System Possession, One Sword Shocks the Gods

268: Node collapse, survival from the brink of death“Found you... insects!”

“How dare you... desecrate... the Sage’s ruins!!”

An intent containing monstrous rage crashed into the Chaos node like a tangible iceberg! The clear Chaos light barrier shrouding the ruins twisted violently, emitting a piercing screech of overload, while the runes flowing upon it dimmed and shattered at a speed visible to the naked eye!

The tall stone stele in the center flashed with light, transmitting a feeling of anxiety and tragic heroism. It was burning its own remaining Origin, resisting the Abyssal Lord’s encroaching will with its life, but it clearly could not hold on for long!

“Oh no! The node is about to be breached!” Qing Lin’s expression changed in horror, her cheeks, which had just regained a hint of flush, turning deathly pale once again. She could feel that the warning transmitted by the ancient tree of life through their mysterious connection had reached its absolute limit!

Ye Chen stood with his sword, his face grave to the extreme. He could clearly “see” that the gray mist on the periphery was being forcibly pushed aside and purified by an irresistible dark power. A massive, sky-blocking dark palm made of pure Void Realm and destruction Law had already formed outside the node. Carrying the terrifying might to crush stars and send all Laws to return to silence, it slowly descended toward this fragile sanctuary!

This time, it was not mere pressure of will, nor was it an area attack; it was a substantial blow from the Abyssal Lord—furious, precise, and aimed at completely erasing these ruins, along with the two “insects” within, from time and space!

Escape? There was nowhere to escape! The entire Thousand Illusions Maze was under the Abyssal Lord’s will, and this Chaos node was their last isolated island.

Block? With what? It had been sheer luck to devour a wisp of Origin just now; although his condition had improved slightly, compared to a killing blow unleashed by the Abyssal Lord’s true form, it was still the difference between a firefly and the bright moon!

Despair, like a cold venomous snake, coiled around his heart.

Could it be... was he truly going to perish here? Had he just seen a glimmer of hope only to have it completely extinguished?

No!

Ye Chen’s gaze swept fiercely over the buzzing chaos and silence sword in his hand, swept over the demon seal steadily rotating in his chest, and finally fixed upon the stone stele that was burning its Origin and resisting to the death!

Senior Yu did not leave this node merely to provide a temporary sanctuary! He had mentioned that this place was maintained by borrowing the Ancient Path’s remaining Spiritual Vein and his own Origin... Spiritual Vein?!

A crazy thought, like lightning flashing through the darkness, suddenly illuminated Ye Chen’s mind!

“Qing Lin! Help me!” Ye Chen turned his head abruptly and said urgently to Qing Lin, “Inject all your Life Law into this stele! Trigger its final connection with the Ancient Path’s Spiritual Vein!”

Although Qing Lin did not understand why, she had absolute, unreserved trust in Ye Chen. Without hesitation, she formed hand seals. Her body flared with brilliant emerald radiance, and a massive, pure force of Life Origin surged toward the violently trembling stele like a breached river, held back by nothing!

“Hum—!” Receiving the infusion of Qing Lin’s life-filled Origin force, which originated from the ancient tree of life, the stele that had been on the verge of collapse suddenly erupted with unprecedented, brilliant clear light, as if experiencing a final burst of vitality! The ancient runes upon it seemed to come alive, swirling crazily, and an even older, more vast Chaos aura was forcibly triggered!

At the same time, Ye Chen moved!

He did not wield his sword to meet the descending dark palm; instead, he poured all his power—the Chaos Origin, the authority of return to silence, the balancing power of the demon seal, and even his unyielding sword soul will—entirely into his feet, and stomped fiercely... onto the ground of these ruins!

“Chaos and Silence—Trace to Source!”

What he unleashed was neither an attack nor a defense; rather, using himself as a conduit and the source core of silence and the Chaos node as a medium, he forcibly communicated with and detonated the Ancient Path’s Spiritual Vein beneath the ruins—the one mentioned by Senior Yu that was already shattered beyond repair!

He wanted to borrow power! To borrow the power remaining within the Ancient Path itself! Even if this power had long been eroded by the Abyss and was hopelessly impure, and even if the consequences of detonating the Spiritual Vein were unimaginable!

This was a gamble with everything on the line! Either borrow the power to escape, or... be pulverized by the backlash of the Spiritual Vein ahead of time!

