Beneath a bruised and weeping sky, the crimson-robed sorcerer, he who boasted the strength to shoulder the heavens themselves, and whose hands had drunk deep of countless magi’s lifeblood, stood defiant. His reputation, forged in the crimson fires of slaughter, was about to be tested.

Yet, before the raw, untamed power unleashed by Wang Lin, the sorcerer’s formidable, fog-wrought arms, were as brittle as winter-killed branches. They met the descending palm imprint, and in an instant, crumbled into nothingness. The first wave of the assault descended upon the swirling crimson mists that clung to the sorcerer.

A strangled roar ripped from his throat as he bit his tongue, spewing forth a gout of blood. Desperately, he raised his arms to meet the second, inexorable strike.

“The Blood Avatar of the Tao and the Demon!” he screamed, his face a mask of desperate madness. Three thousand six hundred pores upon his body erupted in crimson rain, a shower that coated him in a glistening armor of blood.

From this gore-soaked flesh arose an aura of pure Taoist and Demonic energy, swirling around him like a shroud. His left hand pulsed with the essence of the Tao, his right seethed with demonic might. He hurled his augmented limbs forth, shattering the first palm imprint in a cataclysm of force.

Even as the shattered energies lashed at him, the sorcerer coughed blood, only for it to be instantly absorbed back into his flesh. He staggered back, as the second palm, a thunderous avalanche of power, fell upon him.

His hair whipped around his face, a tangled shroud of despair. Sanity abandoned him, leaving only the primal, desperate urge to survive. His legs withered with terrifying speed, flesh and blood draining away until only bone remained, the life essence flowing like a dark river into his arms.

They swelled grotesquely, becoming monstrous, pulsating with stolen life. Wang Lin had seen this technique before, etched upon the flesh of the behemoth, Bighead, but never with such chilling perfection. Not only his legs, but his entire torso withered, the essence of his being channeled into those grotesque limbs, which he now hurled towards the descending second palm.

The roar was deafening, shaking the very foundations of reality. The second palm, born of the Five Elements True Body, struck true, yet dissolved into nothingness. The crimson-robed sorcerer shuddered, each retreating step bought with agonizing effort. Then, his left arm exploded, a rain of gore scattering upon the ground.

Despair washed over him. As the third palm thundered down, shimmering with arcs of lethal lightning, a final, desperate scream tore from his lips. Escape was impossible, but he would fight until his last breath.

With a surge of will, he leapt from the earth, a desperate projectile aimed at the descending palm. His soul burned, his very essence poured out into a desperate, suicidal gambit: a surge of power bought with the ultimate price.

At that instant, his cultivation, once merely that of a Grand Exalt of Emptiness, skyrocketed. As the third palm closed in, the sorcerer attained a power far beyond his natural reach – he became a Gold Exalt!

In the very moment of his ascension, the third palm struck. A cacophony of thunder ripped through the air, and the palm dissolved, its lightning strike weakened, merely a common spark, not the killing thunder of annihilation.

The crimson-robed sorcerer stood amidst the shattered energies, a broken, bleeding figure, but alive. He howled defiance at the heavens, his gaze locked upon Wang Lin. He knew his life was measured in mere heartbeats. Ten breaths, and death would claim him, even without Wang Lin’s intervention.

But in those ten breaths, fueled by the price of his very being, he would use the power of a Gold Exalt to crush Wang Lin, the wretch who had driven him to this desperate gamble.

Without hesitation, he hurtled towards Wang Lin, a crimson blur of vengeful fury!

“Die!” he rasped, his voice laden with a hatred that could extinguish stars. In the space of two heartbeats, he was upon Wang Lin.

Wang Lin did not flinch. His eyes, cold and unwavering, fixed upon the approaching sorcerer.

“You are worthy,” Wang Lin murmured, “To witness seven-tenths of my power.” As the crimson-robed sorcerer drew within a hundred paces, Wang Lin’s right hand clenched into a fist. The bone dagger retreated into his palm. As his eyes flashed with an unearthly light, the Five Elements True Body merged with him, the Thunder True Venerate became one with him. Then, he unleashed a punch, aimed directly at the sorcerer who stood just paces away!

This blow, containing seven-tenths of the raw, untamed power of Wang Lin’s Daogu body, pulsed with the power of his Emptiness cultivation fused with the Daogu, and infused with the ethereal aura of the Ancestral Immortal’s hair within him.

The punch appeared effortless, yet the heavens themselves recoiled. The very fabric of reality between them folded and buckled, rippling like a disturbed pond. It defied space and time, landing directly upon the crimson-robed sorcerer’s chest.

The Gold Exalt shuddered, a grim smile twisting his lips. In that instant, his body exploded, a rain of gore and shattered bone flung in all directions!

His borrowed time as a Gold Exalt, those precious seven heartbeats, were forfeit.

In his final moment, the crimson-robed sorcerer understood the true extent of Wang Lin’s power. He was no match. Even with the sacrifice of his soul and life, he was woefully outmatched.

“So, this is what it means to be a Gold Exalt…” Wang Lin whispered, a flicker of battle-lust in his eyes. He had held back, unleashing only seven-tenths of his power, yet he had still felt the formidable might of a Gold Exalt.

