514: Chapter 514 Never to be seen again in ages

Lu Changzhi gripped the grey longsword, his knuckles turning pale from excessive force.

The hilt was icy, yet it transmitted a temperature from aeons past that had never been extinguished.

His grey eyes were like two frosted mirrors, reflecting the figure suspended in the Void Realm, wreathed in a dark red vortex.

There were no ripples in the depths of those eyes, only a calmness that had deposited for so long it had solidified into substance.

Lord Zangxing hovered in mid-air, the dark red vortex rotating slowly around him like a stomach that never stopped chewing.

Every rotation brought forth a teeth-grinding, Soul-chilling sound—this was the sound of the spatial structure being forcibly "digested," the wailing when the strings of Law were snapped, and the most desperate noise of "existence" being devoured into "nothingness."

This was the sound of devouring all things. It was the funeral bell for the end of an epoch.

"Aeons unseen."

Lord Zangxing repeated these two words, his indifferent tone like a Soul-freezing cold wind blowing from the deepest depths of a graveyard of star remains, each syllable carrying the weight of death and decay.

"You are actually even more... shabby than back then."

His gaze slowly swept over Lu Changzhi's hand gripping the sword, the look almost tangible, carrying a near-cruel scrutiny.

"Residing in a mortal Physical Body like a homeless wandering Soul. Is it even that difficult to hold your own sword?"

He paused, a mocking light swirling in his dark red pupils, his voice suddenly rising like the hammer of judgment striking against the barriers of the Void Realm: "Lu Changzhi—are you even worthy of holding a sword?"

Lu Changzhi did not answer.

He did not even look at Lord Zangxing's malicious eyes.

He only slowly, and with extreme focus, raised the grey longsword in his hand.

The movement was very slow, so slow it was as if he were swinging the sword through the mire of aeons, every inch of movement fighting against the weight of countless memories, fighting the exhaustion that threatened to crush his Divine Soul.

But his Sword Intent was climbing.

It was not an explosive, dazzling surge, but a calm, unstoppable resurgence.

Like a riverbed that had been dry for hundreds of millions of years, finally welcoming a rushing torrent when the sleeping river god sighed.

This torrent was silent yet boundless, carrying the dust of buried epochs, the final breath of countless heroic Souls who could not close their eyes in death, and that uncooled resolve to sever everything.

With every increment of the rising Sword Intent, a low tremor grew in the Void Realm—this was not the ringing of a sword, but the resonance of space itself, the echoing of the remaining Sword Dao Law.

With every fraction the sword tip rose, the ground of the Inheritance Plaza, the four walls of the Void Realm, and even the grey longsword itself, those broken and dim ancient sword patterns suddenly lit up with a faint light, as if scattered stars were being reignited.

"Even if I cannot hold the sword steady—"

Lu Changzhi finally spoke, his voice as calm as deep, still water, yet it clearly and unquestioningly entered the deepest consciousness of every existence present, like a proclamation engraved upon the Soul: "It is enough to slay trash like you."

Enough.

Two words, plain and simple, yet they seemed to drain away all the clamor around them.

It was not an angry declaration, not an arrogant provocation, but a statement.

An assessment of each other's strength, the most cruel kind, settled from aeons of bloody battles.

The indifferent smile on Lord Zangxing's face, looking down upon all living things, froze.

Not because of the words themselves, but because he saw—Lu Changzhi's hand gripping the sword, the knuckles indeed turning a bloodless white from excessive force, the taut curve even showing a vulnerability bordering on collapse.

But this was not because of weakness!

This was because... he was suppressing it!

This grey longsword was currently vibrating and humming crazily in his hand!

This was not a loss of control, but an extreme desire; it was a Vicious Beast imprisoned for aeons finally scenting the flesh and blood of its nemesis, a divine weapon silent for countless epochs yearning to drink the blood of its enemy with near-manic joy!

Every hum of the sword body tore fine black cracks into the Void Realm. It yearned to break free, to pounce and kill, to tear this dark red before it into shreds!

It was Lu Changzhi, using his seemingly broken Divine Soul and this mortal Physical Body, suppressing this vicious weapon from aeons past that was about to go berserk!

"Sword Master!"

The Ancestral Sword Spirit's hoarse and urgent voice came from the Void Realm, the golden-blue light flickering violently, almost dissipating.

"Your Divine Soul cannot hold on for too long! This mortal Physical Body simply cannot withstand the full liberation of the Truth of Slaying the Void! If you force it, you will—"

"I know."

Lu Changzhi interrupted him, his voice remaining calm, without a trace of wavering.

His gaze remained locked onto Lord Zangxing, and deep within those grey pupils, an invisible flame seemed to be burning.

But the corner of his mouth moved slightly, almost imperceptibly.

It was like a fleeting curve, an expression almost impossible to capture.

It was like a smile, yet also like a sigh, and even more like... a calm resolution that had long since disregarded everything.

