323: Chapter 323 One punch pierced through the East China Sea, and I saved all the ancestors!

That blurry warning had not yet faded from his mind.

"Beep—BEEP!!!"

A high-pitched, shrill buzzing, far sharper than any previous alarm, tore through the subterranean silence without warning.

This was not a warning.

This was the death knell of the countdown's end.

"‘Cradle’ cleanup program initiated... Dimensional collapse beginning... Estimated time: Thirty breaths."

The cold, synthesized mechanical voice rang in everyone's ears like a final judgment.

The altar beneath their feet shook violently. The ground, inscribed with Immortal Qin runes, no longer glowed; instead, it began to disintegrate from within, turning into handfuls of the most primitive white powder.

Above the dome, the hole Lu Sheng had punched through was expanding frantically, yet the seawater pouring in was being decomposed and annihilated by an invisible force mid-way.

The entire underground space was being formatted at the level of laws!

"No!!"

Li Xiaoyao's eyes were bloodshot as he lunged like a madman toward the ice wall that sealed the powerhouses of past generations.

The corridor snapped amidst the tremors. Ice coffins detached from the walls one after another, crashing to the ground and shattering into pieces.

He saw the ice coffin of the Zixiao Sword Sect's Ancestral Master covered in spiderweb-like cracks; that arrogant face appeared fragmented within the fissures.

"Ancestral Master!!"

Li Xiaoyao frantically clawed at the ten-thousand-year profound ice with his fingernails. His fingertips became a bloody mess, yet he couldn't even leave a single white mark.

Dao Yi's face was equally ashen. He watched as the remains of several Kunlun sages, along with the collapsing ice wall, were about to fall into a pitch-black dimensional rift that had appeared out of thin air—a rift from which even light could not escape.

That was true nothingness, eternal extinction.

These figures, who were once brilliantly talented and had supported an entire era, were now, ten thousand years after their deaths, to suffer the fate of having no remains left and being completely erased from the world?

How tragic! How unjust!

"Lu Sheng! Think of something! I beg you!!" For the first time, Dao Yi cast aside all pride and roared at the back standing in the center of the storm.

However, Lu Sheng just stood there motionless, seemingly sensing the brand-new power within his body.

Twenty breaths.

The speed of the spatial collapse suddenly accelerated. A massive crack directly traversed the entire corridor, swallowing half of the ice coffins whole.

Li Xiaoyao watched helplessly as his Ancestral Master's ice coffin slid toward that darkness, letting out a wail like a cuckoo weeping blood.

"So noisy."

An extremely impatient voice drowned out all the rumbling and wailing.

Lu Sheng turned around. In those black-gold Cross-shaped Pupils, there was not a hint of pity, only an irritability from having his mood disturbed.

His figure flickered, and he instantly appeared behind Li Xiaoyao. Like picking up a chick, he grabbed the old man by the back of the neck with one hand and yanked him back from the ice wall.

"Since I've already eaten, I should at least have some dessert after the meal."

Lu Sheng glanced at the falling ice coffins and the faces of Dao Yi and Li Xiaoyao, which were distorted with despair. He grinned, revealing a row of forest-white teeth.

"Then... I'll take it to go."

Before his voice had even faded.

"Roar—!!!"

A Dragon's roar originating from the primordial era, mixed with an emperor's bellow, exploded behind him.

The thousand-meter-tall Archaic Heaven Emperor Venerable Dharma Idol suddenly manifested within this doomed space!

This time, it was not for destruction.

Those six grey-white arms that blotted out the sky opened their fingers. Instead of clenching into fists, they turned into the most precise crowbars and the most tyrannical cranes in the world!

Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!

The six giant hands ignored the cracking rock layers and plunged directly into the deepest foundations of the Heros Tomb corridor!

"Rise... for me!!!"

Lu Sheng's main body let out a furious shout, and the black-gold imperial patterns all over his body erupted with blinding light.

The Dharma Idol exerted its strength accordingly!

Creeeaaak—!!!

It was the mournful groan of an entire tectonic plate being forcibly torn apart!

Under the stunned gazes of Dao Yi and Li Xiaoyao, that segment of the circular ice wall—the most complete part sealing hundreds of core powerhouses—along with the kilometer-thick ground beneath it, was physically stripped from the depths of the earth by those six giant hands!

