435: Chapter 435 A Pyrrhic Victory in the Flower Realm

"Great! It worked!"

Several Golden Core Cultivators of the Huajian Plane who were lucky enough to survive wept with joy; their Cultivation Technique's escape speed was slightly slower, so they hadn't stepped into the Evil Suppressing and Demon Locking Formation.

Yes, they survived.

The moment the Void Realm was pierced, the Wanqian Mountains, the location of Myriad Heavens Palace, and even the entire land covered by the Evil Suppressing and Demon Locking Formation were suddenly shifted by the great power of the Void Realm.

When they reappeared, they had already been incorporated into this newly formed Secret Realm Mini-World.

This was a stable Secret Realm Mini-World independent of the Huajian Plane.

Although called a Secret Realm Mini-World, it was actually more like a prison specifically built for True Lord Qing Lie.

Because the newly formed Secret Realm was very stable and had not yet formed an exit passage, he couldn't get out at all.

True Lord Qing Lie's expression suddenly froze, replaced by overwhelming terror and rage.

He frantically pushed his Late Nascent Soul Stage cultivation, slamming both fists against the Secret Realm's barrier. Each strike was enough to shatter stars, but they landed on this Secret Realm Mini-World without causing even a tremor!

"You think you can trap me to death?! The Secret Realm will open one day!"

"One hundred years, five hundred years, three thousand years!"

"I can afford to wait!"

"I can afford to wait!!!"

True Lord Qing Lie roared incessantly, exhausting every means in an attempt to escape this Secret Realm.

But in the next moment, a familiar voice echoed slowly within this mini-world.

"Who said we were going to trap you to death?"

The Green-Robed Expert's voice suddenly resounded throughout the entire Secret Realm.

True Lord Qing Lie, who was frantically striking his surroundings, suddenly froze as a chilling malice from the deepest depths of the mini-world descended with a boom.

It was a coldness that saw the entire Secret Realm Mini-World as a mortal enemy.

The next moment—

Hum—!!!

The entire Secret Realm world suddenly collapsed inward!

It wasn't shattering or crumbling, but a crushing of heaven and earth.

The Wanqian Mountains, the Evil Suppressing and Demon Locking Formation, the Spiritual Veins of Myriad Heavens Palace, the Spiritual Qi sacrificed by dozens of Golden Core Cultivators, the cultivation and Dao foundations burned away by Fang Yanzu and the Green-Robed Expert...

All forces gathered as one. At this moment, the Secret Realm Mini-World was no longer a cage, but transformed into a collapsing force that devoured heaven and earth, squeezing True Lord Qing Lie fiercely from all directions and all ten dimensions!

This collapsing force did not harm the Secret Realm in the slightest; it was targeted only at him.

This was no cage.

This was a Heavenly Guillotine.

True Lord Qing Lie's pupils constricted and then burst as he finally realized—the opponent never intended to trap him for thousands or tens of thousands of years from the very beginning.

What they wanted was to use the power of the Secret Realm world to obliterate him on the spot!

"Break for me—!!"

True Lord Qing Lie decisively burned his Life Essence, pushing his lifelong cultivation to the limit. Various divine lights soared around him, forcefully propping up layers of barriers.

But the pressure of the Secret Realm continued to climb. Every inch of space was as heavy as billions of divine mountains, pressing in step by step.

Crack, crack, crack—Bang, bang, bang—!!!

The spiritual light barriers he propped up exploded layer by layer. His Physical Body began to crack, and his Divine Soul was squeezed until it twisted and wailed.

"I am True Lord Qing Lie! The strongest in the current Huajian Plane!"

"I will break through to Soul Transformation! I am not willing—!!"

The crushing momentum of heaven and earth did not pause for a second; instead, it became even more rapid and ruthless.

True Lord Qing Lie's protective spiritual light was annihilated inch by inch. His Physical Body was crushed into Blood Mist bit by bit, and his Nascent Soul was forcibly crushed and ground away amidst screams.

His roars went from violent to shrill, then to weak, and finally dissipated completely within this closed world.

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

There were no flashy phenomena.

There was only dead silence.

When the last ripple of fluctuation settled, the Secret Realm Mini-World returned to peace.

True Lord Qing Lie has fallen!

He was completely crushed into a mass of Blood Mist by the collapsing force.

The mini-world was silent.

After an unknown amount of time, two Remnant Souls slowly appeared.

