The raw vengeance, ceaselessly played out across the heavens, descended like a thunderbolt, shaking the very souls of the cultivation families who hunted Wang Lin.

They dared not slay those below the Nascent Soul stage. This act, though granting a sliver of survival, spoke volumes of the bloody intent that lay unspoken.

“Should you persist in this pursuit, those beneath Nascent Soul shall face the sword!”

A maelstrom of wrath erupted, and the cultivators of those star systems ravaged by Xu Mu went utterly mad. No retreat was considered; they vowed vengeance upon Xu Mu.

Yet, many more amongst the cultivation families grew hesitant, particularly those native to the Western Domain of Luo Tian. One by one, then in a trickle, and finally in a stream, they departed in secret, hastening back to their own cultivation stars. The blockade that had choked the Western Domain now thinned, as family after family, weighed Wang Lin’s bloody reprisal and cautiously withdrew.

After all, to risk the annihilation of their younger generations for the sake of the Yao family’s ambitions was a price far exceeding their tolerance. More importantly, Wang Lin’s ruthlessness instilled a deep, primal fear within these cultivators, whose allegiances were bound to the preservation of their families.

They sensed Wang Lin’s madness, and understood that continuing down this path would lead to unimaginable horrors.

Beyond the Western Domain, the cultivators of the other three domains also wavered, yet few departed. Their ancestral stars were far from Luo Tian. Xu Mu, they reasoned, was as good as dead, merely fighting his last desperate stand.

Even if he struggled madly, it would be confined to Luo Tian. He could not escape, and thus, he could not exact his vengeance beyond this place.

Nonetheless, Wang Lin felt the crushing pressure of the blockade ease somewhat within the Western Domain. Yet, in these days, the woman who could blend seamlessly with the heavens pursued him ever closer. Several times, she almost had him within her grasp.

Wang Lin’s brow furrowed. Her pursuit was relentless, and the territory where Wang Lin could move was rapidly shrinking. If he did not find a way to break free soon, he would be doomed.

In the star-strewn void, Wang Lin materialized, his brow deeply creased. In these past days, hatred had congealed in his eyes, as palpable as a physical force.

“That woman hunting me possesses at least a mid-stage Nirvana Peering cultivation. I cannot slay her with my current power. This is… troublesome.” A glint of sharp insight flashed within Wang Lin’s eyes, and in a flicker, he vanished from the void.

Moments later, Yao Bingyun emerged, her face set with a grim purpose. Her phoenix eyes scanned the distant void, and she spoke, her voice cold as frost, “You cannot escape!”

With a single stride, she melded with the very fabric of the heavens and resumed her relentless pursuit.

Wang Lin, cloaked in the same seamless blending with the cosmos, resolved to evade Yao Bingyun. With her relentlessly dogging his steps, escape was impossible.

Through prolonged immersion into the heavens, a process that exacted a heavy toll upon his very being, Wang Lin managed, once more, to disrupt Yao Bingyun’s lock. However, this fleeting respite cost him three precious days.

In those three days, the cultivator blockade within the Western Domain tightened, constricting like a closing cage!

A palpable, dense killing intent gathered within the blockade, so intense that it coalesced into a storm, causing the cosmic dust to swirl in violent eddies.

Having temporarily shaken Yao Bingyun’s grasp, Wang Lin flickered into existence beside a desolate, abandoned cultivation star, utterly devoid of life.

Scanning the barren world, a spark ignited in Wang Lin’s eyes, and he muttered, “This is the one!”

Wang Lin knew time was running out. Besides her ability to blend with the cosmos, that woman undoubtedly possessed some form of divination to track him.

Therefore, he had to seize this fleeting chance. With rapid hand gestures, Wang Lin released a torrent of Yuan energy fluctuations, transforming into countless runes that sped towards the forsaken star.

As the runes embedded themselves, flashing and vanishing, Wang Lin did not pause. Circling the star, he continued to engrave it with his markings.

An hour later, his face pale with exertion, he stepped onto the star’s surface. Ruins dotted the landscape, the ground scarred with fissures, and long-dried oceans testified to a bygone age. It was saturated with the scent of decay.

