At the pinnacle of the Great Dao Celestial Realm's history, there stood two Anima Immortals—Lu Fan and Yun Xiao.

The difference was that Lu Fan, at this moment, was no longer purely himself with his different egos vying for control, and he only retained his spirit!

Yun Xiao, on the other hand, was of pure mind and his methods transcended the simple title of Anima Immortal.

The two were completely opposite!

When Yun Xiao told the War Princess to step back and tag out, even if she was full of faith in him, she couldn't help but tense up.

"You have to win! Cause if you die, I'm doomed too!" the War Princess said, worry filling her eyes.

"You know, it'd sound more sincere without the second part," Yun Xiao replied with a smile.

"Ugh, whatever! Just don't die!" she huffed, glaring at him before obediently stepping back to a safe distance. She dared not stray too far.

Meanwhile, fearless Immortals gathered around the Heavenly Palace, shouting support for Yun Xiao. Unaware that Divine Dawn had departed from this world, they saw only him holding the fort...

"To vanquish Lu Fan, to forge a new celestial order, to renew the myriad paths, to revive the Great Dao Celestial Realm!"

This chant carried their brightest hopes for the future. And truly, they did manage to inspire Yun Xiao.

In his world, aside from the fervent desire in this chant, there was only the black and gold spirit lotus facing him.

And in its gaze, only he existed.

Yun Xiao stood silent, calm, and solemn.

The battered lotus struggled, twisted, and screamed in savage madness.

"A mere reincarnator, a half-baked Anima Immortal, dares to obstruct my path?" The voice was ancient and majestic, resonant with the weight of eons.

"Lu Fan, I am your father!" another voice rang out, arrogant and mocking, as if pulling the strings behind the scenes.

"A soft-hearted, heroic villain? In another story, you wouldn't last three sentences..." Finally, there was a third voice. It was weak and impotent, with a hint of confidence but as frail as paper.

Hearing these chaotic utterances from the lotus, Yun Xiao's eyes flashed coldly, focusing solely on the lotus, as if he had not heard the first two statements, responding only to the third, "What exactly is your standard for a hero?"

"A weakling like you feels compelled to save the other weaklings, doesn't that make you a hero? Haha! In times of chaos, kill the hero—they're talking about you!" the lotus retorted in a youthful voice, its tone desperate and hysterical.

"I've killed many, I act as I please. Just because my view on the incense offerings differs from yours, I'm some soft-hearted hero?" Yun Xiao stood radiant, his voice booming like thunder.

"Incense offerings! Incense offering… why the hell do you care about something stupid like that? Don't you know what thrill the readers seek? To extinguish realms with a flick, to cover the heavens with a hand—this is the thrill! In a story, lives are just fleeting extras, tools for face-slapping and satisfaction…"

The Chaos Emperor Lotus babbled on, its voice urgent and impatient, drowning out the others.

"Are other lives merely extras in your story?"

Above Yun Xiao, the platinum Creator Immortal Spirit manifested, appearing fragile before the towering Chaos Emperor Lotus.

BUZZ!

The spirit split into countless illusions, faces of Buddha's Treasures materializing across heaven and earth, a sea of faces surging forward.

"These faces, victims of the incense offerings, liberated from the Great Mother by me—their faces and their lives are laid out before you. What are they, then? Really, just extras?" Yun Xiao challenged.

"You've killed plenty too! You're no saint!" the lotus shrieked back.

"True, I am both a hero and villain," Yun Xiao admitted with a smile.

"And what gives you the right to judge me?" the lotus retorted angrily.

"I'm not here to judge. It's you who's constantly labeling me a hero and invoking morality into this,'" Yun Xiao replied, withdrawing the illusions of the Buddha's Treasures. His Creator Immortal spirit's gaze intensified as it focused on the shattered lotus. "Our conflict is a clash of paths, not a battle to the death. I care not for the moral codes you've adopted; here, they're meaningless. You've always been nothing but a failure, and now, I merely wish to crush you."

"You!" The petals of the lotus trembled violently, twisting even more grotesquely.

"Lord, destroy him!"

Over 300 celestial maidens of the Celestial Court, including Empress Zhao, shouted in unison, seeing the internal struggle of the lotus.

"Hehe…" The lotus laughed mockingly, its laughter growing more arrogant.

"Just because of them, you think you're worthy?"

Indeed, even the revered Zhao Shi, Empress Dowager of the Heavens, knelt before the lotus—such a spectacle was unimaginable to the former Lu Fan. In this life, he was the unrivaled Chaos Sovereign!

Yun Xiao glanced at the ensnared celestial women, his expression blank. With a flick of his hand, a flash of azure light streaked forth!

