516: Chapter 516 Sacrificing to the Star God

Lu Changzhi's body was now as transparent as a phantom carved from thin ice.

Starting from his fingertips, it turned into gray-white light dust, inch by inch, silently dissipating into the void.

At this moment, his arms, shoulders, and most of his torso had vanished. The remaining outline of his chest was so faint it was reduced to a mere glimmer, clearly reflecting the broken, dark red and gray-white intertwined Void Realm cracks behind him.

Yet his will to "hold the sword" remained as steady as Mount Buzhou.

That gray-white Sword Intent, no longer guided by a physical arm, remained sharp, swift, and resolute. Each strike cleaved into the most vulnerable node of the dao-burying halberd, and each clash shaved away a layer of scarlet killing intent.

Lord Zangxing's state was equally tragic.

The "Gong Clan Prodigy" shell he had acquired through Possession was already riddled with holes, like a clay figurine barely pieced together after being violently smashed, covered in spiderweb-like cracks.

Countless gray-white sword marks of varying depths were carved upon it. Dark red light-liquid, appearing like a mixture of viscous blood-rust and destructive energy, gushed out from the wounds, dripped into the Void Realm, condensed into dark red crystals, and then shattered into powder in the next wave of power oscillation.

His left arm had once been severed at the shoulder. Although he had forcibly reshaped it with a dark red vortex, the new arm was gray and withered, its patterns scattered. When wielding the dao-burying halberd, he could already feel obvious sluggishness and instability.

He was even "panting."

It was not that his Physical Body needed to breathe, but rather the mournful cry of his Divine Soul Origin, unable to bear the burden after enduring over five thousand strikes of the Sword Intent and the terrifying consumption of struggling to keep this mortal vessel from collapsing.

The two stood a hundred zhang apart, confronting each other from afar in the center of the shattered Void Realm.

Neither moved again.

It was not that they did not want to, but that they could not—the power, will, and even the very existence of both parties had been stretched to the edge of breaking. The next strike would be earth-shattering, a final farewell between life and death.

Lu Changzhi lowered his head slightly, looking at his own afterimage, which had almost completely dissipated, leaving only the outline of his head and a small part of his torso. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

It was a faint smile, so subtle it was almost nonexistent, like the last ripple on water. It vanished in an instant, yet carried a silent clarity, as if he had seen through life and death and had no regrets.

"Five thousand three hundred and twenty-seven moves."

He spoke softly. His voice was no longer hoarse, but instead had a clarity that came after the dust had settled, ringing as clearly as jade striking stone in this deathly silent Void Realm. "Lord Zangxing, you are slower than you were in the ancient past."

Lord Zangxing's hideous, twisted face twitched violently.

He wanted to laugh wildly, to rebuke, to use the most vicious words to tear apart that damned calmness of his opponent.

But what surged to his throat was a mouthful of dark red blood mixed with broken Law.

His Adam's apple rolled violently as he forcibly swallowed this "blood." His dark red eyes locked onto Lu Changzhi, surging with monstrous hatred and a trace of… dread from the depths of his Soul, which even he did not want to investigate further.

Then, he also grinned and laughed.

The smile pulled at the cracked wounds on his face, blooming with increasingly hideous madness, like a demon crawling out of Hell, screaming.

"Lu Changzhi,"

His voice was as hoarse as an old bellows being pulled. "You are two moves slower than this seat. In the ancient past, when you were at your Peak, you slaughtered me like a dog."

"One sword strike could destroy ten of my Incarnations! And now?"

His laughter was filled with venomous mockery and resentment. "You burned your last remnant Soul and risked everything, yet you could only fight me, a remnant Soul barely hanging on, to this state!"

"You are even in such a pathetic state just trying to drag me down with you!"

"Ha… Hahaha! The Sword Master who cuts the Dao? Nothing more than this!"

"You are right."

Lu Changzhi's voice remained calm, even carrying a trace of faint approval, as if he were commenting on a trivial matter unrelated to himself. "I am the dying embers, and you are the dregs that have survived for eons. You and I are much the same."

"You—!"

Lord Zangxing's wild laughter stopped abruptly, like a rooster whose throat had been throttled.

The rage in his eyes almost turned into tangible flames, but immediately, deep within that fire, a trace of something extremely faint, so faint it was almost imperceptible yet truly existed, flashed by—weariness.

The lonely wait of eons, the painstaking calculations of eons, the dormancy of abandoning everything for eons… enduring boundless silence, all for this day.

Yet in the end, he had still fought this fated nemesis to mutual destruction, forced to walk toward an end where they would perish together.

How ridiculous. How pathetic.

The emergence of this weariness made Lord Zangxing feel furious and ashamed, but deeper down, it was a sense of emptiness and weariness that had accumulated for eons, as deep as an abyss.

"The final strike."

Lord Zangxing no longer laughed wildly. His voice was as heavy and cold as ten-thousand-year black ice, carrying a cold, resolute determination to let go of everything and just end it.

The dark red Aura of destruction no longer raged outwards but, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, frantically surged back into the dao-burying halberd.

On the body of the halberd, those twisted dao-burying inscriptions squirmed and lit up at an unprecedented speed, emitting a terrifying Aura that caused the entire shattered Secret Realm to begin to silently annihilate!

He would pour out everything—his remaining power, his remnant will, the unwillingness and resentment of eons—all poured into this final strike!

