Pure and untainted, the glazed light shimmered as the Bodhi wondrous tree swept through the vacuum homeland, brushing the Six Soul Banner and the Golden Emperor into a state of emptiness and mist, like mosquitoes trapped in amber, frozen in their original forms.
The Buddha intervened, preventing the “Second Bow” of the Eternal Mother from descending!
In the void of darkness, the apocalyptic ark, fused with the islands beyond the seas and the surging crimson tides, surged through layers of destruction and the deepest silence, finally finding the ancient Fusang tree that upheld this state of finality. Beneath the tree, shrouded in foul miasma, sat the Mad Buddha, his eyes filled with insanity.
He stared fixedly at Meng Qi, his gaze brimming with unwilling hatred.
He had done everything to the utmost—why had he still failed?
Last time, when the Buddha intervened and shattered him, sealing him thrice under the Primordial Beginning’s seals, he had learned one thing: the Buddha, who had attained a restricted and incomplete Dao Fruit through the World Tree’s fruit and the initial method of “emptying through subtraction,” was not incapable of acting—he was merely bound by heavy constraints, likely able to act only once per kalpa. Thus, he had conspired with the Primordial Beginning and others, seeking ultimate liberation!
Knowing this, how could he not prepare for the possibility of the Buddha’s intervention at the critical moment of the apocalypse? That was why he had turned a blind eye to the Eternal Mother’s hidden schemes and feigned ignorance of her possible trump cards—just waiting for her to emerge and draw the Buddha’s sole intervention, exhausting the Three Pure Ones’ contingency plans!
Yet who could have foreseen that the Empress of the Demon Race would falter, that Feng Xi would survive to this moment and deliver the most fatal blow?
He had schemed tirelessly, from eras before becoming the Celestial Emperor to dominating the Primordial Age, from daring deceptions to meticulous plots that even sacrificed himself—only for this ending?
He refused to accept it!
Facing the Mad Buddha’s silent roar, Meng Qi, standing at the ship’s prow, gripped the hilt of the Peerless Heavenly Blade. With a mix of emotion and unwavering resolve, he swung the tyrannical blade born from the Mad Buddha himself.
Did the countless fallen experts you slaughtered ever have a chance to refuse?
Above his head, his auspicious cloud surged, supporting the Pangu Banner—neither quite an axe nor a banner—as this illusory Dao Fruit descended, merging with the blade.
A flash of purple lightning split the boundless darkness, cleaving through the void without past, present, or future. The Mad Buddha, at the end of his strength, even with the Nine Reversed Buddha Palms combined, could not withstand this force that recreated heaven and earth.
The darkness parted. The Mad Buddha sat cross-legged at the base of the ancient Fusang tree, the life fading from his eyes, his madness vanishing, leaving only final weariness and lament—no regret, no remorse. He murmured softly:
*”In life, no Dao Fruit; in death, the Dao Fruit perishes.”*
His voice echoed as his demonic form disintegrated, like a bubble vanishing into illusion at the end of the Primordial Era. Only the illusory Dao Fruit of Termination remained—and in the next instant, even that shattered, leaving only the essence of termination and the symbol of apocalypse, transforming into an inexplicable stream of light that shot toward Meng Qi.
Meng Qi reached out, his brow splitting open as chaos churned and the Infinite manifested, absorbing the light.
**BOOM!**
The four seas collapsed as if into the abyss. Mountains crumbled in the Southern Wasteland and Western Regions, the earth turning to ash. Blood-colored clouds stained the sky as crimson lightning tore through space-time.
The Mad Buddha had fallen—and with him, heaven and earth crumbled!
The fall of a Nirvana-level being naturally brought omens, but this time, it directly heralded the end of the era, announcing the impending destruction of all realms!
The Celestial Emperor, still burning his Dao Fruit and himself to seal the worlds of Investiture of the Gods and Journey to the West, smiled faintly as his final form dispersed. The Blade of Time shattered into glimmering fragments, scattering like the rest, leaving only the World Tree withering into charred ruin.
**BOOM!**
Drops of blood-red rain fell as if the heavens wept. The sun, moon, and stars tore through the darkness, streaking toward the real world in dazzling brilliance. Ancient celestial abodes and paradises fled their domains, desperate, seeking refuge in the Jade Void Palace or the apocalyptic ark.
Meanwhile, Gu Xiaosang’s Nirvana phenomenon—once illuminating the Primordial Era—faded, only to be replaced by another: the manifestation of nine thousand nine hundred and ninety distinct Great Daos, weaving together into a spectacle of apocalypse, harmonizing with the crumbling world.
The third category of Nirvana phenomena: *”The End of Non-Birth”*!
