Chapter 182: Final Chapter

The sword light receded.

The freezing sensation of time and space faded slowly.

Those two final sword lights, fused with "Silent Star Chaos Qi," "return to ruins Dao rhyme," and ancient protective stellar power, had thoroughly submerged into the roots of the 51st and 73rd hub chains.

There was no earth-shattering loud noise, no eruption of energy tides.

Only two extremely slight, yet resounding through the eternal time and space—"Zheng," "Zheng."

Like two piano strings that had been taut for countless eons, bearing endless resentment and the responsibility of protection, finally, they snapped.

At the fracture, there was no gushing of filthy energy, nor the collapse of chain fragments. Those two dark golden chains as thick as mountain peaks, from the roots connected to the giant egg, to the void, and to this twisted space, began to turn silently into the finest dust flashing with starlight and Chaos light spots, like a silver sand waterfall flowing in reverse, floating upward, dissolving into nothingness.

With the thorough collapse of these two most critical "load-bearing cables," the entire huge and evil "imprisonment-nourishment" system composed of eighty-one filthy contract chains had its final core support and energy circulation hub pulled out by the roots!

Hum—！！！

All the remaining chains, whether they were those severed by Zhao Yuan earlier, struggling to repair or slowly disintegrating, or those still intact and fiercely confronting the suddenly erupted silver protective stellar power, all emitted trembling screams of being at the limit simultaneously! On the surface of the chains, those twisted "filthy contract runes" flickered frantically, appearing and disappearing, like a candle in the wind, rapidly becoming dim and blurry!

And those final protective silver-white starlight sealed in the depths of the chains by the ancient Star-Fall people shone brightly! They no longer just wrapped and bound the Evil God body, but turned into countless sharp silver light blades and stellar fire torrents that purified everything, frantically eroding, purifying, and disintegrating inward along the energy veins of every chain!

The entire chain array was being ignited and disintegrated from the inside!

"Howl—！！!"

The Star-Remnant Evil God emitted the shrillest, and also the closest to "fear," roar since its birth! Its huge body, which had barely managed to condense and was not yet completely stable, suffered unprecedented heavy damage due to the thorough collapse of the chain system and the comprehensive eruption of protective stellar power!

The power binding it was disappearing, but at the same time, the energy source that allowed it to exist and be "nurtured" was also being cut off and purified! What was even more terrifying was that those silver protective stellar powers had a strong restraint and purification effect on its filthy essence!

The dark red crystals on its body surface cracked and peeled off in large pieces, turning into powder; the rotten tentacles charred and broke in the silver stellar fire; and among the hundreds of broken star eyes, the crazy and tyrannical light was replaced by pain and chaos. It struggled, wanting to thoroughly break free from the disintegrating chain remains, wanting to lunge at the culprit who caused it to fall into such a situation, wanting to swallow everything to make up for its own loss...

However, having lost the stable energy supply of the chain system and being continuously eroded and purified by protective stellar power, its power was passing away rapidly. The evil pressure that reached the heavens and the earth, like a deflated ball, rapidly decayed.

The balance of victory and defeat had tilted irreversibly the moment the chains were thoroughly severed!

Strike while the iron is hot!

Lin Xuan did not hesitate in the slightest. After slashing out that sword to sever the final chains, his face was as pale as paper, and his aura had also fallen to the bottom. The vortex in the Chaos Tribulation Pupils had nearly stopped. But his eyes remained as cold as ice, even sharper than before.

He did not look at the Evil God that was wailing and disintegrating, but returned to Zhao Yuan's side for the first time.

Zhao Yuan's situation at this moment was indescribably bad. His right arm was gone from the shoulder, the wound barely sealed by a layer of thin gray-blue airflow, but it was still slowly leaking light spots of life origin. His face was gray and defeated, his breath as thin as a thread, the cracks in the Nascent Soul in his body had spread to the core, nearly thoroughly shattering into several pieces, only barely sticking together by the wisp of Chaos origin and return-to-ruins Dao seed power Lin Xuan had passed into him. His sea of consciousness was silent, the fire of his soul so weak that it seemed it would extinguish in the next second.

Lin Xuan reached out and pressed on Zhao Yuan's forehead, his brow furrowing imperceptibly. The severity of Zhao Yuan's injuries and the thorough destruction of his foundation were far beyond estimation. Not to mention restoring his cultivation, even maintaining his life and keeping his soul from scattering was already extremely difficult. The little power he had passed into him earlier could only temporarily hang on to his final thread of life.

