the truth

The moment he passed through the bronze giant gate, it felt as though he had fallen into boundless ink.

The surrounding light was completely swallowed, and even the faint blue halo emanating from Poseidon's Ring was compressed to within three feet of his body; the edges of the halo collided with the darkness, emitting a faint crackling sound, as if countless tiny teeth were gnawing at the energy barrier.

White Night's boot soles stepped onto the void-like ground, yet he could feel a distinct sensation.

It was a black substance between liquid and solid; stepping on it caused ripples to emerge, within which countless painful human faces appeared, their mouths opening as if screaming, yet no sound could be produced.

His fingertips moved slightly, and the lightning from the Eternal Demon Blade flowed along his fingers, landing on the black substance; the human faces instantly dissipated into white smoke, revealing a metallic-lustered base beneath.

"This is the 'Soul-Eroding Soil' condensed from the resentment of countless living beings."

White Night recalled the records on the stone tablet: while consuming the Devouring Law, the source of divine evil would crush the souls of living beings into this substance to serve as the foundation for their nests.

He circulated the Thunder Law, and pale purple lightning patterns emerged beneath his feet, isolating the corrosion of the Soul-Eroding Soil as he continued to walk forward.

Suddenly, the sound of wings flapping came from the darkness—not the beating of physical wings, but the sharp screech of some energy tearing through the air.

White Night dodged abruptly to the side, a grayish-black claw shadow grazing his shoulder; the wind of the claw carried an aura capable of corroding the soul, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

He swung the Eternal Demon Blade backhanded, the blade's lightning tracing a bright arc in the darkness, but it struck nothing.

"Hehehe—"

Sharp laughter came from all directions, as if countless entities were watching.

White Night's mental power instantly expanded, but it was twisted by some force in the darkness, compressing his perception range to within ten zhang.

He could sense at least six source of divine evil entities prowling around; their auras were all at the peak of the Seventh Rank, yet they were even more bizarre than the mutated ones he had encountered before.

They had no physical form, composed entirely of grayish-black energy, allowing them to hide perfectly in the darkness.

"Shadow-Binding source of divine evil, feeding on mental power."

White Night recalled the stone tablet's records: this type of source of divine evil was most adept at creating hallucinations on a mental level, waiting for the prey to fall into chaos before launching a fatal strike.

He took a deep breath, and the divine lightning core within him erupted suddenly; pale golden lightning, like the dawn breaking, instantly illuminated the area for a hundred zhang.

In the light, the six translucent Shadow-Binding source of divine evil revealed their forms.

Their outlines resembled giant bats, with grayish-black energy flowing along the edges of their wings; their heads had no facial features, only a swirling mass of black mist.

The moment they were illuminated by the lightning, they let out piercing shrieks and flapped their wings in unison.

Countless grayish-black threads shot out from the black mist, weaving into a giant net in the air, with red light capable of devouring mental power flickering in the mesh.

White Night did not meet it head-on, instead pushing the power of Poseidon's Ring to the limit.

Faint blue currents gathered beneath his feet into a swirling whirlpool, from which dozens of ice shards suddenly rose, their tips condensing grayish-black lightning beads.

He tapped his toes on the edge of the whirlpool, his figure spinning like a top, and the blade of the Eternal Demon Blade transformed into a circular bolt of lightning, severing all the approaching threads.

"Thunder: Ice Prison Star Fall."

With a low shout, the ice shards, carrying the lightning beads, shot toward the Shadow-Binding source of divine evil.

The ice shards pierced through their black-mist bodies and exploded within them; the pale golden divine lightning collided with the grayish-black energy, triggering a chain reaction.

One Shadow-Binding source of divine evil's wings disintegrated first, turning into flying ash, while the other five were affected, their forms becoming thinner and emitting painful shrieks.

They suddenly contracted into five masses of black mist, which merged in the air into a massive Shadow-Binding Lord; a giant mouth appeared on the Lord's chest, filled with teeth like infants' fingers, and its aura surged to the early stage of the Eighth Rank.

It inhaled sharply, and the air around White Night was instantly drained; his mental power, like a wild horse off its leash, tried to break free and surge into that giant mouth.

"Trying to use a mental attack?"

