Within the boundless canvas of the Heaven-Painting Ink, Sima Mozi, wielding the cosmos as his brush, swept his right hand downwards. Instantly, the ink-laden earth trembled, birthing titanic waves of swirling darkness. With each flourish, the earth became a brush dipped in the abyss, sketching upon the celestial tapestry a breathtaking landscape.

With but a few strokes, he rendered the very immortal star upon which they stood, and within its depiction, lo! There materialized the phantom form of Wang Lin himself!

“Even as a mere fragment of my true self,” Sima Mozi’s voice echoed, chilling as winter winds, “I shall obliterate thee beneath the weight of the Shattered Heaven Dao!” His eyes, gleaming with ruthless intent, fixed upon the defiant youth, hand poised to strike a fatal blow.

But in that very instant, Wang Lin’s eyes blazed with an otherworldly light. He threw back his head and roared to the heavens, “Shattered Heaven Sect, Sima Mozi!”

His voice, a thunderclap resonating through creation, echoed as if the very heavens themselves had found a voice. Sima Mozi’s raised hand faltered. He snapped his gaze, his eyes locking onto Wang Lin’s.

In a blur of motion, Wang Lin surged forward, his right hand rising, his forefinger stabbing forth with a force that twisted the very fabric of reality! The sky bled colors, the winds howled in protest as Wang Lin vanished, only to reappear before Sima Mozi. His fingertip, a celestial lance, descended towards Sima Mozi’s brow with terrifying speed.

Sima Mozi’s face contorted in fury and dread. Wang Lin’s audacious cry had robbed him of his chance to weave his magic. Reacting on instinct, he slashed his right hand downwards, cleaving through the Heaven-Painting Ink with a brutal stroke!

At his command, the mountains and rivers within the painting shattered and collapsed, swallowed by the void. Even Wang Lin’s spectral form within the image wavered, distorted by the devastating power.

A tearing sensation ripped through Wang Lin, igniting a searing agony that drained the color from his face. Yet, he swallowed the blood that surged into his mouth, his eyes burning with implacable resolve, his fingertip driving forward with unstoppable force!

The power contained within that single digit sent a jolt of primal fear through Sima Mozi. He staggered backward, frantically summoning the ink that formed the earth, erecting a desperate barrier before him. A chilling premonition, long dormant, stirred within him: the shadow of death itself, emanating from the tip of Wang Lin’s finger!

“What sorcery is this?!”

The obsidian ink slammed into Wang Lin’s finger, and in that cataclysmic moment, a storm of celestial blades erupted from Wang Lin’s touch!

It was Wang Lin’s hidden arsenal, the first of three lethal strikes prepared specifically for Sima Mozi!

The sword qi, a blinding torrent, exploded forth: one blade, then two, then ten, a hundred, a thousand, a million, hundreds of millions… His fingertip contained a staggering three thousand nine hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred ninety-nine blades, adding his finger, for an apocalyptic force of forty million swords!

The sheer might of forty million blades resonated throughout creation, unleashing a furious torrent of energy, and twirling along his finger were two deer beast phantasms accompanied by a resounding roar from the swords!!

Sima Mozi’s eyes widened, filled with disbelief, his expression an utter lack of understanding. “This… this is…”

A deafening roar shook the cosmos as the ink barrier, formed from the very earth, crumbled before Wang Lin’s finger. Shattered and pierced, the sword qi hurtled towards Sima Mozi!

Forty million blades swirled, centered upon Wang Lin’s form, a vortex of lethal power!

The tempestuous vortex, a symphony of destruction, screamed with agonizing sound. Seen from afar, it appeared as millions of serpentine phantoms writhing in the air, a sight to strike terror into the heart!

All transpired in the blink of an eye. In the span of a breath, the finger, laden with forty million blades, crashed into Sima Mozi. A gout of blood spewed forth, and his body splintered into countless fragments! He had not been destroyed, but through some arcane technique, he had managed to evade the full force of Wang Lin’s fatal attack, reappearing a thousand feet distant.

He hovered there, a ragged silhouette against the heavens, trapped within a grotesque tableau.

For beneath the sky was another sky, and upon the earth, another earth! The Shattered Heaven Dao, it became clear, was nothing less than a self-contained world, a prison woven from reality itself. It sought to trap its victims, breaking through the celestial tapestry and shattering the very essence of being.

Trapped within the illusory realm of the Shattered Heaven Dao, Wang Lin found himself unable to escape!

Sima Mozi’s features twisted into a mask of savage triumph. He wove intricate hand seals, then thrust them outwards before clenching them shut, unleashing a downward slash. He roared, “Shattered Heaven!”

At his command, the world around Wang Lin shuddered and roared. The painted sky overhead erupted in a cacophony of tears, twisting Wang Lin’s spectral form within the illusion with ever greater force.

In that instant, every cultivator on the immortal star felt a tremor in their soul. The elder of the Fire Sparrow clan and his kin, who had maintained a vigilant watch over the battle, gaped in horror. The elder sighed, his face etched with complex emotions.

“He is surely doomed! The Shattered Heaven Dao… truly a peerless art! Sima Mozi… Sima Mozi… I never expected him to appear here. If that’s the case, then the identity of the one who sold me those pills is all but revealed!

Alas, I still have no clue where the blood within the Soul Pill came from!” The Fire Sparrow elder shook his head, resigned to Wang Lin’s demise.

