head gently.

For the first time, there was a hint of emotion in his gaze.

It was pity.

"Your Dao has gone astray."

Shen Yuanmo once again joined his fingers like a sword, and once again, unremarkably, swiped forward.

It was still that hair-thin gray line.

It flashed and disappeared.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The six terrifying demonic weapons, condensed from Laws, shattered like illusory bubbles the moment they touched the gray line.

The hundred-zhang-tall ferocious Demonic God Dharma Idol was also split in two from the middle, collapsing with a crash.

But this time, the gray line did not dissipate.

It passed through the shattered Dharma Idol, through the surging Devilish Qi, and finally, lightly, imprinted itself upon the Nine Nether Demonic Son's Dao Heart, which was pure to the extreme, yet also fanatical to the extreme.

The Nine Nether Demonic Son's body suddenly stiffened.

The madness and destructive desire in his eyes receded like a tide.

In its place was an unprecedented clarity and relief.

He "saw" it.

Under the "guidance" of that gray line, he saw the end of his Great Dao.

A dead end, devouring all things, ultimately leaving only himself, utterly solitary.

At the end of the road was eternal nothingness.

No sound, no light, no existence, not even the concept of "I".

So... this is how it is?

So, the eternity I pursued was actually like this?

A self-mocking yet relieved smile slowly appeared on the Nine Nether Demonic Son's exquisitely demonic face.

He bowed deeply and solemnly to Shen Yuanmo from afar.

"Many thanks... Fellow Daoist... for your guidance..."

The moment his voice fell, the Nine Nether Demonic Son's body, his burning Origin, his nascent Nascent Soul, scattered like a sand painting blown by the wind, turning into countless flying black light particles, dissipating within this dead silent White Bone Demonic Palace.

Both form and spirit annihilated.

Dao destroyed, person perished.

However, at the very instant the Nine Nether Demonic Son completely dissipated!

"Who dares to kill my son?!"

A terrifying roar, filled with extreme anger as if to overturn this entire world, exploded from the deepest depths of the White Bone Demonic Palace!

The supreme demonic might contained in that voice caused the entire Nine Nether Demon Abyss to tremble violently!

Immediately after, a truly terrifying pressure, belonging to the Mid-stage Soul Transformation, several times more terrifying than that pseudo-Buddha Joyful Glazed Buddha, surged skyward!

Rumble!

The ground beneath the Demonic Palace cracked open with a roar, and a terrifying demonic claw, covered in dark scales and as large as a mountain, suddenly extended from the fissure!

Immediately after, an Ancient Demon God phantom, ten thousand zhang tall, with two horns on its head and an aura that shook heaven and earth, slowly rose from underground!

Its eyes were two blood-red swirl reflecting mountains of corpses and seas of blood; merely being swept by that gaze was enough to cause a Nascent Soul Cultivator's Divine Soul to collapse and Dao Heart to sink into depravity!

The true Dominator of the Nine Nether Demon Abyss, the Nine Nether Demon Lord!

His cold, tyrannical gaze, filled with endless killing intent, instantly locked onto the lone green-robed figure standing within the Demonic Palace.