661: Chapter 661 The Scythe of Termination

Scythe of Endings.

A divine weapon born alongside the Nether River, a forbidden object on par with the Sword of Causality.

Its name is occasionally mentioned in the oldest records of the Myriad Heavens and Worlds, but each time it is mentioned, it is with the most cautious and reverent tone, as if merely writing down this name would invite misfortune.

Legend has it that the day the Scythe of Endings appears in the world is the time when all things return to ruin.

It does not need to be wielded, it does not need to be activated; its mere existence in the world causes the surrounding Karma to dissolve, dissipate, and return to nothingness on its own.

It is the end of all existence, the final period of all life, the ultimate silence of the entire Universe.

The moment the Nether Maiden grasped the scythe, her Aura changed completely.

This was not a simple increase in Aura, but a fundamental transformation.

The previous disarray was swept away, as if those scars, those cracks, and those wounds inflicted by the Sword of Causality were covered at this moment by a deeper, more ancient power.

In their place was an Aura of decay, coldness, and one that made the Soul tremble.

This Aura was like the first breath of air rushing out when opening an Ancient Tomb sealed for ten thousand years; like the first whimper rising from the seabed when diving into a bottomless black ocean; like the first tremor felt from the soil beneath one's feet while standing in a desolate graveyard.

It was not violent or ferocious, yet it was more terrifying than any violent power—because it represented the end, the conclusion of all things, the final point where no matter how glorious an existence might be, it would eventually return to silence.

The Nether River behind her surged more violently.

The river water was no longer just surging; it was as if it were boiling.

Countless bubbles rose from the riverbed and burst on the surface, each releasing a puff of gray mist.

Countless gray-white arms emerged from the river water—some were thick and powerful, some slender and weak, some covered in wrinkles, some smooth and delicate, but they all shared one thing in common: they were all reaching out toward the Nether Maiden, as if welcoming the return of their king, or perhaps pleading for her protection.

The fingers of these arms were slightly curled, making grasping motions, as if trying to grab something, yet unable to grasp anything at all.

They were the arms of the dead, the final remains of countless living beings swallowed by the Nether River, the most intuitive manifestation of the Law of Endings.

"Celestial Maiden." The Nether Maiden's voice had also changed, becoming deeper and colder, every word sounding like an echo from a tomb, carrying the dampness of soil and the decay of a coffin. "Do you think only you have trump cards? Do you think I cannot cut you down?"

Her voice echoed in the Void Realm, carrying an unprecedented confidence.

This was not feigned, nor was it a forced front; it was the confidence brought to her by the Scythe of Endings.

With this scythe, she was no longer the one passively taking hits, but an existence capable of confronting the Celestial Maiden head-on.

The Celestial Maiden glanced at her without speaking.

This glance was very brief, so brief it could almost be ignored.

Yet the amount of information contained in this glance was enough to make anyone who understood it tremble—it was an evaluative gaze, like weighing the value of an item, or calculating the gains and losses of a transaction.

She was evaluating the Nether Maiden's current strength, calculating how much of a price would need to be paid to completely erase her.

The response to the Nether Maiden was the third sword strike.

This time, the Celestial Maiden did not slash; instead, she held the Sword of Causality horizontally in front of her, gripped the blade with her left hand and the hilt with her right, and twisted it violently.

Both of her hands exerted force simultaneously, and the blade rotated one hundred and eighty degrees in her hands.

This action appeared simple, yet it contained extremely intricate power control—during the rotation, the Karma lines on the blade were rearranged, forming a brand-new structure specifically designed to release ring-shaped Sword Qi.

A ring of Sword Qi expanded in all directions with the Celestial Maiden at its center.

This Sword Qi was like the ripples stirred up when a pebble is thrown into a calm lake, but it was completely different.

It was not planar, but three-dimensional, an ever-expanding spherical light shield that enveloped everything around it.

The speed at which the Sword Qi expanded was extreme, so fast that the Nether Maiden only had time to block with the Scythe of Endings in front of her.

The moment the ring-shaped Sword Qi collided with the scythe—

"Boom—"

Deep blue and gray-black lights collided violently, two completely different Law powers tearing at each other crazily in the Void Realm.

This was not a normal energy collision, but a direct confrontation between two supreme Laws—the power of Karma and the power of Endings, one the Foundation that maintains all existence, the other the destination that ends all existence; they were natural born enemies, inherently unable to coexist.

Each collision would explode into a patch of Chaos.

This Chaos was not a normal state of disorder, but a primordial nothingness after the Laws had been completely shattered.

In the Chaos, there was no Karma, no Endings, no time, no space, nothing at all, only a pure, absolute, primordial nothingness.

The powers of the two Laws devoured, canceled, and annihilated each other within the Chaos, each annihilation releasing energy fluctuations sufficient to destroy a world.

The Nether Maiden was knocked back dozens of zhang.

Her feet plowed two deep ravines in the Void Realm, the space on both sides of the ravines constantly collapsing, repairing, and collapsing again, repeating several times before stabilizing.

The web between her thumb and forefinger felt slightly numb, and the Scythe of Endings trembled in her hand, emitting a low hum.

But this time, she was not injured.

The Scythe of Endings radiated a gray-black light in her hand, enveloping her entire being.

This light was like an invisible armor, protecting her tightly.

The power of the Sword of Causality was ended the moment it touched this layer of light—not blocked, not neutralized, but erased, as if it had never existed.

This was the power of the Scythe of Endings.

The Sword of Causality cuts Karma, the Scythe of Endings ends everything—including the act of "cutting" itself.

This was a higher-level Law confrontation, a direct collision between the two ultimate powers of Karma and Endings.

The two extreme powers stood in confrontation at the end of the endless Void Realm, neither able to do anything to the other.

