Xiao Yun and Lin Yong stand side by side in the sky,
facing the barren, cracked continent below—
The continent that has imprisoned the Ancient Divine Race's leader
for countless eras.
The Coffin Lord of the Divine Hunting Pavilion raises his voice,
cold and steady:
"Everyone, take your positions.
I will activate the seal formation—
Lend your strength to reinforce it."
Ten Dao Saints gather around them, forming a perfect circle.
Laws bend around their figures.
Xiao Yun exhales slowly.
"Today… I will attempt a breakthrough."
Lin Yong turns, startled.
"…Me too."
They give each other a nod—
no hesitation, no fear—
then separate, taking their designated places in the array.
The Coffin Lord sends out a single palm strike.
The barren continent glows, ancient runes awakening.
The Reinforcement Array activates.
Power surges through every Dao Saint,
flowing like rivers of law-light into the continent.
But before the seal can stabilise—
Space trembles.
Violently.
Xiao Yun feels it first, a sharp twist in the fabric of reality.
Lines crack across the sky.
Dozens of space rifts rip open at once.
From each tear—
A figure steps out.
Dao Saints of the Ancient Divine Race.
Eighteen of them.
Their combined aura clashes with the ten Dao Saints present.
Thirty Dao Saints in one location—
The laws of heaven and earth collapse under the pressure.
Rocks float upward.
Fire flows like liquid rivers.
Water burns in a blue flame.
Grass uproots itself and walks like a serpent.
The Heart Sword Saint of the Ancient Divine Race raises his sword and roars:
"WAR."
The battle erupts instantly.
Xiao Yun barely steadies himself before two enemies descend on him—
Ice Light Saint and Storm Saint.
They strike together,
one freezing heaven and earth,
The other ripping space with violent storm blades.
Xiao Yun's response is swift.
His Emperor Flame bursts from his core—
turning into a golden sword of pure incineration.
Even space itself burns around the blade.
He swings,
and the golden sword-flame arcs across the battlefield like a falling sun.
"COME!"
Ice Light Saint thrusts forward,
a beam of freezing radiance that crystallises laws.
Storm Saint sweeps his arm,
an ocean of storm-winds slashing like blades.
Xiao Yun's sword meets both forces—
exploding with heat that melts frost and shatters storm winds.
The world shakes around them.
The barren continent quakes, and the sky twists as laws distort from the clash of thirty Dao Saints.
Above the battlefield, Xiao Yun's Emperor Flame ignites into a radiant golden lotus spinning above his head.
Its heat scorches the air, the ground, and the very edges of space.
Fire bends.
Light trembles.
The void ripples.
*Xiao Yun's strength surges—
far greater than the two Dao Saints assaulting him.*
The Ice Light Saint and Storm Saint attack together,
But Xiao Yun's power sweeps downward like a blazing sun.
His Buddha's Palm descends—
a massive flaming palm imprint, radiating ancient Buddhist might—
and the continent shakes, cracks tearing across its surface.
At the same time, his Emperor Lotus spins,
releasing waves of golden sword-light mixed with fire,
each arc burning through the air as if slicing through eternity itself.
When the two Dao Saints retaliate,
Xiao Yun summons his defensive art:
Fire God Body.
A colossal figure of molten fire engulfs him,
and the storm winds, lightning, and freezing lights strike it uselessly—
melting, evaporating, dissolving on contact.
The Ice Light Saint roars and activates his divine arts:
Ice Light Barrage!
Thousands of freezing beams burst outward,
each ray capable of crystallising the space it touches.
The barrage swarms Xiao Yun like an avalanche of cold light.
Buddha's Flame Palm!
Xiao Yun counters—fiery palms smash through the barrage,
scattering frozen fragments into the void.
Enraged, the Ice Light Saint creates his second defence:
Ice Light Defender!
A massive circular array forms behind him,
freezing the surrounding space into crystalline layers
that block Xiao Yun's burning sword-slashes.
But Xiao Yun crushes through it as if shattering glass.
The Ice Light Saint grits his teeth and unleashes his final move:
Ice Light Giant!
A colossal giant of pure cold radiance rises behind him,
each step freezing the sky solid.
