The boundless sea of stars, the infinite cosmos—few beings have ever drawn the gaze of the Desolate One, and Sola and the Devourer are two such individuals...

Just as the Desolate One was keenly aware of Sola and the Devourer's formidable power, Sola and the Devourer understood the terror of the Desolate One even better; they knew precisely how horrifying he would become once he fully refined his split souls and avatars.

No one wished to see the Desolate One regain his full strength!

For all other living beings, that outcome represented the ultimate catastrophe, an unresisted, devastating blow!

Sola and the Devourer had no choice but to strike!

At the fringes of the Void Sea, spatial turbulence raged, and countless stellar domains melted away like glaciers, dissolving into the Void Sea itself, becoming part of its nothingness.

At this moment, in a remote corner of the Void Sea, a brilliant pinprick of light was rapidly expanding. An intensely concentrated soul energy pierced through layer after layer of spatial shackles, reaching directly to the edge of another world.

Space could restrict the flesh and the divine body, but it could not restrict pure soul energy, nor the Primal Artifact fused with that soul energy. This place was the Desolate Domain, the world-realm of the Desolate One, and the soul energy flowing from it swiftly surged toward the Cloud Realm, across to the far end of the Void Sea.

Ignoring spatial barriers, formless and colorless, those soul energies linked with the Desolate One in the Cloud Realm, continuously strengthening his power.

Suddenly, another wave of soul energy pierced through from the Devourer Clan's forbidden grounds deep within the Void Sea. The soul energy subtly shifted, condensing into a tiny, pitch-black speck. That speck gradually transformed, and from it abruptly burst forth eight islands made entirely of bone, chillingly stark. The moment the islands manifested, a thick, acrid stench shot skyward, entirely engulfing the bright white light point.

"Boom! Boom!"

The expanding white light point rapidly swelled, and a world-shattering roar echoed from within.

Almost simultaneously, another surge of soul energy arrived from the Endless Abyss. This soul energy coalesced into a hazy silhouette, holding a dazzling wheel that it propelled and spun with both hands, as if twisting the very fabric of fate.

Innumerable illusory images floated out from that wheel, whooshing down toward the white light point.

A dragon's roar, powerful enough to shatter the firmament, erupted from the white light point. The soul energy emanating from it seemed to be abruptly severed; its spiritual fate instantly thrown into chaos. All manner of profound truths deviated from their intended path, beginning to spin out of control.

The black speck morphed into a gaping, inky cavern, while the eight bone islands, situated upon a sea of dense, crimson blood, began to orbit the Desolate Domain. Eight malevolent forces—Death, Ruin, Despair, and Darkness—spilled forth from the bone islands, permeating into the Desolate Domain.

The Devourer and the descending Sola exchanged a silent, deep understanding. Without uttering a word, they struck simultaneously, combining their might to suppress the true body of the Desolate One within the Desolate Domain and sever the soul energy he had projected outward.

"Roar!"

A frantic, fierce shriek vibrated out from the Desolate Domain. A monstrous, grotesque dragon head abruptly materialized in the void, roaring furiously at the devouring black hole and Sola’s phantom. Waves of soul energy surged outward like an overflowing ocean in all directions!

Buffeted by the energy tides, the eight bone islands suddenly wobbled and rapidly retreated.

Sola’s indistinct figure was swept up by the giant waves, drifting aimlessly like a leaf in a gale. Yet, the wheel in his hand remained dazzlingly bright, and more images, like a torrent of memory, carrying the profound aura of destiny’s disruption, merged into that tidal wave of souls.

Here, Sola and the Devourer disregarded the distance, channeling pure soul energy from the Soul Pool, tacitly moving to restrain and bind the Desolate One’s true body and his generalized soul projection.

At this very moment, a portion of the Desolate One's soul consciousness was fixed upon the Cloud Realm, facing the threats of Ziyao and the other powerhouses vying for the avatar/split-soul occupied by Shi Yan. Just when the situation seemed overwhelmingly favorable, he never anticipated his lair being ambushed. Sola and the Devourer, mimicking his soul assault, had begun attacking his true body and the other segment of his soul.

The threat posed by Sola and the Devourer sent him into a frenzy, yet he could not afford to ignore it.

The most powerful beings in this world almost unanimously refused to see him restore his full power; the moment he attempted to fuse everything, they could no longer hold back and struck at once, instantly disrupting his sequence of plans.

"I will slaughter every last one of you, sooner or later!"

The Desolate One’s roar propagated endlessly. Wherever his voice traveled, the heavens cracked, the earth split, and the rivers of stars trembled without cease.

...

The Cloud Realm, its barrier shattered.

Ziyao sat enthroned within the serpentine head portion of her main body, weaving complex hand seals. Twelve serpentine mouths simultaneously spewed forth streams of strange light resembling broad meteors. The lights, like vibrant rainbows, wove an arcane bridge intended to restrain the Desolate One’s Life Soul Tree.

Hantian, Xiluo, Mantis, and the others exerted their mastery over the Profound Laws, manifesting their respective realms and charging toward the Life Soul Tree.

Shi Yan’s Primal Body shimmered with starlight. Wielding the Fallen Star River, he roared ferociously, intending to drown the Life Soul Tree in a sea of stars.

The Desolate One, stationed at Audrey’s Soul Altar, moved his thought, and streams of Nether Ghost Dragons roamed the sky. Wherever they passed, an eerie chill descended, causing the Profound Laws exerted by Hantian and the others to become tainted, severely impeding their operation.

