113: Chapter 112 Backup Energy Activation

He raised his head, looking towards the Heavenly Dao power pouring down, towards that figure atop the mountain Peak who was as cold and detached as heaven and earth.

"Then..."

The hundred phoenix diagram unfurled to its absolute limit with a thunderous roar. A hundred thousand miles of mountains and rivers condensed into a single instant, transforming into a pillar of light that pierced the firmament, rushing to meet the heavenly punishment.

"Come on!"

Two forces of world power collided.

There was no sound.

A true collision of world powers produces no sound. Because sound itself is also part of the rules.

When two different sets of rules violently clash, even the very concept of 'sound' is torn apart.

Chu Ye's vision was filled only with white.

A blinding white, a void-like white, a white so profound it was as if he had returned to the Chaos before heaven and earth were opened.

He felt the hundred phoenix diagram trembling.

That world he had traded his life for, nourished with his blood, and protected through countless days and nights was cracking apart inch by inch under the crushing force of the Heavenly Dao.

He 'saw' the first mountain range collapse, saw the first river run dry, saw the first living being turn to nothingness in terror.

That was his world.

That was him.

A sweet taste rose in Chu Ye's throat, and he spat out a mouthful of golden blood, which fell upon the hundred phoenix diagram and was instantly devoured.

But he did not retreat.

Gritting his teeth, he poured all of his world power into the clash. No reserves, no path of retreat, not the slightest shred of hope for luck.

Burn, burn, burn until the last wisp of his Soul, the last drop of his blood.

The hundred phoenix diagram's light suddenly blazed with immense intensity.

At that moment, it actually managed to withstand the crushing force of the Heavenly Dao.

But only withstand.

Chu Ye looked up, through that blinding white light, at the woman atop the Peak. She still stood there, light swirling around her body, her veil utterly still.

Her gaze wasn't even directed at him.

It was merely lowered slightly, as if watching a dying insect struggling in its final moments.

Chu Ye suddenly understood.

It wasn't that she was arrogant.

But rather...

She truly only needed to do this much.

The Heavenly Dao power poured down once more.

This time, it was with its true, full force.

The woman finally moved.

She raised her other hand, her two hands held apart as if cradling all of heaven and earth. Then, she gently pressed down.

"Boom——"

Chu Ye's hundred phoenix diagram finally shattered.

Not cracking apart inch by inch, but collapsing entirely as a whole.

That hundred thousand miles of mountains and rivers, those countless living beings, that world he had traded everything for—before that lightly spoken word 'press,' they shattered like glass hitting the ground, fracturing into countless pieces.

Chu Ye's body trembled violently.

Then, he 'saw' his own world.

Mountains hung upside down, rivers flowed backwards, the sky shattered into countless fragments, and the earth cracked into endless abysses.

Vanishing before his eyes, without even time for a single scream.

That was his world.

That was him.

He felt his Soul being torn apart, crushed, being erased bit by bit from this world.

That pain was not physical pain, but the pain of existence itself.

As if he had never come to this world, never lived, never loved, never struggled.

He opened his mouth, wanting to shout something.

But no sound came out.

Because under the Heavenly Dao, even the sound of life is unworthy of existing.

Fragments of the hundred phoenix diagram floated around him, like the wreckage of a sunken ship, helplessly spinning on the surface of the sea.

And that Heavenly Dao power, that true, complete world power poured down by a Dominator of a realm, was majestically cascading down.

Boundless.

Endless.

Without beginning or end.

Chu Ye floated in the Void Realm, drenched in blood, his aura weakened to the extreme. He looked up at the sky, seeing the power pouring down like a vast ocean, while he...

Was but a solitary leaf on the water.

No.

Not even a solitary leaf.

Just a fallen leaf, a withered blade of grass, a speck of dust.

He suddenly smiled.

A light, faint smile. Flecks of blood at the corner of his mouth spilled out with the smile, condensing into droplets of blood in the Void Realm, floating slowly.

"So..."

He murmured, his voice so low only he could hear it.

"This is the power of the Heavenly Dao."

So the hundred phoenix diagram he had been so proud of was, before the true Heavenly Dao, nothing more than a drop in the ocean.

So the world he had desperately traded for was, before the true world, nothing more than a grain of sand.

So the 'world's Peak' he had thought he reached was merely a slightly taller hill. And the true Peak—he didn't even have the right to look up at it.

Yet he still raised his head.

Looking towards that light-shrouded figure atop the mountain Peak.

The woman finally looked at him too.

Across the cascading Heavenly Dao power, across the shattered fragments of the hundred phoenix diagram, across the endless Void Realm and its rules, their gazes met.

Her eyes still held no emotion whatsoever.

But Chu Ye distinctly saw.

Deep within that gaze, something stirred slightly.

Just for an instant.

Then, the Heavenly Dao power completely engulfed him.

Chu Ye's vision plunged into boundless darkness.

Darkness.

Boundless darkness.

Chu Ye felt himself falling. Not falling from a height, but falling from 'existence' itself.

His consciousness was dispersing, like a sandcastle meeting water, like thin mist under the sun, like all that has form ultimately returning to formlessness.

So this is what death is like.

He thought.

No pain, no fear, only a faint, weary feeling, as if he could finally rest.

How nice...

His consciousness began to scatter, the last glimmer of light about to go out.

Then.

Ding!

A cold, mechanical sound rang out from the depths of his Soul.

[Detected host facing absolute death]

[Backup energy activation procedure initiated]

[Current debt quota: 100 million points]

[Activate?]

Chu Ye's consciousness, on the verge of complete dispersion, suddenly solidified.

That voice was too familiar, so familiar he had almost forgotten it—it was the System.

The System that had brought him to this world, given him the many children, many blessings system, and led him step by step to this day.

Backup energy? Debt?

One hundred million points?

Countless questions flashed through his consciousness, but lingered for less than a thousandth of an instant.

Because there was simply no time to hesitate.

"Activate."

His consciousness issued its final cry.

——

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Then.

"Boom!"

Chu Ye felt himself explode.

No, it was his consciousness that exploded, his Soul that exploded, everything about him exploded.

Exploded into countless fragments, scattering into the endless Void Realm, scattering into the Heavenly Dao power, scattering into that world that was erasing him.

Then, those fragments began to burn.

Not ordinary burning, but a burning that transcended comprehension, touching the very Origin of existence.

Every fragment expanded as it burned, reborn in its expansion, and in its Rebirth...

Awakening.

Chu Ye opened his eyes.

On the mountain Peak, the woman's hand suddenly paused.

She felt it.

That existence that should have been erased by her, that should have completely dissipated, that should have been wiped from between heaven and earth, suddenly...

Lived.

Not only lived, but was growing stronger at a rate she could not comprehend.

Her brows furrowed slightly.

It was the first genuinely meaningful change in her expression since she had appeared.

The Heavenly Dao power continued to pour down.

But this time, that cascading power began to twist, scatter, and dissolve before the figure that was slowly rising to its feet.

Chu Ye straightened his body.

He looked down at his hand. That hand was still bleeding, cracks still visible, golden bones still exposed.

But within his palm, an indescribable power was surging.