Xiao Yun meets the giant with Emperor Lotus sword-light—
and splits the titan clean in half.
Beside him, the Storm Saint screams and strikes:
Storm Sword!
A hurricane of blade-wind slashes from all directions.
Thunder Guard!
Rings of lightning form around him,
crackling violently as a protective aura.
Thunder Descent!
Bolts of golden lightning rain down like divine punishment.
Xiao Yun's Fire God Body roars,
absorbing the lightning and melting the storm winds
as he presses both saints into sheer desperation.
Just as Xiao Yun prepares to finish them—
A third aura tears through the battlefield.
Dragon Saint.
A giant draconic silhouette appears behind him,
and his roar shakes the barren continent to its core.
Dragon Shock!
A violent burst of draconic sound explodes toward Xiao Yun,
breaking mountains, crushing space.
Dragon Pulse!
A line of condensed draconic essence pierces the void like a spear,
aimed straight at Xiao Yun's chest.
Xiao Yun grits his teeth and reinforces his Fire God Body,
But the combined pressure of three Dao Saints
slams into him like a collapsing world.
Storm winds tear at him.
Ice Light freezes his fire.
Dragon's roars shake his soul.
Even Xiao Yun's overwhelming power bends.
For a moment, he slows—with three saints forcing him backwards.
The barren continent cracks beneath him.
The sky above twists into knots of warped laws.
Then—
A vast fluctuation erupts across the battlefield.
*Lin Yong's aura explodes—
shattering the Dao Saint limit.*
His cultivation soars, crossing the Dao Saint realm entirely,
and a new world-level pressure spreads like a storm.
Xiao Yun senses it—
and his blood ignites.
He roars.
His Emperor Lotus spins faster,
Buddha's Palm grows infinitely heavier,
and his Fire God Body radiates divine flame.
He pushes—
breaks—
and his own cultivation surges upward,
shattering through his limit and stepping into an entirely new realm as well.
Two breakthroughs shake the world simultaneously.
The three enemy Dao Saints freeze in horror.
The moment Lin Yong's aura erupts—violent, pure, and overwhelming—
The entire battlefield stutters.
Then Xiao Yun's aura detonates a heartbeat later,
a blazing spiral of lotus flame and divine will piercing the heavens.
Their combined eruption is like two suns being born at once.
Every Dao Saint—human or Ancient Divine—
feels the laws around them twist, tighten, and fall silent.
The thirty Dao Saints stop fighting involuntarily.
Even the space tears stabilise.
The chaotic laws stop distorting.
The Ancient Divine Race saints want to attack,
want to interrupt,
want to stop their breakthrough—
But the moment that thought enters their minds—
Their instincts scream.
*If you move…
You will be erased from existence.*
A primal, absolute warning.
The Heart Sword Saint's fingers tremble.
Storm Saint's thunder flickers out.
Ice Light Saint's breath becomes shallow.
None dares to lift a hand.
None dares to challenge the law.
None dares to blink too loudly.
Xiao Yun and Lin Yong stand in the sky,
bodies still, eyes closed,
but their auras fill the continent—
unfathomable, divine, and terrifying.
Xiao Yun's consciousness snaps awake—
But he is not on the battlefield.
He floats in nothingness.
No light.
No sound.
No space.
No time.
Just an endless cold void.
Every breath of his consciousness seems to freeze.
A whisperless frost crawls toward him.
He cannot move his soul.
He cannot mobilise his cultivation.
Only one thing answers his call:
His laws.
The Law of Emperor Flame.
The Law of Lotus.
The Law of Nirvana.
The Law of Buddha.
All swirls faintly around his mind.
Far away, Lin Yong experiences the same.
His consciousness drifts in a separate, infinite emptiness.
Both are being tested by something higher than Dao Saints—
something ancient, supreme, silent.
They act instinctively.
Gathering their laws.
Condensing them.
Surrounding their consciousness with protection.
The laws glow,
forming circles, spirals, halos—
slowly morphing into the outline of a crown.
A crown forged of their personal Dao.
Yet the freezing still creeps in—
pushing, gnawing, swallowing.
