Everyone in the world lifts their eyes to the sky.

They cannot see the battle.

But they know—its outcome will decide who rules their world.

Most people pray for Xiao Yun’s victory.

The clash spreads its ripples across the continent.

Mountains shatter.

Rivers shift.

Rifts split the land apart.

In the void, Xiao Yun’s fire-elemental strikes burn space itself.

Huang Xing’s twisted, evil attacks spread corrosion through the void.

Xiao Yun’s flames roar higher, blazing like a second sun in the void.

Every strike of his fire pushes Huang Xing back, forcing the merged abomination of man and creature to twist and writhe in defence.

The corrosion Huang Xing spreads across the void cannot consume Xiao Yun’s fire—each time it touches, the flame sears through, purifying everything in its path.

Huang Xing howls, summoning countless shadowy arms to tear at the space around him, yet Xiao Yun’s fire lotus blooms, each petal slicing apart the corruption.

The storm of battle shakes the central continent—rivers dry, forests ignite, mountain chains collapse into dust.

But within the void, the rhythm is clear: Xiao Yun advances, Huang Xing retreats.

Xiao Yun’s flame-dragon coils through the void, swallowing Huang Xing’s corrosive mists, and every clash drives Huang Xing further into desperation.

The people below cannot see the fight, but they feel it—waves of heat cleansing the air, pushing back the suffocating chill of corruption.

Hope begins to rise in their hearts, for Xiao Yun’s advantage is undeniable.

Xiao Yun’s firestorms blaze endlessly, pressing Huang Xing back again and again, but no matter how deep his sword of flame carves into flesh, the wounds close in an instant.

Huang Xing’s body twists grotesquely, half-human, half-creature, his black veins pulsing with the immortal corruption that makes him unkillable.

Xiao Yun grits his teeth, his flame-dragon striking again, scorching void and land alike, yet Huang Xing only laughs, his charred flesh knitting together as if the damage were nothing.

Knowing he cannot win above the void, Huang Xing descends, ripping apart the skies of the central continent.

Below, millions panic as the heavens darken, corruption pouring like rain.

Xiao Yun follows, but his strikes grow restrained, every move weighed against the countless innocents below.

Huang Xing, however, unleashes without hesitation—corrosive storms devour rivers, forests wither, cities crumble into nothingness.

The clash becomes a stalemate, Xiao Yun’s strength bound by his mercy, Huang Xing’s madness driving him forward without limit.

And then—

From the endless void, five multicoloured chains erupt, shimmering in fire, wood, water, metal, and earth.

They lash through space like divine serpents, and the hooked ends sink deep into Huang Xing’s twisted flesh.

He screams, thrashing, his immortal body pinned for the first time.

Everyone on the continent looks up in shock as the chains glow, pulling tight.

Space tears apart before their eyes, and from the rift a figure steps forward.

Calm, steady, his body shining with faint multicoloured light.

Most do not recognise him.

But those who do feel their breath vanish, their hearts pounding as they whisper one name—

“Lin Ye…”

—–

Two hundred years ago, Merin drifts in the emptiness, nothing around him but drifting asteroids and the Saint World glowing far below.

He does not feel regret.

Even before the ambush, he had planned to abandon the world and live in the void. The battle only forced him to enter earlier than he wished.

His cultivation leaves him no choice. Dream space cannot grow by absorbing worldly spiritual energy, nor can it refine saint energy. The only source left that can nourish his path is void energy.

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But the void is perilous. Merin is not a fourth-stage extraordinary, not even a third-stage—only his body has reached that level. His realm lags behind.

So he lingers in the inner void, where the Saint World’s presence weakens the savagery of void energy. Even so, sharp cuts tear across his body as the pressure gnaws at him.

Breathing steady, Merin raises his hand.

Behind him, the dream space unfolds—a small white world blooming quietly in the endless dark. Yet to call it a world is an exaggeration; its size is no greater than a small region of the Saint World.

The barrier creaks and trembles. Cracks form, and through them, void energy slips inside, striking at the multicoloured elemental stones and at Merin himself.

Merin’s mind merges with the fragile world, tracing the cracks, uncovering their cause, and weaving them shut. Every time a fissure opens, he repairs it. Each repair strengthens the barrier. Slowly, the defences harden until even the violent void energy can no longer pierce through.

At last, Merin breathes without worry. He can remain in the void.

He spreads his mind along the world’s barrier, brushing against the wild void energy outside. His will entangle it, probing, deciphering the hidden principle within.

Time slips away—days, months, or perhaps years, though here in the void, there is no measure.

Then, clarity strikes.

Merin comprehends a principle of void energy.

His body stirs with new resonance. Now he can absorb void energy.

While the void reshapes and strengthens his dream space, Merin continues to immerse himself, chasing ever deeper into the mysteries of the void.

Years blur into silence, and his white world expands, swelling until it reaches the size of the Gamma Empire. At that moment, his physique ascended to the Saint Lord rank.

As the world grows ten times larger than the Gamma Empire, his body refines further, breaking into a Saint King physique.

When it swells to twenty-five times its size, his bones and muscles transform into a Great Saint rank physique.

At fifty times the size, his strength ascends to Grand Saint’s physique, towering far above ordinary Saints.

