Amidst a chaotic flood that stretched endlessly across a shattered cityscape, walls and skyscrapers crumbled as torrents of dark water devoured everything in their path. The sky had fractured, revealing an abyss beyond comprehension, while wailing winds, howling spirits, and collapsing structures filled the air.
A black-haired man, his Tang jacket tattered, his body covered in wounds, fought against the relentless current. His left arm wrapped protectively around a boy, no older than fourteen, his breathing weak, his once-pristine garments soaked in blood. Xuán Tianlei, once hailed as a prodigy destined for greatness, now drifted through the chaos like a discarded leaf in a storm.
"Hold on!" The man's voice was hoarse, his teeth clenched as he stabilized his Qi to resist the crushing force of the flood. But the river of destruction, tainted with an eerie darkness, sapped all strength, draining cultivation as if feeding on life itself.
The boy's eyelids fluttered. Half-conscious, he felt the cold embrace of death creeping in. His meridians were ruptured, his dantian unstable, the very foundation of his cultivation crumbling beneath an unseen force. He wanted to resist, to struggle, but his limbs refused to obey.
"Tianlei!"
The voice barely reached him, yet something in him stirred. A distant warmth—faint, but familiar. Memories flickered—his father's calloused hand ruffling his hair, the steady correction of his sword form, the quiet moments under the plum blossom tree where his father spoke of the Dao.
"No matter what happens, stand tall. A cultivator does not yield. Even when the heavens collapse, even when death is certain—"
That warmth—it was fading.
Above, beyond the sky itself, the heavens raged with war.
---
Five celestial figures clashed against a solitary opponent in the shattered void above Earth.
"Húnzūn Mingze!" A voice filled with righteous fury boomed as a white-robed figure unleashed a palm strike infused with oceanic laws. The very essence of the sea responded to his command, manifesting as a vast tidal wave capable of splitting continents. The attack carried not just physical destruction but eroded all resistance—techniques, treasures, even natural laws.
A shadowy figure stood at the heart of it all, his black robes billowing against the chaos. Dark Qi pulsed from his form, devouring light itself. He laughed—a deep, guttural sound that carried an eerie resonance across the cosmos.
"You waste your efforts!" Húnzūn Mingze sneered, raising a single hand. "Wújìn Shēnyuān Jiàng (Boundless Abyss Descent)."
An abyssal force erupted, expanding from his core, turning the battlefield into an endless black ocean where light and matter ceased to exist. The deeper one fell, the stronger the pressure, capable of crushing weaker beings into nothingness. The very concept of reality twisted under its influence, as if the world itself resisted being consumed.
The five monks responded without hesitation.
"Wànxiàng Yīn-Yáng Zhǎng (Universal Yin-Yang Dominion)!" A black-and-white robed figure stepped forward, their voice androgynous. The balance of Yin and Yang surged forth, counteracting the abyss by imposing cosmic order upon it.
"Zhìgāo Tiāndào Jiéjiè (Supreme Heavenly Dao Boundary)!" The white-robed Daoist's aura expanded, altering the fabric of existence itself, forcing the battlefield to conform to his Dao.
"Juédiàn Léi Yù (Extinction Thunder Dominion)!" A blue-robed woman raised her hand, summoning five tribulation thunderbolts, each containing the will of the heavens. They struck like divine punishment, seeking to obliterate Húnzūn Mingze from reality.
"Wúshàng Rénhuà Yù (Peerless Human Dao Domain)!" A orange-robed monk's domain surged, attempting to impose mortality upon all beings within its reach, suppressing supernatural power at its core.
"Qīnglóng Fēngtíng! (Azure Dragon Sealed Heaven)!" A armored bearded man activated his domain, distorting the flow of time, causing attacks to reverse, accelerate, or become trapped in endless loops.
The heavens roared. The very laws governing reality buckled. Stars collapsed under the sheer pressure of the battle, and distant galaxies trembled. Yet, despite the overwhelming force arrayed against him, Húnzūn Mingze only laughed.
