The moment the Extinction Demon Light erupted, the entire void was saturated with an aura of annihilation, an essence so potent that even Ye Jingyu felt it clearly. Numerous stars began to spontaneously collapse, utterly destroyed.
The ancient Dragon's expression shifted entirely at that moment—it was not merely solemn, but profoundly grave. Facing the eighteen streaks of black light shooting toward him, he abandoned any thought of pressing his attack on the next demon. With a single sweep of his hand across the void, a fissure tore open in the emptiness…
“Dragon Clan Divine Art, Shield of Veiled Space!” A sharp voice echoed from the ancient Dragon’s mouth. The first streak of Extinction Demon Light shot into the void that had just been rent…
It seemed instantly diverted to another dimension, followed immediately by the second, the third, the fourth…
Thanks to the Shield of Veiled Space, conjured by the Dragon’s mighty divine art, those terrifying beams of annihilation were funneled into a separate layer of reality…
Yet, as the fifteenth streak of Extinction Demon Light was unleashed, the ancient Dragon’s face contorted once more. He realized that the beams he had just diverted were now shooting back at him from every conceivable direction…
Wherever the demon light passed, the void shattered, stars were obliterated; nothing could withstand the force of these beams, which now struck the ancient Dragon head-on.
“Your cultivation is truly astonishing, respected one, but my Extinction Demon Light can annihilate everything—even space itself can be extinguished…” At this point, the voice of the Destroyer Demon carried over. The words were laced with utter exhaustion; clearly, deploying the Extinction Demon Light all at once had exacted a massive toll upon him.
“Sss-ss-ss-ss…” The eighteen beams of light struck the ancient Dragon almost simultaneously. His supposedly resilient physical body seemed like mere tofu beneath their impact. Eighteen bloody apertures appeared upon him, and golden ichor sprayed forth ceaselessly…
Witnessing this, Ye Jingyu and the others watched in horror. This was the first time in their prolonged conflict that the ancient Dragon had suffered injuries so grievous. Worse still, no matter how fiercely the Dragon urged his power, he could not compel the wounds pierced by the Extinction Demon Light to close.
He was forced to expend immense energy just to resist the corrosive onslaught of the demon light, holding the attack at bay.
“Fear, Greed! What are you waiting for?” Seeing the ancient Dragon reduced to this state, the Destroyer Demon roared…
The Fear Demon and the Greed Demon, who had been momentarily stunned, snapped back to reality. They glanced at the four heavily wounded demons who were using their own power to continuously resist the Dragon’s attacks, and simultaneously lunged toward the ancient Dragon.
They absolutely could not allow this foe a moment to recover, lest they suffer the same fate of critical injury…
“Nether Demon Blood Slash!” The Fear Demon bellowed, transforming the great bow in his hand into a massive curved saber. Gripping the blade with both hands, he slashed directly toward the ancient Dragon, his body following closely as he rushed in for the strike…
The Greed Demon also exerted his full strength, causing countless spikes to erupt from his body as his massive rat-form hurtled toward the Dragon…
The ancient Dragon parried with a punch, shattering the sharp blade light. However, because his internal reserves were dedicated to combating the Extinction Demon Light, a gash was carved into his arm. In that instant, Greed and Fear slammed into him, one after the other. Even with his immense strength, the ancient Dragon was knocked off balance by the combined impact of the two demons…
“Thwack…” The two demons attacked with suicidal desperation. This collision crushed the Dragon’s bone structure to dust. The black Extinction Demon Light flared violently, but the immense recoil sent both demons flying backward, their own bones likely shattered in numerous places—their injuries potentially no less severe than the ancient Dragon’s.
However, unlike the Dragon, the two demons had not suffered critical damage. Their internal energies circulated ceaselessly, and their wounds began to mend at a visible rate. The ancient Dragon, however, still had to fight the searing invasion of the Extinction Demon Light, leaving him no capacity to focus on mending his own injuries…
At this moment, the three major demons arrayed themselves in three separate directions. They did not immediately attack, but began chanting an incantation. Suddenly, nearby stars began to detonate, but the explosive energy was continuously drawn inward and gathered. Watching the three demons strain every fiber of their being, frantically reciting the ancient, incomprehensible spell, a look of pure terror flashed across the ancient Dragon’s eyes for the first time.
That… that looked like the World-Ending Demon Light, something far more terrifying than the Extinction Demon Light. If this light detonated, this entire expanse of void would be utterly annihilated, and even the Origin Heart he had guarded so fiercely would be utterly destroyed—that was the very foundation of humanity…
Why had the entities from the Celestial Realm not arrived by now? Had they truly abandoned the mortal world entirely?
Disappointment shadowed the ancient Dragon’s face. He had never imagined that at this critical juncture, which decided the fate of the three realms, those powerful beings from the heavens would choose silence…
Since that was the case, there was only one path left. No matter the cost, he would not allow these demons to completely eradicate humanity’s foundation…
“Coiling Dragon Genesis Art!” The ancient Dragon ceased tending to the Extinction Demon Light burning within him, allowing the beams to rampage through his body and extinguish his vitality. His form began to shimmer with golden radiance and steadily swell, transforming back into his colossal dragon shape. And this body grew larger and larger, surpassing even the scale Ye Jingyu had witnessed initially. Now, to say nothing of a single person, even an entire planet seemed utterly insignificant before him…
An ever-increasing pressure emanated from his core. The Destroyer and the other major demons, who were mid-chant, felt the horror of this oppressive aura. Their faces changed drastically, and they hastened the pace of their incantations…
A sphere of golden light began to surge out from the ancient Dragon’s core, growing brighter and larger by the second…
Meanwhile, the dark-gold sphere condensed by the Destroyer Demon also grew larger, darker…
Finally, when both light spheres reached their absolute peak, they suddenly snapped toward each other like powerful magnets…
Facing these two colossal orbs—one brilliantly bright, the other intensely dark—Ye Jingyu was suddenly overwhelmed by the sensation of his own insignificance. Though his heart blazed with the will to fight, though he possessed an unparalleled aura of dominance, in this moment, he felt utterly negligible, as if annihilation could strike him down at any second…
With a soft hiss… the two spheres collided. Yet, instead of a tremendous explosion, the sound was more like something falling into water…
The two light spheres merged. But before anyone could grasp what had happened, the unified ball of energy detonated violently…