Chapter 72: Dao Seed Formed? I, the Demon, Descend Upon the World!

The earth shook and mountains swayed, demonic energy soared to the heavens!

The entire Five Elements Demon-Sealing Basin seemed to come alive; the ground rose and fell like waves, and countless massive fissures spread crazily in all directions, centered on the demonic energy barrier! The pitch-black demonic energy barrier shrouding the basin was now like boiling water, churning and expanding violently. Huge lumps constantly bulged on its surface, as if something inside were striking madly, desperate to break out of its shell!

The roar of the Xuyuan Demonic Consciousness was no longer a mere soul shock, but had transformed into tangible sound waves, mixed with the power of chaotic laws, sweeping across heaven and earth! The bone forest turned to powder in the sound waves, distant mountains collapsed in the tremors, and the sky was stained a murky, dark red!

"The seal... is about to shatter completely!"

"Run! If we don't leave now, it will be too late!"

"Once this demon is born, the secret realm will surely fall into chaos!"

Panic reached its peak! Even Ye Chen, the Third Imperial Prince, and the others had their expressions change drastically, feeling a fatal threat! This demon had not yet fully appeared, but its might already surpassed the Nascent Soul realm; it was absolutely not something they could contend with!

"Retreat!" Ye Chen made a prompt decision, his Thunder Sword Qi sweeping up several nearby cultivators as he took the lead in retreating violently.

The Third Imperial Prince, the fatty cultivator, and others did not hesitate either, taking their subordinates and fleeing the core of the basin at high speed.

Elder Youliang and the others from the Nether Sect were even more like frightened birds, fleeing in a panic, not even bothering to throw out any harsh words.

In the blink of an eye, only Lin Xuan remained at the edge of the basin, still suspended in mid-air, facing the soon-to-shatter demonic energy barrier from afar!

It was not that he did not want to retreat, but that he could not! Or perhaps, he was unwilling to retreat!

At the very moment the demonic energy barrier was about to collapse completely, under the impact of that extreme destruction and chaotic laws, the Chaos Nascent Soul in his dantian actually entered a profound and mysterious state!

The Nascent Soul looked solemn, its hands forming seals, while the chaotic airflow around it rotated, collapsed, and expanded at an unprecedented speed! The destructive demonic energy, the chaotic energy of heaven and earth, and even the law fluctuations emitted by the Xuyuan Demonic Consciousness from the outside world all became fuel for its evolution!

The scriptures of the "Nine Turns Chaos Classic" flowed, reorganized, and sublimated in his heart at an unprecedented speed!

"Chaos... is not just inclusion, it is also the origin, and the end... within destruction, there is also the birth of the new..."

A realization flashed through Lin Xuan's heart like lightning!

Under the immense pressure of the world overturning and the demon descending, in this terrifying crisis where life and death hung by a thread, his Dao of Chaos finally broke through an invisible shackle and took a crucial step!

BOOM!!!

The Chaos Nascent Soul in his dantian suddenly erupted with an indescribable, brilliant light! It was not a light of a single color, but a primal light that contained all colors in the world, yet returned to chaos!

The volume of the Nascent Soul did not increase, but at its core, an extremely tiny point—yet so heavy it seemed capable of crushing the void and containing infinite possibilities for evolution—suddenly condensed: the Chaos Origin Point!

This origin point was the true foundation of his Dao of Chaos, the manifestation of his path—the Chaos Dao Seed!

Once the Dao Seed was formed, it meant his Dao of Chaos had truly stepped onto the threshold of mastery! It was no longer just a characteristic of his cultivation technique, but had become the core law of his own existence!

A surge of chaotic spiritual power, far more vast, pure, and carrying a trace of eternal immortality than before, gushed out from the Dao Seed, instantly filling his entire body! His aura surged crazily at this moment, instantly breaking through the barrier of the early Nascent Soul stage and reaching the mid-Nascent Soul stage! Moreover, his foundation was incomparably stable, without the slightest bit of hollowness!

Not only that, his perception and ability to manipulate the surrounding laws of heaven and earth were greatly enhanced! "Shrinking Ground to an Inch" became more seamless, the "Eye of Breaking Delusion" saw through subtleties, and the destructive intent of the "Finger of Nirvana" reached a higher level! Even the "Star Nether Light," now in his hands, seemed to possess life, moving as easily as his own arm!

All these changes happened in the blink of an eye!

Just as his Dao Seed was first formed and his cultivation base broke through—

CRACK!!!!

Accompanied by a loud noise that sounded as if the entire world were shattering, the massive pitch-black demonic energy barrier finally collapsed completely!

