382: Chapter 373 The Sixth Incarnation: Heavenly Venerable (Sixty-One)

"Net of Death, harvest all living beings!"

The cold intent of the Dao Lord of Death was like a proclamation from the God of death.

"Since my true body has arrived, there is no need to wait any longer! All Dao Lords here, whether friend or foe, no matter how much of them remains, shall all become the resources for my ascension to Soul Transformation!"

He actually intended to take advantage of this brief window—when his true body had descended and his power was at its peak, yet the suppression of heaven and earth had not yet reached its zenith—to harvest all the Dao Lords struggling in the aftermath of the explosion!

This was the most thorough, efficient, and cruelest method!

Amidst the Chaos of the heaven refining cauldron's self-detonation and under the countdown of the heaven and earth's suppression on his true body, he chose the most extreme way to initiate the final, indiscriminate hunt ahead of schedule!

"death, you..."

In the distance, the true body of the Dao Lord of Time was hidden within the phantom of the long river of time. Seeing the actions of the Dao Lord of Death, his intent paused slightly, but then a cold flash of realization and decisiveness crossed his eyes.

"Very well... since it has come to this, let it be as you say. Time Acceleration—except for us, let all things in this place swiftly Decay!"

He pressed his hands down into the air, and the phantom of the long river of time fluctuated violently. An invisible force of Time Acceleration instantly enveloped the area covered by the Net of Death!

Under this power, the speed at which the life of those Dao Lords targeted by the Net of Death withered, their Dao decayed, and their Divine Souls shriveled was forcibly accelerated by thousands of times! Those who might have struggled for a moment longer were now being pushed into the millstone of time, racing toward their end!

"Space... Imprisonment!"

The true body of the Dao Lord of Space emitted a low Dao sound, cooperating seamlessly. The spatial structure of the entire battlefield became like solidified amber, firmly imprisoning those Dao Lords who attempted to flee or resist, leaving them unable to evade the dual erosion of the Net of Death and Time Acceleration!

...

With the Dao Lord of Death taking the lead, the several oldest Dao Lords reached an astonishing tacit understanding after only a brief exchange of intent!

They were no longer hunters fighting individually, but had transformed into a precise, efficient, and seamlessly cooperating killing machine!

The Dao Lord of Death's Net of Death was responsible for marking and triggering the end, "Time" accelerated the process, "Space" imprisoned their escape, Order stripped away their power, Chaos assimilated their remains, and "Destruction" incinerated their existence!

"Next, it's your turn, Lord of Humanity."

The cold gaze of the Dao Lord of Death, like a physical ray of death, pierced through the chaotic tide of energy and locked firmly onto Wei An.

"Your myriad treasures river and your Humanity Dao fruit will also become part of our resources!"

The cold proclamation of death, mixed with the decaying power of Time Acceleration, the suffocating feeling of Space solidification, the weakness from Order deprivation, and the annihilating aura sweeping from Chaos and Destruction, formed an invisible net of ultimate death woven from multiple root Daos. It closed in ruthlessly from all directions toward Wei An and the myriad treasures river beneath his feet!

Under this terrifying pressure, far exceeding any previous moment, Wei An's expression turned completely cold.

His eyes were sharp as knives as they swept over the several Ancient Venerables with towering auras and manifested true bodies. He then looked at the fellow Dao Lords around him who had turned to ashes before they could even scream under the joint hunt of the Ancient Venerables, and the last trace of luck in his heart was completely extinguished.

Previously, the Ancient Venerables had only acted through projections of their intent. Although terrifying, with the myriad treasures river, a Heaven-Reaching Dao Treasure, and the presence of many Dao Lords on the battlefield to disperse the pressure and resist together, he indeed had the confidence to maneuver and stall, buying time for his original body.

But now—

True bodies had descended!

And the true bodies of several of the oldest Dao Lords who wielded the root Daos had arrived together!

This had already completely transcended the scope of "maneuvering"!

This was a crushing defeat on the level of absolute power! It was the essential gap between life levels and Dao authority!

Even though the myriad treasures river was also a Heaven-Reaching Dao Treasure, and even though his Foundation was robust, in front of the true bodies of these ancient existences, he was like a child facing an adult Vicious Beast. Facing them head-on, there was only one path: death!

"Tricky... no, it's a desperate situation."

Wei An's heart was icy, but under this extreme pressure, his Dao Heart was instead tempered to be even purer and calmer.

Treading upon the myriad treasures river, he also felt the scalp-numbing fluctuations of destruction—not only from the hunt of the Ancient Venerables but also from that heaven refining cauldron, which was glowing with chaotic light, covered in cracks, and about to explode!

He looked at that giant cauldron, which symbolized the ambitions of the Ancient Venerables' Alliance but had now become the source of destruction. He watched the ten-colored Dao patterns on the cauldron's body flashing frantically, as if it would completely burst in the next moment, and a look of madness suddenly rose in his eyes like a wildfire!

"However..." Wei An's eyes sharpened, and at this moment of life and death, that crazy thought in his mind became incomparably clear and firm! "This might also be an opportunity!"

Yes, an opportunity!

An opportunity so extreme in its madness and danger, but perhaps the only one to find a sliver of life in this desperate situation, and even... to strike back!

He could feel the myriad treasures river beneath his feet trembling violently!

But this trembling was not pure fear, nor was it merely a manifestation of enduring pressure.

At the deepest part of that trembling, amidst the resonance of the Karma dao treasure and the eight other dao treasures, he captured an indescribable...

Excitement? Longing?

Yes, longing!

The myriad treasures river, this Heaven-Reaching Dao Treasure centered on "Refining" and "Soldiery," which commanded ten thousand weapons and refined all heavens, seemed to possess an almost instinctive, greedy longing for the destructive energy about to erupt from the heaven refining cauldron—energy mixed with the lifelong cultivation of countless Dao Lords, their Dao Origins, and the Dao Rhyme of the heaven refining cauldron itself!

It was like a Vicious Beast that had been hungry for eons, smelling the freshest and most massive blood-food!

"That's it... the essence of the myriad treasures river lies in 'Refining' and 'Fusion.' It can refine ten thousand weapons and fuse various treasures to complete itself. And what is contained within the heaven refining cauldron is precisely a collection of 'Dao' energy—forcibly refined yet about to return to a chaotic Origin due to the self-detonation—which can be called the largest and most complex in this world currently!"

Wei An's thoughts raced at an unprecedented speed.

"If, at the moment the heaven refining cauldron explodes, instead of resisting it head-on, I use the characteristics of the myriad treasures river to actively guide, devour, and refine a portion of the explosive energy... no, not just a portion, but to devour as much as possible!"

"This is pulling chestnuts out of the fire, dancing on the edge of a blade! A slight mistake, and the myriad treasures river will be completely crushed and assimilated by that tide of destruction, and I will also have my form and spirit extinguished! But..."

Wei An's gaze swept over the true bodies of those Ancient Venerables who were currently working together to suppress the heaven refining cauldron while also eyeing him greedily.

"But if I succeed, the myriad treasures river will surely undergo an unimaginable transformation and sublimation! And I will also possess the capital to... briefly maneuver, or even strike back against the true bodies of these Ancient Venerables!"

More importantly, the explosion of the heaven refining cauldron was powerful enough to threaten the true bodies of the Ancient Venerables!

Their joint suppression at this moment was, on one hand, to delay the explosion and buy time for the harvest, and on the other hand, likely because they had no choice!

This explosion was equally a massive threat and drain to them!

This was the opportunity for the myriad treasures river!

This was Wei An's opportunity!