The moment the damaged Void Piercing Shuttle, carrying the dying Xiao Qi and exhausted Mu Xue and Second Senior Brother, struggled into stable void, behind them that region of space dominated by chaos and darkness welcomed its final end.
Having lost the Demon Lord Origin Core's forced maintenance, and having its most important energy meridians severed from within by Xiao Qi's sacrificial sword strike, the entire Demon Nest had long been like a giant beast with its spine removed, leaving only an endlessly self-collapsing empty shell. However, this shell's destruction was still a grand, star-sea shaking finale.
The Celestial Cycle Star Formation, this ancient killing formation drawing upon 365 Nascent Soul cultivators' power and the stars' radiance of heaven and earth, did not pause for even a moment due to the core target's concealment. Under the allied forces commander-in-chief's direction, the formation's power was pushed to its extreme. The 365 stellar light pillars, originally just thick beams, now seemed to transform into 365 roaring rivers of stars, their light so intense that distant observers could not look directly at them. They were no longer merely bombardment, but like countless plows burning with star fire, back and forth plowing, scouring, purifying that enormous Demon Nest remnant!
"RUMBLE—!!!"
A muffled yet grand roar, passing through the void at speed surpassing sound, was space itself wailing. The Demon Nest's massive main body, constructed from countless grudge souls, twisted matter, and pure demonic energy, comparable to a small planet, could no longer withstand the internal-external dual attacks. Starting from its very core, it experienced chain-reaction, complete disintegration.
First, the most central area, that core forbidden ground once used as the Demon Lord's lair, was like a water surface with a stone dropped in, rippling with visible, light-distorting black waves. Where these waves passed, all matter—whether writhing flesh walls, flowing demonic rivers, or grotesque architectural structures—instantly transformed into the most basic particles, then thoroughly annihilated by the stellar light pillars following close behind.
Next, the disintegration spread outward like a plague. Massive, mountain-like skeletal structures, under the scouring of stellar light, made grating breaking sounds, then crumbled inch by inch, transforming into countless meteors burning with black flames, exploding outward in all directions. Those ancillary structures clinging to the Demon Nest's surface, not yet destroyed in earlier battles—tumor-like hatching nests, twisted spires, and countless grudge cages still wailing—now were like sandcastles swept by a wild wind, quickly disintegrating and vaporizing in the stellar light.
The entire Demon Nest seemed like a flower suddenly blooming in the void, an extremely massive, intertwined with black and stark white, flower of death. The petals were flying fragments, the stamens were annihilating energy, and the receptacle was the expanding destruction waves.
This scene was both cruel and carried a strange, breathtaking grandeur.
But this was not the end.
The massive chaotic energy, shattered matter fragments, and forcibly condensed then suddenly released grudge thoughts from the Demon Nest's disintegration did not immediately dissipate. They formed a briefly existing, extremely dangerous "energy ruins," a death nebula covering millions of li of void, filled with destructive energy storms.
And Void itself, this indifferent yet eternally vibrant backdrop, began to display its ruthless yet vital side.
Void currents, ordinarily invisible and intangible, active only in specific areas—spatial folds and energy turbulence—at this moment seemed like sharks scenting blood, gathering from all directions toward this newly born energy ruins. They were no longer invisible; in the process of devouring and absorbing those chaotic energies and matter fragments, they themselves were "dyed," manifesting colorful, grotesque forms, like gorgeous yet dangerous ribbons, entwining, tearing, devouring the Demon Nest's remnants.
Some strange creatures living deep in the void, feeding on energy and spatial fluctuations, were also attracted by this unprecedented "feast." There were massive, transparent jellyfish-like "Void Stingrays," spreading huge skirts, elegantly swimming in energy storms, devouring scattered demonic energy points. There were centipede-shaped yet composed of pure spatial cracks, "Crevice Worms," threading through shattered matter fragments, gnawing on remnants containing spatial power. There were even some unnameable, seemingly composed of pure geometric light and shadow, bizarre existences, appearing and disappearing at the ruins' edges, absorbing scattered grudge and law fragments...
This was a feast belonging to the void itself. A nest of a powerful existence, an artifact gathered countless negative energy and matter, upon its destruction released everything, becoming nourishment for one link in the void's ecological chain. Destruction and rebirth, at this moment intertwined in the most direct, most cruel way.
From afar, that region of space seemed to be holding a silent yet grand fireworks display. Only, the fireworks' colors were dark black, fierce white, and the grotesque rainbow colors when void currents devoured, accompanied by soundless yet soul-shaking energy roars.
Inside the Void Piercing Shuttle, Mu Xue silently watched the destructive scene behind through the observation array. In her ice-blue eyes reflected that area constantly contracting, gradually being digested and devoured by the void, death nebula. There was no joy, only endless exhaustion and heaviness.
They had paid an almost unbearable price, wounded the Demon Lord, destroyed its nest, winning this battle.
But the Demon Lord was not dead, only unaccounted for.
And Xiao Qi...
She withdrew her gaze, looking at the man in her arms with weak breathing and faint black qi still lingering between his brows. Gently, she brushed aside the hair stuck to his forehead by sweat and blood.
The battle was far from over. Only the battlefield might shift from this vast void to somewhere more dangerous, more unpredictable.