Chapter 1094: Lake Heart Altar

Boom—!

A azure giant seal, bearing the overwhelming might to crush everything, fell like the heavens tilting, smashing down toward Han Wuxian's head! Before it even arrived, the heavy sealing force already dimmed the starlight around Han Wuxian, and the rocks beneath his feet cracked inch by inch!

Before him loomed a sky‑obscuring foul‑poison mist, above hung the Azure Gang's mighty seal that could suppress everything! The two powerful enemies' furious strikes formed a deadly trap, completely sealing off every avenue of escape for Han Wuxian!

"Bring it on!" Han Wuxian's eyes showed no fear; instead, they burst with an unprecedented sharp gleam. The violent Earth Vein essence and the invasive evil thoughts within him were, at this moment, forcibly blended and ignited by the profound mystery and unyielding will of the Star Derivation Secret! It was not a fusion, but the placing of two utterly opposite, clashing forces into the furnace of his own body, about to explode, and forcing them to erupt!

He gripped the Star‑Shatter Blade with both hands; upon the blade, brilliant starlight and threads of freshly refined golden light, heavy with the aura of the earth, wildly entwined and compressed! The Dao Mark light flared violently behind him, faintly sketching a rotating miniature nebula phantom!

"Star Vortex Flow!"

Han Wuxian bellowed, jerking the Star‑Shatter Blade upward! The tip was not aimed at either side, but at a void before him!

Hum—!

A vortex, formed from intensely compressed starlight and Earth Vein Power, with a diameter of about a zhang, suddenly took shape! Its center was deep as a black hole, while its edge spun at high speed, emitting a powerful twisting and pulling force! The moment the vortex appeared, the flow of energy throughout the underground space stalled!

Boom—! Pfft!

The Azure Gang Demon‑Sealing Seal struck first! Yet the power capable of sealing mountains, upon contacting the edge of the high‑speed Star Vortex Flow, was forcibly deflected by a strange twisting field! The unmatched gang seal, like a hammer stuck in mud, veered off course; most of its force was dissipated and redirected by the vortex's spin, grazing Han Wuxian's side before slamming hard into the surging foul‑poison mist below!

Almost simultaneously, the sky‑covering myriad‑pollution poison cloud descended! But the moment the poison cloud touched the Star Vortex Flow, the high‑speed vortex, containing stellar gravity and a trace of earth‑sealing power, became like a huge grindstone—

Sizzle—!

Countless ferocious ghost faces and Poison Insect phantasms were sucked in, emitting shrill wails under the grinding of starlight and Earth Vein Power, and were quickly ground away and purified! The thick poison cloud was torn open a huge gap by force!

Han Wuxian's figure stood just behind the vortex; the Star Vortex Flow acted like a twisted shield, bearing the brunt of the two great killing moves for him! The violent energy shock transmitted through the vortex shook his whole body, blood again spilled from his mouth and nose, and the Dao Mark light on his surface flickered erratically—clearly maintaining this technique took a huge toll. Yet he managed to stay on his feet!

"What?!" the Spirit Transformation cultivator's face changed drastically, unable to believe that his certain‑to‑hit strike had been deflected in such a strange way.

"Stars… earth… how can this be?!" the pupils beneath the black‑robed evil cultivator's mask contracted sharply; Han Wuxian's method of forcibly merging opposing forces to form a twisted defense was completely beyond his comprehension!

However, an even greater change occurred!

Although the foul‑poison cloud struck by most of the Azure Gang Demon‑Sealing Seal's power had been largely annihilated, the remaining cloud clashed violently with the fierce gang‑breaking aura, erupting into even more chaotic and violent energy turbulence! This turbulence, like a berserk beast out of control, slammed hard onto the dark‑purple foul‑poison lake below!

Boom— boom—!!!

The entire underground lake was as if a colossal stone of ten thousand jun had been thrown in, raising heaven‑high waves! The viscous water surged skyward; at the lake's center, the earth‑vein core, bound by foul‑poison black mist like shackles, suffered an unprecedented violent impact!

Crack!

An earsplitting crack, like the earth's wail, echoed through the space! The foul‑poison black chains wrapped around the earth‑vein core, under intense internal and external stress, split in large patches! The bound, polluted massive core, like an awakened dragon, began to struggle violently and swell!

An indescribably terrifying aura leaked from those cracks! It was no longer mere pollution or purity, but the earth's primal power, under extreme suppression and contamination, on the verge of total loss of control and imminent explosive destruction! The underground cavern's walls shook violently, large chunks of rock peeled off and fell into the lake, and from the dark depths of the ceiling came a grating, squeezing groan.

"Damn it! The earth‑vein core… is going to explode!" the late‑Nascent Soul cultivator's face drained of color, his voice shifted, and the shadow of death instantly seized his heart.

"Damn it!" the Spirit Transformation cultivator's face turned deathly pale, no longer caring about Han Wuxian, he shot backward, pushing his protective azure light to the extreme, just wanting to flee the imminent source of destruction.

"No! My foundation!!" the black‑robed evil cultivator let out a mournful, desperate roar; he tried to command the lake's foul‑poison power to repair the chains, but the core's turmoil far exceeded his control limit, and the backlash sent black qi erupting wildly from his body, his breath instantly wilting.

Han Wuxian likewise felt that heaven‑shattering, earth‑rending aura, his hairs standing on end! Yet his gaze locked, amidst the chaotic energy turbulence, collapsing rocks, and surging foul‑poison waves, onto the lake's center—there, half‑sunken, half‑afloat in the dark‑purple water beneath the massive earth‑vein core, lay a black altar covered in strange, twisting runes!

At the altar's center was set a fist‑sized dark‑purple crystal that constantly inhaled and exhaled foul‑poison black light, tightly linked to the whole contamination system! Around the crystal, countless finer black lines, like roots, dug deep into the lakebed stone below and the surging earth‑vein core above, forming a vast and evil conversion node!

The core eye of the Nine Nether Soul Transfer Formation!

"That's it!" Han Wuxian's eyes blazed with astonishment. The key to breaking the situation lay in this altar's formation eye! Destroying it might interrupt the contamination, and perhaps… give the surging earth‑vein core an outlet to vent!

Opportunity flickered and was gone! Seizing the moment when the two powerful foes were subdued by the earth‑vein core's turmoil and their own forces were held back by backlash, Han Wuxian forcibly suppressed his surging qi and blood and his inner violent power, pouring the freshly refined trace of Earth Vein essence and all his stellar power without reserve into the Star‑Shatter Blade!

The blade hummed; brilliant starlight within it revealed a heavy earthen golden glow, the light condensed at the tip blindingly intense, wavering, emanating a piercing sharpness that could cleave anything!

His form turned into a meteor trailing a long tail of light, ignoring the collapsing boulders and surging foul‑poison waves around him, ignoring the ever‑more terrifying destructive aura, his sole target was the lake‑heart altar, the formation‑eye crystal!

"Break it for me!"