660: Chapter 660 A Smile Appeared

Upon hearing these words, the Celestial Maiden paused the sword in her hand for an instant.

Just that one instant.

This instant was so short that not even a single grain of sand in the River of Time could fall, so short that not even a wisp of wind in the Void Realm could flow away.

Yet, this instant truly existed.

The sword's tip halted in the Void Realm for a moment, and the deep blue light on the sword flickered slightly, as if it were pondering, or perhaps weighing its options.

The swirling threads of Karma also slowed their pace at this moment, as if even they were waiting for their master's decision.

A hint of a smile just barely emerged at the corners of the Nether Maiden's mouth.

This smile was very faint, so faint it was almost imperceptible, yet it bloomed truly and clearly on her lips.

A wave of wild joy surged within her heart—she believed she had finally swayed the Celestial Maiden, believed the Celestial Maiden had begun to fear the backlash of Karma, and believed her bargaining chip had finally tipped the scales.

A gleam of triumph flashed in her eyes, as if she could already see the Celestial Maiden retracting her sword and backing down.

And then—

The sword in the Celestial Maiden's hand sank with seven parts more force.

It was not a retraction, not hesitation, but an intensification.

This seven-part force was added mercilessly, added decisively, added as if she had been confident all along; that momentary pause just now was merely to confirm her determination one last time.

The deep blue light on the sword suddenly surged, its blinding radiance illuminating the very end of the endless Void Realm.

Even the churning waters of the Nether River were eclipsed by this radiance—these once arrogant and domineering gray waters were now like a stagnant pool, trembling under the illumination of the blue light.

The smile at the corners of the Nether Maiden's mouth froze.

Then, it shattered.

New changes emerged on the body of the Sword of Causality.

The threads of Karma that had been flowing randomly began to rearrange themselves according to a mysterious and precise pattern.

They no longer drifted in disorder, but rather, like a well-trained army, they moved, combined, and wove themselves in an orderly fashion, following some mysterious command.

These lines intertwined and entangled with one another, gradually outlining a pattern on the sword that made the Nether Maiden's face pale.

It was a flower.

A blooming blue flower.

Its petals stretched out, each one as thin as a cicada's wing yet as tough as steel, trembling slightly in the Void Realm and emitting a faint blue light.

The stamens bloomed, with hair-thin filaments extending from the heart of the flower, their tips adorned with golden specks of light, like the brightest stars in the night sky.

The entire flower was breathtakingly beautiful, suffocatingly beautiful, so beautiful that one forgot it was a weapon of slaughter.

Yet, every petal of this flower was a segment of Karma compressed to the extreme—these were not ordinary entanglements, but the Celestial Maiden's own Karma, the most critical nodes, the most significant choices, and the most precious memories of her long life.

Every stamen was a chain of Karma that could detonate at any moment—these chains connected her past, present, and future, linking the intertwining fates of countless living beings across the Myriad Heavens and Worlds.

This flower meant that the Celestial Maiden was no longer just borrowing the power of Karma, but had begun to sacrifice the power of Karma—using her own Karma as the price to exchange for power far exceeding the norm.

This was the forbidden technique among forbidden techniques, a forbidden Domain that even the most ancient existences dared not touch lightly.

Because sacrificing Karma meant sacrificing a part of one's own existence, meant actively weakening one's own Foundation in the River of Time, and meant using a portion of one's own eternity to exchange for a momentary burst.

The Nether Maiden's pupils contracted into the most dangerous pinpoints.

This was not an ordinary contraction, but the extreme tightening of pupils under intense shock.

The gray vortex froze for an instant, then trembled violently.

Her face turned pale in an instant, her lips lost all color, and even her breathing stalled at that moment.

"You are insane!"

Her voice was almost a roar, sharp and piercing, like a blade scraping against glass, carrying an unbelievable terror, "You actually dare to use your own Karma as fuel?!"

Her voice echoed in the Void Realm, trembling with near-collapse.

She had seen crazy opponents, enemies who would stop at nothing, but she had never seen anyone dare to use their own Karma as fuel.

Karma is the most fundamental thing of an existence, the bond that connects a person to everything in the world.

Once Karma is damaged, the consequence is a regression in cultivation at best, and being completely erased from the River of Time at worst.

By doing this, the Celestial Maiden was simply gambling with her own eternity.

The Celestial Maiden finally spoke.

Her voice was extremely cold, as cold as the never-melting ice in the deepest depths of the River of Time, yet as calm as if she were stating the simplest of facts.

