Survival for All: I can deconstruct projections and synthesize everything.

The howls of wolves surged in from all directions like a cold tide, instantly drowning out the deathly silence of the graveyard of rules.

Lin Xiao's pupils contracted sharply, and the Omniscient Rule instantly detected at least seventeen rapidly approaching energy trajectories.

Fifteen of these auras possessed the fifth rank, while the other two, one of which exuded a chilling sixth-rank aura, were accompanied by an even larger and more terrifying will tearing through the void and traversing thousands of miles.

"It's the Shadowmoon Wolf King!"

Nelly's expression hardened. The Crimson Sand Suit in her hand activated automatically, countless crimson sand grains swirling around her, forming a thin defensive barrier. "How did he find this place? My luck-altering effect is still working..."

"Now is not the time to think about this."

Lin Xiao grabbed Nelly's wrist, unleashing the full power of the Myriad Phenomena Return to Flow rule, and a seven-colored halo instantly enveloped the two of them.

"Walk!"

Before the words were even finished, the ground where the two had been standing suddenly exploded!

Three jet-black wolf shadows pounced out from the void, their sharp claws flashing with a cold light that seemed to tear through the rules, but they only managed to catch a dissipating, seven-colored afterimage.

Lin Xiao had already appeared a kilometer away with Nelly.

He did not choose to fly; in front of a seventh-tier expert, the speed of conventional flight was no different from that of a snail crawling.

The rules of the convergence of all things condensed beneath his feet into a series of rule-based stepping stones. Each step he took was not a simple displacement, but a brief modification of the local spatial structure, achieving an effect similar to spatial warping.

This can be considered as the initial effect of my own application after deconstructing Sweet's spatial talent.

"Omniscient rules, plan the optimal escape route!" Lin Xiao roared in his mind.

A three-dimensional map of the Dark Sun Forest appeared in their field of vision. The encirclement of the seventeen wolf shadows was rapidly shrinking, and the seventh-order will had already locked onto them!

A winding red path was quickly marked on the map. It wasn't a straight line away, but rather a turnback towards the Wind and Thunder Domain!

"You want to return to the Storm Dragon's territory?"

Nelly instantly understood Lin Xiao's intention. "But we've only just come out..."

"Only by borrowing help can one survive."

Lin Xiao gritted his teeth and, with Nelly in tow, leaped again to avoid the three moon blade slashes coming from the side.

The moon blade sliced ​​through the air and landed on a half-buried, regular crystal mountain in the distance. The entire mountain silently split in two, the cut surface as smooth as a mirror.

That was pure cutting technique, a full-force strike from a peak sixth-tier expert!

"Awooo—!!"

An even louder wolf howl came from the sky.

Lin Xiao looked up and saw a silver-gray figure slowly emerging under the dark red sky.

It was not huge, only ten zhang long, but the aura of rules flowing around it caused the rule storm in the entire no-owner zone to stop.

Countless crescent-shaped runes were branded on the silver-gray fur, each rune flickering as if breathing, drawing in the surrounding light and shadow.

Its four legs tread in the void, and with each step it takes, ripples spread through the space.

What's most unsettling are those eyes: the left eye is silvery-white like a full moon, and the right eye is pitch black like a crescent moon. Wherever their gaze falls, even the rules themselves tremble.

The Shadowmoon Wolf King, the ultimate master of the seventh-order speed rule, has arrived.

"Found you, little mouse."

The wolf king's voice resounded deep within Lin Xiao and Nelly's souls, carrying a teasing tone reminiscent of a cat playing with a mouse.

"He hid for two months, laying countless traps... very clever. Unfortunately, in the face of absolute speed, all tricks are in vain."

It didn't even chase after it; it simply raised its right front paw and pressed down gently.

The space within a radius of a hundred miles suddenly froze!

It's not that time stops, but rather that the concept of motion is temporarily removed from the rule level.

Lin Xiao felt his body suddenly become incredibly heavy, and every step required ten times the energy he had before. Even his thoughts seemed to be stuck in a quagmire.

"Rule suppression... This is his domain authority!" Lin Xiao was shocked.

He could sense that the Shadowmoon Wolf King hadn't even used its full strength; it was just the natural pressure emanating from its domain.

They must break through this barrier, otherwise they won't even be able to escape a hundred miles!

"Nelly, may your luck be blessed!" Lin Xiao whispered.

Nelly immediately understood, forming hand seals, and golden light surged around her: "Fortune Control - Luck Deflection!"

The invisible rules of fortune spread out, not directly confronting the Wolf King's domain, but creating unexpected events within it.

