Chaos Dao Sheng Jue

Just as Lu Chen was surprised by this, the face seemed to sense that it was being watched, and suddenly turned, its empty eye sockets "looking" in the direction where Lu Chen and the others were.

"Oh no!" Nezha's expression changed drastically upon seeing this. "It has discovered us!"

As the shadow continued to roll, a black mist shot out at a speed exceeding four dimensions!

"Wake up!" Lu Chen suddenly roared upon seeing this, the Chaos Dao Life Technique surging wildly within his body. At the same time, he slapped Nezha on the back, trying to forcibly stabilize his collapsing mind. "This is a memory illusion! Don't let it drag you into deeper fear!"

Before he could finish speaking, the black mist was already upon them.

Lu Chen didn't dodge; he knew that hiding was useless in someone else's fragmented memories.

Instead, he stepped forward, his hands forming a complex hand seal in front of his chest. This was not a hand seal he had ever learned, but rather a method of response that the Chaos Dao Life Technique had autonomously deduced in a moment of crisis.

As the mark takes shape, a miniature energy vortex instantly appears in the palm of the hand.

The black mist seemed to be sucked in by an invisible force, crashing directly into the vortex. There was no explosion, no impact; it was swallowed, decomposed, and transformed silently, like a clay ox entering the sea.

At this moment, for the first time, a very subtle look of surprise appeared on the face at the heart of the shadow.

But that was all. It seemed unconcerned about this insignificant loss, quickly turning back and continuing its inching deeper into the battlefield.

And all of this happened in just a few breaths.

Lu Chen breathed a sigh of relief only after the shadow completely disappeared from sight, and then the small energy vortex in his palm slowly dissipated.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. The move he had just made, which seemed effortless, had actually consumed nearly half of his spiritual energy and placed a great burden on his mind.

"What was that just now?" Nezha gasped for breath, feeling as if he had just been on the verge of death.

“I don’t know.” Lu Chen shook his head. “But it’s definitely not something from our time. The feeling it gives me is… like it’s ‘feeding,’ feeding on gods and demons.”

Lu Chen couldn't possibly reveal the connection between that face and the old Taoist priest, but this matter left a huge question buried deep in his heart.

Lu Chen had always believed that the old Taoist priest was the embodiment of the Heavenly Dao and a representative of justice, but what he saw today was an extremely evil side, and he didn't know why.

However, Lu Chen's casual words sent chills down Nezha and Fang Xinyi's spines.

"Let's leave here first," Fang Xinyi said, forcing herself to remain calm. "The illusion isn't over yet. We must find a way to escape, or we'll be trapped in this memory forever."

"What should we do? It would be so frustrating to die in someone else's dream like this. Lu Chen, you have to think of something quickly," Nezha said, unwilling to accept the situation.

Just as Lu Chen was about to speak, the surrounding space distorted again, and then the scenery around him changed once more.

This time, they were taken to a different scene.

What comes into view is a magnificent temple. The entire temple is made of white jade and soars into the clouds. In the square in front of the temple stand seventy-two giant pillars with coiled dragons.

But at this moment, the temple had collapsed more than halfway, and the square was littered with corpses—humans, demons, and all sorts of strange and bizarre gods and demons.

Deep within the temple, a familiar figure knelt on the ground with his back to them.

It was exactly what that jade-colored skeleton looked like when it was alive.

At this moment, he was no longer a skeleton, but a living god or demon. He wore blue armor, had a heroic face, and a silver line resembling a vertical eye on his forehead.

But at this moment, his armor was shattered, and his body was covered in wounds. The most fatal wound was the bloody hole in his chest, a penetrating wound left by a stone spear.

He was holding someone in his arms.

It was a woman dressed in a moon-white long dress. The woman was lifeless, her face peaceful, and there was even a faint smile on her lips. There was a similar bloody hole in her chest.

"Ah Yue..." The god's voice was hoarse, his trembling hand stroking the woman's face, "Why did you shield me... that spear was meant to be my destiny..."

Lu Chen and his two companions stood not far away, like transparent bystanders, unable to intervene and only able to watch helplessly.

The gods and demons wept. There was no sound, only tears welling up from their three eyes simultaneously, dripping onto the woman's cold face.

"You said...you would take me to see the sunrise of the new world..." The god buried his face in the woman's shoulder, his shoulders trembling violently, "But they are all dead...Xihe is dead, Xingtian is dead, Yinglong is dead...those shadows...they devoured everything..."

Suddenly, he looked up sharply, the silver markings on his forehead bursting with blinding light: "No! It's not eating! It's fusing! They're fusing our Dao Fruits, stealing our laws! They want to—"

Before he could finish speaking, the woman's corpse in his arms suddenly opened her eyes.

It wasn't resurrection. There was no light in those eyes, only a dark, writhing shadow.

"Ah Yue?" The gods and demons were stunned.

The next second, the woman's hand suddenly pierced through his chest and grabbed his still-beating heart.

"You..." The eyes of the gods and demons were filled with disbelief.

However, a strange smile appeared on the woman's face, while her voice remained gentle: "Give me the fragments of the 'Heart of the World'..."

"So... you were also..." The god and demon laughed bitterly, "So it was all a deception from beginning to end..."

After he finished speaking, his body began to glow, not with the destructive light of a self-destruction, but with a warm, inclusive, and gentle light that seemed capable of nurturing all things.

“But I won’t give it to you.” The god lowered his head and whispered in the woman’s ear, “Ah Yue, no matter who you are, no matter what you have become… I will always remember you, the one who said you would watch the sunrise with me.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the soft light suddenly contracted, pouring into the fragments of the Heart of the World in his chest.

Then—with a bang, the fragments suddenly exploded.

It didn't explode; instead, it transformed into countless points of light, dissipating into the air. Along with it vanished the physical bodies of the god, the demon, and the woman, leaving only a skeleton.

Immediately afterwards, the illusion began to collapse.

In the very end, Lu Chen heard a sigh that transcended countless ages and resounded deep within his soul:

"Those who come after... be careful... your shadow... can imitate... the one you love most..."

Just as the illusion collapsed, Lu Chen and the others gasped for air like drowning people emerging from the water, returning to the Nirvana Forbidden Land.

The jade-colored skeleton remained seated in the same spot, but the eerie blue flames in its eye sockets had been completely extinguished, and even the luster emanating from the skeleton itself had dimmed considerably, as if its last strength had been exhausted.

"Shadows can imitate the person they love most." Fang Xinyi repeated the sentence she had just heard in the illusion in a low voice, her expression very solemn.

She glanced at Lu Chen subconsciously, then quickly looked away...