56: Chapter 56 The Third Stage of the Candle Dragon Seal! Alive! You guys actually didn't die?!

Chapter 56: Third Stage of the zhulong seal! Alive! You are actually not dead? On the altar.

The moment the evil cultivator's fingertips touched the wisp of Zhulong's Origin emerging within Lin Ye's body.

His expression changed from the ecstasy of someone about to achieve Immortal Ascension to an extreme fear he had never felt in his life.

That dragon coiled at the end of time.

Its scales shimmered with an ancient, primordial dim light, and every single dragon scale was engraved with patterns of the alternation of the sun and moon, the changes of mountains and rivers, and the vicissitudes of life.

Its body was boundlessly huge, extending from this end of the vision to the other, with the distance of countless epochs separating them.

That dragon opened its eyes.

Two suns burning with eternal crimson flames.

The moment its Vertical Pupil opened and closed, day and night reversed, the four seasons shattered, and the birth and death of all things were entirely within a single thought of it.

That pair of Vertical Pupils shifted slightly, falling upon the evil cultivator.

"Uh... Ah ah—!!"

The evil cultivator let out a miserable scream that even he had never heard from himself.

He wanted to pull back the hand that had touched the Origin, but his hand no longer obeyed him.

His entire residual Divine Soul disintegrated before that power.

Starting from his fingertips, to his palm, to his wrist, to his elbow, his skin, muscles, bones, and Meridians turned to ashes layer by layer...

Before the ashes had time to drift down, they were ground into nothingness by an even deeper level of annihilation.

The sacrificial formation was still operating, but its direction had reversed.

All the chains and iron hooks originally aimed at Lin Ye reversed their direction, driving one by one into the core of the evil cultivator's own residual Divine Soul.

The gloomy green light was dyed crimson gold by the Zhulong's Origin, flowing in reverse along every pattern of the formation and pouring into the evil cultivator's body...

Pouring and then tearing, tearing and then pouring, like countless red-hot knives repeatedly scraping and slicing within his soul.

"No no no no, I cannot!! A thousand years of Cultivate! Just the last step... No!!!"

The expression on the evil cultivator's face switched repeatedly between fear and collapse, smoke puffing out from his seven orifices.

"No!"

Before his last miserable scream could escape, his entire face, along with his head, shoulders, torso, and limbs, completely disintegrated into dust of light filling the sky.

Blown by the wind, not even a trace of slag was left of the dust of light.

His Divine Soul was completely destroyed!

Losing its caster, the sacrificial formation on the altar flickered violently a few times before shattering with a loud bang, turning into dim rune fragments all over the ground.

Xu Zhiwei froze entirely outside the barrier of light.

She saw it very clearly.

The evil cultivator reached out to grab the beam of light emerging within Lin Ye's body, and then the expression on his face changed.

From ecstasy to fear, from fear to collapse, and from collapse to utter despair.

That face displayed the expression one would only have after witnessing a great terror that transcended the limits of cognition and existence itself!

She did not know what that was.

But she knew that something capable of plunging a thousand-year-old evil cultivator's residual Divine Soul from heaven to Hell within a single breath, leaving it unable to put up even a trace of a struggle—

was definitely not any normal thing.

The barrier of light shattered.

She instinctively wanted to rush forward, but stopped the moment her foot took a step out.

Lin Ye was still standing on the altar, closing his eyes as if digesting something.

He looked completely uninjured, even more relaxed than before.

"You..."

Xu Zhiwei stopped mid-sentence.

Meanwhile, outside the Ghost Domain.

Lu Zhanyou was still staring at that tablet.

The spiritual energy concentration curve on the screen had already returned to zero, but the spatial fluctuation detection module beside it—

suddenly issued an alarm that made all the data personnel stand up simultaneously.

A new curve jumped out on the screen.

This curve fed back a pure golden color.

Skyrocketing vertically from zero straight to the screen's upper limit, then rushing past the upper limit, failing to even pop up a data overflow warning before the entire spatial fluctuation detection module directly overloaded and burned out.

Everyone raised their heads at the same time, looking at Qiaotou Town ahead.

Qiaotou Town was being uprooted!

The entire town, from its foundation to the ground buildings, from the ruins of the Bell and Drum Tower to the outer civilian houses, from the stone-paved roads to the withered trees, everything was slowly rising under the action of an extremely slow yet irresistible force.

The ground split open with a neat ring-shaped crack, as if an invisible giant hand was supporting the entire town from beneath the earth to lift it upward.

Floating.

The entire town was suspended mid-air!

Beneath the town, where the foundation originally was, countless streams of crimson-gold light surged out.

The light rushed straight into the clouds from the deepest part of the underground, passing through every street, every building, and every crack in the town, dyeing the entire floating town into a translucent golden hue.

Viewed from afar, it looked like a lit lighthouse.

"This... This is..."

The staff officer who had previously been certain that Lin Ye and Xu Zhiwei had met their demise let the tactical tablet in his hand slip from his fingertips and drop to the ground.

