94: The Disaster of Silence 1

The experience of the lightning transmission was more painful than imagined. Xiao Yan felt his body being torn into countless pieces, every cell screaming, while the black threads in his right eye fiercely clashed with the Flame Lord's Fire, intensifying the torment.

Time and space lost their meaning in the lightning passage; it could have been an instant, or several hours, before the three were finally thrown out of the passage, crashing heavily onto a scorched earth.

“Ugh—” Ling Xiao had just crawled up when he vomited a mouthful of black blood, his silver hair clinging messily to his sweat-drenched face.

Xiao Bing was in slightly better condition, but the wound on his chest had reopened, oozing pale blue ice crystals instead of blood.

Xiao Yan struggled to his feet, the three-colored vortex in his right eye spinning wildly, adapting to the drastically changing space.

When his vision finally cleared, the sight before him nearly froze his blood—

Ancient Clan Sacred Mountain, the most sacred peak in the Source World, had now become a living hell.

The sky was torn by a pitch-black rift that spanned the horizon, more than ten times larger than what they had seen in the prison world!

Below the rift, an indescribable dark entity was wriggling.

It had no fixed form, sometimes spreading like viscous liquid, sometimes standing upright like a multi-legged monster; the only constant was the suffocating sense of oppression—as if even a glance would steal one’s Soul.

“Void Claws…” Ling Xiao’s voice trembled, his silver eyes reflecting the terrifying sight.

Even more alarming was the tragic state of the Sacred Mountain.

Large sections of Ancient Clan buildings had collapsed, and the ground was covered with spiderweb-like black marks—places that had been “tasted” by the Void Claws, where matter and energy had returned to absolute “nothingness.”

Countless Ancient Clan warriors futilely attacked the Claws, but any fighting technique that touched it would instantly disappear, and even the caster would be dragged into the darkness along the energy connection!

“Father! Grand Elder!” Xiao Bing anxiously searched for familiar figures.

Xiao Yan’s right eye suddenly stung, and the black threads spontaneously became active, sensing something through a mysterious connection: “Over there! The temple ruins!”

The three rushed at full speed towards the main hall ruins on the mountainside.

The sights along the way were horrifying—some Ancient Clan members were “fixed” in place by black marks, maintaining their postures of fleeing or fighting, yet they had lost all life force, like sculptures on pause.

Only a few crumbling stone pillars remained of the main hall, but miraculously, a translucent blue light barrier was preserved in the center.

Inside the barrier lay over a dozen severely wounded Ancient Clan members, including the Grand Elder.

And in the very center of the light barrier, a gaunt figure sat cross-legged, forming hand seals to maintain the barrier—it was Xiao Zhan!

“Father!” Xiao Yan was the first to rush to the light barrier, but he was blocked by an invisible shield.

Xiao Zhan seemed to sense his son’s arrival and slowly looked up.

His tormented face was emaciated beyond recognition, his eyes still hollow, yet two lines of bloody tears flowed down.

His lips moved, and his voice directly entered the three’s minds: “You…you’ve finally returned…”

“Father, let us in!” Xiao Bing pounded on the barrier, “We can help you!”

Xiao Zhan, however, shook his head: “No…this barrier can only be maintained from the inside out…once it’s opened…”

He struggled to “look” at the black marks not far away, his meaning clear.

Ling Xiao suddenly exclaimed, “Watch out behind you!”

The three quickly turned around, only to see a humanoid black shadow rising from the ground—it was Xuanming!

Or rather, what used to be Xuanming.

Most of his body had already become ethereal, and the black crystal in his chest was shattered, revealing the wriggling darkness within.

“Coming…just in time…” Xuanming’s voice sounded like countless people speaking at once, “Witness…the end of the Source World…”

He raised a hand and waved, and dozens of black marks shot towards the three like venomous snakes!

Xiao Yan’s Flame Lord's Fire erupted, flames of interwoven azure-silver and crimson-gold forming a barrier; Xiao Bing’s Xuanming Ice Flame condensed into countless icy spears; Ling Xiao released the power of the Spirit of the Plane, silver light raining down.

The three’s attacks collided with the black marks, with no earth-shattering explosion, only a grating “sizzling” sound, as if cold water were poured on hot iron.

The black marks were temporarily blocked, but the three were also forced back several steps by the recoil.

“It’s useless…” Xuanming sneered, “Lord Void Devourer has awakened…your resistance is merely…”

His words abruptly cut off, and his body suddenly convulsed violently!

Within the shattered black crystal in his chest, the darkness wriggled like a living thing, in turn devouring its host!

“No…Lord…I am your loyal…” Xuanming struggled in horror, but he could not stop the acceleration of his etherealization.

In just a few breaths, this culprit who betrayed the Ancient Clan and caused the destruction of the Xiao Family completely disappeared, leaving not even a speck of dust.

“He…was eaten by the very thing he served?” Xiao Bing was incredulous.

The black threads in Xiao Yan’s right eye pulsed, and he suddenly understood something: “No, it’s ‘reclamation.’ The black threads within Xuanming were originally part of the Void Claws; now that the task is complete, they naturally return to the main body.”

As if to confirm his words, the darkness that swallowed Xuanming flowed back into the main Claw’s body, and that amorphous mass of darkness seemed to grow a little stronger, its movement speed noticeably increasing as it wriggled towards the temple ruins!

Xiao Zhan in the barrier suddenly stood up, his body swaying like a candle in the wind, yet he firmly stepped out of the barrier: “Children…listen to me…”

“Father! Go back!” Xiao Yan wanted to rush over but was stopped by Ling Xiao.

“Wait…Uncle Xiao Zhan has the energy of the Life Spring in his body…he might…”

Xiao Zhan’s hollow “gaze” swept over the three children, and a smile was pulled from his parched lips: “I don’t have much time…Xuanming used my body as a medium to open the passage…the Life Spring remains in my body…”