Alert! The Dragon Lord has emerged from seclusion!

The greed and bloodlust in his eyes receded like the tide, replaced by an almost instinctive fear.

"No...impossible..." Blood Shadow's hoarse voice trembled. "The Heavenly Dao Shackles...shouldn't enter their weakening phase for another three years..."

The chaotic flames surrounding Lin Chen began to subside.

It wasn't extinguished, but rather withdrawn inward, completely retracted into his body. His face was as pale as paper, blood seeped from his seven orifices, and his body swayed slightly, but his eyes remained clear.

"The Seven Star Chart left behind by the bookworm is not just about destiny," Lin Chen said breathlessly. "It also contains a deduction—a deduction about the cyclical law of the shackles of the Heavenly Dao."

"The next period of decline will not be three years from now."

"It's today. Right now."

He looked up at the enormous eyes in the sky: "So, I awakened you—or rather, I awakened a part of you."

The eye in the sky slowly rotated.

As far as the eye could see, the mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the Blood Plain began to melt away.

It wasn't evaporation, but rather as if it were wiped away by an invisible hand, "erased" from the level of existence.

Those skeletal giants silently disintegrated, turning into the most basic particles and dissipating.

The armor on Blood Shadow's body began to peel off piece by piece, revealing a dark red shadow that was constantly twisting beneath.

"The old Heavenly Dao..." The Blood Shadow—or rather, the core of Jiang Wuyai's shadow—roared with resentment, "You have long been replaced by the new Heavenly Dao!"

"Now I'm nothing but a lingering regret! Why should I...?"

"By my own standards, the 'rules' still apply."

The voice rang out again.

In the eyes of the sky, a point of white light shone deep within the pupil.

The light was faint, yet it struck Blood Shadow as if he had been struck by lightning!

He let out a scream that was extremely agonizing.

The dark red shadow melted and evaporated like a candle, leaving only a fist-sized, beating, blood-red heart.

The surface of the heart is covered with vein-like patterns, and it is still beating tenaciously.

"Jiang Wuyai's 'murderous heart'." Lin Chen recognized the thing. "One of the negative origins he separated out."

The eyes in the sky looked at the heart and seemed to hesitate for a moment.

Then, a faint white light descended and enveloped the heart.

The heartbeat gradually weakened, eventually solidifying into a blood-red crystal that fell to the ground.

Her eyes then turned to Lin Chen.

This time, there was a hint of scrutiny in his gaze.

"The Chaotic Dao Body... the holder of the key," the voice said. "You awakened me, what do you seek?"

Lin Chen took a deep breath, suppressing the intense pain within his body and the emptiness brought about by the burning of the Chaos Origin.

"Two things." He looked directly into their eyes. "First, tell me Jiang Wuyai's entire plan. Second..."

He paused, then said, "Tell me how to repair the shackles of Heaven without sacrificing the Seven Stars and Nine Suns."

His eyes fell silent.

On the Blood Plain, the wind howled.

Su Qingxue supported the seriously injured and unconscious Ye Qingcheng, watching the sky warily.

After a long while, the voice rang out again, but it carried a hint of barely perceptible weariness:

"Jiang Wuyai, the last sect leader of the ancient 'Tianyan Sect'."

"Thirty thousand years ago, the new Heavenly Dao was born and the old Heavenly Dao collapsed. I was the last manifestation of the old Heavenly Dao's rules and was sealed within the shackles of the Heavenly Dao."

"Jiang Wuyai accidentally obtained a clue about the sealed land. After a thousand years of planning, he finally found a way—to use the special origin of the Seven Stars and Nine Suns as a sacrifice to forcibly open a gap during the weakening period of the shackles, devour my remaining will, and thus obtain the authority to 'act on behalf of Heaven'."

"He wants to become the god of the new world."

He looked at Lin Chen and said, "As for your second question..."

There is no answer.

Lin Chen's pupils contracted slightly.

"The shackles of Heaven are the key balance point that maintains the succession of Heaven's Way between two generations. It is itself a 'rule' and cannot be repaired by conventional means."

"Jiang Wuyai's method, though cruel, is feasible from the perspective of the rules."

"The unique origin of the Seven Stars and Nine Suns is actually the 'fragments of rules' scattered during the last change of the Heavenly Dao. Gathering them together can indeed temporarily repair the gaps in the shackles—although the price is the complete annihilation of the sacrificer's body and soul."

The voice in his eyes grew weaker and weaker: "My time is running out... This awakening has consumed too much of my power..."

"Young Chaotic Dao Body, if you really want to stop Jiang Wuyai, there is only one way."

Lin Chen listened intently.

"Kill him before he completes the sacrificial ritual..."

"or--"

The last glimmer of light in his eyes fell upon the illusory image of the Chaos Seed in Lin Chen's arms.

"Use yourself to fill that gap."

As the words fell, the eye in the sky slowly closed.

The crack was healed.

The bloodline began to collapse.

It wasn't falling downwards, but rather collapsing inwards, as if the entire space was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

"Walk!"

Lin Chen mustered the last bit of chaotic energy, wrapped it around Su Qingxue and Ye Qingcheng, and slammed it hard into the weak spot where space was collapsing!

In the last moment before his consciousness faded into darkness, Lin Chen looked back.

The blood-red "Heart of Slaughter" crystal was swept up by the spatial turbulence and flew in his direction.

He instinctively reached out and grabbed it.

Then, I completely lost consciousness.

……

The eighth floor has no gatekeeper.

There is only one bridge.

A stone bridge spanning an endless abyss.

The bridge is only three feet wide and has no guardrails on either side.

Beneath the bridge, a swirling, chaotic mist rose, from which the faint wails of countless creatures could be heard.

At the end of the bridge is the entrance to the ninth floor—a door shimmering with golden light.

On this side of the bridge, three people were standing.

Lin Chen sat cross-legged on the ground, his face still pale, but his breathing had become much more stable.

The Chaos Nascent Soul slowly circulated within the body, repairing the damage caused by the forced burning of its origin.

Su Qingxue is healing Ye Qingcheng's injuries.

Ye Qingcheng's injuries were severe—although Blood Shadow's attack did not directly kill her, the power of a peak Nascent Soul cultivator still damaged her internal organs and meridians.

If it weren't for the inherent resilience of her Frosty Yin Body, and Su Qingxue's timely use of Profound Yin Qi to protect her heart meridian, she would probably be in grave danger.

"Cough cough..."

Ye Qingcheng coughed up a mouthful of blood and slowly opened her eyes.

Her gaze was still somewhat unfocused, but it quickly sharpened, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Lin Chen and Su Qingxue were both safe and sound.

"That thing... is it dead?"

"Hmm." Lin Chen nodded and handed her the blood-red crystal. "This is his core, the Heart of Slaughter. If you absorb it, it might help you mend some of the flaws in your Frost Yin Body."

Ye Qingcheng accepted the crystal without ceremony. It was icy cold to the touch, and she could feel the immense killing intent contained within it.

She circulated her Frosty Yin Qi, and the blood-red patterns on the crystal surface began to glow. Strands of dark red energy were stripped away and merged into her meridians.

The Frost Soul Sword hummed on its own, and a dark red pattern appeared in the icy blue light on its blade.

"How are you feeling?" Su Qingxue asked.

"Very...violent." Ye Qingcheng frowned. "But the Frosty Yin Qi can suppress it. Refining it will take time, but my injuries are healing rapidly."