The world suddenly drained of all color, solidifying into a gray-white scroll painting.
The clamor of Luoyang City, the majesty of the Imperial Palace, the scorched earth of Mangshan—all stood still at this moment. Even the wind ceased to flow, dust suspended mid-air as if time itself had been stripped away.
Suddenly, rolling thunder rumbled from the heavens above, beginning as echoes from distant mountains before gradually approaching into earth-shattering roars. Clouds churned, lightning snaked like serpents, tearing the gray-white sky into countless fissures.
"Insects!" a majestic voice pressed down from the horizon, each word making the void tremble. "You dare reverse time and tamper with the past!"
Ji Hongli looked up at the sky, her robes fluttering wildly in the sudden gale.
A faint smile touched her lips. "Yes, I have changed. So what?"
The gray-white sky suddenly tore open, revealing a ferocious crack from which countless purple-black lightning bolts spread like a spider's web.
That magnificent voice, carrying the might of heaven and earth, crashed down: "Absurd! Of the Great Derivation's fifty numbers, the forty-nine governed by Heaven are eternal laws. How could you, mere insects, presume to tamper with them?"
Ji Hongli's robes billowed in the violent gale, her jade hairpin shattering as her black hair cascaded like a waterfall. "If the Heavenly Dao is truly just, why does it not allow all living beings to fight for that one chance of survival? When the primordial universe first divided, the Dao Ancestor himself declared that of the fifty great Dao paths, forty-nine are governed by Heaven, leaving one for humanity to escape through. Today, what I fight for is precisely that one escape path!"
"Unrepentant!" the voice thundered in anger.
In an instant, the sky and earth changed color. Thick black clouds converged from all directions, obscuring the already dim sunlight. Lightning serpents danced wildly within the clouds, purple thunderbolts interweaving into a net that tore the entire sky to shreds.
Suddenly, the thickest lightning bolt struck down, but froze midair—it was a giant dragon, completely pitch-black! Each of its scales shimmered with a metallic cold light, their edges as sharp as blades. Its dragon eyes were like two blood moons, emitting a suffocating pressure. As its whiskers drifted, they brought forth pitch-black gale winds that caused space to crack inch by inch.
Ji Hongli's expression changed abruptly. "An incarnation of the Heavenly Dao... The task of the Candle Dragon is indeed not so easily undertaken."
She clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white.
The aura emanating from this black dragon had clearly surpassed the Immortal Venerable realm—it was the true will of the Heavenly Dao, transcending all living beings! Even as an incarnation, it was a genuine manifestation of the Heavenly Dao!
The next moment, Lin Wan had already appeared before Ji Hongli, gripping her hand and pushing her behind her.
The black dragon coiled in the air, its length spanning thousands of miles. Every time it thrashed, the void trembled. It opened its massive maw, and a pitch-black light column erupted forth. Wherever this light column passed, space shattered like fragile glass, revealing the chaotic void beyond.
Lin Wan retreated rapidly, hands forming seals as a light screen unfolded before her.
The black light crashed against the light screen, erupting in a sky-shattering roar.
The aftermath swept across the land, leveling all gray-white buildings within a hundred-mile radius!
Just as this critical moment arrived, the sky was suddenly torn apart by a red light! A dragon's roar that shook the nine heavens echoed, its sound waves dispersing the black clouds by a third.
A crimson dragon, blood-red as if dipped in flame, tore through the sky. Its scales burned like flames, each one flowing with a lustrous glow like molten lava. Its dragon horns were like blood-colored coral, and as its whiskers drifted, they brought forth a sky full of flowing fire.
"Candle Dragon!" Ji Hongli exclaimed.
The black dragon roared toward the heavens, its ten-thousand-zhang dragon body carving ferocious trails across the gray-white sky.
Dragon eyes flickered with Heavenly Dao runes, each reflecting scenes of the destruction of the myriad realms.
When it opened its abyss-like maw, space began to twist and collapse, countless pitch-black thunderbolts erupting from its throat.
These world-destroying black thunderbolts were no ordinary lightning—each contained the laws of the Heavenly Dao, and within the flashes of lightning, the birth and death of countless small worlds could be faintly seen.
