Several days passed in the blink of an eye.
By now, the Cyan Nether Secret Realm bore no resemblance to its former splendor.
The distant horizon had completely sunk into a black Void. Turbulent currents from the Void were like invisible, giant teeth, gnawing away at this shattered piece of rubble bit by bit.
As the livable space rapidly collapsed, the candidates who had been scattered across the Secret Realm were forced to converge on the only source of "life"—the realm’s core, Lingma Mountain.
Over a thousand Cultivators had now gathered near the Pill Kiln ruins on Lingma Mountain.
These thousand or so individuals were the elite who had survived half a month of bloody elimination and cheated death in the void storms.
However, the relief of surviving their ordeal did not unite them. Instead, it filled the small area with a tense, explosive atmosphere.
"We claimed this broken wall first! Get lost!"
"Bullshit! The Secret Realm is about to collapse. Might makes right now!"
Curses and the clang of Dharma Artifacts rang out incessantly. Some fought viciously to occupy a crater where the Earth Vein’s Qi was slightly more stable, while others joined forces to set up a perimeter around the ruins, trying to band together for survival in these final moments.
Yet, at the center of this noisy, chaotic gathering, there was an eerily vacant area.
It was the entrance to the Underground Palace.
Within a hundred-zhang radius, not a single soul could be seen. Several bodies lay haphazardly on the Dark Gold stone slab at the entrance, their blood long since dried and blackened.
All of them had been at the Qi Cultivation Perfection stage. One of them still clutched a Dharma Artifact whose Spiritual Light had dimmed, clearly killed in an instant while trying to force their way into the Underground Palace.
From this dead-silent area, an aura as heavy as lead and mercury pulsed from the entrance.
That was Chu Bai, cultivating.
With every breath he took, the Spiritual Mechanism around the Underground Palace would be drawn into a small vortex, as if being devoured by a whale.
The change in pressure, caused by the sheer purity of his Spiritual Power, made any passing Cultivator feel a tightness in their chest, their Divine Soul and War Soul trembling.
"Fellow Daoist, over there... the Qi seems most stable over there. Why don’t we go take shelter by the entrance to the Underground Palace?"
In a corner of the ruins, a young, blood-stained Cultivator who had just fled to this location looked at the empty entrance to the Underground Palace, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
His position directly faced a rift in the Void, and the bone-chilling cold was driving him to the brink of collapse.
"Stop! If you want to die, don’t drag us down with you!"
A low shout suddenly erupted. Xia Xing grabbed the young Cultivator by the collar and slammed him down behind a pile of rubble, out of the wind.
Xia Xing looked rather disheveled himself, his Magic Robe torn in several places, but his eyes shone with the sharp clarity of a survivor.
Sitting cross-legged beside him were several other pale-faced Cultivators—the small group he had managed to assemble amidst the chaos.
"Brother Xia, what’s wrong? There’s hardly anyone over there..." the young Cultivator said, aggrieved.
"There’s hardly anyone because anyone who could still breathe is already dead."
Xia Xing glanced up at the deep, dark entrance to the Underground Palace, a profound fear flashing in his eyes. "The one sitting in there isn’t some benevolent soul. He’s a God of Slaughter.
Half a month ago, Lin Yuanfei of the Lin Family and that guy they call the ’Thunder Demon,’ Lei Zhen, ganged up on him with a few others. They were crippled before they even made it through the gate.
See those corpses by the entrance? The day before yesterday, they tried to go in looking for treasure. Before they could even speak, Water Needles shot out from inside and pierced their Spirit Platforms."
Recalling the image of Chu Bai standing guard before the Underground Palace, ready for battle, Xia Xing still felt a chill run down his spine.
"Then... are we just going to wait here to die?" the young Cultivator asked, his voice trembling.
"Staying out of that Fellow Daoist’s line of sight is the best protection we can hope for."
Xia Xing took a Pill from his robes. While absorbing its Spiritual Power, he warned in a low voice, "He’s not the type to kill indiscriminately. As long as you don’t get greedy and don’t disturb his Pure Cultivation, the astounding fluctuations of his Spiritual Power will actually help shield us from some of the disturbances. Remember: don’t get close, and most certainly, don’t try to spy on him."
Hearing this, the young Cultivator shrank back and didn’t dare look toward the Forbidden Land again.
「Deep within the Underground Palace.」
Chu Bai sat cross-legged upon the White Jade Altar, his eyes slightly closed. Streams of Dark Gold light swirled around his body like roaming dragons.
The clamor, death, and greed outside were all laid bare under the sweep of his Divine Thought, yet they passed him by like clouds of smoke.
’The rankings are constantly changing.’
Although Chu Bai’s eyes were closed, the number on his Merit Seal was clearly reflected in his Sea of Consciousness.
[Current Survivors: 6,830]
As the world collapsed, the rate of death and injury was accelerating.
The skirmishes fought over advantageous positions not only claimed the lives of the candidates but also made Chu Bai’s top rank, secured from his position in the core area, seem all the more unshakeable.
A trace of doubt arose in Chu Bai’s mind.
He exhaled a turbid, golden breath and slowly opened his eyes. Using his Golden Eye Shattering Illusion, he saw what seemed to be a strange disturbance beyond the dome of the Underground Palace.
’Could it be that another True God is awakening...’
At the foot of Lingma Mountain, the atmosphere in the once dead-silent ruins suddenly grew tense.
Xia Xing shot to his feet, his hand clamped on the hilt of his sword, his knuckles turning white from the force of his grip.
He stared intently at the billowing dust and smoke several li away, alarm bells screaming in his mind.
Within that swirling dust, there were not only chaotic fluctuations of Spiritual Power but also a ferocious aura that sent a chill down his spine.
"What’s happening? This commotion... Could the Void collapse be starting early?"
the young Cultivator beside him cried out in terror.
"No, it’s people! And... Demon Beasts!"
Xia Xing’s eyes narrowed. Relying on the sharp vision he had honed through years of cultivation, he finally made out the scene within the dust cloud.

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