Even among the three Great Civilizations of the Artifact Civilization, the Deputy Lord of the Heavenly Defense Civilization suffered the least severe injuries.

This was due to two reasons: firstly, his magical power was the lowest, meaning he was never the primary target of the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization; secondly, he excelled at defense rather than offense, possessing considerable defensive strength. Consequently, among the three Deputy Lords, the one with the inherently lowest strength sustained the lightest injuries. Of course, 'light' was relative; compared to the Deputy Lords of the Heavenly Attack and Heavenly Gu Civilizations, who were essentially rendered combat-incapable, he still retained fighting capability.

His homeland must be protected! Even if it meant his own death.

The Deputy Lord of the Heavenly Defense Civilization activated his All-Evil Repelling Armor. This was a defensive magical artifact. Riding this treasure, he charged into the towering, pitch-black column of water, only to plummet down immediately afterward. His powerful artifact, the All-Evil Repelling Armor, had already been pierced through.

Furthermore, the Deputy Lord of the Heavenly Defense Civilization was completely invaded by plagues. As a Deputy Lord of a Civilization, he would not die instantly, but he couldn't hold out for much longer. He swiftly swallowed a large quantity of elixirs, all exchanged from the Civilization of Medicine. However, these elixirs only offered a temporary delay.

The Deputy Lord of the Heavenly Defense Civilization couldn't help but let out a deep, ragged breath. He had suffered this much just from the residual impact; how much pressure was Lu Yuan currently enduring?

Unimaginable!

Lu Yuan was undeniably at a disadvantage and couldn't think of a countermeasure for the moment. He must have told himself numerous times not to underestimate any Civilization Realm, for there were no easy ones among them. Granted, even though he was at a disadvantage, Lu Yuan was confident he could escape if he truly wished to. But if he fled now, the Artifact Civilization would likely be utterly destroyed.

As Lu Yuan pondered, the attacks from the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization grew even more ferocious. He, too, realized he only held the upper hand but couldn't kill Lu Yuan. He harbored considerable apprehension regarding the four-character prophecy, "Huang Jian Yu Lu" (Barren/Desolate Gives Rise to Lu). Therefore, he flicked his hand and unleashed an Initial Character: Plague (Wēn), a character representing ill-omen, which materialized with extreme swiftness.

It represented misfortune, it represented calamity, it represented the end of life, it represented the silence of death for all living things.

The moment the Initial Character Plague appeared, the attack from the towering, pitch-black water column instantly intensified by another three parts, and the various plagues became even more rampant.

Heavens! Another Initial Character Plague has appeared!

The Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization already held a crushing advantage. Now, having unleashed the Plague character, Lu Yuan was left with not a shred of chance to win. As a result, Lu Yuan was highly likely to perish under the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization's hand, and the Artifact Civilization was also doomed to fall to him. Everything was finished.

Plague! Its affiliation within the Five Elements was incredibly difficult to determine!

Lu Yuan first attempted to see if the Water Dragon could absorb this Initial Character. A translucent water dragon emerged and lunged toward the Plague character, but it couldn't bite down or move it.

The Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization sneered: "You think you can deal with my Initial Character? How absurd." His Initial Character Plague was inherently difficult to handle; this single character was actually the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization's ultimate weapon. He truly didn't believe Lu Yuan could take it away.

Lu Yuan became enraged and immediately activated the Limitless Devouring Art, pushing the Devour (Tūn) Initial Character to its absolute limit. Seven Devouring Dragons moved in concert, instantly swallowing the Initial Character Plague into their maws. Simultaneously, the Plague character was digested into a stream of Plague-attributed Origin Qi. Just as he was about to channel this Plague Origin Qi into his Dao Character Avatar to enhance its level,

At that very moment, the eyeball originating from the Eye Civilization shifted slightly, seemingly transmitting a faint piece of information. However, this information was extremely peculiar, and Lu Yuan could not decipher it. With a flash of thought, he immediately activated the Iron Rule of Cause and Effect, instantly grasping the preceding events and consequences, and sent the essence of the Plague character into the eyeball.

It turned out that this eyeball from the Eye Civilization could grow using the Plague character as nourishment.

The Eye Civilization, by its very nature, could restrain the Plague Civilization.

Naturally, the Eye Civilization only held a slight advantage and lacked the miraculous technique of the Limitless Devouring Art, so it could never absorb the Plague character. As a result, across countless epochs, the Plague character ended up in the hands of the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization, while Lu Yuan possessed the Limitless Devouring Art. For a time, Lu Yuan achieved what the Eye Civilization itself could not in those ancient days.

Upon receiving the Plague character, the eyeball instantly received a massive boost. Its original deep, absolute blackness was enhanced, and it even grew significantly in size, doubling its original volume.

Lu Yuan activated the now-upgraded eyeball, and instantly, beams of black light shot out from it. Wherever these beams of black light struck, the black, towering plague water column vanished immediately, its plague essence completely annihilated, leaving absolutely nothing behind—how marvelous! Lu Yuan discovered the upgraded eyeball was unexpectedly potent. This black eyeball instantly radiated a streak of black light spanning millions of zhang. This beam followed the trajectory of the black, towering plague water column, and in a short while, it had completely shattered the black plague column.

Having accomplished this, Lu Yuan leaned his sword on his shoulder, a languid smile gracing his face: "Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization, your ultimate move has been broken by me. What other skills do you have left?" The Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization's eyes widened as he stared at Lu Yuan: "Impossible, impossible."

