448: Chapter 448 Severing the Life-Stealing Hand with a Wave of the Sleeve, Reshaping the Boundary Stone of Mountains and Rivers

That finger traced through the air, plain and simple.

There was no dazzling sharpness, nor was there any roar of tearing space.

The moment that invisible blade, condensed from Absolute Mass, touched the sky-filling lead-gray tentacles, time seemed to freeze momentarily. Hundreds upon hundreds of fleshy tentacles, covered in pustules and rotting suckers, were as fragile as a sheet of cicada-wing-thin rice paper before this force, which was pure to the extreme.

"Chi—"

A uniform sound of cutting erupted across the ruins of the Realm Master's grand hall.

There was no blood spraying, nor did any severed chunks of flesh fall. At the instant of contact, that thick layer of highly corrosive grayish-white mucus, along with the hard-shelled tissues inside the tentacles infused with Death Qi, were ground into nothingness by the oppressive force of the Great Perfection Law.

That sky-covering cage of flesh, which had attempted to strangle the youth Stone into pulp, vanished into thin air at that very instant.

The black rifts in the firmament that had originally connected to the ruins of the Realm Master's grand hall lost the support of the tentacles, and the momentum of the turbid water of the Yellow Springs pouring outward suddenly stalled.

"Roar—"

From deep within the rift came a dull, hoarse roar that did not belong to any living creature. It was an angry low growl emitted by that unspeakable existence at the bottom of the Taiwu Ancestral Court, after perceiving across countless dimensions that its tentacles had been forcibly severed.

Zhou Wannian stood in the center of the mud-filled ruins, the hem of his green shirt swaying gently with the residual strong wind.

His expression was cold and indifferent; he didn't even look at the severed limbs frantically retreating into the depths of the rift, but instead cast his gaze directly onto the shattered earth beneath his feet, which was trembling violently.

Qingping Realm, this lower-level fishpond he had grabbed in passing, was now on the verge of collapse after losing the stability of the Realm Master's Origin and suffering the impact of the Yellow Springs backflow.

The tectonic plates of the earth were emitting creaking sounds of unbearable strain, mountains were collapsing, and the original rivers had long since changed course, churned into endless turmoil by that Death Qi which eroded everything.

He raised his right foot and stomped down heavily. Boom.

This stomp was not particularly heavy, but the instant it touched the ground, the ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine jade chains deep within Zhou Wannian's Divine Soul trembled in unison. An Absolute Mass encompassing the four fundamental architectures of space, matter, gravity, and dimension instantly poured through his sole into the core of the earth's veins of the entire world.

With these ruins as the center, the earth instantly stopped trembling. It was a stability akin to the Sea-Stabilizing Needle.

The originally surging turbid water was forcibly pressed back into the riverbeds by this force, and the fractured rock layers were forcibly pulled back together by an invisible, immense strength. Under this stomp, the crustal movements deep within the earth were forcibly suppressed into the most stable range of physical constants.

With this stomp, Zhou Wannian forcibly extended the life of this world that was on the verge of disintegration.

The momentum of collapse that had been continuously devouring the world's Origin was completely halted by his heavy suppression. Although Qingping Realm was scarred and covered in gray mist, its teetering world framework was finally stabilized once again within this Void Realm.

Those Death Qi tentacles wrapped around the youth Stone did not dissipate after being severed.

The severed parts left on the ground, having lost the support of their source, did not die immediately. At the fleshy cut points, countless tiny blood vessels, like living earthworms, quickly twisted, reorganized, and entangled themselves within that filthy mud.

Zhou Wannian brushed off his cuffs, his gaze lowered, watching the changes on the ground coldly.

After a bout of scalp-tingling writhing in the mud, those severed tentacle stumps actually pieced themselves together bit by bit. Shedding their fleshy bulk, they became withered and slender, crookedly outlining a line of text on the muddy ruins.

That writing was not any known script, but an ancient rune twisted together from Death Qi and resentment.

Zhou Wannian swept his gaze over it. The meaning was clear. The other party was mocking him.

It was using this line of text to tell Zhou Wannian that severing these few tentacles was nothing more than casually picking out a splinter to it, and that the real game had only just begun. It invited Zhou Wannian to follow the severed port, leave this fishpond he was guarding, and take a trip to the place known as the "Loom."

That was its home turf, and also the source where the Karma of these All Heavens and Myriad Worlds was most intricately intertwined.

Zhou Wannian looked at the line of runes that were still twitching slightly and emitting a foul stench, a very faint arc appearing at the corner of his mouth.

He raised his foot and gently ground it directly over the line of runes. The text composed of Death Qi and resentment did not even last half a breath under his foot before turning into a puddle of meaningless muck.

He turned around and walked toward the youth Stone, who was still covered in grayish-white stone scales and whose vital signs were weak, reaching out to press his hand onto the mark on the youth's forehead.