Chapter 1268: Spread

The massive tide arrives as expected!

Han Wuxian stood within Beilin, his aura suppressed to the extreme, even deliberately showing a hint of "panic" and "powerlessness". He manipulated the Beilin network, his resistance appearing "feeble and powerless", and the gray‑white Silence Extinction light retreated step by step under the assault of the deep blue torrent, as if it could be extinguished at any moment.

"Come… closer…" Han Wuxian calmly calculated the distance in his mind, guiding the deep blue torrent along his preset "channel" toward the few meticulously arranged "Silence‑Returning Traps".

The Devour Silence demonic spirits were clearly intoxicated by this "within easy reach" victory, frantically assaulting the "fragile" defenses, greedily devouring the Silence Extinction essence leaking along the way, yet they failed to notice that they had already entered a deadly encirclement.

When more than seventy percent of the deep blue torrent had been successfully drawn into the core trap area,

Han Wuxian's eyes flashed with brilliant light, and the aura he had been suppressing erupted with a roar!

"Now! Activate!"

He thrust his hands together, forming seals, and triggered all the hidden contingencies pre‑buried in the trap nodes!

Buzz!!!!

Those seemingly ordinary Beilin zones suddenly erupted with grayish light a hundred times stronger than when they had previously feigned weakness! Countless arcane Silence Extinction runes materialized from the void, linking together, instantly forming a massive gray barrier shaped like an inverted bowl, completely enveloping most of the deep blue torrent!

Within the barrier, the pure, crushing Silence Extinction essence behaved like a substance, frantically assimilating and eradicating the Devour Silence demonic spirits trapped inside! The deep blue lights dimmed, twisted, and shattered at a visible speed, emitting a mournful, desperate howl! They tried to breach the barrier, but that dim gray light was impenetrable, instead reflecting their power back and hastening their own disintegration!

"Roar!"

From the depths of the deep blue torrent came a terrifying roar filled with shock and fury! A massive deep blue shadow, far more condensed than the other demonic spirits and exuding pressure comparable to the Great Vehicle Stage, suddenly manifested! It was clearly the leader of this invasion!

It frantically attacked the gray barrier, attempting to tear a breach.

At that moment,

the elder, who had remained as still as a stone statue, finally moved!

He slowly opened his utterly gray‑dark eyes, his gaze calmly settling on the massive deep blue shadow. Without forming any seals, without a shout, he simply exhaled a gentle breath toward the shadow.

The breath, seemingly ordinary, nonetheless contained a gray aura that held the primordial Silence Extinction power accumulated over billions of years by the "Eye of Silence".

That breath floated lightly through space, ignoring all the deep blue shadow's defenses and roars, landing directly upon its core.

No sound, no flash of light.

The massive deep blue shadow, radiating terrifying pressure, froze instantly as if erased by an eraser, then from the point touched by the gray breath it silently disintegrated and vanished, becoming primordial void.

The leader was instantly annihilated!

The remaining Devour Silence demonic spirits completely lost their will to fight, and under the crushing gray barrier and Han Wuxian's purge, they were swiftly purified away.

This meticulously planned bait battle achieved a total victory!

When the last trace of deep blue light faded, the gray barrier slowly vanished, and Ten Thousand Silence Mountain returned to silence. Yet the vortex above Gu Jing showed a noticeably dimmer glow, and the elder's figure seemed even more stooped. Clearly, that final strike had consumed a huge amount of energy.

Han Wuxian let out a long sigh; though weary, his eyes shone brightly. Not only had he successfully defended the line, but in actual combat his understanding of Return to Void and Silence Extinction reached a new height. He even sensed that the Heavenly Dao Forbidden Seal at his brow, amid the collision of life‑and‑death laws, seemed to have loosened a bit!

However, just as his mind relaxed a little,

in the center of the purified battlefield, an extremely tiny, almost imperceptible deep blue crystal fragment suddenly disregarded spatial distance, as if alive, and shot toward Han Wuxian! Its speed was astonishing, and the venomous and corrosive intent it carried far surpassed any previous attack!

It was the dying leader's final counterstrike—a "Devour Silence Seed" that had condensed a portion of its essence!

Han Wuxian's complexion changed abruptly; he could no longer dodge.

Seeing the "Devour Silence Seed" about to plunge into his brow,

at the critical moment, the "Heart Mirror" in his sea of consciousness erupted with unprecedented radiance—not as defense but to actively meet the "Devour Silence Seed", its surface rippling like water, and it swallowed the seed!

The "Heart Mirror" quivered violently, its surface instantly coated with a layer of deep blue frost; Han Wuxian muttered, feeling his spirit pierced by billions of poisonous needles, a cold, dead silence, a will of devouring desire raging against his Dao Heart!

This "Devour Silence Seed" actually sought to corrupt his "Heart Mirror", eroding his fundamental Dao!

Cold! Not physical cold, but a conceptual dead silence that strikes at the very essence of existence, aiming to freeze all thought, feeling, and will. Worse, the greedy devouring desire it contains is like billions of starving maggots, ravenously gnawing at the foundation of his Dao Heart, trying to twist and pollute his "Return to Void" intention, turning it into another form of destructive, predatory "Devour Silence"!

The surface of the "Heart Mirror" instantly became covered with deep blue icy cracks; the reflected scenes of stars' birth and death, of all things returning to the void, were twisted into countless deep blue faces wailing in pain! Han Wuxian, linked mind‑spirit with the "Heart Mirror", at this moment only felt his own Dao being forcibly stripped and defiled, his spirit enduring excruciating pain as it was torn piece by piece and frozen.

He could even "hear" the lingering, mad intent of that deep blue shadow leader remaining within the "Devour Silence Seed":

"Merge… return to the eternal devour… become part of my kind… destruction… all 'life'…"

"Don't even think so!"

Han Wuxian let out a roar that rose from the depths of his soul! He steadfastly guarded the last sliver of clarity in his spirit platform, pouring all his willpower, all his belief in his own "Return to Void" path, into the violently trembling, nearly shattered "Heart Mirror"!

"My path... is guidance, is return, is cycle! Not your desire for plunder and destruction!"

"Give me... calm!"

The "Heart Mirror" burst forth its final radiance, fiercely clashing with the corrosive deep blue frost, emitting a silent yet soul‑shaking roar! Yet this "Devour Silence Seed" was the dying leader's counterstrike, comparable to the Great Vehicle Stage; its essence was exceedingly lofty, its venom profoundly deep, and solely relying on Han Wuxian's own power and will made it difficult to completely expel and purify! Instead, that cold dead silence and devouring intent, along the link between him and the "Heart Mirror", slowly spread toward the core of his Dao.