Here.
Gu Qingfeng remained seated cross-legged in the void.
His eyes were closed, his brows furrowed, his expression particularly grave.
His physical body appeared increasingly twisted and blurred, yet the gray-white smoke billowing around him grew denser and more intense.
The gray-white smoke looked like rolling, vast, and mighty tidal waves sweeping through the void, and like blazing flames that incinerated the heavens, burning the void.
Wherever it passed, the void exploded continuously, crackling and popping sounds echoing through the Li Palace.
Looking out, wherever the gray-white smoke reached, the void was riddled with holes—either gaping chasms or jagged cracks.
Miraculously, even though the void was already full of holes, it did not collapse. Like glass connected by fibers, not only did it not collapse, but the cracks and holes that exploded gradually healed, some even restoring themselves as if they had never shattered.
This was likely the profound mystery of the Desolate Ancient Nine Palaces—ever-changing, infinitely profound, encompassing all phenomena. Even if riddled with holes, it could still recover completely.
The void was the void, an empty space.
Even if the void was broken, it remained the void.
Yet even so.
It still could not stop the onslaught of the gray-white smoke. Wherever it went, the void continued to shatter. Even as it gradually healed, even as it restored itself, it was all in vain.
Suddenly.
Gu Qingfeng, who had been sitting cross-legged in the void, finally moved.
He leaped up, soaring straight into the sky, reaching the apex. As if beneath the heavens, he spread his arms, parted his legs, threw back his head, and let out a furious roar!
Such a roar, ancient and domineering!
It shook the heavens and earth, moved ghosts and gods.
Like the sky collapsing, like the earth splitting, time seemed to freeze, space seemed to disintegrate, and spacetime itself twisted.
Crack!
Crack!
Long, narrow fissures split open in the void!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Gigantic holes exploded in the void!
Such a roar, like a sound from time immemorial, shook the sky until it was filled with countless fissures, shook the sky until it was filled with countless holes, everywhere, densely packed, pitted and scarred. Looking out, the scene was one of utter devastation, as if disaster had struck, as if calamity had descended.
Da Xing the Mad Monk, who had long since hidden far away, didn't even know what was happening. With a cry, he was shaken by this roar until blood spurted from his mouth and nose. Ignoring the shock and terror in his heart, Da Xing the Mad Monk flashed backward again, and as he retreated, he summoned a great Buddha to protect himself.
Da Xing the Mad Monk thought he had been careful and cautious enough.
He wasn't unprepared. On the contrary, he had already manifested his Indestructible Golden Body and tried to hide as far away as possible, fearing precisely such unforeseen circumstances.
But when Gu Qingfeng's roar came, when he was shaken until blood spurted from his mouth and nose, when the void was shaken until it was filled with fissures and holes everywhere, he realized that he had only thought he was being careful, only thought he was being cautious, only thought he had prepared.
He hadn't overestimated himself, nor had he underestimated Gu Qingfeng.
On the contrary.
This was merely one of his external incarnations. He knew the limits of this incarnation and naturally wouldn't overestimate himself.
Moreover, the mysterious breath Gu Qingfeng exuded wasn't even within the order of the Great Dao's Laws. Just its imposing aura had shaken the Desolate Ancient ruins into disintegration. The terrifying power contained within that gray-white smoke couldn't even be withstood by the void of the Desolate Ancient Nine Palaces.
How could Da Xing the Mad Monk dare to underestimate Gu Qingfeng?
He hadn't.
Never. Not only had he not, but he had been cautious and careful at every turn.
Yet he still miscalculated.
Because the power of Gu Qingfeng's roar was simply too terrifying, so terrifying it completely exceeded Da Xing the Mad Monk's imagination.
At some point, the roar ceased.
But its vast, endless, ancient, and domineering rolling sound and imposing aura still echoed in the void, shaking the void into continuous explosions. Cracks and holes never stopped appearing.
Here.
That Gu Qingfeng stood in the void, his entire body billowing with rolling gray-white smoke. His form grew more twisted and blurred, more flickering and uncertain, more ethereal and illusory, as if he were the gray-white smoke, and the gray-white smoke were him—the two indistinguishable from each other.
Even more bizarrely, Gu Qingfeng's black hair had also, at some unknown time, turned gray-white, just like the gray-white smoke, dancing wildly in the void.
Not only his hair, but even his eyes had turned gray-white, incredibly mysterious, incredibly bizarre—not like abysses, but more like ancient springs.
He swept his gaze across the void and roared angrily: "A bunch of rats hiding their heads and tails!
All of you, get the hell out here!"
Before his words faded, he shook his shoulders, trembled his body, and an ancient, domineering imposing aura exploded outward. The sky full of gray-white smoke rippled out from him as the center, and at the same time, a mysterious, ancient, and overwhelmingly powerful force erupted.
In an instant.
The riddled void shook violently, and then with a boom, it disintegrated!
Yes!
The void of the Li Palace disintegrated!
Witnessing this scene, Da Xing the Mad Monk was as if struck by lightning. He stood there dumbfounded, his face ashen, his mind completely blank, utterly terrified.
After the void disintegrated, the Great Dao Experts lurking in the shadows all revealed themselves.
They had nowhere left to hide.
They had been lurking in the void before, but now the void itself had disintegrated. How could they hide?
The Great Dao Experts who appeared seemed equally shaken by this scene, fleeing one after another.
No one made a move.
