RNP Page 168
Page 168
He simply wanted to tell the man standing at the pinnacle of his time—the only person qualified to listen—the "Tao" he had sought all his life, the truth that was enough to overturn the entire world, before he died.
This is a final act of pride belonging to the losers.
However, the trial he had envisioned, the trial of the victor, did not come immediately.
He saw that the overwhelming killing intent in Zhang Yunyuan's eyes, which was enough to burn the heavens, was gradually dissipating.
Instead, there is a deeper, more complex sorrow, a sorrow that seems to see through the ages... a sorrow of compassion for all humanity.
It wasn't pity for him, but sorrow for this world, for all the people struggling between desire and ignorance.
"The depletion of spiritual energy is the general trend of heaven and earth, the cycle of all things, and it is irreversible."
Zhang Yunyuan finally spoke, his voice becoming incredibly heavy, each word like an invisible mountain pressing down on Gong Qing's heart.
"Yet you dare to defy the heavens, using your own selfish desires to kidnap the entire world of supernatural beings, making all living beings pay the price for your madness and greed."
His gaze seemed to pierce through the Thunder Prison, through time and space, and see a future where blood flowed like rivers and corpses littered the ground.
"If even a fraction of what you said today were to be leaked, the world of supernatural beings would be plunged into an unprecedented and endless bloodbath."
“Countless people will slaughter each other and stop at nothing for that elusive ‘fate to immortality.’ Fathers and sons will turn against each other, masters and disciples will become enemies, and so-called righteous sects will tear off all their hypocritical masks and transform into evil spirits even more insane than the Quanxing Sect.”
"The tragedy of Longhu Mountain today will be repeated thousands and thousands of times in all parts of the world."
Zhang Yunyuan's voice was not loud, but every word was like thunder, resounding deep within Gong Qing's soul.
Gong Qing's body began to tremble uncontrollably.
He suddenly realized that his supposedly great ideal of pursuing the Great Dao and finding a way out for all extraordinary people in the world seemed so naive, ridiculous, and... malicious under the all-knowing gaze of the man before him.
What he saw was ascension, transcendence, and the door to a higher level of the world.
What Zhang Yunyuan saw, however, was an endless sea of blood and a mountain of corpses behind that door.
"For the sake of my senior brother Jinzhong in heaven..."
Zhang Yunyuan slowly raised his hand, and lightning gathered again in his palm.
"For the sake of all living beings, to prevent them from suffering..."
"Also, let that so-called Kunlun Immortal Realm know that this mortal world, this realm of extraordinary people, is not a chessboard they can manipulate at will."
In his clear eyes, all emotions faded away, leaving only an extremely cold and unquestionable resolve.
"Today, you, Gong Qing, and I, Zhang Yunyuan..."
His words, spoken with the clarity of a deity from the heavens, pronounced the ultimate fate of mortals.
"—Kill him!"
The moment he finished speaking, lightning erupted from Zhang Yunyuan's palm!
The lightning was no longer the dazzling and domineering gold it had been before, but had transformed into a pure and utterly chaotic color that seemed capable of devouring all light and darkness in the world.
There was no deafening roar, no earth-shattering power.
There was only an absolute, deathly silence, as if it could freeze time and space completely.
That was a supreme divine power that Zhang Yunyuan comprehended after entering the Innate Realm and merging his own Primordial Dao Qi with the origin of heaven and earth.
It does not harm the physical body, but only destroys the spirit.
It does not govern killing, but only...purification.
The chaotic lightning, like a gentle tide, silently enveloped Gong Qing's body completely.
The moment Gong Qing was touched by the lightning, all the fear and resentment on his face vanished.
Two hot, relieved tears slowly streamed down his handsome face.
He seemed to see his own short life reflected in the past.
He saw himself struggling within the Quanxing organization, trying to find a way out for this long-corrupted organization.
I saw myself on Longhu Mountain, being treated with the kindness and care of Tian Jinzhong like a grandchild, but suffering greatly in my heart.
I also saw that pathetic version of myself who, on the verge of death, finally glimpsed the true "Great Way," yet also personally led himself to his doom.
"So...that's it..."
He let out a barely audible murmur, filled with both endless grief and relief.
In that chaotic lightning, he was gradually broken down, purified, and finally turned into a handful of pure, unadulterated ashes, which dissipated in the cold night wind.
Leave no trace behind.
It was as if he had never existed in this world.
Chapter 200 The Grassland is Desolate, and the Aftershocks Reverberate
As the chaotic thunder dissipated, the static lightning prison also vanished.
On the vast grassland, only the long-frozen corpses remained, along with a huge scorched crater nearly a hundred meters in diameter, bottomless, with glass-like edges.
Wisps of smoke still rose from the bottom of the pit, emitting a pungent ozone smell, as if silently recounting the horror of the one-sided massacre that had just occurred.
Zhang Yunyuan stood quietly in the center of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, his simple gray casual clothes still spotless.
He stood there quietly for a very long time.
The evening breeze howled and blew by, lifting his wide robes and ruffling a few strands of black hair on his forehead.
