In Chapter 38, we enter the psychological peak of the novel. This isn't a battle of swords, but a battle of Causality. On Webnovel, this is the "Big Reveal" that changes the stakes from revenge to cosmic survival.
Chapter 38: The Paradox of the Parasite
The garden of white lotuses was a tomb of silence. Shen Yuan held the chin of the "Ling Xian" entity, his gauntlet cold against her deceptively warm skin.
"The King and Queen of the Void?" Shen Yuan's voice was a low, dangerous rumble. "You always did have a flair for the dramatic, Ling Xian. But you made one mistake. You think I value this 'Internal Universe' more than I value my own path."
The entity smiled, a row of teeth too sharp and too numerous momentarily flickering behind her lips. "It is your power, Yuan. Without it, you are just a ghost in a stolen body. If you strike me, the 'Seed' in your chest will detonate. You will erase the Fourth Heaven, yes... but you will also erase yourself."
"Master, wait!" Zither-Soul stepped forward, his bone flute trembling. "She's telling the truth about the link. I can hear the resonance. Your heartbeats are synchronized. It's a [Symmetric Fate-Lock]."
Frost-Weaver notched an arrow of absolute zero. "There must be a way to cut it. A blade of Void-Qi?"
"No," Shen Yuan said, his eyes never leaving the entity's. "A blade only cuts what exists. To break a Fate-Lock, one must cease to exist."
Ling Xian's eyes widened. "Yuan... what are you—"
"[Tenth Gate: The Heart of Absolute Nihility]"
Shen Yuan didn't attack her. He turned his power inward. In an instant, he stopped his own new universe. He stopped his breath. He stopped his soul.
He entered a state of [Clinical Cultivation Death].
For three minutes, Shen Yuan was no longer a "being" in the eyes of the Universe. He was a vacuum.
The Fate-Lock, finding no "target" on Shen Yuan's end, began to lash out wildly like a severed live wire. The "Ling Xian" entity screamed, her beautiful face melting into a mass of black, oily tendrils. Without Shen Yuan's life-force to feed on, the parasite began to starve in seconds.
"Now!" Shen Yuan's voice echoed, not from his body, but from the very air around them—a remnant of his Will.
Hecate, sensing the opening from the Obsidian Palace above, unleashed the [Shadow-Eater Array]. A pillar of pure darkness slammed into the garden, pinning the thrashing parasite to the jade floor.
One minute... The Jade Heavens began to tremble. The lavender sky turned a sickly grey.
Two minutes... The "Ling Xian" entity shriveled into a husk, her white dress turning into funeral shrouds. The Outer God's influence was being forced out of the "Jade Core" because it had nothing to anchor to.
Two minutes and fifty seconds... Shen Yuan's Star-Forged Flesh began to turn to stone. His Internal Universe was on the verge of permanent collapse.
"Master, wake up!" Frost-Weaver screamed, firing her Arctic Needle into the ground to create a protective barrier of ice.
At the final second, Shen Yuan's eyes snapped open. They were no longer violet. They were Clear. He had used those three minutes of "Death" to refine the Seed. He hadn't destroyed it—he had hollowed it out.
He reached into his own chest and pulled out a sphere of pulsating, dark energy. The Seed.
"You wanted a vessel?" Shen Yuan looked at the dying parasite on the floor. "I'll give you one. But it won't be me."
He slammed the Seed into the Jade Core—the very heart of the Fourth Heaven.
"[Void Art: The Great Transfusion]"
The energy of the Outer God was sucked out of Ling Xian's husk and trapped inside the hollowed Seed, which was now anchored to the planet-sized Jade Core.
The Fourth Heaven didn't explode. It Imploded. The floating islands, the silver trees, and the liquid light were all sucked into the Seed, turning the entire dimension into a marble-sized "Prison World" held in the palm of Shen Yuan's hand.
The Lavender sky vanished. Shen Yuan, Weaver, and Zither-Soul were left standing in a dark, empty void where a Heaven used to be.
Beside them lay the true body of Ling Xian. She was old, frail, and barely breathing. Without the parasite, she was just a woman who had lived ten thousand years too long.
She looked up at Shen Yuan, her real eyes filled with tears and terror. "Yuan... is it... over?"
Shen Yuan looked down at her, the "Prison World" glowing in his hand. "No, Ling Xian. For you, the ten thousand years of debt are just beginning."
He handed the marble to Hecate, who had just descended. "Keep this in the deepest dungeon of the Obsidian Palace. She is to watch the Fourth Heaven decay for eternity. We move to the Fifth Heaven."
"But Master," Zither-Soul said, looking at Shen Yuan's transparent hands. "You killed your own Universe to do that. You're... you're falling back to the Foundation Stage!"
"I am," Shen Yuan said, a cold, sharp smile on his face. "But I now know how to build a universe without a 'Seed' from the Gods. This time, I'm building it on nothing."