“The Source is but the loom of Cause and Effect. To extend one’s hand is to sow the seed, to grasp is to reap the harvest. I see your path has been arduous, therefore I shall spare your life this day, but your Source I shall claim!” Thus spoke Wang Lin, eyes shimmering with the cosmos itself, a wave of righteous energy surging forth to strike the jade-robed celestial square in the gaze. He sealed it away for a thousand years, and withdrew from the field of battle.

The celestial reeled, his mind a tempest of booming thunder, spitting crimson once more. With a flick of Wang Lin’s sleeve, he was cast back thousands of leagues, his face ashen, his eyes wide with mortal dread.

“You… what… What sorcery is this?!” he gasped.

“Begone!” Wang Lin’s eyes, having closed for but a moment, snapped open once more, and a single word, flat and devoid of emotion, rolled from his lips. Yet, in the celestial’s ears, it echoed with the ruin of worlds. His very essence shuddered, as though some unseen force would rend his soul asunder.

In abject terror, the celestial coughed up blood, and fled in a frenzied rout, as though demons themselves were on his heels.

His Source was not wholly forfeit, but Wang Lin’s Mark of Causality had torn a grievous portion from him. This he found beyond all reckoning, for though he knew of no such power, he felt a chilling echo of the Lord of Palms’ Moon in the Well within it.

His heart trembled, and bitterness choked him. He knew, had his cultivation remained at the peak of his Youthful Vigor, even this Mark of Causality would have struggled to claim his Source so easily.

“I am of the Empty Heavens! I am wronged!!” This silent scream remained caged within his breast as he fled, never once glancing back.

All this transpired in a mere heartbeat. Having cast the celestial aside, Wang Lin turned, and with a single stride, he approached the Ethereal Divine Lord, who, though slowed by the Binding Art, still surged forth with murderous intent.

“The debt of that bygone day shall be settled now.” Cold fire flickered in Wang Lin’s eyes, yet his demeanor remained serene as he advanced.

“Myriad-Hued Ethereal Divine Path!” roared the Divine Lord, his hands weaving intricate signs. Behind him, a colossal rift ripped open, spewing forth a boundless tide of incense-fueled souls. Ghastly and enraged, they surged outwards, painting the void with shimmering hues, within which danced countless ethereal statues, vast and indistinct.

“Crush him! Cast him into the cycle of worlds, hurl him into the abyss of stars, that not even a sliver of his soul might ever escape!” The Divine Lord bellowed, pointing a finger towards Wang Lin. The myriad phantasmal statues, bathed in their chromatic glow, cascaded down upon Wang Lin, seeking to bury him in the cosmic dust.

At that self same instant, a gargantuan vortex appeared beneath Wang Lin, spun from dark sorcery. Within its whirling depths, countless tormented spirits shrieked and writhed, reaching out to drag him into the abyss.

Above him, the remnants of the collapsed Gate of Emptiness still swirled, creating a vision of dreadful power. Wang Lin stood caught between two maelstroms, beset by a falling avalanche of ethereal idols, trapped within the Divine Lord’s devastating art.

“Die!!” The Divine Lord’s face contorted in a snarl, raising his hand to conjure a violet mist that solidified into a spear. With a mighty heave, he hurled the weapon, wreathed in swirling fog, at the ensnared Wang Lin.

The fleeing celestial halted, conflict raging in his eyes. With a sudden about face, he fixed his gaze on the trapped Wang Lin, hissing, and began to stride forward once more, abandoning his escape.

Wang Lin remained unmoved, his eyes closing as the myriad statues plummeted towards him. Unhurriedly, he stepped forward. Even as a hundred approached, poised to crush him, it was as though his form had become vapor, or the statues themselves illusions. They passed through him, utterly unaffected, vanishing into the void behind him, only to coalesce once more and crash onto the spot he’d once occupied. This bizarre spectacle caused the Divine Lord’s eyes to narrow in disbelief.

Wang Lin’s measured pace carried him to the Divine Lord’s very face. With a raised hand, he disregarded all defenses, and pressed his palm into the empty space before him.

“The Seal of Life and Death!”

His left hand signified Life, his right, Death. As Wang Lin’s deathly palm descended, black energy coiled about it. Though it struck only air, it caused the Divine Lord to recoil in shock.

He sensed, with undeniable clarity, the essence of annihilation within that single touch. As the palm fell, the cosmos itself seemed to wither, replaced by a desolate wasteland.