As the crimson-robed sorcerer ceased to exist, the thirty thousand disciples and the dozens of powerful cultivators scattered, fleeing in blind panic. But Wang Lin had sealed this domain, and they could not escape.

He stood in the air, his gaze like arctic ice, fixed upon the lake at the heart of the Tao-Demon Sect, and the island that rested within its depths.

“Will you not reveal yourself?” His voice roared like thunder, echoing through the Tao-Demon Sect. But the island remained silent.

“You seek transcendence, and I will grant you the chance!” With a flick of his sleeve, Wang Lin appeared beside one of the Tao-Demon Sect’s powerful cultivators. The mage stumbled backwards in terror, but Wang Lin’s finger slashed across their throat, and a head tumbled from their body.
“You should not have become disciples of the Dao-Demon Sect…” Wang Lin spoke, his voice devoid of emotion. He turned, taking a single stride that shattered the fabric of reality, appearing before another Grand Magus. As the Magus unleashed a desperate, maddened shriek, Wang Lin’s finger pierced through his brow, extinguishing his life.

Simultaneously, the ancient seal surrounding the Dao-Demon Sect roared to life. The ring of arcane power pulsed, then contracted with terrifying speed, crushing all in its path. Any fleeing Dao-Demon cultivator caught within its embrace was instantly annihilated, their bodies turned to dust.

He had vowed to exterminate the sect, and exterminate it he would, leaving not a single blade of grass, nor a single soul alive.

Wang Lin strode onward, a specter of implacable judgment. After systematically slaying the dozens of Grand Magi, he stood in the air above the lake, gazing down at the island in its center. The air was thick with the agonizing screams of the Dao-Demon Sect’s thirty thousand disciples, each cry a testament to the array’s relentless shrinking.

These cries, echoing across the heavens and the earth, reached the ears of Wang Lin and pierced the heart of the Dao-Demon Sect’s Grand Patriarch, who remained locked away in secluded cultivation on the island.

The Grand Patriarch’s face contorted in agony. His eyes blazed with fury, yet he suppressed his rage. He dared not emerge.

He had witnessed Wang Lin’s annihilation of the Golden-Robed Elder. He had seen the Crimson-Robed Man sacrifice his life to briefly ascend to the Golden Venerate Realm. But what truly paralyzed the Grand Patriarch with terror was Wang Lin’s single, unassuming fist.

That seemingly ordinary strike had obliterated a Golden Venerate! The Grand Patriarch had replayed the event in his mind a thousand times, desperately trying to calculate his own chances of survival.

In over half of those scenarios, he met his demise! And that was only Wang Lin utilizing seventy percent of his power. Should the man unleash his full potential, the outcome was certain!

Furthermore, the Grand Patriarch knew Wang Lin still possessed the Heaven-Bull Soul Armor! The very armor he had yet to don!

“I cannot go out there! I have sent a secret message to the Ancestor, praying he returns swiftly…” The mournful cries emanating from beyond the island stabbed at the Grand Patriarch’s heart, but he quickly steeled his resolve.

“Let them die. Even if the entire Dao-Demon Sect perishes, as long as I survive, we can rebuild. And the more they die, the more utterly the sect is destroyed, the greater the Ancestor’s wrath will be!”

“Besides, I have a second layer of preparation. On Heaven-Bull Continent, the agreement and plan I forged with the Azure-Bull Ancestor of the Great Soul Sect are nearing their climax. The final battle must already be underway…”

“This grand play, we have been enacting across both continents for tens of thousands of years. These last hundred years have been especially realistic, with both continents sacrificing countless lives to make the deception believable!”

“With such a price paid… surely, it will attract the attention of the Imperial Family! It will draw the gaze of the Immortal Emperor, who re-emerged from seclusion a century ago… An Imperial Edict is inevitable!”

While the Grand Patriarch remained hidden, tormented by the agonizing cries, his gaze cold and calculating,

While Wang Lin stood outside the lake, his eyes fixed upon the island, especially upon the massive, shadowy form lurking beneath the water’s surface,

While the rapidly shrinking seal, having already slaughtered countless disciples and reduced the Dao-Demon Sect’s grand structures to rubble, converged upon the central lake,

A momentous event was unfolding on Heaven-Bull Continent!

The area surrounding the Returning-One Sect was swarming with Green-Demon cultivators, as Chen Kai fought with a furious rage to batter down the Sect’s gates and slaughter all within. Among the warring ranks, several rising prodigies clashed with reckless abandon.

Within the Returning-One Sect, every Sky-Devouring cultivator, including their Sect Leader, as well as the Sky-Devouring Great Sovereigns left behind with the Green-Demon army, all turned their gazes skyward.

In an instant, the sky was engulfed in an overwhelming golden light. Under this divine radiance, all fighting ceased. Cultivators from both sides looked up in bewildered awe.

An unparalleled pressure descended from the heavens. Within the golden light stood a figure of pure gold, gazing down upon the land with unwavering serenity!

“People of Heaven-Bull and Green-Demon Continents, all members of my Immortal Clan gathered here at the Returning-One Sect, receive this Edict!”

Two more figures of golden light manifested simultaneously, one appearing above the Great Soul Sect, the other hurtling towards Green-Demon Continent with unfathomable speed!

This long-simmering conflict had reached its zenith.