Every step Lei Dong took was in a flash of lightning, relying on his powerful divine sense to perceive the tidal vortexes of the Chaos Sea, ultimately calculating the landing point of his next spatial traversal; not a single step could be misplaced.

It was fortunate that, through his cultivation and evolution, Lei Dong was already far beyond the ordinary, possessing boundless and pure divine sense, along with exceptionally sharp spiritual intuition. Combined with his profound understanding of space, he could barely manage this level of maneuvering.

Compared to Lei Dong, although the Azure Dragon Emperor possessed immense power, his comprehension of spatial laws was a step behind Lei Dong's. Furthermore, he was heavily influenced by malevolent energy and resentment. The Azure Dragon Emperor was already in a state of madness and arrogance.

At other times, this difference might not be apparent, but in this situation demanding absolute calm and precise navigation, problems surfaced repeatedly. Time and again, he made errors in positioning, getting swept into the vortexes of the Chaos Sea by the void tides.

It was fortunate that the Azure Dragon Emperor was a Supreme-level cultivator, theoretically having achieved eternal immortality and qualified to evade the Great Tribulation of Reincarnation and enter the next generation.

Even against such violent void tides and Chaos Sea vortexes, killing him was no easy feat. Despite his wretched state, he repeatedly managed to re-establish footing by leveraging his formidable defense and physique where the tides were weakest.

But several repeated failures further incited the Azure Dragon Emperor's savage nature. With his temperament turning extremely violent, he completely disregarded safety and charged directly toward Lei Dong in an overwhelmingly ferocious manner, trying to withstand the void tides head-on.

The void tides were forces coalesced from resentment, malevolent energy, and other evil entities, accumulated over countless cosmic eras, possessing truly terrifying power. Even a Supreme-level expert attempting to endure them head-on was unequivocally unwise.

That energy quickly ground away the Azure Dragon Emperor’s protective Gang Qi shield and began relentlessly assaulting his physical body, violently depleting his variegated Chaos True Essence.

The Chaos Art originated with the God of the Underworld, was perfected by the King of the Underworld, and finally achieved mastery in the hands of the Demon Emperor. The version the Azure Dragon Emperor possessed came from a sliver of the King of the Underworld’s remnant soul. Although complete, it still contained numerous flaws. If the Azure Dragon Emperor had cultivated the King of the Underworld’s Chaos Art dutifully, no major errors would have occurred. However, the Azure Dragon Emperor had secretly reverse-engineered the Chaos Soul Devouring Pagoda, consuming life and refining primal essence. While this vastly increased his power, the contamination by malevolent energy also caused his very Chaos True Essence to become infused with a volatile, savage aura.

This mutated Chaos True Essence not only made the Azure Dragon Emperor increasingly violent and lowered his intellect, but it wasn't entirely without benefit. At least, the ferocity and resentment contained within this True Essence, once injected into an enemy's body, could inflict severe negative consequences upon them.

Constantly provoked by Lei Dong, the Azure Dragon Emperor had long since lost his reason and composure. His sole remaining thought was to crush Lei Dong into dust and seize the spirit of the Chaos Pagoda within him.

With his internal True Essence rapidly being depleted, facing the boundless Chaos Spiritual Qi outside—which even contained wisps of Primal Chaos Essence—it was like a starving ghost encountering a fragrant chicken drumstick. While salivating profusely, he was bound to devour it regardless of the cost. Whether it was poisoned or contaminated was no longer a consideration.

Moreover, he was practically in a state of Zou Huo Ru Mo (cultivation deviation).

With a move called 'Azure Dragon Sucks Water,' the Azure Dragon Emperor madly engulfed vast amounts of polluted Chaos Spiritual Qi, along with the sparse strands of primal essence. As the Chaos Art circulated, it converted the Spiritual Qi into his own True Essence. Those wisps of Primal Chaos Essence gradually improved his potential and aptitude.

But simultaneously, great quantities of resentment and malevolent energy, which had lingered for countless years, invaded his soul, corroding his consciousness and making him even more frantic and brutal.

The terrifying thing, however, was that because the Azure Dragon Emperor was already in a state of Zou Huo Ru Mo without reason, even becoming more irrational wouldn't immediately lead to his death. This was the state of being 'too many lice to itch, too many debts to worry about.'

Yet, the immediate benefits he gained were substantial. He could constantly devour the contaminated Chaos Spiritual Qi to replenish his consumption while simultaneously strengthening himself with every trace. Theoretically, the Chaos Sea held no danger for him now.

“That punk surnamed Lei, hahahaha, you are doomed!” The Azure Dragon Emperor’s crazed consciousness realized this point and roared with savage glee, “This Supreme Being is the true Son of Destiny, the greatest of Supremes! Boy, hand over the spirit willingly, and that bitch Ji Ziyan, and I might leave you an intact corpse.”

Upon discovering this situation, Lei Dong also internally cursed that things were going badly. While devouring this polluted Chaos Spiritual Qi would certainly lead to disastrous consequences, no matter how severe those consequences were, they couldn't be worse than his current predicament.

Previously, Lei Dong could rely on his understanding of spatial laws to maneuver—albeit dangerously—through the outer regions of the Chaos Sea, barely maintaining distance from the Azure Dragon Emperor.

But if this continued, wouldn't he fall into a desperate situation? Even if the Azure Dragon Emperor eventually exploded and died from absorbing too much resentment and malevolent energy through extreme Zou Huo Ru Mo, it wouldn't redeem Lei Dong's current fate of certain death.

