The violent upheaval slowly subsided, and the group's warped senses gradually returned to normal.
Looking around, horror gripped every heart. Golden Rainbow Province had been utterly destroyed—the vast continent reduced to fragments of varying sizes floating in the Void, with broken corpses faintly visible among the debris.
Golden Rainbow Province was completely ruined!
Without the Grand Array's protection, this continent that had endured for tens of thousands of years could not withstand the ferocious battle. The Disciples of Golden Rainbow Province had suffered countless casualties, and those who had survived the bombardment of the Sun Moon Divine Wheel numbered barely a handful. It was not that they had been strong enough—it was simply that their luck had held.
Amid a stretch of crumbling ruins, Li Luoshui stood in silence, her gaze slightly vacant. In this moment, this Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator looked thoroughly wretched, her hair disheveled and hanging loose.
Though she had blocked the Sun Moon Divine Wheel, she had not emerged unscathed. That bizarre power of Space-Time was something even she struggled to contend with, and it was continuously eroding her flesh and her Small Universe.
On the other side, Yang Kai was gasping for breath, feeling as though every ounce of strength had been drained from him. His Small Universe had never felt so empty. The Sun Moon Divine Wheel was devastating in power, but he had yet to fully comprehend its Space-Time component, making it impossible to control at will. The energy cost of this single technique was truly terrifying.
And yet even this strongest move had failed to kill Li Luoshui—proof of the horrifying gulf between Seventh-Order and Sixth-Order.
Gripping his spear with one arm and pointing it at Li Luoshui from afar, Yang Kai drew a deep breath, his chest swelling as he roared: "Come again!"
Her hair whipping in the wind, Li Luoshui whipped her head around to face him. Her beautiful eyes blazed with bone-deep killing intent. But before she could make a move, her expression shifted abruptly. Her aura fluctuated wildly, and her delicate face alternated between green and pale.
With a retching sound, Li Luoshui spat out a mouthful of bright crimson blood. Her body lurched as if struck by lightning, stumbling back several steps. From her petite frame, clearly visible currents of violently destabilized World Force were leaking out.
She glared viciously at Yang Kai, as if searing his image deep into her mind to remember forever. Through blood-stained silver teeth she snarled: "This gift of yours today—I will remember it. Rest assured, there will be a generous repayment in the future!"
The words had barely left her lips when more blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Then her form flickered, and she shot away into the distance at breathtaking speed.
"Where do you think you're going!" Yang Kai bellowed, raising his spear to give chase. He understood perfectly well the principle of not letting a snake live after striking it, and of the disaster that came from releasing a tiger back to the mountains. Li Luoshui was a Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator after all—if he failed to kill her today, she would become a grave threat.
But after only a few steps, his body wavered and he nearly collapsed face-first. His chest and lungs burned as though on fire, making it impossible to draw breath. His Small Universe was roiling and unstable, pulling his mind into turmoil as well.
Planting his spear against the ground for support, he looked up—but Li Luoshui's figure had already vanished beyond sight. He slammed a fist into the ground in bitter frustration, his face twisted with unwillingness.
The Landlady flickered over to his side and steadied him with a firm grip. "How are you?" she asked, worry clear in her voice.
Yang Kai's aura rose and fell in wild surges, leaving him unable to form a single coherent sentence. He could only shake his head to indicate he was fine, then quickly sat cross-legged, settling his mind and calming the upheaval within his Small Universe.
Mao Zhe and the others looked over and let out quiet, relieved breaths.
Today's battle had been harrowing beyond measure. None of them had ever imagined they would one day stand face to face with the might of a Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator—or fight one to the death.
And yet, miraculously, every participant had survived, albeit with serious injuries.
But upon reflection, all the credit had to go to Yang Kai. Had he not shouldered the brunt of Li Luoshui's pressure single-handedly, the outcome would have been far grimmer.
As things stood, this result was acceptable. After all, the opponent they had faced today was no ordinary Seventh-Order Open Heaven—she was a Seventh-Order who had activated the Green Void Body Infusion Art. Such a Seventh-Order was more troublesome than even some veteran powerhouses of the same rank, capable of unleashing far more terrifying means.
In the final moments, Li Luoshui's retreat had clearly not been because she feared Yang Kai's power—it was because her own Small Universe had begun to fail her.
The Green Void Body Infusion Art carried limitless aftereffects. The vast, chaotic flood of power that surged into the caster's body could indeed amplify their strength dramatically in the short term, but it also brought unimaginable hidden dangers.
During the fierce battle, that heterogeneous power had relentlessly battered the caster's Small Universe, ultimately leaving Li Luoshui unable to continue fighting. Had she forced herself, the upheaval would have destabilized her cosmos entirely—and at that point, without anyone else lifting a finger, Li Luoshui herself could have perished from the collapse of her Universe.
Thinking this through, Mao Zhe felt a wave of relief.
Had Li Luoshui not suffered the backlash of the Green Void Body Infusion Art at that critical juncture, everyone present today—with the possible exception of Yang Kai, who commanded the Laws of Space and might have escaped—would have died here without exception.
Li Luoshui was gone. Suffering the backlash of the Green Void Body Infusion Art, she would likely be powerless to seek revenge for some time. She would need to fully purge the lingering dangers of this forbidden technique before she could show her face again.
And the time that required could very well be several years—or several decades, or even centuries.
The seven Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivators each found a spot to settle down and focus on healing their injuries. Among them, Yang Kai had sustained the worst damage. The final execution of the Sun Moon Divine Wheel had pushed him to the brink of exhaustion, his Small Universe trembling and unstable.
The Cook, the Accountant, and the others led the remnants in clearing the battlefield.
The continent where Golden Rainbow Province had stood was utterly destroyed. The majority of the Open Heaven Realm cultivators had already been slaughtered, and the surviving Disciples—numberless as they were in their wounded and dying—had no idea where to go.
The Cook and the rest did not make things difficult for them. They were all low-ranking Disciples of little cultivation—there was no need to slaughter every last one of them. They were simply allowed to flee.
Time flowed on, the sun and moon turning like a shuttle through the sky.