Chapter 516 - 453: World in the Palm

Deep within the Nine Lands Nether Palace of the Yellow Springs Netherworld.

This place was devoid of light, save for an ancient, unadorned everlasting lamp. Its profound, dark-green flame burned silently, emitting a cold and constant halo that barely illuminated a radius of several tens of feet.

Beyond this halo lay absolute darkness that devoured all, accompanied by a deathly still nether aura as heavy and condensed as eternal Profound Ice.

Beneath the lamp, a figure wearing a complex dark-purple imperial robe and a Crown leaned against a twisted throne formed from countless wailing souls. His face was shrouded in a faint nether mist. He held an Ancient Seal Scroll made of neither skin nor bone, which exuded a rich aura of time and death, and studied it closely.

This was the Nine Nether Sun-devouring True Monarch!

He was one of the True Monarchs presiding over the Yellow Springs Netherworld.

Suddenly—

"ARGH!!!"

Without any warning, the Nine Nether True Monarch’s entire body trembled violently. The Ancient Scroll in his hand fell to the ground with a crisp THUD!

A terrifying, piercing pain—as sharp as billions of ice needles simultaneously stabbing into the deepest depths of his Divine Soul and the very origin of his Dao Foundation—mixed with an unprecedented palpitation. Like an erupting Nether River, it pounded and exploded in his heart!

It wasn’t an injury!

It wasn’t an external enemy invasion!

It was a more fundamental, more fatal threat.

Was his Dao path... about to collapse?!

Was his Fruit Position... in danger?!

"Who?!"

The Nine Nether True Monarch threw his head back. For the first time, his face, previously shrouded in nether mist, twisted clearly, revealing a mixture of shock, fury, and a trace of unbelievable horror!

His profound eyes—which reflected the boundless Nine Netherworld Nether Sea and had devoured countless suns, moons, and stars—instantly erupted with a blinding, azure nether light. Like two suddenly ignited Nine Netherworld nether suns, his gaze ruthlessly pierced through the heavy Restrictions of the nether palace. Ignoring the endless spatial barriers, he stared deadly and directly toward that transcendent direction—

All Marvelous Heaven!

The sight that met his gaze and reflected into his Divine Soul nearly caused the nether aura around him to lose control and run rampant!

In the void of the All Marvelous Heaven, a tremendously massive hand with fingers like mountains was reaching down in an unstoppable, absolute posture. Carrying a terrifying pressure that caused the entire All Marvelous Heaven to freeze, it grabbed ruthlessly straight toward his natal Dao Fruit!

The target was clear!

The malice was naked!

"Bastard! How dare you!"

A roar filled with shock, fury, brutality, and the boundless killing intent of being utterly offended erupted. Like a world-destroying Yin Wind blowing from the deepest depths of the Nine Netherworld, it not only exploded in the All Marvelous Heaven but also instantly echoed throughout the entire Yellow Springs Netherworld, causing countless Yin Souls and fierce spirits to wail as they were annihilated!

The next moment—

BOOM!

The Nine Nether True Monarch suddenly stood up, and the twisted soul throne beneath his feet explosively shattered!

Taking a single step, his figure ignored the vast distance and dimensional barriers, instantly dissipating from his original spot. He then ruthlessly materialized in the All Marvelous Heaven, right beside his Nine Netherworld Dao Fruit!

The True Monarch’s true body had arrived in person!

"What kind of suicidal thief are you?!"

The moment he appeared, the monstrous pressure around the Nine Nether True Monarch, suppressed for who knew how long, was completely unleashed without reservation. It erupted with a loud bang!

BUZZ!!!

Centered on him, a terrifying Dao Domain—boundless, deeply colored like the most ancient eternal night, churning with infinite nether aura and permeated with the intent of death—expanded, eroded, and covered everything at an unbelievable speed. It was like a drop of ink in clear water, or the veil of night instantly swallowing the dusk!

Within the Dao Domain, various phenomena manifested!

