One person: Senior brother Zhang Zhiwei, the Celestial Master begged me to descend the mountain.

The noise around me stopped.

There is no wind, no clouds, and not even light here.

There was only an endless, chaotic torrent that seemed capable of crushing everything.

Zhang Taichu hovered in this void, the golden lotus beneath his feet already shattered into dust under the terrifying pressure of the rules. His originally solid, crystal-like golden body now flickered violently, like a malfunctioning projection.

This is inside the Heavenly Gate.

"Tsk."

Zhang Taichu steadied himself, casually swatting away a black lightning bolt that was trying to wrap around his ankle, his face showing his signature look of disdain:

"I thought ascending to heaven was like flying first class, but it turns out it's just like throwing people into a washing machine and tossing them around?"

He didn't rush to go deeper into the area.

Instead, she slowly turned around and lowered her head.

Beneath that chaos, separated by countless layers of spatial barriers, that azure planet appeared to him to be only the size of a fingernail.

But he could still see the mountain clearly.

Seeing Zhang Chulan, who still has to struggle in the mundane world, seeing Chen Duo, who might be drinking milk tea and daydreaming at some roadside stall, and that senior brother holding a broom and looking up at the sky.

"A mess."

Zhang Taichu pursed his lips, his voice unusually clear in the deathly silence:

"It's a complete mess."

Even if an ordinary cultivator reaches the realm of ascension, at this point they can only cautiously protect their primordial spirit, praying to survive in this chaotic flow of rules and find a glimmer of hope.

But Zhang Taichu was not.

His golden eyes were fixed intently on a certain spot in the void.

There, the area was covered with countless black cracks.

It's like a piece of originally perfect white jade that has been maliciously chiseled out with countless ugly wormholes.

Those cracks exuded a chilling aura that sent shivers down one's spine.

"Thirty-six thieves..."

Zhang Taichu looked at the cracks with a complicated expression.

Those thirty-six people back then, in the Twenty-Four Heavenly Valley, thought they had glimpsed the secrets of heaven and comprehended the Eight Extraordinary Skills.

I don't know.

They managed to create several holes in these perfectly sealed rules of Heaven.

The Eight Extraordinary Techniques are the poisonous gases that leak out from these holes.

As long as these holes remain, the extraordinary beings of this world will forever struggle on the verge of going mad. The greed in people's hearts will be like the turbulent currents in this void, never able to be quelled.

"We took your Eight Extraordinary Skills, and now we have to clean up your mess."

Zhang Taichu sighed and slowly raised his right hand.

In the palm of his hand.

The black, white, and cyan bead that had previously condensed on Mount Longhu and incorporated the essence of the Eight Extraordinary Techniques was now trembling violently.

It seemed to sense the mother body, to sense the call of those cracks, and wanted to break free from Zhang Taichu's restraints and return to that chaotic origin.

"Want to go back?"

Zhang Taichu looked at the beads in his hand, a cold smile curling at the corner of his lips:

"Go back to continue wreaking havoc on humanity?"

"dream."

Snapped!

A crisp sound.

The bead, containing enough energy to destroy half of the Otherworld, was crushed by Zhang Taichu's two fingers.

Countless dazzling streaks of light exploded in an instant, like a flood bursting its banks, frantically trying to escape in all directions.

"Give it to this humble Taoist priest...!"

Zhang Taichu took a sudden step forward.

This step, though landing on the void, seemed to strike the very pulse of the world.

Rumble—!

His body, which had already begun to fade into nothingness, suddenly burst into flames.

This is no ordinary fire.

Instead, it was a golden, pure, and primordial fire.

"Since this world cannot keep me here."

"Before I leave, I will pay this last bit of toll."

Whoops!

Zhang Taichu opened his arms, and the burning golden body instantly disintegrated.

It is no longer in human form.

Instead, it transformed into billions of golden starlight, like a shower of flowers, or a golden blizzard sweeping against the current.

Each golden ray precisely carried the shattered light of the Eight Extraordinary Techniques and crashed violently into the black cracks in the void.

sizzle-

A sickeningly sweet sound echoed in the void.

That's the rules being reshaped, the wounds being healed.

Those originally hideous black cracks began to shrink and heal at a visible speed as they were filled with golden light.

……

In the mortal realm, at Longhu Mountain.

Just as the old master Zhang Zhiwei was about to turn around and leave, he suddenly stopped.

He suddenly raised his head, and the pupils in his aged eyes contracted sharply.

Not just him.

Lu Jin, Feng Zhenghao, and even Zhang Chulan, who had just received the inheritance, were all present.

At that moment, everyone felt an unprecedented sense of relief.

The feeling was like having a heavy shackle that you've carried your whole life suddenly being removed at that moment.

The restlessness and unease that constantly accompanied the cultivation of the extraordinary person, like a maggot clinging to a bone, and the instinctive fear of going astray in cultivation, had actually disappeared.

The Qi (vital energy) between heaven and earth became gentle.

It has become clear.

"This is……"

Lu Jin stretched out her hand with trembling hands, looking at the ball of Qi in her palm that was originally somewhat violent, but now it was as docile as a lamb.

The old master took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Two lines of clear tears slid down his wrinkled cheeks.

He didn't speak.

I simply bowed deeply once again, facing the empty sky.

This bow.

Not for a farewell.

Just to express my gratitude.

……

Inside the Heavenly Gate.

The golden light gradually faded away.

The once riddled and flawed rules and regulations have now become as smooth as new.

All the cracks were smoothed out.

All potential risks have been eliminated.

And Zhang Taichu.

That arrogant and domineering white-robed Taoist priest.

At this moment, only a faint, ethereal shadow remained.

That was his last remaining consciousness, a lingering obsession.

The surrounding chaotic currents seemed to sense his weakness and began a frantic counterattack, trying to completely erase even the last trace of him.

A terrifying pressure surged in from all directions.

That is the will of Heaven.

It is this world's final rejection and strangulation of those who transcend.

"snort……"

The fading phantom suddenly let out a soft hum.

Even if only a wisp of a soul remains.

Even when facing the vast and boundless will of heaven and earth.

His back remained ramrod straight.

The phantom slowly raised its head.

On that face, whose features were no longer discernible, one could still vaguely make out an extremely malicious and arrogant smile.

He did not beg for mercy.

There was no fear.

There wasn't even the slightest bit of regret.

He simply raised his right hand, which was almost transparent.

make a fist.

then.

Slowly.

He raised his middle finger.

Pointing straight to the top of the sky, pointing straight to the invisible destiny and the way of heaven.

"You want to assimilate me into this set of rules?"

The voice grew weaker, yet it carried a defiant arrogance that seeped into the very bones:

"Keep dreaming."

boom!!

The last bit burst with golden light.

The phantom image vanished completely.

But in that final moment before consciousness faded, those extremely arrogant words were branded onto the Heavenly Gate, echoing for a long time:

"Damn you, God!"

"In this lifetime..."

"Never lost!!"

Buzz————————

The heavenly gates closed shut, one after another.

Everything returned to calm.

But high above, in the depths of the sky, beyond the reach of mortal eyes.

A wisp of cloud that had not yet completely dissipated strangely condensed into the shape of an upright middle finger.

It lasts a long time.

It was as if that man had left this world with his last and most cruel joke.