656: Chapter 656 The Terror of the Celestial Maiden

The look in the Heavenly Maiden's eyes when she gazed at the Nether Maiden conveyed exactly that meaning.

It was the kind of look one might give when walking down a road and a stray dog barks wildly at them from the roadside.

At most, she would cast a glance, then continue on her way.

She would not get angry, would not bicker, and certainly would not stop to argue with that dog. Because, in her view—it simply wasn't worth it.

"Threatening this seat?"

The Heavenly Maiden finally spoke.

Her voice was as flat as if she were commenting on the fine weather.

"You are not worthy."

These three words were spoken lightly and casually, as if she were offhandedly commenting on the taste of a cup of tea.

Yet, it was precisely this casualness, this indifference, that was the most fatal insult.

Before the words had even faded, the Aura upon the Heavenly Maiden changed.

This change was not an eruption, nor a venting, but a release.

It was as if she had been suppressing her power all along, and now, she had merely undone the Seal of that suppression, allowing a glimpse of her true self to be revealed.

And it was just a glimpse.

The entire River of Time was trembling.

This trembling was no ordinary vibration, but a shudder originating from the depths of the riverbed, a shivering of the Soul itself.

The river water ceased its churning, the fragments stopped colliding, and even the flow of the water ground to a halt.

The entire river was like a terrified beast, curling its body, trembling, not daring to even draw a breath.

The arrogant and domineering wraiths on the river's surface all retreated back into the water, not even daring to poke their heads out.

Dense cracks appeared in the endless Void Realm.

These cracks were not torn by external force, but were caused to rupture on their own by the pressure of this Aura.

The Void Realm was like a pane of glass unable to bear immense pressure, radiating countless cracks from the center outwards. Each crack expanded, extended, and intertwined, forming a massive, spiderweb-like structure.

What surged from the cracks was not darkness, but an even deeper nothingness—this was an absolute vacuum where even the Void Realm itself had been erased.

The Nether Maiden's pupils constricted violently.

This was no ordinary contraction; her pupils had shrunk to the size of needlepoints in extreme shock, and the gray vortex within them froze instantly, as if solidified.

She felt an unprecedented pressure rushing toward her—this pressure was not physical, but a crushing force from a higher dimension, making her feel like an ant looking up at an insurmountable Peak.

The rampaging Nether River behind her suddenly went quiet in that instant.

It was not suppressed, but terrified into stillness. Those black, towering waves that had been churning and roaring just moments ago were now frozen mid-air, maintaining the posture of about to crash down, yet not daring to fall.

The wraiths on the river surface were even more terrified, not daring to utter a single wail, each curling into a ball and shivering.

But she did not retreat.

She could not retreat, nor was she allowed to.

She was the Nether Maiden, the co-ruler of the myriad races of the Void Realm, the Incarnation of ending and oblivion.

She could lose, she could be defeated, she could even die, but she could not retreat.

Because once she retreated, what she would lose would not just be this battle, but the prestige and status she had built up over hundreds of millions of years in the Void Realm.

The Nether Maiden gritted her teeth and stomped her foot.

With this stomp, she exerted all her strength.

The Void Realm beneath her feet was directly kicked into a massive black hole, from which endless gray mist surged.

This mist was no ordinary fog; it was condensed from the resentment and obsession of countless wraiths, possessing extreme corrosiveness and erosive power.

The mist enveloped the Nether Maiden, forming a massive gray cocoon—the surface of the cocoon writhed constantly, as if something were gestating within.

A sharp cry came from within the mist.

This cry was not the voice of a human, but the collective shriek of ten million wraiths, sharp and ear-piercing, as if it could strip a person's Soul directly from their body.

Amidst the cry, the gray cocoon burst open, and the Nether Maiden's figure broke through the mist, moving with a speed too fast for the naked eye to track.

She attacked.

She struck a palm toward the Heavenly Maiden.

This palm strike contained the ultimate Law of ending, the Peak masterpiece of her lifelong cultivation.

Wherever the palm wind passed, Karma shattered—those chains of Karma that maintained the operation of the world were like rotten straw before her palm wind, snapping at the slightest touch.

Space-time collapsed—wherever her palm wind passed, space shattered like paper, time stagnated like flowing water, and everything fell into absolute chaos and disorder.

All existence was being erased—not destroyed, not annihilated, but erased from the very root, as if they had never existed at all.

This palm strike was enough to make the Myriad Heavens and Worlds change color.

The Heavenly Maiden did not even move.

She stood there, her hands hanging naturally at her sides, her gaze calm as she looked ahead, as if she hadn't even seen the arrival of that palm strike.

Her demeanor was too composed, so composed that one might wonder if she hadn't even realized that danger was approaching.

The moment the palm wind touched within a three-zhang radius of her body—

It was as if it had crashed into an invisible wall.

