Since you refuse to give me an explanation, I suppose I shall have to take it into my own hands... This reckoning! Even if the mountains crumble and the earth splits, even if the universe shatters, even if...

humanity itself perishes! It will remain the same, no other way! My brother's justice has nothing to do with the common folk or anything else in this world!

Widespread suffering? That isn't because of me either! Even if the cosmos collapses, I will only do what I must!

And this, right now, is what I must do! Xia Changtian and the others, seeing that Gu Han and their own comrades refused to stand by them and retreated at the critical moment, felt a profound disquiet, mixed with anger and a touch of panic. Had they truly been in the wrong?

Then they saw Jun Mo Xie press the attack relentlessly, showing no regard for the greater good. Although they were incandescent with rage, they hadn't paid much heed to the immediate situation. The Heavenly Punishment faction had suffered heavy losses in the recent battle; all eight Saint Venerable experts had been lost, and over eighty percent of their six thousand Heavenly Punishment warriors were casualties.

Now, within the Heavenly Punishment ranks, only Jun Mo Xie and Mei Xueyan possessed Saint Venerable-level strength, along with Xiong Kaishan, who had just entered the realm and was only at the initial Saint Venerable stage. The highest among the rest were only at the Saint Emperor level. Their own side, though numbering less than fifty, had members whose lowest cultivation was at the Saint level, while Ji Bowen and he himself had reached the peak of the Saint Monarch realm.

The disparity in high-end strength was simply not on the same level. As long as they were careful of the self-detonation attacks from the Heavenly Punishment beasts, they believed everything would be under control! Even if they eliminated Heavenly Punishment first and then dealt with the foreign races, they might not necessarily lose!

At that time, what right would Gu Han have to claim the position of number one in the Heavenly Saint Palace? Xia Changtian and the others' minds were filled with elaborate calculations. Faced with Jun Mo Xie's sudden, fierce attack, Xia Changtian and the others showed no fear or timidity whatsoever.

Just as they prepared to strike back, they were suddenly engulfed by an inexplicable, raging fire! Countless sweeping dragons of flame instantly obscured the vision of every single one of them, trapping everything within the bizarre conflagration! This instantaneous maneuver, using the fire-dragon offense to completely disrupt the enemy's line of sight, appeared to be an unprecedented mode of attack!

But the effect was undeniable! The assembled masters of the Duotian Garrison were all preeminent experts with unparalleled battlefield experience. Even facing such astonishing sudden changes, they remained composed despite the crisis.

In truth, this fire, at most, was merely more unexpected than anything they had encountered before; it truly couldn't harm them, although the momentary shock upon its appearance was unavoidable! Immediately afterward, just as their thoughts shifted, attempting to channel their energy to control the fire but before they could execute any practical response, the ground beneath them vanished. The solid earth seemed to instantly transform into a bottomless, gaping abyss, causing them to plummet uncontrollably.

It must be admitted that these individuals possessed astonishing psychological fortitude. More than half of them managed to stabilize their minds instantly, and with a swift movement, even while falling through the void, they forcefully channeled their Profound Qi to find a direction and shoot outward. However, at that precise moment, a deafening "Rumble!" suddenly exploded overhead, and countless towering columns of water, converging with the force of a thousand rivers, poured down upon them, their momentum as vast and overwhelming as if the Celestial River itself had suddenly burst its banks.

Each water column was several zhang thick, crashing down upon their heads! The scope of this massive pit was already immense. Although these individuals were all peak experts with rich combat experience, being subjected to such abrupt changes, even if their minds remained untroubled, they had not yet managed to escape in time when they were suddenly struck by the water columns falling from the void.

For a moment, everyone felt as if trapped in a nightmare. No matter how firm their resolve, their hearts filled with dread, feeling that everything happening around them was too bizarre, too inconceivable—things that simply could not happen in the mortal realm! Everything felt utterly unreal, like being trapped in a terrible dream...

The spot where they had been standing moments ago was clearly solid, level ground—where did this sudden, massive fire come from? If there was fire, there should be something to ignite it, right? Yet, there was not even a single object capable of providing ignition here.

To suggest an illusion or a phantasmagoria was laughable; what kind of "real" illusion could exist in this world? The sensation of being burned by the fire was completely genuine and undeniable... As for the water...

the clouds overhead were still streaking rapidly across the sky, moving faster than any peerless expert under the relentless assault of the level-nine hurricane. How could rain suddenly fall at this moment? But if it wasn't raining, where did all this water come from?

Furthermore, even if it were truly raining... it wouldn't be this heavy, this dense! With a "Rumble!" that accompanied the near-sky-covering deluge, the experts from the Duotian Garrison were all unceremoniously smashed into the massive pit!

Out of the forty-seven peak experts garrisoned there—including two Saint Venerables, three Saint Venerables, and two fourth-level Saint Emperors—everyone else fell in! It wasn't that those with higher cultivation were inherently more resistant to this upheaval. In fact, all those who were spared were individuals with exceptional mental fortitude who did not panic in the face of crisis.

