Zhi Xuan's footsteps, which were originally light, now felt as if they were being pulled by invisible chains tethered to the core of the earth. Every inch of progress toward the center of the jade altar demanded full concentration from his Heavenly Samsara Wheel. Xuan-Huang Energy was not merely ordinary spiritual energy; it was the energy that formed the foundation of the world, carrying a weight of existence capable of crushing the bones of a low-level cultivator.

  "Ugh..." Zhi Xuan groaned, cold sweat mixed with black steam dripping from his forehead.

  The human right side of his body welcomed the primordial warmth of the Xuan-Huang Energy, but his blackened left side reacted as if it were being doused with boiling water. The Slaughter Pillar on his forehead emitted an intense blood-red light, struggling to protect Zhi Xuan's frame from the pressure that tried to dissolve the darkness within him. Finally, with a soft thud, he was thrown backward and crashed into a ruined wall.

  Jade dust and ancient ash soared high as Zhi Xuan's body hit the wall with a force capable of toppling a small mountain. He coughed violently, a thick maroon liquid spilling from his lips and staining the cold debris. Zhi Xuan tried to rise, but the blackened left half of his body throbbed with a lethal pain. The Slaughter Pillar on his forehead vibrated violently, hissing out black steam that fought against the brownish-yellow radiation from the altar.

  "Dammit..." Zhi Xuan hissed, his voice sounding like the scraping of rusted metal. "This energy, even its aura alone is so heavy. It truly is worthy of being the foundation of Heaven and Earth."

  Zhi Xuan wiped the remaining blood from the corner of his mouth with a still-trembling right hand. His sapphire-glowing eyes stared at the altar with a mixture of respect and deep hatred.

  "The energy is underground," Zhi Xuan murmured, dropping himself to sit cross-legged beneath the ruins. "If the exterior is already this heavy, then if my body were directly hit by that energy, it would instantly explode into dust. The mother of all matter, the beginning of the world's separation."

  Inside his Sea of Consciousness, the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron began to vibrate intensely. The ancient furnace seemed to catch the scent of its origins, responding to the presence of Xuan-Huang Energy with a resonance that made the souls of Ao Sheng and Xiao Die tremble.

  "Senior, let me out!" Ao Sheng shouted, the small dragon pressing his face against the transparent wall of the Sea of Consciousness. "This furnace... it will not be still until it touches that initial breath!"

  Zhi Xuan waved his hand, and in an instant, two small lights shot out from his body. Before him, Xiao Die and Ao Sheng now stood, their faces pale and full of curiosity as they saw Zhi Xuan's transformation from the outside.

  Ao Sheng gasped, his small steps stopping instantly as his golden eyes caught the horrifying sight of Zhi Xuan's body. He saw his senior's pale right side contrasting with the pitch-black left side, which looked like infernal charcoal that had not yet cooled. The red lines of the Slaughter Seals crawled there like pulsing veins hungry for life.

  "Senior... your body..." Ao Sheng whispered in a squeaky voice, his small hand trembling as he pointed toward Zhi Xuan's left shoulder, which was now emitting thin black steam.

  Xiao Die, who was usually full of cheer, could only cover her mouth. Her transparent wings vibrated violently, emitting a dim light that seemed to try and ward off the cold air radiating from Zhi Xuan's dark side.

  "Senior, Xiao Die is afraid," she murmured softly.

  Zhi Xuan looked at the two small creatures with an expression that was hard to interpret. The red rings in his pupils faded slightly when he saw the fear on their faces, yet he could not hide the reality that had racked his body.

  "It is fine," Zhi Xuan replied with a thin smile, shaking his head slowly. "My Killing Intent is not something out of control; you will not be harmed."

  Despite Zhi Xuan's reassuring tone, the cold air radiating from his left side seemed to contradict his own words. He closed his eyes for a moment, focusing the entire circulation of the Heavenly Samsara Wheel to stabilize his heartbeat, which now possessed two different rhythms—one warm and powerful, and one slow and deadly.

  He sharpened his divine sense, piercing through the earth toward the heart of the ground. There, the soil was so dense and dark that it obstructed his divine sense. He gritted his teeth, breaking through the deepest layer and finding something magnificent, leaving him stunned by what he saw.

