Decided in his heart, Wang Lin whirled about. Before him, in the two directions the green scorpions had occupied, their faces betrayed a sinister dread. No longer advancing, they were retreating with haste, seeking the safety of the earth.

Wang Lin’s might had surpassed the Green Demon Emissaries’ calculations. Never could they have foreseen that his attunement with the Celestial Bull would grant him such power, a strength sufficient to slay cultivators in the mid-stage of Void Tribulation and approach the late stage itself!

“Indeed, this is the Immortal Astral Continent…” Wang Lin mused, “Were I to possess such Celestial Bull Soul Armor in the Cave Realm, neither the Seven-Colored Daoist nor the War Fiend would stand against me…”

“This strange Immortal Astral Continent surely holds a means to awaken Wan’er!” Determination blazed in Wang Lin’s eyes. Seeing the swift retreat of the scorpions, a cold smile touched his lips. He stepped forward, giving chase.

Though the scorpions fled with haste, Wang Lin’s pursuit was swifter still. With a single stride, the earth trembled beneath his feet, closing the distance. He raised his right hand, his eyes gleaming with an arcane light.

“The Spirit Devouring Seal!” he intoned, and with a pointed finger, the sky above the boundless Extreme Heaven Grasslands underwent a cataclysmic change. The clouds vanished as if swept away by a celestial hand, and even light itself seemed banished. A colossal palm print manifested, vast enough to encompass the entire grassland, its thickness immeasurable, beyond mortal comprehension.

The palm print descended upon the land with a deafening roar, blotting out the sun and usurping the heavens. It was as though a giant had unsheathed its hand to smite the earth. Even halfway through its descent, the bottom could not be seen, and one could not see an end to the hand, such was its immense size. The palm was terrifying!

Yet, an uncanny transformation occurred. This seemingly ordinary palm, etched with clear fingerprints, suddenly erupted in countless, minute fissures as it fell. It appeared as though a sealed veil had been torn asunder, its purpose fulfilled, the spell had reached its capacity.

When the seal crumbled, the gigantic palm print in the sky retained its size, but its appearance had shifted dramatically!

No longer did it bear five fingers, but six! The additional digit was a vivid crimson, adorned with a horrifyingly long nail. It was a ghastly sight, utterly unlike the other five, which were pitch black. The clashing colors were stark and unsettling.

This palm now seemed to embody the fusion of Dao and Demon, the sixth finger a demonic appendage!

Upon the Extreme Heaven Grasslands, the surviving thousand-odd Green Demon Continent cultivators were struck with a terrifying awe. They stared upward in numb horror, their bodies trembling violently, and a feeling of utter despair taking over their bodies.

Even the two female cultivators in the early stages of Void Tribulation were shaken to their core. The sight of the palm caused them to unleash their most potent defensive techniques and conjure their most protective artifacts without hesitation.

They had no time for anything else, no thought beyond their own survival, their minds consumed by the desperate need to withstand the coming devastation.

Zhang Daozong stood in a daze, his eyes fixed upon the immense palm, a look of disbelief etched upon his face!

“The Dao-Demon Grand Hand Seal!! It is the Dao-Demon Grand Hand Seal!! And it has opened the sixth finger!!! This is the supreme art of my Dao-Demon Sect, a secret never to be shared!!!

“Only the Sect Leaders of each generation may master it. How could it be learned by anyone outside the sect, much less divulged?! This Wang Lin… how… how does he possess this seal?!”

The old man Zhao, his eyes also wide with shock, immediately waved his sleeves, enveloping himself in an aura of etherealness. His hands moved with frantic speed, weaving a complex series of hand seals, constantly casting defensive spells.

In the blink of an eye, the transformed palm roared earthward, crashing down upon the land. The moment it struck, the entire Extreme Heaven Grassland disintegrated. The thousand-odd Green Demon Continent cultivators, without the slightest chance to resist, were the first to perish under the descending palm!

Their bodies and souls were obliterated!

A thousand lives extinguished with a single strike – even Wang Lin, the one who wielded this terror, was momentarily stunned by the sheer power.

Yet, the devastation did not end there. The two female cultivators in the early stages of Void Tribulation, having unleashed all their spells and artifacts, coughed up blood as the palm pressed down. Though they had not died, they were grievously wounded, their internal organs shattered, sustained only by a wisp of primordial spirit! But that would not last, for in a mere moment, their physical bodies erupted, leaving only their spirits behind!

Zhang Daozong and the elder Zhao were likewise struck, blood spurting from their mouths, their faces draining of color. Below them, the four Green Demon Emissaries, seated upon the ground, trembled as the palm touched the earth. Blood trickled from the corners of their mouths, but the green mirror above them shielded them from the worst of the impact.

But below the emissaries, within the earth itself, the two Green Demon Scorpions could not endure the cataclysm. As the palm landed, an earthquake of unparalleled power coursed through the earth, rending the scorpions’ bodies into fragments with a hideous shriek before Wang Lin.

