178: Want to escape? Then let me try out my new toy.

Dead silence.

Absolute silence shrouded the entire core of the Demonic Evils' nest.

The air was thick with an inescapable scent of blood.

And a deeper, bone-chilling cold that made one's Soul tremble.

All Demonic Evils, whether they were the low-ranking ones crawling on the ground performing rituals, or the other two Sixth-Tier Demonic Evil existences known as "Holy Envoys" at the Peak,

were all frozen in place as if encased in invisible ice.

Their pupils contracted violently, reflecting the still-warm, scattered chunks of flesh and blood in front of them.

There was no emotion in their eyes other than fear.

They truly could not believe the scene before them.

The Golden Armored Lizard King, the existence among the three Holy Envoys with the most formidable Physical Body and the most domineering power,

had actually been swatted by a human with a casual wave of his hand, like crushing a rotten fruit, leaving no bones or remains behind?

This was completely beyond the scope of their understanding!

It was a thorough, despair-inducing suppression!

"No... Impossible!" the Thousand-Faced Poison Venerable said, its face full of terror, its countless compound eyes filled with shock, "The Lizard King! The Lizard King... how could he..."

The Shadow Demon Lord's cold voice now carried an obvious tremor: "One strike... just one strike... what kind of power is this?!"

They had originally thought that no matter how strong the opponent was, there should be a limit.

With the three Holy Envoys working together and relying on the geographical advantage of the Demonic Evils' nest core, they should have been able to at least stall for a while, or perhaps even find a glimmer of hope.

However, reality had dealt them the cruelest and most direct blow!

A one-hit kill!

An absolute, crushing one-hit kill!

The gap was so large that they couldn't even bring themselves to think of resisting!

This human before them was simply not an existence they could understand!

He was a monster!

He was a natural disaster walking among the living!

He was an Incarnation of destruction from the abyss!

The Shadow Demon Lord had originally been calculating the possibility of resistance or negotiation.

But this casual yet terrifyingly unparalleled strike from Chen Nian completely shattered all its wishful thinking.

Clearly, the man before them had no intention of letting them go!

At this moment, it was unclear which Demonic Evil first let out a scream of collapse, acting like a lit fuse.

"Run! Run quickly!"

"The Holy Envoy is dead! We are finished!"

The fanatical faith that had just been gathered for the ritual instantly crumbled in the face of absolute power and death.

The surviving Demonic Evils fell into complete chaos, crying and screaming.

Like headless flies, they fled desperately toward the tunnels around the nest.

Only wishing to get away from that figure who was like a demon god.

What sacred heart, what glory—all of it became a joke in the face of the instinct to survive.

In an instant, the entire nest was in turmoil!

The Demonic Evils pushed and trampled each other, knocked over altars, and tore their companions apart.

Just to be further, even a little further, from that terrifying human!

Even the Shadow Demon Lord and the Thousand-Faced Poison Venerable had completely lost their will to fight.

They looked at each other and saw the same shock and despair in each other's eyes.

"Run! Must run!" the Thousand-Faced Poison Venerable said without the slightest hesitation.

"Flee separately! If one can get away, so be it!" the Shadow Demon Lord whispered. Light and shadow around it suddenly exploded, turning into countless twisted shadows that shot out in different directions!

The Thousand-Faced Poison Venerable did not hesitate either; its many legs exerted force, and its massive body dove into a crack in the ground like a ghost, attempting to escape from underground!

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter!

When disaster strikes, everyone flies for themselves!

The two Holy Envoys, under extreme fear, made the most instinctive choice—abandon everything and flee for their lives!

However, facing this torrent of Demonic Evils scattering like ants in a frying pan,

Chen Nian, at the center of the storm, remained heart-wrenchingly calm.

His gaze swept over the Demonic Evils fleeing like stray dogs, and the corners of his mouth curled into an arc of extreme contempt.

"Hmph."

He let out a cold sneer.

"Know how to run now?"

"Weren't you quite arrogant just a moment ago?"

"A bunch of trash!"

"Since you came, none of you are leaving."

"Just right, let me try my new toy on you."

The moment the words fell—

Chen Nian's eyes narrowed, and an indescribable, cold, and dead-silent dark energy that seemed capable of devouring all light and heat suddenly exploded from him as the center!

Abyssal Return to Silence, activate!

"Hum—!!!"

An invisible ripple, carrying the power of an absolute Law, swept through the entire nest space like mercury spilling onto the ground!

There was no earth-shattering roar, no dazzling light.

But in an instant, the entire nest fell into a strange, absolute silence that froze the Soul!

Time seemed to have been pressed with a pause button.

Space became viscous and stagnant.

The light dimmed, and the sound vanished without a trace.

All the fleeing Demonic Evils suddenly froze in their movements!

It was as if they had been thrown into an ice sea billions of fathoms deep, where everything around them became slow, heavy, and unable to move!

They were forcibly slowed, suppressed, and even tending toward stagnation!

"This... what... is this?!"

The countless shadows that the Shadow Demon Lord had turned into were frozen in mid-air, like insects trapped in amber.

It felt a fear stemming from the instinct of life!

The Thousand-Faced Poison Venerable was stuck in a crack in the ground, its many legs rigid.

It discovered in terror that its hard carapace was losing its luster, and the poison in its body seemed to be solidifying!

"My body... I can't move!"

"Energy... is dissipating!"

"No! No—! My life... is fading away!"

However, this was not the most terrifying part!

The next second!

Chen Nian just waved his hand.

"Swish—!!!"

A dark beam, condensed to the extreme and seemingly composed of pure nothingness,

silently swept past from the tip of Chen Nian's finger toward the area where the fleeing Demonic Evils were most densely packed!

In an instant.

A large patch of the frozen Demonic Evils, their bodies, their Souls, every trace of their existence...

the moment the dark beam swept past, they were directly decomposed, annihilated, and turned into the most primitive nothingness!

They were completely erased from this world!

Not even a speck of dust or a wisp of smoke remained!

For a moment, extreme fear, like a cold viper, coiled around the heart of every Demonic Evil!

They watched helplessly as their colleagues were instantly annihilated, yet they couldn't even struggle or let out a wail!

They looked at Chen Nian with eyes filled with endless regret, fear, and pleading!

If they had known earlier that they would provoke such an existence,

they would rather have huddled in a dark corner forever and never dared to step out even half a step!

However, it was all too late!

They had already offended this god of slaughter!

They were all dead!

Unlike their fear, Chen Nian was very pleased at this moment.

【Ding! Killed a Fifth-Rank Demonic Evil, gained 17233 points!】

【Ding! Killed a Fifth-Rank Demonic Evil, gained 18552 points!】

【Ding! Killed a Fifth-Rank Demonic Evil, gained 19891 points!】

【Ding! Killed a Sixth-Tier Demonic Evil, gained 23567 points!】

...

The System's notification sounds were frantically flooding Chen Nian's mind at an unprecedented frequency!

The points were skyrocketing like they had taken a rocket!

Chen Nian looked at this highly efficient clearing effect, a look of satisfaction flashing in his eyes.

"Not bad, really not bad."

"Annihilating existence, returning to nothingness."

"The effect of this 'Abyssal Return to Silence' is not bad!"

Thinking this, as if he had discovered an interesting new toy, he excitedly raised his hand again.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

Several more Light of Annihilation beams swept out silently!