177: Chapter 177 Mission Completed!

Chen Yuan knelt on one knee, panting heavily.

The darkness in his eyes receded like a tide, restoring their original clarity.

He looked blankly at his trembling hands, then at the fragments of the disintegrating black heart in the distance, a look of pain and guilt intermingled on his face.

"I... what have I done..."

His voice was hoarse and weak.

The white light around Lu Yin gradually dissipated, his face as pale as paper.

Though he had achieved final victory in the confrontation with the terrifying will of the heart of annihilation, his spirit had still suffered damage.

Fortunately, Attribute Conversion had made his mental strength powerful enough that he was not in any life-threatening danger.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao hurried forward to support the swaying Lu Yin.

The dark red glow on the god slaying sword had completely vanished, and his face was equally pale.

Clearly, that last sword strike had exhausted the final remnants of his Sword Demon power.

"Are you alright?" Lin Xiao asked with concern.

Lu Yin shook his head; though mentally exhausted, his eyes remained sharp.

"It's just excessive mental exhaustion. I'll be fine after some rest."

The gazes of both men simultaneously turned toward Chen Yuan, who was kneeling on the ground.

At this moment, the dark aura surrounding Chen Yuan had completely vanished.

Those pure black eyes had regained their former clarity, but they were filled with pain and remorse.

He raised his hand tremblingly, looking at his palm stained with black blood as memories flooded back like a tide.

Everything he had done while controlled by the heart of annihilation was now clearly branded in his mind.

The teammates he had once cruelly murdered, and the life-and-death struggle just now with Lu Yin and Lin Xiao...

"I... I actually..."

Chen Yuan's voice choked, and his eyes became bloodshot.

He suddenly looked up at Lu Yin and Lin Xiao, his eyes full of pain and guilt: "I..."

Lu Yin stepped forward; though his steps were still a bit unsteady, his expression was firm.

"Teacher, that wasn't your intention."

"But those people died because of me..."

Chen Yuan closed his eyes in pain, tears finally falling: "I can never forgive myself."

Lin Xiao sighed and put away the god slaying sword.

"Being controlled by an evil entity was not your wish. What matters is that you're back now."

"Besides, we destroyed the heart of annihilation together; this can be considered avenging your dead friends."

Lin Xiao's words caused Chen Yuan to regain some of his composure.

It was true; although he had killed his former close friends, he had now avenged them.

Furthermore, the Wailing Land was a major threat to the human race.

By resolving this crisis, it could be said that many more lives had been saved.

Seeing Chen Yuan's mood improve slightly, Lu Yin felt relieved.

He broke free from Lin Xiao's support and walked to the shattered heart of silence.

"Lu Yin! Are you okay?"

At that moment, Luo Xiu also rushed over.

Without the support of the heart of annihilation, the previous flesh giant had also collapsed.

With no opponent left, he naturally came here.

"Senior, I'm fine," Lu Yin replied.

Then Luo Xiu's gaze also fell upon the shattered heart of annihilation.

Under Luo Xiu's watch, Lu Yin's palm picked up the damaged black heart.

[heart of annihilation]

[Use: ???]

As Lu Yin pieced it together, the item information for the heart of annihilation appeared.

However, the question marks displayed in the information caused a hint of doubt to appear in Lu Yin's eyes.

Since his divine mission was to obtain the heart of annihilation, and he had now acquired it, why was there no notification of mission completion?

Just as Lu Yin was wondering, the fragments of the heart of annihilation in his hand suddenly began to vibrate slightly.

Between those cracks, a faint dark light flowed, as if something were waking up.

"Something's wrong!" Luo Xiu's expression tightened, and he immediately warned.

Lu Yin also sensed the anomaly and was about to discard the fragments in his hand, but it was already too late.

The fragments seemed to come alive, turning into countless tiny black threads that instantly wound around Lu Yin's arm.

Even more terrifyingly, these black threads directly penetrated his skin and drilled into his blood vessels.

Lu Yin only felt a bone-chilling force spread rapidly along his arm; wherever it passed, his blood almost froze.

He tried to activate Attribute Conversion, but found his power was being eroded and suppressed by this coldness.

"Lu Yin!" Seeing this, Lin Xiao immediately swung the god slaying sword, wanting to sever those black threads.

However, as the sword edge passed through, the threads were like nothingness, completely unable to be harmed by physical attacks.

"This is erosion on the soul level!"

Luo Xiu's face was grave as he quickly pulled out a bottle of God-grade Holy Potion and poured it over Lu Yin's body, attempting to purify the black threads.

Golden light instantly enveloped Lu Yin's entire body, yet the black threads only paused for a moment before continuing to spread upward.

"It's useless... this is something even more terrifying than soul erosion."

Lu Yin gritted his teeth, feeling that icy power eroding his sea of consciousness.

Boom!

Just as the black threads were about to invade Lu Yin's sea of consciousness, a dark aura far more profound than the heart of annihilation suddenly erupted from within his body.

This darkness was not evil, but rather like the pure aura from the birth of the universe, containing an unimaginably vast and majestic power.

Lu Yin's pupils instantly turned into a deep starry sky, with countless stars flowing and dying within them.

"This is..."

In the center of the starry sky, a towering figure sat upon a magnificent Bone Throne.

An eternal and indestructible pressure swept out, causing the entire space to solidify.

The black threads wound around Lu Yin's arm trembled violently, as if meeting their natural enemy.

While emitting a piercing shriek, they tried to flee, but it was already too late.

The figure sitting on the throne slowly raised its eyes, those pupils flowing with stars piercing through endless time and space.

It gazed indifferently at the heart of annihilation that was trying to erode Lu Yin's consciousness.

The residual power of the heart of annihilation appeared so tiny and humble before the even more ancient and primordial dark aura within Lu Yin's body.

That gaze from the Bone Throne carried a majesty that disregarded all things, as if looking at an ant trying to shake the galaxy.

The black threads emitted a final silent shriek before disintegrating inch by inch.

They turned into the purest dark energy and were entirely swallowed and absorbed by the figure on the Bone Throne.

At the exact moment the heart of annihilation completely disintegrated, the ancient power within Lu Yin's body also receded like a tide.

Immediately after, a notification sound came from the system panel.

[Ding! divine mission completed!]

[Experience points increased by 10,000,000!]

[Ding! Your level has increased to Level 61!]

[...]

[Reward obtained: Death God Temple!]

The explosion of experience points allowed Lu Yin to instantly gain 5 levels.

But what he cared about more was the Death God Temple mentioned in the reward notification.

The position where the skeletal figure had been was now replaced by a massive palace.

The palace stood majestically within Lu Yin's sea of consciousness, exuding a solemn and profound aura.

The entire temple was built of unknown black megaliths, with countless complex and mysterious runes carved on the stone walls, faintly flowing with a dark gold luster.

The temple doors were tightly shut, and a giant skeletal totem was carved on the door panels, bearing some resemblance to the figure that had been sitting on the throne earlier.

An indescribable sense of summoning came from deep within the temple, pulling at Lu Yin's consciousness.

Outside, the anomalies around Lu Yin had already subsided, and his pupils, which had been as deep as the starry sky, returned to normal.

But that ancient pressure that had suddenly erupted and then suddenly retracted left Lin Xiao, Chen Yuan, and Luo Xiu with lingering fears, unable to speak for a long time.

"Lu Yin, you..."

Lin Xiao's hand holding the god slaying sword tightened slightly; in that moment just now, the sense of oppression he felt from Lu Yin far exceeded even that of the previous heart of annihilation.