  "Xuan-Huang," Zhi Xuan murmured, his voice sounding enchanted. "This... this is like scattering clouds; even a grain of dust can carry the weight of dozens of mountain ranges."

  Zhi Xuan gasped as his consciousness touched the deepest core beneath the altar. There, in a cavity of the earth isolated from the rot of the outside world, was a swirl of liquid energy, brownish-yellow in color, rotating slowly. It did not look like fire or water, but rather like condensed mist, carrying a primordial glory that made Zhi Xuan's divine sense feel as if it were carrying the entire weight of the horizon.

  "Heaven and Earth separated, so magnificent," Zhi Xuan murmured, withdrawing his consciousness and opening his eyes.

  Zhi Xuan slowly rose from his cross-legged position, every movement of his joints making a heavy creaking sound. He glanced at the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron now floating beside him; the furnace spun with increasing speed, emitting a metallic hum that seemed to be calling to its mother.

  "Ao Sheng, Xiao Die, move away," Zhi Xuan commanded in a tone that accepted no argument. "I will pull that energy up to the surface. The vibration produced will cause the ground to collapse if it is not stable."

  He then addressed Ruo Xianxue within his Sea of Consciousness. "Great Saint, lend me your strength; create a formation so that the outside world does not notice when the Xuan-Huang is taken."

  Ruo Xianxue did not immediately answer, but the shadow of nine giant fox tails suddenly projected themselves behind Zhi Xuan's back, towering high until they pierced the red mist of the ruins. The sky above the valley instantly swirled, creating a dome of absolute darkness that isolated the entire altar area from heavenly vision or Imperial spies.

  "Absorb it drop by drop; that is more than enough for you," Ruo Xianxue's voice echoed, cold and full of authority. "Do not take too long, or you will crumble into material dust before you even have a chance to scream."

  With a brief nod, Zhi Xuan thrust his blackened left hand directly into the ruined ground. The hard jade earth shattered like paper beneath a claw powered by the Slaughter Pillar. He was no longer using ordinary cultivation techniques; he was using the authority of a Thousand Slaughter Seals to tear through the layers beneath him and forcibly pull the heaviest matter in the universe.

  Bummmm!

  The entire Ruins of the Heavenly Light Sect shook violently. The Blood Corpses that had previously prostrated were thrown in all directions as the ground beneath the Jade Altar split, creating a giant rift that spewed out a very dense golden-yellow light. Instantly, the atmosphere inside the abyss changed.

  The briny smell of blood and the rot of karma were utterly suppressed by the scent of wet earth and primordial purity. However, for Zhi Xuan, this was an ordeal of torture. The left side of his body began to emit black sparks upon contact with the Xuan-Huang aura creeping upward.

  "Now! Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron, swallow everything!" Zhi Xuan shouted.

  The Divine Furnace shot toward the rift, its size expanding in an instant, covering the crater that emitted the yellow light. The Divine Furnace created a suction spiral. Clumps of Xuan-Huang Energy resembling dense clouds began to be drawn in, drop by drop.

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  Every drop of Xuan-Huang Energy that entered the furnace made a vibration capable of cracking eardrums. Ao Sheng, watching from a distance, had to transform into his small dragon form and wrap himself around a ruined pillar to keep from being sucked in.

  "Incredible! That energy is trying to destroy the Furnace from within!" Ao Sheng shouted amidst the turmoil of the energy storm.

  Zhi Xuan clenched his jaw until it bled. He had to keep the furnace stable while his half-body screamed in pain due to the natural rejection between the Devil and Xuan-Huang.

  He stepped forward, forcing his still-human right hand to touch the wall of the Divine Furnace, channeling the Law of Four Seasons to provide balance. "Spring... Rebirth! Autumn... Inevitable Aging!"

  Zhi Xuan combined the cycles of time to encase the wild Xuan-Huang Energy inside the furnace. Under the pressure of two opposing Laws, the Xuan-Huang Energy slowly began to settle, merging with the bronze walls of the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron. The color of the furnace, which was originally a dull bronze, now began to change, as yellow-gold veins flowed across its surface, giving it a weight of presence far more majestic than before.

  The brownish-yellow lines spreading across the surface of the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron looked like the pulsing nerves of the earth. Every time a drop of energy merged with the furnace walls, a heavy thumping sound resembling an ancient bell echoed, vibrating the structure of space around the Jade Altar.

