With his knees bent and his eyes blazing crimson, Shi Yan looked up at the hundred-meter-tall Moqidu and the incomparably vast Boundless Demonic Blade. His face was twisted in a ferocious grimace, his aura seemingly inciting natural phenomena that caused colossal whirlwinds to erupt in the surrounding seawater.

He stood motionless, yet the Blood-Patterned Ring pulsed with dazzling rainbow light. The mysterious greatsword, hailing from the Abyss Battlefield, hovered ominously ten meters above his head, seemingly gathering some immense power.

"Krak-krak-krak!"

The giant crimson egg that covered half the sky above him was relentlessly hacked by the Boundless Demonic Blade. This egg, which had absorbed numerous Demon Cores, was as thin as a cicada's wing, appearing fragile enough to shatter at a touch, yet it stubbornly withstood the blade’s repeated strikes without breaking!

Moqidu roared, streams of demonic light shooting out from his body, coiling around him like brilliant silk ribbons that refused to dissipate.

The Boundless Demonic Blade, weighing more than ten thousand catties, ceaselessly emitted terrifying Nine Nether Demonic Qi. The desolate island ground tore open, and viscous, ink-like darkness surged out, converging frantically upon the blade, making this one of the three great demonic blades of the Ancient Era’s Demon Domain even more savage and terrifying.

The anomaly within Shi Yan’s Sea of Consciousness had gradually subsided. His Primary Soul had merged completely with the Nine Nether Soul-Devouring Flame, transforming the flame—third ranked on the Heavenly Fire Chart—into the third eye of his Primary Soul. This eye emitted a faint, silvery glow that permeated his Sea of Consciousness, continuously strengthening his soul power.

At the core in his lower abdomen, the Profound Ice Cold Flame, Earth Core Fire, and Sacred Spirit Fusion had coalesced into the Yin-Yang Taiji diagram. The Primal Essence Tree at the heart of the vortex was rooted in a strange space, drawing in astonishing amounts of Primal Essence, growing at a visible rate until it became vast, ancient, and sky-obscuring.

The changes in his physical body and Sea of Consciousness granted him an unimaginable, terrifying power. This power exceeded the capacity of his physical form, causing him splitting pain, yet his aura surged relentlessly upward.

It was precisely this frantic surge of power that stimulated the mysterious greatsword within the Blood-Patterned Ring. The sword mysteriously flew out, positioning itself directly above his head, where the tightly shut eyes etched onto its body slowly began to open.

Every time an eye opened, the mysterious greatsword seemed to double its inherent malevolence.

"Tsss-tsss-tsss!"

The greatsword hovering above his head possessed the power to distort the void. Where the sword floated, the space itself suddenly emanated strange collisions of light, shooting out sparks, and revealing fissures in the spatial fabric. Through these gaps, one could vaguely glimpse streams of flowing, multi-hued light, like meteors slicing through the profound cosmos, flashing and vanishing in an instant.

A heaven-shattering, evil aura began to breed on the greatsword. As more eyes on its surface opened, the aura it projected grew increasingly terrifying.

Standing beneath the giant egg, Shi Yan felt the massive energy from the Profound Ice Cold Flame, Sacred Spirit Fusion, and Earth Core Fire in his lower abdomen, along with the soul power from his Sea of Consciousness, erupt uncontrollably, pouring frantically into the mysterious greatsword.

As the energy drained violently from his body, more eyes on the mysterious greatsword snapped open.

Moqidu let out a world-shaking howl, seemingly sensing Shi Yan's transformation, and a sudden sense of foreboding bloomed in his heart.

Without hesitation, amidst his roar, Moqidu channeled all his strength, pouring infinite demonic energy into the Boundless Demonic Blade, empowering it with the might to tear the very firmament.

Wielding the Boundless Demonic Blade with full force strained Moqidu's colossal demonic form. More demonic light burst and scattered, and fissures began to spiderweb across his body.

"Puff!"

The demonic blade finally struck the giant egg. This crimson shell, refined by the rainbow light of the Blood-Patterned Ring and reinforced with Demon Core energy, could no longer withstand the repeated chopping; it cracked again, revealing a shocking fissure.

The dense black demonic qi found its entry point and surged madly inside, instantly filling the egg.

"Boom-boom-boom!"

The demonic qi clung to the egg's surface and then detonated with a world-shattering sound. Amidst the terrifying explosion, the egg finally shattered, transforming into ten thousand points of crimson light that returned to the Blood-Patterned Ring on Shi Yan’s finger.

Moqidu let out a sinister chuckle. Seeing the egg break, he hesitated no longer. He swung the demonic blade violently, like a black river spanning two realms, shooting fiercely toward Shi Yan, intent on grinding him to dust and annihilating his soul, leaving no trace of his existence in the world.

Shi Yan’s face contorted, his crimson eyes burning with madness.

"Roar!"

With a fierce cry, he didn't pause to think, channeling every ounce of energy he could muster into the mysterious greatsword.

On the greatsword, countless evil beams of light shot out from the wicked eyes, intertwining and piercing into the ruptured spatial fissures.

Immediately following this, surges of mysterious energy from beyond the domains poured into the greatsword.

