The entirety of the Eastern Star, Dong Lin, was now submerged in a tempestuous sea-rain. Torrential sheets cascaded from the heavens, carving paths across the land, forming rivers and sweeping estuaries that slowly broadened their dominion.

One devastating strike shattered every mountain peak across Dong Lin, leaving the land rent with fissures that now served as watery veins for the relentless downpour.

The northern lands collapsed, birthing a chasm so vast it swallowed the sea. The rain, like weeping tears from Dong Lin itself, saturated all.

The divine Dao Ancient’s fist resonated not just through the earth, but through the very souls of men!

In the south, the Xu family, with nearly ten thousand cultivators, felt a jolt pierce their minds. Their eyes reflected a terror and hopelessness they had never known, paralyzing them in their tracks.

Even the Xu family patriarch and his elders were stunned into silence.

“What…manner of power is this?”

“Even ancient formations could not withstand it. Entire cultivation stars crumble… and this, the eternally steadfast Dong Lin, trembles before a single blow!”

This fist exceeded all comprehension; it defied the natural order. It belonged to the realm of a Third Step Ascendant.

To the east, the Liu family, in their meticulously ordered ranks of ten thousand, witnessed the ground tremble beneath their feet. They saw the earth-shattering fist descending from the sky, the utter annihilation of the Lu family before their very eyes.

A chilling silence descended upon them.

“Can Dong Lin endure another blow such as this?”

Far to the western edge of Dong Lin, the Xiang family stood watch, their clan elders gathered outside their ancestor’s secluded chamber. Rain poured down upon them, yet their eyes remained fixed on the heavens, their souls gripped by an earth-shattering dread.

Xiang Yundong’s face was etched with bitterness as he watched, unable to utter a word.

The spectacle was too overwhelming, surpassing anything they could have imagined. How could they confront, how could they hope to stop such a being?

The Liu family of the east, mirroring the gaze of their patriarch and elders, turned their collective sight westward.

The Xu family of the south did the same. All eyes converged on the extreme west. There, among the Xiang clan, one by one, gazes shifted until every member of the family was staring at their ancestor’s place of seclusion!

They waited, yearning for their ancestor’s command… to fight, or to submit.

But the ancestor’s decree did not come first. Instead, a figure materialized against the rain-streaked sky, a solitary white-robed form, as pure as snow.

Dong Lin, stripped of its defenses, lay bare before Wang Lin. Slowly, he descended from the sky, his eyes like burning embers, piercing through the land to the far west!

“Will you not emerge from that coffin!” Wang Lin’s voice was devoid of thunder, yet it echoed clearly in the ears of every cultivator. His simple words resonated with an immeasurable, unseen pressure.

“Fight to the death!” A raspy roar, born of terror and desperation, erupted from the Xiang family’s ancestral chamber.

At that decree, the eyes of every Xiang family member turned bloodshot. With maddened cries, they ascended into the sky, rushing towards Wang Lin! Their faces were twisted in frenzy, as if the ancestor’s words had erased all reason, leaving only a single-minded, desperate will to kill!

The Xu family to the south followed, nearly ten thousand cultivators succumbing to the same frenzy, ascending as one, their minds consumed by madness!

In the east, the Liu family swiftly activated their vast array of magical treasures. Beams of blinding light shot skyward like silver serpents, hurtling towards Wang Lin!

Simultaneously, they knelt, chanting ancient incantations.

“Blood Sunflower Technique!” The collective roar of ten thousand voices shook the heavens as an unearthly floral scent filled the air.

From the ground, a colossal yellow sunflower blossomed. Its petals quickly transformed to gold, yet its center remained a dark, abyssal void, filled with countless seed-like particles.

Under Wang Lin’s gaze, however, the truth was revealed: the seeds were the severed heads of the ten thousand Liu family cultivators!

A collective severance occurred, the blades cleanly removing each head as blood gushed from the headless necks, merging with the incantation, forming a force of earth-shattering power.

The sunflower, now several thousand feet in diameter, erupted in a dazzling display of golden and crimson light, blasting from the earth towards Wang Lin!

From afar, it appeared as a colossal pillar of light, of impossible width, surging upwards with violent intent!

A force of destruction spread within the pillar, and within its core, a headless armored figure charged forward, grasping a long spear.

By means of some unknown art, its power exceeded the limits of a Fifth Decay Celestial, approaching the level of a Third Step Ascendant’s incense-based abilities!

One could even say that the aura within that pillar rivaled the attack of an early-stage Nirvana Shatterer! All due to the headless figure within the light!