After *”The End of Non-Birth”* came *”Time Wrapped Around the Body.”* And Gu Xiaosang, bearing both the Infinite and Termination Dao Fruits, regressed further—back to the Primordial Era, to the reign of the Yellow and Elderly Lord, just one step from the realm of the Ancients. There, she smoothly *”Beheld the Primordial Beginning,”* manifesting another phenomenon.
Just then, the Golden Emperor, suppressed by the Bodhi tree, stirred. Before her, the Six Soul Banner flickered—not outward, but inward.
**BOOM!**
The banner exploded, unleashing ghostly radiance and the essence of termination, shattering the glazed purity.
The Golden Emperor had abandoned this treasure, using its destruction to force a gap in the Bodhi tree’s light—and escaped.
She seemed resigned, seeking only to flee!
……
The darkness wrought by the Mad Buddha receded, but all realms teetered on collapse. Meng Qi’s eyes half-lidded as a surge of clear qi erupted from his crown, splitting into three: the serene and smiling True Calm Tathagata, the dashing and carefree Qingyuan Daojun, and the cold, sharp-eyed Su Meng Heavenly Lord.
He too had stepped into the ranks of the weaker Nirvana!
Guided by this, the ancient glazed lamp, the point of Infinite Chaos, and the Pangu Banner merged, coalescing into a nascent, near-perfect Dao Fruit.
With the Dao Fruit formed, Meng Qi’s figure surged forward along the raging river of time, breaking through the eras of the Central Celestial Emperor and others, approaching the Primordial Age of Creation—on the verge of becoming an Ancient.
……
The Golden Emperor emerged, her aura greatly diminished, clearly grievously wounded. Yet she did not hide. Instead, she appeared mid-air, hanging the bright moon within her Nirvana phenomenon. Just as Gu Xiaosang manifested *”Beholding the Primordial Beginning,”* she extended a slender, jade-white finger toward her brow.
The fingertip shimmered with clear light, its tip a swirl of chaos—both beginning and end. She struck without hesitation, her gaze as detached as the moon’s cold glow.
Gu Xiaosang stared blankly, momentarily stunned.
*Had the Golden Emperor gone mad?*
*Had she truly lost her mind?* Even Amitabha, rarely perturbed, showed rare astonishment.
Never had a Nirvana being tried to kill their own product of “emptying through subtraction”!
Had the Golden Emperor, seeing the Buddha’s intervention and the irreversible momentum of the Three Pure Ones, decided to discard all restraint? To absorb her newly ascended product, heal her wounds, and ascend to the rank of the Ancients—ensuring survival into the next era?
This turn was utterly unforeseen. By the time Amitabha thought to intervene, it was too late—time there was already in chaos, past and future blurred beyond retrieval!
Gu Xiaosang, of course, would not await death. Confused and resentful, she retaliated with a finger of her own—the same *”Finger of Non-Birth.”*
*Now that I too am Nirvana, I will no longer be your puppet!*
The two flawless fingers met—and Gu Xiaosang’s expression changed. The Golden Emperor’s strike was hollow, devoid of power—akin to suicide!
She looked up in shock at the eyes within the moon—still aloof, but now tinged with something like… relief?
*Relief?*
The Finger of Non-Birth devoured greedily. The Golden Emperor offered no resistance, dissolving into chaos, transforming into light that poured into Gu Xiaosang’s three illusory Dao Fruits.
**BOOM!**
Heaven and earth shattered once more. The Golden Emperor had fallen, her termination phenomenon manifesting anew. Instinctively, Gu Xiaosang flicked a finger, sending the earthly Buddhist kingdom within Great Zhou’s borders flying toward the apocalyptic ark.
At the same time, her three illusory Dao Fruits entwined, forming a rudimentary whole. Her figure surged past the Yellow and Elderly Lord’s era, breaking all barriers, arriving at the dawn of creation—becoming an Ancient, just as Meng Qi did the same.
Yet her mind remained in a daze.
*Had the Golden Emperor truly perished so easily?*
*By my own hand?*
Then, a thought struck her, freezing her gaze:
*”Now that I’ve formed a nascent Dao Fruit and become an Ancient, it means that, had the Golden Emperor and Amitabha not been weakened, they would have been nearly equivalent to a full Dao Fruit…”*
*”Though the Golden Emperor fell earlier, the apocalypse warps time, blurring cause and effect—and these events are directly linked. Could the sequence have been inverted?”*
*”Most crucially—those who attain the Dao Fruit are beyond logic!”*
Had the relief in the Golden Emperor’s eyes actually been… the mockery of one about to transcend?
Had the Six Soul Banner, seemingly aimed at her husband, truly been meant for Amitabha and the Moral Heavenly Lord? Had she foreseen the Buddha’s intervention all along?
This…
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