Chapter 368: Steadfast Conviction

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Gui Xu's dimension folds rolled up in a wailing, Ao Li stared at her gradually transparent left hand, the fingertips turning into bronze star dust drifting toward the Godslayer's afterimage. Those reflections that stepped out from the candlelight raised the broken Abyss Return Ruler, its blade reflecting a blood‑colored dusk of billions of space‑times.

"Hold on tight!" Lín Jìn's crimson phoenix ribbon coiled around Ao Li's waist, karmic fire weaving a cause‑and‑effect net between them. His left eye wept molten Golden Blood, and in his right pupil a miniature armillary sphere spun: "These shadows are extracting the foundation of our existence!"

The black‑haired infant sat on the Throne where entropy streams converged, using withered Star Remains to piece together a toy castle. With each brick that fell, a third of a Godslayer shadow's weapon solidified. The silver‑haired infant floated in the inverted Galaxy, forging armor for the shadows with creation power—on the surface of those armors floated memory fragments of Ao Li and Lín Jìn.

"Mother is disappearing." The silver‑haired infant suddenly appeared on Ao Li's shoulder, its icy little hand stroking her crystallized dragon horn, "When I become a bronze statue, will my eyes still see me?"

Ao Li's Abyss Return Ruler suddenly pierced her own chest. A bronze blade edge emerged from behind, precisely piercing three Godslayer shadows that were materializing. Golden Blood splashed onto the crimson phoenix ribbon, and the karmic fire instantly surged into a sky‑burning phoenix bird: "Dragon Clan secret technique·Blood‑forged Anchor!"

Lín Jìn's sideburns instantly turned frost‑white. He bit his tongue and spat out his innate fire essence, red runes drawing a tail‑biting fire ring in the void. The moment the phoenix bird struck the fire ring, all the Godslayer shadows' movements froze for half a breath—this was the moment Ao Li had been waiting for.

"Heaven and Earth as a furnace!" She thrust the Abyss Return Ruler into her spine, and what emerged was a Bronze Sword flowing with the primal essence of stars. Where the sword edge swept, the space‑time folds were forcibly smoothed, and the Godslayer shadows shattered like broken mirrors.

The black‑haired infant let out an angry shriek. He crushed the toy castle in his hand, and the entropy streams coalesced into gray‑white mycelium that devoured time. Lín Jìn's crimson phoenix ribbon suddenly wrapped his arm in reverse, and the karmic fire surged upward along the mycelium: "Found you, karmic node!"

At that moment, the silver‑haired infant's tear fell. The tear, imbued with creation power, watered the mycelium, unexpectedly birthing a colossal tree that spanned the Twelve Dimensions. This pallid monstrous tree's every leaf was a solidified cross‑section of space‑time, its roots directly piercing Ao Li and Lín Jìn's river of destiny.

"Act!" Ao Li's dragon tail coiled around the massive tree's trunk, the Bronze Sword formed from the Abyss Return Ruler igniting chaotic fire. Her body shattered into fragments the instant she swung the sword, yet reassembled within the clear glow of a jade basin—each piece of flesh etched with Dragon Clan sacred script.

Lín Jìn thrust both hands into his own chest. When he tore out a heart ablaze with primordial fire essence, the entire Gui Xu resonated with the phoenix's wail. The karmic fire heart was pressed against the tree's roots, and the sky‑burning flames surged upstream along the river of destiny, forcibly reclaiming the foundations of existence that had been devoured from the two.

"Truly... troublesome parents." The silver‑haired infant puffed his cheeks, creation wind swirling Star Sand to reshape the Godslayer. Yet the newly formed shadows suddenly froze—somehow, the Dragon Clan heroic spirits' lingering souls had become entangled around their weapons.

Within Ao Li's shattered‑then‑reassembled pupils swirled ancient dragon script: "Did you think we hadn't noticed?" Her sword tip pointed at the shadow beneath the black‑haired infant's Throne, "At the moment of your birth, the Dragon Clan sacred remains turned into cursed seeds."

The colossal tree roared and collapsed at that moment. Every fallen leaf transformed into Qingtong Suo, imprisoning the twin children within a cage forged from Dragon Clan sacred script. Lín Jìn staggered, kneeling on one knee, the burning void in his chest slowly being filled by the crimson phoenix ribbon: "This is... the remnants of the Dragon Clan sacred remains..."

"Guardian covenant." Ao Li's dragon horn fully crystallized, her voice resonating with bronze, "When a new god threatens the balance of heaven and earth, the ancestral dragon will awaken from its slumber within the sacred remains."

