Chapter 724 Self-Upgrade (Part 9)

Zhou Huai abruptly opened his eyes, and the wonderful feeling of cleansing the Soul and breaking the shackles came to an abrupt halt!

Piercing cold winds surged from all around.

The pure white firmament overhead was covered with dense black cracks.

The sound of shattering echoed through the spiritual dimension.

"Mom! What happened?!"

Zhou Huai abruptly stood up, gazing at the cracks spreading across the firmament, sweat seeping from his palms.

Beside him, his mother's illusory figure was trembling violently.

The soft white light emanating from her body was surging rapidly, and her brow was tightly furrowed on a face that bore a few similarities to Zhou Huai.

"He is back!"

His mother's voice trembled slightly: "Duan discovered the anomaly! He sensed that I was transferring Origin power to you!"

"No! Child, you cannot stay here any longer; you must leave immediately!"

"What?!" Zhou Huai's eyes turned red.

Having finally reunited with his mother, and having finally touched the threshold of the higher dimension, he was now actually being told to flee?

Zhou Huai took a step forward, grabbing his mother's trembling wrist in reverse: "What will happen to you if I leave?!!"

Crystal-clear tears welled up in his mother's eyes.

"Rest assured, child. He will not kill me, nor can he kill me."

"I am the source, the core of the origin sacred tree. As long as he wants to completely devour all vitality in this world, as long as he wants to survive the great cleansing of the Heavenly Dao, he must keep my natal core!"

"At most, he can only imprison me but cannot make me completely dissipate!"

His mother breathed heavily, and the giant white tree behind her began to sway wildly, its thousands of branches rolling backward, accumulating destructive power.

"What a pity… What a great pity…"

Looking at Zhou Huai with eyes full of reluctance, his mother trembled as she reached out and gently stroked Zhou Huai's cheek, "The time was simply too short; I could only forcibly untie a part of the Heavenly Dao shackles within your body."

"Your current body is no longer under the absolute suppression of this world's profession system, but it is still far from enough to contend with him!"

"Remember my words! You must find a way to avoid Duan's sharpness!"

"Go find the other seven ruins! Go seize the power he craves! As long as you become strong enough, come back for me!"

"Mom—"

Zhou Huai wanted to say more, but it was already too late.

"Crack—Rumble!"

Accompanied by a heaven-shaking loud noise, the firmament of the spiritual world completely collapsed!

The violent spatial turbulence turned into a black waterfall pouring backward, stirring the surrounding pure white clouds into powder.

Immediately after,

within that bottomless spatial crack, an eye slowly probed inward.

A gigantic, peerless eye!

Deep within the pupil of that eye, a blood-red flame burned.

Just by taking a glance at it, Zhou Huai felt a heavy coercion pressing down on his shoulders.

"Puff!"

Zhou Huai spat out a mouthful of wild blood, his knees turning weak, nearly kneeling directly to the ground.

Had he not just unlocked a part of the high-dimensional shackles within his body, this look alone would have been enough to completely annihilate his Soul!

The giant eye rolled,

locking onto the giant tree exuding white light below.

Then, its gaze shifted slightly, landing on Zhou Huai's stubborn and unyielding face.

The air stopped flowing.

After a brief pause,

a grand voice directly resounded deep within Zhou Huai's mind!

"You… actually haven't died yet?!"

In Mr. Duan's voice, that aloof, calm elegance could no longer be maintained.

Feigned death!

Back at the courtyard in Donghai City, that Zhou Huai who had self-detonated right in front of him until not even ashes were left turned out to be merely a Puppet!

And the real main body not only survived, but even touched his core cage and stole the power of the origin sacred tree!

"Good! Very good!"

Mr. Duan's voice was distorted due to extreme anger: "It seems I really underestimated you time and time again!"

"However, since you delivered yourself to my door, stay here completely along with your humble Soul!"

As soon as those words fell,

the cracks above the firmament were violently torn even larger!

A black giant hand covering the sky and sun, carrying the High-Dimensional Law that crushed everything, transformed into an unshakable primordial divine mountain, violently slapping down toward Zhou Huai below!

Before the giant hand even fell, that annihilation power transcending the world's rules had already caused the space around Zhou Huai to collapse inch by inch.

He couldn't escape!

He couldn't move at all!

Zhou Huai could only watch helplessly as that giant hand magnified rapidly in his pupils; even though he had now unlocked a portion of his power, he was still insignificantly small in front of this absolute gap in strength.

Right at this critical moment of life and death,

"Go!!!"

A shrieking sound that reached the extreme of agony came from the side.

The pure white giant tree transformed by his mother erupted with a light ten million times more dazzling than the sun!

She burned all the remaining Origin power she had left, and those thousands of thick branches soared into the sky, weaving a gigantic web of life to meet the slapping black giant hand!

"Boom—!!!"

Two terrifying forces transcending the present world collided!

Under this single strike, the entire spiritual dimension let out an unbearable wail and began to collapse on a massive scale!

"Overestimating your capabilities!" Mr. Duan's cold snort pierced through the storm.

The web of life supported itself for less than half a second before being ruthlessly shattered by the black giant hand, transforming into a sky full of drifting white light rain.

However, it was precisely this half-second of time,

a surviving branch of his mother transformed into a long whip, fiercely lashing against Zhou Huai's waist.

A soft yet irresistible huge thrust directly whipped Zhou Huai's Soul away!

"Live on! You must live on!"

Accompanied by his mother's final cry, Zhou Huai's vision was swallowed by endless darkness.

That black giant hand completely smashed the white giant tree, and the violent energy storm pushed Zhou Huai into an extremely narrow spatial crack.

…

"No—!!!"

Accompanied by a wild roar,

in the real world, deep within the Simon City Ruins,

ripples suddenly stirred on the green lake that was originally as calm as a mirror and exuded a rich aura of life!

Water splashes soared into the sky, raising giant waves dozens of meters high.

A figure rushed out from the depths of the lake water, heavily crashing onto the grassy bank.

"Hoo—hoo—hoo—"

Zhou Huai dug his hands into the dirt, panting heavily.

His chest heaved violently, and every breath carried a thick smell of blood.

His whole body was long since soaked in sweat and lake water.

The lingering fear of his Soul being crushed made his body sway uncontrollably.

He raised his head and looked around.

Ancient and dilapidated giant rocks, strange vegetation emitting fluorescent light, the Clone of Great Sage Li Er standing quietly beside…

and Chun, who was looking at him not far away.

He was back.