Every step.

Was incredibly hard to take.

But Xu Lai gritted his teeth and kept walking, and that walk lasted twenty thousand years, all the way until he became an Emperor.

In that time he'd been hunted, and had hunted his enemies; he'd hit dead ends of despair, and he'd had moments of carefree laughter.

Looking back over the past hundred thousand years.

Xu Lai felt he could face the Immortal Domain with a clear conscience.

Even at the moment of death, he still chose to take care of these two huge threats to the Immortal Domain—the Nine Kings' Palace and the Blue Giant Jellyfish.

He could face everyone under heaven, but the one person he'd failed was Ruan Tang.

He had lied to her.

This time.

Xu Lai really wasn't coming back.

"I really want to hug Yiyi and Ping'an one more time, and hug Ruan Tang again."

"In the next life, I'll be your ox and horse, mother and children, to make up for this life's regrets."

The black-and-white Karmic Tribulation Thunder reflected in Xu Lai's pupils was getting closer and closer, only about ten feet from his eyes.

"Boom!"

The Tribulation Thunder pierced through Xu Lai's body.

His already shattered sea of consciousness could no longer shield his soul and was directly annihilated beneath the Karmic Tribulation Thunder.

Before Xu Lai's consciousness dispersed, his eyes no longer saw the black-and-white Tribulation Thunder, but countless souls of Immortal Domain beings that had been ground to dust by the Zhoutian Star Fighting Formation.

He clearly knew they were only phantoms.

He clearly knew they had already turned to smoke and vanished long ago, and what he saw before him was nothing but a hallucination before death.

Xu Lai's lips moved soundlessly: "I'm sorry."

The next instant.

Xu Lai's mouth trembled.

He saw that the souls mixed within the Karmic Tribulation Thunder did not have ferocious faces or resentment; instead, they all bowed in unison with clasped fists.

"We respectfully see you off, Great Emperor Qingfeng!"

"This Immortal Domain… isn't that boring after all."

The curve of Xu Lai's lips grew wider and wider, and he burst out laughing.

The next moment.

Xu Lai was obliterated within the Karmic Tribulation Thunder.

As the Tribulation Thunder dispersed, Heaven Beyond Heaven didn't even have a scrap of corpse or residue left behind.

"Xu Qingfeng is dead!"

"How much longer… can we hold on? Damn it, why hasn't the Tribulation Thunder dispersed yet?!"

The six Emperor Realm members of the Nine Kings' Palace were filled with desolate chill and despair; the tribulation taker was clearly dead, yet the Tribulation Thunder showed no sign of dispersing.

Once you get dragged into the range of the Heavenly Tribulation, it's equivalent to undergoing tribulation yourself.

Unless they all died too, the Heavenly Tribulation would not disperse.

"Xu Lai killed us to protect the Immortal Domain. Even if I die, I won't let him have his way!"

Ji Chengtian's face was as ugly as it could get.

He knew he couldn't withstand more than a few bolts of Tribulation Thunder, so he simply gave up on struggling and decided to drag the entire Immortal Domain to be buried with the Nine Kings' Palace.

Unlike Ji Chengtian, who flew toward the Immortal Domain, Bai Shuang, Xiao Yan, and the other five still held a sliver of hope, gritting their teeth against the Tribulation Thunder as they launched a frenzied assault on the Blue Giant Jellyfish.

They tried to get inside its body, find the Nine Kings' Palace, and thus resolve the Karmic Tribulation!

But they very quickly sank into complete despair.

The Karmic Tribulation Thunder did indeed inflict effective damage on the Blue Giant Jellyfish, but this terrifying beast from The Other Shore had an extremely vigorous life force and simply would not die in a short time.

Yet they.

Were about to reach their limit.

Especially when the thousands of tentacles of the Blue Giant Jellyfish wrapped around Ji Ming and the others; already heavily wounded, they had no strength left to resist and could only watch as it sucked away the last remaining Spiritual Energy and lifespan from their bodies.

"No, stop!"

Ji Ming roared in fury, but any struggle was futile.

Ji Ming still had enough strength to roar and could hold on for a bit, but Zhao Yuehua—who had been gravely injured earlier by Li Bahuang—had already been sucked into a dried husk by the Blue Giant Jellyfish's tentacles.

"I'll kill you!"

Seeing his lifelong Dao companion die, Chen Chi threw everything away and rushed at the Blue Giant Jellyfish, choosing to self-detonate.

"Boom!!!"

The Blue Giant Jellyfish was blasted a million miles away, with nearly half its body blown to pieces, spilling ink-blue liquid that looked like blood.

