237: The Fury of the Desert, a Clash of Laws
"Rumble—!"
The Eternal Desert seemed to come alive, transforming into a behemoth that devoured everything!
The dark vortex formed by the collapse of the vast sea of sand emitted a heart-palpitating suction force of sinking, twisting and devouring even light and Laws!
Spears of Law, condensed from sinking sand grains, filled the sky, sealing off all room for Ye Chen to dodge. Each spear contained terrifying rules capable of causing a Divine Soul to fall eternally and existence to return to nothingness!
The level of power of this Abyss Will lurking deep within the desert had reached the terrifying Middle Stage of Law Realm!
It was far beyond comparison to that Newborn Mother Nest from before!
Facing this lethal trap, Ye Chen's eyes were as sharp as a peerless divine weapon about to be unsheathed. Far from feeling any fear, a monstrous Battle Intent burned within his chest!
Having just achieved Fusion with the initial fire seed and learned the cruel truth, he was in need of a hearty battle to vent the raging fire and icy murderous intent in his heart!
"Chaos Law — Wall of the Universe!"
His thoughts raced as his Chaos Domain contracted to its limit. It was no longer a simple membrane of light but had transformed into a tangible barrier of Law, flowing with countless Chaos Dao patterns!
On the barrier, the powers of the four great authorities—Heart, Eye, Power, and Origin—manifested like four pillars supporting the heavens, stabilizing all directions!
The terrifying devouring force of the dark vortex acted upon the barrier like giant waves crashing against an eternal reef. Though it stirred up ripples of Chaos across the sky, it could not shake its Foundation!
"Ding ding ding ding—!"
Countless Spears of Sinking Law pelted the Chaos barrier like a rainstorm, creating a dense sound of impacts!
The rules of sinking and nothingness contained within the spear tips frantically eroded the Chaos structure of the barrier, attempting to disintegrate it.
However, after the Fusion with the initial fire seed, Ye Chen's Chaos Law gained a hint of the scorching true meaning of "purification" and "protection." When the sinking rules touched this scorching Chaos, they were like snow meeting the sun; their power greatly diminished, making it difficult for them to penetrate deeper!
"Is this all you have?" Ye Chen stood in the center of the barrier, his guixu sword pointing diagonally at the endless dark vortex below, his voice icy. "If this is all you are capable of, then... perish!"
He no longer defended passively and took the initiative to attack!
"Ultimate Power, Break the Void!"
The guixu sword slashed down fiercely! A Chaos Sword Aura, condensed to the extreme, did not strike at the vortex itself, but at the Foundation of the rules hidden deep within the sea of sand that supported the vortex's existence!
This strike contained the dominance of the Power authority to shatter all Laws, and it also incorporated the rule weakness insight gained from the "Eye" fragment!
"Chi la—!"
The sword qi, like a hot knife through butter, easily tore through layers of sand sea and twisted barriers of rules, striking with pinpoint precision upon a pulsating node of rules woven from countless grey, decaying runes!
"Awoo—!!!"
A howl of extreme pain and fury came from deep within the desert!
The dark vortex suddenly stalled, its devouring force plummeted, and the entire collapsed sea of sand shook violently!
Ye Chen's sword strike had clearly wounded its Foundation!
"You... actually... wounded me?! Unforgivable!!!"
The Abyss Will went completely insane, no longer caring about consumption, and burned an even greater amount of Origin power!
The dark vortex suddenly expanded several times over, and in its center, a cold, ruthless giant eye composed of pure nothingness emerged!
The giant eye opened, and a grey beam of light, as if capable of causing all things to lose their meaning of existence, ignored spatial distance and instantly shone upon Ye Chen's Chaos Domain barrier!
"Gaze of Returning to Nothingness"!
This was a rule-based attack closer to the Abyss Origin than the End-Time Devouring! It was a direct negation of the concept of "existence"!
"Crack..."
Under the illumination of the Gaze of Returning to Nothingness, the Chaos Domain barrier emitted a faint cracking sound!
The Chaos Dao patterns on its surface began to dim, and the phantom images of the evolving worlds also showed signs of collapse!
Ye Chen felt his own Chaos Law being forcibly stripped away and decomposed, as if in the next moment he would be beaten back to his original form and return to absolute "nothingness"!
"Hmph! Is my existence something you can negate?!"
Ye Chen let out a long roar, and the power of the seed of chaos at his brow and the initial fire seed erupted simultaneously!
The gentle, clear radiance of Chaos intertwined with the scorching fire of purification, merging into the Chaos Law!
"Seed of Origin, Hymn of Life! Intent of Fire Seed, Light of Hope!"