"So,"

He said softly, his voice low as if talking to himself, yet it clearly echoed in the deathly silent Void Realm: "Let's end this quickly."

The moment the word "end" fell, he took a step.

It was this seemingly plain and unremarkable step that caused the first crack to appear on Lord Zangxing's indifferent face, which had been maintained for aeons as if frozen since time immemorial—a clear emotion called "seriousness."

The foot Lu Changzhi stepped out with landed lightly in the Void Realm.

There was no sound, no vibration, no ripples of energy. It was as if he had simply stepped on a layer of invisible thin ice.

But the moment his toe landed—

"Crack—!"

A teeth-grinding cracking sound, not heard through the ears but acting directly upon the depths of the Soul, suddenly rang out!

The dark red vortex slowly rotating around Lord Zangxing, which seemed capable of devouring all things, suddenly and without warning cracked open a huge, smooth gap right at its center!

It was as if an invisible giant foot, spanning time and space, had stepped down from aeons ago, forcibly trampling and tearing apart this vortex that symbolized devouring and ending!

"Step of Slaying the Void?!"

There was finally an unmaskable fluctuation in Lord Zangxing's voice, for the first time tinged with shock and suspicion amidst his indifference. His figure suddenly blurred, retreating a hundred zhang in a flash, the dark red vortex surging crazily behind him, attempting to reorganize and heal.

However, at the edges of that gap that had been forcibly "stepped" out, a layer of dim grey light remained, constantly eroding the dark red energy. No matter how the vortex churned, it could not smooth it over, as if the gap itself had become an unhealable scar of Law.

And Lu Changzhi's figure had already appeared like a ghost before that gap.

Between him and Lord Zangxing, there were no more barriers.

The grey longsword, raised, then swung down.

No complex opening stance, no earth-shattering buildup, just the most primitive, most direct, and most domineering—vertical slash!

But on the trajectory of this sword swing, what Lord Zangxing saw was not a sword.

It was a river.

A surging long river that appeared out of thin air, formed from the convergence of countless Sword Intent that was dazzling to the extreme and tragic to the extreme, spanning across aeons of time!

The water of the long river surged and roared, every spray of foam was a sword light that severed falsehoods, and every sound of the tide was an unfinished war song.

And at the very forefront of that surging river, at the crest of the waves, stood vaguely one hundred and eight figures!

Those figures were blurry, washed away by the long river of time until only outlines remained, but the Sword Intent radiating from each figure was completely different—some sharp, some heavy, some ethereal, some violent... yet they were equally pure, equally scorching, and equally carried a resolve to press forward and sever everything!

They stood side by side, as if across the ages, pouring their swords, their intent, and their Souls entirely into this one strike!

"All Worlds into One..."

Lord Zangxing's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints. For the first time, his dark red eyes reflected true dread, and even a trace of... the trepidation of a loser, buried for aeons.

"Hundred Swords Homage to the Ancestor!"

He roared, no longer with that indifferent judgment, but with a sharpness that came from having his reverse scale touched.

His hands slammed together in front of his chest, his ten fingers changing rapidly in an unnatural trajectory, forming an ancient, evil seal that seemed capable of devouring light.

The massive dark red vortex around him instantly surged backward and compressed crazily. In a thousandth of a second, it collapsed into a dark red ball of light the size of a fist, yet so heavy that the surrounding space buckled downward!

On the surface of the light ball, countless twisted faces, shattered stars, and phantoms of wailing Souls flowed rapidly, emitting a desperate, world-ending aura of annihilation, blocking the descending sword light with all its might!

The sword light descended.

There was no explosion like the collision of stars as expected, no roaring sound of energy clashing.

There was only a continuous "hiss—" sound that made one's scalp prickle and marrow freeze.

It was like a red-hot branding iron from the beginning of heaven and earth, fiercely, slowly, and irresistibly branding into a block of black ice that had not melted for aeons, congealed from despair and nothingness.

At the edge where the dark red ball of light contacted the grey sword light, space silently annihilated, turning into the most primitive Chaos.

The surface of the dark red ball, which was enough to devour stars, was, under that seemingly simple grey sword light, like a hot knife cutting through butter, smoothly, steadily, and inch by inch cut open and separated!

What was even more terrifying was that those cut-off dark red fragments did not explode or dissipate. Instead, the moment they left the main body, it was as if they were erased from a scroll by an invisible eraser—from color to shape, to the terrifying energy contained within, and even the "concept" of their existence itself—completely and silently returned to "nothingness."

The Truth of Slaying the Void! Absolute denial and absolute erasure from the level of existence!

"Cough—!"

Lord Zangxing's body jolted violently. A wisp of dark red light-liquid, like molten gems or congealed blood, spilled from the corner of his mouth, leaving a shocking trail on his pale chin.