Wang Lin turned, his eyes like lightning bolts, scanning the onrushing pillar. He beheld the headless figure at its heart as the light closed to within three lengths of him!

It seemed he had no chance to evade!

Yet Wang Lin had no intention of evading. His eyes flashed, and his right hand rose, meeting the pillar with a single, unwavering push!
A deafening roar erupted across the face of the Eastern Star, transforming into a furious bellow that echoed to the far horizons. A beam of pure light slammed into the outstretched right hand of the headless guardian, the tip of his ancient, pine-wood spear colliding with the very center of Wang Lin’s palm!

The echoes of the impact reverberated, and Wang Lin’s white hair whipped wildly behind him as if caught in a tempest. His robes strained and tore, threatening to rip away from his body.

Yet, Wang Lin stood unyielding, his expression unchanging. With a single palm, he had met a blow that held the force of a Third Step Ascendant.

The heavens themselves seemed to split asunder amidst the thunderous blast. From beneath Wang Lin’s feet, a colossal chasm ripped across the land, plunging ever deeper, instantly cleaving through the strata of the Eastern Star. The eastern reaches of the world were severed entirely!

From afar, it was a sight of stark devastation. Under the force of the cataclysm, the already battered Eastern Star was rent asunder, its eastern side torn away like a shard of a shattered moon. Bearing the corpses of the Shi Duo cultivators, who had perished using the Blood Sunflower Art, this colossal fragment hurtled backward into the vast emptiness of the cosmos.

The Eastern Star was crippled, teetering on the precipice of utter collapse.

The beam of light vanished into the void, and with it, the headless figure dissolved into nothingness.

Wang Lin remained unmoved, not retreating a single pace. Only when the light had fully dispersed before him did he slowly retract his right hand.

“Such potent power… to destroy… a regrettable waste.”

In the instant that the light faded and the eastern fragment of the Eastern Star was cast adrift, the remaining cultivators, driven to frenzy by the dying words of the Xiang Family Ancestor, charged at Wang Lin. Their eyes burned with a desperate fervor, as though their very souls hinged on his demise.

“My hands have been stained with the blood of many. I do not shy from taking lives… Though I know not why you send them to their doom, I shall grant you your wish!” Wang Lin’s voice was calm, even serene. Facing the onrushing tide of tens of thousands of cultivators, he raised his right hand and gently waved it forward!

In that single, sweeping gesture, the nine-hued flames in Wang Lin’s left eye blazed to life. As his hand moved, so too did the inferno erupt into existence between heaven and earth, a scorching tide sweeping all before it!

The art of Illusory Fire, the Dance of the Coffin!

With a single wave, the swiftly approaching cultivators burst into flames from within. Their agonizing screams pierced the air as they were consumed, reduced to naught but black ash within the fiery embrace.

None were spared. In the blink of an eye, Wang Lin became a beacon of destruction, and the maddened cultivators turned to moths drawn to the flame, perishing endlessly in the inferno’s grasp.

As the sea of fire spread, the water vapor of the Eastern Star rose in billowing clouds of white, shrouding the heavens. Wang Lin, undeterred, began to walk westward, toward the forbidden domain, toward the secluded place where the Xiang Family Ancestor, who had stolen his very life force, lay entombed.

With each step Wang Lin took, bloodcurdling screams echoed across the ravaged star, for all who dared to approach him were reduced to ash.

Nothing could halt Wang Lin’s advance. He drew ever closer, until at last, he stood upon the dark crimson earth of the forbidden West. Before him lay the gaping ravine, a wound in the world that led down into the vast cavern where the Xiang Family Ancestor rested in his earth-toned coffin!

Wang Lin strode forward, stepping into the chasm. In that instant, a furious roar thundered from the earth-colored coffin within the cavern. A torrent of viscous, yellow fluid erupted from the coffin’s depths, forming a putrid wave that surged toward Wang Lin!

A stench of decay and a miasma of death coalesced into a swirling vortex that crashed against Wang Lin. Unflinching, he merely flicked his sleeve, shattering the noxious wave. The vile liquid splattered against the surrounding stone, sizzling and hissing as it burned.

Then, within the coffin, a desiccated hand gripped the wooden side with unnatural force. A ragged, rasping voice emerged from within.

“By ancient decree, he who destroys the Eastern Star shall be purged for nine generations!” With those words, the hideous form of the Xiang Family Ancestor stirred within the coffin, wrenching himself upright.