Realising that mere density of law is not enough,
Both men force their laws to transform.
Each law twists, folds, evolves—
creating a new structure,
a new form,
a new function.
Their crown shape becomes solid,
and beneath it, a translucent energy shield forms—
a radiant dome of celestial protection
enveloping their consciousness.
The freezing stops the moment the structure completes.
Their consciousness stabilises.
Their minds burn like suns.
The nothingness cracks.
Their consciousness hurtles back into their bodies.
Their eyes snap open simultaneously.
BOOM.
Two beams of divine light erupt from them,
piercing the sky,
splitting the continent's clouds open.
Above them—
A magnificent banner of pure law unfurls in the heavens.
The aura is not theirs.
It is from the World Will itself.
Every Dao Saint drops to their knees involuntarily—
even the Ancient Divine Saints.
Even the Coffin Lord.
Even the Heart Sword Saint.
The banner unfurls above Xiao Yun and Lin Yong,
Its presence suppresses heaven and earth.
Only a single character shines on it—
Zhou.
For a moment, Xiao Yun is stunned.
Zhou… the Heavenly Emperor's surname was Zhao, not Zhou…
But then he remembers:
When the Heavenly Emperor sealed the Ancient Divine Race's leader,
His injuries were so severe
He could only engrave a single incomplete word before dying.
He wrote Zhao—
but only managed the radical portion,
the part that now appears as Zhou on the world-banner.
Xiao Yun tries to write more.
With his will, he pushes against the banner,
trying to carve the character Yun,
But an overwhelming force denies him.
He struggles, jaw clenched,
And manages to imprint only:
Xiao.
He cannot write another stroke.
Across from him, Lin Yong attempts the same.
His will presses into the banner,
But he, too, is stopped after a single character:
Lin.
The moment these two characters join Zhou on the banner,
The world reacts.
A torrent of world power descends upon them.
Their crowns — previously invisible phantoms —
ignite with divine brilliance.
Xiao Yun's crown becomes a half-golden crown,
radiant and sharp.
Lin Yong's crown becomes a half-crimson crown,
violent and domineering.
The crowns shimmer above their heads like heavenly seals.
They turn toward the eighteen Ancient Divine Race Dao Saints—
and killing intent materialises in the air,
thick enough to suffocate the void itself.
For the first time,
The Ancient Divine Race feels fear.
Xiao Yun and Lin Yong stand ready to end the war—
But the heavens move before they do.
Behind Xiao Yun,
the Fire Emperor Concept materialises.
One-quarter of the sky turns into an ocean of burning gold.
From the centre of this ocean,
a golden lotus bud rises—
then blooms, revealing a human figure of pure fire.
The moment it opens,
The ocean of fire vanishes.
Behind Lin Yong,
the Battle Martial Emperor Concept emerges.
Another quarter of the sky becomes a sea of endless blood.
A giant rises from it—
eight arms, each gripping a different weapon:
Blade, spear, hammer, bow, axe, halberd, fist, and bell.
Then the sea of blood fades,
leaving only the phantom giant towering behind him.
The two young men feel their power surge—
but not because their bodies or energy grew.
It is because…
*They can see the laws.
Touch the laws.
Manipulate the laws.*
Xiao Yun feels the world's laws
as if they are strings on a grand celestial zither.
Each touch creates a ripple across creation.
Then he feels something else—
a shift.
A terrible shift.
From the far horizon,
The laws of the world tremble violently.
Xiao Yun and Lin Yong both look toward the Burial Continent—
The ancient land where the leader of the Ancient Divine Race is sealed.
The unthinkable happens.
Their own teammate,
The Divine Sword Lord of the Great Thousand Spiritual World,
descends from the sky.
"Divine Sword Lord…?
What are you—"
He does not answer.
His sword shines with the complete law of Eternal Severance,
And he plunges it straight into the continent below.
The moment it hits—
The world rips apart.
Cracks run across the continent like lightning.
The seal, nurtured for ten thousand years,
shatters with a sound that shakes the heavens.
Xiao Yun and Lin Yong flash forward immediately—
But they are too late.
The continent splits open.
