Zhi Xuan felt the pressure grow heavier, as if the surrounding atmosphere had turned into molten lead. However, in the midst of the suffocating fear, his sharp mind began to work. He took a long breath, swallowing saliva that felt like sand, and then he flashed a cocky smile that was entirely inappropriate for this life-and-death situation.

  "Well, my bones might be fragile," Zhi Xuan hissed, even though his Heavenly-Blood Body Law was already rebelling at being called fragile. "But you need me to rise into the world, do you not? You, standing here, are merely a Dao mirror, not your true self."

  The giant Kun Peng fell silent, a stillness more oppressive than any storm. Its colossal golden eyes blinked slowly, reflecting the shadow of Zhi Xuan who appeared as small as an ant before it. Suddenly, the creature's form began to ripple; its black jade scales faded into a cold gray mist, and its size began to shrink with terrifying speed.

  Within a few breaths, the entity that had covered the sky vanished, leaving a tall man standing upon the dark pool. The man wore a sea-blue robe that seemed woven from the waters of the deepest ocean, with long flowing black hair and a pair of golden eyes that still radiated primordial authority.

  "Heaven and Earth merely worship me," the man's voice was now clearer, yet it still carried the echo of waves crashing against rocks. "You dare to take two Heavenly Beasts who are under my protection and make them your followers."

  The man in the blue robe stepped upon the surface of the dark pool; each footstep did not create ripples, but instead froze the liquid essence into submissive crystals. He looked toward the niche where Mei Hua lay, as if his gaze could pierce the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron and see the figures of Ao Sheng and Xiao Die trembling inside.

  Zhi Xuan felt a different kind of cold; this was not the cold of his Sword Intent, but the cold from the depths of a primordial ocean untouched by sunlight. He immediately positioned himself in front of the niche entrance, his hand instinctively gripping the hilt of the Heavenly Sword that was still pulsing within his soul.

  "They are not just followers," Zhi Xuan replied, his voice more stable now, even though the aura of the man before him could crush the mental state of an ordinary cultivator. "They are my traveling companions. If you consider them under your protection, then you should be grateful that I have kept them alive in this cruel world."

  The golden-eyed man stopped exactly three steps in front of Zhi Xuan. His face appeared as calm as the surface of a lake, yet behind that calm, Zhi Xuan could see a storm of destruction ready to explode. The man raised his hand, and instantly, the air in the black sand desert became so heavy that the Heavenly-Blood Body Law rippled under the pressure.

  The man tilted his head slightly, staring at his own fingers which looked like blue marble. "Grateful?" He repeated Zhi Xuan's words in a flat tone, yet every syllable that came out felt like dropping a mountain onto Zhi Xuan's shoulders. "The Kun Peng does not know the concept of giving or mercy to mortal beings who have not even touched immortality. To me, you are but a flea that happened to find a pearl amidst the dust."

  Zhi Xuan snorted, cold sweat running down his temples, yet his lips remained curved in a defiant smile. "This flea," Zhi Xuan pointed to his own chest, "is the only reason your pearl was not crushed when ground by the wheels of fate in the Tomb of Great Emperor Hua."

  "I saved them from their every hope of rising," Zhi Xuan continued with a sharp hiss, his sapphire pupils looking like dead stars. "And now you, even when I know the whole world will hunt me if they know I carry a Kun Peng fetus, I do not back down and I accept you!"

  The man in the blue robe fell silent, his golden eyes narrowing, creating a pressure so intense that fine cracks began to appear in the air around Zhi Xuan's head. The silence lasted a long time, accompanied only by the roar of the sandstorm in the distance that was beginning to subside. He seemed to be weighing whether to crush this arrogant flea or listen to his ramblings further.

  "Accept?" The man laughed, a sound that felt like the grinding of the world's foundations at the bottom of the sea. "You do not accept the Kun Peng, mortal. It is the Kun Peng that chose to nest within your vessel. And if that vessel proves fragile, then I will explode outward, destroying you, and letting this world drown in my fury."

  The Kun Peng becoming arrogant was not something to be justified or blamed; it was like something that transcended anything as a living being, as if the universe itself was staring at Zhi Xuan and questioning itself for daring to speak to the Kun Peng as if he were its savior.