Landing upon the ravaged surface, Wang Lin slapped his storage bag, drawing forth the Soul Devouring Banner. Unfurling it, the banner transformed into a black mist that shrouded the heavens. Within the murk, the Blood Ancestor’s soul was bound in countless seals, his eyes tightly closed. Around him swirled the countless souls devoured by the banner.

Without hesitation, Wang Lin reached into the banner and plucked forth a Yin Void soul. Crushing it, he pressed a mark onto the star, then tossed the remnants of the Yin Void soul into the cracked soil, where it vanished, becoming part of the land.

Wang Lin gasped for breath. Before Li Yuan departed, he had imparted the secrets of the Annihilation Forbidden Arts. While he could not fully wield the power without mastery of the Annihilation Heart Forbidden Art, some of the forbidden techniques did not require it.

The Nine Desolation Soul Destruction Array was one such technique, regarded as one of the three supreme forbidden arts within the teachings of Li Yuan!

This array did not require the Annihilation Heart Forbidden Art, but it demanded a vast number of souls. Though Li Yuan knew the array, its stringent requirements meant he had never deployed it.

Wang Lin was pale with fatigue, but he did not relent. Again and again, he reached into the Soul Devouring Banner, seeking souls. Few Yin Void souls remained, as Wang Lin had consumed most of them. He settled for the souls of those who had achieved the Spirit Ascension stage, continually imprinting them with runes before releasing them into the earth.

Hours passed, and Wang Lin grew increasingly weary. A light gleamed in his eyes as he fixed his gaze upon the Blood Ancestor’s soul. Hesitating for only a moment, a grim resolve hardened his features. He reached out, drawing the Blood Ancestor closer, and pressed a rune upon his brow. He did not release the Blood Ancestor, but kept him wreathed within the black mists of the Soul Devouring Banner.
Wang Lin drew a deep breath, hesitation banished. Without a second thought, he plunged deep into the heart of the forsaken cultivation star, a master of concealment. He tightened his control over every wisp of his aura, masking his presence completely, invoking the ancient art of concealment taught to him long ago by Li Yuan.

This forbidden technique was a marvel, one that had rendered Li Yuan invisible to Wang Lin himself in the past. Yet its true mastery required the shattered remnants of the Heart-Demon Restriction. Without that foundation, whispers of his presence could still reach unwanted ears.

This was why he had not employed this stratagem during his recent encirclement.

He settled himself, cross-legged, deep within the planet’s rocky embrace. A murderous glint ignited in his eyes as he muttered, “The Yao clan, and those other families who hunt me… Wang Lin has prepared a gift for you all. What you witness now is merely a prelude!”

A chilling smirk curled his lips as he closed his eyes, becoming one with the very star that sheltered him. He banished all traces of his own existence.

Time trickled by, and three days hence, the net cast by the cultivators of Luo Tian’s Western Domain tightened inexorably.

Finally, the first wave of pursuers arrived, their formation coalescing directly above the cultivation star where Wang Lin lay hidden.

At their vanguard stood a woman, Yao Bingyun herself. Her expression was as frigid as a winter wind, her fingers danced with arcane gestures as if divining the very air. Her gaze locked onto the desolate planet, and a spark ignited within her eyes. “That Xu Mu is here!” she declared, her voice a shard of ice.

Behind her, two members of the Yao clan strode confidently. A man and a woman, draped in opulent silks, exuded an air of entitlement. The man chuckled lightly. “The fool knows he cannot escape us. He must have woven some pathetic array here!”

This dandy, Qingfeng, advanced boldly toward the doomed star. Yao Bingyun, a flicker of unease crossing her brow, followed close behind. In their wake, the allied cultivators, eager to claim their prize, surged forward, accelerating towards the star.

Yet all, including the arrogant youth, halted just short of the planet’s surface, none daring to set foot upon it.

