"What?" The Mother of All Spirits paused, her world-shattering, graceful face first showing shock, then sinking into profound sorrow. The Immortal Venerable and the Demon Venerable, no matter how they had treated her or what mistakes they had made, were still beings she had created in her previous cycle of existence. In a sense, they were her children.

Though the two were incredibly rebellious and immensely ambitious, even attacking her in this current cycle, she had never truly resented them. She could only blame their intense, shared yearning for the power to transcend the cycle of reincarnation itself.

Forget the Immortal and Demon Venerables; even she, who claimed the title of Mother of All Spirits, deeply yearned for and pursued the power that could truly break free from reincarnation. No one wished to be repeatedly forced by the calamities of the Great Cycle of Heaven and Earth. To speak of the Supreme level, while they possessed the qualification to survive reincarnation, it was by no means absolute. For the Mother of All Spirits knew clearly that many Supreme-level powerhouses had perished across the repeated Great Cycles of Heaven and Earth.

Otherwise, where would those extraordinarily potent malevolent spirits have originated? This showed that even for Supreme-level powerhouses, surviving reincarnation depended somewhat on luck.

No one wished to follow the path of those predecessors, ending up submerged in the Sea of Chaos, filled with endless resentment and malice.

Thus, no matter what the Demon Venerable and Immortal Venerable had done, the Mother of All Spirits would always forgive them and love them deeply. They remained her two most favored and accomplished children.

Upon hearing they had died—killed by the Azure Dragon Emperor, no, more precisely, by the Azure Dragon Emperor merged with half of the Will of the Universe—the Mother of All Spirits was filled with sorrow. Within her gentle, captivating, world-altering eyes, a fierce killing intent flashed: "Long Aotian, you shall die."

Her slender arm rose, and a verdant aura coiled towards him like living vines, vibrant and seemingly real. Under the immense life force, lush green leaves sprouted, instantly blooming into delicate, water-like flowers. Then, the flowers wilted and fell away.

Petals scattered everywhere, spinning like thousands of razor-sharp blades, flying forth. Beautiful, yet tragically poignant. They seemed to whisper countless moving and mournful stories there.

This technique of the Mother of All Spirits was renowned; she commanded one of the supreme laws within the universal laws: the Law of Life. The Law of Life inherently represented the vitality, flourishing, decay, and death of all species.

She governed Life itself. This was why she possessed the ability to create so many formidable life forms, acting truly against the will of Heaven.

However, where there is life, there is death. She could create life, and she could destroy it. This move, All Things Wither, seemingly deviated from the scope of the Law of Life. In reality, it represented her understanding of the Law of Life reaching its absolute extreme. Even in ages past, glorious and mighty, few could compare to the Mother of All Spirits in mastery of the Law of Life.

Even the arrogant Azure Dragon Emperor, Long Aotian, was moved and dared not remain so reckless upon seeing the Mother of All Spirits unleash this technique. The supreme profound mystery of the Law of Life, desolate and exquisitely beautiful—All Things Wither—the Azure Dragon Emperor dared not meet head-on.

From the fragmented memories of the Immortal Venerable and others, he knew of this technique, but he hadn't expected that she, currently in a very weakened state, could still deploy it.

The Azure Dragon Emperor clearly knew that once engulfed by those tragically beautiful, swirling remnants of flowers, he would suffer the erosion of the withering aura, his life force steadily weakening in a peculiar manner, withering until death. He also knew that the moment he witnessed this desolate, sorrowful technique, he had already fallen into a state of decay. The powerful divine sense of the Mother of All Spirits had sealed the surrounding space entirely; escape would be difficult for him.

The Mother of All Spirits' Law of Space was also famously powerful; otherwise, she would not have possessed the might to seal the worlds belonging to the Six Realms and Nine Continents with a spatial lock, a barrier even a Supreme could hardly breach.

The Azure Dragon Emperor was no ordinary foe. At this moment, he let out a long laugh, his body enveloped in an aura of malice as tangible as substance, surging like a raging tidal wave into the range of the All Things Wither spell to slow its effect upon him.

He bit his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of vital blood. He forcefully condensed a colossal Sword of Annihilation, aiming it at the densest part of the vortex of withering petals—the center of any technique often held the weakness.

The Azure Dragon Emperor's Sword of Annihilation not only carried the Annihilation attribute, hailed as the most potent destructive force among the laws of Heaven, Earth, and the Universe, but it was also infused with an extremely dense and savage malice.

That strike caused the vortex of petals to momentarily halt, carving a pitch-black void out of thin air and shattering the spatial lock. He plunged straight into the breach, escaping the killing formation of All Things Wither, laughing wildly, "Wan Ling, this place is too small, it's stifling me. If you want to fight, let's take it to the void."

So powerful. No wonder they all died at this villain's hands. The Mother of All Spirits thought this, and an inexplicable sorrow filled her heart. Although the current Azure Dragon Emperor was far stronger than she had anticipated, she now had absolutely no room to retreat. With a graceful stomp of her jade foot, she floated through the void, pursuing him closely.