“Rumble—!!!” The entire Chaos node ruins—no, the ground of this entire region—suddenly emitted a terrifying roar! Deep, bottomless cracks radiating chaotic and violent energy spread instantly from the center of Ye Chen’s feet like a spider web! Scorching geothermal fire, filthy Devilish Qi, residual spiritual energy, chaotic space-time forces... all kinds of extreme energies spewed from the cracks, turning this area into a volcanic eruption of destruction waiting to happen!

The descending dark palm, faced with this sudden, violent turbulence and energy eruption originating from the Foundation of the world, actually had its precise lock and crushing momentum interfered with and stalled for an instant!

That very instant!

“broken thought! Guide the path to survival!”

Ye Chen roared, slamming the chaos and silence sword in his hand into a crack spewing the most violent energy—a mixture of clear Chaos Qi and Abyssal Devilish Qi!

The sword shook violently, and the source core of silence at the hilt erupted with blinding light, creating an extremely dangerous and unstable resonance with the chaotic energy! It seemed to be forcibly sorting and guiding this destructive force!

A tiny, twisted, and unstable colorful vortex, forcibly blended from various energies like Chaos, return to silence, the Abyss, and geothermal fire, suddenly formed at the tip of the sword!

This vortex was extremely unstable, as if it would explode the next second, but the spatial fluctuations it emitted strangely distorted the surrounding rules, briefly tearing open an extremely unstable temporary passage leading to an unknown place!

“Go!” Ye Chen grabbed the exhausted Qing Lin, who had spent all her strength, and without hesitation, leaped into the colorful, destruction-filled vortex!

The very next second after their figures vanished into the vortex—

“Bang—!!!” The Chaos node ruins could no longer withstand the pressure from both inside and outside. The stone stele bearing Yu’s final mark exploded violently! The clear light barrier shrouding the area shattered completely! The sky-blocking dark palm from outside finally crushed all obstacles and slammed down!

An earth-shattering explosion swept through everything! The ruins, the ground, the spewing energy... all of it, under the Abyssal Lord’s furious blow, turned into the most primitive particles, returning to eternal nothingness!

The massive energy shockwave even shook the entire Thousand Illusions Maze, clearing away a large swath of the gray mist and revealing the fragmented, scarred land below.

The Abyssal Lord’s scarlet eyes gazed coldly from the darkness at the region that had returned to nothingness. Its will swept over, confirming that the aura of those two insects had completely vanished, along with the Chaos ruins that it detested, all having turned to ash.

It was silent for a moment, seemingly somewhat surprised by the insect’s determination to detonate the Spiritual Vein and create Chaos in the end, but that was all. Before absolute power, any struggle was merely a joke.

“Ants... are ants in the end.”

The indifferent voice echoed in the empty, silent maze. The sky-covering darkness slowly receded, and the Abyssal Lord’s will seemed prepared to fall back into silence, or perhaps turn its attention to other regions of the Ancient Path.

However, it did not notice that within that destructive explosion and chaotic energy turbulence, the fleeting colorful vortex—forcibly blended from various extreme energies—and the place it led to, were not the stable deep Void Realm, but rather some... crack or shattered plane where the structure of the Ancient Path was even more fragile, even more chaotic, and even difficult for its will to fully cover.

Amidst the endless Chaos and tearing sensation, Ye Chen held tightly onto the unconscious Qing Lin. Relying on the weak force field formed by the chaos and silence sword and the demon seal in his chest, he struggled to traverse the bizarre, destruction-filled passage.

He did not know where the passage led, nor how long he could hold on; he only knew that he had to keep going!

He did not know how long had passed; it felt like a single instant, yet also like ten thousand years—

“Thump!” A violent sensation of falling arrived, and the wild tearing force around him vanished suddenly.

They crashed heavily onto a hard, cold floor.

Ye Chen endured the intense pain of his body—which felt like it was falling apart—and his Divine Soul. He struggled to lift his head and look around.

This... seemed to be the interior of a huge, abandoned palace?

The palace was also dilapidated and covered in the traces of time, but its style was completely different from Yu’s Chaos node. The architecture here was more magnificent, and the style was more ancient, more... orderly and strict?

In the air, there was a faint, soothing scent of sandalwood, along with a... weak yet pure fluctuation of the Law of order?

And at the end of the palace, upon that broken throne, there seemed to be... a vague phantom composed of pure golden light, quietly... watching him.