“Honored comrades,” Qingfeng announced, his voice ringing with false courtesy, “I implore you to aid the Yao clan in obliterating this cultivation star! Thus, any devious schemes Xu Mu has concocted will perish along with the planet itself!”

A chorus of agreement echoed from the surrounding cultivators. Without hesitation, they unleashed their might, channeling their energies into potent spells directed at the defenseless world.

A cacophony of booming explosions ripped through the air as the essence of their power crashed down upon the abandoned star. The very heavens shuddered. Boulders peeled away, and the world seemed poised to shatter.

Yao Bingyun frowned, an icy grip tightening around her heart. She had hunted Wang Lin for many days, and she knew him to be unnervingly resourceful. It was highly unlike him to leave such an obvious vulnerability.

As the star was assaulted by the horde, great swathes of its mass shattered and drifted into the void, colossal fissures rending its surface like scars upon a dying beast. Finally, as the Yao youth unleashed a devastating ancestral technique, the star’s collapse accelerated into a cataclysm.

Waves of raw energy radiated outwards, drawing the attention of another contingent of pursuers – the next wave of the encirclement, their swords flashing. They, without pause or inquiry, unleashed their own attacks upon the doomed sphere.

Yao Bingyun’s unease deepened, and she could not shake the feeling that something was profoundly wrong, though she could not yet discern the source of her disquiet.

The relentless storm of spells tore away at the dying star, each blast sending a wave of debris hurtling into the surrounding space, until the region was awash in the shattered remnants of the fallen world.

At long last, with a deafening thunderclap, a wave of destructive force erupted outwards. The cultivation star had shattered completely!

The disintegration was utter, imbued with a power of pure annihilation. Anything caught within its grasp was doomed.

Chunks of rock and debris were launched outwards, radiating from the epicenter, twisting the very fabric of space. A wave of pure desolation swept through the void.

As the echoes of the explosion reverberated across the heavens, more streaks of light heralded the arrival of yet another wave of pursuers!

The premonition in Yao Bingyun’s soul grew stronger, a feeling of impending doom. Her eyes darted around the battlefield. Her eyes fell upon a thousand pieces of rock, scattered across countless miles, encircling all.

“This is wrong!” Yao Bingyun cried, her voice tightening in warning.

Suddenly, a blinding purple arc blazed from a lone fragment of rock, miles from the epicenter. The light jumped from rock to rock.

The light spread faster and faster, in a flash of light the countless rocks were linked.

A chain of crackling energy. A barrier had been created!

As soon as the barrier was completed, a small piece of rock on the edge began to glow. Its aura was similar to that of an Eternal Void Cultivator.

The glow exploded, and its destruction was immediate!

All under that rank, even nearby Eternal Void, were badly injured. Some even outright died!

That burst of light was only a prelude to what would follow. Fragments began to explode across the region, consuming everyone in the area.

The trapped screamed, but they couldn’t escape. The power was too great, it overwhelmed everyone and everything in its path. Any who died fed the destruction. The destruction only grew and spread, becoming unstoppable!
Yet, amongst those who pursued Wang Lin – the very acolytes and kin of the Yao clan – a formidable number possessed the unsettling balance of Yin Deficient Yang Abundant. Thus, after a fleeting moment of disarray, their combined resistance surged forth, a force of unimaginable might.

At the forefront stood Yao Bingyun, her every strike unleashing a self-destructive power that threatened to unravel the very fabric of existence in a vast expanse. It resembled a tempest of a thousand fathoms, imploding inwards to devour all. But the consumption faltered midway, unable to overcome the collective defiance of the assembled cultivators, and instead, the storm erupted outwards, a maelstrom of destruction.

A deafening cacophony echoed within that ten-thousand-foot radius. Then, in an instant, a creeping darkness silently enveloped the area, and from within its abyssal depths, a chorus of tortured screams rent the air. Within this veil of shadows, the primal spirit of the Blood Ancestor slowly coalesced.

The moment the Blood Ancestor’s spirit materialized, a chilling voice, sharp as glacial ice, reverberated: “Detonate!”

