Bai Shengyi’s eyes turned cold, and she said in a deep voice, “As long as you are a living being, you will surely experience life and death.”
All things have a cycle, and even gods like Qiongyuan are no exception.
After saying this, Bai Shengyi remained silent, instead trying in every possible way to eliminate Qiongyuan’s last wisp of spiritual essence.
She had allowed the dark spirits to devour him, but they spat him out. Her spiritual power had attempted to dissolve him, only to find it impossible. Using the Heavenly Machine Sword, the River of Time, or the Constellation Sea of Fate, all proved useless.
“Stop wasting your efforts!” Qiongyuan sneered. “If I were you, I’d stop here. If you let me leave, I won’t do anything else, wouldn’t that be good? You can’t kill me anyway.”
“Who says she can’t kill you?” a clear voice echoed.
“Master?” Bai Shengyi felt a wisp of green mist drift before her eyes. Before she could react, that wisp of mist transformed into shimmering green light spots, landing on the tip of the Samsara Brush.
“Shengyi, try again!” Daojun Qinglan’s voice was heavy with each word.
Bai Shengyi’s hand trembled as she held the brush. “Master…” She clearly felt that the green light spots were formed from Daojun Qinglan’s life-essence spiritual body. If she made this stroke, Daojun Qinglan would likely be severely injured.
His fate disc was already damaged; if this continued, would he even have a fate?
“Try!” Daojun Qinglan’s voice urged, more forcefully than before. He spoke to Bai Shengyi with such seriousness for the first time. “Listen! Didn’t Master tell you that he would teach you to slay demons? Use the brush, use the Samsara Dao you cultivate, and kill him!”
The shimmering brush tip began to move again.
The nine streaks of multicolored flames gradually became ethereal, merging into the green light spots, becoming an invisible force.
At the same moment, Bai Shengyi seemed to sense it. The Starfall Emperor Realm began to operate. She stood in the center of the divine hall, her gaze shifting from the statues of the gods to a point beyond the secret realm, beyond time and space.
*Crack, crack…*
The Tongling bone suddenly broke.
Bai Shengyi felt no pain; the moment the bone fractured, it transformed into pure spiritual energy and surged into her body.
In the Heavenly Dao Mountain Ravine of the Divine Enlightenment Minor World, the slumbering white cocoon seemed to suddenly sense something. The white light receded, the cocoon opened, revealing the newly born Heavenly Dao.
Simultaneously, countless heavenly rains and auspicious signs descended from the sky, some even penetrating the secret realm.
The pure aura burned Qiongyuan, making him cry out in pain, but it never reached the critical point that could kill him.
Qiongyuan couldn’t help but feel smug. “Little girl, accept your fate! Even the Heavenly Dao can’t do anything to me, so how can you—”
Qiongyuan’s voice got stuck in his throat.
A faint golden light appeared in Bai Shengyi’s eyes. A rich tide of destiny and spiritual energy broke through the immense chasm of the Saint Realm, pushing her to the verge of godhood!
“Kill!”
The tip of the Samsara Brush let out roars, and the tip of the Heavenly Machine Sword lifted, revealing its piercing sharpness. The power of the two converged, transforming into an arrow that broke through the void and pierced directly into Qiongyuan’s spiritual body!
Qiongyuan’s eyes widened in pain.
“How is this possible!”
He felt as if his heart had been struck. The power within him rapidly drained away, and he watched as his body shrank bit by bit, then faded…
“No!”
Qiongyuan let out a piercing scream, but even that scream shattered in the endless wind as he dissipated.
Bai Shengyi, however, did not pay attention to Qiongyuan. She looked around in a daze, searching for that wisp of green smoke.
“Master?”
“Master?”
Bai Shengyi searched the center of the divine hall for a long time without finding anyone. She hastily asked the Samsara Brush and the others to help her find Daojun Qinglan’s trace. “Little Samsara, help me look too!”
The Samsara Brush remained silent, controlling its main body as it flew back and forth within the divine hall.
But soon, the statues in the divine hall shattered, and the divine hall began to shake precariously.
“Shengyi! The Universal Secret Realm is collapsing!” the Samsara Brush called out to Bai Shengyi.
Bai Shengyi, however, seemed oblivious, stubbornly continuing to search for Daojun Qinglan. No matter how indifferent she was by nature, she could not accept Daojun Qinglan perishing right before her eyes.
Countless memories of Daojun Qinglan flashed through Bai Shengyi’s mind: the man in green who backed her at the main peak of Divine Enlightenment Academy, the man in green who taught her alchemy and medicine at the summit of Qianxiao Peak, the man who found a ninth-tier alchemist for her mother, the man who guarded Divine Enlightenment Academy for Qin Si…
Even though Daojun Qinglan rarely appeared, when she counted, he seemed to be involved in everything.
At least in Bai Shengyi’s eyes, her master was qualified.
The divine hall crumbled inch by inch, soon becoming a ruin floating in mid-air. The southwestern part of the secret realm was the first to be annihilated into nothingness. Under the dim, apocalyptic sky, Yue Bufan, Long Zining, and others tore open an exit in the east.
The spirit beasts, demonic beasts, and cultivators within the secret realm instinctively rushed towards the exit.
“Shengyi! We can’t search anymore! The secret realm is truly collapsing!” the Samsara Brush flew to Bai Shengyi, forcefully pushing her towards the exit. “Don’t you think for yourself, or for Qin Xiaosi? Or for the people of the Divine Enlightenment Minor World?”
“The Universal Secret Realm is collapsing, falling. Besides you now, who else can stop all this?”
Bai Shengyi was splashed with a bucket of cold water.
She turned back with a conflicted and difficult expression.
But had Daojun Qinglan sacrificed so much only to be abandoned?
As if predicting Bai Shengyi’s thoughts, the Samsara Brush quickly added, “Ayi, you can now completely control the River of Time. Are you still afraid of not being able to find Daojun Qinglan? Daojun Qinglan is a spiritual entity; as long as time exists, he will not perish…”
Bai Shengyi had already reached the exit.
“Ayi, hurry out!” Yue Bufan urged Bai Shengyi.
Bai Shengyi sent a beam of spiritual light towards the exit. “Let’s go together!”
The group left the secret realm at the same time.
Boom, boom, boom!
The deafening roar of thunder raged in their ears, like a thunderclap exploding before their eyes.
The moment Bai Shengyi exited the Universal Secret Realm, she saw the vast Universal Secret Realm plummeting straight down, almost engulfing the entire Divine Enlightenment Minor World!
Beneath the Universal Secret Realm, Qin Si, clad in red, led a group of cultivators in a desperate effort to support the entire secret realm, but it was still woefully insufficient, unable to stop the descent.
“Sword, come!”
The Heavenly Machine Sword fell into her hand. Bai Shengyi struck the hilt with her palm, and the long sword emitted a sharp radiance, transforming into a massive sword body that steadily supported the entire secret realm!
But Bai Shengyi knew this was not the ultimate solution.
Without hesitation, Bai Shengyi picked up her brush and drew on the Primordial Paper—
A world!
She intended to transform the Universal Secret Realm into a new world!
Divine power was furiously drawn from her body. In her sea of consciousness, her spiritual power and divine sense melted into a magnificent starry river, which then flowed into the depiction on the Primordial Paper…
As time passed, grass grew on the world, flowers bloomed, stars and universes appeared, the sun rose…
Bai Shengyi’s gaze suddenly deepened, her expression solemn. She lifted the brush tip, and a fine, long line pulled the depiction, slowly transforming it into reality. It detached from the Primordial Paper and flew straight towards the Universal Secret Realm!