He stared fixedly at the sword light that kept cutting through, at the plain, unadorned grey longsword that severed all Laws, and finally, his gaze locked onto those grey eyes behind the sword that remained calm.

This calmness made him feel a cold, violent rage originating from the depths of his Soul, more so than the craziest roar.

"You—"

Lord Zangxing's voice changed, becoming low and hoarse, as if countless dead Souls were roaring in his throat.

The indifference belonging to the "Lord who looks down upon all living things" was fading, and a more essential, more violent aura belonging to the "Vicious Beast that devours all things" was awakening.

"Do you think I am still the me from aeons ago?!"

"Do you think that after experiencing that 'feast' and devouring the 'nutrients' of so many epochs, this seat... would have made no progress?!"

His hands suddenly spread to the sides, as if to embrace the entire nothingness!

"Boom—!!!"

The dark red ball of light that was being continuously cut open, along with all the remaining dark red energy around it, suddenly exploded!

But it did not scatter and fly away; instead, it transformed into countless twisted, dark red chains that seemed to possess life!

These chains were as thick as a child's arm, their surfaces engraved with dense, constantly wriggling and changing ancient runes. Those runes seemed like living things, breathing, whispering, and emitting silent, vicious roars that struck directly at the Origin of the Soul!

The inscriptions of the dao-burying halberd!

A forbidden power born specifically for piercing Reincarnation, etching heart-seals, and grinding down the Divine Soul!

It was a vicious weapon condensed by Lord Zangxing, who had devoured countless civilizations and refined the deepest despair and curses of the living beings of ten thousand worlds, aimed at the core of "existence"!

Countless dark red chains, like a swarm of venomous snakes reaching out from the deepest depths of Hell, emitted shrill, piercing screeches as they pierced the air, winding and stabbing toward Lu Changzhi in the center from above, below, left, right, and every possible angle!

Before the chains arrived, that terrifying aura that froze thought and corroded the true spirit already caused Jian Tanghuang's Divine Soul in the distance to ache violently, almost fainting!

Lu Changzhi's expression did not change.

In the instant those chains, biting like venomous snakes filling the sky, were about to reach his body, he simply gave the grey longsword held before him a light shake.

"Hum—!!!"

A clear and long sword hum, which seemed capable of cleansing the dust of aeons, suddenly rippled out with him as the center!

Wherever the sword hum passed, those countless hideous, biting dark red chains, as if colliding with an invisible, intangible, yet absolutely impassable wall of sighs, all froze three feet away from Lu Changzhi! They could not advance even half an inch!

Those vicious dao-burying halberd inscriptions on the chains flickered crazily, erupting with intense dark red light, like countless biting mouths, madly impacting and corroding that invisible barrier of Sword Intent.

Every impact caused the Void Realm to tremble violently, emitting an unbearable groan.

However, that seemingly thin barrier was as steady as a rock. The sword hums continued endlessly, and every ringing was accompanied by visible pale grey ripples spreading outward.

The tips of those hideous dark red chains, the moment they touched the ripples, began to shatter and disintegrate inch by inch, turning into fly ash!

Lord Zangxing, for the first time, revealed a true, cold smile.

In this smile, there was no triumph, only a cruel calmness like a hunter looking at prey that had fallen into a trap and was still struggling in vain.

"The 'All Worlds into One' sword from aeons ago is indeed peerless in sharpness and can suppress me."

His voice was not loud, but carried an indifference that controlled everything, echoing in the Void Realm.

"But now—"

His gaze swept over Lu Changzhi's hand gripping the sword with white knuckles, over his cheeks that could not hide their paleness beneath his calmness, and over this mortal Physical Body that had obviously reached its limit.

"Your sword is a borrowed, defective product."

"Your Physical Body is a weak, mortal vessel."

"Your Divine Soul—"

Lord Zangxing's voice suddenly turned harsh, like the sudden arrival of winter: "Is even more of a shattered remnant!"

"What do you have to fight me with?!"

Before the words fell, his five fingers, which were gripping the void, suddenly clenched fiercely!

"Explode!"

Those fragments of the dark red chains that had been shattered by the sword hum and had not yet completely dissipated did not fall; instead, under his clench, they suddenly underwent a strange change!

Countless fragments instantly disintegrated and reorganized, transforming into hundreds of millions of dark red light needles, as thin as ox hair, yet flickering with a deadly, eerie light!

These light needles were smaller, denser, and more vicious than the previous chains!

They ignored the frontal defense of the Sword Intent barrier, as if possessing life and wisdom, from all subtle gaps, from the intervals of energy flow, from the folds of space-time itself, like a bloody rainstorm, shooting down from every inconceivable angle toward Lu Changzhi at the center of the barrier!

The points of the needles were not aimed at the Physical Body, but directly at the Origin of the Divine Soul!

This was the most insidious change in the power of the dao-burying halberd—omnipresent, specializing in breaking mental defenses, corroding the Soul and dissolving bones!