The Demon Nest suffered inside-out assault. Structure collapsed, energy ran wild, like a dying giant beast emitting final convulsions in the void. Within the core forbidden zone, heaven shook and earth quaked. Flesh walls sloughed off in sheets, revealing the more chaotic deeper tissues beneath. The "Primordial Dark Pool" boiled like a caldron. Energy threads connecting the Demon Lord flickered unstably, as if about to break at any moment.
However, the Demon Lord's fury made this space on the brink of destruction fall into an even more bizarre situation.
It floated above the boiling dark pool, disconnected from energy threads. But within that semi-transparent obsidian body, dark veins flowed with unprecedented brightness, as if countless miniature black holes were being born and dying within. Those black hole eyes firmly locked onto Xiao Qi. Within them burned no longer mere killing intent, but an extreme cold that wanted to completely erase the other's very existence.
"Desecration... shall receive eternal imprisonment!"
The Demon Lord's voice was no longer grand, but became low and hoarse, yet carrying an even more chilling penetrative power. Each syllable seemed to brand itself directly onto the soul's law level.
It slowly raised both hands, not pointing at Xiao Qi and Mu Xue, but lightly pressing toward the void on both sides.
HUM!!!
An intangible yet overwhelming will, mixed with the purest dark origin power, instantly enveloped the entire core forbidden zone! This force was not for attack, but for stability and control!
Miraculously, or rather, the Demon Lord forcibly twisted it with supreme power. The originally violently shaking core forbidden zone on the brink of collapse had its sloughing flesh walls stop falling, twisted spatial folds forcibly smoothed, even the boiling "Primordial Dark Pool" temporarily restored to eerie calm!
The Demon Nest was not repaired, but the Demon Lord used its own origin as the core to forcibly "define" new laws within this area, temporarily "separated" from the collapsing Demon Nest. It formed an independent, master-controlled micro-space!
The cost of completing this was that the Demon Lord's True Body surface's dark vein light visibly dimmed slightly. Clearly the consumption was huge. But it did not care. Those black hole eyes, like the most precise predator, focused again on Xiao Qi and Mu Xue trapped within this temporarily stable space.
"Now... no one disturbs."
Cold words fell. The Demon Lord clapped both hands that had been pressing the void inward!
"Dark Universe... Eternal Imprisonment!"
In an instant, Xiao Qi and Mu Xue felt everything around them changed!
Light completely vanished, not darkness, but even the concept of "light" was deprived! Sound, smell, touch... all external perception was instantly cut off! They were as if thrown into an absolute domain of "nothing."
This was not illusion, but real space laws being altered and imprisoned!
They could not feel up or down, could not sense time's passage, even their own spiritual power circulation became extremely sluggish and slow, as if frozen in some viscous time-space glue. Divine consciousness could not leave their bodies, as if imprisoned within their own shells. Green Lotus Sword Domain was forcibly compressed back into their bodies. Mu Xue's Ice Heart Art also nearly stopped.
This was a state more terrifying than death—eternal, absolute imprisonment! Exiled within a temporal-spatial prison constructed by the Demon Lord's will, until consciousness completely dissolved in endless solitude and emptiness!
Xiao Qi's heart sounded alarm bells. He knew this was the Demon Lord truly using its origin space divine ability! Its level was far beyond any previous understanding of space laws. This was not simple space lockdown, but fundamentally "negating" their qualification for existence in normal time-space!
Mu Xue's face instantly turned deathly pale. She tried to urge ice laws but found even the most basic chill could not condense, as if her connection to the concept of "ice" was temporarily severed.
Absolute crisis!
In this imprisoned time-space, they were like fish on a cutting board, even struggling was futile. The Demon Lord did not need to launch any more attacks. It only needed to maintain this "Eternal Imprisonment" state to effortlessly wear them to death here!
Xiao Qi's Dao heart erupted with brilliant light in the desperate situation. He recalled insights from Gui Xu, his understanding of the "protection" path, and that seed deep within his origin—the Green Lotus!
Purification was not only about destruction. Protection was not only about resisting external enemies.
His Dao was to purify evil, protect hope! This "Eternal Imprisonment" domain was essentially also an extreme "evil," a "despair" that deprived all vitality and hope!
What he wanted to protect was not only the world behind him, but the very "meaning" and "hope" of his and Mu Xue's existence!
One thought became clear!
Xiao Qi no longer tried to resist the omnipresent imprisonment force. Instead, he completely released all constraints on his own power, immersing all his mind, all his will, into the Green Lotus Origin that was life-bonded with him.
"My existence is hope."
"My domain is pure land."
"Even if the dark universe is boundless, with my heart bright, I am not eternally imprisoned!"
He did not try to tear apart this spatial prison. Instead, he wanted to, from this absolute "nothing" and "dark," forcibly "define" a domain of his own, of "existence" and "light"!
Green Lotus Origin burned in an unprecedented way! Not outward expansion, but inward collapse, extreme condensation!
A tiny, barely detectable yet unbelievably pure and resilient green light point, quietly lit at the deepest part of Xiao Qi's forehead consciousness sea.
That light point was his Dao seed, his heart light, his most essential understanding of "protection" and "purification"!
When this heart light lit, that originally absolutely "lightless" Eternal Imprisonment domain seemed to have a tiny pebble thrown into an ancient well, rippling out a subtle, almost non-existent ripple.
For the first time, genuine astonishment flickered in the Demon Lord's always indifferent black hole eyes.