Chapter 431 The Demonic Flame Returns to One, the Heavenly Emperor Falls

A sharp pain shot through his shoulder as golden blood gushed out like a spring.

The Heavenly Emperor looked down at the wound, a flash of astonishment in his eyes—for ten thousand years, he had long forgotten the sensation of being injured.

But in just an instant, that astonishment was swallowed by a towering rage.

"Reverse Path scoundrel... You actually dare to injure this Venerable One's Imperial Body!"

His voice was hoarse, and the golden Divine Light around him surged frantically in an attempt to repair the wound. However, the pitch-black Demonic Flame wrapped around the edges of the wound was like a maggot on a bone, constantly eroding the new flesh and preventing it from healing.

Nightmare stood with his blade in hand, Demonic Flame flowing around him. His aura was as steady as before, perhaps even a fraction stronger than it had been before the battle began.

"Injure you?" The corner of his mouth curled into a cold arc. "Today, I shall slay you."

The Heavenly Emperor's pupils constricted suddenly.

In the next instant, he actually turned around without hesitation, tearing through space with both hands!

"Trying to leave?" Nightmare's gaze sharpened.

He had long expected the other to flee—at this level of Cultivator, who didn't cherish their life?

"Dao Reversal Unification: Cage!"

Nightmare formed hand seals, and the three dao reversal keys within his body resonated frantically. Pitch-black Demonic Flame surged in all directions like a tide, enveloping a hundred-mile radius in an instant!

"Buzz—!!"

Space was completely frozen and sealed! The spatial rift the Heavenly Emperor had torn open was crushed and squeezed shut by the Demonic Flame before it could fully expand!

"You!" The Heavenly Emperor turned around abruptly, a hint of terror finally flashing in his eyes.

He gritted his teeth as a golden rune lit up on his forehead—it was the Transmission Talisman of the Divine Court's ancient ancestral land, to be used only in moments of life or death!

The rune transformed into an invisible ripple, attempting to penetrate the seal and seek help from the ancestral land!

"Heh."

Nightmare sneered and clenched his raised hand.

"Dao Reversal Unification: Forbidden Domain!"

The pitch-black Demonic Flame contracted again, forming an airtight spherical barrier that completely trapped the Heavenly Emperor along with that transmission ripple inside!

The ripple struck the barrier and vanished silently, like a clay ox entering the sea.

The Heavenly Emperor's face finally turned pale.

He couldn't flee, and he couldn't send for help.

A true desperate situation.

"Who... exactly are you?!" He stared fixedly at Nightmare. "The Reverse Path Legacy was severed long ago. How can you possess such complete Reverse Dao Power?!"

Nightmare did not answer.

He slowly raised his right hand, palm facing upward.

All the Dao Reversal Origin within his body began to gather frantically—from his Dantian, from his Meridians, from the depths of his Divine Soul, and even the power refined from the Heavenly Emperor's blood he had just devoured, all surged toward his palm!

The pitch-black Demonic Flame was compressed, solidified, and compressed again... Finally, it transformed into a black orb the size of a fist. Countless Reverse Path runes flowed over its surface, and inside, scenes of the birth of Chaos and the annihilation of the Universe seemed to emerge alternately.

Though the orb was small, the aura it emitted made the hair on the Heavenly Emperor's body stand on end!

That was... a power sufficient to completely obliterate him!

"This move was originally prepared for powerful enemies after stepping out of the Hongmeng Universe."

Nightmare looked at the Heavenly Emperor, his voice terrifyingly calm:

"Today, I shall test it on you."

He suddenly clenched his fingers!

"Grandmist Chaos Void Annihilation Reincarnation Unification: Dao Reversal Ultimate Kill!"

"Buzz—!!!"

The black orb transformed into a pitch-black beam as thin as a hair, shooting out silently.

Wherever the beam passed, space did not shatter but simply "disappeared"—it was completely erased from the level of existence, leaving not even void behind.

The Heavenly Emperor's pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks!

He roared hoarsely, the remaining Origin in his body burning frantically as it transformed into a heavy golden imperial seal in front of him—the Heavenly Emperor Seal, the Divine Court's treasure for suppressing fortune, capable of blocking a strike from a Half-step Transcendence!

Simultaneously, his hands formed thousands of dharma seals, and layers of defensive barriers unfolded before him!

"Block it for this Venerable One!!!"

The pitch-black beam touched the imperial seal.

There was no explosion, no loud noise.

Only a faint "chi" sound.

A pinhole-sized black dot appeared on the surface of the imperial seal.

Then, the black dot spread rapidly, creeping across the entire seal like a plague. In less than a breath, this Heavenly Emperor Seal, which had guarded the Divine Court for ten thousand years, dissolved into flying ash.

The beam did not stop.

It pierced through the layers of defensive barriers like a hot knife through butter, without any resistance.

Despair finally surfaced in the Heavenly Emperor's eyes.

"No... impossible... This Venerable One is the Grandmist Orthodox... how could..."

Before his words could finish.

The pitch-black beam sank into the core of his Dantian.

The Heavenly Emperor's body suddenly froze.

He looked down at his chest—there was no wound, no blood, only a thumb-sized pitch-black void.

Around the edges of the void, the pitch-black Demonic Flame squirmed and spread like a living creature.

He could clearly feel his Origin, Divine Soul, and life force being frantically devoured and annihilated by that void!

"Reverse Path... scoundrel..."

The Heavenly Emperor looked up at Nightmare, his eyes filled with venomous resentment and unwillingness:

"This Venerable One... even as a ghost... will not let you go..."

His voice was hoarse and grew weaker and weaker.

His body began to disintegrate inch by inch—not shattering, but turning directly into the most primitive particles and dissipating into the world.

The golden imperial robe turned to ash.

Flesh, blood, and bone turned to ash.

The Divine Soul and Origin turned to ash.

In just three breaths.

The Heavenly Emperor of the Divine Court, the ten-thousand-year orthodox, the ruler of the Hongmeng Universe—

Had completely fallen.

In his place, only a ball of incredibly pure golden Origin remained, along with a palm-sized token covered in flowing patterns of the Universe's Laws.

Nightmare waved his hand, taking both into his palm.

The golden Origin felt warm in his hand, containing the Heavenly Emperor's lifelong cultivation, enough for him to take another step forward.

And that token... "The Hongmeng Universe Ruling Token."

Nightmare stroked the patterns on the token's surface, Demonic Flame flickering in his eyes:

"Holding this token, one can mobilize thirty percent of the Hongmeng Universe's Origin power..."

He looked up at the three hundred elites watching the battle from afar, his voice spreading in all directions:

"Pass the order."

"The Heavenly Emperor is dead; the Divine Court shall be destroyed."

"Nidao Alliance—"

"From this day forth, shall rule over the Grandmist."