Chapter 161: Destroyed Core

Chapter 161: Destroyed Core

The core tumbled through the air.

For one brief heartbeat, Lothe stared at it. He had done it. The core was finally separated from the formation.

But the battle wasn’t over.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Crimson-black energy erupted from the severed pathways, violently shaking the Fourfold Void Array. The four Void Spear fragments trembled.

CRACK!

Another fracture spread across the northern anchor.

Lothe’s expression tightened. "Of course you wouldn’t make this easy."

His spirit brush swept through the air, reinforcing the surrounding runes.

[SOUL ENERGY DEPLETION: 76%]

The array consumed his Soul Energy relentlessly. Maintaining four spatial anchors while suppressing the core’s accumulated energy was far more demanding than he had anticipated. Every second felt like forcing a mountain through his spiritual sea.

Beside him, Professor Sy hovered in the turbulent sky, his robes whipping violently in the surrounding currents. "Your array won’t hold much longer!"

"I know."

"Then destroy the core!"

Lothe looked at the dark sphere. Its surface was already covered in cracks, with golden and crimson light leaking through as the energy within grew increasingly unstable.

He could destroy it. But the explosion—

His gaze shifted downward.

Far below, Seana hovered above the shattered battlefield. Her Blood Moon Sword remained raised toward the heavens, and the colossal Crimson Lotus Sanctuary spread beneath her, sheltering the thousands of survivors gathered in the trenches.

Its enormous petals trembled under the strain. Seana’s body was barely holding together. Blood stained her lips, her sword arm shook violently, and the crimson veins running through the lotus flickered as her Blood Qi continued to drain.

Yet she refused to let the sanctuary collapse.

Lothe’s eyes narrowed. He had to finish this before her strength ran out.

[SOUL ENERGY DEPLETION: 89%]

The core pulsed. THUMP!

A violent shockwave swept across the floating ruins. The spatial anchors shook, and the purple runes began flickering.

[WARNING: ARRAY STABILITY CRITICAL!]

Lothe’s meridians burned as he forced more Qi into the formation. His spiritual sea throbbed painfully, and blood trickled down his chin. Yet he maintained the array. He couldn’t let the core explode uncontrollably. Not with Seana and thousands of survivors beneath him.

Then he understood.

He didn’t need to stop the explosion. He needed to control where its destructive force went.

Lothe’s eyes sharpened. "Professor Sy, get clear!"

Sy immediately retreated several dozen meters, struggling against the turbulent currents. "Lothe, what are you planning?"

"Something expensive."

Lothe released the spirit brush. He brought both hands forward and forced the remaining spatial Qi in his meridians toward his palms. Purple light gathered between them.

HUMMMMM!

Space began rotating. A tiny vortex formed, its center darker than the surrounding sky.

Lothe stared at it. The rotation was unstable. The spatial boundaries warped erratically, and the surrounding air bent toward its center. He had no technique designed for this. No manual. No inheritance. No prepared formation.

He was creating something entirely new. Right here. Right now. With a failing array behind him and an unstable core directly ahead.

His mind raced. Spatial compression. Rotational force. Coordinate distortion. He needed to redirect the explosion’s destructive energy, compressing it into a spatial pocket until the force could no longer spread outward.

An absurd idea. A reckless one. A single mistake could tear his meridians apart or collapse the surrounding space.

But there was no time to find another solution.

"Fine," his fingers curled. "I’ll make one."

He twisted his hands in opposite directions. The vortex expanded. Five meters. Ten meters. Its rotating spatial boundaries distorted everything around it.

KRRRRRRR...

Fragments of broken stone drifted toward the vortex before being shredded into dust by its rotating boundaries. Lothe’s meridians convulsed.

[WARNING: UNREGISTERED SKILL DETECTED!]

[Skill Construction: UNSTABLE.]

[WARNING: HOST IS FORCEFULLY CONSTRUCTING A SPATIAL Skill UNDER CRITICAL CONDITIONS.]

He ignored the notifications. The vortex needed more power. He forced another surge of Qi into it.

[QI RESERVES CRITICALLY LOW!]

Pain exploded through his arms. His meridians felt as though someone had driven red-hot needles through every channel in his body. He clenched his teeth. The vortex expanded until its boundaries surrounded the unstable core.

[MERIDIAN STRAIN: SEVERE!]

