Chapter 122

That inaudible word "Tribulation" seemed to have opened a forbidden gate.

The gray ripple quietly expanded with Lin Lin Xuan as the center; wherever it passed, all things returned to the ruins, turning into the most primitive dust. This power was not a violent destruction, but a deeper, more essential "ending"—depriving time, stripping away spirituality, and returning to Chaos.

The quiet room bore the brunt. Walls, floors, alchemy furnaces, jade couches... all objects that had existed for hundreds or thousands of years silently disintegrated under the gentle touch of the ripple, turning into uniform, fine, gray-white dust that fell with a rustle. The entire room seemed to have experienced millions of years of weathering in an instant, leaving only the most basic material particles.

Feng Xi was the closest, and the moment its cyan-gold feathers touched the ripple, their luster suddenly dimmed, and an irresistible sense of decay and nothingness passed through the feathers into its body, making it unable to help but let out a low cry of shock. But it had a life-bound contract with Lin Lin Xuan, and the Chaos origin from Lin Lin Xuan within the ripple, while repelling everything else, retained a trace of subtle "exemption" for it, only making it feel intense discomfort and weakness, without truly being returned to the ruins.

Feng Xi struggled, trying to use its wings to protect Lin Lin Xuan, but found that it was also being slowly weakened in this invisible force field. It could only guard its master anxiously, watching as everything around it turned to dust.

This power of returning to the ruins did not stop at the quiet room.

The ripple penetrated the broken walls and spread to the courtyard of the Imperial Medical Bureau. Several spiritual plants in the courtyard that had luckily escaped destruction by the war instantly withered, turned gray, and became fly ash. A rockery collapsed quietly, the rubble turning into powder before it even hit the ground. Several rebel cultivators who happened to have charged to the courtyard entrance and were preparing to surround the quiet room again felt a chill pass over them, and the spiritual light of the magic treasures in their hands instantly extinguished, becoming rusted and mottled, and then, along with their armor, clothing, and even parts of their skin and flesh, they began to rapidly lose vitality, decay, and peel off!

"Ah! My hand!"

"My cultivation... is draining away!"

"Retreat quickly! What kind of evil art is this?!"

Terrified screams rang out, and the rebels retreated in a panic as if they had seen a ghost, not daring to approach the quiet room again.

Although this strange ripple of returning to the ruins was initially limited to a corner of the Imperial Medical Bureau, its unique and heart-palpitating Dao rhyme was still sensed by the top experts on the battlefield.

Wei Gong, who was struggling to support the demonic palm, suddenly felt the pressure lighten slightly—not because the power of the demonic palm had weakened, but because the highly corrosive Ruins Abyss demonic energy contained within the palm, when approaching a certain direction of the imperial palace, actually showed a trace of imperceptible stagnation and dissolution, as if it had encountered some kind of natural counter-force. His exhausted spiritual sense swept over, instantly capturing the anomaly in the direction of the Imperial Medical Bureau, as well as the spreading aura that was of the same origin as Lin Lin Xuan's previous Chaos power but even more profound and obscure.

"Little Friend Lin... this is..." Wei Gong was filled with doubt and uncertainty, both having hope for a turning point and feeling an instinctive chill toward that power filled with the meaning of death and ending.

And the one who reacted most intensely was the Ruins Abyss demonic shadow.

"This is... Tribulation Power?!" In the demonic shadow's intent, filled with the desire for destruction, clear astonishment appeared for the first time, which then transformed into even more intense greed and wariness, "Chaos... has actually evolved toward 'Tribulation'? Hahaha... Good! Good! If I swallow you, swallow this nascent Tribulation Power, this seat will surely be able to go a step further, and even touch... the mystery of 'Returning to Silence'!"

It recognized this power. Chaos encompasses all things and can also derive all things, and "Tribulation" is the side of Chaos pointing toward the "End," the embodiment of the decay of all things and the alternation of eras, containing the most fundamental destructive laws between heaven and earth! For a Ruins Abyss demonic creature whose instinct is destruction and devouring, this power is both a deadly poison and a supreme supplement!

The demonic shadow's attack target instantly became clearer. It was no longer obsessed with immediately crushing Wei Gong and the others; that sky-covering demonic palm suddenly contracted, condensed several times over, and transformed into an even more solid, pitch-black claw with hooked fingers, tearing through space, and actually abandoned the core of resistance right in front of it, grabbing fiercely toward the direction of the Imperial Medical Bureau—the source of the power of returning to the ruins!

This grab was more concentrated and faster, carrying the intent of seizing and sealing, clearly wanting to capture and devour Lin Lin Xuan along with his nascent Tribulation Power!

"Don't even think about it, you demon!" How could Wei Gong let it succeed? Although he didn't understand exactly what had happened to Lin Lin Xuan, protecting Lin Lin Xuan was the highest strategy at this moment. He roared, disregarding his own exhaustion, and actually took the initiative to detonate a life-bound magic treasure he had nurtured for hundreds of years within his body!

"Mystic Yellow Seal, explode!"

A simple, square seal flew out from his crown, instantly expanded, and bloomed with the final Mystic Yellow energy that suppressed earth, water, fire, and wind, not attacking the demonic claw, but crashing straight into the slightly illusory core of the demonic shadow's body!