He had been thoroughly shaken by Lu Yuan just moments before. His Initial Character Plague was a character of ill-omen, possessing dreadful and terrifying destructive power. It had proven devastating against countless Civilization Realms, yet Lu Yuan had effortlessly seized it. He wanted to immediately send a message to the Barren Ancient Civilization, reporting that Lu Yuan could absorb and destroy Initial Characters, but he then realized the Artifact Civilization was completely sealed off; he couldn't transmit any messages.

Immediately, he was even more shocked. After absorbing the Plague character, the eyeball in Lu Yuan's hand had actually doubled in size, and its destructive power had exploded, managing to completely annihilate his grand ultimate move—the black, towering plague water column—which he had refined over an unknown amount of time, in such a brief moment.

"How is this possible? How is this possible?" the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization looked at Lu Yuan in disbelief.

"Huang Jian Yu Lu, what is impossible?" Lu Yuan said with a slight smile.

And these four words, "Huang Jian Yu Lu," completely shattered a defense within his mind, instantly creating a massive weakness. Lu Yuan was a figure of extraordinary capability. He moved instantly, unleashing his ultimate, solitary, frigid, isolated, and swift fatal sword strike, piercing the heart of the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization in one ten-thousandth of a second.

The destructive power of this sword strike was immense. It instantly shattered a full eighty percent of the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization's Barren Warmth World. The Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization immediately tried to counterattack, but he was already gravely wounded, his inherent strength was slightly inferior to Lu Yuan's, and his ultimate move had just been defeated, with the ominous shadow of "Huang Jian Yu Lu" pressing upon his heart. Thus, after three subsequent moves, Lu Yuan’s sword passed through his throat, the sword energy completely destroying the Barren Warmth World.

And the figure of the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization slowly collapsed beneath Lu Yuan's sword.

Huang Jian Yu Lu? Is it truly Huang Jian Yu Lu?

No! Impossible! It couldn't be the real Huang Jian Yu Lu! The final thought of the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization sank into darkness. The Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization of the Sixth Epoch perished. This was, in fact, the seventh Deputy Lord of a Civilization Lu Yuan had killed. There were very few Civilization Realms in existence, perhaps only a few hundred, and now seven of them had fallen by Lu Yuan’s hand. Lu Yuan had truly killed an extraordinary number of Deputy Lords.

The Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization naturally yielded substantial gains. For instance, he possessed two hundred Tier-Heaven Spirit Veins, far more than any opponent Lu Yuan had faced previously. Combined with the one hundred and thirty Tier-Heaven Spirit Veins Lu Yuan already possessed, he now held a total of three hundred and thirty Tier-Heaven Spirit Veins.

There was also a bamboo-shaped Heaven and Earth Divine Object, a low-grade divine item, but Lu Yuan observed it and determined it was insufficient to break through to the magical power level of the Fifth Epoch.

The artifacts and remaining treasures of the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization were mostly used by Lu Yuan to upgrade his Restrain (Kè) character. A Deputy Lord of the Sixth Epoch was indeed formidable; the relics on his person upgraded Lu Yuan's Restrain character to over eighty percent completion. Once it reached around eighty percent, Lu Yuan vaguely felt that his Restrain Character Avatar, having reached roughly eighty percent, could faintly resonate and communicate with the true Restrain character behind the Gate of Characters.

Right, the Seal of Desolation! That was the important thing! This was not the first time Lu Yuan had seen the Seal of Desolation; he had witnessed one at the Phoenix Ancient Civilization before. This Seal of Desolation was palm-sized, imbued throughout with a primordial aura, ancient and grand in its craftsmanship, seemingly featuring a dragon flying across its surface. On the seal's inscription side, the two characters Huang Gu (Barren Ancient) were etched: Seal of Desolation.

Lu Yuan probed it with his divine sense and discovered that the Seal of Desolation he held was temporary. It could only be used four times in his possession before being rendered useless. It turned out these were all temporary seals; each face of the Seal of Desolation could only be used five times. Exceeding five uses required returning to the Barren Ancient World to seek augmentation from the Eternal Seal of Desolation, which would grant one more use. The side held by the Deputy Lord of the Barren Warmth Civilization had already been used once by Xiao Qing, leaving four uses remaining. However, four uses were enough; Yan Cangtian only needed one use. Finally successful, Lu Yuan let out a long sigh of relief. Obtaining this Seal of Desolation had not been easy; thankfully, he had finally succeeded.

When Lu Yuan came back to his senses, he heard sounds reaching his ears that far surpassed thunder or the Voice of Civilization.

"Success!"

"Long live Lu Yuan!"

"Long live Huang Jian Yu Lu!"

"Lu Yuan, we worship you!"

"Homeland, our homeland is saved!" "Our Artifact Civilization was not destroyed!" Countless people were weeping openly. Yes, their homeland was finally preserved, and they didn't have to see it destroyed. How could they not weep with joy? They were happier than they had ever been celebrating the Artifact New Year, far, far happier. They shouted Lu Yuan's name, they roared "Huang Jian Yu Lu," crying out in their immense joy.

(Today, I watched Light of the Great God, and found that my Light of the Great God ranking had jumped to twenty-eight. I was happy for a long time, only to realize Qidian had changed the rules, causing it to jump from seven to twenty-eight. Hmm, I wonder if those who have fully subscribed to my book would consider supporting it so I can claim my Light of the Great God.)

(Also, requesting monthly tickets. With the homeland of the Artifact Civilization secured, I'm now asking for monthly tickets! If you have any, please cast them. Thank you.)