1269: Chapter 1269 Three survivors waited patiently.

The six powerhouses who had luckily escaped retreated violently once again. This time, they used the fastest speed of their lives, not even hesitating to burn their Origin power.

The man with the sinister face looked back and saw that the black shockwave was catching up at an incredible speed. Wherever it passed, even time seemed to have been erased.

He bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of essence blood. His figure turned into a streak of red light, and he finally, narrowly, rushed out of the shockwave's coverage area.

By the time he finally stopped, he didn't know how many tens of thousands of miles he had escaped.

He gasped for air, looked back, and saw that the black shockwave was still spreading, as if it had no end.

"No..." His voice was hoarse and desperate. "What exactly is that thing..."

No one answered him. Because of his five companions, only two remained standing beside him at this moment.

The other three—including the silent old man who had never spoken—had all vanished into that black shockwave, not even leaving a trace behind.

And that black shockwave was still spreading.

It was like a giant, invisible hand, wantonly smearing across the Void Realm, erasing everything it touched.

Space, time, energy, matter—everything had only one ending before it: disappearance.

The speed at which the shockwave spread far exceeded the imagination of any Mortal.

It traveled through the Void Realm, crossed the Star Domain, and in just a few breaths, traversed a distance that would take ordinary people years to cover.

The Chaotic Star Domain bore the brunt of it.

That Star Domain, known for its chaos and disorder, was as fragile as paper in front of the black shockwave at this moment.

The shockwave swept through; stars extinguished one by one, Meteorite Belts vanished one after another, and even the spatial rifts hidden deep within the Star Domain were smoothed out by the shockwave, as if they had never existed.

The Hundred Flowers Star Domain followed closely behind.

That Star Domain, known for its beauty and vitality, was experiencing a silent catastrophe at this moment.

The shockwave swept through silently; nebulae dissipated, flower stars withered, and those once brilliant and colorful celestial bodies lost their luster one by one, turning into a dead, silent darkness.

The Black Cloud Empire and the Lieyang Star Domain were affected almost at the same time.

And these two Star Domains were the places that suffered the most severe damage.

When the black shockwave spread to the territory of the Black Cloud Empire, the first to bear the brunt was the "Dark Dust Star System" on the border of the Empire—a medium-sized star system with dozens of life-bearing planets.

The shockwave swept through, and in the border area of the Dark Dust Star System, three life-bearing planets lost their light in the same instant.

It was not an explosion, not a destruction, but a "disappearance"—as if they had never existed, not even leaving dust behind.

The shockwave continued to penetrate deeper, and in the core area of the Dark Dust Star System, two more prosperous life-bearing planets were also swallowed up.

The billions of living beings on the planets didn't even have time to perceive the arrival of death before they turned into nothingness along with the planets.

The encounter of the Lieyang Star Domain was even more tragic.

The black shockwave seemed to have a certain special "preference" for the Lieyang Star Domain—perhaps the energy characteristics of the Lieyang Star Domain resonated with some attribute of that black sphere, or perhaps the black sphere had done so intentionally when it self-detonated.

In any case, the spread of the shockwave in the Lieyang Star Domain was far greater than in the Black Cloud Empire, and the destruction was also more severe.

The "Fiery Sun Star System" on the edge of the Lieyang Star Domain, a medium-sized star system with seven life-bearing planets, disappeared completely the moment the shockwave swept over it.

Seven planets, tens of billions of living beings, everything—everything turned into nothingness in that instant.

The shockwave continued to penetrate deeper into the Lieyang Star Domain, and the "Red Fire Star System" next to the Fiery Sun Star System did not escape unscathed either.

Of the five life-bearing planets, three disappeared in the shockwave, and while the other two did not completely vanish, they were left with only broken planetary cores, silently rotating in the Void Realm, radiating their final residual warmth.

In just a few breaths, the Chaotic Star Domain, the Hundred Flowers Star Domain, the Black Cloud Empire, and the Lieyang Star Domain—the four great Star Domains—simultaneously suffered an unprecedented catastrophe.

The black shockwave finally stopped.

It spread to its limit, forming a massive "void" in the Void Realm with an immeasurable diameter—a true nothingness.

In this nothingness, there were no stars, no meteorites, no dust, no light, no energy, no spatial fluctuations, and not even the feeling of time flowing.

Everything ceased to exist.

And of the seven powerhouses who came to search for Xiuluo, only three remained, standing at the edge of that nothingness, covered in blood, watching the scene before them, unable to speak for a long time.

The man with the sinister face trembled, his lips quivering, and he finally squeezed a sentence out through his teeth: "This... what is going on here..."

But before the group could recover, a voice, calm to the point of indifference, slowly sounded behind the three of them.

"As expected, my prediction was correct."

The voice was not loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears, carrying a certainty that everything had long been foreseen.

The three of them turned around abruptly—

What met their eyes was a figure standing aloof and outstanding.

He had neat, black, tousled hair, with each strand standing upright, as if containing some kind of unyielding tenacity, flaunting a sense of uninhibitedness and free-spiritedness.

A few slightly longer strands of hair fell over his brow bone, swaying gently with the breeze, yet perfectly without obscuring those deep eyes.

Those eyes were like a vortex deep within a black hole, dark, calm, and carrying an attraction that made it impossible for anyone to look away.

He wore a dark gold martial outfit; the dark gold was not flashy, one could even say it was excessively low-key, but when sunlight hit it obliquely from the side, a very, very faint luster would appear on the fabric, like the moonlight reflected on a river in the deep night, ethereal and elusive, yet captivating.

The lines of the martial outfit were smooth and neat, fitting his body just right, perfectly outlining his posture, which stood tall like a pine tree.

His shoulder line was broad without appearing coarse, and his waist was cinched cleanly; standing there, he was like a long sword that had not yet been unsheathed, all its sharpness restrained, yet it made people afraid to underestimate him.

The aura he exuded was steady and restrained, as if a towering mountain stood between heaven and earth, immovable as a mountain, silent as an abyss.

That was not a demeanor deliberately put on, but a composure born from his very bones, making one feel inexplicably solid and reliable just by looking at him.

And at the corner of his mouth, a faint smile was hanging at this moment.

The smile was neither thick nor intense, as gentle as a breeze brushing over a lake on a spring afternoon, carrying an indescribable sense of intimacy, as if he were a neighbor's older brother, or an old friend reunited after a long time.

Yet, it was precisely in this smile, which was like a spring breeze, that the hearts of the three people present sank bit by bit.

At such a time, in such a place, how could such a person be just passing by?

This was clearly someone who had been waiting for them all along.