A cold glint flashed in White Night's eyes, and the mental power within him suddenly condensed into a golden spear.

The spearhead was entwined with lightning and water currents, the product of him fusing the Mental Law with two origin laws.

He waved his hand and threw the spear, the tip precisely piercing into the Shadow-Binding Lord's giant mouth.

"Pfft—"

The golden spear exploded inside the Shadow-Binding Lord, the pale golden light scattering like dandelions, each ray carrying the power of purification.

The Shadow-Binding Lord let out a non-biological wail, its massive body disintegrating inch by inch in the light, eventually turning into a pile of flickering light spots; a walnut-sized black crystal fell onto the Soul-Eroding Soil, radiating pure Shadow Law fluctuations.

【Obtained Shadow-Binding Core】

【Effect: Contains Origin Shadow Law, can be used to break through the Eighth Rank bottleneck】

"Can't use it for now, but I can keep it."

White Night put away the crystal, and the surrounding darkness began to recede, revealing a path paved with white bones.

The color of the bones was not ghastly white but radiated a pearl-like luster; tiny runes were carved at the joints, connected in the shape of chains that extended deep along the passage.

Glowing green crystals were embedded in the rock walls on both sides of the passage, sealing half-sections of source of divine evil limbs inside—some were arms covered in scales, others were tails with barbs—all emitting weak energy fluctuations.

He walked along the bone path, the light of the green crystals growing brighter, and he could vaguely hear the sound of a roaring waterfall ahead.

Turning a corner, the scene before his eyes suddenly opened up.

A massive circular altar floated in mid-air; beneath the altar was a churning torrent of grayish-black energy, from which incomplete law fragments constantly emerged, only to be instantly torn apart.

Standing at the edge of the altar were twelve stone statues made of dark golden metal; their designs were similar to the Bronze Puppets he had encountered before but were much larger, and the weapons they held varied—giant axes, longbows, scepters, etc. A colorful crystal was embedded in the forehead of each statue, radiating a powerful Eighth Rank aura.

On the high platform in the center of the altar floated a fist-sized purple crystal, within which nine-colored law threads were entwined; it was the last item he was looking for.

The core fragment of the source of divine evil.

At the edge of the platform, a figure draped in a black cloak stood with their back to him; the hem of the cloak was embroidered with the emblem of the Star Palace of Feather Assassins, but with an extra pair of spread golden wings compared to the standard emblem.

"I have finally waited for you."

The cloaked figure turned slowly, the hood slipping to reveal a young yet wrinkled face; the left eye was a normal black pupil, while the right eye was embedded with a black crystal, in which constantly rotating black wings were reflected. "I am Mo Chen, the Law Enforcement Elder of the Star Palace of Feather Assassins."

White Night gripped the Eternal Demon Blade tightly, sensing that Mo Chen's aura far exceeded all the enemies he had encountered before—at least at the mid-stage of the Eighth Rank, and possibly even reaching the late stage of the Eighth Rank.

The twelve stone statues turned their heads simultaneously, their colorful crystals lighting up, and the weapons in their hands began to condense energy, clearly prepared to attack at any moment.

"You deliberately let me collect the law keys to open the giant gate?"

White Night's voice echoed in the vast space; he suddenly understood that from the moment he entered the Eternal Sacred Ruins, his actions might have been within the other party's calculations.

Mo Chen chuckled, the black crystal in his right eye rotating faster. "The core fragment of the source of divine evil requires pure law power to activate, and the Thunder Law you possess is the best catalyst. Those Bronze Puppets and Shadow-Binding source of divine evil were merely to hone your strength, allowing you to reach here smoothly."

He raised his right hand, and the weapons in the hands of the twelve stone statues fired energy beams simultaneously; the beams intertwined in the air to form a complex array, in the center of which a giant phantom of black wings appeared. As the phantom flapped, the surrounding space began to distort, and even the Soul-Eroding Soil rose in giant waves.

"The ultimate goal of the Star Palace of Feather Assassins is to control the source of divine evil, use it to devour all civilizations, and establish the eternal rule of the Star Palace."

Mo Chen's voice became fanatical. "And you shall be the sacrifice for this great plan!"