Besieging Wei to rescue Zhao!

"How dare you, you ant!" the demonic shadow roared, forced to divert a portion of its power to deal with this desperate strike. The pitch-black claw slowed down slightly.

Just in the blink of an eye—

"Hum!"

Space fluctuated, and in the air above the imperial palace, hundreds of feet away from the battlefield, a khaki-colored teleportation light suddenly lit up, and a figure stumbled out.

It was Brother Huangfu Hao, who had teleported back using the tortoise shell jade talisman!

His face was as pale as paper, his aura was chaotic, and the wounds on his body split open again under the teleportation fluctuations, blood staining his tattered robes. But in his hand, he tightly clutched that lotus petal, green as jade, emitting endless vitality and Chaos Dao rhyme!

As soon as he appeared, he immediately felt the demonic power sweeping the heavens and earth and the desperate battle to the death below. His gaze locked onto the terrifying demonic shadow and the claw grabbing toward the Imperial Medical Bureau, and he also saw the tragic scene of Wei Gong desperately detonating his life-bound magic treasure.

"Wei Ban! Brother Lin!" Brother Huangfu Hao's eyes were about to split, and without any hesitation, he didn't even have time to observe the situation clearly; the instinct to survive and the urgency to save others made him react in the most direct way—

He injected the little remaining Imperial Dragon Aura in his body into the Chaos Green Lotus petal in his hand without reservation, used all his strength, and threw it fiercely toward the direction of the Imperial Medical Bureau!

"Brother Lin! Catch it!"

The green lotus petal left his hand, not flying like an ordinary object, but under the stimulation of the dragon aura, it suddenly bloomed with a gentle yet highly penetrating cyan-green radiance! The Dao patterns on the petal lit up one by one; it seemed to possess spirituality, ignoring the raging demonic energy and energy turbulence in space, drawing a mysterious trajectory, like a swallow returning to its nest, and drifted precisely toward the ruins of the Imperial Medical Bureau's quiet room—the center of the gray ripple!

This throw exhausted Brother Huangfu Hao's last bit of strength, and his figure swayed, almost falling from the sky. But he held on, glared at the demonic shadow, and let out a hoarse but firm roar: "Demon! Your doomsday has arrived!"

His appearance and the strange light of vitality he threw instantly attracted the attention of the entire scene.

Wei Gong's spirit lifted: "Your Highness! You've returned!"

The Ruins Abyss demonic shadow's attention was also attracted by the green lotus petal; it sensed from the petal a Chaos vitality that was of the same origin as the power in Lin Lin Xuan's body but even purer and more ancient, and this vitality had a strong restraint against its dead demonic energy!

"Chaos Green Lotus?!" The demonic shadow's intent was filled with unbelievable shock and fury, "Impossible! How could this thing still exist in this realm! You've ruined my great cause, damn you!"

It could no longer care about Wei Gong, and temporarily set aside grabbing Lin Lin Xuan; the pitch-black claw turned midway, demonic energy surging, and grabbed fiercely toward the drifting green lotus petal! It absolutely could not let this holy object, filled with the vitality of creation, fall into the hands of that boy who was gestating Chaos Tribulation Power!

The claw arrived first, the demonic energy turned into a cage, instantly enveloping the green lotus petal!

However, the moment the demonic energy touched the petal—

"Hiss——!!"

Like a red-hot iron pressed onto ice, the dense black demonic energy was actually violently evaporated and purified by the gentle cyan-green radiance! The Dao patterns on the petal flowed, releasing circles of purification ripples, sweeping the surrounding demonic energy away! The sealing power of the claw could not truly bind it; the petal only slowed down slightly, still stubbornly and firmly drifting downward.

"Hmph! A mere remnant petal dares to show off!" The demonic shadow was furious, its claw fingers suddenly closed, and even purer demonic origin surged out, turning into countless fine black chains, wrapping around the petal, wanting to grind and pollute it with absolute power!

In the ruins of the Imperial Medical Bureau.

Feng Xi saw the cyan-green radiance descending from the sky, emitting an aura that made it feel incomparably comfortable and close, and also saw the interception of the demonic claw. Its intelligence had already opened, and it instantly understood the importance of that petal to its master!

"Screech——!"

With a desperate cry, Feng Xi used up the last bit of strength it had just recovered, flapped its wings with all its might, no longer guarding Lin Lin Xuan's side, but transformed into a cyan-gold stream of light, flying upward against the gray ripple that made it uncomfortable, and crashed straight into the black chains wrapping around the petal!

It wanted to use its body as a shield to open up the final path for that life-saving green lotus petal!

"Feng Xi! No!" Lin Lin Xuan, who had just regained a trace of consciousness and was struggling to control the rampaging Tribulation Power in his body, seemed to sense the desperate intent of his spiritual pet; under his tightly closed eyelids, his eyeballs trembled violently, and a vague and anxious wheezing sound came from his throat.

Above the ruins, the claw and the green lotus light were in a stalemate, Feng Xi burned its remaining strength to rush toward the chains, Brother Huangfu Hao fell from exhaustion, Wei Gong desperately held back the demonic shadow's main body...

At the critical moment, all hope was tied to that slowly drifting green lotus petal.