"Ling Yan, this formation is called the 'Heavenly Law's Return to the Void,' and it was designed for one such as you who has transgressed the Heavenly Dao. Today, you have no path of escape."
The voice came from all directions, ethereal and indifferent, without the slightest trace of a mortal aura, as if it were a divine decree descended from beyond the nine heavens.
The speaker was clad in a pure white Daoist robe devoid of any embroidery, their face veiled by a faint halo, making it impossible to see clearly. But that transcendent, otherworldly presence was more terrifying than any fiendish demon lord.
Surrounding him were another 6 figures, identical in appearance, standing in an exceedingly profound formation. The flow of energy between them formed an invisible, indestructible cage.
Beneath their feet was a star-field that had long been reduced to a chaotic void. The shattered remains of stars, like solidified dust, floated silently in this absolute dead silence.
Trapped in the center was Ling Yan. His green robes were tattered in many places, and wisps of golden blood seeped from his wounds, dissipating into pure spiritual energy the moment they touched the void.
He grasped an ancient sword named "Immortal-Slayer." The once radiant runes on the sword's body were now 70% to 80% dim, with only a faint spiritual light struggling to survive.
His breathing was extremely long and slow; each exhalation and inhalation seemed to tug at the last vestiges of life in this ruined star-field. However, under the suppression of the "Heavenly Law's Return to the Void" formation, this vitality appeared so insignificant.
He did not look at the 7 people surrounding him. Instead, that pair of deep eyes was cast toward a more distant, more ethereal place — the direction of the Heavenly Court.
There, his former comrades, the symbol of order he had defended with his blood for over 1200 years, was now deathly silent. Not a single shred of divine sense had been sent to investigate.
It was as if this battlefield where he now stood had been forgotten by the entire Six Realms.
"The Heavenly Court... is just going to watch?" Ling Yan's voice was a bit hoarse, not from exhaustion, but from a chill that seeped out from the very depths of his bones.
How long had he been fighting? From the moment he was first ambushed by this group of mysterious cultivators calling themselves the "Guardians of Heaven," the concept of time had already blurred.
He only remembered shattering 37 formation hubs that sealed the star-field, repelling 3 waves of their assaults, and even paying the price of grievous injury to personally cast the divine soul of one of the "Guardians" into endless samsara.
But they were like inexhaustible shadows, appearing one after another.
What was more terrifying was that they knew his techniques, his habits, and even some of the secret killing moves of the Immortal-Slayer Sword, in perfect detail.
This was a long-premeditated hunt with only one target — him, Ling Yan, the strongest War God under the Heavenly Court.
The white-robed man in the lead seemed to have heard his whisper, his tone remaining as placid as ever: "What the Heavenly Court sees, is what the Heavenly Dao sees. Ling Yan, you have slain demons and devils for the Heavenly Court, and your merits are outstanding."
"But you never, ever should have touched the boundary that does not belong to you. Your very existence has begun to shake the foundation of the Heavenly Dao. For the long-term peace and stability of the Three Realms, you must be corrected."
"Corrected?" Ling Yan repeated the word softly, the corner of his lips pulling into a sneer of utmost ridicule.
He slowly raised his head, his gaze finally falling upon the other party. There was no anger in his eyes, no fear, only a calmness like the surface of a lake frozen for ten thousand years.
"I guarded the Northern Heavenly Gate for the Heavenly Court for over 800 years, resisting the invasion of the Outer-Realm Heavenly Demons. I once pacified the Nine Nethers Sea of Blood that plagued the mortal realm with just my sword. The names of the Great Demons of Antiquity I personally sealed are still taboo in the Immortal Realm to this day."
"Your so-called 'correction' is to personally break the sword that cleared obstacles for you, just when it became too sharp?"
His voice was not loud, yet every word echoed clearly within this space sealed by the formation. Every single word was like a red-hot brand searing his divine soul.
"A sword is a good sword only when it rests peacefully in its scabbard," another Guardian spoke, his voice equally devoid of inflection. "You have already shown a tendency to break free from control. What the Heavenly Court needs is a maintainer of order, not another uncontrollable variable."
"Well said." Ling Yan nodded lightly, the knuckles of his hand gripping the Immortal-Slayer Sword turning slightly white from the force.
His immortal essence was nearly depleted, and his divine soul had developed fine cracks under the strain of continuous battle and the formation's suppression, but his upright body was still like a sharp sword piercing the firmament, not bent in the slightest.
"So, the diagram for this 'Heavenly Law's Return to the Void' formation was personally calculated by the Supreme Star Lord, wasn't it?"
"And the reason those few weak points in my breakout path were suddenly reinforced must have been at the suggestion of True Lord Erlang?"
"And that feeling of obstruction in a few places where my immortal essence circulates, if I'm not mistaken, should be the work of some celestial physician?"
With every sentence he spoke, the aura of the 7 Guardians opposite him grew a fraction more stagnant.
The derision on Ling Yan's lips deepened. He continued as if recounting a past event that had nothing to do with him, his tone placid, "I am very curious, what benefits did you promise the Heavenly Court? Or is it that my existence has already made that Jade Emperor, who sits high in the High Firmament Treasure Hall, feel unable to rest or eat in peace?"