This command emanated from a lone shard of rock, miraculously spared from the devastation, lying beyond the ten-thousand-foot killing field. As the word echoed, the Blood Ancestor’s spirit pulsed with a crimson light, then shattered. A shockwave, born from this cataclysm, expanded outwards with terrifying speed.

Those unfortunate souls who were touched by this wave, unless possessed of transcendent power, were instantly obliterated.

A cultivator from a Northern Domain family, his Yin deficient state offering little protection, found himself perilously close to the Blood Ancestor’s spirit. As it detonated, a strangled cry escaped his lips, and his body shattered into a thousand pieces. Even his nascent soul could not escape, vanishing into nothingness.

Beside him, a terrified cultivator from the Southern Domain attempted to flee, but his limbs locked in place. The wave struck, and with a sickening *pop*, his body dissolved into a mist of blood.

The ten-thousand-foot expanse became a slaughterhouse. Wang Lin materialized just beyond the carnage, his right hand reaching into the void. The surrounding darkness converged into his grasp, solidifying into the Soul Devouring Banner. He vanished it into his storage sack.

With a flicker, he surged forward. But as he was about to disappear, Yao Bingyun materialized before him, her jade fingers piercing the air with a deadly precision.

Her phoenix eyes burned with hatred. This strike, though aimed at empty space, carried a venomous intent. She had honed this technique for an age, waiting for the moment Wang Lin revealed himself!

She was confident that this single strike would claim the life of Xu Mu. It was imbued with an ancient仙术 (xian shu/immortal art) known as the Soul-Rending Seal, a technique specifically designed to annihilate the spirit.

“A mere Yang Abundant cultivator stands no chance against the Soul-Rending Seal!”

Wang Lin’s body recoiled, forced from his cloaked form a hundred feet away. A torrent of blood erupted from his mouth, his face paling to the color of ash. Yet, without pause, he plunged back into the void, disappearing from sight once more.

“He lives!” Yao Bingyun gasped, her eyes gleaming with manic intensity. She surged forward, resuming her relentless pursuit.

The self-destruction of the Blood Ancestor’s spirit within the ten-thousand-foot zone reaped a terrible toll on those pursuing Wang Lin. No one could have foreseen that Xu Mu possessed such a destructive trump card!

And within that cursed radius, members of the Yao clan themselves had perished, devoured by the cataclysm.

As the shockwaves subsided, the zone was choked with blood mist. The death toll was staggering. Yet, those casualties represented but a fraction of the forces hunting Wang Lin. From the distance, streaks of light hurtled towards the destruction. Soon, all the cultivators who had entered the Western Domain converged on the site of the massacre. The scene before them left them shaken, yet their resolve to destroy Wang Lin only intensified.

“Xu Mu must not escape! If he lives, his vengeance will unleash a calamity upon us all!”

“This is no longer a feud between Xu Mu and the Yao clan. This is a crusade to eradicate a demon! Only by slaying this diabolic spawn can we know peace!”

“Pursue!”

One after another, the new arrivals plunged into the hunt. The Yao clan, their eyes bloodshot with rage, led the charge.

The battle within the ten-thousand-foot array had claimed countless lives. The name of Xu Mu echoed throughout the Luo Tian Star Field. Even the most powerful elders turned their gaze upon the conflict between the Yao clan and Xu Mu.

Single-handedly, he defied the might of countless clans and the Yao family’s wrath. Not only did he survive, but he had slaughtered many and earned the title of Demon Spawn. With the power of a bizarre formation, he had annihilated a multitude of cultivators, leaving the pursuers trembling in fear!

Some clans, their hearts gripped by terror, even withdrew from the hunt. Thus, Xu Mu became a rising star within the Luo Tian Star Field!

Whispers of the battles between Xu Mu and the Yao clan in the Western Domain spread throughout the Luo Tian Star Field, carried by those who sought to profit from the conflict.

The name of Xu Mu was exalted!

Within the Thunder Immortal Temple, high above the clouds, Qing Shui opened his eyes, his gaze drifting into the distance. He murmured to himself, “This child possesses the spirit of my own youthful recklessness. Excellent!”