  Zhi Xuan felt the weight on his right hand increase thousands of times over. His right arm, which was still normal human flesh, began to tremble violently; his muscles tensed to the point of nearly snapping, and his pores leaked sweat mixed with blood. Conversely, his blackened left side emitted increasingly dense black steam, acting as an anchor of darkness to withstand the burst of purity from the Xuan-Huang.

  "Just a little more..." Zhi Xuan hissed, the veins in his neck bulging.

  Suddenly, from within the deep rift in the ground, a clump of Xuan-Huang Energy larger than before—the size of an adult's fist—rose up. This clump did not float lightly; instead, it crawled slowly, pressing against the air until it created a deafening sound like cracking glass.

  "NO! That is too much!" Ruo Xianxue shouted from within the Sea of Consciousness. "Zhi Xuan, release your control on that clump! If it enters all at once, the furnace will be destroyed and your soul will be erased from the cycle of reincarnation!"

  However, Zhi Xuan no longer heard the warning clearly. His consciousness was now submerged in the vortex of the Law of Four Seasons which he forced to spin at maximum speed. To him, this was not just about obtaining energy; it was about proving that his duality could control the fundamental matter of the world.

  "Law of Four Seasons: Winter that Freezes All Existence!" Zhi Xuan released his right hand from the furnace wall and pointed it directly at the crawling clump of Xuan-Huang.

  An extreme cold—a cold capable of freezing the flow of time—exploded from his palm. The hot and heavy Xuan-Huang Energy instantly slowed, encased in a layer of transparent ice from the Law of Winter.

  Whuush!

  The clump was finally sucked into the mouth of the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron. Instantly, the furnace stopped spinning. A suffocating silence enveloped the entire ruined valley for several seconds before finally, a golden-yellow shockwave exploded out from the heart of the furnace.

  "AAAARGH!"

  Zhi Xuan was thrown back, but this time he did not let himself fall. He thrust his left hand—the demonic claw that had briefly reappeared—into the ground to hold his momentum. His left hand tore through the jade for dozens of meters, creating a long trench before he managed to stop.

  Whush!

  He flicked a devilish blood-thread from his hand; the thread pulled Xiao Die and Ao Sheng toward him, and they slid back together with Zhi Xuan, bouncing far away as the swirling yellow wave created a vortex that decimated the surroundings.

  Whump! Whump! Whump!

  The thuds produced by the Xuan-Huang Energy shockwave swept through the Ruins of the Heavenly Light Sect like a sandstorm made of pure gold. The jade pillars that had stood for thousands of years were now pulverized into fine dust, and the red mist that had long dominated the valley was forced back, unable to withstand the pressure of the primordial matter.

  Zhi Xuan landed with his knee hitting the ground, his right arm tightly clutching the trembling Xiao Die and Ao Sheng, while his blackened left hand was still buried deep in a crevice in the ground. He panted, white steam escaping his mouth amidst a temperature that suddenly changed between hot and cold alternately.

  The dust from the destruction produced by the Xuan-Huang wave began to subside, leaving a giant crater where the Jade Altar had once stood. Zhi Xuan knelt, his breath coming in gasps with cold white steam exiting his mouth—the remains of the Law of Winter he had just forcibly released.

  He held Ao Sheng and Xiao Die under the protection of his tattered robe, while his left hand remained planted in the ground, trembling from the energy overload. Slowly, Zhi Xuan raised his head. At the center of the newly formed crater, the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron was no longer floating wildly. The furnace had now landed with a thud that shook the foundation of the earth, standing firm atop the scorched ground.

  The appearance of the furnace had changed completely. The bronze that previously encased it had been replaced by a heavy old gold color, with brownish-yellow accents swirling on its surface like primordial clouds trapped in metal. The aura it radiated was no longer just the air of a soul artifact; it radiated the weight of a world.

  "Senior... are you still alive?" Ao Sheng whispered, his face slowly appearing from behind the folds of Zhi Xuan's robe.

  The small dragon stared in horror at their surroundings which had been leveled to the ground. Zhi Xuan did not answer with words. He pulled his left hand from the ground, leaving a hole as deep as an adult's arm. The black skin on his left side crackled, as if the layer of darkness was adjusting to the new pressure in the atmosphere. He rose to his feet, releasing Ao Sheng and Xiao Die, then looked at the two creatures.