A man rises from the depths—
a towering figure:
scale armour covering his entire body
a third eye blazing on his forehead
a golden monkey tail trailing behind him
and an aura that eclipses everything in existence
He is not just a Dao Saint.
He is the Ancestor of the Ancient Divine Race.
His presence alone bends the laws.
Sky breaks.
Earth splits.
Space distorts.
Xiao Yun and Lin Yong attack instantly.
Their swords slice the fabric of the world,
using law-manipulation so refined
that the air itself becomes a weapon.
But the Ancient Divine Leader simply lifts a hand,
blocking both strikes.
Laws shatter around his palm like glass.
He smiles—
a smile that makes the entire world tremble.
And then the real battle begins.
Xiao Yun ignites all fire laws—
Lin Yong unleashes all martial and blood laws—
and the Ancient Divine Leader counters with raw primordial divinity.
Every punch, kick, palm, elbow, knee—
splits the world's laws, tears open the void,
and collapses mountains across continents.
The battlefield becomes pure chaos:
Rivers vaporise into nothing,
sky tears into ribbons of law
continents fracture under shockwaves
The Burial Land collapses into a crater of creation energy
Every exchange sends ripples through the entire Great Thousand Spiritual World.
This is no longer a battle of strength.
It is a battle of law manipulation,
a battle of world authority,
a battle of heavenly destiny.
And Xiao Yun and Lin Yong stand at the front—
Their crowns are glowing brighter with each clash.
The battlefield stretches across the sky,
across broken continents,
across the collapsing firmament.
Their blows collide with the Ancient Divine Leader,
and every impact tears through the land below.
Entire floating continents shatter.
Mountains crumble into dust.
Cities vanish in waves of shock.
Millions die in the blink of an eye.
The Great Thousand Spiritual World trembles under the weight of three beings
who now manipulate laws directly,
wielding them like blades.
Xiao Yun's golden fire splits the heavens.
Lin Yong's blood-lit martial force crushes space into pieces.
But the Ancient Divine Leader laughs,
parrying their combined strike with one scaled arm.
He floats effortlessly,
The third eye is glowing with calm amusement.
"You two are impressive," he says.
"If I fail to escape today, I would indeed be sealed forever."
Lin Yong hurls a punch,
First wrapped in blood-gold martial law,
shaking the fractured space.
"You will be sealed!"
The Ancient Divine Leader tilts his head,
golden monkey tail flicking behind him.
Amusement curls across his lips.
"Did you two think I am a half-step Phantom Crown Realm like you both?"
The air freezes.
Then—
Boom.
A blinding golden-white radiance erupts above the Ancient Divine Leader's head.
A complete Phantom Crown manifests—
solid, majestic, immovable,
floating above him like a sovereign halo.
He steps forward once.
Reality bends.
Xiao Yun's and Lin Yong's concepts—
The Fire Emperor and the Battle Martial Emperor—
shudder violently.
Cracks appear along Xiao Yun's golden fire lotus.
Blood streams down from Lin Yong's manifested giant.
Both concepts suffer damage,
flickering like candles in a storm.
Seeing this,
The Great Thousand Spiritual World falls into despair.
The people—mortals, cultivators, saints—
Their hearts sink.
Fear spreads like wildfire.
And then—
Voices rise.
Prayers.
Cries.
Desperate hope.
"Please…
please, let there be a miracle…"
If the world hears them—
It answers.
Boom.
A shock of divine light splits the sky.
The banner appears again—
The will of the world unfolding like a decree of heaven.
And from the depths of the Holy Buddha Temple,
a figure ascends slowly into the sky—
The Holy Buddha Lord.
His body radiates clear brilliance,
endless compassion and infinite authority woven together.
He raises his brush—
a brush made of law-light.
He writes one character on the sky-banner:
Mù.
But he does not stop.
Unlike Xiao Yun and Lin Yong,
His will does not falter.
His consciousness does not freeze.
Stroke by stroke—
with absolute mastery—
He writes his full name:
Mù Qīngrán
The moment his name completes—
The sky bellows.
Light engulfs the heavens.
A crown of pure serenity, radiant and holy,
forms above Mu Qingran's head.
And the world trembles.
A miracle has appeared.