Father Xu Zhan's soul scattered to the winds, transforming into dots of flowing light that completely dissipated between heaven and earth. That final glance of relief and liberation was like the sharpest blade, cutting Tang Xiaoqi's heart to pieces. Endless grief like a towering wave instantly drowned him, swallowing all his consciousness and perception. He knelt to the ground, the world losing all color and sound in his eyes, leaving only that despair-inducing void.
The Demonic Lord's deathbed counterattack of destructive energy, like a black tide of death, had already swept before them. The ice wall Mu Xue maintained made sounds of shattering under unbearable burden, Zhao Tiezhu's mountain-like body shook violently under the demonic energy impact, Ao Qin's dragon roar carried a trace of exhausted tragedy, the Second Senior Brother's puppet shell's runes dimmed to the extreme...
A desperate situation, a true, utterly hopeless desperate situation!
However, just as that destructive torrent was about to swallow everything, just as Xiao Qi's consciousness was about to be completely assimilated by boundless darkness—
The green jade pendant at his chest, pressed against his skin, inherited from his mother, carrying the lotus seed's vitality, suddenly became incomparably hot! That heat was not physical burning, but some kind of awakening from the universe's origin, containing endless vitality and the transcendent power of purification!
This burning heat did not originate from Xiao Qi's own power, but... resonance!
It was resonance with the final thought containing blessing and expectation that his father Xu Zhan left before dissipating!
It was resonance with the main lotus seed power that had been sealed within Xu Zhan for a hundred years, just annihilated together with him, producing an origin-same induction at the ultimate moment!
Even more... it was resonance with the guardian thought that erupted completely from the deepest part of Xiao Qi's heart due to extreme grief—pure to the point of containing not a single impurity!
Father sacrificed himself to protect him!
And he, at this moment, the only thought in his heart was also protection! Protect his companions, protect this world his father exchanged his life for, protect all the beauty in his memories!
This supremely pure and firm guardian thought was like the final key, forcefully breaking through the jade pendant's depths, that last and most solid bloodline and heart-nature seal set by Xu Zhan a hundred years ago!
Crack—!
A crisp sound as if originating from the soul's origin rang out from Xiao Qi's chest!
That green jade pendant that had accompanied him all his life, witnessed his growth, given him strength, its surface instantly covered with countless fine cracks! Then, in everyone's disbelief, it... shattered!
But shattering was not the end, but... rebirth!
The jade pendant transformed into countless crystalline green light points, not dissipating, but like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, frantically surging behind Xiao Qi, rapidly gathering, interweaving, reconstructing in an incomparably mysterious trajectory!
Om—!!!
An indescribable, ancient, vast, pure aura, as if from the beginning of heaven and earth's creation,轰然 descended upon this demonic energy-ravaged land of despair!
Ten thousand feet of green light dispelling darkness!
Behind Xiao Qi, in the void, a plant's phantom image, outlined by countless green light points, filled by that vast origin aura, was slowly and steadily... unfolding!
It was a... lotus!
Its entire body presented an ineffable green color containing endless vitality and the wonders of creation. It had twelve grades of lotus petals, layered and gradually blooming. Each petal was naturally engraved with great dao runes, circulating the supreme artistic conception of purifying all dharmas and deriving creation. The lotus platform was perfectly round, as if bearing a newborn universe. The lotus stem stood tall, rooted in nothingness, yet seemingly connected to the life source of all heavens and myriad worlds.
It was not a solid entity, only a hazy phantom, but the aura it radiated towered above all powers present, including the Demonic Lord's origin from the universe's dark side!
World-Purifying Green Lotus!
The ancient cosmic supreme treasure, the branch of the Chaos Green Lotus wielding the authority of purification and creation, its core lotus seed transformed... main body phantom, in this desperate situation, due to the ultimate grief and firm guardian thought, ultimately liberated, manifesting in the world!
The instant the Green Lotus phantom appeared, that originally all-sweeping destructive demonic energy tide, as if encountering a king descending to rule the world, actually came to a halt in mid-air, unable to advance another inch! The demonic energy itself, under the illumination of that green light, made "sizzling" melting sounds, like ice and snow meeting the sun, rapidly disintegrating, being purified!
The entire Demon Palace's grand hall was enveloped by this pure and vast green light.
Mu Xue, Ao Qin, Zhao Tiezhu and the others, who had originally fallen into despair due to the Demonic Lord's counterattack, only felt their bodies lighten, the deadly threat suddenly disappeared. A warm and vitality-filled power enveloped them, soothing their injuries, nourishing their depleted spiritual power and divine souls!
Even Liu Yun, whose breath was weak and on the verge of death, under the green light's illumination, her about-to-extinguish life flame seemed injected with powerful vitality. Although still weak, it stubbornly stabilized!
And the Demonic Lord's shadow in mad counterattack, upon sensing the World-Purifying Green Lotus phantom's aura, let out an unprecedented scream filled with ultimate fear and disbelief:
"No—!!! This is impossible!!! The World-Purifying Green Lotus... long ago disintegrated in the Dao-Demon war!!! How can... how can there still be a main body phantom existing in the world?!!"
Its shadow violently twisted and rolled in the green light, like an evil spirit thrown into purgatory, suffering purification and restraint far more thorough and fundamental than Xu Zhan's "Sacrifice Purification Light"! Its power just forcibly condensed from rage, before this Green Lotus phantom, appeared so laughable, so vulnerable!
In the center of the green light, Xiao Qi kneeling on the ground slowly... raised his head.
The grief on his face had not diminished, but those eyes originally filled with despair now reflected that slowly rotating World-Purifying Green Lotus phantom, filled with ineffable shock, and a kind of... enlightenment merged with this supreme treasure's origin.
He extended his hand, not to touch that Green Lotus, but to feel the power flowing within it that was connected to his bloodline, compatible with his dao heart.
Father's sacrifice was not meaningless.
What he left behind was not only a chance to live, but also... the key to unlock this final power.
Xiao Qi stood up. Although his body was still covered with wounds, his aura merged with the Green Lotus phantom behind him, becoming incomparably deep, incomparably vast.
He calmly looked at the Demonic Lord's shadow wailing and struggling in the green light, like a deity looking down at an ant.
"Demonic Lord, your end... has arrived."