Chapter 351 - 350: Fall of the Nine Heavens Ward

Yet Gu Cangming remained entirely impassive as the praises washed over him.

He did not smile at the cries of reverence.

He did not acknowledge the Demon Lords who had been forced to kneel beneath his aura.

Nor did he feel any satisfaction from the countless demons who now regarded him as the greatest existence in the realm.

Their praise meant nothing to him.

The weak worshipped the strong because they hoped to share in their glory. The powerful praised those above them because they feared being left behind. Even the Demon Lords who had spent thousands of years establishing their own authority were now willing to lower their heads before him.

Gu Cangming understood their thoughts.

He had seen the same expressions during the ancient war, when countless demons had followed the Demon Emperor into battle, believing that their sovereign would lead them to victory.

Their faith had not saved them.

Their reverence had not prevented the collapse of their world.

And their loyalty had not changed the final outcome of the Great War.

Gu Cangming had survived because he had never placed his fate in the hands of another.

He had waited when others fought.

He had preserved what others abandoned.

And when the opportunity finally appeared, he had seized it without hesitation.

The voices of the demons gradually faded into the distance as he turned his gaze toward the boundary separating the Hollow Beyond from the Nine Provinces.

The black light surrounding his body became more concentrated, while countless spatial ripples appeared around his figure.

His breakthrough had granted him the strength to overwhelm the current Demon Lords, but he had not ascended merely to enjoy the reverence of his followers. The Quasi Demon Emperor realm was a beginning, not an ending, and the power he had obtained would mean little if he remained trapped within the same fractured world.

The Nine Heavens Ward still stood between him and the greater realms.

Although the ancient seal had weakened, it had not completely collapsed. The anomaly that had survived the Fire Retribution had caused more damage to its foundation, allowing the spatial laws surrounding the boundary to fluctuate and creating opportunities for powerful demons to cross into the lower world.

But a damaged formation was not necessarily a broken formation.

As long as its underlying structure remained intact, the ward could continue to resist the forces attempting to breach it.

Gu Cangming studied the distant boundary with narrowed eyes.

"The Nine Heavens Ward has weakened, but it is not yet completely broken."

His voice carried no impatience, only the cold certainty of someone who had already begun calculating the next stage of his plan.

"The formation was powered by Grand Ascendants, and its foundation has endured for ten thousand years. Even now, it continues to draw upon the remaining laws of the fractured world to preserve its structure."

A faint smile appeared upon his face.

"Yet nothing lasts forever."

The black light surrounding his arm began to gather toward his palm.

"I, Gu Cangming, shall assist the natural order."

The surrounding spiritual energy immediately began to converge.

At first, the change was barely noticeable. A faint stream of black energy appeared around his fingers, slowly revolving in a circle. But as Gu Cangming continued gathering his power, the stream grew denser, compressing until the surrounding space began to distort.

The light around his hand gradually disappeared.

The darkness deepened.

Within moments, the space surrounding his palm had become completely pitch black, forming a localized singularity that swallowed the light and spiritual energy drawn toward it.

The surrounding laws trembled.

Even the space beneath Gu Cangming’s feet began to bend toward his palm, as though the entire region had been drawn into an invisible abyss.

He watched the phenomenon with an indifferent expression.

The power he was gathering was no longer comparable to the spiritual energy that ordinary Demon Lords used to execute their techniques. It carried the authority of his newly advanced cultivation, combined with the immense density of the demonic foundation he had inherited from the fallen emperor.

Every trace of energy was compressed to an extraordinary degree.

Every movement of the surrounding space was drawn into the center of his palm.

And the longer he gathered power, the more terrifying the resulting force became.

His golden eyes remained fixed upon the distant boundary, as his right arm moved slowly backward. The surrounding darkness compressed further, and the singularity within his palm began to emit a faint, deep resonance.

"Let us see how they fare when their foundations are stolen."

The moment the words left his mouth, Gu Cangming thrust his arm forward.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The entire region erupted.

A colossal handprint formed before him, forged entirely from pitch-black demonic energy. Its enormous palm stretched across the horizon, dwarfing mountain ranges and swallowing the surrounding sky beneath its shadow.

The handprint contained the full force of Gu Cangming’s Middle Stage Body Integration cultivation, compressed into a single attack. Its fingers were covered with ancient demonic patterns, while the center of its palm contained a dark vortex that seemed capable of swallowing the laws of the surrounding world.

The instant it appeared, the space before it collapsed.

The attack did not travel through the ordinary distance separating the Hollow Beyond from the Nine Provinces. Instead, it forced its way through the fractured boundary, following the weakened spatial connections that had formed around the Nine Heavens Ward.

The enormous handprint crossed the distance in an instant.

It swept through the darkness, passed beyond the visible horizon, and slammed directly into the most damaged section of the ancient seal.

BOOM!

The Nine Heavens Ward shuddered.

The impact produced a sound that seemed to travel through the foundations of the world itself. Countless ancient runes illuminated the boundary, struggling to resist the overwhelming force pressing against them.

For a brief moment, the seal held.

The handprint’s enormous fingers pressed against the ward, and the surrounding space twisted beneath the pressure. The ancient formation attempted to distribute the impact throughout its structure, drawing upon the remaining power embedded within the laws of the fractured world.

Had the Nine Heavens Ward remained whole, it might have resisted the attack.

But the seal had endured ten thousand years of deterioration, and its foundation had already been weakened further by the disturbances caused by the Fire Retribution and the subsequent fluctuations in the ancient laws.

The damage could no longer be ignored.

A deep crack spread across the surface of the ward.

Then another appeared beside it.

Within moments, the entire section of the seal began to tremble violently, its ancient runes flickering as the immense handprint continued to press forward.

Gu Cangming’s expression remained indifferent.

He did not increase the force of his attack.

He did not need to.

The existing damage was enough.

CRAAAAACK!

The Nine Heavens Ward split open.