The spiritual energy detection module burned out. The spatial fluctuation module also burned out. The time flow rate detector started smoking directly.

A young data personnel reported one by one with a trembling voice.

The middle-aged man holding the little girl opened his mouth wide as he looked at the floating town, unable to say a single word.

The old woman who had cried all day forgot to cry, her tears still hanging on her face, and her expression exuded a bewilderment beyond her comprehension.

Hundreds of people fell into a collective silence, and even the sound of their breathing was clearly audible!

"Director Lu, we..."

Lu Zhanyou shook his head and raised his hand to signal.

Intuition was telling everyone present:

What was happening inside the Ghost Domain had already surpassed all their cognition of this world.

...

On the altar.

Lin Ye opened his eyes.

After the evil cultivator's residual Divine Soul completely vanished, the time-attribute evil Qi condensed on the altar for thousands of years poured outward like a breached flood.

Lacking a master and unbound by the formation, these evil Qis were crazily gushing out from every crack, every stone slab, and every inch of soil on the altar.

The zhulong seal emitted a low hum.

A golden pillar of light soared into the sky from the seal, suddenly expanding in mid-air and transforming into a giant dragon phantom coiling above the entire altar.

The phantom opened its mouth and inhaled, forcefully dragging back all the leaking time-attribute evil Qi with an extremely domineering suction force.

It turned into a black torrent pouring into the dragon's mouth.

The dark green runes inscribed on the altar floor dimmed one piece after another.

Starting from the periphery of the altar, to the steps, to the stone pillars, and to the dome, all the runes lost their last trace of light under the devouring of the Zhulong phantom.

The Origin of evil Qi accumulated over a millennium was swallowed in large gulps by this phantom as if drinking water, leaving not a single drop behind.

Lin Ye looked down.

The zhulong seal suddenly brightened to a brand-new level.

The dragon's tail had long lit up completely, and the dragon's body was also finished long ago.

The outlines of the two front paws emerged in the golden light, the joints of every dragon claw clearly visible, their nails as sharp as knives.

Following closely was the dragon's head...

Horns, eye sockets, whiskers, fangs—a complete outline of the dragon's head slowly emerged within the seal, its eyes tightly closed yet revealing absolute majesty.

The dragon's body coiled for a full circle, the dragon's head and tail almost connecting.

Third stage, the zhulong seal was completely activated!

After devouring the last mouthful of evil Qi, the Zhulong phantom raised its head toward the sky and let out a silent dragon roar.

The space of the entire altar vibrated violently amidst this dragon roar!

Meanwhile, the small golden pond of Temporal Divine Power in Lin Ye's Dantian was also surging frantically.

Layer upon layer of waves surged on the surface of the small pond, and the pond surface, which was originally only the size of a bowl, was expanding outward at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Faint gleams of enlightenment began to well up from the bottom of the small pond, and countless fragmentized pieces of information regarding the Temporal Law poured into his Sea of Consciousness along with the Divine Power.

Being absorbed, integrated, and internalized by Lin Ye bit by bit...

His mastery over the Temporal Law was advancing from "usable" to "proficient".

At this moment, Xu Zhiwei's voice came from below the altar: "Lin Ye! Are you alright? Just now..."

Lin Ye raised his hand to interrupt her words: "Step back."

Swept by this dragon might, Xu Zhiwei felt her heartbeat skip a beat, her legs turning weak and almost making her kneel down.

She retreated several steps in succession, pulling back all the way to the edge of the altar before barely steadying herself. Looking up at Lin Ye on the altar, her pupils abruptly contracted.

He wasn't trying to act cool.

It was just that Lin Ye found he had to maintain a high degree of focus.

The next instant.

His entire body was wrapped in a layer of extremely unstable crimson-gold light flames.

The light flames constantly flickered and leaped, every bounce leaving a charred trace on the altar's stone slabs.

A layer of faint dragon scale patterns emerged on the surface of Lin Ye's skin, starting from the zhulong seal on his wrist, spreading along his lower arm to his elbow, and then from his elbow spreading to his shoulder.

Every single dragon scale was as sharp as a knife, their edges shimmering with a gloomy, chilling radiance.

The Meridians inside his body were undergoing an unprecedented impact.

The power amplification brought by the activation of the third stage was too huge—so huge that it exceeded the tolerance limit of his Meridians.

The power of the Zhulong Divine Sense poured into the Meridians doubly, and the Temporal Divine Power was expanding simultaneously. The two stacked together, rushing wildly inside his body like two enraged flood dragons.

Unable to withstand this power, his Meridians began to develop cracks.

The cracks were repaired by the Origin of Houtu as soon as they appeared, only to be torn open again by an even more violent force, torn open and then repaired, repaired and then torn open.

Every cycle of tearing and repairing brought a piercing pain straight to the heart, but after each round of the cycle, the tolerance limit of his Meridians shifted upward a little bit.

It needed to be refined.

It had to be refined right on the spot.

Lin Ye settled his mind and poured his entire will into his Dantian.

