Immortal of the Ages

Even with a quarter of the Chaos Emperor Lotus destroyed, when its power was fully unleashed, this sea of souls could still drown everything, leaving one breathless.

Yun Xiao stood like a lone skiff amidst a tempest.

He lifted his head to behold the lotus again, which now seemed split in twain—one half ancient and profound, seething with rage and defiance, the other sunk in despair, wailing pitifully for its mother...

"Home! I want to go home!" that half of the lotus cried.

"Silence, you useless bastard! When I return to the Land of Destiny, to protect my clan and reclaim the Eternal Imperial Throne, you can go home anytime!" the other half thundered.

"No! You're lying, you've been lying to me from the start..."

Fear, panic, cowardice, sorrow—once a man lost his fighting spirit, negative emotions engulfed him like the sea, shattering all illusions. Lu Fan curled up in a corner, his face ashen.

"Don't drag me down!" the Chaos Soul fumed, nearly exploding in anger.

"Shame you took that kind of approach with him. Even if he is a useless bastard, he's still your other half," Yun Xiao paused. "You know well why you chose a soul from another world—because he was weak, easily deceived, lost in fantasies, easy to control. And now his emotional poison has rotted your last remaining half. That is your retribution."

By this moment, even he had lost his reason. It couldn't be helped; he was burdened with a drowning Lu Fan, whose weight was akin to his own, constantly dragging him deeper into the sea. One could only imagine his combat prowess under such circumstances!

The Chaos Soul hadn't anticipated that the mental breakdown of his other half would leave him so grievously wounded.

"Who I am matters not, but your path to rebirth won't get past me," Yun Xiao declared.

"Ridiculous! Blasphemy! I'm the Chaos Divinity from the Self Liberation Realm, a supreme Anima Immortal! My divine form spans 180,000 miles; you, a mere half-baked reincarnator from a lesser world, are less than a hair on my body!"

As the Chaos Soul bellowed those words, Yun Xiao knew that even he had been poisoned by Lu Fan; his once supreme divine might now turned to madness.

"Wow, how scary. So, how come you're in such a sorry state now?" Yun Xiao asked.

"Scum!!"

Never had the Chaos Soul imagined, at such a lofty height and after a meticulous rebirth, he would be tormented to this extent by an inexplicable reincarnator.

"Get lost! Get lost!"

He tried to kick Lu Fan off his back, but Lu Fan clung like an octopus. A wandering soul from another world and a Chaos Soul, now like twins conjoined by flesh and blood, how could they be so easily separated?

This tattered lotus, riddled with holes, continued to self-destruct and crumble in this struggle, cries of rage and sobbing mixed together.

"My clan! I cannot die..." The Chaos Soul clung to the last vestige of his conviction, gritting his teeth against the poison of Lu Fan. The lotus surged with a final brilliance, dragging the drowning Lu Fan to face Yun Xiao.

"You lowly, venomous bastard…! After I kill you, my path to rebirth will be a radiant path to immortality!"

With that roar, the Chaos Emperor Lotus directed all its fury and intellect at Yun Xiao's Buddha's Treasure Spirit.

The Chaos Soul screamed! Had it not been for the Divine Imperial Son, Heavenly Monarch Mu, and others, he wouldn't have been reduced to such a state. He was too angry, too frustrated!

"Die!" The broken Chaos Emperor Lotus, dragging the poison of Lu Fan, began to spin violently in the air.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! An endless soul storm erupted, plunging the entire Heavenly Palace into a berserk sea of souls, forcing the onlookers to retreat again and again, their faces pale with fear.

BOOM! In its spinning, the Chaos Emperor Lotus transformed into a golden-black celestial soul grinding wheel, creating a violent soul cyclone, locking onto Yun Xiao!

An Anima Immortal's killing blow was instantaneous!

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you and restore my clan!"

In the eyes of the Chaos Soul, Yun Xiao was no longer Yun Xiao, but the opponent who once made him suffer defeat. It was as though he had returned to the moment of his death, his chest filled with boundless resentment.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The golden-black grinding wheel thundered down, descending over Yun Xiao’s head.

A starving camel was still bigger than a horse!

A centipede could be cut but never died!

Even after the brutal assault by Heavenly Monarch Mu, the death of the Chaos Sovereign, and the poison of Lu Fan's mental breakdown, this dying blow by the Chaos Soul still terrified the Great Dao Celestial Realm!

Undoubtedly, the threat he posed to Yun Xiao was far greater than that of Ye Xingchen or Ling Chen!

