513: Dust to dust, ashes to ashes

"No, impossible!!!"

The ancient Supreme Being of the Sea of Reincarnation let out a sharp screech; he had lived for countless ages and weathered several epochal turmoils.

He had seen Great Emperors fall and endured the winters of the Dharma-Ending Age, yet never before had his Divine Soul been seized by a fear so bone-deep as this.

Subconsciously, he slapped his forehead, and his lifebound Imperial Weapon instantly flew out from the depths of his Primordial Spirit. Deep, profound radiances of Reincarnation flowed upon it, with phantasms of billions of living beings rising and falling appearing on its surface.

It was the Foundation of his eternal rule over the Sea of Reincarnation, a lifebound trump card capable of warping space-time and reversing life and death—his greatest reliance for traversing the world!

"Grand Dao of Reincarnation, protect me!"

He roared, activating his entire Origin; the light of the reincarnation plate surged, attempting to envelop him in an absolute defense.

He even tried to use the power of Reincarnation to reverse space and flee back to the deepest part of the Sea of Reincarnation, where he would be safe from all calamities.

But in the next second, the despair on his face deepened; the radiance on the reincarnation plate dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The Laws of Reincarnation flowing on the plate seemed to have met their nemesis. Under Gu Changge's seemingly ordinary aura, they shattered and disintegrated inch by inch, unable to maintain even a shred of Dao Rhyme.

Not only that, the eternal defensive barriers surrounding him—sourced from the Sea of Reincarnation restricted zone—were like paper before this aura, melting away silently without offering the slightest resistance.

Everything he relied upon and took pride in—the Laws of Reincarnation, his lifebound Imperial Weapon, the restricted zone's defenses—was as fragile as a bubble before this man, leaving him without even the right to resist!

"Ultimate Sublimation! Quickly, undergo Ultimate Sublimation!!!"

The Killing God of the Undying Mountain reacted the fastest. Having witnessed the complete failure of the Reincarnation Sea Supreme Being's trump card, his mind shook violently, and a frantic thought to burn everything roared in terror.

He was about to detonate his own Imperial Foundation to trigger Ultimate Sublimation. He knew that at this moment, only by risking his life would there be a one-in-ten-thousand chance of survival!

"Don't waste your energy."

Gu Changge spoke indifferently, interrupting their delusions.

As his voice fell, an invisible force of imprisonment had already enveloped these three newly arrived Supremes.

They discovered in horror that they couldn't even move a finger, let alone undergo Ultimate Sublimation!

They were like insects frozen in amber, stripped even of the right to fight for their lives!

Gu Changge's gaze swept across the scene. He didn't immediately move to obliterate them but seemed to be scrutinizing something.

"The Immortal Realm is flawed, and Ascension is hopeless. You all severed yourselves, lurked in restricted zones, and eked out a meager existence. Though it was for survival, it was also a different path for the Dao; in itself, there is no right or wrong."

His voice wasn't loud, yet it resonated clearly in the heart of every Supreme.

"But to prolong your own lives, you treat all living beings as blood food and stir up Dark Turmoil at every turn."

"Harvesting the masses, severing the paths of others, and destroying Legacies, causing heaven and earth to weep blood and the universe to mourn together—this is a sin."

As he spoke, he didn't release any pressure, yet all the Supremes—whether collapsed on the ground or imprisoned in the void by him—felt a tremor and a sense of insignificance from the depths of their Souls.

It was as if their entire lives—from their rise to their glory, to their self-severance, to the turmoil they incited... everything was nothing more than a predetermined, insignificant trajectory in the eyes of the man before them.

His fingers spread slightly, and he made a gentle clenching motion toward the thirteen dying Supremes collapsed on the ground, the three imprisoned ones, and the Golden Crow and Lei Peng in his hands.

In an instant, an invisible, mighty force surpassing all Laws swept through the area. It wasn't a violent aura of destruction, yet it made the entire Void Realm tremble.

The heavenly and earthly Laws of the Xuanhuang Great World resonated deeply at this moment, as if worshipping the Supreme Dominator.

There were no earth-shattering explosions or heart-wrenching screams; there was only an extreme silence, yet it was more suffocating than any catastrophe.

The nineteen ancient Supremes present—whether their auras were withered, they were unable to move, or they were firmly imprisoned.

Their bodies, Divine Souls, Dao Fruits, and even the traces of Karma imprinted across eternal ages began to disintegrate simultaneously.

As if pulled by invisible Laws, from their limbs to the core of their Primordial Spirits, they transformed layer by layer into infinitely fine particles of light.

Within each particle of light were the remaining fragments of consciousness and Origin power of the Supremes: the resentment of the Golden Crow Ancient Emperor burning with Solar True Fire, the arrogance of Ancient Emperor Lei Peng wielding the Dao of Lightning, and the obsession of the Reincarnation Sea Supreme Being controlling Reincarnation.

And the final fear and malice of those Supremes who had once dominated regions and looked down upon epochs.

But these Origins and obsessions, which carried eternal Foundations, were completely purified and dissolved the moment they touched the Dao Rhyme around Gu Changge.

Not a single trace was left behind; in the end, they all turned into the purest heavenly and earthly Origin and merged into the world.

The Dao principles that had shattered due to the imperial war began to slowly reconstruct under the nourishment of these pure Origins, emitting a warm radiance and intertwining in resonance with Gu Changge's aura.

The twenty-plus Supremes who had incited boundless catastrophe were silently erased like flickering candles in the wind.

The mountains and rivers of the distant Xuanhuang Great World seemed to sense this conclusion; a faint rosy glow rose between heaven and earth, dispelling the last of the Death Qi.

Within a few short breaths, those ancient Supremes who had once looked down upon eternity and made the myriad worlds tremble, along with the lingering charms of their Imperial Weapons and the traces of their Dao Fruits, were completely wiped away.

Returning to the most primal nothingness, as if they had never existed in this world.

In the starry space, only a silence filled with the sense of new life remained.

The Silent Annihilation Great Emperor quietly gazed at the void where the Supremes had dissipated, a trace of extremely complex emotion flickering in his deep eyes.

There was sighing, indifference, and even a hint of hidden, unspeakable relief.

He was once the ruler of the Ancient Abyss of Silent Annihilation and a member of the Supremes, walking a similar stray path and wandering in darkness and decay for endless ages.

Had it not been for the Lord's enlightenment and the gift of new life, he would likely have been among those who turned into particles of light and met their demise today.

The same starting point, yet vastly different endings.

A single difference in thought resulted in an eternal gap as wide as that between clouds and mud.

He looked at the figure in blue standing quietly in the void, his heart filled only with increasingly firm loyalty and awe.

Gu Changge looked toward the devastated Xuanhuang Great World.

After successive imperial wars, especially the impact of the Supremes' Ultimate Sublimation at the end, the entire great world was left with broken mountains and rivers, and severed Spiritual Veins.

The earth was covered in bottomless rifts, the sky was riddled with spatial cracks, and all things were withering—a scene of doomsday.

Endless sorrow and Death Qi permeated heaven and earth.

"Dust to dust, earth to earth. The old scars should be healed," he whispered to himself.