The silver‑haired infant suddenly showed an innocent smile. He reached out to touch the cage, and creation power collided with the ancestral dragon's sacred script, erupting in dazzling aurora: "But we are also part of heaven and earth." The black‑haired infant cooperatively tore open his chest, revealing a withered, pulsating universe inside: "Death... is also life."

The cage began to quake violently. Ao Li discovered the sacred script chains were being eroded by two opposing forces—creation power causing overgrowth, annihilation power corroding structural nodes. Lín Jìn's crimson phoenix ribbon flared again, this time its flames mingling with his innate essence blood: "There is still a final measure..."

"No need." Ao Li pressed his trembling wrist. Her spine emitted the sound of bronze gears turning, the entire vertebral column detaching and transforming into the Abyss Return Ruler that spans the Xīnhé: "Do you remember the Dragon Clan sacred precept?"

When the three‑thousand‑zhang bronze ruler thundered down, Lín Jìn, amidst a sky of starfire, saw a young Ao Li—then her dragon horn had not yet crystallized, and she raised a wooden sword before the Dragon Tomb, swearing: "When the heavens overturn, my bones shall become the celestial pillar."

The moment the Abyss Return Ruler pierced the twin children, no divine blood splattered as expected. The silver‑haired infant clutched the ruler's edge with a sweet smile, while the black‑haired infant kissed the bronze inscription. Amid the clash of the ancestral dragon's sacred script and divine power, fine cracks began to appear on the surface of the Abyss Return Ruler.

"Mother's scent." The twins spoke in unison, their umbilical cords coiling up the Abyss Return Ruler. The coiled‑snake marks on their foreheads suddenly opened a third eye, and the vertical pupils reflected Ao Li's shattered future.

At this moment Lín Jìn's crimson phoenix ribbon transformed into a Nirvana Fire phoenix. He leapt onto the phoenix's back, grasped Ao Li's hand, and the karmic fire burned through the Reality Dimension at their clasped hands: "Go! To the source of the sacred remains!"

When the fire phoenix shattered the twelve‑layer Dimension Barrier, Ao Li beheld a vast Bronze Sea— the true burial ground of the Dragon Clan sacred remains. Countless Bronze Coffins formed a galactic vortex, each coffin extending golden threads that merged into the central massive coffin inscribed with the burial curse.

"So the thing we escorted... was merely a nail of the sacred remains." Ao Li's crystallized dragon horn began to shed, revealing newly formed jade‑like spirals beneath. Lín Jìn's right eye fully transformed into an armillary sphere, its pointer aimed at the eye of the storm at the center of the Bronze Sea.

The twins' laughter chased from behind. Their bodies were half‑merged with the Abyss Return Ruler, and creation and annihilation forces were polluting the entire sacred remains sea through the bronze inscription. The black‑haired infant casually grabbed a Bronze Coffin, crushing the sleeping dragon ancestor's corpse within into ash.

"Stop right here!" Nine dragon souls rose from the Bronze Sea, becoming Tomb Guards cloaked in Star Chart. Yet the death‑bound blades in their hands disintegrated on their own before reaching the twins— the creation power flowing in the silver‑haired infant's eyes was rewriting the weapons' existential foundations.

Ao Li suddenly vaulted into the Bronze Sea. She darted among the coffins, her dragon tail's sweep leaving a trail of blood‑colored runes. When the ninth thousandth coffin was activated, the entire sacred remains sea emitted a lingering dragon chant.

"With blood as the guide..." Her scales peeled away one by one, painting a hundred‑thousand‑zhang Dragon Clan battle banner across the void, "Ancestor... grant the sword!"

The Bronze Sea boiled. From countless coffins rose blood‑colored glimmers, coalescing before Lín Jìn into a broken Bronze greatsword. At the blade's notch surged star‑burst residual flame, the very "Boundary‑cutting Blade" that the ancient dragon ancestor shattered when slaying the old god.

The twins, for the first time, wore a solemn expression. The black‑haired infant ripped open his abdomen, exposing the core of the withered universe; the silver‑haired infant inverted the star‑sand hourglass, compressing the twelve nascent universes into a shield.

The crimson phoenix ribbon in Lín Jìn's hand moved like a living flame, swiftly coiling around the massive Boundary‑cutting Blade. The Blade, entirely jet‑black, emitted a chilling aura that made hearts race, yet under the phoenix ribbon's wrap it seemed tamed, showing no resistance.

Lín Jìn inhaled deeply, continuously pouring the karmic fire within into the blade's notch. As the fire poured in, the notch began to flicker with a faint red glow, as if a awakened beast, gradually reviving.

The instant the karmic fire fully filled the blade's notch, Lín Jìn suddenly felt a massive force surge from the blade. He stared and saw countless red dragon souls pouring from the notch, like a red torrent, raging and roaring.

These dragon souls' sheer number, leaving one speechless, enough