  "Do not be foolish," the man continued, waving his hand gracefully, which sent Zhi Xuan flying back to hit the wall of the niche behind him.

  The impact was so hard that the bone-stone wall behind Zhi Xuan cracked a thousand times, and ancient fossil dust scattered, obscuring his vision. Zhi Xuan coughed, fresh blood seeping from the corner of his lips, yet he immediately stood up with a forced movement. The pain was not just on the surface; his bones creaked as if the weight of the entire ocean had just been dropped upon his skeletal frame.

  "Heh," Zhi Xuan hissed mockingly, letting out a hoarse and bitter laugh. "It is you who should not be foolish; you should see all that I have done to stand here. Even my legs have never knelt when Devils and Gods came to me."

  Zhi Xuan wiped the red stain on his chin with the back of his hand, his eyes flashing wildly as he stared at the man in the blue robe. He did not call upon the Heavenly Sword, nor did he rouse the Slaughter Intent he prided himself on. Instead, he stepped forward with a limping but steady gait, letting the primordial aura of the Kun Peng tear his robe to rags.

  "You see the darkness in my hand, you feel the hole in my Dao Heart," Zhi Xuan said, his voice now sounding like muffled thunder beneath the ground. "If I am as weak as you think, why did this Dao mirror manifest you now? Does this mirror not only reflect what its owner is capable of facing?"

  The man in the blue robe was stunned for a moment. The golden gaze that was once full of contempt now turned to a freezing cold. He raised one finger, and instantly thousands of water blades from the dark pool below shot into the air, freezing into crystal spears aimed straight at Zhi Xuan's heart.

  "You speak of worthiness?" The man stepped forward, his presence causing the space around Zhi Xuan to shrink, forcing him to bow under unreasonable compulsion. "The worthiness of the Kun Peng is not measured by the sturdiness of your bones, but by how vast your soul can contain a storm that has no limits. You are but a speck of dust in the middle of the ocean, Zhi Xuan."

  "Then I will be the dust that makes the ocean explode!" Zhi Xuan replied with a raspy roar. "My path, even when the Forbidden Plains that killed the Great Saint and collapsed the Nine Heavens, I will still have Light amidst the Darkness surrounding me!"

  The shock of Zhi Xuan's statement seemed to trigger a resonance in the Chaos Pearl within his body. The man in the blue robe fell silent; the crystal spears targeting Zhi Xuan's heart trembled violently in the air, held back by an authority that suddenly rose from within the blood-stained youth.

  "Light amidst the darkness..." The man murmured, his golden eyes flashing with unreadable emotions. "You speak as if you know what true darkness is. You have not seen when the sun is extinguished by my wings, or when the stars are silenced by my breath."

  Zhi Xuan did not back down. Though his body trembled from internal injuries, he squared his shoulders. "I may not have seen the end of the world, but I have seen the end of myself many times beneath the rain of swords and the whispers of devils."

  "I will always walk, even if it means stepping over the bones of all living creatures," Zhi Xuan concluded coldly, his voice raspy yet carrying a weight formed from solitude. "I do not worship Heaven, I do not worship fate. I walk not because I have arrived, but to keep walking while Heaven and Earth become my foothold."

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  "Using Heaven and Earth as a foothold," the man whispered, his voice no longer carrying a storm, but a deep and primordial vibration. "So cruel and arrogant, just like me."

  The man lowered his hand. The crystal spears threatening Zhi Xuan's heart suddenly dissolved, melting back into a thick gray liquid that flowed submissively into the dark pool. The pressure that had been suffocating Zhi Xuan's lungs gradually eased, leaving a coldness that now felt more like reluctant respect than a death threat.

  Zhi Xuan panted, his body nearly collapsing if he had not immediately planted his heels into the ground. The blood at the corner of his lips dried, leaving a red mark that contrasted with his pale face. Within his soul, Ruo Xianxue, who was previously tense, now took a long breath, her nine dark tails stopping their lashing of the nebula of consciousness.

  "Crazy brat," Ruo Xianxue murmured from behind the Demon Tree of Life. "You just vented your anger at the ruler of the primordial ocean and lived to tell the tale."