The next instant, a chaotic current of rules, seemingly from nowhere, struck the weak point at the edge of the domain, causing the solidified space to loosen for 0.1 seconds.

It's now!

"All Things Return to the Flow - Rule Overload!"

Lin Xiao's eyes lit up with a seven-colored light, and the Eternal Domain within his body operated wildly, forcibly extracting, fusing, and exploding countless fragments of rules!

This is not an attack, but a self-destructive release of energy.

By actively detonating a portion of the regular structure, a temporary regular vacuum is created, thus counteracting external suppression.

"boom--!"

Centered on Lin Xiao, the seven-colored energy exploded like a supernova.

The solidified space was forcibly torn open, and Lin Xiao, pulling Nelly along, transformed into a stream of light and shot out from the opening!

"Oh?"

A hint of surprise flashed in the Shadowmoon Wolf King's eyes.

"With a sixth-order physique, you actually managed to forcefully break through a seventh-order domain... You're more interesting than I imagined."

It finally moved.

Without any dramatic display or trace of tearing through the void, the Shadowmoon Wolf King simply took a step.

One step, a thousand miles.

When it reappeared, it was already blocking Lin Xiao and Nelly's path, less than a hundred feet away.

"But the game ends here."

The crescent-shaped darkness in the wolf king's right eye suddenly spread out.

"Shadowmoon Realm: Eternal Night Cage"

Darkness, pure darkness that seemed capable of swallowing even concepts, spread from the wolf king's feet.

It was not darkness devoid of light, but an absolute realm formed by the intertwining of the rules of shadow and moon.

Within this domain, all non-Shadowmoon rules will be suppressed to their limits, and even existence itself will be eroded by shadows.

Lin Xiao felt the power of the rules within his body rapidly dissipating, like a punctured balloon.

Even more terrifying, his consciousness began to blur, and countless shattered moon shadow illusions appeared before his eyes.

"I can't...be dragged in..." He bit his tongue, the sharp pain bringing him back to consciousness for a moment.

The omniscient rules were operating frantically, analyzing the structure of the Shadowmoon Realm.

Too fast. The complexity of seventh-order rules far exceeds the imagination of sixth-order rules. Even with the analysis speed of omniscient rules, it would take a long time to find the flaw.

But they couldn't hold on for even a second.

Just then, Nelly suddenly released Lin Xiao's hand and took a step forward.

"First, you led us out of the ruins last time. This time, it's my turn!" Nelly turned around and smiled, a resolute glint in her eyes.

Then, she raised her hands high, her wide-brimmed red hat fluttering even without wind, and golden light around her materialized into a torrent: "Mist Origin - Fortune Sacrifice!"

"Wait!" Lin Xiao's expression changed drastically.

But it was too late.

Nelly's aura weakened at a visible rate, falling from the sixth rank to the fifth rank, then to the fourth rank... and as her aura declined, an indescribable, immense power surged from her body.

That wasn't her own power, but rather a trace of the very essence of the Mist World that she, as the embodiment of its will, could mobilize!

The golden light was instantly tinged with a grayish-white hue, the color of mist.

The gray-gold torrent of fortune crashed into the Shadowmoon Domain. There was no explosion, no impact; instead, it was like water droplets falling into hot oil, causing the rules to boil violently.

The collision of the Shadow Moon and the Mist, two completely different fundamental rules, has created a chain reaction of collapse.

The wolf king's territory trembled violently, and its expansion rate suddenly slowed down.

"The origin of the mist... I see."

A knowing glint flashed in the Shadowmoon Wolf King's eyes.

"No wonder you could hide from me for two months, no wonder you could lay out those baits that could even mislead a seventh-tier being, no wonder those guys made me track you down... You are that person's split personality!"

Its gaze toward Nelly became complex, containing greed, fear, and even a hint of... pity.

"But if you sacrifice your own rank and mobilize your very essence, how many more breaths can you sustain this?"

The wolf king raised its paw: "Three breaths? Or five breaths?"

"But that was enough for him to escape."

Nelly's face was ashen, a trickle of golden blood escaping from the corner of her mouth, yet she still smiled: "First, run!"

Lin Xiao did not hesitate.

It wasn't that he was cold-hearted, but rather that he understood this was an opportunity Nelly had earned by trading his rank, and wasting it would be the greatest insult to her.

When the rule of the myriad phenomena returning to their source was operating at its peak, the seven-colored light transformed into a thin line that pierced through the edge of the still incomplete Shadow Moon Domain.

He grabbed the nearly exhausted Nelly and rushed out of the area's coverage.

Direction—Wind and Thunder Domain!

