Dead silence.
Inside the Temple, only heavy breathing could be heard.
A broken horn rolled across the floor, finally coming to a stop by the tip of Lin Xiyue's boot.
The [Spirit of Pride: Azure Dragon] slowly raised its hand.
Its fingertips touched the bald, desolate patch on top of its head.
Then, following the searing pain, it touched the shameful "X"-shaped wound on its cheek.
There was no expected smoothness.
Only rough, overturned flesh, and black gelatinous substance continuously seeping out.
The string called "Reason," at this moment, did not snap.
It directly shattered.
"Aaaah!!"
It was a noise like tearing leather, mixed with shame, fury, despair, and self-loathing, sharp and ear-piercing, shooting straight into the eardrums.
"No... Not symmetrical!"
"Not perfect!"
"This is a blemish! I am a god! I am the supreme work of art!!"
It held its head with both hands, frantically tearing at the few remaining strands of long hair.
It clawed its own face until it was a bloody mess.
Since this flesh has already grown flawed, it no longer needs to exist!
The humanoid outline it had been barely maintaining began to twitch violently.
It was like a wax statue roasted by high heat.
Its facial features melted.
Its limbs collapsed.
In the blink of an eye, that pitch-black, cold, and elegant mature woman completely disappeared.
In her place was a mass of industrial waste that continuously expanded, wriggled, and emitted a nauseating stench.
The name on the label also changed from [Spirit of Pride: Azure Dragon] back to the most primitive and ugly [Spirit of Pride (Boss)].
It no longer tried to imitate the Azure Dragon's nobility.
Instead, it completely unleashed the darkness within its heart.
Black Sludge rolled, countless agonized human faces emerged and burst on its body, letting out shrill wails.
Lin Qingyue still hovered in midair, maintaining that lofty and ethereal Grandmaster posture of [Yixuan].
The Xuanhuang Daoist Robe on her body billowed without wind.
The Black Bird behind her slowly dissipated, transforming into ancient gold seal script flying all over the sky.
They circled her, slowly pulsing.
She crossed her arms, her golden pupils slightly lowered.
Within those golden pupils, there was not a shred of pity.
Only a detached indifference that saw through everything, and an undisguised hint of contempt.
"Broken down already?"
Lin Qingyue tilted her head slightly.
Her voice carried a soul-piercing chill, precisely cutting through the deafening howls.
"Only trash with an utterly inferior heart would constantly harp on 'perfection' as a fig leaf to hide their shame."
"True powerhouses never stoop to using their appearance to prove anything."
Lin Qingyue extended a slender finger, tapping the air in the direction of the Spirit of Pride.
"Stop your wailing."
"Compared to that pretentious knock-off from before, your present appearance is actually much easier on the eyes."
She paused, her lips curling into a viciously mocking arc.
"It's ugly in a very distinctive way, at least it's authentic."
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!!!"
The writhing mass of asphalt froze for a moment.
If the previous sword strike had merely severed its horn, then these words had thrown its dignity to the ground, grinding it into the mud with a shoe sole.
Finally, it spat out a mouthful of saliva.
"You dare to destroy my perfection? Then none of you shall live!"
"I will turn this place into nothingness!"
"Since I am not perfect, then the world has no reason to exist!!"
The unstable Dark Core within the monster began to beat frantically.
With every pulse, a destructive red light flashed.
The spatial barriers within the Temple creaked under the unbearable strain.
Countless fine black cracks spread through the air.
Countless fragments of stone, pulled by the terrifying gravity, flew toward that mass of industrial waste.
Then, they were completely devoured.
It was burning its own essence, attempting to self-destruct!
"Sis! Run! This mad dog is going to blow!"
Lin Xiyue's heart tightened.
As a Paladin specializing in defense, she could feel that this energy level was simply beyond what Purifiers at their current stage could withstand!
She instinctively raised her already scratched-up greatshield, sliding to block in front of Su Wan and Xia Lian.
The Power of Holy Light poured into the shield as if it cost nothing.
"Run! Su Wan! Xia Lian! Get behind me!"
Before her words had even finished, Su Wan had already taken a step forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with her.
Deep blue magic power condensed before her, forming one glacial ice wall after another.
She knew full well that such defenses were as fragile as paper against an attack of this level, yet her gaze remained resolute.
Xia Lian, meanwhile, drew her bow, [Dark Night Starwhisper], at the rear.
An arrow-shattering-the-magic-defense, imbued with her entire focus, was nocked on the string, its tip aimed straight at the Energy Core.
She was preparing for one last hopeless attempt before the final explosion arrived.
"Run? Run where? This is a Conceptual Strike."
Lin Qingyue, suspended in mid-air, merely scoffed coldly.
Far from retreating, she instead stepped forward, her figure drifting like a goose feather toward the about-to-lose-control BOSS.
"Want to die?"
She waved her long sleeve.
A sky full of golden ancient runes flowed like a star river, converging before her to form a grand magic circle.
"Have you asked for this Seat's opinion?"
Her ten fingers flew across the air with dizzying speed, leaving only a series of afterimages.
The ink-colored Daoist Rhyme circulating around her suddenly solidified, even manifesting the phantom of a towering immortal mountain in the air, suppressing all four directions.
"Trying to leave early from this Seat's class?"
"You even want to blow up the classroom?"
"Wicked disciple! Who gave you the nerve!"
A pressure more ancient and more overbearing than the Spirit of Pride erupted from her tall, supple body.
It was not mere destruction.
It was suppression.
"The Path follows nature, all things return to one."
"Exterminate the evil spirits!"
Finishing Move: Thousandfold Talisman Art!
At her command, the originally gray sky suddenly split open.
Countless palm-wide talismans, emitting a vast golden light, fell like a golden rain, crashing down with the force of a thousand thunders!
This was not an attack.
This was "imprisonment" on a conceptual level.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Extremely dull sounds of flesh being pierced rang out one after another.
Each talisman that fell pierced a precise energy node on the Spirit of Pride's bloated body.
Nailing the swelling monster firmly in place.
The cinnabar incantations on the talismans erupted with a blinding glow, like red-hot branding irons sinking into butter.
"For this Seat, stuff it back in!"
Lin Qingyue pressed down with her right palm.
Boom!
The dark red energy that was about to erupt was forcibly shoved back into its body by this utterly brutal Daoist True Power!
Its rapidly expanding body was now like something nailed to the ground with countless steel spikes.
Every inch of black sludge trembled, yet it could not vent that wild energy at all.
"No... This is impossible..."
"My power... My destruction... Why... is it going back..."
The voice was no longer a whimper.
It was the broken wail of a soul being repeatedly crushed and torn apart by its own power.
This agony of "wanting to explode but being unable to, forced to cycle internally" made the Spirit of Pride let out a mournful cry more miserable than death.
Its self-destruction sequence had been interrupted.
But the energy within its body had already spiraled out of control.
It could neither be released.
Nor could it be stopped.
The only outcome was collapse.
Lin Qingyue hovered high in the sky, her gaze cold as she watched the mud ball below grow smaller and smaller.
"Nothing is impossible."
She withdrew her hand, as if merely brushing away a speck of dust.
"Your answer sheet failed."
"This Seat will not accept it."