Where the thunder spears passed, space peeled away like layers of fragile glass, revealing the churning chaotic currents beneath.
The frozen gray-white city silently perished under this power, dissolving into fundamental particles that vanished into the void.
The crimson dragon was not to be outdone, coiling beneath the shattered sky, dazzling golden light bursting from its red scales.
Facing the world-destroying black thunder, it raised its head and roared, the sound echoing through the nine heavens.
The Heavenly Devouring Karma Fire that burned around it was no ordinary flame but was formed from collecting the essence of Red Lotus Fire from the deepest Netherworld. In each flicker of flame, the true meaning of the Great Dao danced.
As the sea of fire churned, nine crimson flame chains condensed from the void. The chains were engraved with ancient dragon clan scriptures, each link as heavy as a mountain.
When the black thunder collided with the flame chains, time seemed to stand still—only to see the pitch-black lightning and crimson chains interweave into a net of destruction in the void, the erupting light illuminating heaven and earth as if it were day.
The collision of these two supreme powers triggered a chain collapse.
The shock wave spread in a ring, shattering space like a mirror wherever it passed. The frozen time-space within a thousand-mile radius first appeared with spiderweb-like cracks before completely shattering, revealing the churning chaotic currents beneath.
The frozen Luoyang City was reduced to ashes under this power, countless frozen mortal figures turning to smoke the moment they touched the chaos.
Even the stars above shifted under this impact, several meteorites falling with long tails of flame toward the distance.
Seeing its attack blocked, the black dragon's dragon eyes flashed with a hint of savagery.
It abruptly contracted its thousand-zhang dragon body, viscous, ink-like Heavenly Dao blood seeping from its pitch-black scales.
With a dragon's roar that shattered the void, a pitch-black dragon orb slowly emerged from its mouth. Though no larger than a fist, this orb contained an entire star river, with countless stars being born, dying, and reincarnating within it.
The moment the dragon orb appeared, the entire world distorted. A terrifying suction force drained all spiritual energy within ten thousand miles, not even light could escape being swallowed.
The ground began to collapse, countless boulders swept into the air, turning to dust as they approached the dragon orb.
Seeing this, the crimson dragon's dragon crystal between its brows suddenly shot forth a bloody divine light. This light quickly outlined itself in the void, forming an innate Bagua formation diagram that covered the heavens and earth in an instant.
The eight directions of the formation diagram evolved the eight primal forces: Heaven, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Water, Fire, Mountain, and Marsh. The central Taiji yin-yang fish slowly rotated, emitting a vast and ancient aura that suppressed all ages.
With every turn of the formation diagram, countless Great Dao true words manifested from the void, transforming into golden chains that wrapped around the crimson dragon.
When the pitch-black dragon orb finally collided with the innate Bagua formation diagram, heaven and earth fell silent.
The resulting explosion that followed was more brilliant than a million suns, a terrifying energy storm sweeping across all eight directions.
The space at the center of the collision was completely annihilated, forming a void black hole a hundred miles in diameter.
The shock wave sent both dragons flying simultaneously. The crimson dragon's scales were shattered over half its body, dragon blood spraying like magma. The black dragon was also heavily wounded, its dragon horn broken and one eye forcibly blasted to pieces.
In this world-destroying energy turbulence, the crimson dragon let out a mournful roar.
It knew this battle had reached its end. Its dragon body suddenly erupted with a final crimson brilliance.
Countless scales burning with its primal lifeblood detached from its body, transforming into a blood-colored rainbow bridge spanning the heavens and earth. The crimson dragon took one last look at the collapsing world and the two figures floating in mid-air before resolutely throwing itself into the rainbow bridge, vanishing into the void in an instant.
The black dragon, unable to find its target, flew into a rage.
Though it had prevailed, it was also heavily wounded. Its aura had clearly weakened significantly, its pressure dropping from transcending the Immortal Venerable realm to that of a regular Immortal Venerable.
Its pitch-black scales lost their luster, and its movements became sluggish.
Lin Wan looked in the direction where the crimson dragon had disappeared, a flicker of understanding in her eyes.
She patted Ji Hongli's shoulder. "Now, it's my turn."
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