A streak of dazzling purple unexpectedly painted the abstract concept of the Origin of Life and Death with vibrant hues, so beautiful it seemed like a dream.
Huang Quan’s pupils contracted sharply to the size of needle points, completely unprepared for such a transformation.
Had Zhenwu “risen from the dead”?
Or had he left behind something insidious and imperceptible within his own innate spiritual light—something with no other purpose than to establish a subtle connection, so that once someone approached his body, it would awaken and pull him out of that inexplicable state between life and death?
In that fleeting moment, countless thoughts surged through Huang Quan’s mind, and among the many speculations, he leaned most toward the latter.
Back then, Zhenwu was one of the Five Ancient Emperors—the Black Emperor—and the Daoist Nine Venerables’ Demon-Subduing Heavenly Venerable. No matter how eager he had been to grasp the profound mysteries deep within the Origin of Life and Death in order to cross the sea of suffering and reach the Other Shore, would he truly have been so blinded by greed as to make a fatal mistake, delving too deep and too far, only to be assimilated by the Dao against his will?
If he dared to do so, he must have had a contingency plan—a way for his true self to escape that desperate predicament!
And as for Huang Quan, who had been subdued by him back then, it was only natural that he had unknowingly fallen into the trap, marked with that subtle connection.
Thus, the Huang Quan who had once feared approaching, lest he be assimilated by the Dao, had now, after enduring countless hardships, undergoing reincarnation, and making thorough preparations for his return, unwittingly become the very trigger to awaken Zhenwu!
Considering this, Huang Quan even suspected that the Zhenwu Emperor had deliberately orchestrated this, allowing himself to be assimilated by the Dao in order to risk comprehending the mysteries of life and death, imprinting that eerie state of neither living nor dying, laying the foundation for his current awakening on the Other Shore—while Huang Quan himself had become a crucial pawn in his scheme.
Though his thoughts raced a thousand ways, Huang Quan was no ordinary man. At this moment, he cast aside all distractions, realizing that his only chance of survival was to act before Zhenwu fully escaped his unnatural state—to destroy his true spirit and seize his body with fearless resolve!
**Kill!**
Facing the Zhenwu Emperor’s eyes, now shimmering with radiant purple, Huang Quan did not retreat but instead advanced, his right hand forming a dragon claw that darkened to pitch-black, streaks of white light swirling within as he lunged straight for the Demon-Subduing Heavenly Venerable’s Mud Ball Palace.
Threads of bloody yellow shot forth like sharpened nails, saturated with an aura of corruption. Before they even reached their target, the deathly hue had already stained Zhenwu’s imperial crown, his black hair drifting loose in the wind, withering strand by strand.
Watching from afar, Meng Qi, the Asura Progenitor, and the Blood Slaughter Daoist were momentarily stunned before turning and fleeing in a frenzy.
They had no means of approaching Zhenwu’s body—even their divine abilities would be assimilated. Had it not been for Huang Quan’s specially prepared protective treasure, even his voice and the image of Zhenwu’s form would not have escaped. Thus, faced with the eerie awakening of the Zhenwu Emperor, they could neither strike him nor influence their surroundings—what use was there in staying?
They had no choice but to flee—**they had to run!**
Just as they turned, Meng Qi caught a glimpse of the Zhenwu Emperor raising his right hand, fingers curling into a sword stance before slashing forward!
**Rip!**
This was not a sound Meng Qi heard but an abstract sensation—and then, a sword light of utmost depth, darkness, and subtlety erupted, eclipsing all else in his vision.
The sword light enveloped everything in an instant—cold, silent, ruthless, hollow, desolate, gloomy, agonizing, dark, deathly—all abstract sensations began to disintegrate. Warmth, fervor, vitality, liveliness, joy, brightness, vigor—all such descriptions rapidly vanished. The brocade robe formed by Meng Qi’s Dao power dissipated without a sound, his flesh melting away to reveal a ghastly skeleton wreathed in swirling black and white, interwoven with life and death, and suffused with bloody yellow mist.
Spikes protruded from every joint of the skeleton, but under the sword light, they evaporated like snow under the scorching sun. Cracks spread across the bones, covered in indistinct Dao patterns, shattering into countless fragments that turned to dust. Even more terrifying, the intertwined concepts of life and death and the blurred Dao patterns within the skeleton were also dissolving.
At this moment, Meng Qi even felt as though the era itself was ending, the Great Dao collapsing, all existence ceasing to be.
Thus, the will born from his divided consciousness seemed to burn in invisible flames, churned by countless sword rays. Were it not for Huang Quan’s skeletal remains shielding him, he might have already perished.
Nearby, the Asura Progenitor—with its nine heads, a thousand eyes, and arms blooming like flowers—was also engulfed by the sword light, frozen like a mosquito trapped in amber. Its colossal, terrifying form crumbled inch by inch, the raging flames around it dimming toward extinction, while the demonic and guardian spirits surrounding it silently screamed, rapidly dispersing.
Even at its peak, it could not withstand this single strike from the Zhenwu Emperor!
Of course, this was partly due to the nature of the Origin of Life and Death—unlike the Nine Nether Abyss, where it could draw full augmentation, here it was limited by the dual forces of frigid, corrupting death and radiant, flourishing life, leaving it far from its true combat potential.
As for the Blood Slaughter Daoist, he fared even worse, seemingly frozen in time and space. His tempered Death Slaughter Sword’s Dao patterns scattered, cracks appearing along its blade and hilt, while his fiend-god body grew transparent, dripping with blood.
