Chapter 333: A... Golden Lightning!

Huangfu Bo's complexion also changed in an instant, showing an unprecedented extreme of dread and solemnity!

He wanted to stop it, but once the sacrificial rite began, it seemed to have invoked an immutable supreme law that could not be broken!

Boom—rumble—rumble—rumble—!!!

Having been infused with the life essence and power of the five Unfortunate Great Powers, the bodies of the nine Unfortunate Kings, together with the precarious, bizarre great‑world illusion behind them, swelled like a balloon stretched to its limit, then—

exploded with a thunderous burst!

No flesh flew, only endless Unfortunate Runes and gray energy blossomed like dazzling fireworks!

In the final instant of their bodies' complete annihilation, the lingering will of the nine Unfortunate Kings let out a final roar mixed with frenzy, reverence, and release:

"Welcome... the Great Emperor!!"

"The Great Emperor descends... to subdue all! Who dares to contend!!"

The roar fell, and it disintegrated completely into ash, as if it had never existed.

And then, a scene that froze everyone's souls unfolded—

At the core of the nine Unfortunate Kings' self‑detonation, the Void rippled and twisted violently like water, and finally was torn open with a jagged crack!

No, it was not a simple Space fissure, but a… Spacetime Gate radiating endless desolation and ominous aura, etched with countless twisted profane Runes!

Inside the gate lay darkness so profound it could not be glimpsed, only a terrorously ominous aura dense to the Absolute Peak and pure to the extreme, like the breath of a sleeping world‑ending beast, slowly surging and swelling!

A terrifying entity beyond imagination or description, whose mere presence threatens to collapse the Spacetime Battlefield, is about to pass through this Spacetime Gate—opened with a Unfortunate King and five Unfortunate Great Powers as offerings—and descend here!

"It's over…"

A Guardian's face was ashen, muttering to himself.

Huangfu Bo's complexion turned iron‑blue, his jaw clenched; he strained with all his might to steady his wounds, once again standing before all the Heavenly Pride, but his eyes were filled with a resolve to die.

This is the horror and madness of the ominous!

To achieve their goal, they can sacrifice themselves without hesitation, merely to usher a more terrifying being into this world!

Such determination and ruthlessness far exceed ordinary reason!

The peculiar nature of the Spacetime Battlefield makes outside aid impossible to arrive instantly.

The situation instantly fell into a suffocating silence and despair…

Boom—rumble—rumble—!!!

The darkness inside the Spacetime Gate roiled violently, as if a colossal being were about to step out!

Finally, under countless gazes of fear, despair, or resolve, a foot made entirely of pale Bones, devoid of any flesh yet exuding a terror that made Tiandao wail, slowly stepped out from the Spacetime Gate!

Next came the second foot, and then the whole body…

A terrifying figure, its entire form of stark white Bones towering ten thousand zhang, its skeleton entwined with jet‑black chains, crowned with a bizarre crown of countless tiny skulls, fully emerged beneath this starry sky on the brink of annihilation!

It is the true ominous Emperor, summoned by the Unfortunate King's sacrifice of itself and the five Great Powers…

It did not immediately exude a world‑shattering pressure; it simply stood there, its hollow eye sockets gazing at the shattered battlefield before it, and at the beings that seemed like specks of dust in its sight.

Yet this extreme restraint of silence bestowed upon all beings an even deeper, more irresistible Great Terror!

"Hehe…"

A dry, icy sound as if produced by the friction of countless Bones slowly rose, clearly reaching the depths of every being's soul, bearing an Indifference and mockery as if looking down upon ants:

"This 'pond' here… is rather interesting…"

"So many… fresh, dazzling ant souls…"

"The Emperor… is very pleased."

"Your despair and wails are destined to become the Emperor's… eternal collection…"

It had no interest in idle chatter; for a being like it, erasing the ants before it was as natural as breathing.

It slowly raised the massive white bone hand, formed of countless thick Bones, that could block the sky.

There was no dazzling divine light, no grand fanfare, just a simple palm descending onto the Star Domain below, where almost all surviving Heavenly Pride had gathered!

This palm, though seeming slow, locked onto the entire spacetime!

All beings, wherever they were, regardless of strength, felt as if bound by invisible shackles, making even the movement of a single finger exceedingly difficult!

They could only watch helplessly as that deathly bone hand, seemingly bearing the Zhutian cemetery, descended with an absolute will to end all things, vast and overwhelming!

Along the way, the already fragile Void crumbled inch by inch like glass, the remaining stars and shattered continents silently turned to dust, and even the most basic laws fractured and dissipated beneath this palm!

The true world‑ending calamity!

Inescapable, unstoppable!

"No—!!"

"Will we be erased completely?!"

Countless young Heavenly Pride let out desperate wails.

Ye Wuque, Feng Caichen, and the other two also saw their complexions shift dramatically, frantically driving all their inner power to try to break the invisible shackles and seek a sliver of hope!

But the gap was too great, like a mayfly shaking a tree!

"Damned obstacle! Don't even think!"

Huangfu Bo's eyes bulged, he roared wildly, disregarding his grievously wounded body, igniting his final life essence and Tiandao foundation, turning into a resolute flash of light that surged skyward without hesitation, confronting the world‑ending bone hand!

He intended to use himself as a shield, for the hope behind him, to seize that perhaps non‑existent instant!

"Lord Huangfu!!"

The five Guardians cried in grief, powerless to stop it, only watching helplessly as that aged, resolute figure charged toward death.

The deathly bone hand mercilessly pressed down!

The Dark Shadow of Huangfu Bo appeared so tiny before it…

Yet, just as Huangfu Bo was about to collide with the bone hand, at the moment when everyone thought the outcome was sealed…

The anticipated scene of Huangfu Bo's spirit and body vanishing while the bone hand continued to crush down never occurred.

That apocalyptic bone hand, which seemed able to doom the entire time‑space battlefield, while still a Hundred Zhang away from the crown of Huangfu Bo, suddenly struck an invisible, formless yet unbreakable absolute barrier, bizarrely, without any sign… halted!

No, it wasn't merely a halt!

In the next instant, under countless bewildered, shocked, incredulous stares, that terrifying white bone hand, along with the Destruction Law and ominous aura entwined around it, was erased like a pencil sketch rubbed out by an eraser, disappearing inch by inch from the fingertips, melting, crumbling, and vanishing!

Soundless, clean, and decisive!

As if an invisible giant hand gently brushed away a stain on the canvas.

"What?!"

The ominous emperor, who had remained as indifferent as an ancient glacier, jerked his skull toward a direction, and for the first time a wavering, uncertain ghostly flame flickered within his hollow eye sockets!

And at this moment, before Huangfu Bo, in the Void where the apocalyptic bone hand had dissipated—

A speck of golden light quietly ignited.

At first it was only rice‑grain sized; the next moment it had transformed into a ray that spanned past, present and future, lighting up Zhutian Huanyu, magnificent and towering, dazzling to the point that all things seemed dim…

Golden lightning!