"Senior... Evil God..." Zhao Yuan seemed to sense Lin Xuan's return, his lips moving, emitting a weak sound like a mosquito, only a trace of obsession light remaining in his eyes.

"The chains are severed, the overall situation is set." Lin Xuan said in a deep voice, carrying a trace of rare fatigue, but more of unquestionable firmness. "Now, take care of yourself first."

He did not say more, his hands pinching seals, the residual Chaos Tribulation Power no longer used for attack, but turning into the purest and gentlest nourishing power, slowly seeping into Zhao Yuan's broken body and sea of consciousness like spring rain, carefully combing through the residual power of the runaway "Silent Star Chaos Qi," reinforcing the Nascent Soul that was about to shatter thoroughly, and warming the fire of the soul that was flickering and about to extinguish.

At the same time, his gaze swept over Elder Lingshuang, True Person Beichen, and Old Ancestor Hunyou. Elder Lingshuang was heavily injured, but her foundation was not damaged; True Person Beichen's soul was damaged, and the array disk was destroyed; Old Ancestor Hunyou was the most miserable, his soul body nearly transparent, his origin heavily damaged, and he was already at the end of his rope.

Lin Xuan separated a wisp of aura to protect the three of them, saying in a deep voice: "Concentrate and adjust your breathing, hold fast to your origin. The filth of this place will dissipate, but space is unstable and may collapse at any time."

Hearing this, the three of them immediately forced themselves to cheer up, sitting cross-legged, each operating their cultivation techniques to heal their injuries and consolidate their foundation. They knew that the final crisis might not have completely passed, and they must recover a trace of self-protection power as soon as possible.

And at this moment, at the center of the battlefield, the doomsday calamity of the Star-Remnant Evil God had entered its final and most tragic stage.

The chain array thoroughly disintegrated. Eighty-one chains reaching the heavens, whether intact or severed, had all turned into sky-filling dancing energy dust mixed with dark gold filth and silver-white starlight, like a bizarre meteor shower. The evil framework supporting this "absolute blind zone" no longer existed.

Having lost the restraint and nourishment of the chains, and being continuously purified and weakened by protective stellar power, the huge body of the Star-Remnant Evil God began to collapse and shrink uncontrollably. Dark red crystals peeled off in large pieces and turned into powder; rotten flesh tentacles turned into fly ash in the silver stellar fire; those hundreds of broken star eyes dimmed and shattered one by one, the crazy will inside dissipating along with them.

It roared and struggled unwillingly, waving its residual limbs, attempting to condense its final power for a last counterattack. Filthy energy tides erupted again and again, but like a tree without roots, they were weaker each time. The silver protective stellar fire burned more and more vigorously, like a bone-attached maggot, wrapping around and purifying every inch of its body.

Finally, amidst a roar that contained endless resentment, despair, and final madness, and nearly tore the soul apart—

The huge, twisted body of the Star-Remnant Evil God, symbolizing the ancient fall of stars and the Demon Abyss plot, like a paper mountain being ignited, erupted from within with the final, destructive filthy light, and then... collapsed and annihilated inward with a bang!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a "silent annihilation" of all things returning to ruins, as if at the end of the universe.

A tiny "nothingness black dot" that made Spirit Transformation cultivators tremble flashed and disappeared at the center of the Evil God body's annihilation, then hid. That was the trace of its final core, its most essential "Evil God concept" being thoroughly wiped out.

Immediately following, with the center of its annihilation as the center, a circle of pure silver-white light ring containing the meaning of rebirth spread out rapidly like water waves! Wherever the light ring passed, residual filthy star-shas, blood-resentment power, spatial folds, twisted laws... everything belonging to that Evil God and its creations was rapidly smoothed out, purified, and assimilated!

The "absolute blind zone" that had been polluted for unknown how many ten thousand years, and even this area at the deepest part of the Return-to-Ruins Sea Eye, began a slow and firm "purification" and "repair." Although it was impossible to return to its original state immediately, the evil and despair that made one suffocate were fading at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It was over.

This battle to sever the chains against the "Star-Remnant Evil God embryo," which started from Starfall Isle and affected the entire Tianyuan Continent, and gambled on the lives and future of countless people, finally drew to a close with the thorough annihilation of the Evil God, the complete disintegration of the chain system, and the preliminary purification of the deepest pollution of the Return-to-Ruins Sea Eye.

The price was equally heavy.

"Cough cough..." Old Ancestor Hunyou finally couldn't hold on, his soul body fluctuating violently, like a candle in the wind, looking like it was about to dissipate thoroughly.