"Chase them," Shadowmoon Wolf King commanded indifferently.

Seventeen wolf shadows darted out of the shadows, transforming into seventeen black lines that relentlessly pursued them.

The wolf king followed slowly behind, not in a hurry, like an experienced hunter who knew that the prey would eventually run out of strength.

The escape began.

Lin Xiao led Nelly through the no-owner zone, making use of the complex terrain and chaotic rule storms of the rule graveyard.

He dared not fly in a straight line, but instead constantly zigzagged, changed direction, and even briefly dived into the interlayer of space.

The omniscient rule continuously calculates, predicts the interception route of every wolf shadow, and plans the only possible path to survival.

But the gap is too big.

The gap between the sixth and seventh orders cannot be completely bridged by skill and calculation.

Moreover, Lin Xiao was also accompanied by Nelly, who was almost unable to fight.

Three minutes later, the first wolf shadow caught up with them.

It was a shadow wolf, entirely black, its claws flashing with a chilling light that seemed to tear through space, attacking from the side. Although it was only a fifth-tier wolf, its entire body was imbued with some kind of power by the Shadow Moon Wolf King, enough to harm even a sixth-tier person.

Lin Xiao didn't turn around, but pressed his left hand backward: "Manifestation - Reflection Mirror".

A seven-colored mirror, formed by the fusion of spatial and reflective rules, appeared out of thin air and blocked the Shadow Wolf's path.

The Shadow Wolf's claws struck the mirror, shattering it instantly. But in that instant, the mirror fragments transformed into countless tiny spatial blades, shooting back towards the Shadow Wolf.

The shadow wolf let out a miserable howl as dozens of wounds were slashed across its body, and its pursuit speed immediately slowed down.

But more wolves surrounded them.

Five, seven, ten... They attacked from different directions, with claws, moon blades, shadow bindings, soul shrieks... all kinds of attacks poured down like a torrential rain.

The seven-colored halo around Lin Xiao flickered wildly, and countless rule-based items were instantly manifested and then shattered.

The Holy Light Shield blocked a moon blade, but was eroded and disintegrated by the shadow in the next second. The Spatial Barrier repelled two Shadow Wolves, but was torn apart from below by a third. The Soul Barrier withstood a shriek, but Lin Xiao himself groaned.

"Lin Xiao... put me down... you can walk by yourself..." Nelly said weakly, her aura had dropped to the third level, and she even had difficulty maintaining consciousness.

"Shut up."

Lin Xiao gritted his teeth and once again dodged the three intersecting slashes with a leap.

"I said I would take you away, and I will." He paused, then added:

"Besides, your talent for controlling fortune is exactly what I need right now. From now on, you'll be tied to my side!"

After hearing Lin Xiao's words, Nelly smiled silently and stopped talking about letting Lin Xiao leave on his own.

But Lin Xiao's condition is also deteriorating rapidly.

The continuous, high-intensity application of rules has caused the eternal domain to become overloaded.

Deep within his consciousness, the three innate light orbs trembled violently, and the fused fragments of rules began to become unstable, showing a tendency to disintegrate.

Even more deadly was that the Shadowmoon Wolf King followed a thousand miles behind without personally taking action, but its domain pressure was like an invisible mountain, constantly pressuring Lin Xiao's rules to operate.

"How far is the Omniscient Rule from the Wind and Thunder Domain?" Lin Xiao asked in his mind.

"The straight-line distance is 430 kilometers, but it needs to bypass three large vortexes of rules, so the actual path is about 600 kilometers. At the current speed, it will take two minutes and seventeen seconds." The omniscient rule gave a cold number.

Two minutes and seventeen seconds...

Lin Xiao glanced at the twelve wolf shadows relentlessly pursuing him, then at Nelly, whose breath was faint, in his arms.

He couldn't last two minutes.

unless……

A crazy idea popped into Lin Xiao's mind.

"Nelly, do you trust me?" he suddenly asked.

Nelly barely opened her eyes, looked at Lin Xiao's chin stained with blood, and nodded gently: "I believe you."

"Then hurry up." Lin Xiao took a deep breath, a hint of madness flashing in his eyes.

The next moment, he stopped dodging and rushed straight towards the nearest large vortex of rules!

That was a conflict zone between the rules of thunder and the rules of the dead, which was more than ten miles in diameter. The two rules were like two giant pythons tearing at each other, and the turbulent energy they generated was enough to annihilate any sixth-level powerhouse in an instant.

"He wants to commit suicide?" one of the shadow wolves chasing from behind asked in surprise.

"No...he's using the vortex of rules to stop us!" The other shadow wolf reacted, accelerating forward. "Stop him!"

