Yun Lintian's hand finally made contact with Nian Shi's forehead. But this was not the swift, clean unmaking he had initially intended. The cold fury that had been simring beneath his calm surface demanded a more final, more absolute repaynt.
He would not just erase Nian Shi. He would make him understand the totality of his loss in the most brutal way possible.
Instead of simply scouring his consciousness, Yun Lintian inverted the process. He forced the vast, stolen power within Nian Shi—the power of ti, the Spark of Chaos—to turn inward.
Nian Shi's body began to convulse violently. His screams returned, but they were now silent, trapped within a personal hell of his own making. His eyes bulged, seeing not the external world, but an internal catastrophe.
Yun Lintian was making him experience ti. All of it.
Nian Shi was forced to relive every single mont of his endless life simultaneously.
The birth of stars he had witnessed, the civilizations he had manipulated, the lives he had callously ended—he felt them all, not as mories, but as imdiate, agonizing realities.
He experienced the joy of every being he had crushed and the despair of every hope he had extinguished, multiplied by infinity.
But that was only the beginning. Yun Lintian then imposed the ultimate paradox. He forced Nian Shi to experience the end of ti itself.
The heat death of the universe, the absolute silence, the eternal nothingness that he had sought to wield—he was now trapped within it, forever, while still being acutely aware of the vibrant existence that was now forever beyond his reach.
It was a torture beyond physical pain, beyond spiritual agony. It was the torture of a god of ti being subjected to an eternal, inescapable ending of his own essence.
Nian Shi's form didn't dissolve. It froze. His face was locked in a rictus of simultaneous ecstasy, agony, and ultimate horror. His silver eyes beca vast, empty pools reflecting the death of all things.
He was still there, but he was no longer a being. He was a monunt to his own defeat, a statue of a god experiencing his own final, endless mont.
Yun Lintian watched for a long mont, ensuring the eternity was perfectly, immutably sealed.
Then, with a final, contemptuous flick of his will, he shattered the statue.
Bang!
It did not break into pieces. It dissolved into the faintest, most insignificant motes of dust, which were then scattered across the endless void, so dispersed that not even a single atom of Nian Shi remained connected to another.
The God of Ti was gone. Not just killed, but his very concept was unraveled and scattered to the cosmic winds, ensuring he could never be rembered, never be reconstituted, never even be a footnote in the history of reality.
The ultimate scher had been given the ultimate punishnt: absolute, irreversible, and aningless oblivion.
The silence that returned to the cosmos was clean, purged of his toxic presence. The grudge was settled. The debt was paid.
Yun Lintian stood in the silent void, the last motes of Nian Shi's dissolved existence fading into the infinite dark. The cosmic debt for his wives, his daughter, and all his people had been collected in the most absolute terms. The cold fury that had driven his vengeance was spent.
He closed his eyes. There was no sense of triumph, no cathartic joy. There was only a vast, hollow emptiness. The revenge he had craved for so long had not filled the void left by their loss. It was a chapter closed, a necessary task completed, but it brought no one back. The silence within him echoed the silence of the universe around him.
After a long mont, he opened his eyes. The profound calm had returned, but now it was tinged with a weary resolve. There was one final piece of business.
His gaze, clear and unwavering, shifted across the void and landed on Yin.
The embodint of Uncreation had used the ti during the final confrontation with Nian Shi to recover. The grievous wound from the God Slaying Sword was still visible on his chest, but it had closed significantly, the flickering void energy around it now stable and deep. He stood with his arms crossed, observing Yun Lintian with a familiar, detached amusent.
"You are next," Yun Lintian stated. His voice was not a threat, but a simple declaration of fact, like announcing the setting of the sun.
Yin let out a soft, derisive scoff. The sound was like dry leaves crumbling to dust.
"Confident, aren't we?" Yin said, a smirk playing on his lips. "You have indeed surpassed all expectations. To master both sides of the coin so perfectly... it is a feat even the original could not achieve. I will grant you that."
He uncrossed his arms, his form radiating a deep, silent power. "But do not mistake your victory over that blustering fool for an easy victory over . He was all force and no finesse. To truly defeat Uncreation... that is a different matter altogether. It will not be easy." ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel•fire
He began to gather his energy, the void around him deepening, preparing for the final, inevitable clash.
But before Yin could make his move, Yun Lintian spoke again, his tone still that of calm conversation.
"The only path left for you," Yun Lintian said, "is to devour your two other remaining selves and those hounds you have here." He gestured vaguely towards the eight Void Hunters, Number Three to Ten, who stood silently at a distance.
Yin's smirk vanished. His eyes, usually pools of infinite cycles, narrowed, turning cold and sharp. A flicker of genuine surprise, followed by icy suspicion, crossed his features.
"How do you know that?" Yin's voice lost its playful edge, becoming flat and dangerous. "Just because you have mastered the Creator's power does not make you an omniscient expert who knows all my secrets."
Yun Lintian t his cold gaze without flinching. "I know more than that," he replied. "Do not forget. I do not just wield Creation."
He opened his hand, and the God Slaying Sword, which had been hovering nearby, flew smoothly into his grasp. It humd softly, its pure, sharp light a silent promise.
"I have also mastered Uncreation," Yun Lintian continued. "I understand your nature, Yin. I understand the hunger, the silence, the need for balance. I know you divided yourself into four parts to survive the Creator's seal. One was sealed in the Abyss, one here in the God Tomb, one was free but weakened, and the final piece... is still hidden, isn't it? But the three you have here, combined with the energy of your hunters, will bring you to your absolute peak."
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