White Night did not speak, only raising all the power within him to its peak.

The blade of the Eternal Demon Blade surged to twenty zhang in length; grayish-black lightning, faint blue water, and pale golden divinity intertwined within the blade into a spiral energy band, tearing countless tiny cracks into the space around the blade.

The blue light of Poseidon's Ring and the lightning of the Eternal Demon Blade echoed each other, forming a phantom of a blue giant whale clad in thunder armor behind him; the giant whale held a constantly beating golden heart in its mouth.

That was the core into which he had condensed all his mental power.

"If you want to use me as a sacrifice, ask the blade in my hand first."

The moment White Night's voice fell, his figure merged with the thunder-armored giant whale phantom, transforming into a grayish-blue beam of light that pierced heaven and earth, charging toward the array formed by Mo Chen and the twelve stone statues.

The instant the black wing phantom collided with the beam of light, the entire space trembled violently; the green crystals shattered one after another, the Soul-Eroding Soil rose in monstrous waves, and countless painful human faces completely dissipated in the energy shockwave.

The fanaticism on Mo Chen's face suddenly froze; he looked at his right arm in disbelief, where the black cloak had been torn apart by the lightning, revealing skin covered in scales underneath, which were peeling off at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The colorful crystals of the twelve stone statues exploded simultaneously, their metallic bodies disintegrating inch by inch in the spiral energy band, yet they still desperately maintained the form of the array.

"How is this possible! Your law fusion level!"

Mo Chen's voice carried a hint of trembling; he could feel that White Night's three laws had reached a state of perfect symbiosis, a level of law mastery that even the Pope of the Star Palace might not be able to achieve.

White Night did not give him a chance to remain shocked; the beam of light suddenly contracted into a grayish-golden blade aura condensed to the limit, which ignored spatial distance and instantly appeared before Mo Chen.

In his haste, Mo Chen sacrificed the black crystal in his right eye, which erupted with dense black mist in an attempt to block the blade aura, but it was sliced open by the blade aura as if cutting butter.

"Pfft—"

The blade aura pierced from Mo Chen's left shoulder to his right waist, bringing out a fountain mixed with black blood.

The black wing phantom behind him let out a mournful cry and completely disintegrated.

Mo Chen stumbled backward, crashing into the altar's high platform; looking at the grayish-black energy constantly gushing from the wound on his chest, his eyes were filled with despair.

"You won... but the fragment of the source of divine evil..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the purple crystal in the center of the altar suddenly erupted with dazzling light; the nine-colored law threads flew out like living creatures and coiled around White Night's arm.

White Night could feel a massive stream of information surging into his mind—it was the truth about the birth of the source of divine evil!

They did not come from the Demon Abyss but were containers created by ancient gods to seal their own negative emotions; now that the containers were broken, the negative emotions had turned into the source of divine evil and were devouring the entire world!

"So that's how it is..."

A flash of realization crossed White Night's eyes, and the purple crystal merged into his body along his arm, resonating with his Thunder Law.

The surrounding darkness began to recede, revealing the true scene behind the bronze giant gate.

It was a vast starry sky, where countless stars flickered like fireflies, each star corresponding to a law.

The remains of the twelve stone statues suddenly floated up, forming a circular array in the starry sky, and the four ancient seal characters for "Eternal Divine Tower" appeared in the center of the array.

White Night looked up, and a certain star in the starry sky suddenly lit up, resonating with the direction of the Eternal Divine Tower, guiding him to the next destination.

He looked down at Mo Chen, who had fallen to the ground; the other party was already dead, and the black crystal in his right eye turned into a streak of light, disappearing into the starry sky.

White Night knew that the threat of the Star Palace of Feather Assassins had not been resolved and might even become more frenzied due to this failure, but he had more important things to do now.

Sheathing the Eternal Demon Blade, White Night's figure transformed into a pale purple bolt of lightning, flying toward the star that had lit up in the starry sky.

He could feel the purple crystal within him resonating with the star; the secrets of the source of divine evil and the truth of the Eternal Divine Tower would perhaps be revealed there.

In the starry sky, the lightning tore through the darkness, leaving a brilliant trail, as if drawing a mark belonging to the Thunder Sovereign on a boundless canvas.