This wall could not be seen or touched, yet it truly existed.

It was not composed of energy, nor was it composed of Law, but of something on a higher level—the Heavenly Maiden's own will.

Her will was the strongest barrier; her existence was the most solid defense.

All force was neutralized in an instant, vanishing into thin air.

The Nether Maiden's pupils constricted once more. But this time she did not hesitate—one palm strike missed, a second followed immediately, then a third, a fourth, a fifth...

In an instant, she unleashed three hundred and sixty palm strikes.

Each strike was enough to kill a powerhouse of the Mahayana Realm, each strike contained the essence of the Law of ending, and each strike carried the determination to kill.

With three hundred and sixty strikes stacked together, the power grew exponentially—even if a Dao Ancestor came, they would have to retreat three times, not daring to take it head-on.

The palm wind howled, the Void Realm shattered, the Nether River churned, and ten thousand ghosts wept in unison.

The entire battlefield was shrouded in a gray Aura of destruction.

The Heavenly Maiden finally moved.

She raised her right hand and lightly pointed her index finger.

Just a point.

This movement was simple to the extreme—no flashy techniques, no dazzling special effects, just an ordinary extension of a finger, lightly tapping the air.

A silver-blue ray of light shot out from her fingertip.

This ray was as thin as a strand of hair, so slender it was almost invisible, yet it contained a suffocating, terrifying power.

This was no ordinary light, but the condensed essence of an entire River of Time, the crystallization of hundreds of millions of years of time, the convergence of countless lines of Karma.

This ray of light collided with the Nether Maiden's three hundred and sixty palm strikes.

The idiom 'crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood' found its perfect interpretation here. That hair-thin ray of light, like a red-hot needle piercing into butter, easily penetrated the layers of obstacles formed by the three hundred and sixty palm strikes.

Those palm strikes that seemed capable of destroying the heavens and extinguishing the earth were as fragile as paper before it—shattering at the slightest touch, collapsing at the slightest contact.

After piercing through the palm strikes, the light did not slow down, heading straight for the Nether Maiden's glabella.

The Nether Maiden's expression changed drastically.

In this instant, she felt a true threat of death.

Not the threat of injury, not the threat of failure, but the threat of death—a genuine, unreserved threat of death.

Although this ray of light did not strike her directly, the Aura it emitted already made her Soul tremble.

In her haste, she tilted her head to dodge.

But it was already too late to dodge completely.

The ray of light grazed her cheek, leaving a deep bloodstain on her face.

The bloodstain extended from the corner of her eye all the way to her jaw, the flesh split open, revealing the gray bone beneath—there were even fine cracks on the bone.

The edges of the wound were surrounded by a layer of silver-blue light, which was constantly eroding her wound, preventing it from healing.

Gray blood seeped from the wound, dripping drop by drop into the Void Realm, emitting a "sizzling" sound of corrosion.

Each drop of blood that fell would corrode a small hole in the Void Realm, with gray mist lingering around the small hole for a long time.

She touched the wound on her face.

The moment her fingertips touched the wound, a piercing pain shot through her, causing her to involuntarily gasp.

She looked down at the gray blood staining her fingers—the blood writhed on her fingertips, as if it had a life of its own, wanting to return to her body.

The anger in her eyes was almost about to materialize.

This kind of anger was not ordinary rage, but an extreme emotion mixed with shame, humiliation, unwillingness, and madness.

Her eyes turned blood-red, and raging flames of fury burned within her gray pupils—the fury was almost about to completely engulf her sanity.

"You—"

But before she could finish her sentence.

The Heavenly Maiden's second finger point came.

This time it was not a single ray of light, but silver-blue points of light like stars filling the sky.

These points of light densely covered the entire Void Realm—from east to west, from top to bottom, from front to back, every corner was covered.

They were like brilliant stars, quietly suspended there, emitting a soft yet deadly light.

Each point of light was a segment of Karma compressed to the extreme.

In some points of light, one could see a story of love and hate—two people going from loving each other to killing each other, from staying together to parting, ultimately dying together.

In some points of light, one could see a heaven-shaking battle—a million soldiers slaughtering each other, rivers of blood flowing, corpses littering the field.

In some points of light, one could see the rise and fall of a Dynasty—from its founding to its Peak, from its Peak to its decline, and finally its destruction.

In some points of light, one could see the life of a star—from birth to growth, from growth to aging, and finally collapsing into a black hole.

Each point of light was enough to ignite a Karma storm that would sweep across the Myriad Heavens and Worlds.

And now, such points of light filled the entire Void Realm.

The Nether Maiden had thought that this Heavenly Maiden, who stood above the Myriad Heavens and Worlds, was strong.

But she had never thought—

That the Heavenly Maiden would be strong to this extent.