This combination of coldness and calmness formed a terrifying contrast—the colder she was, the more unshakable her determination appeared; the calmer she was, the more irreversible her murderous intent seemed.

"Hmph, and so what?"

Her gaze fell upon the Nether Maiden, and in those eyes that could see through all Karma, there was no emotional fluctuation—no anger, no hatred, no pity, no hesitation. Only one meaning:

You must die today.

"Since you have already appeared, I shall simply slay you."

The moment her words fell, the Celestial Maiden struck with her second sword.

This time, it was not a vertical strike, but a horizontal one.

The Celestial Maiden swung her arm horizontally, and the Sword of Causality carved a perfect arc in the Void Realm.

This arc was beautiful to the extreme, like the most triumphant stroke of a great calligrapher wielding brush and ink—fluid, natural, and perfectly formed.

The deep blue Sword Qi advanced forward in a fan shape.

This fan shape was vast and boundless, its coverage so great that it encompassed almost all possible directions for the Nether Maiden to dodge.

Whether she dodged left or right, flew up or dove down, she could not escape the coverage of this Sword Qi.

The vanguard of the Sword Qi was like a giant blue wave, surging forward mightily, and wherever it passed, everything was submerged, devoured, and erased.

Wherever the Sword Qi passed, the Void Realm was sliced open, creating a massive rift.

This rift was thousands of miles long and hundreds of feet wide, like a hideous giant mouth opening in the Void Realm.

What surged from the rift was not Chaos Qi, but a storm of Karma—countless segments of Karma affected by this Sword Qi were frantically self-correcting, and the process of correction generated violent energy fluctuations, which in turn enhanced the power of the Sword Qi.

This was a terrifying cycle: the Sword Qi severed Karma, the severance of Karma generated energy, the energy merged into the Sword Qi, and the Sword Qi continued to sever even more Karma.

Repeating in this way, the power of the Sword Qi increased exponentially, becoming increasingly terrifying and unstoppable.

The Nether Maiden finally understood that the Celestial Maiden was not threatening her, not trying to force her back, but intended to completely erase her right here, at this moment, at the cost of her own Karma.

Not to defeat, not to severely injure, not to drive away.

It was to erase.

To make her existence completely disappear from the River of Time, to make the two words "Nether Maiden" a concept that had never existed.

No one would remember her, no text would record her, and even the River of Time itself would forget that she had ever existed.

She would become a blank space, a void, a piece of deleted data.

This crazy woman.

The Nether Maiden gritted her teeth, gray blood overflowing from the corners of her mouth, yet she could not spare the time to wipe it away.

A flash of determination crossed her eyes—since the Celestial Maiden was willing to sacrifice her Karma, then she could no longer hold back either.

If she still held anything back, she would truly die here today.

She no longer retreated, but plunged her hands into the Nether River.

The moment her hands submerged into the river water, the entire Nether River trembled violently.

The river water churned madly, the silt at the bottom of the river was stirred up, and countless dead souls rushed out from the water, emitting shrill wails.

These dead souls transformed into streams of gray Qi that surged into her arms, causing dense gray runes to appear on her arms.

She was looking for something.

Something she had hidden in the deepest part of the Nether River, something she never easily used.

Her hands groped at the bottom of the river, as if searching for a lost treasure.

The river water swirled around her palms, forming a huge vortex, in which countless twisted faces could be vaguely seen spinning and screaming.

Finally, her hands grasped something.

She dragged something out from the bottom of the river.

A scythe.

It was pitch black all over, as black as the deepest night, as black as a black hole that had been drained of all light.

The blade presented a strange curve; this curve did not conform to any known geometric principle, yet it gave a feeling of extreme natural fluidity, as if the blade was meant to have this shape.

The body of the blade was covered with cracks—not cracks from damage, but patterns naturally formed after the Law of Ending had condensed to the extreme.

These patterns were like the cracks on parched earth, or like the veins on a leaf, each one containing the power to completely end all existence.

At the end of the scythe's handle was embedded a gray gemstone.

This gemstone was the size of a fist, presenting a murky gray color, as if it had been covered by a thick layer of dust.

But if one looked closely, one would find countless grayish-white faces vaguely visible in the gemstone, struggling and wailing—these were the final remnants of countless living beings devoured by this gemstone.

Their mouths were wide open, their eyes wide with horror, and their faces were filled with fear and despair.

They struggled ceaselessly within the gemstone, but could never break free, destined to be trapped inside forever, becoming a part of this gemstone.