Chapter 596: Departure

Chapter 596: Chapter 596: Departure

Wherever the threads passed, the deep structures supporting the Celestial Realm let out a grating groan. To the naked eye, the World Heaven of this realm could be seen eroding and breaking down...

It was like a giant, rotten tree being devoured by billions of termites.

Rather than True Monarch Pu Du, he had become a colossal scavenger perched on a corpse, greedily siphoning the last vestiges of Innate Origin Dao Rhyme from this Celestial Realm.

It was the Dao Fruit that the Celestial Emperor had used to form the foundation of the Celestial Court’s existence.

Xu Yunfan could feel the authority and celestial status that had once belonged to the lord of this Celestial Realm’s Celestial Court being meticulously torn apart and devoured into True Monarch Pu Du’s Grotto Heaven.

The Heavenly Dao Will of the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm was naturally displeased by this. However, faced with a Golden Core True Monarch whose fate was his own to command, it felt a sense of helplessness, merely accelerating its instinctual devouring of the Celestial Realm’s World Heaven.

With every wisp of Origin that was siphoned away, the firmament fractured a little more completely.

In response, a colossal shadow that covered more than half the Celestial Realm’s sky appeared. This was the Realm Root of the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm.

It looked like a dark red celestial body of indescribable size, forcefully squeezing into this realm from the shattered Outer Realm void.

Its edges scraped viciously against the Celestial Realm’s spatial barriers, each tremor triggering violent spatial collapses that spanned thousands of miles.

The outer layer of the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm was not rock and earth, but writhing, fleshy tentacles that seemed to be alive.

Wherever it passed, the Celestial Realm’s void barriers were like prey being ripped and devoured by a giant beast, disappearing inch by inch, piece by piece, completely covered and assimilated by the writhing roots.

The Celestial Realm, once a sacred crown hanging above billions of Small Thousand Worlds, was now riddled with holes, on the verge of returning completely to chaotic nothingness.

Its final death cry was the spatial rifts that spread across the world and the unending storms of the void.

Xu Yunfan’s expression was as calm as still water as he retracted his gaze. His Divine Thought spread out like invisible tentacles, swift and vast.

Within these vast and profound ruins of apocalyptic dust, he used the Celestial Secret Technique of Heavenly Mechanism and Cause and Effect to precisely search for top-tier relics that had not been completely plundered in the previous rounds, or those that could only be born on the very edge of destruction.

In an apocalypse, world-class treasures were naturally born.

Streaks of light flickered as he drew items radiating ancient or bizarre fluctuations into the pocket dimension in his sleeve.

’This is a rare opportunity. I’d be kicking myself if I missed it.’

One after another, Rare Treasures and fragmented pieces of Dao Rhyme were tossed into the pocket dimension in his sleeve.

Xu Yunfan’s speed was like a phantom’s, his gaze precise.

He could even feel several powerful Divine Thoughts in the shadows intersecting occasionally, filled with vigilance and curiosity, but no one would linger for a mere Foundation Establishment Cultivator like him.

Besides, he was operating under the banner of True Monarch Qing Yuan.

True Monarch Pu Du’s Immortal Light grew ever more brilliant, and the deafening roar of the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm’s writhing consumption filled the air as time slipped away second by second.

Finally, after one last, incomparably tyrannical Divine Thought swept through the depths of a shattered Divine Hall and confirmed there wasn’t a single valuable trace of Origin left, Xu Yunfan’s figure shot into the sky.

’Time to leave this realm. If I don’t go now, I’ll be in great danger when this realm’s World Heaven is destroyed.’

The pocket dimension in his sleeve was heavy, filled with the most bountiful spoils of his expedition.

As he sped back, Xu Yunfan paused for a moment, his gaze falling upon the mortal lands below, which had become a true Purgatory.

These mortal kingdoms had long been reduced to scorched ruins by the initial, world-shaking impact. The few fortunate survivors were completely numb, either huddled in the corners of collapsed mountain caves awaiting death, or wandering aimlessly like living corpses beneath the blood-red sky.