But it is already late.

Lin Xiao led Nelly headlong into the edge of the vortex of rules.

The raging lightning and sinister necromantic energy instantly engulfed the two, and the seven-colored shield was cracked the moment it made contact.

"All things converge, rules harmonize!"

Lin Xiao growled, ceasing his resistance and instead actively adjusting the frequency of his own rules, attempting to temporarily synchronize with the chaotic rules around him.

This is an extremely dangerous approach. If the synchronization fails, his rule structure will be completely destroyed, and he will die instantly.

But Lin Xiao had no choice.

The omniscient rules frantically calculated, searching for a temporary balance point formed in the conflict between the rules of thunder and the undead.

The rule of universal convergence is like the most precise instrument, adjusting every fluctuation of rules around Lin Xiao.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

The seven-colored shield finally shattered, but Lin Xiao and Nelly's figures were not torn apart by the turbulent flow of rules. Like two fallen leaves, they drifted with the current in the violent energy tide. Although they faced many dangers, they miraculously survived.

The pursuing shadow wolves stopped abruptly at the edge of the whirlpool, not daring to venture in rashly.

Even a sixth-order cultivator would face a near-certain death if they entered such a vortex of rules.

"Wait," the leading sixth-tier shadow wolf said coldly. "They won't last long."

Inside the vortex, Lin Xiao's situation was indeed extremely bad.

Synchronization is merely a stopgap measure; he must constantly adjust his frequency to cope with the ever-changing conflicts of rules, which is devastating to his mental and physical well-being.

What's more troublesome is that Nelly has completely fallen into a coma and is unable to protect herself, so Lin Xiao has to spare some of his strength to protect her.

Thirty seconds later, Lin Xiao emerged from the other side of the vortex with Nelly in his arms.

Both of them were covered in wounds. Lin Xiao's right arm was corroded by the rules of the dead, and his skin turned a deathly gray. Nelly's left shoulder was grazed by lightning and was charred black.

But they are still alive.

Moreover, after this adventure, their distance from the Wind and Thunder Domain was shortened to three hundred kilometers.

"Chase!" The shadow wolves pounced again.

The rest of the journey became the longest minute of Lin Xiao's life.

He held nothing back, revealing all his cards.

This can be said to be the first time Lin Xiao has faced a true seventh-tier being alone.

This was also the first time he had learned the true difference between the sixth and seventh tiers, which made him pay more and more attention to the seventh tier.

The manifested rule-based items bloomed and vanished like fireworks, and the fused rule fragments burned one after another, causing the seven-colored halo of the Eternal Realm to dim more and more.

More and more wounds were added to his body, and his consciousness became increasingly blurred.

But he never stopped, never gave up.

Finally, when the seventeenth crescent blade tore a deep, bone-revealing wound in his back, a familiar scene appeared before him: leaden-gray thunderclouds, wandering tornadoes, and the pervasive smell of ozone in the air.

We've arrived at the Wind and Thunder Domain.

Before Lin Xiao could do anything, the lightning crystals of the three watchtowers in the Wind and Thunder Domain simultaneously turned, and the detection ripples swept over Lin Xiao and the twelve wolf shadows chasing closely behind him.

A few breaths later, a gap opened in the thunder barrier at the border.

But what emerged was not a thunder halberd, but an even more majestic and enormous figure.

The Storm Dragon did not fully reveal its true form, but appeared as a thunder giant thirty meters tall.

He was made of pure lightning, with blue-green electric snakes coiled around his body, and his eyes were two swirling thunderclouds.

"Shadowmoon, you've crossed the line."

The storm dragon's voice was like a thousand thunderclaps, shaking the entire border: "My territory does not welcome uninvited guests."

The twelve wolf shadows came to an abrupt stop outside the border. The lead wolf bowed and said:

"Lord Storm Dragon, we are here on the orders of the Wolf King to hunt down the fugitive."

"These two have stolen something important from the Dark Sun Forest. We implore you to grant us permission to enter the country and apprehend them."

"Something important?"

The Storm Dragon's gaze swept over Lin Xiao and the dying Nelly, its eyes flashing with lightning.

"I don't see anything important on them! But you, without permission, trespassed into my territory's border buffer zone... When did that little wolf cub, Shadowmoon, become so ill-mannered?"

Before the words were finished, the figure of the Shadowmoon Wolf King slowly appeared outside the border.

It still retains its ten-zhang-long silver-gray wolf shape, but compared to the Storm Dragon's Thunder Giant, it appears in no way inferior.

That was a standoff at the level of rules.

"Storm, I must take these two with me."

