The heavens screamed.
The Eternal Ruin trembled like a dying god.
Fragments of the collapsing world rained down as blazing meteors, burning the skies crimson. The ground twisted into molten rivers of divine energy, and the air itself fractured into shards of distorted space.
Lin Feng stood atop a collapsing spire, his robes scorched, his aura flickering like a dying flame. The Heart of the Ruin pulsed within his chest, resonating with each beat of his heart.
The Ruin Core's voice still echoed faintly in his mind.
"The heavens will seek to erase you, successor… and those bound to you will share your fate."
His gaze swept the devastation below.
All across the shattered landscape, sects and clans were in chaos — their prodigies and elders desperately fleeing, their treasures scattering like sparks into oblivion.
The Eternal Domain was dying.
---
The void tore open above.
A rift of blinding gold split the sky, releasing torrents of divine destruction. Every cultivator below the Celestial Realm disintegrated instantly — reduced to motes of light swallowed by the void.
Lu Cangxuan of the Heavenly Spear Sect roared, his spear blazing with divine inscriptions.
"Lin Feng! What did you awaken!?"
Lin Feng's eyes, calm yet sharp as his blade, met his rival's fury.
"Something beyond your understanding," he replied softly.
"The past… and the debt Heaven owes to the Azure Sovereign."
Lu Cangxuan snarled.
"Then you will die with him!"
He thrust his spear forward, splitting the collapsing world apart.
---
The spear became a river of golden light, cutting through everything — time, space, and soul. Even the ruin's dying core screamed in protest.
Lin Feng didn't retreat.
His Azure Sword ignited with a blue inferno that bent the very laws of existence. His aura stretched beyond mortal limits, merging with the world's final pulse.
"Azure Sovereign Style — Lawbreaker's Edge!"
The two attacks collided.
For a moment, silence.
Then — BOOM!
The explosion consumed the realm.
The shockwave devoured mountains, sea, and sky alike. Thousands of Celestial experts vaporized before they could even scream. The ruins that had endured countless ages shattered into dust.
Only two figures remained within the storm — Lin Feng and Lu Cangxuan, locked in combat amidst annihilation.
---
Lu Cangxuan's body was covered in divine sigils, his blood boiling into golden mist.
"My sect will remember me as the one who destroyed you!" he bellowed.
Lin Feng's expression remained cold.
"You'll be remembered… as the man who tried."
He slashed again, the azure sword howling like a divine beast.
Each swing tore apart dimensions — sword light meeting spear shadows in a dance that defied all reason.
But Lu Cangxuan was no ordinary genius. At the brink of death, he shattered his dantian, burning his soul to release a forbidden art — Heavenly Spear: Celestial Collapse!
A spear of pure law condensed in his hand, glowing with divine destruction.
He lunged forward, piercing through the storm.
The world went white.
---
The attack struck Lin Feng's chest — yet instead of tearing him apart, it stopped.
The azure glow within him blazed brighter than ever, forming a barrier of divine flame that devoured the golden spear.
Lin Feng's voice echoed, calm and unyielding.
"Heaven's destruction… means nothing to the one who breaks its law."
He swung once.
The azure sword fell like judgment itself — cleaving Lu Cangxuan and his spear in half.
Time froze.
Then, like glass shattering, Lu Cangxuan's form scattered into glowing fragments, fading into the collapsing void.
The spear heir of the Heavenly Spear Sect — one of the Nine Heaven's brightest prodigies — was gone.
---
The ruin howled as if mourning its fallen children.
The skies split wider, collapsing into black voids that devoured light.
Screams of countless cultivators echoed — the proud, the arrogant, the mighty — all reduced to dust before the wrath of a dying god's domain.
Lin Feng exhaled deeply, sheathing his sword.
"The strong chase power," he murmured.
"But none learn to bear its weight."
The Heart of the Ruin pulsed within him again, guiding his steps toward the deepest fissure — the true core.
There, nine floating orbs of divine essence shimmered faintly, each radiating a different element of creation.
He reached out, and one orb — brilliant azure — resonated violently with his sword.
"The Fifth Seal…" he whispered.
He extended his hand.
---
The orb melted into his palm, fusing with his soul.
Instantly, his entire being surged with divine force — his blood turned to molten azure light, his bones to crystalline divine jade.
The Azure Sword World roared within him, expanding tenfold.
A heartbeat echoed across the collapsing world, deep and eternal.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Mountains rose and fell in rhythm with that beat. The ruin's fragments stabilized momentarily, bowing before the awakening of the Fifth Seal.
In that instant, Lin Feng's presence transcended mortal realms.
Every living being within miles instinctively fell to their knees, trembling.
"That aura… it's divine…"
"No… beyond divine…"
Even the heavens shuddered.
---
Lin Feng opened his eyes.
In their depths danced two azure flames, burning through the collapsing void.
He turned his gaze upward, where a single, flickering portal remained — the final exit from the Eternal Ruin.
"It's time," he said quietly.
With one final look at the ruins of the dead world, he stepped forward — each step dissolving the path behind him into light.
As he vanished into the portal, the ruin finally gave way.
The last thing to echo through the collapsing realm was the whisper of the Core's voice:
"Five seals awakened… and the heavens tremble once more."
The sky above the realm cracked open.
Billions of onlookers — elders, sect leaders, divine watchers — gazed upward as a single streak of azure light tore through the heavens, followed by a thunderclap that shattered mountains.
When the light faded, Lin Feng stood before the gates of the Heavenly Sword Palace, bloodied but unbroken, his aura vast and suffocating.
The elders rushed forward, stunned speechless.
"You… survived?"
"Where are the others?"
Lin Feng looked past them, his gaze distant.
"They fell," he said softly. "All of them."
He turned toward the distant sky, where divine thunder still lingered.
"And the heavens are next."