Such was karma.

Bad karma resulted in unpleasant ends that always sought out their source. It was only a matter of time.

Though it was the nine Hongmeng creatures who’d ignited the chaos tribulation, the karmic effect of ending life in the chaos was worse than what had afflicted the bloodlines of the Feng and Qing Clans in the world of immortals.

It’d dragged in the nine sacred lands into the matter.

……

“Is there really no other way?” Ying Luo’s heart spasmed painfully when she heard Lu Yun’s murmuring. There were also a hundred million lives among the sacred lands.

“There is.” Lu Yun nodded.

“What is it?” she hastily asked.

“Destroy the six sacred palaces and combine their orders into one to ignite the final cataclysm of nirvana. Extinguish everything within the chaos so inception can begin anew.

“At that time, the order of inception will restart the chaos and create a new second realm. That will erase all of the bitterness and resentment in a cycle of reincarnation.”

Inception, Ethos, Burgeon, Creation, Opposition, and Nirvana!

The six highest orders were a sequence from birth to growth, then peak, and finally destruction. If they came together as one, that would be a complete cycle of reincarnation.

Reincarnation was a defined pattern that encompassed all living things. The one that the six highest orders formed was only a minor cycle within the boundless great cycle. Just a small cycle such as this one, however, was enough to relegate the chaos back to its primal beginnings and start all over again.

But if that occurred, everything within the chaos, apart from the worlds, would cease to exist and restart as the barest particles of life.

Ying Luo shut her mouth.

The price was too high. The nine sacred lands would still be doomed and everyone in the chaos that had yet to ascend beyond would also die under the order of nirvana. Perhaps life in the worlds would be unaffected, but everything in the chaos would be brought to an end, including sovereigns and the six monarchs.

“Therefore, it’s better to let them die. Someone has to pay the price for doing the wrong thing,” murmured Lu Yun as he looked across the ranks of countless sacred land cultivators struggling across the void. “If I make such a mistake like this in the future… then I should also pay such a bloody price.”

Having paused to listen to their conversation, experts from the six palaces continued their slaughter. The chaos tribulation raged on, echoing the fury of the melee. As the situation progressed, the battles began to reach a breaking point.

Seeing no hope in the road ahead, those of the nine sacred lands lost their rationale and immortal lords, eternal overlords, and even sovereigns began to self detonate.

Harrowing ripples of their final stands blasted across the chaos, devastating disciples of the six palaces caught in their paths. There were even sovereigns that were blown apart when close enough to a detonation point.

Since all was lost, sacred land cultivators harbored death wishes and wanted to take as many with them as possible. This new strategy of a life for a life caught the sacred palaces off guard, resulting in heavy casualties.

While they possessed soul lamps, a true spirit had to grow and develop again when it returned to one. It was the equivalent of a newborn—alive, but completely bereft of battle strength.

Though there was no further threat from the nine sacred lands and Dubiety Realm, that didn’t mean the chaos was safe. Countless dangers yet lurked in its vast expanse, and experts of the third realm waited covetously off the side.

Thus, the sacred palace contingents slowly spread out, not wanting to overly pressure the sacred land armies. That only resulted in the berserk sacred lands throwing themselves into the nearest cluster of people before self detonating. When there were no good targets close at hand, many of them charged the palaces’ lines of defense instead.

The chaos tribulation continued, but what was happening here was even more terrifying.

……

“Hahaha! Do you see?? Do you see this?!” The fire origin prime sent his fire elemental peer flying with a punch and screamed as blood flowed out of his eyes. “It’s all over! The mighty sacred lands that have dominated the chaos since the Age of Myth are done for!!”

He alternated between screeching with laughter and howling with tears, completely devoid of his mental faculties. The fire blazing on him began to flicker unsteadily and wisps of black smoke rose from his body.

The fire elemental prime quickly recovered his stance and landed in front of Chi Wuxia again, blocking the energy ripples and attacks that came at him from all sides.

“What’s happening??” Fear dawned in his eyes when he noticed the abnormal state that the fire origin prime was in. “Why is there ghostly qi appearing in you?!”

Ghostly qi! The presence of the ghost ancestor!

Bloody tears streaked down the fire origin prime’s face and he seemed to be both laughing and crying at the same time. He was transforming into an akasha ghost!

Numbness ran over the scalp of the fire elemental prime.

“All of you, DIE!!” Ignoring the question, the fire origin prime’s flame suddenly turned pure black. He was almost one with the pitch black chaos.

Whoosh!

Black flames blazed as ghastly wails accompanied ghostly faces rising out of the fire. Unbidden terror rose in the fire elemental prime’s heart.

“ROAR!!” His fire origin counterpart snarled inhumanely and tufts of black hair sprouted over his body.

Hummm.

A tiny ripple emanated from his body as he vanished into thin air. When he next reappeared, he was already in front of the fire elemental prime. His hand punched straight through the man’s chest, grabbing a beating heart.

Puff!

A slight squeeze of the hand crushed the heart.

Expression freezing, the light faded from the fire elemental prime’s eyes. His body fell bonelessly from the fire origin prime’s arm and tumbled into the unending shadows below.

“FATHER!!” Chi Wuxia couldn’t move. He could only watch with horror-stricken eyes as his father’s corpse fell lifelessly into the void and was ripped apart from the chaos tribulation.

“Don’t worry, I’ll send you to your father soon enough, hehehehe!” cackled the fire origin prime. His mouth was now more like a ripped gash in his face as it stretched clear to his ears, coming across incredibly sinister.

He floated upward as countless demonic heads—the size of a palm—shifted in and out of the black flames around him. Even his remaining seven brethren now looked the same as him.

They, too, laughed and cried at the same time like the akasha ghosts. What set them apart was that the akasha ghost’s features were drawn on, but theirs were still their own.

“DIE!” Hand curbed like a beast’s claw, the fire origin prime brought it down on Chi Wuxia’s head.