“Thank you for your kindness, all four of you.”
Big Mang raised his head, clasping his fists gratefully toward the Kid and the others.
“Now… it’s time to go!”
The Kid looked up, his gaze sweeping profoundly over the Old Man, the Cripple, and the Sickly One.
They exchanged smiles and nodded lightly.
With a wave of his right hand, the Kid summoned the village’s divine tree, which erupted in dazzling golden light. Streams of golden radiance converged swiftly toward his hand.
At that moment, the entire village shook with a deafening “boom.”
The thatched wooden huts shattered into countless fragments, dissolving into nothingness.
All traces of the village vanished, as if the Forgotten Village had never existed.
“Clinging to broken bodies, confined here, today we finally break free.”
The Sickly One coughed softly, a rare flush coloring his pale, sickly face, “Who could’ve known? It wasn’t that we couldn’t leave the village, but that leaving meant certain death. Though we don’t know what force triggered the child’s premature eruption, merging with the Great Void to become the Origin Seed, now… with the demon spreading across the Three Thousand Worlds, the time has come. We’ve endured endless ages for this moment—to restore the demon’s name!”
His voice, ethereal, seemed to pierce the entire Upper Heavenly Realm.
As the Sickly One’s words fell, the Ancestral Demon’s excited voice rang out, “You… you’re still here?”
“We are!” the Kid, the Old Man, the Sickly One, and the Cripple answered in unison, “We’ve always been here!”
“Good!” The Ancestral Demon’s voice trembled with excitement.
The Kid and the others exchanged another smile, stepping forward as the surrounding space collapsed, entering the chaos.
Meanwhile, Chen Dong stood in the chaotic void, his presence majestic and vast, his right hand still extended with fingers splayed.
The arm-thick bolt of lightning was wreaking havoc in the ten-thousand-mile chaotic vortex.
Arcs of lightning nearly enveloped the vortex’s center.
At its heart, the verdant Eternal Cyan Lotus slowly emerged from the vortex.
Boom! Crack! Boom! Crack! Boom! Crack…
Lightning poured onto the Eternal Cyan Lotus like a flood, sparking countless electric serpents. Yet it couldn’t shake the lotus, only skittering across its surface, adding to its divine aura.
“Lightning… is far from enough. To become the Origin Seed, you must first see if the Dao is with you!”
An ancient, solemn voice emanated from the Eternal Cyan Lotus, domineering and authoritative.
This was the confidence of the strongest Primordial Spirit Seeds.
Even with Chen Dong now blessed by fate, merging with the Great Void toward the Origin Seed, the Eternal Cyan Lotus could still declare… *Is the Dao with you?*
Without the power to overturn the heavens, who could utter such arrogance?
“Is that so?”
Chen Dong’s eyes widened, his profound pupils suddenly shimmering with eerie purple and golden light.
His outstretched right hand curled slightly, rotating in the opposite direction of the Eternal Cyan Lotus’s emergence from the vortex.
Boom!
A thunderous roar erupted from the vortex, like endless thunder rolling through.
But as the explosion sounded, the vortex abruptly halted, and even the Eternal Cyan Lotus froze.
Boom! Crack! Boom! Crack! Boom! Crack…
The surrounding lightning transformed into thunder dragons, pouring onto the Eternal Cyan Lotus.
Thick white smoke rose, roiling fiercely.
“You…” The Eternal Cyan Lotus’s voice carried shock and anger.
Before it could continue, Chen Dong smirked playfully, “Still arrogant? Primordial Spirit Seeds should know their place. No matter how strong, they’re just Primordial. Bearing the name of a Seed, there must be an Origin!”
“Act now!”
The Eternal Cyan Lotus trembled violently, its幽青 light surging in all directions, breaking through the lightning’s encirclement and rushing out of the vortex.
Boom!
Another deafening roar.
The Eternal Cyan Lotus resumed its slow rotation.
But compared to before, its speed was sluggish, as if hindered by some force.
Crackle… Crackle…
Lightning flickered around Chen Dong’s right hand, his curled fingers wreathed in electric light, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
A bold, heroic voice thundered, “Did I permit you to move?”
Boom!
The rotating Eternal Cyan Lotus froze again.
At that moment, a dazzling, multicolored radiant light flared without warning from a diagonal stretch of chaotic void.
The vibrant light enveloped Chen Dong, dimming the golden Taiji Bagua above and below him instantly.
A vast force poured onto Chen Dong’s right hand, extinguishing the electric light around it.
Chen Dong’s brows furrowed, a flash of shock passing through his eyes, his raised hand falling powerlessly.
“Insolence!”
The Ancestral Demon’s roar echoed.
Boom!
A torrent of demonic energy erupted from Chen Dong, forming a massive demonic hand that seized the radiant light and crushed it with a “bang,” scattering it into nothingness.
It all happened in an instant.
Chen Dong looked toward the Eternal Cyan Lotus. Freed from his restraint, it had resumed spinning and fully emerged from the vortex, blooming rapidly.
A white-robed, white-haired figure stood at the center of its seedpod.
The radiant light was no stranger to him.
It was the same as the one from the Ancestral Demon’s vision of the chaotic dawn’s war, a force no weaker than the Master of Jianmu—one of the strongest attacking Primordial Spirit Seeds, like the Eternal Cyan Lotus.
If even the Master of Radiance had appeared, where was the Master of Jianmu?
As the thought arose, the aged figure at the Eternal Cyan Lotus’s center spoke slowly, “It can begin. No need to hide and watch. You’ve seen—if this continues, even I can’t hold out. The consequences are unthinkable.”
Rumble…
One of the chaotic vortices suddenly emitted a low, trembling hum.
The vibrations disrupted the ripples within the vortex.
A massive branch extended from the vortex, followed by an increasingly thick tree trunk.
“The Master of Jianmu…”
Chen Dong’s expression finally shifted. Not only him, but as Jianmu appeared, he could distinctly feel the demonic energy, Human Emperor Qi, and Worldly Luck within him grow restless.
Even the anger of the Ancestral Demon and the Yellow Emperor was faintly perceptible.
Their reaction was understandable.
In the chaotic war, the Master of Jianmu had led the charge.
The human path had been deceived and imprisoned by the Master of Jianmu, with the Yellow Emperor falling into its trap.
“Wait, what about that giant hand?” Chen Dong suddenly recalled the vision of the chaotic war.
Beyond the Master of Jianmu and the Radiance, there was clearly a colossal hand.
“Here!”
A mocking sneer suddenly rang from the chaotic void beneath Chen Dong’s feet.