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! It seemed as though the hearts of all those in the Great Dao Celestial Realm raced for Yun Xiao.

In the midst of the storm, Yun Xiao stood his ground, with the Buddha's Treasure Spirit hovering above his head.

At his opponent's most ferocious moment, he was calmer than ever before.

The Buddha's Treasure Spirit, embodying tranquility and peace, unmovable as a mountain, regarded the mundane world indifferently, returning to the source, bringing all to silence.

"The Great Dao Celestial Realm, the calamity of the incense offerings… With Ancestor Alaya as the beginning, all things will end with the Buddha's Treasure Spirit."

Within the Creator Immortal spirit were countless faces, most of whom, because of the incense offerings, were ultimately liberated by Yun Xiao.

Their Buddha's Treasures became the content of Yun Xiao's spirit.

In the game of incense offerings, Lu Fan and the Chaos Soul were anomalies. The Chaos Sovereign had no part in this game initially. Yet, greed and selfishness made him, in the end, inherit all the sins of the incense offerings from the imperial family onto himself.

After this misstep, there was no turning back.

"You all created this; it's only fitting you end it." The Buddha's Treasure Spirit closed its eyes.

Within him, each Buddha's Treasure appeared, starting with Empress Zhao, these treasures transformed into golden beads, expelled from the mouth of the Buddha's Treasure Spirit.

BUZZ! These golden beads formed a stream of gold.

This stream was nowhere near as violent as the lotus grinding wheel, but it was serene and peaceful, encompassing countless stories, ultimately forming regret and liberation.

"Each has their destiny, return to the source of all things."

Yun Xiao poured out all the Buddha's Treasures he had liberated in the Heavenly Palace, and millions of golden streams were born, ultimately surpassing the weakened Chaos Soul's desperate attack…

As this brilliant, pure, vast stream of golden thought appeared before them, the lotus grinding wheel let out a pitiful scream, "I told you, we're all failures!"

This was the voice of Lu Fan! He had accepted that he was a useless piece of trash, a sucker, a delusional coward, a loser in life, and he had adapted.

"Shut up!!" The Chaos Soul unleashed his loudest roar, and as Lu Fan shattered the lotus, he gathered all his conviction, clashing with Yun Xiao's attack exploding together.

"For the life and death of my clan, I must go back! I must return... Ahh…!"

When the Chaos Soul collided with the golden stream, for the first time, his voice of rage carried a hint of sobbing.

It was because that golden stream was altogether different; it carried with it a power of emotional release and regret, which was a fatal strike for the emotionally shattered Chaos Soul and Lu Fan!

The golden stream was Empress Zhao, the Heaven-Reaching Constellation, the Martial Peak Constellation, the Nine Arcanes Constellation, all the Sovereigns, and numerous imperial family members and high-ranking celestial officials...

With the last of their Buddha's Treasures, they struck the lotus!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The lotus grinding wheel, as if struck by lightning, began to disintegrate completely.

"Why? Why...!" The Chaos Soul cried out in sorrow, "How can you block my path, why..."

He couldn't understand, and even at this moment, he didn't think there was anything wrong with his path.

Yun Xiao didn’t consider himself much better. Amidst this destruction, he calmly said, "When paths do not align, they cannot plan together. Since two crickets have entered the ring and must battle to the death, I'm sorry, but you must die first."

"Who are you really?" the Chaos Soul asked in his final moments, concentrating all his desire into this question.

He hoped to hear that he had been defeated by someone stronger; maybe then, he could accept his fate.

Regrettably, Yun Xiao replied, "Just a nameless nobody from the lowest rung, not sure how much further I can go, but killing you first prolongs my life."

"Ah..." The Chaos Soul dimmed in confusion. "My clan..."

These words were like a light from the heavens. He reached out his hand trying to grasp it, but he kept falling into the abyss.

The Lu Fan he had chosen, till death, continued to drag him down!

"What's your clan called? Where is it?" Yun Xiao suddenly asked.

The Chaos Soul trembled, his endless obsession suddenly became peaceful, and with his last bit of strength, he said with a trembling voice, "Reborn Lotus... the Self Liberation Realm... my daughter is beautiful..."

With his final words, he vanished completely.

"Mom, I'm sorry..." The Chaos Soul uttered one last confused murmur and dissipated in the wind.

At last, all the fragments coalesced into a small golden-black lotus, which fell into Yun Xiao’s hand.