The moment the sky above them completely collapsed into annihilation, the trillions of living beings dependent on the Celestial Realm for their existence, along with the even more boundless layers of Small Thousand Worlds below, would all silently turn into motes of dust in the void.

Xu Yunfan looked away, not a shred of pity remaining in his heart.

Truth be told, the Primordial Sect’s actions were indeed in line with the methods of Outer Realm Evil Demons. And it wasn’t just the Primordial Sect; the Puchen Pure Land and the Wansheng Sword Sect were the same.

And he, Xu Yunfan, as a decorated vanguard disciple of the Primordial Sect, was acting in essentially the same manner, seizing what he needed from the destruction.

A trace of an indescribably complex feeling slowly settled, integrating into his Dao Foundation.

’Well, as a disciple of the Primordial Sect, it seems I can’t quite escape this.’

Xu Yunfan lingered no longer. He transformed into an inconspicuous streak of star-gray light and sped toward the outer edges of the Celestial Realm, toward the boundary-breaking entrance created by the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm’s power.

Leaving the core of that decaying realm, the scene before him changed abruptly.

A vast, lightless, and colorless void platform appeared before his eyes.

This was the transitional zone where the annihilation of the old realm and the entrance to the New Realm intertwined.

In the distance, the entrance to the Taihua Spirit Ruins Realm, so enormous it filled his entire field of vision, was constantly expanding and contracting like a writhing maw, devouring the final remnants of the Celestial Realm. Each pulsation brought silent tremors through space.

Countless dark-red streams of light, like massive blood vessels, flickered around the entrance, continuously pumping the devoured essence back into the depths of the Spirit Ruins Realm.

In the void area before the entrance, known as the Vanguard Platform, stood several figures. Some were wreathed in golden flames so dense they seemed solid, others exuded an unfathomably vast, nebula-like aura, and there was even a towering presence with restrained Buddha Light that concealed a potent pressure. Each occupied their own space, and though their auras did not connect, they collectively carved up and sealed this region of the void.

They were all Golden Core True Monarchs.

His Escape Light instantly contracted to its absolute minimum, becoming utterly inconspicuous as he respectfully flew forward along the edge of a safe corridor tacitly permitted by these beings.

The air was filled with the probing fluctuations of Divine Thought, sweeping over every corner like ripples on water. The terrifying will contained within was enough to make a Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s Divine Soul tremble.

Xu Yunfan kept his gaze lowered. Within his Dantian, the Power of Origin, which had been baptized by the Celestial Realm’s Taiyin Profound Mirror Dao Fruit, circulated silently. It activated a Secret Technique of the Primordial Sect for concealing cause and effect, flowing like water over solid rock, and perfectly suppressed and concealed all his Late-Stage Foundation Establishment Magical Power fluctuations.

Although Golden Core True Monarchs were as powerful as the sun, under his deliberate concealment, unless one made a special effort to probe deeply, they would only get the impression that he was still consolidating his foundation at Mid-stage Foundation Establishment.

Soon, Xu Yunfan clearly locked his sights on the center of the Vanguard Platform, where a stone hall floated.

The plaque outside the hall bore a name written in two ancient seal characters:

Qingyuan.

This was the temporary residence of True Monarch Qing Yuan, the Golden Core True Monarch from the Primordial Sect leading this invasion of the Celestial Realm.

As a subordinate of True Monarch Qing Yuan, Xu Yunfan naturally had to go and pay his respects.

As he approached the stone hall, the pressure originating from the Golden Core Realm intensified abruptly.

It was as if billions of pounds of invisible Profound Iron had suddenly descended upon him.

Xu Yunfan did not dare to be disrespectful. He landed at the foot of the stone steps, straightened his robes and cap, and performed a deep bow.

"Junior Disciple Xu Yunfan pays his respects to True Monarch Qing Yuan!"

His voice was clear and resonant, piercing the void, filled with the reverence a disciple shows when meeting a respected elder.

The silence lasted for only an imperceptible breath.

The stone door of the hall, which seemed impossibly heavy, swung silently inward.

Within the door were no carved beams or painted rafters, but a deep, swirling current of Immortal Palace Pure Qi. Its pure light illuminated a figure seated upon a Cloud Platform in the void.