No one answered him.
Silence, in itself, was the best answer.
Ling Yan laughed. At first, it was a low, muffled chuckle, which then gradually grew louder, becoming a wild laugh that echoed throughout the entire dead star-field.
The laughter was filled with endless sorrow and self-mockery, shaking even the remains of the stars until they trembled slightly.
The conviction he had guarded his entire life, at this very moment, crumbled with a crash, shattering into the most insignificant dust.
He had always thought he was fighting for the living beings of the Three Realms, for the righteous path of heaven and earth. In the end, he was merely a chess piece, a piece that had become too powerful in the game, so much so that even the players felt threatened and had to remove it from the board ahead of time.
"Hahahaha... What a Heavenly Court! What a Heavenly Dao! What a... 'for the stability of the Three Realms'!"
The laughter came to an abrupt halt.
Ling Yan's eyes changed completely. If they were a frozen lake surface before, then at this moment, the ten-thousand-fathom abyss beneath the lake had fully awakened.
Within it, there was no longer loyalty, no longer conviction, only the most primal, most pure... will to survive.
Not for the Heavenly Court, not for the common people, and certainly not for that bullshit Heavenly Dao.
Only for himself.
"It seems you are very confident you can keep me here," he said calmly, his left hand slowly rising as his fingertips began to form a series of ancient and complex seals.
With the completion of each seal, his face grew a shade paler, and the life force in his body weakened by a sliver.
The lead Guardian sensed that something was wrong. The face beneath the halo seemed to twitch slightly. "A cornered beast's struggle will only increase your suffering. Ling Yan, accept your fate."
The auras of the 7 figures surged once more. The invisible cage began to contract rapidly, space being compressed layer by layer, emitting a teeth-grinding creak.
Black fissures were even squeezed out of the void, revealing the even deeper chaos behind them.
Ling Yan ignored all of this. The speed of his seals grew faster and faster, so fast that only a series of blurry afterimages could be seen.
From his mouth, he began to chant a segment of an obscure and ancient scripture. That scripture belonged not to the Dao, not to Buddhism, and certainly not to the Demonic path; it was as if it were a chaotic sound from before the creation of heaven and earth.
Following the chanting of the scripture, a golden flame actually ignited within his already depleted immortal body.
That was not the fire of immortal essence, but... the fire of the divine soul.
He was burning his own divine soul!
"What is he doing? This kind of technique..." one of the Guardians voiced in astonishment and doubt. They had exhausted all their research on Ling Yan, yet had never seen such a bizarre and resolute secret art.
"Stop him!" The lead Guardian could finally no longer maintain his composure, shouting in a stern voice.
Seven world-destroying attacks, fused with the supreme might of the formation, blasted toward Ling Yan from seven directions simultaneously. The power of this combined strike was enough to instantly pulverize an entire Great Thousand World into dust.
However, it was already too late.
In the instant before the attacks were about to strike his body, Ling Yan's final seal was abruptly formed. The golden flames burning all over his body contracted in an instant, all converging at the point between his eyebrows, forming an extremely condensed point of light.
His physical body, amidst the torrent of the seven attacks, silently turned into the most fundamental light and dust, and together with the Immortal-Slayer Sword that had accompanied him for countless years, returned to nothingness.
But, that single point of golden light between his brows ignored all attacks and spatial lockdowns, and in a manner that transcended the concepts of time and space, abruptly vanished from its spot.
BOOM!
Having lost their target, the seven attacks collided violently, and the resulting energy storm shook even the "Heavenly Law's Return to the Void" formation until it trembled violently.
When all had subsided, only the seven white-robed Guardians and an even more deathly silent void remained in the star-field.
"...He escaped?"
"No, that was not an escape. That was... a forbidden art of mutual destruction. He used his millennia of Dao Fruit and his indestructible divine soul as the price to activate some sort of law of causality that we cannot comprehend." The lead Guardian's voice was dry. He extended his divine sense, carefully scanning every inch of this space, but could no longer find the slightest trace of Ling Yan's presence.
"He has been completely annihilated. His divine soul is destroyed, without even the possibility of reincarnation remaining," another concluded, a hint of hard-to-detect... relief in his tone.
The lead Guardian remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking: "Let's return and report to the Heavenly Court. Just say... Ling Yan, has been vanquished."
The seven figures gradually faded, disappearing from this star-field that had witnessed the fall of a War God.
No one knew what Ling Yan was thinking in the final moment he activated that forbidden art.
It was not resentment, not unwillingness, but a silent oath.
If there is a next life... no, if I can still create a next life...
I, Ling Yan, will no longer fight for anyone or anything. If the Heavenly Dao obstructs me, I will defy the heavens; if all living beings block my path, I will slaughter all living beings.
What I seek is only eternal life, only great detachment, great freedom.
In this life, I was a sword for others, and was ultimately broken.
In the next life, I will, for myself alone, forge a sword that will never yield!
That single point of golden light, carrying his final and purest will, escaped into the river of time, drifting toward an unpredictable... future.