The mysterious greatsword, which had seemed tiny compared to the Boundless Demonic Blade, suddenly swelled, instantly becoming a divine sword as long as ten thousand fathoms. The eyes on its body resembled the eyes of demon gods and vengeful spirits, brimming with malevolence, frenzy, despair, and bloodlust.

The divine sword required no control from Shi Yan's Primary Soul; it suddenly lunged upward to meet the descending Boundless Demonic Blade.

There was no sound.

No earth-shattering upheaval.

As the Boundless Demonic Blade and the mysterious greatsword collided, the world fell into an eerie, unsettling silence that panicked the soul.

Shi Yan looked up at the sky, his pupils wide with astonishment.

Pinpricks of unusual light began to manifest at the point of impact between the Boundless Demonic Blade and the mysterious greatsword. These lights gradually expanded, then spread silently outwards.

Wherever these pinpricks of light passed, the sky collapsed unnaturally, rows of nearby islands vanished into thin air, and billions of tons of water in the Boundless Sea sank hundreds of meters.

Even the isolated isle beneath him shuddered and plunged deep into the seabed.

Billions of tons of seawater suddenly cascaded down, submerging Shi Yan.

In the clear depths of the ocean, Shi Yan still looked up at the sky. All around him was absolute stillness, and then he saw Moqidu’s hundred-meter demonic form instantly disintegrate into countless motes of demonic light. As the light vanished, Moqidu's fiercely grim true form was finally revealed.

For some unknown reason, Moqidu’s right hand, which held the Boundless Demonic Blade, had exploded, its bones turning to ash. Half of his body was a bloody ruin, as if he had suffered a shock violent enough to pulverize his demonic frame.

On the surface of the azure water, Moqidu displayed fear for the first time, screaming frantically. He clutched the detached Boundless Demonic Blade in his left hand and transformed into a streak of black demonic light, fleeing at full power towards the direction of the Sun Isle.

He was routed!

The mysterious greatsword, long as a towering mountain peak, hung silently in the void. The eyes on its body, one by one, began to close, leaving only one-third still open. The magnified divine sword also started to shrink, gradually returning to its normal size.

Simultaneously, the energy violently draining from Shi Yan ceased flowing toward the mysterious greatsword.

Staring blankly at the sky, watching the shrinking and slowly descending mysterious greatsword, Shi Yan was momentarily stunned. He quickly tried to summon it with his spiritual sense.

There was no response.

The mysterious greatsword seemed utterly arrogant, paying no heed to him, a mere Nirvana Stage martial artist. It continued sinking, and the moment it touched the water, the divine sword transformed into a streak of rainbow light and vanished back into the Blood-Patterned Ring.

Shi Yan looked inward with his mind and immediately found the mysterious greatsword hovering quietly in a corner of the Blood-Patterned Ring, devoid of any light or malevolent aura. All the eyes upon it were closed once more.

Everything returned to how it was, as if nothing had just happened. Yet, when Shi Yan looked up at the sky, he saw the void was still warped and shifting, and the rents in space had not healed in a short time.

What had occurred would not truly vanish; all these sights served as a reminder of what the mysterious greatsword had just done.

Its collision with the Boundless Demonic Blade had created a backlash that shattered the demonic body Moqidu had forged and directly blasted apart the hand holding the Boundless Demonic Blade, severely wounding Moqidu with half his body a mess of flesh and blood.

Moqidu himself possessed the cultivation of the first level of the Divine Manifestation Realm, and armed with a treasure from the Demon Domain, his power surged even higher; he was a terrifying expert in the Fourth Demon Domain, second only to Chi Yan and Bo Xun.

Since descending upon the Boundless Sea, this fierce demon had battled the Lord of the Heavenly Evil Grotto, forcing their surrender, and had subsequently slaughtered countless human experts as he fought his way from the Galuo Sea to the Hengluo Sea.

Yet this wildly ferocious expert, wielding the Boundless Demonic Blade, had one of his hands obliterated and half his body injured by the counter-force of the mysterious greatsword’s single strike.

Shi Yan was inwardly horrified, yet secretly observing the mysterious greatsword with a mixture of dread and elation.

He was elated because the might of this mysterious greatsword was terrifyingly immense, and moreover, it had aided him, allowing him to escape the fatal pursuit of Moqidu.

He was dismayed because he had virtually no control over it. He didn't know how to command it, nor could he be certain if he ever could, and he certainly didn't know if the greatsword would remain quiescent indefinitely.

"Shi Yan!"

At that moment, Tang Yuannan’s voice called down from above the surface of the sea.

Riding the Fire Qilin, the Sun God stared blankly at the several islands utterly destroyed, at the surging sea surface, and at the spatial rifts slowly mending in the sky, unaware of the earth-shattering transformation that had just transpired.

He could not confirm Shi Yan’s survival, as his spiritual sense detected no trace of Shi Yan’s aura.

Shi Yan, submerged in the seawater, looked up and recognized the Fire Qilin, realizing Tang Yuannan had arrived. He began to float towards the surface, only to be overcome by a profound sense of weakness spreading through his body.

The rainbow-flashing Blood-Patterned Ring finally ceased its gleam and gradually quieted down.

At that very instant, Tang Yuannan, who had been unable to sense Shi Yan with his divine consciousness, immediately detected Shi Yan’s life force and charged toward the area of the sea where Shi Yan was located.