The Desolate One, manifesting through generalized soul projection, relying on the Life Soul Tree and Audrey’s Soul Refining Cauldron, managed to withstand the combined might of the Cloud Realm’s elites without yielding ground.

"Void Slash!"

Shi Yan roared madly, tearing open his chest. Flesh split apart, as if opening a conduit to the turbulent void. Unbreakable spatial power coalesced into an extremely crystalline lightning glow. These lines of electric light condensed one after another, forming a colossal blade capable of cleaving heaven and dividing realms. The giant blade shot out from his chest!

"Sssshhhk!"

The massive blade sliced through, and the void of the Cloud Realm tore apart like tofu, splitting the realm into two halves, separated by a river of billions of spatial light streams. This river connected to the true void, the eternally silent place.

"Crack! Crack! Crack!"

The terrifyingly immense blade, capable of tearing realms apart, struck the Life Soul Tree, but the sound was that of a blunt instrument hitting metal and stone. The Life Soul Tree did not snap; it only sustained a vast, gaping fissure.

The giant blade immediately scattered amidst a blaze of white light. A surge of vital energy flowed through the Life Soul Tree, and the fissure healed instantly, leaving no trace of injury.

However, this strike was not entirely without effect. Everyone witnessed the Desolate One’s materialized soul violently distort and waver amidst the shattering explosion of the blade, becoming momentarily slightly indistinct.

"Keep striking with the spatial blade!"

Ziyao’s sharp voice called from the depths of the clouds above, accompanied by twelve rolling torrents of light. These lights, like twelve colossal swords thousands of miles long, also stabbed into the Life Soul Tree.

The Life Soul Tree suddenly shuddered.

Shi Yan’s expression brightened. Roaring in anger, he desperately catalyzed his divine power once more, condensing dark energy to forge a new Void Slash.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, the barrier of the Cloud Realm, unable to withstand the spatial division, completely collapsed.

Innumerable icy, silent gales, the twisting forces of the external turbulence, and the violent fluctuations of solar explosions rolled in from the outer layers. Streams of meteors, trailing vibrant fiery lines, plummeted toward the continents of the Cloud Realm.

The martial artists and mortals living within the Cloud Realm looked up at the heavens, overwhelmed by a sense of desperate doom. Watching the world fall apart, they felt their own lives were about to be extinguished, dragged down into the endless void, into the silent, eternal expanse.

"Sola! Sola! The Devourer!"

The Desolate One, suspended above Audrey’s Soul Altar, cried out in agony as the Cloud Realm disintegrated. The Divine Grace Continent, which he had been about to reclaim, instantly slipped from his control.

The connection between Shi Yan and the Divine Grace Continent, and the secondary soul, was re-established because the Desolate One’s line of fate had been disrupted.

He did not know what had happened to the Desolate One, but he would absolutely not miss this chance. The instant the connection was restored, he temporarily ceased condensing spatial power, gathered all his soul consciousness, and used his full might to pull the Divine Grace Continent, drawing it inch by inch back toward his own chest.

"No! No!"

The Desolate One roared in fury. His power seemed beyond his control, or perhaps he had a more crucial task at hand. His Life Soul Tree and his soul seated on Audrey’s Altar suddenly merged into a river of energy. This energy river reversed course toward the external void, piercing through the fractured crystal walls of space, returning to some unknown, deep, abyssal location even faster than it had arrived.

Everyone stared upward, faces etched with astonishment and confusion, unable to fathom why this colossal menace was faltering at such a critical juncture, inexplicably retreating.

"Shi Yan! Re-seal the space! Repair the spatial crystal wall!" Dicaro shrieked in panic from a continent below.

The moment the shout rang out, everyone suddenly realized the realm’s catastrophe. Seeing the countless storms about to descend, they each exerted their Profound Powers, helping Shi Yan fight against the terrifying natural disasters capable of destroying the Cloud Realm.

Seeing the critical situation, Shi Yan dared not hesitate. The Spatial Prism of Profound Laws within his Soul Altar actively flew out. The spatial light screens within the prism shot out in all directions like crystalline chains, transforming into pairs of dexterous spatial hands that gathered spatial energy to reassemble and repair the shattered crystal wall.

As his power flowed in, the broken crystal walls truly knitted back together like fragments of a shattered mirror, piece by piece, adhering together with spatial force, returning to their original thick and solid state.

Only a master of Spatial Profound Laws at his level could restore a realm that had been burst apart!

The descending natural phenomena were intercepted by the combined efforts of Ziyao, Hantian, and the others, pulverized in the void before they could truly reach the continents below.

"Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!"

The Divine Grace Continent reformed near Shi Yan’s chest, beating like a gigantic heart, slowly shrinking. The secondary soul of Shi Yan within it voluntarily released its power, smelting it down bit by bit.

Shi Yan, who was mending the heavens with spatial power, watched the Divine Grace Continent with stars turning in his eyes. He suddenly opened his mouth and inhaled deeply!

The continent, pulled by countless streams of starlight, descended into Shi Yan’s mouth like a walnut, and in the horrified gazes of the crowd, it slowly vanished.

He had swallowed the Divine Grace Continent whole!

"Sola, the Devourer—did those two also make a move?" Ziyao looked out toward the deep, obscure void through the crystal wall, pondering deeply. "It must have been them. Only beings of their caliber could force the Desolate One to recall his soul to his true body. It seems the powers of the world simply do not wish to see the Desolate One truly recover."