A massive "mountain body" over three thousand meters in diameter, a mixture of ice crystals and rock, was held aloft in the palms of the Dharma Idol just like that.

Ten breaths.

The light in the entire underground space had completely distorted. Massive gravitational forces came from all directions, threatening to tear this "mountain body" apart along with the Dharma Idol.

"The path hasn't been opened yet."

Lu Sheng looked up at the dome blocked by seawater.

He released Li Xiaoyao, took a deep breath, and his chest puffed out slightly.

Then, toward the endless rock layers and billions of tons of seawater above, he simply threw a punch.

There was no specific target.

Because wherever his fist pointed, the path would be smooth.

BOOM——————!!!

There was no sound.

Because the force of the punch had already exceeded the speed of sound.

Everyone only saw a pure, destructive torrent of power starting from Lu Sheng's fist and heading straight up.

All matter blocking the way—rock, mantle, seawater... before this power, they didn't even have the right to turn into dust; they were directly erased from concept!

A straight, hundred-meter-diameter absolute vacuum tunnel instantly penetrated all obstacles from the underground to the sea surface!

Five breaths.

"Sit tight."

Lu Sheng grabbed the still-dazed Luo Tianfei and Dao Yi with one hand, and held Li Xiaoyao with the other, lightly tapping his toe against the Void Realm.

Boom!

His entire being turned into a streak of black-gold light, soaring into the sky.

Behind him, the massive Dharma Idol holding the "Heros Tomb" followed closely.

They were like an ICBM launched in reverse, pushing against the terrifying suction of the dimensional collapse, ascending rapidly along the tunnel blasted out by that single punch!

...East Sea, Dengxian Island sea region.

The towering waves originally stirred by the Dragon Palace's movements had subsided at some point.

The sea surface was as calm as a black mirror.

Suddenly.

"Glug... glug..."

Several massive bubbles emerged from the center of the sea.

Immediately after.

BOOM!!!!!!!!

A massive water column over five thousand meters in diameter exploded from the seabed without warning, shooting ten thousand meters into the sky!

At the top of that water column, a huge, sky-blotting dark shadow burst out of the water!

It was a thousand-meter-tall grey-white demon god.

It held the heavens with its six arms, steadily lifting a... floating island made of ice crystals and rock!

Sunlight spilled down.

It shone on the ice mountain, refracting a rainbow-colored halo.

Through the crystal-clear ice, one could vaguely see blurry figures sealed within, emitting a desolation and majesty that spanned across eternity.

This scene was like a myth descending.

On Dengxian Island, all surviving Disciples, including those Kunlun Cultivators who had just been incorporated, all collapsed to the ground, prostrating themselves in worship before that demon god.

And on the shoulder of that Dharma Idol, Lu Sheng stood with his hands behind his back, the sea breeze blowing his black robes and his hair fluttering.

He looked at the heavy "spoils of war" in his palm, a satisfied expression appearing on his face.

Just then, Dao Yi suddenly let out a cry of surprise.

"Look! Those... those remains of the sages!"

Everyone looked over.

They saw that on the massive ice mountain, those originally dead heroic spirits whose Origin had been drained, upon leaving the suppression of the underground laws and being bathed in sunlight again, actually underwent a transformation.

Wisps of golden light, so faint they were almost invisible, slowly seeped out from the tops of those corpses' heads.

Those points of light were the... remnant Soul obsessions imprinted in the deepest parts of their Souls that even the 'Sea God' could not drain!

Dao Yi's body flew uncontrollably toward one of the Ancestral Master remains wearing a Kunlun Daoist robe.

He reached out and tremblingly touched that wisp of golden light.

Buzz—

A fragment of broken, chaotic, yet shocking secret information instantly flooded into his mind.

Dao Yi's body shook violently, his face turned pale instantly, and his eyes were filled with unprecedented shock and subversion.

He suddenly turned his head to look at Lu Sheng, his voice hoarse as he said word by word:

"That wasn't Ascension..."

"That was... an escape!"

"Immortal Qin's 'Ark Plan' was to avoid a... that swept through the heavens and myriad worlds."

"...Starry Sky Grand Sacrifice!"