206: Divine remains and remnants, the laws of life and death

The dull sound of a heartbeat, like a beating war drum, came from beneath the temple. Each beat seemed to strike at Ye Chen's Soul, carrying a majesty originating from ancient times and a suffocating, decaying deathly silence. The entire temple trembled violently with this heartbeat, and the carvings of gods and demons on the walls, glowing with scarlet light, seemed to come alive, twisting and dancing, emitting monstrous resentment and killing intent.

"Desecrating the Divine Domain... stealing the Divine Fire... Die!"

That hoarse, ancient consciousness, filled with endless hatred and tyranny, was like billions of cold, poisonous needles stabbing fiercely into Ye Chen's Sea of Consciousness, attempting to contaminate his Divine Soul and disintegrate his will!

This was by no means an ordinary undead or Fiend Soul! This was an ancient god who had fallen here, whose residual will and corpse had undergone terrifying distortion under the erosion of the power of Guixu and eternal Death Qi, transforming into a more terrifying and degenerate existence—a Divine Skeleton Residual Soul!

Its aura was so strong that it had reached the eighth Rank of the Tiangang Realm, even faintly touching the threshold of the ninth Rank! Moreover, due to the combination of its divine essence and the Law of Death, its strength was far more bizarre and difficult to deal with than human Cultivators of the same Rank!

A strong sense of crisis instantly enveloped Ye Chen's entire body! He felt as if he had been targeted by a peerless Vicious Beast from the primordial era, and the surrounding space solidified and froze under this pressure!

But having undergone the baptism of Guixu and the tempering of his Soul by Nirvana, his Dao Heart was already as firm as a rock; how could it be shaken by such a residual Soul and resentment?

"A decaying residual Soul, and you dare to call yourself a god?"

Ye Chen snorted coldly. The clear light of the chaos primordial fetus within his Sea of Consciousness circulated, instantly smoothing out the ripples caused by that mental impact. The Great Accomplishment Nirvana Sword Intent soared into the sky, like a peerless vicious sword unsheathed, fiercely cutting through that invisible mental oppression!

His gaze was like lightning, locked firmly onto that rippling wall. The guixu sword sensed its master's Battle Intent and emitted a low, excited hum. The wisp of "Severing" black light on the blade intertwined with the Nirvana Sword Intent, ready to strike!

"Boom!!!"

The wall behind the altar exploded violently! Amidst the flying debris, a massive, twisted, semi-illusory figure slowly stepped out!

It vaguely maintained a human form, over ten zhang tall, its body composed of dark golden decaying divine bones, writhing black Death Qi, and countless struggling, wailing residual Souls of resentment. On its head, it wore half a broken crown, and in its eye sockets burned two constantly shifting dark red flames condensed from pain and madness. In its hand, it held a massive gray scythe condensed from the pure Law of Death. Wherever the blade passed, even space was left with tiny, long-lasting black marks that refused to heal!

A Divine Skeleton Residual Soul! The remains of a fallen god who wielded the Law of Death!

"Die!"

The Divine Skeleton Residual Soul let out a roar devoid of any emotion, and the massive death scythe in its hand swung out violently! There was no grand momentum, only a gray, arc-shaped ripple that seemed capable of harvesting all life, instantly crossing space and slashing towards Ye Chen's waist!

This strike contained the pure Law of Death! It was not a physical attack, but one that acted directly on the source of life, intending to forcibly strip away Ye Chen's vitality and drag him into eternal death!

Ye Chen's pupils constricted slightly. He could feel his own vitality, under the shroud of this death ripple, actually showing signs of flowing outwards uncontrollably! Even the Domain formed by the Great Accomplishment Nirvana Sword Intent was vibrating slightly, seemingly unable to completely isolate this rule-based attack targeting the concept of "Life"!

"Nirvana is also an end! Your death is useless against me!"

Instead of retreating, Ye Chen advanced, the guixu sword thrusting forward fiercely! On the tip of the sword, the Nirvana Sword Intent and the Law of "Severing" were unleashed to the extreme, concentrated at a single point!

"Break!"

The tiny gray sword tip collided fiercely with the grand death ripple!

"Sss—!"

Like a red-hot branding iron plunged into ice water, a piercing sound of erosion rang out! The moment the ripple containing the Law of Death touched the extreme Nirvana Sword Intent, the rule-based intent of "stripping away life" contained within it was forcibly "Nirvana-ed" and returned to nothingness! The ripple was pierced through by the sword and dissipated!

However, the Divine Skeleton Residual Soul seemed to have anticipated this. While swinging the massive death scythe, its hollow eye sockets suddenly aimed at Ye Chen!

"Soul Withering!"

Two dark red beams of light, as if crossing the boundary between life and death, ignoring physical distance and energy defenses, instantly shot towards the center of Ye Chen's brows! This was an attack directly targeting the Soul Origin, containing a terrifying Law that caused the Divine Soul to decay and wither!

Fast! Too fast! And the method of attack was bizarre and unpredictable!

Ye Chen had just broken through the death ripple; his old strength was spent, and new strength had not yet arisen, yet those two dark red beams were already before his eyes! A strong sense of crisis regarding his Divine Soul made his hair stand on end!

"chaos primordial fetus, Suppress!"