---
Back on Earth, Xuán Tianleiʼs consciousness flickered. The dark floodwaters surged, crashing into the remnants of buildings. The man holding him coughed blood, his grip weakening.
A shadow loomed overhead.
The sky shattered as a stray ripple from the celestial battle descended—a fragment of tribulation lightning, torn from the cosmic struggle, plummeting like a falling star.
The black-haired man gritted his teeth. He had no strength left. He wouldn't survive this.
"Survive!" His voice barely cut through the storm.
With the last of his power, he hurled Xuán Tianlei away. The boy's vision blurred as the world spun, his mind unable to grasp what had just happened.
Then—impact.
A blinding force erupted. Everything turned white.
Pain.
Agony surged through Xuán Tianleiʼs body as he tumbled through the raging flood, his limbs battering against debris, his lungs burning, desperate for air. He barely registered the fading warmth of the man who had shielded him just moments ago.
That warmth—gone.
Replaced by the cold grip of death pressing in from all sides.
Father...
Above, beyond the sky, a surge of energy detonated. Even half-conscious, he felt it—a terrifying clash of laws shaking the heavens. The five monks, their divine presence suffocating, waged war against the abyssal force of Húnzūn Mingze.
But that battle was beyond him. Beyond anything a mere boy could comprehend.
The black waters pulled him deeper. The weight of destruction dragged him down. His Qi, already unstable, flickered wildly—his cultivation foundation on the brink of collapse.
He had to fight...
---
Above the ruined Earth, the battle between the six celestial figures had reached its climax. The vast expanse of the shattered heavens trembled beneath their clash, the very stars dimming under the weight of their unleashed might.
Húnzūn Mingze stood at the heart of the abyss, his black robes billowing as if they were part of the void itself. His Qi twisted and coiled, manifesting in tendrils of darkness that devoured the light around him. Even as the five monks pressed their assault, their combined domains tearing apart the very fabric of existence, he did not falter. Instead, he laughed—a deep, resounding echo that reverberated through space.
"Is this all the so-called righteous path has to offer?" His voice dripped with scorn. "Five self-proclaimed masters of Dao, yet you cannot even force me to take a step back?"
The white-robed Daoist's expression remained placid, but his eyes carried a depth as vast as the ocean. Without a word, he raised his hand. The boundless sea within his domain surged again, expanding infinitely, merging with the cosmic void to birth a tide so vast it could submerge entire star systems.
"Hǎiyáng Wànxiàng (Boundless Oceanic World)."
A celestial ocean materialized, waves towering like mountains, each drop of water imbued with the full comprehension of his Dao. This was not merely a domain—it was a world unto itself, a reality governed by his will, where even time and space bowed to the endless flow of water.
But Húnzūn Mingze only sneered. "You think to drown the abyss?"
His fingers moved in a blur, forming ancient seals that pulsed with malevolent intent. "Wújìn Hēi'àn (Endless Darkness)!"
The abyss beneath him churned, expanding outward with insatiable hunger. The boundless waters of the oceanic world met the abyssal tide, and in that instant, the universe itself seemed to split apart. One sought to flood existence, the other to devour it whole. The collision of their forces sent shockwaves rippling through the void, causing distant celestial bodies to crack, warp, or vanish entirely.
The black-and-white robed monk, whose Dao balanced Yin and Yang to perfection, wasted no time. With a flick of her sleeve, her domain expanded.
"Yīn-Yáng Wànbiàn (Everchanging Yin-Yang)."
A sphere of black and white light engulfed the battlefield, distorting and transmuting all energies within its grasp. Water turned to fire, light became darkness, destruction transformed into rebirth. The chaotic nature of Húnzūn Mingze's abyss was forcibly altered—his consuming void threatened to become a source of creation instead of annihilation.
The dark waters that had flooded Earth in an endless tide of corruption twisted violently under the influence of her Dao. The abyss, which had once drowned entire continents, began to boil. What had once been a suffocating tide of blackened water ignited into a sea of dark flames, its infernal blaze reaching to the shattered heavens.