  The man in the blue robe stepped closer. This time, his aura no longer tried to crush Zhi Xuan's body, but enveloped him like a probing sea mist. He stopped directly in front of Zhi Xuan, staring deep into the sapphire pupils that now emitted silver and blood-red glimmers alternately—a sign that Zhi Xuan's Man-Sword Unity and Slaughter Intent were at a boiling point.

  "Your doubt about Reincarnation," the man said, his pale fingers rising slowly, pointing exactly toward Zhi Xuan's forehead where the Slaughter Pillar was hidden. "Forms a hole in your Dao Heart, when you doubt and even consider Heaven as Cruel. Then what is it that you believe in?"

  "What do I believe in?" Zhi Xuan whispered, his voice raspy but not broken. He looked up, staring into the Kun Peng's golden eyes with a gaze that transcended fear. "I do not believe in the justice of Heaven. I do not believe that my life is determined by fate. I only believe in one thing..."

  He clenched his fists so hard that his nails pierced his palms, letting the physical pain become his anchor. "I believe that as long as I am still breathing, I am the law unto myself. If Heaven is cruel, then I will be more cruel to survive. If Reincarnation is a lie, then I will create truth within this one lifetime."

  "I do not know if there is a rebirth," Zhi Xuan concluded raspily. "But if you are born, be born as yourself, not as a justification for my sin of doubting Reincarnation."

  The man in the blue robe was stunned. For the first time since he manifested from the depths of the Dao Mirror, his arrogance that was as high as the sky seemed held back by an invisible wall. He stared at Zhi Xuan, no longer as a ruler staring at a flea, but as a primordial entity that had just discovered rebellion in the order of the universe.

  "Born as myself, not as a justification for your sin," the man repeated the sentence in a low voice, almost like the whisper of waves in a hidden bay. "During endless kalpas, the Gods worshipped me for protection, and the Devils worshipped me to borrow my power. Yet you refuse to stand beneath the feet of Heaven's protection?"

  The man laughed again, but this time his laughter did not trigger a storm. It was a dry laugh, like the sound of cracking ice at the North Pole that has never been touched by light. He stepped back, his every movement now appearing more transparent, as if his existence were being pulled back by the laws of the Secret Realm which could not contain this conversation for too long.

  The man in the blue robe waved his wide sleeves, and instantly the dark pool beneath their feet churned violently, emitting gray steam that enveloped the entire hilltop. His figure began to fade, merging with the primordial mist he created. Before completely vanishing, he turned toward Zhi Xuan, his golden eyes emitting a softer yet still sharp glow.

  "Do you not realize, Zhi Xuan?" the man's voice now sounded distant, as if coming from a different dimension. "The hole in your Dao Heart is not just about nothingness. It is the womb for a power that the Nine Heavens have never seen. You call yourself a law unto yourself, then prove it. Prove that you are capable of carrying my wings without crumbling to ash."

  Instantly, the mist exploded into millions of sea-blue light particles that soaked into Zhi Xuan's skin. An extraordinary coldness traveled through his meridians, attacking the center meridian, and finally flowing into the Chaos Pearl within his Sea of Consciousness. The shock sent Zhi Xuan to his knees, his hands clutching the black sand which now felt burning hot.

  Within his soul, the Chaos Pearl that was previously pulsing calmly now spun wildly. The layers of seals placed by Ruo Xianxue shook violently, trying to contain the surge of primordial energy just injected by the Kun Peng mirror manifestation. This was not an attack, but a forced acknowledgment—a seed of authority demanding its vessel evolve faster.

  "Argh!" Zhi Xuan groaned, the veins in his neck bulging, and cold and heat battled within his body. "That Kun Peng... he really gave me an extra burden before leaving!"

  Ruo Xianxue immediately appeared beside the Heavenly Samsara Wheel, her usually calm face now radiating high vigilance. "Do not overflow, Zhi Xuan! Stabilize it with the Law of the Four Seasons. If you can conquer it, it will give you a deep meaning of the Great Path!"

  Zhi Xuan gritted his teeth until they bled. He forced himself to sit cross-legged in the middle of the energy storm that had not yet subsided. Outside the niche, the purple sky slowly returned to a thick blood-red, yet the aura around the hill now contained traces of invisible ocean majesty.

