Mo Lingtian's consciousness violently ripped through the spatial dimensions, plummeting back into the reality-inverted tunnel until he crashed once more into the pitch-black space.
Lingering in the distant darkness were the remaining green phantom wraiths. Previously, they had fled from his death energy toward the blue sun, allowing it to devour them. Now, they hovered in chaotic confusion.
As Mo Lingtian's presence stabilized in the space, the sea of green wraiths suddenly turned toward him. A deafening, collective screech echoed through the void as millions of them bared their phantom fangs, rushing toward him like a tidal wave of resentment.
He raised his hands, his eyes glowing with ruthless determination. The golden and red lines of the Devil Converging Seal, which were still latched onto the dead rocky sphere, instantly detached at his command, advancing toward the phantom army once again.
"Since my domain has an appetite, let's see exactly how much it can eat," he said, tugging deeply on the death half of his hybrid core.
A pure, concentrated wave of death energy exploded from his consciousness. The charging tidal wave of green wraiths immediately shrieked in terror, violently halting their advance.
With a swift swipe of his fingers, Mo Lingtian commanded the glowing lines. The golden and red threads shot forward like millions of divine whips, instantly piercing through the retreating front lines of the phantom army.
Just like they had done with the blue sun, the lines didn't just pierce the wraiths; they actively consumed them. The lines pulsed brightly as they drained the residual life force and chaotic energy from the phantoms, channeling it all directly back into Mo Lingtian's expanding Death Domain outside.
The golden and red lines rapidly multiplied, forming a massive, inescapable net that swept through the pitch-black void. The wraiths were completely defenseless against the suppression of the death domain's law. In a matter of moments, the millions of green phantoms were completely swept clean, reduced to pure nourishment for his domain.
As the very last wraith dissolved into the glowing lines, the pitch-black space suddenly shuddered violently. Large cracks began to form across the dark sky like a shattering mirror. The ultimate source of the parasite had been utterly eradicated.
"It's time," Mo Lingtian thought as the space around him collapsed entirely.
His consciousness was violently ejected, shooting back up through the thousands of layers of restrictions until he finally opened his physical eyes in the underground cultivation ground.
The physical world rushed back to him. The glowing spherical geoid structure of his Death Domain still covered the massive space, but it was noticeably thicker, pulsating with a far more terrifying, evolved aura after devouring the blue sun and the wraiths.
The Death Domain had evolved enough to begin forming a mirage world underneath its dome, projecting faint, towering fragments of an immaterialized reality.
Floating right in front of him was the translucent spine meridian. The green phantom parasite that had been frantically writhing inside the liquid gold earlier was now completely motionless and lifeless.
Mo Lingtian slowly lowered himself back down to a cross-legged position on the jade platform. Directly opposite him, the Patriarch was staring at him with an unreadable, intense gaze.
"You... you solved the parasite," the Patriarch said, his deep voice carrying a strange mix of profound relief and dangerous curiosity as he observed the lifeless husk inside his meridian.
"I did, Senior," Mo Lingtian replied, panting slightly as he expertly feigned exhaustion.
"Your domain... it's truly as eye-catching as you described," the Patriarch continued, his eyes shifting from the spine meridian to the glowing golden and red lines weaving the spherical geoid structure around them.
Mo Lingtian's heart skipped a beat, but his expression remained perfectly calm. The old monster was already beginning to bare his fangs.
"Senior, although the parasite is now dead, it is still inside the meridian. We must refine it as soon as possible and integrate the meridian back into your body. The longer it stays exposed to the outside, the more difficult the integration process will become," Mo Lingtian explained, controlling the floating spine meridian to drift closer to him.
Without waiting for the Patriarch to question him further, Mo Lingtian summoned the dark-greyish death flame back into his palms.
Channeling the flame into two distinct streams of energy, he secretly infused the lines formed from the Death Domain into the death flame, guiding them directly toward the spine meridian.
With the death flame now combined with the hidden lines of his domain, Lingtian was able to force the corrosive energy past the outer layer of the spine meridian and deep into its core, actively refining the liquid gold settling within it along with the dead parasite.
Mo Lingtian pushed his fingers forward, drastically increasing the intensity of the death flame as it continued to penetrate the insides of the spine meridian until the crystalline structure was completely saturated with fire.
"This flame of yours... it's gotten more powerful since you awoke from your deep meditation," the Patriarch noted, watching the insides of his spine meridian become completely engulfed by the grey fire.
Mo Lingtian didn't reply. He continued channeling the intense energy of the death flame until the spine meridian slowly began to break down under the corrosive heat.
"What are you doing?!" the Patriarch roared when he saw his priceless spine meridian dissolving under Lingtian's flame energy.
He instantly released a powerful, direct stream of his blue flame energy toward Lingtian. That strike alone was enough to completely eradicate the young cultivator on the spot in a single move.
"Senior... stay still! This is the critical moment!" Mo Lingtian yelled, unflinching as he continued to corrode the spine meridian with the death flame.
"Whatever tricks you are playing, if I do not have my spine meridian back in perfect condition, you will die here," the Patriarch threatened. He seamlessly redirected the lethal stream of blue flame at the last millisecond, blasting a massive, scorching tunnel into the cavern wall just inches away from Lingtian's head.
"Senior... you said it yourself, I am a very shrewd person. I will never play with my life," Mo Lingtian replied evenly as the spine meridian completely dissolved into thousands of fragments of golden energy. He quickly integrated the golden fragments into the death energy swirling around them, forming a volatile vortex of dark-greyish and golden light.
"Condense," Mo Lingtian muttered. The golden and red lines from the death dome slowly advanced toward the swirling vortex. The runic, string-like lines completely integrated with the death energy, perfectly guiding it as it reconstructed the Sovereign Immortal's spine meridian from scratch.
In a matter of seconds, the spine meridian was entirely reconstructed from the death energy, glowing with the exact same translucent and golden cadence as before. There was absolutely no visible trace of the death energy lingering within its outer or inner layers.
"Senior, here is your spine meridian," Mo Lingtian said, his voice shaking heavily as he completely retracted the death energy and the lines of his domain from the floating meridian.
"Do you need more time to rest? Your energy looks almost exhausted," the Patriarch asked, feigning worry as his eyes locked onto his restored meridian.
"No need... I'll..." Mo Lingtian stuttered weakly, allowing his eyes to roll back as he drifted toward unconsciousness.
"Child, don't die yet. You have not yet inserted the meridian back into my body," the Patriarch ordered. He immediately stepped forward and channeled a surge of pure, revitalizing energy directly into Mo Lingtian's body.
Lingtian's demonic core instantly resonated with the massive influx of energy, greedily absorbing every last drop of it until it reached its threshold, violently jerking Mo Lingtian back to consciousness.
"Thank you..." Mo Lingtian gasped, running the energy from his demonic core all through his meridians, fully replenishing his body with the absorbed power of the Patriarch.