231: The leader of the alliance was beheaded, his power resounding throughout the four seas.

One punch, defeating a Soul Transformation Cultivator!

Shen Yuanmo, clad in Chaos-colored divine armor, floated silently beneath the collapsing sky.

Fragments of Law swirled around him like shattered glazed glass, slowly rotating but not daring to invade three feet within his vicinity.

His eyes, hidden beneath the Dragon-horned helmet, indifferently watched the sea area ten thousand feet away, where colossal waves were stirred up by the violent impact.

The entire world, at this moment, fell into a dead silence.

The wind stopped, the clouds dispersed, and even the roar of the waves seemed to be choked by an invisible hand, becoming utterly silent.

Inside Tide-Falling City.

All the Cultivators who witnessed this earth-shattering battle had their minds blank, their Divine Souls seemingly detached from their bodies.

They knelt one by one, their bodies gripped by primal fear, trembling violently, yet unable to utter a single sound.

Their understanding, their comprehension of the word "powerful," had been utterly pulverized into dust by that world-destroying punch, impossible to reassemble.

That was a Spirit Transformation True Monarch!

An existence standing at the pinnacle of this sea region, wielding power over life and death for thousands of years!

But now, this overlord was actually defeated by a young man with a single punch?!

Inside the City Lord's Mansion, in a secret chamber.

"Click."

A nearly imperceptible crisp sound, and the Half-step Soul Transformation City Lord unconsciously crushed the communication jade slip in his hand, used for emergency contact, into fine powder.

The powder slipped through his fingers, but he didn't notice.

His eyes were fixed on the god-demon-like figure in the water mirror, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

Cold sweat had long since soaked the cushion beneath him, forming a small puddle on the ground.

"Fortunately... fortunately..."

He murmured repeatedly, his voice as faint as a mosquito's.

Just one step away.

Just now, he was one step away from activating the city-protecting grand formation and pledging his loyalty to Ao Zhan, the Alliance Master of the Four Seas Alliance.

That single moment of hesitation separated life from death, Heaven from Hell.

And above the ruins in the south of the city, the Blue-Robed Cultivator who had brought about this catastrophe had his eyes wide open, the last spark of life in his pupils completely dissipated.

His mouth hung open, drool trickling down the corners, his body limp as mud, his crotch wet and emitting a pungent, fishy odor.

His Divine Soul, under the Fist Intent of that world-destroying punch, had been completely shattered, making him even more miserable than death, reduced to a living corpse that could only breathe.

Just then, the distant sea surface suddenly exploded!

A disheveled figure shot up from the seabed, bringing with it a ten-thousand-foot water curtain.

It was Ao Zhan.

At this moment, where was even a trace of the Spirit Transformation True Monarch's arrogance and dominance?

The black Dragon robe he wore, which once symbolized supreme authority, was now tattered, revealing a charred and bloody body.

Ao Zhan's hair was disheveled, and striking blood stained the corners of his mouth, even mixed with specks of golden vital blood.

His right hand, which held the halberd, hung limply; from his arm to his fingertips, his bones and Meridians had all been shattered by that terrifying Fist Intent.

Ao Zhan struggled to fly back into mid-air, his face ashen like a dead man's, and the look in his eyes towards Shen Yuanmo no longer held any Battle Intent.

His Dao Heart, his pride, everything he had built over thousands of years, was completely shattered with that one punch!

Ao Zhan was defeated.

Defeated miserably, defeated without a shred of doubt!

The opponent didn't even use that even more bizarre Immortal Sword; merely with a pair of fists, he beat a genuine Soul Transformation Cultivator into submission, leaving him utterly defenseless!

What terrifying strength was this?!

Mid-stage Soul Transformation?

No! Even a Spirit Transformation Late Stage Cultivator would absolutely not be able to do it so easily!

Ao Zhan dared not think further; he only knew that today he had encountered a formidable opponent!

"Thud!"

Under the countless stunned and numb gazes both inside and outside the city.

This Alliance Master of the Four Seas Alliance, who had just been so arrogant, without hesitation, his knees buckled.

Across ten thousand feet of Void Realm, he knelt straight down before Shen Yuanmo!