Flames of consuming darkness spread across the broken planet, devouring what little remained of the world. This was no ordinary fire—it did not burn as mortal flames did. It was the embodiment of Yin's consuming cold and Yang's destructive radiance, an eternal inferno that neither created nor destroyed, but transformed. The ocean of death Mingze had unleashed now burned ceaselessly, reducing even the concept of matter itself into nothingness.
For the first time, his expression darkened.
But before he could counter, the blue-robed woman struck.
"Léi Tíng Zhōngxīn (Thunderstorm Core)!"
A sphere of pure tribulation lightning formed above her palm, its power transcending even the heavens' judgment. It pulsed with destructive force, containing every thunder law she had ever comprehended—obliteration, disintegration, incineration, annihilation, and eradication—all condensed into a singularity of heavenly punishment.
With a flick of her wrist, she hurled it forward.
The moment the thunderstorm core entered the battlefield, space itself convulsed. Bolts of divine lightning surged outward in erratic patterns, leaving gaping voids in reality where they passed. The abyss shrieked as if in agony, unable to consume the lightning's celestial nature.
The orange-robed monk seized the opening.
"Rénhuà Zhī Diǎn (Point of Humanity)."
A single palm thrust forward, but this was no ordinary strike. It carried the weight of all sentient existence, the will of mortals and immortals alike. It was the absolute rejection of unnatural power, a force that could render even the most divine beings into mere mortals.
Húnzūn Mingze's pupils contracted. This attack was dangerous.
With a growl, he raised his hand and met the strike head-on. Darkness and humanity clashed, the sheer force of their collision shattering nearby planets like brittle glass. The abyss around him wavered, its consuming nature struggling against the will of all life.
The bearded Daoist in black armor wasted no time. His eyes gleamed as his domain expanded, seizing control over the battlefield's temporal flow.
"Shíguāng Wànshì (Time's Infinite Cycle)."
Time distorted. The past, present, and future became indistinct. The lightning storm that had just struck rewound and struck again, infinite loops of tribulation descending upon Húnzūn Mingze. His abyss, which had nearly been consumed by the human Dao, began reversing, the damage undone, only to be inflicted anew.
For the first time, Húnzūn Mingze's laughter ceased.
He clenched his fists, his Qi surging in defiance. His aura erupted with boundless darkness, forcing the battlefield to submit once more to his will. The abyss expanded at an unprecedented rate, swallowing entire galaxies in an instant. The monks' domains strained against the pressure, but the consuming void only deepened.
"You fools," he sneered, his voice layered with an unfathomable chill. "Did you truly think you could defeat me in a world so weak?"
His hands moved in a blur, forming a final seal.
"Wújìn Zhìdiǎn (Endless Vanishing Point)."
Reality itself twisted. Space, time, matter, and even Dao collapsed toward a singularity. The very laws of existence began unraveling, as if the universe itself had become unanchored.
The sun—already dimmed by the battle's collateral destruction—was the first to succumb, imploding into itself before vanishing. Earth, caught in the periphery, suffered a fate equally dire. Without light, without gravitational stability, the planet quaked violently. The last remnants of civilization crumbled as the atmosphere fragmented, leaving only scattered pockets of land resisting the abyss's pull.
And yet, even as the world unraveled, the monks did not falter.
"Hǎiyáng Wànxiàng!"
"Yīn-Yáng Wànbiàn!"
"Léi Tíng Zhōngxīn!"
"Rénhuà Zhī Diǎn!"
"Shíguāng Wànshì!"
Their domains erupted in unison, each pushing back against the abyss in their own way. Water surged against nothingness, balance clashed against chaos, lightning carved through the void, humanity's will imposed itself upon the unnatural, and time sought to seal the abyss away.
The universe screamed under the strain.
Húnzūn Mingze's abyss shrieked as it met the combined might of five absolute Daoists, their very essence defying his existence. The void quaked, its consuming nature resisting, struggling, but in that moment—
Reality shattered.
The battle reached its breaking point. The heavens trembled, the abyss howled, and in that final collision, existence itself fractured into countless pieces.