Within the sacred grounds of the Dragon Armor clan, the young clan leader watched with bated breath, but now he let out a sigh of relief.

“He is powerful, but alas, he cannot escape Sima Mozi’s might. This Shattered Heaven Dao is quite extraordinary, able to create a world within a world!”

Within the same sacred grounds, the Dragon Armor clan leader lowered his gaze from the heavens, his expression softening.

“He overestimated himself. Sima Mozi is a third-step powerhouse. Even a fragment of his true being is beyond the reach of any ordinary foe. Even if this Wang Lin can slay the Grand Elder of the Lightning Flash Clan, he stands no chance against the Ink Master!

Still, it is no small feat that he managed to injure Sima Mozi. Fortunately, he has no hope of survival now, otherwise, he might seek my Dragon Armor clan’s aid. It is a blessing that he is at the end of the line.”

But just as all had resigned themselves to Wang Lin’s inevitable doom within the Shattered Heaven Dao, a shocking transformation began!
A searing agony tore through Wang Lin’s very essence, his eyes blazing crimson. Around him, forty million ethereal swords swirled, a vortex of righteous fury aimed directly at the painted sky above!

“Forty million swords! Shatter this painted prison! Break! Break! Break!” Wang Lin roared, his form dissolving, transforming into a living comet, yet even more, a blade forged of his own being!

This single, incandescent blade joined the ranks of the forty million, the final, crucial edge.

A tempest of blades, radiating a power that threatened to unmake existence itself, surrounded him. Spinning, it propelled Wang Lin forward, ever closer to the celestial canvas. With a deafening crash, they collided!

The forty million blades unleashed their fury, a cacophony of destruction that drowned the heavens in thunder.

“Break open!” Wang Lin’s voice, raw and ragged, echoed through the storm. The agonizing pain within him intensified, each wave more excruciating than the last. He spat blood, his face a mask of fierce determination. With a violent wave of his hand, the swords resonated, and with a series of cataclysmic explosions, the illusory world woven by the Dao of Broken Skies shattered!

The collapse of the painted world unleashed a shockwave that swept back, scouring the cultivation star.

Wang Lin burst free!

The moment he emerged, the Fire Sparrow Elder’s eyes snapped open, his face etched with disbelief. He gasped for breath.

The Dragon Armor Clan’s young lord was similarly shaken, his heart pounding like a war drum. Terror widened his eyes, and he stumbled backward, uttering a strangled, “This… this…”

Even the Dragon Armor Clan Chieftain recoiled, his expression darkening ominously.

“Sima Mo, our battle has only just begun!” Wang Lin declared, his form wavering slightly. He raised a hand, pointing a finger at the heavens. “You sought to confine me with a shattered sky? Then I shall turn the very heavens against you!”

As the words left his lips, his eyes shifted, reflecting the celestial sphere above, whirling with impossible speed. In an instant, the realms were inverted: what was once sky became earth, and the ground rose to become the new heavens!

In that very moment, the world around them shuddered, undergoing a complete and utter inversion!

“The Sky-Turning Sorcery of Blue Dream Daoist!” Sima Mo’s face hardened with grim understanding. He waved his hand, summoning a treasure for the first time: a ten-foot banner materialized beside him.

Countless intricate seals covered its surface, their patterns shifting and swirling, radiating an aura of immense age and profound power.

The Seals of Ages!

As the banner unfurled, the Seals of Ages erupted, transforming into a vast array of ancient runes that enveloped Sima Mo, forming a massive, swirling vortex of forbidden power!

The inversion of the world was complete. The sky lay beneath their feet, the earth hovered above. The sight was enough to shatter the minds of those who witnessed it, especially the Dragon Armor Clan Chieftain, whose eyes narrowed in horrified fascination.

“He possesses the sorcery of Blue Dream Daoist! Hmph, even so, I wager he is doomed beneath Sima Mo’s divine arts!”

Wang Lin roared again, his voice echoing with primal power. He flipped his hand downwards, and the heavens and earth above began to compress, crushing down upon Sima Mo within their grasp!

Enshrouded in his protective seals, Sima Mo’s eyes burned with an eerie light.

“The Seals of Ages, they fade into the river of time! Whether it is the sky or the earth, all existence within this starscape shall be consumed by the flow of years, dissolving, crumbling, and unraveling!”

Sima Mo flung his hands outward. Immediately, the Seals of Ages expanded with terrifying speed, surging outwards to meet the inverted world. The very fabric of reality groaned, battered by the temporal onslaught, a desolate wind of ages sweeping across the battlefield, threatening to collapse the heavens and earth entirely!

“Forbidden Art of the Ages! Heaven Withers, Earth Decays!” Sima Mo cried out, his voice tinged with madness!

Wang Lin’s eyes narrowed. He was about to unleash his own devastating sorcery when a soft chuckle echoed from the void. The sound was barely audible, yet it resonated clearly in the ears of every living creature upon the cultivation star!

“Intriguing. If you can defeat this avatar of a Third Step Ascendant within five breaths, I guarantee your safety in the Fallen Lands!”

“Great Emperor!” The Dragon Armor Clan Chieftain, deep within their sacred grounds, and the Ninth Elder of the Fallen Star Legion both gasped in unison, their faces paling with dread!

Sima Mo also blanched, his expression turning to one of abject terror!

“One,” the voice from the void continued, its tone light and unhurried.