"Se-Senior... spare my life!"

Ao Zhan's voice was severely distorted by fear, with an uncontrollable sob, echoing through the silent world.

"This Junior was blind! This Junior deserves ten thousand deaths! I did not know Senior's esteemed presence and offended you greatly. I beg Senior, for the sake of this Junior's difficult cultivation, to spare this Junior's dog life!"

He frantically kowtowed to Shen Yuanmo.

With each kowtow, the Void Realm trembled.

He trampled his dignity, his pride as a Spirit Transformation True Monarch, completely underfoot, grinding it into dust, just to seek that sliver of survival.

Shen Yuanmo watched all of this with indifference.

There was not a ripple in his heart.

"Is this the Dao of Soul Transformation... using authority to oppress, using power to break Laws? It seems overbearing, but in reality, the Foundation is shallow. His understanding of the Grand Dao is even inferior to some exceptionally talented Nascent Soul Cultivators."

His thoughts flashed by.

Then, he slowly uttered five words.

"Your Dao, I have finished observing."

These five words were light, and faint.

But to Ao Zhan's ears, they were no less than a death sentence!

Boom!

Ao Zhan's mind, in an instant, was sucked into a vacuum!

A despair more terrifying than death itself instantly drowned all his reason!

He understood!

He finally understood!

From the very beginning, the opponent had not regarded him as an equal adversary!

In his eyes, he was merely a whetstone used to verify his own Grand Dao!

And now, the Dao had been verified.

The whetstone should be discarded!

"No—!"

The instinct for survival overrode everything!

Ao Zhan let out a desperate roar and turned to flee!

He frantically burned his Origin vital blood, his entire body transforming into a ball of blood mist, accelerating to the utmost speed of his life, turning into a bloody streak of light, crashing into the Void Realm before him!

He wanted to tear space apart and escape into the endless Void Realm turbulence!

As long as he could escape!

As long as he could live!

However, would Shen Yuanmo give him this chance?

Watching the bloody light fleeing in a panic, Shen Yuanmo merely slowly raised his right index finger.

His fingertip was as clear as jade, without any hint of worldly dust.

He pointed vaguely in the direction Ao Zhan was fleeing.

There was no earth-shattering power.

No world-destroying brilliance.

A faint, extremely subtle gray light of annihilation flashed from his fingertip.

That gray light seemed not to belong to this world; it ignored spatial distance, transcended the obstruction of Laws, like a rule that erased all things, appearing out of thin air at its destination.

The moment it appeared, it had already arrived first, lightly imprinting itself on Ao Zhan's glabella as he was crossing the spatial rift.

The frantically fleeing Ao Zhan's figure suddenly stiffened.

All his movements, all his thoughts, all his fear and despair, were completely frozen at this moment.

Immediately after.

Starting from Ao Zhan's glabella, streaks of gray cracks silently appeared on every inch of his body simultaneously.

His body, his Nascent Soul, his Dao Fruit, along with the spatial rift he had just torn and which had not yet healed.

Everything, under that wisp of annihilating gray light, was silently erased, inch by inch, from the very Root of its existence.

Ultimately, turning into pure nothingness.

One breath later.

There, it was empty.

As if, there had never been a Spirit Transformation True Monarch named Ao Zhan.

And never, had there been a spatial rift.

The Alliance Master of the Four Seas Alliance, a Nascent Soul Initial Stage Grand Power, Ao Zhan.

His body and spirit utterly annihilated!

Having done all this, Shen Yuanmo slowly withdrew his finger.

The majestic and ferocious great five elements destruction glazed armor he wore also dimmed, disintegrated into five streaks of light, and merged into his body, as if it had never appeared.

With a casual wave of his hand.

The half-broken halberd rolling in the distance, and a Storage Ring left behind by Ao Zhan before his erasure, obediently flew into his palm.

He didn't even spare a glance for the spoils of war.

As if he had merely flicked away a negligible speck of dust.

Then, under the countless gazes of awe, fear, and horror from Tide-Falling City, he turned and slowly returned to his simple Immortal Cave.

The stone door slowly closed.