Time seemed stretched yet compressed. His father Xu Zhan's figure burning with life and soul, concentrating all destructive force at one point into the Soul-Controlling Jade, was branded like a searing mark onto Tang Xiaoqi's retina. The white cracks spreading across the Soul-Controlling Jade's surface, the demonic entity fragment's despairing roar, Mu Qingfeng and Liu Yun's gasping from exhausting all strength in their desperate attack, Aunt Su's faint breath in the distance. All these intertwined into acruel painting combining despair and hope.
Father was using everything he had, paving the road for him, buying him that most minimal possibility.
That perception of his father's soul rapidly dissipating transmitted through the bloodline connection, was like billions of steel needles, fiercely stabbing into Xiaoqi's heart, the pain making him nearly leave his body. But he knew this was not the time to sink into grief. The opportunity father bought with his life was fleeting.
The Soul-Controlling Jade was being damaged. The demonic entity fragment's control was fluctuating violently from the treasure's injury. This was the best timing to destroy it, also possibly the only chance.
"Withdraw."
A silent roar sounded in his heart. He abruptly cut off that light column maintaining the bloodline connection that had lasted for so long and also brought him to the brink of collapse. The instant the light column vanished, his body swayed, another mouthful of blood spurted out, his vision spun with darkness, but he forcefully supported himself with will and did not fall.
He looked down at his chest. That Four Symbols Jade Pendant remained dim, its surface covered with shocking cracks, its spirituality faint like a candle in the wind. Forcefully drawing it out would have unimaginable consequences. It could very likely cause this treasure connected to his life to thoroughly shatter, or even backlash against him.
But there was no choice.
Father chose sacrifice. Auntie was between life and death. Senior Brother and Third Senior Sister were both severely injured. All hope, all cost, pressed upon this final strike.
His eyes showed a trace of unwillingness and apology toward the jade pendant, but more was a resolute determination like breaking cauldrons and sinking boats.
"Sorry, old friend, help me one last time."
He abruptly reached out, fiercely tearing off that jade pendant covered with cracks from his chest. His movement was rough, as if not feeling thatagonizing pain connected to his heart and spirit. The warm jade pendant was ice-cold in his palm. He could clearly feel its internal structure's fragility and lament.
There was no time to contemplate, no time to deploy complex techniques.
He poured all remaining spiritual energy, all will, all grief for his father, all promises to the sacrificed, all tremendous hatred toward the demonic entity, into this jade pendant on the brink of destruction.
Then, beside his father Xu Zhan's nearly translucent figure pouring all strength into the Soul-Controlling Jade, amid the chaotic spreading of cracks on the Soul-Controlling Jade's surface, the violent flickering of black light, the demonic entity fragment's intertwined shocked roars. He, like a moth drawn to flames, pushed his footwork to the extreme, transforming into aflowing light rushing forward without turning back. Holding that jade pendant burning with his final strength and hope, fiercely pressed it onto the densest center point of cracks on the Soul-Controlling Jade's surface.
"Four Symbols rotate, purification returns to origin. Break for me."
He let out a cry from the deepest part of his soul.
The instant the jade pendant contacted the Soul-Controlling Jade.
Hum.
The Four Symbols Jade Pendant on the brink of destruction, feeling the host's desperate death-defying will, and the evil origin within the Soul-Controlling Jade that was diametrically opposed to it, let out its final, also most magnificent swan song.
Green, white, crimson, black. The four divine lights no longer were phantoms but transformed into four condensed to the extreme light flows containing the origin dao of the four poles of heaven and earth. Like four awakened ancient holy beasts, they crazily surged into its interior following the cracks on the Soul-Controlling Jade's surface.
The Azure Dragon's Wood energy, carrying boundless vitality, transformed at this moment into the mostthe domineering decomposition power, eroding the Soul-Controlling Jade's material structure.
The White Tiger's Metal energy, sharp without compare, like hundreds of millions of miniature flying swords, cutting and shattering the spiritual seals and demonic glyphs within the jade's interior.
The Vermillion Bird's Fire energy, most Yang and most correct, transformed into purifying flames that burned everything, searing the countless imprisoned souls and the demonic entity fragment's thoughts within.
The Black Tortoise's Earth energy, thick and sustaining, transformed at this moment into the will to suppress and annihilate. It stabilized the other three symbols' force's eruption, preventing energy leakage, locking all destructive force firmly within the Soul-Controlling Jade's interior.
This was not simple energy impact but origin-level erasure from heaven and earth's fundamentals, targeting all yin, evil, filthy things.
At the same time, the purification origin within Xiaoqi's body that had long since been exhausted was also drawn out by this final eruption, transforming into a cool yet pure white flood. Following the Four Symbols force, it surged into the Soul-Controlling Jade, like the finest sandpaper, polishing and purifying every inch of corner steeped in demonic energy.
Four Symbols balance power. Purification origin.
These two forces emerging from the same source yet opposite in nature, driven by Xiaoqi's desperate will, fused and erupted in an unprecedented way. Like a fire torch thrown into boiling oil, they raised a destructive storm within the Soul-Controlling Jade's interior.
"Crackle. Crackle crackle."
A sound of teeth-set-on-edge shattering, dense like rain bursting, erupted from within the Soul-Controlling Jade. Those originally only fine white cracks now spread like a spiderweb, wildly expanding, deepening, spreading to the entire jade tablet. Black light flickered violently, becoming unstable and intermittent. The spiritual fluctuation within gave offintermittent, filled with pain and fear shrieking.
The demonic entity fragment's fuzzy black shadow let out a mournful cry no longer sounding human. The carrier it inhabited was being broken down from the inside. This strand of its fragment also suffered unprecedented serious damage, becoming extremely faint, distorted, as if it would dissipate at any moment.
"No. Impossible. This Lord's Soul-Controlling Jade. Ah."
Xiaoqifirmly pressed the jade pendant on the Soul-Controlling Jade, feeling that jade and stone beneath his palm violently trembling and breaking, feeling the Four Symbols force and purification origin racing about within, feeling his father's soon-to-completely-dissipate soul transmitting a trace of faint yet carrying relief and liberation fluctuation.
He smiled, mixed with blood and tears.
He had done it. At least in destroying this source of sin, he had done it.
However, the cost was also tremendous. The Four Symbols Jade Pendant in his hand, after erupting this final brilliance, light rapidly dimmed. Cracks on its surface spread like living things. Finally, in a slight, it thoroughly shattered, transforming into several dim, non-radiant fragments, slipping from between his fingers.
Meanwhile, that terrifying energy backlash also fiercely crashed into his body along his arm.
This decision to destroy the Soul-Controlling Jade brought hope but also brought his own ending. Xiaoqi's body was like a marionette with cut strings, softening and falling backward. Consciousness rapidly sank into boundless darkness. Before that darkness thoroughly engulfed him, his last scene seen was that Soul-Controlling Jade covered with cracks, letting out an unbearable mournful cry, then violently exploding into countless fragments.