A phantom image of an incomparably colossal, dull-colored "black sun," its edges flowing with all-corroding Nine Netherworld nether flames, slowly rose behind him. It exuded a terrifying Dao Rhyme that devoured the light of all things and ended all vitality!

Wherever the black sun shone, the originally flowing radiant rivers of Dao Rhyme light and the shining Spiritual Mechanism stars of the All Marvelous Heaven had their light forcibly "swallowed" and "extinguished," transforming into a region of absolute darkness and deathly stillness!

The Nine Nether Sun Devouring left the world devoid of light!

This was the manifestation of the Nine Nether Sun-devouring True Monarch’s natal Dao Domain! Its mighty power and overbearing Dao Rhyme were far beyond compare to that of an ordinary True Monarch! Clearly, in the long years of the past, he had walked quite a profound distance along the Nine Netherworld Great Dao!

Beneath a withered tree at the Cyan Mountain Daoist Temple.

The "gaze" that reflected the scene in the All Marvelous Heaven clearly "saw" the Nine Nether True Monarch’s descent and the unfolding of his Dao Domain. Feeling that terrifying pressure and Dao Rhyme—which seemed intent on swallowing the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths and dragging all things into eternal deathly stillness—Qi Yun’s perpetually calm eyes faintly flickered.

"Oh? The main character has arrived." He muttered to himself. Not much emotion could be heard in his tone, only a pure sense of inquiry and interest. "Perfect. I, Qi, have newly advanced to this realm, and I am quite curious about how much strength and what methods you veteran True Monarchs actually possess."

Before his voice could fade, in the All Marvelous Heaven, the colossal hand—which originally had a clear target, aiming straight for the Nine Netherworld Dao Fruit—flipped its palm without warning!

Its five fingers changed direction!

Carrying an even more majestic and condensed Primordial iridescent intent and supreme pressure, it slammed down ruthlessly toward the true body of the Nine Nether Sun-devouring True Monarch, who had just appeared and was frantically expanding his Nine Netherworld Dao Domain!

The offensive suddenly escalated! It shifted from plucking the Dao Fruit to directly suppressing the True Monarch’s true body!

"You think I fear you?!"

Seeing that the other party not only didn’t withdraw but instead turned the spearhead directly toward him, the fury of being slighted and offended in the Nine Nether True Monarch’s heart completely erupted! He snorted coldly, and the boiling Nine Netherworld Dao Domain around him began to change once more!

BOOM!

Within that boundless dark Dao Domain that swallowed all light, countless tiny "starlights" of various colors suddenly lit up!

These starlights were not true stars, but rather auras of life and Dao Rhyme, some strong and some weak, some bright and some dim! Most of them emanated gloomy, deathly still, and eerie fluctuations; they were all Profound Yellow Cultivators who cultivated the Nine Netherworld Great Dao or its related branches!

Their auras, their Dao Rhymes, and their connections to the Nine Netherworld Great Dao were now manifested as "starlights" within his own Dao Domain by the Nine Nether True Monarch’s supreme methods!

And within this vast Star Sea, there were nine stars that were exceptionally bright and dazzling! They each governed a portion of the starlight, transforming into nine relatively independent yet interconnected star domains, internally possessing complex flowing Dao Rhymes and converging auras of living beings!

The nine major star domains, with the Nine Nether True Monarch as the absolute core, faintly constructed a domain that, although appearing illusory, exuded vast majesty and unpredictable, eerie phenomena—the Nine Netherworld Divine Court!

"A Middle Realm True Monarch..."

Beneath the Cyan Mountain Daoist Temple, Qi Yun’s gaze involuntarily flickered slightly the moment he saw the Nine Netherworld Divine Court manifest.

This was getting quite interesting.

RUMBLE!!!!

In the next instant, without any superfluous probing or buffering!

Under the shocked gazes of all the True Monarchs, that colossal hand that blotted out the sky, and that vast Nine Netherworld Dao Domain which manifested the Nine Netherworld Divine Court phenomenon and devoured all light, collided head-on and without any flashy tricks in the void of the All Marvelous Heaven!