“This… is the true Spirit Devouring Seal!” Wang Lin’s eyes glittered with fierce light. With a surge of power, he launched himself upward, toward the surface of the land. His speed was such that the Extreme Heaven Grassland trembled as he passed through it.

He was on the verge of breaking through when a look of fear flashed across the faces of the two Green Demon Emissaries, still bleeding from their mouths after the deaths of their scorpions.

“We must not let him ascend!” the four shrieked almost in unison, their minds linked as Green Demon Emissaries. Fear choked their thoughts. They not only pressed their hands upon the ground, but struck their foreheads upon the ground, a loud thump echoing across the land.

The prostration was a form of prayer.
But it was precisely this single obeisance that caused the emerald mirror above them to unleash a piercing shriek. It plummeted towards the land, and in the instant before its impact, it expanded without limit, engulfing the entirety of the Azure Sky Plains in a blink!

“By the venomous soul of the Emerald Scorpion, subdue this one!”

The four voices merged into a single, resonant command that echoed through the heavens. As the mirror struck the earth, the Azure Sky Plains underwent a shocking transformation. The verdant grasslands vanished, the very ground turned to a mire of fetid swamps, and even the distant mountain ranges that bordered the plains dissolved into nothingness.

All that remained was a landscape ripped from the Emerald Demon Realm itself!

Whether illusion or reality mattered not. In that instant, the Azure Sky Plains ceased to exist within the Heavenly Bull Continent. It had either vanished and reappeared within the Emerald Demon Realm, or more accurately, the Emerald Demon Realm, by the agency of the mirror, had cast a continental projection upon the plains!

It was with this projected domain that they sought to crush him!

Zhang Daozong, the elder Zhao, and the two female cultivators whose spiritual forms writhed beneath the Yiling Seal, now disregarded all else, sinking into the swampy ground. They poured forth every last drop of their cultivation, working in concert with the four Emerald Demon Envoys to enforce this oppressive dominion!

They understood that if they failed to suppress Wang Lin, the one blessed by the Heavenly Bull, a horror beyond comprehension awaited them!

“The Heavenly Bull Emissary of the Heavenly Bull Continent… his method is unlike ours. They can draw upon a fleeting surge of peak power! We know not how long it lasts, but it cannot be eternal! We need only bind him until the effect wanes, until his cultivation returns to its normal state. Then, we shall strike him down!” One of the Emerald Demon Envoys shrieked in a grating voice.

His words infused Zhang Daozong and the others with renewed vigor and desperate hope. They unleashed their cultivations with fanatical fervor, bolstering the oppressive seal.

The earth groaned, issuing deafening booms that shook the very air. With each seismic tremor, the faces of the defenders grew a shade paler.

For deep beneath them, Wang Lin raged, striking at the projection of the Emerald Demon Realm, striving to shatter its grip and break free!

“The Ancient Umbrella of Blazing Realms!” Within his ebon armor, Wang Lin’s hands danced in a flurry of incantations. Innumerable restrictive spells coalesced, conjuring a gargantuan umbrella of fire in the sky above the projected Emerald Demon Realm!

The moment the umbrella unfurled, a cataclysmic sea of fire erupted, threatening to incinerate the projection and the world itself. Within the fiery maelstrom, the two nascent spirit forms of the Sky Wanderer realm women emitted agonizing shrieks. They grit their teeth, enduring the torment as they summoned their natal treasures, joining forces to withstand the inferno.

The Ancient Umbrella of Blazing Realms, unlike the Seven-Colored Spear and the Yiling Seal, had not undergone a miraculous transformation. It remained a manifestation of Wang Lin’s prior cultivation, only amplified in power. Though formidable, it still paled in comparison to the might of the transformed Spear and the Seal.

“This technique appears potent, but even the madman likely only grasped its surface. Even with my current cultivation, I cannot unlock its true power… Or perhaps the technique is not as mighty as I believed. This is its limit.” Wang Lin mused inwardly.

“Then I shall test the limits of the divine power I myself have forged!” A strange light flickered in Wang Lin’s eyes. Beneath the earth, he raised his right hand and swept it upwards.

Instantly, the earth before him blurred, replaced by a raging, tempestuous ocean. Even the four Emerald Demon Envoys witnessed the same vision. The seawater spread like a ravenous tide, extinguishing the fiery umbrella in the sky, replacing it with an all-consuming darkness.

This darkness exuded an unbearable cold, and chilling winds howled through the void, engulfing Zhang Daozong and his allies.

Then, in the eastern expanse of that darkness, a thin, golden-red line abruptly pierced the gloom. A nascent sun, radiant and proud, slowly ascended, imbued with a power of the purest, most concentrated Primal Law!

A force capable of tearing through any darkness, of obliterating the night of the heavens and the earth! This force, in its genesis, was a mystery to Wang Lin. Even during its creation, it was a stroke of serendipity. But now, he beheld a breathtaking spectacle within that sun.

A sight that left him speechless!