Endless, pure demonic energy, like a volcano that had been suppressed for ten thousand years, erupted with a roar, shooting straight into the clouds and staining the sky above the entire basin ink-black! A terrifying pressure, surpassing the Nascent Soul and reaching the level of the Soul Transformation stage, poured down like a galaxy from the nine heavens, instantly shrouding a radius of a thousand miles!

At the core of the surging demonic energy, a blurry, thousand-foot-tall giant demonic shadow, condensed from countless twisted resentful souls and chaotic laws, slowly stood up! It had no fixed form, as if it were a collection of all negativity and chaos, with only a pair of giant eyes burning with dark red flames, filled with endless greed and desire for destruction, staring fixedly at the tiny figure below—a figure that radiated a chaotic aura that made it feel extreme disgust and vigilance!

The Xuyuan Demonic Consciousness had finally broken free from most of its restraints and officially descended!

"ROAR——!!!"

The demonic shadow let out a heaven-shaking roar; the sound wave alone caused the physical bodies of some cultivators who were slow to escape to collapse, their souls extinguished! It raised a giant palm condensed from demonic energy, blotting out the sky and sun, and with the terrifying power to annihilate everything and pollute all laws, it slammed down fiercely toward Lin Xuan, who had just broken through and whose aura had not yet fully stabilized!

This palm, containing the might of a Soul Transformation, locked the space and cut off all paths of retreat, as if it intended to erase Lin Xuan, along with the earth beneath his feet, from this world!

In the distance, Ye Chen, the Third Imperial Prince, and the others, who had already retreated to a safe area, saw this world-destroying scene, their faces turning deathly pale, their hearts filled with despair! The might of a Soul Transformation was absolutely not something a Nascent Soul could resist!

"Jin Shisan... is finished!" someone muttered, filled with pity and fear.

However, facing this strike that would make any Nascent Soul cultivator's soul scatter, Lin Xuan, who had just broken through, had no fear in his eyes; instead, they burned with unprecedented fighting spirit and calmness!

The Chaos Dao Seed rotated slowly in his dantian, radiating a composure that encompassed everything.

He did not choose to resist head-on, nor did he have the power to resist this Soul Transformation strike.

Just as the demonic palm was about to strike his body, he made a move that surprised everyone!

He suddenly took the Star Nether Light he had been maintaining and, instead of striking at the demonic palm, slammed it fiercely into the ground at the core of the basin—which had been completely exposed due to the shattering of the seal and was flickering with faint five-colored spiritual light—that was where the final foundation of the Universal Star-Fighting Demon-Sealing Array lay!

At the same time, he exerted his full strength to drive the newly condensed Chaos Dao Seed, injecting a surge of incomparably pure Chaos Origin power, mixed with the newly comprehended true meaning of sealing, along with the Star Nether Light, crazily into the broken array foundation!

"With my Chaos, I summon your remnant spirits! Stars as the guide, Nether as the seal! SEAL!"

He was taking a desperate gamble! He wanted to use his own newly formed Chaos Dao Seed as a guide to forcibly stimulate the final power of this remnant array, not to seal the demon (which was already impossible), but to—block it for an instant!

HUM——!!!

Stimulated by the Chaos Origin and the Star Nether Light, the originally dim five-colored spiritual light suddenly lit up! Although it was far from its prime, it still condensed a defiant demon-sealing will, transforming into a thin yet incomparably tough five-colored light membrane, blocking the space between Lin Xuan and the sky-covering demonic palm!

BOOM！！！！！！

The demonic palm slammed fiercely into the suddenly risen five-colored light membrane!

The world lost its color, and all things lost their voice!

The terrifying explosive energy sounded like billions of thunderbolts detonating at once; the blinding light caused everyone to temporarily lose their vision! The violent energy shockwave spread in a spherical shape, shaving the ground in the center of the basin down by several dozen feet, forming a huge bowl-shaped depression!

The five-colored light membrane held for less than a breath before shattering with a bang, dissipating into light spots across the sky. But it had succeeded after all! It had bought Lin Xuan that crucial instant!

Just as the light membrane shattered, the energy was at its most chaotic, and the space was twisting violently—

Lin Xuan moved!

"Shrinking Ground to an Inch," under the blessing of the Chaos Dao Seed, was exerted to an unprecedented extreme! He did not retreat in a straight line, but his figure, ghost-like, followed the edge of the energy shockwave, avoiding the core destructive power of the demonic palm at an incredible angle and trajectory, by a hair's breadth!

SWISH!

His figure appeared several miles away as if by teleportation. Although he was still swept by the energy aftermath, his blood surged and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, appearing quite disheveled, but he had ultimately... survived!

"What?! He dodged it?!"

"Escaped from a Soul Transformation strike? How is this possible?!"

"What was that five-colored light membrane just now? How could he still trigger the remnant power of the seal?"

Ye Chen and the others watching from afar were dumbfounded, unable to believe it! A mid-Nascent Soul cultivator had actually escaped from an angry strike by a Soul Transformation demon? This simply overturned their understanding!