The Wolf King spoke, his voice calm yet carrying a certain unwavering determination: "They are related to my chance to break through to the eighth rank."

The storm dragon's thundercloud eyes narrowed slightly.

The opportunity to break through from the seventh rank to the eighth rank is indeed enough to tempt any seventh-rank overlord.

Even at this moment, he was somewhat tempted.

But then he suddenly remembered a voice that had just transmitted a message to him, and he also remembered the unfamiliar eighth-tier badge in Lin Xiao's hand.

He then glanced at Lin Xiao, who was covered in wounds but still stood tall, and finally at the twelve menacing wolf shadows behind the Wolf King, and suddenly smiled.

Laughter thundered across the sky.

"Shadowmoon, do you know what I hate most?"

The Storm Dragon took a step forward, and the Thunderous Rules of the entire border instantly boiled over: "What I hate most is someone threatening me to agree to something on my own turf."

"I agree to let this little fellow pass through my territory within twelve hours."

"It hasn't been twelve hours yet, he's still under my protection."

"If you want to do something to him now..."

The Storm Dragon raised its right hand, and a spear made entirely of compressed lightning condensed in its palm.

"Fine, defeat me and you can continue now! Otherwise, you'll have to wait twelve hours!"

The atmosphere on the border instantly froze.

The wills of the two seventh-tier rulers collided in the void, and the sparks erupting from the level of rules distorted the space within a hundred miles. The storm of rules in the distance was forcibly pushed aside, forming a vacuum zone.

The twelve shadow wolves involuntarily retreated, unable to withstand this level of pressure.

The Shadowmoon Wolf King narrowed its eyes slightly: "Storm, you're going to wage war against me for a mere sixth-tier junior?"

"It's not about starting a war, it's about following the rules."

The Storm Dragon's spear pointed at the Wolf King: "The rules of the Dark Sun Forest dictate that rulers must not trespass into each other's territory without permission. And what you are stepping on now is my border buffer zone."

I'm giving you two choices.

His voice turned cold: "First, get out of here. Wait until my protection period ends, then you can continue your pursuit. Second..."

The lightning on the Thunder Spear surged: "I'll show you now why, among the nine rulers, my territory is the hardest to conquer."

silence.

A long silence.

Lin Xiao stood behind the Storm Dragon, taking the time to adjust his breathing, while the Omniscient Rule analyzed the current situation with all his might.

Although he didn't know why the Storm Dragon was helping him, he could also sense that neither of the two rulers wanted a real conflict.

A full-scale war between seventh-tier forces would be enough to destroy the borders of the entire Wind and Thunder Domain and Shadow Moon Domain, resulting in mutual destruction.

But face and rules are equally important.

Finally, the Shadowmoon Wolf King slowly spoke: "Alright, I'll give you that face."

It stepped back, withdrawing from the border buffer zone of the Wind and Thunder Domain: "But I will return in twelve hours. I hope you will not obstruct me then."

"We'll talk about that when the time comes."

The Storm Dragon sheathed its Thunder Spear, but the oppressive force of the thunderous storm surrounding it did not diminish: "Now, take your pups and get out of my sight."

The wolf king gave Lin Xiao a deep look, his gaze as cold as a blade, etched into his very bones.

Then it turned around and disappeared into the shadows with twelve wolf shadows.

The Storm Dragon only withdrew its oppressive aura and turned to look at Lin Xiao after the Wolf King's aura had completely disappeared.

You only have twelve hours.

His voice returned to calm.

"After twelve hours, I will no longer protect you."

"The Wolf King is right, you hold the key to his breakthrough to the eighth rank... that's something he'd risk his life for."

Lin Xiao bowed and said, "Thank you for saving my life. Twelve hours is more than enough."

"Go."

The Storm Dragon waved its hand, and the Thunder Barrier opened another gap.

"Go east, there is a temporary safe house three hundred miles away. It is a backup base for the patrol team in my territory. There, the Wolf King's tracking technique will be interfered with by the Thunder Rule."

Lin Xiao thanked him again, then carried Nelly and rushed into the gap.

This time, there were no obstacles.

The Storm Dragon watched Lin Xiao leave.

At the same time, he recalled the telepathic message that the true eighth-tier controller of the Dark Sun Forest had just sent him.

"The battles between those at the eighth rank and above... are beyond our reach. Shadowmoon, I hope you can survive in these high-level battles!"

Storm Dragon felt a pang of regret towards Shadowmoon, another of the Nine Overlords.

At the same time, he was also a little curious that two mere sixth-tier beings had attracted the attention of so many eighth-tier beings.