Chapter 1218: What Is That? (2)

“It’s fine.” Xu Ran’s divine thought was extraordinarily calm, without a trace of fear, only the hunter’s calmness, “The stronger they are, the more intense the fight will be. Our chance does not lie in their negligence, but in the broken sword itself.”

His gaze pierced through layers of evil qi, locking firmly onto the giant broken sword named “Godslaying Blade.”

The towering pillar of blood light seemed like a mere release of energy, but in Xu Ran’s Reincarnation Eye, it presented a different scene. It was composed of countless indomitable war spirits, undying slaughter intent, and a fragmented yet supreme… “Law of the Source of Battle!”

This power was wild, chaotic, filled with the desire to destroy everything. For ordinary cultivators, not to mention absorption, merely approaching it would cause their heart spirit to be assimilated, turning into a killing fiend.

But for Xu Ran, it was different!

He had just shattered the “Dan Furnace” of heavenly principles, leaving both his divine soul and dao foundation imprinted with a mark of defiance against “order.” He himself was an “anomaly” rejected by the order of heavenly principles. And this power before him, its core essence, was the polar opposite of heaven’s supreme “order”… “Rebellion!”

As a fellow rebel against order, perhaps he could harness this power!

More importantly, his shattered dao foundation needed repair; ordinary Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi or Dao Principles fragments were far from enough. Only energy containing the supreme source could possibly rebuild his crumbled foundation!

This was both a crisis of life and death and a rare opportunity in eons!

“Be ready.” Xu Ran’s divine thought conveyed to the two, “When the evil qi tide reaches its peak, the three of them will surely fight fiercely to seize the most pure ‘source of evil qi.’ It will be our time to act then!”

Zhen Shan and Cang Shi exchanged a glance and saw determination in each other’s eyes. They had long bound their lives to Xu Ran; Xu Ran’s will was their direction!

…

Time seemed to lose its meaning on this deathly silent ancient battlefield.

Not knowing how long had passed, the blood light on the “Godslaying Blade” suddenly became a hundred times more intense!

Buzz——!!!

A hum that seemed capable of shattering divine souls echoed through heaven and earth!

A visible bloody shockwave spread violently from the center of the broken sword! Where the shockwave passed, space collapsed in chunks, revealing pitch-black void cracks, and the broken divine soldiers embedded in the ground crumbled like rotten wood, turning into dust!

The tide of evil qi… erupted!

“Now!” The Black Armored Knight let out a shrill cry, and his cloak exploded behind him, transforming into a black curtain covering the sky. Within the curtain, it seemed millions of demon gods were roaring. He rushed like a black lightning toward the base of the broken sword! There, the source of evil qi was most concentrated!

“Don’t think of monopolizing it!” Thousand-Eyed Flesh Mountain’s ten thousand eyes simultaneously shot out a dismal green light! These beams were not energy attacks but an incredibly malicious curse, weaving into a Heaven and Earth Net that ignored spatial distance and directly enveloped the divine soul of the Black Armored Knight!

“Mine… mine!” The Sewn Giant took heavy steps, each causing the continental fragment to quake violently. Its massive hand, composed of numerous corpse arms, closed sharply, pulling a giant war axe made of bones and resentment from the void, slashing towards the two!

Rumble!

The battle erupted instantly!

The slaughter demonic skill of the Black Armored Knight, the curse divine thought of the Thousand-Eyed Flesh Mountain, and the savage strength of the Sewn Giant, three distinct forces at Daoist Monarch peak collided mercilessly.

In an instant, heaven collapsed, earth split, ghosts wailed, and gods howled!

That area became a sea of chaos in laws. Broken sword light, twisted curse runes, and pure destructive power intertwined to form a restricted area of life. Anything beneath Daoist Monarch that approached would be torn to pieces instantly.

The three had unleashed their true fury, understanding that whoever seized the first and purest “source of evil qi” would hold an absolute advantage in the ensuing contest and might even glimpse a higher realm!

Bloody strands of evil qi, like startled schools of fish, scattered in panic from their battle’s aftermath.

While fiercely battling, the three simultaneously displayed their divine techniques, like whales drinking water, frantically devouring the escaping evil qi.

However, none of them noticed.

At the edge of the violent battlefield, a barely discernible gray shadow, like a ghost clinging to the ground, without stirring a hint of energy fluctuation, was moving at an unimaginable speed, hugging the ground, against the flow of evil qi, stealthily approaching the battle’s core, towards the enormous broken sword…

It was Xu Ran!

He did not scramble for the scattered and relatively thin evil qi. His target from the beginning was only one—the source of evil qi, the body of the Godslaying Blade!

The Reincarnation Domain was now pushed to its extreme. It was no longer a protective shield but a medium for “assimilation.” Xu Ran fused his divine soul’s will with this ancient battlefield’s forlornness, deathly silence, and indomitable battle intent.

At this moment, he seemed no longer an outsider but a remnant soul that had slept for countless epochs, just now awakening from this land.

He duped the raging evil qi, the chaotic laws, even the three Daoist Monarch peak powerhouses locked in fierce combat!

Getting closer to the broken sword, the terrifying oppressive force that seemed about to tear his divine soul apart also grew stronger. Xu Ran felt as if he was carrying a millennium of divine demon resentment forward; each step made his divine soul’s source tremble violently, and the cracks on his dao foundation seemed to be enlarging.

But he did not stop!

His gaze, as resolute as ancient divine iron!

Seeking riches in danger! Without entering the lair, how could one obtain the cub!

Finally, just before his divine soul was about to collapse, his fingertip gently touched the cold, coarse surface of the broken sword, filled with countless sword scars and knife holes…

Buzz——!!!!

At the moment of contact, Xu Ran’s mind seemed struck by millions of lightning bolts simultaneously!

His consciousness was instantly drawn by an irresistible power into an ancient memory fragment…

It was a darkness far greater than the Sea of Realms and more void-filled… primordial chaos.

No time, no space, no matter, only… “principle.”

Absolute, cold, supreme “principle.”

It’s expanding, evolving, set to define all “nothing” as “existence,” to subject all “chaos” to “order.”

It was the prototype of “heavenly principles!”

Yet, in this primordial chaos, not only “principle” existed.

There was also… “one.”

That “one” was indescribable. It might be a ray of light, perhaps a sigh, or maybe merely a thought unwilling to be defined by “principle.”

“Principle” aimed to establish order, while “one” sought infinite possibility.

“Principle” aimed to create order, while “one” yearned for absolute freedom.

The contradiction was destined from inception.

Finally, when the iron hooves of heavenly principles’ order were about to tread the entire primordial chaos, thoroughly formatting it, that “one” launched a rebellion!

Xu Ran “saw” it.

He saw an incomparably illustrious figure standing up from the chaos. That figure had no fixed form; sometimes a giant opening the heavens with a war axe, sometimes the supreme Immortal Emperor commanding myriad paths, sometimes a mechanical deity governing endless algorithms… He seemed to be the collective embodiment of all the defiant wills!

And in his hand, held firmly, was this very… Godslaying Blade!