Finally, when his dream world stretches seventy times greater than the Gamma Empire, his flesh and marrow push into the Half-step Emperor’s physique.

But the inner void can no longer sustain him. Its calm, restrained energy cannot provide what he needs for further advancement.

Resolute, Merin withdraws his dream space and steps toward the outer void.

The moment he crosses the threshold, endless storms of void energy roar against him. His flesh is torn apart, stripped away until only bones remain.

He hurriedly releases the dream space, but the storm is too violent—its pressure shatters the barrier in an instant.

Merin retreats in desperation, staggering back into the inner void, his entire body reduced to a bare skeleton, yet his soul still clinging on.

While he recovers, he falls into a dilemma. Inside the inner void, his dream space can no longer grow, but in the outer void, he faces certain death. He wonders endlessly how he can safely draw from the outer void’s violent energy.

An idea flickers—arrays. He cannot advance his cultivation or physique to the Emperor rank yet, but arrays are different. Arrays are a skill, a craft of comprehension and control. If he can raise his array mastery to Emperor rank, he can use it to shield and channel the storm.

He settles in the silent dark and focuses, weaving his mind through the patterns of the five elemental laws and the void law. The symbols twist and bend in his consciousness, slowly interlocking into structures vast enough to endure the outer void.

Day after day—though time has no meaning here—Merin deepens his understanding, carving order from chaos, forging the foundation of an Emperor-ranked array. After some time, he reaches a bottleneck, unable to progress further.

To test his barrier array, he moves to the edge of the inner void and sets the formation. Reaching this level of accomplishment, he no longer needs materials—the void energy itself bends into patterns at his will. A portion of the array extends into the outer void, and within a second, it shatters.

His mind, bound to the array, instantly perceives the flaw. He patches the defect, reshapes the lines, and tries again. Again, it breaks, and again he learns. Shatter, repair, refine—the cycle repeats uncountable times until at last the barrier no longer yields to the storm of the outer void.

With the structure perfected, he applies the principles to his dream space, merging the array into the world barrier. Depth floods into his inner world, and he feels his strength climb another step.

He rests, his body slowly reforging under the nourishment of void energy. When he finally dares to step into the outer void again, no storm tears him apart. At that very moment, fluctuations ripple through the void.

His eyes pierce across the emptiness to see Xiao Yun locked in combat with another figure. The clash shakes heaven and void alike, yet Xiao Yun is clearly winning. Merin watches silently, choosing not to intervene.

But then, the enemy descends toward the Saint World below. Merin’s frown deepens. Two Emperor-ranked beings battling within the world could half-cripple the land and slaughter countless lives. His family is there as well.

Resolve hardens. He must act. He begins weaving an Emperor-ranked array, each strand of power drawn from the void and law. When the preparation completes, he activates the array, his presence surging downward as he descends into the world.

—

Huang Xing struggles for a moment, his twisted body trembling as his eyes fall on Merin, the sound of Xiao Yun’s whisper drifting across the battlefield—the name Lin Ye.

The evil creature fused within him gnaws at his sanity, leaving his mind unstable, yet his cultivation still firmly rests in the Emperor rank.

His memory stirs, recalling the figure once spoken of in hushed tones—a youth in the Five-Turn Dao Casting Realm who slew a Saint Rank and gravely wounded another.

His expression hardens, a deep frown forming when he senses Lin Ye’s cultivation is still only at the Five-Turn Dao Casting Realm.

But the pressure radiating from him is no longer of Dao casting realm—it is the oppressive might of a Half-Step Emperor, and he stands within the framework of an Emperor-ranked array.

Xiao Yun’s voice trembles in shock as golden flames flicker in his eyes, “Lin Ye… how…?”

Merin’s calm voice cuts through the air, “Xiao Yun, I will explain later—let us finish him first.”

The array groans and creaks under Huang Xing’s thrashing, but Merin pours his energy into its chains, strengthening its grip.

Xiao Yun moves in tandem, unleashing a torrent of golden flame that descends like divine judgment, burning Huang Xing’s body away piece by piece.

Merin tightens the array, chains multiplying and twisting until they bury deep into Huang Xing’s very essence, binding him completely.

Even as his body is incinerated, Huang Xing’s heart beats stubbornly, pulsing with the immortality granted by his evil fusion.

Xiao Yun narrows his eyes and says gravely, “We must find a place to seal it.”

Merin’s lips curve into a faint smile, his voice steady, “I already have a place.”

Suspicion flickers in Xiao Yun’s gaze as he asks, “Where?”

Merin’s eyes gleam with resolve as he answers, “Inside me.”

His dream world unfurls behind him, vast and luminous, spreading across half the heavens, swallowing even the skies themselves.

The chains drag Huang Xing’s immortal heart, casting it into the heart of Merin’s dream world, where it vanishes beneath infinite layers of void and illusion.

With a single motion, Merin withdraws his dream world, sealing its power back into his body, and silence falls over the heavens.

Xiao Yun stares at him, realisation dawning, at last understanding the mysterious source of Merin’s strength.

Then, as if on cue, countless voices erupt across the Central Continent, shouting in awe and reverence, “Flame Emperor and Array Emperor!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep