The Gravelands were no longer a silent waste.
The air had become a pressurized fluid of clashing wills, vibrating with a frequency that threatened to shatter the very foundation of the continent. Six Celestial Inquisitors stood in a hexagonal formation, their ten-foot-tall avatars forged from the "Great Dao Golden Essence." These were not mere bodies; they were the physical manifestations of Heavenly Law. To them, the universe was a garden of strict order, and Hua Sui was the blight that refused to be pruned.
"Abomination 9527," the Lead Inquisitor spoke, his voice booming like a funeral bell across the grey dunes. "You were born a Pill-Slave of the Scarlet Cloud Sect, a destiny as lowly as the dust. You have stolen the secrets of the heavens and inverted the natural cycle. You have triggered the 'Karmic Law of the Nine Heavens.' Today, we strip your soul, reshape your fate, and cast you back into the furnace for three thousand years of refinement!"
Hua Sui slowly raised his head.
His silver hair whipped in a wind that smelled of ozone and ancient iron. Each strand shimmered with a faint, translucent black glow—the "Lawless Qi" produced when the Inverse Veins reach their absolute limit. Behind him, the five thousand silver-eyed followers sat in a meditative trance, their breath synchronized with Hua Sui's own, creating a haunting, silent "field" of negation.
"Fate?" Hua Sui let out a raspy, chilling laugh that made even the golden giants recoil. "In the pits, I was subjected to 'Soul-Searching' every three days. Where was your Law then? When my brothers were ground into medicinal dross, where was your Karma?"
He took a step forward. The grey sand beneath his feet didn't just move; it disintegrated, revealing the ruins of a Primordial God beneath.
"If you call me a rebel, then I shall show you what it means to rebel against the Heavens themselves!"
[Image: Six massive golden avatars surrounding a small, silver-haired youth. Below them, the earth is cracking open; above, the clouds are swirling into a black vortex.]
"Arrogance!"
The Lead Inquisitor roared, his right hand clutching the void. In an instant, the spiritual energy for a hundred miles was siphoned into a single, thousand-foot-long "Sovereign Sword of Causality." This blade did not target the flesh; it targeted "Existence." If struck, every trace of Hua Sui's history would be erased. He would never have been born; he would never have existed.
This was the ultimate technique of the High Realms: "Primordial Reset."
Hua Sui did not dodge. He closed his eyes, and the "Grey Seed" within his consciousness shattered into infinite shards.
"Inverse Path, Ninth Gate: The Great Emptiness!"
His aura vanished. No spiritual fluctuations, no divine sense—he had become a living "Void."
The Sovereign Sword fell.
A power capable of cleaving mountains struck Hua Sui's shoulder, but there was no collision. The blade of pure Law melted like snow hitting a red-hot iron, dissolving silently into nothingness the moment it touched his skin.
"Impossible!" The Inquisitor's golden mask cracked with terror. "Even a Great Immortal could not withstand the Stroke of Causality! What demonic path are you walking?!"
"I walk the path you paved with my blood."
Hua Sui opened his eyes. His pupils were gone, replaced by two fathomless abysses of darkness. He reached out a pale finger and flicked it toward the Inquisitor.
"Shatter."
There was no explosion. The golden giant began to weather and crumble from the fingertips down, turning into fine dust. The golden dragon beneath his feet let out a mournful wail as its massive body withered like a fallen leaf, scattering into the wind.
"The Laws... are breaking?" The remaining five Inquisitors trembled.
This was the primal fear of the Eastern Fantasy world: when an opponent refuses to play by the rules—when they don't just break the laws, but invalidate the very concept of Law itself.
With every step Hua Sui took, his presence grew more suffocating. The five thousand followers began to chant in unison, a forbidden scripture known as the Inverse Fate Mantra. The sound converged into a massive black vortex in the sky.
"If the High Realms wish to harvest the world, then today, I shall harvest the Gods!"
Hua Sui flickered, appearing instantly above another Inquisitor. He used no flashy techniques, no complex seals. He simply pressed his palm down.
"The Great Silence Palm!"
Space collapsed. The Inquisitor was crushed into a ball of pure spiritual essence before he could even scream. But this essence did not dissipate; it was hungrily absorbed by the five thousand silver-eyed followers below.
These former slaves, once lower than ants, began to break through their bottlenecks in waves. Some reached the Foundation Establishment, others the Golden Core—some even showed the faint glow of a Nascent Soul.
They were "feasting" on the divinity of the Inquisitors!
"Madness... this is madness!"
The Lead Inquisitor realized there was no victory to be had. He spat out a mouthful of Essence Blood, painting a portal in the void to the High Realm. "Great Ancestor, descend! A Demon Lord has risen! He seeks to sever the karmic veins of the world!"
BOOM—
The sky was torn open. A massive, cold eye—large enough to cover the entire continent—slowly opened behind the rift.
There was no emotion in that gaze, only a freezing, absolute scrutiny.
"The Great Plan must not be disrupted."
A pressure a thousand times stronger than the Inquisitors descended. This was no longer a mere avatar; it was the "Will of the Saint." Under this weight, every grain of sand became as heavy as a mountain. The followers' chanting stopped as many began to bleed from their eyes and ears.
Hua Sui felt his bones grinding. The world itself was trying to eject him like a foreign object.
"Ancestor?" Hua Sui walked upward, step by agonizing step, defying the gravity of a God.
His silver hair turned a haunting, bloody crimson.
"You look down upon us as crops in your field. Today, I will show you what happens when the harvest grows fangs!"
He pulled a glowing, jagged object from his chest—the "Fractured Solar Core" he had hidden for so long. It was the catalyst intended for a Divine Pill, now overflowing with Inverse Qi.
"By my life, I sacrifice the eternal solitude! CRACK!"
He didn't throw the core at the Ancestor. He slammed it directly into the heart of the Gravelands' ley lines.
In a heartbeat, the spiritual energy of the entire continent began to boil. Ancient, forbidden arrays hidden for hundreds of thousands of years were forcibly activated. Hua Sui was using his own life force to rewrite the "Spiritual Attribute" of the world itself.
He was forcing the world into an "Era of Zero Spirit."
The Ancestor's eye flickered with shock. If the spiritual attributes changed, the Gods who relied on them would fall from their pedestals.
"Vermin, you dare!"
A massive ethereal hand descended from the heavens to crush Hua Sui before the array could finish.
Standing at the center of the collapse, Hua Sui felt his body disintegrating, yet he let out a final, thunderous laugh directed at the trembling Sect Leaders in the distance:
"I, Hua Sui, have been here. I have seen, and I have hated. From this day forth, there is no more distinction between Immortal and Mortal—only the Will of Man!"