His vision blurred. Blood ran from his nose.

Then the core began to detonate.

KRRRRRRACK!

Cracks spread across its surface. Blinding crimson and golden light burst through the gaps. Lothe’s pupils contracted.

"NOW!"

He thrust both hands forward. "VOID VORTEX!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The core exploded. A catastrophic wave of energy collided with the vortex. Its outer spatial boundaries shattered immediately.

CRACK!

The backlash slammed into Lothe. His arms jerked violently. He felt something tear deep inside his meridians, and blood erupted from his mouth.

For an instant, his hands nearly dropped. The vortex began collapsing. The explosion pushed against it with enough force to tear open the surrounding space, and crimson and golden energy poured through the fractured boundaries, threatening to escape in every direction.

Lothe’s knees buckled. He forced them straight.

"ROTATE!"

The vortex accelerated. The destructive force spiraled inward, its energy compressed into the distorted spatial pocket at the center.

Another layer shattered. CRACK! Then another. CRACK!

Each collapse sent another wave of backlash through Lothe’s body. His fingers went numb. His shoulders shook uncontrollably. He could barely feel his own arms.

[SOUL ENERGY DEPLETION: 98%]

His spiritual sea was almost empty. The vortex trembled, its rotation slowing. Lothe’s consciousness flickered.

He had miscalculated. The technique was consuming more energy than he could supply, and the force of the explosion was tearing it apart faster than he could stabilize it. If he continued, his meridians might never recover.

If he stopped—

The explosion would tear through the valley. The Crimson Lotus Sanctuary would be overwhelmed. Everyone beneath it would die.

His gaze drifted downward. Through the collapsing spatial boundaries, he saw the enormous crimson lotus protecting the survivors. He saw its trembling petals. He saw Seana hovering beneath it, refusing to fall.

His chest tightened. Seana...

He remembered her smile. Her voice. The way she had trusted him to finish this.

His fingers twitched. The vortex shuddered. Lothe’s spiritual sea was nearly dry. His meridians were damaged. His body had reached its limit.

But his will hadn’t.

[WARNING: SOUL ENERGY DEPLETION CRITICAL!]

[WARNING: CORE INSTABILITY!]

[WARNING: CONTINUED SKILL EXECUTION MAY CAUSE PERMANENT CORE DAMAGE!]

Lothe’s lips curled into a bloodied smile. "Then I’ll deal with that later."

He forced his trembling hands together. The vortex accelerated once more. The remaining crimson-black energy twisted inward, compressed until the enormous explosion became a tiny, unstable sphere.

The sphere trembled. A thin crack appeared across its surface.

Lothe’s arms shook violently. He couldn’t afford another failure. He couldn’t afford to lose consciousness. He couldn’t afford to let go.

"COLLAPSE!"

He clenched his fist. CRACK!

Every remaining trace of crimson-black energy vanished into the spatial pocket. The vortex contracted violently before collapsing into a single point of purple light.

Then—silence.

The core was destroyed.

Across the shattered Ancient Palace, the remaining crimson eyes went dark. The enormous formation disintegrated. The crimson-black bombardment finally stopped, and golden formations scattered throughout the floating ruins faded one after another.

The battle was over.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, the heavens above the valley were free of the Palace’s relentless assault.

Lothe’s hands dropped. His body swayed. He tried to stabilize himself in the air, but his spatial Qi flickered. For one horrifying moment, he began sinking.

He hurriedly gathered what little control he had left, forcing a thin layer of spatial energy beneath his feet. It barely worked. He remained suspended several hundred meters above the shattered battlefield, trembling violently.

Blood dripped from his mouth. His arms hung uselessly at his sides. Every breath felt like dragging a blade through his lungs. His meridians throbbed with unbearable pain, and his spiritual sea was so depleted that even gathering a trace of Qi seemed impossible.

He had succeeded. But the price was written across every inch of his body.

A notification appeared before his fading vision:

[ANCIENT CORE DESTROYED!]

[MAJOR CONTRIBUTION RECORDED!]

[EXPERIENCE POINTS: MAXIMUM REACHED!]

[BREAKTHROUGH THRESHOLD EXCEEDED!]

[HOST HAS REACHED THE REQUIREMENTS FOR CORE FORMATION REALM!]

[BREAKTHROUGH AVAILABLE.]