"My lord…"

Before Empress Zhao could finish, the azure light entered her mouth and shot through her throat, exiting the back of her head!

The Flying Sword was so swift that not a drop of blood followed.

"AGH!" Empress Zhao's face contorted in agony, her eyes dimming, her expression one of utter despair as tears streamed down her face.

With a snap, her body sprawled out on the ground, limbs flung wide in every direction!

PUFF! PUFF! PUFF!

The Flying Sword darted like a flying fish, drawing a streak of azure light, piercing hundreds of times in an instant, unstoppable!

All the celestial maidens brought by Lu Fan, at that moment, their heads were pierced, eyes bulging, and they died miserably on the spot—a mass slaughter!

The Chaos Emperor Lotus, lacking a fleshly body, found it impossible to block this sword and could only watch helplessly as they all perished.

"Lu Fan, your confidence and their lives are equally fragile."

Yun Xiao’s words pierced the Chaos Emperor Lotus just as the Flying Sword did, causing the spirit petals to tremble and wither away, then emit a twitching, agonizing scream.

"The saga of the incense offerings is already over. You guys were the only stragglers left behind."

Yun Xiao's Buddha's Treasure Spirit shimmered with golden light in the air, forcibly drawing in the spirits of Empress Zhao, and others.

These spirits, like moths to a flame, rushed towards the

light

.

"No, no, no!"

The lotus screamed hysterically, trying to block these spirits, but he abruptly realized that the spirits of these beautiful celestial maidens no longer bore the imprint of his lotus!

In their final moments, they understood everything. They had been controlled, betrayed the Crown Prince, and destroyed the imperial family themselves!

For them, this was a cruel reality, the greatest sorrow.

Empress Zhao’s spirit, let out a heart-wrenching cry.

"Kill him! Kill Lu Fan!"

In the end, with a pleading look, she funneled all her resentment into these words, beseeching Yun Xiao.

To Yun Xiao, there wasn’t much to say to them. There were far more pitiful people in the world, truly deserving of sympathy. He, like a source of light, absorbed their Buddha's Treasures, his own spirit growing stronger and more radiant!

Though physically much smaller than the lotus, in purity of the dao and composure of will, he far surpassed his opponent.

"Lu Fan!" After liberating the spirits of the women, Yun Xiao suddenly laughed. "This fact proves you were never the protagonist of this world. In all those stories you’ve seen, have you ever seen the protagonist's women slaughtered so wantonly?"

Empress Zhao’s final plea, had already plunged the lotus into deep agony, and Yun Xiao’s words now shook its very core, truly breaking the wandering soul’s defenses!

The ultimate effect of this shattering revelation was to dramatically magnify the true nature of the wandering soul from another world, causing him to unleash his emotions in a cataclysmic outburst, overpowering the Chaos Soul.

"Also, I'd wager in the books you've read, even if the hero looks quite ordinary, goddesses from all corners fall over themselves to love him to death. Yet here you are, with hundreds of beauties wishing for your demise. How does that happen?" Yun Xiao laughed.

His laughter swept over the lotus like a storm of 10,000 swords.

"Shut up! Shut up! Ahhh!" The lotus screamed miserably, its voice spasming as every word from Yun Xiao demolished everything it had built over the past 20 years. The confidence of the Chaos Sovereign crumbled, pulling the true nature of the wandering soul into the harsh light!

What seemed a mere exchange of insults was in fact a profound competition of principles. Yun Xiao had seized his adversary's weak spot; his few words wielded more destructive power than a soul storm.

For an Anima Immortal, steadfast and stable mental will was crucial.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Lu Fan, having built his confidence on the adulation of his celestial maidens, now faced a severe backlash.

With each thunderous explosion, several already battered petals shattered into fragments amidst his screams, scattering across the skies—nearly a quarter gone!

And the loss was almost entirely that of the Chaos Sovereign, the arrogant part of Lu Fan!

From this moment, it could be said that the Chaos Sovereign truly died!

The true nature of the

System

shattered Lu Fan's first wall of confidence built over the 20 plus years. And the deaths of Empress Zhao, and the other women obliterated his second wall of confidence.

With two layers of confidence destroyed and Lu Fan's true nature exposed, it was clear how utterly false this once formidable overlord really was!

And within those screaming petals, insecurity and timidity turned to poison, spreading over the Chaos Soul, seizing the last vestiges of its sanity.

"Enough!!"

In this dire moment, the lotus erupted in a thunderous roar of rage.

From the Chaos Soul, a soul storm swept across the entire Heavenly Palace, darkening the skies and overwhelming everything in its path.

JustLivingJL's Thoughts