The deep blue light and the gray-black light intertwined, collided, and tore at each other in the Void Realm, forming a bizarre and magnificent scene.

Blinding sparks constantly burst forth from the boundary where the two lights met, each flash of sparks accompanied by a violent tremor of space.

The Nether Maiden's lips curled up slowly, revealing a dangerous smile.

This smile contained triumph, provocation, and even more, a certainty of having regained her confidence.

She gripped the Scythe of Endings tightly, feeling the icy touch and surging power coming from the scythe, her gray pupils burning with crazy Battle Intent.

"Celestial Maiden, your Sword of Causality is indeed powerful, but in front of the Scythe of Endings, it is nothing more than this."

She paused, spun the scythe in her hand, and pointed the tip at the Celestial Maiden, the blade reflecting the deep blue light.

"Today, let me see whether your Karma breaks first, or if my Endings strike first."

Her voice was filled with provocation and challenge, as if goading, or perhaps declaring war.

Holding the Scythe of Endings, she felt unprecedentedly powerful, as if the entire world were under her control.

The Celestial Maiden still did not speak.

She simply held the Sword of Causality vertically in front of her, tip pointing downward, her hands crossed and pressed on the top of the hilt.

The moment this posture appeared, the entire River of Time began to tremble.

This tremor was not a normal vibration, but a trembling from the depths of the riverbed, a trembling of the Soul.

Countless blue points of light emerged on the river surface, dense and numerous, like the most brilliant galaxy in the night sky.

Each point of light rose from the river water, slowly ascending, gathering toward the Sword of Causality like millions of fireflies.

Those points of light trailed long, thin blue tails as they flew, like countless meteors streaking across the night sky simultaneously.

They gathered around the Sword of Causality, rotating around the blade, forming a huge blue vortex.

The center of the vortex was the Sword of Causality; it was like a black hole, greedily absorbing these points of light, converting them into its own power.

The Sword of Causality was absorbing the power of the River of Time.

The blue light on the blade became brighter and brighter, more and more blinding, until finally, it was too bright to look at directly.

The Void Realm around the blade began to twist and deform, unable to withstand the pressure of this power, emitting "creaking" groans.

The Nether Maiden's pupils contracted again.

This contraction was more intense than any before; her pupils almost shrank to a point, the gray vortex spinning crazily, revealing the extreme shock in her heart.

"You—"

She suddenly realized what the Celestial Maiden was about to do, and for the first time, true fear appeared in her voice.

This was not feigned, not exaggerated, but genuine, heartfelt fear.

Because she knew what the consequences would be if the power of the River of Time were extracted in large quantities—this would be the collapse of Karma, the disorder of fate, the catastrophe of all worlds and all things.

"You want to drain the power of the River of Time?!"

Her voice was sharp and piercing, carrying a tremor bordering on collapse.

Her hand holding the Scythe of Endings was trembling slightly, not from fear, but from being shocked by the Celestial Maiden's madness.

"Not drain."

The Celestial Maiden finally spoke, her voice still cold, but beneath the coldness was a killing intent burning to the extreme.

This killing intent was like a volcano that had been suppressed for hundreds of millions of years, finally finding an outlet for eruption at this very moment.

"Just borrow a little bit."

A little bit?

The Nether Maiden looked down at the River of Time, her pupils contracting again.

The surface of the River of Time had already begun to drop.

Although it was only an insignificant sliver, this was the River of Time—the Foundation of all worlds and all things, the source of all Karma.

Since ancient times, no one had ever dared to extract power from this river, because this river carried the fate of the entire Universe, and any slight disturbance could trigger unpredictable disasters.

And borrowing power from this river, even just a little bit, was enough to destroy the heavens and extinguish the earth.

The Nether Maiden no longer hesitated, no longer wasted words.

She raised the Scythe of Endings, and the gray gem on the scythe erupted with blinding light.

This light was not shining outward, but converging inward, like a black hole, sucking all light into it.

Those gray-white faces in the gem became clearer, their mouths opened wider, their eyes widened, and the expressions on their faces became more twisted, as if they were enduring great pain.

Monstrous waves surged from the Nether River.

These monstrous waves were not ordinary river water, but were condensed from the resentment and obsession of countless dead Souls, every drop of river water containing the power of the Law of Endings.

The gray-black river water merged with the Law of Endings, condensing into a huge phantom behind the Nether Maiden.

This phantom had no specific form, just a gray-black shadow constantly twisting and changing.

It sometimes looked like a huge palm, sometimes like a ferocious face, sometimes like a beast baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, and sometimes like a constantly expanding cloud of smoke.

But no matter what shape it took, the Aura it emitted made the entire end of the endless Void Realm tremble—this was Endings itself, the final form of all things returning to ruin, the ultimate destination of all existence.

The Nether Maiden was sacrificing the Nether River.

Her body began to become transparent, as if it could dissipate at any moment.

A look of pain appeared on her face, but her eyes were exceptionally firm.

She was using her own existence as the price to exchange for the strongest power of the Scythe of Endings.

Two women, one borrowing the power of the River of Time, one sacrificing the power of the Nether River, both in order to kill the other.

At the end of the endless Void Realm, two earth-shattering powers were rapidly condensing, ready to collide at any moment.

"Celestial Maiden!" The Nether Maiden's voice came from the gray-black phantom, no longer cold, but crazy, carrying a desperate resolve. "Since you want to perish together, I will accompany you!"

Her voice echoed in the Void Realm, carrying a tragic tone. She knew that after this battle, whether it was her or the Celestial Maiden, both would pay a heavy price.

But she had no way back—to retreat was to die; to advance might still offer a sliver of survival.

Then come.

Let's see whose life is tougher.