He invoked the most fundamental restorative and nourishing power of the "Origin" fragment, as well as the undying protective belief and Light of Hope of Blazing Venerable contained within the initial fire seed!
These two forces were precisely the best weapons to counter "Returning to Nothingness"!
"Hum—!"
The crumbling Chaos Domain barrier suddenly stabilized and became even thicker and more brilliant!
On the surface of the barrier, countless tiny buds and flowers composed of Chaos rules even began to grow, emitting a majestic vitality and the charm of "existence"!
The grey beam of Returning to Nothingness shining upon this vitality was like shadows under sunlight, quickly dispersed and purified!
"Impossible! Vitality... Hope... These... should have long ago... perished!!" The Abyss giant eye revealed an unbelievable fluctuation.
"A frog in a well, how could you know the vastness of Chaos!" Ye Chen's Aura was like a rainbow. Seizing the moment of the opponent's mental shock, he launched his ultimate strike!
He poured all his understanding of Chaos—the extinction of guixu, the vitality of the initial, the dominance of power, the transformation of space, and that unyielding sword heart—into the next strike!
The guixu sword emitted an unprecedented hum. On the blade, the original colors of Chaos flowed, eventually transforming into an Origin color that seemed to transcend the definition of color, encompassing all things while also transcending all things!
"Chaos Returns to One — Opening Heaven and Earth!"
He slashed with his sword. There was no grand momentum, only a tiny ray of Primal Light, as if produced when the Universe's initial singularity exploded, shooting silently towards that giant Abyss eye!
This Primal Light contained the ultimate charm of "birth" and "creation," and was the most fundamental counterattack of "existence" against "nothingness"!
"No—!!!"
The giant Abyss eye let out a scream of extreme despair. It could feel that the level of rules contained within this light had already surpassed the scope of what it could understand and what it could resist!
That was... a crushing at the Origin level!
It frantically mobilized all its power, condensing layers upon layers of grey, decaying barriers before the giant eye, attempting to block it.
However, it was useless.
The Primal Light, like the morning light piercing through nothingness, ignored all defenses and plunged straight into that cold giant eye!
"Pop..."
A slight sound, as if a bubble had burst.
That giant eye composed of pure nothingness suddenly froze, and then, like a shattered mirror, became covered in countless cracks!
From within the cracks, the Primal Light burst forth!
"Boom—!!!"
The giant eye exploded completely! Along with the massive dark vortex beneath it and the surrounding boiling sea of sand, everything was swept up, purified, and reconstructed by the erupting Primal Light at this moment!
The grey, decaying colors faded away, and the charm of sinking dissipated.
When the light faded, Ye Chen stood holding his sword. Beneath his feet was no longer a collapsed vortex, but a solid piece of land that had been forcibly smoothed out, even faintly radiating a trace of weak vitality!
Although still desolate, that suffocating sense of deathly silence and sinking had disappeared without a trace.
The frantic Abyss Will deep in the desert had its Aura completely annihilated, as if it had never existed.
He had won!
With the power of the Early Stage of Law Realm, he had brazenly slain an Incarnation of the Abyss Will at the Middle Stage of Law Realm!
Ye Chen panted slightly, his face somewhat pale.
That ultimate strike, "Opening Heaven and Earth," had almost drained more than half of his Chaos Law power and had also greatly exhausted his mental energy.
But the gains from this battle were equally unparalleled!
In the life-and-death struggle, his application of Chaos Law had reached a new height, the Fusion of the four great authorities was more perfect, and especially his understanding of "life" and "death," "existence" and "nothingness" had deepened by more than several times!
He had even touched upon the threshold of completely merging Chaos Law with his own Sword Dao to evolve a Chaos Sword Dao Law unique to himself!
He calmed his surging breath and cast his gaze once again towards the myriad laws star disk.
On the star map, in this area representing the Eternal Desert, that hideous "Dark Eye" had already dimmed and disappeared.
However, those coordinate points marked with grey, decaying Auras around it, especially the Seventh Rock Outpost, remained glaringly bright.
The truth had not changed because of one victory.
He must rush back as soon as possible! Regardless of whether Rock Mountain and Xi had truly been infiltrated, he needed to go and confirm, to respond!
If it were truly as the star map indicated... then what he would be facing would be an even more difficult, even more cruel war—betrayal and erosion from within!
Without further delay, Ye Chen's figure transformed into a stream of Chaos light, speeding towards the direction of the Seventh Outpost at a speed faster than when he arrived!
The seed of chaos and the initial fire seed at his brow pulsed slightly, transmitting a warm yet firm power.
The road ahead might be dark, but his sword would, as always, cut through the mist!