BUZZ!

It was as if two worlds with vastly different masses and rules had been forcibly squeezed and smashed together! Billowing air currents and the Nine Netherworld nether aura frantically intertwined, annihilated, and clashed against each other!

Beneath the massive hand, the dark Dao Domain that swallowed the light violently shook. The phantom image of the Nine Netherworld Divine Court flickered unsteadily, and the starlight within the nine major star domains dimmed and extinguished in large swaths!

"Hmm?!"

The complex dark-purple imperial robe around the Nine Nether Sun-devouring True Monarch fluttered wildly, as if it would be torn to shreds at any moment! His face, previously shrouded under the nether mist, became thoroughly clear for the first time, revealing a pale and sinister visage!

"You think you can suppress this Monarch with just this?! Wishful thinking!"

Throwing his head back, he let out a shrill howl and thrust his hands upward in an empty holding motion, as if he were hoisting up an impendingly collapsing Netherworld Celestial Vault!

At the same time—

BUZZ!!!

Not far away, the slowly rotating azure Nine Netherworld Dao Fruit suddenly emitted a brilliant light! A Daoist Intent—so utterly pure and profound that it seemed capable of devouring the very meaning and color of all existences—burst forth. It instantly resonated from afar with the Nine Nether True Monarch’s true body, their auras connecting and their Dao Rhymes harmonizing!

"Beneath the Nine Netherworld, all spirits enter the Returning Ruins! With my Dao Fruit, I evolve the Grand Thousand!" The Nine Nether True Monarch chanted ancient and obscure nether runes, each syllable seeming to carry the weight of ten thousand tons as they smashed against the void of the All Marvelous Heaven!

BOOM!

The next moment!

Centered on that Nine Netherworld Dao Fruit, a vast, realistic, and terrifying scene—as if transitioning from illusion to reality—began to rapidly condense and manifest!

First, a boundless expanse of deathly gray nether soil spread out beneath the Dao Fruit. There was no life on this land, only countless twisted skeletons and wailing soul phantoms bobbing in the mire.

Next, a monstrous Nether River—tens of thousands of miles wide, its water as pitch-black as ink and exuding a chill that could freeze a soul—surged out from the void and traversed the nether soil. Bobbing within the river water were countless massive, decaying ancient corpses and Broken Divine Soldiers.

A Nine Netherworld Great World gradually condensed and manifested from the illusory to the real within the void of the All Marvelous Heaven!

"The Nine Netherworld suppresses the world, the Ten Thousand Laws return to silence!"

As the Nine Netherworld Great World solidified, endless Nine Netherworld Daoist Intent spewed out from every inch of nether soil, every drop of Nether River water, and every deathly still star in this world, evolving into various terrifying and peerless offensive methods!

And along with the manifestation and attack of this complete Nine Netherworld Great World, the aura of the Nine Nether Sun-devouring True Monarch himself began an unprecedented, frantic rise at this moment! He stood beneath this Nine Netherworld Great World, his figure seeming to merge with the entire world, becoming the absolute ruler of this nether soil!

A vast, ancient, and icy terrifying pressure explosively spread out with him as the center!

Qi Yun’s hand was heavily suppressed below by the momentum!

"Hmm?" Qi Yun’s expression shifted slightly. "Using the Dao Fruit as the core to evolve a complete world. And then acting as a proxy for the Will of Heaven... Interesting!"

His eyes glinting sharply, Qi Yun’s Heart Thought stirred slightly. High above the All Marvelous Heaven, the two Primordial Ancient Seals he had personally carved quietly flashed with a trace of iridescence.

In the next instant!

The colossal hand suppressed by the Nine Netherworld Great World expanded and grew once again, faintly threatening to lift this entire great world directly in its palm.

At the same time!

The Magic Technique Panel quietly surfaced.

On the panel, beneath the vigorous text representing the [Primordial Daluo], a brand new line of text was slowly emerging.

[Refinement in progress...]