In that instant, cracks spiderwebbed across the void around the Divine Lord, collapsing inward, drawing with them a chilling aura of death.

With a resounding boom, the Divine Lord stumbled back dozens of paces. As he looked up, Wang Lin raised his hand once more and pointed directly at him.

“Bind!”

The Divine Lord’s movements faltered once more, his rage failing to penetrate the sudden viscosity that now encased him. He strained to break free from the mire of this arcane snare.

But Wang Lin offered no respite. Even as the Binding Art tightened its grip, he closed the distance, raising his right hand to touch the Divine Lord’s brow.

“Thunder!”
As the pronouncement echoed, Wang Lin’s right index finger transformed into a shard of immortal lightning, a celestial force forged from every thunderclap within and beyond the realms. This single digit could slay even a Third Step Ascendant.

Though the Void Divinity Celestial was one of the Five Ancient Sovereigns, and though his true power was immeasurable, he had arrived here only as an avatar, his cultivation merely on the cusp of Emptiness.

Thus, this lightning held the potential to wound him!

The finger descended, and the Void Divinity Celestial shuddered. At his brow, a flash of silver erupted, and countless silver threads unfurled, engulfing his entire being in an instant. A thunderous roar shook the heavens as blood trickled from the Celestial’s lips, and he stumbled backward, reeling from the assault.

Before he could recover, Wang Lin strode forward, pressing his thumb deep into the Celestial’s brow once more.

“Fire!”

With a deafening blast, flames of apocalyptic power blossomed beneath the web of silver, consuming the Void Divinity Celestial. The fire surged into his mind, his very soul, a tormenting inferno that burned from within and without.

The agony contorted the Celestial’s face, and he coughed up a torrent of crimson.

Yet, this was not the end. A predatory gleam ignited in Wang Lin’s eyes as he raised his hand, forming a grasping claw. He slammed it against the Celestial’s forehead, his fingers digging in, ripping outward, until his hand was clenched into a fist.

“Karma!”

A primal essence was ripped from the Celestial’s very being, a fragment of his soul stolen in that violent extraction.

This relentless assault offered the Void Divinity Celestial no chance for resistance. Held fast by the Binding Art, Wang Lin was as an embodiment of fate itself!

“Life and Death!” Wang Lin cried, raising his hands. With his left hand, he pressed upon the Celestial’s chest, and the withered body of the ancient being began to rejuvenate, transforming as if years were falling away.

But as Wang Lin’s right hand descended in the same instant, that blossoming youth crumbled. Life and death collided within the Celestial, tearing at his form, threatening to shatter him from the inside out.

Blood flowed from the Void Divinity Celestial’s orifices, yet his expression was filled with defiance. He was one of the Five Ancient Sovereigns; his pride forbade surrender. With a roar that shook the very fabric of reality, the Celestial’s entire being shuddered, and he shattered the Binding Art that held him captive.

The instant the Binding was broken, the full force of his diminished cultivation erupted, a desperate surge of power.

But Wang Lin’s expression remained unchanged. As the Celestial wrestled free, Wang Lin’s right index finger lanced forward.

“Bind!”

“No!” The Void Divinity Celestial recoiled, despair etched across his features.

“Truth and Illusion!” Wang Lin closed his eyes, and the world became a dream, a falsehood. He opened them again, and reality solidified, but the instant they closed a second time, Wang Lin’s right hand slashed down with brutal force.

“Slaughter!”

With a thunderous boom, Wang Lin’s hand became a blade, radiating a crimson aura of carnage. It fell upon the Void Divinity Celestial’s crown, cleaving through him with a terrifying strike.

The sound of rending echoed through the heavens, and with a piercing scream, the Void Divinity Celestial’s body split asunder, transforming into two clouds of violet mist that billowed to either side.

But with his eyes still closed, Wang Lin could perceive with perfect clarity that within those divided mists, like garments cast aside, lay the true nature of the Void Divinity Celestial’s avatar!

It was a wisp of formless energy, a phantom essence so subtle that few could detect it. Only Wang Lin, guided by the Dao of Truth and Illusion, could sense its presence.

This intangible breath, the very core of the Void Divinity Celestial’s avatar, drifted back, unnoticed by all but Wang Lin, seeking to escape this place.

The Void Divinity Celestial might not be the strongest of the Five Ancient Sovereigns, but he was the most difficult to kill!