243: Source Core Touch

"Flee!"

Soul Li's heart was completely filled with this terrifying thought. The opponent's method, which ignored the Hall of Souls' secret techniques and caused all things to Return to the Void with a wave of his hand, had already shattered his Battle Intent. Black mist surged around him as he prepared to use a secret technique and flee far away at any cost.

However, Li Ao's gaze had already locked onto him.

Just as Soul Li's figure was about to blur, Li Ao pressed his fingers together like a blade and lightly swiped in his direction through the air.

There was no brilliant blade light, nor were there violent fluctuations tearing space. There was only a faint gray thread, almost invisible, which silently appeared before Soul Li's glabella, as if it had traversed the barriers of space and time.

Soul Li's pupils contracted sharply. All his Dou Qi and Soul Power frantically condensed at that moment, attempting to set up layers of defense before his glabella. The dying counterattack of a Seven-Star Dou Zun possessed vast energy, and the black mist almost solidified.

But, it was useless.

That gray thread represented not sharpness, but "ending" and "nothingness." It lightly touched the defense that contained the entirety of Soul Li's lifelong cultivation.

Like a hot knife slicing through butter, or a drop of water sinking into sand.

All defenses, whether Dou Qi barriers or Soul shields, had their "concept" of existence fundamentally erased the moment they touched the gray thread. The gray thread passed straight through Soul Li's glabella without the slightest pause, exited the back of his head, and then vanished into the air.

Soul Li's charging motion suddenly froze. The ghostly flame in his eyes instantly extinguished, replaced by a deadly gray-white stillness. The black mist surrounding him rapidly dissipated as if losing its support. His body did not disappear, but all his vitality, Soul, cultivation, and even every trace of his existence in this world, had been completely annihilated by that "Blade of Returning to the Void."

"Thud."

An empty shell softly collapsed onto the dark red platform, completely silent.

The remaining four Soul Hall Elders witnessed this sight, were scared out of their wits, and completely lost the will to resist, fleeing frantically toward the edge of the platform.

Li Ao's eyes were cold; he did not even spare them a glance. With a slight shift in his mind, the "Return to Stillness" Domain surrounding him suddenly expanded, instantly covering the entire dark red platform.

The four fleeing Elder Zun, the moment they rushed into the edge of the Domain, slowed down sharply as if they had sunk into an invisible swamp. The black mist and protective Dou Qi on their bodies rapidly disintegrated and dissolved, like sandcastles scattered by the wind. They opened their mouths in horror but could not make a sound, only watching helplessly as their limbs and torsos slowly turned into nothingness, finally completely dissipating within the Nirvana Illusionary Domain.

Silence returned to the platform. All that remained was the strange Soul Array, which was still slowly operating but whose light had dimmed after losing its controllers, and the Soul Banner, which continued to drip viscous fluid and wail incessantly.

Li Ao ignored the Soul Array. His attention was completely drawn to the massive, cracked light barrier ahead, and the Chaos-like colors behind it, which seemed to contain the ultimate truth of the Universe's birth and destruction.

The closer he got, the stronger the palpitation of the nirvana ancient talisman fragment within him became. Even his own Guixu Great Dao began to resonate with it, spontaneously accelerating its operation and greedily absorbing the strands of incomparably pure "Nirvana Source Qi" seeping out from the cracks.

He walked slowly up to the light barrier, extended his hand, and touched the dim, cracked golden membrane. A vast, ancient aura, bearing the supreme Will of the Seal, emanated from it, but this will was now full of holes, like a flickering candle in the wind.

"Was this what the Medicine Clan protected for ten thousand years..." Li Ao could feel the greatness and weight of the Seal, and he could also sense the terrifying power contained within it, enough to cause heaven and earth to Return to Stillness.

He pondered for a moment, recalling the method for strengthening the Seal passed on by the Will of the Medicine Ancestor. This method was not simply repairing it with energy; instead, it required using his own Guixu Great Dao to mobilize the Domain's rules, weaving new Annihilation Rule threads into the original structure of the Seal like netting, allowing it to regain vitality.

Li Ao sat cross-legged before the light barrier and closed his eyes. His mind completely sank into his own Guixu Great Dao, simultaneously mobilizing the massive Annihilation Rule within the surrounding Domain.

Gradually, a hazy gray light emanated from around him. Threads of intricate and profound gray light, condensed from pure Annihilation Rule, extended from his body like living tentacles, slowly reaching toward the damaged light barrier.

These Rule threads carefully wrapped around the cracks in the light barrier, like the most precise stitching. Every time a trace of Rule power integrated, the crack would slightly close at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, and the dim runes would briefly flash with a faint light.

This was a slow and immensely draining process. It consumed not only Dou Qi and Soul Power but also comprehension of the Great Dao of Annihilation. Only someone like Li Ao, who possessed the Guixu Great Dao and had achieved Minor Achievement in the Nirvana Hegemon Body, could sustain himself here.

During the repair process, through the connection of the Rule threads, Li Ao's spiritual will seemed to penetrate the light barrier, allowing him to perceive the vastness and greatness of the "nirvana source core" behind it more clearly. It was a pure "ending" force, transcending good and evil and order—the ultimate destination of all things, and also the starting point of new life.

During this process, the fragment of the nirvana ancient talisman within him was like rain after a long drought, frantically absorbing the pure Nirvana Source Qi that was escaping from the cracks and that Li Ao had drawn over. The damaged parts of its surface actually began to slowly generate new, more complex patterns...

Time quietly slipped away during this silent repair. Li Ao was like a patient craftsman, mending this vitally important Seal piece by piece. He did not realize that while he was fully immersed, an extremely hidden fluctuation—originating from the same source as the Hall of Souls' aura but much purer and colder—was quietly watching him from the shadows at the edge of the dark red platform, like a viper.