Not a single person.
Facing Gu Qingfeng here, no one dared to act.
Just his imposing aura alone had shaken a Desolate Ancient ruin into nothingness.
The gray-white smoke couldn't even be withstood by the Desolate Ancient void.
The might of a single roar shook the sky until it was riddled with holes.
A mere tremble of his body caused the void of the Desolate Ancient Nine Palaces—renowned for its infinite transformations and profound mysteries—to disintegrate.
Under such circumstances.
Who would dare to act?
Let alone the fact that those who appeared were merely Divine Sense incarnations; even if their true bodies were personally present, they might not dare to fight Gu Qingfeng here.
Escape!
Only escape!
No one dared to act, not even dared to linger.
However.
With the void of the Desolate Ancient Nine Palaces already disintegrated, they not only had nowhere to hide but also nowhere to flee.
"All of you, die!"
Gu Qingfeng took a step forward. The sky full of gray-white smoke boiled and burned like flames. On the spot, many incarnations of Great Dao Experts were incinerated into dust and smoke.
With a wave of his hand, the sky full of gray-white smoke transformed into seemingly indestructible blades, slicing many more Great Dao Experts' incarnations into dust and smoke!
Hand raised!
Boom!
One Great Dao Expert's incarnation turned to dust and smoke!
Palm lowered!
Boom!
Another Great Dao Expert's incarnation turned to dust and smoke!
Kill!
Kill!
Kill!
One step, one kill.
One move, one kill.
Every stance, every technique was slaughter.
Even a glance, a thought, was slaughter.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Incarnations of Great Dao Experts turned to dust and smoke one after another. Here, before Gu Qingfeng, they didn't even have the qualification to fight back. Under the envelopment of the sky full of gray-white smoke, they had nowhere to hide, nowhere to flee, and nowhere to block.
The power contained within that gray-white smoke was so terrifying even the void of the Desolate Ancient Nine Palaces couldn't withstand it. How could their incarnations possibly endure it!
Kill!
The slaughter never stopped!
Slaughtering until the incarnations of Great Dao Experts turned to dust and smoke one after another.
Slaughtering until the void could no longer heal or recover, slaughtering until the Li Palace trembled continuously.
Slaughtering until the sky was filled with gray-white smoke, slaughtering until the sky was filled with ancient, domineering might!
In the distance.
Da Xing the Mad Monk stood.
Golden radiance bloomed around him.
A sacred great Buddha contained peerless Buddha Dharma.
His body was an Indestructible Vajra Body.
The Buddha was the Amitabha Buddha of Boundless Buddha Dharma.
Yet even so.
Standing within the gray-white smoke, the Amitabha Buddha of Boundless Buddha Dharma also flickered somewhat uncertainly. The golden light blooming from the Indestructible Vajra Body also dimmed somewhat.
Whether the summoned Amitabha Buddha and his own Indestructible Vajra Body could withstand the terrifying power contained within the gray-white smoke, Da Xing the Mad Monk didn't know. He didn't want to know, and he didn't even care whether they could withstand it.
He just stood there, standing with an ashen face. His Dharma Eye was not Dharma, his Wisdom Eye was not wise; they were more like a pair of empty, lifeless, numb eyes just watching, watching as those Great Dao Experts' incarnations turned to dust and smoke one after another.
These Great Dao Experts were either ancestors of various Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands, or ancestors of various Great Daos. They came either from the Nine Heavens or the Nine Nethers, either from the Desolate Ruins or the Gui Xu, either from Sacred Grounds or Forbidden Lands.
Yes!
These were merely their external incarnations, not their true bodies.
But even if they were only their external incarnations, their strength was still unfathomable. Even if they couldn't compare to the incarnations of Great Dao overlords like Demon Emperor Blood River or Miao Rulai, they certainly weren't far off.
And now.
Their external incarnations were as fragile as ants before Gu Qingfeng, turning to dust and smoke without even having the qualification to fight back.
Were they still those Great Dao Experts?
Were they still the Great Dao Experts preparing to guard the Heaven and Earth Great Dao?
Were they still the Great Dao Experts scheming for the True Lord of Original Sin?
If so, why were they so utterly powerless?
Was it because they were too weak, or because Gu Qingfeng was too powerful?
No!
It wasn't that they were too weak.
It was that Gu Qingfeng was too powerful.
So powerful he had already exceeded the imagination of all existences under heaven and earth.
"Heh!"
For no reason.
Da Xing the Mad Monk laughed.
He laughed strangely, also bizarrely, more like an idiot's laugh, saying: "You lot...
Still deluding yourselves about guarding the Heaven and Earth Great Dao?
Still vainly hoping to ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin?
Heh...
What a joke!"
"Your incarnations don't even have the qualification to fight back before that kid Gu. What could your true bodies do even if they came personally?"
"Like this...
And you actually...
Actually hesitated just now about whether to act and eliminate that kid Gu?"
"Heh!
This is really...
A joke, the most ironic joke imaginable!"
"What will you use to guard the Heaven and Earth Great Dao, what will you use to ascend as the True Lord of Original Sin..." "You're all a bunch of damn trash!"
"Heh!"
Da Xing the Mad Monk laughed, muttering to himself.
He looked like a fool, laughing more and more like one, saying: "It's over...
It's all over. That kid Gu is finished, this old monk is finished, the Great Dao is finished, Heaven and Earth are finished...
We're all damn finished..."