The tribulation clouds in the sky were also shaken, quivering several degrees.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, Fellow Daoist Zhao…" Xiao Yan's face was ghastly.

"Xu Qingfeng, Jiu Kongsi, Tiangui… I hate you!"

Ji Ming wept blood, howling at the sky.

From the First Era, they had laid out all kinds of schemes, made all sorts of plans, all for the sake of proving the Dao of eternal life in the Era of Emperor's Demise.

The nine of them complemented and supported each other; not one could be lacking.

Yet they were destined to die at the hands of the Blue Giant Jellyfish and the Great Karmic Tribulation, and all of this was the handiwork of Xu Qingfeng and Jiu Kongsi, with even Tian Gui Yuan Yin—who had been considered an ally—giving them a final kick.

They had clearly done everything as perfectly as possible; they were clearly only one last step away from success.

Eternal life, proving the Dao and becoming Immortal!

For these mere eight words, Ji Ming had devoted the effort of an entire reincarnation, yet today it was all ruined.

Ji Ming refused to accept it.

He didn't want to give up; he wanted to try again!

"Usurp fate!"

"Usurp fate!"

"Usurp fate!"

Ji Ming stretched out his hand and grabbed fiercely toward the Blue Giant Jellyfish, trying to change his own fate.

But this Innate Divine Ability that could cause Emperor Realm beings to fall had no effect whatsoever on the Blue Giant Jellyfish.

"Pff!"

The tentacles binding Ji Ming suddenly tightened; a堂堂Emperor Realm expert was actually twisted into a mist of blood and shredded flesh, after which the Blue Giant Jellyfish swallowed down this "perfect Emperor Realm tonic" in one gulp.

Counting Xu Lai.

Four consecutive Emperor's Demises once again made the Immortal Domain tremble in fear.

And the many Emperor Artifacts guarding the border between Heaven Beyond Heaven and the Immortal Domain all sensed an Emperor Realm pressure rapidly flying toward them.

But they didn't move and all turned their gaze toward the Qingfeng Sword, because one of those four Emperor's Demises was Great Emperor Qingfeng's.

The Emperor Artifacts saw it: in that instant, the Qingfeng Sword trembled slightly.

"Big Sister Sword…"

The Wuji Dao Bell spoke cautiously.

"Whizz!"

The Qingfeng Sword did not reply.

Instead it shot straight at Ji Chengtian, who wanted to wreak havoc upon the Immortal Domain, and as soon as it got close it slashed out countless strands of Qingfeng Sword Intent in an instant.

It was so fast that only when the Sword Intent was upon him did Ji Chengtian sense it!

In an instant, a chill rose straight from the bottom of his heart; just as he was about to resist, black-and-white Karmic Tribulation Thunder pierced down.

"Pff—"

Ji Chengtian spat blood and was sent flying; just as he was about to rejoice that all the Qingfeng Sword Intent had likewise been annihilated by the Tribulation Thunder, a black dot stabbed to a point three inches before his brow.

It was the Qingfeng Sword!

It was actually forcing its way through the Tribulation Thunder to kill him!

Even at the cost of the sword body, which originally only had a fine hairline crack, fracturing to the point of near shattering.

Ji Chengtian's pupils shrank again and again; he hadn't expected that not only was Xu Qingfeng a madman, even his Emperor Artifact was a madman.

Fortunately, an Emperor Artifact that was itself on the verge of disintegration blocked in front of him, or the consequences would have been unthinkable.

"Kill!"

At the same time.

The Eight Desolate Cauldron, Soul-Settling Umbrella, and the other seven Emperor Artifacts all released their Emperor Artifact pressure.

"!!!"

Ji Chengtian's heart pounded wildly.

If he were at his peak, he wouldn't be afraid of being besieged by these Emperor Artifacts at all; he might even have laughed out loud, because he could at least forcibly suppress two or three of them and claim them as his own.

But now he was like a lamp with no more oil, and aside from the Qingfeng Sword, the other seven Emperor Artifacts… were completely undamaged.

Their threat at this moment was equivalent to at least one and a half Great Emperor Jin Shi, perhaps even more.

After only a brief moment of hesitation, Ji Chengtian turned tail and ran back toward Heaven Beyond Heaven; he had no desire to clash head-on with so many Emperor Artifacts.

His heart seethed with humiliation!

A堂堂Emperor Realm being—when had he ever fled in panic before mere Emperor Artifacts? The Immortal Domain cultivators would die laughing if they saw this!

Yet today.

He, Ji Chengtian, had become that joke.