Chapter 663: Pasture

Yang Muquan froze.

The miniature sun appeared too quickly for him to react. Infinite light and heat instantly filled his vision. He felt no pain, only a warmth as if he were melting into it.

A surging torch erupted from the ground, expanding relentlessly. Lü Liangren and the others' pupils constricted sharply. He grabbed the Fourth Hall Master by the collar, and the next moment, all of them were swallowed by it!

Boom—!!!

The earth trembled as the scorching sun slowly extinguished itself amidst the ruins.

When the Fourth Hall Master fearfully reopened his eyes, the ink-wash ocean looked like a scorched painting, ripped open by a monstrous gash. Amidst the swirling embers, a blurry bloodstain remained on the ground.

It was Yang Muquan.

No defense, no resistance, no corpse... his flesh and blood had been incinerated into ash by the explosion, not even bone fragments remained. A seventh-tier master had vanished from the world, silently.

The Eighth Hall Master, dead.

"This..." The Fourth Hall Master stared blankly at the scene, still reeling from the explosion.

Meanwhile,

The Second Hall Master and the Third Hall Master looked at the dust-swirling ruins, their expressions grim.

From amidst the swirling embers, a figure in a white lab coat slowly approached.

He was a tall, lean middle-aged man with his hands in his pockets, walking casually as if strolling through his own garden. His skin and features appeared sculpted, without a single blemish. Two crimson Philosopher's Stones were embedded in his brow, emitting a mysterious and dangerous glow.

"...The Boundless Lord." Lü Liangren's eyes were filled with astonishment.

How could he be here?

If he was in the Mortal Realm, what about the Boundless Realm? Who would maintain the sanctuary that protected the Boundless Realm from converging with the Gray Realm?

The Boundless Lord's gaze did not fall upon the three Hall Masters at all. Instead, he calmly stopped beside Brand, who had also been blasted into a puddle of blood and mud.

"Stop playing dead," the Boundless Lord said indifferently.

The next moment, the puddle of blood and mud slowly spread outwards, like an octopus with a thousand tentacles, gradually outlining a small alchemical array. Threads of electricity coiled within it, and a body slowly struggled to emerge from the mire!

First a hand, then a head, a torso... From bare bones to bloody muscle, the figure had not even had time to grow skin before it fell to its knees before the Boundless Lord with a thud.

"Thank you, Lord Boundless Lord!!" Brand's vocal cords seemed not fully healed, but his tone was filled with fervent emotion, his voice a harsh, grating sound like nails scraping a blackboard.

The Boundless Lord glanced at the horrifying blood-soaked figure, then looked away with a hint of disgust.

"Is the array for refining the Philosopher's Stone ready?"

"Not yet, Lord Boundless Lord," Brand replied, kneeling with a wronged expression. "I just entered the Mortal Realm and was immediately chased and attacked by these Hall Masters. I had no time to set it up."

"Go do your work."

"...Yes!"

Brand stumbled to his feet. His grotesque, skinless face turned to look at the three Hall Masters, revealing a chilling smile, before he walked without looking back into the depths of the Mortal Realm.

Seeing this, Lü Liangren's expression grew incredibly grim. He, of course, knew what Brand intended to do, but they had just barely managed to beat Brand to the brink of death. How could they simply let him leave?

Lü Liangren tightened his grip on the eight-foot ink brush in his hand, about to act and stop Brand, when a gentle breeze brushed past his cheek...

His pupils subtly contracted.

"You..."

Snap—!!

A faint sound came from behind Lü Liangren. He spun around sharply to see that the Fourth Hall Master's head was gone... A torso with a drawing board on its back stood in place, but from the neck up, there was only emptiness.

At that moment, the figure in the white lab coat calmly walked past his shoulder, a golden head now in his hand.

The golden head still bore the Fourth Hall Master's shock and terror, depicted with uncanny realism. No master sculptor in the world could replicate such lifelike detail...

It was a perfect work of art.

The Boundless Lord casually tossed the golden head to the ground. Mid-air, the gold suddenly transformed into ceramic, shattering with a crash upon impact and splattering blood and gore across the ground.

The Fourth Hall Master, dead.

"Now, the small fry are gone."

The Boundless Lord dusted off his hands, as if he had merely crushed two ants.

Lü Liangren watched helplessly as two Hall Masters died before him, rage burning fiercely in his chest. "Boundless Lord!!! Do you truly intend to become an enemy of all humanity??"

"I am not an enemy of humanity... On the contrary, I am saving humanity, saving this deformed era."

"Saving humanity? How dare you say that??"

"Carbon-based life forms have limited lifespans. Even if they can prolong it by a few hundred years, death will eventually come... Placing the future of all humanity on nine carbon-based life forms is inherently deformed."

The Boundless Lord spoke calmly,

"The continuation of human civilization lies in reproduction, and reproduction requires a stable environment... The nine human realms, based on the Nine Lords, cannot be stable. Human realms are like rotten wooden boats sailing in a turbulent river, liable to capsize at any moment."

"Therefore, the best way to change all of this is to build a mighty vessel that will never decay or capsize..."

"And I am the best candidate to become this mighty vessel."

"So, to make yourself the mighty vessel, you actively capsize others' boats?"

"The continuation of human civilization always requires sacrifice."

"This isn't sacrifice," Lü Liangren said grimly, pointing at Brand, the blood-soaked figure excitedly rushing into the depths of the Mortal Realm. "This is blatant, deliberate slaughter! This is genocide!"

"What if it's genocide? As long as I achieve eternal life, the Boundless Realm will also be eternal; even if only ten thousand people remain alive by then, humanity will still continue, for hundreds, for thousands of years..."

"My eternity is humanity's eternity."

"To hell with your human eternity!" Lü Liangren couldn't help but curse.

"From the perspective of human continuation, your idea is indeed feasible," the Second Hall Master suddenly interjected, making Lü Liangren look at him in surprise. But then, he continued,

"However, human destiny must never be subservient to a single, unchanging individual... If an individual's thoughts can easily control the survival and continuation of humanity, then humans would be no different from pigs and dogs kept in a pen."

"While your physical body may be eternal, your spirit and mind will gradually rigidify, perhaps even mutating over thousands of years of absolute power and absolute solitude... Your thinking will stagnate, while human society rolls ever forward. This is an irreconcilable contradiction. At some point, a single thought from you could lead human society to ruin."

"What you are building is not a mighty vessel, but a human ranch, entirely controlled and dominated by you."