Huang Quan’s reincarnated form, bearing the brunt of the attack, disintegrated without even a scream—not only was his flesh obliterated, but even the moral principles and laws he had cultivated were utterly erased, leaving no trace behind.
As Meng Qi’s consciousness began to blur, a sigh echoed in his heart.
This sword was one of the **Seven Swords of Severing Heaven**.
This sword was **Dao Annihilation, Dao Rebirth**!
He had experienced it once before at the hands of Zhenwu’s evil thought, and now, today, he had been struck by it again from the Zhenwu Emperor himself.
The might of this sword even carried a hint of the sensation from the moments before the Green Emperor ascended to the Other Shore!
Just as Meng Qi prepared to disperse his divided consciousness to spare his true self from further backlash, he suddenly sensed a trace of warmth—amidst the ruthless destruction that could annihilate even the Great Dao, there was an elusive, faint warmth.
It was like the winter sun, a bonfire in a frozen wasteland, a grilled sausage after climbing a mountain peak—it filled him with vitality, warding off all evil, and for a brief moment, Meng Qi regained clarity.
**No, this isn’t the purest form of Dao Annihilation, Dao Rebirth!** His thoughts raced as he grasped the anomaly.
To be precise, the sword technique was indeed one of the Seven Swords of Severing Heaven, indeed **Dao Annihilation, Dao Rebirth**, but the power Zhenwu used to execute it was not his own harmoniously aligned force—it was something else.
It wasn’t that other forces couldn’t wield **Dao Annihilation, Dao Rebirth**, but this power was too extreme—utterly yang without yin, utterly rigid without softness—creating a contradiction with the essence of the technique’s first half. Thus, a sliver of hope emerged, a chance to evade.
Seizing the opportunity, Meng Qi curled his divided will into that faint warmth, seeking to witness the full extent of **Dao Annihilation, Dao Rebirth**.
The sword rays continued to churn, agony reverberating through his consciousness, but he suppressed all negative sensations, enduring to perceive the sword’s artistry.
Silently, Huang Quan’s skeletal remains reached their limit—every bone infused with the concepts of life and death shattered into fragments, the blurred Dao patterns unraveling and dissolving.
Had it not been for that sliver of warmth, Meng Qi’s consciousness would have long since faded into cold darkness.
Then, at the moment when all things had perished, when the Great Dao itself had been annihilated, the sword light abruptly shifted—light birthed from darkness, life sprouted from death, yin and yang divided, life and death reformed, seeking to assimilate all that had been erased into its own Dao.
In that instant, enlightenment struck Meng Qi. Leaping from the warmth, he spread his will across the countless fragments of Huang Quan’s shattered skeleton and the disassembled Dao patterns.
Then, harnessing the **”Dao Rebirth”** intent and the momentum of new life, he began to reassemble the skeletal fragments. Beams of light erupted—seemingly black, seemingly white, yet neither black nor white.
As the sword light surged, the fragments converged once more, the scattered Dao patterns attracting one another, evolving on their own, restoring their original blurred yet profound state.
**Meng Qi was attempting to forge a peerless divine weapon using Huang Quan’s skeleton as a foundation and the surrounding life-and-death Dao patterns as roots, all under the influence of Zhenwu’s **Dao Annihilation, Dao Rebirth**!**
One by one, the Dao patterns settled, the fragments glowing ever brighter. His will neared exhaustion, barely able to follow the sword’s momentum.
Black and white condensed, light churned—the countless skeletal fragments, now bearing the Dao patterns, abruptly contracted, voraciously absorbing the re-emerging abstract concepts and the remnants of Meng Qi’s consciousness.
On the verge of collapse, Meng Qi sensed the surrounding tremors—the sword light had faded, and in its wake, black and white surged, forming a swirling diagram of intertwined yin and yang fish, life and death distinct yet containing one another, reminiscent of the **Book of Life and Death**.
This was the phenomenon of a peerless divine weapon’s birth—had it not been within the Origin of Life and Death or the Nine Nether Abyss, it would have been proclaimed to the world!
As the phenomenon receded, the black and white collapsed inward, forming a dark wheel streaked with white light—the **Wheel of Life and Death Over the Myriad Heavens**—floating amidst abstract descriptions, wreathed in faint bloody yellow mist.
**”To hold dominion over life and death across all realms!”**
Meng Qi’s nearly extinguished consciousness flickered with satisfaction. Though not a treasure of the Other Shore, this **Wheel of Life and Death Over the Myriad Heavens** was still a creation of the **Creation Realm**.
At the **Legendary Realm**, he had forged a divine weapon of the **Creation level**—such a feat would have been impossible without this serendipitous opportunity!
Within the Origin of Life and Death, the Asura Progenitor had vanished, the Blood Slaughter Daoist had vanished, and Huang Quan had left no trace at all. As for the Zhenwu Emperor, deep within and without Huang Quan’s protective treasure, Meng Qi could not discern his current state.
**”The Blood Slaughter Daoist and Huang Quan have been utterly annihilated. The Asura Progenitor managed to seize that sliver of ‘warmth’ and escape the Origin of Life and Death, but its injuries are grave—though it gained longevity, it will never fully recover. Truly, greed brings calamity…”**
After a moment of contemplation and sensing no further disturbances from the depths, Meng Qi made a decisive choice—he dispersed his divided consciousness, leaving the **Wheel of Life and Death Over the Myriad Heavens** behind!
The wheel harmonized seamlessly with its surroundings, gradually fading as though it, too, had become an abstract description.
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