Faced with the ferocious momentum of the Azure Dragon Emperor, Lei Dong was a resolute man. He immediately activated the Indestructible Chaos Shield, coating himself in a layer of dazzling golden light, and plunged directly into the heart of the violent tides to evade the pursuit.

The fierce void tides instantly made Lei Dong understand the meaning of raw power. That rampant force, capable of tearing everything apart, made the Indestructible Chaos Shield—a defense capable of withstanding a Supreme strike—feel like a thin sheet of paper, twisting and nearly shattering in an instant.

Once the Indestructible Shield broke, given Lei Dong's evolved Black Emperor Armor and physical body, his survival time in this environment would absolutely not exceed ten breaths.

Biting his tongue until it bled, he spat out a mouthful of essence blood, channeling the Chaos True Essence within his body into the Indestructible Chaos Shield at an astonishing rate to barely withstand the ravages of the void tides.

However, this only managed to sustain him precariously. He still had to use the Ghost Shadow Escape technique for movement, meaning the consumption of True Essence was abnormally fierce. If input did not match output, he couldn't maintain the shield for even the time it takes an incense stick to burn.

Even after consuming several Chaos Crystals and converting them via the Chaos Art into Chaos True Essence, the replenishment rate was slightly lower than the consumption rate. This realization shocked Lei Dong again, and he dared not stop. If he stopped, the Azure Dragon Emperor would catch up and kill him.

But if he didn't stop, his True Essence would be insufficient, failing to reach a state of equilibrium. Sooner or later, Lei Dong would run out of True Essence, causing the Indestructible Chaos Shield to shatter, resulting in him and the two Vermilion Birds being torn into fragments by the raging void tides. Moreover, this situation could not be sustained for long—at most, one or two days.

The situation was dire; it seemed Lei Dong was left with only two choices: die by the Azure Dragon Emperor's hand, or die by the tides. Yet, Lei Dong’s grand ambitions remained unfulfilled, and he hadn't even rescued his beloved wife yet.

The only path left was to take a desperate gamble. He had to emulate the Azure Dragon Emperor and violently swallow the surrounding Chaos Spiritual Qi to replenish his consumption. As for the risk of Zou Huo Ru Mo, that was no longer something Lei Dong could afford to consider.

Besides, Lei Dong trusted the obsession residing in his heart—the same obsession the Azure Dragon Emperor had to kill him and seize the artifact spirit, Mei Xiang. He believed that even if he entered Zou Huo Ru Mo, that sliver of obsession would help him fulfill his wish while afflicted.

“Hah!” Lei Dong roared lowly, opening his mouth and inhaling sharply. Countless compressed Chaos Spiritual Qi was sucked into his body. He drove the Chaos Art to its absolute limit, ceaselessly transforming the crude Chaos Spiritual Qi into pure, potent Chaos True Essence.

This replenished his severe depletion, even leaving a surplus. Indeed, although these polluted Chaos Spiritual Qi were dirty, they were dense, almost substantive, and their conversion efficiency was astonishingly high.

However, the side effects were equally pronounced.

“Lei Dong, what are you, what are you doing? Stop!” Ji Ziyan cried out in alarm, trying to stop him with words, “If you do this, you will be corrupted and polluted by resentment and malevolent energy, you’ll fall into Zou Huo Ru Mo.”

As expected, after being converted into Chaos True Essence, the impurities within the Spiritual Qi—the malevolent energy and resentment that had existed for untold generations—began to invade Lei Dong’s Nascent Soul. Like vengeful spirits, they cackled hideously, attempting to incite Lei Dong’s subjective consciousness.

Even Supremes greatly feared this kind of corrupted power. Otherwise, they wouldn't have left the vast resources of the Chaos Sea unattended.

If nothing unexpected occurred, Lei Dong’s Nascent Soul would suffer the erosion of seemingly endless resentment, ultimately causing his consciousness to sink into madness and hatred, turning him into something akin to a walking corpse.

But one must not forget that Lei Dong possessed something no one else had, not even a Supreme.

As those evil remnants and malevolent energies eroded Lei Dong's soul, his soul began to spin like a void vortex, forming an eye the color of blood.

Those resentments seemed to carry a trace of the residual consciousness of beings that had perished. Upon 'seeing' Lei Dong's soul condense into the Eye of Reincarnation, they acted as if they encountered something utterly terrifying and began to flee. It was simple: in any Great Tribulation of Heaven and Earth Reincarnation, the Eye of Reincarnation was the first thing to appear.

And these residual consciousnesses of extinguished beings would all have a very deep-seated impression of the Eye of Reincarnation. Any residual consciousness capable of persisting across countless generations must have been a supreme powerhouse in their respective cosmic era; otherwise, they wouldn't have evaded the Eye of Reincarnation, only to have their remnant consciousness transform into resentment and malevolent energy, maintaining their attachment to this day.

It could be understood this way: those who produced this boundless malevolent energy, resentment, and residual, instinctual consciousness that polluted the Chaos Spiritual Qi and Primal Essence were all failed tribulation transcendents. They might have been peak experts, but it was more likely they were Half-Saints, or even Supremes.

They evaded the devouring maw of the Eye of Reincarnation, but they could not escape the collapse and explosion of the Great Tribulation of Heaven and Earth. Ultimately, due to their lingering attachments, they left behind residual consciousnesses orbiting the Heart of Chaos, attempting to demand justice from the Will of the Universe.