Ning Yue's words hung in the air like a blade poised to fall.
Nian Shi's silver eyes narrowed to slits, his usual composure cracking for the briefest moment. Even Yin's aura of darkness seemed to ripple with interest, his hollow gaze shifting between the two.
"The Abyssal Ghost Knight?" Yin mused, his voice dripping with amusement. "Now that's quite an interesting name. I wonder who he is?"
Nian Shi's fingers twitched imperceptibly.
The Abyssal Ghost Knight was a secret even the World Tree shouldn't know. His existence was buried deep within the annals of forgotten history—a weapon Nian Shi had crafted in the shadows, a blade meant to strike when Yun Lintian least expected it.
"It must be Yun Wushuang," Nian Shi said coldly, his voice like frozen steel. "She's the only one who could have told you."
Ning Yue neither confirmed nor denied. She simply smiled—that same infuriating, knowing smile.
But her silence was answer enough.
Yin chuckled, the sound like crumbling stars. "Oh? So Little God of Life has been playing games too well?"
Nian Shi's mind raced.
Yun Wushuang—Yun Lintian's mother, the woman who had defied fate itself to protect her son. She had always been a variable, but Nian Shi had assumed her influence ended as she was no longer a threat to him.
Had she left behind more than just memories?
Had she planted secrets even the God of Time couldn't foresee?
"No matter," Nian Shi said at last, his voice regaining its icy calm. "If you wish to see my trump cards so badly... then I'll oblige."
And the fabric of reality tore.
The air outside the barrier split, not along space, but along the seams of reality itself.
From within the rift stepped a figure—
Tall. Silver-haired. Eyes like frozen starlight.
Not an illusion. Not a clone.
But Nian Shi from another timeline.
Yin wasn't surprised much about this.
The second Nian Shi surveyed the scene, his gaze lingering on the crumbling World Tree before settling on his counterpart.
The present Nian Shi nodded. "The variables have shifted beyond tolerance. It's time."
A slow, chilling smile spread across the future Nian Shi's face.
"Then let us correct this... deviation."
He raised a single finger—
And the World Tree convulsed.
Ning Yue stood firm beneath the World Tree's trembling branches, her small frame radiating an unshakable calm. Before her, two Nian Shi loomed—one from the present, one from a future yet to unfold. Their combined presence warped reality, making the very air scream in protest.
Yet she did not falter.
Her hands pressed against the Tree's bark, its emerald glow pulsing weakly as it resisted the assault. The roots beneath her feet thrummed with ancient power, pushing back against the temporal erosion.
"That's enough," the future Nian Shi said coolly, watching as the Tree's light flickered. "This barrier is woven from the Creator's remnants. Even we cannot break it without paying a price."
His silver eyes slid toward Yin, who stood nearby in his human form—a handsome young man draped in black robes, his crimson lips curved in amusement.
"Unless," Nian Shi continued, "someone is willing to sacrifice a portion of Uncreation's power."
Yin chuckled, spreading his arms wide.
"Ah, but as I said—I have all the time in the world." His dark eyes gleamed as he glanced at Ning Yue. "And I find myself... curious about our little sapling here. Why rush?"
Nian Shi's expression darkened.
This was not part of their agreement.
Yin was supposed to help him break free. Instead, the embodiment of destruction was content to watch, to wait, to let Nian Shi bear the burden alone.
A silent communication passed between the two Nian Shi—a flicker of calculation, of reassessment.
"Very well. Let's move the plan forward."
The Nian Shi outside the barrier raised his hands, and time itself screamed.
Threads of golden chronology, invisible to mortal eyes, began to snap. The past, present, and future blurred, overlapping like shattered glass.
They were collapsing the timeline.
If they could not break the World Tree's barrier, they would erase the world that contained it.
Ning Yue's eyes widened slightly.
She had anticipated many moves, but this—
This was desperation.
The roots beneath her feet trembled violently as the universe itself began to unmake.
Far away, in the heart of the Divine Realm—
Yun Qianxue's head snapped up.
Her ice-blue eyes reflected the sky above—a sky that was cracking.
Like a pane of glass struck by a hammer, fractures spread across the heavens, revealing an endless void beyond. Stars winked out of existence. The very air grew thin, as if reality itself was being sucked away.
"No...!" Lin Xinyao gasped, her lunar robes fluttering as she reached out instinctively, as if she could hold the world together with her bare hands.
Han Bingling and Mu Qiuxue stood frozen, their ice-element powers useless against this.
"What... what is happening?" Shen Liqiu whispered, her usual confidence shattered.
Hei Yue, still weakened from her earlier injuries, clenched her fists.
"Time," she said hoarsely. "Someone is unraveling time itself."
A suffocating silence fell over them.
How could anyone fight against the end of existence?
Yun Qianxue's hands trembled—not from fear, but from helplessness.
She found herself with no moves left to play.
The sky shattered like glass.
Yun Qianxue watched as cracks spread across the heavens, each fracture swallowing stars whole.
The air itself grew thin, as if the universe was exhaling its final breath. Around her, disciples of the Misty Cloud Sect stumbled, clutching their chests as the very laws of universe unraveled.
"Everyone!" Yun Qianxue's voice cut through the chaos, sharp as her blade. "Together!"
Yun Ruanyu and the others unleashed their power to the fullest without hesitation, forming a gigantic barrier, gradually covering the entire Divine Realm.
But it wasn't enough.
The cracks in reality deepened.
A young disciple screamed as his arm dissolved into golden dust—not burned, not severed, but unmade from existence itself.
"Sect Master!" A bloodied elder pointed skyward.
Yun Qianxue looked up—
The horizon folded inward like crumpled paper. Mountains evaporated. Rivers flowed backward before vanishing mid-current. Stars ceased to exist.
The very fabric of time and space was coming apart at the seams...