They were Fang Yanzu and the Green-Robed Expert. Their Remnant Souls were already nearly transparent, on the verge of exhaustion.

All that remained around them were fragments of treasures and the dilapidated mountain gate of Myriad Heavens Palace.

This battle.

The Huajian Plane had won.

But it was a tragic victory beyond compare.

"Fellow Daoist Fang, you and I have little time left. Why don't we each leave a Legacy for future generations?"

Fang Yanzu nodded slightly; he had the same intention.

Two streaks of spiritual light were cast into different corners of the Secret Realm Mini-World, and the Legacies were thus settled.

They would only wait for thousands of years until the Secret Realm opened again, for a destined person to come and take them.

But...

Did they really win?

The world was silent.

But that mass of Blood Mist refused to dissipate for a long time...

Just when they thought the great battle had concluded, at the place where True Lord Qing Lie had been crushed into Blood Mist—

The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi of the originally peaceful Secret Realm Mini-World suddenly distorted violently.

The Blood Mist spread frantically.

A Chaotic Evil Intent, a hundred times colder and a thousand times more violent than True Lord Qing Lie, slowly emerged from the Blood Mist, its figure several times larger than even True Lord Mo Shan.

The evil mist rolled endlessly, almost covering half the sky of the Secret Realm Mini-World.

A colossal octopus-shaped entity slowly condensed, and upon it, eight huge, mangled, yet infinitely resentful faces gradually appeared.

The eight giant faces shared the same sorrow, anger, and hatred. Their aura intertwined, not at all weaker than the deceased True Lord Qing Lie, and perhaps even stronger!

Peak Late Nascent Soul Stage!!

Only one step away from entering the Soul Transformation realm!

And two of those giant faces were all too familiar to Fang Yanzu and the Green-Robed Expert—

They were precisely True Lord Mo Shan and True Lord Qing Lie!

From within the Chaotic Evil Mist came a cold laugh that spanned endless ages, neither male nor female, neither human nor demon, as if countless resentful Souls were speaking at once.

"Heh, Qing Lie? Mo Shan? They were but two chess pieces discarded by this venerable one."

"Do you really think a mere Secret Realm Mini-World could break this venerable one's layout?"

"This venerable one was dissatisfied with the shackles of heaven and earth, dissatisfied with the end of Lifespan, and dissatisfied with the limits of cultivation!"

"Therefore, this venerable one created this method, using myself as a furnace and evil techniques as a guide, to lure and devour successive generations of Nascent Soul Cultivators who were unwilling to pass away, continuously undergoing Fusion, devouring, and becoming one..."

"Huo huo huo, today I shall take your final Remnant Souls to witness this venerable one's Soul Transformation Grand Dao!"

As the words fell.

The Chaotic Evil Mist suddenly surged!

The Green-Robed Expert gritted his teeth to resist again, but was held deathly still by an invisible force.

He had already exhausted all his means and no longer had any strength left to resist.

"Pfft... Absurd... As the Heavenly Dao, I absolutely will not allow—"

"Oh? You won't allow it?"

The Eight-Faced Evil Spirit chuckled and took a light breath.

The Green-Robed Expert's nearly transparent Remnant Soul was easily devoured by the Chaotic Evil Mist.

A pity for a generation's expert, who was thus completely annihilated.

"Hmm, there is actually a trace of such pure Heaven and Earth Origin."

"So you were formed from a wisp of the Heavenly Dao's will; no wonder you had such means."

In the blink of an eye, only one person remained on the battlefield—

Fang Yanzu.

His Remnant Soul was also about to dissipate, completely enveloped by Chaotic Evil Intent. The cold devouring force had already invaded his marrow and Sea of Consciousness.

Everything was about to end.

With infinite smugness and indifference, the Eight-Faced Evil Spirit began to devour Fang Yanzu's final Remnant Soul.

But at the moment it devoured to the deepest part and touched the Origin of Fang Yanzu's Soul...

Fang Yanzu's eyes, which had long since dimmed, suddenly lit up slightly, and even the corner of his mouth quirked upward in an extremely subtle and eerie way.

That was not despair.

Not sadness.

Not a lament.

But a kind of calm, cold smile.

Seeing this scene, the Eight-Faced Evil Spirit's devouring action came to a sudden halt.

It suddenly felt as if what it had swallowed was not as simple as just the Remnant Soul of a Nascent Soul Cultivator...