  "Are you both alright?" Zhi Xuan asked with a soft pant, he did not touch them with his left hand, but instead stroked their heads one by one with his right hand.

  Ao Sheng could only nod stiffly, while Xiao Die gripped Zhi Xuan's right index finger tightly, seeking the human warmth that still remained there. To them, although the "Devil" senior had just done the impossible, his presence felt like a small candle flickering in the middle of a storm of destruction.

  Zhi Xuan turned his gaze back toward the crater. He stepped toward the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron which now stood like a monument from a forgotten age. Every step felt different; the ground beneath his feet was no longer just a foothold, but he could feel the structure of the earth being pressed by the presence of the furnace.

  Ding! Ding! Ding!

  With a wave of his hand, the mountain-heavy furnace shrank, yet it did not lose the weight of its aura. The Divine Furnace hummed softly and echoed heavily, floating toward Zhi Xuan with a spinning dash before landing, hovering above his palm. Zhi Xuan stared blankly at the furnace now in his palm.

  Even though its size had decreased, the weight felt by his soul was equivalent to carrying a mountain on a sheet of paper. The Xuan-Huang Energy now trapped within the gold-bronze walls continued to pulse, sending ripples of purity that brutally hit the Slaughter Pillar on his forehead.

  "One drop to balance, one world to destroy," Zhi Xuan murmured.

  He felt his blood circulation begin to slow, forced by the extreme gravity radiated from the center of the furnace. He waved his free hand, moving his fingers and creating seal runes to separate the influence of the artifact from the pillar on his forehead; even though this artifact was an extension of his soul, he could not allow it to arbitrarily purify the blood he had forged.

  Zhi Xuan's fingers danced in the air, weaving silver threads of light from the essence of the Heavenly Samsara Wheel to wrap around the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron. Every rune he composed was a shackle of isolation, a subtle yet sturdy partition preventing the aura radiated by the Xuan-Huang from completely devouring the foundation of his Heavenly-Blood Body Law.

  After the final seal was locked, the painful hum in the Slaughter Pillar on his forehead slowly subsided, leaving an awkward silence in the middle of the crater of destruction. Zhi Xuan took a long breath, feeling the air around him now containing pure gold particles—remnants of the released Xuan-Huang Energy.

  Zhi Xuan gripped the mutated Divine Furnace tightly before finally storing it back into the center of his soul. As the artifact vanished, the suffocating gravitational pressure instantly loosened, yet he still felt as if his entire body had just passed through a cosmic grinder.

  He turned toward his blackened left side. The red lines of the Slaughter Seals now appeared calmer, hiding behind the dark pigment of his skin. Conversely, his right side now radiated a thin golden glow—the influence of the Xuan-Huang Energy seeping into his human blood circulation. He had now truly become a representation of two extreme poles. Destruction and Creation.

  "It is finished," Zhi Xuan murmured, his eyes staring sharply toward the ceiling of the abyss covered by Ruo Xianxue's dome of darkness. "We cannot linger here. The vibration earlier must have pierced the Concealing Formation if there were High-Level Cultivators observing this region."

  Ruo Xianxue manifested again beside him, her spiritual robe fluttering even though there was no wind. Her enchanting face appeared slightly pale, a sign that maintaining the spatial isolation against the Xuan-Huang Energy was not an easy task even for a Great Saint.

  "You are right, brat," Ruo Xianxue whispered while narrowing her double eyes. "The initial breath of the world, even just a few drops, will lure wolves from all directions."

  Zhi Xuan nodded. He retrieved the Ghost Veil from his storage bag, putting it on to disguise his face, his blackened body, and the Slaughter Pillar on his forehead which was now hidden beneath the hood. He looked at Ao Sheng and Xiao Die who still seemed transfixed.

  "Go back inside," Zhi Xuan commanded softly.

  Without many words, the two small creatures turned into streaks of light and entered back into his Sea of Consciousness, bringing with them a sense of relief mixed with deep concern. Zhi Xuan leaped out of the giant crater with a single stomp of his foot.

  His physical strength was now far beyond what he had ever imagined; every step made the air around him explode slightly due to energy compression. He streaked through the red mist that was beginning to churn again, leaving the Ruins of the Heavenly Light Sect.