He slowly raised his head and looked at the crescent moon on the horizon, stained red by the blood-red setting sun. In his deep eyes, there was an ancient loneliness and an indescribable heaviness.
Finally, he turned around, took a step, and walked step by step towards the end of the grassland.
His silhouette, stretched long and lonely in the afterglow of the setting sun, carried an absolute domineering and resolute air, as if looking down upon the world and scaring away gods and demons.
News of the battle on the Ganbei Grassland spread like wildfire, like a magnitude 12 earthquake or a plague with wings, reaching every corner of the entire world of supernatural beings at an utterly illogical speed.
Initially, when the news leaked through underground channels, everyone who heard it reacted with—
"Is this fake? What kind of idiot would spread such a rumor?"
"What kind of international joke is this! All the top experts of the Quanxing Sect were wiped out by one person? Do you think this is a novel?"
"The junior advisor of Longhu Mountain? I've never heard of such a person. Is he just some desperate youngster who's been bragging about his reputation?"
However, when more and more messages from different sources all point to the same result.
When the internal bulletin of Nadutong Company, in a manner almost like official certification, placed the casualty report of this battle on the desks of all regional managers.
When the intelligence networks of Tianxiahui and Xiguge simultaneously confirmed that Gong Qing, the acting leader of Quanxing, as well as almost all the core high-ranking members including the Three Corpses Tu Junfang, Ding Shian, and the Six Thieves of Quanxing, had completely disappeared from this world.
The entire world of supernatural beings fell silent.
Everyone who heard this news, whether it was a sect elder in seclusion, a wandering cultivator indulging in a life of pleasure, or a self-proclaimed "wise man" who claimed to have seen through the world's affairs, was a different story.
At that moment, they all fell into a long, almost dazed silence.
After the silence came a monstrous wave, powerful enough to overturn the entire world of supernatural beings!
"The core strength of Quanxing... is all gone?"
"The vast majority of top experts, along with the acting sect leader Gong Qing, were all killed by Zhang Yunyuan, the junior master of Longhu Mountain, in a single day on the Ganbei grasslands?!"
Every word of this news struck like a heavy hammer, hitting everyone's hearts hard.
This goes beyond being described as simply "powerful".
It is a power belonging to the "gods" that mortals cannot understand or imagine!
In an instant, the name "Zhang Yunyuan," which had been dormant for decades and existed only in the legends of the older generation, was imprinted on the souls of all the extraordinary people for the first time in such a domineering, bloody, and unreasonable way.
Countless speculations and discussions are brewing wildly among various sects and independent cultivator groups.
Some were amazed by his power and began to reassess the true strength of this "unparalleled peak" of Longhu Mountain.
Some feared his ruthlessness, regarding him as a more dangerous and taboo figure than Quanxing.
Some people even began frantically digging for all information about this "little advisor," trying to glean the ultimate secrets behind his ageless appearance and extraordinary strength from those dusty histories.
At the heart of all this turmoil, the headquarters of Nadutong Company was eerily silent.
Inside the highest conference room, Xu Xiang, the head of the North China region, was facing the screen, reporting word by word the final intelligence sent back from the front lines, which had been repeatedly confirmed.
His voice trembled slightly, almost imperceptibly, from the sheer shock of the moment.
"...Based on the analysis of residual energy fluctuations at the scene, and intelligence obtained through special channels, it can be confirmed that—"
The Quanxing sect sent out this time, including its acting leader Gong Qing and more than ten core members, all perished last night... without a single survivor.
"Of them, more than 90% died from the orthodox thunder magic of Longhu Mountain, their bodies and souls destroyed."
"Gong Qing died from a form of energy that we have never seen before and cannot analyze. Its existence has been completely erased from the physical level."
"There was only one person who did it."
"Longhu Mountain, Zhang Yunyuan".
At the head of the conference room, Zhao Fangxu, the man who always remained calm even in the face of a collapsing mountain and controlled the entire order of the Chinese supernatural world, fell silent after listening to the report.
He slowly took off his glasses and gently rubbed his brow with his knuckles. For the first time, his face, which always carried a gentle smile, revealed undisguised fatigue and... a deep sense of powerlessness.
After a long silence, he put his glasses back on and, in a tone almost like talking to himself, filled with complex emotions, said softly:
"A god who is not bound by any rules, yet whose power is enough to crush all rules."
"Now, it's truly easy to invite a god, but difficult to send him away."
A brand new problem, far more intractable than Quanxing's, has been placed before everyone.
Chapter 201 Destruction and Reconstruction: An Invitation from the Capital
The wind on the grassland blew for three days.
At first, the wind carried a faint scent of blood and the stench of burning, but later, all that remained was the desolation of withered vegetation and an unchanging, ancient bleakness.
The top of an inconspicuous hill is covered with jagged rocks and barren land.
Zhang Yunyuan sat cross-legged on a huge rock, his eyes closed and his breathing long and deep, as if he had completely merged with this world.
On that day, he ruthlessly slaughtered the main force of the Quanxing Sect, but did not leave immediately.