At the critical moment, the chaos primordial fetus within his Sea of Consciousness erupted with an unprecedented, gentle, clear light, acting as the sturdiest barrier to protect the core of Ye Chen's Divine Soul. At the same time, he had a flash of inspiration; his recent insights into "creating something from nothing" and the "Life" aspect of Chaos flooded his mind, instantly combining with the Great Accomplishment Nirvana Sword Intent!

He did not defend; instead, he held the guixu sword horizontally in front of him, the blade seemingly transforming into a mirror reflecting nothingness!

"Nirvana Reflection, Return to Truth!"

Those two dark red beams of Soul Withering shot onto the body of the guixu sword. They did not explode, nor did they penetrate; instead, they seemed to be "reflected" and "analyzed" by the blade, which contained the true meaning of "Nirvana" and "Chaos"! The decaying, withering Law of Death contained within them was constantly disintegrated and stripped away under the Nirvana Sword Intent, and finally, it was forcibly reversed by the intent of Chaos, transforming into pure, attribute-less Soul energy that fed back into Ye Chen's Divine Soul!

Using their own way to repay them! Breaking death with Nirvana, and containing all Laws with Chaos!

"What?!" On the twisted face of the Divine Skeleton Residual Soul, for the first time, a look of anthropomorphic astonishment appeared! It could not understand why its usually invincible Law of Death and Soul could fail against this insignificant human, and even be utilized by him!

Just at this moment of its astonishment—

"Your death, it is time for it to arrive."

Ye Chen's cold voice was like a verdict from the Nine Netherworlds. He seized this fleeting opportunity, his figure and the sword light merging completely!

"Chaos Limitlessness—Nirvana Instant Kill!"

A gray thread, tiny to the extreme, nearly transparent in color, and seemingly not existing in the present world, emerged from the tip of the guixu sword. Ignoring the barriers of space and time, it pierced through the dark red flame core in the center of the Divine Skeleton Residual Soul's brow before it could react!

"Crack..."

It was as if something had shattered. The massive body of the Divine Skeleton Residual Soul suddenly froze, the flames in its eye sockets flickering violently, uncertain, and finally extinguished completely. Its body, composed of Death Qi and resentment, began to collapse and dissipate like a sand tower, and the massive death scythe in its hand also turned into nothingness.

"Un... willing... Divine Domain... will eventually... return..."

The last fragment of consciousness, filled with endless resentment and unwillingness, dissipated into the air.

The massive Divine Skeleton Residual Soul was completely annihilated!

Ye Chen slowly sheathed his sword, his face slightly pale. Continuously unleashing extreme Sword Intent, especially the final "Nirvana Instant Kill" which fused his insights into Chaos, took a huge toll on him. But the gains from this battle were also huge; his understanding of the Law of Life and Death, and his application of Nirvana and Chaos, had risen to a higher level.

He turned his gaze to the ancient lamp on the altar. Having lost the protection of the Divine Skeleton Residual Soul, the ancient lamp floated quietly. The wisp of Chaos flame was still weak, yet it seemed to have become a bit brighter.

He walked forward and reached out his hand; this time, there was no obstruction.

When his fingertips touched the cold lamp body, the wisp of Chaos flame seemed to have found its home; it jumped happily, then transformed into a stream of light, actively merging into the center of Ye Chen's brows, and sank directly into the chaos ancestral talisman within his Qi Sea!

"Hum—!"

The chaos ancestral talisman shone brightly once again. The Dao patterns on its surface further spread and deepened, and a more majestic, purer force of the Chaos Origin, carrying a sense of "creation of life," fed back out! This time, it did not raise his cultivation level, but nourished his Physical Body Foundation and Divine Soul essence at a deeper level, making his connection with the Chaos Dao even closer.

This ancient lamp, or rather this wisp of Chaos flame, completed the "Life" aspect of the chaos ancestral talisman; it was a fragment of the authority of creation and gestation!

Ye Chen could feel that his vitality had become more majestic, his recovery ability was astonishing, and even his perception of and affinity for various energies in heaven and earth had improved by a grade.

He looked down at the bronze ancient lamp in his hand, which had lost its flame and become plain and unadorned. On the lamp body, however, some tiny, even more ancient and mysterious Dao patterns that had not appeared before were now emerging.

These Dao patterns did not seem to be decorations, but a... incomplete star map? Or perhaps, a code recording some kind of information?

Ye Chen focused his mind to comprehend it, and combining it with the vague information transmitted by the chaos ancestral talisman, he vaguely deciphered some fragments:

"...Origin... War... 'Nothingness'... Devour..."

"...'Creation'... Separation... 'Guixu'... Precipitation..."

"...Fragments... Nine... One... can see... Truth..."

The information was still incomplete, but the direction was clearer! The chaos ancestral talisman was not the only shattered authority; there seemed to be other existences of the same Rank, such as "Nothingness" and "Creation"? And only by collecting all nine fragments could one catch a glimpse of the truth of that Origin War?

This ancient lamp not only brought new power, but also lifted another corner of the veil of mystery shrouding history!

Ye Chen put away the bronze ancient lamp, his gaze seemingly piercing through the dome of the temple, looking towards the endless starry sky.

The road ahead was long, and the mysteries were heavy. But the sword in his hand was becoming sharper.

It was time to leave this dead city and continue moving forward.