Chapter 411 - 410: The World Falls to Nascent Soul, Millions of Dao Fishes Descend

Ku Ming clutched his prayer beads, his Indestructible Karmic Wheel dimming into a faint, barely visible glow. The monk looked upward in absolute horror, sensing the profound restriction spreading through the surrounding world and recognizing that the change was not a temporary disturbance.

"The capacity of the world has plummeted!" Ku Ming cried out, his voice laced with unprecedented dread. "With the Exotic Realm uprooted, the structural integrity of the Nine Provinces can no longer sustain high-dimensional laws! The ceiling of the mortal realm has collapsed! The world can no longer support any technique, artifact, or aura above the Nascent Soul realm!"

His words spread through the surviving cultivators, and their expressions changed as they tested their own cultivation. Those who had once commanded the power of Soul Transformation found their energy restricted, while the Five Emperors struggled to circulate spiritual Qi that had previously answered their slightest command. Their physical bodies remained formidable, but the authority that allowed them to manipulate the laws of the world had been brutally suppressed.

The demons experienced the same change.

Across the battlefield, massive Void Refinement Demon Kings suddenly shrank as their colossal true forms were forcibly compressed by the broken laws. Their enormous bodies contracted into humanoid or drastically reduced beast forms, and the demonic power sustaining their physical manifestations was capped at the absolute Peak of the Nascent Soul realm.

The restriction was not a simple weakening of their energy reserves. The world itself rejected the manifestation of power beyond its new capacity, forcing every being within the Nine Provinces to operate beneath the same oppressive ceiling. Even those who possessed extraordinary bloodlines and physical bodies could no longer release their full cultivation without confronting the broken laws that now governed their surroundings.

Lin Yuan examined his hands, feeling the restrictions binding his Five Great Secret Realms. His physical foundation remained extraordinary, and the principles he had comprehended had not vanished, but the world could no longer support their unrestricted manifestation. The authority of his Dao Fruit was suppressed, leaving him with only the portion of its power that the damaged laws could sustain.

He raised his head toward the Hollow Beyond.

Gu Cangming remained untouched by the suppression, standing beyond the shattered Nine Heavens Ward in a realm that still possessed its foundational laws. His Middle Stage Body Integration cultivation continued circulating without restriction, while the Nine Provinces had become a cage that prevented its inhabitants from unleashing power beyond the Nascent Soul realm.

"He broke the board because he didn’t want to play," Lin Yuan stated, his voice a low, frigid whisper. "As long as He remains in the Hollow Beyond, he retains his Body Integration might, while anyone in the Nine Provinces is reduced to a Nascent Soul cultivator."

Bai Qingyue stepped beside him, the Sun Shooting Bow glowing faintly in her hand. The terrifying stellar heat that had incinerated Demon Kings only moments earlier was entirely gone, smothered by the world’s inability to support the artifact’s true output. The Weapon Spirit sent a weak pulse through their connection, confirming what Bai Qingyue had already realized.

"Then there is only one way to stop him," she said, her gaze narrowing as she looked at the bleeding spatial rift.

"We must cross the rift," Lin Yuan replied. "We have to enter the Hollow Beyond. It is the only place where our full cultivation can be unleashed, and the only way to confront him without allowing the broken laws to decide the outcome before the battle begins."

He glanced toward Bai Sha’s fallen body, then toward the surviving orthodox cultivators struggling to stabilize themselves beneath the oppressive restrictions. "If we remain here, we will slowly lose the ability to resist the forces descending upon the Nine Provinces. We must defeat this Demon Emperor in his own domain, once and for all."

Before they could formulate a plan to breach the heavily guarded, miasma-choked rift leading into the abyss, the sky above the Nine Provinces erupted into a chaotic, mesmerizing spectacle.

The colossal demonic hand, still holding the translucent sphere of the Exotic Realm, had squeezed too tightly. The spatial bubble was already strained from being ripped away from its natural coordinates, and the pressure of Gu Cangming’s Middle Stage Body Integration cultivation finally exceeded the limits of its weakened structure.

CRACK!

The Exotic Realm violently fractured.

It did not explode like a physical object. Instead, it ruptured like a massive, overfilled water skin, releasing the pure, highly compressed Dao laws contained within its boundaries. Brilliant currents of ancient energy spilled from the broken dimension and cascaded toward the Nine Provinces, spreading across the corrupted sky in countless streams of colored light.

But it was not merely ambient energy that fell.

"The Dao Fishes!" a cultivator screamed, pointing toward the sky.

Millions upon millions of glowing, ethereal fishes poured from the fractured sphere, each one a physical manifestation of a pure, crystallized Dao essence. Their bodies shimmered with crimson, gold, emerald, violet, and countless other colors, while their movements left behind delicate trails of ancient law that briefly illuminated the damaged heavens.

In the past, the Cultivation Council had strictly regulated entry into the Exotic Realm, allowing only a select few geniuses to fish for a chance to comprehend a single strand of a new Dao. Even the most talented cultivators might spend years preparing for the opportunity, only to return with a single Dao Fish whose essence could strengthen their foundation.

Now the entire reservoir was emptying onto the Nine Provinces.

The Dao Fishes swam frantically through the air, their conceptual bodies slowly evaporating as they came into contact with the shattered laws of the outside world. Some darted between broken towers, others descended toward the ruined Grand Court, and countless more scattered across the five continents, seeking places where their ancient laws might remain stable for a few precious moments.

The despair and terror that had paralyzed the battlefield instantly evaporated, replaced by an overwhelming surge of avarice. Both demons and cultivators realized that the broken laws had created an unprecedented opportunity, because catching a Dao Fish meant absorbing an untainted law from the ancient era.

Their cultivation was suppressed, but their comprehension remained. A cultivator who acquired a suitable Dao Fish could strengthen the foundation of their path, gain a conceptual advantage over their enemies, or discover a principle that might prove invaluable once the world’s laws were restored. In a battlefield where brute force had suddenly become unreliable, such an advantage could determine who survived.

Absolute chaos ensued!