Lin Xuan raised his hand, and a wisp of pure Chaos origin power passed into his soul body, temporarily stabilizing his trend of collapse, but wanting to recover would likely require long years and special opportunities.

"Daoist Lin... great kindness..." A bitter and relieved complex expression appeared on Old Ancestor Hunyou's illusory face.

True Person Beichen looked at the thoroughly shattered array disk remains that had lost all spirituality, and then looked at the space that was being purified by the silver-white light ring, tears streaming down his old eyes, muttering: "Ancestors... fellow Star-Fall people... the backhand you left behind... was not in vain... the evil filth... has finally been swept away..."

Elder Lingshuang stood up silently and walked to Zhao Yuan's side, looking at Zhao Yuan, who was being treated with all his strength by Lin Xuan but whose life force was still slim, deep sadness and helplessness flowing in her cold eyes.

Lin Xuan continued to treat Zhao Yuan's injuries, fine beads of sweat already seeping from his temples. He could feel that Zhao Yuan's life was temporarily hung on, but the situation in his body was still bad to the extreme. The Nascent Soul was shattered, the Dao foundation was destroyed, the meridians were broken, the soul was incomplete... What was more troublesome was that the newborn, high-essence "Silent Star Chaos Qi" was running wild and residual in his body, producing complex and dangerous conflicts and entanglements with his Chaos power, Zhao Yuan's own residual life force, and even the purifying stellar power that was spreading.

Wanting to save Zhao Yuan and give him a chance to step onto the Dao path again was not an easy task, and even required means like defying the heavens to change fate.

"This place is not suitable for staying long." Lin Xuan looked up at the surroundings. Although the Evil God was destroyed and the filth was being purified, the energy turbulence and spatial movement triggered by the collapse of the chain system were still continuing. This area was extremely unstable and could undergo large-scale spatial collapse at any time. "Return to Starfall Isle first."

He rolled his sleeves, carefully protecting the heavily injured Zhao Yuan, Lingshuang, Beichen, and Hunyou with Chaos power, turning into a dim gray stream of light, following the way they came, cautiously and rapidly returning upward, toward the direction of Starfall Isle.

Traveling through the energy turbulence that was still chaotic but no longer had fatal threats, Lin Xuan was silent. He knew that although the greatest threat had been lifted, the subsequent impact had just begun. The purification of the Return-to-Ruins Sea Eye was not a one-day task, the Demon Abyss's plot had been heavily frustrated but might not have given up, the changes in the pattern of various forces on the continent after this battle, and... Zhao Yuan's life and death and future.

And himself.

Continuous high-intensity battles, especially the consumption of mind and origin in fusing multiple powers to sever the chains and treating Zhao Yuan at the end, made him feel a long-lost deep fatigue. Deep in the Chaos Tribulation Pupils, the Dao seed symbolizing "return to ruins" also seemed to have dimmed due to overuse.

But when he lowered his head and looked at Zhao Yuan in his arms, whose life force was weak yet stubbornly retained a wisp of fire seed, a trace of indescribable light flashed in his tired eyes.

Although the fire seed was small, it had not been extinguished.

The inheritance was not broken, and hope would always exist.

The gray stream of light pierced through the ghostly darkness of the deep sea that was gradually becoming calm, moving firmly toward that island that had experienced the baptism of blood and fire and would surely welcome a new life—Starfall Isle.

(Volume 10 【End of Star-Fall Tribulation】 End)

Volume End Words (Final Chapter Message):

The Star-Remnant Evil God in the deepest part of the Return-to-Ruins Sea Eye was finally thoroughly annihilated in the collapse of the chains and the protective stellar fire. This world-destroying crisis that swept through the Hanhai and affected the continent temporarily drew a period at the most tragic price.

Zhao Yuan was near death, his Dao foundation destroyed, the road ahead was vast and misty; Starfall Isle was waiting to be rebuilt, heroic souls sleeping; the pattern of the continent was surging with undercurrents. However, the evil filth was swept away, and hope was rekindled. Lin Xuan turned the tide, the Chaos path appeared even more unfathomable; the Star-Fall legacy reappeared, and the civilization fire seed was passed on quietly.

The true ending was also a new beginning. Scars needed time to heal, the departed needed years to cherish, and the living would continue to move forward, carrying memories and hope. The Return-to-Ruins stars were silent, but the fire seed would always burn. The fate of Lin Xuan and Zhao Yuan, and the future of Starfall Isle and the Tianyuan Continent, would slowly unfold in the new chapters.

Please look forward to the subsequent chapters.