He no longer tried to suppress that violent power, but guided it to circulate in the Meridians according to the operational route of the Zhulong Divine Sense.

Starting first from the Dantian, passing through the three Yin Meridians of the hand, reaching the zhulong seal on the wrist, and then returning to the Dantian from the three Yang Meridians of the hand, completing a major heavenly cycle.

With every cycle, the violent power was tamed by a sliver, and the tolerance limit of his Meridians was raised by a fraction.

In the blink of an eye.

The blue stone slabs beneath his feet had been baked pitch-black by the light flames.

Lin Ye remained as motionless as a pine, like a furnace forging itself.

Xu Zhiwei did not know what to do.

She simply found a stone slab to sit down on, while curiously observing the changes on Lin Ye's body.

She discovered...

The initial violent dragon might was like an out-of-control primordial behemoth, wantonly rolling over everything within the altar.

Even though she had retreated to the very edge, she could still feel an invisible hand pressing against her chest.

Every breath required all her strength.

But gradually, that coercion was shrinking.

Shrinking from covering the entire altar to half the altar, from half the altar to a radius of ten zhang around the altar, from ten zhang to five zhang, and finally completely restraining itself within three chi around Lin Ye's body.

Those dragon scale patterns emerging from the surface of his skin also stopped flickering, instead slowly circulating at a steady rhythm, each rotation more smooth and natural than the last.

The crimson-gold light flames steadily clung to the surface of his skin, like a layer of translucent armor.

Xu Zhiwei pushed up her glasses.

Intuition told her...

This was not a manifestation of power declining; on the contrary, this was a manifestation of power being completely controlled!

Within a mere hour, this guy had forcefully tamed a violent power sufficient to crush the entire altar from the edge of losing control to the point of commanding it as easily as lifting a finger.

Outside the Ghost Domain.

The golden town suspended before everyone's eyes suddenly fell back to its original place without warning.

As if being carefully placed back in its original position by someone.

Shrouded above the entire Qiaotou Town, that dark red light membrane had long since peeled off when the Bell and Drum Tower collapsed.

Now even the last remaining trace of evil Qi was dissipating.

Sunlight pierced through the clouds, shining on the dilapidated tiles of the town, on the cracked blue stone-paved roads, and on the face of every person outside the cordon.

Warm, true sunlight.

A data personnel sitting in the command vehicle rubbed his eyes.

"Director Lu, all spiritual energy indices have returned to zero. Ghost Domain concentration detection is zero. Time flow rate anomalies, spatial fluctuations, and resentment residue are all zero. The Qiaotou Town area... has returned to normal environmental parameters."

Lu Zhanyou nodded.

"Deploy a squad and come in with me."

A group of people walked inward along the blue stone-paved road.

In the team were five or six combat-type trial-takers, an intelligence officer responsible for recording images, and that military officer who had always been skeptical of Lin Ye.

The further they walked...

what they saw was completely different from what they had anticipated.

The town indeed had traces of battle.

The stone-paved road was covered everywhere with stick marks and craters caused by smashing.

But the scene expected of bones littering the ground and towering resentment did not appear.

The entire street was clean beyond description.

"Where are those walking-backward specters reported by the reconnaissance team earlier?" a trial-taker asked in a low voice.

"What about those areas with abnormal time flow rates?"

Another person followed up, "The reconnaissance report said that the further inward you go, the more severely time flows backward. We've walked this far, yet it seems we haven't felt it?"

Everyone looked at each other in dismay.

Even a team led by a four-star master was crushed by these bizarre phenomena; how did a three-star trial-taker clear them all out?

Finally.

Everyone walked to the center of the town, the site of the former Bell and Drum Tower.

But the Bell and Drum Tower had completely disappeared.

Replacing it was a deep pit exceeding a hundred zhang in diameter, with extremely neat ring-shaped cracks still lingering on the edges of the pit.

All the ruins and wreckage had been shattered into tiny fragments by some force, evenly spreading across the bottom of the pit.

"This pit..." The military officer gestured a couple of times, ultimately giving up on a simple description, "how was it made?"

The intelligence officer aimed the recorder at the bottom of the deep pit.

The lens zoomed in, the image magnified, and the figures of two people were at the bottom of the pit.

Xu Zhiwei was leaning against a stone slab, covered in dust and dirt but with a calm expression.

On the altar not far away, Lin Ye sat cross-legged in place, his whole body shrouded in a layer of constantly circulating crimson-gold light flames, his eyes tightly closed and motionless.

"Alive!"

A young trial-taker cried out first, "They are actually not dead???"

Everyone peered downward.

After confirming there was no mistake, everyone let out a long sigh of relief as if their tensed nerves had been pulled out.

Some patted their chests, some wiped the corners of their eyes.

They survived.

They really survived.

In three Ghost Domains about to merge—where even a four-star team was beaten back—both of them survived.

Lu Zhanyou was just about to open his mouth to shout downward when Xu Zhiwei raised her head and made a gesture for him to hush.

"Don't yell at him. He seems to be Cultivate or doing something, and cannot be interrupted."