With the Azure Dragon Emperor's interference gone, Lei Dong found it much easier to slay the malevolent spirits. Back in the Sea of Chaos, he had devised many methods for killing them, but there, he hadn't dared to carelessly use his Nether Ghost Qi to lure the spirits.

The Sea of Chaos was boundless, hiding countless malevolent spirits. If Lei Dong had dared to do so, he would likely have been completely submerged by the spirit tide long before killing many spirits.

The Palace of Ten Thousand Spirits, though named a palace, was actually a wondrous and independent world. It appeared small, but it was, in fact, vast and immense. From this, one could infer that the Mother of All Spirits’ mastery of the Law of Space far surpassed Lei Dong's current level.

With every step Lei Dong took, a vast ocean of dense Nether Ghost Qi manifested. This pure, energy-laden Ghost Qi attracted the attention of the vast majority of malevolent spirits.

Their simple minds and savage consciousness, without the Azure Dragon Emperor nearby to "guide" them, behaved with intelligence lower than that of wild beasts, driven purely by instinctual temptation. They quickly clumped together.

As a result, the pressure on Lei Dong's forces greatly decreased, and casualties began to drop sharply. Lei Dong focused without distraction, using the Nether Killing Array to tear apart the gathered spirits, devouring them for spiritual energy and origin essence, which he then transferred to his hard-fighting brethren.

Seeing Lei Dong exert his power, morale surged. The unfavorable situation began to gradually turn. Everyone fought harder, and simultaneously, the number of malevolent spirits surging out of the vortex was noticeably less than at the beginning.

The expectation of victory was faintly visible among them. With repeated bursts of power, they slowly turned the tide of battle. Lei Dong, with his Supreme strength, had completely reversed what seemed to be a certain defeat.

Especially among them were a few exceptionally powerful malevolent spirits, not much weaker than the newly advanced Azure Dragon Emperor. Clearly, they had been extraordinary figures in life. Yet, ending up in such a state could not help but stir a hidden sadness in Lei Dong. For peerless powerhouses to fail to pass the Great Cycle of Reincarnation resulted in an existence worse than death.

But Lei Dong showed them no mercy; instead, he was especially ruthless, hoping that after their annihilation, they might have a chance to be reborn in the next cycle.

With the aid of Lei Dong’s Supreme strength, it still took several days to slaughter all the malevolent spirits. Over sixty percent of the spirits were directly killed by Lei Dong's hand.

Even a Supreme powerhouse like Lei Dong found this massive horde of malevolent spirits somewhat taxing. But fortunately, the rewards were immense. Lei Dong’s subordinates and allies gained a great deal of Chaos Spiritual Energy and Origin Essence.

Lei Dong’s aptitude had already been elevated to an extremely high level with the help of many sources of Chaos Origin Essence and half a Chaos Heart. Resources like this origin essence were now almost useless to him; rather than waste them himself, it was better to give them to others.

He understood clearly that if there was a Ruler above the Supreme realm in this world, then devouring the remaining half of the Chaos Heart was essential. Otherwise, neither he nor the Azure Dragon Emperor would be qualified to become a Ruler.

Lei Dong understood, perhaps even more clearly than the Azure Dragon Emperor, that only one of the two could survive between them. However, Lei Dong also vaguely perceived that the Azure Dragon Emperor’s strength was likely no less than his own.

But this was not the time to dwell on that matter. His primary goal for coming here was, above all, to save his beloved wife and daughter, and fortunately, that bothersome person, the Mother of All Spirits, was absent. Lei Dong unleashed his vast divine sense, beginning to search all over the Palace of Ten Thousand Spirits.

The spatial arrangement within the Palace of Ten Thousand Spirits was very clever, containing many internal spaces. This bore a striking resemblance to the Holy Domain of the now-extinct Crystal Ancient Clan.

Fortunately, Lei Dong had other means. He captured a near-Saint level Black Tortoise, directly extracting its soul to search its memories. He vaguely located the inner small world where the Mother of All Spirits resided.

His figure flickered, and he arrived at that highly secret location, blasting open a spatial passage with a single punch, piercing through without hesitation. Upon entering that small world, Lei Dong felt as if he had arrived in a serene, tranquil paradise.

Here, spiritual energy curled in wisps everywhere, vegetation was lush and verdant across the mountains, and even the sky was filled with beautiful, colorful flowers of every kind.

Many small, powerless animals also survived here, such as rabbits, small birds, and bees.

At the summit of the highest, mist-shrouded mountain peak stood a rustic thatched hut. It was not ostentatious but immediately imparted a sense of relaxation and comfort.

Lei Dong hadn't expected that the Mother of All Spirits, whom he hated to the core, was fundamentally a person with a taste for simple living. His figure flashed, and he landed atop the peak.

"You have come~" A soft voice, filled with the clarity of trickling water that cleansed the heart, resonated gently within Lei Dong's mind.

...(To be continued)RQ