The Xuyuan Demonic Shadow clearly had not expected this "ant" to be so slippery; a flash of astonishment crossed its burning giant eyes, followed immediately by monstrous rage!

"Chaos... damn it!!"

It felt the increasingly pure chaotic aura on Lin Xuan, as well as the Dao Seed fluctuations that made it instinctively feel disgust and vigilance. This child must not be left alive!

The demonic shadow roared, and its other giant palm raised again. More terrifying demonic might began to condense, locking onto Lin Xuan, who had just steadied his figure!

However, just as it was about to launch its second strike—

HUM! HUM! HUM!

Within the secret realm, bursts of grand, ancient humming sounds, as if originating from the origin of the world, suddenly rang out! In the sky, the dark red stained by the demonic energy began to recede, replaced by countless profound golden runes. A terrifying will, far more vast, majestic, and filled with order and judgment than the Xuyuan Demonic Consciousness, slowly awakened!

It was the origin will of the secret realm! Or rather, the remnant protective will of the Hunyuan Dao Ancestor!

The complete unsealing of the Xuyuan Demonic Consciousness and its unscrupulous actions had finally touched the bottom line of the secret realm's existence, triggering this ultimate defense mechanism!

"Old man Hunyuan... still haunting me!"

The Xuyuan Demonic Shadow let out a roar filled with wariness and unwillingness. It had just broken free, its power was far from recovered to its peak, and facing this complete secret realm origin will, it dared not resist head-on!

Its burning giant eyes glared fixedly at Lin Xuan, as if wanting to swallow him alive.

"Ant... I will remember you... when I recover... I will surely find you..."

A thought filled with malice transmitted into Lin Xuan's mind like a curse.

The next moment, the massive demonic shadow shrank violently, turning into a streak of pitch-black demonic light condensed to the extreme. Ignoring Lin Xuan, it tore through space with a "whoosh" and instantly disappeared from the spot, fleeing to who knows where in the secret realm!

It had chosen to temporarily avoid the sharp edge!

With the disappearance of the demonic shadow, the terrifying demonic might that filled the world also dissipated, leaving behind only a scarred earth and the shaken crowd.

The golden runes in the sky slowly faded, and the secret realm's will seemed to confirm the temporary departure of the greatest threat, returning to silence once more.

At the edge of the basin, there was dead silence.

Everyone was still immersed in the shock of the clash between the Soul Transformation demonic might and the secret realm's will, unable to recover for a long time.

One gaze after another, involuntarily, focused once again on that green-robed figure standing alone at the edge of the ruins, clothes torn, blood at the corner of his mouth, yet standing as straight as a pine.

Jin Shisan!

It was he who stepped forward at the critical moment, attempting to repair the seal!

It was he who miraculously survived a Soul Transformation strike!

And it was he whose mysterious chaotic aura seemed to make even that terrifying demon wary!

After today, the name "Jin Shisan" would no longer be associated only with the Nascent-Forming Fortune Dew and the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, but would resound throughout the entire secret realm—and even... spread back to the outside world—along with his legendary deeds of contending with a Soul Transformation demonic shadow and breaking the deadlock in a situation of certain death!

Ye Chen looked at Lin Xuan, his eyes incomparably complex, finally turning into a silent sigh. With a trace of loneliness, he turned and left. He knew that in the matter of resisting the demon, he had already fallen a step behind.

The Third Imperial Prince, Li Daoyi, had flickering eyes, not knowing what he was calculating, and also quietly led his people away.

The fatty cultivator scratched his head, looked at Lin Xuan, then at the golden abacus in his hand, and muttered, "This deal, a loss, a loss. If I had known, I should have invested in advance..." His figure also gradually faded.

Elder Youliang and the others had long since slipped away without a trace.

In the blink of an eye, only Lin Xuan remained in this area that had just experienced a heaven-shaking battle.

He slowly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, feeling the surging mid-Nascent Soul spiritual power in his body and the Chaos Dao Seed that was slowly rotating and radiating an eternal meaning. There was no pride in his eyes, only incomparable solemnity.

Although the demon had temporarily retreated, the hidden danger had been planted. It was hiding in the depths of the secret realm, recovering its strength, and could return at any time. And he, clearly, had been targeted by it.

The road ahead remained full of crises.

But his Dao heart was firm, and he was without fear.

His gaze swept across the ruins, and he did not linger. His figure turned into a green rainbow, speeding away in the opposite direction from where the demonic shadow had fled.

He needed to digest the gains from this breakthrough as soon as possible and find a way to leave the secret realm or deal with the greater storms of the future.

The winds and clouds of the secret realm had risen again because of him. And his legend had only just begun!

(End of Chapter 72)