Chapter 230: The Great Siming Slays the Outer Gods

“Just which one is the real Great Siming?”

Countless doubts churned within Li Shun’s heart, yet he revealed not the slightest abnormality on his face.

He calmly followed the other disciples of the Hundred Schools within the hall and bowed respectfully.

“This junior pays respects to the Great Siming!”

The Great Siming merely gave a slight, cold nod, as sparing with words as ever.

With an icy, leisurely stride, she walked toward the front of the hall and looked down upon everyone from above.

Without warning, an illusory Dharma Idol, brilliant and profound, seemingly condensed from pure starlight, rose behind the Great Siming.

Although no one could make out its true appearance, the instant the starlight Dharma Idol manifested, everyone in the hall suddenly felt their bodies grow heavy.

A terrifying pressure, vast as an abyss and unending as the sea, descended upon them, leaving them nearly unable to breathe.

In a trance, it was as though a ruthless deity suspended high above the Nine Heavens was looking down upon them with eyes capable of piercing through all things, stripping away every secret hidden within the depths of their souls.

Li Shun’s perception was particularly keen.

The pressure made his entire body turn cold.

The sensation of having his soul forcibly dissected was not as naked and frenzied as when directly facing an Outer God, but it was almost identical to the feeling he had experienced when confronting Elder Wei.

The secrets he had hidden throughout his body nearly seemed destined to be exposed.

“The Great Siming in the form of that little girl I encountered in Lihuo County was nowhere near this powerful.”

“Could it be... that they are actually two completely different people?!”

Li Shun’s heart was filled with uncertainty.

Fortunately, after undergoing his trials within the ancient Primordial Wilderness illusion, Li Shun’s state of mind had already undergone a complete transformation.

He withdrew his consciousness inward, concealing it within Fangcun.

Immovable as a mountain.

Only then did he barely evade the Great Siming’s probing.

“You...”

“You.”

“And... you.”

Like Yanluo calling out names on the roll of the dead, each time that cold voice sounded, an invisible streak of illusory starlight swept down like a sharp sword.

Anyone touched by the starlight instantly found the energy throughout their body completely sealed.

Their entire bodies became rigid, and like puppets dangling from strings, they were forcibly dragged into the air, unable to move.

In the end, the Great Siming accurately plucked six disciples of the Hundred Schools from the crowd.

“Your Dao Hearts have been stained with dust. Your thoughts have begun to stir. You are no longer as steadfast as you once were.”

The Great Siming looked down upon the six people suspended in midair, her tone cold and merciless, as though passing judgment.

The faces of the six prodigies visibly drained of blood, becoming as pale as paper.

It was as though the deepest secrets within their hearts had been ruthlessly exposed.

“However...”

“Your souls remain relatively clear. You have yet to be completely contaminated by the filth of that Outer God. There is still a sliver of hope for salvation.”

“Come with me to the Celestial Observation Tower. There, you will cultivate in seclusion and calm your minds.”

With those words, the Great Siming indifferently swept her long sleeve.

The six disciples suspended in midair did not even have time to cry out before they were enveloped by a brilliant mass of starlight.

Their figures instantly twisted before disappearing into thin air.

Yet the Great Siming did not leave.

Instead, she slowly turned her cold, phoenix-like eyes toward the silent crowd within the hall.

Her gaze swept across everyone, carrying an aloof indifference that seemed to look down upon the entire world.

“You have endured great terror yet still managed to hold fast to your convictions. Very good.”

“Just remember one thing.”

“Outer Gods are not invincible.”

Before her voice had even faded, the Great Siming lightly tapped her toe against the air.

Boom!

An intense burst of starlight suddenly erupted from beneath her feet, swallowing everything.

Everyone felt their souls violently tremble and their vision blur.

When their sight finally returned, they were horrified to discover that they had somehow already left the manor beneath Mount Dai.

They now seemed to be standing deep within some dim, boundless expanse of starry skies.

Within this vast void, the disciples of the Hundred Schools looked around in astonishment.

They discovered that not only was the Great Siming standing there with her hands behind her back, even the elders leading the various schools had gathered here.

Ahead of them, within the distorted void, stood five enormous cages woven entirely from pure golden light.

The five golden cages were shaking violently, accompanied by deafening roars.

It was as though some terrifying living creatures had been imprisoned inside and were making one final, frenzied struggle to break free.

Li Shun swept his gaze over them and immediately understood.

The creatures imprisoned within those cages should be the five prodigies of the Hundred Schools who had been contaminated by Outer Gods the previous night and reduced to their emissaries.

Before everyone's eyes, the Great Siming remained expressionless.

She merely raised her slender hand.

The five indestructible golden cages instantly shattered apart like melting ice.

At last, the five so-called emissaries of the Outer Gods were completely exposed beneath the starry sky.

The instant he saw them, Li Shun felt his scalp go numb and his pupils contract violently.

Where was there any trace of their former graceful and refined appearances?

Every one of their bodies had been twisted and mutated into inhuman monsters beneath an indescribable contamination.

Their flesh rolled and peeled away like boiling mud, exposing dark-purple carapaces and disgusting masses of tumors beneath.

Countless tentacles covered in slime and studded with grotesquely deformed eyeballs had forcibly burst through their original clothing, writhing and lashing about wildly within the void.

Their bones had been forcibly broken and rearranged, transforming their bodies into bizarre forms with all four limbs planted backward against the ground like enormous spiders.

Only within the masses of squirming, rotting flesh could one barely make out traces of their former human faces.

Their facial features had vanished entirely.

In their place remained nothing but a pitch-black abyssal hole, from which came bizarre howls and blasphemous whispers capable of tearing apart one's sanity.

Behind them, five enormous, indistinct black shadows could be faintly seen, connected to their bodies.

The already dark and oppressive starry sky around them now seemed to have been dragged forcibly into a bottomless abyss.

Those five enormous shadows radiating an aura of despair spread like ink, rapidly enveloping and surrounding everyone.

At that moment, everyone felt as though they had returned to the Primordial Wilderness illusion, once again facing the Outer Gods surrounding them.

Their hearts inevitably suffered another tremendous shock, and their bodies began trembling uncontrollably.

After all, although every one of them was an exceptional disciple selected from among the countless disciples of the Hundred Schools, they were ultimately only at the Spirit Resonance realm.

Before the might of an Outer God, they were truly no different from ants.

At that very moment, the Great Siming moved.

The enormous starlight Dharma Idol standing behind her suddenly erupted with its full power.

In an instant, boundless divine radiance burst forth from her body.

It was like an ultimate blazing sun rising into the heavens, violently tearing apart and dispersing the ink-like darkness surrounding them with overwhelming force.

Amid the dazzling starlight, no one could even perceive the Great Siming’s movements.

They could only vaguely see that tall, cold figure transform into the purest streak of killing light.

Within the surrounding void tainted by corruption, she flashed back and forth thousands upon thousands of times in an instant.

The five emissaries of the Outer Gods, along with the five enormous clouds of darkness behind them that had attempted to contaminate the mortal world, were all torn apart and annihilated within that storm of starlight.

They were ground into fragments before ultimately turning to ashes and vanishing completely without a trace.

The terrifying whispers of the Outer Gods abruptly ceased.

Within the boundless starry sky, only the tall, solitary figure of the Great Siming remained.

Her cold voice, resembling the profound resonance of the Great Dao, once again echoed in the ears of every person present.

“Outer Gods are not frightening.”