"The final strike."

Lu Changzhi nodded slightly.

His remnant body, already almost completely transparent, suddenly erupted with the final and most brilliant gray-white light! This light was no longer gentle, but filled with the ultimate sharpness that could sever everything and end everything!

The ancient gray sword suspended in front of him let out a mournful and impassioned cry. On the sword body, countless dense and complex ancient sword patterns appeared, as if containing the supreme truths of the Dao.

The sword patterns lit up inch by inch, igniting and pouring out everything he had left—his Divine Soul Origin, his will imprint, and even the last mark of "Lu Changzhi's" existence—without reservation!

The gray-white sword light and the dark red halberd radiance condensed, compressed, and climbed in the void… their Aura surged crazily, completely pushing away and annihilating the chaotic Void Realm turbulence, broken Laws, and even the pervasive Chaos around them!

They transformed into two sources of destruction that were constantly expanding, about to collide and annihilate each other!

No probing, no dodging, no retreat.

This was the final exchange—risking everything, burning everything, wagering the very meaning of existence!

Only death remained!

"Sever!"

"Bury!"

Two cold, resolute shouts, containing all the will of both sides, exploded in the Void Realm at the same instant!

The gray-white sword light turned into the first ray of sharpness that opened the heavens and earth, severing fate and ending Karma!

The dark red halberd radiance turned into the mark of the end that buried all things, swallowing light and burying everything!

The two rays of light tore through the barriers of time and space, colliding with a roar at a speed that transcended thought—

However!

Just at the billionth of a second before the tip of the sword and the edge of the halberd were about to make contact, and the ultimate annihilation that could return the Major Thousand Worlds to nothingness was about to erupt!

A sudden change occurred!

"Rip—!"

A slight yet incomparably clear sound, as if the ancient firmament had been forcibly torn apart, abruptly cut into this prelude to destruction.

It was not Lu Changzhi's sword, nor Lord Zangxing's halberd.

It was this Void Realm itself, which was already fragmented and on the verge of total annihilation, that tore open on its own!

A smooth, pitch-black rift with chaotic colors flowing along its edges blossomed without warning between the two destructive energies, as if a pair of invisible and great hands had casually torn open the "curtain" of this world.

Behind the rift, there was no violent space-time turbulence, but an absolute darkness that was deeper, more ancient, and seemed capable of swallowing even "nothingness" itself.

Then, a figure stepped out from this absolutely dark rift.

His pace was slow and steady, as if strolling through his own courtyard.

He stepped on the Void Realm, but did not stir up a single ripple. It was not that he lacked power, but that his own existence was so heavy and condensed that the Void Realm "dared not" ripple, and could only humbly support him.

His body was shrouded in a layer of extremely faint yet incomparably noble dark golden light, the light flowing as if billions of stars were born and died within it.

His face was blurry, obscured by a higher level of Law, only a pair of eyes clearly revealed.

They were not Lord Zangxing's dark red eyes of destruction, nor Lu Changzhi's gray-white eyes of extinction.

But a pair of… pitch-black eyes that were pure to the extreme.

No pupils, no whites, no luster, just two orbs of the most primitive, deepest "absolute black" that seemed capable of swallowing all light, all color, and all concepts.

When these black eyes turned slowly, wherever the gaze reached, the Void Realm seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand, silently collapsing, shrinking, and finally returning to an even deeper void—as if even the concept of "existence" trembled and perished under that gaze.

Lord Zangxing's dao-burying halberd, which had gathered all his power and carried monstrous killing intent and the determination to die, stopped abruptly and stiffly in mid-air, just an inch away from the suddenly appearing dark golden figure.

The dark red light of destruction surging wildly on the halberd, like frozen flames, instantly solidified and dimmed.

Lord Zangxing's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

The hideous, mad expression on his face, mixed with weariness and determination, froze completely, and was then replaced by extreme astonishment.

And this astonishment, like a lake into which a boulder had been thrown, was suddenly swallowed by another, more intense and primitive emotion—ecstasy!

An extreme ecstasy, almost maddening, suppressed for who knows how many eons, almost breaking through the barriers of his Divine Soul!

"Ji… Jixing…？！"

His voice was trembling, not with fear, not with weakness, but with a shuddering, almost sobbing, filled with incomparable excitement and disbelief.

Just like a traveler who had walked alone in a boundless desert for eons and had long since despaired, suddenly seeing the campfire and figure of a comrade at the end of his vision!

The figure shrouded in the dark golden light slowly, and extremely slightly, turned his head.

Those pure black eyes that swallowed everything calmly "looked" at Lord Zangxing, who was almost out of control with excitement.

No words, no expression, not even any mental fluctuations.

He just nodded, very slightly.

A gesture as simple as could be.

But it was this very gesture that struck Lord Zangxing like a thunderbolt, causing his entire "body" to tremble violently for a moment!

It was not fear, but a violent relaxation and agitation, as if he had instantly unloaded the burden of eons and found his final destination!

The dao-burying halberd in his hand, which symbolized destruction and the end and made the heavens tremble, actually drooped slightly, involuntarily.

The dark red light boiling on the halberd receded rapidly like a tide, quickly dimming and turning inward.

It was not that his power was exhausted.

But because—he could finally unload the defense and burden that had lasted for eons, of facing everything, calculating everything, and supporting everything alone.

His comrade had arrived.

He was no longer alone.