When the unexpected occurred, a moment of lost composure naturally diminished one's ability to cope. Among the nearly forty who fell, there were numerous super-experts, including two who had already reached the Saint Venerable level, who were caught completely off guard and plunged into the pit! The subsequent surging waters continued to pour relentlessly into the pit.

What made the situation even more unbelievable was that at the very bottom of the pit, dozens of fountains, each as wide as a well opening, mysteriously erupted upward. With this vertical flow meeting the falling water, the entire pit became as tumultuous as the sea during a hurricane... The sound was utterly deafening!

Every expert from the Duotian Garrison was a battle-hardened veteran who had seen countless harsh scenarios. Although they were caught off guard for a moment and fell into danger, it did not mean they would passively wait to die. They employed every technique at their disposal, trying every possible method to escape the predicament.

Some shot directly upward, attempting to break through the massive flow above. But with the boundless, powerful torrent overhead, no matter how capable one was, breaking through was impossible. Others desperately reached the pit walls and struck with all their might, trying to blast open a large exit or tunnel directly out through the earth.

However, after exerting themselves like this for a short while, everyone despaired upon discovering that even with their full strength, they had only managed to penetrate half a zhang deep. The hardness of this pit wall was actually three times harder than steel... "How could this place, which was clearly solid ground just moments ago, have changed so completely?" Still others sat cross-legged, their eyes focused inward: they chose to treat everything before them as an illusion conjured by Jun Mo Xie, a phantasm or something similar.

Against illusions, as long as the mind remains clear and one ignores it, no matter how real or sophisticated the illusion, it will naturally dissipate in the end... It must be admitted that this method is indeed the best approach when dealing with illusions or inner demons, and one must praise these experts for their extraordinary composure. But when they were burned until blisters formed all over their bodies, and their clothes and hair were completely incinerated, they finally realized with tragic clarity: This was no illusion...

All of this was real, truly fire capable of burning people to death... After falling in and struggling for a moment, they realized that while the water and fire were intense, for them, it amounted to, at most, momentary harassment, still a hundred thousand miles away from being fatal. The water was deep, but it wasn't enough to drown so many experts.

As long as they employed the technique of breath retention, with their level of attainment, suspending respiration for half a day, or even ten days or half a month, was not a major issue. The fire could indeed kill people, but this "person" would only be an ordinary mortal; for these peak experts, its effect was negligible. At most, it would burn off clothes, trousers, hair, eyebrows, body hair...

all their body hair, but it couldn't inflict further harm. A moment later, those who had fallen began to surface from the accumulated water in the pit. Yes, it was the same group of people, every single one present.

All that remained was the problem of how to get out. A pit, no matter how high, how vast, or how hard its substance, could hardly stop so many Saint Venerables and Saint Emperors, could it? That would truly be a joke!

Therefore, the experts of the Duotian Garrison began to feel their hearts settle. However, just then, someone suddenly cried out, "This water... why is this water suddenly getting cold?" A chill ran through everyone's hearts as they indeed felt the water rapidly dropping in temperature.

One moment it was like a normal river; the next, it had become bone-chillingly frigid, and the next moment... There was no next moment. None of them had time to react, nor did they even know what was happening.

Suddenly, with a continuous series of crisp "crack-crack" sounds, the water covering such a vast depth had entirely turned to solid ice in the space of a few breaths! It froze everyone solid within it! And the change was not over.

The temperature continued to plummet. The solid ice continued to make "crack-crack" noises, growing harder and harder, transforming into Profound Ice at a speed that was impossible to track—and this momentum only accelerated, as if it had no end. Profound Ice—that was a high-grade material that wouldn't melt even under the scorching sun; in terms of solidity, it was already superior to steel!

Anyone familiar with physics understands that when water transforms into ice, its volume slightly increases due to density changes. If the quantity were small, this change would be inconspicuous, but given the sheer volume of the pit, this sudden transformation resulted in a substantial increase in volume. The intense squeezing force generated by this sudden change was astonishingly tremendous.

All the experts from the Duotian Garrison ground their teeth, channeling all their power, desperately resisting this unprecedented, terrifying compression. At this juncture, it was not impossible for them to use their Profound Arts to shatter the ice and break free. But the critical issue was this...

if one person shattered the ice first and emerged, their close comrades nearby would inevitably be affected by the resulting explosion! Serious injury would be unavoidable! At this point, the group finally panicked, because it was impossible for everyone to break out simultaneously.

Any rupture would inevitably involve sacrifice, potentially leading to one severely injured and ten, or even more, suffering casualties. They were all brothers-in-arms who had accompanied each other for hundreds or thousands of years; how could any of them allow their comrades to be hurt just to save themselves? Therefore, no one dared to make a move.