  "I... will not be destroyed," Zhi Xuan hissed between his rapid breaths. "Heavenly-Blood Body Law!"

  With a sharp roar, he released the blue cloth wrapped around the left half of his body; the pitch-black skin with reddish runes like a devil was exposed and emitted an aura of ancient darkness. Zhi Xuan moved his fingers; he did something crazy enough to channel the sea-blue light that ambushed his body.

  Zhi Xuan directed the cold sea-blue energy flow toward his left arm, which was wrapped in devilish darkness. He intended to clash the two opposite poles of power: the bloodthirsty slaughter aura with the limitless authority of the primordial ocean.

  The meeting of the two energies created a hissing sound, like hot iron dipped into freezing water, triggering a pain capable of toppling the consciousness of even a great monk.

  "One becomes the vessel, one becomes the predator!" Zhi Xuan roared, his sweat evaporating into a thin mist around his body.

  The reddish rune lines on his black skin began to glow wildly, trying to swallow the sea-blue light creeping up. However, the Kun Peng energy was not a power easily subdued; it was an ancient law dictating the flow of time and space.

  Instead of being swallowed, the blue energy instead split the devil runes, soaking into his bone marrow and forming new engravings that shone with a sapphire glow over the base of his dark skin.

  Zhi Xuan felt his body as if being pulled in two directions—the limitless sky and the bottomless ocean. Within his chest, the Chaos Pearl stopped spinning wildly and began to pulse slowly, in rhythm with his heartbeat which now carried a much heavier dignity.

  Ruo Xianxue, witnessing from within the Sea of Consciousness, stared wide-eyed. "He... he actually integrated that authority into his devil body? This kid truly knows no bounds of sanity!"

  After a struggle that felt like thousands of years, the energy storm gradually subsided. The sea-blue light enveloping the hill was sucked entirely into Zhi Xuan's body, leaving traces of deadly cold in the surrounding air.

  Zhi Xuan sat limply, his breath coming in gasps, yet his eyes radiated a sharpness that had never existed before. He looked at his left arm; the blood-red runes were now interspersed with deep sea-blue lines, creating an aesthetic fusion of destruction that was both beautiful and terrifying.

  "Only a Dao mirror, yet a sacred creature is capable of doing this," Zhi Xuan murmured with a voice that was almost gone. "Luckily, I did not absorb it into my soul. This Devil Body is growing tougher with the Slaughter Seal which now feels like it has gained a new foundation."

  Zhi Xuan leaned his back against the cold niche wall, letting the body just forged by the ocean authority rest for a moment. He glanced toward his arm; the combination of blood-red and sea-blue pulsed softly, resembling magma flow at the bottom of a frozen ocean. Silence crept back, enveloping the black sand desert which now appeared more submissive beneath his gaze.

  "This is more than enough," Zhi Xuan murmured, his voice raspy yet carrying an echo that traveled through the cracks in the stone. "I need to rest."

  Zhi Xuan dashed back into the niche, letting the protective formation remain in place; he slumped down and leaned back, closing his eyes, letting his head hang weakly back.

  The silence enveloping the niche was no longer a threatening quiet, but the stillness after a storm that left traces of both destruction and purification.

  He turned to the side, staring at the small mound beneath his robe. Mei Hua was still fast asleep, her breathing regular and calm, as if she were a fake point in the middle of a violently churning universe.

  To Zhi Xuan, the presence of the mysterious little girl was the only mortal thing keeping him from completely turning into a heartless cold weapon.

  His mind drifted to the figure of the man in the blue robe. The Kun Peng, ruler of space and depth, had left something more than just a burden; he had left a puzzle about an identity that Zhi Xuan had ignored all this time.

  If his devil body was now capable of carrying the ocean authority, then who was he really? A mortal considered to have the blood of the Ancient Heaven race, someone who carried three ancient races within his body, or a pawn being prepared by invisible hands since primordial times?

  Zhi Xuan sighed; an extraordinary sleepiness began to attack his consciousness. In the dim light, his trembling hand reached for the Lulu doll near Mei Hua. The soft touch on the rough fabric of the doll became his final bridge to the dream world before he completely fainted from spiritual exhaustion.